The same Aim but a new Way
A two-year-in-review journey of my personal transformation
For someone who has been in the tech ecosystem for a decade, living through the high times of unicorn hype and the lowest lows of Series A crunches, a lot of people has asked me what I have been doing laying low all these years despite a plethora of Linkedin status updates. Mostly, I’ve spent a lot of time to reflect on what has brought me to this point of a few successes (and many failures) while on a forced retirement from the events and coworking industry.
What is dumb luck? My charisma? Great community and support?
There are a lot of things above are outside our control, but having talked to some of my best coaches and mentors, there has always been one constant that we can always control:
Our ability to create and deliver
In an age of big data, AI and robotics, we are constantly judged not just by our ability to tick boxes, but our ability to create and deliver something that no AI can do and that we can do uniquely better and different than others. Whether that means creating a movement of people, crafting a masterpiece song, or building new blockchain and startups that people couldn’t conceive of, to be in this high growth tech game, is to constantly be reviewing ourselves and ask: “Are we still creating and delivering value?”
Looking back at myself, having my career upended overnight to where social distancing and virtual events from all over the world compete with one another, how can an OG event and coworking guy continue to do the best work? As someone on the internet said it best, the best founders need to have an ability to “break through walls but also know when the wall is winning as they bang their heads against the wall.” As I take stock of my career portfolio in 2021, I realized that honestly speaking, my skillsets was adding less and less value to the people I serve due to the pandemic. However, in took me a much longer time to realize my super powers, which is my ability and mindset of bringing people together, building communities and unlocking positivity and potential in people has never been more demand today. When I realized the narrative that I was told of who I was, what I can do or cannot do no longer serves me, it quickly dawned to me that it’s time to reinvent myself completely.
Reinvent or Die
Rather than reminiscing the glory days and be fixated on titles, old identities and the past, one of the hardest personal challenge I faced during these past two years was how I can reinvent myself to be a better version, which is really funny considering I juggled multiple careers in the past. It was about leaving behind things that no longer serve me, to create space for reflection, growth and new learning. In order to do that, I needed to understand where I want to grow into, versus where I am at today in my careers and roles:
- Creator vs just a (Super) Connector
- Subject Matter Expert vs Jack of all trades, master of none
- Venture builder vs Cheerleader
- Transformation Specialist vs Preacher
As you can see from the patterns above, I realized for the past decade that I was always just a cheerleader, a face to a brand, spokesperson, and not actually a creator. It was a humbling experience to realize after 10 years, I am still nowhere near where I want myself to be: proud of my achievements, confident in my abilities and capabilities, grounded in my principles and beliefs and ready for the next megatrends. Now here comes the interesting part: Rather than resigned to fate of what people prescribe me to be (“Aim knows everybody. He’s the most connected guy in Thailand. etc. etc.”) and fade into obsolesce and self-pity, I decide to practice what I preach when I advise fresh grads and coach people in their careers moves: “You can be whoever you want to be, as long as you change the narrative in your own head.”
To that end, here’s what I spent my time doing this past 2 years:
- Creator: Started this blog, The Aim (is The Way), having barely written anything for the past decade (despite starting a media company!). Big up to all my co-conspirators especially Sheena Narula for helping me write a few killer pieces!
- Subject Matter Expert: I deep dived back into Impact tech but helping to set up Impact Collective, an Asia-Pacific impact accelerator based in Korea that supports growth stage impact makers to scale throughout the region.
- Venture Builder: Advising Almond Digital Group, now Omelet, on venture building to get my hands dirty on building software while joining forces with some prominent angels in starting Unfold Ventures, an angel syndicate of the most prolific angels and seasoned founders in Thailand while moonlighting as a Venture Partner at Mandalay Venture Partners, a food & agtech focused fund out of Australia.
- Transformation Specialist: Joined ENSERV, a renewable energy company as a Chief Transformation Officer and Innovation Advisor at VERSO, where I get to experience first hand the Future Ready Education that will create Citizen designers of the future.
Taking a page from the most successful digital nomads and remote workers of our generation, I fully believe that we are all no longer tied to one identity, one company or tribe but a portfolio approach. We move in between organizations, adding value to place we can create and deliver, and regrouping to new ventures when our time is up and where there is no value we can add. We can be many things at once, as I have successfully proven, and through the cross-pollination of my work I have been able to add more value by bring insights, connections and perspectives than someone who is fixated on the old way of work.
In transformation speak, we always say “What got you here won’t get you there.” The billion dollar question is, where is there? For me, the answer of my personal mission never changed: “To do well while doing good.” I’m still the same “Aim from the block,” still always trying to be helpful to everyone, still a no-nonsense straight shooter.
But “The Way” to get there will always be constantly shifting and changing, and with it ourselves as well. While it may be painful, vulnerable and naked at times, an ego-crushing experience that forces you to examine everything that went right (and wrong), but only through that experience can we re-emerge as a harder, better, faster, stronger version of ourself.
So as a gift to you, my biggest fans and ardent supporters, if you are ever lost, defeated, depressed or suffering from major setbacks, just reach out to me and we can always have a chat, not just about startups and careers, but to share stories so that we may be back on track to being our best selves once again.
And for everyone who has subscribed, I wish you much Happiness this New Year and look forward to crossing paths and collaborating like we used to in 2022 :)
