Some things about me:
- CEO / Co-founder of Grain and Atlas.
- Grew up in Malaysia, spent 2 years in Papua New Guinea, studied in Australia, now in Singapore.
- Ex-tech management consultant, built a charity rounding-up app, and developed software for companies.
- I have a golden retriever called Eden, have lived in a bus and a bomb shelter, and collect bar coasters.
- yongyisung@gmail.com
Wisdom I wished I'd known earlier:
- Often wrong, never in doubt. Have a lot of conviction in what you do, and be comfortable being corrected.
- Simple and deep beats complex and shallow.
- Chop wood, carry water. Focus on what you can do and what is right each day, not the outcomes.
- Great ideas are the output of the work, not the input.
- Reliability (doing what you say) takes you far.
- All problems are communication problems. Communicating clearly is half the battle. Whenever you are communicating with someone, think about the actual point of the message, simulate potential follow-up questions, issues, concerns, etc., and communicate all that in a few sentences upfront.
- Be kind and helpful. You can have everything you want if you help others.
- Raise others’ aspirations — small effort, huge impact.
- Small complementary teams accomplish more than lone stars.
- The best way to build your network is to do good work.
- Success/failure outcomes often stem not from major decisions, but from a series of small, critical ones. People tend to overestimate the impact of major decisions and underestimate the impact of small decisions.
- Context always matters.
- We don't die from our mistakes. We die from how we react to them.
- Human beings can do a lot more than we think.
- Pain and suffering build resilience and character. 力求上进.
- Agency and stamina are a powerful combination that will get you very far.
- Having faith keeps you grounded.
- Healthy relationships with family and friends make us happy. You don't need that much.
- One of the best gifts you can give your kids is the gift of making their own money.
- Stories are incredibly powerful. You become the stories you tell yourself. And you'll be shocked by the kind of stories people can believe. Everyone tells stories. And great storytelling is a superpower.
- Being different is easier than being the best. You can choose to play a totally different game. Success is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration, and 1% doing things differently.
- You can learn anything from anyone.
- You can always just choose who you want to be and reinvent yourself at any point in time. Don't let people pigeonhole you into a stereotype. Fight the need to please everyone (very hard lesson for me cause I want to be likeable).
- Learning how to do new things, especially things you don't like, is an important muscle to build.
- Being present and listening well is really hard. Zoom in on every word, focus on every detail you can observe, and learn to summarise rather than leading with a gut response. Lifelong lesson I'm still learning.
- My bugs are that I do a lot of things for entertainment, don't take life seriously, my hobby is my work, and I can be brash. These are also my greatest features.
- You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Have courage, venture out and take risks.
- You can predict the long-term health of a relationship by whether each cut heals to 99% or 101%.
- Most of the pleasure in dessert comes in the first three bites, like a lot of things in life. Thanks Tyler Cowen.
- Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest. The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn; the more you can do; the more you can do; the more the opportunity.
- Take notes! Wonderful way to remember everything. Share things you find useful.
- People can get much more done if they don’t care who gets the credit.
- Keyboard shortcuts will instantly give you hundreds of hours more than the person who doesn't use them.
- You can trust people who use sunscreen to have good judgment and habits.