Finding “luck” and forging paths
What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? I recall staring blankly at this question while applying to business schools, feeling completely lost. The only comfort was in knowing I was not alone — in the various conversations I’ve had, many of us have grappled with the same question in different forms over time.
Over the last decade, I’ve worked in 10 different roles within vastly different organisations across 7 cities and 4 continents. These include launching a new business for microinsurance in Malaysia, leading the product team for a rapidly scaling FinTech startup in London, strategy consulting in Southeast Asia and lighting off-grid households with social enterprises in Africa/India.
Last year, one of my friends remarked that I’m a really lucky person, which made me reflect on why this might be the case. Although I often casually attribute my achievements to luck, I realise I’ve also learnt more about how to “find luck” — to place myself in the way of opportunities, navigate and shape them. This applies not only in good times, but also (and perhaps especially) in bad ones as well.
Here are a few core insights which have guided me along the way:
1. Aim for Ikigai
The ideal role might be summarised in one word by the Japanese concept of Ikigai — that elusive intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for. I was blown away by the elegance of the concept when I heard it from a mentor years ago.
Two of the circles — “what the world needs” and “what you can be paid for” — are primarily external. They influence the opportunities available in the market, the impact they have and how much they pay. The other two — “what you love” and “what you are good at” — are internal and personal, speaking to our talents as well as what energises us at the core.
Some people have answers from a young age, but for many of us, finding Ikigai is a winding journey of discovery. I started by trying to search in a structured, proactive manner — making a list of activities and scoring how much I liked them and how my skills stacked up. While this helped as a starting point, I realised that gut feel and retrospection had a (perhaps larger) part to play. Looking back, it became clear that during those rare moments when I was in my element and things just felt right, I was at the centre of those circles — even if I didn’t recognise it at the time. These were all times when I created and launched new products that helped underserved people. There were many other times I felt somewhat off-balance or unfulfilled, even if so many things looked right on paper.
2. Experiment and learn
In order to better understand our unique Ikigai, we can learn by testing. Through my experience in product and strategy, one of my key learnings has been to generate hypotheses and test with the smallest experiments or products possible. A similar approach can be applied with our careers.
Some ideas on what we might like to do can be validated through academic learning, interviews or conversations with people who have done these jobs. Others can be tested by trying out actual roles, which may be in the form of internships, volunteers stints or jobs. Based on the experience, we learn more about what we like doing and what we’re good at (or the converse). We can then iterate to find roles that allow us to do more of what we love, or improve ourselves to get better at it.
Several of my internships have turned out to be career defining moments. My summers with the government made me realise I had no desire to be tied to 6 years in the civil service. Working with a fast-growing social enterprise in Tanzania was so exciting that I decided to seek a career which could enable both profit and purpose.
Experimenting isn’t a very comfortable process, and I felt like I’d dropped myself into the deep end each time I started a brand new role (I did also win a “thrown into the deep end” award at Railsbank). Still, this approach has allowed me to continually test myself, reflect and find a better fit.
3. Seek out opportunities which don’t exist
During business school at Wharton, I discovered the concept of “enterprise recruiting”. As compared to “mature recruiting” which involves applying to established employers with clearly outlined jobs, “enterprise recruiting” applies to emerging companies which may not have hiring planned out ahead of time. Most startups and nonprofits fall into the latter category.
“Enterprise recruiting” requires a very different strategy of proactively reaching out to companies as compared to applying for vacancies on a job board. The biggest takeaway for me was the realisation that we can always knock on doors which aren’t already open. With this approach, we can discover amazing possibilities we didn’t even know existed.
Looking back at the last 5 years, it now strikes me that not a single one of the roles I ended up taking (from MBA internships to full-time jobs) were formally advertised. Instead, reaching out directly to companies for an informal chat allowed me to discover areas they were starting to think about hiring for or problems they needed help with solving. This positioned me to be “lucky” enough to be at the right place at the right time.
There won’t always be an opening, but you never know what opportunities can follow from that first conversation.
4. Solve real problems
In many organisations, particularly rapidly scaling or evolving ones, there are also “white spaces” of opportunity we can leverage to shape our own roles. When we spot unmet needs and problems to be solved, we can take steps to address them. Sometimes, these can lead us to new and unexpected places.
At BIMA, a microinsurance technology startup which serves millions of customers in emerging markets, I wore 3 different hats. My first role was focused on partnerships in Asia, in which I spent significant time in the local markets. As I took initiative to gather customer insights and find ways improve their experience, I was selected to lead a global customer experience project. Later on, when BIMA started looking at how to launch a new market in Malaysia, I was given the opportunity to lead this as the Country Manager.
More recently, I pitched to move from Product Director into a new role to lead Financial Inclusion at Railsbank. This role had never existed, but we reached an instant agreement because it was aligned to the company’s long term vision as well as my passion for social impact.
While I was really excited to start the role, it unfortunately turned out to be short-lived as the company decided to remove a number of roles (including my new one) in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so lucky anymore. I wallowed in frustration, bitterness and self-pity for a day — then realised that the crisis meant there were far greater problems to be solved. After all, millions of other people had their jobs and livelihoods at risk.
As a result, I started LightningAid, an initiative with a group of volunteers within Railsbank and the FinTech community to get safe and super fast financial support to those in need. Amazingly, we were able to build our product from idea to app store within 8 days, and continued the breakneck momentum to pilot and launch after. Within two months, we processed £500K in donations for vulnerable residents and impacted workers.
5. Believe
I’ve struggled with imposter syndrome for my entire working life. When I started my first job at Bain, I was told by a partner that “young and shy” was written all over my T-shirt. It constantly felt like an invisible logo hanging over me as I downplayed my accomplishments and reacted awkwardly to compliments. It‘s taken years to realise that keeping my head down and working hard isn’t enough to make the difference I aspire to, and that I have to believe in myself before expecting anyone else to do so.
In addition, I’ve realised that I perform at my best when I believe in and care deeply about what I’m working on. In one of my roles, which was challenging and intellectually stimulating (but not an area I personally felt strongly about), I felt mentally and emotionally drained at the end of each day.
Conversely, I’ve been amazed by how people have rallied around the LightningAid cause, which enabled us to create real impact at unbelievable speed and momentum as a group. Further to that, I’ve been incredibly humbled by the people who believe in my ability to lead this effort.
While the next steps are still being worked out, my takeaway is this: When you believe in yourself, what you stand for and what you’re working towards — and the people around you believe in all this as well — magic can happen.
To my friends, family, partner, mentors and everyone I’ve been fortunate to work with — I sincerely thank you for believing in me, for your advice and candid feedback, and for helping me to learn and grow throughout.
To everyone reading this, I hope you find your “Ikigai”, forge your unique path forward and create your magic. The world will be a better place for it.
