Commentary: Why young Singaporeans need mentors to realise their entrepreneurial dreams

Nearly a fifth of Singapore's population are youth, and it's a segment that will help drive the nation's progress, if their entrepreneurial potential is effectively realised.

One of the best ways to empower and inspire the youth is through mentorship by experienced mentors who have been there and done that. This adds a useful dimension on top of education that only provides resources and know-how.

In a competitive, opaque and high-risk environment like entrepreneurship, youth can greatly benefit from someone in their corner, but too many young entrepreneurs are making choices and decisions every day without the support of an experienced mentor.

Done properly, mentorship can provide them with the encouragement, support, and guidance that they need to realise their full potential and to find success.

Having gone through the entrepreneurship journey myself, I've experienced how lonely, helpless and frustrating the journey can feel.

As a result, I choose to give back to develop future entrepreneurs by providing mentorship through my efforts at Super Scaling, where I coach entrepreneurs on various aspects of scaling up their business through a structured programme.

I also mentor start-up founders through Singapore Management University Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Business Innovations Generator (BIG).

GAPS IN START-UP ECOSYSTEM

One of the gaps of the start-up and entrepreneurship ecosystem here is that it hopes that entrepreneurship can be largely taught through formal education.

However, the very nebulous nature of entrepreneurship means that very little takeaway can be obtained from formal education.

This results in aspiring entrepreneurs feeling inadequately prepared, and even disillusioned, after taking entrepreneurship courses.

This effect is akin to obtaining progress in sports or fitness, which students do very poorly when they simply take theory lessons.

Students can learn the theoretical aspects of a sport such as swimming, but when they actually try swimming, they will realise that their theoretical knowledge is very difficult to translate into real life.

What these swimmers will soon find is that the best way is for them to simply start swimming. It is supremely helpful that as they practise swimming, they get feedback and advice from an experienced instructor.

Surprisingly, this is the case, no matter whether it’s a beginner swimmer or even an Olympian. Without a good instructor, the swimmer might not realise why they’re not progressing in terms of performance.

Even worse, they might spend hours upon hours practising in the wrong manner, which cements bad habits and form.

Mentorship achieves the same effects for the entrepreneurship space as well. Theoretical lessons can help give an overview of how things work, but the best way for entrepreneurs to learn and grow is by starting on their businesses.

With the help of experienced mentors, entrepreneurs can then be guided on what to do, what not to do, and the right way to think and frame issues that happen to them.

REAL-WORLD CONSEQUENCES

In my mentorship journey, I’ve seen this happening regularly. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs have either an inexperienced or a false view of how things should work. This is dangerous because it translates into real-world consequences.

For example, a lot of my clients at Super Scaling or at BIG have challenges growing teams, even though hiring is a topic that has been very well researched and written about.

It’s not difficult at all to Google about hiring and learning about it, but why then is hiring such a big problem for entrepreneurs and businesses?

My own journey of entrepreneurship spans over two decades and I’ve grown teams to as large as 150 people. That didn’t happen overnight nor was it a smooth journey.

Through that experience, I made a tonne of mistakes about hiring and growing teams, which cost me not just money, but time.

The lessons that I’ve learnt about hiring, specifically, about how to hire right, and what not to do when hiring, allows me to now guide and correct my entrepreneur clients so that they can develop their own effective forms of talent management.

Another issue that entrepreneurs typically face is with delegation and productivity.

Scaling up businesses isn’t a straight-line journey. In my Super Scaling methodology, I break down the scaling up process into at least three phases, with each phase having a different approach of delegation and productivity.

Theoretical lessons don’t show or emphasise these differences, which is a big problem when entrepreneurs simply read the lessons, take them at face value, and try to apply them without discernment, directly to their own businesses.

It’s difficult for entrepreneurs to navigate through these nuances, which is why mentorship plays such a big role. Programmes such as SMU IIE’s BIG, which even supports non-SMU affiliated businesses, are especially useful for entrepreneurs.

These programmes can guide entrepreneurs so that they can understand and effectively surpass the business challenges that they will indubitably face.

NATIONAL IMPERATIVE

Developing an innovative and entrepreneurial culture among young Singaporeans is a national imperative because it allows Singapore to maintain its leadership as a hub, not just in Southeast Asia, but in the world.

Young entrepreneurs need to be given not just the knowledge, but the guidance, support, and community needed to allow them to blossom into successful businesses.

This is best done through a combination of education and mentorship, which I’ve personally seen many entrepreneurs benefitting from.

To benefit from mentoring, the mentee needs to be open-minded to feedback, be willing to take action fast, and be transparent and self-aware about the challenges and issues faced.

The greatest issue, after being through dozens of mentoring relationships, is a breakdown in communications that leads to inaction or worse, the wrong actions.

Like the phrase “you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink”, a solid mentorship relationship depends on mutual respect, a willingness to give and take, and open communication.

This allows youth to benefit effectively from mentorship, and stand a chance at succeeding at their own entrepreneurial journeys.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alvin Poh is a mentor under the Singapore Management University- Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SMU IIE) programme. At age 33 in 2017, he sold for S$30 million an Internet business that he had built to become Singapore's top hosting provider with 35,000 clients and 150 employees.