Having worked with and mentored young people between the ages of 20s to mid-30s, I have never failed to be amazed by the \u201cbell curve\u201d depicting the \u201cdrive and energy\u201d of these young people. Approximately, only 10% of these young people impressed me with their \u201cdrive, energy and purposefulness\u201d while the rest merely meandered along their work life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Incidentally, the small number of engaged youths at work today is not surprising. A Straits Times report in 2010 highlighted the plight of Chinese youths, aged between 25 to 35,revealinghowthey felt stuck in their career, trapped in their boring jobs, confused, burn out, empty and numb. Singaporeans apparently did not do much better from another Straits Times Report in 2012, where one out of every five Singaporeans admitted that they faked illness to get an MC.40% of fakers said they “didn’t feel like working”, while a third shunned work because they “had other plans”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is it that drives the top 10% of young people and differentiates them from the meandering crowd? What could explain the different mindsets, behaviours and outcomes of the two groups who are somewhat similar in age?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I spoke with those youths who are directed and driven, I found out that almost all came from \u201chumble\u201d families i.e. families that are either relatively poorer or whose family business had failed or overseas students whose only chance to study in Singapore were via a scholarship. Ironically, those I spoke with who are still meandering in life are those who come from more \u201cprivileged\u201d families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The above observation seems to corroborate with what Malcolm Gladwell shared in his seminar book, \u201cDavid and Goliath\u201d\u2013how disadvantages and setbacks in the beginning of one\u2019s life may actually propel one to succeed in life. The book contains many different stories of under dogs who wind up beating the odds, the most famous being the biblical story of David and Goliath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singapore dramatic transformation from third world to first world within a few decades is a living example of how early immigrants to Singapore worked and fought hard against poverty to achieve a better life for themselves and their families. Moving forward, the question remains whether Singaporeans as a whole who have grown up with more opportunities than their parents, can remain as \u201cHungry\u201d and \u201cDriven\u201d as their parents. Scanning countries in the regions show a disturbing trend where many locals\/natives are lulled into a pace of complacency after the \u201cstruggles\u201d and past-paced lives of their immigrant forefathers. This has resulted in some countries trying to take affirmative actions both politically and socially to help their \u2018complacent, citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Having worked with and mentored young people between the ages of 20s to mid-30s, I have never failed to be amazed by the \u201cbell curve\u201d depicting the \u201cdrive and energy\u201d of these young people. Approximately, only 10% of these young people impressed me with their \u201cdrive, energy and purposefulness\u201d while the rest merely meandered along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20,16,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-happiness","category-my-job","category-my-vocation","category-purpose-fulfilment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoaching.sg\/LIFESCOOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}