"Can't believe you are at that big shot event"

Verbatim quote from M, as I sent her a picture of me in Davos attending the World Economic Forum. Guess she knows a thing or two about this global gathering of elites. Yes, it's a talkfest. Yes, it can be a bonfire of vanities. But there is no doubt important ideas are being shared... and the delegates I hope are doing as much listening as they are talking and therefore formulating even more holistic solutions to the problems of the world today.

The theme this year is "shaping a common future of our fractured world". Indeed from income inequality, gender disparities, racism, nationalism, there are many fault lines and these have to be addressed.

This entry, though, is not about improving the state of the world. I have written about that elsewhere. This is more about what M so startlingly observed.

Though she knows what job I do, overhears the conference calls I have with my staff, and accompany me on privileged access to institutions like the Rhodes Trust in Oxford, she has yet to calibrate me to this level of world elite a-la Davos.

It gave me pause to reflect on how I got here. For a start, I was here 22 years ago, courtesy of an EDB officer who had to leave early and loaned D and I his apartment and his pass. Security was less tight then and with his pass, I was able to wander into the congress centre and bumped into the Palestinian Yasser Arafat (and was duly frisked by his security guard). In fact in that meeting, Arafat shared the stage with his Israel counterpart Shimon Peres in a session that truly inspired the world. But I was merely a spectator then. I had no part in understanding what happened, let alone making it happen. So, not one of them.

This year I am one of them. In fact there is still no peace between Palestine and Israel. The two leaders are now gone, Peres being tragically assassinated. The world is still fractured. The most exciting person I have met so far is Will.I.Am from Black Eyed Peas! 

But I am hoping to add my voice to those here on finding a solution. How did I get my voice heard so?

When I first moved to Singapore, for my studies back in 1985, the Singapore dream was a materialistic one. Goh Chok Tong called it the 5 C's: cash, card, condo, car and club. Attaining all of these meant one has arrived. The good life, Singapore style.

How did I get here?

Yes, I got the 5 C's. But more importantly, it's what I used to get here. Another 5 C's: competence, communication, confidence, commitment and carpe diem. In fact, if one possesses these 5 C's, any outcome is attainable, including being a big shot.

Competence... result of both god's grace and made real with effort

Communication... one's competence however will not be known if it is not properly communicated, verbally, in writing and in action; and in all it's guises (ranging from persuasion to inspiration to compulsion)

Commitment... what really adds power to the above combination of competence and communication is the ability to deeply commit to seeing something to fruition. It completes the loop and let's everyone know you live up to your word and your potential.

Confidence... the complete loop above produces this magical elixir of success. Nothing is as heady as knowing one can dream it and do it. When infused with this, one can take on anything.

Carpe diem... finally, one can always be helped with a bit of Lady Luck. Sometimes events transpire to place us in a position to show our competence, our communication, our commitment, our confidence. Seize it. Fully. Put all previous C's on display.

That's how I got here. And now you know. My wish is for M who uttered this profound statement to similarly imbibe these 5 C's and fulfill her own dreams.

Utopia 2.0

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them”, so said the great bard, William Shakespeare.

 

In today’s liberal world, it is increasingly difficult to claim greatness as a birthright. Even those born into political or business families cannot claim an inalienable right to be the heir.

 

Greatness is a state that one has to strive for. It requires a rare combination of intellect, ambition, determination. To achieve greatness, one needs ideas, and to believe deeply that these can change the world for the better, and then have the skill and will to convince others to make the change happen.

 

Over the year end period, we had our annual family vacation. This time in South England where we saw for the first time the Stonehenge. Stonehenge’s purpose remain a mystery today. It was truly an engineering feat and the monumental effort to construct it must signify its importance. Like many iconic buildings in the world today, Stonehenge in the ancient world (and in the modern too) must have impressed all who saw it and endowed on its owners/managers a sense of the extraordinary. This in turn must have given these owners/managers an additional store of political capital to lead.

 

Photo Credit: Chris Grayling

But then how did they lead? Did their society flourish (economically, socially, culturally)?

 

Throughout the trip, J shared his idea for a Utopian society founded on the good of mankind that lived beyond the material and economic dictates. I had the same notions (though much more undeveloped than his) when I was a teenager who had just left Malacca to Singapore and dreaming on bigger things to come.

 

As time passed, I became less idealistic. Like many other dreamers, I have succumbed to the pattern so eloquently expressed by David Lloyd George, “a young man who isn’t a socialist hasn’t got a heart; an old man who is a socialist hasn’t got a head”.

 

Then again, I lived through the most peaceful times the world (esp. in my part) has known for centuries. More people (in relative and of course absolute terms) have been brought out of poverty and into better health than ever before. The standard of living everywhere is higher where a rural villager in Borneo has access to water and power better than a Londoner in the 15^th century.

 

However, times are changing. Populations are declining. Age expectancy is rising. Technology is winning. Jobs are losing. Skill requirements are changing. Education is waning.

 

J is right. It is time to reinvent the state, and I wish him all the best in doing so. I only ask that he does this with an openness to other ideas, to develop his thoughts comprehensively so others may understand and then to use the right combination of charm, logic and argument to make them believe and then to act.