The three Es of Singaporean success

The 5Cs (credit card, cash, car, condominium and country club) used to be the benchmark that Singaporeans measure their success upon. Our guest contributor, Christopher Ng Wai Chung, the author of “Growing your tree of prosperity” proposes the three E’s of Singaporean success. This article is a preview from his second book will appear in December. SGE is honoured to provide our readers a first glimpse of his new book.

Contributed by Christopher Ng Wai Chung

Even better than having a credit card, cash, car, condominium and country club are the three E’s of Singaporean success.

Stanley Liew, 32, has everything to celebrate about. As recipient of a government scholarship to one of the top Ivy League colleges in the US, Stanley was not only able to have for himself a world class education, he was also to bask in the warm glow of being a prestigious government scholar in Singapore.

Of course, like many people who excel at looking out for number 1, Stanley was also able to break his scholarship bond with the help of his immensely wealthy family. After all, being a highly paid bureaucrat was attractive but not good enough for a man of his status. And after a very profitable 3 year stint as a management consultant, Stanley takes over his multi million dollar family business. His past as bond breaker is now readily forgiven, since he is now someone who is responsible for hundreds of jobs in Singapore.

You see fragments of Stanleys everywhere in this country. Sometimes they appear in the Singapore Tatler, sometimes they get involved in local politics. Stanley is the archetype of a successful Singaporean – all the woman want him and all the men want to be like him.

You can love the metaphorical Stanley. But very likely, you can also hate him. Stanley is the kind of person whom we need to cope with in a society which is rife with status anxiety and envy. People like Stanley challenge us because he forces us to come to terms with our own inadequacies and forces us to mature and mellow with the coming of age.

Thus, Singapore loves three kinds of people, and Stanley just happens to have all three of these traits. These traits are known as the three E’s of success. Without a doubt, the 3 E’s are much more important than the 5 Cs in this materialistic world that we live in.

A person with 3 Es is educated, endowed and enterprising.

Educated

Education is the carte blanche towards a good life but has seen a lot of decline over the years. Educated people hold the best jobs in the economy and do not really need to take a lot of risks to thrive in this world. Motivational books and books on financial planning will always play down the value of a good education in favor of being street wise but in reality, education confers many advantages which can be very unfair to every one else. In countries like Japan, seniors from top universities in Tokyo have been known to cover up the mistakes of their juniors because they came from the same institution as they did. French presidents almost always hail from the Ecole National d’Administration ( ENA ), an elite school which grooms the cream of French politics for a top role in French society.

Most motivation books succeed by attacking educated people but fail to qualify and explain why an education, may prevent a person from accumulating wealth. The main reason of the lack of success for some is not because of education but his lack of an ability to apply the principles towards his own success.

Endowed

The other facet of success is an endowment. Successful people come from well endowed families because unlike the good old days having money makes a bigger difference in the lives of many school kids today. The best computers will allow them to keep in touch with the latest news on the internet; the best tutors will plug any of their weaknesses in class.