Spend the first 10 years exploring bravely
As I speak to more experienced people along the way, what I was constantly encouraged to do is to “Spend the first 10 years exploring bravely”. I’m glad to have coincidentally lived that so far in my 5 years of career. As I look back, it has been nothing short of amazing. I’ve been through 3 companies, 6 roles and overcame dozens of decision paralysis, self-doubt moments along the way.
What inspired me to write this post came from several discussions I’ve had with my friends and some of my coaching clients. There are people who are afraid to step out, there are others who are confused about what they want and some with a direction but no idea what steps to take.
There are people whom shared with me that they are inspired by how I’ve never stopped progressing or looking for something that excites and grow me. The truth is, do I really know my path? Not yet really, but I am definitely closer to it with every step I take. And I do not stop.
The truth is, do I really know my path? Not yet really, but I am definitely closer to it with every step i take. And I do not stop.
Just to get the skeptic in you out of the way, you may be asking: “Do you even achieve anything if you keep moving around in roles/companies?”
The answer lies in the definition of achieve. What are achievements for you? It took me some amount of time to put my motivations and values into words.
Growing up
Growing up in a traditional Asian family mindset and culture, I realised how much it meant to my parents to be the first university graduate of the family. I learnt to study hard, told myself to get into a large MNC, work my ass-off in the rat race and climb to the top. And then, I’ll be very achieved and successful…?
Finding my path
Unfortunately, that mindset did not serve me well in university. I went for internships and saw corporate, had my first taste of seeing politics up close, disliked networking thinking it’s very fake, struggled with self-confidence and wondered why would people want to hire me. As graduation inches closer by the day, I still have not figured out how to fully utilise my university years. I started to panic. I felt so lost. It is my last semester, I’ve not found a job and I have no freaking clue what I want to do. As a marketing major, FMCG marketing was everybody’s dreams. And I thought it sounded cool…too.
It sounded oddly familiar — this seems like the same reason why I chose to major in Business because everybody else is doing it too. I reached out to the career office twice, asking for help. But I didn’t get any reply. I thought to myself, there were only these few career staff to serve entire hundreds of students. Maybe I am the unlucky few that fell through the loophole. Or maybe there were certain priorities that have to be met, and I’m not just the ace-students that make the cut. It was horrendous, the self-doubts were amplified. What’s next?
The turning point
Thankfully, the important turning point was not that far away. I’ve had the luxury to be part of this amazing startup, Luxola. There are so many takeaways that I keep so close to my heart: the amazing culture, the people who take so much ownership in their work, the annual Christmas parties that were never cancelled because the team’s morale is being prioritised.
Every step counts
There were many little moments that made such a monument difference when I look back. This was when i realised that every little step does add up.
The key things that I learnt that I bring along with myself are:
It is ok to be outside of your comfort zone. In fact, it’s crazy rewarding.
On my first day of work, my manager f̶o̶r̶c̶e̶d encouraged me to introduce myself to my stakeholders, invite them for lunch/meeting so I can understand what they are working on and how we can get synergy together. This move may be very straightforward, but oh boy, how daunting it is for a fresh graduate in her first job. Today I look back and I’m so thankful for the amazingly kind colleagues who have shared their time and experience with me.
I didn’t realise what it did for me in the beginning. But after years of inculcating this, I looked back and saw the friendships that I’ve forged, the knowledge that I’ve gained across functions and the resultant ability to collaborate as a team. With many more lovely people in my life, it also helps me gain new perspectives on what options would be more aligned with me. Indeed, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
I didn’t realise what it did for me in the beginning.
Taking Ownership and being in the driver seat to empower you.
I’ve had huge autonomy in my first role and that I really enjoy. As the SEO specialist, I enjoyed taking ownership of planning all the upcoming experiments, executing and analysing them. I loved my job so much, I subscribed to articles from searchengineland, moz, Neil Patel and many more. Also, going to workshops on my own and studied more about it on weekends. I’ve surprised myself by my ability to study, with the stark contrast of me as a university student.
This is the first time I felt like I owned something and I take full responsibilities for it. I realised how that has made my learning journey fulfilled and enjoyable. I didn’t need to question myself what did I study for, I just did it.
This feeling of empowerment kept my passion and fire alive for a long time. It took me much further than I expected. Today I look back on how I picked my options for myself powerfully, when I chose to change function, challenged myself to a bigger scope and exploring new grounds.
Manage expectations and give space to yourself for learnings.
Along the way, work frustrations accumulated. I felt like things weren’t moving as fast as before, I started to whine about what is missing and then I felt the strong urge to just give in and finger point. I was unhappy with other people’s mistakes. I was unhappy with myself for being unhappy. I started to feel under-appreciated and feel out of control. I was tired, I was probably what they call burnt out. Was I still giving my all, yes. But where is that energy from now that my fire is gone? Probably from my anger of the perfectionist part of me.
Unfortunately, the loud and jarring wake-up call for me came in the form of my heart literally skipping a beat due to the overwhelming emotions I felt. This was when I realised, “Dude, you need to relax. Is this all worth it?”
As we speak about stakeholders management, I learnt that the person that I needed to manage my expectations the most is none other than myself. I was giving away power to all the external influence in my life that is beyond my control.
Give yourself some space to learn. Will you get everything spot on every time, probably not. If you think you do, you probably ain’t adopting a growth mindset where you constantly look for ways to better yourself. So what do you need to do, try your best and learn with humility and curiosity. Over time, the experience and data points will allow you to see more than you cannot before. :)
Putting into words
My form of achievement is to constantly seek for self-growth. I learnt to be kinder to myself. I learnt to give space to myself, and only when there’s space that possibilities can appear. I’ve been through SEO, performance marketing and learnt how to see from an online to offline perspective, got a taste of loyalty marketing, CRM and many more.
These are things that worked for me and what I’ve condensed as learning so far. There are many struggles that I was faced with along the way. But what I know for sure is, you don’t have to do this alone.
If you are lost like I’ve been before, reach out to me / email me at cadence.csh@gmail.com. I’ll be more than happy to hear more and potentially be part of your journey as a coach to help you put things into words and explore bravely.
