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.
