Almost 2 years ago, I went through this course
"Skills Business and Digital Transformation Programme" by the SMU Academy.
With the completion of this course, I had many revelations about myself. I realised that I was indeed the master of my own destiny and my company, my relationships and my own being were truly being impacted by my mindset. So if I wanted to 'cruise' along in life, then I would surely have achieved nothing significant when my life ends.
What Drives Me ? What makes me get up every morning and want to do the things I want to do ? I thought long and hard about my life up to that very point in August 2020.
This Picture Below :
L to R : Yours Truly ; Richard Pereira, Philip Lim Feng, Sukhdeep Singh, Jaspal Singh (taken on the night we beat NUS Team 2 in the Semifinals)
This one above is the University debate team from the NTI (Nanyang Tehcnological Institute) where we reached the finals in late Oct 1986 and defeated NUS Team 2, S'pore Polytechnic and Institute of Education (trainee teachers college back then). The event was the SBC 12 channel of televised debates which were telecast 1 week after the studio debates and it pitted all the Institutes of HIgher Learning from NUS, NTI, the Polytechnics, the Teachers Training Institutes.
NTI'e debating team comprised 4 main speakers who were :
1. Yours Truly (1st Speaker)
2. Richard Pereira (2nd Speaker)
3. Jaspal Singh (3rd Speaker)
4. Philip Lim Feng (4th Speaker)
Reserve : Sukhdeep Singh.
Well the history states that the NTI being only a 3 year combined Engineering faculties actually managed to reach the finals, along the way, we beat
a) Teachers Training Institute
b) NUS Team 2 (all lawyers)
The finals was an edgy affair, and we were up against the best debating team in the country made up of all lawyer undergraduates, NUS Team 1. The result :
a) Best Speaker of Night - Philip Lim
b) Best Speaker of Series - Jaspal Singh
c) Best Team - NUS Team 1
The sense of injustice was palpabe, but we took the loss with diginity and carried our selves right till the end.
The then President of NTI was so pleased he actually hosted a dinner for the 4 of us, and made us VIPs.
We had put NTI on the map.
Fast forward 36 years, and 2022, I have kept tabs of my old debating mates.
a) Jaspal Singh - Founder and CEO of SIS International (largest international School in Indonesia and winner of Financial Times Educator of Year).
b) Philip Lim - ex BG of Army, CEO of Exploit Technologies. Also former CEO of Singapore Food Industries, and CTO of another Govt Laboratory during COVID 19.
c) Richard Pereira - ex BG of Air Force and now a successful consultant for the air industry.
My 3 mates have done VERY WELL for themselves.
I am the Underachiever of this high performing bunch and I owe it to myself to make a name of myself in whatever I do, in the past and going forward. If I can at least garner some of their achievements (50%) I would be well satisfied.
Thats why I am pushing day in and day out for QRA to expand internationally for the next 5 to 10 years.
That is What Drives Me Every Day..........
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