Finding and holding on to opportunities.

Through all of life's trials and tribulations, I have always tried to see the bigger picture and brighter side of it. This outlook in life has made me what I am now and I believe this will make me become the best version of myself. In my teenage years, I had the opportunity to dabble in the trading business whenever there was a chance. Unfortunately, I had to close them with the rise of online retail services. This was a major blow to me as it was a huge income stream for a student. But I had to move on.

After my mandatory national service at the age of 23, I joined a startup with a goal of making the sporting scene in Singapore a better place. I was given the opportunity to be in the marketing team and to lead creative campaigns and to dabble in business development to improve and drive sales improving the ROI during the marketing process resulting in marketing qualified leads becoming sales. During my short stint there, I made friends from across the region; my friends turned into my clients and my clients that turned into friends. That was where I found my strength in CRM and CSR. Through this opportunity, I added a new service that included an apparel product line to increase revenue for the company. I brought the company accounts from red to green. Unfortunately, I was unable to sustain myself in the intense environment of this startup as the majority of the income I had was through profit-sharing but the founder would channel back most of the profits to marketing dollars without an objective/plan. (I believe that in every startup, the balance sheet is of utmost importance.) Simply put, I had lost belief. And off I went into modeling where I learned how did media really work while earning a decent income.

Fast forward a few years, I was having coffee with my friend Jacob whom I had met when I was still competing in triathlons. We realised we felt empty because we still had a passion for sports. We consulted our coach and mentor Eugene and found out there were still gaps in the industry that needed work on. Slowly, we roped in a few of our friends who were some of the top coaches and athletes in the country to embark on bringing together like-minded athletes across the different abilities and to grow the sport nationally through best practices, legislation, and leadership. We started BREAKAWAY The club grew at an incredible rate through the friendships I made years ago. Bringing everyone who had the same mindset and belief was the start.

Monetizing opportunity came when some of my previous partners asked me to host workshops for them. Through these workshops, product lines grew and we even had inquiries across the region from friends I made in the past and from there we took off.

To summarise, finding and holding on to opportunities was key in how this pan out. I would like to thank my mentors, coaches, athletes, and friends who have kept the faith. This is only the beginning.