There is no substitute for hard work − Clive Lloyd

Former West Indies Captain Clive Lloyd on Saturday reminded graduands of the University of Guyana (UG) Tain Campus that there is no substitute for hard work.
Speaking at the campus’s 11th convocation, the cricket legend told the graduating class of 231 students that success comes through perseverance and hard work.
“The key to success is hard work and a little luck… I have found that the harder you work; the luckier you become… luck is when opportunity meets preparation.”
Hard work is not a too strange concept for the graduands, many of whom are teachers, and other professionals juggling family life and employment with the desire for higher learning.
Drawing from a mountain of leadership experience, Lloyd imparted that when he was appointed captain of the most successful West Indies team ever, it was a new beginning, having started years before at the bottom, just trying to hold a place in the team.
“The world of work is real schooling… treat the work place as another school and learn all the lessons you can from it… don’t be afraid to start from bottom… be humble and stay humble… [for me] it took discipline, persistence, and patience.”
Lloyd listed a few interesting concepts of success, and encouraged the graduates to map out the future in pencil to allow for flexibility, since “not all who wander are lost”, using Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zukerberg as examples.
The ideas disclosed were: Know your goals, be flexible, assume responsibility, expect a good fortune, trust your intuition, network, be humble with success and turn bad luck to good success.
Valedictorian Muniram Purnwasie, a teacher, who earned a distinction in Mathematics, said after pressing former director Professor Diazal Samad for years, the Mathematics programme finally came on stream in 2008 at the Berbice Campus.
According to Purnwasie, the genesis of the Mathematics class originated when colleagues raised the issue with Samad and soon after, a search began for at least 10 interested persons to commence the programme.
The search, he recalled took five years, and at the end of the diploma programme, a shortage of qualified Mathematics lecturers threatened to hamper the degree programme, but this hurdle was overcome with the help of Professor Samad and Dr Pamela Rose.
Purnwasie thanked his wife Deowattie Pertab, who also graduated with distinction in Mathematics for taking the journey with him.
Graduands who performed outstandingly in the other disciplines were also honoured.
In the open prize category, Purnwasie took the best graduating student prize, while Shinella Avis Gamble was awarded the second best graduating student prize in the bachelors’ degree programme.
Professor Samad, whose contract expired at the end of October, was absent from the exercise, forcing the abandonment of the Directors Report for 2011-2012.