Tick Jiang is the founder & CEO at NUAI, a world-leading AI scientist, to deliver commercialised AI solutions for business.
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1) Could you tell us a little about your career background and current role to kick things off?
I have worked as a marketer and negotiator in fast-growing international businesses or businesses that involve customers, employees, and clients with diverse backgrounds for about nine years.
Since I started my first B2B company in property, I began to make angel investments with my friend Six, one of my co-founders of NUAI. I have met some incredible founders with world-changing businesses during our investment journey. However, they lack the technical capability to develop or apply artificial intelligence for their vision.
Then we founded NUAI with Joena, a world-leading AI scientist, to deliver commercialised AI solutions for business. In addition to NUAI’s AI B2B business, I am also building a new blockchain business for NUAI and helping grow a Sydney-based proptech startup Instarent as their CGO.
2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
My day usually starts with getting kids ready for daycares, then start working or to clients’ offices for meetings. A healthy breakfast and a cup of latte from fresh beans help me start the day fresh.
My days are organised according to different businesses: AI, Blockchain, Proptech and property. A typical Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday involve one hours of meetings, one hour break and three hours of focused work on strategy and tasks. After dinner, I will exercise for half an hour and take the kids for an hour of walks.
After my kids go to bed, I usually work and study again every night for 3-5 hours.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
I believe all entrepreneurs need the flexibility to balance businesses and families. For me, working remotely and freely is very meaningful to have it all.
We work hard to create a better life for ourselves and others, the ultimate goal is never to be buried in endless tasks and KPIs. This is just a way of leveraging business to give us a higher quality of life.
My co-founders and I are high-achievers who deliver an outstanding amount of work for businesses. We also believe in having the same amount of efficiency in life where we enjoy it thoroughly.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you, and how do you work to achieve that goal?
Work-life balance is tricky for a startup founder. We want to progress as fast as we can by working a lot more, but at the same time, we need time to recharge and grow.
I always care about the wellbeing of myself and my teams, both physically and psychologically. Therefore, I will reduce my workload when I am not in a prime state. I have several techniques for dealing with stress and negative emotions.
For example, reduce stress by increasing exercise, outdoors time, and supplements. I also love to cook, have a haircut, and test someone’s product when I feel negative.
Having a routine is also helping us to balance out work and life. I tried to have enough sleeping daily, a weekly exercise goal, and at least 45 days of travelling and going out every year.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
I began to exercise at home to make the gym time for meetings and business. That worked out really well with the data sharing with my co-founders and teams at NUAI. I can do it anytime as long as I complete my goals on Apple Watch.
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
Atomic Habits is a great book for creating better habits.
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions has some unique ideas of living a better life.
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
My iPhone, iMac, Apple Watch and AirPods Pro.
I use many apps: Sparks for emails, Canva for marketing and office documents, Quark and AFR for news, WeChat, Slack, Google Meet and Zoom for team meetings and business; Monday for leads and CRM, Notion for project management, Python for fun and analytics, eToro, Superhero for investment and trading.
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
Don’t make work your life, work harder to create a better life.
We founded NUAI to create more AI in the real world to help us do the tedious and manual work that we don’t want to do, helping us have a more balanced life.
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