It has been a relatively quiet week for me. I am still giving tender loving care to my first batch of vegetable seedlings in my new hydroponics experiment, watching a lot of youtube videos on this topic as well as daily comedy channels about American politics.
What stood out this week for me were 2 separate introductory meetings I had that opened my eyes to what the younger generation’s aspirations are in the fast changing world of ours.
On Thursday, I had coffee with someone my Myanmar friend had told me I should meet. He introduced us and we arranged to have a chat on investment opportunities. I was pleasantly surprised to meet a young well mannered Millennial who had just gotten married. The discussion went along well as we introduced ourselves to each other. He was in the midst of getting more work experience in a venture capital firm with a goal to eventually managed their own family office setup based in S’pore with his brother.
His dad had been very successful in Myanmar and is looking to retire in Australia now. Hence they are cashing out from most of their current investments and leaving it to the next generation (him and his brother) to figure out what to do next. We both agree that there are exciting opportunities to be discovered in Myanmar as the country opens up.
As he was raised there for the first 18 years of his life, he had the unique added advantage of having a circle of friends who were in the who’s who list of that country, being on first name basis with the children of the important decision makers who will be the next generation of entrepreneurs growing up in a country that had shut itself from the world in the last 50 years and only opened up in the last few years.
He is well positioned both financially and experience wise to take advantage of the rapidly growing middle class in Myanmar as the resource rich country opens itself up to the global stage. Politically, it is still at an infancy level but I believe that they are smart enough to learn from the mistakes of their neighboring countries and hopefully not to repeat them.
I had recently participated in the mentorship program of my uni and had just accepted to take on 2 mentees for the next 12 months. To kick start the program, I had lunch with one of them on Friday for us to get to know each other better.
He had just completed his military national service to begin his first year as an undergraduate in a very interesting degree course in the faculty of Science called Quantitative Finance. The department only takes in a class of 30+ students per year and it is a combination of Finance, Maths and Computing topics.
I believe that with the way banking and most industries are going, technology like blockchain would make most current jobs redundant as we strive to increase efficiency with less manpower and Uberize everything. This course should be the way to go for future graduates looking to enter banking.
We talked about our backgrounds and discussed about what we hope to achieve from this program. I remember that during my time in the uni, the outside working world was a mystery until we actually graduated and started working. Hopefully, I can provide him with some guidance and share with him my experiences to help him crystallize his goals and the career path he eventually would like to take.
It was refreshing for me to have spoken to 2 young Millennials this week to hear about their aspirations and thoughts about their future. As a parent, it will also help me to better understand what my sons are going through now from their perspectives.
The fear of the generation gap is always going to be there, but by sharing, I hope to bridge the divide and learn more. I must remember to listen more and not to sound too preachy or forceful in my conversations with them in the future. We aim to strive for a win-win result where the experience will enrich both parties.
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