By Iddi Yire
Accra, Sept 30, GNA – Dr Philip Oti-Mensah, the Universal Merchant Bank’s (UMB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), has advised graduates of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), to trade the pursuit of titles for a life of character, usefulness and meaning.
“Your CV tells people where you have worked. Your reputation tells people who you are,” Dr Oti-Mensah said.
With that distinction, Dr Oti-Mensah challenged graduates of the UPSA to look beyond certificates and job titles and focus on the kind of people they become.
Addressing the First Session of UPSA’s 18th Congregation Ceremony in Accra, Dr Oti-Mensah, who was the guest speaker, spoke less about getting a job and more about building a life of meaning, usefulness and character.
His central charge was simple: “Do not just build a career. Build a reputation.”
In a world where qualifications are increasingly common, Dr Oti-Mensah urged graduates to become known for excellence, integrity, reliability and the ability to get difficult things done: the person others trust with responsibility.
Reputation, he stressed, was not built overnight, and it grows from small decisions made consistently; keeping one’s word, meeting deadlines, being prepared, treating people properly, and taking responsibility when things go wrong.
Such habits might seem ordinary, he said, but practiced faithfully, they become extraordinary advantages.
“Qualifications may open doors. Character determines what happens after,” Dr Oti-Mensah said.
Touching on jobs, the CEO said: “Don’t Just Look for Jobs. Look for Problems.
“Africa’s challenges in education, healthcare, agriculture, financial inclusion and infrastructure, he suggested, should be seen not only as obstacles but as opportunities.
“When other people see a problem, ask yourself: what if this is an opportunity?”
For a generation entering a world reshaped by technology, the question is no longer “Where can I find a job?” but: “What value can I create?”
Dr. Oti-Mensah urged the graduates to study failure as carefully as success.
He pointed to survivorship bias, the tendency to focus on those who succeeded while overlooking the many people, businesses and ideas that did not.
Examine what went wrong, he advised, and let it sharpen future decisions, but never let failure become an identity.
“A failed business is an event. A lost opportunity is an event. Neither defines who you are. Setbacks will come. The real question is: Who will you become when they do it?” Dr Oti-Mensah questioned.
A career, he said, was not a race from one office to the next, stating that there were seasons for learning, developing judgment and building relationships, and the most valuable season was sometimes not the best-paid one, but the one in which one learns the most.
He advised graduates to always remember those who had helped them.
In perhaps the most personal part of the address, he reminded graduates that success was rarely achieved alone: parents sacrificed, lecturers taught, friends stood by, mentors opened doors.
“Success is not complete if the people who helped you get there cannot feel some of its warmth,” he said.
He added: “It was a call to gratitude, and to responsibility: extend to someone else the hand once extended to you.”
He underlined that a reputation outlives the résumé.
Ultimately, Dr Oti-Mensah’s message went beyond careers; he challenged graduates not merely to become executives, lawyers or entrepreneurs, but people whose achievements mean something.
As the Class of 2026 begins its next chapter, he left them with a charge that might outlast anything printed on their certificates: Solve problems, learn from failure, pursue excellence, keep one’s word, others rise and above all, build a reputation worth carrying one’s name.
“Titles disappear and organisations evolve, but a reputation can follow a person for a lifetime,” the Oti-Mensah said.
“The question every graduate should carry beyond the ceremony is the simplest of all: When your name is mentioned years from now, what will people say it stands for?” he asked.
GNA.
Edited by Benjamin Mensah