Graduation Day

To my fellow classmates, my family, and my friends...

Over the last 22 months, 3 years, or for some of us 4 years we have endured. We’ve read countless HBR case studies, we’ve logged seemingly insurmountable amounts of hours in group meetings, we’ve competed in nationally recognized business competitions, we’ve taken more tests and final exams than we can remember, we’ve traveled the world exploring business and trade from the lens of other cultures and economies, and we’ve developed a strong foundation of business, collaboration, and innovation which will fuel our careers and lives henceforth.

To say that our time here at the GSM has been a whirlwind is no exaggeration. We endured sleep deprivation. We endured malnourishment. We endured seemingly increasing levels of insanity after taking on a full time class load while taking on a full time job. Sometimes it seemed to be too much, but when we were at our breaking points, just when we thought we couldn’t take anymore, just when we thought we were beyond our ability to endure something kept us going. It was all because of you. While you have come here today to pay tribute to the graduating class the real tribute should be paid to you. You are the spouses, the children, the parents, the grandparents, the mentors, and the friends. You were the one’s that listened to us in our moments of weakness and exhaustion. You were the one’s telling us the “end is in sight” just keep on pushing, the reward will come. You are the ones that listened to us rattle off the endless to do lists of reading assignments and papers and while you weren’t physically in the classrooms with us, you were still there, and it is because of you that we all stand here today.So please let me take this brief moment to say Thank You. Thank you for standing by us. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your understanding. Thank you for shouldering a larger burden of the household activities and chores. Thank you for being the rock which anchored us all down and allowed us to endure these past few years. Without you all here today our success would surely have been inhibited.

In the past few years we have developed relationships that will last a lifetime. I am grateful to have been a part of a strong program which has allowed all of us to understand each others strengths and abilities and to appreciate our cultural differences. We have worked hard on projects together, case studies together, competitions together, and of course we have had a lot of fun together. I cannot say enough about how well the UC Davis GSM has prepared us for the future, in a relatively short amount of time. As the MBA program continues to evolve, as marked by our most recent highest ranking ever, I am certain we have been given a solid foundation for future business success.

We celebrate today with mixed emotions. While the program has been challenging and fun we are ready to embrace a new path on our journeys in life. We leave Davis and re-enter the real world with many mountains ahead of us. As our country continues to come back from the recent recession there is a lot of building to be done. I am confident that the UC Davis MBA has prepared each and every one of us for the seemingly insurmountable tasks that face us as today’s future business leaders. While the country may be at one of it’s lowest points in history, this means we have wonderful opportunities ahead of us. Opportunities to do great things. Opportunities to create and change history. Opportunities to change the world of business around us.

If I had to choose one thing that I learned most from my time spent at UC Davis, it is that people make people grow. You’re forced too, that’s life. Your friends at home don’t change, you do and it’s the environment that you’re in that determines your outcome as a human being.What better place then Davis? Obviously, heavy hearted we will part, but we will leave each other knowing that everyone one we meet in life gives us a piece to the puzzle of our being. We meet; we grow, share that growth and move on. Davis has given us the foundation in which we may lay our puzzle, so that we may never lose the beginning of the end here at UC Davis.

As I reflect back on my time at Davis I wish to leave with one piece of advice:

Think for yourselves. Do not find yourself stuck in decision making, following the followers. Do your own thinking, determine your own course and your own fate. Don’t just think outside the box, GO outside the box. Do not be afraid of failure. The world is at our fingertips, our future and our success is at our fingertips.

Believe it.

See it.

Make it.

Congratulations to my fellow graduates of 2011, I wish you the very best.