Bro, I need to get this off my chest because the second-hand embarrassment and reality check are hitting too hard.
We all have that one friend in our clique who enters National Service and suddenly undergoes a complete personality transplant. For my group, that was “Bro Marcus.” This guy went to OCS, got his commission, put that single bar on his shoulder, and suddenly thought he was Lee Kuan Yew’s gift to the nation. He became peak garang. Every time we met up during weekend book-outs, he would talk down to the rest of us specs and men like we were uneducated peasants.
His favorite ultimate thesis? “Bro, if you can command a platoon and survive OCS, you have superior leadership DNA. Success in NS is a perfect reflection of corporate success. If you are a man, your mindset is just a follower.” He genuinely, unironically believed that your rank in the SAF dictates your ceiling in the real world.
Fast forward past ORD and university, and guess what? The rules of reality hit him like a physical train.
Now, in our late 20s/early 30s, he is statistically the most unsuccessful, struggling guy in our entire clique. The rest of the “lowly corporate men” and “lazy specs” went out, grinded hard, upskilled, and actually learned how the real economy works. Meanwhile, Marcus entered the corporate world thinking his OCS sword and certificate would automatically grant him a fast-track management associate role.
He found out the hard way that a civilian corporate boss does not give a flying crap if you can conduct a section assault or draw a flawless sand model. In the real world, you cannot give a “lawful order” to your subordinates to make them work overtime. If you scream at your team like an unhinged PC, HR will have a chat with you by 2:00 PM, or your Gen Z team members will just quietly quit on the spot.
He lacks the actual corporate empathy, technical acumen, and agility required to survive when there is no strict SAF Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) guiding your every breath. He spent so many years thinking he was an elite leader that he forgot how to be a competent executor. He is stuck in middle management, constantly complaining about how “nobody respects authority anymore.”
Look, I’m sure for some high-flying SAF scholars, the NS-to-corporate pipeline works beautifully. But for the average garang officer who peaks at 21? Bro, reality operates on a completely different framework. Your rank is just a piece of plastic. Once you step out of the camp gates, everyone starts from zero.
Change my mind.