The Beginning - My Story
The year was December 2021. I had just come out of a serious relationship and was reeling from a heartbreak. I was, for the most part, coping with this breakup in a healthy manner. The loss of this relationship meant I could now spend more time with my friends, family, and search for a new relationship which I thought I was ready for.
This all but lasted 2 months.
From February 2022 onwards, I started spending most weekends drinking, partying and doing everything related to the scene. I hopped on dating apps and it wasn’t to search for a long-term relationship, but a one-night connection to restore my ego and belief that I remained an attractive man desired by women.
The rest of 2022 was a blur. I honestly could not remember much of it. If I had to guess, it’d be that I worked my 9-5 from Monday to Friday, hit the gym most nights, then proceeded to spend my weekends drinking my life away and used Sundays to recover.
My life really had no purpose. I refused to admit this at the time, but I had truly lost my mission as a person and as a man.
I took a trip to Phillipines with my boys in January 2023. By this time, I felt I have recovered from my heartbreak and was ready to settle down in a long-term relationship. I met a girl during this trip but unfortunately things did not work out. I arrived back home in Melbourne, Australia in February 2023 feeling stuck and lost. I had spent so much time trying to search for another woman that this literally became my mission. It took over my life. I knew something needed to change.
In April 2023, for a reason which I cannot remember, I decided to pick up reading again, a good habit that I cultivated during my high school and university days. The first book that I picked up was ‘The 5AM Club’, which told the story of two ordinary people meeting an eccentric tycoon who taught them the benefits and power of waking up at 5AM.
I was skeptical about this book. At the time of reading it, my bedtime was usually around 1-2AM and I would wake up after 8AM just to have sufficient time to wash up and jump on my morning meeting (I worked from home). But I thought I’d give the whole ‘wake up at 5AM’ thing a go for 30 days. The agreement I had with myself was that if I didn’t notice any benefits after 30 days, I would allow myself to return to my standard routine. At the bare minimum, I can prove to myself and others that this book and the entire ‘wake up early’ fuss doesn’t actually work for everyone.
Little did I know that this seemingly small change will literally transform the trajectory of my life.
The first 2 weeks were extremely difficult. I really struggled waking up at 5AM and felt tired throughout the day. Sneaking in a nap during my midday lunch break was not an uncommon occurrence.
But came the third week. My body had now better adjusted to the early wake ups and I suddenly felt more positive and driven in life. The quiet time I had in the morning allowed me to read, journal, and reflect on all aspects of my life.
LATE 2021 - EARLY 2023
Birth of SOM APPAREL
In these early mornings, one positive habit snowballed into another positive habit. Reading led to journalling, and journalling led to thinking about what businesses I could start.
I’ve been interested in building financial wealth since my university days. I remember trying to get through “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham because I thought the stock market would be the tool I utilise to achieve this goal. It only took a few months for me to lose the few thousand dollars I invested, and I decided to give up on this feat not because of the money lost, but because I realised I simply did not have the interest nor passion for the trading market.
After graduating from university and having saved up a sum of money from several years of full time work, I then thought real estate would be the next method I experiment with to achieve the same goal. But a few things didn’t quite make sense to me.
For one, it takes a long period of time to save up enough to put a deposit down, and even when you have purchased the property, it doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the bank, and you now have a mortgage and other property-related expenses to pay. I never quite understood how people say buying properties is an investment. Because the way that I see it, buying properties is a liability until they gain enough valuation for you to sell it, in which the entire process can take up to 10-20+ years.
One of these mornings, the thought of starting a clothing brand popped into my head.
Being a lover and a willing spender of streetwear (at the time of this thought), I wanted to build a brand with the aesthetics of Represent and Essentials Fear of God here at home in Australia but with a twist -
I wanted this brand to not only be about clothing, but to convey the message of self-improvement. I wanted to tell my story to inspire people to chase their dreams and to fulfil their maximum potential.
I decided the brand was going to be named “State of Mind Apparel”, or short for “SOM APPAREL”, taking on inspiration from the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.
The Messy Middle
Being the first business I’ve ever started, a lot of it involved experimentation and learning from my mistakes.
Unfortunately, despite the many books that I read, I found that they couldn’t give you practical advice on which decision to make. Without a mentor, you really have to go through failures, challenges, and trade losing money for learning the important lessons you need to eventually succeed.
Venturing out with zero business experience and equipped only with a vision in my head and a wild ambition, I managed to source a product developer and manufacturer to begin the work of creating a custom and premium t-shirt with an anticipated launch in summer 2024 / 2025.
Thinking it was necessary to put down a lot of money for a business to succeed (hint: you don’t), I didn’t hesitate to keep paying the seemingly never ending invoices I received particularly from the product developer… until I got to the final stage of sampling.
This was when I realised how much money I had put down with no guarantee that there was a target market out there that would be willing to spend money to buy these t-shirts.
When April / May 2024 came around, I chickened out and pulled the plug. I ghosted all parties involved and decided to cut my losses. I gave up on launching SOM APPAREL and did not think I would return to this idea again.
“A lesson learnt, I guess” - I remember telling myself, as I took on the heartbreak of losing tens of thousands of dollars that I earned through my blood, sweat and tears at my full time job and 3 other side jobs.
The Present
I don’t know what it was, but during my trip to Chiang Mai in September 2024, the idea of rebuilding SOM APPAREL was reignited.
Maybe it was that one night when I was looking at my older YouTube videos and realised how driven, passionate, and full of purpose I was when I was building this brand alongside my Muay Thai training, working a full time job and 3 other casual side jobs.
Despite my concerning sleep deprivation, I sounded so passionate and so fulfilled in these videos.
Maybe it was the chat that I had at the coffee shop with my entrepreneur friend which I met through Muay Thai training.
Maybe it was because I finally had more time to myself, away from the daily work and hustle, to really reflect on what gives me the deepest fulfilment and greatest sense of purpose in life.
Regardless, all factors intertwining with one another, I decided I will give building SOM APPAREL a proper go with an exception - To do many things differently this time around.
For one, I want to be transparent about my process of building this brand. I want to document it and tell it to the world, in hope of encouraging the many young entrepreneurs around the globe. When I was first building this brand, I was overly concerned and paranoid with having my ideas, designs and / or brand name stolen that I chose not to reveal many details. This will no longer be the way moving forward.
Secondly, we are going to start on a much smaller scale. Instead of commencing with a custom design, the goal will be to source blank t-shirts which we can screen print locally to test demand and keep costs low as we build this brand from the ground up.
Lastly, this being the most important change - Fuck the money. When I first thought of building SOM APPAREL, my primary motivation was to make a shit ton of money and to achieve financial success. This will no longer be the case moving forward. Instead of focusing on the money, the main focus now is on finding like-minded individuals and building a supportive community through this brand.
I am writing this at a coffee shop during my travel to Hanoi, Vietnam on September 24, 2024. I truly do not know what the path is for SOM APPAREL moving forwards. It could be a complete flop, or I could look back at this in a few years’ time with this brand having a global reputation. I don’t know, I can’t tell you, and I don’t have a crystal ball.
All I know is, despite my brain and people (including my own family) telling me not to go ahead with this, my heart and my gut are telling me that I need to do this and at least give it a proper go.
So giving it a proper go I am.