Delegates from Malaysia

Okay, the lungs were a bit choked up over two days last week when the PSI levels (it is remarkable how we have all become expert PSI readers – “hmm, looks like 200 today”, “no, smells more like 300”) crossed 400 but still I resolved to keep my mind focused on what I could influence but cannot control.

And what I could influence was my state of mind and tangibly, the outcome of our WITNext Summercamp event on Friday.

Okay, we had an attendance haze-out – lost probably 50% of local students who had pre-registered because the government had declared schools closed but I thought maybe older kids would be okay but obviously not.

Indonesian delegates

In a place unused to crises, the haze became a full-blown crisis in the little grey dot as netizens took to social media to decry, blame, complain, report every PSI level as it occurred and oh yes, order masks through Amazon – love this story which proves that every crisis has a silver lining – now everyone knows where Singapore is.

Fortunately, we had a strong turnout from industry champions and believers, entrepreneurs and a select gathering of students and overseas delegates – from Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka – and who stayed with us through the day. 

You are the champions, my friends. And I hope you learnt and found the event worthwhile. I certainly did.

Here’s what I learnt. Our three leaders – Michael Issenberg (chairman & COO, Accor Asia Pacific), Patrick Imbardelli (CEO, Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts) and Morris Sim (CEO & Co-founder, Circos Brand Karma) – all had humble beginnings. Michael and Patrick started out as dish washers and Morris did runs as a paper boy “learning about distribution” even then.

1. 

   Siew Hoon (left) with Michael Issenberg, Patrick Imbardelli and Morris Sim

   If they were asked to design the best company on Earth to work for, what would be their three words? Michael: Empowered, successful, transparent. Patrick: Aligned, Fun. Morris: Creative, Respectful, Respectable. (Incidentally if they could choose a company to work for, Michael said he’d manage the Boston Red Sox, Patrick chose Disney and Morris said Pixar.)
2. Advice: Develop a checklist of values early on and make deliberate choices against that checklist and pay attention to serendipity.
3. When our coaches were asked to pick their element – the one quality that differentiates them and has helped them through their career, John Mims (Las Vegas Sands) chose “people – I am the ultimate connector”, Patrick Andres (Travelport) picked “competitive spirit – I hate to lose”, Mario Jobbe (Circos Brand Karma) opted for “simplicity – I like to simplify things”, Blanca Menchaca (Wego) picked two – “curiosity – I like to ask questions” and “data-driven” – “I like to tell stories with numbers” and Christine Toguchi (Macrovision Network) chose “execution – I take ideas and implement them”.
4. The winner of The Element Pitch was Jan Tan of Globehoppers (coached by Patrick Andres) who won on “resourcefulness”. She walked away with a $300 hotel voucher and suitcase (worth $250) from AirAsia Expedia and S$500 cash from Expedia Lodging Partner Services. 
   

   Jan Tan of Globehoppers (right)

5. Our Win-A-Mentor was a great success with up to 10 mentors volunteering one-hour worth of mentoring time with winners – but John Mims (Las Vegas Sands) topped it up by raising his hand to mentor everyone who had put their name in his lucky draw box. John, you’re a champion.
6. Kei Shibata, CEO of Venture Republic, took lessons from skiing into the start-up world. Buying the fancy equipment is the easy part, getting up and staying up is the hardest. To stay the course, you need focus, discipline, execution, stamina and innovation.
7. For the start-ups who’ve all come through the WIT Start-Up Pitch platform, it’s not been easy but they’re all still living the leap of faith. Flocations has moved from flights to tour packages, Eric Koh, co-founder, is now fully onboard Travelogy – he admits a mistake was believing he could do it part-time, BeMyGuest Travel is working towards an exit when big players start getting interested in the activities space in Asia and Faeez Abdillah of LagiSatu, the youngest start-up at six months, is betting on his “halal” focus to pay off eventually.
8. Money isn’t everything, as Shamile Rolfe, general manager of Ibis Novena, shared. Born into a wealthy family in Fiji, she left home, broke and penniless, to start her own life in Vancouver, studied medicine, gave that up after a year to focus on hospitality, and then ended up in New Zealand where she built up her hotel career, brick by brick. She was rejected as general manager three times by owners in China “because I am a woman” and eventually got her current job after much proving and convincing that a woman can do the job as well as anyone. “Control your own destiny,” she said. 
   

   Shamile Rolfe

9. For Jan Tan of Globehoppers, don’t be afraid to try everything so you know what you want to do. Joyce Huang has a fulltime job at Microsoft BizSpark but still has time to run Singapore Geeks Girls to inspire young girls about careers in technology. Vu Lam, who started out as an intern in a travel agency in Ho Chi Minh City, has a fulltime job at Google Singapore and dreams of being a motivational speaker so he can make loads to money to help people. Nino Gruttke (second from left) of ITB Asia is working on a book about happiness and says a large part of his career has to do with luck and making the most out of opportunities. Saima Hamidi (third from left) is taking an MBA because she got stuck in her career in India and is now working as an intern at Abacus International. Wan Phing Lim (third from right) got a job as online editor at Asiarooms.com after she got inspired about travel writing at a WITNext event. Clara Lim, an SMU student, is working at TripAdvisor and enjoying the learning. In summary – be clear-minded about your personal aims, goals, causes and loves because they will navigate you through life. Hard work will pay off and it never hurts to keep the spirit of creativity and enterprise alive, so apply it. Learn, laugh, live, think positive, do good, be restless. 
   

   The newbies

10. Finally, the learning never stops. School teaches you to learn and you continue to learn in the workplace. Whether you want to join companies in travel technology, online travel, cruising, airlines, hotels, business events or attractions, what’s most important is not the skills you bring to the job but the thinking you bring to it. As Kevin Cheong, chairman of Association of Singapore Attractions, said, “Most people know what to do but not how to do it.”

How true that is. For example, during the height of the haze, we all knew what to do – check PSI levels, buy masks, blame government, fly away – but we didn’t know how to handle it in our heads. I saw normally calm beings become like possums caught in the headlights.

At the Wellness and Well-Being Bootcamp, one participant said, “I don’t know why everyone is so obsessed with knowing what the PSI level is every moment of the day. What does that do to you?”

So people, as we live through the haze which is expected to come and go, as it does every year, till September, remember it’s the how that’s important.

Personally I have resolved to read all I can to understand about palm oil – this is what our forests are being cleared for – and its good and bad, and whether we’re all implicit in this mess because of our mindless consumption of stuff … and if we can, in our own small way, become part of the solution, not the problem.

Roll on, summer days.