Self-Challenge: 10-minute Post

I think Premier Wen is lodging at the Four Seasons Park Hotel. I was on my way home from a bookstore when my bus stopped at Orchard Road for more than 10 minutes, and even when the lights turned green the bus could not move an inch forward with two policemen blocking the flow of traffic on the road. An entourage of posh cars, vans and police bikers appeared from another road at the junction and it stopped right outside the Hotel. No bigger shot than Premier Wen has arrived in Singapore this week, so it must be him lah. I have decided to break my life of seclusion to work in China. Wonder if he has any lobangs for me.

Hogzilla and I were discussing Chinese history a week ago. I told him that Liu Bang succeeded because he had Zhang Liang and Han Xin, and Liu Bei failed because he only had Zhuge Liang. Therefore, what I meant was that a successful CEO or anyone else needed to possess someone who can devise the strategies and another person who can execute them. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Ma Chao, Wei Yan and others CMI lah. Liu Bang himself had said that he could not govern as well as Xiao He, plot as well as Zhang Liang, or manage as well as Han Xin, but he was best at selecting them and realizing their full potentials. Moral of the story? Be a general of generals, not a general of armies!

There is a problem with the education system and the workforce. Most of us are studying to get a better job, better pay, better life etc. Education has become a platform on which we can value-add and "sell" ourselves to employers, who will determine our worth by the salaries that they are willing to pay us. That's awfully disgusting. And in the years ahead, I can foresee some silly competition between individuals such as earning the fattest paychecks, buying bigger houses and posher (or poser) cars, and getting promotions even if it means displaying your soccer skills on the corporate ladder, kicking asses and not balls. To quote Kiyosaki, we should make money work for us, not the other way round. Of course, I guess this is subject to the availability of capital. Whatever the case is, we should think big and achieve greater things.

A survey was done many years back to study the aspirations of children in developed countries, and it reflected that children in the USA and Europe often responded with answers such as "I want to become an astronaut!" or "I wish to become the President!", but what Singaporean children offered were "I want to become rich!" or "I hope to own big cars and houses!" See the contrast? I don't know if there are any cultural attributes to this phenomenon. If there ain't any, then it is worrying, well at least to me. Bold ambitions maybe, but no bold dreams.