Life has a way of throwing new adventures at you even when you think you are stagnating and not moving forward. We try our best to make way for fresh discoveries, to plan in advance for whatever is within our control to enable new doors to open.
Sometimes life does throws you a curveball. We can either move aside to avoid it or use all efforts to bat as hard as we can to reflect it back. Risk aversion increases with age and makes one less likely to take up challenges that seem unfamiliar and alien to our status quo. Sometimes, we need to fight that urge to free ourselves so that we can discover and explore novel experiences.
I totally believe the notion that when one door closes behind you, many other new doors will open in front of you. But for this to happen, it requires proactive efforts to plan ahead. Sometimes, you go into a funk and nothing seems to happen for a while even as you try. You wonder about what is going to happen next and life becomes a boring and routine drag.
I started 2022 with a bang as I wanted to go off in a new direction. I was frustrated with my old consultancy project work in an Asian country after 4 years. Things were looking stale and I didn’t think I could value add to the role anymore. The military coup certainly did not help. I wanted to make a clean break and try to figure out what I wanted to do next, to chart a new path.
I kept myself occupied initially with a new full-time FinTech course to get deeper into the areas I was always interested. This lasted till Apr. It was challenging for a non-tech-savvy uncle like me. I needed to prove to myself that I could handle it like any other younger person. It was tougher than I thought but at least I tried. Perhaps my expectation at the beginning was too high. The class of 30+ came from very diverse backgrounds and my project group simply cannot click as a team.
It also did not help that all asset classes were having a meltdown from last Dec till now. It was like a rabbit standing in the middle of the road staring down at an approaching truck that had high beam headlights on, seconds before impact. This slow-moving train wreck that is now into its 6th month with no end in sight. It is so painful to watch your portfolio going into the red across the board for weeks on end.
I was fortunate enough to time an overseas trip immediately after my NUS course ended. It was a good 2 weeks break to spend quality time with my family, to recharge my batteries. I came back all energized to start planning for my second half of 2022, to see what I should do.
One more short one-week Data Analytics course in Jun later, I had reached the mid-point of the year.I had been settling into a week-by-week mindless routine, bumbling along as I try to figure out what to do next.
One of the new projects that came along, post-Covid endemic, was to organize another class reunion again after our last one in 2016. I had discussions with my usual partner in crime organizer and we felt that it was time again to kick start this gathering. It gave me some purpose and nostalgia to do this again, even as we are unsure of how the endemic phase of the virus would unfold into the event date. We called this the “Post-CPF” reunion as us uncles and aunties were eligible to withdraw our CPF at 55 last year.
Then out of the blue, 2 potential new doors opened up unexpectantly for me this week. I am not so sure where they will lead me but I am willing to explore further. Either one might set me off on a new path and adventure. Both are aligned with some of my halftime objectives and interest which make them interesting to me.
The first was from an old schoolmate based in Hong Kong. He manages his own consultancy business and even wrote a book on how to do business in China that is available for sale on Amazon. He suggested a Zoom call this week to explained to me the background of his proposed venture.
He is trying to help a client seek new investors. This Fintech firm is looking to change the way microfinance businesses obtain financing in China. The objective was to create a new asset class of small business portfolios on an exchange platform. This will attract investors to actively participate in the success of many SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) setups in a fully transparent basis via real time data analytics monitoring. By bringing supply and demand onto an organized exchange, there will be synergies and win-win opportunities for all. Best of all, there is ecomonies of scale and China is already well positioned technologically.
We had a good 1-hour discussion and agreed to talk more. He plans to do a roadshow in S’pore in the later part of Q3’22 and perhaps I could also be of assistance to his marketing efforts. I believe I have the relevant experience and network connections that he can tap on. It will be interesting to participate in a potential game-changer effort to revolutionize and create a new asset class which can benefit small businesses.
The other interesting door that opened for me this week was from an ex-colleague. We have had on and off again discussions over the last few years on possible project collaborations. He is a very sharp and smart true entrepreneur that constantly seeks financial issues to solve and profit from. Many opportunities involved companies looking for funding. He facilitates as a middleman to bring the deals to the table of investors with liquidity.
Last year, he became excited about the possibility of using technology to help develop a platform for the trading of carbon credits. There has been not much progress in Asia on this area and he believes that he can bring everything together to create a viable business model.
A year later, he had finally gotten an anchor investor to help set up the building blocks of a company which can implement the various strategies he has in mind. He is beginning to look for suitable persons to add to this build-up and thinks I can be a useful addition to this company. We had a fruitful 2+ hours discussion and agree to take things a step further by arranging to meet at his office next week.
I feel energized again after this week. No doubt that the 2 events may lead to nothing but it gives me purpose to want to explore further. I think I have done enough studying for this year as a full time student and need to throw myself at other meaningful projects to develop my own purpose and drive in my halftime discovery journey.
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