So This Is My Why

Former US Congressman Barney Frank has been described by the New York Times as " one of the people most responsible for overhauling financial regulation after the 2008 economic crisis ". Little surprise, given that this acerbic politician was: 🔥 Member of the US House of Representatives (1981 - 2013) 🔥 Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (2007 - 2011); and 🔥 Lead co-spons...

John-Son Oei’s EPIC social enterprise was born out of guilt. This former Rain oppa lookalike (time to check out his photos! 😏) knew the importance of giving back. Wanted to give back.  But never did.  And it wasn’t as though he hadn’t dabbled many things in his life prior to graduation:  He’d worked retail with Polo Ralph Lauren, did video production, was a fitness instructor & a Marshall at...

Lydia Fenet is the most powerful woman in the room. She has sold over $1 billion dollars for nonprofits globally alongside Elton John, Jason Bourne (aka Matt Bourne), Bruce Springsteen & every other big-name superstar you can think of. In 2018, she became Christie's Global Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships and has also: Been named one of New York’s most influential women by Gotha...

Alvin Chiong's father was an opium addict. And as for Alvin: Age 7: Alvin's mother abandoned the family Age 9: Started sniffing glue & joined the secret society to avoid being bullied Age 14: Left school to follow his leader Age 18: Became hooked on heroin & couldn't hold down a job. Things came to a head in Thailand, where Alvin realised he needed to change his life around. Bu...

Everyone wants to start a community while Bryan Pham (with his co-founder, Maggie Chui) has grown a global community from 0 to 200,000+ in 3 years! 😱  #casual Best of all? It started as a “screw you” moment. 😅 In all seriousness, Bryan is the founder of Asian Hustle Network (“AHN”), AHNF & AHN Ventures.  And has had quite the unconventional journey: 😮Bryan’s parents fled the Vietnam War &am...

We've heard from Eric Sim all week. In  Part 1 , we learned about his journey from working at his father's prawn noodle hawker stall to becoming the Managing Director at UBS Investment Bank. In  Part 2 , Eric explains why he left it all behind, the importance of building a portfolio career, why LinkedIn & his secret to building a 2.9 million following on LinkedIn! In today's specia...

Eric had the world at his feet. He had gone from selling prawn noodles at his father's hawker stall in Singapore to becoming the Managing Director of UBS Investment Bank. So why did he throw it all away? 😱 What comes after all that? For Eric, a lot more. He was constantly learning skills & combining them in unique ways. From learning to sail to video editing and becoming LinkedIn's to...

How does a shy boy with no social skills, who failed his mathematics & went to school smelling of prawns every day... become the Managing Director of UBS? Just ask Eric Sim. The truth is: ❌ Eric didn't just fail his maths. He also failed his English Literature & History papers and had to work at his father's prawn noodle shop before going to school. ❌ He bombed his first job in F...

Amanda Cua is the founder of Backscoop: the hottest newsletter covering all things in the Southeast Asian startup industry. She’s only 20 years old but: Backscoop has already crossed 10,000 subscribers; Has attracted funding from Buko Ventures; Been featured on CNN; and Has moderated a Wild Digital firechat with Jaeson Ma of 88Rising & OP3N. All this - with no college degree. Who said COVID-19...

Welcome to Part 2 of Ian Lee's episode. In Part 2, we talked all about how we should measure our lives. How Ian Lee pivoted from art to design then investment banking and consulting. How cancer changed his life. Why we shouldn’t make 10 year long-term plans and instead, pursue the things that interest us most in 12-18 month increments & so much more! This episode, deals with all things web...

Ian Lee is the co-founder of Syndicate: a decentralised investing protocol & social network by the likes of A16Z, IDEO, Kleiner Perkins, Uniswap, Coinbase, Opensea, circle & Ledger. He is also the former founding member of IDEO Colab and Head of crypto & blockchain at Citi. But before all that, he was an artist.  Then a designer. Before pivoting into marketing & advertising, invest...

If you want to hear from someone who:  ❓Helped purchase Lehman Brothers (US) for £1.75 billion; ❓Built out the equity practice in Europe for Barclays Capital; ❓Worked for Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the UK; and ❓Now works as the General Counsel in a web3 company that builds core blockchain infrastructure? Then STIMY’s latest episode with Chrissy Hill, General Counsel at Parity Tec...

It’s cool to be a YouTuber these days. But how do you go pro? What’s your life like? And how much do you earn?! To answer this over the Chinese New Year (hope everyone is feasting well!), we’ve got Gerald Sebastian - co-founder of Kok Bisa, which with 4.4 million subscribers makes them one of the biggest YouTubers in Asia! In this episode, we learn how Gerald ended up being a full-time YouTuber, h...

Michelle Toh is every Asian parents' dream child. She's ambitious. Has a strong sense of self. And will do whatever it takes to succeed - including cold pitching South China Morning Post & landing an internship in her teens! Her initial dream was to be in fashion (she's worked at/for  Elite Model Management ,  Hearst Magazines  &  HuffPost  too). Then she pivoted and ended up b...

ICYMI (in case you missed it) features some of my favourite moments from earlier STIMY episodes. Back in Episode 85, Dr Robin Dunbar (Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford) shares how the way boys & girls handle relationships are completely different. The relationships that boys have is a lot more casual and club-based. If we belong to the same club, then we...

Xavier Desmet is the Head of Digital Natives, Startups and Unicorns for Asia at Zoom. And in this episode, we talk about all: Tiger Mums (or for the French, “Jewish Mums”); Xav’s “WTF” moment when he realised that management consultancy wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life; His journey in the startup world and why he decided to leave Paris; Whether your life ends when you have kids; How words...

Welcome to the first STIMY episode of 2023! For the 105th episode, we're doing a little sneak peek into some of the upcoming episodes and as always, they're varied, but interesting. With tons of insights to apply into our own lives. We've got: Xav Desmet: Head of Digital Natives, Startups & Unicorn for Asia at Zoom Fabien Riggall: Founder & Chief Creative Officer of Secret Cine...

Welcome to Ep 104 of the So This Is My Why Podcast and this is... Goodbye! 😱 At least to 2022. This will be the last episode of 2022 because it's time for a break :) That said, I didn't want to sign off without sharing a little something about what STIMY has achieved, and also highlight some special moments from STIMY episodes this year. Featured STIMY guests include: Ep 103: Nicole Levin...

Nicole Levinson is the House of Yes. And unafraid of forging her own path, which includes being:  🔥 Chief Marketing Officer, audo 🔥 Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing and Partnerships for Playboy Club, New York 🔥 Vice President of Marketing, North America for LVMH But who is Nicole Levinson? Nicole is the child of Holocaust grandparent survivors. She began her career in Christie's, th...

Notle Chew grew up a Crazy Rich Asian.  Who later ended up joining the Secret Society & running one of Singapore’s first social escort businesses (and a successful one at that!) for almost 7 years before he ended up in prison. Which, as you can tell, is not a story you’d normally find on STIMY. But also a story I’ve really wanted to have told. Because I believe that we can learn so much from p...

Welcome to a special Questions from the Audience episode with Adrian Tan! Adrian Tan is STIMY's latest Ep 101 guest, i.e. the King of Singapore President of Singapore's Law Society Partner at TSMP Law Corporation Prolific LinkedIn writer And several weeks ago, I asked on LinkedIn & Instagram whether any of you had questions for Adrian. Turns out, 5 of you did! And here, Adrian answers...

Adrian Tan, the King of Singapore & ultimate Linkedin Influencer, is back with Part 2 (check out Part 1 in the previous episode)! Here, Adrian shares how his career developed as a lawyer, why he hated his time as a General Counsel, thinks that lawyers should be legal influencers, how his LinkedIn posts go so viral and more. Highlights: 1:58 Embarrassed by his bestselling books 5:59 The non-con...

The King of Singapore has spoken… to me! 😮 His accolades are every Asian parent’s wet dream: 👉🏻 President of Singapore’s Law Society; 👉🏻 Partner at TSMP; 👉🏻 Bestselling author of The Teenage Textbook & The Teenage Workbook, which were turned into a play, movie and TV series etc.; and 👉🏻 LinkedIn writing extraordinaire (all his posts go viral & even hit the mainstream media headlin...

Welcome to STIMY’s 100th episode! In this landmark episode, Red Hong Yi (former STIMY Ep 2 guest) is back as the guest HOST! She brings the 🔥 & asks about my entire journey because since June 2020, STIMY has grown to: 12k+ followers 31k+ downloads 35+ countries;  A book offer; and  1 STIMY physical hangout.  All in the span of 2+ years!! WOW.  If you’ve ever been curious as to who I am, why I...

Welcome to STIMY's special Questions from the Audience episode! Remember Davy Liu, the former Disney animator from STIMY Ep 99? We collected some questions from you, dear listeners of STIMY, and had Davy answer them! To Nathan, Wei Choon & Josh Wong - thank you for being part of STIMY. :) 0:24 At what point did Davy's parents change their mind about his profession as an artist? 4:02 Th...