Hey all. So I’m not really good at talking about what I do and why, whether on this blog or in social media in general, but that’s one of my core goals for 2018 as well as focusing on my career-related bucket list goals. So I thought I’d make this week’s post about giving an overview of the projects that I’m excited about and work on.
Ever since I graduated with stellar academic records in 2015 — AND declined all job offers — it’s been an exciting roller coaster with long days, tonnes of hard work, failures, successes, tough and challenging moments, a lot of fun, money running short, and anything in between.
Admittingly, most people would say I do too much, and should only focus on one or two things, and while there’s definitely some truth to that, that’s simply not how I am put together. I’ve always been a multi-tasker, and always will be — and yes I know that has its pros and cons.
I take great pride in being productive though, and people have constantly asked me whether I have more than 24 hours per day. A lot of my productivity tips are shared on this blog; and in large part, it revolves around proper goal-setting as well as the tools and habits that enable an efficient workflow.
Also, as you’ll see, I really devote much time and effort to social businesses and helping others, as that’s what really motivates me. Simply put, no matter how cheesy it may sound; I want to make a difference and make a positive impact on the world around me. And through hard work, I’m sure I’ll achieve it.
Anyways, without further ado, here are the cool things that I’m working on (in no particular order):
PSST! You would be super kind if you gave a like or a share to whatever startup/project you may care about among those listed here. Also, should you ever be interested in learning more, contributing or whatever, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with me via the contact form or the blog Facebook Page.
LiveMVP
LiveMVP is an early-stage digital startup that I’ve co-founded with Richard Gyllenbern. The current 6-man strong LiveMVP team seeks to develop an entrepreneurial platform and guide for early-stage online startups.
A lot of startups fail because they focus on building features and functions as opposed to actually solving problems, and they lack the proper planning, testing validation and minimum viable product (MVP) important to succeed with their startup. So that’s what we seek to address.
We’re currently at the very early stage of our business, and recently made a pivot moving away from focusing on individuals as our target customer, to instead target accelerators (and their startups), and we already have partnered with a few accelerators in Europe to develop our solution into a full-fledged offering.
Website (in development) | Facebook Page
SVM Internship Course at University of Hong Kong
I’m the Teaching Assistant (TA) for a 6-credit experiential course, called the Social Venture Management Internship course, at University of Hong Kong, that brings aboard 70+ students each semester to intern for social businesses in Hong Kong. In some cases, the students even create social businesses from scratch.
The social businesses included in the program typically addresses human empowerment, the environment, social justice and more.
Importantly, the course gives students an opportunity to work directly for social ventures under the guidance of a faculty instructor and professional mentors, while having the opportunities to solve real-life problems, gain hands-on business experience, and attain an appreciation for social causes.
Website
Soap Cycling
I’ve been helping out Soap Cycling occasionally for quite some time, but recently became a member of the Board of Directors (AKA a board member). At Soap Cycling we recycle soap from hotels around Asia and distribute these to where it is needed the most.
Soap is one of the most efficient and cost-effective lifesaving tools ever invented. Yet every year across Asia millions of life-saving bars of soap are discarded. And when you consider that it is estimated that a child dies every minute due to diarrheal diseases — easily preventable by proper handwashing with soap — then it’s truly outrageous.
By recycling hotel soap we also help eliminate thousands of pounds of chemical waste from our landfills each month, and instead use this invaluable — but otherwise wasted resource — to save thousands of children each year. Since its inception, Soap Cycling has distributed more than 2 million bars of soap.
Website | Facebook Page | BBC
Foundation for Shared Impact
FSI is a social business that I’ve recently co-founded with the entrepreneurs Jeffrey Lam and David Bishop, and we got a team of 9 great university students working with us to get FSI off the ground.
FSI has a two-fold mission. Firstly, FSI’s mission is to develop an ecosystem for social businesses to grow, so that the social impact of existing social businesses can be maximised, and new social businesses can emerge easier to further create impact. Secondly, FSI seeks to empower youth by equipping them with the right skills, providing them with the right experience, and connecting them with the right people.
Our work will, among others, consist of training, events, team-building and leadership, fundraising, co-working space and startup support. Lastly, our current portfolio of companies includes Fair Employment Agency, Soap Cycling, 852 Design, Stitch Up, Migrasia and Baby Hero, and we are partnering with the University of Hong Kong!
Website (in development) | Facebook Page
Ejj Jewellery
I’m the co-founder of Ejj Jewellery. Since its humble beginnings Ejj Jewellery, has expanded to over 10 shops in China, plus various places in Hong Kong, Thailand and Macau, as well as collaborations with the luxury hotel chain, Banyan Tree.
The brand received “The Most Innovative Jeweller” of 2017 in Hong Kong, and our co-founder and Chief Brand Officer, Elaine Shiu, has received several specific entrepreneurship awards for her work at Ejj Jewellery, such as “The Most Outstanding Young Entrepreneur” of 2017 by MediaZone, and APEA’s entrepreneurship award.
Website | Facebook Page
Volentos
I touched upon this one a little bit ago in my blog post on becoming a sustainable traveller, which is a topic dear to my heart. At the social startup Volentos we (Axel Lundberg, Jonathan Lennström and I) want to facilitate and make it easy for travelers to find sustainable travel activities, with a chief focus on South East Asia.
Earlier we won a startup competition by Science Park in Sweden and scored some initial funding. At first, we focused solely on volunteering opportunities but realized that a lot of volunteering actually may end up doing more harm than good to the local communities — so we changed the emphasis to sustainable travel activities. Currently, we’re revamping our website and offerings, so stay tuned for the re-launch.
Website (under maintenance)| Facebook Page
Other — Consulting, website development
Throughout the years I’ve also been helping foreign businesses establish themselves in China and all that it entails, I’ve also been developing websites for both friends and clients, and more. I consider all this more as a hobby of sorts, of which I take up upon projects I find interesting and if time permitting.
This blog — Bucket List Fanatic
This blog has always been a hobby of mine. The ultimate reasoning behind it was to make people excited about exploring life, pushing their own boundaries and setting bold goals and achieving them. Too often we get caught in a daily autonomy or live on “auto-pilot” without any clear direction, goals or wants. So that’s why I seek to make people become truly aware of their purpose in life, as well as accompanying tips and tricks on productivity, travelling, doing good and more.
I would aspire to do a lot more with this website, such as moving it away from just being a blog to becoming a website portal where users could easily establish and collaborate on their own life goals with friends and anything in between. Currently, I neither have the time nor capacity to do so, which is also why I’ve just recently opened up to bring other people into the BLF team, whether as a 50-50 deal or whatever we would figure out together. If nothing specific comes out of that, I will still be blogging in a similar fashion as I have though 😉
Final notes
Overall, throughout the last 2.5 half years, there’s also been various failures, of which I’ve learned heaps from. For one, I co-founded and worked on a project to create a shared economy-related tutoring platform for a long while that we called Ademiq, only to realize that we didn’t have the sufficient resources or know-how to properly roll it out. Through this and others, I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, as well as the importance of proper testing and validation before committing too much time and resources into a project.
Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.
— Jack Canfield
Anyways, let’s say that this is all for this time. I hope you found some of my work projects interesting. As mentioned, should you ever be interested in learning more, contributing or whatever, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with me via the contact form or the blog Facebook Page.
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