My 1st $1000

Bandung, 2004. The Pentium 100 was still running, by then almost a decade old. Between school and the computing lab, I had started writing small programs for people I knew. The first was a point-of-sale system for a private VCD rental shop, and my friend's older brother paid me Rp 300,000 in cash. The second, a year later, was a similar system for an auto spare parts shop. That one came back as a cheque for Rp 1,000,000. In the same spirit, though not the same scale, as Willson's program in Singapore today.

The amount was not the point. What stayed with me was the feeling that something I built, on an old computer in a quiet room, could be useful to someone I did not know well. Those two projects quietly taught me a few things. That I could be independent. That I could ship something real. And that age was not the gate I thought it was. It was my first exposure to what I now understand as agency, though I did not have the word for it back then.

Earlier this year, Willson Cuaca and East Ventures launched "My First $1,000," a youth entrepreneurship program in Singapore. Each team of students gets real seed capital, a mentor, and the chance to build something people will actually pay for. The idea is simple. Start small, build something useful, and see if someone is willing to pay for it. It gave language to something I had experienced much earlier, but had not fully understood at the time.

If you have ever had your first pay from something you made or did, you might remember the feeling. Not just the number, but the moment. The realization that something you did could matter to someone else. If you have not, consider trying. Not a company, not a startup, just one useful thing, for one person, for whatever amount they are willing to pay.

The number does not matter. What matters is the loop, and the quiet shift in how you see yourself once you have closed it. And if you have young kids, something I am also still learning to think about, maybe give them a chance to build something small. Not perfect, not polished, just something of their own.