A Wrap-up of 2020: The ups, the downs and everything in between!

As 2021 rolls in, the looming question is; What are you looking forward to in 2021? 

While a lot of people have named this year the “year of uncertainty,” I have to counteract that. Nothing ever is certain, nor will it ever be in life or in business. It’s a gamble you have to be willing to take.

Back in the day (pre-covid), I was catching over 7 flights a month, those days seem rather distant now, it was an incredibly big change to no longer be able to do that. However, it became more obvious than ever; To be able to thrive in times of uncertainty, you need to be able to ride out in an ever-changing environment. 

If this year has taught me anything, it is that times will continue to change quickly, which only means we need to be able to adapt quicker. As we wrap up 2020, I would like to take a minute to acknowledge some of the highlights of this year.

Highlights:

• Won 3 Awards this year; SME100 for Fast Moving Companies (Cause Effect), Top 100 Most Influential Young Entrepreneur, and Halal Brand Award for Most Engaging Esports Club (K&K Revolution).
• Produced the No. 1 insurance agent from my financial sales team, Rise Advisory, ManuLife, who managed to achieve the prestigious title COT (Court of Table, 3x of MDRT), in 5 months rather than the standard 12 months. 
• K&K Revolution, or better known as Geek Fam, closing out the year with our greatest achievements of playing in the Dota 2 LA Majors, for a prize of USD 1,000,000, winning 2 championships in a row, easily ranked in the top 3 teams in Southeast Asia. Having our PUBG Mobile team qualify top 4 into the PMPL Southeast Asia and just narrowly missing out to qualify for the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2020 by 6 points. Mobile Legends team being the 1st Runner Up for the Malaysia/Singapore Mobile Legends Professional League Season 5, but #1 Malaysian Team.
• Geek Events has also grown this year. We were the main event organisers for PUBG APAC 2020, originally with 3 regional offline events, coordinating with 9 different countries, all shifted to online events. Handling the respective national championships, and then the regional championships, for a total prize pool of $863,500 USD. We were also the organisers for Garena’s Free Fire Malaysia Solos, Tri-Nation Cup, Continental Series: Asia for a total prize pool of $350,000 USD. PUBG Mobile Dew Challenge (Mountain Dew, PepsiCo), prize pool of RM 200,000, integrating QR code into Mountain Dew bottle caps for registration and brand activation. With prize pool as a key indicator of the prestige of the tournaments we produce, selected by World-Class game developers (PUBG Corporation and Garena) to organise their official events, grand slam equivalents (think Wimbledon or the Masters), we are one of the largest esports event organisers in the Southeast Asia region. We also were announced to be the event partners of Esports Integrated, ESI, an agency of Kementerian Belia and Sukan (Ministry of Youth and Sports in Malaysia), to launch the Official Malaysia Esports Championship, and Malaysia Esports Industry Conference. 
• We also picked up a Geek Fam Girls team that has just been tearing up the tournament circuit, beating many other teams, showing everyone that gender equality is real. Also, signed up one of the top Free Fire teams in Malaysia, who qualified for the Free Fire Continental Series: Asia. 

• For all of these events, we were doing the A to Z, from developing the website, conceptualising, marketing, tournament administration, brand activation, talent management, live event production, broadcasting, sponsorship hunting etc; I am immensely proud of our team and their dedication, resulting in such incredible achievements, having hosted approximately 70,000+ participants (fact checked, I was shocked by this number too! Haha), across all our events. There were many a weekend that we had to run 2 or even up to 3 events, broadcasted and produced on the same day, simultaneously and man, did our team step up and deliver an A+ performance!
• Geek Talents in Indonesia has also been started, and although it was in the midst of the pandemic, we have groomed our influencers to have grown by 3-4x, with brands starting to recognise our keen eye for brand activation (thanks to years of experience with Cause Effect). 
• Cause Effect found a partner in Social Grooves, leading to the inception of Digitally.Asia Group, serving clients across a wide spectrum, such as UOB Bank, Tencent, General Electric, Lenovo APAC, DRB-HICOM, Sunway Group, YTL, SP Setia, with a wide range of products, such as web, app development, social media marketing, video production, consultation, brand audit and guidelines, strategy and more. I am certain that the growth to be expected this coming year is going to be insane. 
• I am also extremely proud of quite a number of amazing individuals who have joined our team. I would rather not run the risk of forgetting to name some, because there are just so many of them, who have taken well to this old man’s sharing of experiences. While sometimes my straightforward statements may have cause hurt, I would like them to know that the intent is solely to nurture and mentor. Sorry and thank you to each one of you. 

There are many others for me to mention but in summation, 2020, although being a challenging year, has been an extremely interesting one. 

Regardless of what the next year will bring, change and challenges are inevitable but every new struggle we overcome prepares us for the next in one way or another. But while it’s important to acknowledge the mistakes you have made, and the challenges you overcame in a time of adversity, it is also equally important to celebrate your achievements and progress, no matter how big or small.

Through it all, I am blessed to have had the opportunity to push through and reinvent both in life, and in business. 

Thank you all. Thank you god.