What is the most surprising thing about you that most people don’t know?

It’s a hard one. There are so many things that are not on my corporate bio. My family emigrated to the U.S. from China when I was 8 years old, not speaking a word of English. Growing up in a foreign country as a minority, I was discriminated against a lot and learnt to defend myself early on. The journey of learning, assimilating and surviving made me who I am today. Thus, I embrace and tackle challenges and adversities with a different perspective and a resilient outlook.

What are the most important decisions you made in your career?

One of the bolder moves at the earliest part of my career was leaving a secure job at the consulting firm, PwC, to join a 3-person startup. At PwC I felt something was missing. I wanted to do something more meaningful and impactful. At startups I was thriving, despite all the uncertainties, chaos, and roller coaster rides. We were always innovating and developing disruptive technologies to solve big business problems. I enjoyed every single startup I have worked at and I have never looked back. 

What will be the most valuable skill for your profession in the next 3 years?

When we hire people we always look at attitude and aptitude. I believe that hard skills can be learnt, but it is crucial to have soft skills and EQ [Emotional Quotient]: knowing how to solve complex problems quickly, creatively combined with critical thinking skills. These are key traits to have.

I am continuously learning and evolving as a manager. One of the biggest things I am still mastering is how to manage and bridge the gap between the Gen X, Y and Zs in one company. Talent acquisition, purpose driven culture and value creation are things that always challenge today’s leaders. I am constantly up-skilling myself and unlearning many things that may have worked 10-15 years ago that may not work today. So being open minded and flexible to changes are critical for my own growth. 

Tell us about your worst professional mistake and how did you overcome it?

I have made a number of mistakes in my career. One of the lessons I learnt was lean in and don’t be afraid to ask or fight for what you believe in. One example is when my former boss left and a new boss came with a new team. A senior level role I applied for internally with the new boss was rejected twice despite feeling confident that I was the best person for the job. Our personalities were very different and we didn’t have any prior experience working together. But I knew I was the right fit for the role. Some advice from my mentor was to look at the company’s needs and wants and present the value I can bring to the table to fulfil those needs and wants, to be more objective and less personal and emotional. Once I changed my approach and presented the third time, I got the job.

Another example is that I've always had a fairly insatiable appetite to make a difference quickly. I was impatient working in large organisations when things moved slower and you want things done quickly and differently. Being a maverick in a large organization sometimes is a big career limiting move when you have many conservative colleagues who think otherwise or want to preserve the status quo. I have tried taking solutions up to the top when I couldn’t make progress in my level or with my peers. This could have cost my job in a number of instances. My strong desire to innovate and solve problems quickly has put me in a number of difficult situations. Over the years, I have learned not to act so hastily and have relied on seeking advice from mentors, reviewing consequences and outcome- worthy approaches more thoroughly. 

What’s your biggest ambition now?

To be a role model for future leaders and to give back as much as possible. Aside from some of my passions in various nonprofits, I am passionate about developing our next generation. I am part of a non-for-profit called The Young Professionals Group, where I am a board member and mentor as well as The Young Entrepreneur Network. I think people have been taught to only rely on themselves, especially the Asian culture. And I believe it is important to learn how to leverage your eco-system and your network to excel and improve yourself.

Our society loves to boast about successes, but it’s also important to discuss and learn about the challenges and failures associated with managing, leading a company and the hardship of being an entrepreneur, i.e. learning to overcome and manage uncertainty, chaos, and overwhelming amount of stress.

What’s your advice on mentorship?

I networked the hell out of my career, which started in college. I was always taught your life is what you make of it. No one will come and hand you a free lunch. I worked hard at managing and influencing my own destiny and I was out there building my network, learning from successful leaders and VCs in Silicon Valley. I also learned a tremendous amount from those who failed and bounced back.

On mentorship, I had a period in my life when I was ending a long relationship, my mom was dying of cancer and my career was neither here nor there. I was confused and lost. During that time, I was fortunate to have met a couple of amazing mentors, including one of them, George, a prominent retired businessman and serial entrepreneur, who was then in his 70s. He has started 60 different businesses in his lifetime and was on 30 different non-for-profit boards. He was one of the most kind hearted and active philanthropists I know. He taught me a lot. We had a ritual of meeting for weekend brunches where I could simply bounce ideas off of him and he would share his life long experiences. They were amazing times. He guided me through a very difficult period in my life and we became very close friends and I also built a close bond with his family. He helped me to focus on something greater than myself and that’s by giving back. I got introduce and engaged with a couple of non-for-profits that resonated with me and that was the beginning of a journey that helped me refocus and lead with my passions and purpose driven mindset. My career aspirations eventually became clearer during this experience and period of my life.

I don’t think there’s one recipe for finding the right mentor. But it helps if you open up your vulnerability to your mentor and not just come demanding advice. There should be a genuine chemistry and a mentor should want to work with you. I have a couple of friends whom I go to for sanity check and advice but I’m still looking for another George. George has since passed away right before I moved out to Singapore.  

Can you recommend any recent books that have influenced or changed the way you work?

“The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz really resonated with me from the dot-com days when the dot-com bubble busted and companies like Loudcloud pivoted just in time from a managed services provider to a software company, Opsware.

But the HOW is the most interesting part of the book. You learn how to identify when a certain business model doesn’t work due to a number of factors and how to pivot quickly. Ben’s leadership style and advice on how he experienced hardship, failures and bounced back is sobering. Also his disagreement with Marc Andreessen was quite humorous. They had a number of contentious debates about the company’s direction, but it shows you that healthy contention is necessary between leaders and investors. 

What talks such as TED or podcasts do you listen to?

I am a big fan of TED Talks.

One of the recent ones I liked a lot was about Gender bias in algorithms.

I like to learn from creative and innovative minds, how they solve problems and develop the best strategy and approach to execution. I love learning from podcasts such as SaaStr, A16Z, and Tim Ferris.

What industry columnists, blogs or influencers should we bookmark right now?

I read about AI on Medium and I follow, A16Z, Jason Lemkin, Pitchbook, various early stage VC firms like Lowercase capital and BootstrapLabs. Through them I find a lot of useful links and networks. I also follow Google and Facebook whom both have heavily invested in consumer focused innovation, IOT, and AI.

What are you going to learn in the year ahead?

I want to learn more about Artificial Intelligence, cyber-security, and a more innovative and impactful way to engaging customers in the digital age.

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