To demystify success and the purpose of life, most of us rely on self-help nonfiction or productivity books. While they offer independent answers, there are 5 recurring core concepts that lead people to true success. These are all-encapsulating secrets we can use regardless whatever stage we are in life and whatever life mission we are pursuing.

1. Playbook

2. Novelty

3. Gamification

4. Optics

5. Enough

The next paragraph summarizes how these five are interconnected with each other.

Whatever you do, there must be a playbook how other winners do it. But as you blend in, morph, find your own style and bring in novelty. In pursuit, routinary things and mechanical habits become mundane, gamify it and make it frictionless to achieve your goal. You know you’re a winner, communicate it, wear it, perform it, curate the image and take care of your optics. After being in the system, zooming back as a human, it was all about defining your “enough”; happiness is actually settling down and not constantly moving the goal post, that it was here all along (The Alchemist).

To further explore these secrets and how we can apply these concepts into every day, here are multiple perspectives for each term in the 5 vocabs of winners.

Playbooks

In creating a startup, there’s a playbook for pitch deck structure, playbook for securing investors, playbook for go-to-market strategy, even playbook towards exiting as a unicorn.

In securing a career with competitive salary, there’s a playbook detailing the blend of academics and extracurriculars that employers look for. There can be nuances on such playbooks, depending on the industry or function you are applying for (e.g. the playbook to be a finance bro is different from a medical doctor or CPA lawyer).

Even those who pursue non-traditional paths, the ones who pursue time freedom, location freedom, and financial freedom, there’s always a playbook, we just need to ask the right questions, squeezing answers from the right experts.

For students, there’s a playbook to acing exams, playbook to become summa cum laude, playbook for working students, playbook for student-athletes.

In the world of sports, elite athletes have the playbook for nutrition, strength, and endurance. These playbooks have nuances even for sports that look the same (e.g. for racket sports, each one requires a different kind of training and conditioning).

Knowing that playbooks exist and finding them can make your life easier and you can even contribute meaningfully to wider society by enriching or creating playbooks.

Novelty

To achieve Nobel Peace Prize in whatever field, a large part of it is the innovation and the new perspective you are bringing to the collective body of knowledge, it’s the novelty and newness.

For real game-changing unicorn startups, real winners provide novel solutions to consumer problems. Even when startups get copy pasted from one geography to another, there will always be the localization element that provides a novel flavor to a seemingly non-innovative solution.

In competitive hackathons and case competitions, teams who bring novelty in substance and/or in form would usually stand out as a clear winner. When they brought in actual prototype (that other joiners might’ve skipped) or wrapped their pitch in a great storyline, they lift themselves a notch above the rest.

In competitive writing, “novelty lead” is what truly differentiates a great news writer, feature writer, sports writer, or science writer. The hook must be convincingly creative yet it teases the reader to read more. Contrary to the traditional ‘5 Ws and 1H’, competitive writing winners usually win with novelty leads.

Having novelty at one’s system is almost synonymous with having excellence as a habit. In little conversations all the way to life-changing pitches, bringing in a novel perspective differentiates you from the rest and makes success fall into your lap more easily.

Gamify

Knowing the concept of gamification allows you to 1) make serious habits a more playful and frictionless one, 2) create great products/services that latch in this powerful insight on human behavior, and 3) understand whether you are being played or being part of a game and decide how to deal with it.

Widely watched productivity YouTuber Ali Abdaal advocates for “feel good productivity” where routine habits in pursuit of success must also give a sense of enjoyment. In essence, we can gamify the rather mechanical steps that feel like a chore.

In the world of e-commerce and food delivery apps, for startups to increase user stickiness, gamification is the answer. Suddenly, Shopee (southeast Asian e-commerce) encourages you to water a plant daily or created gold/silver/bronze tiers that encourage consumers to buy more to rank up. Airline miles, shopping points, and credit card points are also wired with gamification at the core.

The entire academic system centers on gamification, highest scores get highest-level medals, unlocking highest-ranked schools and eventually best careers. This even extends to the competitive corporate rat race. Knowing the rules of the game allow us to decide whether 1) we want to play that game, or 2) win a different kind of game, which we’ll better understand when we come to the fifth vocab called “enough“.

Optics

Perception is reality, in the corporate race, what your boss thinks of you both within and outside work can actually influence your promotion chances. I would argue that likability (more than “getting the job done”) can set you up for success.

In competitive presentations (startup pitches and case competitions), once you have a strong content, the delivery solidifies your win. To manage optics, it includes great communication style, memorable visuals (slides, props, even costumes/outfits), or anything that builds the image you want to create.

In the world of show business, optics is the strongest among all these vocabs. Celebrities control their narrative with great PR; influencers put on a great facade, even aspiring politicians must manage their optics well. Often times there is a negative connotation with optics but that is only when there is a huge difference between what you show and who you truly are. Truly successful personalities are genuinely kind, respectful, and humble. They don’t even need to “manage optics” because just living their day to day lives already is a great visual spectacle while being authentic.

Enough

We look at this in the perspective of wealth, fame, and power:

• Wealth. Traditional markers of success include achieving millions or billions. But once you’re there, the goal post keeps on moving. I contend that truly successful people know what is “enough” for them and that true success is not in the misery of never-ending wants.

• Fame. Almost everyone on social media care about followers, likes, hearts, engagements to achieve some degree of fame. For those whose livelihood depends on fame, be careful for signs of burnout and exhaustion. And even those who are popstars, global icons, they always wonder: “until when will I be relevant?”. Is there a path to achieving fame and achieving enough? I don’t know the answer, but as the first vocab suggests, there might be a playbook for that.

• Power. Recognition-hungry leaders build monuments everywhere, print their faces everywhere and they never seem to be satisfied. Is there someone super powerful who moves the needle towards the greater good? Historically, we definitely have heroes who left lasting net-positive legacies. Were they relentless in their pursuit or did they pursue what is “enough”? Again, I don’t have exact answers but I contend that at the core, they are all humans and somehow, those who found true happiness were the ones who knew that not every battle is supposed to be fought, and not all expansions are worth the struggle.

• Overall. Not all productivity and self-help books will touch on the value of defining one’s “enough”, but it’s important to zoom out and ask why are we even doing this career or startup or schooling in the first place. It’s not to say that we shouldn’t dream big or that we should stop being aspirational and stay in our boxes. Rather, it’s about 1) appreciating the joys of what we have right now, 2) enough with the people pleasing, and 3) defining a life that is not whispered or shouted by others. Influential fiction book called “The Alchemist” gave us a glimpse that we’ve been searching for treasure everywhere else, only to find it back from where we started; I interpret this as a metaphor of a never-ending pursuit of success, only to find out that happiness comes from within.

I poured my entire life’s works into this collection of 5 secret vocabs of highly successful people. It will be a growing list as I am also still on this collective journey we call life.

”What a beautiful grave,” he said, hanging on a wire, looking down a steep unsurvivable mountain with sharply-pointed trees. I was in the same cable car with this stranger and a couple more others. We had a full 360-degree view of Vietnam’s heavens, with our life relying on this architectural wonder made of glass and wires that transit people from point A to B, powered by electricity.

Somehow, more than 30 seconds and we’re still powerless, literally and figuratively. Sixty seconds, and I’m starting to wonder, whether I have lived a good life.

Exactly falling on the day of my 24th birthday, I am stranded up high in a cable car going to the famous golden hands bridge called “Ba Na Hills” in Da Nang, Vietnam.

During these moments, it didn’t matter how much there was in my bank account, it didn’t matter that I upset my bosses at work during that week because of a work-related mistake, it didn’t matter how I was totally out of shape by being heavier by 10KG from my peak fitness levels, all that mattered was to get out of there alive.

This makes for a perfect “content” for “influencers” but I have long gave up on the fame game and my hands were too sweaty and too shaky to even open up my camera and film whatever was happening.

A few minutes have passed and we heard an announcement in about four languages. For the first time, I finally understood what was happening. They announced that the cable car was switching power supply, and that we should just wait for a few minutes.

I was still frozen, not because of how cold Vietnam’s mountains were. “Few minutes” felt hours.

Maybe I should start problem-solving, I always pride myself for being a problem-solver. But maybe, this time, like the wires, I’m powerless. I knew that the entire cable car stretches for 5.8 kilometers and we’re still probably midway through the 30-minute journey going up. Helicopters might be too expensive to rescue us, but crawling through wires all the way down might be too dangerous.

Imagine questioning your life decisions for more than 5 minutes, with no certainty if you’ll even come out of this foreign country alive. Emergency contacts of friends and family are futile, they’re all one sea away.

Maybe we should just pull a rope down to reach the mountain and hike all the way down, it won’t hurt even if it would take us more than 24 hours. Or maybe we can just rot there for hours.

I have lived a good life.

But if living one more day means crawling through wires and risking it all, I’d gladly accept the challenge.

About six minutes in and we felt some movement. The hanging glass car is now finally moving upwards. I no longer have to wait for a helicopter nor crawl down the towering wires.

That was the longest six minutes of my life.

Hitting first ten thousand is a milestone, a hundred thousand is an achievement, a million is spectacular, but the goal post keeps on moving and the zeroes keep on pushing the finish line farther; bet it won’t stop even with a billion. I contend that “peace of mind” is a nobler form of luxury, a more elusive form of wealth.

The journey may be different for everyone, but I have found peace of mind in three things: peace in pursuit of stealth wealth, peace in digital minimalism, and peace that comes from emotional strength.

Peace in pursuit of stealth wealth

It took me a while to realize that my friend who always says “I’m broke” is actually practicing stealth wealth. At first I thought they should publicly flaunt their hard work through the traditional markers of success — money. But then, it made me realize, having public trails of wealth attracts not just the praises but also the evil eyeballs like scammers and fraudsters. It’s like waving a fiery red flag in a sea of bulls ready to attack. I work in the finance industry and I’ve seen the worst — CEOs getting kidnapped and having their fingers sliced as proof, demanding ransom.

So no, it doesn’t matter whether my money is in billions, or millions, or thousands. I’d probably stay lowkey and maintain my peace. There’s a reason also why the biggest billionaires chose modest cars and houses, even simple outfit-repeater clothes. They chose to live in privacy. It took a while for me to get it, but it’s peaceful to live privately, even when I don’t have the money … yet.

Peace in resisting the urge to “flex”

“Why do they take photos every time?,” a European classmate asked. Even after graduation, I sat on that question and defended that we record-keep things to remind us of our growth. Over months, I still continued to post about things I’ve achieved, I had the right to post them because I “worked hard” to get them.

Packaged in another perspective, the same question haunted me again when I read about the book “digital minimalism”, and it didn’t make sense at first. Maybe because I was primed to believe our identity and validation is tied to a carefully curated social media profile and that the more we achieve, the more we’re “valued”.

I still post some of my life wins.

I must admit, the numbers are rewarding — not just the hearts, but also even merely the “views”, they’re true source of instant dopamine.

It still took some time to unlearn this behavior, until now I am still in the process of unlearning it. But what I can say is: I have reached a point where validation comes from within and not from others, and I only let people know up to the extent of what I want them to know — and that’s a top tier kind of peace of mind that I’m currently enjoying.

“Feel the rain on your skin, no one else can feel it for you,” said the song Unwritten. Things won’t hurt me if I don’t let them in.

Peace that comes from emotional strength

Even in worst times, like losing a job I worked hard to achieve for almost a decade, or losing a loved one, I still find ways to find “peace”. Having emotional strength in the worst of times is like having a shield-like umbrella that allows me to breeze through life, even in the worst seasons.

When I received my first setback, it truly hurt. I sought refuge in my support system and it was comforting to know that there are people who exist whom I can call even in a 3AM emergency. I feel grateful to those family and friends who are genuinely there, without judgement.

Beyond this external support, true strength must come from within. With every hurdle, I always tell myself: “I’ve been through tougher times before, I can survive this storm”. I’d say emotional strength is a skill that can be developed over time.

So in the GTA world, even when life says “BRING IT ON” with the challenges and whirlwind of tough times, having emotional strength is my “HESOYAM” that powers me through.

Yes, we can be wealthy

Overall, the pursuit of “peace of mind” is not “giving up” social media, it’s just living intentionally. As my mom would always say, money can buy almost anything but “there won’t be a store where you can shop for peace of mind”. So regardless of the number of zeroes in my bank, yes I am wealthy, because I can protect my peace of mind.

Nature, flights, food trips, and adventure are some of the least expected places to learn about personal finance and investing. Yet after flying more than a hundred hours across Southeast Asian and East Asian destinations, I learned that the principles of a smart traveler have significant overlaps with that of a smart investor.

Eyeing Value for Money

We usually misunderstand “value for money” as the cheapest ones we can find. To some extent it can be true, but zooming out, some things we thought as cheap actually costs us more. For example, if someone chose the cheapest luggage out there but needed to replace it every two years, it probably costs them a lot more than buying one good quality luggage that can last them decades. Just because something is cheap doesn’t mean it’s the best one to buy.

Likewise, in the world of stock market, just because a stock is PHP 1 doesn’t mean it’s undervalued or it has a lot of upside. When we look at their financials, they can even be overpriced or overhyped.

However, it’s important not to use this principle to justify our luxuries. Is this sports shoe, luxury bag, or iPhone 17 Pro Max really functional and beneficial to you in the long run?

Mastering Delayed Gratification

Along the lines of hunting value-for-money bargains, it requires a lot of waiting and delaying gratification. Flights are expensive but they seasonally go on sale, depending on the airlines. Based on my experience, the hottest sales often happen in Independence Day for both Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines. It’s important to hold back the temptation to buy flights now because a P20K flight could suddenly go down to P4K with the right patience and masterful timing.

In the world of investments, some people go all in so they can “go big or go home” while others slowly dollar-cost-average through the highs and lows of the market. There’s merit in both trading styles depending on one’s risk tolerance. However, those who stay long enough in the market are those who allow their wealth to compound slowly like a tortoise, postponing any temptation to swing with the crowd and get quick bucks now.

Willing to Go Against the Bandwagon

Beach destinations go on sale during rainy months because everyone wants to go to the beach when it’s predictably sunny. Theme park tickets are lower during weekdays as family bondings usually happen during weekends. Michelin-awarded restaurants even at the level of carinderias or hawker centers have significantly long queues during peak seasons in lunch and dinner.

By going against the tide, smart travelers often can book flights and parks for up to half the price and reallocate those savings to other things that enrich the entire tour, like experiences or food. By eating during unconventional hours, they can skip the queue and have more time to explore the city.

Personally, I go to Disneyland rides when others are eating lunch/dinner. I skip traditional pre-packaged tours and always “DIY” with my well-curated itinerary, hitting two birds in one stone — it’s deeply personalized to my travel style and it’s definitely cheaper.

Resourceful Problem-Solver

For years, I said “no” to leisure travel (well, honestly, it was my wallet who said “no”).

I took it as a challenge and positioned most of my energy to make things happen. During my teenage years, I got to travel all-expense-paid trips to Hong Kong Disneyland, Davao’s Eagle Sanctuary, Baguio’s Mines View Park, all because of my writing, math, or science competitions. Honestly, in retrospect, it was not the trophy I wanted, it was the feeling of being in a new place, experiencing all these novel tastes and sights.

Even as an adult, now with bills and priorities, traveling still needs resourcefulness and problem-solving skills. Sometimes it’s being willing to sleep in cheaper hostels to allocate more to tours and experiences, or sleeping with relatives to save on hotel, or ultimately juggling more side hustles to fund the itch to travel.

Traveling is a gift.

Needless to say, being a resourceful problem-solver could also be helpful in managing finances and rebalancing portfolios during extreme market events.

Starting Small

Counterintuitively, you don’t have to fly somewhere far to truly experience the benefits of traveling. Challenge yourself to little “adventures” like walking out of your desk to see some nature, discovering a new food spot you’ve never tried before, or deliberately walking a different street on your way home. It starts with the appreciation of the little things. And then the well-awaited tour comes, you’ll be delighted but at the same time it feels familiar since you’ve been deliberately trying the joy of discovery every day.

Let me tell you one more secret that’s applicable to traveling and in personal finance. Haggle and negotiate everything — it empowers you to be in the habit of trying your luck every day. Consider requesting for extra whip cream in your frappe, perhaps getting an extra ref magnet, or rounding down the price of 1,040 down to flat 1,000. Eventually, you’ll have more muscle to negotiate the more important things like your monthly salary, sign-in bonus, supplier terms and other things that could save you millions by just a few seconds of awkwardly asking.

Above all, as a smart traveler and investor, one should also be able to discern which practices can you adopt and which ones aren't exactly your style. It’s always tough to balance splurging too much on traveling versus being mindful of expenses and hence trimming some travel goals. It all depends on one’s priorities and one’s tolerance to losses (travel expenses that could’ve been invested). Factoring everything, I strongly believe that being a smart traveler can co-exist with being a smart investor — a fine line we’ll always balance in this grand journey called life.

Oftentimes, I don’t feel “Jemarkable” enough, it might be surprising for some, especially to those who look up to me for personal finance and career advice.

Honestly, there were times when I felt too powerless that I was allergic to any form of growth stories how someone got unstuck, how they accelerated to millions and billions in their twenties, how they look good and feel good while I was the total opposite. It’s human.

For instance, I had a five-year Instagram hiatus when I felt too fat to be Instagrammable. I had double chins. Pimples populated my face like overlapping constellations. My body shape was worse than a Coca-Cola, it was the silhouette of a kettle, but a hundred kilogram one.

I shunned the world until I had a face again.

Even in academics, this spilled over. Yes I joined math olympiad, but I was second tier back then, reserved for “easier” competitions. Yes I qualified in a leading university, but I wasn’t Summa Cum Laude standing, at some point not even Magna Cum Laude standing.

The pressure never ends.

They say that it’s valid to be mediocre, but societal judgement tells otherwise. That pressure isn’t just personal—it’s baked into the air we breathe here.

It’s true in the “kiasu” culture in Singapore where highest grade A’s aren’t celebrated, excellence was “expected” at school, work, home — pressure never rests. This is also rampant across East Asia, leading to “karoshi (過労死)” tendencies in Japan and “lying flat (躺平)” behavior in China. It’s not surprising that almost everyone in South Korea is attempting to be a good looking oppa (or noona), who’s also smart and wealthy, because there’s an unspoken societal expectation to perform. Even their military men had well-elaborated skincare routine. However, just because it’s everywhere doesn’t mean it should be normalized.

Zoom out far enough and the whole planet starts to look like one giant arena. This system existed long before me. Like in the fictional world of pirates, this world revolves around wealth, fame, and power, with no time to pause, breathe, or relax.

I’m playing that game. Yet sometimes, I get burned out too. And sometimes I wanted to stop playing. But, like a player in Squid Game, there will be adverse consequences.

So I kept playing, but which game to play exactly? Is it worth it in the first place? It’s a mix of wanting to slow down yet wanting to have enough to be happier, wanting to chill yet wanting to get promoted, wanting to enjoy the race yet trying hard not to be the last person to cross the finish line, wanting to shout my frustrations yet still expected to be “demure” and “mindful”, and ultimately wanting to give up yet hoping I won’t disappoint.

Some days the tug-of-war wins. Other days, I call it a draw.

I seem to have accepted that grief and joy can coexist. It’s our first time to have this life, kudos for making it this far. Yet somehow, sometimes, I’m still lost. I have more questions than answers — and that’s perfectly valid.

There are days we feel unjemarkable, yet we are still valid.

Perhaps the myths were real?

To find a pot of gold, there is a price you have to pay — in fictional stories, it's not cash, it's something you cherish the most. I got to see Thai Gulf's "gold basin" but at what cost?

Eighteen and a half hours of flying and staying across three airports, five hours to get from Krabi to Koh Samui through van and ferry, add two more hours of northwestward ferry ride, 650+ slippery ascending steps that takes all the life you have left — that’s how much sacrifice it took to reach this “pot of gold”, sitting at the heart of Thailand’s gulf.

Snapped a photo at the top, mission accomplished. The end.

Or so I thought.

Beneath me, the Ang Thong National Marine Park doesn’t really have gold. It was dubbed as “Ang Thong”, Thai term for “gold basin” or “pot of gold”, for its fertile soil and majestic natural limestone wonders wrapped in 42 protected islands. This was the gold I’m looking for.

As I descended down, the clouds went angry and sprinkled some rain to make the already-slippery muddy rocks even more difficult for human passage. Contrary to the weather forecast, this is not a “sunny day”. It was the beginning of even more surprises, as if I was living the real-life adaptation of Lemony Snicket's “A Series of Unfortunate Events”.

Few hours later, “I’m sorry there’s nothing we can do, we really can’t retrieve it,” my Thai tour guide apologized. A part of me wanted to continue hoping there was someone else who could help, yet a part of me knew we had to move on, we were literally in the middle of the ocean.

How did we get there?

Dozens of tourists riding a flock of kayaks (plastic 2-seater mini-boats) were enjoying the time of our lives. I brought my phone, wallet with important bank cards, Insta360 action camera, a pair of blue slippers, and the confidence that I can paddle through the Gulf of Thailand with a kayak and a life vest. It wasn’t my first time riding a kayak, I’ve successfully navigated across dragons’ teardrops in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam and limestone formations in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines unharmed.

Confidently, I led the pack and had to stop paddling for a while as we wait for others. The waves in Thai’s Gulf, in a sudden turn of events, became taller and taller, forceful enough to turn my boat counter-clockwise.

I tried to recover the direction and started paddling again.

One second, the boat is already upside down, I tried to save the paddle with my feet. I swam for survival and forgot everything else.

“Are you okay”, a woman asked me as she and her male partner try to turn the boat side up.

It wasn’t easy to get into the wobbly boat in the wobbly waves. They patiently waited for more than a minute for me to get back up. “Are you okay?,” she asked once again, and I nodded in assurance and thanked them.

I knew that kayaking was safe with a life vest. I knew that this was a risk and I was okay to take that calculated risk.

I’m alive, yet now I’m grieving. If I lost my phone, I would lose my digital bank access, work documents, and stuff that even Apple Cloud won’t be able to retrieve. If I lost my wallet, how will I survive a few weeks more in this cash-driven island and I wouldn’t even be able to withdraw new cash without my debit cards. If I lost my action camera, I would lose two years worth of travel memories that are not saved in the cloud and are definitely unrecoverable and I would lose my birthday gift to myself back when I freshly graduated.

Quick inventory of my surroundings showed me that I still have my pair of blue slippers floating around, my phone and wallet was still in my waterproof floating bag. The action camera sank down. But my hope never sank down with it.

They say it was unretrievable because it was just beyond the swimmable area, beyond the boundary set by a physical line.

I was hoping one of the tour guides were licensed divers, like the one I had in Coron, Palawan, Philippines who can free dive their way down.

My tour guide asked around nearby yachts and boats and concluded that it was very murky, very deep, and very risky to even think of getting it back.

I’m grieving. Yet at that moment, we’re still in the middle of the ocean. At that moment, we had a schedule to follow through. At that moment, I was no longer leading the pack, I was behind and had to kayak my way to the other island or else, I’ll be left here forever.

It reminded me of university life where people had no time to even break down because the work compounds if you even rest for a bit.

It reminded me of the tough life at work where we have a robotic schedule to follow, no time to pause or even breathe.

But what can I do, I had to move. And so I moved. I paddled back to the shore, grieving. A few days later, I’m still grieving. I don’t know when will the grieving even stop.

I’m grieving for the digitally recorded memories of my first close encounter with a sea turtle in El Nido, of my recent visit in the beautiful chocolate hills of Bohol, of my magical visit in Japan, of everything snapped that will only remain as a memory.

I’m grieving for the hefty price of that action cam that just simply sank. I’m grieving because it was special, a gift to myself. I’m not blaming anyone but myself, I should’ve bought a floatable case or handle, I should’ve held on to it a bit tighter.

I don’t believe in myths, I don’t think it’s a spiritual guardian who engulfed my priceless item. Life happens. “What’s important is that I’m alive and breathing,” I have always told myself that phrase in more times I could ever imagine.

Truly, finding a pot of gold comes with its set of risks and sacrifices, some can be foreseen, some unexpected. If we could turn back time, knowing what I know now, would I still have gotten in that journey? In a heartbeat, yes, I would still have made the same calculated risk with the little change that I should’ve just left my action camera in my hotel. At the end of the day, it was a breathtaking experience to see the Ang Thong’s overall view at the top, truly a bountiful “golden basin”. At the end of the century, most of us will become bones and ashes but only a few can say they truly “lived” — for me, that’s real gold.

Flights booked. Accommodations booked. Race ticket booked. Knees? Questionable.

”As long as I’m not the super last person to finish the race”. That’s what I tell myself when I‘m lagging behind. Until there came a point when I did became the last man.

Not the last man standing, rather, the last man running.

One step at a time.

Left, right, left, right.

Repeat, more than twenty thousand steps to go.

Every second that the ambulance is behind, it’s a reminder of a failure, slapping me that this is a losing game, and we’re just getting started. In this story, even though I am the tortoise outran by thousands of hares, the happily ever after would definitely not exist.

”Finally, I can now rest,” said the auntie policewoman who served as security ushers that morning. Honestly, her feelings were valid, I can’t blame her for hating the last man running, for wondering why did they even wake up so early just to watch over slow walkers who can just simply take the ambulance behind, and end everyone’s suffering.

There were dozens of ushers in the same intersection, I didn’t want to look into anyone’s eyes, it’s dehumanizing. Honestly, I didn’t want this story to come out, it feels like I am exposing myself once again to more of those eyes. How can someone behind be even bold enough to write about it?

Even beyond running, it feels awful to be visibly behind. Some of us had a much later starting line, some of us were silently carrying invisible emotional baggages, some of us mask burnout with a smile.

A hundred meters to the finish line I saw someone with medals. “You can do it, final push!,” he cheered.

Somehow, there’s faith in humanity. Somehow, it’s a little bit less embarrassing. Somehow, it eased up the overwhelming shame.

The next time I ran, I particularly know when someone is also experiencing the same knee pain as me. I looked at ambulance-followed runners as runners of mental fortitude. Without words, somehow, I knew they had a story to tell. More than their alibi on why they are behind, it’s about why they painfully pushed through and why they laced up their shoe in the first place — without words, I knew, I’ve been in their shoes.

As we all become adults, there’s no more syllabus/curriculum that we need to follow, no more map on how to navigate this complex and scary jungle. I am grateful that some of my friends turn to me for advice when it comes to personal finance and I saw some patterns on the kinds of questions that everybody is asking. So here’s my attempt to unravel the personal finance space (yes, I’m also not there yet, I’m with you in this journey). Along the way, here are the most helpful resources that were the most impactful to my growth.

Disclaimer: This is not an outright promotion or invitation to invest/allocate money in the wallets/banks I mention, please do even more research on the risks of these actions before applying/implementing these things.

Generally, the principles to personal finance is to: 1) Earn More, 2) Save More, 3) Invest More, 4) Spend Less. In a nutshell, here are practical tips for each:

1. Earn More

   1. Upskill and be valuable enough to land competitive careers

   2. Negotiate for a higher salary

   3. Build your own profitable business

2. Save More & Spend Less

   1. Track your cash flow and set budgets

   2. Maximize credit card benefits (discounts and cash backs)

3. Invest More

   1. Store emergency funds in high-yield savings accounts

   2. Invest what you can afford to lose

In this path to financial freedom, the most important resources that have been really helpful to me are:

1. Digital Banks PH (Facebook Page & FB Group Community)

   CATEGORY: INVEST MORE (PHILIPPINE-SPECIFIC)

   They provide monthly personal finance game play where they list banks with highest interest earnings (from 25% down to 3.5%) or simply where you can put money to sleep and still earn interest revenues.

   JEMARKABLE PRO TIP: Find the post about Maya <> Lazada/Grab technique on how to increase your Maya Savings from baseline 3.5% to 10% or even 15%.

2. Kaskasan Buddies (FB Page & FB Community) & Jax Reyes (YouTube Influencer)

   CATEGORY: SPEND LESS (PHILIPPINE-SPECIFIC)

   Kaskasan buddies provides a comprehensive list of credit cards with NAFFL (No Annual Fee for Life), FREE airport lounge access, high cash backs, and sign up bonuses (gift checks, luggages, Japan flights). Jax Reyes’ YouTube also gives credit card reviews and guides towards being a responsible credit card user (and payer).

   JEMARKABLE PRO TIP: Eat in 50% OFF restaurants, heavily discounted if you pay via selected credit cards; you’ll find a monthly Ultimate Credit Card Dining list in Kaskasan Buddies.

3. Ali Abdaal (YouTube Channel about Productivity and Financial Freedom)

   CATEGORY: EARN MORE | OWN BUSINESS

   His most recent contents are about feel good productivity and time/financial freedom. He’s sharing science-based techniques to improve productivity and also inspires viewers to live a life on your own terms, filled with fun, freedom, and flexibility.

4. Firm Learning (YouTube Channel about Careers)

   CATEGORY: EARN MORE | SALARY

   From editing your resume to speaking like a CEO, to having strong “optics” at work to be positioned for promotion, this channel helps fresh graduates and early careers professionals land their ideal careers.

   JEMARKABLE PRO TIP: Find his video on his resume that helped him get into McKinsey, that’s the same resume template and style that I used to get into all my internships and full-time work.

5. Dr Grace Lee (YouTube Channel about Communication)

   CATEGORY: EARN MORE | SALARY

   Communication in terms of job interviews, reporting to CEOs, negotiating for promotions, all of these topnotch secrets are shared by Dr. Grace Lee especially for early career and middle career professionals.

   JEMARKABLE PRO TIP: Even when it’s too early, position yourself to promotion by watching all her videos about having a commanding presence during meetings as well as salary negotiations.

This list is not the only way to financial freedom. Beyond this list, there can also be equally effective yet opposing views. These are what helped me personally in my journey towards personal finance and hopefully, you carve your own path towards the personal finance goals that fit your style.

If you also have some resources you’d like to share, feel free to comment or chat! Always helpful to learn from each other!

Get good grades, secure a high-paying job, live a luxurious life — I thought nothing is impossible if I put in effort over time. To some extent, yes, but to a larger extent, I was just lucky.

Among my most treasured achievements include: my current job and my university. I used to believe that I engineered my way to greatness and that success must be attributed to my efforts and grit alone. After all, it wasn’t an easy road.

Until I discovered a deeper understanding of the words privilege and luck — the existence of additional advantageous resources and their timing, being there at the right place at the right time for the right need.

Barging into venture capital (investments) is one of the toughest paths. Usually people need to have MBAs, worked in top tier consulting or private equity firms, or exited a unicorn startup — I’ve achieved none of them. Given my firm is based in Singapore, I was also competing against the best of Asia, not just fresh grads but also experienced hires.

Yet I got in, because I thought I was Jemarkable.

I thought.

The story I always tell myself was: I deliberately developed the right skillsets and credentials to make success inevitably fall into my lap. I even thought that I took the steps to “increase [my] luck surface area”. In reality, there are so much things beyond my control that surprisingly made the stars align.

When it was down to the final two candidates back then, if my boss chose the other guy, would I still be where I am today? If they had a different set of judges, would I still have won the case competitions that enriched my resume? As for my internships, if it was a different HR who interviewed me, would I still have gotten into these famous firms?

I was lucky and privileged enough to learn the secrets of getting into competitive careers because of the selflessness of my mentors back then. I am standing on the shoulders of the giants who were generous enough to answer my questions on how to win and lead. I am also lucky to have teammates who know what to do as if we share the same braincells. What I have now, is more than what I worked for.

But that does mean I give up on designing things within my control? Is success the end goal of life? What does success look like in the first place? Play silly games, win silly prizes.

I am wrong on many facets of success. But what I’m sure is: success is personal, it’s how each individual defines it.

Be it in study, work, or life, there’s always a playbook. I’m not saying you should be a doctor or lawyer or have an MBA to be successful; I’m saying that within your chosen field, there are sets of expectations (often unspoken) that will accelerate you toward your goal. Meanwhile, there are also narratives of unconventional paths to success — those who deliberately deviated from the playbook and paved a path on their own, the outliers. Whether you are maximizing life out of college or navigating your early career, it’s important to be knowledgeable of the Playbooks and Outliers to recognize patterns and play the right cards at the right moment.

I’d write Playbooks & Outliers Series as my gift to my younger self —- and by extension, to anyone, who feels lost sometimes, like the current me, who is approaching quarterlife.

This is the beginning of a series of articles, deconstructing the playbooks of life, business, academics, career, work-life, and everything in between. Along the way, I’d also encounter outlier narratives of individuals, organizations, and travel locations that stand out from the rest. As a writer/creator, I would approach writing Playbooks & Outliers Series as my gift to my younger self as he navigates this complex universe.

I’ve identified a few initial topics that could potentially spark your curiosity. They will be coming in the form of a written article, a podcast, a summarized PDF playbook, etc.

Playbooks

• Early Careers: Resume, Interviews, Negotiation, Visibility/Optics, and Promotions

• College: Academics, Student Organizations, Internships, and Case Competitions

• High School: CAT/CET Preparations (UPCAT, ACET, DCAT, USTET, scholarships) Competitions (Math Olympiad, Science Fair, Essay Writing, Press Conferences), Research/Thesis

Outliers

• Stories of Summa Cum Laudes who considered themselves underdogs

• Stories of “Promdi” (from the province) who got into successful early careers

• Stories of entrepreneurs of multi-million businesses

• Digesting/Deconstructing Differentiating Factors for Champion Outputs (case competitions, writing outputs, policy proposals, scholarship essays)

Shhh, this is an exclusive collection of essays/articles, we can keep it only to those we know would benefit from it. The goal is not to hyper-scale the number of subscribers but to impart a piece of our (collective) wisdom so others would live a more Jemarkable life, thanks to playbooks and outlier stories.

Subscribe now

The power is yours.

You can contribute by proposing a topic (comment here or message us on any of our channels), sharing your winning materials/moments, or compelling your closest curated circle to check out some playbooks and outlier stories that can inform and inspire them.

If you can read this, it means, I made it out alive.

About 8 hours before my flight, the Global IT outage happened, and many Microsoft-based airline systems were down, affecting at least 2,500 flights. I was about to take a nap in Hanoi, resting after my 2-week Vietnam and Cambodia trip. My next problem should’ve just been: “Which Michelin restaurant should I spend my last dinner in Vietnam?”. With fear taking the helm of the control room in my head, it turned to “Will I even be able to come home tonight?”.

This kind of fear is not new. I remember having to surrender everything to luck as we zigzag our way across uphill slopes. On top of that, it’s raining, which makes it even more slippery for our motorbike to climb a 28-degree mountain. It was a 36 km two-way ride from Central Sapa, Vietnam to the Glass Bridge area. It feels even longer, especially when you know that any second, anything can happen. I am no stranger to discomfort. 

I remember having to run our way from one bus station to the other, 2.4 km apart, because we booked the wrong pickup point in Mui Ne, Vietnam. I was carrying a 10KG bag; it was 4:10 AM and we aimed to be there by 4:30 AM. I am no stranger to inconveniences.

I remember almost “illegally passing” through the Vietnam and Cambodia borders because I didn’t hop off of the bus. I thought it was just a minor bus stop but it was a border control. I am no stranger to high-stakes mistakes.

One hour before the flight, there was an announcement at Hanoi Airport that they were investigating a fire report. I am no stranger to the feeling of everything burning and crumbling down. After 10 minutes they cleared out that it was a false alarm.

Everything felt like the start of the pandemic, it was a small alarm that we seemed to dismiss but it kept on dragging for weeks, months, and even surprisingly, years. Do I have enough runway if the global IT outage extends for a few days, weeks, or months? Can I even withdraw new money? Even the Philippines’ leading banks admitted they were affected. 

I draw inspiration from the hunger of the Northern Vietnamese fighters with underground camps in Cu Chi tunnels who strategically slowed down and disarmed their more equipped enemies. I mirror the hope of Agent Orange victims who continue to make life more meaningful despite practically having less. Perhaps I might even get the blessing of Ha Long Bay’s descending dragon, defending me from these uncontrollable unfortunate events.

I always tell myself in the worst of times: “ang mahalaga ay buhay tayo at humihinga (what’s important is that we are alive and breathing)” — even when I fail a high-stakes exam, humiliate myself in the corporate world, or even get robbed or scammed.

Fast forward to now, I am writing this as we fly from Hanoi to Manila. My flight wasn't affected by the outage. I no longer have to worry about these things beyond my control.

I definitely will make bigger mistakes, and face harsher critics, even existential crises. However, I am no stranger to them.

And even if they are stranger to me, I know I can make it out, alive.

Well, I had little time dedicated to health because I had to spend hours balancing a degree program along with internships, student organizations, and extra-curricular competitions in between. I had minimal time to rest/sleep and in my waking hours, I rewarded myself with lots of food, resulting in a sedentary lifestyle spiral.

Fatty liver doesn’t give you an expiration date, but it can lead to organ complications later in life. It was a wake-up call. The bigger issue is obesity, which can lead to adverse conditions like heart disease and diabetes. In my entire bloodline, we had a rich history of relatives who had cardiovascular diseases on top of diabetes.

I knew I had to quit.

Quitting sitting, started running

I’ve read somewhere that one of the biggest health threats to modern-day professionals is “sitting”. I’ve been guilty of sitting all day, especially during the pandemic and it was difficult to find time to deliberately be active. It feels as if I’m thrown into a fancy restaurant without knowing table stuff/manners. In times like that, I just look around and adopt best practices.

I always see this senior partner at an accounting firm dedicate about an hour to running around BGC. I met her in a mentorship session and I’ve been seeing some of her life clips online including these random runs and virtual runs rewarded with medals. In another instance, at work, our Ex-McKinsey CEO would sometimes ask to delay our meeting for about 30 minutes because she’s having her morning jog/run. These are people I look up to, career-wise, and now I am adopting some of their practices, health-wise.

I then blocked off some 1-hour sessions every day at night to run around the campus. I was still in the last semester of my degree program when I started doing this. On some days, I miss my pre-scheduled run, but I always think of why I am doing this, and start to build the rhythm once again.

Quit overeating for intermittent fasting

I’ve always been adamant about the idea of “intermittent fasting” because I have heard of many cases where skipping meals led to ulcers. I had to watch several TED talks about fasting and read scientific journals to be convinced that it can actually work when done correctly. Little did I know, my dormmate was actually implementing it, so there was less friction as I eased into this new lifestyle.

My dormmate jokingly said that intermittent fasting is like hitting two birds with one stone — it saves money for one less meal and also leads to less calorie intake. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes we just lack the money since we both come from middle-class families originating from the province.

Quit obsession with quick success, especially in health

In this world where everything is fast, I always think that I need to focus on 20% of inputs that would yield 80% of the visible results. For example, when my team joined a certain insurance business case competition for the second/third time, we just recycled our slide templates and changed some propositions for some quick wins (and quick bucks). In the business sense, this can be true, but this journey toward better health taught me that especially in physical health, things take time.

So I continued doing some exercise even on days when I didn’t feel like it. I continued my new eating habits even when it was very tempting to deviate and let my stomach set free. I continued taking progress pictures even when there was no visible progress, on a day-to-day basis, at all.

From self-consciousness to confidence

Fast forward to today, I lost about 20 kilograms (Sept 2023 vs Jan 2023 weight) and I’ve seen some ripple effects in other areas of my life. There are some micro-moments where I felt I was more confident.

Back in my high school days, my friends would often ask why am I wearing a jacket in our non-airconditioned public high school. That was when I was borderline normal to overweight in the BMI scale. This habit of mine continued post-pandemic, I still wear jackets in my first few pre-scheduled runs at night. During those times, I didn’t know why I was wearing an extra layer of protection. Now, in retrospect, I realized that it was my subconscious response to hide my size. Perhaps by wearing a jacket, I can hide some of my biggest insecurities. Recently, when I run and when I go to the gym, I don’t wear these extra layers of protection anymore. These are just some of the manifestations that there was a change in my confidence.

As I attend some exchange programs and serve as resource speakers in some esteemed organizations, I feel more confident standing up on the stage because I look better than my previous self.

On top of this, I believe that better physical health led to better mental clarity for me. This is essential as I am always trying to improve my productivity in the things I do.

Future-proofing my health habits

Of course, this would go to waste if I suddenly change my mind and go back to my old sedentary self. I then tried to make these habits easier to do and invested in some things that can make this lifestyle sustainable.

My Singaporean friend advised me to invest in a body composition weighing scale, and that the useful life of the asset is worth its price. It was worth about 50 Starbucks cups, but at the same time, it was worth 3 months of my groceries. I decided to make the purchase because it will help me continue my commitment to better health.

I also tried to gamify my habits, including a certain reward when I lose certain kilos, carry heavier weights, as well as getting more and more running/marathon medals. It’s doing me magic.

I am thankful that I had that blood checkup in January. Funnily enough, that test was suggested by my dermatologist. Her only concern back then was if I was in a good health condition to take some pimple-removing drug. This is the story of how solving my pimples led me to solve my overall health instead, and the story of how a liver concern led me to love myself a little bit more.

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Here’s a piece I wrote on my 21st birthday:

As a young kid, I always went out in the open and looked up to airplanes passing by the not-so-active fly zone over the Western part of Isabela province. At that time, I could only ride planes in my dreams or when I closed my eyes. As I turn 21 today, I'd like to look back at how far I've flown and how far I've grown.

We have a simple life. Both my parents are teachers who taught me the value of education and hard work. I grew up close to rice paddies, 𝘐 𝘩𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴, 𝘧𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴. The simple agricultural life became my everyday scenery.

Leisure travel is one of our most minor priorities, so I can only travel around if it's for free. Aside from 30+ local schools, I traveled to Tuguegarao, Baguio, Antique, Boracay, Koronadal, Davao, and Hong Kong for free largely because of writing, math, or science competitions.

In my 21 years, I learned a lot. I cried in the most unusual places: in the middle of a conference hall, at the back of a tricycle, and even in front of a UVLE (UP Exam interface) screen. I flew out of my comfort zone especially when I first learned how to video edit in Grade 8 and how to edit in the metaverse last 2021. I still fail exams, lose case competitions, and get rejection letters.

Even though I still face failures and rejections, I have good footprints to celebrate. I established my network of good people through organization memberships and multiple engagements. I built my presentation and problem-solving skills through business case competitions. I developed a strong sense of accountability through my back-to-back internships, running for 24 consecutive months now. In fact, my recent internship flew me to Singapore for corporate strategy sessions, all-expense paid.

Yes, recently, I rode a plane. When I was above, it made me realize that some young kids might be waving at our aircraft. I feel happy about how things have changed. 𝘐 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘭𝘺.

Whenever I think of evolutions, one of the first few creatures that come to mind is Pikachu from the Pokemon world who can turn into Raichu. Like this creature, I've undergone an evolutionary process too, to become the Jemarkable being I am today.


In my early school days, my parents discovered that I could actually pass kindergarten year despite being early by one year. My parents, being both teachers, took my summer months as primer months for me to advance my study of the relevant topics before the school year started. At first, it was an external pressure to succeed academically, but when I went to high school, I discovered the pressure became internal.

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During my time, having stellar academics isn't the only way to become "1st Honor" as they also factor in the extracurriculars. With that in mind, I joined essay writing, journalism, math quiz bees, research fairs, and all sorts of competitions that require brainpower. I went to build my credibility in the space and became one of the few well-decorated students in a 2000-plus population of high school students. There was even a time when I held back-to-back events like essay writing, sports writing, and research fair presentations, all in one week. At that time, I was immersed in a super busy schedule but I persevered knowing that at least any of the seeds I planted at that time could yield a positive result. And then I came to be the toughest essay writer in our division, to the point where the judges (teachers) already knew my writing style and became fond of it. I got to win a national essay writing stint about science as a champion, got to reach the national level for sports writing, and eventually got to publish an article in Nobel Peace Prize 2021 awardee Maria Ressa's news outlet Rappler. Given that rich extra-curricular junior high school, it was no surprise that the winning streak continued in my senior high school (SHS).

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I transitioned from the rural Isabela province to urban Taguig city (~500 km away) for my SHS and eventually landed a slot to compete in the international math arena. That was after around 16-20 weeks' worth of math training through the Mathematics Trainers Guild (MTG). As I was studying at Taguig Science High School at that time, the local government of Taguig sponsored our flight, accommodations, HK Disneyland tours, and transportation for my Hong Kong International Math Olympiad stint where I got the Bronze medal. With that medal, I then received the Student of Excellence Award from our Department of Education (DepEd) and the Youth of Excellence in Science from our Department of Science and Technology. I was really extra during that time.

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In fact, there was also something extra I was doing at that time because I was living half of my day as a student and half as someone who manages the total marketing side of our family business of selling laptops and computer accessories in e-commerce. At an early age, I was slapped with the real deal of business but I learned to swim my way to survive and thrive in that high-demand environment. Our boss was notorious especially if the quality of the output was subpar or if she feels I was slacking. Despite the odd setup, it taught me the value of having good work ethics by making sure all deliverables are being done on time, and it also taught me the marketing levers we can control especially for those doing consumer goods and e-commerce.

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With a good narrative coming into college, I got accepted to scholarships including that from Ateneo de Manila University where my course was supposed to be entrepreneurial, named BS Management Honors (only offered to the top 15% of examinees). Meanwhile, I also passed BS in Business Administration and Accountancy, one of the most sought after (if not the most sought after) degrees in our country, offered by no less than the University of the Philippines Diliman (#1 in the Philippines based on THE, QS Rankings). Despite ADMU appearing to be a better fit for my personal tastes, I followed my parent's advice to go to a state-sponsored university like UPD where my tuition is surely free because we can't afford to pay tuition fees in the event that I fail (although I believe ADMU management is considerate in scholarships). I eventually learned to love UPD.

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Being the super extra kid, I had an elaborate Excel file for case competitions and internships I could join for the entirety of my stay at UP. I just know from a consulting guy that I should at least have good grades, be in a leadership position in any student organization, and have at least two A-level internships so I can be marketable after college.

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In a long and painful journey, I was able to win eight national case competitions, led some great student organizations, and got to experience interning in only the #1 organizations (yes only top-tier institutions). I felt like every bit of transition from my acad-centric elementary, to contest-heavy JHS, to my dual life during my senior HS, and to now well-decorated but high-accountability college life was important. It was as if I transitioned from Pichu to Pikachu, to Raichu, getting stronger with each phase.

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Now, as I am about to graduate, the possibilities are endless and I have some inclination as to where I wanna go. It was difficult to articulate clearly what I want out of that industry/role; I'm still learning more about myself too. The first job is super crucial and I feel like I am an Evee with many potential evolutionary elements to choose from. Until then, I'll keep smiling like the dino of the firm I'm currently working for, waiting for my next evolution.

Listen to the full article in audio format:

My friend,  How much have you grown?

I see, of all the struggles you've been through and the choices you've taken, you stood still and survived. I commend you for finding a reason to make your life a life well lived. Yesterday was already thinking of what legacy a Jemar leaves in this unfair world and I hope that you have at least started acting or thinking about it.

Look at yourself, now a grown man, independent and liberal yet I bet you missed the days when you were dependent on your parents for money when all you did in the entire day was study, when all you had to take care of was yourself or even when you were still as slim as your past.

There were goals you've achieved and added decoration to our name but there were also goals you've set aside for some reasons. That's life! Happiness actually is a choice, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, they say.

When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it. (Coelho)

You know today, my passions were Mathematics, Sports Writing, Essay Writing, Videography, and Music (including songwriting). Today, I am inspired to study because I learned that even in a situation like this, I'm still lucky. And now I'm on the brink of deciding what kind of future I'll be in, I'm deciding what shapes you. You'll understand that it was a difficult choice and you'll understand that if you are destined to be something, then no matter what, you'll be that something.

In sad moments, my only friend is myself, I hope you'll find one.

In happy moments, I have my family. I believe you too!

Live freely, live by your passion, and find the truest essence of life!

This letter was made last June 7, 2018, addressed to my 25-year-old self.