Forging a Path in Life
Despite the economic downturn, Link has expanded its summer internship programme this year to continue supporting young people. Each year, I make a point of sharing my views and experiences with our interns. During a recent forum discussion, I had a good exchange with this year’s cohort on building a career path.
Having identified their life goals and values to pursue, young people should take the initiative to equip themselves with different skills. Life wouldn’t go too easy on you, nor would it be set in stone. When the time of change comes, will you embrace it with confidence or simply shy away? Your mindset dictates your fate.
Reflecting on Link’s development in the past decade, I found this advice equally applicable to business management and investing. Link set out to build a more diversified asset portfolio with our first acquisition in 2011. With each new investment project since then, we have augmented our asset management capacity and business insights, helping us execute each subsequent project and grow our portfolio in terms of assets and markets. Our approach has culminated in our latest acquisition, The Cabot, an office asset in Canary Wharf, London. We now have a more resilient business because of the strategic decision involving the risk-reward trade-off we made early on to pursue inorganic growth and portfolio diversification.
On turning crisis into opportunity, I stressed to our interns the need to take a longer-term perspective and look past current uncertainties. I remember making my own career moves during times of slowdown and uncertainty. The economy then was in no better shape than now. As far as Link is concerned, the top risk factors in the current economy are COVID-19, geopolitical tensions and the encroachment of online retailing. All those are challenges but we shall overcome if we continue to stay focused on meeting customers’ evolving needs and preferences.
There is a distinction between vigilance about the current state of the world, and being worried. The former helps us to stay prepared and alert, while the latter makes it hard to keep our footing and stay focused on our long-term goals. We should be aware of the differences and act wisely.
