Advice For Students - SIM Teow Hong

When I look at our students and our graduates, what concerns me is many of them are focused on, I guess primarily, career and money. But to me, life is more than that. Life has to do with also first knowing yourself and your values. Career and money is just a means to that end. If those are your end in itself, I would say you are in trouble, because money is never enough. If you are a billionaire, there's always the next billion to make, so it's never enough. But I think ultimately for students, for anyone, to me it's your personal sense of happiness and satisfaction, not just from a career perspective but from your personal life, family and from what you are able to contribute to society at large. I think to me, those are key. 

I wish that on the day I die, I will not say, I wish I could have spent less time in the office and more time with my family. I think I can consciously say that I have strike a good balance between family, personal life and work. I think that is key. I think we need to keep all that in balance and not tilt it to the other way. So if I may have a chance to tell students, is think carefully about all these as well. It's not about the more pay and all that. It is ultimately your own journey and your own satisfaction in relation to all these things, contributing to family, contributing to the society. You can chase money, money can fail you. You can chase career, career can kill you. You know because I always tell, even my children, I say, high pay is not for free. It comes with responsibility. It comes with stress. So nothing is for free. So the key thing is balance. Strike a balance in your life between your personal values and what you want to accomplish. That to me is more important.