Ho Kwon Ping is the founding chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and Singapore Management University (SMU).

In 2009, he delivered a keynote address at the ACS Youth Leaders summit, addressing attributes of leadership that he thinks are important for the younger generation to have.

This speech, which can be found in Ho's book Asking Why, is published here in full with permission.

By Ho Kwon Ping

I am told that you are the voices of the future.

No doubt this is true, but amidst the chatter I hear voices which are quietly despairing even as they are yearning for meaning. And so it should be.

To believe in a naïve idealism – that so long as you have good intentions and do good deeds the world will turn out also to be good – is dangerous.

The world is a dangerous place, and I don’t mean just the dangers in crossing the street, or even of a terrorist attack or war in Iraq, nor even of a global flu epidemic.

The world is dangerous because of each of us. Because we continue to screw it up, one generation after another.

We tell you that you are the leaders of tomorrow, but what world will we have passed to you to lead?

If you do not despair for the state of the world today, you would be naïve.

But at the same time, if you do not search for a way to create meaning in your lives, to make this a slightly better world than the one we will pass to you, you would be blithely irresponsible.

So what are you to do, the supposed leaders of tomorrow, whose voices are currently powerless and unheard?

Each generation grows up in the shadow of the previous one

When I was your age — and please don’t roll your eyes and say to yourself: here comes another old man who thinks he understands us — I thought that my parents’ generation had not done much to improve the world.

True, they had survived or even fought in the worst war the world had ever seen, but it was that same generation which indeed, created the Second World War and all its suffering in the first place. They presided over the longest and fastest economic growth in history, but they were also responsible for the worst depression.

And my generation, the baby-boomers whose demographic surge created trends ranging from disco-partying to street protesting, we have dominated every generation after us, whether it be Generation X, Y, or Z.

By our sheer numbers, we have defined global socio-cultural, political and economic trends.

And you have grown up in our shadow.

But just as our generation pioneered tremendous innovations which have truly contributed to mankind’s progress, we too have failed miserably in so many other critical areas. In global poverty alleviation, conflict resolution, environmental protection – we are leaving this world no better than we took over from our parents.

This may be a harsh judgment, since the twentieth century, which my grandparents and parents created, achieved more than several previous centuries combined.

But if mankind’s progress is indeed a history of missed opportunities, then we have arguably missed more opportunities than we have seized.

Asking questions

So as you begin to inherit the earth, you must surely have asked the same question each generation asks when it comes to maturity, and that is: will each generation never understand and learn from history, and therefore be doomed to repeat these same mistakes?

How can each generation lift itself from the quagmire bequeathed by the previous?

How can you, the voices of the future, ever hope to lead your generation towards the light?

I ask this question because we are just beginning to emerge from the greatest recession the world has ever seen.

A global near-depression caused by the hubris and audacity of the brilliantly greedy leaders of my generation – our best and brightest whose collective intellect and wealth could probably have created the proverbial cure for cancer, but which instead, applied its brilliance towards simply demonstrating that there is no limit to greed and hubris.

Values determine who we are

Fortunately, not all of us believe that short term profit maximization and self-aggrandizement are the only values we hold; some of us do truly believe, naïve though it may sound, that the mission of business --- the strongest driver of economic well-being in the world --- is to help build a better society.

It is above all, values which determine who we are and what we will be, and what we will do when confronted by temptations or by challenges.

It is the values of our community, our families, and ourselves, which will guide us – and you – as you attempt to solve the huge problems and shoulder the massive financial burdens we have so blithely left for you.

What we need in society are more values-creators than wealth-creators, more idealistic young school teachers, social entrepreneurs, environmental activists, who believe passionately that what they are doing is far more valuable than creating complex financial instruments with endless acronyms.

Values will guide how we approach solutions

When I was your age, I became radicalised when I became president of my high school student council, running on a platform of student power – the slogan for many of us in those days.

Then, as an university student, I truly thought I could help to change the world.

So I manned student barricades in the name of social progress, I got thrown out of university and thrown into prison, and I have in my own small way even as I entered the big bad world of business, to help make the people I affect, live more meaningful lives.

Values are particularly important because the problems you will face will have no easy, win-win solutions.

They will inevitably involve trade-offs – the classic economist’s dilemma where one positive action will invariably have negative impacts, and you have to negotiate this minefield of endless options, to settle on the course of action which achieves the greatest social good for the least public harm.

Essence of leadership can be found within each of us

Finally, how can you become better leaders in order to confront these challenges?

I say better because by being here, you are surely already leaders in your own way. But the challenges of leadership will only become more onerous, not less.

I’m often asked to talk about leadership. I’m not interested in the false dichotomy, the fruitless debate about whether leadership is born or bred, or nature vs nurture.

I’m only interested in conveying to young people that the essence of leadership lay within each of us, and that we can by listening to our true selves, nurture our own ability for leadership.

You need above all, to learn to listen to your inner voice, that part of all of us which intuitively knows what is the right thing to do, even if it means a personal cost to us.

Important attributes of leadership

What, after all, is leadership?

The most important attributes, I believe, is the clarity of mind to think independently and analytically, the wisdom to take yourself out of the thinking, and then the courage to act on your conclusion.

After all, the very definition of a leader is the person who does not follow others, but inspires through the clarity of his thinking and scope of his vision, others to follow him or her.

Asking "why?"

In my view, the most important word which has created leaders is a three letter word: Why?

Why is the daring to question everything until you are satisfied with the answer. Asking why has created thought leaders from Albert Einstein to Karl Marx.

Asking why can land you into trouble – my own history is a case in point. I have been thrown out of university and into prison for asking a series of why’s.

But if there is a single reason why I have perhaps attained some modest achievements, is because even now, I always ask "why?" to every single thing I am told to do or to believe in, and until I have satisfied myself with my own answers.

How can you as young leaders, build up the character to be leaders? Not by being more macho than the next guy. Not just by honing your oratorical skills.

Asking why is only the first step that fundamentally separates a leader from a follower.

Acting upon convictions

The next requirement is how, after having answered your own questions, you act upon your convictions.

Are you destined for great things? Will someone from your generation find the cure for cancer? Or stop climate change? Or solve the Middle East conflict? Or end poverty?

I don’t know, and I daresay neither do you. But I and you know that if you do not aspire to try, you are destined to fail.

Dream big, aim high, and you will inevitably fail, but in that failure you will have done far more than those whose lives are marked by safety and security, and looking only after themselves.

Barack Obama talked of the audacity of hope and the fierce urgency of now. That resonated amongst young people around the world, because there is nothing more audacious than the hopefulness of youth, and nothing more urgent than voices of the future.

It’s your turn now to speak, and for your voices to be heard.

Have a great day.

Top photo via NDP 2018 official website