Singapore is a Land of Opportunities
Blogged By: Low Hang Wei @ March 19th, 2008 - 4:20 amI haven’t seen much of the world to judge that Singapore is good relative to other countries. However, personally, I do feel that Singapore has been launching many initiatives to provide opportunities for those who want it. For example, if you want to study, it is always possible to get bank loans, government grants and so on to fund your studies. If your results qualify, most of the time, you won’t have to worry about finding the money to study. Of course, there are always extreme circumstances of poor families, where the per capita monthly income is less than $200 and they need to join the workforce at an early age. However, I tend to think that they are the minority.
There are also some people who just do not feel like climbing the corporate ladder after finishing their studies. They want to be their own bosses, but yet they know that they can never get the capital necessary. The government does not give up on this group of people and come up with funding initiatives. Besides the government, there are also other bodies or even private venture capitalists that may be interested to fund your project.
Of course, I’m not saying that it’s easy to get this capital, but the opportunity is there nevertheless. You can always keep trying to re-present a more refined business plan each time and persevere until you get the funding, so the hope element is there. If you still can’t get the funding after a few times, you can attend events to get help from industry mentors and most of them are willing to provide advice for free. If all else really fails, you can always drop back into the work force and you know that your salary is still relatively higher than our neighbours.
In case you feel that your qualifications are not good enough for you to climb the ladder effectively, the government has subsidies for us to self-improve. If you’re lucky, you may even get a fully-paid scholarship, which also means a ready job once you complete your studies. I really appreciate how there is a system for us to get the things we want if we really strive for it.
At the end of the day, we know that if we don’t succeed, we only have ourselves to blame, because all the opportunities are just right before us. Of course, there will always be people who blame this or that and I fall into this trap at times too, but I really do know that it’s my own fault when things don’t go well.
Of course, even with all the opportunities, it does not mean sure success if we work for it. We may try to climb the ladder for years and still get stuck or we may try to build a business 16 hours a day and still see no results. However, at the end of the day, if we know that we have put in hard work, I think that it’s good enough and an answer to not just yourself, but also your family members. Of course, achieving success is definitely the ideal outcome. 
Blogged Under: Random Thoughts
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March 21st, 2008 at 2:19 am
This sounds a lot like the US a couple years ago when money was cheap and everyone was taking loans to go to school and fix up houses and start business’. They could be in for a big growth cycle.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Wah the govt so generous in giving money - scholarship & funding for business. I thought most scholarships are given to foreigners to study in Singapore these days instead of Singaporeans. Did you get a scholarship?
Business funding - I guess venture capitalists are out to make money will fund you if you have a good idea…whether you’re Singaporean or not.
Your title “Singapore -Land of opportunities” seem to suggest Singapore has alot more opportunities than elsewhere (where?). Come on…there are business opportunities in all the countries between here and Shanghai. In Europe, welfare states offer education for free to anyone who is willing - isn’t that better in terms of opportunities for everyone.