Coming out of the shadows...
Behind the scenes (comfort zone) --> putting myself out there (growth zone)
Since the age of 9, my ‘natural habitat’ has been behind a camera 🎥, sound mixer 🎛 or vision mixer 🎚️ in a darkened control room, draped from head to toe in black and moving around backstage and in the shadows. No news was good news, as the primary focus was to ensure the show went on, cause as little distraction as possible and draw no attention to the folks behind the scenes. Yet over the last decade, I’ve consistently been challenged to creep out of this comfort zone, network, speak publicly, build an online presence and organise events- but WHY do I continue signing up for this unnatural and uncomfortable challenges?
Solving my own problems
Had summarised here how all of the business endeavours were really a response to problems that I had faced personally and me seeking solutions for the same- where others then came along asking for a similar solution (from camera rental to remote hiring). Knowing that my comfort zone was in filmmaking/video production, but having started a peer to peer rental platform almost accidentally with no formal business education or experience, I knew that I needed to learn quickly or fail. That started my foray into pitching for business for Startupmedia- coming out as a relative unknown in the industry and offering media production services for the niche market of technology startups and the ecosystem of incubators/accelerator programmes and actually managing to close some deals was a first step that encouraged me.
The next leap was much larger- as I formally established Crossworks Myanmar 🇲🇲 in 2018, again as a means to solve my own manpower problems for the growing Startupmedia and J Rental Centre businesses. I soon had other entrepreneurs and business owners come to me to tap on the talent pool remotely before setting up the HR-as-a-Service offering and opening a co-working space the next year. I had to pitch in front of hundreds at Echelon Singapore as part of the TOP100 startup programme, exhibit at a booth and felt like a complete imposter with my place being really behind that camera rather than upfront and in the limelight. I later realised through the efforts to get more companies interested in tapping on remote talent in Myanmar that most people didn’t really know much about the country beyond what the mainstream media was reporting.
Righting a wrong: balancing the scales on Myanmar & stopping the brain drain
Coming from the media industry and having had more than a few opportunities to work with (and even be featured on) Singapore’s national broadcaster, I felt that the media was doing Myanmar a huge injustice probably unintentionally, but it was still hurting the country’s prospects and discouraging the casual onlooker from not just engagement or visiting but perhaps even learning more. With an emphasis on eyeballs and a focus on geographies with the deepest economic, political and historical ties, Myanmar’s news coverage was often around topics such as the Rohingya crisis, ethnic strife and political instability. As a result, I started HEAR Myanmar to tell the stories of ‘another side of Myanmar’. Yes, there is an inherent bias as someone who owns a business encouraging others to tap on remote talent within the country, but there is also the bigger issue which I had become aware of, the brain drain 🧠 that has been affecting Myanmar for decades since the military junta took over in 1962.
Some 120+ videos on HEAR Myanmar and millions of views later, the pandemic eventually led to our indefinite pause. However, the brain drain situation only got worse post the February 2021 coup which saw the hopes and dreams of millions go up in smokes. Right about then, I adopted a ‘just save 1’ approach and started to double down on my Linkedin posts around Myanmar to balance the even more one-sided narrative following the exodus of international journalists. There were only two main streams of information coming out of the country: state-owned media (which no credible media was going to share, and citizen journalists- many of whom have well intentioned objectives to raise funds but hence focus on the negative and disruptions faced. The truth is that this purely negative portrayal of events was neither accurate/representative of the actual ground situation, nor did it do much to shore up confidence of the watching world- such that the next exodus was that of international investors along with good white collared jobs.
In my experience working with the local talents though, there wasn’t a day where we couldn’t hop onto a zoom call and the employees under management actually grew 5 fold in the last 2 years. People still needed to eat, sleep, 💩, work and had hopes, dreams, fears and career plans regardless of who was in charge. It was essential to take small and manageable steps toward the larger goals which would never be achieved overnight or at the flick of a finger. I had also seen the downsides of complete isolation and how rogue states like North Korea would only cling onto their nuclear weapons all the more, when backed into a corner with little other options. It was therefore imperative to promote more rather than less awareness, empathy and engagement such that confidence locally and amongst the watching world will be shored up in spite of the seemingly never ending bad news which the mainstream media continues to propagate. It may seem we’re swimming against the current 🏊 and fighting an uphill battle 🤼, but the fact that I’m not involved in the day-to-day operations and have found more than a dozen committed team members who believe in the cause is something that reassures me.
Last week saw me put together not 1, not 2, but three events where I shared more about the country and talent landscape alongside my colleagues Suzy and Mia who were visiting Singapore. It felt like a week of non-stop tour guiding, but it wasn’t my first rodeo as well- having hosted now almost a dozen Crossworkers in Singapore to familiarise them with the culture, lifestyle and employers that they often deal with virtually. Nothing beats hearing directly from the horses mouth- and to that end I also regularly encourage people I meet to pay a visit to Myanmar, after all I have not heard a single visitor come back with a negative report about the place. It is similar to how most Singaporeans are stacked full of complaints for our home city while foreigners who visit boast of the safe and organised society where everything just works. The grass is always greener on the other side but unfortunately for Myanmar, many visitors are dissuaded to visit owing to the one-sided reporting in the media of the ground situation. And so the next best thing that I can do is to bring people from Myanmar to meet them and slowly deconstruct the preconceived notions and fears.
Looking back on my (limited) life experiences, a common thread through my various endeavours has been connecting people, and coincidentally that was the exact motto of JRC, my first company, and the title of the TEDx speech I gave. From a platform to link up owners and renters of camera gear, helping startups and the ecosystems to tell their stories, to connecting the best and brightest Myanmar talent with startups and SMEs internationally, this is WHY I’m writing this newsletter, posting regularly on Linkedin and putting together startup events. I truly believe that we’re all in the same boat and a rising tide lifts all ships- it is super important for individuals who have become aware of opportunities or gaps to take solid action toward addressing these issues, as these same lessons/insights may not be available to many other individuals. I see these insights and experiences that I consider myself privileged and fortunate to have gone through also as a responsibility to steward well and hopefully create a positive impact to leave the communities and people that I’ve been fortunate to meet and interact with in a better shape than what I found.
A comfortable life and cruising along works fine for some, but is really the last thing that I desire especially in light of the knowledge that there are a plethora of folks in my backyard who are far from doing alright. It’s like as though there are a hundred starving children outside the buffet line and one person has not just had their fill but is stacking his/her plates for seconds and even leaving wastages on the table when perhaps everyone could have equally received a small portion to have their fill 🤷. I’m no communist, but I believe that most people when confronted with such a binary decision will make the same choice in a heartbeat- if only they had the same exposure/awareness. To that end, it seems like my coming out of the shadows and using what platforms I have to keep balancing the scales and narratives, no matter how minimal its impact, is the literal least that I can and should continue to do.