Sunday, August 01, 2021

How Heroes Wither

 

Joseph Schooling, the young man who won our first ever gold medal at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 has failed to defend his Olympic crown. Mr. Schooling finished last in the 100-meter butterfly heats and did not even qualify for the finals. Mr. Schooling has received a few nasty comments online but he’s also received words of encouragement from everybody from our president downwards.

While it may seem a little mean-spirited to talk about Mr. Schoolings failure, it’s worth analysing. Mr. Schooling’s life story provides plenty of guidelines for anyone in Singapore has aspirations beyond working in the conventional or government mandated paths. One of the better comments on Mr. Schooling’s recent ventures is the commentary written by the former sports correspondent for the Today Newspaper, Mr. Ian De Cotta. His commentary can be found at:

https://www.todayonline.com/commentary/commentary-singapore-sports-must-learn-lessons-schoolings-decline

 

Copyright Today and AFP.

What makes Mr. De Cotta’s commentary particularly interesting is that he mentions that he highlight’s the role of leaving Singapore in Mr. Schooling’s success and the role of returning to Singapore in his subsequent decline.

There is a funny parallel in Mr. Schooling’s story with the few who have made their name beyond Singapore’s shores. Writer Kevin Kwan (of Crazy Rich Asians Fame) and pianist Melvyn Tan, found space to develop their talents outside of Singapore. Both Singapore-born men are no longer Singaporean and thanks to our national service laws, neither is likely to ever set foot in Singapore. Both men continue to find success in their respective fields.

A more interesting and prominent example is Mr. Sim Woo Hong, founder and CEO of Creative Technologies, which was the sexy home-grown innovative technology company long before the government decided that Singapore needed to produce hot innovative technology companies. Like Mr. Schooling, Mr. Sim had to leave Singapore in order to get his technology off the ground. Like Mr. Schooling, Mr. Sim seems to have vanished off the radar upon coming back.

You can argue that we shouldn’t begrudge Mr. Schooling or Mr. Sim anything. In one moment, they’ve done more for the nation than many of us have in a lifetime. So, what, if Mr. Schooling never sets foot in a pool again, he’s won an Olympic Gold (which involved beating the world’s greatest swimmer ever), which only of few in the world can claim to have done (I’m happy I survive my nightly walks). Sure, Creative Zen has gone the way of Sony’s Betamax videos, but how many of us can claim to have invented and brought an “industry-disrupting” product to market?

Both Mr. Schooling and Mr. Sim succeeded in spite of Singapore. Hence, the glory of their success if for them to share with us as they see fit and the pain of their failures are theirs to learn from.

However, for the people who are now desperate to design eco-system to find the next sports champion and the next ground breaking start-up, the question remains, what is it about the Singapore system that brings world class people down. Singapore is a major financial centre, so there’s plenty of money floating around. We have “world-class” universities producing lots of clever people. So, it can’t be a lack of brain power. So, why is it that our “world-class” products have thus far been one hit wonders? In many cases, the taste of glory should be a spring board into better things but that hasn’t been the case for Mr. Schooling or Mr. Sim.

In his commentary, Mr. De Cotta alludes to the fact that Mr. Schooling stopped facing competition once he came back to Singapore. This is probably a major factor in the Singapore system. There’s plenty of competition climbing to the top but once you reach a certain level, you are effectively spared the need to compete or to be on your toes ever again.

How many world class companies has Singapore produced? There is only SIA, which is in an industry where being protected in the home market is pointless (I never knew domestic flights existed until I left Singapore) and since SIA has to compete is everyone else’s market as an outsider, it has to do things like evolve and innovate in order to stay competitive. Every other big home-grown company does not need to compete to survive. The banks, for example don’t need to fear competition from FinTech, because the regulators have made it such that FinTech can only exist to serve the banks.

In any other eco-system, everybody tries to challenge the champion. The champion needs to be on his or her toes all the time. Look at Apple, which had to compete with the PC makers, then the music industry and then the telco giants. Sure, Apple as a stock market capitalization larger than the GDP of all but the top six largest economies in the world, but it still faces intense competition. In the last two decades, Apple has given us the iPod, iMac, iPad, iPhone and iWatch. What has Creative Technologies brought to the world since Zen?

Hopefully, Mr. Schooling makes a comeback after the disappointment of the Tokyo Games. However, the powers that be need to ask how was it such that a talent had to leave Singapore to find success and then withered once he returned to the Singapore system? I believe that Mr. De Cotta got it right when he argued that the system needs to allow hungry competitors to constantly snap at the heels of the proverbial top dog. The question remains is whether the powers that be might actually choose to allow a situation that leads to constant innovation and dynamism even if it makes those at the top of their respective fields a little less comfortable.

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Maira Gall