Mid-Career Rut, What's Next?

Running a startup may be exhilarating but one can feel like they are stuck at times and wonder what’s next?  

Three senior executives at the top of their game share personal stories on how they defied naysayers, steered themselves towards a completely different path and found deeper fulfilment.

From co-chief executive officer at Lazada Indonesia to building stilt houses in Bali. From media veteran to youth wellness coach. From serial entrepreneur to podcast host. Find out why three top executives “gave it all up”, listened to their inner voice and took a mid-career detour. Here’s their best advice for others who find themselves at the crossroads.

#1 Get started on your passion project

“It is very satisfying to develop a product that enables people to have great experiences. It also came with a much better quality of life. If I can be successful, it's really a dream come true”

- Florian Holms, Founder & CEO of Stilt Studios

One of the vanguards of e-commerce in Southeast Asia, Florian Holms joined Lazada in 2014, leading its expansion in Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia. By 2018, he rose to the coveted position of co-chief executive officer of Lazada Indonesia.

That was just before e-commerce’s pandemic-fuelled explosive growth and the possibilities seemed infinite. Many were surprised when he chose to leave for a mid-career break. They were equally shocked when he emerged a year later with a new business in a field completely unrelated to tech and e-commerce, Stilt Studios.

Holm was driven by a radical idea. He wanted to design, build and operate luxurious tiny houses that minimise the toll on the environment. Prefabricated with a modular design, these houses can be assembled on site in any terrain within days, and just as easily disassembled, if necessary.

These sustainable houses are built on stilts to reduce the building footprint. They are also insulated and energy efficient, and included energy saving options such as solar panels, batteries, water tank, septic tank, rainwater catchment, and compostable toilets for off-the-grid living.

Unsurprisingly, many of Holm’s peers did not think it was a smart career move. Even Holm himself thought of it as a hobby project at first. “I thought I’d go back to the tech world,” he admitted.

However as sustainable luxury gained momentum, this little passion project took on a life of its own. Today, Stilt Studio has grown to a more than 50-man operation and includes gorgeous projects in Bali in its portfolio. Holms also managed to tap into his tech background to drive online sales and marketing at his new company.

“It is very satisfying to develop a product that enables people to have great experiences. It also came with a much better quality of life. If I can be successful, it's really a dream come true,” he said. His advice for others considering a switch: “Get started with your passion project on the side to test the waters before you jump in fully. This can show you its potential without the pressure to have it work out,” he said.

#2 Embrace your uniqueness

“Seeing the youth I coach develop and achieve their goals also gives me much more satisfaction and joy than increasing a company’s profit margins”

- Serene Sim, Founder & CEO of Joules Affinity

Research manager, client director, product development director… Serene Sim has worn many hats during her two decades in media research. With a knack for numbers, she was passionate about analysing the impact of advertising and marketing on TV ratings, viewership and program loyalty, as well as developing media research software.

However, the media software company she was working for was acquired by a bigger company in 2016 and underwent major restructuring. Sim was offered a role that did not interest her and decided to start afresh elsewhere.

“I was rather jaded by the business world where there is a lot of competition among senior executives and the company bottom line is often valued over staff welfare and development. So this restructuring was the catalyst for my quest to start my own training company,” she said.

“I was called “a quitter” when I left the media industry and felt a little discouraged when I was told that I couldn’t make it as a trainer, coach and business owner,” she recalled. However, Sim pushed forward and got a degree and certification from the International Coaching Federation, as well as a masters in Neuro Linguistics Programming (NLP).

She founded Joules Affinity in 2019, offering NLP and life coaching, and soon gravitated towards working with teens and youth, offering one-to-one coaching, as well as workshops within schools, institutes of higher learning and companies.

What is unique about Sim’s coaching company is how it incorporates crafts and collaborates with fellow crafters and craft business owners to conduct joint corporate team bonding and school learning journeys.

“I love craft activities and creative work such as weaving, spinning and kasut manek (making Peranakan beaded shoes). These traditional art forms deserve to be preserved and passed on to future generations. I also realised that incorporating such craft activities helped participants to open up and understand the concepts we are trying to impart,” she shared.

“Standing in front of an audience, sharing weaving tips. translating that to how a company or department can embrace diversity and weave it together as a tapestry, and seeing the beautiful art pieces is extremely rewarding. Seeing the youth I coach develop and achieve their goals also gives me much more satisfaction and joy than increasing a company’s profit margins,” she reflected.

“Although it takes a lot of courage to make mid-career switches, especially when you are commanding a high salary and in a high position within the company, I’d encourage others at career crossroads to embrace their uniqueness,” she added.

#3 Follow your curiosity

A serial entrepreneur, Alexander Lê was co-founder of diverse ventures from boot strapped operations to well-funded ventures such as Zalora and Easy Taxi. Typically coming in on the ground floor, he built companies from scratch, putting together the business plan and founding team before scaling the operation.

“It was truly trial by fire and a do-or-die situation for the businesses and my career. This type of job entails significant amounts of failure, but if you can balance out more wins than losses, you grow and learn enormously,” he said.

However, after handing over the reins of his last venture in 2020, he decided to press pause. “I didn’t have an exact idea of what I wanted to build. There was no specific problem I was passionate about,” he shared.

Lê nonetheless continued to seek inspiration from his network of founders. “Across more than 10 year of venture building and start-up hustle, I made many friends and acquaintances who have done, are doing, and will do amazing things. I always learn immensely from discussions and jamming sessions with them,” he shared.

This eventually led him to pivot in a new direction and launch his own podcast, Entrepreneurs of Asia in 2020, featuring the journey of other founders and entrepreneurs, and exploring topics such as crypto, e-commerce and or venture capitalist investing. These 37 podcasts are available on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Listen Notes. 

“I realised that these types of discussions could be beneficial for a much wider audience and shed some light on the Asia ecosystem,” said Lê.

“Podcasting has had more than a good decade-long run in the US, but when I first started, it was very new in Asia and wasn’t as popular as it is now. Many friends and peers didn’t, and many still don’t, fully grasp how podcasting can be a fulfilling career or viable path forward,” he noted.

However, this tepid resistance only strengthened Lê’s conviction. “If everyone knows the secret already, there would be nothing worth solving anymore and the value would have been created already. Some of the best ventures I have built or companies I have invested in were “uncomfortable no’s” initially. Sometimes you just need to dig a little deeper to uncover the insight or secret,” he said.

In fact, Lê is so convinced of the potential of on-demand audio content that he is currently building a new media company and putting together a team to develop it further. The constant exposure to fresh ideas he gets from hosting podcasts also inspired him to venture into early-stage angel investing, where he evaluates new start-ups and helps early-stage founders with product development issues, as he did in his previous roles.

“The quality of early stage investing in Southeast Asia still has lots of room to develop. Continued growth in this area will help to foster more innovation. It’s a frontier that won’t ever go away. It will just keep reshaping across various business cycles. The Asia region has a lot to offer in terms of talent, innovative solutions, and great returns for future investors,” he said.

“If everyone knows the secret already, there would be nothing worth solving anymore and the value would have been created already. Sometimes you just need to dig a little deeper to uncover the insight or secret”

- Alexander Lê, A serial entrepreneur

His advice for others stuck in a mid-career rut: “It is important to always take breaks. However, defining some goals and building some structure for a break is important. Do some homework on yourself and have a general idea of what you want to achieve during a break. It might sound counter-intuitive, but without any guidance, it’s easy to get lost in an endless loop and go in circles. Even a loose plan will be useful to measure progress against so you know if you are on the right path or not,” he reflected.

As for how to set a new direction, he said: “Follow what you are most curious about and ensure that this curiosity is attached to a large enough problem that may eventually create value. Don’t just follow your passion because that often waxes and wanes. Problem-solving often ends up being a better barometer.”

“The start-up founders who go beyond being a one-trick-pony will continue to have personal and professional growth. Indeed, the most successful founders that continue to grow and build more valuable products and services typically immerse themselves in the uncertain that forces new perspectives and combine various areas together to create new value. So it is important to get out of your own tunnel vision,” he said.