The OSM was an eye-opening experience that I would not trade for anything, despite my gripes about the cold freezing weather, the overly oily food and the horribly smoky restaurants. Well, that made me appreciate Singapore so much more, at least! :0)

The company visits we made to the various start-ups and establishments were really enriching. We saw how each entrepreneur worked hard to achieve their dreams, overcame obstacles, revived from failure to failure and related with people. We had so much to learn within two very, very short weeks! ^.^ Personally for me, I learnt that the business environment is extremely competitive whether in China or Singapore, but especially in China because it’s so big and there is this C2C concept: Copy to China.

So, in order to succeed and make it big, you’ve got to have your competitive advantages, unique selling propositions and very special, high quality products that are difficult for others to replicate. Otherwise, you’d just be eaten up by the bigger and faster industry players. This led me to make the decision to focus on a niche market for my F&B business (first) before going on to do more, because initially I wanted to do so many things all at once. Now I realise that focus is crucial for success. =)

It is winter time now in China  however I saw people lying curled up, sleeping in the streets, out in the cold. This image reminds me of the survival mentality that Chinese people have. Many of the current generation of entrepreneurs in China are successful because they have the survival mentality; they ventured out not because they wanted to but because they had to in order to survive. However, times are changing and many young people in China are increasingly given opportunities to start-up, with support from the universities and the government. =p This is one of the things I noticed about entrepreneurship in China.

The trip wasn’t smooth sailing all the time, there were delays, disagreements and plans were changed a few times… but these are part of a learning and growing process for each one of us as long as we’re willing to learn from the experience. For me I learnt characteristics and values such as flexibility, decisiveness, shrewdness, submission, initiative, sensitivity, observation and respect among others. Being the group representative for i4, I was able to talk with my peers and understand their thoughts, feelings, frustrations and feedback on the trip. Many of them benefitted from the OSM in one way or another, and most of them experienced a shift in their world view about China and the business environment there. :oD

I hope for all my friends on the trip, i4, the iLead Alumni, the CEOS (Chinese Entrepreneurship Organisation Singapore) and the staff as well, will always remember to reflect on their personal experiences and take setbacks with a pinch of salt.

Natasha ^.^

Tags: experiences, lessons learnt, osm, reflections

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 3:35 am and is filed under reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.