 Our next speaker is Grace. I wish I could show her full photo in all of its glory, but you could probably find that on our website. She is a Kung Fu master, Wushu artist, ninja, fighter, slash designer, working with a lot of big labels. Hiding in the corner. Trifecta martial arts. Yeah, I think I'll just let her take the stage and then we can reflect on what happens afterwards. Please welcome, sorry. Kung is also a very creative person, so I need notes to keep me on track, otherwise I'd be talking the entire night. I'm also the oldest young person you'll ever meet, therefore I also need notes. Alright, so as you all know, I'm one of the founders of Trifecta Martial Arts, so we don't have much time, so I'm just going to skim through some of my greatest hits. Okay, so... Right now? Okay. So, at my last talk, I was on the panel with Mr Dennis Goh, who is the founder of Pangui Goh Wei, and he was like, you know, oh my god, I used to tell people that like, when you feel awful about yourself or your day, come and talk to me. I will make you feel better, but after hearing you talk, you make me feel better. So, trust me, I've got very interesting things for you tonight. Okay, so just very quickly, I was classically trained in web and graphic design, and it was just one of those things that I just happened to be good at. The golden path was laid out in front of me. I graduated from design school, went to uni in Melbourne, got accepted into a prestigious advertising job in Europe, and it looked like my future was all set. Student of the year. Okay, and I was on the path to my dream. But a few steps into that path, I got to Europe, and I realised I didn't quite love design as much as I had hoped. Shit, now what? I'm here. Why is this happening to me? I had it all planned out, and it seemed like that plan wasn't for me. If this, I'm leaving. So I came home right after my contract, bumped around for a bit and then decided, oh yeah okay, I'm going to start a design company with my friends. Okay, the person who hated design is going to start a design company. How do you think that went? I hated my life. Every single day I hated my clients. I couldn't even love my paycheck because I did not have a paycheck. The landlord wanted half an eye and my kidney for rent, and the clients didn't pay. So what did I say? F this, I am leaving. So in my 23 year old mind, I thought okay, so I don't love design. What next? What do I love? Okay, hang on. I love to sing. I think that could work. So I did. And what is so bad about moving to Hong Kong, doing a Mariah Carey, dating someone more than twice my age to get a recording contract? If Mariah could do it, honey, I could do it. Okay, so it was all done out of love, so they say. The person would have nothing to gain, but then I realized that she had sold me to someone else, and they were threatening a lawsuit to make me sign the contract. So I said, F this, I am leaving. So my money was drying up, and I figured, you know what, I was trying to do the things that I thought that I love. So now, I'm going to wise up. I am going to chase the money. This time, I started a company, and we ran seminars on how to make money on eBay. You can, by the way. And that company actually made money. Okay? And because we traveled so much, we decided that the smartest thing to do was not to leave two apartments empty half the time. We would rent one apartment and leave it empty half the time. Pets hit. I'm such a genius. So little did I know that before starting the company, my business partner had scammed people of money. And he must have received some threatening messages that, you know, something big was happening. So he ran off to China for a factory visit. And I was left in that house. And people were coming to our door demanding for money. So I was dragged into it. People were accusing me of scamming them too. It was so bad, I actually feared for my safety. So what did I say? Exactly. So okay, let's take a short breather here. And talk about my relationships. Okay? You'd think that if so many things in my life had gone wrong, at least one thing would go right. So from the beginning of my story to this point, my first love had cheated on me, dumped me. I had a whole string of relationships shorter than my hair. I dated someone else who had flung a bedside table at me and then left me because she wanted to join the circus. True story, people still do want to run away and join the circus. I met someone else. Someone special. So special. It was like my escape route elsewhere. My whole life had just exploded in front of my face. She lived in Melbourne so I packed up, moved back to Melbourne. That went on for a little bit. Cheated on me twice. Two different people. And I came home to a note on the dining table which basically just read F this, I'm leaving you. Okay? So there I was with nothing to my name. My name dragged in mud and up to this point, everything that I touched turned to shit. So I stayed in Melbourne. I barricaded myself at home, cried for three days, went out and got a puppy. Because I felt like if I didn't, I would run like I always have. And for some reason I felt compelled not to run this time. Long walks with my new needy puppy forced me to think about the events that have culminated to this point and I realised that life, my life, was a series of patterns. Something in my head clicked and I realised that I lived my life with a really, really bad four letter word hanging over my head. Fear. That at every chance I got, I left. I ran. Fear this, I am leaving. I bet you all thought it was something else. So the thing I feared the most was standing still. Because when I stood still I believed in my head that if I stood still my life would stand still and I would go nowhere in my life. And if I stood still I had to face myself in the mirror every day and I would be forced to be honest about myself, my life, my relationships, my failures. So with this knowledge I had a choice. Do I want to continue doing the same thing? But life has proven to me that if you do the same thing you will always produce the same result. And you know what? Fuck it. I chose to face my life, my fears, and I chose to stand still. To be honest with myself about my life and my choices and that was the best decision I have ever made in my life. Since then I have found martial arts founded trifecta martial arts with my best friend and business partner Aline. I found a life partner who supports the insanity of entrepreneurial life. And I am in the best place I have ever been in my life. Trifecta is the strongest reflection of who I am as a person because it was founded upon the belief that martial arts like life is a journey. All journeys it is about self-discovery. Sure you don't always make the right turns but that's okay. Your journey might be different from somebody else's and that's okay too. Might be longer or shorter and that's fine. And if you realize you're on the wrong path take some time. Stand still. Retrace your steps and if you know you've always been turning left at that junction, turn right. You know, just try it. My point is don't fear it. Just fuck it. Take a chance on life, on you. Even if it takes more than one chance. Anyone have any questions for me? You're thinking of your puppy? Puppy is growing a lot bigger and fatter and older now. We're waiting for that. Alright. How do you merge the two things of moving ahead trying something new not being scared of something new whilst not running? Because if the pattern is running but then how do you differentiate? I'm running away from or I'm running toward something that I want? Every time I'm scared I think back to the time when I went wakeboarding. And I was trying a trick and I was coming in and every time I get that jump I would let go of the handle and I would land and I would land it. And I don't know if you've lived in Singapore long enough to know the term Alian. Yeah, okay. So it's a really brass lady and the lady who was my instructor, my wakeboarding instructor who drove the boat, she is that Alian, the brass lady who stopped the boat with a cigarette in her mouth. Grace up. Okay. Don't always show the handle. You can do it. You see many times you landed right? How many times you go around because you always show the handle. Don't care. Hoi si ah. And that actually means fuck it, just go. Hoi si ah. Fuck up now. Every single time I'm actually scared of doing something I think back to that time and I know I can do it. It's just whether or not I can believe in it. I hope that answers your question. It totally says it. Thank you. Where's the martial arts coming from? Is there a reason in the storyline or? Well, martial arts came when the bedside table came hurtling at me and then spent the whole night crying and felt, oh my god, I didn't know how to defend myself then I went to learn martial arts and along the way picked up another martial arts as well. Yeah. Yes. What's the trifecta that you got? Trifecta's got Taekwondo, Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And you know Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I don't do Taekwondo. Are you still doing design? Yeah, I'm still doing design on and off, mostly for trifecta. Do you enjoy that now? Sorry? Do you enjoy design now? No, I still hate it. Every time Aline asks me, oh Grace, can I have a new t-shirt? No! Can you create a fire? No! Why do you hate design? I think it was something that came naturally to me but sometimes you don't appreciate the things that come naturally to you. What's the name of the puppy? Bruno. Bruno. He doesn't look like a Bruno but he's a Bruno. No, that was my ammo. Any sign of trouble I would turn and run because I was too scared to face it. Many times I realised that I liked this version of myself best. Oh my god, the most beautiful sentence ever. Yeah, every time I ran away I would create a new version of myself, create a new version of my life and this is the version I like the best and everything up to this point created this version of me so I'm happy with that. Where's your adrenaline coming now from? If you're not going somewhere else and really starting all the time where's your adrenaline coming from? My business keeps me busy and my adrenaline comes from watching my students grow every day changing lives one at a time. I had a teenage boy come in for his first class and he was this scraggly little boy then he was, oh my god, so uncoordinated. After I gave him his first class I remember telling Anin oh my god, I don't want to do that again. And now he's blossomed into this young man who competes in Brazilian jujitsu and for the first three months I didn't know how he sounded like because he was just like, hi Nathaniel. How are you Nathaniel? Do you understand Nathaniel? And he was so shy, so painfully shy and now he's got friends at the gym he's blossomed you know, he's got so much self-confidence, has conversations with you and I'm proud that something I did helped this. Alright, thank you everybody, good night.