Small Actions, Big Success: Career & Personal Branding Mastery with Eric Sim S5 I Ep2

In this episode of the Career Transitions podcast, we are thrilled to welcome Eric Sim, thought leader, entrepreneur, author, and LinkedIn Top Voice with over 2.8 million followers. From his early days helping at his family's prawn noodle stall to leading at UBS Investment Bank as a managing director, Eric has built a career that defies limitations. Today, he is the founder of the Institute of Life, a platform dedicated to mentoring professionals in career growth, leadership, and personal branding.

Join us as we explore:

• Eric’s bold career transition from banking to becoming a global thought leader
• The challenges of reinventing your professional identity beyond a corporate title
• Why small, intentional actions are the key to big career success
• The power of social capital, storytelling, and building an authentic online brand
• How to navigate the "magical stage" of life where time, money, and health intersect
• His philosophy on investing in others and creating lasting impact

Eric’s journey is filled with practical wisdom, inspiring stories, and powerful takeaways for anyone looking to reinvent their career, build a strong personal brand, or embrace new opportunities.

Tune in now to learn how thinking big, starting small, and acting now can transform your career and life.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

· Vanessa Iloste (Host)

· Vanessa Teo (Host)

· Aaron Wu (Producer)

Transcript

Vanessa T: [00:00:00] On this week's episode of the Career Transitions Podcast, we speak with Eric Sim, thought Leader, entrepreneur, and LinkedIn Top Voice with a following of over 2.8 million followers. 

Vanessa I: We found Eric's journey to be very inspiring. His transition in life and career is grounded in purpose. And fueled by a willingness to share his wisdom with others.

We were struck by his authenticity as he reflected on how his background shaped who he is today.

Vanessa T: Welcome to another episode of the Career Transitions Podcast. This is the podcast where we dive deep into the real stories behind career evolution leadership in the future of work. 

Vanessa I: Today we are honored to welcome Eric Sim, founder of the Institute of Life and former managing director at UBS [00:01:00] Investment Bank.

Eric Is also a professor and an author with 2.8 million linking followers, one of the largest following in Singapore. He's a leading voice in career growth. Personal branding and leadership. 

Vanessa T: Eric, your career journey is inspiring. From leading in the financial world to becoming a thought leader, a speaker, and an author of small actions leading your career to big success.

Now we cannot wait to hear your insights today. Welcome to our show, Eric. 

Eric S: Excited to be on the show and thanks for inviting me, both Vanessa's. 

Vanessa I: Eric, your career transition from banking to becoming a global thought leader is absolutely fascinating. What inspired you to make this shift? 

Eric S: One day I look at my bank account and I realized I had enough money to last me a lifetime, and so I asked myself, should I continue doing banking?

Which I know exactly how my life will turn out for the next 10 years, or should I try to live a different life, A life [00:02:00] where I have the time to enjoy what I'm doing, to do things together with the people that I like. That's my thinking. And wouldn't it be nice that you wake up every day? And can't wait to experience life.

Is it going to be a media interview? Is it publishing book? Is it travel to a place that I've never been before? Like in the coming weeks I'll be going to Brazil for a talk and then hop over to Mexico, the end of Chicago for CFA live event. I took the latter, of course, and what's the worst that can happen?

This thing didn't work out after couple of years. I can go back to banking. I may not be able to work for the biggest bank anymore, but I'm sure I can find a smaller bank to work. But that didn't happen and it's been seven years already since I last left investment bank. 

Vanessa I: Seven years. That's really impressive.

I wanted to ask you about the challenges that you faced in the transition itself, because the realization, it seems to have been almost obvious to you. You woke up and you realized that it was what you wanted to do. [00:03:00] But when you moved into this new life, can you share with us some of the things you had to overcome or the things you had to do differently? 

Eric S: Yeah, number one is you no longer have the identity of your employer to lynch on. I remember I created a three day training course immediately after I left UBS. Should be easy to get people to sign up, right? Because I was charging only a thousand US, three day course, teach you everything I know how to become managing director, how to be partners of law firm.

Guess what? Very few people signed up and I had to cancel the course. I realized that I was known as a banker, but the moment when I switched my identity to be a trainer or to be an author, it takes time. Six weeks is not enough to market a course. Six weeks is not enough to build your reputation. So that is the thing that I found more challenging and I wish I have given myself more time before I market that course.

Vanessa I: You are talking [00:04:00] about a topic we have researched quite a lot with Vanessa T around the working identity. And this is the first thing you said when I asked you about the question. Can you elaborate a little bit more about that? I mean, how do you manage actually to get out of this beautiful name card that you have the beautiful name of UBS you have. 

Eric S: About six months before I left, I printed myself an orange name card that says Institute of Life, Chief Trainer. When I go for networking event that's not banking related. Instead of giving out my UBS MD card, I gave out my Institute of Life, Eric Sim Chief trainer's card, and people start asking me, what is IOL?

What do you do? What do you teach? I need to explain that. Within five minutes I can't help but then pull up my UBS card and give them. And then the questioning stop because they know exactly what that means. So it means that at that point I was not ready to let go of the identity. So even though [00:05:00] I've already got the money, but you're still attached, I've been in banking for 20 over years. So it's not easy to lose that. 

And the moment you lose that of who are you? So that's the question I asked. Took me about six months to finally stop myself from giving out the UBS card. I just explain until the person understood and I think I should be ready. But of course, arranging that three day course, that's when the reality hit me.

But one thing that gave me the motivation to continue is this three stages in life. So when you are in your twenties, you have time and health, but no money. That's me, right? I came from a family selling prawn noodles, so we didn't have much money. When you're in your forties. You are successful in your career.

You now have money. You still have health, but no time because I was always on my email. Even when I am on vacation, I'm working, I'm having conference call and in the night I need to have calls with New York. On Monday [00:06:00] morning, 7:45 AM I'm in the office giving presentation of what's happening in the week before. The deals that I've done or the deals that I'm going to do.

9:00 PM I'm doing another conference, but for China market in Mandarin of course, then in between then it's the normal day I need to talk to clients, try to close the deals, so there's really no time when you are in your forties. Then there's a stage three. When you're in your sixties. Hopefully you retire.

You can travel the world. You have all the time, you have the money, hopefully. But now your health start to deteriorate. You cannot go skydiving, and for most people, it's probably not a good idea to run a marathon at 60 plus. But there's a magical stage, which is between stage two and three, where you have money, health, and time.

And if we don't plan for it this period, this magical stage can be very short. I've seen colleagues, friends who worked so hard, gave up family and the health start deteriorating. They may have a stomach problem, back problem, they never had this magical stage. [00:07:00] And then for me, is that. I want to prolong my magical stage.

I know it's going to be challenging, but that is also part of life to have challenges. When you leave a life without challenges, it's going to be very boring. And some people get depression because they don't see their life getting better. So they have the money, they have the time, but they don't have the purpose.

Vanessa T: That magical stage is indeed a very special time. You also make me wonder about my magical stage and how I can also prolong that time. You remind me about your book. Eric and I picked up your book two weeks ago and had the opportunity to read it before this conversation. So your book, small Actions Leading Your Career to Big Success is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to our listeners.

It's filled with many great and practical tips about your own life. But also things that you've seen along the way and what it takes to build that successful career. And you've obviously been able to do many of those things that you talked about in your book. You actually emphasize a lot about taking those small, intentional steps, and [00:08:00] I was wondering if you could just share with our listeners the core message behind your book.

Eric S: Because I suffered from inferiority complex, I didn't dare to dream big. I didn't have the courage to take bold action. So I took many small actions consistently over time, and I realized that that is very powerful. My father was selling prawn noodle for over 30 years. I helped him for 10 years, and one of my tasks is to pluck the black husk from bean sprout.

So early in the morning I went to the store. We got a few kg of bean sprout for me to pluck, I was pulling a long face. My father said, why? Why look at the big pile of bean sprout? He asked me not to do that, but take a handful, clean up all the black husk, take another handful, remove the black husk, and the clean pile of bean sprout will get bigger, and you've got the motivation to continue.

Number one message is if you want big success, no need to take big bold action because sometimes big bold action freezes you. Then you end up not doing anything. Divide [00:09:00] all the challenges that you face into small one. For example, you want to run marathon. Don't think about 42 kilometers. Think about walking three kilometers.

So that's the key message for all my followers out there. What are the simple thing that you can do? You want to exercise. You got no time. Walk for 10 minutes. If you can walk for 10 minutes, walk up the stairs. Don't use the lift, don't use the escalator. Start with that first. Instead of thinking, I need to go to the gym, I need to join the spin classes. 

And most people end up not doing anything. So my book is really to help people have a quick start and once you start, the small success that you experience will help you continue doing what you've been doing. 

Vanessa T: And that consistency, yeah? Keep doing those small things, build it into a habit, and then big things can happen.

Eric, you speak about food and now I know why you're so passionate about food because it runs in your blood. In your book, you also talk about being that combo specialist, and I really like this analogy when you talk about the [00:10:00] combo meal at McDonald's and building your career like you would a combo meal.

Could you share a little bit more about that analogy with us? 'cause I absolutely loved it. 

Eric S: So in the combo meal you have a burger, you have a pack of fries and a glass of coke. The burger is your core specialization. The fries is your secondary specialization, and the coke is your interest or hobby. I'll give you an example.

In my case, I started out as an engineer. That's what I started in National University of Singapore, but I joined banking, so my burger was engineering, my fries was finance, and I enjoyed programming. So that's my coke. When I joined DBS Bank, I was in FX sales, so that's my job. At the same time, I used my computer programming language to automate processes to set up our swap calculators.

That was back in mid 1990s. Everyone in the dealing room was using this accounting calculator. I was not used to that 'cause I was using scientific calculator. So I didn't know [00:11:00] how to use that calculator. I said no worries. I used C++ to program a formula, and I was much more accurate. I was much faster.

So that's when I realized that when you do a job, you need to have a combo to make yourself special. Because my colleagues, the new hire, they are mostly from banking, finance, and business school. I was the only one with computer programming language, and your combo is not stagnant. Every few years it will change.

I then combine finance and engineering to do financial engineering at Citibank. I told my boss, Hey, I'm lack of social skills. Can you let me do some sales job? So my burger is now financial engineering. My fries is now sales, and my coke at that time was Mac, and this was in 2001. Nobody was using Mac because it was not compatible. There was no iPad, no iPhone, only iPod. 

I was the only one who was very familiar, I became the expert. Then I was teaching my colleagues, my bosses, and because of that, I build [00:12:00] good relationship with them. When I say, hey, can you send me to China? China is opening up. There you go. In two months, I was sent from Singapore to China.

I worked in Shanghai for two years. After that, I said, I wanna work in Hong Kong. They say, yeah, you can go to Hong Kong, and I work in Hong Kong for two years, so total eight years because I got this combo that I can switch around. Then after that, I joined investment banking because now I got sales skills. 

I did a lot of internal training. I also blog on LinkedIn, so that's my combo. And your combo, right? Sometimes the coke will change. Me writing on LinkedIn while I was in banking helps me to become an author today without writing on LinkedIn. I'll never be an author. My English was so bad. I practiced writing on LinkedIn.

And then you can see my writing is always simple English, short sentences, point form. And I use my photos to tell the story. So instead of posting selfies, I don't. I post a photo that matches what I want to say. Could be one photo, could be three, [00:13:00] four, sometimes 10 photos, especially if I did a trip, for example, I went to Jakarta just last week, so I've got photos of the Nasi Padang.

In Jakarta, you don't order. They bring like 20 dishes to you. You eat, they count. If you don't eat, you just leave it there, they take it back. It's so amazing. And so I got a photo of that in addition to the photos of me in the classroom, the students. So that will give people the image ,so I can write less. I let my photos tell the story.

So you can see, like my book is all very short chapters. The more I write, the more mistake I make. 

Vanessa I: I don't think you made a lot of mistake actually. I think you have made a lot of success and one of the biggest success is actually this followership you have on LinkedIn you were talking about. You are one of the most followed, um, Singaporean on LinkedIn with 2.8 million followers.

Vanessa and I, to prepare this episode, we were counting the accumulated number of followers we have together and it sounds very [00:14:00] ridiculous compared to yours actually, Eric. We were laughing about it. So we wanted to ask you, how did you make it happen? This would have been many, many years of hard work to get to such a big followership.

Eric S: It's been 10 years. In fact, this month is exactly my 10 year anniversary. I wrote my very first LinkedIn post February, 2015, while I was still in UBS. It was Chinese New Year Then. Hong Kong has like three days of holiday. I was based in Hong Kong. I didn't travel, so I started writing. There's no real secret.

So the key thing of my content is I share personal stories with professional application. So the personal story from me helping at the Hawker store, the lesson I learned from my father, me selling durian, or was a bartender, got rejected by Singapore Airlines. Got rejected by Princeton. My personal stories is not Facebook style personal story where I just update you what I eat or who I go out with.

There must always be a lesson, and this lesson must be [00:15:00] applicable in a professional setting, how I apply what I learned at the Hawker stores to investment banking, to work ethic. What I learned from trying to get a reservation at a restaurant that is completely full and I still manage to get a table that lesson, how can I apply it to my professional life?

So I think a lot of people, they want real life experience. They don't want a list of eight things to do this. They don't want you to share. Hey, I am honored to be given this position. I'm excited to announce that I'm speaking at this event. Too many, too much of those information, so I think people come to me for real life experience.

That's number one. Number two is I didn't go to Ivy League University or Oxbridge. I didn't come from a family of doctors or lawyers. My father couldn't give an IPO to the bank. So how can I then improve myself? People want to know, so if you are a taxi driver's [00:16:00] daughter, you are the supermarket cashier's son, where you got no resources, your family, don't know what's happening in investment banking, you can come to my blog, you can learn something. So I think that is why I get a bigger group of people. It appeals to them. 

The third is international context. I don't just write for Singaporeans, I write for the international audience and also travel to big countries like London, UK, US as well as India.

I was working in China for two years, so I also get some followers from there. I don't just write about my trip there. I understand their culture. I eat their local food. And when I teach, I'm going to the university to teach and to share. But for me, before each presentation, I need to prepare. 'cause what works in Singapore, Hong Kong, may not work elsewhere.

And if you realize my post, I will not post pork. 'cause I do a lot of food analogy. I'm sensitive to Muslim [00:17:00] community. I travel to Middle East a lot. In fact, sometimes I also try not to post too much about meat because they're also vegetarian. Half the population in India is vegetarian. So I want to be mindful about that.

Vanessa I: So it's almost like your own the philosophy. I mean, it's very fascinating to listen to you, Eric, because it feels like out of this regular posting, this regular effort that you have made in creating stories or sharing real stories, authentic stories. Together with the pictures, you have really created a form of philosophy.

It's almost like you are becoming a philosopher of the Institute of Life. I mean, is it something that you believe is keeping you engaged today to continue this journey? I mean, you could say, for instance, you know, now that I have all my followers, I have good enough. Like the way you looked at your bank accounts, you realize at that time you felt you had enough money.

What keeps you engaged into this journey? 

Eric S: What keeps me motivated is really sharing the failures in my life. I fail so much and [00:18:00] now I no longer need to worry about them. I can share them freely and if this can help the 22-year-old Eric and Erica's out there, then I have done my job because so many people have helped me along the way.

It's time for me to help others. Just last year I shared I lost 500,000 Ringit investing in Johor Bahru properties. I bought two 10 years ago holding them for 10 years without tenanting out. That means, it's still in original condition. I didn't even stay a single day and I sold them at a loss. Equivalent to 120,000 US. So many people benefited. 

If I had shared, oh, I make so much money from buying this stock or property, how can people benefit? So that is what kept me going. Not only my followers learn something, the media like it, because hardly people will tell publicly that they lost money on investment. So I've got Chinese newspaper, I have got English newspaper, I've got even this German TV station who called me, said, can [00:19:00] we come to Singapore to interview you for this? I met them, they shot some clips. 

The other thing that kept me motivated is the community. So when I write, it's not just online. I've got networking events, I've got books signing, and of course I got lectures as well. I enjoy meeting them. I cannot meet them one-to-one. I don't have enough time. But when it's a big group, when they tell me, "Hey Eric, I read your book. It motivated me. I took this action and I found this job." 

Like there was a guy from Spain after reading my book, he network online on LinkedIn, reach out to people for coffee, and now he's in Geneva and finally found a banking finance job. Previously, he was doing accounting. I said, that's great. I mean this is the impact.

The impact is very far. It's not just here in Asia. I've got people from Poland and there was a guy who bought my book, and then he sent me a message to say, oh, I got your book. I said, where you from? Is it Burkina Faso? Burkina Faso? Where is that? Is it a city, a country where? No, it's a country in Africa. I've never heard of it.

Then I said, [00:20:00] how do you get a book? 'cause I don't think my book is available in Burkina Faso. He got the book through a friend who was working in France. So when this friend is coming back to Burkina Faso, he asked his friend to buy a copy. That was fascinating, right? Me sitting in Singapore, although I travel, but I never traveled to so many different places.

Haven't been to Poland, haven't been to Burkina Faso, haven't been to Latin America, but next month, I'll go. It is, things like that. It is feedback like that that kept me going because I wish when I was 22 years old, there's somebody out there who can give me hope, who can tell me that, hey, even you don't go to a good school, even you don't come from a rich family. It is possible to just dream. You can dream bigger. 

So I want to tell the listener out there, don't be limited by your potential. A lot of us think I have potential, even whatever you can imagine, it is still possible to be bigger than that. You know, what's my potential? My potential is to take over the prawn noodle store.

That was what my parents gave it to me, and my [00:21:00] English was so bad that I was thinking of going to Polytechnic instead of doing A level so that I can quickly come out to work and support my family. For me, if I go to Polytechnic, if I can be a technician, it's already good enough because that's what my parents hope for me.

You work in an aircon place, you don't steal, you don't go to jail. That's a success. So that was my potential to work in an aircon place, but I keep trying different things. And when I was at DBS Bank doing FX sales. I was so bad because I was an engineer. I'm better with numbers than with words. I was better with Excel than with selling skills, so it's also very difficult to imagine at that point in time, I can one day join investment banking.

Vanessa T: You certainly have made such a big impact, whether it's through your book or whether it's through your community, Eric, certainly come a long way from that prawn noodle store, and you're absolutely right. You are not limited by your potential. You certainly have shown that through so many of the things that you've done.

I'm also curious, Eric, you founded [00:22:00] the Institute of Life, so that orange card that you were giving away... 

Eric S: Yeah.. 

Vanessa T: To people. You founded the Institute of Life, to mentor and to support professionals. Tell us more about the organization and what inspired you to start this initiative. 

Eric S: This is really to help the younger version of me, and I see that in schools.

Because you see in schools, in university and colleges, they teach technical skills, accounting, finance, engineering. By now you realize that we need a lot more than technical skills. We need to know how to deal with people. The office politics. Are you able to control your conversation to make people like you, to make people do the things you want them to do?

And selling skill is very important because if you can sell AI solution. If you can sell an aircraft, an airplane, that's a good job, right? And selling skills will not be taken over by AI, especially high ticket things and also how to view life, how to view money, how to plan. Sometimes people want to pivot, say when they're [00:23:00] in their forties 'cause they didn't plant the seed and suddenly if they quit their job, they don't know what to do.

They don't have the skillset. All of that from career planning to your people skills to your life after retirement, I'm teaching that. So whatever I teach is really to complement the school, the university curriculum. So that we can produce all rounders, interesting people who are adaptable no matter how much the environment is changing.

And also to allow working professionals to have the second and third career if they leave until a hundred years old, 70 eighties, they can still be doing different things. Just like me from a banker, now I'm an author, I'm a speaker, I'm a coach. All that I planted 20 years ago. I taught in the university one lecture a year, starting from 2003.

I published my book in 2021, 6 years before I really started writing on LinkedIn. So these are the things that I hope to impart. 

Vanessa I: That's really great, and I think it's good that you're also giving back [00:24:00] to the community because all this effort you're making is really helping you know all these young people. You have learned the hard way yourself, and now you are able to share all your knowledge. So I think this is really good. 

We wanted to ask your opinion around the future of work because you have this privileged laboratory, which is working very closely with universities and looking at society through this also laboratory of all these followers that you have on LinkedIn. How would you define the future of work and what would you predict for us in terms of the future of work based on the clues and the hidden insight you're having today?

Eric S: The work environment is going to change faster and faster. Now we all talk about AI, Deep Seek, a lot of people are talking about it. If you want to be relevant, use it. Use it to create an AI twin of yourself. If you're an accountant, upload whatever accounting books that you have. Your accounting knowledge, like for me, I create a iBanker.

I [00:25:00] upload deals so that people can learn from those transactions. I have also created AI coach. I call it a master coach that can help you write in my style. If you think that my style is something that you like, it is not just replacing human, it is a better version because imagine now I have got a LinkedIn writing coach for you, or you can engage me right?

If you engage me, you have to pay more. If you use the AI coach, you pay less. 3:00 AM in the morning. You suddenly got this idea of how to write an article. You come and ask me, even you pay me more, I'm not gonna answer you until the following day. But with the AI coach, you get immediately some tips and you are able to ask the stupidest question, maybe something that you are too shy to ask any human. 

The AI is there, so try to create something to replace yourself. If you think it can really replace you, the means it is time for you to learn more new skills. If you cannot replace you, then you need to learn more AI skills.[00:26:00] 

Vanessa T: I really like what you talked about, the AI twin. I'm thinking maybe we need another twin, Vanessa. Uh, besides the two of us. Vanessa's, we need a twin Vanessa, because creating a new skill and if you feel like you are able to create something to replace yourself, then that pushes you on to learn something even newer.

Eric, that's certainly some great food for thought. You've had a remarkable career and pivoted and transitioned into becoming an author, a professor, a keynote speaker, and certainly a LinkedIn influencer in many, many ways. If you could think of the top three powerful lessons and career success, what would you tell our listeners?

Eric S: Number one, accumulate social capital. That is the good will that you have with others. Buy lunch, be generous. Organize networking events. Help others when you can. Number two, develop your passion and interest. Incorporate some of your passionate interests into your work. This may not make you money now, [00:27:00] but you will find that you can talk to people once you've got more interest.

You can talk to people outside work and also once you go into retirement, when you're in your sixties, you got something to do and sometimes those passionate interest and make you money, like speaking, I didn't know speaking can get me paid. Writing a book can get me paid. These are out of my passion. And the third one is to invest in others.

A lot of time when we are at work, we always try to build relationship with the seniors. Some people just suck up to their bosses. They ignore the juniors. So when you are in your forties, the juniors are in their twenties. They may not help you back a lot, but when you are in your sixties, the juniors would've been in their forties and they could be the MDs or partners.

Now you're retired. And then if they remember, oh, 20 years ago you helped me. That's why I got this career. That's why I make md, they help you back. Whatever. Like for me, when I published my book, friends or ex colleague from 10, 20 years ago said, Eric, I'll buy 50 copies and distribute in my company, or I'll buy a hundred copies and I'll give it to the Youth Charity [00:28:00] Organization.

So those came from 10, 15 years before, not now. And why should people buy 50 copies of my book? Because I treated them well and then we built good relationship. So number three is to invest in others, and most people will do well and be better than who they are today because it happens to me. I say that if I can make such a dramatic change or improvement, so everyone I see is this guy is going to be the next md.

No matter they cannot speak English, they're failing in some subject or they cannot even sell, but they have the ability to improve themselves. I already see that in people, and maybe that is why I attracted so many followers. 

Vanessa I: I want to say a big thank you to you, Eric, because you have been so inspiring. It was a delight, a pleasure to listen to you.

I've learned a lot from you. I'm very grateful. I think that there are many, many nuggets that our audience, our listeners are going to get from you. I want to say also a big thank you for your generosity. You agreed to support [00:29:00] us and to come on the show today, and you did it with an open heart and ready to start the great relationship with us.

So I want to really acknowledge the fact that you are the person who is also walking the talk when it comes to the principle that they have and the way they think about humanity. So thank you for that. 

Eric S: Thank you for this opportunity to share my thinking and also share my work. And before the listener go, I want to share this last quote from my book is to Think Big. Start Small. Act Now. 

Vanessa T: Think Big, Start Small, and Act Now. What a wonderful way to end our session. Thank you, Eric, for sharing your journey and your insights with us. Your lessons on career transitions, your personal branding, and just your leadership journey has certainly resonated with Vanessa Iloste and myself, and we're so grateful to have you on our show.

And to our listeners, thank you so much for tuning into the Career Transitions Podcast. If this episode inspired you, then share it with someone who might need it and see you all next time. [00:30:00] Thank you so much, [00:31:00] Eric.