Are you thinking of "starting something" in 2025?

How to work out what you really want and then get started on it. Simple.

Don't panic!

I'm not turning into some insufferable lifestyle guru. You know the type; YouTube bros in too-tight-t-shirts who stand in front of a rented Lamborghini outside someone else's house and rant about how you need to get up earlier and read more and stop talking to women!

That being said, it is that time of year when several people who have a slightly rose-tinted view of my life as a independent worker (I HATE the term freelancer), business owner and general man-about-town, bashfully admit to me, "Y'know, I've been thinking about starting something too."

I am always keen to support a fellow entrepreneur so I ask, "What sort of thing?" and this is where the conversation takes an early, anti-climactic turn because the response I get is nearly always a vague list of things they've done and things that they are sort of, maybe, interested in pursuing. For instance:

"Well, I've been in marketing for a while but I'd like to do something in sustainability."

Or...

"I've always been good with numbers but I think I'd like to help people."

Or my personal favourite...

"I'm thinking about doing some consulting."

These are not good answers.

I don't want to crush anyone's dreams, quite the opposite, I am - as you know - very much pro-human, which means I am pro-human flourishing and pro-human fulfilment, so allow me share my advice about how to get started by asking, firstly, do you even wanna be "starting something"?

How to work out if you really want to "start something"

1. First, like a preening actor, ask yourself what is your motivation behind wanting to "start something"? Is it simply that you're sick of your job? Then get another job. But consider this; maybe you don't need to love your job, maybe it's okay to tolerate it if it sustains a lifestyle that provides you with pleasure or meaning. If your lifestyle lacks any pleasure or meaning, then maybe it's your lifestyle that's the problem. Do you have any hobbies? Are you involved in any group activities? Do you volunteer or do anything for others? If not, start there before putting your entire financial support system and career at risk. I write Pro-Human, I act, I mentor youth through the National Trades Union Congress and help The Actor's Society with their marketing and communications, these are all sources of fulfilment for me.

2. Second, do you have an actual idea of what you want to start? It may be early days and you're just mulling over the possibilities but too often, when people tell me about wanting to "start something" what they are really doing is asking me to provide them with an idea or an opportunity as opposed to offering me one. They are hoping that by listing off their abilities and interests I might spot some potential to do something with them or for them or put them in touch with someone who will. They're asking me to solve their problem when what they should be doing is finding a problem that they can solve for others. That is the essence of starting any business; solving a problem for an individual or organisation using your unique experience, abilities and approach. If you can't solve a problem, you've got very little to offer.

3. But don't try and solve too big a problem. Often, when I give the advice stated in point number two above people tell me they do want to solve a problem, like climate change or poverty or, that old chestnut, to "make the world a better place". No one person can accomplish these things alone, least of all a regional office middle manager who is vaguely considering the possibility of perhaps "starting something". Now, that doesn't mean you can't "make the world a better place", it just means start locally and find a problem you can solve right now without a billion dollars of investment. Example: more people in the world are scared of public speaking than of dying. I solve that problem through communications training. It makes the most of my unique experience and talents as a trained actor and journalist and I like to think I have a unique approach, which some people hate but enough people love to keep me in business. Helping people build confidence and communicate better also gives me great pleasure and purpose in my work.

4. If you really, really, REALLY want to create more positive impact through your work then start a recycling initiative or mentoring programme at your office; plant trees, volunteer your talents to a charity (they need accountants and marketers and HR experts too!), ask you boss to sponsor the local football team's shirts. In most cases you will do more good with an existing business behind you than starting out on your own but if that's not enough and you really must "start something" to do good then be prepared to take a significant pay cut because guess what? The world is topsy turvy and, by-and-large, the people that do good are usually not the people that do well. It's the same if you want to transfer your skills to a charity or non-profit too - the clue is in the name!

How to actually "start something"

The 21st century ideal of finding purpose through your work coincides, as far as I can tell, with the decline of communities and distribution of families, which is where we used to find meaning (Derek Thomson provides some evidence for this in his article recommended below).

Now, as work breaks the confines of the office and takes over more and more of our lives we expect it to provide more and more meaning, but that's not its job. For most us the purpose of work (whisper it), is to drive a profit for shareholders so maybe that's not the first place to look for your purpose. However, if you truly have a calling to "start something", then here are my top tips to actually get started:

1. Find a problem to solve (yes, that, again!). It doesn't matter how big or small, just make sure that what you're offering solves something for someone, somewhere.

2. Do some market research. Who else in your market is doing this? How successful are they? What do they charge? How can you differentiate? You don't need to come up with an idea that no one's ever thought of before, you just need to put your own twist on it. I'm not the only communications trainer in Singapore, but my background in acting and journalism (as opposed to PR or leadership), make me a unique proposition within my market (as opposed to, say, LA or New York where there must be thousands of actors and/or journalists who could do what I do).

3. Create a value proposition. This is a pithy, one-sentence description of what you offer, who it benefits and how, e.g. as the owner of Moore's Lore Media, 'I help individuals and organisations tell better stories for business impact through content strategy and communications training'. This was the idea I had when I started my business and it's what I tell people who ask me what I do. As Neal Moore, the author of Pro-Human, ‘I advocate for the value of human creativity and culture in an increasingly inhuman world through public speaking and writing’.

4. Try your value proposition out on a few people and see how they respond. This way you don't tell them that you are thinking of “starting something" but that you are thinking of solving a specific problem for a particular target audience in your own unique way. Now THAT'S a conversation that could be lifechanging.

All the best for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2025 to y'all!

Recommendations

• Derek Thomson's long read in The Atlantic this month, 'The Antisocial Century' is worth the subscription fee alone however you can read it by signing up to the free trial 😉

"Just as we needed time to see the invisible emissions of the Industrial Revolution, we are only now coming to grips with the negative externalities of a phonebound and homebound world. The media theorist Marshall McLuhan once said of technology that every augmentation is also an amputation. We chose our digitally enhanced world. We did not realize the significance of what was being amputated."

Derek Thomson, ‘The Antisocial Century’

• Don't take your glasses off just yet because I have another long read to recommend, Liz Pelly's in-depth investigation entitled 'Ghosts In The Machine: Spotify's plot against musicians' will leave you agog!

• Finally, and more locally, a lot of people are under the impression that Singapore lacks free speech and, on certain subjects, I can't deny that's true but local writers are not shy in speaking up about their objections to AI theft of their work: ’68 Singapore writers sign statement criticising National Library Board’s ‘uncritical endorsement’ of generative AI’. You can read the open letter, which has been published by

  Ng Yi-Sheng
  here:

  Collective Statement from Singapore's Literary Community on AI

That'll do ya! Nx