CEO's Diary : March 21st

Just knocked out 31.55 kilometers. Literally just finished. Strapped on my trail running vest for self-hydration—the plan was a solid 30km+ Long Slow Distance (LSD) run. The stats? An average heart rate of 136 and a pace of 6:18/km. Honestly, I'm pretty pleased with it. Lately, running has been purely about race prep, and it's been stressing me out because I'm tackling the UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc) in Chamonix. I've got the spot, I've got the running buddies; the only thing I do not have is adequate training. My prep plan is brutally simple: guarantee one long run and one two-hour stair-climber session per week to build distance and vertical gain. Throw in three warm-up races, including the Chongli 168 category where I did not finish last year.

The weather today was spectacular, making the run surprisingly comfortable. I binged some fascinating podcasts on the trail, including the latest from Joe Kent and Tucker. I've also been listening to a lot of Jay Shetty lately. Today, it was a throwback interview he did with Kobe years ago, plus a breakdown of his own morning routine. I really dig his routine—especially the part about changing your alarm to a recording of your own voice, having your "future self" wake up your "present self." Brilliant. I definitely need to try that. I also caught an interview with Rory McIlroy and a chat with Jensen Huang. Recently, I started forcing myself to listen to English podcasts again. After months of Chinese podcasts—which eventually spiraled into me listening to an endless stream of female-centric topics (there's a massive amount of them on Chinese platforms)—I realized my English was steadily deteriorating. So, I switched it up to torture myself a bit. I devoured a lot of audio this morning because, well, I was running for over three hours. I even had time to admire the flower market on my way back.

Running Thoughts & Action Items

Running and listening to podcasts really get the gears turning. Most of my thoughts revolve around the company, which honestly consumes the lion's share of my waking hours anyway. Whenever an idea hits, I record a quick voice memo, and then have AI summarize it for me when I get home. Today's brainstorming yielded the following:

● Legal Recruitment: The Group needs to heavily recruit candidates with law licenses across the board. The long-term direction is legal affairs, and our long-term Corporate overseas expansion desperately needs legal and compliance expertise.

● Decisiveness: A reminder to myself to be decisive, especially when juggling short-term pains for long-term gains. You have to bite the bullet in the short term for the sake of long-term goals. No short-term sacrifice, no long-term future.

● Manager 1-on-1s: Speaking of long-term, it hit me that there are two key department heads I need to touch base with. I haven't found the time, but I'm getting it done next week.

● Education Presentation: I have a group-wide education presentation next Friday. I've got an angle, but I need to prep. Step one: interview my own kids.

● CRM OKR: Remembered my OKR regarding the enterprise CRM system—that needs to be wrapped up next week too. Noted down the prep work required and the two departments I need to sync with.

● Morning Routine Revamp: Regarding Jay Shetty's "own voice alarm" trick: I'm setting a few up for myself. Plus, getting early morning sunlight, finishing showers with a blast of cold water, and asking myself, "What is the number one thing I want to achieve today?" All solid ideas.

● HR Policy: There's a major HR policy overhaul I've been brewing. Feeling like today's the day to finally pull the trigger on it.

● Marketing Content: Spurred on by the podcasts, I decided to be more action-oriented. So, I told myself I'd submit an article to the marketing department—which is exactly what you're reading right now. Strike while the iron is hot.

These notes are basically brainwaves triggered by the podcasts or just my mind wandering on the trail. Capturing them on the fly is part of the fun of running.

Geopolitics & Global Business Strategy

I've also been listening to a lot of podcasts about the Iran situation, especially Tucker's take. It's an incredibly awkward situation. The Group has quite a few operations in the MENA—Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt—and surprisingly, two companies in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. It reminded me of a chat I had two weeks ago with Walid from our Lebanon office, with Amer from Bahrain also there. Walid was stuck in Dubai for some reason, unable to go home, and was extremely worried about his family in Lebanon. I confidently told him, "It's just a matter of time. I don't know exactly when this war will end, but it won't be more than a month~~~." Reality slapped me in the face pretty quickly. Now, I'm not just worried about Walid getting home; I'm worried about his family's safety once he does.

Times like these highlight the importance of national backing. People from stronger nations aren't sweating it as much. For example, China, or Mesut from Turkey who is so unbothered he actually went to the Maldives. When I spoke with Wael in Egypt recently, he didn't seem too anxious either. We had a major scouting trip planned for Dubai in late April, but it looks highly likely that'll be canceled. In communicating with all our partners in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, one thing is certain: in the long run, this is good for our business. For the first time, the Middle East is realizing it's not as safe as it thought—the illusion of a "permanent neutral zone" is shattered. More locals are starting to build "Plan B"s for their lives, which means a massive opportunity for Global. After all, we're the only ones offering over 100 project options globally; the runner-up probably has fewer than 20.

I took the opportunity to pitch our Middle East offices on the advantages of Asian products—Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, plus Muslim-friendly options like Malaysia and Indonesia. We have a ton of immigration products. Even further out, there's Australia and New Zealand. Historically, the Middle East focused mainly on small-country passport programs. Now they realize a small passport isn't enough security; they need choices.

It feels like the world has lost its lighthouse and is getting increasingly chaotic. As Global, what we can do is provide more life choices to more people in this world, ensuring their lives aren't restricted by their birthplace. At the same time, we're enriching the lives of our own Global team members.

Internal Culture & Market Expansion

This seamlessly segues into my review of the company culture with Group HR yesterday. Ha, Monica didn't quite grasp the target audience for the company culture. Corporate culture is entirely internal; it's our past values that we want to carry into the future, meant for our own eyes. Monica's first draft missed the mark, so we're recalibrating on Monday.

I also chatted with Jessica from our Vietnam office yesterday. The biggest joke about Jessica is that I've known her for years, and I had no idea she understood Chinese. We always spoke English. It wasn't until I attended our Globevisa Global Citizen Conference in Singapore last year that I realized she was tracking my Chinese the whole time~~. We've struggled to get Vietnam right for years, which is a recent headache of mine. I just haven't had the bandwidth to study the local nuances; I usually treat Southeast Asia as a monolith, while keeping Japan and Korea separate. Yesterday, I also interviewed a top-tier grad from Japan to be employee #1 for opening the Japanese market with localized operations. Just thinking about it gives me a headache—there's going to be so much friction to smooth out.

The "Aha Moment"

I think that's a wrap on my first article. Let me set the scene for how this was written: Finished the run, grabbed a lightning-fast shower, sat down in the study, and brewed a coffee. This exact time every weekend is my "Aha moment" window. My brain is firing on all cylinders, and I usually use it to chew on the most critical things from the past and for the future. Today, I used it to write this piece, knocking it out in less than an hour.

PS: The Apple Studio Display XDR I ordered finally arrived. Haha, a little slice of happiness for the day.