B (7:55)

I think it was wonderful. Fantastic. I really enjoyed my time at Chicago both. I meet a lot of different people from different walks of life. I learn from them and make great friends. Including you, Vince.

A (8:09)

Yeah, of course, of course, of course. Ten years and counting.

B (8:12)

Yes, yes. And yeah. So, okay, first of all, I like meeting people, but I also love learning. After I graduate from university, I realized that I do like being a student. I like to challenge myself and stretch my mind. I never really did study business type of subjects when I was in school. And so the MBA helps to put frameworks and theories to what I learned on the job. Business consulting. It is business, but it's not like a formal education. It's on the job kind of training. So going through mba, I think that was useful. There is a lot of rigor in, in what Chicago Bulls offer. I remember, for example, macroeconomics.

A (8:59)

I asked.

B (9:03)

Professor Huizinger. I really liked him. He really drives us. He taught us how to look at trends, try to predict stuff using formulas. I know that some other. I shall not name other schools. Yeah, but from my understanding, macroeconomics would be a little bit more intuitive. And in those causes. But for Chicago, Booth, it was all formula driven. And then every week, no, every month we had an exam. And in the week that we are together, every day there's a quiz. So it's quite crazy. But I think it really trained us well, placed us very well. I think looking back, it was a great experience. But the question was, why did I choose to do it? As an elected member of Parliament, I should constantly try to grow and learn. As I mentioned earlier, in my first term, I quit my job at Ernst and Young to focus on my constituency work. I think it was wonderful. After a while, when we get the hang of things, you build up experience, you establish processes, you establish the team. I start to have capacity. I felt that I needed to build new dimensions. I. I felt that I really needed to learn something. When the Chicago Bulls opportunity came, I decided to just latch on and just go. It has been a wonderful two years.

A (10:27)

Yeah. Part of your growth process. You are always on call as a elected member of the Parliament. Always community works, always on. And then you finish your MBA education, you move back to the you the real world. You got your private sector job, full time job, you got this public duty and you're a mother of two. How do you balance not just balancing your timetables but, but also the roles you played. How do you balance all these different responsibilities and duties?

B (11:07)

Yeah, I get asked this quite a bit. And while we all wish we can balance all these different roles and that and the assumption underlying this would be that we compromise nothing, but the reality is that there will always be trade off. Something has to give at some point when we focus on something else. So in this case, honestly, there's always a constant mother's guilt because I feel that being an elected member of Parliament is absolutely sacred because so many people place their trust in me. They voted for me. To me this is absolutely sacred. So I have to continue to do my best to solve the problems, to listen, to represent them in parliament, to give voice, to do a lot of things. And that takes a lot of time. Professionally I get paid and I also want to make sure that I continue to grow as a person. I also want to give myself that chance to do so. And I need to be a responsible employee. So in the end I have to sacrifice the family front a little bit more. I remember in my second general election, 2015, two weeks after I gave birth, you know, in Asian culture there's a one confinement. So I basically actually a few days after giving birth, I had to go out and start training my walking because by the second, but because two weeks later after I gave birth, I have to start campaigning because general was just around the corner, I had to start campaigning. And so I recall that my first born every day he looks different because there's a rapid growth period. And I remember after general election when the dust has settled, I came back and I look at him, I was like, oh my God, he has grown so much. What did I miss out? Thank you. So it was quite, quite emotional. And then of course now they are a bit older, a little bit more independent in that sense. But I must say that in the end, whatever that I could do, I wouldn't have been able to achieve those if not for the great support of many wonderful people. So within the constituency I have a great team who have stood by me even during the toughest of time. And I'm grateful. Residents have been very kind and Understanding and they continue to place their trust in me, and I'm grateful. At work, my colleagues and my bosses have also been appreciative of my other roles, and they give me the flexibility. I'm grateful. Of course, at home, I've got my family, my parents, my husband, friends as well, who are willing to step in when I have to go out and do my part. So it's a whole ecosystem of support. I recognize that not everyone enjoys the same level of support. And so actually, this thing about how can we better support women to achieve their aspirations actually became one of the causes that I've been fighting for or talking about since that second general election, since 2015, since becoming a male pick.

A (14:18)

You mentioned about women empowerment. Tell us a bit more about your work there. Perhaps other issues that keep you busy, keep you on your toes.

B (14:29)

Yeah, actually, I'm passionate about a range of issues and causes. When I was in my 20s, when I was first fielded, I was very passionate and I continue to be passionate about elderly issues as well as youth because I've always been a youth volunteer and I believe in youth development, mental health, mental wellness being such a core part of issue that youth are concerned about. So that naturally is something that I'm concerned about as well. And I've always been interested in mental health. That's why I chose psychology. Right then, seniors, my parents are aging. As the only child, I have to think about how I can support them, how I can care for them. And I also start to think about how I would like to live my life when I eventually grow old and become elderly myself. So that's from the personal point of view. But in my constituency, one in three are age 60 and above. So I have a fairly significant population of seniors that were under my care. Naturally, issues concerning them would be my concern as well. Ensuring their basic living needs are being taken care of, ensuring that they continue to be socially and mentally engaged. Because I think the biggest threat face that our elderly face today is isolation. Bread and butter, all these. Some do continue to struggle, but overall, I think with the government support, with the charities and community partners coming together, we can cover that part. For seniors, because of changing social structures, many are living alone or they are living maybe with only one other person. Could be a spouse, could be a helper, but basically because of that changing social structure, many seniors are going to be very lonely in their twilight years. And if we don't actively engage them, they can deteriorate very quickly, physically as well as mentally. And then the burden of care will therefore be very heavy but. But the biggest thing is about their quality of life. So this is something that I continue to be very focused on because women empowerment as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife, as whatever, so many different roles. It's really how can we empower women to create, to build capabilities, to create capacities to break the ceiling and help them achieve their aspiration. And now as we move into the digital future. So this is also the other thing that I'm also very big on is about the digital economy, digital society, the smart nation, smart government, the whole digital realm, the digital future. This also is something that I'm very interested in. So there's a lot that I can cover. But basically how can we make sure that Singapore continues to be well placed for the opportunities within this digital future? How can we continue to ensure that our people ready for this digital future? And under this portion is how can we empower women so that they are smart ladies for a smart nation? How can we help them unlock the opportunities that a digital future can offer them? For example, when we talk about flexible work arrangement, technology plays a good part in this to enable women to be able to work from home or work remotely so that they can juggle their different roles. By equipping women with digital skills. According to studies by Accenture, IMF and various bodies, by helping women to increase in their digital fluency, we can close the gender gap in half the time. For example, helping women to develop digital capabilities is very important.

A (18:11)

You mentioned that you are a keen learner. So can you suggest books that have helped you learn, help you grow over time and move forward?

B (18:27)

Well, I think that the many possible books, I always think that life experiences, that person to person interaction is most precious in terms of books. Okay. My. I'm a big fan of our founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. There's a lot of hard truth and very good wisdom that can be found in his book. That's one. Recently he has many books. I won't pinpoint any, just go read them. I'm still trying to get through to finish the book because I'm so busy, but it's about the power of regret. It's interesting because a lot of people when they talk about regret, it is ah, could have, would have, should have. I think the crux of this is really about how can you view regret from a different perspective that actually drives you to take action, to solve problems and to be a better person.

A (19:25)

Every guest, they will suggest some books that have inspired them. So that's why I like to share their collective knowledge, collective inspirations with our audience. So that's the reason why I asked you about your source of inspiration. I'm also a keen reader. I've published two books and I'm writing my third. So that's also a reason why I always like to share knowledge. I also like to learn from each other. Like you said, you like to learn from other people's stories. The issues you mentioned, mental health, aging, population, I can resonate with you more about aging, isolation. I'm also only child myself. Like you said, retired people, older people either stay with their spouse or live alone or live with a helper. Mental health not only for youth, but basically for all ages. Women, 50% of the world population, yet are not well represented under empowered. So next time when you come back, tell us more about what you learn from stories of people around you, from your stakeholders, older members of the communities, but also members of the youth as well as the women. Despite all these systematic issues, at the same time, lots of opportunities for us to drive change. Tell us more about those changes that you have over time pursue and how you are still in the fight for more changes for your communities.

B (21:03)

Happy to and anytime for you. Vince.

A (21:14)

Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show. Leave us top rated reviews. Check out our website and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.