The SMU scholar has gained valuable experience from his internship with an investment analysis firm and exchange programme at The Wharton School

Looking back, Mr Jordan Lee would describe his 19-year-old self as risk-averse.

“We are a little bit sheltered. We chase the dreams that are fed to us from a young age – not necessarily the dreams that we really want for ourselves,” he says.

“When you’re just 18 or 19 years old, you don’t really have any idea what you are going to do,” he says.

While he was contemplating his course of study, he was already inclined towards business and finance.

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This was his motivation behind choosing Singapore Management University (SMU), where students only declare their majors towards the end of their second year. This gives them ample time to experiment with their course of study in their first two years and have more breathing room to explore their academic options.

As one who wanted to take a double degree in economics and information systems, the freedom and flexibility to decide on a major at the end of his second year at SMU was what attracted Mr Lee.

Furthermore, reading up about SMU’s generous financial aid packages – with close to 40 per cent of its students receiving some form of financial aid – won him over.

To his pleasant surprise, he was not only accepted into SMU but he was also awarded the SMU Global Impact Scholarship.

Making choices that count

“SMU taught me to embrace uncertainty, and that there is much to be gained from learning from my experiences and failures,” says Mr Lee, who turns 24 this year.

According to him, this outlook has proved useful in solving real-world problems – such as in one’s career, where rules and assumptions do not hold up as well as in theory.

“These lessons have given me the confidence to think independently and creatively,” he says.

In an increasingly uncertain and volatile world, one can have the edge only if they are ready to adapt to new situations and information, explains Mr Lee.

“Being open to new ideas and experiences can help us to find solutions to problems that cannot be solved through traditional methods and theories.”

SMU also provided Mr Lee the crucial opportunity to network and build connections. He shares it was a place that enabled him to learn from friends and mentors who provided him with very diverse and insightful perspectives on life.

“Being open to new ideas and experiences can help us to find solutions to problems that cannot be solved through traditional methods and theories.”

– Mr Jordan Lee, recipient of the SMU Global Impact Scholarship

For instance, one of his mentors, an experienced entrepreneur and businessman, compared investing to riding a bike.

“Falling down is part of learning how to ride a bike,” he says. “You have to accept that you will experience pain.”

That piece of advice made him approach his investments and career with a renewed perspective.

“You can’t give up just because you had a bad experience, otherwise you will never learn how to ride your bike, right? Likewise with investments, you either make money or you learn something. Life is about growing from your good and bad experiences.”

After having wrapped up an internship with an investment analysis firm, Mr Lee is currently on a semester-long exchange programme at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“I am excited to get a better view of how people outside of Singapore view risk, specifically those at one of the top business schools in the world,” he says.

“I want to see how risk-takers dare to chase the things that they want.”

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