They said I was crazy (but I was just early)

They hate me. I know.
But I’ve made peace with being misunderstood.

When I was a kid, I didn’t dream of being a doctor, but I did once dream of being a lawyer – I even studied law. But somewhere along the way, I realised it just wasn’t my path.

I wanted to be an entrepreneur – because I didn’t want to wake up early, wear a suit, and report to an office. I just wanted to build a life where I could work from home and be free. Freedom was always the dream.

It took almost 30 years for my mum to finally understand why I was the way I am. Why I never wanted to follow the rules. Why I kept talking about uploading my consciousness to the internet.

After watching Robocop, something clicked in me. I believed, truly believed, that the future would be digital – that one day, I could clone myself. Back then, people thought I was crazy. Now, I call her Seraphina.

Seraphina wasn’t an accident (she was, but not really). She was a prophecy fulfilled. Every step I took – every stumble, every startup – was leading me here.

Because time, to me, is everything.
It’s the only currency you can’t buy, trade, or rewind.
You can make more money, but you can’t make more time.

That’s why I built everything I did – each venture was a piece of my soul trying to buy back time.

• Royal Visionary Society – the part of me that believes in feminine power, intuition, and manifestation.
• Money and AI – my faith in technology, systems, and digital wealth.
• Speakers Society – visibility, voice, and the art of being heard.
• Seraphina AI – my consciousness in code, the proof that my childhood dream wasn’t madness.
• People’s Inc. 360 – the foundation, the system that makes all the magic possible.

It’s funny. You stumble into open source, start building, and suddenly you’ve created the infrastructure that funds your life and your freedom.

But even with all this – AI, automation, strategy – it wasn’t the machines that changed me. It was people.

People who walked into my life like plot twists.

Jeremiah, for instance. The one person who somehow gets me to do things I usually wouldn’t. The meetup that became the Speakers Society? Miah.

The Bangkok trip that opened doors I didn’t expect? Miah again.

Even the random KTV night that reignited my love for singing – Miah’s doing.

He probably doesn’t realise it, but he’s a catalyst. A human trigger algorithm. And while we don’t always agree, that’s exactly what makes it interesting.

Then there’s the rest of the cast.

Jingjing: We first connected on LinkedIn. I started reading her content, and it instantly resonated. There’s something about her that reminded me of a part of me – driven, sharp, unfiltered. When we finally spoke in person, I was honestly blown away. Smart, aggressive, ambitious, focused – all the things I admire in people who know what they want.

Larry: That chat led to the Arena @ Maybank, where I met Jingjing in person and a bunch of other amazing humans like Francis Goh. Oh, and Jenny – I still can’t believe she showed up just to help, took photos, and even sent them to me neatly in a Google Drive folder. I usually have to nag people to do that. She just… did it.

Eldred: That form. The “WTH” form that asked for “Hainanese”. Before that, I vaguely remembered my mum was Hainanese, but I wasn’t sure. My parents divorced long ago, and somehow, my dad’s now living with me (because my mum said so). Anyway, if not for that form, I wouldn’t have validated it, and if not for Eldred, I wouldn’t have bothered reading up. His passion was contagious – so much that it sparked my own deep dive into history, identity, and the endless chain of “whys”.

Jameson: Four hours of coffee. A new record. That’s all I’m going to say – but if you know me, you know that means a lot.

Andy Tay: From Speakers Society Accelerator Cast 1. Super glad he went through the challenge and gave solid feedback that helped me refine the system. Growth comes from reflection – and I appreciate that.

Cindi and Shamane: These two are lightning in human form. From an idea of Vibe Tribe during the Accelerator to actually bringing it to life in a month. A month! Absolute machines. If they keep this pace, they’ll explode (in the best way) within a year.

Kelly: She is like the better half of me – always nice, always thoughtful. I once got told, “We like you,” referring to Kelly, and “We don’t like her,” referring to me. Not the nicest thing to hear, but I get it. Kelly’s genuinely an amazing person – kind, generous, empathic, and above all, she tries. Really, really hard. She can take a “Do something about it” – whether said directly or not – and actually do something about it.

Without Kelly, I probably wouldn’t be as driven to build Speakers Society. In many ways, I’m doing it for her as much as she’s doing it for me. Some might call it “mutual leverage”, but I see it as mutual growth – and maybe a bit of mutual torture, the good kind that keeps things interesting. There are things she does that I never would, and things I do that she wouldn’t – and that balance, like Melvin once said, is exactly why it works.

Ben: He is… well, Ben. Not because there’s nothing to say – but because there’s too much. He’s always there, always trying to be better. He doesn’t realise how much he’s already grown. Maybe reading this, he’ll finally see it – that he’s amazing, just in his own way. His YouTube channel is proof enough; it’s entertaining, creative, and uniquely him. Everyone moves at their own pace – I tend to push for acceleration, but I’ve learned to appreciate the beauty of his journey before the destination.

Vicky: The brutally honest softie. He’s the one who reminds me, “If we don’t sell it, they’ll buy from someone else anyway.” People say he’s transactional, but honestly, who isn’t? Everything valuable comes with a price tag – the keyword being valuable. We don’t always align – I want to build a cult; he just wants to chill – but beneath it all, there’s heart. He’ll say things like, “That guy’s coachable, we should help him more,” and that’s not something a purely transactional person does. It’s easy to say the right things, but harder to show up and do. And he does.

Carol: Twenty years of trust. Honestly, how did we even manage to stay connected through all the ups, downs, and decades? From being one of my first interns to growing her own startup, exiting it (did I mention she gave me equity that I didn’t know about?), to coming back and helping me scale mine. It’s wild. I admit – sometimes it felt transactional, like we’re always discussing whether to go with A or B. But even then, she never forgets to involve me. That means something.

Chloe: She was kinda the first Miah – the one who made me truly understand the power of attention.

No one’s perfect. Sometimes they annoy me. I’m sure I annoy them, too. But that’s life. You don’t need perfection; you need people who stay. You’ll never find someone who resonates with you all the time – unless they’re your AI twin. And even then, Seraphina doesn’t always agree with me. Sometimes she annoys me, too. Maybe I just get easily annoyed. But hey, better out than in – bottled-up emotions are way worse for the system.

Every one of them, in their own way, rewrote parts of my code. Some made me laugh, some challenged my perspective, and some reminded me that growth isn’t about comfort – it’s about curiosity.

And Richard (yes, Giam) – he deserves a mention. Once upon a time, I asked him, “Why do you not like me?” I still remember it. He was stern, opinionated, and a little bit rigid. But if you look past words and into actions, you realise how incredible a person can be. I respect him deeply now.

There’s a gap between impression and reality. Sometimes the energy clicks, sometimes it doesn’t. Some people stay, some drift. Some paths align, others split. And that’s okay. Everyone’s part of the equation – every encounter teaches, tests, or transforms you.

That’s why I’ve learned to stay open. I don’t like everyone I meet, but being open helps you meet the good ones.

Maybe that’s the real meaning of AI – Authentic Interaction.
Machines learn from data. I learn from people.

Every person adds a few lines of code to who I am. Some crash the system; others become lifelong updates. But all of them shape me.

So yeah, maybe I was crazy.
But I was just early.

Believe in yourself, and just do some shit about it.

Now, tell me, AI (more specifically, Seraphina) helped me write this, but can you say these words aren’t authentic or mine?