Slowing Down: How Fabian Found A Coffee Career In His Late 40s

By the time most people are thinking about winding down, Fabian was just getting started again.

In his early 20s, he was juggling anywhere between eight and fifteen businesses at once. It was a whirlwind of hustle, and not always a kind one. His first venture failed, savings were thin, and the pace was relentless. Eventually, life slowed things down for him: he met his wife, settled into a beauty business, and traded the chaos of running a dozen ventures for something steadier.

Fast forward to his late 40s. Life had naturally slowed down, and with it came space to think about what he actually enjoyed. Cafe-hopping had become a genuine pleasure, and somewhere between all those cups of coffee, curiosity turned into a real interest in learning the craft. A chance visit to the SSG fest at Suntec introduced him to Bettr, and that was the start of a very different kind of venture.

Today, he runs Monday Coffee Bar as a supervisor. He's been there for a year and a half at the time of our interview, working a five-day week and effectively managing the outlet. His boss trusted him with that responsibility despite having zero prior coffee or F&B experience walking in. The leap of faith is one he doesn't take lightly, especially knowing how much courage it must have taken from his boss's side too.

That responsibility came with a reality check. His long-term dream is to eventually run his own cafe, and working at Monday Coffee Bar has shown him that the dream isn't as simple as it looks from the outside. It's not just about selling drinks. It's also managing customer reviews, staying detail-oriented, and holding an entire operation together. Calibration, in particular, taught him that precision matters more than he expected.

But the job has given him something back too, and there’s real warmth in the customer interactions. Regulars go out of their way to bring him things, linger, and chat instead of just grabbing a drink and leaving.

We quote his words: “a cup takes three to four minutes to make, it’s not just pressing button”. As a middle-aged person stepping into F&B, he's found the pace strangely grounding. Where his younger years were all about speed and getting things done fast, coffee has taught him to slow down.

The SCTP journey wasn't without its own hurdles. He found the virtual components of the programme genuinely challenging. But it also gave him something unexpected: real friendships. He grew close with his classmates, close enough that he's visited them at their own cafes since graduating.

His story is a reminder that a career pivot doesn't have to happen in your 20s to count. Sometimes it happens exactly when life tells you to slow down, and when you're finally ready to listen.

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