Forum: Valuable lessons in pursuing entrepreneurship

Singapore's skyline seen on Aug 12, 2020. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

In his Forum letter, Mr Tang Li said a community has various ways to nurture entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurs cannot be made to order, Sept 4).

It is in the best interest of the community to support entrepreneurs, particularly in the current economic climate.

Why should anyone consider starting up in a tough economic climate? Why should the community, particularly tertiary institutions, encourage people to take a career path that is prone to failure?

The answer can be found in a single word - resilience. Entrepreneurship, including failed entrepreneurship, helps develop resilience, which will help people weather the storms ahead.

Covid-19 has been hard on the global economy, and it will not be the only crisis that tomorrow's job seekers will face. As a community, we have an obligation to ensure that our members have the resilience to survive any future economic crisis. We need people who can earn a living and create more jobs in an environment where jobs are scarce.

How do you do it? I call this the "reinvention of failure".

Mr Tang rightly pointed to the fact that in entrepreneurship, the chances of failure outweigh the chances of success - it is illogical to choose a path that would likely result in failure. On the other hand, in a job-scarce economy, one might have to take up entrepreneurship as a means of survival.

Real life is about dealing with failure as much as it is about enjoying success. No one wants failure, but a failed entrepreneur has only one option: To learn from the failure and start again until success is achieved.

If the failed entrepreneur wishes to return to employment, he would have developed a variety of skills which would make him more employable. The experience of starting and running a business will provide people with an understanding of management and the ability to have an overview of larger, wider business perspectives. Most importantly, it provides the ability to understand customers' problems.

As a community, we need to help people understand that failure is a fantastic teacher. No one likes failure, but if we do fail, we will learn, and that can only be good for our society.

Alex Lin (Dr)

Interim CEO, NTUitive

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 18, 2020, with the headline Forum: Valuable lessons in pursuing entrepreneurship. Subscribe