Meet Alfie...

I met Alfie on another scorching day in a beautiful office building in the middle of Singapore. I felt worn down by traveling and meeting so many folks. An emptiness washed over me because a close travel buddy of mine just returned home, and I felt overwhelmed by the daunting task of continually making new “best friends” and wanted the comfort of someone who already knew my story.

The show must go on, as they say, and I never turn down an opportunity to meet with anyone so I jumped at the chance to sit down with Alfie for coffee, even though I wasn’t in the mood. Earlier in the day another interviewee from an impact investing firm e-introduced me to Alfie, so I had little time to understand what he actually did on a daily basis. All in all, I went into the interview blind.

Due to these facts, I didn’t even record the interview, something I almost always do. Of course, it was one of the best conversations I’ve had thus far. Maybe it helped that no big brother recording device overheard our conversation, perhaps it allowed the truth and connection to flow. Through our conversation I held back tears, and continually felt the immense gratification of being inspired- one of the primary goals of my trip.

Alfie is Malay, the aboriginal group of Singapore, an often overshadowed minority. He came from humble beginnings, and knew he had to work twice as hard to get ahead. Like many others who grow up in pauper circumstances, Alfie envisioned a different, more lucrative path for himself. He had his sights set on making money, lots of it. So he did what any driven smart young man with a pension for a large paycheck would do, he applied to work in a bank.

Of course, Alfie didn’t know the specifics of how to break into the banking world. The job required a minimum of two years work experience. Luckily, his ingenuity and wit helped made up for his lack of professional experience. He chose to invest in blue colored paper for his paper resume instead of the traditional white, hoping the recruiters would notice the flashy paper and then they would HAVE to give him an interview. Believe it or not, the scheme worked. Then came the next barrier, he needed a tie for the interview, an item that always seemed superfluous. His cousin promised to help him out. So on the day of the interview he went to procure his new tie, but it turned out the tie had a large American dollar bill on it. Yeah, you’ve seen the ones, the kind you buy on the Jersey Shore to wear to a Bachelor party in Atlantic City.

Due to his limited options, and inability to buy another tie, he went into the interview with absolutely no banking experience, a blue resume, and a kitschy non-ironic tie- a bold move for an underdog.

Flash forward over a decade, Alfie’s resume (now a more traditional hue) is filled with major banking titans including Citi Bank and J.P. Morgan. He worked endless hours making it up the ladder, living the over-the-top lifestyle commonplace on Wall St.

Around this time, Alfie started having a pang of conscience. Some call it a mid-life crisis, Alfie refers to it as the time when he stopped being a capitalistic asshole. I prefer his definition.  When he thought about his two kids, the ones he rarely saw due to his insanely demanding work hours, he realized he wanted to set a different example, he wanted an entirely different life, one that added, rather than taking away the world. He wanted to give back to his community instead of making huge profits for people with already deep pockets.

It was at this time he became a social entrepreneur, although he didn’t know it. He started a wholesale food business employing unemployed members of his community. He went to the basics, brick and mortar.

Quickly he understood that even though he gave up his enormous paycheck, he gained more in return. One of the most important days of Alife’s life occurred when he helped his employees open their own bank accounts to deposit their checks. The lavish parties, beautiful women, expensive meals compared to absolutely nothing next to the great power you get when you empower others. He radically altered the lives of not only these individuals, but their families, and their families. Bank accounts, may seem insignificant to most, but just imagine your life without one.

Luckily for the Singapore, Alfie didn’t stop at his company, and his drive and intellect landed him as one of the major leaders in the social enterprise ecosystem. Today he’s involved in every aspect of the social economy, from running the SE Hub, to bargaining the first SIB, basically he’s the man (but not in the capitalistic asshole sense). Alfie feels that this coming year will bring big things for Singapore’s social economy. “It’s now or never”, he told me. 2014 will be the year to demonstrate that the social economy is here to stay.

It’s conversations like these that remind me why I sold all of my things, and left behind my comfortable life in New York. For a life truly worth living doesn’t exist in the zone of comfort, it’s in the endless hours you put into your life’s passions. I learned this lesson from seeing the immense and truly authentic smile that you can often find on Alfie’s face.