From High School Dropout to Entrepreneur: Jeshua Soh’s Story

Hello, my name is Jeshua. I dropped out of school at 16 and started my first company at 19. I have no degree, and no clear plan from the outset- my life has been quite a miracle thus far, and I’m thankful for each day that I get to keep living.

In this article, I’ll share my story in three parts: my travels around the world, my fundraising campaigns, and why I chose to focus on Myanmar.

1. The Lessons I Learned from Traveling the World – personal life experiences, worldview, and lessons from visiting 72 countries.

2. Cycle/Walk-for-hope Fund Raising Campaigns – charity efforts, including long-distance fundraising events for the Mae Tao Clinic and disaster relief in Myanmar.

3. Why Myanmar? (and the Crossworks story) – the creation of Crossworks Myanmar to connect local professionals with global opportunities.

The Lessons I Learned from Traveling the World

Though I was born and raised in Singapore- I’ve spent the better part of the last 5 years since Covid-19 struck criss-crossing the globe. In total, I’ve visited 72 countries and 383 cities - and counting. I didn’t intend for the journey to pan out this way, and often like the term ‘building the plane as I was flying’ given all the uncertainties the world has gone through in the last half a decade.

It is my belief that talent exists everywhere, but opportunity does not. In so many countries, I met incredibly smart, hardworking people who simply didn’t have access to the global market. The similarities of us human beings outweigh cultural differences- at the end of the day we all have hopes, fears and dreams, with some like myself in a more privileged position than others and having access to more opportunity.

The more I explore, the more I realize how much I don’t know. This constantly challenges me to keep an open mind, keep learning, and keep discovering - and I encourage young people especially to travel whenever possible and use online research to understand and appreciate different cultures. The world is smaller and more interconnected than ever- embracing innovation and this interconnectedness can open doors to opportunities you never imagined.

Cycle/Walk-for-hope Fund Raising Campaigns

I believe that I’m blessed to be a blessing- and not as an end to itself. Since I was exempted from Singapore’s National Service annual fitness test and placed in a non-combat role, physical prowess isn’t exactly my strong suit. I managed to turn this ‘weakness’ into a strength by organising two fundraising campaigns over the last 2 years for the Mae Tao Clinic, which provides vital healthcare and education to migrant communities along the Thai-Myanmar border.

In 2024, I cycled 2,000km from Singapore to Bangkok and this year, I walked 500km from Bangkok to Mae Sot as USAID was significantly gutted post-Donald Trump’s inauguration. Thanks to the generosity of over hundreds donors - friends and strangers alike - we raised more than $220K SGD for this cause.

One hour after arriving in Mae Tao Clinic on 28th of March 2025, a major earthquake struck Myanmar, and I felt the strong tremors hundreds of kilometers away from Mae Sot. Without much time to rest, it was a blessing in disguise that many of the donors who had supported the walk and were following my journey decided to also contribute toward relief and recovery efforts in Myanmar. I flew into Yangon the next day and spent the next 3 weeks in the country to coordinate our efforts which are still on-going till today for the longer term initiatives of community building and education support.

Why Myanmar?

People often ask me: "Why Myanmar?"

The answer is simple and strategic. There is a large pool of educated, intelligent professionals, many of whom have studied/worked abroad- some have returned home and some will return eventually. Most of them speak fluent English and are eager to grow their careers. These are developers, designers, marketers, and specialists with real capabilities, looking to build meaningful careers.

However, due to high unemployment and confidence gap (thanks to recent geopolitical events), international work opportunities are a net negative in this market. Multi-national companies are relocating their headquarters to other cities in the region, letting go of white-collared staff whilst most companies simply overlook Myanmar talent owing to the highly skewed and negative headlines by international mainstream media who have almost completely 0 ground presence.

As a media professional myself, I feel that the news networks have done the country a huge disservice- I have a personal mission to balance the narrative. Whilst it is true that the country is far from at peace, it is ALSO true that life, especially in the urban centres for the most part, goes on. People still have to eat, work, put food on the table and send kids to school etc.

Myanmar now needs more engagement, more people to understand, care and invest so that the average man and woman on the street can have improved livelihood and future. I’m not under the illusion that a foreigner like myself will ever be able to fully grasp the totality of the problems/challenges faced by the country, but I’m convinced that it will be the local people who need to solve the local problems. That’s why the vision of Crossworks is to stop the brain drain of the best and brightest talent in hopes that these individuals will one day help Myanmar to get back on her feet and thrive.

The recent earthquake has reinforced my conviction that no amount of foreign aid will be more significant than a concerned population choosing to stay and return to build their home/country. With well connected, well educated and well intentioned young people on the ground, we saw the difference it made- from raising over 5000 lakh mmk from employees and their friends and supporting almost a dozen different groups on the ground plus allocating funds for longer term initiatives.

Crossworks Myanmar is a HR-as-a-Service company dedicated to helping startups and small and medium enterprises around the world hire Myanmar’s best and brightest remote talent. Founded in 2018 as a means to solve my own manpower challenges for 2 companies I had started in Singapore, we’ve since grown to support more than 60 companies and 120 remote employees (as of August 2025).

We want to Discover, Develop, and Deploy the best and brightest talent from Myanmar to work with companies overseas without needing to leave the country. We take care of the paperwork, HR operations, payroll, employee engagement, learning & development and infrastructure support so that employees can focus on their work. Our goal is to create a conducive environment and supportive community of outstanding individuals who will be the future leaders, mentors and entrepreneurs of Myanmar.

Building a Better Way to Work

Remote work is not just a trend - it’s the future of how modern businesses operate. In 2025, we’re in an environment where employers have more options, but so do employees; both can look beyond people/opportunities in the same city, region or even country. Yet to work well, remote teams need the same (if not more) support and systems that a regular human resource department might extend to onsite employees.

This is the ‘stack’ which we’ve been able to build upon over the years- from job placements and paperwork/payroll handling, to partnering with employers who are like-minded toward the long term retention and development of their team members. I look forward to the day that clients outgrow the need to use our services, perhaps they have 20 employees and want to open up their own office in the country, or start to partner with their employees to tap on opportunities within Myanmar for their own business.

For me, Crossworks is more than just a business or job: it’s a calling. Over the past 15 years since I entered the workforce, the people I’ve met, the places I’ve travelled to (including every state and region of Myanmar) and work I’ve done is far from coincidental, and it would be a huge shame to do anything else. It’s my privilege to be able to be the bridge between Myanmar’s young talent and the world and shore up confidence on both sides. I am a living testimony that one doesn’t need to follow the traditional path to succeed and it is perhaps in the least expected of places that you’ll find the greatest value/meaning.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Here’s to growth, connection, and the endless possibilities ahead.

– Jeshua
Founder, Crossworks