When I read Rupi Kaur’s poetry collection ‘Milk and Honey’, I was moved by the simplicity and strength in her words. I was inspired by how powerful words can be. She cracked her heart open like a walnut. I could resonate with her words, like how she wished she could connect deeper with her father,…
Category: Entrepreneurship
A Millennial’s Truth #8: The blunder of a newbie solopreneur
After four years of wandering, hitting roadblocks and exploring, I quit the café industry for good and committed fully to content writing with a few projects in the pipeline. The first day I transitioned from café industry to a full-time solopreneur, I woke up in fear. Out of desperation, I tried to seek comfort from…
A Millennial’s Truth #7: Life lessons learned at the rock bottom of life
At 26, I went back home, back to having nothing in life. When I left the company I started, I knew I was following a path that felt like my path. Even though I was not sure where it would lead to, I was ready to find out. I was scared of a blank page,…
Be real, not perfect
‘It was the biggest fall in my career that defines who I am.’ Nastia Liukin said this in a recent interview on Impact theory. As a reigning Olympic all-around gold medalist in 2008, she fell flat and hard in her face during the uneven bar routine in the Olympic trial 2012. She got up, hopped…
A Millennial’s Truth #6: It is in the rough that we find treasure
In 2016, when the café consultancy company I co-founded evolved over time, it became a trading company which I was not inspired to be part of. I lost motivation to grow it even though I knew what I could do. Was I living at my full potential? Why had I stopped exploring? What do I…
Tango with fear
I felt scared a lot lately. I asked a friend who started a specialty coffee shop in our small, remote hometown, ‘don’t you feel scared to hold on to your vision when nobody saw what you saw? She told me about her ‘worst-case-scenario’ test – what is the worst that could happen? When you know…
You are assigned this mountain to prove that it can be moved
In the midst of getting a book out, I wanted to hide. After frequent posting and shouting about myself, my book, my work, approaching people to collaborate, and asking for help, I was ambushed by a profound moment of doubt. What am I doing? Even though the ball was rolling, I had a breakdown. Ryan…
A Millennial’s Truth #4: What I learned from starting my own business
When I started a café consultancy company with my partners, my vision was to make a name in the industry that I was interested in. I didn’t quite understand the essence of building a business or creating unique value for people. Growing up, I wasn’t exposed to business world. I never thought it would be…
A Millennial’s Truth #3: When a business partnership fell apart
I had 3 partners when we set up a café consultancy company in in 2015. After a celebration lunch, I felt sick. I was drowned in emptiness and anxiety – what have I done with my life? I remembered walking up a hill and gazing down at the city, feeling the warmth of sunshine and…
Why I write a book for millennials when only 2.5% Malaysians read books?
It started with an idea, a desire. It grew stronger and stronger. The manuscript sat in my folder until a friend came onboard and said, ‘hey, let’s do this together’. When I announced my book launch to friends and family, I stepped past the point of no return. From a passion project it elevated to…
I’ve never thought 2017 would turn out this way
I caught up with a friend right before the year ended. After telling him what I had been through this year and what I’m working on, he told me that I had a good life. He made me think. I started 2017 with nothing After withdrawing from my first venture, I went back home, back…
How owning my story helps me quiet self-doubt
As my upcoming book, ‘The Art of Owning Your Story’, is turning into reality, I was often torn between excitement and doubt. It’s a book about my experiences, struggle and growth as I went through life transformation from corporate, coffee to entrepreneurship. Putting my thoughts and emotions out there, raw and naked, I knew it…