Derek Chan, 34, has a dream, and he’ll work 16 hours a day to achieve it. He knows it won’t be easy — but Singaporean millennials know life is all about the hustle.
Derek Chan
fFrom 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Chan works on launching his new solo venture, a B2B consultancy business. Then, from 5 p.m. to midnight, it’s time for his side hustle: driving a rented car for Grab, a ride-hailing company.
In April, he quit his job at a government-owned research company, which paid 100,000 Singapore dollars, or $74,200, a year.
Backed by his wife of two years — the couple doesn’t have children — he invested SG$35,000 of his savings into launching his startup. His side hustle with Grab earns him SG$1,300 a month. He said he has “no time for hobbies” now.
“Everything is about money, to see if I can earn something,” Chan said.
On the other side of Singapore, Adam Azali works as a food-and-beverage associate at Bacha Coffee, a Moroccan coffee brand. He dedicates his free time to performing dance and music shows with other freelance performing artists.
Before the pandemic, Azali worked full time in the performing arts, teaching dance classes to children and performing at social and corporate events.
But being an artist in Singapore is challenging, Azali, who is 40, told Insider. It’s not a secure job, and artists often have to take part-time jobs on the side to make ends meet, he said.
“I believe why I survived that long is also because I’m not just a dancer. I’m not just a choreographer. I do makeup, I teach hairstyling, I do even lighting design for some of the performances and all of that, and I do music, too,” he said. “So you have to be able to do a lot of things and not just stick to one.”
