Alternative Pathways
This is my 7th article this year and for the first time I am 2 days late. It is tempting to give up but since I wanted to practise my writing consistently, I told myself that I’m just going to write and publish anyway.
Over the weekend, I had the chance to attend a sharing by Shao Chun, who made headlines last year when he shared his story and it was picked up by a few news outlets. As someone who also took a non-conventional pathway, I was intrigued by his journey and curious to hear about what he had to share. Thankfully, I also managed to jio @budgetbyyerim and we attended the session together.
I will not go into too much detail as I already shared about the points that resonated with me here, but I was greatly encouraged and reminded once again that good things take time. After he got laid off and decided to start his Youtube channel, it took him 18 months before he got his first collaboration deal. I recently got licensed earlier this year and have spent most of my time learning as much as I can, preparing myself mentally that the first 3 - 6 months would either be low or zero income. Thankfully, the tuition side of things firmed up in March so I can sustain my basic expenses while waiting to see how things play out for my business. If you are keen to sort out your finances, you can fill up this form and I will get in touch.
As we approach the end of Q1 2026, I continue to be grateful that I get to live this life and retain control over how and when I work. I also learnt that saying no and guarding what matters to me might not always close all doors. Recently, one of my ex-bosses reached out to see if I could do a relief teaching stint from mid April to end May, but since I have already decided to move on from classroom teaching I just told her that I have stepped into a new career and will be focusing on that. To my surprise, she mentioned that she had a group of students who formed a Financial Literacy Interest Group and asked if I was open to collaborate! At that moment, the saying “when one door closes, another door opens” became so real to me even though nothing was confirmed yet. It just reminded me that saying no doesn’t necessarily end the previous opportunity or relationship, and when we are truly committed to what we do, there will always be new opportunities coming our way.
April will also be an exciting month, with a short weekend getaway to KL coming up, a coding workshop that I have been looking forward to attend, as well as catching Checkpoint Theatre’s Secondary: The Musical. In between all that, I’ll also be doing 2 sessions of sharing on my dividend investing journey and hopefully launch my first passive income tracker on Mythos! Exciting times ahead indeed!!
Cheers to a great Q2,
Sam :)