[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/entrepreneurs-in-singapore-might-never-be-like-elon-musk-and-thats-okay\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/entrepreneurs-in-singapore-might-never-be-like-elon-musk-and-thats-okay\/","headline":"Entrepreneurs in Singapore Might Never Be Like Elon Musk, and That’s Okay","name":"Entrepreneurs in Singapore Might Never Be Like Elon Musk, and That’s Okay","description":"\u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019ll ever have an Elon Musk. He\u2019s not your style, right?\u201d\u00a0 The above were words spoken by Tyler Cowen \u2013 the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at The Center for Study of Public Choice in George Mason University \u2013 at the session on \u201cJobs and Skills\u201d in this year\u2019s Institute of […]","datePublished":"2021-02-02","dateModified":"2022-04-15","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/Ming%20En%20Liew\/#Person","name":"Ming En Liew","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/Ming%20En%20Liew\/","identifier":132,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8fe7a89455a989038349633329a6e4ad6299388f5e1e3ea83c28126090b2314f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8fe7a89455a989038349633329a6e4ad6299388f5e1e3ea83c28126090b2314f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1612111276806_1280X626_28329.png","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1612111276806_1280X626_28329.png","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/entrepreneurs-in-singapore-might-never-be-like-elon-musk-and-thats-okay\/","about":["Community","Local","Singapore"],"wordCount":1290,"articleBody":"\u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019ll ever have an Elon Musk. He\u2019s not your style, right?\u201d\u00a0The above were words spoken by Tyler Cowen \u2013 the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at The Center for Study of Public Choice in George Mason University \u2013 at the session on \u201cJobs and Skills\u201d in this year\u2019s Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) forum held on 12 January.\u00a0Cowen was responding to a question posed by the session\u2019s moderator, Danny Quah \u2013 the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) and the Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics. Quah had asked the panellists, \u201cwhat can Singapore do to bring about, to encourage the Elon Musks and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world?\u201d\u00a0While Cowen acknowledged the vibrant entrepreneurial landscape in Singapore, he was sceptical that Singapore would produce an entrepreneur like the South African business magnate who currently holds the title of the wealthiest man on Earth.\u00a0Putting a reason to his perspective, Cowen highlighted that Musk\u2019s freewheeling social media persona wouldn\u2019t be taken well in Singapore, stating that our society was \u201cin some ways too conformist\u201d.\u00a0This leads us to the question: Is Cowen\u2019s assessment an accurate representation of Singapore\u2019s entrepreneurial landscape? And if so, is it necessarily a bad thing?\u00a0READ: Youth Start-Ups Launched to Help the Community during COVID-19A Cultural Psychological Perspective of EntrepreneurshipCowen\u2019s words aren\u2019t baseless. The implication that Singapore\u2019s society is very much different from that of the United States (where Musk and Zuckerberg found their success) has a basis in cultural psychology.\u00a0To understand this, we first have to make clear the distinctions between the cultures of Singapore and the United States. Specifically, Singapore is known to have a collectivist culture, where the group is often prioritised over an individual. This is opposite to the individualistic culture found within the US, where the individual takes precedence over the group.\u00a0With this in mind, studies in cultural psychology have indeed found differences between the working styles of the two different cultures. For instance, Erez and Nouri (2010) found that in cultures dominated by collectivism, individuals are more inclined to generate useful, rather than novel, ideas as they tend to be more concerned about the opinions of others.To illustrate this, a group of researchers documented that when Singaporeans were working with others, there was a tendency for our country folk to come up with less original ideas, and elaborate more on the appropriateness of these ideas, as opposed to when they were working alone (Nouri, Erez, Rockstuhl, & Ang, 2008).\u00a0More clearly, researchers have also analysed the kinds of innovations each culture produced and found significant differences; in general, more-collectivistic East Asian cultures with an emphasis on useful ideas are more likely to foster incremental innovations, whereas more-individualistic Western cultures, with their emphasis on novel ideas, encourage more breakthrough ones (Herbig & Palumbo, 1996).\u00a0To put it plainly, there is a scientific basis that supports Cowen\u2019s assertions: Singapore\u2019s collectivist culture might very well lend itself to a type of entrepreneurship that is broadly different from that of the West, thus making the likelihood of producing an entrepreneur like Elon Musk less likely here.\u00a0Science aside, what are Singaporeans\u2019 view on entrepreneurship here?Well, a scan through this reddit thread on the issue suggests that most Singaporeans concur with Cowen\u2019s views.\u00a0Redditor Angelcstay shared her experiences working in the States, and suggested that the Singapore system is far too \u201crigid\u201d to develop the likes of Elon Musk. She posits that in Singapore, an individual like Musk would likely be deemed \u201ca failure since he doesn\u2019t have the credentials of [straight-A] students\u201d.\u00a0TheHomeGround also contacted local entrepreneur Koh Jin Jie, 23, co-founder of TheNightMrkt, for his thoughts on the matter.\u00a0Koh agrees that Singaporeans are generally \u201crisk averse\u201d. He says of Cowen\u2019s statements, \u201cSingaporeans do struggle to think dynamically\/out-of-the-box compared to our counterparts in North America… I can concur with the statement. Working for a Toronto-based start-up now, I genuinely feel as though Singaporeans are more limited in their imagination, ambition, and drive.\u201dEven so, does this mean that Singapore’s entrepreneurial landscape is “worse” than that of the United States?\u00a0Singapore still has a thriving entrepreneurial landscapeIn spite of his comments, Cowen himself expressed that Singapore was \u201cone of the most entrepreneurial places in the world\u201d.\u00a0Cowen admits that while entrepreneurship here takes on a different form, features such as predictability, rule of law, and Singapore\u2019s quality of governance are all plusses for our entrepreneurial landscape.\u00a0Jonas Th\u00fcrig, the head of startup incubator F10 Singapore, held similar sentiments. He shared that \u201cwhat makes being an entrepreneur in Singapore different is the fact that you are situated in a state of ample support across all aspects of life… there is also the rule of law, work-life balance, high education standards, [and] access to international talent\u201d.\u00a0If you think about it, the same features that might impede an entrepreneur like Elon Musk such as Singapore\u2019s predictability and rule of law are also the very ones that help entrepreneurs here thrive.\u00a0Entrepreneurship in Singapore still has room for improvementEntrepreneurship in Singapore might be different, but that\u2019s not to say that it is \u201cbetter\u201d than that of the United States or anywhere else. Instead, there is still much that we can learn from other cultures to better our entrepreneurship spirit and encourage more entrepreneurs to take the leap of faith here in Singapore.\u00a0One such area of improvement that Koh identified is Singaporeans\u2019 risk aversion, which he believes is a \u201cmajor impeding force to entrepreneurship in Singapore\u201d. As a budding student-entrepreneur himself, he hopes that more can be done \u201cto teach students to embrace failure.\u201d\u00a0Th\u00fcrig is of the same mindset, although he does believe that there\u2019s a gradual shift towards more risk tolerance here in Singapore. When asked how entrepreneurship can be encouraged in Singapore, Th\u00fcrig underscores the importance of leading by example, highlighting that \u201cfailure is part of the journey of an entrepreneur and it\u2019s important that this continues to be embraced and lived by today\u2019s leaders. It should always be seen as okay to fail and learn from your mistakes\u201d.\u00a0Embracing our own style of entrepreneurshipUltimately, success comes in different forms and it need not necessarily look like Elon Musk.Success can also look like homegrown brands such as Shopee and Razer hitting the international stage, or even young entrepreneurs such as Koh striving to make a difference during pandemic times.\u00a0Not having an entrepreneur of Elon Musk\u2019s calibre today doesn\u2019t necessarily mean we will never have one either. Cowen\u2019s fellow panellist Selena Ling, the Chief Economist in the Global Treasury Division of OCBC Bank, expressed optimism in \u201cpotential unicorns to come\u201d given the investments being poured into Singapore\u2019s research and development (R&D) in recent years.Well, only time will tell if Singapore will produce its own breed of unicorns; in the interim, perhaps it\u2019s best we focus on the good that we do have and continue to invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs that will be the change makers of the future.\u00a0 References:Erez, M., & Nouri, R. (2010). Creativity: The influence of cultural, social, and work contexts. Management and Organization Review, 6, 351\u2013370.Herbig, P. A., & Palumbo, F. A. (1996). Innovation\u2014 Japanese style. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 96, 11\u201320.Nouri, R., Erez, M., Rockstuhl, T., & Ang, S. (2008). Creativity in multicultural teams: The effects of cultural diversity and situational strength on creative performance. The Academy of Management Annual Meeting, August 8\u201313, Anaheim, CA.Join the conversations on THG’s\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram, and get the latest updates via\u00a0Telegram."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Entrepreneurs in Singapore Might Never Be Like Elon Musk, and That’s Okay","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/entrepreneurs-in-singapore-might-never-be-like-elon-musk-and-thats-okay\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]