Q&A with co-founder of FUNMUN, Joshua Wong
Read about FUNMUN in the August issue of Spark.
3 July 2014
Bryan Kwa interviews Joshua Wong, co-founder of FUNMUN (Fundamental Model United Nations).
FUNMUN is a MUN NGO that seeks to redefine MUN such that it is primarily for education.
What triggered you to start FUNMUN?
When I was chair of the ICJ for SMUN 2013, I once entertained an international delegate named Attul of Hyderabad. He told me an incredible story of how a group of 50 die-hards kids that came together every month for a weekend to debate a topic. A MUN NGO called “MUN Café Hyderabad” provides all the resources and organization, while at the end of each weekend they will elect the next chairs who will finish up the study guide in 3 weeks. In such a way, they clocked up 40 conferences by the time they finished secondary school. I was really touched by that story. These are kids who genuinely MUN for debate skills, for global awareness and for education. Why on earth do we need to go through so much trouble to MUN in Singapore? In that moment, I felt that if we are serious when we say that MUN teaches us more about the world and ourselves, we need to think of other variations of MUN.
Share with me the whole process behind FUNMUN, from conceptualization to execution.
Execution wise, I went to Ali and I was like, “Ali, I’m going to leave but you know, YOLO, let’s do this. As long as you are here in Singapore to anchor this down and I don’t feel much pressure helping to contribute from overseas. I’ll bring back what I learn, we’ll redefine what is the idea of MUN in Singapore.” Then we looked up how we conceptualize it is we thought – ok so what are our first principles? We want MUN to be accessible. We want it to be as inclusive to everyone as possible. We don’t want to have a time-barrier. We don’t want to have financial barrier. Make it over the weekends. Have it cost only 9 bucks – that was our unique selling point; single digit delegation fee. Then we decide, ok, we just want to make it less formal, we want to strip it all the bullshit, all the fluff, all the pomp, and focus on the things that really matter – which is academic debate quality. So after that, once we conceptualize a general proposal, and after affirming that we’re going to remain independent because no school will be willing to let it be so sparse, even though SIM is willing to sponsor us. We basically reached out to all our contacts. Who wants to be in on the project? We got two people from SIM about to graduate, they say, “we’ll be happy to help out in the organizing team.” It’s not much. Three people in the organizing team is kind of overkill already. Then we got some very good people. The head of NUS High MUN club, or one of the heads, his name is Russell. We got the head of MI, his name is Christopher Davies. We got the soon-to-be head of Ngee Ann Poly, recommended by Clarence, her name is Pei Qin. We got Kun Siang, who is Chris’ friend – did vey well in SMUN. Then we came together and decide, “Ok, let’s do this.” That was the initial eight. And the beauty of it is that it represents the breath of the Singapore MUN circuit. You can go check it out on the website.
I’m the person who conceptualizes all the crazy things, in the sense I’m the Chief Technical Officer of the thing, in the MUN sense. And the person who executes it or promotes it and pitches it is Ali, who will be the CEO. He helps settle all the logistical stuff. I help settle all the academic stuff.
SIM is supportive of it because it’s one of the things that really attracts a very wide variety of people from across the Singaporean circuit, it puts SIM on the map and continues on the success of the discourse from SMUN and SMP 2013
How do you feel now after completing two rounds of FUNMUN?
Very drained. Very satisfied. We definitely made our mark. We have been drawing strong reactions from certain elements in the MUN circuit. We have heard comments, such as how we are unofficial, we are not backed by any school, hence we do not have good debate quality. The best one I heard from an unnamed source that no MUN that cheap can ever be so good. My response to that is you just show us your budget, justify every single item on the budget. At least for us, we know what’s important for debate quality: food, placards and gavels. Please justify your fees to the opening speaker to give him a plaque in gratitude. Please justify booking spectacular conference venues. How does it contribute to debate quality when people can have a good debate in a classroom, size of twenty?
Who is this person?
I can’t say who this person is but if you are familiar with the MUN circuit, you should know that person.
Is it the organizer of SMUN (Singapore Model United Nations)?
I can’t say. SMUN – we’re very cool with them. I mean, I got the idea from SMUN. We really want them to really be the Singapore Model United Nations and although we operate on a very different model, we definitely want them to be the crowning jewel of the Singapore MUN circuit.
Did the person who made the comment actually experience FUNMUN himself?
Ah that’s the stupid thing. I don’t think they have ever stepped into FUNMUN. And I don’t think they have listened to any reason to the contrary despite people telling them otherwise. The only conclusion one can draw is either they are stupid or they are basically they are not listening to logic; they got an ulterior motive. Because here’s my perspective – if you can have a MUN that has great debate quality and even better debate quality and make it cost only 10 bucks per day, what does it say about conferences that charge exorbitant rates. If we can say that we can operate on such tight margins and still be financially sustainable, and have excellent debate quality, what does it say about your model united nations. Does it justify the cost?
What are your plans for FUNMUN in the future?
Generally, take over the world. Nah, just kidding. Don’t put that down there, it’s so undiplomatic for MUN delegate.
We are centering our operation around three things. First of all, we have the conferences. Because the MUN circuit have been reacting to us. We notice that conference fees are becoming cheaper. We notice that people are stepping up with their own version of trainings. We realized that we needed to take two routes, there are a couple of routes we need to take, we need to find our niche, we couldn’t be as general as we started. At that time was basically anyone who believed that MUN was for education, that you could just MUN for fun and anyone could do it, we took them in. Now, it would seem that we are drifting towards the route in which we are at the cutting-edge of what is a model united nations and we can do that because we are independent of any institution and we are not burdened by huge financial costs or any imperative to make a lot of money. So we will probably start creating a lot of special committees. We will probably start examining how we can have new forms of structured dialogue to train people for different things. You want to be a diplomat? Come and do MUN. You want to become a lawyer? Go and learn basic mooting in the ICJ. You want to learn about public policy and work in the civil service? Join the model select committee. We are currently working through – is it possible to come up with a consultancy, finance professional service model in which we can train people to argue economically and think along those lines. Yet, at the same time, it must be remembered that we remember our roots, that we came up with this based on the idea that MUN is for everyone, that everyone can benefit from MUN, and that’s why we are trying to reach out to the secondary school circuit, to the JC circuit, to the Poly circuit or to whichever region that does not have a good MUN culture and telling them what is MUN and how we see it, sharing our vision. We invite them to come send in people if they don’t have enough to do weekly trainings at SIM. And once they achieve a critical mass, we tell them go back to your school, set up the program. Me and Ali are both presidents of our respective universities’ MUN societies. We know how to run a club and we will help you set it up, we will do incubation program in your schools. Right now, because we are not an official organization, even though there we are going to register soon, is there is no official partnership but we are very close on an informal basis to a lot of schools and for a lot of schools, we are the only source of MUN resource. So in summation, that’s how the overall strategy works but if I told you simply, we do three things: conferences, regular training for intermediate delegates and MUN incubation programs.
You said you are going to register FUNMUN as an NGO. Will it be non-for-profit?
You mentioned a consultancy. Is that part of the NGO?
I mentioned consultancy in the sense that you can train up people to think like a consultant. What is a consultant? A consultant is hired by a company to assess the company’s business model, assess how it can strategically pivot toward certain areas to basically generate more profit. So imagine a simulation where you have teams of delegates coming up together with a business plan. Let’s say there are multiple teams in the room, each of them representing a different company, each of them advises that company, they have to submit business plans on how to strategically pivot to survive in the competitive market and we will be able to come up based on our knowledge, based on our – like how we analyze the situation or we draw up the simulation and we say, “ok, if you take this strategic pivot, if you take these actions, what’s going to happen to your companies.” And it’s very exciting because it’s basically saying that we’ll take it from where MUN started with diplomacy. Can the idea of structured dialogue actually be used to train people in other areas? And yea, those are actually the skills you need if you apply for a consultancy. They will give you a case study – or like you know, in case competitions, they give you a case study, you work on it, you submit a business plan and you actually go and pitch it and convince people who are actual consultants that your plan is going to work. What we hope to do is to actually provide a more real-time and exciting simulation to that.
But that’s in the future, that’s just an idea in my head – it really depends on whether we can get our basic solid first and whether we can have the technical details in order to pull it off.
How do you see your role in developing a Singapore where citizens are more open and willing to discuss issues?
We don’t believe that MUN should be for MUN. MUN should actually be used for like – you know, we have the Singapore Model Parliament, and I’m a big fan of Singapore Model Parliament. But come on, even if it is free to the participants, but it costs roughly $300 per participants, if you consider renting out the Arts House and a swanky buffet and a reception to host the Guest-of-Honor. $300 per delegate, only once a year – why are we doing it? And have you ever considered the insanity of a 90 men committee? Hardly anyone will talk. Plus most of the people who are doing the talking are the ministers. So what are the backbenchers going to do? Chemistry homework? Not exactly the best way to teach people. The next logical step is – ok, it’s great to have our Singapore Model Parliament, it’s a simulation, the war of the best, but at the same time, the question that needs to be asked for the Singapore Model Parliament which also needs to be asked in Model United Nations is, “What is the point of the simulation? Is the simulation supposed to replicate existing structures? You tend to go by that line but if you take the ideas of MUN and structured dialogue for education seriously, we need to ask ourselves is there a way in which we can provide an optimum solution to train and develop delegates or parliamentarians, even though it might not necessarily replicate the united nations or the Singapore parliament.
So under FUNMUN, it is not all about MUN. There will be different kinds of debating styles, right?
Of course, of course! But most of us are MUNers by background, and our business model pivots. We don’t look forward to changing our name because FUNMUN is an awesome name and it’s a play on things. We seem like a joke. We seem like an informal rebel but it has a much deeper meaning into it. We have very deep and fundamentally sound values that drive us and we are very substantial, so that’s the impression we are going to give. And the other reason for having a name like FUNMUN is that no one will ever put in their certificate, “I attended FUNMUN, I got most delegate at FUNMUN.” Because people will go like, “Yea sure, whatever.” I mean, it kind of ensures that the right people will come down to FUNMUN, the kind of people that won’t do it just because they want something on their CV.
You mentioned a lot about structured dialogue. How important is structured dialogue? Is it something you see right now as unstructured or what?
It’s not about unstructured or structured dialogue. What we call structured dialogue is a broad term to cover a lot of different simulations or settings in which people articulate their views under the moderation of something or someone else. Structured dialogue can be considered the Singapore Model Parliament, it can be considered Model United Nations, it can be considered a mooting contest, it can even consist of Our Singapore Conversation (OSC) organized by REACH, it can also consist of the reconciliation conferences held in Yemen, that actually are not just for academic simulations but to get people to express views, to actually have a substantial impact upon society directly rather than just developing the youth for the future. And this is something which we believe is very powerful and that is really under-realized in not just the MUN circuit in Singapore but the rest of the world. And at least for me, I rather start in my country and set the precedence especially since we got a lot of good resources to be thankful for in Singapore.
How do you contribute to civil discourse in Singapore in general?
If we can partner up with REACH, it will be excellent.
The way we see it right, is that we are setting up a precedent. We are basically trashing the idea of what is MUN. It’s not just for international relations, it’s not just about academic events – it’s about structured dialogue. Structure dialogue can mean a bunch of things and that’s why even though we do MUN committees, we do other things. Then, at the same time, it’s setting the precedent and saying things can be done. Hey, you want to learn how to do a model select committee, come to us and we’ll teach you how to do it. And imagine this, you look at, there are about 18 MUN conferences – 19 if you consider the internal one done by United World College – imagine that rather than talking about international current affairs, you talk about local current affairs. That’s an opportunity to educate a wide big swath of Singaporean youth. And when you go through a MUN setting, it’s not just about being able to articulate your views, it’s about being able to defend them, it’s about having a more clearer and specific idea, to be able to distinguish and argue distinctly, rather than just settle for slogans and ideologies. If we can educate and equip a good proportion of the next generation, we will be able to consider policy better, we are able to be better voters, we will be able to push for better discourse in society, and that will give us good grounds to be able to survive and prosper as a nation. The economics, I say we have been getting right so far. What is needed is the non-economics side and structured discourse is definitely one of them. We know how to make money. Now it’s the question on how we are going to share and how we are going to continue the ideology, continue the thought process, the ideals, the perspective, the sense of balance and peace through the next generation, such that we are always able to resolve the internal contradictions in our society.
What do you see is lacking in Singapore?
One of it is structured discourse.
Personally, what I feel is lacking in Singapore? This view does not come from the best person because I recognize I am born from a relatively privileged life. What I feel that Singaporeans need to be is to gain a sense of empowerment, to not depend on the government for everything, even if the government is so pervasive. To be able to take the initiative to step forward, to be able to know that even if they might not be the brightest, the smartest, even if they are not born into the most fortunate of circumstances, that they can go out there and they can make it. We as a nation are in a very economically competitive region – in football terms, that will be the group of death – if we are to prosper as a nation, we need to be able to make use of every single one of our talent and at least for me, given that I told you we do in MUN, what defines a good delegate is that even if he gets some random country, they able to say, “I don’t care about what the secretariat, about what life and chance has allocate me, I’m going to get out there, I’m going to mark my damn mark.” It’s that kind of mentality that is needed as a nation. That I don’t care what life has given to me, I don’t care that the other guy is from some elite school or comes from a richer family, I am hungry, I will make my mark, I will not bitch, I will get out there and make my own damn mark in the world regardless of what everyone tells me. That is the kind of quality that makes a very strong nation. That is the kind of quality that puts our citizens above – to be economically successful, to be able to survive in such a competitive place. Singapore was not given a choice where we are, we have a set of difficult circumstances, even if we are advantageous in certain areas, and we need to make the best out of it.
How do you know you are making a difference with FUNMUN?
In the macro circuit, I don’t think we can see the difference yet. It’s too early. The difference I see are the people who continuously sign up for FUNMUN, the people who come up to me and say, “That’s a brilliant idea!” the people who I generally see that are taking charge of their own lives. I do weekly trainings. I’m in charge of the weekly trainings. I see people, like a community forming. A community that is not divided by school, a community of people who want to learn to develop as better people and slowly and surely finding confidence in themselves and getting that hunger, that hunger to go out there and hustle to go out and basically say “F*ck you!” to anyone who says otherwise, “I will mark my own damn mark on the world.”
You conduct weekly trainings, right? What is the profile of those people whom you train?
At the moment, we are training JC 1 or poly 1 and 2. We got a couple of university students dropping in from time to time. We definitely hope to expand to secondary schools and universities. The demographics are basically such but they come from the breath of the Singapore MUN circuit and at least for me because this was started around my first FUNMUN committee, the thing which I got from them is that these are the people who do not get the opportunity to MUN as often and they are not your typical conception of a MUNer. They are the people who don’t get to MUN because they are not from the humanities programs. They are people who did not come from an elite JC or even a JC. They are just here to find people with a common interest to do this thing and that’s why they come. And generally we have been making very good progress.
Share with me your experience as a MUNer. How did you get involved in debates and MUN?
I was a lousy debater. I didn’t feel that I made any substantial progress as a debater until I left JC even though I started from sec 1. ACS international back then, not a very good place to develop as a debater – very fractured education. MUNer? I wasn’t even in my school’s EXCO, to be honest. I was in a MUN club but the most I can say was, I wasn’t a very suave delegate, I was a very substantive delegate but I never got best delegate or honourable mention because I wasn’t very strong stylistically. All I can say is that I co-ordinated a resolution that got zero votes against in the general assembly, which means in a room of 400 people, no one voted against my resolution. So that was a particularly proud moment. But honestly, nothing stellar. It’s only when I went to LSE that I could debate on a regular basis with people of good quality who I’m able to feed off and inspire each other that I actually started winning sh*t.
I attended SMUN but I didn’t win anything. I was the chair in the ICJ. I help organise SMUN. I took charge of the special committee. I basically had to mug law because the original people who were supposed to be my heads, they didn’t turn up so I was the youngest special committee head chair in the history of Singapore Model United Nations. This was in SMUN 2013. That was fun.
So yea, I don’t think I’m a good delegate or the best delegate – especially if you consider how long I have been at it. But I do know how to craft a good committee, a good simulation.
I don’t have the natural talent. I’m aware of the years of effort I had to put in to be who I am today and that gives me a sense of perspective. I also know that how a committee can constraint and also empower you.
You bastards are very lucky to be a delegate at JC 1 or poly 1. Right now, the circuit is booming, I tell you. My time, you could count the amount of MUNs that you can go to in Singapore on one hand. Now you can’t even count them if you use all your hands and feet.
Best delegate in the Security Council at UCLMUN (University College London Model United Nations). Quite proud moment for me because that was like the biggest MUN for the city of London, excluding LIMUN (London International Model United Nations) which is for the entire Europe. Yea, the biggest, most prestigious MUN in the whole of London. There’s LSEMUN (London School of Economics Model United Nations) but it doesn’t count, as it’s a specialist conference. And yea, the best committee, like out of that committee of 15, we had 7 people who were presidents of their MUN societies, in that committee and it was quite a crazy, crazy war. And it was quite a miracle I come out top. That was my first ever award after 13 MUNs. Quite nice. A formal award. It was quite nice to get validated. And yea, those were crazy guys. I mean, at least half of the committee was double digit MUNers – 10 MUNs and above. The guy, the record was 25 conferences.
What other causes are you involved in? Tell me more.
I’m in the Singapore Society. It’s an event overseas, in LSE. Generally represent the Singapore community. Generally be student council for the Singaporeans, I guess. And also help out with my school’s alumni society and groups. You can say my two core competencies, one is MUN, the other is community building, I guess – which is very relevant to FUNMUN as well or like any other organization.
How has attending ACS International, and not a mainstream public school, shaped you to who you are today?
It taught me that you can’t rely much on people because the system isn’t as certain. You gain a lot of power. You get a lot of maturity. You are asked to take a lot more control over your life, which I did. And I really appreciate it for it. Because you have the opportunity to slack off, become a brat, if you take it to the extreme, and I was basically like, you know, I’m going to take this second chance in life to finally get to f*ck Chinese, mind as well use it to actually be epic. Yea, make my parents proud.
How would you describe yourself in a single adjective?
Based on my last card. Proactive?
What are your aspirations?
Work for the Singapore Government in the economic sector would be nice, but I am open to other ideas.
What are your inspirations?
Gandhi and Machiavelli. Kind of a weird combination but it can be reconciled.
Tell me more. How do you reconcile them?
Both man stuck by their views regardless of whether it is maintaining an eye of what is the ultimate moral good, which is the case for Machiavelli; it’s always about “for my city. No matter what action I do, it’s for my city.” Or Gandhi: “No matter what action I do, no matter what creativity I use, I know what is important to me – which is my morality.” So at least for me, Machiavelli is there to tell me to always serve my community and to always consider my actions with respect to serving my community. What Gandhi inspired me is constructiveness of asking for higher standards and having the creativity to actually prioritize having higher standards of morality in your politics.
There is a significant need in society and I seem to be the only one who can fulfill it.
Who or what is your greatest source of strength or encouragement?
My friends, family and the people I work with. Always.
What do you look forward to? Why? Tell me more.
Outsourcing my jobs. Ha ha! To be more precise, creating a “famunity” (family + community) whom I can be a part on, who share my values and are able to carry on without me. I guess you call me a Serial “famuntrepreneur”? Apologies to the English language.
What frustrates you the most?
The phrase “that is the way the world works”. Not necessarily always the case, but often that has been used habitually as an easy way out.
Helplessness. Things beyond my control despite everything I do.
When are the challenging moments for you?
Generally, the pace of life. Particular mention must be given to managing things at home while overseas. There are so many things that can be easily fixed via a face-to-face meeting.
If you were given a great deal of money and asked to splurge on yourself, what would you spend on?
Become a venture capitalist or consultant for social entrepreneurs.
That’s your definition of splurging on yourself?
It’s fun. That’s what brings me joy in life. Seeing great things happen. And if you think about it, social entrepreneurs work on a margin. I mean, I can be a venture capitalist but that’s probably going to do jack sh*t to people and there are going to be other people who are going to be willing to supply them money because they actually turn a profit. So I mind as well inspire a bunch of kids, tell them, show them how to take over the world, make them make a substantial change to people with minimum costing.
I mean, what am I suppose to do with it? Take a holiday? That’s the thing. To splurge it would to be, you know, diminishing returns and sh*t. I rather just enjoy life bit by bit like eating Swenens every week or Pepper Lunch. I don’t need to take a bloody holiday anywhere. The only thing I can think of spending a lot of money in one shot is actually do something that brings me a lot of joy like, you know, set up a venture capitalist firm. So yea, be a venture capitalist, bring joy to a lot of crazy people and tell them to reinvest in themselves. Basically, get all the social entrepreneurs to pitch at me, give them let’s say $500 start-up, tell them to take a very Gandhian approach, micro finance approach, make the most out of their buck, provide mentorship to them, free or pro bono consultancy to their entrepreneurship organization, watch a hundred flowers bloom.
Would you say you a very altruistic?
If it benefits society, why not?
Recall a major turning point in your life and how it affected you
My World of Warcraft Guild broke up. It was messy. It taught me the importance of good governance and leadership in a community, and that you cannot rely on the adults to look after you.
Tell me more about your World of Warcraft Guild.
It was quite simple. I am a person that really appreciates my community, that really appreciates a close-knit sense of family. I found a really good family on there. These guys, everything was well, we had fun. Who cares if I was a 13 years old Asian kid from Singapore and they were like 30. Got people from 16 to 30. But they started fighting over who get the best equipment, the overall strategic direction. It got so bad. The guild leader absconded with half the money in the guild’s financial reserves. The entire community fell apart. And during that period I was just being a 13-year-old kid, I was putting my head in the sand and saying, “No, no, this can’t be happening. Everyone’s nice. Come together guys, this is just a minor disagreement. Not going to take sides.” One day, the guild which I was very close to, not talking to each other, they weren’t friends anymore, the community was gone. It was then that I realized that I need to play a part. What I realize then was that I had a choice. Either I stick my head in the sand and not give a damn about everything or I give my best to be an active citizen in my community and to do my part to ensure that everyone doesn’t go to hell. And I might play a small part. But I will do my best. And that’s on a personal level.
On the macro level, you also learn about the importance of good governance. You see about how the old guild leader before he left, how he ran the guild, a mixture of personal leadership and also a matter of good policy. How he distribute equitably, how do you structure the guild program such that it does not burn out the guild, how he conducted the overall strategic direction of things. These are things you really respect. Good governance will ensure survival and prosperity of your community. Bad governance or the absence of good governance will let the community slide to hell.
You mentioned your guild’s financial reserves. Is that real money?
Describe what has given you most pleasure in the past year
Seeing through a PES E BMT “Clerk” Batch of Recruits as a BMT Sergeant. I was from PES E.
Tell me more about that experience. Do you see any relevance from that to your role now as a MUN trainer?
I sucked as a solider. I was unlucky as a solider. I got bad injury. I entered PES E with a torn hamstring. I wanted to make the most of my NS life. I really wanted to use this time off from pencil-pushing to really get into physical stuff which I really didn’t have time to do in school. I was unfortunate enough to get a second injury after I up PES but however, God knows why, still managed to pull through and graduate as a commander, despite everything. And despite the odds, I managed to come all the way back to PES E BMT. Now, among the BMT sergeants, each and every one of them wants to return to the place that gave birth to them, so to speak. In fact, every commander, like what inspires people to become commanders in a lot of times is their BMT sergeant. Officers – yes. But the sergeants are the ones that stay closer to the men. They don’t have to worry about admin sh*t and everything. They are there specifically to train. So each and every sergeant wishes to go back to the place that has birthed them, their BMT Coy, their company. And for the PES B sergeants, yea that’s possible. So it gets filtered out. So you got the people that go to command school, then after command school, they get posted to various vocations. If you want to go back to BMT, you need to be in the infantry. And among the infantry commanders, there will be some that goes to staff roles, unit roles, instructor roles, and some will go back to BMT. And then, even after coming to BMT, they will try to allocate you to your preferences but most of the time you don’t. You might or might not end up in your BMT Company, in the Company that birthed you. You can imagine the insanity of the process for clerks, for the clerks BMT batch. We are not even meant to go into combat, let alone command school. You need to up PES. You need to up PES in time, you need to go to command school and then the whole hellish process starts all over again. So it’s quite a miracle that I managed to do this despite all else. To be able to come back to my parent BMT company and tell them that, “Hey, it can be done and I challenge you to make the most out of your NS life.” It’s my great pride and pleasure to say that one of my recruits from my PES E BMT company is likely going to go back to become a PES E BMT sergeant. The chain continues.
Being a BMT sergeant helped me a lot in terms of teaching me about leadership, in terms of man management, in terms of raising morale. I felt it was really a very meaningful experience even though I did not excel in it or took great pleasure in it all the time but it was definitely a very meaningful and very productive experience.
In a sense, I guess I can apply the lessons I learnt in army in FUNMUN.
What was the best piece of advice you have ever received?
You are only as good as the people around you. Always try to inspire the people around me. Don’t tank everything by myself. Really try and bring everyone to go along with you. You don’t try and do everything by yourself. I feel that that allows you to gain a better perspective of things by knowing what you can and cannot do and also not to let yourself get killed.
This is actually quite a recent advice. I got a lot of advice in my life. But it really struck me at that time. I’m just telling one that particularly struck me. The story was that when I was in command school, I asked the leader sergeant major, one of my friends, he was not doing anything and I asked him, “Eh, you not doing anything ah?”
“No, no. I need to supervise everyone else. I need to keep myself reserved.”
And that really struck me, you see, because a leader is someone who is able to take a macro perspective of things, to be able to supervise things and, yes, he did step in strategically from time to time, give you advice, keep a very close eyes, keep you under watch, but he had a macro perspective and it was a very mark handy contrast of what I firmly believed was a leader at that time, which is always lead from the front, always get stuck in the most, always do the most. And I guess it can be reconcile in that you do the most but you make sure that you always keep a macro perspective of things, you don’t just charge ahead of everyone else.
Another advice I’ve received is about leadership. Run it like the mafia. Treat everyone like family. Be ruthless with standards. But if you must thrash their ideas, buy them lunch afterwards.
If your life were made into a movie, what would you omit?
The time I tore my hamstring.
What have you learnt from your biggest failure?
Manage your expectations of people.
Describe the ideal society that you desire.
An empathetic society willing to communicate with each other.
