The Power of Momentum: One Thing Will Lead To The Next
JourneyNorth Podcast | Season 01 | EP 05
Can you remember when was the last time you truly had fun? Maybe it was your movie date last weekend, or the soccer match you had a few months ago. Regardless, everyone has their own definition of fun.
Interestingly, the guest today, Soon Kon, enjoys building businesses. To him, embarking on new startups and projects is fun. He just graduated from university not too long ago, but has already started more than 5 ventures during his university days. While not every single one of them worked out the way he wanted it to, it is still intriguing to speak to someone who has such a fervent passion for what he’s doing.
Who Is Soon Kon?
Soon Kon is the CEO of Worksider, the biggest internship Telegram channel in Singapore, and an Associate Director at Carsome, an online used car selling platform. He also has corporate experience in companies like P&G, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Amazon.
Some of Soon Kon’s previous startups include Adslet, a niche area offline-online advertising agency, ARlify, an online AR platform, and Sponslist, an online platform that connects event organisers to sponsors and vendors.
If your first idea is going to be something that is going to be changed anyways, then don’t spend too much time trying to come up with that first brilliant idea. Just do something.
SOON KON, CEO OF WORKSIDER
Just Do Something
Soon Kon is a true action-taker and sums it up really nicely in the above quote. It gave me fresh perspectives on why you should take action sooner rather than later as well.
If your idea is eventually going to pivot, harping on the finer details will not be as effective as garnering user feedback. Reid Hoffman’s quote comes to mind here: “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late”.
What You Are Currently Doing Will Always Lead To Something Else
As Soon Kon brought us through his journey, a pattern emerged where his next idea always seemed to build on the previous one. While it might not be intuitively obvious, Soon Kon was able to bring elements that he picked up from his previous ideas to the next one.
I think this is a testament to the beauty of momentum, where one thing will just lead to another. So long as you’re taking action!
What are you waiting for?
Feedback, Not Failure
Given that some of his startups didn’t work out that well in the end, I was curious as to how Soon Kon dealt with them. Clearly, Soon Kon has an incredibly positive mindset, where he treats those “failures” as learning points and feedback, rather than actual failures.
I believe this is something useful for us to take away. Ultimately, we learn best through missteps and hiccups. Things won’t go smoothly forever. Embrace failure!
Personal Thoughts
You know when sometimes you meet people that make you wonder what you’ve been doing all these while? Soon Kon definitely reminded me of that with his drive and passion. 5 startups during his university days?!
Time to buck up, Marcus.
Show Notes:
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Hosted by Marcus Cheu. Connect with me on LinkedIn & Instagram.
If you'd like to tune in to the full episode, you can check out the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.