Talk For ‘The Entrepreneur In You’

Thomas was invited to be a keynote speaker for an event organised for the Indian community, where the Guest-of-Honour was Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Held at the Republic Polytechnic on 8th June, the event was a whole day event that drew crowds of over 4000 people. The event, called ‘The Entrepreneur In You’ was organised by the Chairman of the People’s Association Indian Activity Executive Committees Co-ordinating Council, Mr P.Thirunavukarasu.

Thomas, Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Sant

Even though Thomas had only just gotten back from a heavy travelling schedule that include visits to the US, Malaysia and Thailand, he was at the event a few hours before he was due to give his talk. He wanted to get an idea of the event and the crowd so that he could better tailor his talk for them. I think that is the obsessive passion that the authors talk about in Chapter 2 of the book. After all, not everyone would take time out on a SUNDAY afternoon to share their business experiences with aspiring entrepreneurs. (Yes, 8th June was a Sunday.)

I guess it is like what the authors say in the book about entrepreneurs having an obsessive passion for what they do. They explain that obsessive passion means “having a compulsive, uncontrollable enthusiasm about what you do.” Even as Thomas also shared about this during his talk, we also heard the same thing from Mr P.Thirunavukarasu when we got a chance to chat with him after the talk. (I didn’t manage to take a photo of the authors chatting with him). He told us about how this event started out as a suggestion and then it grew bigger and bigger as more people got involved. However, as the people invovled were all contributing their help on a voluntary basis, there were some challenges along the way.

Judging by the huge turnout and happy crowd who got to listen to talks by various experts and enjoy various products and services by the participating stalls, I think the organiser’s hard work paid off.