Like the Joseph Schooling thing, or now the Ben Davis thing...
Or when Singapore wanted to be in the World Cup...
Ok... so I understand how the system works and why they do it. Like, if they allow people to start deferring over all kinds of different matters, then they expect to open the flood gates for many other people to do so.
That's only partially true.
If people only looked at just results, then companies like Facebook, Tesla, would have failed miserably.
That's the thing isn't it.
Sometimes, we have to look at the potential of something. And I think it's really lacking.
A lot of us, or even the system. Wants returns so so badly, that they aren't willing to make the "investment", time, energy, money, to foster and nurture their seeds.
That's what some types of investment are. Like private equity. They are moon shots. One in a million. But you have to try, you have to put down your investments. Else don't even bother talking about it.
If you don't plant seeds, you won't have trees. After you plant the seeds, some trees will grow, others won't. Some trees will grow bigger, others won't, and eventually, you may end up with a few big trees.
People who do sales know this. They do cold calls or whatever, it's a filter. Some are interested, some aren't eventually, talk to enough people and have some good sales technique and they get a sale.
Similarly, if Singapore wants to win awards, they have to have a good system to train athletes, AND actually have athletes to train and give them the runway to develop and succeed.
It's just a lame reason to say... "Oh if we allow this then everyone is going to do it..."
That's not going to happen. There's only going to be a handful of people who are going to be fairly good and interested to pursue sports as a career. Eh really... if I ask any of you to pick a sport which you think you could have done relatively well in. Most of us wouldn't know what to answer.
And as a country, I think we should support them, IF we decide that we want to build a healthy sports culture. Else just stop talking about it. Cos it's just BS.
It's like asking for a low risk high return investment. That's just rubbish.
And even if these folks don't entirely succeed on the international stage, they can come back and train our next generation of athletes. It's a long process if we want to build a healthy sports or arts culture.
We need people to start the journey. Walk 10%-20% of the way, then train the next generation to go the next 30%-50% and keep going. We can't expect people to go from 0% to 100% all at once. Joseph Schooling is a one shot. It's not always going to happen.
What happened to our ping pong investments? They ended up with nothing. Why? Cos we don't have a robust foundation of people who have walked 10%-50%-80% of the way. When these "key" people leave, we have nothing left, no one left to train the next generation.
IF/WHEN Joseph Schooling comes back to train Singapore's next generation of swimmers...
Would potential winners be blocked once again? Like he himself once was?
Is this how to treat our so called "talents", by hindering their growth potential?
Then let's not even bother trying to develop any form of sports success cos that's not how it works.
Even if they don't win any medals? So what? You'll need people with the experience to train the next generation. It has to start somewhere.
How do you build generation after generation of people passionate about sports and arts and culture?
When an ex-Prime Minister feels that only people who earn more than $500,000 are good people who are suitable to lead Singapore?
Isn't this what we always talk about? Not all expensive things are good? Not all cheap things are bad?
Would a good military leader make a good politician?
What about an economist? Or scientist? Or engineer? They don't make $500,000 a year, but they may have insights to what's important in the future and lead the country in the right way.
I'm sure Tin Pei Ling didn't earn $500,000 before she started her political career. So I reckon that the government hires really really mediocre people if we were to think in the same way as how our ex-PM thinks.
But they gave her a chance and it appears she's doing pretty well in politics.
So you see, it's really not always about results and numbers. I think if Singaporeans and/or the government wants to develop a sports or arts culture or technological hub, they really need to walk the talk and be willing to open the gates for to allow people to develop. Or at least not block the way.
Which is quite telling about Singaporeans and the way it's being led...
Cos think about it... we are "trained" by the government to always think about returns and results.
And... now we have a falling birth rate... which isn't really unexpected right?
Kids aren't a good investment, low/unexpected returns/results.
So how? Don't make that investment lor. So people don't have kids.
But having kids is a life choice for some people, so some people still choose to have kids.
But for a large number of Singaporeans who have been programmed this way... Low returns/no returns. Then have kids for what?
Same thinking no?
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