Limkokwing University Graduation Ceremony January 2004

28 January 2004

Address by the President of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Lim Kok Wing, at the Graduation of the Class of 2003

First of all, may I congratulate all who are graduating today. My warmest congratulations to each and everyone of you — class of 2003.

I think you deserve another round of applause.

While we have gathered here today to celebrate the success of our graduating students, let's not for a minute forget the people who have made this day possible for all of us in the first place.

May I call upon all graduands to be upstanding for a show of appreciation to your parents and those who have given and given up so much just to make sure you have your place here today.

To be sure, and I am saying this to all parents and guardians, your children have worked hard in order to graduate today. We have not made it easy for them. They deserve every word of praise they receive on this day. I have another reason for saying so. I believe they are the best new graduates in the country today.

Some of you will soon leave the safe shelter and comfort of your home provided by your forever giving parents to pursue further studies in far away places.

Some of you will be setting out on your own to begin building your own future and the rest of you will remain on campus to further your studies.

All of you, nevertheless, will begin a new chapter in your life's journey.

No one can say for certain where this journey will take you.

The qualification you have gained is a stamp of approval that allows you to travel, to explore and to discover. But it carries no guarantee that it will get you where you want to be. That guarantee is in your own hands. Will you turn your life's journey into one of self-fulfilling discoveries.

Only you have the answer to that question. As the captain of your own life's journey, only you can decide where you eventually will be.

The world today is nothing like the one of yesterday, and it is changing faster by the day.

Thanks to the amazing advances brought on by the creative mind and technology. The world today is nothing like the one into which your parents were born.

What used to take years can now be done in a matter of days, and soon hours.

What used to require the combined energy of a hundred people can now be comfortably managed by a single person assisted by a single computer.

The cellular phone is now also a radio, a calculator, a camera, a video recorder, a TV monitor, a computer and soon your health monitor.

All these are thanks to the men and women whose passion to explore, to create, to innovate has resulted in amazing products that have changed so much the way we live, the things we do and the way we work.

These are people who defied accepted norms, who refused to take the easy way out and whose efforts in making things better have brought about unimaginable advances to the industry they represent.

It is my hope that you will be among those who strive to break new grounds, set new standards, create new concepts and build new visions.

The world's most advanced countries are also the world's most innovative.

The two go hand in hand.

Everywhere in the world, it is the creative thinkers, the dreamers, the innovators and designers who are driving the growth of the world's most successful companies and the world's most dynamic economies.

When the caveman wanted to move about more efficiently, they invented the wheel. But it was good only for rolling downhill.

The Chinese took it one step forward by creating the world's first steam-propelled cart a thousand years later. No, things did not move very quickly then.

It was another thousand years later that German Karl Benz created the world's first car using a combustion engine. Since then, things have picked up speed.

Graduands,

The future is all about creativity. It has always been, and it will always be.

The future belongs to those who are prepared to challenge the norm in order to create new concepts, challenge the status quo in order to find new discoveries.

The future belongs to you.

On that note, I bid you farewell and wish you all the very best in all that you do.

May the journey you begin today, take you to the world's most exciting places and be one of immense success.

To our foreign graduands, thank you for having been a part of us.

To all, thank you for making us feel proud.

Copyright © 2012 Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. All Right Reserved.
Designed & maintained by World Wide Web Domination, Centre for Content Creation.