080730_NTU Freshmen Welcome Ceremony 08 NTU Alumnus_Mr Inderjit Singh

8/6/2019 080730_NTU Freshmen Welcome Ceremony 08 NTU Alumnus_Mr Inderjit Singh

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BOT Member Mr Inderjit Singh‟s Speech

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Speech for Freshmen Welcome Ceremony, at 10:15 AM, on 30th

July

2008, at Nanyang Technological University.

Good morning

NTU President Dr Su Guaning,

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. It is indeed a pleasure to be here with all of you today for this very

important ceremony which I hope will be the beginning of some of

the best years of your life.

2. You are embarking on a life changing journey and all these years in

schools, you have been preparing for this day – the day you start

your university education. And as you successfully complete your

education here at NTU, you would have completed the basic phase

education, so it is one of the most important milestones of your

lives.

3. After this you have earned the passport to start working

professionally and for many this is what we have worked for most

of our youth and young adult lives. How you develop yourself and

how well you will do after you leave the university will depend on

you and you alone. The university will provide you all the

opportunities, the infrastructure, the mentors, the professors but

how you embrace all of these will determine the difference

between achieving great thing or nothing significant after you

complete your undergraduate education.




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4. I was here some 26 years ago as the pioneer of NTU, it was called

NTI or Nanyang Technological Institute then. The group of us who

came here in 1982 were privileged to be the ones to set the stage

for the modern NTU. Together with the pioneering staff, we build

up all institutions and organizations and the life and soul of this

great university and now looking back 26 years, I am indeed proud

that I came through this place and help lay the foundations for a

good university. But NTU can become one of the best universities

in Asia and hopefully in the world. To get there, it is really up to all

of you present here today to bring the university to greater heights

and along with it create a great future for yourselves.

Background

4. Let me give you a little background about myself. I started my

university education at NUS in 1981, immediately after my

national service. We did not know that NTI would have been

created and we expected to complete our university at NUS. When

NTIs formation was announced, it was both shocking as well as

exciting. Shocking because we never bargained to go to an

unknown institution when we applied to do engineering at NUS but

exciting because we have a chance to be involved as pioneers for

history in the making.

5. So, 75% of us came here and at that time, we came to the very old

campus and used the first generation buildings that were used by

the former Nanyang University or Nantah. The buildings and

furniture and hostel rooms and beds were all around 20 to 25 years

old when we first came. There were no students organizations, no




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sporting teams no real system, we realized we had to build all of

these ourselves. So as we came here, we started building all the

formal institutions you see here at the university today.

6. After graduation, I continued to be of service to the university

being involved in many things right from day 1 and have not

detached myself form the university since then.

7. So for me, it has been an exciting journey which will be with me as

something significant in my life and I am thankful for my

experience in NTU and with NTU till today and I hope each of you

will also have the opportunity to feel the same way 20 years after

you leave the university.

Your Stay Here at NTU

8. The University has set strong foundations to shape innovation and

enterprise among students and as students, it is up to you to seize

the opportunities which exist all around you. I know at this stage

many of you will think it is easier said than done and my answer to

those who say this is, that noting it is impossible and many a times

it is not the real world where the problem lies but with attitude and

the mindset of the person who thinks this way. Sometimes youhave to look at yourself to identify the real problem. And we have

many excellent examples of how attitudes shaped the lives of

people and how a change of mindset made the difference between

winning and losing.

9. Let me illustrate this by sharing a story entitled „Building Your

House’’




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10. There was once an elderly carpenter who worked for his employer

for 30 years. He was a loyal worker and produced good

workmanship and good quality houses. One day, he told his

employer that he did not want to continue the fast paced life and

wanted to retire to enjoy life with his family.

11. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he

could build just one more house as a personal favour. The carpenter

said yes. But over time it was easy to see that his heart was not in

his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior

materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

12. When the carpenter finished his work, his employer came to

inspect the house. He noticed many defects and was disappointed.

He then handed the front-door key to the carpenter and said, "Thisis your house... my gift to you."

13. The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known

he was building his own house, he would have done it all so

differently.

14. What can we learn from this story? We build our lives, a day at a

time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a

shock, we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we

could do it over, we'd do it much differently.

15. But, you cannot go back. You are the carpenter, and every day you

hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Someone once said,




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"Life is a do-it-yourself project." Your attitude, and the choices you

make today help build the "house" you will live in tomorrow. So

build wisely!

16. How can we do this?

17. Well the university can help provide the best infrastructure the

best mentors and the best support to nurture every student to

achieve their full potential so that they may be creative,

enterprising, self-disciplined and thinking individuals who can

develop the right mindset to succeed in life. In fact I can proudly

say that NTU will give you the best you can ever ask for.

18. So NTU will provide you with the different building bricks for

you to create your dream house. But you can decide whether to

seize the opportunity by making best use of the materials bychoosing to excel in these or you can choose to live a shoddy house

with no attachment to any of NTU‟s activities. Your commitment,

dedication and passion will determine if you will have a house that

you will be truly proud of. There is no guarantee you will surely

succeed but Never mind if you do not succeed at first try. Failure

doesn't mean you have accomplished nothing....it does mean youhave learned something. It doesn't mean you should give up...it

does mean you should try harder. There will be risks but you will

never know how high you can reach unless you try. Now this is the

mark of an entrepreneur and a mindset which I have always

operated with since I was here in NTU and also in everything I

have done in my life.




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19. Let me give you a personal example when I ran my first ever

marathon at the age of 45 years. I had no formal training and all I

had was 2 months to get ready for what was to be my contribution

to NTU‟s 50th anniversary celebrations. To cut a long story short,

in 2 months I only managed to train for 21 kilometers, half a

marathon and on the actual day in October 2005, I set out to run a

full marathon. Little did I realize the second 21km was nothing like

the 1st

21km, it was a killer. At around the 30km point, I signaled

to the organizers that I will give up but almost immediately, I gave

up that thought because I never gave up in my life. Then my mind

took over and I said to myself, “It is easy to give up, but it is very

special to finish the race”. So I decided, I will run, walk, crawl if I

have to but I will finish the marathon. And so I did, I ran, sat down

on the floor, walked and almost collapsed but I finished the full

marathon, in 6 hours plus. Do you know what happened? My mind

controlled my body instead of the other way around. My mindsetchange made all the difference between giving up and completing

the marathon. So I again confirmed this belief that all it takes is a

mindset change to achieve what you want and then the Sky will be

your limit.

20. I ask all of you to live with this mindset –“Nothing is Impossible,it is all in Your Mind”. If you can do so, I am sure you will see

many more achievements in you life. My final advise to you is to

make full use of your time here at NTU and experience NTU to the

fullest and I assure you, it will be something you will value for the

rest of your life as I have. Don‟t be like the carpenter because you

cannot rewind your life once you leave the university. My best

wishes to all of you. Thank you.

080730_NTU Freshmen Welcome Ceremony 08 NTU Alumnus_Mr Inderjit Singh

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