Iconomy Group CEO Discusses Entrepreneurship and Resilience on Hatch & Hustle

Iconomy Group CEO Mr Boo Kok Chuon was interviewed by Hatch & Hustle in a discussion on entrepreneurship, resilience and the value of developing entrepreneurial capabilities from a young age.

The conversation was published in connection with MUJONG™ Music at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneur Summit 2026, the music education game developed through Kiki’s Music, and featured perspectives from entrepreneurs and business personalities including Bennett Lee, Bryan Choo and Vanessa Ho.

Hatch & Hustle introduced the discussion with a broader question:

Should entrepreneurship and resilience be taught from young?

For Mr Boo, the answer extends beyond encouraging children to start businesses.

Entrepreneurship as a Capability

During the interview, Mr Boo spoke about the importance of developing entrepreneurial skills and resilience from an early age.

He reflected on his own first experience of entrepreneurship, selling bread while still in primary school at around nine years old.

The significance of that experience was not the scale of the business. It was the opportunity to encounter, at a very young age, some of the basic realities of enterprise: identifying an opportunity, trying something, dealing with uncertainty, learning from the outcome and continuing when things do not proceed according to plan.

These capabilities remain relevant even for people who never ultimately become entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurial education can develop initiative, adaptability, resourcefulness and the willingness to act under uncertainty. In a world in which technology and artificial intelligence are changing established occupations and business models, those capabilities may become increasingly valuable.

Learning to Fail, Adapt and Continue

Mr Boo also discussed resilience as an essential part of entrepreneurship.

Enterprise rarely develops as a straight line from idea to success. Businesses encounter failed assumptions, changing markets, competition and circumstances outside their control. The ability to respond, adapt and continue is therefore as important as the original idea.

This is one reason why exposure to entrepreneurship from young can have educational value beyond business itself.

The objective need not be to produce a generation in which every child becomes a founder.

It is to give young people another set of tools with which to navigate uncertainty.

A New Generation Experiments

The discussion took on particular significance through MUJONG™ Music, an entrepreneurial project involving Mr Boo’s eight-year-old daughter and developed around an educational idea of her own.

Hatch & Hustle presented the segment under the theme “Singapore’s youngest 8-year-old entrepreneur”, using her experience as a starting point for a wider conversation about whether society should rethink how young people are prepared for an increasingly uncertain economic future.

For Iconomy, the discussion also reflects a longstanding interest in entrepreneurship not simply as an occupation, but as a way of developing the ability to recognise opportunities, integrate resources, take considered risks, create value and recover from failure.

Sometimes that education starts in a business school.

Sometimes it starts with a nine-year-old selling bread.

And sometimes, a generation later, it starts with an eight-year-old creating a music game. View the full video below: