I was pleasantly surprised to see a good turnout for the talk on entrepreneurship today.
Normally such talk only generated around 8 to 10 participants but this time round, 18 people in transition turned up and it was good that we have a big place to accommodate the good turnout.
Perhaps it could be the topic – entrepreneurship that attracted the highest turnout that we have since Transitioning began it’s activities way back in Feb 09. It could also be that many were there to support me as I will be returning to Sydney this Sunday for a good long three months. For whatever reasons that people turned up for the talk, I was very motivated and happy. Many are already friends with me during this period of transitioning and seeing them coming together to support one another this time round was indeed the highlight of my voluntary work with the society.
We invited two speakers – Mr Marcus Woo – a one-month old battery charger entrepreneur and Mr Ocean Tang – a two-year-old solar aircon businessman who incidentally was also my neigbour when I stayed in Tampines, to share about their business experiences. Marcus was also featured in the BBC and Sunday Times sharing his career and business experiences with them.
Both shared their expertise off the cuff and we could see that it was emotive and personal.
Mr Marcus Woo
Marcus talked about how he failed in his first business venture selling laptop and PCs at Sim Lim Square and later moved on to work for other people to recoup and recharge. Now, many years later, he is on the go again for another adventure of his life. He also shared how he went to China to buy the charger and how he will market his services to insititutions. “Do not expect to have a salary for the next three to four months when you start off your business,” he warned us.
Mr Ocean Tang is mroe philosophical in his sharing and used alot of his experiences to speak to us about his business venture. Having failed once also, he went back to work but his entrepreneurial bug never deserted him and two years ago, he took the plunge to go into his solar aircon business with another partner.
Mr Ocean Tang
He also spoke about multiple stream income and advised budding entrepreneurs to start off with passion and the right motivation. “If you are passionate about your business, you tend not to give up easily despite roadblocks ahead of you,” he qulped.
Mr Tang is concerned about the environment also and his business is one of the ways he wished to contribute to an environment-friendly world.
A few others came and shared their views on entrepreneurship – Alvin – a recruiter, David – business consultant and June – mysterious shopper and educational consultant.
We ended the session with a lunch downstairs and the discussion continued as we lunched four to a table at the foodcourt.
Transitioning hopes that out of such talk and discussions, some will really take the plunge and go into business. Many are already in our sunset years of employment and short of good serious networking, many will have difficulty getting back into fruitful employment.
By taking calculated risk and doing something that we are familiar with, hopefully, some of us will emerge successful and in future share with us your experiences on starting your own business.
Singaporeans, I feel, are too risk adverse and static in their job search. Besides working for people, many are stucked when it comes to examining their skills set and creating value out of what they have store up within themselves all these years.
I hope that there will be at least one or two, after attended the talk today, who will dare to step out of their comfort zone and do something about their situation having transit for the past few months.
I am sure that others here will support you all the way.
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