Author: CheckW

Oftentimes, we have heard news about the opioid crisis in America that is causing more deaths than ever. It seems to be a developed world problem as countries like Australia and New Zealand are also being hit hard by this issue. What is the story behind this and is this the next big problem for millennials and Asia in particular?

The crisis has snowballed into a much bigger crisis because technically, the supply of such drugs is unlimited as most of them are man-made and are also customizable to individual users. It used to be that law enforcement officers can try to stop drugs at the production point (eg. heroin, cocaine – destroy plantations and hold certain countries like Colombia responsible) from natural plant-based sources but what if they can be made in the basement of any house in the world using easily available chemicals now???

The explosion of this problem can be traced down to a popular TV series that started in 2008 called “Breaking Bad” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad . This was the sad story of a Chemistry teacher that was trying hard to make ends meet and stumbled into an alternative career path by accident. With his knowledge in chemical engineering, he was able to manufacture high quality “meth” (methamphetamine – a synthetic drug) which drug dealers soon came knocking at his door, constantly telling him to increase production as demand shot through the roof. This journey soon spiralled out of control and drug lords literally destroyed his family and the friends he treasured.

This hit TV series which ended in 2013 sparked an entrepreneur light bulb in many parts of the world as a possible upcoming business opportunity. One could easily do an online mail order service to anywhere in the world from one’s basement laboratory. Soon, countries like Australia faced an avalanche of synthetic drugs from China which they could not control https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-22/deadly-chinese-fentanyl-is-creating-a-new-era-of-drug-kingpins

Imagine that you can do a mail order for a custom-made synthetic drug that suits your liking. These drugs get more and more potent and some are even 50 times stronger than heroin! Just tick your preferences from a checklist like ordering a salad and Viola! the end product is delivered to your apartment from any part of the world’s home chemical labs. This becomes an addicts nirvana dream come true as they demand higher highs until the body hits a brick wall and collapses.

Singers Michael Jackson and Prince are prime high profile casualty cases in recent years that involved fentanyl, another synthetic drug. George Michael might also have been abusing himself on these recreational drugs for years. Because they are so strong now, an extra gram may just tip you over the line easily. The quality of the product is also suspect if you obtain it from an unknown illegal source. If you are using it alone, the after effects might just kill you on the spot with no one to help in time. Even with friends around, it may be too late.

Just a few weeks ago, a friend told me about the unfortunate story of a perfectly healthy young mother who was with friends in Bali and passed away suddenly in a club during a night of partying. They might have participated in party drugs which were impure or had an accidental overdose. Previously, people were buying Ecstasy in clubs to get a party high but drug pushers can now recommend “better” ones which can easily kill a horse if you are not careful. The cautionary advice is to not accept any drinks from strangers nor buy any drugs at all as you do not know the source and they might be contaminated.

In America, many are innocently hooked onto such drugs as pharmaceutical companies were aggressively pushing them out to doctors as the miracle painkiller solution. Little did the patients know that they may become addicted to it and forced to consume more until they collapse from an overdose. It has become an epidemic problem that is running out of control as more young people become hooked on it and cannot get out of the spiralling hole they fall into.

This is a crisis that is coming to the rest of the world as the pill-popping culture is becoming a norm – there is a pill solution for every problem you might have. Instant gratification is the way to go for millennials. Weed/Marijuana/Cannabis is even legal in some countries now as people get desensitized to what was a no-no previously. The only possible prevention is to constantly educate yourself to be aware of these dangers and actively avoid them.

In America, the government has to first recognise the problem and punish the pharmaceutical companies who have been guilty of aggressively courting many innocent victims in a push for profits. Funds have to be invested to set up programs for patients who have been identified as addicts so that they can have a structured program to wean themselves off these drugs.

As the crisis spreads around the world, all governments should work together to set global taskforces to tackle this impending future catastrophe.

 

 

 

I chanced upon this when I attended the grand opening event of the Alibaba TaoBao university in S’pore earlier this year. Managed to convinced my wife to join me for this study trip to Hangzhou, the HQ of Alibaba. We finally went last week after postponing our earlier July date.

https://www.sirsdigitalcommerce.com/alibaba-ceo-programme1.html

This course was heavily subsidized by the Skillsfuture initiative, up to a tune of 90%. Accommodations and food were provided, except for the flights. It was intended to be a deep immersion introduction to the new e-Retail concept in China over 5 days. These monthly trips started in Apr this year and our class was the largest so far at 48 pax. Most participants were like us, leveraging on the subsidy and wanting to see if a new career path in e-commerce is possible.

The first day was spent travelling to the Alibaba HQ campus for an on-site experience of their work environment. We were introduced to their core beliefs and corporate structure, plus their recent initiatives. I was highly impressed with the latest concept store called Hema. It is a supermarket cum restaurant structure that changes the whole shopping experience. Its stock of live seafood was pretty impressive. The store has mapped out its client target market to within 3 km of the location and they can ensure that any online order they received will be delivered within 30 minutes!!  (12 mins for packing and 18 mins for delivery by scooter).

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/offline-retail-store-hema-seeing-success

This was followed by 3 days of classroom lessons that provided us with a history of China’s e-commerce landscape and the current situation. Alibaba started in 1999 and it was only around 2006-08 that things started to take off in a big way. In a country where privacy is non-existent where it is always the country/state before the individual, this big social experiment has also evolved in ways we can never imagine.

All actions can be tracked and hence any discrepancies can be detected eventually. The resulting social behavioural changes are amazing. Everyone wants to do the right thing now as it really does not pay to be dishonest. As an example, I paid the coach driver at the end of our tour and then discovered that the classmate who had booked it for me had already paid upfront to the transport company when he confirmed the trip for me the night before. When he called them up the next day, they immediately credit back the double payment to him, no questions asked. The company cannot afford to have a discrepancy in their books which could potentially cause more problems for them with the tax authorities as all transactions have a digital record.

We also learned about the opportunities available in the e-commerce space in China. Two points stand out: that most buyers are born after the 1980/90s, and that items related to health/beauty have a very strong selling point. Speed and convenience of service are now a given. An alive and still swimming fish can be delivered to your doorstep easily. Same day to plus 1 day delivery time is the norm and they have even succeeded in providing 30 minutes turnaround time in the new Hema concept supermarkets.

B2B is passé, C2C is extremely advanced already and now S2B2C is the next big thing where every order is customizable to the end user requirements. Big Data is now ever so important for the analysis of trends and for strategy implementation.

Many case studies were provided during the 2nd day of classroom lessons. While the China e-commerce market population is so big with new opportunities, strategy planning is even more important now in this online cutthroat world. Every little step can mean success or failure. Everyone wants to be number 1 and number 2 will be fighting so hard to win the crown while the rest of the competition is eliminated.

The trainer shared a story that captivated all of us. In our overseas view, it would have been a boring but crazy tale of a simple product. It was about a big online fight between 2 sellers and how he was advising one side on how to stay on top of the game and to retain their number 1 position. And the product that they were selling? A portable water heater that cost less than USD 5 bucks… A pricing war erupted and target marketing to buyers resulted (mainly undergraduates). They developed a side war by launching a new product (mini cook pot for 1) to cross-sell and regain market share. Sales were about 80,000 units and pricing was a mere RMB 19.90 level. Both went for an all-out war to try to kill each other. Eventually, they reached a truce and move pricing levels to a more survivable RMB 39 level.

We did e-Retailing product line strategy (product lifecycle),  product competitive analysis (SWOT, data mining) exercises and more comparisons between online e-commerce and traditional commerce.  The trainer provided more e-Retailing examples of how successful brands generate product experience which in turn enhances customer experience.

In between the training sessions, we got to know the other classmates better. We were from all walks of life. There were traditional manufacturers (sausages) trying to go digital. Others were in diverse industries seeking to understand e-commerce better and to assess its impact on their industries (banking). Some are looking to penetrate the China market while others want to replicate this in their world.

It seems that China is way, way ahead of the rest of the world in e-commerce. It has only been about 10 years for them but because they do not have privacy concerns, they are able to think out of the box on how technology can improve the overall quality of life. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is one of their focused pillar of growth for the future and with Big Data, the sky is the limit. Holding cash in your wallet is non-existent and everyone uses their eWallets in their mobile phones for all transactions.

I am excited by all these as I see opportunities. Many old world industries will be swept away by the onslaught of new technology, but many more new jobs will be created. The fear of being left behind is very real if we do not constantly aim to improve ourselves and learn new things, to adapt. Change is constant but its velocity is increasing.

 

 

 

Almost 20 years ago, I came across this concept of private kitchens when we were having our holidays in Hong Kong. It was a novel idea at that time. Eat at someone’s home that was turned into a private setting for guests with dishes cooked by an experienced chef at a fraction of restaurant prices.

The appeal was to go into a housing estate, into a person’s comfort space and have an unforgettable meal with friends. It was the rage at that time in HK. We had actively sought out these venues to experience them whenever we happen to be in HK for work or pleasure.

There is a resurgence of this concept in S’pore over the last 2 years again. It has partly to do with the fact that websites had started to promote local experiences for tourists and it is extra income for hosts in a developing gig economy. AirBnB calls them “experiences” and people with time on their hands can host a dinner event for strangers for profit. It is a win-win situation which aspiring cooks can whip up great food to share with guests in a homey setting.

Over the last 2 months, I have had the pleasure of trying 3 such places with a group of good friends. Their tables are filling up fast and table booking waiting times can now be as long as 9 months!!

The first one we had was called MixTape Chef. The young chef was passionate about cooking and together with his wife, decided to turn their HDB unit into a dining venue. He called the place MixTape in a tribute to his teenage years where he liked to create his own playlist on a tape and it is now like how he does with his food experimentation.

Being very interested in the food preparation myself, we had a very good discussion on his latest experiments with the seasoning of meats using the age-old method of apply shio koji, a rice yeast. The beef was very good and after the dinner, I bought some to try on my own too. His fusion food of local and western dishes was also very interesting. He had a chicken rice risotto item that was a play on Italy and our national dish. His kitchen also appeared in a new TV series on private kitchens a few weeks later and our group photo was featured! https://video.toggle.sg/en/series/home-dining/ep6/639535

The next private kitchen I visited was called “Lucky House Cantonese”. My ex-colleague managed to book a table for 10 three months ago – the wait list has since grown to 9 months… Coincidentally, this place was also featured in the following episode of the same TV series : https://video.toggle.sg/en/series/home-dining/ep7/641335 

Chef Sam had a passion for antiques and Cantonese food. His home was a rustic place he created 2 years ago and the experience is just like coming home to a meal at my grandmom’s home. He cooks everything using charcoal to preserve the original flavours of the fresh ingredients. The 12 of us had a great time and discovered that sake paired well with his food.

Just last Saturday, our group of uni mates went to the 3rd private kitchen that featured Peranakan cuisine called the Ampang Kitchen. Chef Raymond had a pretty impressive house where he shared the food he learned from a Penang master via a 14 days one-on-one training session in 2003. The private kitchen showcases his food but his main business is on the catering sector where one can order one or a few dishes for a potluck get together.

His food was very authentic and the “lemak” was shiok! Everything was homemade from scratch and the loving care put into the food preparation was evident. We were celebrating birthdays and the wines paired well with the spicy/sour dishes. Although there was too much food, we gladly asked for the leftovers to be packed as they will taste even better over time the next day.

It is not easy maintaining a private kitchen business. Your most busy periods are in the evenings and weekends are all work time. It is labour intensive and business may be sporadic at the start. One must have the passion for the business as the hours are long and clients may be critical. My hats off to them! As locals too, we should also support them wholeheartedly. The gig economy is still developing and this is just another aspect of that evolution.

 

 

 

I have been talking about this topic frequently with friends and an event I attended this week re-enforced it. I do reflect on my peers who are all around my age group and I observe that we are all going through each of our halftime experience in our own ways.

Bob Bulford wrote the book “Halftime :  Moving from Success to Significance” almost 20 years ago. https://www.amazon.com/Halftime-Significance-Bob-P-Buford/dp/0310344441 When we were teenagers, we experienced a puberty stage as part of growing up. As we move towards our mid-life, Bulford explains that everyone will go through another halftime phase that can be a traumatic experience.

It could be as early as the late thirties, right into our fifties. By then, we have had some level of success in our careers, the family is established as kids are older and we have attained a certain level of financial independence. One then starts to question “What’s next?”. What will one be remembered for, given that more than half our lives have passed?

How we react to this halftime experience will help us prepare for the next phase in our lives. When you are fifty, you probably wonder where all those years went and can you live for another 20 more years? That forces you to set your priorities right, rather than just focusing on more monetary gains.

Mine came when I was suddenly retrenched at the peak of my career at 46. I went from hero to zero overnight. It was as if my knees were chopped off. I struggled to find another job and a friend suggested that I read this book. Over the next couple of years, this strive for significance gained traction and meaning for me. How can we give back to society was more appealing to me than comparing salaries. One can still cut down on your expenses and still feel happier. Just solely focusing on gaining material wealth alone can start to feel so hollow.

I look around me and see more friends, especially the male ones, facing this phase of confusion and uncertainty. How do we face it and prepare for the journey forward is important. Talking about it with like-minded people helps, to share each other’s unique experience.

I started to also observe some success stories of people who had managed to move from success to significance and I am encouraged to learn from them. One such event I attended this week was a good example. I was invited to a dinner to celebrate the creation of an endowment fund in honour of a man who had dedicated his life to the university that he had help steered for many years.

As he had to get financial support through a scholarship during his undergrad days, it was fitting that this endowment fund will also be helping more students financially. He had also recently retired from his role and this will be one of his moves to significance, to give back to the society that has been so generous to him. He will be able to spend more time now to do more things that will be more meaningful for him going forward.   https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/nus-starts-new-endowed-fund-in-honour-of-former-president-tan-chorh-chuan

I do wish everyone well as they face their personal halftimes. While I can share my experience with them, each person’s path will be unique which only the individual can understand, overcome and conquer on his own. Recognizing that you are experiencing your own halftime is a good first step in the right direction.

 

 

It has been a relatively quiet week for me. I am still giving tender loving care to my first batch of vegetable seedlings in my new hydroponics experiment, watching a lot of youtube videos on this topic as well as daily comedy channels about American politics.

What stood out this week for me were 2 separate introductory meetings I had that opened my eyes to what the younger generation’s aspirations are in the fast changing world of ours.

On Thursday, I had coffee with someone my Myanmar friend had told me I should meet. He introduced us and we arranged to have a chat on investment opportunities. I was pleasantly surprised to meet a young well mannered Millennial who had just gotten married. The discussion went along well as we introduced ourselves to each other. He was in the midst of getting more work experience in a venture capital firm with a goal to eventually managed their own family office setup based in S’pore with his brother.

His dad had been very successful in Myanmar and is looking to retire in Australia now. Hence they are cashing out from most of their current investments and leaving it to the next generation (him and his brother) to figure out what to do next. We both agree that there are exciting opportunities to be discovered in Myanmar as the country opens up.

As he was raised there for the first 18 years of his life, he had the unique added advantage of having a circle of friends who were in the who’s who list of that country, being on first name basis with the children of the important decision makers who will be the next generation of entrepreneurs growing up in a country that had shut itself from the world in the last 50 years and only opened up in the last few years.

He is well positioned both financially and experience wise to take advantage of the rapidly growing middle class in Myanmar as the resource rich country opens itself up to the global stage. Politically, it is still at an infancy level but I believe that they are smart enough to learn from the mistakes of their neighboring countries and hopefully not to repeat them.

I had recently participated in the mentorship program of my uni and had just accepted to take on 2 mentees for the next 12 months. To kick start the program, I had lunch with one of them on Friday for us to get to know each other better.

He had just completed his military national service to begin his first year as an undergraduate in a very interesting degree course in the faculty of Science called Quantitative Finance. The department only takes in a class of 30+ students per year and it is a combination of Finance, Maths and Computing topics.

http://www.nus.edu.sg/nusbulletin/faculty-of-science/undergraduate-education/degree-requirements/bachelor-of-sciencebachelor-of-science-hons-programme-requirements-b-sc-b-sc-hons/quantitative-finance/

I believe that with the way banking and most industries are going, technology like blockchain would make most current jobs redundant as we strive to increase efficiency with less manpower and Uberize everything. This course should be the way to go for future graduates looking to enter banking.

We talked about our backgrounds and discussed about what we hope to achieve from this program. I remember that during my time in the uni, the outside working world was a mystery until we actually graduated and started working. Hopefully, I can provide him with some guidance and share with him my experiences to help him crystallize his goals and the career path he eventually would like to take.

It was refreshing for me to have spoken to 2 young Millennials this week to hear about their aspirations and thoughts about their future. As a parent, it will also help me to better understand what my sons are going through now from their perspectives.

The fear of the generation gap is always going to be there, but by sharing, I hope to bridge the divide and learn more. I must remember to listen more and not to sound too preachy or forceful in my conversations with them in the future. We aim to strive for a win-win result where the experience will enrich both parties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the last few weeks, I have had the opportunity to share with some friends and new acquaintances my experience on building a new stream of passive income for retirement via REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust). While I had blogged about this before, this topic is worthy to put down in writing here again. I hope I could provide this link to friends in the future, to encourage more people to take it up as part of their retirement planning. One should also read up on the many materials on the web first to get a better understanding before investing.

REIT  stocks are well established in the developed countries and they have strict criteria which the trust has to follow in order to ensure that they qualify to maintain their REIT status.

Basically, they have 2 main rules to follow. (1) 90% of their net profit must be distributed as dividends, (2) while they have real estate assets in their portfolio, they are not allowed to borrow more than X% for financing (S’pore sets it at 45%).

Bottom line, REITS are relatively attractive investments because of the following:

• There are registered as a Trust utilizing a single purpose SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) structure
• They hold actual assets (property as collateral)
• They are not overly leveraged due to the borrowing restriction
• The stock price movements are less volatile historically
• An investor gets regular dividends payouts (quarterly or semi-annually)
• There are many types of REITs in various sectors which an investor can choose from – hospitality, commercial, retail, retirement concepts, healthcare, country-specific etc
• If a REIT does actually fail, it is collateralized with real assets which can be sold off

S’pore has the most number of REITs in South East Asia, numbering about 30+. You can easily obtain summarized details from the newspapers or online (eg. reitdata.com). Current yields range from 5 to 9%, so they are pretty decent.

As a starting point, I will eliminate the highest yielding ones from my portfolio construction list as they will carry the highest risk (risk/reward ratio). I will then study the nature of each REIT to see what sector they are in, whether they have overseas exposure (which I try to avoid) and the type of property in their portfolio (by visiting their website).

For example, there are 2 shopping malls that I like – Clementi Mall and Suntec City. I frequent these places and I personally witness good human traffic with a healthy retail flow. I will zero in on the REITs that own them and add them into my preferred list.

Next, I will look at the historical candlestick charts (eg. using websites like  investing.com). I will look for support and resistance trend lines to get a gauge of entry levels that I am comfortable with. Once that is decided, I place in my orders and the waiting game starts. Once my buy orders are triggered, I usually hold them for quite a while as I collect the periodic dividends which will lower my average even more over time.

Soon, my portfolio of REITs is built up. It consists of about 15+ ones that I like and have entered at technical levels I like. I try not to have more than $30k invested in each of them. On a quarterly or semi-annual basis, the DPU (Dividend Per Unit) is announced by the REIT and the proceeds will be credited directly to my account. I can get about a few thousand dollars each time. This is better than putting my cash in deposits that earn only a fraction of the REIT yields.

I have also been investing in REITs listed in the US. They have a much deeper market there and the REITs can even be created as a fund of funds concept. As I am very big into retirement villages and healthcare for the seniors, I mainly invest in the REITs that support this theme.

REITs are also attractive to Real Estate companies as they become vehicles for them to offload assets at a reasonable mid-price to a trust to manage more effectively, freeing up much-needed cashflows.

It is not easy to own a property in S’pore and there are many regulations and taxes involved, plus required holding periods. REITs provide another alternative for an investor to indirectly hold property assets which they like, without the administrative hassles and liquid stocks mean that they can easily be sold.

This is an ideal vehicle for a person to build up a portfolio with regular streams of income like a bond, but yet have the ability to participate in real estate assets with an acceptable level of risk. You just need to study them, then pick and choose the ones you like in order to build a basket of them to further diversify the risk.

 

 

 

 

Myanmar has changed a lot since my first introduction to the country in 2015. I started a new relationship with this country again 9 months ago and this week’s blog will be my record of this journey so far.

Before that, a bit of the background building up to this new role of mine is needed. In one of my previous job, we were working on joint ventures to start or take over financial institutions in emerging markets around Asia. Subsequently, I had developed my in-depth work experiences with countries like China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Being linked to a sovereign fund, the for-profit company had to also ensure that it has value-add to the developing countries from a social and economic angle.

Over the years, we focused on the microfinance sector as it was a relatively unbanked niche which could greatly benefit the bottom to low middle-class segments of the society. Most had no access to any lending facilities and it was a poverty trap which they cannot get out of. If only they could have a loan to tide over their tight cashflows or to buy inventory, it could mean a life-changing experience for small-time vendors in the wet markets or rural farmers. We also worked with many SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) companies which could be mom-and-pop provision shops to egg/chicken farmers to retailers in a large resale/resellers centre.

The loan amounts need not necessarily be big and they can range from an equivalent of a few hundred US dollars into as high as half a million. Most of them were previously seeking funds from loan sharks who could charge anywhere from 50% per annum to north of a few times the notional amount for interest. Most microfinance institutions in the world charge anywhere from 20 to 30+ percent. This relatively high rate is still necessary as it is a very labour intensive process to disburse the loans and collect repayments and we need to make a case that the business is viable.

I had chanced upon this financial consultant role late last year as my ex-colleague from the previous company became the CEO of this Myanmar microfinance firm in Jul 2017. We had worked together on starting similar businesses in Cambodia and Myanmar during 2014-2016. The company has been having 4 years of losses since they started in 2013 and was unable to break even. As a result, the owner had decided to do a management change and appointed my friend. He identified multiple gaps in the current business and set about to strengthen the infrastructure with robust policies and beef up the framework for future growth.

With my experience in Treasury and Capital Markets, I was tasked to lead the asset and liability committee (ALCO) and assist the senior management team. We hope to become a more professionally run company with proper processes in place and a better ability to forecast the near future rather than do last minute firefighting all the time.

The first meeting started in Jan this year and I have been flying into Yangon every month for 2 to 3 days at a time to chair this 2 to 3 hours long meeting. In between, I also did monthly one on one sessions with the Risk, Finance and Operation head to listen to what issues they might have and help flag any potential problems that may occur.

The first 6 months were tougher than expected as we had to start from ground zero to formulate a more organized framework to monitor. Slowly, we were able to identify and pinpoint specific issues to tackle directly. Strategic directions were also fine-tuned to suit our management style.

The following 3 months from Jul to Sep was when we went into the next gear and challenged the team to perform at higher levels as the new strategies kicked into high gear. I am glad to know that at our last meeting this week, we were able to report a slight profit for the quarter, on route to a breakeven year for fiscal year up to Mar 2019. We are also nearing the completion of getting an equity injection from a new partner (IFC – owned by World Bank). This is a positive move.

It is a rewarding process for me to be able to see potential and then cultivate the team for success. Along the way, we had fun and got to know each other better. The young country is growing at a fantastic rate and the middle class is rising rapidly. there is still so much potential in this country which had closed itself to the world for almost 50 years. Its time will come eventually as it takes baby steps to connect with the rest of the world.

 

 

 

Mentorship – the providing of guidance by a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or educational institution to another person, normally known as the mentee.

As I reflect on the various stages of my life, I begin to wonder if it would have been better if I could have had someone older and wiser to guide me along the way, rather than having a trial and error approach towards my life journey. Talking with friends worked sometimes, but most are probably experiencing the same situation like me without any experience to fall back on.

Two memorable occasions come to mind for me. Once, when I was in junior college, I suddenly felt a deep sense of loss and unease for days. The funk made me question the meaning of life, the purpose of studying. A wise friend finally pulled me aside and comforted me. He told me that he had also gone through this phase too, that everyone goes through this unease and it was perfectly OK because in will pass. Years later, I realized that I was probably going through a puberty stage. The hormonal changes within a teenager could likely be the cause.

Another event happened when I was suddenly retrenched at 46 and had a difficult time trying to look for a job (10 months, 60+ interviews and counting). A friend recommended that I read the book Halftime by Bob Bulford. Again, this helped me to understand that everyone goes through this mid-life crisis stage in life where we will be forced to seriously reflect on our career achievements. Eventually, one’s thinking will evolved to a chapter of aiming for significance in the second half (Act 2) of our lives.

During my banking career, I had the opportunity to mentor a number of  younger colleagues. I hope that I had value added to them by sharing my life experiences and lessons learnt. I do believe in sharing, being transparent and walking the talk. If I can shortcut the learning process for them, why not?

At this stage of my life, it will be about seeking significance and giving back to the community. While work and making money is important, there is more to that than life itself. Perhaps we have another good 20 to 30 years left and looking back on the past 50 years, our priorities should change.

In the last few weeks, I have started to reach out to the schools I attended to offer my time to the alumni groups. I had a meeting with my secondary/Junior College alumni team 2 weeks back to have a preliminary brainstorming session to see how we can reach out to tap the powerful group of ex-students. The idea is to bring like minded people to be able to offer to give back to the school in many other ways, not just financially. Increasing the profile of the alumni association will be a good first step, in my humble opinion.

I had also signed up for the mentorship program in my uni a few months ago. I was accepted and we had a meet your mentor/mentee dinner get together on Monday. This was my first year of participation. The program had already been running for 6 years.

We were assigned to specific standing tables to position ourselves while the undergrads mingle around us to get to know us better. Our mentor profiles were given out to them a few days earlier and the tables were based on the industries we were in. I was in the financial sector table and met a few familiar ex-colleague faces there.

Overall, I had a few sessions with groups of students for a friendly get to know you chat. If a mentor hit it off with a mentee, both persons could immediately match each other and fill out the forms at the end of the evening. I had provided my LinkedIn profile prior to the dinner and wanted to see how many would do their homework before the dinner and connect with me prior to the dinner. A hand full of them did.

While I thought that this program would be more applicable to final year students getting ready to join the workforce soon, the majority were made up of first and second year students. I guess the seniors are too preoccupied with their exams, overseas attachments and internships.

I eventually spent most of my time with a few students and had a fruitful discussion. I was trying to evaluate the undergrads whom I can value add to based on my experiences. I was also looking for commitment as it takes 2 hands to clap in a mentor/mentee relationship. Last thing I want is a reluctant mentee going through the motion and non-commital to the program.

After sleeping over it, I decided to emailed the organizers the next day on my choice of the 2 candidates. I think we will make a good match and that I can add value to them as mentor. One of my selected student emailed me the following day to thank me for my time and inform me that I am his first choice. Great to know we have a match! The organizers subsequently confirmed for both parties and the mentorship will begin next month, after the undergrads’ term exams. I am excited to see how this will turn out in the next 6 months and hope to establish a good rapport with him.

Off to an early night cap tonight. I have to get up early tomorrow for my slightly less than half marathon (18.45 km) run at 5 am.