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Tuesday, December 04, 2007
My dreams
I still remembered the very first job interview I had after I graduated from university. It was an interview for an IT post of a MNC, and the interviewer was an american. After some routine technical questions, he asked me to talk about my dreams. I did not know any “model answers” for such questions, and being a naïve fresh graduate, I just answered it from the bottom of my heart.
Well, people who only know me via my online identity would probably guess that my dream is to set-up my own company and be a successful entrepreneur. Or something along the lines of becoming a great software developer and creating some killer software products. But those weren’t the answers that came to my mind at that point of time.
Admittedly, I am quite a dreamer. I had a lot of dreams. To setup and grow my own company is one of them, to achieve breakthrough in my personal research in a specialized area is another. But when the question was posed to me, only one prominent dream came to my mind.
I told the interviewer that my dream is to build a farm cum animal shelter. Thousands of animals had been abandoned every year in this tiny island alone, and most of them had to be put to sleep. I wanted to create a haven for these helpless animals, whose only wish is to survive in this world that is dominated by human supremacy. I knew it would take a lot of money to fulfill such a dream, but I will still work towards it no matter how long it takes.
I did not get the job eventually. I did not even get through to the second round. I did not know whether it was due to my over-idealistic answer. But at least I spoke from my heart, and I would still give the same answer today. The only thing different is I had quite a couple of additions to my dream list, and most of them are not easily attainable.
Many friends that I know of, had in some way or another given up on most of their dreams. It seems that the older they grew, the more dreams they discarded. Somehow, as you grow older, pragmatism will inevitably override idealism.
I am still working towards fulfilling my dreams. And in the process, adding new ones. If I am able to live till 85 years old, I would still have more than 50 years to achieve my dreams. That’s a hell lot of time, so why give up?
P/S: I have added a “Support these Causes” section on the right panel of this blog. Those are free ads space for charitable causes. Feel free to click the links. I will be adding more in the future.
i. A prospective customer who “disappears” for a few months suddenly contacted me to order my products. The last time I talked to him, he and his partners said that they were evaluating some other systems. After months of disappearing acts, I did not expect them to recontact me, let alone confirming their purchases.
ii. A friend’s friend contacted me to discuss about some collaboration projects. Apparently, this guy was looking for people to develop some systems. The odd part was, the last time we communicated was like more than half a year ago. Then he “disappeared”. And now to my surprise, he reappeared and contacted me directly.
iii. An ex-colleague who had lost contact with me for seven years suddenly approached me to talk about some project collaboration also. Apparently he had just setup a company and was looking to outsource most of his software development jobs. On top of that, he was also very interested in being a distributor for my products using his overseas distribution channels.
iv. One of my advertising medium company offered a complimentary advertisement placement (worth S$1500) to my company. I did not ask for that.
v. Bumped into my JC classmate who had lost contact for about eight years.
Other than the above-mentioned events, I had also received more sales and distribution enquiries than usual this week. It just feel so strange that all these happened within the same week.
Do you still remember the first time you chat online with strangers ?
It was 1996 then. I was a first year undergraduate, enjoying my first vacation in my university life. I was coding my own home page hosted on Geocities. Back then, all the html and javascript codes were written line by line on Notepad, instead of using application like Frontpage.
I was searching the internet for some cute icons that I can steal reuse and put on my website. Back then, there was no google so I was using a number of search engines like Alta Vista, Lycos, etc simultaneously. And somehow, I navigated to a site called “Alamak Chat”, which was a web-based chat room. Feeling curious, I entered a nickname and logged on to it. Upon logging on, I saw a main screen with quite a number of users chatting. That was actually the first time I entered a chat room. I dared not to chat. I just sit down in front of my PC watching the online conversation on the main channel.
Then suddenly, I saw a small box (or a window? I can’t really remember the details) flashing on my screen, indicating that someone had issued a private chat with me. I opened the window and started my very first online chat with the stranger. The other party was a gal who was three years younger than me and just finished her A levels. We chatted for around an hour. And we continued to chat for the next few days, until she recommended me to use ICQ (I was very suaku then, don’t know what is ICQ), and from then on we switched over to ICQ.
After my new semester started, we continued to correspond via emails and ICQ. And eventually we agreed to meet each other during my one-week term break. We met near my school library because I was a kiasu student and was busy studying during the term break. She was a pretty and petite gal, and was rather quiet. I brought her around the campus, exchanged gifts and then had lunch at the nearby shopping mall.
From then on, we remained in contact regularly via email, phone or ICQ, and went out for movies and dinner quite frequently. We remained as very good friends, though I wasn’t very sure about my actual feelings towards her. Eventually, she went over to Germany for undergraduate studies when she was year two or three in NUS. And slowly, we lost contact with each other.
The last I heard, she was still in Germany. Or maybe she is back in Singapore, I don’t know. I hope she is doing well and living happily. We started as complete strangers, and would probably ended as strangers. But I just wish to say, at some point in my life, I really liked her even though I wasn’t very sure at that point of time. And, wish you a happy birthday and stay happy forever!
Don't know what's happening to Blogger nowadays? My latest post wasn't updated, template loaded wrongly, now even cannot comment on others' blogs! Things are getting worse ever since I switched over to the new Blogger account....Let's see whether this post get published correctly.
P/S: Seems ok now. Perhaps there were too many blogs queueing for updates during the Chinsese New Year period such that the Blogger server lagged severely. Anyway, it is a free service so I don't really have any complaints.
About a year ago, I had a chat with a business associate NC. That was during the time when everything in the world seemed to be against me. I had a lot of uncertainties then, and was quite undecided on whether to continue the business or not. I remembered NC commented that in business, one had to be ruthless. Apparently, he made that comment because his competitors (some big GLC companies) used some underhanded means to snatch win a deal from his company.
I was very naïve then. I replied that I still wasn’t sure whether I am suitable to be an entrepreneur, and whether I am really equipped to survive the coldness of the business world. I thought to myself, maybe I would just take a step at a time, and if I eventually had to go against my principle, then I would probably go back to the lab to do academic researches.
One year pass-by. I am still very naïve. I still believe one need not play politics in order to survive as an entrepreneur. I believe, in creating a better world through innovation. I believe, in passions and dreams, not money, as the motivating factor. All these, despite I had experienced betrayal, lies and setbacks. And despite the fact that I had almost drowned myself in the swamp of depression.
All because, I still see the goodness in people. For every bad thing you encountered, there probably lies a sincere smile in some other corner. Life is a test of character. No matter which path you choose, it probably would not be a smooth sail. But every time you tamed a storm, you become stronger. And only by becoming stronger, you can continue to stand by your principle, to make changes and to help the rest in braving the storms in their lifes.
I like the above quote from Mark Twain. I guess it sums up the sentiments of many entrepreneurs. In fact, the same can be said about scientists, artists, musicians, and a whole lot of people who dare to pursue their dreams and passions in this materialistic world.
I realised that I did not achieve any of my resolutions last year. In fact, I had never achieved more than 50% of any new year resolutions that I had set for the past decades. One reason may be because I am sort of a perfectionist and I tend to set a rather high target for myself. Or, I am simply not hard-working enough.
So this time round, I shall write down some of my new year resolutions (not in any order) so that I can review them by end of the year:
1. Reduce my weight to around 72 kg
That’s my weight around 10 years ago, when I was able to run 2.4km under 10 minutes and complete SOC within 8 min 30 seconds. I don’t expect to reach the same level of fitness, but at least I hoped to attain a similar physique. Should be achievable if I stick to my work-out schedule of 3-times-weekly 3-km jog plus a weekly gym work-out.
2. Obtain my driving license
Had been postponing this for far too long. Better to settle it once and for all.
3. Build up my company’s cash capital to S$XXX,XXX.
Without enough reserves, I wouldn’t feel comfortable to grow my company. My target for this year would be to build up as much financial and intellectual assets as possible for future expansions.
4. Steadily grow my personal asssets
My personal bank account had been drastically reduced for the past two years. Its about time to build it up again.
5. More contribution to the online programming community
Had been a member of this online programming community for several years, but wasn’t as active for quite some time. Will try to allocate more time to it. It makes me happy when I am able to help new programmers with their problems.
6. Continue learning
There are so many things to learn. Technologies, financial, economics, marketing, philosophy, psychology, literature, etc. Not all are directly useful to my company or closely related to any income-generating avenues, but that shouldn’t be the way to judge the usefulness of any knowledge.
7. More involvement in voluntary works.
Something that I had (shamefully) neglected for the past few years. Had been an active SPCA volunteer during my university days, but ever since I started working, I had become less involved in these voluntary works. Busy is just a convenient excuse.
Though I had donated more money compared to my school days, I would somehow consider that as “Convenient Charity”, that is, giving out some spare money to charities (or some poor families) to make oneself feel better. Sure it is better than nothing. But if I can do a little more than just donating money, why not contribute my bit to a better world?
8. Be a vegetarian for once a week.
I loves to eat. But sometimes I can’t help feeling bad when eating the meat of other animals (Btw, I am not a Budhist). So I think, why not start from being a vegetarian for once a week?
Alright, that’s all. I shall come back to this post by end of the year to do a self-apraisal.
I would start the first post of the year with some reflections on year 2006, followed by my year 2007 resolutions.
Time really flies. In one month’s time, I will be celebrating my private limited’s one-year anniversary. After all the ups and downs, I had become more determined and focused on the path I had chosen. Till date, I had been wandering in the uncharted waters for more than 21 months (including the partnership period). The slight feeling of loneliness, fear and uncertainties still hovers around, though I had somehow grown accustom to it.
Looking back, there are of course a lot of things that I think I should have done better. I had wasted too much time during my “depression” period. I thought I was well-prepared for venturing out, but eventually I realized there are so much things I needed to learn. I should have learnt more about marketing before I designed the product. I should have know more about SEO before deciding the design of my company website. But if anyone asked me whether I regret my decision to start-up my company, my answer at any point of the time is a firm ‘no’.
Life is just too short to have regrets. I always think that I am very fortunate to be able to receive education and eventually go into university. My university education and the subsequent work experiences helped to build up the foundation for my present venture. Compared to my father, who only managed to have 3 years of formal education because of financial problems, I am much more fortunate. My father told me that he used to top his class, but was unable to continue his studies because he needed to go out for work.
So, instead of whining about how unfair life is when faced with obstacles, I would rather spend more time to work out a solution. Life is never fair, but how you look at it depends on who you compare yourself with. I am fortunate enough to have the chance to choose the path I wanted. A lot of the older generation didn’t even have the chance.
Went to the much-hyped vivocity yesterday morning. There are more shops and restaurant now compared to my last visit some time last month. My main purpose is to take a look at MV Doulos, the oldest active ocean-going passenger ship. They have a bookshop onboard the ship which sells books at a low price, which is in line with their aim of “bringing knowlegde, help and hope to the people of the world”.
The “book shop” is actually a tentage setup at the deck, and it is rather warm inside. From what I see, most of the books are for children or about christianity. Though I do not find any books that suits me, I would still recommend a visit to MV Doulos if you have the time.
Went to visit an old customer last friday. They had bought a new server and requested me to assist in porting my software from their old server to the new one. Their director showed me how they used my software to integrate with their back-end databases to provide some new services to their customers. He seemed very happy with the whole system and commented that this was a “success story”, and said that I can use their company as a reference.
Upon leaving, I was feeling very happy. Not because that I can use their company as a reference (I don’t normally do that), but because of the satisfaction of seeing my product being appreciated by the customers. It is this satisfaction that gives me the energy to carry on when things aren’t going too well.
Having deployed two systems in this week and worked throughout Wednesday night, I decided to have a lighter schedule today. Met an ex-colleague H for lunch. Apparently H just resigned and most probably gonna set up a company. And H was quite interested in my product so we may work out something together in future. H told me about his business idea, but it seemed to me that it is rather general. I am actually expecting a more concrete business plan, but all he mentioned was just a general idea of the kind of business he wanted to do and how big the targeted market is. Well, it is too early to say whether H can succeed or not. Or eventually he may decided not to setup company at all. I had seen quite a number of failure cases due to lack of proper planning. I believed H has some business development experiences which may come useful, but being an entrepreneur needs much more than that.
After the lunch, I went to the library to do some leisure reading and surfing, before going to the gym for some work-out. There wasn’t a lot of people in the gym, because it was still within office hours. Guess that’s one benefit of being one’s own boss: more freedom in time management.
It was the name of one of my favourite computer games during my JC days. It was a game which required the player to take on a fleet captain's role, venturing into unknown waters, fighting pirates and exploring new cities/harbours. I always like games that allow me to explore. I like the joy and satisfaction when I discovered something.
To me, entrepreneurship is just like the uncharted waters. There are so many unknowns and uncertainties awaiting you to discover. And the satisfaction of building up your own company is simply unmeasurable.
I had been contemplating about setting up a blog, for a long long time. I wanted to note down the thoughts, feelings and experiences during my venture into the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship. I wanted to share my experiences with other young and aspiring entrepreneurs-to-be. And thanked those who help me along the way, either intentionally or accidentally.
Well, blogging definitely is a new experience to me. And I do hope that I have the time and enough interest to update it regularly.
I guess that’s enough for a warm-up post. Wish all my fellow Singaporeans, Selamat Hari Raya!
I am a Singaporean who ventured into the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship on around April 2005. During the voyage I met with storms, monsters and pirates, but I also encountered beautiful harbours and friendly tribes. Most importantly, I have learnt to overcome my fears and enjoy the journey.
