George Goh has been making waves recently. From his “position flip flops” to his English.
But is Mr George Goh truly concerned about his less-than-perfect English?
George Goh Said His “Less-Than-Perfect” English Helped Him Secure Big Business Deals
On Monday, 10 July 2023, Mr George Goh was at the Singapore Management University (SMU) to spread some love to aspiring entrepreneurs.
He gave a talk and held a Q&A session for one and a half hours to 120 young entrepreneurs.
During the session, Mr Goh talked about his entrepreneurship experience and how he found suitable business partners to work together with.
He found that having less-than-perfect English actually helped him when pitching to prospective partners such as Harvey Norman co-founder Gerry Norman.
Instead of having perfect English, Mr Goh found that having a bit of authenticity and conveying sincerity in both words and body language works better.
“If you speak perfect English, you cannot get the deal one. A little bit authentic is better.”
He added that knowing more languages is a plus point and suggested that Mandarin may be a good language to know.
George Goh Believes He Qualifies For The Role of President of Singapore
In case you missed it, it’s still not known whether Mr Goh is qualified to even run for Presidential Election 2023.
You can watch the video below to understand the reason why:
However, Mr Goh thinks otherwise.
While he isn’t the head of a company worth at least $500 million in shareholder equity, he is the head of a collection of companies with a collective market capitalisation value of $3.15 billion.
If you look at his collection of companies, he pointed out, it is one big enterprise.
When speaking to journalists at the event, Mr Goh reiterated that having perfect English isn’t all that you need.
There’s another language that is essential – body language, and it is one that can help convey sincerity and get people to work together with you.
His track record in business, he says, shows that he has no issues communicating well, despite the chains video.
As for whether anyone in the session has expressed support for his running for president, Mr Goh reiterated that the session is meant to pass on entrepreneurship knowledge, and that election matters should be kept out.
Well, I guess we now know why Mr Goh is more than happy to make fun of his own English.