One year reflections from growing a business during COVID

Around Aug 2019 last year, I returned to Singapore after my five month sabbatical in Europe with the intention of rejoining the workforce, I did not manage to land on a suitable job despite trying for months but got enquiries to teach, from the private design institutes to the local Polytechnics. It wasn't easy leaving the comfort of a fixed pay cheque but I knew I was embracing something I love: teaching.

I once imagine teaching to be a retirement job I would enjoy after accumulating more experience but there was so much I wanted to change about the state of how technical education is delivered that I said to myself, "If not me then who? If not now then when?"

Without much thought, I started to slowly build a business with a pipeline of projects without raising any money. We got our first corporate training gig from Prudential Malaysia thanks to the good folks at BFM 89.9. We were in Malysia within three months into the business and the people I got to know from Malaysia have been really warm and friendly.

As 2019 ended, I imagined building a healthy pipeline of consulting projects and physical training gigs around the South-East Asia region in 2020. I set myself the annual sales goal of at least meeting what I was paid in my corporate job. My optimism took a hit when COVID started creeping in, first were around the travel restrictions, I had to cancel a training with our corporate client in Malaysia and then physical trainings were banned. Things started to look increasingly bleak in the next few months.

It was tempting to return to the same salary pay cheque when recruiters reached out for senior roles but I made a commitment to myself to stay the course. Just like the desert and the mirage scene in Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist', that all seemed like a test and perhaps an illusion.

When enrollment numbers were low, I often reminded myself of this quote from the same book, "Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time." And those words provided sanity and much needed wisdom in moments of fear and self-doubt. As long as I can persuade two people, the third will come. It worked when we were filling the workshop in Kuala Lumpur and it worked again when I enrolled my first batch of coaching clients in our 4 month career conversion program. We ended up filling the room with 20 paying participants and 6 paying clients respectively.

As I reflect on our first year as a young startup, my third in my career switching between corporate and startups, I have a few learnings to share with those who are seeking to live their truth and feel uncomfortable in surrendering to how our universe works.

Everything is connected

How we do one thing in life is how we do everything in life. How we love determines our relationship with money and vice versa. As we train our body, we train our mind and spirit too. Our ability to live the life we want is dependent on how we care about our energy, our relationship with others and the world and our ability to take small actions to turn our dreams into reality.

You can truly only connect the dots when you look backwards

It's nice to let life surprise you with better, who can surely say if the narrative we project in our minds is truly the best for us?

Even for our UX Career coaching clients, many did not believe they would get a job after the program but I always believe that it is the people that makes the dream work. Two out of six of those clients have a contract before they graduate in September. The way they landed those contracts surprised me.

Focus on service and the opportunities and people will follow

As I finished my triathalon last year and learned to managed one of my biggest fear in swimming in open waters, I realised that if I only think about not sinking, I will constantly stay fearful as I think about sinking. After finishing the race, I noted that I should build my life and career upon serving others so as to transcend the "poor me" moments (and the ego).

Some have asked where I get the energy to do so many different things, I get it from serving others and being served by others. The work I do keeps my spirits high and I'm grateful we get to truly impact more than a handful of lives since I started the business.

As the saying goes, "birds of the same feathers flock together", you can tell the character of a person by who he/she surround himself/herself with. If we are to attract virtuous customers and team members, we should ask ourselves do we practice the same virtues? We attract what we embody.

Focus on working on yourself first

As I reflect why I failed badly in my previous businesses, I realised I did not take the time to do the inner work and was blindly pursuing a financial outcome. My personal habits translated into poor decisions in the business and there was no one vested in the business to hold me accountable and look at problems from a different perspective.

Before you start a business focus on the deep inner work and the relationships around you, if you cannot do that, at least find a team who would hold you accountable if you stray.

Earning money in the only way we know it is not a good excuse

Society tells us certain professions make good money and therefore we have to disconnect ourselves from our work to make money so we can feed ourselves and make more money. My travels have put me in touch with people who make a living in very unconventional ways (e.g. writing software for a niche industry or selling courses on Udemy) so making money in the only way we know how (e.g. a job) is not a good excuse to stop pursuing what we love doing. Do you really have to or do you get to?

The universe conspires

This week we achieved one of our best sales revenue, I saw the value of what I practice in user experience (UX) translate into different industries, including building out the UX to streamline identity document collection for our government and solving a competitive deadlock for one of the fastest growing used car marketplaces in Asia. I also ended my first semester teaching UX in polytechnic with a tinge of sadness. It was also fun brainstorming with two energetic professors of two different local universities on short programs we can offer their students in 2020 and 2021.

We welcome two new team members, James and Hafi, this month and say goodbye to our intern, Jingxiu. It's phenomenonal to work with bright and young Singaporeans. I share a greater appreciation for the wisdom that "people represents the vitatlity of a business".

I am grateful that I get to work on what I love with the people I love to work with. I did not plan for it but I am here and I wanted to be here.

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@daylonsoh