The Courage to Rule the Future——真格基金联合创始人王强先生寄语2022届港大经管毕业生
2022年11月17日
王强，全球化智库（CCG）常务理事，真格基金联合创始人。
致辞全文
The Courage to Rule the Future
Provost Professor Richard Wong, Dean Professor Hongbin Cai, members of the faculty, and, above all, graduates.
It is an extraordinary honour to be invited to speak to you on this important occasion. But before getting to the point, let me tell you a secret. After accepting the invitation, I immediately regretted it. You know why?
In the presence of business school students, especially the distinguished HKU Business School graduates, talking about how to prepare for the business world of tomorrow is just like “carrying coals to Newcastle”.
However, I decided not to go back on my word. I feel I can indeed share with you some thoughts that have had a major impact on my life from a perspective outside of the business discipline.
Let me get down to business now with the help of a question for you all. How do we describe the world we currently live in ?
Our daily experience tells us that we no longer have firm ground under our feet. Nothing is solid. Everything is flowing. The society is accelerating with uncertainty. The bonds between people have become more fragile than ever. Fear and anxiety occupy our minds. We seem to be walking on quicksand. No one is in control. Life is becoming more and more like instant living. We have lost our sense of direction and purpose. We don’t even know where the destination is.
No wonder the Collins Dictionary chose “permacrisis” as its 2022 Word of the Year. The word accurately captures a sense of loss from chronic instability and insecurity.
In such a situation, how should we face and deal with it?
Perhaps we should turn our minds away from the reality that disturbs us so much and look elsewhere for answers, inspiration, courage and hope that can enlighten us and guide us.
The word “literature” came to my mind. Believe it or not, it is up to the task.
Now think of it this way, graduation for you means temporarily closing the books of words in your college classes and really starting to open the big book of life. I myself as a book lover, I think it makes sense to take this opportunity to share with you four memorable excerpts from the great novels I have read. At least for my life, the wisdom they convey constitutes four important Mini Classes that benefit me a great deal. I believe that sometimes the power of fiction is far greater than that of reality.
The first excerpt is from Beautiful Sadness by Bohumil Hrabal.
“I strode and no one saw or knew that I had a boat tattooed on the chest. It will always be with me, and it will drift wherever I go. Someday, when I go swimming, do my backstroke, the bow of the boat will cut through the river and swim with me. When I am sad, I will tear off my shirt like Jesus in the picture, and show the crowd that burning heart , wrapped in thorns. ”
Here comes Mini Class 1— Dare To Dream.
If you had to give up some, or even many of the things you value in life, you must not give up the courage to dream. You must hold on to it. Dreams are your closest companions and friends, they will follow you and console you through the wind and waves of hardships in life, like the tattooed boat on the protagonist’s chest.
The second excerpt is from El libro de los abrazos (The Book of Embraces) by Eduardo Galeano.
On the first day of class, the teacher brought a huge jar: “This is full of perfume,” he told Miguel Brun and the other students. I want to measure the perception of each of you. As you smell it, raise your hand.
And he uncorked the jar. After a while, there were already two hands raised. And then five, ten, thirty, all the hands up.
– May I open the window, Professor? pleaded a student, dizzy from the smell of perfume, and several voices echoed her. The strong aroma that hung in the air had already become unbearable for everyone. Then the teacher showed the jar to the students, one by one. The jar was filled with water.
Here comes Mini Class 2—Dare To Remain Independent.
You should always adhere to the courage of independent thinking and judgment. Only then will it be possible for you to lift the veil of truth. Don’t let pride and prejudice hold you back. Don’t let the opinions of others replace your own understanding and insights.
The third excerpt is from Doctor Faustus, Thomas Mann’s last great novel. It is a conversation on loving music between two high-school sophomores, the highly gifted Adrian Leverkiihn and his childhood friend Serenus Zeitblom, the narrator of the novel.
“Do you believe love is the strongest emotion?” he asked.
“Do you know any stronger?”
“Yes, interest.”
“By which you probably mean a love that has been deprived of its animal warmth, is that it?”
“Let’s agree on that definition!” he said with a laugh.
“Good night!”
Here comes Mini Class 3— Dare To Take Great Interest In What You Choose To Do.
To achieve lofty goals, love alone is not enough. Cultivate ongoing interest, because only interest can keep you so focused on your goals. Interest is the strongest emotion that helps you to overcome the unimaginable obstacles that stand in the way of your life.
The last excerpt is also from Doctor Faustus.
“To be young means to be original, to have remained nearer to the sources of life: it means to be able to stand up and shake off the fetters of an outlived civilization, to dare — where others lack the courage— to plunge again into the elemental.”
Here comes Mini Class 4—Dare To Keep A Young Mind.
As we all know that business competition is undergoing a fundamental change, from focusing on functional differentiation to focusing on the differentiation of consumer sentiment and experience. The usual business operation paradigms based only on “data analysis”, “rational thinking” and “logical deduction” that have been effective in the past have largely lost their effectiveness.
So, how to get rid of the “cheap mass production of standard answers” caused by the “homogenization” of thinking paradigms and not be eliminated in this era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity?
There is no other way but to dare to keep a young mind. The essence of keeping a young mind is discovery and creation. It means finding back the wonder of a child seeing the world for the first time and resisting this age of so-called “rationality excess” by developing and liberating your “intuition” and “sensibility” and building your mind’s powerful and quick decision-making system through creativity, as Seymour Cray, known as the father of supercomputers, puts it, “Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast System.”
I am sure HKU Business School has already given you all the necessary tools to build this “fast System”.
Now, allow me to end my talk with the inscription written on the tombstone of the great philosopher Immanuel Kant, because it so perfectly illustrates the motto of Hong Kong University.
“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and persistently we reflect upon them: the starry sky above me and the moral law in me.”
Sapientia et Virtus.
Thank you very much.
文章选自微信公众号“香港大学北京中心”，2022年11月17日
