At the Future Leaders Summit 2015 last Friday (July 24), labour chief Chan Chun Sing gave a low down on how young Singaporeans can make it to the C-suite (chief executives level).

Long story short, he said that we should "go forth, see the world, conquer the world" so that we can gain experience and exposure - two attributes that MNCs value.

Well, since he's labour chief, he must be right.

Here are some pearls of wisdom from the man that got us thinking. Warning: It ain't pretty. And it's pretty painful.

If you want to be at the top of the food chain...

"We need many more Singaporeans to reach the very top of the C-suite. In order for many more Singaporeans to have the opportunity to fight for their positions in the C-suite, we'd like to see many more Singaporeans with not just the attitude, skills, knowledge but also the experience and exposure."

You need to get out of Singapore.

And explore the world like Walter Mitty.

But more specifically you need to head to Jambi.

"I once asked one of my young residents, I said: 'Would you be prepared to go to Jambi and run a paper mill factory for two years. You run the entire operations there, it's a huge paper mill.' The place where they grow the trees for the paper mill is bigger than the entire Singapore. When I first went there and they took me to the paper mill, they drove at 60kmh through the plantation. They drove for two hours, I thought I was kidnapped already. I still have not seen the paper mill.

Life is not going to be as easy with Orchard Road next door and other malls next door. And the pay might not even be as high. But what it does is that it accumulates experience for young to know this: Going to New York and London is one thing but many people have gone to New York and London. That is the Red Ocean Strategy. We need to have some skill sets, some exposure, some experience that people may not have.

If everyone has gone to London and New York, what is my value add if I'm the Nth person to go to London and New York one more time?"

Even though going out of Singapore sucks.

"If I have one message for all the young PMEs here today, it's this: Yes, I know it's tough to go overseas. Yes, I know it's not comfortable. The pay might not be as good as in Singapore. The living environment might not be as good as Singapore."

And potentially very painful.

"I was posted to Indonesia 3o days from the day my first child was born. For the first three months of my first child's life, I was a weekend father. I come back on Friday on a midnight flight, I go back on Sunday on a midnight flight. For the first year of my child's life, she was flying back and forth."

But if you want to be the lion and not the tuna...

"But in order to reach the very top position in 10 to 15 years' time, we must be prepared to fight from today to get the exposure so that in 10 to 15 years' time when the Singaporean PME is competing with someone else for that C-suite position in Singapore or elsewhere, we stand the best chance possible."

Because the CEOs don't care who you are where you are from, what you did, as long as you perform.

"The truth is I've spoken to many of the CEOs and they only have one message for us: They don't care whether you are Singaporean or not Singaporean. They only care whether their team have a global perspective. People who know the local market in Singapore, people who know the regional market in Southeast Asia and hopefully people who can connect with the international market beyond Southeast Asia. So there's tremendous opportunities for Singaporeans to take on such jobs but therein lies our challenge. Are we equipped with the correct skill sets to take on these jobs? At the same time, do we have the exposure and experience to take on such jobs?"

At the end of the day, there's only so much oyster omelette you can have in Singapore. 

Singapore is your oyster but not the only one. Let the world be your oyster, go forth and look at the opportunities beyond Singapore, gather those experience come back with new ideas and serve.

So go forth and multiply expose yourself.

To the different cultures and markets that is.

Because YOLO.