A letter to my co-founders and engineers…

Dear Friends,

I understand it has been a few projects in, and a very long time since we had truly made big steps. I also know that you must be tired, frustrated, and unclear at what the future holds.

I understand you. I truly do. And I am sorry to have caused you some degree of anguish.

This journey we embark on is a difficult one, and I alone take responsibility for the failures we have reached, and the time that was lost.

I know that we were banking hope on something to come through with whatever various partners; but please let me be very honest and precise.

Co-Founding something is a rough business. It’s something that can come to define your futures for the rest of time. It’s also extremely tough; at its early stages. It is extremely un-natural for human beings who have a job in society to truly co-found something. It goes against all of our animalistic tendencies. We tend to be lazy, we tend to be arrogant, we tend to take the path of least resistance. Co founding something requires us to do and pull out the best of ourselves.

Taking the path of least resistance. That is a huge reason why a majority of companies never make it, ever. Because everybody finds it very difficult to give something their best. They have issues truly committing.

Truly Committing — what does that mean? “Of course I’ve worked hard on the project, I mean you can’t expect me to go beyond what is reasonable right?”

Reasonable. In the world of the extraordinary. In the world of exceptional efforts and consequent rewards, reasonable doesn’t fucking cut it. Reasonable is what gets you a cushy job in cisco, conti or wherever the fuck you want to go. Reasonable never gets you Generational Wealth. Reasonable is what all the fucking prudes who do not dare to fight live in. They live in the cesspool of their lost potential. And make great fucking excuses.

That’s right. They walk back into the safe comfortable light of the corporate candle, and say hey guys guess what I think I’m happier sitting here. I’m happier just being comfortable.

They are not achievers. They are not the fucking Navy Seals. Nah. They go and play magic, play computer games, give fucking excuses about time. All the time. Oh it will take quite a while. Oh it will take really long. Oh I rather have a stable gig than try something like this. Oh I will learn more on the other gig. Oh my friend is recommending me for some new gig. Oh shut the fuck up brah. You, every single one of you know, deep inside that there’s more to pull out. There’s more to squeeze out of your mediocre days.

Mediocre, really. Wanna know why? Because even though you think you’re successful, you’re really, not. You’re not even average. The average business school econs grad earns 3.5k–3.7k. A kid who left school in 2016, has a job in BNP Paribas with a 14k salary. And you’re here talking to me about fucking salaries.

How far can you go? Some of us who read this have reached the pinnacles of their game before. Their game of life. I know I have. I had at one point a team of over 30 people reporting to me. I’ve pitched billionaires before. I know what it’s like to live at the edge of your abilities, and to push the envelope even further at that point.

You know it. National team sports endeavours. Global level e-sports/gaming teams. We all have tasted a glimpse of our potential before. And in order for us to ever achieve anything of consequence, we need to hunker down, and shut the fucking lazy bitch in our head.

Or if we have external forces, like family, we need to tell them to lay off for a while, and understand what we are truly doing.

Boys. You don’t fucking understand. This shit we are trying to do, can change the fucking world. What that means is riches so thick you’ll have “fuck everybody money.” You know what that means? It means exactly what it says. You can fuck everyone and anyone you want.

But more importantly, better than that, you will push yourselves beyond your miserable fucking existence as a little shit ass bum. You will enter the leagues and fight as warriors of the 21st century. Forging a fucking future of possibility in a world so full of empty minds and grey hardened hearts.

You get to express yourselves in the most exciting and powerful of ways, to create solutions that impact millions; with a team of people who share the same values that you do. You get to create and significantly chart your vision across a product.

Way more than if you had to do it as a fucking cocksucker corporate dog. woof woof bitches. Nobody’s taking stock, nobody gives a shit about the work you do.

Not here. Not when you co-found this thing with me. We are a fucking crew now. The fucking paypal mafia of South East Asia. But we are not ready yet. We need to work fucking mother fucking hard, we need to grow into our roles, and we need to ignore limitations as far as humanly possible.

This is how we fucking do it. We grind for 5–10 years and kill ourselves, and at the end of it all we would have changed lives, and made a fuck ton of money.

Don’t come to me about the whole chance of failure bullshit. Let me tell you why — because it’s not the failure of ideas that does a company in. Many of the best VCs will tell you they will invest in a team over an idea any day of the week. Because a strong, dedicated team that chooses to put their hearts and their egos on the line every day to be absolutely honest with themselves will outpivot any product. And win any market.

That’s how this is all done. I know some of us have financial obligations. I do too. I know that we have the challenges of young adulthood to work against. I know it’s not easy.

I know you look left and you see your friends sitting in fucking nice office surroundings and chairs.

I know you look right and you see your future, and where you want to be; a good little singaporean bitch.

I look at you and ask you this — if, in the realm of work, you could accomplish anything in the world, what would you be wanting to accomplish? How far are you willing to go, and what do you want to gain from an endeavour like this?

You see. It’s very simple. Many people have wondered and always thought I was stupid to not go the corporate path. They recognize I can play the game, and have an aptitude for the corporate ladder.

I did not go because I believe that I can do more by myself, and that I believe my talents are better appreciated by my own company than if I worked for somebody else.

This is all. It’s because I don’t want to shortchange myself. I know how far I can go. I’m operating at 10% now. I’m a little shite. But with the right context, in the right space with the right team, I will be willing and raring to tear scalps, crack skulls, and mother fucking pillage.

I want to create that future environment and context for myself. I believe most of you also have this inclination and verve. I need this from you. You need to bring this out.

I call upon you to arouse from your slumber. I call upon you to make a bigger stand than just for your day-to-day lives. I call upon you to grow, to be the best I know you are inside. To be the BEASTS I know lie sleeping. Mine have slept for far too long. I need you to stop jerking off with your life, and start really fucking crushing it.

Crush it with me. We can do this together.

I’m about to go on a run that will change the trajectory of my life.

If I were you, I would factor in the true cost of missed opportunity. I am willing to go to lengths you would not fucking believe to make this project work. I am hungry, ravenous, and have a chip on my shoulder the size of an atomic fucking bomb.

Let me just put it this way — all this while, you’ve seen something in me; I’ve seen something in you. There has to be a reason why you’ve given the deals I put across to you a shot.

I’m asking you, one more time, to think about where you want to be, and how you want to change your lives.

Programmers and developers are many. They are everywhere these days. I put some money down, snap some fingers and they will appear, as sure as sun follows night.

You want security? You want to get big? Then you have to also take some risk. That is the reality of these deals. If you don’t take the risk, don’t build it up enough, then let me be very frank, how are we going to be able to build anything?

More importantly, you want equity, a cushy paycheck, and a happy environment? This is not how things work. Nobody will fund us without a solid product. And we need effort, investment and commitment to build the product properly. Without any reproach. And any fucking shortcuts like oh this is just an MVP.

Bite the fucking bullet fagbois, or don’t even bother playing the game.

That’s not even the game yet; it’s just the price of admission.

So you know with clarity what I am asking of you. I am asking of your commitment. In terms of time, energy and priority. You can’t fucking half fuck side hustle a new enterprise. If that’s how you wanna do it, then this shop is not for you. You can go and find another shop. The money will come. The pay will come. But the hard times come first. That’s how it’s always been like.

This is the choice of billionaires.

The millionaires get jobs.

If you give this a miss, a year from now, when you sit in your comfortable fucking corporate chairs, and we have begun a journey that will create unprecedented value, your regret will eat you up from the inside.

Because I am confident enough to say that someone like me, does not come very common. My brand and flavour of vision has always hit the mark, again, and again, and again. And this adaptive learning thing, will fucking nail it. And it will be a matter of time before we hit the fucking bullseye, and we fucking start roaring through the markets.

So. Give this deep thought; because I am being asked by external advisors and investors about the development timeline for the project.

And I can’t have the bullshit that has come out all the previous times. I know there is a limit to human abilities and hours grinded. What I’m saying is that we can be creative and smart in the ways we can make a good damned product. The smartest and best results have always been a combination of smarts and hard work.

If you want this to work, you must be able to make it happen this way.

If you waver, if you are “thinking about it” if you are “sitting on the fence” then I rather you do not even embark on this project in the first place. I rather you just cut it off and make a proper decision, because it’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Sitting on fences gives rise to shit results. and shit results results in more fencing.

And it is ridiculously easy to tell when that happens.

We need to be the storm. Ours, needs to be the fury. Not the other way around.