Talent? Yes. Passion? No.

Recently, I have read an article entitled "Talent? Yes. Passion? No." The article is basically about the opinions of young people after PM Lee Hsien Loong lamented at a talk that there was not enough talent in Singapore to form two really ace teams to govern Singapore in the future. Young people are disagreeing with him all over the place. They feel that lots of young people have loads of talent, but only do not have the passion and instead, everything has to have incentives to make them move. Young people do not want to make personal sacrifices or even have passion.

In my opinion, young people should get more involved, especially in this matter which is the problem of who is going to govern Singapore next. And it is very likely to be them, the next generation. Youths need to get into the mindset that life is simply not a bed of roses. Not everything is just there for them to pick up. There are obstacles, difficulties which they have to overcome sometimes. Also at other times, some personal sacrifices are also required for the greater good. If youths do not have the passion to govern a country, then who else will? This is a simple problem, but the solution is complex. Young people have loads of talent, but no passion. If they had no talent, it can always be integrated into them. However if they do not have the passion, that is an entirely different subject. That is their way of thinking. Some way or another, they have to be persuaded and motivated to become leaders of the nation or the whole nation will just collapse. I feel that young people need to walk around in the shoes of other, such as the Prime Minister himself, and attempt to see things from their point of view. They cannot be too self-centred, but instead must make things good for as many people as possible.

Then comes the education in schools. I feel that this is also part of the school's responsibility. Besides teaching students the basic subjects and hence enriching their knowledge and harnessing their full potential in whatever talents they may have, it is also important that schools implement leadership qualities in the students. This is because if the schools train the students to their full potential in the hopes of becoming successful, then all the more leadership qualities should be implemented in them and they be given the mindset of a future leader. This is common sense, since once one is successful, his or her job is likely to be a job in which the individual is expected to lead, such as the boss of a company which has to lead his subordinates, or a teacher, who has to lead and set a good example for the students in the class, or even the Prime Minister, who has an even greater responsibility in leading a whole nation. In this way, if leadership qualities such as making personal sacrifices and looking at things from different viewpoints, students will be trained to become future leaders and with their talents, I believe that a future successor for PM Lee Hsien Loong will be found very quickly.