Turning 26 on 26th of March 2015.
This post is about myself, Pascal, and my journey as a global, entrepreneurial and forward-driven citizen of the world. I am writing this post from Singapore where I have always (Since I am perhaps 20) been interested to “work and live” and honestly, freaking lucky to do so at 26.
I will share a brief background of the situation, then a few lessons I learnt over the past 5 years. Cliche at times, but you never stop learning from others.
Background #
Blessed I am to be able to live beyond a quarter of a century. I remember that my past birthdays were quite common except for my 4 of them, and hopefully, many more.
At 21
I ‘celebrated’ my first birthday overseas and it was in Malaysia.
At 24
This time, I turned 24 in Hong Kong where I lived for a year while working for a reputable tertiary institution.
At 25
Quite unsure to be honest and this would somehow depend on the timezone. I was officially 25 in Mauritius but since I was flying towards Europe, I probably turn 25 “again” while flying.
But regardless, I was 25 in Portugal, where I lived and worked for 6 months, only.
At 26
Today, I am in Singapore. That’s a fantastic milestone in my opinion. For the past 5 years, I have celebrated my birthday in 4 different countries/cities of the world.
What’s the deal?
I know there are plenty of globe trotters in this world who probably aced me at it but this doesn’t really matters as long as I am satisfied and feeling more driven to add more countries to my list of places to celebrate my birthday.
2 life lessons learnt over the past 5 years, and 6 actionable key takeaways #
Pay-It Forward.
Popular concept. Yet, how often do we really practice it?Diversify your portfolio of experience.
Seek new experiences and enhance some, further.
And finally this lead to the 6 actionable key takeaways,
Takeaway No.1 #
Electronic “Branding” for yourself is ok.
We live in a big data world, where information is flowing constantly and people are overwhelmed with news from all over the place…facebook, tv, radio, and the list goes on.
Yet, I do believe in the importance of properly positioning oneself on the web, and building your own brand. I try to do that here Linkedin, here and here (this blog - informal branding).
Ask yourself: What information do you want people to see when they google your name?
Building your web presence is key.
Takeaway No.2 #
Never, never stop hustling
Start with sharing a good example of a hustler, Ryan Graves, whose story is an interesting read.
Think, and learn to think with angle. Find the angle(s) where you can make yourself valuable, or differentiate yourself from the crowd. An example would be if you’re looking to make your CV more attractive with 2 semesters of university left. One possible question to ask yourself:
What is not yet available on my campus?
Let’s say that one example is a proper alumni network. Start building one.
Takeaway #1 and #2 are basically two essential “drivers” for why I managed to celebrate my birthday in 4 different locations (and most precisely, I had a student/work visa too, making more relevant.)
Takeaway No.3 #
Strengthen your strengths and upgrade your weaknesses
I recall this pretty good article here which basically speaks about re-framing your limitations into strengths.
Or you can read this article on Harvard Business Review about Making Yourself Indispensable. It’s all about learning to make use of your assets and building yourself up, like a professional athlete preparing for the Olympics.
Talk to your family, friends and colleagues. Ask them to give you feedback on your strengths and limitations. That’s already a good start to know where to begin.
And it’s kinda related to developing your self-awareness.
Takeaway No.4 #
Learn the Art of Scenario Planning
We can’t predict the future, but we can plan for it. I know a lot of people who don’t like to plan or to think too much about the future. Here I’m aware as well about the fallacy of planning too much “such as locus of control” and other theories.
Scenario planning matters, and you should probably start already to think about what is next. There are plenty of tools out there, will leave it to you to do some research. Quick a couple of articles, here and here.
Make it plausible, not possible.
My favourite style is through goal setting and working backwards, while looking at multiple options (field of view) and what the options that I couldn’t or didn’t think of (are my dead angles).
Five years time, where do you want to be?
It could be five or four or six or seven. I would avoid ten as it is a way too long horizon. The word “where” is critically not related to geographical location only.
My answer to my own question,
In five years time, I want to have started my own micro-venture capital firm for technology start-ups and perhaps, an impact investment fund too.
You can start thinking about what would you like to be in X years time. Sketch or write it down. It could help. And tell as people about it, as many as possible.
The next two takeaways are mutually exclusive, although valuable without too.
Takeaway No.5 #
Learn the Art of Choice
This one is quite tricky. I’m not sure if there is any science behind it to back me up. I am kinda pretty much reliant on a combination of experience, gut and irrationally rational thoughts.
Nevertheless, a TED Talk which can inspire you or not.
I know some people would tend to seek validation. Remember when was your last time you had to buy a smartphone or any electronic device? If you didn’t seek reviews or make a comparison, you’re probably one of the rare [nowadays] who don’t seek validation.
Choosing also involves trade-offs. Some great minds, I heard, would impose constraints on themselves. An example is while flying to Bali, what are the numerous things that you can do there if you had unlimited budget? Many.
What if you set some constraints?
Sadly, I can’t recall where I read this simple trade-off theory, save or savor dilemma.
Are you savoring life or saving up for life?
Or there’s also the false choice which could be another challenge in the art of choice.
And also use ratio thinking to make choices in life or in anything. There should probably be a margin of error that you could take into account. Of course, this applies to some situations, not all.
I would end up saying that you can only learn by making more choices, daily and learning from others, and consequences of your own choices.
Takeaway No.6 #
Connect with people, more.
This is a simple idea.
Each week, connect with one new person.
Each month, reconnect with 4 old friends.
More you (re)connect, more you appreciate the value of your network. And growing it as well, not just quantitatively but also qualitatively.
Pascal is a globe trotter, aspiring VC and seeking a meaningful lifelong journey. Connect with him on Twitter or
Linkedin or by email, pascal5alive[at]gmail[dot]com