Gottfreid Lutumba

Thank you all — family, friends, faculty and staff — for supporting us through our journey at UT Dallas and for being here with us today.I’d like to start with a quote by Oren Harari: “The electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles.” I really like this quote because it encourages us to not only try to improve what already exists but to go beyond what we know to be true. Evolution via continuous improvement is great, but revolution and innovation are extraordinary.

I believe that all of us, whether personally or professionally, have been told: “that is impossible” or “that is too challenging.” We need to take a view that if what is possible is defined by what has been possible, then possibilities are inherently limited.

That’s why I challenge all of us, including myself, to go beyond the comfort of possibilities and the ordinary and strive to achieve the extraordinary, thus becoming true innovators — disruptive in all we do.

I challenge us to go after what we truly believe in, but don’t forget that belief without action is sure to yield nothing. So, take actions driven by your beliefs, regardless of obstacles or stacked odds. In success there is celebration. In failure, well, there is also celebration — because there is an opportunity to grow and try again.

For instance, an entering MBA student has five years of professional work experience. I had just a tiny bit less — I had none. Yet, I set my goal to join one of the world’s most prestigious consulting firms. Somewhat expectedly, I was met with strong skepticism: A few people even called me delusional. Nonetheless, after hundreds of hours of preparation, community engagement, internships and collaboration with other fellow students, I’ve achieved my impossible goal: this summer I will be joining McKinsey & Company as one of their youngest associates.

We’ve made the impossible possible and encouraged future classes to achieve the same. And by we, I mean all of us — the Class of 2021. We’ve gone through a global pandemic, the biggest movement for diversity and inclusion, and a complete shift in the modality in which we work and study. And yet we persevered. We succeeded.

I hope that we will continue to succeed; that wherever we go we continue to be disruptive — electric lights rather than better candles.

And I truly hope that I will have the opportunity to engage with you again — this time in the C-suite.

Thank you.

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Gottfreid Lutumba is graduating with master’s degree in finance and an MBA as a Scholar with High Distinction. He will move to Minneapolis to work as an associate for McKinsey & Company, one of the largest management consulting firms in the world. Though he will miss Texas, he plans to visit and give back to the University and the campus organization he co-founded — The Consulting Leadership & Development Society. He hopes to hold an executive position at a Fortune 100 company someday.