The General is Forged in Winter: Leading Through 5 Global Crises
The General is Forged in Winter: Leading Through 5 Global Crises
By Douglas Gan
They say a rising tide lifts all boats. But it’s the receding tide that reveals who is swimming naked.
In my 25 years of building businesses, I have seen the tide go out five times. Each time, the world panicked. Capital froze. The "smart money" ran for the exits. And each time, I found my greatest opportunities not in the boom, but in the bust.
Leadership isn't about how fast you run when the wind is at your back. It's about how you stand when the storm hits. This is my field report from five global crises—and the lessons that forged my philosophy of "Eat, Live, Work, Sleep."
1. The Origin: The Dot-com Crash (2000-2001)
THE CRISIS The bubble burst. The NASDAQ lost 78% of its value. "Internet" became a dirty word.
I was just getting started. While the world was writing obituaries for tech companies, I saw a different reality: the infrastructure was still there. The failed startups had bought top-tier hardware—Compaq servers, HP racks, Cisco networking gear—that was now being liquidated for pennies on the dollar.
THE MOVE: THE HARDWARE HUSTLE I didn't try to build the next Pets.com. I went back to basics. I bought the liquidated hardware and sold it to buyers across Asia who were starved for infrastructure but couldn't afford retail prices. I bridged a logistics gap before global supply chains matured.
THE LESSON: CASH IS KING When valuation models fail, tangible assets and cash flow are the only truth. You can't eat equity.
2. The Isolation: SARS (2003)
THE CRISIS Fear paralyzed Asia. People stayed home. The streets of Singapore were empty. Retail businesses bled out.
THE MOVE: THE GAMER PIVOT I looked at what people were doing. They were stuck at home, bored, and seeking connection. They turned to online gaming. I pivoted my server capacity to host dedicated servers for Counter-Strike and Ragnarok Online. While physical businesses withered, our digital traffic exploded. We provided the digital town square when the physical ones were closed.
THE LESSON: IN EVERY LOCKDOWN, A DIGITAL DOOR OPENS Crisis changes behavior. If you can adapt your product to the new behavior faster than the incumbents, you win.
3. The Financial Collapse: Lehman Brothers (2008)
THE CRISIS The global credit crunch. Funding evaporated overnight. I had just launched ShowNearby in November 2007, right before the world fell apart.
THE MOVE: BUILDING IN THE DARK We couldn't raise money. We couldn't buy users. So we had to do the only thing left: build a product so useful that people needed it. We focused entirely on utility—helping people find ATMs, clinics, and amenities around them. By 2010, ShowNearby was one of the top 3 apps globally.
THE LESSON: GREAT PRODUCTS ARE BUILT WHEN YOU CAN'T BUY GROWTH Constraints force innovation. When you can't spend your way out of a problem, you have to think your way out.
4. The Pandemic: COVID-19 (2020)
THE CRISIS The physical world shut down again, but this time, it was global. My "O2O" (Online-to-Offline) empire—Ride Hailing (CacaTaxi), Short Term Rental (Apartment Hotel 11), and Beauty (Vanitee)—hit a brick wall. You can't hail a ride or rent a room when nobody can move.
THE MOVE: THE DIGITAL PIVOT I realized that physical businesses, no matter how tech-enabled, have a single point of failure: physical presence. I didn't wait for the borders to reopen. I pivoted my focus and capital aggressively into Web3 and Fintech. I invested in Filecoin, doubled down on GBCI Ventures, and focused on "manless" technology.
THE LESSON: DIGITAL BUSINESSES HAVE NO SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE The future belongs to assets that are permissionless, borderless, and programmable.
5. The Betrayal: Crypto Winter & Terra (2022)
THE CRISIS The market crashed, but this time it was personal. Bad actors like Do Kwon destroyed billions in value. Trust in the industry was shattered.
THE MOVE: THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE It would have been easy to walk away and write it off. Instead, I led the class-action lawsuit. I rallied the community. We didn't just take the loss; we fought for accountability.
THE LESSON: LEADERSHIP IS ACCOUNTABILITY You cannot claim to be a leader only when things are going well. When the ship takes on water, the captain doesn't just save himself; he fights for the crew.
The Thesis: Eat, Live, Work, Sleep
These five winters taught me one thing: Survival is not a passive act. It requires an intensity that most people find uncomfortable.
This is why I demand my founders "Eat, Live, Work, Sleep" together for the first 18 months. You cannot build a wartime culture over Zoom calls. You cannot forge a soul into a company by working 9-to-5. When the next crisis hits—and it will hit—the only thing that will save you is the bond you built in the trenches.
Winter is coming. Are you ready?