Marcus Wong is the co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Svested, one of Southeast Asia’s leading Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) specialists.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I’m currently the Chief Commercial Officer at Svested, where we help companies with their Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) and corporate secretarial matters.
Before this, I spent the last five years in the public service, with my last role being in the startup development team in Enterprise Singapore. After peering in the startup space from the public sector perspective, I decided to join the other side (to be in a startup).
2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
There’s no fixed days, but I tend to spend my day meeting with clients and partners and talking about how we can help them with their ESOP and corporate secretarial matters.
For example, on a recent Monday, I started the day meeting two potential partners for coffee, followed by lunch with another partner. After lunch, we had our team sales meeting, followed by a quick sync up with an external party as we were contributing an article for their website.
The day ended with another internal meeting on some internship matters, followed by a chat with my co-founder.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
Yes, our work is flexible. Despite having an office, we don’t really go in. This allows more autonomy and flexibility in planning my day, such as scheduling meetings with clients, juggling family and personal matters, etc.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
I think work-life balance is best thought of as work-life integration. I think that work has evolved to allow us the ability to choose how and when we want to get stuff done.
We no longer need to clock in our hours in the office in order to get our work done, when things can be done virtually. Work-life balance means the ability to choose when and how we want to get things done.
For example, starting the day before sunrise, choosing to go for a mid-day workout, clearing work after the kids go to bed, etc.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
Tried to document my daily habits and journal. Forces me to reflect and think about what I should do and what I have done. And of course, exercise more frequently.
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
Books: Tools of Titans, The Purpose Driven Life.
Newsletter: Farnam Street, Adam Grant,
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
Gadgets: Phone, Laptop.
Apps: WhatsApp, Notion, Inbox.
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
Anthony Tan, Lee Hsien Loong.
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
Find a way to create harmony between work, play, and life, and you will be much happier.
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