Bernard Sinniah Managing Director CitiBank London
The Honourable Chairman, Principal Sir,
Distinguished Guests, Staff and
Students of St John’s, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you very much for inviting my wife, Anita and me here
today, as your
guests of honour. It is indeed an honour and I
am deeply humbled to stand in
front of you all.
St John’s College has a very long history, having been
founded some 191
years ago. The education of life that this great
institution provides is
never evident when you are a student. It becomes
evident only when you go
out into the real world, where one is
challenged. St John’s quietly enables
us to face them all, to overcome and go forward.
We sing - ‘Johnians always
play the game’. This doesn’t just refer to
sports but it refers to the wider
game of life.
Having spent almost all my school days at St John’s, I am
eternally grateful
for what I learnt here. The learning was endless
and at times painful. The
first few years of hostel life was tough.
Forming friendships was
challenging as we came from so many different
backgrounds. Sometimes, it was
difficult, to getting used to teachers who were
such strict disciplinarians.
But underneath all this, there was something
special about St John’s that I
can be very proud of. Today, the first thing I
proudly say to anyone is -“I
studied at St John’s, College, Jaffna, Sri Lanka
– the best school in the
world!”
The innocent friendships that we formed some thirty-five
years ago have
grown from strength to strength. The fear we had
for our teachers has turned
into utmost respect and total loyalty. Most of
all, our affection for St
John’s continues to grow in every possible way.
I am not sure how many years have gone by since
the first college prize
giving was held, but surely I must be the only
Chief guest, who had never
won a prize. Among this audience, I can see some
very familiar faces. I see
some of my former teachers who would never have
dreamt, that I would be
standing here one day, as the Chief Guest. I
would like to say that it feels
like a dream for me, too.
I want to begin by congratulating each and every one of you
who has won a
prize. This is a reflection of your hard work
and dedication throughout the
past year. Whether you won a prize for academic
achievement, for
achievements in sport or in any other field, it
is truly great to have your
efforts richly rewarded and recognised. I
am sure you made yourselves, your
parents and family members and all your teachers
very proud. Well done and I
wish you all continued success.
When I was a student, we, the non-prize-winners,
were always asked to sit at
the back of the hall. As the winners were
getting their well-deserved
prizes, the one thing that constantly crossed my
mind was – ‘Could I ever be
successful?’
Today I want to speak to all of you- those who won prizes and
those who like
me, are wondering whether they could ever be
successful. I would like to
tell you this - it is all up to you. It is you
and you alone who can define
your success. I want to really challenge you by
asking a simple question “Do
you know how good you are - to be successful?”
I want to tell you a story - a true story where I was
present. It happened
on the 24th of April 2007 at Sabina Park,
Kingston, Jamaica. It was a very
hot and humid day when Sri Lanka took on New
Zealand in the World cup
Semi-finals. It is the stand out innings of
Mahela Jayawardena, which I
would like to share with you.
The scorecard will tell us that Mahela scored one hundred and
fifteen runs
in one hundred and nine balls. But, the
scorecard will not tell you the hard
work that went into getting there- how his
innings was formed, how he was
patient, how he let go of so many opportunities
to score and how he built
partnerships. The scorecard will also not tell
you how he used his strengths
and used that perfectly to overcome the
challenges he faced, to build and
deliver a great innings.
Most importantly, Mahela Jayawardena, the Sri Lankan Captain
believed in
himself. He knew he was good enough to deliver a
quality innings. That was
the key component of his success and of his
beautiful innings that day.
Well, we all can learn a lot from that. We define our success
by what is on
the board or by the prizes we win. What success
was for Tharanga that day
was different to what it was for Mahela.
Tharanga was judged by the
explosive start that he gave to the innings
while Mahela was judged for the
calm and steady way he settled for a long
innings, accelerating at the end.
Both of them were successful. It is therefore
important to understand that
all of us can and will achieve success through
different routes.
It is my fundamental belief that every one of us has the
capacity and
capability to achieve success. It does not mean
that we become over
confident and arrogant about our talents. It is
about believing that we can!
When Mahela came to the crease, Tharanga was in
full flow. The run rate was
still around five, but Sri Lanka’s batting was
vulnerable, which even the
opposing captain Stephen Fleming acknowledged at
the toss.
Mahela knew that he too, could join Tharanga and start
scoring fast. He
could have done that but he didn’t. He buckled
down and scored very slowly,
giving Tharanga the opportunity to score freely.
He played carefully so that
he could easily pick-up his run rate later. That
was his strength and he was
aware of that.
On the other hand, when I got through my
Ordinary Level examination with
much difficulty, I believed that I should try to
become a doctor. As you
know, this was a prestigious profession – it was
then and, I am sure it is
now! I enrolled my self to the Bio stream;
despite the fact that I had
failed Biology. My first class was Zoology where
I was given a frog to
dissect and then to draw it. When I finished
drawing, my Zoology teacher
told me that my frog looked like a goat. Next day,
I spoke to the Principal
and quickly transferred myself out of the Bio
stream into Mathematics
stream. I knew my limitations but tried to
ignore them.
Successful people know and acknowledge their
limitations. Your limitations
will throw you challenges and obstacles. There
is no point fighting them. It
is better to overcome them; otherwise they will
hold you back from achieving
success.
At the end of Fortieth over, Sri Lanka had
slowly built their innings to one
hundred and eighty runs for the loss of four
wickets. Mahela was not out at
forty runs from seventy-four balls. The
commentators were giving him a hard
time. They were accusing him of taking too much
time saying that Sri Lanka
had had a decent platform and have now they’ve
messed it up.
This is what happens in real life too, People
will judge us by what they
expect from us without realising that all of us
have different paths to
achieve success. The world will not know our
limitations, the world will not
know our strengths and the world will not know
the challenges we face. But
the world will be quick to judge us by what they
expect from us.
That is where your own determination and drive
will have to come in. That is
how Mahela built his innings - He got to his
fifty in the forty-first over
and in seventy-six balls. What happened from
there on was a privilege to
watch – a brutal attack on the New Zealand
bowling. He raced to one hundred
in one hundred and four balls. The last fifty
came up in twenty-eight balls
and took Sri Lanka to two hundred and eighty
nine for the loss of five
wickets. This was way over what was
predicted. It was done solely by his
sheer belief and careful execution.
As we go on to live our lives outside the school
environment, we will have
wickets falling around us. We will have
commentators predicting what we
could achieve and commend or condemn the way we
bat. The challenge for us is
not to allow these external factors to affect
us. Do we allow these external
pressures to stress us or do we build our
innings carefully and according to
what we want to achieve and play a Mahela
innings? To achieve success and
bring the best out of you, you will need to
withstand these external
pressures and build your own innings.
One has to look back at Mahela’s innings and admire
the way he built it. He
took a long time to lay a good foundation. His,
was a slow and steady
innings. Likewise, success doesn’t come
overnight. One has to work for it
patiently and build it up slowly. We should run
a marathon, not a sprint.
You will need to take your own time, according
to your own plan and ability
and then go and achieve your own success!
When I was seated at that grounds watching that
match and was getting
frustrated by his innings, I never realised how
well he was planning it.
Cricinfo, the cricket website, described it as,
‘An innings that has been
worth it’s weight in gold’. Every time the run
rate was dropping, he would
slowly squeeze in a four and every time a wicket
fell, he took on a slightly
attacking role and then went back to playing a
steady innings. He was
reacting to the situation rather than worrying
about it.
This is an incredible attribute that we all
need. Every time we face a
crisis or a challenge, we really need to take a
step back, analyse the
situation and react. – React positively. As they
say ’the reaction to a
challenge is more important than the challenge
itself’. There is no point in
worrying about a wicket that falls, but it is
important to figure out what
needs to be done next. There is no point
in worrying about not winning a
prize but you should think forward as to how to
do better and thereby giving
yourself a chance to win a prize.
There are so many stories like Mahela’s innings
from which we can learn
about life. Whether you are a prize winner
today or not, there are bigger
and better things to look forward to in the
future.
You will and You can achieve success :
• By Understanding your
strengths and limitations. • By Reacting
positively to your challenges. •
By Accepting that your path could be
different to that ofothers.•
By Being patient and building your life
over a period of time.And most importantly: By
Believing in yourself!
Before I finish, once again I’d like to thank
you all for inviting Anita and
me. As I said at the outset, we are deeply
touched and humbled to be here.
In closing, I would like to say to all of you
again – Believe in yourself!
You have so much inside you that will make you
very successful! Next time,
don’t ask yourself the question that I asked
myself. Assure yourself by
saying ‘Yes, I can be successful’
And as the great Boxer Mohammed Ali once said,
‘If my mind can conceive it;
and my heart can believe it; then I can achieve
it’
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
