Hacked a Life, Entrepreneur. Now Wander Home, The Little Prince. A Pursuit of Happiness

I am drown in this sea of visions, missions and everything. There have been so much momentum, impact and progression in human world. It has been 5 years of traveling wild. And "entrepreneur" is not the end of my life. Fund-raising as entrepreneur is now entering as part of an endgame, and I wanna find myself a sense of home. To fight better, everyone may just actually need it.

This is especially the case, in the face of CFA exam, company's fund-raising, parents getting older and all. Every step and mission have an end. It takes you to build a home and complete the family so one can move further. Not everyone is Elon Musk. Even Mark Zuckerberg contributes his success to "family" and "home", not the way round.

Far From Home

The days of wandering and solo traveling in crazy wild lands is gone. It has been 5 years since the first time I traveled to Southeast Asia and South Asia. It was first for a search of myself. I had no clue where I am going next back in my college time. I thought I should have done better, so I packed myself up.

I want to see a bigger world, and know how far I can go. I believed these all excitement drive me happy and fulfil a young mind with strong sense of success and accomplishment. I took my luggage and a brave heart of entrepreneurship, been to Cambodia(20 times), times of Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Japan, Dubai, Ghana...It wasn't a balance of living. People come by and leave. Nothing lasts forever. Those are days of hustle of experiencing new world, connecting to new people of all classes, dinner over their stories and all...till a moment when thing went extreme. Life gave you a bounce back.

There was a time, that I was deported from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Colombo, Sri Lanka. A bit like movie "The Terminal", I was stuck there for 3 days. No shower, only with refugees and migrant workers in the airport. I made friends with them, and their stories were nothing more simpler than raising a family but they didn't tell any negative or sadness. They were eager to go home. I was simply thinking what I had been fighting for.

I was mad with the Dhaka airport authority, I was desperate the deal and business success in Bangladesh, and I want to figure out till when will I reach a point of success. That's the first sign of life. I felt something went wrong.

And the farthest place I have been to is New York City. It's exactly 12/13 hours apart. While you are awake in the city in the morning, you know that on the other end, your parents are sleeping midnight. It was that close, as you can WhatsApp them, but it never comes better when you can talk to them face to face, and eat the soup they made.

"What if someone you never met, someone you never saw, someone you never knew was the only someone for you?" - Sleepless In Seattle.

Catch Me If You Can

Human relations is that delicate and fragile. I mastered some skills to survive during my run in Southeast Asia. I have been so much skillful and engaged into it. Yet, I have been also trying to run away from it. The skills give you tickets to different levels of living and opportunities, but it also brings you to the faces that you are not familiar, killing yourself.

In 2015, I realised I didn't make the VISA to Myanmar during my visit in Cambodia. It was the time military Myanmar government just opens it up the economy.

While China Embassy didn't manage anything for Hong Kong citizen, I leveraged a fresh built "ASEAN" non-profit foundation and claimed that I was traveling to Myanmar for a business meeting in UMFCCI. With the help of an official in Ministry of Education and Youth in Cambodia, I managed to have a chat with Deputy Minister of Commerce in Myanmar and he issued me an official letter to land and enter Myanmar border without VISA. I was even invited to Naypyidaw Government building as official welcome.

The only thing I regret was heading there using motorbike, and I did look pretty young back then. I nailed a smooth conversation about development and startup with the Deputy Minister. There I realised that if I go further about this bluff, things would go wrong.

For years I have been spending my life-hack skills for building network, of friends, of government, companies and all, and these build me companies. It doesn't earn me a big wealth, but I did enjoy a different life out of it. Yet, this also slowly distances me from people I actually care and love.

"Sometimes it's easier living the lie." "but look, frank...no one is chasing you."

Ambition is endless, but life is. When life has an end, give better care and love, or give life a "home".

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eyes." - The Little Prince

Now this is not about me backing off or quitting. In such mass of technology advance, progress and all fast changes in human world, what is essential deep in our heart is not that clear to see.

These 5 years, there are probably impressions that "success", "wealth", "high achievement" are pretty much tags to my life. I used to think that I am in need of these. I chased them all, wandered around, lost and fought hard for these.

Maybe, till a point of losing something, it gives you a hint of life. You need these to make a living, but you don't need these to make a life. What is essential has been in fact around me, or had been. The people I love.

The pursuit of happiness has been so simple, being with someone that you love and care. Happiness has been on our hands. We just don't know it yet.

The days of wild and crazy have gone, and terms to Singapore will have an end. We cannot tell what shall happen after 2 years, but now, no matter where the little prince is going, he is being himself. Home is where he is with the one he cares and loves.