What I learned from the Danish heritage is the courage to experiment and not to be afraid to make mistakes. My ex-Danish boss from Hempel, Christian Vang, once said to me, “E, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Make mistakes and you will learn from them”. They are willing to pay the cost of me making mistakes, as long as I learn. I have the freedom to experiment in a project, I only need to deliver the end results. To this day, I am forever grateful for this lesson that my ex-boss had taught me. This I kept it in my heart.
What I learned from the Singaporean heritage is to minimize mistakes. Singapore is a country which thinks and plans way ahead. In planning ahead, it achieves greater efficiency, greater output and minimizes mistakes. In a way, I am a mini Singapore personified. I think and plan ahead, sometimes way ahead. Sure, some things cannot be planned. There is always an element of uncertainty that makes a perfect plan go haywire. But planning doesn’t have to be to-the-dot. It just means to anticipate and to have as best an overview of what would be coming ahead, so one does not miss the train, when it passes one by.
I believe the combination of these two is winning. This is just my own belief, and these are the two cultural values that I will be embracing and passing it down to J:
“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but think and plan ahead, so that you will minimize mistakes”
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