It takes a dream

Contributed by BL

Let me begin with a personal anecdote happened many summers ago in a NUS lecture theatre. I was in the first year of junior college and spent a few days of my life attending the Pre-U seminar. Believe it or not, for many who loathed to go to this annual event, I was one of the few who enjoyed myself there, meeting interesting people and debating social and political issues in Singapore with them. Believe it or not, we debated to death on the subject of the Singapore dream, the 5Cs and our developments towards a materialistic society with no dreams and ideals. The theme for that year was “The Next Lap” , a book and roadmap for the development of Singapore in the next 25 years proposed by our senior minister, Mr Goh Chok Tong when he took office as the prime minster. After many keynote speeches and forum discussions, all of us (the students) coined a phrase that I felt reflects the cynicism for most of us at that age. On the last day, a panel of speakers were talking about turning Singapore into a cultural and gracious society. As usual, being vocal, I stood up and posed the first question. The question is about changing the social stigma in differentiating between junior colleges and pre-u centres. The panellist replied me with a question, “Are university students looked upon more highly than polytechnic students?”. As I was ready to answer, a few friends of mine shouted out that it is obvious. The panellist continued to ask why and they replied with that famous phrase, “Because that’s the way it is.” Of course, things have changed significantly in the last fifteen years but yet certain social stigma prevails.

I have read many articles that talk about the Singapore Dream and sit in many forums discussing about the Singaporean culture and identity. Most of the articles centered on the theme of materialism. For example, we hear about the famous 5Cs and how the Singaporean will work their way to acquiring them. Most Singaporeans are caught in this rat race, beginning from their school days to chase for the best grades, moving on to society to chase the best jobs and status and then suddenly realize that they did not know what they were looking for. We skewed our views towards material wealth, and forgot how to dream. This is why I write the article. Instead of criticizing and whining about the present, I want to offer a solution to that problem.

That solution is to teach the younger generation how to develop the spirit of enterprise and make their dreams come true. I have seen many young and brilliant Singaporeans in the UK. Yet, to date, I have not seen young Singaporeans dreaming of winning the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize or even put their passion so that they will be placed on the map against the top guns from the west. The reason is that they are not confident about themselves and you can also infer that lack of confidence breeds less ambition among the young, including the best and brightest. I was pretty convinced that my assessment about this issue is correct. Over the past year, my hypothesis was validated by working with a Fulright scholar (she’s non-Singaporean) to do a comparative analysis on comparing the Singapore students against the students in Cambridge and MIT. We have found that Singaporeans are on par with these students based on the set of questions we posed to them. There is one interesting difference: Singaporeans are not confident. A few factors like the hierarchial education system and culture contribute to this lack of confidence.

How do we create these minority dreamers, soul searchers and visionaries? My answer is to inculcate the entrepreneurial framework in them, to pursue their interests and fight for what they believe in. We need to put in place important soft skills like fundraising, networking and marketing in students. Some people seem to think that the entrepreneurial framework is meant for people who want to start a business. I don’t think so. Writing a business plan is no different from writing a grant to get research funds on your project. Most people I meet locally fail to distinguish the businessman and the entrepreneur. The business man makes money for the sake of making more money, but the entrepreneur makes money and also a difference in life for the sake of his passion.

The definition of entrepreneurs are not confined to people who do startups. They can be people who found new sustainable innovations to improve social conditions, for example, social entrepreneurship. They can be people who works for a big firm like IBM, and innovate within as an intrapreneur. In short, they are people who wants to make a difference. Even for those people who want to save the environment, my advice to them is, “Don’t be an activist, be an entrepreneur.” Here is an example which I think spells the difference between an entrepreneur and an activist, I have a biologist friend who is against animal testing and he is a vegan. Instead of being one of those animal rights extremists, he worked in a genetics laboratory to find a piece of technology to replace animal testing. He has told me that it is more pragmatic to find innovations to reduce the existing number of animal tests instead of protesting in the open.

If you know what your dreams are, it is important that you pursue them even the people around you, including your parents don’t think that you should. The reason is because at the end of the day, it is your own life. I remember that most of my friends study engineering due to social and peer pressure and ended up hating their jobs because they don’t know what they want in life. To them, the goals which our society has chosen for them did not give them fulfiment. I remember defying my relatives by dropping the fashionable courses like law and engineering to do science, which was deemed to be the dumping ground. In the end, I am happy with what I have achieved today, even though the process has been difficult and sometimes, defying the odds.

It takes a dream to make your life meaningful. Everyone of us have status anxiety and attempts to define success by what society perceives to be the norm. I will hope to convince you to join the entrepreneurial movement and start making a difference not in others’ lives but your own as well.

Author’s note: The original title I have in mind is “Singaporean Dream vs Entrepreneurs”. This article is inspired by the articles “Paved with Good Intentions” in tomorrow.sg and “The Pursuit of Dreams” by Mr Wang.

Author’s update: We are honoured to be mentioned in Mr Wang’s “The Lovers, the Dreams and …. Mr Wang”. Do take a look at other points of view from Madam Sng and takchek.

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