Cover In the fifth season of Crazy Smart Asia, featured guests included investor Sarah Chen-Spellings, sustainability champion Max Song and edtech founder Tommie Lo (Illustration: Raphael Quaison)

Season five of our Crazy Smart Asia podcast has just concluded. Here are five of the most memorable quotes from our featured guests

Each week in our Crazy Smart Asia podcast, we unravel the motivations and thought processes of Asia’s trailblazers and visionaries. Our fifth season featured six young leaders, who shared their journeys and unexpected stories. 

To round out the season, we handpicked the best takeaways from each of their episodes. From self-empowerment to where to find inspiration, below are the insights they shared that we hope can help you, too, in your own professional journey and life. 

Click the audio player to listen to the full episode or subscribe via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tommie Lo, founder of Preface

On doing what you love

“Truly do something that you love. You know that building a company [requires] a lot of sacrifices, so it has to be something that you love so much that you want the world to have such a company or a project to exist so that you will be willing to go through all the ups and downs because the process is going to be painful.”

Listen to Tommie’s episode: Tommie Lo is redefining the boundaries of a classroom to fit our 21st century lifestyle

Sarah Chen-Spellings, founder of Beyond the Billion

On knowing your power

“The easiest way that we give away power is to believe we have none. Each of us has a realm of influence. Never feel that you’re too small. Never feel that you’re insignificant to make a difference. We can all do something.”

Listen to Sarah’s episode: Why Sarah Chen-Spellings is investing a billion dollars in female founders

Angeline Tham, founder of Angkas

On being your own cheerleader

“You have to speak to yourself as your own cheerleader. I think that’s something that I’ve learned through time. You have to go through the downs and appreciate the ups as well.”

Listen to Angeline’s episode: Angkas’ Angeline Tham on how solving Manila’s traffic problems can also help end poverty

Max Song, founder of Carbonbase

On turning to space for inspiration

“When you get into space, you look back on the Earth and you realise that all of the trauma and all the angst, fear and emotional negativity we feel about each other, about ourselves and our meaning and purpose on the planet is encapsulated in this beautiful sphere surrounded by the vastness of nothing.”

Listen to Max’s episode: How to impact a billion people, according to climate-tech startup Carbonbase’s founder

Tharma Pillai, co-founder of Undi18

On working hard to earn your luck

“Fundamentally, if you do things right, if you work hard and you make the right strategy, you are increasing your surface area for that lightning strike of luck to happen. You cover all your bases, you speak to everyone, you build coalitions, you build a genuine movement.”

Listen to Tharma’s episode: The two millennial ‘nobodies’ who helped Malaysia get its democratic awakening

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