Volume 5 APRIL 2009
Feature articlesThe causes and consequences of the current financial turbulence
Reversing the divergence of the bottom billion
Reflections on microeconomic policy frameworks and a suggestion about fairness
What's been happening to United States income inequality?
Occasional Addresses
Navigating the world of opportunity
How your university experience will shape your future life and career
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On leading more than one life
Acknowledge the personal sacrifices of others, think creatively and be imaginative, give of yourself in public service and exercise humility
(pages 48-51 of printed journal)
Congratulations and thanks
I would like to begin by saying to the Graduates and Graduands, 'Congratulations'. I do so not just out of a sense of duty arising from this occasion and from the role that I have been invited to perform. I do it to reinforce and add emphasis to the sense of celebration that ought to accompany the achievements that gather us here today. The congratulations of this audience and of the wider community have been earned. Shortly, you will receive some of the highest acknowledgements that our education system and others like ours have created.
There are too few opportunities where we stop and acknowledge achievement. Thankfully, this is one of them. Our congratulations ought to be spirited, enthusiastic and expressive. There is, after all, a reason why your mortarboards are thrown high into the air at the conclusion of the ceremony.
I add to the word 'congratulations' the words 'thank you'. Whilst I well know that university life is not all solemn duty and that you will have had pleasures from the experience that will sustain you throughout your lives, no one here should presume for a moment that the achievements we celebrate today have been made without considerable personal sacrifice.
Many of you have lived far away from your homes and families and friends; many of you will have endured hardship of a different nature including financial anxieties and altered lifestyles. For some of you, you are the first member of your family to have studied at a university and you have carried an extra burden of responsibility. Some of you might have begun life far away, in a place where there may have been no expectation that you would have studied at all. And to you most especially, I say thank you.
Your choice to persevere with your academic education is of enduring benefit not just to you. The rewards of your training and achievement are also shared by the society in which you will choose to live and work. We are all the beneficiaries of your hard work and therefore we must thank you for it.
Our thanks should also be extended to the parents and families of those being acknowledged, for they made personal sacrifices as well. And we should also thank the members of staff of this University, who have been responsible for the transfer of knowledge, skills and understanding.
In our era, we are often not quick to acknowledge personal sacrifice. When my grandfather, Sidney Myer, arrived in Australia in 1899, he was almost certainly a refugee and possibly an asylum seeker as well.
His story was an authentic expression of dislocation, of being disconnected from his native land and of having nowhere local that he could call home. He had felt threatened in his country of birth and had sought a better future for himself here. The story goes that after getting off the boat in Port Melbourne, he spent the small amount of money that he had on buying a beer for himself. By the time that he died just over 35 years later, he had become a household name in Victoria, having established a department store business which today is still Australia's largest, trading in more than 60 locations around the country.
He also established a tradition of practical hands-on philanthropy and public service, which continues to impact the community in a myriad of ways today. His personal story continues to play out in a number of ways, of which I would like to mention three: creative thinking, public service and humility.
Creative thinking
The expression 'creative' in relation to economics, accounting and commerce generally often carries with it a somewhat negative connotation, the inference being that there is something dodgy afoot. That is unfortunate. Creativity is the reward for anyone who is interested or curious. A friend told me last weekend of a t-shirt she owns, emblazoned with Einstein's message, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge.' Your studied disciplines are practiced in an environment which is ideal for curiosity and imagination. In J. K. Rowling's address at last year's Harvard Graduation, she described imagination as the 'fount of all invention and innovation.'
I encourage you to apply your imagination and a creative mind to your life and careers. You should also use the resources that are at your disposal - I especially recommend engaging in art.
Exhibitions and permanent collections present objects that have sprung from learning, interpretation, inspiration, hard work, and the application of creative thinking. You do not have to have knowledge of visual arts - nor, dare I say, even an interest in it - to benefit profoundly from the experience of a gallery, an artist's studio, an art space or a single artwork. You should feel that you can interrogate anything, say anything, and feel anything. Enduring discernment can be developed. Be critical and questioning of what you see, and be smart about the way that you express your observations. And let your observations pervade your professional work.
Our political leaders and economists, such as the ANZ's Saul Eslake, constantly tell us of the value of a creative economy. The arts embody and require skills and attitudes that are increasingly called for in business contexts. Foremost amongst these are critical thinking, the ability to challenge conventional wisdom, the capacity to look at familiar objects from new perspectives, the ability to innovate using new technology and media, and the ability to adapt from things that work in other settings.
When you are starting out in life and have new and fresh eyes for everything, recall that 'creativity happens not with one brilliant flash but in a chain reaction of many tiny sparks while executing an idea. Insight and execution are inextricably woven together.'1 So, take risks, expect to make lots of mistakes, work hard, take breaks but stay with it over time. Do what you love, because it's going to take time to have a creative breakthrough. Forget all the nonsense about being 'artsy' and gifted, and don't sit waiting for the moment of inspiration. For, while you are waiting, you may never start working on what you will some day create.
Public service
At a moment in your lives when you are doubtless consumed with the need and desire to work, I encourage you to look to a slightly wider horizon and think about how you might pursue the privilege of serving the community more broadly. How do you propose to apply your time, treasure and talent? What are your key interests and how do you wish to engage with them - either through your workplace or away from it? What public service do you wish to perform and how might you bring your creativity and talent to it? Many of you have concerns about the environment. What are you going to do about it? Many of you have considered views on the society of the future, the type of cities in which you would wish to live and the way you would like things to be. How are you going to influence these? How might you prepare yourself for secondment from your workplace to the community sector? You have studied disciplines that are keenly sought by many others. You can be optimistic about that and you should use your knowledge for a broader public good. John Maynard Keynes longed for the day when economists were no longer arch-theorists, but would be consulted to solve everyday problems and give straightforward advice rather like dentists.2 I believe that we could look to his well-documented views3 about investing to give us some really good ideas about how each of you might prepare for public service.
I am sure that he would advise you that service should be approached with a clear focus on problems and practical solutions. He would advise you to search for stunners, that small group of projects and organisations that might make a profound difference. He would encourage safety first, that is, do your due diligence and understand as well as possible the likelihood of success and the risks of failure - but he would caution you not to try to avoid risk. He would tell you to 'lean in to the wind' and run counter to conventional thinking. It is remarked of him that 'in everyday life he delighted in paradoxes, opposed accepted wisdom and disliked all the commoner garden thoughts and emotions that bind men in bundles'. He would urge you to keep quiet and not self-aggrandise, but promote the activity and service being supported by you. And finally, he would encourage you to remain concentrated in a circle of competence and recognise the bounds of your knowledge; but not to place all of your public service and philanthropic eggs into one basket.
Keynes described Newton as a man who possessed 'in exceptional degree almost every kind of intellectual aptitude - lawyer, historian, theologian, not less than mathematician, physicist, astronomer.'4 My encouragement to you is to not just lead one life: get on and have a few.
On the question of motivation, I have a view that seems to be at odds with current views commonly expressed by commentators on philanthropy and indeed many people either self-identifying or identified by others as philanthropists. That is, I do not subscribe to the view that philanthropy is about 'giving back'.
The phrase 'giving back' conveys a message to others that an act of benefaction is a considered act of obligation. This is not the language of generosity; it is the language of duty. It reinforces a view held by some that, in order to 'give back', something must have 'been taken' in the first place. At best, 'giving back' reflects careless use of language. At worst, it establishes or reinforces in the minds of many a dubious motivation. My advice is to drop the phrase. There are plenty of people around with a dim view of private wealth in the first place, who will enthusiastically assert that philanthropy is just giving back. Giving for its own sake ought to be sufficient motivation.
Humility
I have a hope that you will think deeply about and practice humility. I am reminded of an article that appeared in Spectator Magazine several years ago, in which the seven deadly sins - lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, anger, envy and pride - were, with the exception of pride, referred to as medical conditions requiring treatment. Pride was referred to as having become a virtue. The article commented that it is the absence of pride which is now presumed to be a medical condition, with so many of our society's problems being blamed on low self-esteem. Do not confuse humility with low self-esteem. In suggesting that you practice humility, I encourage you to be confident and self-knowing, but also that you consider the value of being humble and genuinely modest.
His Occasional Address delivered at the graduation on 14 March 2009.
1 R. Keith Sawyer, (2006) 'Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation', quoted in Time Magazine, January 8.
2 Alex Damchev, (2007) Time Literary Supplement, July 13 p 28, quoting Tim Harford (2007) Undercover Economist, Abacus.
3 Justyn Walsh, (2007) Keynes Mutiny, Random House Australia.
4 J M Keynes, (1947) 'Newton the Man'.