Speech by Professor June QIAN

Dear graduating students, parents and my fellow colleagues from Tsinghua SEM and MIT Sloan, good afternoon!

First of all, congratulations to students for your successful completion of your study at Tsinghua.

About 2 months ago, I was asked to represent the faculty and address all of you at this event. I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit that this was a daunting challenge and I seriously hesitated about accepting it. The reason was simple – the social media such as WeChat on our phones had been filled with all kinds of exciting and spectacular speeches, especially during the graduation season. So please don’t judge me against the speeches out there and I’ll try to do my best to speak from my heart, as a proud teacher.

Many of us listened to the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Ms. Indra Nooyi’s speech at Tsinghua SEM in October 2013, in which she talked about 5 Cs (namely, curiosity, creativity, citizenship, courage, and communication). Today, I am going to adopt her model and borrow a few words from the letter L to help you think about your plan and goals after your graduation.

The first L is Learning.

Today marks the end of your MBA program, but it is, by no means, the end of your learning. Learning is a life-long journey and reading is the most fundamental way to learn. Since all of you are MBA students, I’m sure you love statistics and let me give you or remind you some numbers. Israel has been known as the number one country in the world that loves to read. An average Israeli reportedly has read 64 books per year, and the Israeli Jews, which makes up more than 80% of the Israel population, has read 68 books per year. What is the implication here? We only have 52 weeks a year. The Jewish people, who have been persecuted for thousands of years and for quite a while with no country to call their own, have been making remarkable achievements across all fields such as genetics, computer science, public safety, military science and technology, agriculture and bio-pharmaceutical, in just a bit more than half a century. So remember, books are a source of our continuous learning.     It’s also important that we learn from doing things ourselves, or from the people around us. We constantly improve and grow only if we continuously learn.     It is a simple and straightforward principle, but not easy to be practiced in real life. Therefore, I wish you would always remember that learning is a life-long journey.

The second L is Living.

Life is very long as well as very short. I was sent to the countryside after graduating from high school. Two years later I took the College Entrance Examination, the first such examination after the Cultural Revolution and was admitted into Tsinghua University. Upon graduation, I started as a young teacher at Tsinghua. I went for the National Graduate Examination another two years later, and was accepted in the overseas study program. I started to pursue a doctorate at Purdue University and returned to Tsinghua SEM in 1995. Gosh, it has been 20 years since I returned from my overseas study!

I couldn’t believe that next year I will reach retirement age. I still remembered my college graduation vividly, like it happened yesterday. Looking back, I deeply realized how fast time flies and how fleeting life is. Although I’m no movers and shakers, I have contributed towards many programs and initiatives within the school beyond my basic routine of teaching and research, which include the international accreditations, launching and expansion of our international student exchange programs, the development of our faculty code of conduct and the school values, to just name a few. I also played important roles in developing and offering MBA Managerial Communication as well as Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility courses. I was assigned in 1999 by the National MBA Education Supervisory Committee as the leading person responsible to promote and develop faculty for the course of Managerial Communication nationwide and have been doing this for over 16 years, organized annual seminars consecutively for 15 times with 30 participants for the first time to an over 140-people event in recent years.

I love my career. I love my students. I work hard with honesty and integrity and I teach my students honesty and integrity. That’s just who I am. And I’m not just about my work; I’m also blessed with a happy family with two grown up children. I also love and be loved by my extended family members. I can proudly say that this is my life. I have no regret for such a life because I believe I have made my life valuable.

Your life will be composed by your every word and action, by the choices and decisions you make every day.  It is uniquely yours. “谨言慎行，不忘初心” means you must always be mindful of your actions, and never forget where you came from. I hope that when you approach your 60^th birthday like me, you will also be able to say that you have made your impact to the world and that your life is of value.

My next L is Leading.

Living is about how you would like to spend the rest of your life, in your own domain. But leading is about how can you influence the others around you, in a positive manner. I truly believe that every one of you here aspire to be, and will be a leader who can make a change. Change is not confined by its size; similarly leading is not limited to only on a large scale heroic basis. If you haven’t read the book “Leading Quietly” by Joseph Badaracco, I strongly recommend you to do so. The opportunity for heroic leadership is rare and hard to come by, but we can always find opportunities in our daily life to lead quietly, to bring about positive changes patiently through our relentless effort. “滴水石穿、润物无声, 坚持不懈地推动”, that’s leading quietly.

One series events in celebrating Tsinghua SEM’s 30^th anniversary last year is to honor some people who had made outstanding contributions to the school over its 30 years. One such event is organized specially for Ms Lin Yuxia (林玉霞老师). I remembered many people attended the celebration. Ms Lin is a staff member in charge of student life. She joined Tsinghua SEM in 1983, started serving in the student life office in 1988 and had been working on the same role until she retired in 2007. In the span of 24 years, her kindness had touched countless batches of students. She not only took care of their logistics, she was also their support system away from home. She was meticulous and dedicated herself quietly without ever caring about rewards and recognation, but her warmth lingered in every student's heart and they all called her "Mother Lin". In my view, Ms. Lin is a role model of leading quietly.

So, be trustworthy and credible. Be sincere. Use your minds and actions to influence others heroically or quietly. Make this world a better place. I know you can do it.

My last L is Loving.

You are the last i class. You represent the end of an era and the beginning of a new journey for our Global MBA program. The pronunciation of letter i means love in Chinese. When I add an MBA student’s phone number into my cell phone, I also make notes of his or her program and class. Take Matt as an example, his phone number is under Matt Ooi MBA爱13.

So, my final wish for every one of you is that your heart should always be filled with love – love for your family, love for your colleagues, and love for your career. Because it is only when we have love that we are able to shoulder responsibility. Likewise, it is only when we have love that we can find the motivation to overcome any trials and tribulations. Of course, most importantly, I also wish that you learned to love yourself. Please always keep your work and life well balanced so that you are able to fulfill your responsibility and make contributions to a better world in the many years to come.

You are about to start a new journey in your life. It won’t be easy. But, with the 4 Ls, namely learning (Learning is a life long journey), living (Spend every day of your life responsibly so as to make your life worthwhile), leading (take lead and make changes) and finally, loving (Love is responsibility as well as motivation), you will be able to overcome the difficulties and reach your goals. I wish you every success and will be waiting here for your good news.

Thank you and I love you.