Adele Chow does not describe 2025 as a year she conquered.
She describes it as a year that shaped her character.
In Episode 11 of Boss Up With Adele Chow, the host records a raw, unpolished reflection, admitting she is still processing what the year took from her and what it quietly gave back.
She says her inner world was challenged more than anything else.
Motherhood was one of the most defining arenas.
After her daughter turned one in April, Adele says she finally felt the full weight of being a mother of two, a season that tested her confidence and forced her to rethink presence.
Not presence as a performance, but presence in fragments, choosing to be fully there for her children even if it was just 15 uninterrupted minutes.
She learned that showing up imperfectly still counts.
Professionally, 2025 pushed her to rewire how she sees business.
Through meeting other entrepreneurs, Adele began stripping away the romanticism of leadership and looking at Seven Vault through a more metrics-driven lens.
She realised that at its core, business is not mysticism or motivation, but mathematics, boiled down to two numbers that matter most: the people you serve and the people you build with.
That clarity changed how she leads.
As Seven Vault approaches its tenth year in 2026, Adele says one of her proudest moments was learning to say no.
No to distractions.
No to shiny opportunities that pull focus away from the company’s original purpose.
She reaffirmed Seven Vault’s mission to tell stories with honesty and power, not volume.
Gratitude became another anchor.
Adele speaks openly about her faith, describing moments where human conversation could not carry her and only belief did.
She names her family, her husband Lex and her children Kai Kai and Sing Singh, as her constant, loving her not for what she produces, but for who she is.
She acknowledges her team, recognising that alignment is not owed but chosen.
Even challenges earn a place on her gratitude list, because they taught her that change is the only constant.
And then there is gratitude for herself.
For optimism that refused to leave, even when her light felt dim.
For stubbornness that kept her juggling roles when giving up would have been easier.
Pain, however, was unavoidable.
The loss of her best friend Zaha’s baby in April became a stark reminder that nothing is permanent and tomorrow is never guaranteed.
That grief taught her to appreciate what is in front of her now and to express love before it is too late.
Another lesson came through betrayal.
Adele shares that not everyone will protect your heart the way you protect theirs.
That truth hurt, but it also led her back to faith and to the understanding that trials build resilience and character, not comfort.
Perhaps the most forward-looking lesson was about time.
She reflects that humans are the only beings capable of creating the future, yet we are often trapped living backwards.
2025 marked the closing of what she calls her “Adele V2” season, her twenties to early thirties, and the quiet preparation for “Adele V3,” the next decade of her life.
If she could whisper one thing to her past self, it would be this: do not hold on so tightly.
The stubbornness that served her once became exhausting later.
There is no single correct road to a beautiful destination.
When asked to describe 2025 in three words, Adele chooses break, life, and faith.
Something broke in her, but not without reforming something new.
Life happened, and what mattered was not the events themselves but how she chose to live through them.
And faith, she says plainly, carried her through when nothing else could.
This episode is not about optimisation or success formulas.
It is about becoming.
Quietly.
Honestly.
And with intention.
