Dear Singaporeans, stop complaining, step up, and take action

Singaporean entrepreneurs of my generation and younger often complain that they’ve missed the boat. 

1. First, we were too young when the dot com boom with Yahoo and eBay happened
2. We had no capital (for we just graduated) when the property market boomed
3. We had no expertise when the web 2.0 boom of Facebook, YouTube happened

And even with a second technological boom with new waves of technology coming in…

• Virtual and augmented reality
• Artificial intelligence
• The internet of things
• 3D printing and many many more…

And the Singapore government doing its part to inject funds, build a culture and even provide a platform for anyone to launch his/her idea into reality.

What do most of us do, instead of grabbing the opportunity? 

We complain.

• We complain we are too old now to take such a risk.
• We complain we are too busy as we have a 9-6 job.
• We complain we are too inexperienced to compete with the Americans.
• We complain that it’s too difficult to switch careers at this age.
• We complain [insert any other lousy excuse here] to take advantage of this opportunity.

ALAMAK! How you want the Singapore government to help you?

But here’s what’s funny.

I was in those exact same shoes many years ago. I was making tons of complaints as well.

I complained that I missed the boat, and it was too late.

I complained that I had no money to start a business.

I complained how ‘inadequate’ the Singapore education system was in empowering anyone to start a business.

But I quickly realized that no matter how much I ranted, it did little to improve my situation.

That was when a mentor of mine told me, 

“Joel, you need to switch your mindset from employee to entrepreneur.”

That was when it dawned upon me that I could continue ranting, blame others and never once reflect on my actions.

And that was when I took my first step in the right direction. 

Long story short.