A theme that cuts across the different hats that I wear is my mission to empower people to live more intentionally. As we spend so much of our lives at work, I decided to take what I have learnt so far (the mistakes, experiments, experiences) and place them in a structured format so I can help more people be more intentional in the way they build their careers, specifically in a start up. 

 

The Challenges:

I understand that the start-up environment is highly unstructured and ambiguous. Unlike in MNCs, business needs change constantly in a start-up and there's no structure or clear path for your progression. Everyone is already stretched and wearing multiple hats so no one has time to guide you. There's a lot of career content out there but none of it is structured. What do you even do? Where do you even begin?

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My Search For The Solution:

I am familiar with that struggle and that feeling of being lost. I solved this by first understanding that no one will care about my own career development more than I do (mindset shift). Secondly, I sought out many new ways to up my game on my own including:

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• Reading many books (~60 in 2.5 years)​

• Attending many different classes / workshops (At least 2 events/month)

• Interviews with 40+ peers and mentors in the startup space

• Setting myself ambitious goals with a shorter timeline so I can test/iterate/fail/learn rapidly

• Being very intentional about my goal-setting and combined it with lots of introspection and reflection

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What Resulted From It:

Through the above practices, I was able to:

• Consistently achieve the 'Exceed Expectations' rating every quarter

• Get promoted every 6-9 months

• Quickly achieved a managerial position ahead of my peers and currently work with the senior leadership team on a day to day basis

• Doubled my income in 2 years

 

Though I am by no means an expert, and these achievements do pale in comparison with others, I just aim to share whatever I have learnt so far to help as many people as I can.

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The Bigger Vision:

The primary outcome I hope to achieve is people feeling much clearer, happier and more fulfilled in their careers as a result of more intentional career development and hence able to make a bigger impact in the various start-ups they are in.

 

The secondary outcome is to help increase the quality of talent in the start-up space, specifically in SEA.