It has been 2 weeks since we returned from our amazing south Italy adventure. Prior to the trip, I wrote in my blog about taking stock of what I had done so far and then deciding on what I want to do next. I believe that things are starting to gel together as I aim to move towards a path that veers towards seeking significance at halftime.
A friend had shared with me his idea of a portfolio career for senior PMETs which he believes in, which is to do a number of things not for the $$ alone, but which interest the heart and gives personal satisfaction beyond money. Helping others with no hidden agenda is a refreshing change and it nourishes the soul. It is a recipe for staying happy while counting your blessings. I believe that my journey of discovery is continuing and a number of events this week is starting to shape the path I will take.
Earlier in the week, I was connected to an executive development career coach introduced by a mutual friend. We hit it off right away as we have many similarities in life – same schools, 2 sons, halftime mid-career direction change etc. We shared experiences with each other and it is a privilege to see the roadmap of someone who is a few years ahead of you, to learn from it.
Like puberty in our teens, we do experience a similar mid-life crisis of sorts during our halftime period. How we react to it is very important. We need to have a game plan in order to map out the next course of actions required. Getting clarity of your innermost goals by verbalizing it will be the first step towards a to-do list action plan.
Two months back, my wife and I attended the founder’s day of our alma mater as our older son was to be presented an academic prize from his junior college. It sets us on a discussion on how we can give back to the school as it was so instrumental in setting us up on the right framework to approach life so many years ago in our secondary and JC days. It need not be financial but it could include intangibles like providing our time to projects relating to the Alumni office.
After a series of email exchanges with the Alumni office, I finally had a face to face meeting with 3 of them on Thursday. It was a fruitful brainstorming session on how we can better connect with the alumni population. I shared with them some of the stuff we had done previously. I had previously worked with my brother in law to fund the 6 years school fees of a boy in this school through the youth wing of a clan association. We had also set up a small annual university bursary named after our boys via the NUS Campus Couples initiative.
I think the approach is 2 prong: Firstly, the Alumni office has to actively reach out to as many old boys and girls as possible to raise its profile. This can be done via social media. We should not be surprised that there are many pockets and groups of people keeping in touch via this medium. Our generation probably is more nostalgic to want to meet up now. Once this connection is established, we can then gather like-minded people to organize reunions. Eventually, I hope we can get more financial support for the school or for some of them to give back their time to the school (eg. as mentors or sharing of life/work experiences for career guidance etc).
The other thing that happened was the progress I made on getting 2 parties together for a discussion on a possible deal to trade raw materials in bulk, for me to act as a middleman. I came across someone from another investment discussion who has traded raw materials for years, primary for the China market. He is constantly looking out for import and export of new materials opportunities. I spoke to another good friend based in Indochina and he came up with some suppliers for the production of certain materials that may be of interest to the buyer. I finally connected them together this week. It is still early days but at least it is a start. There may be other opportunities in Myanmar as I go there every month for my microfinance consultancy role. Let’s see how this develops.
Lastly, I have finally kick start my first little hydroponics vegetable experiment. After my Aquaponics course in May, I have been studying this field and buying/gathering materials like seeds/systems to test my green fingers. If this is successful, I will then embark on a bigger hydroponics setup before eventually graduating to an aquaponics structure.
It has been a meaningful week for me as the building blocks of my halftime journey is starting to form. Where it takes me, I have no idea. But it is better to have gone somewhere and done that, rather than just sit on my butt and do nothing and slowly becoming a whinny, complaining/bitching old uncle.
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