Making a Difference: Speech at the NES Recruitment Event 2006

Last Saturday, the NUS Entrepreneurship Society held their recruitment drive for the new workyear. This year, they have started many new initiatives, other than their flagship project, the 8th Start-Up@Singapore (S@S), from alumni relations to their local and global outreach. I was asked to give a speech about entrepreneurial aspirations, and the title of the talk I gave was entitled: Making a Difference. Basically, I summarized my whole experience into ten lessons in my journey as an entrepreneur.

The truth for that matter, I did this whole talk three hours before the event. What I decided to do was to summarize my thoughts and aspirations into ten statements which have guided me across the journey as an entrepreneur. In retrospect, if I have to choose between being an entrepreneur and a facilitator of entrepreneurs (e.g. business plan competition organizer), I would choose the former. Being an entrepreneur is a challenge and it is something which I would still hope to do in the many years to come. I also thought of Der Shing’s earlier question about what aspirations an entrepreneur have.

As an entrepreneur, I aspire to make a difference in people’s lives. I have ambitions that if I fail, I would be laughed at by many others. Yet, that’s the beauty of being an entrepreneur. Even if you fail at the end of your life, you feel that you have lived a life worthwhile. A meaningful life is better than one which is decided by the people around you. So, here are the ten lessons which I feel is important for anyone who want to make a difference.

• Never Settle and Never Say Yes, Pursue what you love: If you live your life based on what people expect of you, it will be a difficult and tough one. I told the story behind how I broke through all barriers to go to Cambridge and study theoretical physics. Even though I achieve my dream, the road towards that was filled with sweat, blood and tears. No one did know that I spent every evening of my two and half years of national service, solving every physics problem in the first year undergraduate physics textbooks.
• Starting up is risky, hard and difficult: Yes, no one says that it is easy. To be the first and to be remembered for that legacy requires the individual to battle through ardous and difficult times. No one realizes that legends aren’t made by taking the easy way out. To start the business requires your ability to take risk and also the tenacity to take it to the end. If you fear failure, you should not start up, and as a famous academic in Singapore will tell you, “Go be a civil servant.” In entrepreneurship, you are allowed to fail honourably, i.e. you can do all that you can to get a startup working and fail because of external circumstances, and you won’t be condemned. However, if you lie, cheat and lose credibility, it’s the end of your entrepreneurial career.
• Don’t make a business, Make a Difference: I talk about passion. Till today, I still feel that passion is the most important ingredient to the secret of any person’s success. If you do not have a vision from the start, you will not reach the stars. Making money for the sake of making more money can be a goal, but it will not go further than someone who have the vision and passion.
• Never Trade Money, Always Trade Favours: That is one secret recipe that I use in my dealings with my clients, collaborators and fellow founders. If you do not think in a win-win manner, no one will work with you. Money can bring you short-term benefits, but favours can help you in the future, particularly in times of need. Of course, don’t actively try to get people to owe you favours. One should be sincere and honest in his or her dealings and not think of the rewards, otherwise, once your credibility is lost, no one would work with you.
• There is no right way, but you avoid the wrong paths:There is no right way or recipe to become a successful entrepreneur. Anyone who sell you statements for e.g., “We provide you the training and you will become Bill Gates in 10 years time”, is lying. To set up a company is a hard thing and it requires you to avoid the problems which other people have gone through, from managing people to avoid being swarmed by big companies using legal means. The art of entrepreneurship is about knowing all the mistakes and taking the path of least resistance to avoid them.
• If you can make people work for you without money, imagine….:If my students understand this mantra, they will realize that they have the best platform to learn how to be entrepreneurs. In a student enterprise, people work based on passion and volunteer their time for that passion. The unique selling point that distinguishes a good and bad student enterprise, is professionalism and accountability.
• Connecting the Dots: I took this from Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford commencement address. However, a few other entrepreneurs who I know also agreed that it is important to make connections in the things which you have experienced and turn it into something of value in your future.
• Organization above Ego, Be a Team Player: Don’t be a star player, be a team player. If you are a good team player, people will call you a star player. The best people are those who place their organization above their personal interests.
• Good Leaders manage small teams, but Great Leaders manage great teams: Yes, if you can lead a team of 10, you are just a good leader, but to lead 100 in a student enterprise, you might qualify to be a better leader. The real challenge for most people is to be great leaders that can lead 40000 employees.
• Contributing back to Society: It is always important to contribute back to society and I don’t mean just donation. Sometimes, it’s better to donate your time and help rather than money to help others in need. We have an obligation to society and it is important that we think about contributing back.

The presentation can be downloaded here as a mpeg movie. Hopefully, we will have a youtube version of the talk and some pictures in a few days time.

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