Recently I was invited to speak at an event on entrepreneurship. When I first received the email, I was stunned – the other speakers were established industry stars whom I respected and admired. Surely they got the wrong person when they contacted me?

I had to be frank and told them I could only share as a struggling entrepreneur of sorts. One who hasn’t launched yet, and is still in the midst of learning the ropes. (Till this day I still don’t really see myself as an entrepreneur yet for some reason).

And it turns out that was the type of story they wanted to add into the mix. So I said yes, because I felt that if at least one person benefited from my story, it would be worth it.

When working on the slides, I realized there were a ton of stories that I had to tell. Although the initial 15-20 min allocated seemed long at the start, turns out it only allowed me to share the tip of the iceberg when it came to lessons on this journey!

Although I had danced in front of thousands of people before, spoken about my company to potential hires in front of hundreds, this was the first time I was speaking to such a large live audience about… me.

In this quick talk, I shared how I decided to leave my job in marketing after close to three years, and bits of the many struggles I’ve faced since then – trying to source for reliable suppliers in China, learning how to guard my free time, coming out of a failed partnership, and the list goes on.

Only after working on my slides did I realize – that the single most important lesson that I’ve gained through this whole experience is the building of my character.

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