Nicholas Singer
Commencement Speech
May 23, 2008
Robert H. Smith School of Business
I’d like to start off by taking a trip down memory lane, I want you to think back 10-15 years to
when you were a just a kid. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew
up? My family can attest that my mind changed every 15 minutes. I had aspirations to be a train
engineer, a doctor, a vet, a camera man, a salesman, a writer, a lawyer, a teacher and at one
point even a black football player. It should be obvious that today I am none of those things.
But sometimes it’s fun just to take a look back and see how far each of us has come.
If there is one thing my Smith school education has taught all of us, its how to be an
entrepreneur. Asher Epstein, the director of the Dingman Center defines Entrepreneurship as
simply “creating value”, and using this definition you can see how this is exactly what Maryland
has taught us. For four years we’ve looked at problems and cases in Accounting, Information
Systems, Finance, Marketing and Supply Chain and tried to figure out the solution. This solution
would add value to the firm involved and create that elusive competitive advantage that’s
talked so frequently about in our strategy classes.
Smith students are entrepreneurs. There is no question each of us are smart, the average SAT
score for our class was 1350. There is no question each of us are creative- that’s evident by the
countless group projects each of us have presented. Each of us are innovative and every one of
us a leader- you simply couldn’t be sitting here today if you weren’t. We are smart, creative,
innovative, and leaders- Smith students are bred to be excellent entrepreneurs.
We are all entrepreneurs, and if there is one thing each of us can agree on, regardless of our
political leanings, it’s the value of competition. Competition is the backbone behind the
business world. It is the reason why our school is so great, because it is so competitive. We
have a competitive drive that led us to choose a career path that calls for constant innovation
just to stay in the game. Competition adds value to the market place; it is the reason why we
need to smart, creative, innovative leaders. Without competition our markets and quality of
life would stay with the status quo, and if there is one thing any entrepreneur will tell you, the
status quo is never good enough, because there is always a better way.
So today, we are competitive entrepreneurs about ready to take the business world by storm.
There is little doubt that every Smith grad will be successful in his or her respective careers.
How could we not? We have been given a world class education by world class professors that
have not taught us not only how to compete in today’s world, but how to compete in a
constantly changing marketplace. Each of us will find financial success. And in doing so, we
hope to be contributing to American society, adding innovative products or systems to the
market place and hopefully increasing the quality of life to those around us. That is the
essence of capitalism. And for the smart, creative, innovative leaders, today, life is pretty
damn good.
Unfortunately, for a lot of the rest of the world, life is not so great. Some of the sobering stats
are all to familiar- 30,000 children die each day of preventable diseases, that’s 11 million a
year- twice the population of this state. Aids has reached an epidemic level in Africa, and some
sources say as much as 50% of the world’s population is living on less than $1-2 a day. The
sources of climate change are becoming ever prevalent in today’s public debates, and yet so
many consumers simply don’t know how best to be stewards of our environment. All of these
and many more are the tough issues that face us, the class of 2008.
These are world problems that need innovative ideas and strong leaders to confront them.
Scott Luellen is an extremely successful entrepreneur and accomplished man in many respects.
He once spoke to one of my classes and said something that has stuck with me- “capitalism
does not need your brilliance….the world does” He argues that a great deal can be
accomplished if those who are most successful in capitalism and the free market would devote
their talents to human issues. His argument makes perfect sense, all of us can agree that
competition is the driving force for innovation and improved quality. Yet, how can the world
expect to solve its most pressing issues if its best competitors are competing in a different
arena?
My message today is not to tell all of you to leave your respectable jobs in the free market. In
fact, I argue just the opposite. Go out, and learn how to compete. Smith has given us the tools
to be the best generation of entrepreneurs this world has seen, and those tools should be
allowed to flourish in our marketplaces. However, I do think at some point we all need to ask
ourselves, how much is enough? What amount of money and success will it take to make us
happy? At what point, does the next hundred thousand dollars, the next million dollars, the
next ten million dollars become excessive. I have no doubt in my mind that this class will breed
several multimillionaires, we have too much talent in this room for that not be the case. My
hope, is that each of us will take the chance compete in the more important arenas human
rights, health, poverty or the environment at some point in our careers. If the smartest, most
creative, most innovative, best leaders aren’t debating competing ideas to solve the world’s
most imperative issues, then who will?
Now I’d like you to recall one more time what it was that you wanted to be when you grew up.
Not what profession you wanted to be, but what it was that made you want to be that. What
was it that you really wanted to be: a builder like an architect, a creator like a film director or
artist, a leader like the President? Did you want a job because it made people admire you like a
sports star or teacher? Did you want a job that allowed you to help people like a doctor or a
firefighter? The great part about being an entrepreneur is that entrepreneurs every day get to
make a decision about what they are going to be. So what was it that you really wanted to be
when you grew up? Because in just a few minutes, when we walk across this stage, we, the
class of 2008- will be officially grown up.