I gave up on my passion and I don’t regret it.

And here’s why.

Back in 2023, I was concurrently working on building 2 businesses: Career coaching and fashion AI.

And to be honest, I was way more excited about the fashion business.

My fashion AI business has everything I thought I was looking for in a career -
🌟It was in fashion, an industry that I loved
🌟The business was a very VC backable idea
🌟 It was exciting to work with engineers on cutting-edge technology to build a highly scalable business

I REALLY wanted it to work out.

But it was challenging on several fronts -

1️⃣ Finding the right engineers

When it came to building an AI business, I HAD to work with the right engineers.

This was a struggle because I had no experience as a product manager nor did I know how best to work with engineers.

And even though I’m a huge advocate for learning on the job, in all honesty, I realized that when getting into the weeds of AI, it just didn’t interest me enough.

2️⃣ Figuring out the right business model

At first, there was a lot of interest from secondhand fashion companies who wanted to use our service – which was exciting!

But reality check: Most of them didn’t have the budget to pay for it.

They could only manage about a few hundred $ per month.

And this frankly just wasn’t enough to cover the cost of engineers, operations and more.


3️⃣ The fundraising landscape

I knew this business needed high upfront costs and would eventually make money over time.

It’s why I decided we had to fundraise.

But the fundraising landscape was also challenging during this time.

Many of my founder friends said they had to take down rounds, valuations were not what they used to be and money was a lot tighter.

–

At the same time, the career coaching business I wasn’t spending much time on was taking off.
💪 I was consistently signing clients.
💪 I had a solid business model in place that was highly profitable.
💪 I was getting some amazing results for my clients.
💪 I was also able to attract talent into the team and hire help and support much easier.

Meanwhile, I also found out I was pregnant, so time and energy were VERY limited.

It then became a lot clearer to focus on career coaching.

So even though it was my dream and passion to start a fashion tech business, I gave it up.

And it’s okay. I can proudly say that I tried.

It’s okay to fail

It’s okay to outgrow your dream

It’s okay to shift priorities according to what’s important for you at the moment.

As long as there’s purpose, direction and reason, it’s okay to change.

After all, isn’t change the constant we need in our lives?

So if you’re stuck and need clarity in all the changes that are going on in your career, contact me “STUCK” and we can get started.

I’ve guided many individuals working on their career pivots from companies like KPMG, The Straits Times, Citibank, Shopee and more.

I’d love to guide you too.