About
A movement born from one question.
Most people can remember a moment when someone told them they couldn't. Too young. Too old. Too quiet. Too different. Not ready. Not qualified.
Sometimes the loudest doubts came from other people. Sometimes they came from ourselves. But every breakthrough begins with a decision:
Keep going anyway.
WHO TOLD YOU? exists to collect and share those stories — because someone else's courage might become someone else's beginning.
This site began as a companion to the book "Who Told You You Couldn't?" by Shamane Tan (Penguin Random House SEA). It is now growing into a community: a place where people share what they were told, what they did anyway, and what they're still becoming.
From Shamane
I was told I couldn't.
Years ago, a highly regarded speaker told me I should not speak about leadership. His view was that leadership belonged to people with white hair, generals and battle-tested CEOs. That moment stayed with me — not because I wanted to prove him wrong, but because it revealed how easily other people's expectations can become our boundaries.
This is the story behind the book: how a computer engineering student became a Chief Growth Officer, why leadership is influence before it is authority, and why one move is enough to begin.
JOIN THE MOVEMENT.
Add your story to the wall. It might be the one someone else needs to read today.