Graduations

Forty years ago, I participated in the graduation ceremony at Southampton University in United Kingdom.  I do not remember any thing about the the ceremony except that I had to rent a black gown with a blue hood.  I wore my black off the shelf interview suit with brown hush puppy shoes over the objections of my sister and brother in law who were my two guests.   I was constantly reminded of this bad fashion statement whenever some one saw my only photograph of the event shaking hand with the chancellor of the university in my brown hush puppies.  I do not remember who the key note speaker was and what was the subject of his speech.

I found that the things have not changed much in forty years while attending graduation ceremony of one of my relatives who was part of graduating class of the of the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia today.   I pity one of the students in the parade who wore light blue trousers.  He will be reminded for ever about it future like me.  

The only difference this time was that I paid attention was to the speech by 2006 Noble Peace Prize reciepient, Dr Younus of Bengladesh.  He described the history of Garmin bank and how it changed the lives of millions in Bengladesh and several other countries.  He advised the freshly minted MBAs from the world's top most institution that they should try do things contrary to traditions.  He stated that while the large banks have gone bankrupt by lending to rich people with lot of collateral and written deeds drafted by lawyers, the Garmin Bank remains solvent becuase it lends to poor women who are not considered credit worthy by big banks.  The remarakable thing about Garmin bank is that it started with a total capital of $27, and by now has lent more than a billion dollars around the world without paperwork and lawyers.

Dr. Younus told the graduates that making money in itself should not be an end but a means to bring a social change in the society.  I sat there and wondered how many of the 890 freshly minted MBAs will follow his advice since they spent $200K in fees and expenses to buy the MBA degree from Wharton.  They have to repay the loans for years and will start chasing money at all costs.  The sad part is that 45 percent of these MBAs do not have a job yet due to the financial crises created mostly by MBAs who graduated over the years.  I consider myself lucky since I bought a graduate degree in engineering from Southampton for a meagre 400 dollars which is worth today about $3000 accounting for inflation over 40 years.  The return on this investment of $400 over forty years is better than any of the top performing stocks or mutual funds.