As my colleague explain our product, TeacherTime, to a suited man at the National Australian Association of Angel Investors Conference, the first few comments were pessimistic views and comments. When @HansKonings interjected with an optimistic view that the industry has the capacity to change and need to be changed, the suited man replied with a doubtful, “well, of course it can change”.

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Three weeks ago, on my last day in Italy, I decided to dine at a nice fancy restaurant. Sipping wine watching people walk past me, I breathed several very deep sighs of relief and feeling an overwhelming gratefulness. It’s really, really hard to comprehend the fact that I was in Europe – let alone I was only told that I need to go to Italy for a meeting the week before. The fact that it is so easy for me to go overseas now and get on a plane is difficult to get my head around when 15 years ago, all I could do was to dream of being on a plane.

This year has been a really difficult year, but I have never felt more grateful. Every few days or weeks, I am challenged, inspired and overwhelmed by a deep sense of gratefulness because I have the people that I have in my life. People who inspire me every single day, challenges me every once in a while and more importantly, believed in me and push me that one step further.

Growing up certainly wasn’t easy, although it was one of the best times of my life. I am incredibly fortunate to have grown up in an environment that I did, learning the true meaning of a community and the essence of home.

To get from where I was to where I am now is, to me, an extraordinary privilege and I am eternally grateful. Sipping my beer, writing this, memories and names flood through me as I struggle to find a way to put thoughts into words in an eloquent manner. Or perhaps, I’ll never be able to but here goes.

Today I am grateful. I am grateful for all the opportunities I am given to change my own world. I am incredibly lucky to be given these opportunities and I am incredibly lucky to have the people in my life.

I am grateful for all the things I never had, I didn’t have and I still don’t have, but more importantly, today, I count myself very lucky to have all the things I have right now – the lessons I have learnt, the challenges I have faced and the people I have met.

The people I have met – the incredible people who believed in me, trusted me and invested in me. The people saw something in me that I didn’t see and encouraged me to continue to be the rebel that I always was and to put them to good use. I am very fortunate to call these people friends, teachers and some, employers who have been instrumental in all the sharp turning points of my life – Karen Burke da Silva, Deanne Gannaway, Jack Heath, Sarah Moran, Catherine Williams, Brad Krauskopf and Sam Thomson.

I am very fortunate because I have mentors who believed in me and, worked with my abilities to make me stronger, more capable and a greater, humble leader. They didn’t see me as a young person who needed guidance, instead they saw me as an individual who have the potentials of every young person to be who they want to be – Jan Owen AM, Stacey Monk, Steve Walz, Angus Stuart, Dawn O’Neil AM and Jeanette Miller.

And then I have two mentors who have walked with me, sat with me patiently and guided me every time I got lost – they never lost their patience nor have they ever doubted me (well, maybe quietly). They invested their time, energy, and everything they can including money into me so that I can be a better person and a better leader in the process. They very patiently, and with a lot of craft, skills and experiences, helped me shape my future that I have chose and guide me as I walk towards my vision. I am insanely, insanely grateful to call them my mentors and to have them in my life – Kerry Graham and Aleem Ali.

My parents believed in me whole-heartedly, love me unconditionally and gave me the trust I needed when I chose to go down an unconventional career path and took the road less taken. They nurtured me and they worked ridiculously hard so that I have all the opportunities to change my own world and for all that and more, I cannot thank them enough.

And last but most importantly, I am forever grateful to my very tight knit of friends who share their love, support and pride with me as I journey through the things I do. A few of them challenge me, enable me and inspire me and stuck by me even when others doubted me – they joined me on this crazy adventure and they are still with me a few months on as muddle through this difficult period with me – Lee Crockford, Mark Payne, Damon Klotz and all those who are a part of Soften the Fck Up.

If you’re reading this and we’ve been connected in some ways, thank you.

And on Thanksgiving and in honour of all of you, I am investing in a local entrepreneur in Tanzania so that she can help her kids shape their future and create the change in the world that they want to see. I hope that in some ways, you are proud of me for the person I am today, and the only way I can pay back is to be the best person that I can be and pass own this privilege that have been given to me by you.

This year, I am again a part of Epic Thanks, a global celebration that aims to change the world through the power of gratitude. This is very close to my heart because I feel these kids, and in many ways, I feel very connected to them. I know what its like to want to have your dream come true so bad, you’re willing to do all that you can to achieve them.

These kids have done their hard work – in 2006, we helped Mama Lucy, a former chicken farmer who used all her savings to build a primary school so that all the 500 kids in her village can go to school. Last year, they came second in the national exams out of the 168 schools in the village. They are not taking this opportunity for granted, and given the opportunity, I believe that they will do amazing things.

So, we are building them a secondary school this year. In honour of all of you, my amazing friends, family and mentors who have helped me transformed my life, I am investing $200 into these kids so that they can transform their lives. More importantly, I invite you to invest into these children as well through the widget on the right hand side.

At the end of the day, what matters to me isn’t about what we or I have achieved – what matters to me is what we can all achieve, together.

Thank you for being you and for being a part of my life.

Click here to find out more about Epic Thanks.

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I came out of Startup Weekend, feeling exhausted and just slightly insane.

Going in, I wasn’t sure what to expect of the weekend, and from the pitches, it was clear that there were quite a large number of tech genius in the crowd so I might feel a little out of place but it was all good in the end. I was hoping to hear more ideas more in the social innovation space but was slightly disappointed that most of them were only ideas that we want, not need.

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7 years ago, my best friend died of drowning. For 3 months, I questioned about life and how can I live a conscious, fulfilled life. It was the hardest thing I had to go through, and I vowed that no one should go through the death of a loved ones.

For a young person to lose their life due to a car accident or disease, its the failure of the medicine or the system, or pure carelessness or stupidity, but for a young person to die of suicide, its a failure of humanity.

Two years ago, I sat down with a typical Aussie bloke – a popular, high-achieving young men who were both good in academia and sports – who shared with me his silent struggle with mental illness since he was in high school. He did not get a diagnosis for at least 4 years because he never would have thought that a man can get a mental illness.

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This post is inspired by Jenny’s recent post on being awesome in life. It’s funny that I can laugh at this now but if you have shown this to me last year, I would have given you a smirk, agreed with what you said and thought in my head, “easier said than done, amigo”.


I seem to be able to tell people you don’t need to wait for permission to be awesome, or to do the things that you want to do, but when it comes to it, I am constantly afraid of how people will judge me and if I will offend or make someone feel threatened. The latter is a definitely the primary reason stopping me from doing some of the things I really want to do. It took a lot of talking to myself, curating my social circle and reflections to be comfortable with taking calculated risks. Afterall, what is the worst case scenario?

“No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die to get there.

And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.

And that is as it should be. Because death is very likely the single best invention of life.

It’s life’s change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

— Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address


So, what’s stopping us from making that jump? What’s stopping us from being the best that we can be and do what we love doing? After Ryan’s death, I told myself that I won’t let anyone or anything stop me from being the best that I can be, but somehow, I might have lose a little bit of that courage – maybe its aging! But over the past month, it has been incredibly inspiring to be able to reflect on what is important to me and what isn’t – and what path I want to choose for myself so that I know I can have make a positive impact on the lives of the people around me. I’ve moved 4 different cities and 2 different countries all by myself within the last 10 years, and have done relatively well. In fact, I have exceeded my expectation of myself in every place that I have moved to.

My amazing mentor, Kerry Graham, once told me, if I ever not do anything awesome, I’m being selfish – because I have the capacity, connections and courage to. I tucked that advice at the back of my mind for almost 3 months, but she’s right. And John Wood gave me two great advice:
1. Don’t ask permission, apologise later.
2. Get Shit Done (GSD).

So, what have I learned these past few months?

1. Start small, let it evolve.
You might think you’re not the ideas person, but sometime just one simple statement and the willingness to listen can transform it into an idea that could change the world. Let it evolve. Keep your head firmly on your shoulder, heart warm and ears open.

2. Stop waiting for the permission
You have every reason and every capacity to take that leap, the more you wait, the more its not going to happen, and the more time you’ve wasted.

If there’s one thing I’ll ever regret, it’s to die tomorrow and didn’t at least do what I wanted to do.

3. Have a mentor
or a few mentors. These are people who are able to give you valuable advice both personally and professionally. Kerry and Aleem are two mentors I am forever honoured to have. There are also lots of mentors that have had a profound impact on my life, personally and professionally, whom I will never be able to thank enough like @StaceyMonk, @JackHeath, Mark Creyton, Adam Smith, amongst many, many others who I have had the pleasure to work with.

4. Find inspirations
Sometimes, people share with you some very personal stories – stories that they would have never told anyone before, or stories that only a few people get the honour of hearing. Don’t waste them, use this inspiration to guide you to use all that you have to affect someone else’s life for the better.

A wise man once said: It’s not everyday you get to save a life, but everyday is an opportunity to affect one.

5. Do epic shit. And get shit done.

What’s stopping you?

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This is an interesting and highly relevant workshop especially for those who are working in the university. As more and more university increase their community engagement strategy, this talk might shed some light on how universities can optimise the potential of the incredible amount of young people in their institutions, and the leadership and awesomeness (for lack of better words) of these young people.


*Click for larger view*

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