STIMY #38

Oh Lord, what have I done?

👋🏻 STIMIES!

We've reached the (temporary) end of STIMY's special Singaporean sub-series with the release of last week's episode with Arthur Kiong, the CEO of Far East Hospitality!

What's so special about this episode?

Arthur has one of the ultimate rags-to-riches story, with a healthy dose of humility, luck and humour.

Editing episodes is often the part I dread the most (and the reason why STIMY episodes don't get released sometimes). It's painful to spend an additional 10 hours going through the recording, then another 10 hours to finalise everything, write the copy, create the graphics, produce snippets, schedule etc 😫

But there are exceptions.

And Arthur's episode is one such episode.

I found myself chuckling & sending snippets to family, friends & clients as I was doing the edit - there were just so many amazing parts!

Like how:

• He became a celebrity radio DJ because he could pronounce ‘Thursday the Thirteenth’ (and interviewed David Bowie at age 21!)
• He was tasked with launching the Grand Hyatt but fell so behind schedule that he thought he was going to be fired... until the Gulf War saved him!
• He landed his dream job at The Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong because his dog fell sick

All remarkable achievements, especially when you consider how Arthur had failed his A Levels and thought, "My life is pretty much over."

His father had little sympathy for him and even told him that "𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵."

Which is how Arthur ended up first selling Japanese slimming products on the streets.

It was the only job he could take on then!

So... how does a street vendor become a celebrity radio DJ then the CEO of a premier hospitality operator with a combined portfolio of over 16,500 rooms under management across almost 100 hotels and service residences in 10 countries?!

What is Arthur's secret to all his insane 'luck'?

How did he get through his darkest periods when he thought, "I didn't want to live"?

And how has Arthur architected his resume (he has always been deliberate about it)?

You'll just have to listen to find out. 😏

To listen to Arthur's STIMY Ep 147:

• Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/147
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/lJkY_8igcxQ​
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5pV0SqW7s2NGp6f6P9kPSh?si=5ugA4U3KTSisT7_cdy_AsA​
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442?i=1000659135888​

Fun Fact: You can download the FREE 5 Stones & a Sling book that Arthur mentioned in the interview (charting the rise of Far East Hospitality) HERE.

Interesting Discoveries

I spend hours on LinkedIn & love finding interesting posts that inspire thought. Here are some of my favourite discoveries:

1. Would you become the Global Head of Marketing, Instagram for $296k-$356k/yr? Applications are open & many people have thoughts about this (low) amount! 🙊
2. ​My 5 year old set up a lemonade shop over half term​
3. Duolingo Co-Founder on how "It takes a while for people to figure out exactly how to work with me"
4. Ryan Holiday's new book is his 16th - how does he manage his output? Ryan's research assistant for 6 years, Billy Oppenheimer, shares 9 habits he's observed​

Thoughts

Isn't LinkedIn interesting?

People often tell me that LinkedIn is full of humble bragging, AI-driven repeated content and all that is true.

But that's also because you haven't curated your feed well.

If you are:

• Clear on why you're on the platform;
• Selective with who you follow; and
• Keep doomscrolling (ok, this is probably just me but hey, it's my job now!)

then you can find gems like the articles above. And even be invited to sit on the board of directors (true story - it happened to a friend this year).

As you can see, the LinkedIn posts above cover a wide range of topics and all went viral!

Which just goes to show that you can write just about anything, including:

• Personal anecdotes about your personal life + family
• Thoughts as a CEO/manager - which is helpful when people are looking to join your company. If they don't like what you've written, then they likely won't apply. Which saves you time when deciding on the applicants to proceed with
• Personal insights - Ryan Holiday is famous. Very famous. And there are hundreds of articles telling you his 'secret writing techniques' and how you can do the same. But it hits different when you hear straight from his personal research assistant of 6 years.
• Industry insights: The Global Head of Marketing role was interesting for me. I have no concept of what the 'market rate' is for such a role (I was a lawyer), but the comments are very helpful in providing insights into how CMOs think (now I know that we should be looking at a minimum of $300k!). Helpful when we're applying/considering for jobs, no? If she can do it, so can you.

Ling Yah

Say 👋🏻 on LinkedIn, Instagram or Discord​

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It takes 60+ hours to produce 1 STIMY episode.

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If you'd like to help keep STIMY going, you can become a Patreon member for as little as $0.10/day!

P/S: I'm thinking of doing a STIMY sub-series on parenthood - whether parenthood makes people rethink their why, how they figure out the balance between work/family and also parents who built side hustles turned businesses as a result of being parents! Do you have any suggestions?

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Just hit REPLY or email sothisismywhy@gmail.com

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