There are two men I greatly admire. Well, three actually, except the third was as flawed as he was great.

The first is our founding father, Lee Kwan Yew.

“I have no regrets. I have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country. There’s nothing more that I need to do. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.”

My eyes never fail to betray me when I read this. The clarity of purpose, the conviction of calling and the courage of pursuit. Till his very last breath. Can there be a more purposeful way to lead one’s life?

Let me discuss the third before the second. The third is Mao Zedong. He who overcame the KMT despite being vastly outnumbered and almost decimated as the Civil War raged on. He who led the Long March to keep what’s left of the communist hope alive. He who proudly proclaimed that the Chinese people have stood up, only to send millions into abject poverty and untold suffering with The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution. He who knew how to fight but not how to rule, he who understood how to win, but not when to lose. He who created history but failed to grasp how history would judge him. He, whose mistakes were as colossal as his achievements. Who created as much as he destroyed.

His successor avoided his mistakes. Deng Xiaoping took over a broken country at age 72. Broken economically, politically and spiritually. At that age, he could have called it a day and enjoyed what’s left of his life. But he poured himself, for the third time, into lifting his countrymen out of the ravages of failed policies and regimes. He said all he did during the Long March was to “follow”. But his greatest contribution and strength, beyond his economic reforms that lifted millions out of poverty, was NOT to follow, and ensured his successors would not follow, Mao in creating personality cults.

Deng Xiaoping and Lee Kwan Yew had something in common – they were content to deploy their vast talents and indomitable will to serve. They did not need to be worshipped. For this, I admire them, greatly.