Rachel Tai is currently a Legal Counsel at Entrepreneur First (EF), a venture capital firm that brings together ambitious people to build start-ups from scratch in London, Singapore, Berlin, Toronto, Paris and Bangalore. EF funds individuals, helps build co-founding teams, develops ideas, and accelerates through fundraising from the world’s best investors. Previously, Rachel practised Corporate law at Central Chambers Law Corporation, a full-service medium-sized law firm recognised by the Straits Times as one of Singapore’s Best Law Firms 2021. She also trained in Insurance and Civil Litigation and was called to the Singapore Bar in 2018.
Besides trying her absolute best to meet all of her never-ending deadlines (they sprout out of the ground like unwanted mushrooms) and to protect her client’s legal and business interests, Rachel devotes her spare time to tending to her balcony garden (cultivating vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs) as well as writing book reviews for local publishers and book distributors. She has also started Japanese language classes this year (spending six hours a week learning a completely new language is somehow both exciting and torturous).
This Letter is addressed to her 14-year-old self (who’s on holiday at a relative’s home in London) as she watches her older cousin leave the house for law school, dragging a suitcase behind her filled to the brim with law textbooks.
Dear 14-year-old Rachel,
I know exactly what is going through your mind: ‘I will never study law. I will never be a lawyer. I will never be a corporate lawyer’. Isn’t it funny how life always finds a way to prove you wrong?
Hate to break it to you but fourteen years later, you will have accomplished the exact opposite of all of those things: you will have done quite alright for the International Baccalaureate, you will have gone on to read law in the United Kingdom (far away from sunny Singapore, but a country that will always feel like a second home to you), you will have found and completed your relevant legal training and practice training contract, and despite all of the trials and tribulations, you will have passed the Bar and become a lawyer (no easy feat for anyone, really). Most importantly, despite others’ and your own second guessing and self-doubt, you will have found decent stepping stones and many great opportunities to learn and grow as a person and as a lawyer.
Your burgeoning love of English literature, photography and art will continue to grow and blossom, becoming your favourite subjects in due time. Yet when the question of a lifelong career looms overhead, you will make the pragmatic choice: the intellectually demanding road leading into the (stable yet challenging) legal profession. The thought of turning your hobbies and interests into full-time occupations is not ideal; you rationalise that making a career out of your interests will turn them into less enjoyable and fruitful pursuits. You’ll feel that desire to honour the strong sense of justice, ethics and morality within you, that impulse to help others and to do the right thing, and you’ll know that pursuing law is the right calling for you (criminal law will intrigue you – but let’s not give away too many spoilers!).
While you’ll learn a lot within the wonderful, warm, protective comforts of school, you have so much more to learn after you leave your comfort zone and begin life as a fledgling lawyer and (eventually) an in-house legal counsel (it’s amazing how dreams can become a reality).
Please never stop being cynical, curious, and cautious. These are important tools of the trade. Trust your gut instincts and always keep an open mind and a caring heart. Learn from your peers and superiors – there is good in everyone (and where there’s little kindness you can see, consider them lessons instead) and treat every challenge as a means to hone your craft. Don’t be afraid to improve as a person, and remember, you are so much bigger than your fears.
People may have their baseless opinions and unconstructive criticisms. Other people’s words and thoughts can feel so real and threatening. Sometimes, you’ll even have those same unfounded criticisms of yourself. Never let it hinder or dissuade you. Instead, let it flow through you. As your mother often remarks, ‘in one ear and out the other’. Apply it. Don’t be afraid, and don’t believe that you are small, incapable or that you aren’t good enough. Your thoughts are not all biblical truths or facts; sometimes they’re just wispy bits of imagination flying loose (the same can be said of other people’s thoughts too).
Take a deep breath and trust yourself. You are good enough and you can do it. Do your best, but remember to take breaks. Remember that you don’t have to finish every item on your to do list in a day, prioritise what is on your plate right at that moment – as a former colleague once reminded you, ‘there will always be work’. You can do it all (and if you feel like you can’t do it all, you are probably in dire need of a break!).
You are the captain of your own life journey, and there is so much to see, do, learn, and experience. By taking on more challenging work, you will improve and accomplish that much more as a lawyer.
I know the future is scary. Change is scary. The unknown is scary. Learning new things is scary. But as the saying goes, feel the fear, and do it anyway! You are not alone on this grand journey called life. You will accomplish so much, and you will be proud of how far you’ve come. I know I am. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone. Take hold of fear by its horns and run with it; harness all of that energy; that boundless adrenaline can be transformed into something so beautiful.
Love,
Rachel