One Woman's Date With Adventure

When Ms. Sonja Piontek left the coveted job that she built for herself for nearly 13 years, she didn’t realize that she would be stepping into her own place under the sun

- Li Haohan

Four years ago, Ms. Sonja Piontek came to Singapore to work as Director of Marketing for BMW Asia. By then she had already established a career with the prestigious automotive brand, where she started out as an Events and CRM Manager in New Zealand, marketing manager of the BMW motorcycle side, director of marketing for the Motorsport team, global head of Strategic Naming and Branding globally, and director of marketing for the Asian region. Through these stints she lived in Indonesia, New Zealand, Germany, China and Singapore, enriching her understanding of different cultures and people.

But at the end of last year, Ms. Piontek decided to quit and start out on her own in Singapore. The dynamic young entrepreneur told us over lunch how she gathered the confidence to walk away from a comfortable life and start over.

Portfolio: You left your executive career in one of the world’s leading brands – that’s a tough call for anyone who still has many good, productive years ahead of her. Why?

Ms. Piontek: I had a good career indeed: great regional responsibility, amazing colleagues, the boardrooms, the international business class flights, a fancy title, a brand new X6 every so many months—overall, a pretty amazing life. But more and more I felt that if I really wanted to fly free, I was going to have to leave and start on my own.

So you just pulled the plug?

Was that what happened? I wish it had been that easy. Leaving BMW after almost 13 years was the single most difficult decision of my life.

If you already had your mind set on leaving, why was it still difficult to go?