Michael Lim
🏆 x 5 Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur. Sold my first one-person business at 28. Currently traveling Southeast Asia.
Stuck in the solopreneur matrix 👨💻
G’day G’day, I’ve been going down a rabbit hole down. I’ve been rewatching The Matrix. The Trilogy was on my Malaysian Airlines flight to Melbourne. The first movie came out in 1999 when I was 4. At the time, I just liked the movie for the action. The guns, the fight scenes, the cool suits. As a kiddo, I’d walk around with glasses and a makeshift suit. I thought I was pretty cool. Give me a break, I was like 7 or 8 years old at the time. But as a child, watching Matrix 2 and 3 confused me. I...
read this if you're tired 😪
G’day G’day, I’ve been to 4 countries in 4 weeks. Singapore. Indonesia. Malaysia Australia. That's 4 flights. 4 new cities. 4 new routines to settle into. The plus side? Lots of durians. But as you can imagine, I’m quite pooped. I’ve been sleeping for 8+ hours per night and still waking up tired. I thought maybe I was low on testosterone. Or was missing some vital nutrient. I started to look at my diet and nutrition. Maybe I wasn’t drinking enough water. I went into a health spiral fixing...
Living in the solopreneur century 🏄♂️
G’day G’day mates, I just finished reading James Wise’s book: The Start-Up Century. It’s a great book. But one quote stood out to me: In 2003, according to the World Bank, it cost on average an entire year’s wages to set up an offline business almost anywhere in the developed world. A prohibitive sum for most people. In the last 22 years, technology has evolved rapidly. Online business has never been cheaper, easier, and less risky to start. In less than a generation, we’ve gone from needing...
The story of love 💒
G’day G’day mates, I’m back in Melbourne for my best friend’s wedding. It was a beautiful place, ceremony, and reception. Michael, Jessica, Michael. I won’t lie, I got a bit emotional. I’m not a huge fan of weddings, but it’s hard not to get emotional when you see one of your closet friends from high school getting married. Ironically, she married a guy also named Michael (see above). You can’t make this stuff up. During the ceremony, we heard stories about the couple from family and friends....
it pays to be kind 💎
G’day G’day mates, I left Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur International Airport last week. For a modern and busy city, the airport is not updated. There’s no automated check-in machines or bag drops. This means that you have to queue up. Since I was flying Malaysian Airlines, every international flight are serviced by the same 4 counters. I don’t know if you heard me right. Every. Single. Flight. For those who have travelled, you probably realize the chaos this causes. A few days before I got an...
Evolve or repeat 🔂
G’day G’day mates, I just spent a big week in KL, Malaysia. I was here to host an in-person event for ASEAN entrepreneurs. And attend the 10th ASEAN Entrepreneurs Carnival. But Malaysia is important for more than just events. It’s the humble home of the King of Fruits. You know exactly what I’m talking about… The mighty Durian. It’s the first time I’ve in Malaysia in over 14 years. Selamat datang from Malaysia! I was a rebellious pimple faced teenager last time I was here. I love this saying:...
Become a binger, not a begger 📺
G’day G’day mates, In Bali, I was unwell. I had a minor case of Bali Belly. While I love Bali, the food or water can make you sick. While recovering in a prone position in my bed, I binged a season of Ted Lasso. I don’t usually watch TV shows. But after the binge session, I couldn’t stop thinking of the show. I started to research the characters and the actors. I started to talk like the characters and even think like them. It felt so odd. I almost became a part of the show. I even looked up...
Detained by border security 👮♂️
G’day G’day mates, I recently took a flight from Bali to Malaysia. In the weeks leading up to the flight, I started watching Australian Border Security on YouTube. This was a TV show that was hugely popular in the early 2000s. I keep watching short clips on YouTube. Don’t ask my why. (Answer: I had a bit of time to kill) I’m a sucker for a bit of trashy reality TV. Don’t judge me. I am still human okay. But there’s something about Border Security that keeps me coming back. The power of...
Sell painkillers, not supplements 💊
G’day G’day mates, I caught up with an old friend recently. Recently, her office politics was getting out of hand. Backstabbing, firing, and betrayals. You could write a Chinese movie drama about what's happening. But she's not waiting around. She's preparing her next moves. She was asked me what business she could start. I told her... There are only 3 problems you can solve: Health. Wealth. Relationships. Every other problem is a subset of these problems. But that's the challenge. 80% of...
The crisis of online business 💥
G’day G’day mates, Customers are sick of big empty promises on the Internet. You won’t become a millionaire in 90 days. You can’t grow a 100,000 audience in 30 days with zero experience. You can’t automate your business overnight without putting in real work. These promises are so overblown and borderline lies. I see it all the time in the sales and marketing space. Everyone is overpromising and underdelivering. This works in the short-term. People buy because of the promise. But churn...
🏆 x 5 Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur. Sold my first one-person business at 28. Currently traveling Southeast Asia.