Backstory

Here is my backstory of the paths I’ve taken that put me where I am today.

How it all began

I started my career as a research scholar in Nanyang Technological University.

Little did I know, that opportunity would equip me with a valuable set of skills—research and writing.

After completing my Master‘s, I went to work for the Government of Singapore, helping small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) raise their productivity and improve competitiveness.

It was here where I witnessed, first-hand, the gap between research and practice.

via Rolsi, A. and Kapasi, I. (2019):

“Scholars don’t know about entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs do.”

Putting what I know into practice

In October of 2002, I decided to put what I know into practice. I started LINE Consulting, a one-person consulting firm.

The focus was to help SMEs with writing strategic business plans for the purpose of fund raising, through debt or equity.

At the end of 2003, I met my business partner, Shatrughan Yadav.

In 2004, LINE Consulting pivoted into helping public schools with conceptualizing, designing and implementing their systems and processes in:

• Staff resource planning
• Strategic planning
• School management

Within four years, we’ve established LINE Consulting as the go-to consulting firm for schools based on these three criteria:

• Reach: trained, coached, and consulted for close to 80% of schools and their staff in Singapore
• Reputation: 75% of all new businesses were via word-of-mouth referrals
• Revenue: achieved 6-figure annual revenue

After 12 years of working with schools, my partner retired. I took a one-year sabbatical, with the support of my wife.

One-year travel adventure

In 2016, my family (our two kids, my wife, and I) went on a one-year travel adventure.

During that one year, we traveled to 46 cities in 13 countries across Europe and the US.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” —Mark Twain

The travel adventure was meant to be a world-schooling experience for our kids. They were three and five years old then.

In addition, the travel adventure was a precursor to a lifestyle I never thought possible.

LIFT Freedom

During that one-year travel, I began to take on projects that gave me LIFT Freedom (LIFT is short for location, ideas, financial, and time), including creating YouTube videos around our travels.

Upon returning to Singapore, I deployed my video creation skills to use. This led me to create 184 videos on LinkedIn in 2018. These videos generated more than 400,000 views and propelled me to start Befinity Media where I was approached for:

• Speaking engagements
• Training contracts
• Consulting projects
• Private coaching clients

In retrospect, I am deeply grateful for these endeavors. It helped me build multiple revenue streams—client services, productized services, and digital products.

AI Tool for That

My current project is AI Tool for That.

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