Venturing Into The Unknown
Written by: Chang Huey Yin
“Wow, so professional – doing an interview while lying on other people’s bed,” my sister commented jokingly, after barging into the room to inform us that our family’s favourite Chinese dating show was playing on television. Indeed, this was possibly one of the most comfortable interviews I will ever have since I was interviewing my 28-year-old brother, Choon Fah.
Us partying our days away.
Just like every other siblings (or so I like to think), my brother annoys me so much and I had my fair share of laughing-out-loud and eye rolls at his interview replies. Yet, when I was given the assignment to interview an individual for a bold story, my brother was amongst the first that I thought of. So please, do read on.
Be bold be you to him means to be “the true self that you always wanted to be despite all the [self-doubt] and external pressures that you face”. An inflection point in his life was when he had to decide his plans after graduation.
“The common way to go about after graduation is to find a stable job, get a stable income, maybe invest if you have cash, get married, create a stable family blah blah,” he shared. While he recognises the benefits in pursuing such a life, he knew this pathway of “success” was not what he wanted. This led to the boldest thing he has done -- to believe that “[he is] good enough to create something bigger than [he is]” - one that has a “lasting impact”.
He knew he wanted to put smiles on people’s faces and saw that he could do this through two of his passions. The first being music. He believes that music drive emotions and simply, “you can’t live without music”. The second being dating. “Not in the sleazy way but to see two people getting together,” he clarified. As such, he took it in his stride to seek ways to create opportunities for others in these areas.
My brother, smiling.
For the next year and a half after graduation, he ventured into the unknown and worked mainly on designing music discovery experiences. He also tried his hand in designing matchmaking experiences.
Some questioned his decision to not commit to a job. Others criticised his ideas about music technology as the music industry was declining then. The journey was filled with self-doubt and he wondered if they were right.
Nonetheless, he maintains that self-doubt is not all negative. “Self-doubt happens when you are not very clear about what truly matters to you and each time self-doubt surfaces, it is an opportunity for you to clarify,” he explained.
The more others criticised, the more motivated he was to improve his ideas and he sought feedback from those who mattered -- the users.
My brother's desk, where he spent much of his time working on his ideas.
When asked about the well-intended comments from those around him, he reflected thoughtfully, “I didn’t need them to tell me about my ideas. I just needed them to be supportive. I just wanted them to encourage me.”
My mind could not help but wonder then: What about us (read: his family)? I was quite certain we tried our best to support him in his endeavour, but I did not dare to raise my curiosities then. Part of me was afraid to hear that we might have unintentionally hurt him when he most needed our support. This thought persisted until I mustered the courage to text him about it. Fortunately, he assured me that despite some skepticism, he felt that our family was open-minded and gave him space to work on his project. Phew!
Today, he is doing business development for Musiio -- a company that uses artificial intelligence for the music industry to supercharge the process of tagging, search and playlist curation with its audio-referencing capabilities.
Although he has since placed his passion projects aside for various reasons, the experience has reaffirmed the principles he lived by – to do what makes you happy and live with no regrets. “At the end of the day, I’m not really bothered if [my idea] fails,” he says.
I can attest to that. He once attempted to pilot a matchmaking experience on Valentine’s Day and it gained good traction. In an unexpected twist of events, the participants were all pranked and nominated by their friends, and were actually hesitant to join. It’s now a funny story that he recounts whenever he shares about his passion projects.
My brother creating his own track and world when he was much cuter. (*edit: he begs to differ)
It has never occurred to me until the interview that my brother had come “a full circle” – his interests today were present since young, even though he may have neglected some along the way. He was good in robotics but steered away from it and related areas in secondary school because he thought he would have no social life. 2 years ago, he picked up coding on his own. He had always enjoyed music and was often told off by my mum for blasting his music at home. (Recently, I found out that I subconsciously know most of the music from Panic! at the Disco because he blasted their music so often.) His curiosities in “the arts of dating” paralleled his life goal in secondary school -- that my sister and I repeatedly teased him for -- to be a father by 27 and a marriage counsellor. (Ironically, he is still single at 28)
I hate to admit it but my brother has my respect for his boldness -- his passion and determination to positively impact the world in the ways he knows best. So here’s a playlist curated by him, in hopes of encouraging us all on our bold journeys!