Forum: Entrepreneurs cannot be made to order

It's good to see that members of the public are starting to appreciate the value that entrepreneurs bring to the economy (New ministry needed to spur innovation and start-ups in Singapore, by Ms Loh Kah Lan, Aug 19).

It is also good to see that Ms Loh appreciated many of the obstacles and objections that people may encounter when choosing the path of an entrepreneur.

However, I don't believe creating a new ministry would help give birth to more home-grown entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs cannot be made to order in the same way that you might create assembly workers for a factory.

The best entrepreneurs are inevitably self-starters. Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs, for example, are the kind of men driven by a vision and who learn the ropes the hard way, through the school of hard knocks.

They did not become entrepreneurs by applying to government schemes.

The reality is that being an entrepreneur is tough. The chances of failure are higher than the chances of success. Most famous entrepreneurs have failed at least once. Yet the benefits to society are immense. Those who succeed are more resilient because they've suffered hard knocks. Those who fail also pick up skills that don't get taught in a classroom.

This is not to say that governments cannot help entrepreneurs. They can do so by making laws relating to closing and starting businesses, as well as obtaining credit, simpler or more entrepreneur-friendly so that entrepreneurs can start again if they fail in their first venture.

Governments can encourage community programmes that provide entrepreneurs with access to mentorship. One good example is ideasinc, a competition organised by NTUitive, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nanyang Technological University that not only offers aspiring entrepreneurs cash prizes but also provides them with access to mentorship, which in turn increases their chances of success.

Entrepreneurship should not be an easy option and the choice to be an entrepreneur should come from the individual.

A community can support an entrepreneur by ensuring that he has reasonable access to things like funding and opportunities to find mentors. However, the success or failure of an entrepreneurial journey must be ultimately owned by the individual entrepreneur.

Tang Li

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