I’m 100% agree with you that the passion of really like and have passion of what people like as strong foundation of starting up business with passion is lack in Singapore.
There are somehow everything related with money that become superstar news in Singapore, whereby people mind just flooding with money issues bcos somehow Singapore Government encourage all the money related things.
I know money is most important but if it become something like God people tend to disobey the strong principal of having the right talent, the right passion, the right time, network, and so on and so forth.
And when everything started only as ‘money’ oriented, then sure it doomed to fail because when everything become very grief in the middle of running the business of the business may not in that level of profits expected then people will just give up bcos their main motivation is money and when money is not there they just give up, on the contrary when the main motivation is to do what they like to do , to do what they passion about then no matter of what things going on, even if need to sleep on the road people will just give it their 100%, and eventually this kind of attitude is the one who can survive in the long term basis, and automatically also the one that can create greater value of service, value of products and etc bcos it is not being overlook on ‘money’ only, but merely on having the passion of creating those such service / product and to keep improve it until become great satisfaction of life contribution.

i’m sure one day it can be done in singapore as I saw the good thing that happened in Singapore they are thirsty with learning and improvement, so if this is still lack in singapore, one day people who really type of the ‘actioner’ the moment read this email will start to get action without any doubts to live their passion and dream without any worry about those money freakin scarcity…

all the best..

Unfortunately in Singapore, there are a lot of nice inventions but still awaiting to find a right market for commercialisation. The main problem is that the inventions are results of pure scentific research and await someone to find practical uses to them, and most of the time this would take a long time especially if the invention is highly disruptive that it would probably take years for the market to be developed. Why not start from the angle of an unfulfilled need, then there is an immediate market to test one’s invention and giving it its acceptance or rejection.

As what Claris mentioned, just like friendster or facebook, it started as a service that is there to meet an unfulfilled need, and not because its something that will make money from day one.

In fact, the future of Singapore seems uncertain. It look like if anything makes money, anything will go.

I still recall the realistic society of Singapore especially in sport, where instead of encouraging ppl to give their best in sport, the sport council simply axe off sport that does not bring return, success and glory to the country. In other words, only sports that “sure to win” will be put into spotlight.

I believe entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship will flourish if the society is less worry about sustaining rice bowl and fear of job loss.

Successful Silicon valley stories have also taught us that innovator doesn’t put profit first, they put their dream first. It is the dream that make us do the impossible not money. Innovator will take enormous risk for dream but never for money.

After reading up a lot of successful startup stories like digg, facebook, friendster and many startups. These ppl just do something that they like and not expecting any return in the beginning. It’s just that passion drive them to achieve greater achievement.

I think a related issue why Singaporeans are reluctant to be technologists is the lack (or perceived lack) of jobs in local industry for phds. The phd-non-academic career option is one that needs a higher profile, with people realising it’s a worldwide market they are gaining access to.

The other issue is critical mass, which you alluded to. We need to get people who have pursued the geek track overseas to do some work back home. Likewise, foreigners resident in Singapore should be encouraged to startup here.

On a separate note, I attest to the advantage of a business-minded phd advisor. In particular, I suggest middle-level faculty, whose experience might be more relevant and who has more time to pass them on.

Maybe doing technology is hard because either it work or it don’t. In business environment, everyone could “bullshit” their way in business and still come out as winner especially if they are eloquent or “in power”. But if doing technology, there really don’t have that kind of “luxury”. Technology either work or it don’t, and no way one can BS about it. As a result, doing technology incur higher risk, and possibly, high failure rate, and uncertainty. Could this be the reason most simply doesn’t want to do technology work ??? Besides, doing technology is hardwork and quite a solitary work. In business, one really spend time building relationships and deal, and spend time “entertaining” client.

Most choose to deal with business because it offer greater opportunity for networking and relationship building and thus provides greater opportunity for job prospects.

Besides, our society also tend to reward business people. In newspaper, one often see successful business-man possessing large amount of asset and wealth, and nominate awards for successful entrepreneur who more business-focus but less hand-on on technolgoy. We don’t often see technologist or geek been recognized or even reward in corporate workplace. The business-man has all the glory. It is sad sight to see that most technologist eventually become business-man once they realized that doing business is more lucrative and rewarding than doing technology work.

In order to improve the situation, it will be much better if the society start recognizing geek/technologist for innovation and invention and put them into spotlight, rather than focusing on the success of business-man.