Our era seems to be a time of dire needs, woes, cares and ambitions. Browse the self-help corner of any bookshops, you will find advice on dating, controlling your rage, becoming the next Bill Gates and be as rich as Donald Trump.

As a typical child of a typical middle-income family, I am too plagued with  self-doubts and at the same time, of course, an ambition to change the world. I peruse numerous tomes of self-help books in my past, and recently it dawns on me that, in most cases, there are two type of self help books.

The first type is what I call change your mind techniques oriented self help - visualise your success! Stand tall and firm! Assert your power! Build a pipeline and have passive income. They are usually printed in bright colours on bold laminated papers, use big fonts when Arial 12 points will do, and feature famous stories repeated ad ad nauseum - the elephant who was trapped in the cage, the two classes of average kids and one class is told that they are Grade A students and so on and so forth. The premise is - change your mind, change your outlook and you are a winner!

One book which belongs to this genre is Feel the Fear, and Do it Anyway. The premise is to repeat to yourself again and again (of course, this is an unfair summary, but anymore said I may infringe copyright laws) “No matter what happened, I can cope with it.” While this works fine when you are deciding whether to bake your own Thanksgiving turkey or get one from the local NTU Fairprice, this advice fell flat if you are a manager or a leader responsible for the jobs, lives or maybe pension funds of thousands of people. Those who have been liberated from their own self doubts, fears just by changing their thinking and ‘visualising’ success for themselves can only lead themselves.

Those books usually propose motivation posters all over the place, listening to the tapes of successful people and keep repeating to myself “I’m good; I’m good; I’m good” and doing some visualisation. Well, if I crawl into a kennel and bark like a dog, it doesn’t turn me into an adorable Golden Retriever.

Worse still, such books, I deem, are harmful to introverts, which makes up 20% of the world’s population. Most of those books are written by…extroverts. (Sounds logical. Give me three years to do the research and I’ll present it at the next World’s Self Help Convention) . If you suspect yourself to be of an introvert disposition (a personality test helps), most of those advice sound baseless, or if you are forced through it, may even hurt or harm. Introverts are in touch with themselves; they know their flaws and strengths. They need personal space and long recharge time. Telling them to “fake it as if you are a successful man and plunge right straight into the meeting” is very likely to have very bad side effects. For introverts, I propose the book “The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World”, by Dr. Marti Olsen Laney. Extroverts, if you have introvert friends who you care about (like your SO), you better read that too.

The other thing about self help books is that there are so many types of personality out there - competitive, logical, those who are grounded onto the earth and skeptics etc. Mind renovation techniques have different effects for them all. Some will find what the books say natural; other will balk. No wonder the self help book industry is such a thriving industry.

Now, for the other type of self help books - they don’t just suggest writing down 10 goals like those Harvard students do  (havent we all know the importance of SMART goals?) or print bright comforting slogans (YOU ARE UNIQUE AND YOU ARE THE BEST) on brightly laminated pages. They demand you to learn discipline. For the heart is the wellspring of all thoughts. Your thoughts, while partly subject to chemicals, upbringing and genes, are also controllable. Those books demand you to subject yourself to a discipline of reflection, soul-searching, re-evaluating your life - asking you to become who you are supposed to be, not Donald Trump. Nope, I am not talking about the Bible, by the way - and it’s not New Age mumbo-jumbo.

What those books say is this “Changing yourself is hard. You have to go down to the root of it all - your values , habits and your beliefs. Repeating slogans only change the appearance. There are some universal principles in life that we all ought to know, to be disciplined and conditioned to follow and it is going to be difficult.”

You may not become Donald Trump this way, but at least you can find the real you, which may means a lot more to you and your friends and family.

Some examples? Try Today Matters, by John Maxwell. Then you’ll see that changing yourself is hard, life-long and a discipline. And if you need to change badly, find a therapist.

Tragically, this joke is not a joke in Singapore. The search is on for the next Prime Minister of Singapore. And from the sound of it, A-level grades are an important criterion:

ST April 2, 2008
PM still looking for his successor
It takes about three elections to groom a leader, so there’s no time to lose, he says
By Lydia Lim

THE Prime Minister faces an urgent task: Find and field those who can take over from him before he turns 70.

Already 56, Mr Lee Hsien Loong is seeking political talent in their 30s and early 40s, one of whom he hopes will emerge as his successor.

He has no time to lose as past experience indicates that it takes about three general elections to groom a leader.

This means those who contest the next polls, due by 2011, might be ready to lead only two elections after that.

By then, Mr Lee will be 69 years old.

‘That is very late. So there’s no time to be lost,’ he said in an interview with The Straits Times and Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao at the Istana yesterday.

…… Of concern to him is the outflow of top talent abroad.

He looked at recent data on the 600-odd students who score four As in their A levels each year.

About two-thirds pursue university degrees here, and one-third go overseas.

Of those who go overseas, at least 100 are not on scholarships. About half of these non-scholarship holders do not return but work abroad after they graduate.

In addition, another 100 of those who get their degrees here go overseas to work. They may come back one day but there is no guarantee.

‘This flow is going to continue,’ Mr Lee said.

‘So it’s a big challenge to find successors, particularly for politics.’

We learn that PM Lee Hsien Loong wants to groom his potential successor over a 15-year period. Possible candidates should now be in their 30s or early 40s - let’s say they are about 37 years old, on average. The actual successor would take office as PM around the year 2023.

Thus we may say that whether you become the Prime Minister of Singapore at the age of 51 depends on how well you scored in your A-levels, at the age of 17.

Farsightedness is a virtue. A neurotic obsession with academic grades is not.

In 2008, it would be somewhat insane to scrutinise Hillary Clinton’s or Barack Obama’s high school grades, as a basis for selecting the next presidential candidate.

And in my opinion, it would be just as insane to choose to groom a Prime Minister to take office in 2023, on the basis of the A-level grades he scored as a teenager, 34 years earlier, in 1989.

Now of course, PM Lee Hsien Loong will not use A-level grades as his sole selection criterion. But the fact that he uses A-level grades as a selection criterion at all is quite shocking.

In my opinion, A-level grades are just simply quite irrelevant. Even if you were the best A-level student in the whole of Singapore, this demonstrates nothing about your ability to lead a nation. And conversely, even if you flunked your Chemistry paper, this doesn’t mean that you can’t lead a nation.

The book is available in the Regional Libraries and also   http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/getTitle.cfm?SBNum=38840

http://philochristus.blogspot.com/2006/05/interview-with-mr-ngiam-tong-dow.html 

ask yourself…..while there be a singapore in 50 years time ?

Happened to come across this interview… what a wonderful breathe of fresh air…honest words from a civil servant. If I am not mistaken, Mr Ngiam is a Christian…and if this interview is anything to go by - an excellent Christian is he.

—————
Subject: Singapore ‘bigger than PAP’By Susan Long.

“SINCE Mr Ngiam Tong Dow retired from the civil service in 1999, affairs of state have weighed heavily on his mind. The highly respected former Permanent Secretary worries about Singapore’s long-term survival and the kind of society the next generation will inherit. At 66, the HDB Corp chairman insists he is ‘no radical’, just a concerned Singaporean with three grandchildren, who wonders ‘whether there will be a Singapore for them in 50 years’ time’. In Tea with Think, a weekly interview series, he gives a candid appraisal of the civil service, and his prognosis of what the lack of an alternative political leadership means for Singapore. The interview will be continued next week.

One of a handful of men who helped Lee Kuan Yew build today’s Singapore, the retired bureaucrat feels perturbed enough to speak his mind publicly. By Seah Chiang Nee
Oct 3, 2003

It was an unprecedented, frank interview (with The Sunday Times) that shook up many Singaporeans.

The interviewee was Ngiam Tong Dow one of Singapore’s most accomplished civil servants (for 40 years) - and the subjects covered included (excerpts):

Politics

Singapore will survive SM Lee (Kuan Yew) but provided he leaves the right legacy.

What sort of legacy he wants to leave is for him to say, but I, a blooming upstart, dare to suggest to him that we should open up politically and allow talent to be spread throughout our society so that an alternative leadership can emerge.

So far, the People’s Action Party’s tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service because it believes the way to retain political power forever is to have a monopoly on talent. But in my view, that’s a very short-term view.

It is the law of nature that all things must atrophy. Unless SM allows serious political challenges to emerge from the alternative elite out there, the incumbent elite will just coast along.

At the first sign of a grassroots revolt, they will probably collapse just like the incumbent Progressive Party to the left-wing PAP onslaught in the late 1950s.

I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP.

Government scholars

For Singapore to survive, we should release half our talent - our President and Overseas Merit scholars - to the private sector.

When ten scholars come home, five should turn to the right and join the public sector or the civil service; the other five should turn to the left and join the private sector.

These scholars should serve their bond to Singapore - not to the Government - by working in or for Singapore overseas. As matters stand, those who wish to strike out have to break their bonds, pay a financial penalty and worse, be condemned as quitters.

Economics

Take our industrial policy. At the beginning, it was the right thing for us to attract multinationals to Singapore.

For some years now, I’ve been trying to tell everybody: ‘Look, for God’s sake, grow our own timber.’ If we really want knowledge to be rooted in Singaporeans and based in Singapore, we have to support our SMEs.

I’m not a supporter of SMEs just for the sake of more SMEs but we must grow our own roots. Creative Technology’s Sim Wong Hoo is one and Hyflux’s Olivia Lum is another but that’s too few.

We have been flying on auto-pilot for too long. The MNCs have contributed a lot to Singapore but they are totally unsentimental people. The moment you’re uncompetitive, they just relocate.

Q. Why has this come about?
A. I suspect we have started to believe our own propaganda.
Civil Servants

There is also a particular brand of Singapore elite arrogance creeping in. Some civil servants behave like they have a mandate from the emperor. We think we are little Lee Kuan Yews.

SM Lee has earned his spurs, with his fine intellect and international standing. But even Lee Kuan Yew sometimes doesn’t behave like Lee Kuan Yew.

Littlespeck comment:-

Mr. Ngiam Tong Dow, 66, who retired from the civil service in 1999, is among a handful of permanent secretaries who had helped Mr. Lee shape today’s Singapore.

The others include JYM Pillai, Sim Kee Boon, Howe Yoon Chong and Philip Yeo.

His frank, straight-talk interview with The Sunday Times came as a surprise to most Singaporeans, young and old. It caused a ripple among readers who read it.

Apparently many had missed it, skipping it as just another establishment figure talking of his past life and former colleagues in passive, polite tones.

A lawyer and a former journalist now in public relations totally missed it and are now frantically seeking a copy of the report on Sept 28.

Currently chairman of HDB Corp, a privatised company, Chiam had been known to people in the civil service and old journalists as a quiet doer, rather than a high-profile public articulator of policies.

That was, of course, when he was in the civil service from 1959. In 1970 he came Singapore’s youngest permanent secretary.

Ngiam had shown his brilliance to people who worked with him - and of course to his political bosses. In public he had always maintained a silent profile.

That he has spoken out in this manner points to of several things.

Firstly, he must be perturbed enough by what is happening in Singapore, especially in the civil service, that he felt compelled to speak out.

Secondly, what he said confirms a freer political atmosphere in Singapore in which the authorities are encouraging people to speak out, even critically, as long as it is in Singapore’s interests.

A third point is his frank reference to Mr. Lee Kuan Yew as still the overriding authority in Singapore. All his suggestions are addressed to him, not Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Few Singaporeans possess his countrywide, historical perception of Singapore straggling three generations now mired in one of its worse economic crises.

It set off some discussions in the Internet chat-sites with some people wondering whether the government will take action against him.

Asked why was Singapore on auto-pilot for so long, Ngiam replied: “I suspect we have started to believe our own propaganda.”

What he said about government scholars, a freer political environment and allow some of the brightest to be used outside the government - and if necessary, serve as an alternative elite leadership was a total surprise.

Ngiam’s call to cut (by half) the number of scholars in the bureaucratic or political leadership, elitism in government and intellectual arrogance reflect what some critics have privately said.

But Ngiam, being an insider with longtime access to the policy-making process, is the first to have articulated his thoughts clearly.

As a lifelong civil servant, he is not allowed by law to join the ruling People’s Action Party, all these years the line separating them is hardly visible.

His most telling suggestion is for Lee to leave behind a “free politics” legacy by allowing talent to be spread throughout Singapore so that an alternative leadership can emerge.

Singapore is in the midst of a “remaking” exercise that will include restructuring its economy and loosening its political and social environment.

For a whole generation, thousands of parents are pushing their children towards scoring “A’s” in their O- and A-level exams to win a prestigious government scholarship.

(Some 1,400 “A” level students score distinctions in all four subjects, so commonplace a phenomenon that “A’s” in the tougher Special Papers are needed to qualify for overseas scholarships.)

This virtually guarantees them a top-level, high-paying bureaucratic job. The road is long, tense and arduous. Some parents dedicate their lives to help their children achieve it.

I know of someone whose son is in the gifted programme. The father, with a Master degree in Mathematics, takes leave from work whenever his son, in his lower primary classes, faces a year-end exam.

Asked why, he said he wanted him to gain a top political or civil service post through the scholarship trail. For him and his wife, it is a 20-year plan for the 7-year-old.

It is one in which many take but few succeed. Once there, there is no fear of being retrenched unlike thousands of other mortals when profits plunge.
By Seah Chiang Nee

Read http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/20/2196195.htm

Stressed Singapore hunts for happiest person

Posted Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:50pm AEDT

A search has been launched for the happiest person in Singapore, where a recent survey found that 90 per cent of its population feel that life is stressful.

The aptly named Philip Merry, chief executive of consulting firm Global Leadership Academy, is tasked with locating the cheery resident.

“Being based in Singapore and having trained thousands of people across the globe, one distinct trend I have noticed is that despite material wealth and economic success, Singaporeans consider themselves less happy than many other people,” said Mr Merry, who was given two weeks from last Sunday to complete his quest.

“Singaporeans fret about financial security and retirement. Many Singaporeans are concerned they do not have enough money to grow old gracefully, and that seems to make them unhappy.”

Despite its affluence, a poll by advertising firm Grey Group found that nine in 10 people living in the city-state said they were stressed.

Under the contest, citizens aged 18 years and above can be nominated for the title of Singapore’s Happiest Person 2008.

Mr Merry has asked nominators to explain in between 300 and 1,000 words why their nominee is a “model of happiness”.

The winner will stay for free at a beach club in the Thai resort island of Phuket.

The search is being held in conjunction with a conference on ‘The New Science of Happiness and Well-Being’, to be held in Singapore next month.

Almost 60 nominations have been received so far, Mr Merry says.

- AFP

Make what you will of the Old Testament but even if you just treat it as just another fictional book, there are some nuggets of life lessons it can teach us. So stuck somewhere near the end of the Old Testament is a book called Jeremiah, and in that chapter, terrible things happen to Israel; the Babylonian armies invaded the country, owned the Israelite army and looted everything. They also bring the elites of the country - priests, scribes, nobles and etc. to Babylon - into exile.

(Bear with me, history lesson will be over in just a short while). So at Babylon, the exiles began to long for the old way of life back at Jerusalem. They wanted to go back so badly that they began to believe in their religion again. And it was at this point, a number of so-called prophets spotted the market trend and the instant chance to be popular, and began to prophesy that “Don’t worry; A miracle will happen just like for us back in Egypt; if you can’t remember, go watch ‘The Prince of Egypt’!”.

(History lesson will end in this paragraph). So the exiles began to live the life of mundanes; they just live from day to day, live off the land and just, you know, slack. Why bother doing anything worthwhile when you may be going to be somewhere better soon. Remember, those were the elites from their homeland, living like leeches. Then one day, Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles. It basically said “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their products…seek the welfare of the city [Babylon]” — supposedly a command from their God.

In short - dudes, you are staying at Babylon in exile for a long, long time. Got off your ass and work. Where you are now is the best place to be.

Interestingly, in Singapore we are the opposite. We in Singapore are not exiled but we live like exiles. This is the place we hate, loathed and for guys, have to deal with NS and reservists. There is less freedom of speech, less welfare, less opportunities and etc. when compared with other countries. We wish to migrate; and ironically, it is always the elites of the country, those who are affluent, well-trained, talented, who sought to do so. Or even some of us, thinking that we could do nothing here, settle for a mundane life of day to day complaining, paycheck to paycheck mourning and year to year grumbling.

This is where we are at, Singapore, and the chances of migration, depending on who you are and whom your parents are, are low (and you think other countries are really better. Research). We think “When I leave Singapore I will make a difference” or “Since I can’t leave Singapore I won’t make a difference”. Try answering this question; if someone says person so-and-so is such a person, what would you think of him? Now, if you are such a person, what do you think of yourself, and ultimately, will you change? The likeihood of Singapore changing geographically, economically and politically is lower than you changing yourself and your outlook.

So what are you going to do about your garden?

The problem with many people is that whenever they have a problem with their lives, work or love they usually ask help from gurus, experts and religions. Not that it is a bad thing but just how many of you are willing to turn to economics for help?

Yes economics. Because economics will tell you who will get what, how and why.  Until you realize where your money is going you are bound to make less than satisfactory decisions in life.

Where wondered why working in Singapore is so frustrating? Why do our colleagues always seem to get ahead when we are so much more talented? Why are we all working our socks off to get returns of peas?

Well life in the Singapore company is like a tournament. At a tournament players are rewarded for winning not for trying. But they try anyway. This is something employers have noticed. They know that most of us want to reach the top and catch those glittering prices.

This is why your bosses pay silly money not to encourage him to perform but to encourage you to perform in the hope that one day you could be in his or her shoes.

The problem is that while this worked well for the companies this isn’t great for the workers. Because let’s face it we all can’t be winners and there is only so many top jobs available.

So how can you be a high flying winner? To start you need to know how the game works.

You might think that success at work is all about finding the ideal job and doing it brilliantly. Well I hate to break your heart but it’s dead wrong. And you might think it’s about appearing to do it brilliantly. Well wrong again.

It’s about information.  Believe me some bosses don’t know if you are any good. After all you could be faking it. And if your boss is too busy or too far away or too ignorant of your specialty he may take a very long time to find out.

This is what we call Asymmetric Information where a person holds better information than the other. This is not only a problem for your boss it’s a problem but it’s a problem for you.

The common expression Peaches and Lemons is often used to distinguish good bargains from bad ones. The problem is whenever you go to a store to buy something for bargain you always want the best bang for your money.

Unfortunately you don’t know the peaches from the lemons. But the shopkeeper on the other hand knows precisely which of their products are peaches and which are lemons. And this is the problem your bosses face. It may not be obvious which of you is a peach or a lemon.  

And this is the problem with Asymmetric information. Since we both don’t have the same information we don’t know for sure if the shopkeeper is telling the truth about his or her products.  Because you can never tell if the shopkeeper is telling you the correct information or just bluffing  you for his personal gains. And this is not only the shopkeeper’s problem it is yours too because you can just leave and not  buy anything at all.

So without having all the information how do we indentify whose smart and whose loyal and whose hardworking and more importantly if you know you are a peach and your boss doesn’t  how can you proof it?

Employers always want to know whose hardworking and whose faking it. And if you really want to get ahead you need to demonstrate it. To proof you are a peach and a lemon starts at school. But proof is no easy matter because you need to send the right signals.

Students are in the business of proof. They are collecting evidence that they have the attributes employers are looking for. And that evidence is doing something other job applicants would find lazy or too stupid or unable to do. And this is what called signaling.

A signal is something that proves your ability and can’t be faked. What job you have and where ever you are in that job, signaling is the proof that put you one step ahead.

In a world of asymmetrical information, people can’t see that you are a peach and you need to send creditable signals.

Does Singapore have the capacity to produce anime, creative pieces of claymations, digital cartoons and traditional animations? Sure, we can. Only if it is related to making money or National Education. Sit on the bus or just search for those NE Animations and you will see various students’ work on why we should all band together as countrymen, unite as one, fight for the common good and be a part of total defence.

This is all good and dandy. Some of the animations’ quality are remarkable. However, why don’t we see this type of effort for just, you know, plain cool kickass stuff? Like ninjas having a showdown while the first light of dawn breaks? Why is that if we have to do something creative, it must be national education related or rake in large amount of money?

Look at the news for games industry and animation, and it’s always about the big studios coming in and we are working together with them to produce entertainment. Wait a moment here - do we need them to create entertainment? Must everything we do have a budget of five digits in millions? (and perhaps returns ten times that amount?). Why aren’t there more people who create entertainment in their free time, instead of waiting for big budget studios to come? Why aren’t there more people creating fun stuff, despite knowing that they won’t get anything back in return? Why don’t we just create with what resources we have, instead of wanting the sky and everything even before we learn how to be creative? And how is Singapore going to have an entertainment industry if people are not willing to create just for mere passion alone? You cannot transplant a tree if you don’t have soil in the first place.

We seem to be stuck in a mode of “do it only if it yields returns” or “only if it has some educational purpose”. Even our movies can be seemed as cultural propaganda which “sells” Singapore and presents it as more exotic and weirder than it is. Can’t we just, you know, do something fun, normally?

Companies can easily make their products more versatile. But they choose not to. Reducing compatibility and crippling their products are just some of the ways of charging heavy users more because they are the ones who most value the products.

Ever wonder why it is so difficult to replace a battery from your Apple iPod or your Palm Treo? Well now you know.