I’d like to congratulate my girl and all her friends who have just graduated from UTAR! ❤️
This is a wonderful milestone, and I wish all of you a prosperous, meaningful and happy life ahead.
As you step into the workforce, I also want to share a little advice — especially because you are entering a world that is changing faster than any generation before you.
AI can now write, analyse, research, code, create presentations and produce answers in seconds.
So, what will make you valuable?
Not simply knowing how to use AI.
But knowing when to use it, what to ask it, when to challenge its answer — and when not to use it at all.
As you begin your career, I hope you develop these capabilities:
→ Learn to sit with a difficult problem. Don’t immediately look for the fastest answer.
→ Learn to ask better questions. In an AI world, the quality of your questions matters enormously.
→ Learn to think before you prompt. AI can accelerate your thinking, but it should not replace it.
→ Learn to spot when something is confidently wrong. AI can sound convincing and still be wrong.
→ Learn to explain your reasoning. Don’t just give an answer. Explain how you arrived there.
→ Be comfortable saying, “I don’t know yet.” Curiosity is more valuable than pretending to know everything.
→ Learn to read people. Notice what isn’t being said. Understand the room, not just the data.
→ Learn to handle rejection. Hearing “no” is part of building a career.
→ Make decisions with imperfect information. Business rarely gives you all the information you want.
→ Start things. Don’t always wait for someone to give you permission or choose you.
→ Change your mind when the facts change. Changing your view isn’t weakness.
→ Learn to work with difficult people. Your career will involve people who think and work differently from you.
→ Own your mistakes quickly. Trust is built when people know you will take responsibility.
→ Go deep in something. AI makes shallow knowledge easier to access. Genuine expertise becomes even more valuable.
→ Learn to communicate like a human. Good writing, storytelling and conversations still matter.
And perhaps most importantly:
Know what matters to you.
Because the more capable AI becomes at giving you answers, the more important it becomes for you to decide which questions are worth asking.
Your degree is the beginning, not the destination.
Your first job is the beginning, not the destination.
Your first salary is the beginning, not the destination.
Think of the next few years as your apprenticeship in becoming someone who can create value — with AI, not merely compete against it.
To my girl and her friends — congratulations once again! ❤️
May you build careers that make you proud, friendships that last, and lives filled with prosperity, purpose and happiness.
The future doesn’t belong only to those who know the most.
It belongs to those who can think, learn, adapt, connect and create value continuously.
Go Go Go🌱