FOCUS
#rebel #entrepreneur
#mother
By Farhan Shah
Just past the Bukit Pasoh
conservation area is
an iconic three-storey
shop house steeped with
history. It was where the
eminent Mr Lee Kuan
Yew spent time at when
he was a young boy.
Today, in the very same
house, lady entrepreneur
Tjin Lee plays Mummy to
baby Tyler.
Tyler Lim rocks a T-shirt with a print
of his namesake Tyler Durden, the
antagonist from the cult film Fight
Club, on the front, and has a plethora
of caps in his wardrobe. Occasionally,
when Tyler is out on the streets with
his entourage, he gets recognised by
excited strangers. Once, at an event
he was attending at ION Orchard,
a group of people enthusiastically
approached the receptionist to ask
whether he was the Tyler, made
famous through Instagram.
all, Bubu has given her and John a
fresh lease of life. “I can’t wait to take
him on his first trip to the zoo. I can’t
wait to bring him to his first roller
coaster ride. Heck, I can’t wait to let
him have his first taste of ice cream!”
relations, branding and other related
work. On top of that, she’s also
helped kick-start three other small
businesses run by stay-at-home
mothers, which also made her realise
the viability of CRIB.
Wait, he hasn’t eaten ice cream before?
But, Tyler or Bubu, as he’s more
affectionately known as, can
barely speak a word of English to
acknowledge his growing legion of
fans. You see, Bubu is only 10-monthsold. And his aforementioned
entourage is actually his parents –
John Lim, the strapping operations
manager of international commodities
firm Glencore Xstrata, and Tjin Lee,
founder of the Mercury Group and the
lady responsible for the world-class
Audi Fashion Festival Singapore.
But, besides the renewed vigour
and pep in Tjin’s step, Bubu’s
presence in her life has also
galvanised her entrepreneurial
mind. The working mother now
understands more than most the
challenges of being a career Mum,
juggling the demands of bringing
up a baby with the responsibilities
of her job. It really is a trial by
fire, a pressure cooker of sorts
with no second chances, and
understandably, many women
leave the workforce to become
stay-at-home Mums, devoting
their time to raising their children.
“Singapore has a huge untapped
and unharnessed talent pool of
these mothers, some of whom
were previously lawyers, doctors,
bankers, accountants, etc. Yes,
indeed, family is very important but,
at the same time, when you look at
the severe shortage of manpower in
our workforce, you begin to wonder
whether there is any way we can
concurrently help these mothers
and Singapore.”
With so many responsibilities
to oversee, it’s amazing how this
Mummy even has the energy and
time to keep up with her growing
baby while maintaining personal
and business relationships, and
Tjin admits that it can be tricky,
cumbersome even, to fit everything
onto her plate. “That is one of the
reasons why I’m very excited about
CRIB because it can be hard to find
and maintain work-life balance when
you are a working Mum. Everyone
talks about it but yet, this work-life
balance is like this mythical unicorn
that’s so hard to find. How do you
actually achieve it?”
Bubu’s fame is really just a stunning
demonstration of the power of
properly-wielded social media. Of
course, Bubu can barely say a word,
let alone compose a picture and
upload it for the world to see. So, in
his case, the wielder is his mother.
“Granted, I’m uploading all his photos
on Instagram without his knowledge
and although the reception has been
very positive, I hope he doesn’t grow
up and question me, ‘Why did you put
all my pictures up?’” Tjin says, her
laughter echoing around the living
room of her home.
Presently though, Tjin is having a ball
of a time, not just in dressing up her
little bundle of joy and “instagramming” the fashionable results but
in life itself. For this self-professed
jaded lady who has seen and done it
It can be hard to find and maintain
work-life balance when you are a
working Mum. Everyone talks
about it but yet, this work-life
balance is like this mythical unicorn
that’s so hard to find. How do you
actually achieve it?
8
Family & Life • Feb 2014
Tjin chuckles again and says that
both 6