Recent Interesting Articles From Cobalt Paladin

Some interesting insights from our resident blogger, Cobalt Paladin.

Recently, Cobalt Paladin who writes the blog “A long and arduous road of an entrepreneur”, have two interesting articles entitled “Street Fighter” and To Pitch or Not to Pitch. For the first article, Cobalt describes the entrepreneurial mind close to a street fighter. In his second article, he made the effort to answer the questions I posed earlier in “What makes you different”.

Firstly, we thank Cobalt Paladin’s mention of us in his articles. Second, we strongly recommend Cobalt Paladin’s articles for those who aspire to be entrepreneurs, as most of his daily encounters in his blog are common to real-life entrepreneurs. The best way to learn how to be an entrepreneur is to go through the process of being one. It’s very hard to read books about how to be one unless you are out there to battle it out. Being an educator in entrepreneurship, I strongly recommend young aspiring entrepreneurial minded students to think through their business idea before they pursue it. I actually agree with Cobalt’s idea that an entrepreneur is a “street fighter”. In a startup, you are always caught in times of good and bad. When you have to go through a crisis, it is your passion, credibility and endurance that set you apart from the rest.

While reading through these two entries, I also started to ask myself why I got into this business. I can give three reasons to why I promote entrepreneurship to young people. Firstly, I hope to inspire my students to make a difference not in my life, but in their own lives. While I was growing up here in Singapore, I saw a lot of my ex-classmates all become victims of the social engineering process that led to their disillusion to life. Most of them have accepted the social contract in our country and preferred that it would be their norm for the rest of their lives. Some of them has even forgotten what they once aspired to be. Second, I believe that we are living in a different world from the one which our parents lived in. The dogmas of the past are inadequate to the stormy present. The market forces induced by globalization has changed the dynamics of how our economy works today as compare to the last three decades. To do that, we need to break the mould that we can create our own opportunities rather than letting our livelihoods to be decided by the downturn of business markets. Lastly, I am just an adventurer in a way. I like to throw my mind into solving problems in an area which I have no knowledge of. When I finished my Ph.D studies, I never thought that I have become an expert of a subject, but rather I have gained the tools of acquiring knowledge that allow me to move around various areas. To be entrepreneurial is to be able to use different ideas to solve a problem that is present in our daily lives. The best part of entrepreneurship which I enjoy, is to have a team who stick through thick and thin and get the job done. That is the part which I am addicted to, is the opportunity to work and synergize with different people to come up with an idea that can make a difference.

For those who have been following our blogs, it will be great to hear from you what is the thing that got you into the entrepreneurial adventure. Our stories are different but our paths are convergent.

Have a good weekend.

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