Strawberry Picking: Peering into 2021
I went strawberry picking with my family over Xmas weekend. The experience pretty much sums up 2020 for me.
Over the weekend, we went down south, and on our way back, stopped by a strawberry farm for the kids to experience strawberry picking. My younger son loves strawberries so for him, it was like going to a candy store.
By the time we got there, it was 4–5pm and getting dark. The owner said we could pick if we wanted but most of the strawberries had already been picked so not much left. I told the owner to let them pick the scraps, and we’ll buy some of the ready picked ones to make up for it.
2020, a year of give and take, and make dos. But a fulfilling year nonetheless.
I decided to take some time off work this year, to spend more time with my family, and with myself. I got more than I bargained for, when COVID hit and I started working from home full-time. I spent more time this year with my family, than I did with them in the last few years combined. It involved a lot of hair tearing days, with screaming all ways, but it was awesome for the most part. I’ve learnt so much about my kids, about the books they like to read, food they like to eat, their tempers and more. This has also provided much clarity to how I think about what I’d like to do going forward.
More personal time, more thought, less operations and frontline work, learning to empower others like Hiro empowers his team
While I’ve had the opportunity to be more introspect, I’ve also had the opportunity to observe how Hiro, my successor, has performed leading 17LIVE.
In the last few months, I’ve observed from the sidelines, closely, how Hiro leads. Hiro empowers his leadership team to perform as they were brought on to perform, by never questioning final decisions, but guiding the thought process before decisions are made. Laying out the parameters that final decisions can be made upon, he exerts full control yet allowing autonomy over the process. He is able to hence provide his team with a sense of empowerment, which drives them and their team to power forward.
Under Hiro’s leadership, 17LIVE has further evolved into a global powerhouse in live entertainment, sharpening its focus on core competencies with a leadership team that is conditioned to execute flawlessly. I do not know of another more profitable technology company in the region, at the scale we are operating at, as we finally process over a billion dollars in net receipts from users to content creators.
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And in my position as chairperson of the Board of Directors, I very much enjoy the birds eye view of the business, without needing to get involved with the day to day — This allows my mind to wander.
Never stop being curious, never stop being hungry, even when you’re old(er) like Jeff
He’s 48 but he doesn’t act like it. And he’s perhaps one of the more hungry entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. I’ve probably spoken to him more in the last 4 months, than I have in the last 2 years — Not that we haven’t spoken a lot previously but we have really spoken a lot in the last few months.
Jeff constantly reminds me he’s old and he wishes to simplify his life, and not do so many things, wants to play with his dogs and watch Netflix. Then he says random things like buying NBA teams and how he needs to make just a little more so he can buy one without feeling guilty. He questions every assumption you make about everything, and challenges the word impossible whenever you bring it up. One time he got so intense, I blocked him on all the chat apps, for 4 days, because he wouldn’t stop calling / texting.
When I look at him, I question my decision to slow down.
Legacy and creating meaningful connections
One of my most worthy business rivals in the last 4 years became a close friend. I guess I took things quite too literally when they said keep your enemies close. Pre-COVID, whenever he’d visit Taiwan monthly, we’d catch up. I remember in the summer of 2018, I probably saw him more than I saw my team.
He had a shareholder, a close friend from the gaming industry, who was one of his most ardent supporters. This individual passed away recently and though I never got to know him personally, I felt the magnitude of his immense influence. For a few days after his passing, my feed was covered with reposts of his eulogies — Only then did I realize how many people in my circle knew him, and were touched by him in one way or another.
Curiosity, meaningful connections, and empowering others
I’ve been speaking to many founders over the last few months, and have been working on recruiting a team to help me with what I plan to do next. As 17LIVE’s business continues to flourish under Hiro’s leadership, I hope to spend more time supporting interesting teams by deploying personal capital, resources and time into them. This is probably the best way to satisfy my need to create value without getting entrenched too deeply in the day to day.
And of course, I expect to continue spending as much time as I can with my family in 2021, just like in 2020.
