Singaporean Matters: What is your advice for the youths of today?

I had an interesting chat with a young Singaporean yesterday. Our conversation was wide-ranging about the career he should pursue, the aspirations of today’s youths, and the challenges facing Singapore. He ended our conversation by asking me what advice I had for him (and his cohort).

After a moment of silence, I shared the Chinese proverb 富不过三代 (wealth does not pass beyond three generations). I explained that Singapore’s first generation of leaders created our wealth. They worked hard and made sacrifices so that their children wouldn’t have to suffer. And, while their children, the second generation, did not experience the same hardships, they saw what it took to create wealth and were motivated to preserve it. Financially secure, the third generation grew up without struggles and experienced nothing but comfort. This third generation therefore cannot fully understand what it is like to be in want. Without this perspective, the third (and subsequent generations) will have no qualms about more freely spending the wealth and, in the process, squander it away.

I shared that, in my opinion, the biggest contributor to Singapore’s failure will be a focus on short-term wants at the expense of long-term needs. Against the odds, Singapore’s third generation of leaders has successfully held on to, and grown, the nation’s wealth. But as we start to transition to the fourth generation of Singaporeans who have known no hardship, the challenge to successfully navigate against a populist electorate will be great.

In short, my advice is to remember our history and, in the context of Singapore, the struggles of the founding generations and Singapore’s precarious place in the world.