I remember when I was young , my aunt would use to come over and they would pass comments over to my mum saying, "Do you know, your son is really good at this"?



Then my mum would reply," Nah, he's quite stupid. He's not like that." This is precisely how we have been conditioned to respond in the Asian culture.

You'll find that a lot of people who are influenced and brought up through the American culture or European culture tend to bring their kids up.

But that's not the case in Singapore. Here's a joke to put the point across, if you see a kid climbing a tree here in Singapore, the mum would say, get down, you 're going to fall!"

But in another country, a kid climbs up a tree, and the dad would say, "Go higher son, come on, you can do it! Go higher!" Reach the top!"

So that's the trouble, we put ourselves down. And I find it's the Asian culture that does it most of the time.

I have actually encountered some people who are really good at what they do and I feel that they are really good at what they do.

But the same person doesn't feel it. They don't feel the same way, they feel like, "Hey, you know, no big deal about what I'm doing or can do.

Here's an example, I was having a chat with one of my friends who comes from Mauritius and he's a really, really talented learner . He's has this very curious style about learning. He puts himself in this child-like state and he'll ask questions that normally no one would ask.

But when I told him, "Hey, you know, that's a really good talent you have. How about turning it into some kind of business?" What was his reaction? He said " nar, I don't think we can do it. It's no big deal. I'm sure other people are doing it better".

The reason why most people would have such responses is because of the way we've been conditioned.

We have been conditioned in the education system that, to be a successful person, I must be a doctor, I must be a lawyer, I must study really hard, I must do something I hate to do, must work really hard. And after making all the money in the world then will I do something I love.

So, a lot of us have been conditioned to think that success is not doing something we truly love, and what we truly love should be something done only for fun.