Image source: Flickr.com/tweng
You were very lucky if you went to school in a predominantly Chinese community in the 80s and 90s. Things may have changed a little since then, but back in those days, only kids who studied alongside Chinese classmates could get away with being praised for having a “business brain.”
Yet today, as a nation, we want entrepreneurship to be the solution to our economic problems. Where does entrepreneurship come from? You can debate it using the most sophisticated theory you like, but at its core, entrepreneurship comes from natural talent — from a business brain.
Picture this:
Three people are sitting side by side on a plane. A fly suddenly lands on the first person’s shoulder. He swats it away. It lands on the second person’s shoulder. She swats it too, and it moves to the third person’s shoulder. The third person catches the fly and eats it.
A little while later, another fly appears and lands on the first person’s shoulder. He swats it. It moves to the second person, who swats it again — and it lands on the third person. This time, instead of eating it, the third person holds it out toward the second person and says, “I’ll sell this to you for a thousand rupiah.”
That’s a business brain.
The sad reality is that many people still treat having a business brain as something to be ashamed of. When I was a teenager and wanted to get into music, both my father and mother opposed it. The idea of their child becoming an “artist” scared them. I didn’t get enough support from the people closest to me.
What they could have done instead was teach me to think commercially — to trade, to sell, to recognize opportunity. Or at least introduce me to someone with a business brain. I understand that parents without an arts background are always afraid when their child wants to become an “artist.” But a poor artist is simply someone who creates and can’t sell. They don’t have to sell it themselves — but if they have a business brain, they’ll know who can.
Trying to do better than my parents did, whenever friends or other parents ask what I hope for my child, my answer is always the same: “Anything they want — as long as they have a business brain.”