A Ladder To Climb

Tell us something interesting about yourself.
I don’t have deep thoughts, but I have kind of…a few random thoughts, which are kind of lame. Sometimes I think, for example, if I live to be 70 years old, I’d have spent 10 years of my life on Mondays.

Most memorable trip:
I guess it’s the one I just went to—Osaka, in Japan. I went to have a lot of good food. I walked into this ramen restaurant which we knew nothing about, but it turned out really good, so we figured that everything in Japan is always better! (laughs) We also went to this shrine in Kyoto, and we expected to take some good shots, but we didn’t do our homework properly and it actually gets dark around 5PM, so we kind of wasted one place of interest. So one thing I’ve learnt is always do your homework before you go on a trip, don’t be too YOLO and leave it to fate, because fate can screw you up.

Do you have any advice for people who’ve just started working?
It’s not always easy in the beginning, but if you have something that you’re passionate about, then you should probably hang on to it and strive on, because good things will happen. Sometimes it’s about chances, and I feel that chances are always for people who are well prepared.

Do you have a role model in life?
My mum, because she’s my Wonder Woman. I don’t understand how she managed to climb up the corporate ladder and juggle family matters at home—she’s like a double agent. My sister used to work with her and she told me stories about how our mother was very fierce at work. When she’s at home she’s totally different—she jokes around, and tells us about all the things that happened to her. I wish to be like her; she started out with no education background, and now she’s actually quite a senior management personnel in her company. I’m happy for her and quite proud of her achievements.

If you were to address the whole world as your audience, what would you say?
I’d probably introduce myself, and tell them about the misconceptions about Singapore. Tiny red dot right? But there’re a lot of possibilities in this tiny red dot, you just have to dig deeper for it. I’d probably tell them about the design industry—it really sucks when you just start off, but a little goes a long way. You have to be patient to reap your returns. I’ll end off by telling people to travel more, because it’s just a tiny red dot, even with the endless possibilities, and it’s always better to widen your horizon with different cultures and people that you meet along the way.