What price, failure?

this post is inspired by something my dad was sharing with me.

he was talking about the huge obstacles to local entrepreneurship, despite all the governmental schemes to encourage it. he used the example of a lemonade stand...

it is the stereotypically american thing-to-do-in-summer-when-your-kid-is-bored-and-wants-more-money to set up a little lemonade stand on the sidewalk, and staff it with a blue-eyed, blonde girl with ribbons in her hair etc etc. my dad asked, what would happen if we tried this in singapore?

AVA would get on your case, ask if you had gotten approval for selling consumables. NEA would want to ask about the hygiene standards of your preparation. SPF would inquire as to whether you have a license to run a business. that's three off the top of my head, and i've never actually tried - i'm sure there would be more trouble than that. before you sold your first drink, you would be a thousand dollars in the red.

it seems that in singapore, you have to get permission before you do anything, which is in stark contrast to the attitudes in some other countries, where if it isn't explicitly banned, it must therefore be legal?

the startup costs in singapore are so extremely high, that few people have the capital to even survive one failed business, let alone try again. so that got me thinking on this whole concept on the fear of failure...





It was Winston Churchill who said that success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. We can relate to this in our everyday lives - did we not fall a single time when we learnt to ride a bicycle? Yet if we choose to focus on the consequences of failure, we would have never learnt. Yet we fail and we continue to fail to apply this simple lesson as we grow.

Perhaps it is because the consequences of failure only become magnified with age. Each risk is treated like a gamble, and we feel the stakes too high to get involved. But at what price?

At secondary school, we pick and choose the subjects which will probably give us the best grades. Eventually, we pick and choose the career path which will give us the best prospects. We shy away from things outside our comfort zone, because to try new things is to court failure. Better to stick to what you know well, and do well. I say this from personal experience.

It seems therefore that the sum of our life experiences occured before the age of six. Everything thereafter is a repeat of those experiences. We become like hermit crabs, hiding in our shells. Or even the proverbial frog at the bottom of the well. And we never go on to fulfill the vast potential hidden within us waiting to be released.

I believe that everyone has a great talent and gift waiting to be released. I think that if anyone knew me during JC and knew me now, they would not recognise me. How much difference a little confidence makes.

I want to thank the people who have been prodding me in various ways out of my comfort zones. To try new things, and to discover new things, and discover in the midst of all these new things, new things about myself that I never knew.


If we stop trying new things, we stop growing. I was 12 years old throughout secondary school, and am struggling to catch up. If you remain twelve forever mentally, how sad that would be.

So one of the things I want to bear in mind when I teach, is to continually challenge people to move out of their comfort zones. Basically to do something which they are not initially comfortable with. It can be something small - speaking in front of the class, doing flag-raising. I'm quite keen on using project work to teach people to work independently, and to learn how to take initiative.

Ok, getting late, and I'm getting incoherent. So many other things I wanted to say... sigh. Hope I remember them later.

weakness

i decided today that all our weaknesses exist for one reason only; to give us opportunity to love one another.

if we could see everyone around us in this way, how great that would be. still learning...

and how great it would be if we all were aware of our own weaknesses... we would be more humble, and more conscious of the grace of God and of people around us who put up with our nonsense for so long...


what brought this on was my knee again... gave me a twinge today as i was getting into my dad's van... you know the little torque that you do twisting yourself to get into a vehicle... that was enough apparently for me to turn the knee the wrong way, and twinge it. and i jumped a little, and plomped down onto the seat, and cried out, thinking what a weakling i am. don't think i'll survive the marathon.

but God made me this way, weaknesses and all. and He loves me just the same. and people around me love me too, in spite of my own hang-ups, and that's wonderful to know.

i guess another way of looking at it is that i'm unique and special, and God takes special care of me because of my specific weaknesses. =)

the average passport is approximately the size of a 4R photograph.

therefore, number 10 on the list of the most mind-numbingly smart-ass things you can do is to bring a 4R sized photo of you along to one of those thingies where they ask you to bring along a "passport-size photo".

and when they tell you "sorry sir, we require a passport-sized photograph", produce your passport for comparison, and argue your case. =)





as an aside,

my dad runs this small business supplying an eclectic assortment of made-in-china stuff, and every once-in-a-while, we get this 20-foot container in which needs to be unloaded in short order, and every available hand gets to help out. this happened just a couple of hours ago.

so as we move and stack, and the cartons slowly blur into each other, i get this sudden, overwhelming sense of deja vu. weird huh? i wonder why.... =)

elephants moved today = 2




oh yeah, and if anyone ever needs gifts for anywhere between 100 - 5000 people, ask me. =)