1. A very good morning to all SITizens, family, friends. As per my practice, before I give my speech, I'd like to invite all the graduands to stand, acknowledge and thank all the people who have made this possible for you. Without their love and support, you will not be here today, and we must always remember – regardless of how clever or hardworking we might be, without the love and support of our families, teachers, faculties, we won't be here today. So, may I invite all the graduands to stand and applaud all the family members and friends who have made it possible for you to be here today.
2. As Prof Chua mentioned, I know some of you are disappointed that you are not having your convocation ceremony at the new Punggol campus. I have a solution for you. You can take up SIT's offer, to come back, do an upskilling course, and we will have you graduate at the new campus in due course.
3. Today, as you cross this particular milestone in your life, I thought I'll share with you three conversations that I actually had or heard from some adults, and I thought I'll share them with you to get you to think about this. So, Story 1 goes like this. An eight-year-old grandson went up to his Grandmother.
4. Grandson: Grandma, Grandma, why must I study so hard? (He's an eight-year-old in primary school.)
5. Grandma: Well, so that you can go to a good school.
6. Grandson: Grandma, Grandma, why must I go to a good school?
7. Grandma: So that you can have good grades.
8. Grandson: Grandma, Grandma, why must I get good grades?
9. Grandma: So that you get a good job.
10. Grandson: Grandma, Grandma, why must I get a good job?
11. Grandma is getting a bit flustered now. Grandma: So that you can earn good money.
12. Grandson: Grandma, Grandma, if I can earn good money now, must I still study very hard?
13. Well, that got Grandma thinking, and that should get all of us thinking. What is the purpose for us to study, get educated and work hard? Is it just to get good money? Is it just to earn good money? If so, then our end goal for education is perhaps too shallow. Does it mean that sometime in life, when we think that we have made enough money, we will then not need to study, upskill ourselves or to learn new things. So, this is something for us to think about.
14. My second story, and this is a conversation I had with various IHL students. It usually goes like this:
15. Student: Minister, Minister, life is very hard in the university.
16. Minister: Why is it so hard?
17. Student: Minister, Minister, we have a lot of homework to do, a lot of assignments to hand in.
18. Minister: Oh, I see. So why are you working so hard?
19. Student: So that I can get good grades.
20. Minister: Then, why do you want grades?
21. Student: So that I can earn big bucks.
22. Minister: Okay, then what do you want to do with the big bucks that you are going to earn?
23. Student: So that I have more free time.
24. Minister: Okay, then what do you want to do with the free time?
25. Student: So that I can help people.
26. Minister: Can you help people without making big bucks?
27. Student: Of course!
28. Sometimes in life, we think we have to achieve something in order to start helping someone. But we all know deep in our hearts – that's also not true. Actually, we are in control to touch the lives of someone else, and if that makes us happy, we can start doing that, even before we become rich, even before we get a degree, a post doctorate and so forth.
29. Many of you are in the allied health sector. Your profession, your job, is to touch the lives of many. Regardless of how high-tech this world may be, with ChatGPT and other technologies, high-tech will never fully replace high-trust and high-touch. Many of you who graduate today will be in the high-trust and high-touch sector. Not only should you make use of all the skills that you have learnt, and keep learning, but most importantly, keep to your north star. You are in this, not just because you are trying to make big bucks, but you are in this to truly touch the lives of the people. To do that, you need to build up the high-trust and the high-touch.
30. My third story is quite similar to the second story, which is about another conversation in the various sessions that I have with the IHL students. In the morning, I usually visit the schools and in the afternoons, I visit the IHLs and see the students. The same story goes along the following lines, which I shall not repeat, but this story has a slightly different ending.
31. Student: Minister, Minister, what should we define as the definition of success? How do we define success?
32. Minister: How do you define success? Many will say, it is to get my perfect GPA score.
33. Minister: Why do you want to do this? Why do you want a perfect GPA score? What does it mean to you?
34. Very often, it will come with the answer – that I can be the "FIRE" generation. "FIRE" stands for "Financial Independence, Retire Early."
35. Student: I want to be in the "FIRE" generation.
36. Minister: So, you want to be the "FIRE" generation. Then what do you want to do with the "FIRE" when you achieve financial independence and retire early?
37. Student: So that I can do whatever I want.
38. Minister: What is whatever you want?
39. Student: So that I can perhaps travel the world.
40. Minister: Where would you like to travel and why? Why do you want to travel?
41. Student: So that I can see new things, I can experience new things and I can learn new things.
42. Minister: Can you learn new things even while you're striving towards financial independence and retirement? The student thought about it and found it to be quite true. Do you need to achieve "FIRE" before you learn new things? And if you achieve "FIRE", does it mean that you stop learning new things?
43. I want to share with you that learning is not when we have time. Learning, lifelong learning is a habit. It is a personal disposition that you have a choice in. Once upon a time, like you, I was also an undergraduate trying to get my degree. There's only one difference, perhaps, between you and me at the time. During my time, when I was an undergraduate, I tried to do the maximum number of subjects that just required me to pass or fail. This would give me a maximum amount of time to do other things. I was supposed to study Economics, and I did graduate with an Economics degree. But during my time, I was very interested in Behavioural Science and Game Theory. During my time, these were subjects that were unrelated to Economics. In fact, my professor told me that you can do whatever you want, but you can be rest assured that Behavioural Science and Game Theory will not come out in the exam. I went on to do it at my own time. I read the books, I found out that there were a few professors who were interested in these areas in my faculty then.
44. Today, Behavioural Economics and Game Theory are perhaps mainstream Economics. I was also very interested in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The only reason I didn't take these subjects in university was because it took too much effort to prepare for the exam. But I continue to read Biology, Chemistry and Physics even until today. So I want to encourage you that in your business, as you step into the working world, you will have many excuses to stop learning. But you can also remember the dispositions that you have acquired in SIT – to keep learning. When learning is a habit of life, learning is a lifelong disposition, and learning is not something you do only when you have time, but learning is something you find time to do. Because if learning is only something you do when you have time, we will never learn. But if learning is something that we find time to do, then we will always learn, regardless of how busy we are.
45. Hence, I hope these three little stories will make it slightly more memorable for you as you go onward into the next phase of your life. But we truly mean it – once a SITizen, always a SITizen. You are welcome to come back to SIT, to keep learning and keep learning for life. We hope to see you graduate once again at the new SIT campus. Thank you, congratulations and well done.