What would you have done if ...?

I did a short update earlier this month when I talked about my company changing directions and shifting their focus away from Asia for 2013. It's not my decision, frankly, I was rather disappointed by that decision, but then again, things could've been far worse. After all, my company has had a tough 2012 - both my bosses are already in their 50s and have plenty of money to retire on anyway. They don't need to work. Many others in their position might decide to take early retirement and enjoy life - but not them. They have already acquired a small but rapidly growing company with a great product which we are going to push into Switzerland in 2013.

I talked about this with a friend and she said, "What if your bosses did take early retirement? Then what? Would you be looking for another job in finance? Would you stay in finance? What would you do?"

I almost had to face a very difficult dilemma...

I guess it's easy for me to wax lyrical about such a possibility, given that it didn't come to that, but sure it's a fair question that I did contemplate. Now firstly, I did wonder if I could get another opening in finance - be it in London or in any other financial capital in the world. I would probably approach smaller firms, who are more flexible and dynamic and stay well away from the big banks. I feel more comfortable working for smaller companies - always have. I had in fact already spoken to a few friends to find out if they knew anyone was hiring....

I also wondered if I should be looking East, to China - where the combination of my language skills (Mandarin + several European languages) and work experience in the West enable me to act as a bridge between Chinese firms and the West. Am I right to assume that China still needs people like me - or have the younger generation of Chinese graduates already bridged this linguistic and cultural gap? Have I missed that boat by about five or ten years?

Would I be prepared to deal with the Chinese market again?

Likewise, I did also wonder if I wanted to start my own business. I have toyed with several ideas over the years and I have acted on two of them in the past and both crashed and burned. The first time I lost my investor 40% of his capital, the second time, I lost 80% of my own investment. Third time lucky, or do I have the nerve to trust my own business instincts again? In hindsight, it was so easy to see how and why I went wrong on my first two ventures. Oh particularly the second venture, I had latched onto a nice product, a nice idea which has been done elsewhere but didn't figure out the business plan at all. I rushed into it - spent a lot of money and kept spending money with no customers. Thank goodness I sunk my own money into it, because it was entirely my fault. Surely after mistakes like that, I would know what to avoid and how to get it right the third time? If I could find the right business partner(s) to do a venture with, then why not? I'm prepared to try again if the right opportunity comes along.

Another possibility would be to have left finance for a while and do something else that I enjoy - I have worked in media off and on over the years and I could've tried to have made another stab at trying to work full time in media. I do have contacts after all in the industry - it would mean a big pay cut of course to go back to media, but it is something I truly enjoy. It is always a possibility that I want to contemplate, a door that is never always totally shut, that I can always open if I wanted to. I also want to make another short film and if I had no work, then I would have the time to do so.

Would I be able to make that move back to the world of media again?

One other thought is for me to go travelling properly again, if I really had no work. I have enough money stashed away - sure it is not right to live off one's savings at my age, but even if it is just for like 6 months, I don't see why not. I would be very tempted to go on a nice long trip down South America, working my way from Venezuela to Argentina. Or maybe I'd go travelling in Asia - there are so many places I want to see. I love blogging and I would love to become a proper travel blogger, writing about my adventures. What would be really cool is if I could combine that with some charity work as well to make it more than just a holiday - like perhaps if I could go teach gymnastics or languages to some kids in a refugee camp somewhere,  that would be awesome.

I've done various stints of charity work when I was younger - this started back when I was a student in Singapore and continued through my adult life. It's something that I get a lot out of - I'm not sure how it works... but a few weeks ago, I was feeling really down. It was a combination of things being difficult at work and a couple of other things all going on at the same time - one thing I did then was go out of my way to help another friend who was having a lot of her own problems. I know what you're going to say, 泥菩萨过江，自身难保. Quite simply, if you can't save yourself, how can you save others? Well you will be surprised actually and I am speaking from experience.

Focussing on others gives us valuable perspective on our own challenges.

I suppose looking at her situation made me realize that everyone has their own problems and in helping someone in a far worse situation than myself, I realized that in comparison my problems weren't that bad. Furthermore, being in "I'm here to help you" mode puts me in the right frame of mind to deal with my own problems, rather than just feel sorry for myself. In essence, it helps lands perspective to my life, it helps me look at the big picture by focussing on others, rather than myself. I'd like to be able to do more charity work by that token - sorry if that makes me sound like I have an ulterior motive but yeah one does get a lot out of doing charity work.

I would also love to become a full time student again - why? There are just so many things I want to study but I just don't have the time as I have a job. Obviously, I want to study more languages - but I am also fascinated my the whole field of linguistics as well as it would be good to explore that area of academia as well as I have quite a few friends who work in it. Would I be happy settling in back into a university? I don't know - there's a part of me that would totally enjoy it, yet there would be another part of me that would be bored.

There's a part of me that wants to go back to university and study linguistics.

I would also like to go to Singapore for a holiday - just chill with my family and enjoy their company. I would love to go on holiday with my sister - we last did that years ago in Switzerland and I had a brilliant time with her. I went on a short holiday to Indonesia with my dad last year and I enjoyed that too. I do miss my family and think about them all the time, so just to be able to take an extended break in Singapore without thinking about work at all would be so nice. I don't think I want to work in Singapore again - you see in the UK, I have the flexibility to do what the hell I want: work for a company, start my own company, become a student again, be self-employed or just chill out and do nothing. But for me to go to Singapore, as I hold a British passport, I would need another work permit which would tie me to a job and I am not sure I like that idea. I treasure my freedom to change my plans if and when I want.

But no, it's back to more work - new project, new product, new markets, same bosses, same company and it's more of the same for 2013.Who knows if this new project would work out? My company is certainly sinking a lot of money into this new venture, so hopefully it will. We'll find out soon enough anyway if the fish are biting in Switzerland within a few weeks of launch, so we shall see. I just have this que sera sera attitude towards all this you know. In the meantime, I am going to Scotland for Christmas and hopefully getting some skiing done there as the conditions have been excellent in Scottish ski resorts despite it still being early December. Plenty of snow in Scotland and it's set to drop to -6 this week even in South East England. I am looking forward to that break.

Am I just an old fart who is settled in his ways? 

So there you go. There's a part of me that is relieved that I don't have to make these difficult decisions for now, but there's another part of me that was excited by the possibility of doing something totally different in 2013. But whilst I have a good job, I'd be a fool to give it up - so that's why I am staying where I am for now. What are your hopes and dreams for 2013? What do you want to achieve next year? Where do you want to be? Share your thoughts, don't be shy now, you're amongst friends here - leave a comment below, thanks. :)