For most Singaporeans, the prescribed pathway for success is either Finance, Medicine, Law, or Tech. Unsurprisingly, these professions offer the highest salaries and are the most competitive to enter, requiring the students to score the top percentile of grades as well as CCAs and internships.

Getting into the course and graduating is perhaps the easier part of entering the profession. Such professions also demand long working hours, some even 70-80 hours a week, and competition is intense. Few would find such punishing schedules enjoyable, yet there exist personalities who are able to ‘switch on’ for long periods of time.

Currently, our schooling system is characterised by long hours spent ‘mugging’, and only the most mentally strong and disciplined propel themselves through the system by sheer determination and through a baptism of fire.

Commonalities that can be observed from successful individuals that are able to ‘switch on’ include conviction, courage, and ability to put in prodigious levels of effort in what they do, as well as a certain level of innate talent be it intrinsic or extrinsic.

By the term successful individuals, I am referring to those who have achieved recognition for their work, be it in the form of a promotion or being one of a few skilled professionals who are able to carry out something that is in high demand, and are thus remunerated for their skill accordingly, such as performing arts like entertainment or aesthetic treatments like Botox.

But why Finance, Medicine, Law, or Tech? As my previous post, ‘Will Singapore exist in 100 years‘, alluded to, the highest paying professions include the artistic fields and in sports although the chances of ‘making it big’ are much much slimmer.

In our schooling, we are funnelled according to our overall scores in subjects that gauge our competencies and understanding of the subject matter. In the classrooms of average neighbourhood schools, perhaps due to how teachers are graded, teachers focus their energies on the students who perform the least competently, leaving the rest to fend for themselves. To be fair, teachers face a dilemma, faced with a class of 40 students, one teacher’s efforts can only do so much.

Children are born with aptitudes for curiosity, creativity, questioning, and willingness to try again when their efforts fall short at doing a task or trying to understand a concept. However, do our current schooling method and PSLE encourage, let alone spur, these natural inclinations? What effect does rote learning, classroom streaming, tuition on-top of school time, have on a child?

We have identified the commonalities of successful individuals. What will enable more students to develop them? Conviction, courage, and ability to put in prodigious levels of effort in what they set out to achieve, as well as possessing a certain level or inclination to develop a talent, be it intrinsic or extrinsic, is key to becoming successful.

Talent is controversial, as it can be innate as in gifted, or also can be nurtured with prodigious effort and conviction. Just look at korean pop idols and skilled medical professionals. People like doing things they are good at and spend a long time doing. Make school a place that children enjoy doing things they are good at and importantly, encourage them to put in a prodigious effort in their chosen talent and achieve a baseline competency in the other areas of knowledge that society ought to possess.

This is what adults go through currently with the employment market rewarding talent(as mentioned previously, talent can be nurtured, and exceptionalism comes about with prodigious effort poured into honing competency).

Why don’t we make schools and learning institutions be a place to discover and link up passions to students? Shouldn’t we then aspire to become a nation of creators and producers, where artistic expression is valued and allowed to flourish? Facilitating the bringing to market of viable commercial successes would be the way to go if we are going the way of creating value from novel ideas and attracting wealth from creativity.

Will you reap what you sow eventually? This mantra ought not be in the form of a question-instead it should be a statement that should resonate within every individual. When you work hard at something you like to do, and have identified that that activity is something you are good at, so long as what you produce is of quality, shouldn’t we systematically enable that work to be discovered and brought to market? This kind of enablement is what we should facilitate for our children as so far for their sake as well as the nation and economy.

The pragmatic among us will question: what will become of the children who did not manage to succeed despite all their efforts? After all, other factors beside talent and honed skill matter such as looks and charisma. After all, success is not automatically awarded to those that try hard, or even try their best. This has always been the case for artists and talents; see Van Gogh and Bach.

It’s better to have tried your best to succeed than to not try at all and regret. Don’t you all agree with this sentiment?

Others might point fingers and say; this article reeks of privilege. Pursuing one’s passion without considering the renumeration is indeed a position that only those leading comfortable lives can afford to do so. So how can we enable all children from all backgrounds and families to be able to pursue their passion? That is the grand challenge that we must embark upon in a systematic and organised fashion to achieve the desired outcomes.