All-digital Work From Anywhere World with Anthea Ong, Founder, Hush TeaBar

Silence saved me from my close shave with depression 12 years ago when the colossal collapse of my life descended upon me. I wanted to share this transformational learning with the world. Why start a business when you can start a movement or two? I believe there’s a place for silence in changing the world for the better, no less powerful than the fiery social activism that we continue to embrace and be inspired by. I have much admiration for the Deaf, for their strong sense of identity and culture. I wanted to challenge the notion of disAbility by flipping the world around. In a space of silence where spoken words are not needed, where is their disability? And who is disabled? In late 2014, Hush was launched as a social movement to bring the worlds of hearing and the Deaf (hard of hearing) together and Singapore’s 1st Silent Teabar, and possibly the world’s first – was born. As an advocate for mental health, we also employ and empower persons with/in-recovery from mental health conditions. I am beyond determined to make every workplace executive learn the skills of self care and empathy because every employee is a member of our society. A caring and inclusive society can only come from caring and inclusive workplaces. Since late 2017, I no longer provide daily management oversight – the amazing team of differently-abled persons completely run the Hush operations, from securing to planning to executing all Hush@Workplace and #YoungXHush projects. It’s a true testament to their abilities.