Reflecting and imagining.

But why do I need it? Luckily over the course of the past two weeks, I applied for the Founder Institute, a start-up accelerator, and I was presented with the following essay question to answer:

“Write 2-4 paragraphs on why you want to be an entrepreneur”

After quite a fair bit of deep thought and introspection, here is my response:

Answering this question took a good deal of soul searching, but thankfully everything came together when I went to the very core of things and looked at my core values – lifelong learning, freedom and making a social impact.

Getting real about entrepreneurship now that I have graduated from university has turned out to be a trying and difficult process – but one thing that always seems to put a smile on my face is the fact that I go to bed every night having the pleasure of learning something completely new. It also amazes me how I always seem to see how the business and management literature that I’ve always enjoyed reading seems to become so much more relevant now that I’m trying to set up my own business.

Secondly, my family is extremely important to me and I want to have the freedom to be there for them when they need me – just like how my business owner dad was around for me when I was growing up. When I was growing up, I was extremely blessed to have my business owner dad always being around – he took me out for breakfast, he sent me to tuition and was always there to support me, much unlike other dads who always seemed to be too busy. I want to do the same for my children and wife in the future. That’s why despite how difficult it gets, I know that I want to start the journey right now, before it gets too late.

Finally, I have also learnt that entrepreneurs are a crucial component of creating lasting social change. Everyone wants to make an impact and my personal vision is to bring my two passions together – connecting people, as well as technology – and to fundamentally change the quality of interpersonal connection people have with one another in this fast-paced, often impersonal world.

I want to live an awesome, inspiring life, and I take a long term view at success. Ultimately, the more you stretch yourself, the more you learn, and the sooner you get where you want to go. Right now the answer seems to be entrepreneurship for me – the trials, tribulations and learning that comes along with it would definitely help me become a better student of life.

Oh well haven’t blogged in a month, but at least I had a great month filled with solid learning experiences! So… where do I start?

Been having tea with tons of people as well!

Getting the product-market fit right

Guess I’ll start with the current state of my startup. Right now, we’re still working on the concept and trying to get product-market fit right, in that we’re still meeting and talking to the primary target audience of our product (salespeople), and gathering feedback from them to refine our concept.

But real life ain’t business school where assumptions and clear logic are enough. Assumptions have to be tested against the market and my partner and I are currently trying to get our startup’s first product – a mobile assistant that aims to improve on the way salespeople interact with their clients – prototyped.

As my partner and I are not (yet) hardcore iOS developers, we’ve been spending the last week or so talking to iOS developers, working on our project briefs as well as thinking of ways to raise development capital for our little project over here. I think that out of the many meetings we went for, we did come across some gems and we really hope to have chosen a quality partner by the end of the week.

Looking for capital

Secondly, my partner and I are also looking into the many government funds for funding for our project. We strongly believe in our company vision to help transform the world into a much friendlier, kinder and considerate place with our products and have been talking to people all over on how our startup can secure some seed money.

We’ve probably got enough to start production of a prototype or two by ourselves, but some government support will really help! Do let us know if any of you readers out there have connections to managers of government funds! We would love to talk to meet them!

Growing the team

Geniuses required!

Finally, after some discussion, my partner and I have also decided to start looking for talent based in KL. We’re currently looking to fill in the following two positions:

General requirements:

- Based in the Klang Valley

- Able to speak English fluently

- Self-motivated and able to work independently

- A good team player and with a proactive attitude

- Minimum diploma and above

1. iOS Developer

- needs to be proficient in Objective-C and able to work independently

- must have a strong interest in design thinking and UI design

2. Web Developer

- must be comfortable with design back-end systems and working with databases

- Required skill(s): HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Web Design, CSS

Interested applicants please email us at quirkapp@gmail.com with your resume, expected salary and recent photograph. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Would also really appreciate it if you spread the word to friends of yours who have just graduated and want real hands on experience on how working with a startup is like!

***

Guess that pretty neatly sums up what I’ve been working on lately! Will write about some of the many things that I’ve learnt real soon!

The questionnaires we had to process!

I think that it’s just super amazing how we actually made some pretty good friends and mentors though conducting a survey. I guess it all comes down to being humble and showing a keen interest to learn.

Looking back at the whole exercise, I guess my team and I are just really blessed to have such awesome people around us, helping us every step of the way. A big shout out goes to all of you awesome people that helped me out in any way, be it passing me a number, introducing me to some friends, or even passing our survey along. Special thanks goes out to Pamela and Melissa who actually took us out to meet insurance agents they knew, which in turn introduced us to a whole lot more awesome people!

And the great thing was that I wasn’t just meeting great insurance agents – my awesome friends and family never fail to support me, continuously introducing me to new and interesting mentors who each have powerful lessons to teach me. One of the key perks of being employed is having the opportunity to work and learn the trade from a good boss. Not having a boss, I’m just so blessed to be surrounded by mentors from different fields who readily and generously share the wealth of their experiences with me. Thank you so much.

Through all this, I have really learnt two main things

1. If you are interested in starting a business… just go start! Find some way to begin and just go do it. Start small if you have to! Persistence, focus and the alignment of your venture with your deepest values will cause magical things to happen helping you learn so much faster along the way! There is just no substitute for just starting! Saying that you need experience or capital is just making another excuse for yourself! I’ve started small, with just tons of interviews, surveys, brainstorming sessions and consultations with mentors – and I feel that I probably learnt so much more than I would if I took up a typical marketing position at a typical marketing firm.

2. And that true success in life probably isn’t just measured in dollars and cents – the number of lives whom you’ve touched are really important too! In this whole process of trying to get EasyGreet started, I’ve realized that what motivates me in business is really the people. I love interacting and connecting with people, and businesses are what drives value – and potentially human happiness if done correctly – up if done correctly. For more thoughts on happiness and about the meaning of success, do check this extremely meaningful article out.

***

Guess that’s it for this week! Hope that my partners and I will have more to share in the days to come! Count your blessings when you can! (We’re sure blessed with our secret hideout as well!)

Our secret hideout!

Oops!

So much has happened so fast.

The last time I wrote, I had still yet to complete my final year project, and my team and I were working late nights just to get it done.

The three unconformists of NBS!

We endured overnight stays, poker breaks, and just one-too-many an automobile-related beverage accident, but we managed to pull through and produce a paper that we’re all pretty proud of producing.

Our final report

The last time I wrote, I still was vice-president of my school’s Marketing club.

MarkeTHINK's 4th Committee!

Now that I look back, I learnt so much through MarkeTHINK and my awesome friends. We went through so much – organizing events, pitching to potential clients, and even planning crazy publicity stunts! Thank you so much for being such a joy to work with all this while.

Since then, our dear 4th committee has stepped down and handed over the reins to a new batch a student leaders who will bring our dear club to greater heights.

The last time I wrote, I was still a carefree student.

Then, I only had to deal with reports, classes and exams. I didn’t have to think about earning a living as the government was funding my studies.

Now that I’ve handed it my final paper, all that has changed. No more scholarship to depend on and I’ll have to wring meaning and livelihood out of this world with my bare hands, in my own unconventional fashion.

The final paper...

A big chapter has closed, but a whole new exciting one just begins.

It’s a new start, a new beginning. As always, it’s time to make this one awesome as well. (:

It’s something I know I shouldn’t be feeling, but it just rushes over me – if only for a brief moment. Just how can some people be musically and vocally talented, be a celebrity and still study at one of the best universities in the whole wide world?

Today, it’s these two guys, Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider. I just love their music – for such a young duo, everything they do is just so professionally done. You really need to check out their medleys if you haven’t already.

Here’s the kicker – they’re both Yale undergraduates. As one of the world’s best universities, you really got to be pretty smart to earn a place at Yale.

Really pretty damn smart.

Then common sense starts to creep in.

We’re all put in this world, with different strengths, different skills, but I still firmly believe that whatever the heart of man can have a burning determination for, he can achieve.

I may not be there yet – like all those Silicon Valley entrepreneurs that Timothy blogged about, but I have a dream and a plan.

It may be a long and winding road, but I’ll claw my way up there if I have to.

I’ve got a whole load of important projects due real soon, and the pressure’s mounting. Been sleeping late, thinking, brooding and working on my projects. It took it’s toll on me. My world felt like it was constantly spinning.

Then I read this, the final part of one of my favorite essays, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, and all became so much more still.

Peace, be still.

Serenity – As a Man Thinketh

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.

A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being, for such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought. As he develops a right understanding, and sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss and fume and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast, serene.

The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to adapt himself to others; and they, in turn, reverence his spiritual strength, and feel that they can learn of him and rely upon him. The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Even the ordinary trader will find his business prosperity increase as he develops a greater self-control and equanimity, for people will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanor is strongly equable.

The strong calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm. Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet-tempered, balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise of character which we call serenity is the last lesson culture; it is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul. It is precious as wisdom, more to be desired than gold – yea, than even fine gold. How insignificant mere money-seeking looks in comparison with a serene life – a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth, beneath the waves, beyond the reach of tempests, in the Eternal Calm!

“How many people we know who sour their lives, who ruin all that is sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers, who destroy their poise of character, and make bad blood! It is a question whether the great majority of people do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack of self-control. How few people we meet in life who are well-balanced, who have that exquisite poise which is characteristic of the finished character!”

Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt. Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him.

Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this – in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep; wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power.

Say unto your heart, “Peace, be still!”

***

That exquisite poise of character which we call serenity is the last lesson culture; it is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul. It is precious as wisdom, more to be desired than gold – yea, than even fine gold. How insignificant mere money-seeking looks in comparison with a serene life – a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth, beneath the waves, beyond the reach of tempests, in the Eternal Calm!

Peace, please be still!

I clicked on that link and what I learnt just totally blew my mind.

It was an entire list of more than 12 dozen different links to the best online sources where one can learn from a really wide range of subjects – ranging from engineering, history, the arts, business… the list just keeps going on and on!

What intrigued me even more is the fact that quite a number of the top universities in the world – Harvard, MIT, Yale – all had some kind of open courseware initiatives which shared entire courses worth of lessons with the world at large! Through such sites, one can access an entire semester worth of recorded lectures, tutorials, and notes just at the click of a button – all for free!

My journey through Open Yale Courses

I browsed through the material and landed up at Open Yale Courses, Yale College’s online repository for their shared course material. I chose a subject that I was interested in – Economics, and browsed through the available courses. The course on game theory really stood out as I always wanted to learn more about it, but I never took time to learn more about it. I clicked the link, loaded up a lecture and that was it.

Professor Ben Polak lectures on Game Theory.

It was just breathtaking. Immediately, I was transported far away into Yale College, learning and studying the same material that some of the best students in the world were learning. The classes were taught in a way that I was just not used to – with a chalk and blackboard; notes were hand-drawn by the professor; it was just so refreshing to learn something out of my specialization, in a totally different context!

Possibilities for the future

All sorts of possibilities just started rushing through my head – what if more people started learning online? What kind of better world would we all be able to help construct if knowledge – the source of our human power – was transmitted more fluidly to the masses? Would we be able to solve the difficult problems of our time – global warming, rising income disparities, our quick depleting natural resources?

For a moment, the bleak outlook that we have looked so much brighter. If we empowered more people out there who previously did not have the opportunity to learn cutting edge knowledge, I am convinced that we would be in so much better a position to make all this wrong right.

I hope that reading this has made you realize the immense amount of knowledge that we, the connected youth of today, have right at our fingertips. I so hope that this helps make a positive impact on your life!

Maybe, just maybe if we all make ourselves more educated, wiser people, we’ll be able to solve all those problems that our forefathers never thought possible.

Check out the link to check it all out for yourselves if you haven’t done so already: 12 Dozen Places To Educate Yourself Online For Free.

***

P.S. You can download quite a bit of these shared, opencourseware on the iTunes store through the iTunes University! It’s all free so check it out! I downloaded a whole set of lectures and talks relating to starting up a business/entrepreneurship and I can’t wait to listen to them soon!

Just how fun work can be when you do it right.

When I talk to my friends about my entrepreneurial aspirations, sometimes they tell me that they want to start their own businesses too. However, most of the time, I hear that response with one short caveat – that they’ll only do so after a few years of working experience in some large multinational company, supposedly to gain experience and to be more financially stable.

I never quite agreed with that line of thought and by beliefs were further confirmed when my supervising professor for my professional attachment paid me a visit at the Jipaban office. My supervising professor had been involved in dot coms since way back before the turn of the millennium, before the dot-com crash, and was extremely eager to hear all about the Jipaban.com.

Somewhere in our conversation, he mentioned this – that he had many students who also similarly told him that they wanted start their own businesses. When he asked them how they were working towards their aspirations, they told him that they’ll go start out working for a large, stable firm, gain experience and finally come out, 10 years later and start out a business of their own.

His reply was simple. It was – why do you think that the experience you gain at working for a large firm would be the most relevant to your future entrepreneurial exploits in the future? Really, would experience in spending your day focused on solving someone else’s problems and working on making that person rich be the best teacher at teaching how to make yourself rich? I really don’t think so.

Why I don’t believe that this is the way to go.

When you work for someone, it’s your job to make your boss rich, not the other way around. Always remember that.

When you spend the majority of your time thinking about how to maximize someone else’s profit and not your own, I believe that it’s easy to get caught up constantly focusing on that issue and not on what’s efficient – increasing your personal wealth and working towards financial freedom. Working to make others rich is vastly different from working for yourself.

When you work for yourself, you make all the decisions, but you reap all the benefits (and losses) incurred by your actions; when you work for others, an artificial safety net is put under you. When you work for yourself, it’s so much easier to be motivated to understand every aspect of your business – you try to understand it from a macroeconomic point of view, you analyze customer feedback, you check the data religiously; when you work for others, that kind of intense motivation to master the business just isn’t there.

I believe that the only way to really teach yourself business is to immerse yourself inside a business that you really care about, and experience the pure joy of working hard to make it all come together. That’s just something I don’t see happening much if you decide to work at a large firm where the red tape just ties you down.

The red tape, politics, and artificial safety net does more than limits your potential to shine, but I also believe that it is one more additional barrier that stands in the way of you learning good business habits. Getting used to the wrong level of thinking, a totally different level of decision making, would not only hold you back but may go on further to negatively affect the business decisions you make! You may have been better off starting with a blank slate as you might have incorrect perceptions and habits you may have acquired about business by immersing yourself inside an employee culture!

Money ties you down.

Another reason I don’t want to apply for a job in a big multinational the moment I graduate is because money just ties you down. Holding a high paying, “stable” job is quite a bit like giving in to the urge to just lie down in an extremely comfortable sofa – it’s really comfortable to get into it, and very hard to get out.

I have always believed that the worst thing that can happen to someone is to get too comfortable. When you’re too comfortable, there’s nothing forcing you to get faster, smarter and better – you just take it easy. As a result, you just end up sloppy, lazy and inefficient.

Life’s short – you gotta be efficient.

All in all, I strongly feel that working for someone else just happens to be the roundabout way of doing things should you want to start your own business in the future. I believe that it’s not only inefficient, but also that being trained to be a good employee might not make you a good boss. I guess that’s exactly why I’m so happy during my internship over the past 10 weeks at Jipaban – I’m right on track to getting to where I want to be.

Now I’ve just got to apply those lessons I’ve learnt with diligence and focus!

Chasing shadows.

I read these few paragraphs off a beautiful blog I follow, Marc and Angel Hack Life, and these words really made a very strong impact on me.

Amazing how serendipity manages to creep in every facet of my life. It always feels like a miracle, when you really think about how everything falls into place, to make those words appear to me at that right moment, right place and right time.

Here’s the article, and along with it, my earnest wish that our light drowns out the shadows.

Every Light Cast A Shadow, Marc and Angel Hack Life

One of the greatest lessons we get to learn in life is that we are often attracted to a bright light in another person.  Initially, this light is all we see.  It’s so bright and beautiful.  But after awhile, as our eyes adjust, we notice that this light is accompanied by a shadow – and usually a fairly large one.

When we see this shadow, we have two choices: We can either shine our own light on the shadow or we can run from it and continue searching for a shadowless light.

If we decide to run from the shadow, we must also run from the light that created it.  And we soon find out that our light is the only light illuminating the space around us.  Then, at some point, as we look closer at our own light, we notice something out of the ordinary.  Our light is casting a shadow too.  And our shadow is a bigger and darker than some of the other shadows we’ve seen.

If, on the other hand, instead of running from the shadow, we decide to walk towards it, something amazing happens.  We inadvertently cast our own light on the shadow, and likewise, the light that created this shadow casts its light on ours.  Suddenly, both shadows begin to disappear.  Not completely, of course, but every the part of the two shadows that are touched by the other person’s light illuminate and disappear.

And as a result, we each find more of that bright beautiful light in the other person – which is precisely what we have been searching for all along.

Read the full post here.

What do you do about your problems?

Life can be hard, and no living person can claim to have gone through life without facing problems.

What really matters however, is the way that we treat our problems. Do we treat our problems as something that frustrate us, piss us off and cause us to hurt emotionally, or is there a more empowering way of looking at problems?

Yes there is.

Problems can be immensely empowering when you look at them the right way. Instead of letting them piss you off, ask yourself this simple question – how can I help others solve this problem that I now face in an easy and efficient manner?

The fact of the matter is that if you’re facing a problem, it is highly unlikely that you’re the only person out there hurting because of that particular problem. Think about it, almost every problem that you face in your daily life has been encountered by countless other people before. The reality is that the problem persists because no one out there has taken the initiative to solve it in a creative and effective manner.

So go solve it! The greatest thinkers, the greatest entrepreneurs, the greatest contributors to society are men who felt that they could not accept the status quo and took it upon themselves to do something about mankind’s problems! Solving a previously unsolved problem is a sure-fire way of adding great value into the lives of others and is in fact a fundamental part of entrepreneurship.

Find a problem, apply a generous helping of creativity and thought to it, and who knows, maybe it’ll be your next big business idea!

The next time you start to feel frustrated when something goes wrong with your life, know that you have the power to turn it around and convert that problem into a gift, a resource of new insight and value that you can use to improve your current circumstance.

That new girl you hired just suddenly quit on you? Do you get all hot and bothered about it, or do you think about how you can create a system that reduces the probability of hiring such irresponsible people?

Another irritating person flaming you and your business on Facebook? Do you start whining about how irritating such immature people are, or do you think about how you can go about converting that vocal dissenter into your most ardent fan?

Don’t let that treasure trove of great ideas go to waste. Keep a record of the different problems you face every day and spend some time thinking about how to solve them and improve the overall human condition.

Everyone loves a problem-solver because such people add immense value into our lives. So decide to stop being someone who complains about problems today and become a problem-solver instead. You’ll be a problem solving master in no time if you spent some time thinking creatively about solutions every time you face a problem. Now to start thinking creatively about how to pack for my trip back home later today…