What a second retirement taught me about service and impact

“I WANT to be like you.”

The comment caught me completely by surprise. It came from my old boss and mentor, Marc Rowan, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, when we caught up to mark my entry into the 2024 Yale Donaldson Fellowship.

Apollo is among the world’s most successful alternative investment firms, and during my tenure there, I had never encountered a greater concentration of intellectual firepower under one roof.

So I laughed and asked him: “Why would you want to be like me when you’re a successful billionaire, while I can’t even apply for a credit card because I don’t have a monthly payslip?”

Marc replied calmly: “The greatest calling is public service.”

I am not a public servant. I have never run for election or served through the grassroots.

But over the decades, I have gradually found my own way of serving the community. It began with contributing where my experience, interests and core competencies could make the greatest difference.

The recent few years have been the most unusual chapter of my professional life. After stepping down from leading one of the world’s largest companies, I decided to become a full-time volunteer in public and community service.

I made a conscious decision to step away from my corporate identity. The more natural transition would have been taking on board roles at listed companies, but I chose to leave my corporate cards behind.

Those who knew me primarily as a corporate executive have probably found me less accessible over time – and perhaps less relevant, too.

My close friend Paul Bernard, a retired Goldman Sachs partner, warned me about this transition. Given my temperament and energy, he thought I might struggle with a role that was more advisory than operational.

He reminded me of an uncomfortable truth: Over time, it is not about who you know, but who still returns your calls.

Paul joked that after retirement he realised it had mostly been Goldman – not him – that people wanted to speak to. These days, his mobile phone battery lasts much longer.

There is wisdom in that joke. A corporate career gives us a platform, but that platform is temporary.

Retirement reveals the difference between influence that comes from a title, and influence that comes from trust. The challenge is to earn that trust again.

This season actually reflects my second retirement attempt.

The first – which I wrote about in the South China Morning Post in 2015, Why walking away from a successful career in finance is not so hard – lasted only briefly before the excitement of a new industry drew me back into corporate life.

But this time, I entered the chapter with a better understanding of the trade-offs. I also wanted to know whether I could truly dedicate myself fully to service.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of working alongside dedicated civil servants and fellow volunteers in energy, technology and finance committees. It has been among the hardest work I have ever done – sometimes more demanding than leading global businesses.

One experience continues to stand out. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I served on the Emerging Stronger Taskforce, co-chaired by Minister Desmond Lee and Tan Chong Meng. It remains, in my view, one of Singapore’s best examples of effective public-private partnership.

The can-do spirit of our Little Red Dot during that unusual time stays with me even today. The urgency of the crisis forced people from different sectors to work together, challenge one another constructively and focus on practical solutions.

One outcome was SGTraDex Services (Singapore Trade Data Exchange Services), where I had the opportunity to serve as chairman for five years. Together, we brought its pilots to completion and guided its transition into a fully owned government entity.

Balancing the different dynamics between private and public shareholders was tough, but seeing the entire ecosystem’s combined effort reach a fruitful conclusion was deeply rewarding.

That experience taught me that the public and private sectors optimise for different goals.

The private sector naturally focuses on outcomes. The public sector must focus on both outcomes and process, because legitimacy, fairness and public trust are part of the outcome itself.

Neither approach is inherently better; they operate under different responsibilities and constraints.

The challenge is not to make one sector think like the other, but to help both work better together. Success depends on framing issues correctly, calibrating expectations, aligning motivations and understanding timing.

A good heart is a good start, but in today’s increasingly complex world, good intentions alone are not enough. Competence, execution and collaboration matter just as much.

Ultimately, successful public-private partnerships depend less on structures than on people – people who share a common purpose, trust one another and appreciate the urgency to move from discussion to execution.

Without these ingredients, even well-intentioned committees risk becoming places where coffee is consumed and papers are shuffled.

As Singapore enters another phase of leadership renewal amid a more uncertain global environment, greater participation from across society is both timely and necessary.

Neither government nor business can solve every challenge alone. Our future will depend on people from different sectors bringing different perspectives together in service of a common purpose.

Looking back, I often think about how improbable my journey has been. For someone who grew up in a rented flat in Toa Payoh, struggled with learning disabilities and was given opportunities beyond anything I could have imagined, Singapore has already given me far more than I could ever repay.

As we celebrate Singapore’s 61st birthday, I remain grateful for the opportunity to serve alongside so many dedicated Singaporeans. Majulah Singapura.

The writer is a full-time dad finding life’s meaning after collecting his CPF

Switching Lanes is a column exploring the diverse realities of life after a full-time career. From money strategies to finding fresh purpose, we are redefining retirement.

Have a perspective to share? Write to btletter@sph.com.sg with the subject, Switching Lanes.