Last week, I met Prabhu, a programme manager, for coffee. He is also a lecturer at NUS and was pursuing his PhD at the SeSaMe Lab more than ten years ago, around the time I was doing my Final Year Project (FYP) at the database lab. Although we were in different stages of our academic journeys, our paths crossed back then, and it was great to reconnect after all these years.
I reached out to him because I had been feeling anxious about what to do next with my AI storytelling platform, Kakis.ai. Recently, it received some public attention through its collaboration with Alibaba Cloud and HeritageSG in an AI storytelling video challenge. While that was encouraging, it also made me confront some uncomfortable questions.
AI is an incredibly competitive space. New models and products emerge almost daily, particularly from the U.S. and China, where many of the frontier AI models are developed. I found myself wondering: Should I continue investing my time and energy into this? Can I realistically achieve what I hope to achieve? Or am I setting myself up for failure by committing too much to an increasingly crowded market?
Those fears are real.
Prabhu began by asking what I was working on before sharing stories from his own journey through academia and his PhD. Rather than giving me direct advice, he shared a few philosophies that broadened my perspective.
1. Do your duty.
This is an important principle in his religion—one he told me he did not truly internalize until he faced significant challenges in life.
His message was simple: focusing too much on the end goal without taking the next small step only creates anxiety. Instead, concentrate on doing your duty each day. Show up, put in the work, and observe the small improvements over time. Those small changes gradually create new opportunities and reveal paths that were previously invisible.
As he spoke, I was reminded that this principle also appears throughout Christianity.
Colossians 3:23 — "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."
Proverbs 3:5–6 — "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
Matthew 6:34 — "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
He shared that a turning point in his PhD came when he stopped obsessing over publishing a top paper or finding the perfect research topic. Instead, he focused on building healthy daily habits—taking walks, exercising, and maintaining a healthy mind.
Sometimes what feels like an intellectual problem is actually a mental block. And sometimes that mental block is influenced by our physical health more than we realize.
2. Everything is difficult the first time.
Working on something new will always be challenging. It's difficult for you—but it's also difficult for everyone else.
It's easy to believe that others have somehow figured it out while we're struggling. In reality, everyone is navigating uncertainty when they venture into new territory.
3. Your mind and body are inseparable.
We often treat productivity and fitness as unrelated topics. They're not.
A healthy body supports a healthy mind. When you're physically active, you're often better equipped to think clearly, handle setbacks, and make good decisions. Many of the problems we attribute to a lack of ability are actually symptoms of fatigue, stress, or burnout.
Looking back, I realized our conversation wasn't really about AI or startups.
It was about overcoming the mental blocks that stop us from moving forward.
The work itself is often less difficult than the stories we tell ourselves before we begin. Progress doesn't come from having certainty about the future—it comes from consistently doing today's work, trusting that the path will become clearer with each step.
Note: Part of the words/lines were refined by ChatGPT for clearer reading.
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