Reflection on my life thus far, why PM, and where I'm heading...

(This is an excerpt from a paper from my entrepreneurial class last semester)

Introduction?

Since I was young, there have been many things that I thought I wanted to do, but I wasn’t sure or determined to do any of them. When I was little, I thought about becoming a teacher because I liked my teacher a lot. Then, I realized that I am pretty impatient, and I don’t want to deal with a lot of kids that might be spoiled by their parents.?

I volunteered during the summer after middle school graduation in Thailand to teach 3rd to 8th graders mathematics and English. That experience was incredible. I actually enjoyed teaching and connecting with the students. But I knew it wasn’t for me if I wanted to choose it as a career in the long run.

Next, in high school, I wanted to become a social worker because I wanted to help those in need to have access to resources that are supposed to be equally accessible for all, but in reality not the case for minorities.

With the rise of global warming, pollution, extinctions, etc., I wanted to become an environmental scientist that focuses on researching the environmental crisis and the potential solutions.

Moving on to college, I thought I wanted to become a psychologist or therapist that helps others. I was diagnosed with depression in my senior year in high school, and I missed the entire year staying home, resting, and healing from a suicide attempt.

I thought it was my calling to help other people like me. However, in sophomore year, I was diagnosed with major anxiety disorder and had to withdraw from the semester to take medications and recover. By that time, I realize that I might not be ready to help others without affecting my own wellbeings.

At that point, almost all of my friends were chasing the Big Four, investment banking, etc., trends, and I wanted to change my major. I didn’t know what I wanted exactly, so I chose something closer to the “popular career potentials” that are also closer to psychology – statistics.

At first, I liked it, but then it just felt like I was just trying to finish it to graduate. I didn’t feel passionate about it, but I wasn’t even sure what I was passionate about because there were a lot of things going on in my life that distracted me heavily. From being in a toxic relationship to my grandpa passing away.

Seed of Entrepreneurial Spirit

My grandpa has a special place not only in my heart but also in my life, specifically in my curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit, if any. I was raised by my maternal grandparents until I was 6. Though most of the memories are a bit blurry now, there were some moments that I still remember vividly, especially the ones that I had with my grandfather, who passed away in 2017 and had influenced me greatly if I ever become an entrepreneur in the future.

I remember jumping on my grandpa’s office chair while he was working at his desk at home. It didn’t occur to me that it was very rare for people to work at home at that time, unlike after the year 2020, when the world acknowledged that remote working can be a norm and is most feasible. While jumping on his chair, he might have been typing on his desktop. I didn’t know what he was doing, and years later, I realized that he was sending and receiving emails, typing invoices, etc.

Sometimes, when he was not typing on his computer, he would write on his desk, signing contracts, making notes, or organizing his files. Sometimes, he would be speaking on the phone, either in Mandarin or in English, and I would wait on the side and try to stay as quiet as possible because I was taught it is bad to interrupt others while they’re on the phone.

His home office was my playground. I didn’t understand what he was doing, but I enjoyed mimicking his actions, such as knocking on the keyboard, pretending that I was also working like a professional; pulling out his folders to count how many pieces of paper were there, and then putting them back into the cabinet; taking my grandpa’s business cards to shuffle and hand them out to whoever visits our home; playing with an unplugged phone my grandparents saved for me to pretend that I’m talking with some imaginary “clients”; and so on.

I loved how he was usually at home during the days and could spend time with me while he was off his desk, and how he often had foreign friends (clients) visiting our home who spoke only English and brought gifts that were nothing like things I saw in Taiwan.

Many years later, I finally got what he did - he was a solopreneur; he was a middle person that worked with local manufacturers and exported luxurious pens and inks to clients in Europe. At that time in Taiwan, not a lot of people his age knew English, so he made use of that skill to create a sustainable business where he could work at home most of the time.

To my knowledge, even though he graduated from the best university in Taiwan, he didn’t have a satisfying career (all employed by others) until he was around 45, when he became a solopreneur.

He didn’t become a billionaire, but he could work only 1-2 hours a day and then sign off. He would take us to nice restaurants or department stores. He was able to afford things that were not too common in households, such as a VCR, a set of nice speakers coupled with a DVD and CD player to play his collection of classical music, opera, Hollywood movies, etc. And he imported a whole set of encyclopedias from overseas that looked like an entire wall on the bookshelf.

After I started elementary school, up until I graduated from college, I never knew what I wanted to do with my career. Be a social worker that helps others? Maybe. An environmental scientist that helps the earth? Maybe. A psychologist or a therapist that helps others? Sure. A statistician or a data analyst that works with numbers? Okay.

I have changed majors in college and career paths now. I might change again in the future.

But there is one thing that remains on my mind throughout all the years – the image of my grandpa working at his desk.

My grandpa loved reading and learning new things. He constantly challenged us to obtain and absorb new information, such as the newest book from Stephen Hawking about the universe or simply a few English vocabularies or slang to test my younger brother and me. This spirit has followed me and fueled me along the journey.

Life is Endless Explorations

After graduating from college, I drifted from job to job, trying to figure out what I wanted for my career. Initially, I thought it didn’t matter what kind of job I did as long as I did my best and I was learning. I thought it mattered more whether I was being proactive enough to grow and take on more responsibilities.

Nonetheless, I started to realize that although I might have the right attitude and mindset to perform well, something was still missing in the day-to-day.

In November 2021, after working in data operation and data project management for more than two years, I realized, once again, that it wasn’t something that I wanted to pursue for the next 10 years. Something seemed to have changed inside me during the pandemic.

I tried to pinpoint the change, and it might be due to an unhealthy working condition that led to physical pains and burnout, or it could also be enlightenment during the pandemic after spending more time at home and with myself and loved ones.

Either way, I found myself contemplating more on what I disliked and what I wanted to do. I started to realize how little growth I had over the past few months, and the stagnation frightened me because all the time wasted or not growing is not going to be replenished.

You can always save or earn money again, but you can never earn more time in your life after they’re gone.

This revelation gave me the alarm and the courage to quit my full-time job and join a nonprofit as an unpaid part-time associate product manager while completing my master’s degree here at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

I discovered my interest in product management in early 2021 while having virtual coffee chats with colleagues from different departments.

At first, I was just curious about the work, so I started to read books on product management. Next, I got more interested, so I bought a discounted course on Udemy to study it further. At the same time, I also started applying for product positions hoping to make a transition, but it was much harder than I thought.

As I felt more and more trapped in the job, I started to evaluate my savings and my situation. I’ve been depositing a certain portion of my salary into an “f-you money” account, and I realized that I could approximately cover 1-year of living frugally without any income. I then turned to the nonprofit I’ve worked with as a tech ambassador and offered to be their first and only product person without any compensation.

To me, the most important thing at this stage of my life is to aggressively grow my skills and experience in order to transition into something that, for the first time in my life, I know I am extremely passionate about and want to do for a long time.

And I’m glad that I have saved enough money and have accumulated enough courage to do that.

Why Product Management?

There has been an increasing trend of people wanting to transition into this career path. There have been a lot of observations and glorifications that made me wonder if I was also primed to think of this career path as something I wanted to do while, in fact, I don’t.

In order to not fall into this trap again, I read a lot of articles and books, and I chatted with more than 20 product managers to understand their day-to-day duties and what they like and dislike about their jobs.

I started to formulate a window view into this job and several reasons why this career path attracts me:

1. Combine things I love.

Product management, as I have come to realize, is not only about managing product development but also a problem-solving capability that encompasses communicating with every stakeholder, probing and framing problems or pains to solve, making use of data, coming up with solutions, working with others to solve the problems, and more. All these things are what I already love since an early age.

2. Help me become a better entrepreneur if I were to become one in the future.

A lot of people call product managers the CEO of a product, which is an accurate description except without the authority of a CEO. I still think of starting my own business as my grandfather, and learning the in and out of product management will help me immensely. It’ll teach me not only how to solve problems but also how to build solutions to the point that users would love.

3.?Facing challenges and learning daily.

Every day is a new day for product managers. There are always bugs to be fixed, problems to be solved, metrics to be checked on and moved, etc. Only 3 months into my product journey with the nonprofit, I was already learning by doing so much that exceeded my 6-month self-study prior to joining the organization. I was so na?ve that simply by reading books and taking online classes would help me transition into product management.

The above three reasons happened to be some of my non-negotiables when it comes to long-term career and personal growth.

Most people work 8 hours a day, which takes up more than 50% of our lives if we don’t count on sleeping or eating. It’s not easy to separate work and life when the majority of your time is spent on working, so it’s best to find a fulfilling job that makes us feel meaningful and passionate.

PMing So Far

?After 6 months of working at the nonprofit, I also have several new understandings of myself, again and again.

First of all, I love product management, but I also recognize that it is a very limited learning experience here as there is no product marketing manager or product designer. And there is only one software engineer that belongs to an outsourced agency in a different country. That means I am doing many different things that might not actually require me to do in most other companies. Nevertheless, I have been enjoying these learning opportunities for me to get a more holistic view of how might different functions of teammates work together in solving issues.

Second, this is actually a great starting point for me since there are little to no resources for me, forcing me to be extremely lean and creative when it comes to problem-solving, prioritization, etc. This would serve as a valuable experience if I want to start my own business in the future or simply bootstrapping a side project.

Next, I re-discover how satisfying it is to do meaningful and fulfilling work. I have volunteered at local animal shelters, elderly care centers, and care centers for children with special needs in Taiwan. I have also volunteered in several elementary schools in northern Thailand. Now at this nonprofit serving children with chronic illnesses, I witness even closely how the entire family is impacted and how our organization becomes a big source of positivity for their daily lives.

The experience was phenomenal for me as I appreciated more about what I have and learned more about empathy and working with those in need.

Doing meaningful work provides an energy flywheel that is mission-driven, which continuously humbles me and, at the same time, fuels my daily routine of learning, facing challenges, and solving problems.

Last but not least, I fortify my aspiration of becoming a product manager or entrepreneur focusing on accessibility, product inclusion, healthcare, health tech, etc. It has been my wish to help people with disability since I was young, but I also knew that I didn’t want to become a doctor or a nurse.

My parents both have physical disabilities, and I have witnessed them being discriminated against and how user-unfriendly most places and things are. After I was diagnosed with a hearing disability, it became more obvious to me that this would be my life mission to contribute to making the world a little better for people in need.

After I graduate, I hope that I can continue working with this nonprofit part-time while having a full-time product management job to continue sharpening my skills and experiences.

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Next Steps

Going forward, I’m hoping to continue learning product management and doing product work, all while spending time on my side project to test and validate the feasibility and market demand.

I believe that focusing on product management is not only a means for me to do what I’m passionate about but also a great way for me to accumulate the necessary skills and experience in building features, products, and potentially my own businesses in the future.

After graduating with my master's degree, I’m hoping to join a small to medium size startup to continue as a product manager and work my way up to group product manager or head of product along the way.

As for my side project, I hope that I can use as few resources as possible initially to validate and iterate the building process. Though it might be hard, I want to ensure that I do not get attached to my own idea and would be able to spot the opportunity to pivot when needed.

Life is a marathon, with many sprints involved. I hope I can continue learning, growing, and finding meaning and passion in what I do every day.

(Thank you so much for reading if you have made it thus far ??)