End of one and the beginning of the other

Post date: Oct 18, 2013 10:6:44 AM

En105/ET9105 has been my enjoyably distraction away from my daily job. It is like an ECA that you do it because you like it rather than because you have to do it. Usually, after the combine lesson, whereby the previous batch would share with the incoming batch what they have learned, and before the beginning of the next lesson for the new batch, it would be the time that I start to grade the students. This part of grading involve reviewing their blog, looking at their intra-group peer appraisal and also their individual refection report.

Since batch 29, I startup to compile interesting quotes from the students that are so meaningful for me and that what we try to impart actually got through to the students.

Here are some quotes for your reference and it would be good to read and properly cultivate your mindset before starting the module. I do not want to put the name of the person writing this as these quotes are from their individual reports which is used as part of the grading.

Batch 32

"The first and foremost thing that ET9105A has taught me during these past six months is that entrepreneurship is not a “solo” game. My mind-set before starting up my own business is that given enough time and resources, you can do everything alone, without the need to depend on other. Formal education has imparted wrong belief that everyone else is your competitor and to be the best, you need to excel alone. Starting this venture has taught me that behind every great and successful business, there is a great team behind it, to which everyone commit and contribute their best to achieve common goal, which is the success of the business, by covering each other’s weaknesses with their own unique strengths and talents. A good team is essential for a successful business."

"Have a correct attitude in business and in life. It is not the one with the most powerful brainpower, not the one with the widest connection, but the one with the correct attitude that will be the most successful. Initially, I started the course with the mind-set of wanting to do well for ET9105A in term of academic grade. I treated the venture as another school’s project, to which I must excel and score well. I was wrong. As the venture progressed, and I was being bombarded with the reality and hardships of starting my own business, I started to forget about the need to do well in term of grade, but instead focused more on how to make the business, MY business to be successful. I began to focus on learning, getting the job done and treating my business as my own children. I want my business to do well. I started off with the wrong attitude, but I am glad that I am able to end it with (hopefully) the correct one."

Batch 30-31

"It was said that, " Building a successful business starts with a dream, but without the requisite knowledge and tools, it can turn into a nightmare." (Reese, 2012). It is indeed a blessing opportunity to be enrolled into ET9105 to experience how the real business world works; now with our head full of theoretical knowledge learnt from the previous modules. However, in my opinion, the real nightmare begins when a team of entrepreneurs starts a business without a dream."

"To summarize, taking Minor in Entrepreneurship is just like taking swimming lessons. For the first 4 weeks (ET9101 - ET9104), we were taught how to swim in classroom. Just like other lessons, exams were given to see how well you have comprehend the techniques (theory) to swim or at the very least to stay afloat. Then finally before you can graduate, you were thrown in the sea and occasionally find some sticks (mentors) for you to hold on so that you will not drown and die."

Batch 29

"What I learnt in this EN9105a are intangible things that cannot be learnt in all my years of educations and even EN9101-EN9104. Because the earlier modules were theories or even realistic simulations, what EN9105a out did the rest, was to compel us to start a business of our own, providing experienced mentors and nothing else. Doing nothing else was actually a key to the growth of every single character in our teams because we learnt to create our own rules instead of following."

"Singapore’s education had probably painted a warped and distorted picture of the need to succeed in our every chance due to the one shot chance to do well for O’level and A’level. But through EN9105a this set of thinking I developed through the 20 odd years of my life have demolished. I know that I will fail a lot of times, but I am no longer afraid of failures."

The 2 quotes from batch 32 comes from the same person. It is the first 2 paragraph I read while starting the grading process. The fact that this course changes the mindset of the students in a way that no any amount of theory can do motivated me to go on teaching and mentoring. This make all the tiring process of grading late into 3-4am over few nights worth it.