Two months into my 3 months gardening leave now. Time to take stock of what I have done so far, with the goal of looking to reinvent myself in order to move to the next chapter of my life. I had given myself up to March next year to try to develop all the non-bank related leads to see if I can springboard myself into a new area of business that can sustain me for the next 5 to 10 years of my mid-career halftime move.
On Monday, I finally completed my first Skillsfuture course. It was 8 weeks of Monday evening classes for the Science and Business of Wine which I signed up with 3 good mates. In the final class, we had to do a project presentation, sit through an assessment exam and a blind tasting session. What I will cherish most will be some of the after-class whisky gatherings we had after 1045 pm with salami, cheese and oysters and the long lunch sessions 🙂 This was a great course to sharpen my appreciation of wines and learn about many things that were new to me even after drinking wines for more than 30+ years. The best part of it was that the $800+ course was free for me, after the early bird, seniors > 50 discounts and the skillsfuture fund subsidy.
Before I completed my last work day in mid-Jun, a colleague kindly referred my name to a private financial training firm. He figured that with my previous banking experience, being a trainer would be a good fit for me. I have always had an affinity to presenting to a group and imparting my knowledge to the younger members of my team. Teaching was something I liked to do. The person in charge finally connected with me this week and mentioned that she is looking to prepare the 2018 training calendar. We agreed to meet up in person in 2 weeks time to discuss further.
The Myanmar opportunity is developing into the next stage. My ex-colleague, the new CEO of the micro finance firm, had reviewed my cover letter and resume. He recommends that I should send them to the group CEO and CFO early next week and to open up the possibility of a face to face meeting with them in Yangon next month. Recently, my wife had also helped to introduce me to someone who had also recently started a business in Myanmar through his church group. We met for coffee and had a very good exchange of information about the current business climate onshore.
As part of my goal to reinvent myself, I have also signed up for more training into the next few months. On 27 Sep, I will be attending a one-day introductory seminar on Big Data Analytics ($350 after the early bird discount). It will be a good chance for me to see if I can leverage on my past marketing experience to go into this new exciting sector. I have also confirmed another course on “How to Start a Small Business” (8 evening sessions over 4 weeks from mid-Oct). This course is a steal at only $81. I had always wanted to start my own business and this will ensure that I avoid the common pitfalls.
Last week, I also had the chance to meet up with the organizer of the Non-Profit Leadership (www.cnpl.org.sg) initiative to see how I can offer my services to certain NGOs which I may have a passion for. I also reconnected with the person whom I had been discussed about the retirement village concept since 2012. We caught up with each other, to see what each of us had been doing over the last 12 months.
On the business opportunities front, I will be heading to Bangkok next week. I will be reconnecting with a childhood friend who had moved there in 1999 and had since started a family there. We have known each other since we were 8 years old. Accompanying us will be another person from my secondary school days who currently has some business dealings there. Hopefully, we can discuss and explore some business openings. My family and another family will join me a few days later and we will do a nice pig-out cum shopping vacation there. Really looking forward to this trip!
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