In 2015 I started engaging with students at Singapore Management University in the School of Economics. These were brave young students who reached the class at 8 am to discuss the steps to eradicate poverty.  

I realised that during the more intensive SMU X class, which is a public private collaboration, there was an interesting transition. As Adjunct Mentor, my responsibility is to identify and design a project using real world problems faced by Social Service Agencies in Singapore. At the start of the program, the students are seemingly indifferent to the social problems. But as the problem statement is defined, the students get motivated to solve the problem. And by the end of the semester their entire perspective has changed.

I thought if problem solving can have such a profound impact, then why not start young. This thought led me to my next adventure. I toyed with the idea of introducing the idea of social enterprises to kids. Of course, with my background in finance, I was tempted to reach for graphs and charts but thanks to admonishment I received from my son early on, I knew I had to approach this differently. I realised that writing a book for kids is about problem solving embedded in a story. I decided to write a book. After one year of typing away furiously, I came up with a manuscript and finally in Nov 2018 I released my book – Freddy The Eager Fundraiser, at the Singapore Writers Festival. Thanks to Epigram, who gave a chance to newcomers, I got the perfect opportunity to spread this message.

Now my only hope is that when these kids read this book and grow up to become wealth owners, and when they sit to review portfolios with their advisors, they will ask questions about financial returns and also ask about impact and social outcome of their activities.

Hopefully there is an army of such young minds who want to change the world, and they will change the future of this planet.