Hi, I’m your Crazy Not-so-Rich Asian.

Here’s how some of us chase the green here in Singapore.

Singaporeans. We love to walk fast. We love to frown in the early mornings. We love to squeeze inside jam-packed trains and buses. We love to curse at each other for accidentally being stepped on the feet. We love to not greet each other in the lift. We love to complain about our boss. We love to complain about our colleagues. We love to complain about our work. We love to complain about our boss. We love to work overtime. We love to work on weekends. We love to not see the sun except during lunch when we go out of the office to eat. We love to foodpanda/grabfood/deliveroo our lunch to the office if we don’t/can’t go out to eat. We love to push our jobs to others. We love to say goodbye and not see each other’s faces for the next couple of hours. We love to squeeze inside jam-packed trains and buses. We love to frown in the late evenings. We love to walk fast. Singaporeans.

And we are your crazy-not-so-rich Asians. That’s how our glamourous lives go. Apparently, we make up half of Singapore, and the other half belongs to the quite crazy rich Asians and of course THE crazy rich Asians. Man, that’s a whole half side of Singapore that I haven’t seen (well, maybe I saw glimpses when I walked past Marina Bay Sands or somehow by a stroke of chance, got a premium grab ride because the limo driver was on a break and switched from premium to normal grab- it’s the smoothest ride I have ever been). But enough about the rich (you can see more of them in the movie). Back to the crazy not-so-rich Asians.

We are trying our best. We do. It’s not easy competing with the other half of Singapore. We got an image to take care of. We got goods to show off. And sometimes we need to pretend we play golf. It’s all about chasing the green so that we can make others green with envy. But are we happy? Can we say really? Or are we going crazy?

There is another small side to Singapore that we don’t usually hear of. Where its people love things a little differently. I found this rare Singaporean species of people when I first came in as an intern to a place called Super Farmers, an urban farming and wellness company that teaches people to grow their own food in their homes or urban spaces.

When I first started, Super Farmers had just relocated. And with the moving comes a long list of to-dos to build the space up and get it ready again for business. From the office to the kitchen, to the patio, to the garden outside, for the first four months, it almost felt like the job was never-ending. There were times when we were so drained in energy, feeling tired and hopeless with everything. But coupled with each other’s support and some cheerleading and wicked humor, we braced through each day and did things one at a time. Sometimes, things failed (like those times we experienced a power trip). Sometimes, we failed (like the time we tried to install a canopy or when we forgot to water the plants).

Before we know it, everything came into place. And for the rest of the year and next, I stayed and continued to work there, moving slowly from an intern position to an operations manager. As much as it was hard to build the space, I realize then how it is even harder to build and sustain a business, and those first four months were just a small taste of what’s up ahead. There were countless days of ideation, experimentation, excitement, failures, successes, smiles, tears, sweat, laughter. Days of thinking about new products, classes, workshops, marketing strategies and also thinking back to our vision, mission, our identity. While it would be impractical to think that things would go smooth sailing all the time, I guess I didn’t expect the journey to feel so much like a roller coaster.

Since it is still a small company (usually a three-four-person team), we have to juggle hats as well and be flexible and adaptive in order to execute varying roles and tasks. A substantial amount of my time in the office was spent baking and cooking; from cheesecake and cookies to traditional food like nasi ulam and nasi lemak. I’ve learned a lot on the job and along the way, relearn many things as well, be it my concept of what human ability can be or my concept of a high tech oven (never activate the browning function! unless you have the time to stare at the cookies while they are baking).

I’ve met and worked with some amazing people at Super Farmers. (That story alone deserves another dedication, maybe a book? Haha) We went through a lot together (like burning oatmeal). I’m amazed they still let me stay for long despite my hiccups. And I can’t even imagine how much it must have taken to build and sustain this business for four years before I joined in and witnessed it in real. Yet, despite the ups and downs, our work led us to meet amazing people too, who’ve shared with us their personal stories. They became not just our customers, but our friends. In retrospect, it seems that stories and people are the things that have kept us going the most. So when I decided to leave the company, it was one of the hardest decisions I have to make.

The grass always looks greener on the other side. But that friend understood me and knew that I need to go and explore it. To discover for myself. And I can’t think of anyone else who has taught and gave me so much and sincerely wish the best for me even when we have to say our goodbyes back then (we’re not breaking up, we were just on a break :P).

Today, I’m seeing it blooming. From just an urban farming company, Super Farmers has grown to be a warm, welcoming place for people of all ages and experience to learn about nutrition and healthy cooking, and at the same time, to bond with their children, family, friends, and coworkers. I remembered feeling unsure and a little skeptical when you told me that the big picture of your business is to make Singaporeans happy. I thought that’s a little vague and subjective. But now, I think I begin to appreciate that vision. It’s in the simple, little things. When we have the right kind of space, food, and people, that’s how we nurture happiness, isn’t it? And when we help people notice these little things, perhaps more of us can be a little happier.

The Three Greens

Success here in Singapore is still narrowly defined, judging largely on the material and what can be seen. But during my work at Super Farmers, I’m grateful to have met individuals who showed me the different sides to success. To not fear the risk of endeavoring a different path. To accept failure and grow from it. To learn about ourselves and others. To appreciate our own journey and story. There are many ways to see success, depending on what it means for different people.

To know what success means for us is to understand what is important to us. This will guide our decisions and the actions we take, and essentially how we lead our life.

If we take time to slow down and make an effort to pause and contemplate, we might be able to notice the other important things in our lives and gain another perspective on what success can look like for ourselves. There is the green that we have always chase after and often becomes a measure of success, if not the only. But what if there are other greens that are just as worthy as money and worth chasing for?

Make green

There is a saying, that we are part of nature, and if we are out of touch with nature, we are out of touch with ourselves. That explains why a study and numerous articles have shown that we need plants in our office. That’s why we somehow feel happier with plants around us. We don’t need articles to tell us that plants can boost our mood, health, brainpower, etc. We can feel it. So go on, bring in the greens into your home. It’s time we live up to our garden in the city claim right in our homes. It’s time we become close friends again with nature.

Eat green

We can’t perform and fulfill our best potential without a healthy mind and body. Our well-being starts with the food we consume. When we bring in more of the good, nutritional food into our body, we will feel different. We think better. We do better. There’s no need for more evidence. It’s a well known universal truth ever since your mother asks you to eat your veggies. It’s only a matter of our will, a little guidance and learning about nutrition, and some creativity to make it work with our hectic, urban (and costly) living.

Be green

And I’m not really talking about sustainability (although that’s important too). It’s about being a newbie, and willing to learn from scratch. I think as Singaporeans, we tend to be afraid of failure and to doubt our abilities and ourselves easily. But I knew nothing about urban farming and little about cooking when I first came to work at Super Farmers until I started to learn, make mistakes, improve on them, which eventually led me to gain skills I never thought I would achieve.

When we open up to learn new things, I believe we give ourselves the opportunity to grow further as a person; to be a little more humble with the knowledge we have, to learn, engage and collaborate with others, and just to be in awe again like a little child. Remember when we were so happy as a kid playing around and discovering new things? Maybe, we just need to take ourselves a little less seriously sometimes.

These are the greens I believe we can learn to work and chase for besides money (which I’m not trying to disregard its importance here). To some extent, we would still need money to achieve all the other greens. But in our intense pursuit to earn more and own more, to compete with each other, we forget about the less flashy things that still matter. We forget to take care of our well being. We forget to care. And when the crucial facets of our life are left unattended or poorly attended, we risk losing sight of ourselves and all that is dear to us. And that goes the same for all of us, whether we are the crazy not-so-rich, the quite-crazy rich, or THE crazy rich Asians.

We are Singaporeans too. We love to walk slow, we love to smile in the early mornings, we love to give way inside jam-packed trains and buses, we love to entertain random conversations and questions on directions, we love to greet each other at the door, we love to openly discuss about each other’s work, we love to think about the progress of the company, we love to help and support each other when we work overtime, we love to love the weekends, we love to see the sun rising and setting every day, we love to cook at work when we can, we love to go out and get some prata or mee soto if we don’t feel like cooking, we love to make sure that we divide our jobs fairly, we love to say goodbye so that we can see each other’s rested face in the next couple of hours, we love to give way in jam-packed trains and buses, we love to smile in the late evenings, we love to walk slow. We are Singaporeans too.

Many people claim that Singaporeans are rich. I guess a lot of us are (me and my bank account are laughing and crying in the background). But how we are rich has always been associated with the richness of money and material. What if we can be rich in other ways too? We have so much to be happy about, and I wish it isn’t just about money all the time. Maybe someday we all can be crazy rich Asians. Just crazy rich in a different way. Hopefully a more meaningful way.

It’s tough living in Singapore without that green note forever haunting us to chase it. But we shall try to do our best every day anyway. To focus on the right things. So that we can be on the other side with the greener grass. And in some cases, it really is greener, with real grass.

Disclaimer: This is not a promotion or paid partnership (or whatever they call it today) for Super Farmers. It’s just a story to share :)