Person A has always wanted to be a singer since he was young. When he goes for a KTV outing, everyone thinks its a waste that hes not making a living by singing. He knows it as well. However, when the audition for the next Singapore Idol occurs, he picks up the form, looks at it for twenty minutes and decides to just forgo it. Hes afraid that hell lose. Hes afraid that he will be a laughing stock. Person B has always wanted to be a writer since—I should stop, since you should have got the idea. Have we Singaporeans fear failure or losing so much that we dont even dare to try? Firstly, I have to emphasize that fear of losing is a good trait. If were afraid of losing, we’ll go all out to avoid it. However, the question is how we avoid it. Have we avoided it by…not even trying? Theres a popular quote: You miss 100% of the shots you dont take. How true is that? Well, its 100% true, and theres no pun intended. It just makes so much sense. Yet, have we decided to play it safe and often rather miss it to avoid failures / embarrassment rather than trying? Maybe. You might have encountered someone like this before—or youre one of them. If so, this would sound familiar: Dont want lah, later…. Have you heard this more often than Okay, lets try!? I dont know about people from other countries, but could it be that in Singapore, weve been programmed to follow instructions, so much so that risking a little would be direful? Direful. I should add the quotation marks, since the consequences would usually not be potent. Maybe its time we take tiny steps out of our comfort zone. Actually, compared to five years ago, we might have got more people doing that. If I go through my emails, the number of aspiring writers emailing me for advice has increased—and so far, one or twice have successfully self-published their work. That takes a lot of courage, and that did not occur many years ago. Lets, starting from today, try then. Never ever let Dont want lah…later… take away that golden opportunity to be the person youve always wanted to be. What do you think? Please share and like this if youve enjoyed reading it! Can a female university grad marry an ITE grad? Read one of my novels, A Singapore Love Story (all my novels are in bookstores now), here: goodybooks/asingaporelovestory.htm
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 13:30:00 +0000