The Last Lecture

Before I migrated to Australia, I worked for an international IT company overseeing its marketing communications programs in 13 Asian countries. One summer, I had the opportunity to attend a two-week marketing course designed and delivered by the University of Michigan School of Business Administration. Joining that course were fellow ‘marketeers’ from various Asian countries. Like me, they were sent by their employers to brush up on their skills. Through theories and case studies, the course aimed to update us on how to position, differentiate and market the products in an ever-growing competitive world. After all these years, I think over 90 percent of the content has become irrelevant to me. There is, however, one lecture---the very last one---that still affects me deeply today.

If I remember correctly, most of the lecturers who taught us in the previous two weeks were present at this lecture. I don’t recall its title, but the content took me by total surprise as I never expected a business course that focussed on monetary yields and successes would be capped with an existential theme. The lecturers reminded us that no matter how high up we would reach on the corporate ladder and how successful our businesses would become, we all would have to face death.  Knowing that death is our eventuality will help us to assess our reality today and steer the right course for tomorrow. This is true both for ourselves and for our businesses, they said. Towards the end, we were told to write our own epitaphs for our headstones followed by group discussion. Looking back, this was probably a disguised lecture on business ethics.

 What would I want to be inscribed on my headstone?

 This has been a question, or a reminder, that often popped up from the back of my mind from that very day on. All the more so when I wanted to cut corners, when I wanted to stay in my comfort zone and when I wanted to turn a blind eye to a need.

 In some of his parables, Jesus was very straightforward with his message of eventuality. The Parable of the Talents, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goat, and the Parable of the Ten Virgins are a few examples. To me, these parables are not meant to be a threat, but to make us aware of the life values that God cares about and the last scene we all will face as we lay down our load at the end of our weary journeys. Knowing what lies at the end, we should be able to project with a clear vision of the direction our journeys should take.