Covid, Entrepreneurship and Running 1,000km

Almost every article that I have read in the last one and a half year has the notorious Covid somewhere in the mix. This is no exception. Click bait.

Covid has wrecked havoc across the world and it is one of the most significant global crisis mankind has ever experienced in recent history. It has taught me several important lessons. 

1. Take care of yourself before you can take care of others 

I miss taking the plane. My last business trip was in Feb 2020 to London, just before Covid launched a global attack on everyone. In all airplane safety video, there will always be a part where during an emergency, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead compartment and you are supposed to attend to yourself before helping others. I guess the rationale is pretty straight forward - take care of yourself first before you can take care of others. 

Besides staying healthy, I think building up a reasonable level of fitness that helps to boost immune system cannot be a bad thing to fend off Covid. 

3 years ago, I took up running leisurely and wasn’t tracking progress at all. In May 2020, I received a Xiaomi Band5 as a free gift and started tracking my running progress. It is surprisingly addictive - both the running part and the tracking of it. After 12 months of active tracking, I have just clocked 1,000 km with 214 runs! 

I wake up almost every weekday at 6.30am and go for a 5-km run. It is refreshing and sets the pace for the day knowing that I have accomplished something that many people procrastinate forever to do. Keeping to a comfortable average pace of 5 mins 15 seconds per km, I think I’m doing pretty well for someone who will hit the Big 5 in 2 years’ time! Not forgetting that during my National Service days, I was non-combat fit. I have lost about 12kg since I started running. So for anyone out there wanting to know how to lose weight, consistency and determination are the key ingredients to success.

I believe that if I take good care of my body, Covid or any other viruses will find it harder to enter my system anytime soon and even if they did, I'm hopeful that my immune system will mount a swift counter-attack especially with the help of 2 Pfizer shots. 

From an entrepreneurship perspective, staying healthy and keeping fit give me the mental strength to deal with sh*t, I mean challenges that occur so very often.

2. Take care of your people and they will take care of your clients

I have to admit that I didn’t get everything right at Cynopsis over the years. Which entrepreneur can say that they have? Making mistakes and learning from it builds better outcomes in the long run. That said, some mistakes may be more costly than others and take a longer time to resolve especially if it relates to people matters but nothing is insurmountable. What’s crucial is we always bounce back stronger. 

At Cynopsis, I stress on a few core objectives for the team. One of them being achieving excellence at People, Product, Process and Priority. I term it 4Ps.

People is at the front and centre of who we are at Cynopsis. Without the team, we are nothing. Anyone who has worked with me before will say that I’m somewhat a perfectionist with high expectation. I’m learning to live with imperfections. Cynopsis is at an early scale-up stage and are competing with the big boys in the industry globally. So yes, we do have imperfections but these are often counter-balanced by an equally long list of achievements that the team has produced over the years. I’m thankful for that. 

I’ve been told before that entrepreneurship is not a sprint, it is a marathon. There is some truth in this statement. However, I would suggest that it is neither a sprint nor a marathon. It is actually a combination of runs at different speeds, distances and terrains that form the entire journey. Many a times, with good reliable running mates. Other times, doing it alone. Sometimes, people drop off and along the way, new running mates come onboard. That’s the reality of life and more specifically - Entrepreneurship. With every successful run, you become stronger and ready to take on the next challenge. More importantly, it is to enjoy the ups and downs of the journey and process together. 

It is difficult for founders of a business to admit to the team that there are many things that we don’t know. After all, if you are the boss and if you don’t know, who will? At Cynopsis, we have diversified teams in Asia, Europe and US. Each person, regardless of seniority, brings to the table different skillset, personal attributes and experience. There will always be things that the team knows better that I don’t. Appreciating the dedication, hard work and efforts that the team has quietly put in to Cynopsis goes a long way in building trust and commitment. Just like trusting the healthcare workers during this pandemic.  

3. Take care of your products and your clients will take care of you

Every startup will claim that they have the better product than others. I have been around long enough to know that there is actually a lot of BS out there. We try to stay true to what we say on the tin. If we don’t, things will come back and haunt us. A flight-by-night company or a startup trying to pump up valuation may claim that they can even solve world peace with technology. 

Regardless of what one claims, the products we build must be functional and serve the intended purposes. In our case, helping our clients achieve better regulatory outcomes by combining Compliance knowledge with functional technologies. If we deliver what we say we do, generally, the good words get around.

Our Triple-A products (Ares, Artemis and Athena) are listed as Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Digital Acceleration Grant Pre-Approved General Solutions for financial institutions. On top of that, Artemis has also achieved Productivity Solutions Grant status for SMEs administered by the Singapore Government. This is a huge testament for product quality and market confidence. 

Truth be told, there will always be bugs and issues or us not meeting some clients’ expectations. We don’t give up. We try to find solutions or at least workarounds for them. Most clients appreciate it; a handful don’t. We recognise our shortfalls and strive to do better next time. Some use us as stalking horse. Yet again, that is life and we live to fight another battle. 

Covid is no difference. Every country calibrates its own safe management and border control measure trying to strike a balance between lives and livelihood. Some work; some don’t. Key is making sure the measures (products) work in addressing the risks. 

Building and maintaining a product is hard enough for any company. We have 4 live products that clients are paying money for. This herculean task has been diligently managed by the wonderful team Cynopsis has. Without a solid base of clients trusting and supporting us over the last 6 years, it is definitely an impossible feat especially when we are boot-strapped since day 1.  

We adopt the Agile approach to software development which means that there are regular sprints, hot fixes, commits and deployments. This can get intense especially with larger projects. So teamwork is paramount in this process and regular communication with clients helps to smoothen things out.

No man is an island. So is the battle against Covid. It will take a global concerted effort to bring normalcy back soon hopefully. I’m quite certain we will emerge stronger (and better) as a species.

Running a thousand kilometres is a small but meaningful milestone of my life journey. Taking good care of yourself (health, fitness and mental wellness) allows you to take care of others in this unprecedented times. Taking care of your team enables them to take care of your clients and taking care of your products means that your clients will take care of you in return. 

Stay safe.