I need to write this because if I hear one more friend during weekend drinks say, “Wah, so good, you own boss, can wake up anytime, drive nice car,” I am going to lose my mind.
Let me say this loud and clear: NOT EVERYONE IS BORN TO BE A BUSINESSMAN.
My friends look at me and see “success” and “freedom.” They see the flexibility, the fact that I don’t answer to a toxic manager, and they envy me. But they only see the surface. They don’t see the crushing, soul-destroying stress and the 24/7 grind that goes on behind the scenes. In Singapore, the business landscape is brutal, and the reality is far from glamorous.
When you are an employee, you get sick, you take MC. You stay home, watch Netflix, eat porridge, and your salary still runs. For me? There is no such thing as MC. If I am down with a 39-degree fever or COVID, I still have to reply to emails and put out fires. Because if the business stops for one day, the losses are on me.
The stakes are terrifyingly high. If you are an employee and you mess up a project, worst-case scenario you get a scolding from your director or a bad performance review. Maybe you get fired. But you can just pack your bag and find another job. For me, if we fail to deliver a contract properly? We get sued by customers. It is legal battles, lawyers’ fees, and the threat of bankruptcy staring at you in the face.
Having a normal 9-to-6 job is completely different. If you are not happy with the company culture, the pay, or the workload, you can just quit. You give your one-month notice, pass over your files, and walk away clean. Sayonara.
For me? I cannot quit. It’s not just about my own rice bowl. I have a team. My employees need me to survive. They have families to feed, BTO loans to pay, and kids to send to childcare. Their livelihoods literally depend on my ability to secure projects and keep the cash flow positive every single month. The weight of that responsibility is suffocating. When the economy is bad, I don’t sleep at night because I’m figuring out how to pay their salaries and CPF contributions before I even take a single cent for myself.
So please, to anyone thinking of jumping into entrepreneurship just because you hate your current job: dont think running a business is so easy. It is not an escape from hard work; it is trading a 9-to-6 job for a 24/7 mental prison. Appreciate the stability of a paycheck, because the grass is definitely not greener on this side.