People who attend entrepreneurship workshops, I feel, are probably from a very specific subset of people.

Singapore needs more entrepreneurship, the world needs more entrepreneurship. Take charge, build and design the life you want for yourself. Live your dream, it’s possible. Hard work- uncomfortable, scary, but fulfilling. You’re sitting on a nail. The lights are too bright and you can’t get to bed.

Where do we get started?

I don’t want to be some sort of cliche poster boy for entrepreneurship- they always seem so fake, scammy with their suits and suites. Quick fix solutions, five easy steps. Every social-media guru. It makes me a little sick.

That said, only a diamond can cut another diamond. (Not anymore, but you know what I mean.) And only a narrative can displace another narrative.

If I want to make a difference, I have to get my hands dirty. I have to play by the rules before I can deliberately break them.

I believe in the value of digression- that not everything has to be broken down into easily digestible, simplistic portions. We can’t all keep eating baby-food- everything needs to be as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sometimes there is value in complexity, sometimes it’s necessary to use a few big wards or to talk about several different things at once rather than one at a time.

Sometimes as a writer, artist or human being, you need to have faith in your audience- to be willing to be misunderstood by some to deeply engage others. There is a trade off and we should embrace it. I no longer write for everyone- I write for you. You already know who you are, although you probably think that you can’t possibly mean that much to me, since we’e never met, or spoken. But you do. (I’d love it if you’d write back! visakanv at gmail dot com.)

Back to entrepreneurship. It begins with culture. Once upon a time, we were all entrepreneurs. Think about it- people were nomads, or craftsmen, the world was made up of SMEs before the birth of large corporate empires. I honestly believe that capitalism, even with all its flaws, is a good thing, and perhaps the best thing we have as a system of getting things done.

Selfish capitalists, as much as I hate to admit it, make the world a better place anyway. (Still, we can improve on these systems.) Steve Jobs was never known for his philanthropy, yet he has indirectly contributed more to it than the old lady who spent her entire life feeding the poor and needy at the soup kitchen. Mark Zuckerberg, too. And the guys and girls that wrote the code that help me run this blog, and help you do your online shopping- be it for enlightenment, orgasms or the pleasure of acquisition and consumption.

Because it’s safe to say that the people who go on to use their proucts to better the world couldn’t have done it without them – especially when there is no clear alternative to their products. James Maxwell’s unification of electricity and magnetism precedes Jobs, and Faraday and Orsted’s observations preceded Maxwell’s. Everybody who makes anything magical owes it to those who came before him. As Da Vinci said, There will be wings- if not for me then for some other. We forge the path for others. These are men who bettered our species at large- or at least provided us with better tools for us to go on and do so. Sure, we could also use these tools to do evil, or even to do nothing- but it often strikes me as silly to blame the tools, when we ought to blame ourselves.

The guys and girls who came up with TED? Awesome. YouTube. Facebook. Tumblr. These are all ways in which we discover our common humanity. I believe that people are slowly learning, through their interactions with others, how to be better people, and that we have far more in common with one another than the average person from previous generations could have ever figured out. What is the way forward? What should I do? What is the next Apple, the next smartphone, the next Internet? We cannot know, because if we did, we’d already be working towards it. It’s a black swan- we won’t know it until we see it- and then it’ll be obvious on hindsight. Who predicted eBay, Amazon, Google, Wikipedia? How much value have these things added to our lives?

I’d like to consolidate what I believe I’ve liearnt, and share it with others, because I think it’s clear that we can do more together than we can alone, as individuals.

There are books I believe that people should read- Taleb’s Black Swan, Norretrander’s User Illusion, Harford’s Adapt, Gladwell’s Tipping Point. I’ll do a bunch of book reviews of these books soon. But if you can, look them up. They’re fantastic. (Add: Heath’s Made to Stick.)