Upon his return from oversea trip, MM Lee spoke on a forum for Russian and Singaporean businessmen. He commented about the lack of entrepreneurship for Chinese and Indians as their best want to join the government, not business.
Here is the CNA’s report:
Mr Lee said Russia’s challenge was to develop its pool of entrepreneurs, just like Singapore.
He said: “We’re trying to do that. But we are hampered by culture. We’re largely Chinese and Indians. And both Chinese and Indians, the best go into government, (they) don’t go into enterprise.
“The economy can be structured to allow enterprise, but enterprise itself must be done by entrepreneurs – people who say, ‘ah yes, I will make that into a money-making venture’. And they do. It happens in America, it can happen here.
“The trouble with us is, Singapore is small. So when we discover something, we have to go to Silicon Valley to get extra talent to join us, whereupon they know what we’re doing, and they improve on it, and beat us. So it’s a tough fight. But slowly we’ll climb up the technology ladder; there’s no other way.”
Is this a fair comment? I would discuss this from the Chinese perspective.
Firstly, due to the Confucianism influence, Chinese scholars’ only aim is to serve the government and nation. Hence, they would take the imperial examination and seek to be selected for official positions. This gave the impression that the top scorers in the examination are the “best”. It may be true but may not be true.
Throughout the history of China, many of the high achievers were failures in the imperial examination, e.g. Li Bai （李白）. Were they not the “best”?
Perhaps, MM Lee is referring to exam smart “best” and not other achievements.
Secondly, the social status of businessmen was low in Chinese dynasties. The general opinion is businessmen are greedy and not honest. A scholar, being a gentleman, is regarded as a trusted person with high moral and ethnic. Is this true?
Many scholars were in fact immoral persons, e.g. Qin Hui(秦桧), Chen Shi Mei
（陈世美）.
This “pro-scholars” mindset also discouraged “best” men venturing into business. But it cannot prevent “best” scholars become corrupted or immoral.
May be MM Lee has forgotten “every trade has its best” (行行出状元).
Thirdly, there is a misconception of early achievers or Top A students. MM Lee might have formed his opinion that in the imperial selection process, early achievers and Top A students in exam were the “best”. By this definition, Bill Gate, Michael Dell or Ma Yun (Alibaba) is not the best?
If you look at a longer time, how do you measure a person’s contribution to society? A person’s best contribution is measured by his/her life achievement, not a single exam. An exam cannot determine whether the candidate is the best or not, especially when we look at life a journey. MM Lee once said you could only assess a person after his death. (盖棺定论).
Fourthly, there are opportunities and options for Chinese as compared to the past. Given the opportunity to become rich, Chinese will venture into the business. In ancient time, the poor could only hope to get rich and famous officially through exam.
With the opening up of Chinese economy, this gives the best another option to venture into business.
The new culture of money loving and the emergence of gentle businessmen (儒商) are attracting the best Chinese talents to become entrepreneurs. This has already happened in Beijing’s Silicon Village (中关村) or Shenzhen many years ago.
To end the discussion, here are two stories of business success before the Emperor Qin Shi Huang. （秦始皇）
1．Golden Rules of Business Success
Fan Li (范蠡) was an ancient Chinese advisor in the state of Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period. He had been to the state of Wu as hostage with King Goujian of Yue. Three years later they came back and he helped Goujian to carry on a reform. At last Yue was able to defeat the state of Wu. After the victory he resigned and renamed himself Tao Zhu Gong (Chinese: 陶朱公; pinyin: Táo Zhūgōng; literally "Lord Tao Zhu"). He became a successful businessman in his later years and was famous as a rich person.
In the legend, after the fall of Wu, Fan Li retired from his ministerial post and lived with Xi Shi on a fishing boat, roaming like fairies in the misty wilderness of Tai He Lake, and no one has seen them ever since.
Fan Li managed a pharmacy selling traditional Chinese medicine. The pharmacy originally included only two elderly employees, He Bo (Chinese: 何伯; pinyin: Hé Bó) and De Shu (Chinese: 德叔; pinyin: Dé Shū in Mainland China, Dé Shú in Taiwan). The business began to expand only when Tao Zhugong hired He Bo's youngest son, Xiao Wen (Chinese: 小文; pinyin: Xiăo Wén).
He wrote a book known in English as "Golden Rules of Business Success" (simplified Chinese: 经商宝典; traditional Chinese: 經商寶典; pinyin: Jīng Shāng Băo Diăn; literally "Manage Business Jade Advice"). This book remains popular today as its advice is sometimes considered timeless. It includes Twelve Business Principles and Twelve Business Pitfalls describing the art of successful business management.
(Source: wikipedia)
2． Return on Investment from establishing a ruler
The Shiji biography of Lü Buwei says he was a native of the state of Wei (衛) who became a successful travelling merchant and earned "thousands of measures of gold." In 267 BCE, the first son of King Zhaoxiang of Qin died, and he made his second son, the Lord of Anguo (安国), crown prince. Anguo promoted his concubine Lady Huayang (華陽), who was childless, as his primary wife. Anguo had more than 20 sons, and Prince Yiren (異人), one of the middle-ranking ones, was sent as a Qin political hostage to the state of Zhao. When Lü was trading in the Zhao capital Handan, he met Yiren and said, "This is a rare piece of merchandise that should be saved for later."[3]
The Zhanguoce has a story about Lü deciding to change careers from commerce to government.
On returning home, he said to his father, "What is the profit on investment that one can expect from plowing fields?""Ten times the investment," replied his father."And the return on investment in pearls and jades is how much?""A hundred fold.""And the return on investment from establishing a ruler and securing the state would be how much?""It would be incalculable." "Now if I devoted my energies to laboring in the fields, I would hardly get enough to clothe and feed myself; yet if I secure a state and establish its lord, the benefits can be passed on to future generations. I propose to go serve Prince Yiren of Qin who is hostage in Zhao and resides in the city of Jiao."[4]
Using Machiavellian bribes and machinations, Lü arranged for Yiren to return home and be adopted as the son and heir of Lady Huayang. She changed his name to Prince Chu (子楚) because she was from the southern state of Chu.
The Shiji says Lü had a beautiful "dancing girl" in his household, with whom Chu became so infatuated that he asked for her. Lü reluctantly presented his courtesan to the prince, and they returned to Handan. In 259 BCE, she had a son named Zheng (政), who eventually unified China and became the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
(Source: wikipedia)
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