Was cleaning up my Dropbox folder when I chanced upon the Valedictorian speech I made for my Class in the MSc in ECommerce Management program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Thought I would share it.

“ Abraham Lincoln began his now classic, Gettysburg Address 

on November 19, 1863 with the memorable line: ‘Four score 

and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 

continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated 

to the proposition that all men are created equal’.

On this evening of February 28, 2003, in Hong Kong, I would 

like to borrow his speaking style – and in the context of my 

battle of my bulge – begin my valedictory speech by saying: 

‘Twenty eight pounds and eighty six grams ago, our 

professors brought forth in this university, a new program, 

conceived in the throes of the dot com boom, and dedicated 

to the proposition that all men will practice e-commerce’.

The throes of the dot com boom continue to adversely 

influence public influence today for two reasons. One, it hurt 

people where they felt it the most – in their wallets. Two, 

they did not understand it. They would have done well to 

heed Mark Twain’s words – ‘October is one of those 

dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are 

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, 

September, November and December.

We gathered here today, know better. We know that e-

commerce is becoming stronger every day – be it in retail or 

wholesale, in consumer goods or raw materials. Not a day 

goes by when I do not read articles – some of which I share 

with teachers and friends – that prove this observation.

I make this point because I am sure that some of us have 

asked ourselves ‘what has been the point of this program?’. 

Those of us – and there are hopefully none – who joined this 

program solely in order to lay claim to those six letters M S C 

E C M will likely be disappointed - especially in this 

economic climate and job market – for those letters alone 

will, in all probability, offer us little comfort. As Chip Brown, in 

“Sondheim” said: ‘few things are more embarassing than the 

object of a passion after it has cooled’.

Those of us who participated in this program in order to have 

a broad understanding of e-commerce and the forces 

shaping it, will look back a few years from now, thankful that 

early in the game we gave ourselves the opportunity, to gain 

the ability, to better understand commerce as it evolves in 

this undeniably, increasingly electronic world.

For us to gain the ability I just mentioned, we must 

remember that success is never a destination – it is a 

journey. It is how we take what little we remember of our 

program and apply it over the coming years, that will 

determine if our time in the program was wisely spent. It is 

how we always seek real life events that reinforce what we 

learnt, that will make us masters of e-commerce.

We should all remember that motivation is what got us 

started, but it is habit that will keep us going. As Elbert 

Hubbard said: ‘Knowledge is the distilled essence of our 

institutions, corroborated by experience’.

We should also all remember that the larger picture – that of 

ethics, values, and respect is perhaps of paramount 

importance. It has always been appropriate to be good 

human beings, but, as the constant barrage of news on 

violence, religious extremism, corporate greed etc. 

constantly reminds us, it becomes even more important that 

we all commit ourselves – everyday – to doing our part in 

making the world a better place. In the words of Marcus 

Antoninus: ‘the true worth of a man is to be measured by the 

objects he pursues’.

I believe that Jim Rohn spoke important words when he said 

- ‘you must all take personal responsibility; you cannot 

change the circumstances, the seasons or the wind, but you 

can change yourself. That is something you have charge of. 

You don’t have charge of the constellations, but you do have 

charge of whether you read, develop new skills, and take 

new classes’.

I thank you all gathered here for you have all been my 

teachers for the past year and a half - regardless of whether 

you delivered the lectures or whether you sat on my side of 

the class. 

Thank you