So I find myself at the crossroads, and I'm not talking Britney.I stand at the end of a remarkable four-year journey of eureka moments and sharpened wits. The journalism road could continue this way, but a most remarkable new path opened up, quite magically, last Friday.
Michael (left), who founded and runs Michael Aquatic Design (MAD), revealed to me a triple treat! I had called him a few months ago when I serendipitously chanced upon his showroom at Park Mall, and his updates were as bright and lively as the fish in his very classy furniture-fish tanks.
He is on the brink of three big projects and if they go through, he will need someone to assist -- I am the lucky noob who gets to come in at the start of his ascension. I can't reveal too much because none have been rubber stamped, but two of them are big contracts with multinationals that will open the door for possibly many other projects with them. The last is expanding his business to New York where the ornamental fish trade is very fertile -- not to mention the high-end furniture fish tank design trade. So he hopes I can learn the ropes in Singapore while he establishes the business in Fifth Avenue, and when he's done there, we swap places... and I do NYC!
I feel like Columbus, Larry Page and Clarence all in one. This was so good it got me skipping with glee after I left Michael for Rachel's birthday. And strutting down Clarke Quay, I felt there was nothing I could not conquer. And I'm not just talking about the chicks.
I now get to opt out of the bureaucratic machinery of huge corporations and their attendant affection for politicking, judging, ball-carrying, CBD rat racing, incremental pay rises and conformism.
If that reads like the seven deadly sins of the working world, then MAD graces me with an equal number of virtues: creativity, individual respect, ownership, motivation, a ballet of art and science, non 9-5 regularity and yes, quantum pay rises (I almost forgot:). And I get the vibe that Michael, emotive, creative and intelligent, would be a great boss.
But the morning after sobers as it always does. I ruminated: anyone -- university grad or not -- can do this. The fish forums are filled with the Obamas of water chemistry and fish physiology. And will taking up this offer negate four years of journalism training? Will I miss out on the glam-puss media life and being at the forefront of information and news?
True to the first, but not everyone has run a claraquaria! Not everyone, as Regi puts it, knows the business behind the artistry. And not everyone puts a premium on and appreciates positive EQ, PR, and eloquence as Michael and I. And about journalism -- these four years in CS have been more than an adventure. It has been a surging experience socially and intellectually, a tour de force of discovering myself, sharpening my faculties, gaining confidence. And these fruits from a training in journalism are for keeps. And yes I will leave and miss out on the media world, but I soon realised hey, I'm entering a world of business and management which many of my peers will miss out on themselves.
This brave new world will not offer me the safe nor the tried and tested. That is precisely why it feels so right --
1 comment:
thats amazing, i'm very happy for ya (:
D
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