I first crossed paths with Eric Sims in a Linkedin creator workshop.

He shares his insightful journey going from side hustle to building Institute of Life full-time.

Today, in 10 minutes or less, you'll learn:

• 🏦 How Eric went from jobless grad to MD of UBS Investment Bank

• 🚀 How Eric decided to go full-time with Institute of Life and what worked (vs didn’t)

• 🫶 Portfolio career lessons learned, mistakes, and advice

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Building a Portfolio Career With 2M+ Audience | Eric Sims

Suffered from inferiority complex since young, Eric Sim was jobless for six months after graduating from Lancaster University in the UK.

Fortunately, after taking a series of small actions, he managed to carve a career in banking, where he worked for Citi for eight years before joining UBS Investment Bank as a managing director. While in banking, he was an Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

A key opinion leader with over two million followers on LinkedIn, Sim has now developed a portfolio career that consists of teaching, coaching and speaking. Based in Singapore, he is also the author of the book: “Small Actions: Leading Your Career to Big Success”.

1. Tell us about your career journey going from graduating jobless in London to becoming a MD of UBS Investment Bank to founding the Institute of Life.

Without any luck in securing a job in London, I came back to Singapore only to be hit by the Asian financial crisis. Front-office banking jobs disappeared. I changed tack and went into risk management. After working in risk for four years, a friend from Citi called to ask me if I was interested to help Citi set up a risk advisory function. Of course, I was. I joined Citi and worked there for eight years in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Then, another friend from UBS called to invite me to join their team. Soon, I joined UBS Investment Bank as a managing director.

I attribute my good fortune to the social capital I’ve accumulated over the years with colleagues and friends. Social capital is the goodwill that you gradually build up with others. It works a bit like depositing money in a bank and seeing your savings grow. Each time you’re nice to someone or help them, you generate some social capital.

2. You started Institute of Life in 2015 after your LinkedIn article about it went viral while you still worked full-time in investment banking. How did you build and sell the first Institute of Life programs as a side hustle?

The LinkedIn article on “The Education We Need Next Year” garnered over 3,000 likes. Many people agreed with my list of skills that young people need to achieve success. So I designed a two-day personal development course targeting young professionals. The course aimed to teach personal branding, selling, negotiation and networking skills on top of the mindset required to climb the corporate ladder.

Only five people signed up, so I cancelled the course. It was a huge setback for me. I began to doubt myself: does it mean I am not cut out to run my own business? Luckily, I got my first coaching client during the process. That was my first sale. My confidence came back when my client secured a better job in a bigger company.

3. What worked and didn’t work to grow Institute of Life in the early days? Were there any difficult moments and how did you overcome them?