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Because our men and women get hitched too young, and more!

March 31, 2007 by whysgentrepreneurssuck  
Filed under Contributors Corner

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Are Singaporeans getting hitched too young deterring entrepreneurship from happening in Singapore? Our resident contributor, whysgentrepreneurssuck, sets off an argument to explain why our males and females are reluctant to take the plunge as entrepreneurs, given their tendency to get hitched too early and their high adversity to risk.

contributed by whysgentrepreneurssuck

I read with much chagrin an article in today’s Today *plays canned laughter*, titled “Cupid just a click away”. Loh Chee Kong (cheekong@mediacorp.com.sg) reports on the spurt of startups that are trying to bear the mantle of SDU’s match-making efforts. Some 30 new services have sprouted up in the last 5 months alone:

  • iFoundaries “Who works around you?” – an online dating portal for white-collared singles. Think “Who lives near you?“. Secured S$141,000 in seed funding from SDU’s Partner Connection Fund. To be unveiled this July.
  • Singles Mingle – taking care of a couple’s needs from the first date till they say “I do” *another PORTAL – what a bore!*.
  • GoMovieDate.com – online match-making for blind dates at the movies! Mr. Matthew Tan (director) says, “Our website helps them to do sweet little things like send chocolates or flowers after the movie date.” *erm…how very thoughtful of GoMovieDate.com*
  • Lunch Actually – match-making through lunch dates. *interesting…maybe I should sign up myself*

I say chagrin, because I believe the success of entrepreneurship in S’pore can be partially attributed to the number of singles we have. Don’t get me wrong! I’m perfectly cool with entrepreneurs having boyfriends and girlfriends. It’s just that most Singaporean girls (or their parents) start getting fidgety if you don’t marry them before 30. You’re then expected to take up a housing loan and buy public housing, or if you happen to marry a rich one, move into a condo at the very least. After a pompous wedding attended by all your pals and relatives, you’ll find yourself happily married to the love of your life, and saddled with housing and car loans. You stare glumly at your seriously-depleted bank balance, silently curse the S’pore government for getting their CPF and public housing schemes right, and kiss your personal seed capital and startup dreams goodbye for the next 1 or 2 decades. Five years on, your house is filled with the joyful sound of children, and you decide to upgrade to a larger apartment and give your family a better life, chucking your startup dreams and aspirations out of the window for good.

Unless your significant other shares your dreams, it’s gonna be reaaaaaal hard to bite the bullet and bear the risks of starting your own business or work for a startup.

Don’t you think our Civil Service sends us conflicting signals? On one hand, we have the Ministry of Community Development and Sports dangling big fat carrots to encourage couples to have kids. On the other, countless nameless public servants in statutory boards such as EDB, Spring S’pore, IE S’pore, IDA and MDA work their asses off to promote entrepreneurship and our SMEs.

Wake up Singapore! You can’t always have your cake and eat it too!

p.s.: A simple solution would be for the government to import entrepreneurs from around the world, and stop trying to encourage entrepreneurship amongst Singaporeans. Singaporeans can continue in their 9-6 jobs and receive a comfortable paycheck from the government or MNCs while they have loads of fun making babies. Leave all that entrepreneurship bullsh*t to them foreign talents yeah?

But you and I know the likelihood of such a policy being adopted is as likely to happen as Chiam See Tong becoming Prime Minister of Singapore. Besides, I’ve yet to make my first million as an entrepreneur!

Bah.

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Comments

  • @Nicholas Chan
    Hi Nicholas,
    In point (2) of your comment, you are arguing about how whoworksaroundyou is superior to wholivesnearyou. I haven't checked out either one yet (how arcane of me?!). But after reading your comment, I sure as hell would prefer to go to wholivesnearyou than whoworksaroundyou. Why? Simple - its just too complicated. I don't need to know that it has 7-levels of checks and verifications. I don't need to hear all that hi-fi mumbo jumbo. It needs to be simple. To the point. Save me the technicalities! And I may not be the only one out there who thinks so.
  • 31MelbourneBoy
    whysgentrepreneurssuck: "A simple solution would be for the government to import entrepreneurs from around the world"

    We are being imported (well... importing ourselves :))
    The issue is that not many software entrepreneur's/vc's (in OZ & NZ) know of the SG tax/investment benefits (then again, not many of them would understand how to efficiently utilize tax treaties & _export_ their global income from OZ virtually tax free). Ironically, I only learn't of the SG tax/investment benefits during a recent visit to your country. Its not like my local accountants/lawyers are going to tell me (or even know) & lose my bizo is it! :). As educated as they are (or might like to think), they're hung up on SG being a dictatorship (which is kinda ironic given they've probably never visited SG themselves).

    Some of you should be glad that you can get hitched below 30yrs. That's something that is incredibly difficult down here. Also, once you start down the entrepreneurial track (as a single), its very difficult to find any time to date (let alone sleep), given we now live/work in a global market with a global timezones. Having said that, I have no doubt that a great wife can be very supportive, then again, where does one find a great wife???
  • Michael: I feel that we shouldn't put the blame on our parents when we don't succeed.

    For the less fortunate, there may be some truth in it but the fact that you are commenting on this blog should mean that you are learnt enough to judge for yourself if you want to take risks even if your parents disagree. All you need is the will power I'm sure before long, even you negative parents will buy into the idea.

    If one does not have the courage to start a business, admit it. Please don't shift the blame to you wife, parents, brother, uncles... etc...

    I assure you that there will always be disagreements or will always have nay-slayers, but the successful are able to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to those. Personally, these negative individual drives me on to prove that THEY ARE WRONG and not to whine at Confucius!
  • Micheal
    actually, I think it's more parental pressure

    true enough Singaporean girls want to get hitched pre 30, but that's not the real issue. If the girl assumes that she never has to earn a salary gain and the guy ahs to go out and earn that's an issue stemming from marriage

    actually it's the parents who mercilessly badger their kids into taking the safe route. they force them into rote learning in school, badger them into getting jobs ASAP and whine when they are not seeing grandkids.

    It's not an Asian thing, it's a Signaporean thing. i was having a chat with with a HK -based ang moh today who claimed that HK parents mercilessly badger their kids into starting business on the side while working.

    Singapore has a curious brand of morality that seems to eb a hybrid between western christian sensibilities and confucian respect for the opinion of elders which essenntialyl stops both old and young from ever takign risks

    when there is a change in government in SGP i.e. never then people might think different

    but for now, it is simply NOT ALLOWED to take a chance. You will do as you are told by your parents and that is that.

    there is no spirit of rebellion in singapore in either social, political or familial life. hence no-one is going to jump first. And as we all know, Singaporeans like being taken care of. Life's too easy taking the handouts, so why change?
  • lets get the stats.. by country..

    late (early) marriage vs entrepreneurship

    only then we could say..

    if not...
  • Great post! I write and manage the YoungEntrepreneur.com blog and made your post one of our Young Entrepreneur links of the day!

    Keep up the great work!

    Evan.
  • Cool beans, I love all these comments. Keep 'em coming!

    On a separate note, I'll be migrating to www.whysgentrepreneurssuck.com. That's quite a mouthful indeed heh.
  • david
    WhoWorksAroundYou.com, that's must be the longest name I found for a website locally.

    BabeAroundU.com may sound interesting.
  • DT
    Very true, guys entrepreneurship is not easy, and like what Justin, Colbalt, and a few other said, having a partner gives the moral support that is very hard to get.

    Actually single entreprenerers find it tough, after the made it of failed they have spend so much time with their work they forget to socialise. Actually dating agencys in Silicon Valley BIG business. BIG.
  • Hey wonderdoggy, you're a wonder! A husband and wife team is indeed very powerful, though not all are suited to be comrades in battle and lovers in bedroom concurrently.

    Entrepreneurship is no easy feat. It is so much easier to play the blame game and procrastinate than to start a business and assume all the risks (and hopefully rewards), and be ready to be slave to your new startup in the beginning phase as it slowly takes off.

    Having a supportive partner and spouse can be the best source of encouragement and vitamin an entrepreneur can ever have! And we're not talking about the husband venturing out alone. Nowadays, more husband are encouraging and supporting their wives to fulfill their dreams and to step up and step out.

    Wouldn't it be great if we have more of such couples in the near future?
  • As an official confirmation of the amount disbursed, I am providing a link to the news938.sg site (cached) as at 29/03/2007.
  • Hi everyone,

    I am Nicholas Chan, the spokesperson for WhoWorksAroundYou.com and the investment representative from Azione Capital Pte Ltd.

    I would like to clarify some of the facts:

    1.) WhoWorksAroundYou.com received only S$22,800, the lowest amount received of all the 4 projects funded; Eteract.com by Lunch Actually received S$49,800, while the other 2 projects received amounts in the S$30k bands. What has been said on both papers, TV and radio is that the total disbursement by SDU/MCYS is S$141k.

    2.) The concept of WhoWorksAroundYou is based on Location Based Services, with 7 levels of checks-and-verifications (ie. mobile, business address verification, NRIC check, "eyeball" confirmation), discreet user wants/needs analysis and profiling/matching capabilities, integrated web interface + mobile always-on capability, with an integrated web + mobile information system for partners (ie. yoga gyms, F&B outlets) and so on; this is not what who lives near you does. who lives near you focuses on listing people who are living in blocks in your vicinity, nothing more and only operates within Singapore.

    Wonderdoggy, it was nice to have met you and your wife in person at E27. I certainly do hope this clears the air on what WhoWorksAroundYou does and on what we hope to be of service to the singles community in Singapore and Asia in the near future. Being both the spokesperson and investor in WhoWorksAroundYou.com, I have complete confidence and belief in the approach and methodology in what the team of WhoWorksAroundYou has coined as "Dating-on-demand", and I would be more than glad to answer any other questions in my professional capacity.

    Nicholas Chan
    nicholas@azionecapital.com
  • My entrepreneurial spirit has led me to set up a website in my spare time. I think the climate for web development is still not strong despite its low start-up capital. Traditional business typically require a high capital to begin with.

    In a nutshell, businesses in Singapore find it hard to thrive because:

    1. Web businesses are difficult to market
    2. Traditional has high startup costs
    3. Singaporeans are paid well enough to not risk starting a business

    Hope i've made a decent contribution! [comment edited]
  • agree with cobalt. I find a good marriage actually helps an entrepreneur since you have 1 more strong reason not to fail. In addition, you have a source of mental and emotional support and most of all, marriage gives you a stability which singles tend to lack esp if they are still on the dating scene.

    And make no mistake, entrepreneurship is a long term journey, so stability matters a lot in terms of the entrepreneurs mindset.

    Myself, i started jobsfactory with my then girlfriend. Now we are a husband and wife team. Check out many firms, there are actually many successful husband and wife teams out there.

    So i think the idea of marriage conflicting with entrepreneurship drive has little merit. They are not conflicting and can be complementary.

    BTW, I think the SDU funding for the current round of portals will not result in anything really useful. Dating sites abound and so do social networking sites. Perhaps lunch actually will be able to integrate their online and offline efforts properly. But the wholivesnearyou copycat is quite a joke and they actually got the most $$....
  • Erm... I started my entrepreneur adventure after I got married with the full encouragement from my wife. Well, I wouldn't say it is a business decision like DT. :p If you found the right life-long partner, both of you will understand each other. Instead of restricting you, your partner will be your source of strength during the darkest hours. There's a saying, "Behind every successful man, there is a woman."

    I wanted to work on my venture part-time but she was the one who encouraged me to do it full-time. Who else do you trust more, your friends or your wife? Really, a marriage is indeed for times of 'better' and 'worse'. During a bad time, you'll suddenly realise many 'fair-weather' friends.

    Also, maybe because I'm married, I can concentrate on building my business instead of worrying about no time going on dates, worried about courtship etc.

    Really, taking the plunge of entrepreneurship has nothing to do with marrying early or later. All the reasons stated above in your entry are just considerations (aka excuses). You either do it or you don't. The decision is really yours.

    If you really want your venture work, be prepared to slog for years and years. Forget about the car, that's financial resources you and use in building your business. Take public transport. Forget about vacations. Forget about the good life. If you are willing to give up all these, then you are ready. Else, you'll just cook up excuses that stop you from making THE decision.

    Also, stop blaming the government. It is mypoic to blame the government. The government's role is to set policies. We are master of our own mind. The government's policies are just choices available to us. We make our own decisions. We decide what we want to do with our lives.

    We need to take responsibility for our own actions and INACTION. Don't blame the government but look in the mirror.
  • Agree with Justin. Now, that gives us a great startup idea for the community.

    "A dating portal for Entrepreneurs"

    - Revenue model : SDU funding.
  • Yeah DT has some good insights! Strategic marriages? I guess a lot of us are still starting out and we've got a lot to learn from you on how to handle marriage and business.

    But one thing we need to have is to have more young people being able to move out on their own. It's a very old fashioned and naive concept to think that keeping the family together in a nucleus family is the best for Singapore.

    Like the MP who pointed out the dumb HDB rule that elderly in Singapore can live together with complete strangers but not with their grandchildren. These kind of rules and concept should go away.

    Public Housing should be really about making homes more affordable for people and given the fact that there is a big influx of immigrants and prs and students, HDB should relook their mandate and maybe start building more studio flats?
  • I agree with DT. Marriage can work for entrepreneurs too.

    The issue is in finding a wife/husband that share the same aspirations. To find such a Singaporean is harder than finding a suitable co-founder.

    Its easy for kids at school to find co-founders, because they really need the collective intelligence/ignorance of their friends to even get the slightest chance to sniff success.

    To find a spouse that understands startups, is like trying to find two entrepreneurs in Singapore.
  • DT
    What you are kidding me right? People, let me tell you getting married is a business decision, and the best one I have ever made. Even the "richest man in babaylon" said to make money you need to get your home and life in order.

    Depleted after the wedding? Breakeven maybe, but never depleted, if so honestly that person ain't business savvy enough to be even considering to try entrepreneurership!

    Think about this one whole minute. Dual INCOME people...twice the amount of CPF for home loans, that being said, quitting now to start out is so much easier, especially if one partner is still working.

    Businesses succeed because of a team of people, or at least a partnership, and if you belief in that in your business, why not apply it to your personal life as well?
  • Yea.. why does the SG Govt try to fix everything that's broken! Maybe some things are meant to be broken and maybe some things would get fixed automatically...
    As a parent, you shouldn't run to pick up your kid every time he falls down... or else that kid may never learn how to pick himself up later on in life... (i hope that made sense :P)
    And for the SG Entrepreneurship scene... For now, I think the govt should take a more passive role in this. Instead of going out and pushing people to start companies, it should keep resources at hand and then wait for people to come running to grab it. If that doesn't happen, well... bad luck! It was never meant to.
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