Whenever we talk about learning curve, we will usually associate it with the time you need to pick up a new skill. As an illustration, you may lament about the steep learning curve to master a new language. Of course, there is always another perspective to this theory – let me share my story.

Table of Contents:

1. Learning Curve @ Work
2. Quarter Life Crisis
3. Why is this a Problem?
4. Avoiding the Crisis
5. How does this affect the Learning Curve?
6. Where am I now?
7. What’s next?

Part 1: Learning Curve @ Work

To begin with, every task was challenging when I joined the financial services industry a decade ago. Owing to my lack of knowledge and skills, I had to put in extra time and effort into learning. All things considered, it was definitely a gruelling period back then.

Fortunately, the days got brighter as I move along. Together with supportive clients who trust my work, I managed to build a career to some success. Meanwhile, my learning curve slowed down as I became more experienced in my field. While this sounds like a story with a happy ending, I faced a crisis in 2018.

Part 2: Quarter Life Crisis

Although I was coping well at work, I wasn’t as happy as I used to be. As a logistician, I took time to find out why. Altogether, there are four factors that contribute to my satisfaction at work.

Part 2.1: Money

Firstly, we need money to survive. Otherwise, who is going to give you free lodging and food forever? Undeniably, money is able to resolve many problems in life. At one stage, it feels like money can buy you happiness. Beyond that, I realised that I cannot buy three crucial elements in life – kindness, honesty, and integrity.

Part 2.2: Fame

Next, fame assesses how you feel when you are in the spotlight. Above all, I’m too lazy to deal with being recognised on a public level. Instead, I prefer to work on giving my clients the right advice. This is different from being recognised for giving the right advice. To put it another way, I feel happier to know that I am doing the right thing; rather than for someone to tell me that I have done the right thing.

Part 2.3: Power

Thirdly, power determines your ability to influence another person. As I focus on advisory work, there is no hunger for power. Overall, I like to think that clients will work with me if they feel that I’m trustworthy and capable. Similarly, I’m happy for them if they find another agent that is better than me. By putting my clients’ interest first, power is useless to this end.

Part 2.4: Passion

Finally, passion refers to how you feel at work. In essence, this is the key question:

Do you like your work so much that it doesn’t feel like work anymore?

By and large, my answer was a straightforward yes at first. After reaching a plateau (in my learning curve), my passion for work falters. Admittedly, there were moments when I work like a robot to fulfil my duties. As can be seen, this is unlike working because I like to work. This become unhealthy for the soul in due time.

Part 3: Why is this a Problem?

Generally, we spend about eight hours a day at work. That is close to one-third of our time for the next thirty years. At this point, can you imagine yourself being unhappy for half the time that you are awake? This is unquestionably an unhealthy phenomenon!

In addition, let’s link this point back to the learning curve. After we reached a plateau, we tend to feel comfortable at where we are and hope that things will never change. In this situation, we can enjoy such comfort forever. However, reality is just so different.

In truth, you depreciate in value by remaining stagnant. This is because the world continues to advance forward. Consequently, you are worse off in the long run. Thereupon, you will have to start from ground up (again) in an attempt to stay relevant.

Part 4: Avoiding the Crisis

In order to avert this crisis, there were two solutions:

1. Find another job so that I can acquire knowledge and pick up a new skill;
2. Stay at where I am and find a way to improve myself.

Needless to say, I chose the latter as I still like my work. Correspondingly, I need to make a couple of adjustments to love work again. With this purpose in mind, I brainstormed on ways to achieve two macro goals:

• Attain personal growth and prevent myself from becoming a wasteman; and
• Share my knowledge to help another person make the right decision in life.

Based on my goals, I set up my blog with the following two objectives:

• Firstly, I want to improve the financial literacy space. As a matter of fact, financial literacy moved me out of poverty. Therefore, it is only right for me to share my experience to help someone make the right financial decision.
• Secondly, I have always wanted a channel to improve my communication with my clients. After all, we will usually have more to discuss than time allows. Through my blog, I am able to share basic information on estate planning and financial planning. In effect, we can focus on having an in-depth discussion during our meeting.

Part 5: How does this affect the learning curve?

With attention to writing on a public platform, there exists a need to instil quality control. This is to ensure accuracy in the content that I share. With this in mind, I am often forced to rethink a lot of knowledge that I thought I know well. To point out, knowing a concept is vastly different from knowing how to translate it into an article. Emphatically, I have to stretch my brain cells every time I publish a new article!

Moreover, not many knows that I set up this platform from scratch. In detail, this includes design and coding, as well as to put a proper structure to publishing new content. As much as I wish those are easy feats, I am often challenged by my own expectations. Well, no complaints since I am excited on this new learning opportunity.

Part 6: Where I am now?

After two years of writing, I am humbled by the generous support that you have given me. On the whole, I will never have imagined that my content will resonate with so many of you! Conversely, I understand that there will always be haters and doubters about what I do. In any case, both groups are my pillars of support for better quality content for everyone.

Part 7: What’s next?

To sum up, I like the sense of accomplishment when I clicked that “Publish” button. Hence, I can assure you that I will continue to upload regular content on my blog.

At the present time, I have covered a good layer on the foundation, e.g. Starters’ Guide for Integrated Shield Plan in Singapore. Accordingly, I will start to create discussions on my thoughts, e.g. how to ensure premium sustainability for your integrated shield plan.

If that’s something that you are into, then subscribe to my newsletter. This way, you will never miss a post again. As always, I need to spend most of my time on advisory work for my clients. Thus I doubt I will ever have time to spam you, don’t worry.

First Published: 2 January 2019
Last Updated: 11 December 2020