Africa

We must never be afraid to embrace change. Today I meet up with six enterprise owners who will start mining operations in Africa.

This will add on to the network we already have in Africa.

These are brave men with a bold vision for a better tomorrow.

Gentlemen…all our ships must sail in the same direction.

We will win!

God speed!

‘We have no time to hate and grumble….there is really too much to do! Time is not on our side. Besides the Singapore blogosphere has been doing that for the last fifteen years! Tell me please what do they really have to show for the great expenditure of time, energy and mental investment – did it even manage to shift anything by one millimeter? So to me this great diffusion of energy is severely misplaced. At best it’s akin to reinforcing failure and at it’s very worst it is simply a grand delusion complimented by a Byzantine waste of energy, intellectual capital and commitment which could otherwise have yielded much more had it been intelligent directed to materialize real benefits to better our lot.

Many years ago. I made a very lonely decision to pull the plug out of the intelligent Singaporean – it was a unilateral decision that seemed incomprehensible to many including some of my closest associates – for many years I was criticized, ostracized and even labelled as recalcitrant.

I remember those years as the years no one wanted to speak or be associated with me. As I considered cowardly responsible for throwing in the towel to what many believed to be the good fight.

Those were very lonely and desolate years for me. Quiet years where I kept mostly to myself and tried the best I could to maintain a dignified silence – as I was convinced the only reliable way to better lives is for one to set aside worthless pursuits and to devote oneself wholeheartedly to worthy enterprises which could at least materialize tangible dividends.

As I genuinely wanted to improve lives – that is as to say I want to be able to make sure all of you never have to bear the humiliation of being told one day by your employers, ‘you’re no longer cost effective to keep any longer. You’re a liability’ only to be turned out into the streets. I want to be able to make sure you can send your kids to university without ever having to bear the humiliation of depending on handouts and charity. I wanted you all to lead purpose driven lives to aspire to be men of consequence and influence. Unlike me.

Many of you were young. You all could not have possibly understood the complexity of what laid ahead of your lives – but I never had any illusions that life as we all knew it would get increasingly complicated and uncertain. Never. This reality weight very heavily on my conscience and I spent many sleepless nights trying to find a way out of what I considered nothing less than impending doom.

Many years have past – and many of you have started families and you now the things that you did not know before.

If there is any redemption to all this – it is that many who once derided me so openly are beginning to warm up to me again.

That gladdens me. As you must believe me when I say this – I’ve always had all your well being in mind all along.

It would have meant very little to me if it had been otherwise.’