I share the five values that guided my life
1. Honesty
Honesty means that you must be your true self. Many people said that one must be politically correct. They want to project an image that may not be their true self. This is sometimes described as cosmetics or optics. But that image may be deceptive. I choose to be honest, to express truly what I think.
By being honest does not mean that I go around offending people. I show respect to all people. I do not judge or criticize them on their faults or shortcomings. Instead, I focus on their positive points.
2. Fairness
In sports, fairness means that all the competitors have an equal chance of winning the game.
In the workplace, fairness means that the workers have to be paid fairly according to their contribution to the results. Those who take more responsibility and contribute more to the results expect to be paid better and it is fair that their expectation is recognized. On promotion or career advancement, the opportunities must be given fairly to all the workers.
In the law court, the wealthy people can use their money to employ the expensive lawyers to oppress the other party, who cannot afford the top lawyers. This is unfair, and there must be ways to address the unfairness. It is important that the rich and powerful people do not abuse their wealth and power to oppress their opponents unfairly.
3. Being positive
Each person has positive points and negative points. Nobody is perfect. I prefer to focus on the positive points of a person and pay less attention to the negative points. To give a balanced assessment of a person, we may have to recognize both the positive and negative points, but we should focus more on the positive.
The same consideration applies to looking at a possible solution to an existing problem. It is better to focus on the positive points, for example, how a new method could be better than the existing method. We should not pay too much attention to what could go wrong and let the uncertainty and risk lead to the failure to act to address the problem.
4. Courage
Courage means being willing to make changes, for example, in how the business is run or how the work is done. When we make changes, there will be a risk that something might go wrong and it could bring negative consequences. Courage is needed to make changes. It is only when changes are made, that we can achieve tremendous progress and have a major impact on the results. Even if we fail, the failure itself will allow us to identify how to modify our approach and try again. It is only when we keep trying that we can eventually find the right solution.
About life in Singapore, we need the courage to speak out about what is wrong, for example, about the high cost of living contributed by government policies. We should also talk about unfairness in how the government exercises its power. .
5. Public service
We need to pay the top people in the public service adequately and well. However, we should avoid paying them excessively. Their salaries do not need to match the salaries of the top executives in the private sector, which have been too high in recent years.
Our top public service leaders should set an example in valuing the opportunity to serve the people. They should be willing to accept a salary that is adequate, but is lower than the remuneration in the private sector. I adopted this value when I was the CEO of a large insurance cooperative.
It is important that our leaders in the public service are paid adequately but the salaries should not be insanely high.
Tan Kin Lian