Why I quit my law career to start an education centre by co-founder Algene

In 2017, I trad­ed the court­room for the class­room. I co-found­ed Think Teach Acad­e­my, poured my heart and soul into build­ing it into the insti­tu­tion it is today and the rest as they say is his­to­ry.

While I was not the first lawyer to leave the legal pro­fes­sion and most def­i­nite­ly would not be the last, I still always get asked why I chose to turn my back on a noble pro­fes­sion and a lucra­tive career and whether I had ever regret­ted my deci­sion.

The short answer is no. Not once have I ever regret­ted becom­ing a teacher and a busi­ness own­er. I also nev­er regret­ted my deci­sion to read law at both the under­grad­u­ate and post­grad­u­ate lev­els. What I had got­ten out of two law degrees is a much more dis­ci­plined and sharp­ened mind. The pur­suit of a law degree is an ardu­ous process but sur­vive it and you will be abun­dant­ly enriched. After being test­ed and trained with years of men­tal gym­nas­tics, I can only tell you how much more crit­i­cal and clear­er you will start see­ing the world. The chal­lenge is worth tak­ing regard­less of what you decide to do with a law degree (and there is a lot apart from prac­tis­ing as a lawyer that you can do with it!).

As to why I chose to leave the law pro­fes­sion, it was not because of the noto­ri­ous­ly long work­ing hours. If any­thing, I thor­ough­ly enjoyed work­ing as a lawyer. No doubt it was at times tor­tu­ous­ly tir­ing but the cama­raderie in the office among col­leagues made the pain bear­able. I left the law for three rea­sons com­plete­ly unre­lat­ed to my expe­ri­ence read­ing law or work­ing as a lawyer. First, I was keen­ly inter­est­ed in edu­ca­tion. Sec­ond, I want­ed to rev­o­lu­tionise edu­ca­tion and empow­er stu­dents with bold­er and smarter learn­ing tech­niques. Third, I knew I had what it took to be a mar­velous teacher and role mod­el, if not the best. And for the avoid­ance of any doubt, teach­ing is as noble a pro­fes­sion as lawyer­ing so on the noble pro­fes­sion front, I nev­er saw a dif­fer­ence.

Many peo­ple know of Awful­ly Choco­late. Who wouldn’t? They have shops mush­room­ing all over Sin­ga­pore and Chi­na. Despite their accom­plish­ments, not many peo­ple know that Awful­ly Choco­late was found­ed by a for­mer lawyer as well. In fact, Awful­ly Chocolate’s founder, Lyn Lee, is a lawyer-turned-pas­try chef. Draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from her exam­ple, I want­ed to do to edu­ca­tion what Lyn had done to the hum­ble choco­late cake. She ele­vat­ed it and made what was already a delec­table treat even bet­ter. She made Awful­ly Choco­late a house­hold brand and its choco­late cake the go-to cake for vir­tu­al­ly every spe­cial occa­sion.

Just like Lyn, I left the legal pro­fes­sion so that I could make some­thing bet­ter. In my case, that some­thing was how stu­dents learn. Many stu­dents were not learn­ing the right way. They were not under­stand­ing what they were learn­ing and not appre­ci­at­ing why they were learn­ing. I want­ed to change that. I want­ed to form a team to research best prac­tices for learn­ing and teach­ing. The aim was to devel­op a set of tech­niques and pro­to­cols for teach­ers to teach smart and stu­dents to think smart. I was clear of my vision. The only piece miss­ing was the actu­al ves­sel to mate­ri­alise what I had con­cep­tu­alised.

Found­ing an edu­ca­tion acad­e­my was a very easy deci­sion for me because I was sure about what I want­ed to do. It was even eas­i­er because I was blessed that I had a long-time friend who shared the same vision, belief and prin­ci­ples as I. That friend was Shou Yee and he is of course the oth­er co-founder of Think Teach. 

If he was asked, I have full con­fi­dence that he too would say that he is proud of what Think Teach stands and is known for today. Our edu­ca­tion phi­los­o­phy of teach­ing and think­ing smart forms our iden­ti­ty and will con­tin­ue to under­gird Think Teach. Every­thing we do is to enrich and empow­er our stu­dents to reach greater heights. Every­thing we do has to always be smarter. It has to always be bet­ter.

Per­haps this is the lawyer in me talk­ing? After all, lawyers always have the best inter­est of their clients at heart. They toil and do every­thing in their pow­er to help their clients win and suc­ceed. The same applies to what we do at Think Teach. The only dif­fer­ence is that our clients are not mul­ti-mil­lion­aires or multi­na­tion­als. Our clients are worth more. They are chil­dren — our future lead­ers and the thinkers of tomor­row.

This arti­cle was proud­ly writ­ten for you by the Think Teach Team. Every year, we impact over a thou­sand stu­dents and empow­er them with our smart tech­niques to achieve exam excel­lence in their school exams as well as the PSLE. We want your child to be our next suc­cess sto­ry!