2019 has been an epic year. A year where I feel I’m finally piercing through the thick mental mist of “what should be done” and getting to concretise “what I shall do”.
Looking back at my numerous conversations with highly talented youth, a consistent thread has been the desire to seek out and walk the untrodden path. They were not looking to rush to a “greener pasture”. Rather, they were looking for a snow-laden mountain to scale. A higher pay cheque and fine dining opportunities would neither retain them nor seduce them. They were not the type to use “work-life balance” as an excuse to avoid long hours and hard work. These youth worked too hard if anything.
I met one such youth when I spoke at the Global Dispute Resolution Conference at the Pepperdine School of Law last month.
Grace is effectively multi-lingual and has a first degree in business. She’s worked for prestigious law firms and state entities and has also explored the non-profit sector. She acquired the skills to develop e-platforms out of personal interest and was now doing her LLM at Pepperdine.
With graduation due in less than a year, Grace sought my thoughts on her career questions and aspirations. She could easily go back into the international legal industry and earn a six-figure salary. But she shared that she was keen to apply her legal education and natural aptitude in technology design to create an online platform that would make legal services more accessible and affordable.
Oftentimes, when the average layperson reaches the point where legal services are needed, we are likely to be in somewhat of a rut. Distracted by potential legal liability or an urgent business opportunity, we have little bandwidth to sift through all the possible choices to identify the lawyers who we can trust not to put us through costly and frivolous processes. Some of us can benefit from recommendations. Many more do not have this benefit – especially those most in need of such help.
Grace wanted to use her global network, app developing skills, and legal know-how to plug this gap. Her idea was to distinguish her platform by curating cost-efficient and ethical service providers. Entry and usage fees would be proportionately low in view of the app’s lower income target audience.
I thought the idea was ingenious and powerful in its simplicity! The platform had enormous potential for promoting mediation use, encouraging the sharing of best practices, and shaping mindsets and experiences of legal service users. In a world where we have too much news about ruptured perspective differences, Grace was envisioning a digital bridge.
The encounters with Pepperdine’s awesome faculty (many of whom were my own North-stars when I was a student) reinforced my belief that some of the biggest evolutionary steps after the Singapore Convention on Mediation would take place in the transformation of the legal education syllabus in law schools worldwide. The strong currents of interest amongst young people, an interest that has transcended national boundaries, religions, genders, and races, needs to be fed.
And, the waves of new energy and ideas poised to be unleashed will be exhilarating. Grace is an example of a multi-talented youth with great ideas who will steer the way mediation is made available in the next 100 years. Many more of these untrodden paths will unfold.
My hope and prayer is that more young mediator-entrepreneurs find the support they need to take these untrodden paths and to stay true to having them characterised by Higher Purpose, Service, and Ethics.
Speaking as a youth advocate, most youth wish for jobs that help us feel relevant and that we are making a direct contribution to the well-being of others. We want to leave a small mark on the spectrum of time. Even if it was as indelible as a single star in the night, it is important to us that the light that we each carry shines for a few light years – someone would see it someday on a night that was exceptionally dark and just for that person, it’s worth making the effort to shine.
The end goals were important for the youth in our jobs but the means were just as important. We want to belong to organisations with a bold and clear vision, backed up by decisive and ethical leadership. Every colleague, supervisor or reportee, was a team-mate with whom we worked hard with together, failed together, bounced back together, and succeeded together. This hunger for collective and personal legacy-creating is what I believe underlies the youth-driven sustainability movement. It is also what I’m starting to see in mediation (which, by the way, can greatly reduce resource wastage!).
Later the same afternoon, I decided to pass to Grace some of the more salient wisdoms from the Sage Advisors I regularly consult with. I am grateful for her permission to share her story and the letter I wrote to her. The full text of my letter is reproduced below (just in case you cannot read my lovely handwriting!).
“Hi Grace,
It was good chatting with you this morning. You have wonderful talents and a fascinating business idea!
My 3 key takeaways for you to consider:
1. Have a very good time of learning and reflection @ Pepperdine. You are here for a break, so take the break. Don’t rush and try to work and study. Use this time to read, talk to people, and distil what you can do to address a need of the global community. Have fun!
2. Clarify the idea that excites you and plan small steps. I think you’ve already made some progress in appreciating your love for product design and your broad geographic familiarity. It’s also progress to be aware that you don’t enjoy pure legal work. Whatever you decide on finally, think big, act small. The details matter. E.g. If you create another platform, I’d aim for just 20 small firms to provide their services and reaching a subscription base of 100 users in year 1 (i.e. < 10 users/month).
3. Nurture a strong community of friends. This has been the MOST important element for entrepreneurship success! Your friends must be people who are prepared to give you hard truths about your ideas without making you feel discouraged. They will be your brand ambassadors and your first customers. They will counterbalance the many voices telling you your ideas are dumb and your efforts futile. They will remind you to pace yourself, stay optimistic, and believe!
So yes, on the last point, stay in touch. Thanks to technology, oceans and mountains are no longer obstacles. I’ll be very keen to be the first partner and customer of what you decide to offer.
Lastly, stay prayerful and keep discerning the purpose of each step. He has a good reason for everything!
Cheers,
Aloysius, 23 Nov 2019”
Wishing everyone a Blessed Christmas and a Wonderful 2020!
Make a resolution to promote Mediation Awareness early!
– Aloysius
Singapore Polytechnic Scholars putting their newfound mediation skills into practice.
