30 is an age that I have dread before turning 30. Yet when I turn 30, I kinda welcome the next decade. It has been 2 weeks since I turned 30, it does not feel as daunting.While some of my friends threw a big party, I choose to keep it low key and spend it with just close friends and family. The journey through the past decade has its ups and downs, but as I begin the next chapter of my life, I believe it is the experiences and what we do each day that makes it meaningful than the outcome.
There are a few decisions I made in the last 10 years that mold the way I am today. Some of which I wouldn't say were the best decisions, but certainly the process or experience after making the decision provided me with some learnings.
Decision 1: At age of 20 - I went to Silicon Valley for the NUS Overseas College Program (NOC)
It was certainly one of the best decisions I have made. The one year stint in California, USA was an eye opener. Besides making many new NUS and Stanford friends, learning to live independently, studying hard, working hard, playing hard, driving from California to New York, Sky-diving, coping with stress and acne, etc. While I enjoyed a lot, I have a deep regret: Not taking good care of my skin. I used to have very good skin but acne started to sprout and it has never since stopped. I have a separate post on how my skin condition spiraled downwards on another blog Secondchance delegated to skin-related postings.
Decision 2: At age of 22 - I went for student exchange to Munich, Germany
It wasn't easy convincing NUS SEP coordinator to allow me to go for another student overseas program as he wanted to give other students a chance. I had to explain and justify my way. Thank goodness that Prof Chin Wee Shong was willing to collaborate with TUM and allow me to take half a year of my thesis in Germany and another half a year with her. I am also grateful that the Vice Dean of the Faculty was very supportive after I spoke to him. Although it was a short 6 months, I had the chance to travel around Europe. The challenge was to take classes in a different language. I recalled using Google Translate a lot when I studied for my Chemistry modules. Thank goodness the lecturers were kind enough to allow me to write my answers in English during the exams.
Decision 3: At age of 23 – I applied to join Exploit
Technologies Pte Ltd
It is hard to say if it was a good decision but it must have some
pulling factor that made me stay here for almost 7 years. Some of my NOC
friends started their own companies right after school and some of them whom
have sold their companies and became multi-millionaire. There are other friends
who joined multi-national companies and have gone overseas as expats. Each one
of us took different paths and became who we are today. There were many lessons
learnt. R&D in Singapore has just started to begun two decades ago. Not
just the tech-transfer office, but also the research organization is constantly
evolving. Management changes, company reorganizes, strategy direction pivots,
takes on new bets, etc. One thing for sure, commercialization of technology is
not easy.
Decision 4: At age of - Taking part-time MBA at National
University of Singapore
The only reason which I find useful from taking MBA is meeting new
friends. Lectures were generally very academic style. If I were to compare with
my marketing classes I took in Stanford University during my NOC programme, the
style is very much different. I like the way US schools teach. There were never
right or wrong answer. The professors in Stanford would provide leading
questions for the students to debate on but no one would be able to determine
what was the best business decision at the point of time. What I liked about classes
in Stanford was also how “real” it is, because representatives of companies
will company and talk to us. I recalled when I was doing a case on Harvey
Davidson, some representative from the company actually drove the motorcycle
into the classroom. And when we were doing a case on Yellow Tail, we were asked
to appreciate the wine during class. Debating in class with a wine glass was 1st
ever in my academic experience. If I were to choose again, I will not spend ~$57,000
($52,000 + GST) on an MBA in Singapore. I will save the money and consider
doing it in the USA.
Decision 5: At age of - Taking part-time Specialist Diploma for
Cosmetic Science at Singapore Polytechnic
As part of my work in developing commercialisation strategy in Personal
Care, I decided to take a short specialist course on Cosmetic Science, which is
funded by my company. I met new friends from various companies, such as
Unilever, Croda, Givaudan, Takasago, etc. Most of them were around my age. I
enjoy the laboratory module where I get to make my own soap, shampoo, lotion
and fragrances, and classes which were taught by industry speakers. However, I
dislike classes that were taught by some SP lecturers. Some of them do not have
sufficient industry knowledge and I could tell they were “smoking” us. Bluntly
put, I am not there to learn what I can learn from Wikipedia which they sometimes
“cut and paste” in their notes.
Decision 6: At age of – Saying “I Do” to Mr Sungsoo Ro
The most spontaneous decision I have made was to say “I Do” to Mr
Sungsoo Ro on my 29th birthday in 2013. Then, I was in Korea. Initially,
we were still planning for our wedding to be on 17th Jan 2015 (the
earliest preferred and available date Fullerton Hotel could accommodate us).
But somehow things between us started to move really fast and we had our ROM on
9th Mar 2014. Then our Korean wedding happened shortly after on 22nd
Jun 2014. The date of our Korean wedding was firmed up very last minute as my
father-in-law trying to get a slot at the beautiful Wedding Hall in Hotel ICC, Daejeon.
It is a very popular place and usually couples have to book a few
months before. But my father-in-law pulled strings and we got a slot on a very
good date (22nd Jun). Well, my family was very flexible and
cooperative. We took leave and bought our tickets to Korea just a few weeks
before flying off. I didn’t even have time to lose weight for the wedding. J I will allocate a separate blog post to talk about my Korea
Wedding. Condensing the events that happened then into this blog post doesn't serve justice to the whole experience. J
Besides sharing the 6 big decisions I made, below are 6 mistakes I
made which I will highly recommend others not to make in their 20s:
- Not taking good care of the skin and body
- Studying in school non-stop when you don’t have a clue what you are doing
- Failing to try and build dreams.
- Sticking with jobs that doesn’t teach you anything
- Not mixing frequently with friends that build dreams.
- Not using free time to test out various side hustles, hobbies, passions, etc
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