Another year passes so quickly. I have always been searching for the right framework to live and the picture seems slightly clearer this year. Previous posts have always been on stuff done and learning. I think i have enough to now take a step back and frame all the stuff. See if it makes sense and is useful to you.
Life is about having purpose. Purpose creates motivation and challenge which generates plans, execution and hopefully reward. It also acts as a time allocation device. Goals are what we set to achieve our purpose. One can have multiple purposes though it’s best to keep it to a few at best. Purposes can change after many years.
Life is also about pleasure or fun. Pleasure can be physical, mental or spiritual. Exercise, beauty, learning new stuff, travel, eating etc.
Life needs connections with others. Can be family, friends, fellow workers, volunteers even animals etc. the mental need for social interaction should not be underestimated.
Life is about balance. The trick is to exist at the dynamic moving intersection of all the above and be happy with the current state and future trajectory state. This requires me to cultivate gratitude and contentment to handle the inevitable tension and trade offs between various purposes.
And what of happiness? Happiness happens easily when above is achieved. However, personally for me, the issue of focus and the problem of drifting and feeling like a bystander is still there because this more multi-faceted life is still in vast contrast to the obsessive single purpose life I had previously in JobsCentral. Ning says it best when she remarked about how life was simpler but when we only just wanted JobsCentral to succeed.
So bearing above in mind, here goes:
Purpose 1 - help and be there for family. Extend to friends if i can.
Purpose 2 - be as healthy as I can
Purpose 3 - Be a good custodian of wealth. help grow startup ecosystem as angel investor. Contribute to broader society as volunteer.
From the above, I generate goals and results as posted before. Below is an update.
Purpose 1 : Good relations with Family & Friend & contribute to their lives
Goals: High level of family/wife/friend time. Share more learnings with kids.
2nd son had O levels. Very proud of the way he studied hard without much pressure from us. Our boys are a major focus for Ning & I. Number 3 also did well and seems to have matured. Likewise number 1 and 4 are growing up nicely. Perhaps a little too quickly for number 4. Goal is to bring up well adjusted, contributing and happy people.
Celebrated wedding 18 years anniversary. Love wife very much. Dad still going strong and traveled with us to Taiwan for 20 days. He also went to South America for almost 4 weeks with my sister earlier in the year! Still miss my mum and think of her every few days.
A very old friend of mine finally found a life partner and got married in 2018. This year became a father. Its actually hard to keep in touch with old friends and it requires a special effort to always organize group dinners. Still, my experience is that its worth it each time.
Purpose 2 : Be Healthy Mind and Body
GOALS: Keep lean, weight below 70kg. Pick up more outdoor sport. Control mood even better through exercise and mindfulness.
Body - improved with cholesterol dropping a bit. Weight maintained at 68-70kg range. Health screen all clear. 5-6 times exercise per week.
Mind- mentally up and down but not too dramatic. Regular contemplation of death helps keep perspective and having Gratitude. Mindfulness keeps my attention on right things. Boredom and bystander issue is still there.
Traveled 72 days. Less than last few years 80-90 days but it’s due to our commitment to stay at home for the various kids exams.
Portfolio Work
Purpose 3 :Portfolio mgmt & Work role in Society
Goals: min 6% long term annual growth on net worth. hit 100 startups for angel investment doing well as a portfolio. Quality volunteer in any such work I take up.
Portfolio Work
Portfolio YTD gains of 17%. Tracking the 6+% annualized since 2011. Big mistake on baidu + overallocation to value funds + 1H delevering so took some money off a little early. Big wins on sea, fb, alibaba and shinvest help us to at least match index.
Still in progress to switch to even more etf index investing. Can’t significantly beat index so might as well don’t try. We also want to be more disciplined in giving. Will have more discussion with Ning on this.
Startup Work
Angel side very active. I think because we now see so many deals, we actually hit our upper limit and did 6 new investments. Also had 3 big up rounds from previous startups. Almost all grew by revenue. 30 startups now. Thats 30% of the way to the 100 startup goal. Portfolio doing well if mark to market.
Angel side very active. I think because we now see so many deals, we actually hit our upper limit and did 6 new investments. Also had 3 big up rounds from previous startups. Almost all grew by revenue. 30 startups now. Thats 30% of the way to the 100 startup goal. Portfolio doing well if mark to market.
AngelCentral side ramp up a lot. 130 paying members and we ran angel education workshops for easily 200+ more. Also spent lots of time vetting and meeting the 700 startups that register with us.
Volunteer Work
Still volunteering with ITE, PEP, SWCDC. This year a bit less time due to AngelCentral but the education related projects are still very meaningful to me. Of note, spent 4-5 sessions on an ITE project. It is a highlight as it involved helping plan continuous education pathways which is something I firmly believe in.
Still volunteering with ITE, PEP, SWCDC. This year a bit less time due to AngelCentral but the education related projects are still very meaningful to me. Of note, spent 4-5 sessions on an ITE project. It is a highlight as it involved helping plan continuous education pathways which is something I firmly believe in.
So for next year, should be continuation of the same and reminder to self to focus on
Purpose, Fun, Balance & Gratitude.
