by Chua Ern Kiang (Singapore)
The main thing I learnt during my TE class was to have focus in what I’m doing. Being an entrepreneur is not just a hobby, it is a full-time job that needs hard work and dedication to achieve success. As a role of the CEO of my team, I realize that there are many distractions to what I am to do in the company. This is on top of other commitments I have outside the team, responsibilities in school and in church.
Distractions from the team include a member who didn’t contribute much to the team and yet he was still in the team because of the project, there were also occasions where different team member’s view conflicted with one another and there needed to be conflict resolution in the team. Our business plan was also rewritten countless times due to changing expectations and inputs for our business idea. It was also difficult to focus on running the business as various team members have different expectations and commitment towards this business, to treat it as just a TE project or long term management beyond TE class.
Commitments in school and in church have also pulled my focus away from doing my role effectively in the team. Hectic projects and presentations from other modules were not just experienced by me but by my other team members as well. I am also very committed to my church activities and it was a real challenge to juggle all these commitments.
Focus is needed and it is the most important lesson I learnt from this whole semester, besides other useful things during the course. These distractions and commitments will not go away but I will need to focus on my business in the future and prioritize doing the right tasks at the right time.
13 weeks of TE have flown by really fast and I’m amazed at what our team has done. We could have done more but I feel we have done our best and that’s all we can do in one semester. We have finished our business plan, prepared ourselves to apply for funding in the future and have set up all the necessary tools to equip us to go full fledge into business even after this TE course ends. I’ve enjoyed the TE journey tremendously and I will highly recommend this module to any budding entrepreneur wannabe.
The journey has not ended here. I look forward to many more years of entrepreneurship and exciting challenges and learning lessons that will come my way. The key that I will bring with me to the next part of my journey: FOCUS!
