How I Balance Business and Parenting as an Entrepreneur

Last December, as I squeezed out some time to help my kids with their study, I thought: Why not combine entrepreneurship and parenting?

As a parent of 2 primary boys, I see a common problem parents are facing, especially in Singapore.

Teachers are too busy. We can’t expect teachers to look after every kid.
It is up to our kids whether they can get it themselves in a big class.
As a result, many parents rely on tuition, out of FOMO (or kiasu in Singlish).

But there is one big problem with over-tutoring. It breeds over-reliance and kills self-learning.

As a top student (sharing for context, not to brag), I grew up as a self-learner. Some of my friends who were top students are self-learners as well.

To be clear, self-learner doesn’t mean you don’t rely on teachers. My school had great teachers. Self-learner means you try to learn to solve a problem before asking for help.

Learning hits different when you figure things out yourself vs getting quick answers. The effort creates true understanding that sticks.

But cultivating self-learning requires the right environment and tools.

First, we need to give kids time to make mistakes, find answers and learn. We should not readily give answers, or worse, sit beside them and guide through each step.

Secondly, we need the right incentives to motivate self learning. A pull instead of push system. My father used to set point system for our study in primary school. We accumulate positive or negative points when our exam scores were above or below 80. We get to buy toys for positive points, and get punishment for negative points. My parents didn’t need to nag us for our study.

Thirdly, we need to give the right tools to kids to self learn. Without tools, their only option is to ask for quick answers from adults. But tools are double-edged swords. Exposing the wrong tool too early kills learning. E.g. Giving a calculator to primary school students is a big no.

That is why I founded Learn Parrot, with very clear purpose: