“Be an inner billionaire at work.”
That was the title of our speech and dialogue for 300 public servants at a Ministry. These are a few highlights and slides.
🔆 I started with remembering my dad (photographed with me below), who was in public service for over 40 years and died last year, and the qualities he embodied.
We introduced “care, serve, grow” as three values that inner billionaires embody at work. While these may sound simple, if we all practised these consistently, we would be living in a different world.
🔆 I shared excerpts from the letter I wrote the person who scammed me of money, and what that forgiveness and service did for me although I never heard back. And linked this back to growing through the tests the audience may face through their work.
🔆 I shared about Olivia, a taxi driver whose presence lit up her taxi and served me in a profound way. And used this to introduce the concept of having a calling orientation to work where you focus on meaningfully making a difference to others and creating a better society.
🔆 I spoke about what people who are dying have discovered, and how that aligns with inner wealth – people like the late Singaporean millionaire, Dr Richard Teo who, upon his cancer diagnosis, went through a transformation and realised the power of kindness, service and relationships.
🔆 I invited them into a minute of silence to appreciate themselves for how they already show care and service to stakeholders, and reflect on a time when this brought them most joy and fulfilment. During this silence, I said I would sweep the room with my appreciation of them. This was a powerful moment for me – to hold silence and send beams of appreciation from my heart to the audience during a speech.
🔆 I then interviewed my team-member, Daphne Yuan her on how she had lived out “care, serve and grow” when she was a civil servant. Her inspiring journey and examples brought our message home to their context.
🔆 From our resource list, we highlighted “The Rookie”, a Netflix show with inner billionaire characters at work, so they could continue the learning journey.
🔆 We got people thinking of wealth and the term “billionaire” in new ways. We reminded all that “inner billionaire” isn’t an exclusive group of perfect people. It is in all of us to develop.
🔆 How are you already bringing your inner billionaire to work everyday? Appreciate yourself.
How can you step into this more this year?
Enjoy the wonderful sense of meaning and purpose you experience as you do this.
It felt synchronous to do this for the public service exactly five months after my dad died. It felt like he was walking with me through this.