The story
Edwin Song is Co-founder & CEO of Moodie.ai, an AI SaaS communication training platform. He spent most of his career in Shanghai and a short while in Hong Kong, rising from a junior role to managing director by 35. At the age of 50 he returned to Singapore and started his first venture, Moodie.ai. Growing a business of his own and experiencing the challenging entrepreneurial moments had always been at the top of his career bucket list.
In the corporate world, he says, rules and protocols are handed to you and you manage accordingly. As a founder, you fight for ways and means, you can never be sure that the information behind your last decision was right, and your journey is often very lonely. He describes the first three years as being left alone in a jungle without anything: you grab whatever shelter, food and water you can find just to survive, while staying constantly alert to the lurking dangers and fierce competition in the environment.
“It is the picture of success and the purposeful destination that keeps me going.”
The skill at work: Self-Regulation (Skill 8)
Self-Regulation is the skill of managing your own triggers and staying clear-headed when the system pushes back. It is what lets a leader keep executive presence under extreme pressure. In Edwin's story it is less about one dramatic moment and more about a steady way of carrying pressure over years.
Naming the pressure honestly
Edwin does not pretend the early years were fun. He says it felt like being hungry and thirsty in the wild, that leading alone was lonely, and that some decisions were scary because nothing told him whether the last one had been right. Saying so plainly is part of regulating it: you can manage a feeling you have named.
Keeping the destination in view
He says he is not a person who enjoys the struggle, but he has strong endurance and resilience. What carried him was a picture of where the road leads, and the belief that going through the wilderness would give him far more real experience, and wisdom to share with others, than a smooth corporate career would have.
Reducing avoidable pressure
He stayed financially prudent. Instead of seeking investors early, he combined his own funds, government support and organic growth, and only looks to investors now for the next stage of growth overseas. Controlling that one source of pressure left him calmer for the others.
Not carrying it alone
His advice to young entrepreneurs is to connect with people who have been through the ups and downs, not necessarily founders, but people with business wisdom. Leaders who regulate well do not do it in isolation; they borrow perspective from others.
Try this
Think of a pressure you are carrying now. Can you name how it feels, say what picture of success keeps you going, and name one person with wisdom you could talk to this week?
This article is our interpretation of Edwin's story, based on the conversation on The Adaptive Edge Podcast. The framework names are ours; the events and lessons are his own.