by Goh Yuping (Singapore)
The main reason why I took on technological entrepreneurship is because I want something more practical and out of the textbook, because ultimately when you step into the corporate world, its not the textbooks that count, it’s practicality and the experiences that you gain that matters most. When i first embarked on this course, i did not believe that a business could be set up in 13 weeks. To me that was just too ambitious, when i heard it at the first instance during the first session of the course. However, 13 weeks into setting up the business, i got a totally new perspective about starting up a business. Even though it is still not as easy as it seems, but its not that difficult afterall (depending on the nature of your business).
With prof’s (Pamela Lim) guidance along the way, it has certainly made things much easier to figure out and head towards a clearer direction. Also, the experiences that prof and some of the other guest speakers that have shared with us has provided us with valuable insights and learning points that we can take along with us even after the end of the course. For example, things we should look out for, things we should bear in mind, and things that we have to be aware of etc.
Along the way throughout the 13 weeks, I realized how important teamwork is and how the team plays a big part in steering the direction of the business. Despites everyone in the team having different idea of which direction our business should head towards, we managed to come to consensus most of the time. Therefore, openness to others’ ideas is very important as every idea count, we’ll always be able to make something out of it. We can always build on one another’s idea, or one idea may spark off a few other new ideas as well. On the same note of teamwork, I think that the level of commitment to the business is very important too. As the saying goes, ‘No pain, no gain’. We need to put in a certain amount of effort and commitment if we want to see results. Don’t expect results if you did not put in any effort.
Last but not least, you need to believe in your business, believe that it will work, so that you will make it work. If in the first place you do not believe that it will work, then it probably would not work.
All in all, I took away the experience of starting up a business, without having to learn things the hard way for a start, and many valuable advices from the different guest speakers and prof herself.
