Celebrating AMP's Scholarship winners

Speech notes for announcement of winners of AMP's 2007 Scholarship programme, Grand Hall, Parliament.

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I would like to start by paying tribute to everyone involved in these awards.

It is actually humbling to be here and to hear about the recipients of this year's AMP scholarships.

It is humbling to read of the award winners' skills. There is knowledge-based excellence such as award winners who are chasing a dream in fields like sustainability. There are competitive sportsmen and women who are pioneers and innovators.

It is even more humbling to read of the dedication and effort that has brought scholars to this point, where a scholarship could make the difference between "almost" and "world-beating."

It is humbling to know of families who have supported award winners this far, shared in their dreams, encouraged them and taken pride in their achievements.

It is humbling to be a New Zealander and see such talented kiwis go out and take on the world; humbling as much for the courage of commitment as for the ultimate outcomes.

It is in the nature of excellence that most of us will never possess the talent to emulate the achievements of award recipients.

Scientists study everything these days, and perhaps one of the more useful fields of study that has developed recently is research into excellent performance. When researchers looked at expert performers in fields like surgery, ballet and computer programming, they found that the best are nearly always made, not born.

Not only that, but in the words of one commentator (who happens to be an economist), "practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true."

Practice - not just repetition, but setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.

Genius takes work. Michelangelo spent four years lying on his back to paint the Sistine chapel. James Joyce took nine years to finish Ulysses. At the other end of the scale there were two French mathematicians who in the early 1970s produced a four hundred page book devoted entirely to calculating pi to a million decimal places. At least they had the advantage that very few people knew whether they were right or wrong.

So these awards are a celebration of your hard work and effort in practicing and perfecting what you do. They are also an inspiration to others to try as hard and seek to follow the pathways opened by these pioneers.

This is also an opportunity to recognise and acknowledge AMP's sponsorship of these scholarships. The company is making a contribution to New Zealand and towards opening opportunities for these scholars. I commend AMP for that, and congratulate everyone who has earned a scholarship today.