Most of you are already pretty familiar with Singapore Airlines, A Great Way to Fly, but may not be familiar with the man who actually built it from scratch in the late sixties, as assigned by our then Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.

He is none other than J Y Pillay.

What struck me most about J Y Pillay were not just his stellar accomplishments, but his work ethic.

He has been a staunch subscriber to the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, penned 2,600 years ago, which has had often been referred to as a management tool.

"The follower of the true path has one object, and that object is the end of his determination," the good book says.

Those who have worked with J Y Pillay, certainly recognize his style in those words. He is deliberate, unwavering and absolutely sure of his objectives.

In a rare interview, he once explained how he used this approach with his colleagues:

"Look," he would tell them, "whenever you embark on anything, please tell me what is your object. And there must be one. I don't want five."

To me, J Y Pillay has had captured the essence of goal striving, as envisaged by Dr Maxwell Maltz in the Psycho-Cybernetics classic.

By the way, J Y Pillay, who is now retired, has had been once described by our founding father and then Prime Minister of Singapore, as "equal to the best brains in America."

In a nut shell, that's another empowering life lesson about goal striving!