Skip to main content

The 1981 Notice Board That Changed My Life

🎓 National Junior College (1981) — The Day I Stopped Waiting

In 1981, getting into National Junior College was one of my proudest achievements.

But when I stepped into that campus, I was completely lost.
No one guided me. No one briefed me. No one handed me a timetable.

The teacher simply said: “If you want to know where your class is, go to the notice board and copy it yourself.”

That sentence changed my life.
That was my first real lesson in adulthood:

No one owes you direction.
If you want clarity, go and get it.

Lesson 1: Initiative Is the Real Scholarship
Many people think elite institutions give you advantage.
They don’t.
They give you responsibility.
If you cannot manage yourself, you drown.

That notice board was my first training in self-leadership.
No grant. No shortcut. No spoon-feeding.
Just initiative.

Lesson 2: Growth Happens in Discomfort
I was one of only two guys in a class of 18.
I was shy.

But I had no choice — I had to interact.
And some of the girls were even shyer than me.

That was my second lesson:
Confidence is not given.
It is built through forced exposure.

Today, people attend courses about communication, leadership, confidence.
Back then? Life forced it on us.

Now Fast Forward to the AI Era
Today in Singapore, there are grants to learn AI. Grants to subscribe to AI tools.
And many people ask: “Should I wait for subsidy?”

Let me say something uncomfortable.
Grants are usually designed to help those who are behind, those who lack resources or confidence.

The government does not design grants for frontrunners.
They design them to uplift those who hesitate.

I started using AI in December 2022. I paid for multiple models. Over time, it has cost me tens of thousands of dollars.
Why?
Because if something is the future, I don’t wait for discount.
I invest.

Entrepreneurs Don’t Wait
Jack Ma did not wait for a grant to start Alibaba.
Steve Jobs did not wait for subsidy to build Apple.

Front-runners move first. They figure out funding later.
Waiting is comfortable. Moving is powerful.

The Hard Truth
  • If you need a grant before you start learning AI, You are already late.
  • If you need permission before investing in yourself, You are already behind.
  • The people who win in the AI era are not the ones who get the most subsidies.
  • They are the ones who:
        Move before certainty
        Pay before validation
        Experiment before perfection

My First Lesson at 17 Still Applies Today
Go to the notice board.
Copy it yourself.
Figure it out.
That mindset is more valuable than any grant.
And in the AI era, initiative is no longer optional.
It is survival.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What an Executive Coach and Business Coach Does

Post a Comment
Read more

The Secret Under the Mattress: Why would a 79-year Man Bet So Big on 4D?

It was 2007 when we discovered his secret. While moving my father’s mattress, we found them: heaps and heaps of Singapore Pools 4D tickets. They were stacked in layers, a paper trail of lost hopes. What shocked us most wasn’t just the volume, but the stakes. He wasn’t betting a few dollars for fun. He was punting hundreds of dollars per draw—nearly ten times a month. At the time, my siblings and I were furious. Our father was a 79-year-old retiree. We wondered, with a mix of anger and confusion, why a man at his stage of life would need to win such "big money." What was he going to do with the money? We saw it as a reckless habit, a sign of poor judgment in his final years.  Some of us would say, "If I were to give him money to buy 4D, why don't I use the money and buy 4D myself?  At least I have better discipline".  It has taken me two decades, and the experience of raising my own three grown-up children, to finally see the truth that was hidden under that matt...
Post a Comment
Read more

Head Bleeding when the Chair Falls

The Weight of Silence: What Were We Really Arguing About? My earliest memories are punctuated by the sound of shouting. In 1970, when I was barely 6 years old, I stood as a small witness to the fierce quarrels between my father and my late eldest brother Kah Yang (he passed away in 1971 at the age of 17). As I grew up, these contradictions became the soundtrack of our lives, usually centered around our family's shoe shop and clothing stalls in Chinatown. In the court of family opinion, the verdict was almost always the same: my father was "wrong." He was judged as a man who didn't fulfill his role, who wasn't "burdening" enough for the family’s success. But as I look back from the vantage point of 2026, I have to ask: Was that actually true? Let me finally put to rest what my father did right: the truths that were buried under decades of criticism: Unseen Labor: He worked grueling, long hours. I remember him hauling boxes of goods and equipment to set u...
Post a Comment
Read more