For those of you who have seen our ads, you know that they end with the phrase,“everything is possible.”A cynic might say that just a marketing slogan–but I actually believe that. I don’t think every is easy, I don't think things happens right away. But I do think that everything is possible.
For all the remarkable advancements we have seen in recent years, nothing has matched the power of information technology to change our world for the better. And in the next decade, it will take us to places we can only imagine today.
China is the world’s fastest-growing economy; the world’s leader in direct foreign investment; one of the world’s largest trading nations -- a leader on both the production and consumption of information technology. China is poised to play a huge part in that future–and the students who graduate from Tsinghua University are poised to shape the future of technology like never before. Now like any university students, I know for you the road ahead has much uncertainty. But if there is one thing I have learned in the past 20 years in this industry, it is that the principle that you have learned inside the walls of Tsinghua, the principle is more true outside the university than inside. The principle I am speaking of is this: that great leaders–like great organizations, great companies, and great nations–great leaders are defined not simply by their capabilities, but by their character. Not just by the company they are, but by the company they keep. Not by success alone–but as Tsinghua teaches, with self-discipline and social concern in equal balance.
To be honest, I wish I could say that the road to learning that lesson for me was easy. I wish I could tell you that the day I graduated from university I knew exactly how all the pieces would fit together, that I knew exactly what I wanted to do from day one and my life as been a nice strait line and careful plan ever since. The truth is, I didn’t begin my career as a technologist. I took to heart the wisdom of Confucius–who taught us that one should“study the past if you would define the future”–and I majored in medieval history and philosophy at Stanford University. As perhaps you can appreciate, that of degree was not in great demand when I graduated from University.
So I wasn’t sure what to do after collage, so I went to law school because that’s what my father wanted me to do. But found I didn't like law school; I didn't have any passion for it. I quit after one semester quit after a semester, and wandered off into the world to find myself. I did some strange things. I joined a commercial brokerage company and there I typed, I answered the phones–I was what we call a secretary. Then I went off to Italy to teach English to Italian businessmen. Then, finally, I decided to apply to business school. And there I learned about marketing and operations and statistics and other skills necessary for business–but perhaps more importantly, I had professors–like the students here do -- who challenged me, who taught me a different notion of what was possible, who forced me to see my life in new ways. And I think, in a very great measure -- that is what leadership is about, that is what education is about, that is what character is all about.
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