How we think determines what we build, who we become, and the future we leave behind.

I have a small routine every night. I walk my dog, talk to myself, record whatever comes to mind, and send it through AI to turn it into text. It is simple and almost unremarkable from the outside, yet over one and a half years, the same thirty minutes has produced nearly four hundred reflections. One action, many outcomes. That is the quiet power of leverage.

Researchers estimate that each adult makes tens of thousands of small decisions every day. Most of them are repeated actions. Our brain naturally seeks ways to reduce effort and increase return. When one habit produces multiple forms of value, our mind remembers it as meaningful and worth repeating. Leverage and discipline, together, create momentum.

That is the spirit of this retreat. A short window, used well, can shift how we think for years to come. I spent six and a half hours in the KL to JB jam preparing for this, and yesterday evening I scrapped almost everything I planned because it did not feel right for the room. That is the INFP in me. I need to feel the team before I speak to the team. Content only matters when it aligns with the moment.

Today, I want to explore something simple but important.

The four dimensions of thinking.

Because if our thinking stays narrow, no effort will be enough. But when our thinking expands, the school expands. The team expands. Our future expands.

Dimension One: Specialist Thinking

I started as an accounting lecturer. Accounting is abstract and can be difficult for students to connect with. I had a few simple goals at the time. Help them stay awake. Help them understand. Help them see meaning in something that felt disconnected from their world.

That season was my training ground for specialist thinking. I went deeper into curriculum, pedagogy, and the craft of explaining complex concepts in simple ways. We need specialists who anchor quality in every area of the school.

But I also discovered a limitation.

Being good at one field does not automatically prepare us for the world our students will enter. Their challenges will not stay within the boundaries of one subject or one department. And attention spans today are shrinking faster than we realise. If we only stay in one lane, we risk preparing students for a world that no longer exists.

That realisation moved me toward the second dimension.

Dimension Two: Polymath Thinking

The turning point came in Australia. Speaking to young people there, I noticed something immediately. They could express their thoughts clearly, ask questions comfortably, and engage in conversation with confidence. It made me reflect on why so many of our students back home hesitate, become unsure, or stay quiet.

It was not a question of ability. It was a question of exposure and environment.

So I started learning beyond accounting. I read about psychology, leadership, geopolitics, economics, culture. I listened to people in fields completely different from mine. Over time, the connections between these areas helped me see education through a wider lens.

This cross-disciplinary approach is not just personal preference. Many studies show that innovation often emerges from crossing boundaries. When ideas from one field are applied to another, solutions appear that would never have been discovered by staying in a single lane.

This is why we formed the CEO office. Someone needs to look outward. To understand what is happening in Singapore, Malaysia, China, ASEAN. To pay attention to how AI is changing work and learning. To track teacher shortages worldwide. To see what may affect our children ten or twenty years from now.

Polymath thinking deepens our ability to serve our students.

It helps us design an education that prepares them for a future that is still unfolding.

Dimension Three: Principle Thinking

Techniques are helpful, but they do not anchor us. What anchors us are principles.

This is where mental models come in. PDD is one example. Purpose, Desired Outcome, Desired Response. Before running an event, designing a programme, or making a decision, we pause to ask: Why are we doing this. What result are we aiming for. What do we hope people will experience or understand.

Tools like SWOT, Start–Stop–Continue, and the one-page Stellar plan play a similar role. They give structure to our thinking. They help us see clearly when circumstances are noisy.

There is research behind this. People who use structured mental models tend to make more consistent decisions under pressure. They are better able to navigate complexity because principles provide clarity when emotions and noise rise.

The purpose-built campus taught us this lesson again and again.

We designed, scrapped, redesigned, scrapped again. The process took a full year. Our architect even told us at one point to stop, because once the form is built, it will shape the next hundred years of function. We wanted to be cautious, not because we were indecisive, but because we were responsible.

This is principle thinking. Slower, steadier, and often inconvenient. But it produces decisions that last.

Dimension Four: Time Thinking

The fourth dimension is time. Not in the sense of minutes or deadlines, but perspective.

Short-term thinking focuses on what must be solved this week.

Time thinking asks what our choices will mean in five or ten years.

Long-term organisations consistently outperform those that prioritise quick wins. They make decisions differently. They invest differently. They carry themselves differently. Their people grow with a deeper sense of purpose.

Amazon’s Day One philosophy illustrates this well. For decades, they repeated the same idea: remain customer-obsessed, think long term, and avoid sliding into complacency. That mindset allowed them to stay adaptive across enormous shifts.

For us, time thinking shows up in our aspiration for Stellar to exist for a thousand years. It is not about exaggeration. It is about the mindset that our work is bigger than our lifetime.

There are two kinds of death.

The physical one, and the second death, when our impact disappears.

We want our impact to continue long after we are gone.

Time thinking also humbles us. In marriage, in parenting, and in leadership, time often exposes the real areas we need to grow. It forces us to confront ourselves. It stretches our view beyond the immediate.

When we think in decades, our decisions become wiser.

Our ego becomes quieter.

Our purpose becomes clearer.

The Almas Christmas Lesson: The Moment We Outgrew Ourselves

The Christmas event at Almas during MCO looked beautiful in the video. Children singing in the rain, parents smiling, everyone enjoying the rare moment of being outdoors again after long isolation.

Experiencing it in real time felt very different.

We planned for an outdoor event. When the rain arrived, we shifted everything indoors. Once everything was inside, we realised the atmosphere had changed. It felt cramped, less lively. A few minutes later, the rain slowed, so we shifted everything back out again. Almost immediately, the rain returned. Some teams had started setting up outside while others were still hearing instructions to stay in. Even the big Christmas tree in the middle of the street suddenly sparked and went dark.

It was a moment where everyone was trying their best, yet the situation kept changing faster than instructions could reach the people who needed them. Later that night, something became clear to me. We were now too large to operate the way we used to. The informal communication that worked for a small preschool team could not support an event with sixty staff spread across an entire street.

Human beings naturally organise best in smaller groups. Research on group dynamics suggests that once a group grows beyond a certain size, coordination becomes difficult without clear layers. That night at Almas was our turning point. We realised we could no longer rely on ad-hoc communication. We needed teams within the bigger team. And we needed people who would take responsibility for those teams.

That moment shaped how we think about leadership structure today.

Team Leads And The Heart Behind Leadership

This is why the concept of team leads emerged. Not as an administrative solution, but as a human one.

We need specialists, absolutely. People who go deep in their subject. People who build strong curriculum. People who carry expertise that strengthens the whole school.

But as we grow, we also need people who naturally look after others.

People who notice the teacher who seems withdrawn.

People who create a sense of belonging for their group.

People who help others grow not just in skill but in confidence and resilience.

A team lead is not simply a coordinator.

A team lead is someone who holds space for people.

Some of you already do this, quietly and consistently. You listen when others are struggling. You step in when someone feels overwhelmed. You create calm where there is confusion. That is leadership, even before any title is given.

Over the coming months, we will talk to some of you more intentionally. We are entering a season where we need many people to rise, not just one or two. But the rise has to start from the heart, not the job description. Structure can be built. Skill can be taught. The heart has to be chosen.

Stepping Into The Next Dimension

Each of us is in a different place along these four dimensions.

Some still strengthening their specialist foundation.

Some beginning to think beyond their field.

Some learning to use mental models.

Some ready to think in decades.

There is no rush to jump ahead. Growth is not a competition. The question is simply, what is the next dimension you need to develop so that your work serves others better.

If your next step is mastery, deepen your craft.

If your next step is breadth, learn widely.

If your next step is clarity, adopt a mental model and use it consistently.

If your next step is perspective, stretch your thinking beyond the present.

Small decisions today shape who we become tomorrow.

And who we become shapes what we build.

The Reverse That Redefines It All: Leadership Is Inconvenient

Let me close with a truth we often feel but seldom name.

Leadership is inconvenient.

It does not always come at the right time.

It does not always arrive when you feel ready.

It rarely fits neatly into your schedule.

Leadership asks you to pause your own comfort to make space for someone else.

It asks you to pay attention when you are tired.

To carry responsibility when the path ahead feels unclear.

To think long term when everything around you is urging short-term solutions.

This inconvenience is not a flaw. It is part of what makes leadership meaningful. The four dimensions of thinking all echo this gently.

Becoming a specialist takes patience.

Thinking across disciplines takes humility.

Living by principles takes consistency.

Thinking in decades takes courage.

None of these are convenient.

Yet these are the very qualities that build trust, stability, and hope for the future.

So instead of asking whether we feel ready to lead, perhaps the better question is whether we are willing to embrace the inconvenience that comes with it. Because once we stop resisting that discomfort, something inside us opens. We begin to see people more clearly. We begin to think more deeply. We begin to carry ourselves with a quieter, steadier responsibility.

Leadership is rarely smooth.

But when embraced with the right heart, it becomes a journey that shapes not only organisations, but lives.

If we can grow in that spirit together, then everything we build, whether a campus, a team, or a generation, will carry a strength that remains long after our individual seasons have passed.

That is the kind of leadership worth committing to.

And that is the story I believe we are writing, one decision at a time.