NEVER TOO YOUNG TO START

Former commando Joseph Wong puts youths through "boot camps" to start them on their road to becoming entrepreneurs.

They may only be in their teens, but for two days of their March school holidays, a group of students from Temasek Junior College (TJC) had the opportunity to experience the life of an entrepreneur.

Since 2006, 33-year-old Joseph Wong has been organising such boot camps for students from polytechnics and junior colleges to learn from successful entrepreneurs in Singapore.

A typical session begins with Mr Wong teaching participants how to develop and pitch their ideas to venture capitalists.

In addition to interacting with entrepreneurs who share their start-up stories, business ideas, and challenges, participants are required to market their ideas in the streets. The programme ends with them having 10 minutes to pitch their business ideas to a panel of entrepreneurs.

"The training programme combines both theoretical and practical aspects, so participants not only learn about entrepreneurship, but also experience what it's like to start something on their own," explained Mr Wong.

Getting youths to give back

Besides encouraging youths to take the road to entrepreneurship through the boot camp, Mr Wong aims to inspire them to work towards social causes.

This fervour for social entrepreneurship stems from his experience as a member of the Singapore Armed Forces contingent sent for a peace-keeping mission in Timor-Leste from October 2002 to March 2003.

Having experienced the poor living conditions in Timor-Leste, he feels that youths in Singapore can do more to help the less fortunate.

Recalling a scene during that deployment, he said: "There were children at the dumping grounds scavenging for leftover food, and they even had to compete with pigs and dogs that were also looking for food in the dump."

He added: "Youths in Singapore don't really know what it means to live a hard life, but when I share my experiences in Timor-Leste during the boot camps, some of them get serious about wanting to help others through social enterprise."

Take action now

Intensive as the boot camps may be, they do not make entrepreneurs out of all the participants, as the programme can only galvanise them into starting their own businesses.

"The whole idea is to get people to translate their ideas into reality, and to encourage them to start doing something," said Mr Wong.

His advice to budding entrepreneurs: "If you have a business idea and you're passionate about it, act on it immediately. Don't ponder so much over it until you're paralysed into inaction."

"When I share my experiences in Timor-Leste with the boot camp participants, some of them get serious about wanting to help others through social enterprise."

- Joseph Wong