L.A.M on Sir James Dyson’s $74m penthouse

One of the more common comments you encounter when reading about Sir James Dyson snapping up Singapore’s priciest penthouse is how the commentator would be able to buy a luxurious penthouse if they sold vacuum cleaners for $500 or fans for $700.

But this cliched attempt at humour ignores a very fundamental fact about how Sir James Dyson got rich. 

He didn’t become rich because he sold “overpriced” vacuums. He became rich because he spent nearly a decade subsisting on just his wife’s art teacher salary so that he could create the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner. (Back in the 80s, the sale of vacuum bags was a £100m a year industry In the UK alone, so imagine the level of savings this product would have provided to customers.)

He became rich because he worked tirelessly for 5 years on 5,176 failed prototypes before creating a working model. 

He became rich because despite creating a working model, no manufacturer wanted to carry his product and it took a decade before he managed to set up his own manufacturing company to manufacture his vacuum cleaners.

He became rich because even after his success with the cyclone vacuum, he continued to refine his product further and branch off into other product lines that displayed the same level of quality and attention that his customers loved. 

It is easy to be envious of the success of a 72 year old man. But few people would be envious of failing 5176 times, getting the door slammed in their face by all the major manufacturers in the UK and spending a decade and a half living like a pauper because most of your savings are reinvested into your business.

If you want that $74m penthouse, don’t look at the $500 vacuum cleaner. Look at the 40 years of hard work it took to get there.

L.A.M.

First World Country, Third World Mentality

The company I work for uses the services of a particular limo driver regularly, when we had a full day of packed meetings and had to rush from point to point.

This driver was always on time, provided service with a smile and drove safely and reliably. Suffice to say we were always satisfied with his service.

We booked his services for a full day on Thursday. Unbeknownst to us, our last ride of the day with him that day turned out to be our last ride with him ever. Because that night he passed away, leaving behind his wife and 2 children.

Representing the firm, I attended the wake the next day, bearing condolences on behalf of the company. 

I found out from his relatives, that he also drove Grab/Uber part-time to supplement his income and that it was common to drive 15 hours a day. 

Speaking to his family, it came as a shock to me how much work and stress one had to bear to drive long hours to make a living. 

Looking though my Facebook feed this morning, one of the top trending videos depicted a lady who gave her driver grief because he went through an Electronic Road Pricing Gantry, causing her cab bill to rise by $1.50.

She kicked up a huge fuss and even accused the driver of kidnapping her when she found that the door had been locked (an automatic safety feature on most modern cars).

In the end it turned out that it was impossible to avoid toll fees on the route she was on. Consequently, the driver ended having a sleepless night and will no doubt be traumatised for a long time.

Gandhi said in 1931, that the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated.

I would like to add that the greatness of a nation can also be judged by the way in which its service staff are treated.

We live in a first world country but a significant amount of black sheep possess a third world mentality. We have mothers who tell their children to study hard, otherwise they may end up as a road sweeper. We have multiple instances of domestic worker abuse cases annually. We don’t even treat the people defending our nation fairly and fuss up a storm when we see a man uniform taking a seat on the train.

My hope is that the above mentioned trending story will not end up as just another cyber witch-hunt, but will serve as a reminder for us to be a more gracious and inclusive society, to treat every member of society with respect and equality.

It is important to remember that everyone plays a role in society and that only by treating each other with respect can we finally call ourselves a first world nation.

L.A.M. on an Interesting Lunch

Had the most interesting lunch today.

Caught up with an SMU junior whom I haven’t spoke to for more than half a decade.

This was a guy who completed 2 degrees within 3 years while maintaining a near perfect GPA and was someone I thought and still do think is the epitome of drive and determination. This guy was one of the few juniors I admired and inspired me to work hard in my finals semesters.

During lunch, he told me that I was his first mentor, albeit unofficially. We happened to take the same module when he was in the second semester of his first year. During that time, he had come out of his first semester with a GPA of only 3.3 out of 4.0 (it was in his view a miserable score for someone with a history of being a high achiever) and he was semi-depressed and just wanted to finish school as quickly as possible.

In class he noticed that I was always playing games but when he learnt that I had a GPA of 3.99, he was stunned and grew determined to learn as much as he could from the guy who manages to ace classes despite “playing computer games in the back row.”

He learnt and modeled through observation how to be efficient, how to be meticulous in tutorials, how to make presentations more interesting and how to get professors to like you without being viewed as the teacher’s pet.

What he said next really struck me. He said that when he asked me for tips or questions, even for modules that we were taking together, that I would not hold back and be very willing to share all my knowledge. 

He said that most people would be a little stingy with their sharing because they wouldn’t want someone else to steal the only A+ grade for the class. And he said that he wouldn’t have done so well in school if not for my candor.

I left that meeting feeling very refreshed and encouraged. I was pleasantly surprised that I have subconsciously made a positive impact on someone else’s life. There were some things my 10 year younger self was doing that I could certainly learn to do more of today. 

In the evening I met up with an ex-colleague whose boss told him that he needs to cheat, lie and deceive in order to succeed in his company. We both agreed that this is something we could never do.

Reflecting back on the day’s events, I realised that there are many paths to success. Some requires you to do things that keeps you awake at night. But another one requires you to be open, to uphold integrity and to be consistent.

The first path might be easier but it is the latter that is more satisfying. So when presented with multiple paths, always take the high road because you never know who you might pick up along the way.

#My10YearChallengeInLiteraryForm

RIP CFC Aloysius Pang

RIP CFC Aloysius Pang.

The passing of one Singaporean Son during training is one too many. As someone who believes strongly in Singapore’s ability and responsibility to defend itself, I would like to say that CFC Aloysius Pang didn’t die in vain. I would like to say that he did a great service to his nation. But. I. Can’t.

The fact of the matter is, we have had 8 deaths in the past 16 months. That is 8 sons, 8 brothers, 8 boyfriends, 8 fiancés, 8 fathers we have lost as a nation. 4 from training accidents, 3 from suicide and 1 from a hazing accident. 

At which part of this statistic do we start to say that their death is in vain? At which numerical order does, “you have done a great service to the nation” become “we have failed you as a nation”?

What is the point of having the fiercest warriors, the most accurate marksmen or the toughest soldiers who strikes fear in the hearts of our enemies if we fail them during peacetime?

We hold CEOs accountable when they fail to make profit targets. We hold senior managers accountable when they fail to create a workplace free from discrimination and sexual harassment. Where is the accountability when leaders fail to meet the most important safety target? Profits lost can be recouped but a life lost is immutable.

I don’t have answers to this question. I don’t have solutions to this problem. What I do know is that we have to do better. We must do better.

Just as how each Singaporean Son has a responsibility to defend this nation. This nation has a responsibility to protect each Singaporean Son. It has a responsibility to show that it deserves to be defended. That it deserves every sweat, tear, blood and pain that our soldiers give.

As a nation we have failed CFC Aloysius Pang and 7 other sons. The tragic end to their life story is preventable. The day we keep the verb in its past tense, “prevented”, instead of its future tense, “preventable”, is the day when we can finally say that they didn’t die in vain. Only then can we finally say that they have done a great service to their nation. 

Until then we mourn and grieve as a nation because we didn’t just lose a Singaporean Son, we failed a Singaporean Son and his family.