The Blue Dragon is Looking@Me

Review: Aaron Patzer (mint.com) - The $170 Million Idea: From Idea to Exit in 3 Years

2012-01-13T13:44:00.000+08:00

Summary

Mint: The product is FREE, we get money if we can help you save money. Our ad helps you save money: e.g. Save $200 on interest if you switch your current mortgage to this one.

Validate your idea
Prototype
Build the right team
Raise the funding

Real Business: Business is creating value (not just a feature)

Problem people will still have in 5-10 years
Billion dollar market
Sustainable advantage

Pasychology of Startup: Listen to Frank Sinatra - That's Life to counter Depression

Quit your job
Self doubt is okay
Work flat out hard
Can be very lonely: working in a room in a new city alone for 7 months, thinking you could change the world could be pretty daunting

Pre-launch Evaluation: +500K per Engineer, -250K per Business Person

1st 5 hires are Engineers, 6th person is Marketing

Profit Projection = Relistic Estimated User Base * Revenue per Year

2012: Yet Another New Hope

2012-01-01T02:47:00.000+08:00

100 minutes of the New Year just swoop by, while I spend my time watching the deep (by superhero movie standard) and twisted Watchmen. The sounds of fireworks outside reminded that the new year has arrived, yet I am too lazy to get up and go out, but I decide to make and effort and go out anyway, but all the fireworks are blocked by nearby buildings. I raise my hand in air and shake my hand and body like an insane person, saying “yeah!” to usher in the New Year. 2012 is no longer the future, it’s here.

New Year, New Hope, New Beginning, and Hopefully not too much of the same old shit.

Year-end usually felt slightly shitty psychologically (in regardless of the holiday mood, like a bad hangover), knowing the year had passed and the feeling of we accomplished so little and “wasted” so much time? What had we accomplished? What do we intent to accomplish? What are we doing? We are wasting time living our life. Perhaps we wish for more wealth, more acknowledgement, more gains, more love, less misery and misfortune. Then again, perhaps no news is good news. Then again, we are all greedy being which are not easily satisfied. We wish for the simplest thing, yet we always over complicated things. We always wanted the things we never have (or yet to have, like a child wishing to grow up faster, and later wishing to age slower), else life would have ended.

If I believe end of the world is coming, I am not quite sure what should I do; pack my bags and travel the world, or stop living my life, and how do we actually love our loves one more every day? Can we actually increase the amount of love pumped in per day, or perhaps the current dosage is just fine. So if the end of the world is coming, I would prefer not to be preempted about it, it just adds more misery and it lessens the hope for mankind.

Anyway, after the year end, it feels good because we are being reminded that the old just pass us a few hours ago, and the new is here. It’s like life got a reboot, where the machine is running faster again with more memory to spare (and all the bad problems are gone). We forgotten about the pain and despair, and we are all set to march towards our hope, to reach the destination which we missed last year, and to create bigger and better destination for this year. We are all pumped up, and ready to take on the world, as we have another 12 months to do a lot of stuff. We are going to OWN the world, and the people of the year shall be us.

2012 have to be a better year; else there is nothing to look forward to. In fact, it’s going to be a great year, a year of accomplishment and great satisfaction. Of course we would pray for world peace, less natural disaster and less financial crisis. We hope for less corruption, less stupid and greedy people staying in power, and more “right” things to happen. We want our loves ones to be happy and healthy, and wish everyone would find their dream and have the courage to chase that dream. I just wish everyone would be happy, in regardless of the long list of wishes and hopes.

Then again, if we aren’t specific, we aren’t going to accomplish anything and be happy about it, as the pursuit of hapyness is very broad and we might get lost within. My current ultimate dream is to go into semi-retirement within 3 years, and start doing things because it’s fun and meaningful, not because I have to. Until then, I would give it all out to give birth to 2 consumers Internet Application: Foodoly (morphing from Malaysia Most Wanted Food) and Travelopy, by working really hard and nurture them to grow strong and healthy. All out, not holding back, until I ran out of excuses in regardless of the outcome.

2012 shall be different, and great :) Happy New Year

Review: Evernote Business Model

2011-12-27T13:24:00.003+08:00

Founder Showcase - Phil Libin Keynote

The Best Product Doesn't Always Win is a total BS. People who tell you this don't want you to succeed. It is true that some great product doesn't win, but given the choice to invest in product vs marketing/logistic/crm, you should put more emphasis on product and could potentially get the other stuff for free.

2 step plan in making revenue

Make an amazingly great product
Charge money for it

Stick with 1 revenue model for startup

Premium Subscription (90%). Not because it's biggest, but because it had the most salable growth.
Advertising (little money, promote partner product)
Technology licensing
Schwag (T-shirt, stickers)
Giant novelty checks

Stats

3 Million Users in 2 years, 8,000 per day
Free users grow by 10% per month, paid users grow by 15% ($5/month, $45/year)
Lose 50% users on the 1st month, then the rest stays month after month
Conversion Rate: 1% (1st Month), 2% (1st Year), 8% (2nd Year)
Cost per User: 9 cents, Revenue per User: 25 cents
If you haven't reach break (gross margin profitability), the more users you add (scaling) means the faster you run out of money; after break even, the more users you add means more revenue

Freemium Model

A great long-term retention rate (don't have to spend money to re-attract users again)
Product that increases in value over time
Low variable costs

Startup Realities Checklist: Coder or Entrepreneur?

2011-12-27T00:43:00.001+08:00

So what are some of the harsh realities of a startup that applied to me as well?

Your First Iteration of an Idea Will Be Wrong
Our first product is a property website which allows checking for historical property prices so that you could make a wiser decision before purchase. Though it might sounds useful, but we fail the gain user tractions or wrestle with the big boys like iProperty. Price Analysis is nice, but people use property website to search for property (either buy/sale or rent); and we don’t have the resources or connections to succeed in this manner.

Perhaps it isn’t a fail product (yet), just that it would consume more resources and industrial relationship to succeed (something which we don’t have). Restaurant reviews is something which we could do really well given our limitation, thus we focus on that.

Your Friends And Family Won’t Understand What You Do
It takes years before my dad stop asking me to get a “real” job. When I told people we are running a restaurant reviews website without charging for usage, people would ask how we survived. I would explain it is like The Sun newspaper, a free local newspaper and make money from the advertiser. Wait until they found out I am making less than being employed (sometimes).

Why do it (start a business) if it doesn’t make more money than being employed? The short answer is it’s fun and satisfying, I can work through weekend and midnight and still feel good about it (though I curse at the notebook many times). What if it doesn’t work out? The problem is, I could no longer get myself to do work for others which doesn’t interest me. It’s just painful. There seems to be no turning back (I once wished for burning the bridges, seems like it had happened).

You Will Make Less Than Normal Wages For A While
It could be a long while. I would probably earn more if I continue to climb the corporate ladder 6 years ago. Then again, I would end up in a dead end: a life which I wouldn’t enjoy. I need good mixture of freedom and passion, and a good mix of programming and traveling. I am lucky that my life expenses are low, and I am good at saving money, and pretty good at bootstrapping, and doing something which is within my means and capabilities.

Everything Takes Twice As Long…If It Even Happens
Still remember about thinking about making the 1st million by 25, then 30, and now turned to 35. Still remember about become sustainable within 6 months, then 1 year and then forgotten about how to calculate. Being a programmer, we are always optimistic about launching a new product or finishing the feature within 3 days, which might ended twice or thrice as long. All system must go live and all features must go out the door! Luckily that is still true: late but deployed. Getting it done is still better that getting it perfect.

Titles Mean Nothing. You Will Be a Janitor
I can call myself CEO, Founder, Serial Entrepreneur, Software Architect, Product Manager, etc. It doesn’t matter: I’m still a coder, and a thousand other things.

There Is No Silver Bullet
There is no savior (mentor or VC) which is going to come in and save the day, or any magic formula not known to mankind; I have to make it work though countless iteration of experimentation and error, until I get it right, or stop being relevant.

Customers Will Frustrate You
I like the users and consumers (since they are not paying and happily using our free services); customers could be a bit demanding since they are forking out the money. Then again, I am thankful of Google Adsense which could temporary shield me from sales and customers.

You Can’t Do It All Yourself
Yup, I have tasks piled up for me for the next 12 months if I am going to do this alone. I can pick-up multiple skills, but I could squeeze more than 24 hours in a single day. I definitely need help, HELP!!!

Building A Team Is Hard
Yup, I could be very tricky, but there is no other way. Then again, we shouldn’t just assemble a team just because we need to, we need to find the “right” people; just like we should not get married just because it’s time to get married, and we need to find the “right” girl or else we would be miserable for the rest of our life.

Building a team is like a courtship which hopefully would lead to marriage, and expect a lot of heartbreaks, incompatibility, wrong timing, betrayal, bad judgment, misaligned vision, not good enough, etc.

You will LOSE all of your money that you ever earned, and then a bunch that you still have not earned. If you’re not prepared to put it all on the line, you’re not prepared for a start-up.
When I am Solo, I just need to feed myself and get a shelter (which my parents could temporary provide for me). Worst case scenario for me is that I might lose that “potential” income per year, or don’t have enough money to get married or have children. Should I take on more risk?

Am I a Coder or Entrepreneur?
I have ponder this question for quite a while, am I an Entrepreneur doing a Startup? I know I am a coder who likes to build stuff, and I am happy when people like to use my stuff. Is my stuff (a product or a website) a startup? Is a coder running some stuff an Entrepreneur? Before the word Entrepreneur doing Startup becomes popular, it was known as Businessman running a Business; and it is common knowledge that technical person are less likely to be a businessman. Technology (and Timing) made it possible for a coder to become an Entrepreneur doing a Startup. We know Entrepreneur consist more than just a coder: the business and management side, the sales and marketing side, and the whole “running a startup” side.

Rather than being all glamorous about entrepreneurship and startup, perhaps I am happier being a coder building some useful stuff which people happens to like to use. I guess I am not getting any VC love after admitting to this :)

Jeff Hoffman: How to overcome criticism of your idea?

2011-11-30T03:21:00.001+08:00

Kinda missed his talk during the SVC2M event due to an 1-to-1 session, now I know why it's the most liked talk: Inspiration and No holding back (and no excuses).

Notes:

Successful people are not smarter. They just wake up and go do something about it, no more excuses.
Entrepreneur take gamble on themselves.
Info Spunge: read (and gather data points) about things which might not be relevant to what we are doing, and somehow the dots might connect after a few cycles to form a new picture.
You'll fail, so what?
Leader: build a team who is smarter than you.
Ask what your future team member want? Do you share the same value or vision?
299 vs 300: It's what differentiate Heavyweight Champion and other boxers.
Should I do something which make instant money, or work on the product? Hardwork & Sacrifice are the nutients
We always know we are going to sell everything, but let's focus on selling one thing. Amazon got so good at selling books, people start asking what else are they selling. Same goes of Zappos.
Protect Idea: Patern, Switching Cost, Industry with Relationship
Blue Sky: Pretend there is no gracity and rules, don't try to innovate by making more lanes in the highway to solve traffic.
You cannot control of being a victim, but you can control if you want to continue to be a victim.

How to take on Negativity?

Don't take advice from golfer if you want to play baseball (find the right mentor/advice)

Great Multi-tasker = No Focus
The Drive to get it done now = Impatient
Not afraid to try something no one else had tried before = No Respect for Authority

Quit taking opinion from the guy you are not going to sell your product to

PS: I always knew I am pitching/talking to the wrong kind of people: they are not the users of my product, they do not understand the dynamics of consumer Internet and they are definitely not entrepreneurs. Thanks Jeff for the validations.

It's time to do more with less excuses.

Why users' desires and needs are the most underserved?

2011-11-17T13:15:00.001+08:00

We know Malaysians are crazy about food (the further we traveled, the better the food taste), and there are plenty of restaurants popping up and closing down every month, yet there are very little successful websites which help consumers to look for good food and restaurants. There are probably 2 dozens of food websites (non-blog) in Malaysia versus a few hundreds food bloggers, and Malaysians actually get makan advice from food bloggers rather than using a food website like Yelp (for Malaysia).

We know fairly sure most Malaysian eat out and there are plenty of thriving restaurants, but why the supporting web services to help match foodies with their desired restaurants is not quite there yet? In fact, most food websites are started as a hobby project; and some done by small companies, and the big players are certainly not in sight.

Is Malaysian web sphere not vibrant enough? I don’t think so. We have Groupon and dozens of its clone such as MyDEAL and Dealmates. For online property, we have iProperty, ThinkProperty and PropertyGuru. For job hunting, we have JobStreet, JobsDB and Monster. For e-commerce, we have Lelong/SuperBuy, Postme, AirAsia Megastore and Jipaban (in fact, most individual setup a blogshop).

Why are certain segments more vibrant and filled with bigger players? I have a theory: short cycle to profitability. Most of these segments require low development time and cost, perhaps high marketing spending, and the ability to monetize and be profitable within 6 months (or gone out of business). Almost everyone can setup a Groupon shop, though you need to have sizeable capital for marketing and hiring sales people, and there are multiple proven local models and success stories where the top 10 local Groupon clones are hitting the revenue of RM 200,000 to RM 5 million per MONTH! It’s like a gold mine, and everyone is getting the shovels. Success story like iProperty and JobStreet shows there are millions of ringgit to be made from the local market, thus people are willing to invest in and try to wrestle some market share from the big established players. How about e-commerce? We never really heard about most of the websites besides Lelong. My theory is E-Commerce = Sales = Money, thus people inherently thinks there are always money in this segment (just like a brick and mortar shop which sell things). E-bay could be an inspiration for some.

So, does that mean there is no money in helping people to discover great food, but tons of money in selling restaurant coupon? Let’s just say selling restaurant coupon is easier and faster. There are basically 2 type of consumer Internet business: Type A) one that focus on the users and help them to get what they need. Type B) focus on the merchants and make it super easy for users to buy the merchant service. TripAdvisor and Yelp is Type A (focus on users); while services like KAYAK, Expedia, Booking.com, and Agoda is Type B (focus on merchant). Bigger companies would like to venture into Type B kind of business, because it’s nearer to the money (there is profit in every booking).

What is Type A (user-focused)’s business model, like TripAdvisor? TripAdvisor is more costly to develop (platform, content, community), which might take 1-3 years to gain traction with minimum profitability; once they became the market leader and everyone goes to TripAdvisor’s website to plan for travel and seek recommendations, then it became a valuable platform. All Type B business like Expedia would want to be featured on TripAdvisor website, because there is where their customers are. TripAdvisor make its profit from referrals bookings made on Type B’s platform, without the need to handle customer service and all the work. Click and KaChing!

What is the different between TripAdvisor and Yelp's business model? TripAdvisor is slightly luckier as they could make profit from travel booking business like Expedia, and they don’t have to do the hard work of engaging every hotel and travel agencies in the world. Is there a booking service for restaurants? Perhaps there are some, but nothing as elaborate and vibrant as Expedia. My guess is Yelp! still have to do a lot of ground work, engaging restaurant owners and merchant to do some kind of advertisement or promotions on the website. Each travel deal could average RM 500, but each restaurant deal is only RM 50. For restaurants, there are more work and less money.

So, why would we want to do Type A (user-focus) business if most of the money is in Type B (merchant-focus)? I guess I am a believer that if I do something which actually helps others to solve their problems, it means I am creating value and good things will happen. A lot of people are trying to look for great places to makan (including me) every day, and I am serving that need. Though that might not sound very business-minded, but I do believe in its value (though I got criticized a lot by business-minded person who thinks I am delusional for treating this as a business). Basically I believe we solve a problem, serve a need and acquire users who like our services.

Mr. Stoppelman (Yelp) said that the site deliberately tilts its rules to support the reviewers. “We put the community first, the consumer second and businesses third,” he said. - Source: NYTimes

Besides personal and philosophical reasons, there is a long term strategic reasons as well. It might take you 3 months to start a Groupon site and start making money, and it’ll take any guy 3 months to be your competitors and reduce your profitability. The barrier of entry is very low, and it’s a very hot gold mine; and money can buy success easily through marketing in this case. How many people are willing to invest hundreds of thousands and be patient for 1-3 years to gain traction; and have the opportunity to monetize in the end? There are hardly any competitors left at the end, and new comers will take years to play catch-up, and we gain the priceless reward in becoming the market leader. Most importantly, we have gotten the content and the users; content attract the users, and users attract the merchants (and profitability).

Jeff Bezos said, “It’s all about the long term. If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in five to seven years. We’re willing to plant seeds, let them grow—and we’re very stubborn. We say we’re stubborn on vision and flexible on details.” - Source: Forbes

In Malaysia’s context, the idea of pouring hundreds of thousands and taking 3 years to make real profits might be unbearable of most investors. The idea of food hunting using websites (or mobile applications) is quite alien to users above the age of 35 (they like to read reviews on newspaper, and ask for advice from friends). Thus, most investors would think I am a young ciku who know nuts about business. Then again, I still have a lot to learn.

In the meantime, we will make Malaysia Most Wanted the ultimate gateway to all Malaysian food and restaurants; provide satisfactions to all the foodies out there.

My Last Bite at Government Grant

2011-11-16T14:03:00.001+08:00

Hi, I am Desmond, and I am jinxed with Government Grant applications. For the past 6 years, I applied for 4 government grants (from 3 different agencies) and entered a reality TV pitching show, and all of them sunk. You can read about my journey.

In the early years, I thought I am half-hearted with no track records, thus I fail. Then I manage to develop a service with great traction (self-funded), yet they still doubt my capability to venture into new markets and criticized my inability to monetize on the traction. When I mentioned Twitter secured millions of dollars in funding, with hundred millions of users, considered wildly successful and still hardly profitable: everyone keep their silence because they can’t come up with a reasonable answer, but I know none of them agree with the statement. I was asked why I have 300,000 visitors and still can’t make great profit, and waiting a year before profit comes in is labeled as “pathetic”. I try to explain to them that this is not a software product which you can profit immediately per sale, this is consumer web (product > traction > trial & error / pivot > maybe profit): and I know none of them understand what that phrase means.

At the end of the day, government grants are KPI-based to improve the country’s GDP (towards the ETP): so you need to prove that you can make tons of money, or already making tons of money (Ironic, isn’t it?). They are not going to invest in Twitter or YouTube which can’t generate great profitability in the early years, in regardless of how many users you have. Government grant is about short term profitability (will be better if it’s proven profitability); but there are some exception. Why TryMasak is portrayed as a success story for ICON fund? Traction? Profit? Perhaps is the collaboration with MOSTI, ability to watch cooking video on Hypp TV and featured on Malaysia Book of Records.

Forget about what Silicon Valley taught us about 1) Team 2) Product 3) Traction, it doesn’t work for government grant in this country (it’s like some weird idea from a different world. I dunno what are these crappy stuffs? Show me the money!). Though I suspect the forth element, social proof, might still work very well. If you are like me, who have no connections with the “right” people; don’t try to focus on the product or tractions, and don’t even try to promote your team because we are all crappy little minions begging for money. I am not encouraging this, but I guest boasting about your current profit or instant profitability within the next 6 months is something they would like to hear; and perhaps some partnership with big names like AirAsia, Maxis, and TM would ring the bell as well.

Government grant evaluation panel nowadays include “industry expert” besides a bunch of bureaucrats, which sounds more promising, but not quite so. These experts might not be entrepreneurs themselves, perhaps managers or CEOs (which have a very different mindset from entrepreneurs, but confident of their personal achievement due to the 5 figure monthly salary). I am guessing none of them have experience with business like Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TripAdvisor, Yelp!, etc.; and I am not sure if they even read about them, or at least use them. There is a high probability they might still be traditional-minded: build some product with 3-6 months, spent tons on marketing and branding, sell like hotcakes and become profitable. Spending millions and years before profitability is just crazy, something they genetically couldn’t comprehend.

My conclusion is:

The expectation and benchmark of Silicon Valley VCs are different from local government grants. So it's Product + Traction + Team vs Profit.
At the end of day, it’s all about proven profit and fast profit (within 6 months – 1 year, not beyond). They are not interested with traction, though they might criticize you if you don’t have it.
Although they say there are looking for the next Google, but we know they won’t invest in Google during their early days (for God’s sake, they don’t even have a business model then, forget about profitability). So do something proven, especially proven locally; so that they could smell the money.
Know the “right” people. Social Proof works globally.
Sometimes it's like selling a bat to a golfer; or Tech and Business person speak a different lingo (it's like why Man couldn't understand Woman). Choose you investor wisely, if there is a choice.

I hope I learned the final lesson from the grant applications spree, which cause a lot of distractions. I conclude that they are not interested in my kind of startup: focus on content and user tractions, not proven business model locally and no proven or instant profitability. I do admit I didn’t focus on monetization, because I felt that someone could do a better job than me, so I focus on what I do best (my theory is, the inability to monetize doesn’t means the platform has no value). More work required here.

Am I being delusional or arrogant here, sometimes I asked myself? My brother said, “If you still know how to ask yourself that question, you are pretty much safe.”

What’s next? Do more, complaint less. If I don't believe them, the next thing to do is to prove them wrong :) Malaysia Most Wanted Rocks!

Be so good they can't ignore you - Steve Martin

What I learned from StartupMalaysia: Silicon Valley come to Malaysia

2011-10-24T14:23:00.000+08:00

I better write these down before my memory fades me again.

There are almost 1000 start-ups in Malaysia, which is really cool (we are not alone); some had gone as far as Silicon Valley to get funding, and some even make Millions (it would be nice if we know who are they, and what they do).
I had read that Silicon Valley investors look into team, product/demo, traction and social proof (be exceptional in one of these) and throw business idea and proposal away; I have the opportunity to experience some of the processes and found that to be TRUE. Sadly, that’s not the case for Malaysia Investors (at least not so for Government Grant).
Investors look for really either really smart people who can rewrite the rule (not just incremental enhancement), never say die or inspire. – Saad Khan, CMEA
In pitching, we need to tell a story. But what is a story? Your experience and hardship? You experience the pain which you are trying to solve?
If there is a high failure rate with entrepreneurship, there is an even higher failure rate in securing funding. Besides team, product and tractions; pitching is still an emotional sale (admitted by Naval Ravikant of AngelList), which means they won’t invest if they don’t like you. Sometimes people are looking for Apple (the fruit) and you just can’t sell them Orange. So keep trying until you find someone interested in Orange, and then you get the real feedbacks from them. Not all investors are equally experience or brilliant as well.
Code is Power; then again there are many good coders out there. I believe code is the basis, but there is more to be done on top of it.
There is no magic formula: how do YouTube or LinkedIn gain traction? Continuous tweaking, iterations, trial and error, trying something new and measure the results, understand your potential business model and customers, until you get it right.

I believe StartupMalaysia (and Silicon Valley come to Malaysia) is awesome because

It’s the first time I ran out of Business Cards (which is a good sign); so the networking really works here without the need to be a PR expert, and we get to meet many entrepreneurs and gotten linked up as a community.
We get the chance to have dialogues with some real silicon valley people, thus giving us a better perspective in terms of i) is our product really good, or jaguh kampong only ii) what these people are looking for iii) how do we bring it to the next level.
Some acknowledge and recognition given by budding entrepreneurs about MalaysiaMostWated is pretty comforting :)
And the Startup Experience boot camp: learning how to survive as a team and opportunity to know a few budding entrepreneurs closer.

Team Hati Bank

Review: Founders at Work

2011-10-14T12:05:00.000+08:00

This is one of the more interesting books I had read in a while, but I am bias since I am doing a startup. What are some of the lessons we could learn from some of the most successful startup in the past 2 decades (can’t believe so many things happened in 20 years).

2 Founders (business and technical). This is the dream team combination, as we have Bill Gates and Paul Alan (Microsoft), Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Apple), Jerry Yang and David Filo (Yahoo), and Max Levchin and Peter Thiel (PayPal). The coder can just concentrate on building great product, and the business guy handles funding, board, operation, etc. Then again, business would break if the founders couldn't get along (choose carefully, don't get a co-founder for the sake of having one).

To sell out, or not? Most founders agreed to sell out, for one simple reason: you could use the money to fuel your next dream. Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia) was sold to Microsoft, so does Flickr, Blogger, etc. What if you don't sell? You might crash fantastically, or be as great as Facebook.

Uncontrolled public “disputes” and lawsuits could kill the company. Dan Bricklin of Software Arts (VisiCalc for Apple II) was suit by its distributor due to disagreement with software loyalty, which in turns affected their chances of an acquisition and distracted their product focus (and overtaken by Lotus); and end up being irrelevant at the end.

No one is King forever. First we have VisiCalc, then Lotus Notes, and finally Microsoft Excel. Not too long ago, we have Friendster, followed by MySpace, and now Facebook.

Beware of VC (they could "kill" your company, or you). Though most founders have VC funding, but most agreed that they would preferred not to take VC funding if possible. VC naturally will act on their best interest, which might not be the best interest of your company; some VC might even try to take advantage of you since you are a first timer in accepting funding. If you have 2 almost similar deal from 2 VC firms, try to go with the smaller VC firm who actually focus more on your company (make sure you are their top 5 clients, rather than bottom 5). You want their founders to be on your board, not some junior stuff who knows nothing about running a company, and try to run your company. ArsDigita was basically destroyed by junior members of as established VC firm. Please know that they can even fire you, the founder!

Spent little as you can, and bootstrap.

No Business Model. Most company in the early stage doesn’t know how to make money (most of them didn’t make any but end up being acquired). TripAdvisor eventually found a business model by sending leads to hotel booking sites, and earn commissions; HotOrNot end up charging for dating services.

Hang on. Pyra Labs (Blogger) have to let go of their entire staffs as they run out of funding, but the site (or company) still continue to operate in minimum state by one of its founder, Evan Williams. He asked for donations to keep the site up, and eventually make some money by selling premium bloggers accounts (pay me $5 and I’ll the take ads away). Eventually it was acquired by Google.

Not every great idea is accepted. Initially, Gmail was not accepted as a great idea within Google, yet today it became an important part of Google. You need to work your way through, prove it and earn it. When Y Combinator started, most investors and media aren’t interested; it caught fire 18 months later, and there are various clones out there.

The original idea might not be the winning idea. Pyra Labs (Blogger) initial focus was a web-based project management tool; Flickr was originally a photo-sharing feature in an online game.

Crazy idea does work unexpectedly. How could you make money out of a site which rate if someone is hot or not? Well, HotOrNot started with some advertisement and end up as a dating site. Now, who dares to bet male geeky stuff couldn’t make money?

How to Kick-ass in VC/Grant Pitching (Malaysia)

2011-10-12T14:26:00.000+08:00

They are on the lookout for the Innovation / Disruption / Breakthrough.
There are a few problems. New Innovation are very risky, and most people don’t understand it. Can you actually see Innovation or did you see a Clone? Google in the Early days, you see it as new Innovation, or just another young kids trying to challenge Yahoo (and they probably would fail). VisiCalc is new innovation, but what about Lotus Notes and Excel? Can you foresee Facebook overtook Friendster and MySpace? Can you identify them before it happens? iPhone is Innovation, but what about iPad? What do you think of Android and iOS? iOS wins because of better usability/interface/experience? What if I tell you that we are going to build a better TripAdvisor, because we will create a better user interface and great user experience? How are you going to quantity and evaluate that? If you recognize an innovation, are you ready to take the risk? The idea sounds good, but the evaluation method is just not reliable.

How much track records is enough?
Do they investor really focus on the idea, or the team? Big time VC always say it’s all about the team, but I get more questions about the Idea than the team. Maybe they doubt my team, but you don’t get a chance to defend it and they never openly question your capability (they’ll conclude that you can’t, and that’s it).

I had seen a CEO fascinated with someone graduate from Oxford, so I guess if you graduated from Harvard or MIT, it helps. I guess it helps if you worked in Microsoft, Google, Facebook before (agreed by AngelList). And perhaps it you are a Celebrity (or a pretty Girl), it helps as well. If you have the connections which helps the business, that's valuable as well (if you try to sell online musics, and you have connections with the music labels).

If you are a serial entrepreneur, it helps (but some agreed that people who had make the big bucks before, aren’t pushing as hard as they used to, but investor still think it’s a safe bet). If you are a first timer or done some small projects before, then you are screwed.

Since I don’t have any of the above, I try to leverage on my best project: Malaysia Most Wanted Food & Restaurants. My pitch is that it’s the best online Food & Restaurant Guide in Malaysia (proven by Alexa), that it had 300,000 monthly visitors. Somehow this track record doesn’t really work its magic. Maybe I need the number to be 1 million (then I won’t be here begging for RM 100K), or people just never really use or heard about it before (thus they don’t really believe me, but they don’t question me publicly as well). Perhaps I sound too arrogant? My thought is, if I repeat this statement enough times, people will actually pay attentions and start to believe.

Knowing their prejudice or preferences?
I guess everyone have their own preference and prejudices: some like apple, and other like orange. If you try to sell an apple to someone who likes orange, you are going to have a tough time; if you sell it to the right person, then the magic just happens.

While I was proposing my Travel idea, there is all kind of oppositions (perhaps people like to take a travel package instead of planning their own travel?). Then one of the panel browse through our sites and found Malaysia Price Checker, and he was amazed by our database; his words, “There are many people proposing a price checker, and none of them have the database; and here you have it.” Then I mentioned maybe there are limited potential with price checker, and they actually defended the idea and say, “You never know.”

This brings me to human psychology: people always like their own idea better than others. I like my own ideas better than the panel, so it’s hard to get them to like my idea. If I can turn my idea to become their idea as well, then miracle will happen. I am no longer selling my idea, but they will automatically buying their own idea.

Tips: turn your idea into the investors’ idea. It’s not the same as changing the idea (from Travel to Price Checker), but get them to believe that Travel is their idea as well. I know this could be tricky, but it’s extremely priceless as well.

It’s facts and words, or emotion and personality?
As a technical person, I tend to focus on facts rather than emotions. I believe in reasoning, thus my slides are populated with facts, features and numbers. I found that though I may speak a lot, but very little of those actually goes into the head of the Investors. I show a slide about our unique selling points, but people still ask me again. Someone asked why I don’t have XXX, and I just show a full slide talking about XXX.

Something is not working here. Either my presentation skill sucks or I speak too fast, or I talk about too many things which loses focus. Last time I jumped straight to be point, thus some people don’t understand what it is basically about; now I add in more basic information to cover the grounds, then people got bored and lose focus on the in depth stuff.

Again, I think emotion and personality play a very important role. Most of the time I am quite nervous, so I am not sure I portray what kind of personality or emotion (Confident? Rookie? Defensive?).

A guy wanted funding to setup a photo studio, and he bring along all these beautiful child photos for display. Though the judges criticize his business plan sucks, but they are still willing to give him a chance (I do feel the photos do stir up great emotions). Perhaps they judges don’t know much about photography, thus can’t comment much, haha? (Tip: if they judges don’t understand about your industry, you might have an advantage). And he got a pleasant and humble personality, and perhaps I am too “arrogant” and “defensive” thus not so likeable?

Then again, do we want mister goody two-shoes as entrepreneur?

Attack is the best Defense?
Most of the time, we are playing defensive as the investors throw questions at us and challenge us. I try to dissolve that with reasoning and arguments; which might work or might not (you might have the right reasoning, but some people just don't buy it; but neither do they voice it further). My feeling is we are always at the disadvantage here.

Perhaps we should break an attack with a counter-attack. If people say your site sucks, so what are the better sites? If they say your number is low, so you mean you actually have a higher number than us? Be careful playing with fire thought, as sometimes people takes these things quite personally. If they are not happy, they ain't gonna invest either. So, how much backbone do we need?

Experience, and more Experience.
Yes, experience is doing presentation and giving pitches do helps. There is always room for improving the slides, and improve your presentation focus. Once you kick the “nervous” element out, perhaps you would be more aware of what is actually happening. Perhaps we can kick the “defensive” element out as well, and be as cool as a cucumber.

Though I usually come out quite dissatisfied from each presentation, but I did learn how investors behave, how to improve the focus of the presentation so that the panel really get it (avoid confusion, avoid lost focus) and maybe some new idea about my product. And perhaps how to handle the usual questions as well.

Warning: You are getting advice from someone who had never secure any funding before :) Read about our failures and lessons.

Understanding the mentality of Investor in Malaysia (and about fund-seeking entrepreneurs)

2011-10-12T13:02:00.001+08:00

I had applied for 4 government grants before, and entered 1 pitching reality TV show, and I am still out of luck with 1 chance still pending. I might not know a whole lot about success, but I do know about failure, haha.

There is this hype about government grants many years back, with the launching of Cradle, Mosti and MDEC funds. I was still employed then, but I guess it’s the best time to write up some business proposal to see if I can get some FREE MONEY to start my first business.

My first idea 6 years ago is Document Management System (DMS), as I was in software business consulting and companies are paying a few hundred thousand for such system. I thought maybe we can create something simpler and better and sell it for less than one hundred thousand, but then there are many such solutions out there (including open source one).Our proposal is accepted, and we went to the 1st meeting, and it kinda end there with no feedbacks whatsoever (it’s common practice for them to keep silence about the reason for rejection). I guess we don’t have much of a unique selling point, except that we think we can do it better and cheaper than others (and the market is there). I guess we fail because our idea is not unique, and we probably don’t have track records to show as well. Then again, they are approving “funny” projects like Sang Kancil animation, some sales system, etc.; eventually they stop publishing about the projects they funded. Learn about what they don't fund.

My second idea about 5 years ago was Property Prices and Statistics, where the website will show you the current and historical prices, and you can do a comparison. Our business model is selling report (or premium access) for detailed records. I think it’s pretty cool and useful. But the same thing happens, our proposal is accepted, and we went to the 1st meeting and then it stopped. About 1 year later, one of the grant we applied finally get back to us (there have a 1 year backlog, OMG!) and ask us to do a presentation. One of their panel say the people don’t need such services (there is no need to compare property prices), because he doesn’t need it. Then he say RM 20K is too much money for such project, then he tried to slash it down to less than RM 10K (OMG, just pathetic). At the end, we didn’t get an offer as well. Why did I fail? Perhaps we don’t have track records; is it my failure to persuade them there is such a need, or they don’t have the foresight? For me, how can you ask a bunch of middle management who didn’t start any business before to provide insights into evaluating other businesses? A few years later, I did start Malaysia Property Price as a sub project, to test if it really works. It gotten some eyeballs, but not enough traction (I can’t afford to spend more resources on this idea at the moment, perhaps later). Maybe they are right? But it still sounds like a good idea, shit.

Then I stop to believe in these Grant thingy. If I have so much faith in my own idea and capability, why not use my own money and start it instead? I finally quit my job and started MalaysiaMostWanted.com (MMW), where the initial focus is on new property launches. It gains a small traction over one year, but not enough. I left to start a consulting business with a friend, and come a year later to “reboot” MMW. This time we are slightly smarter and better, and we venture into Food & Restaurants (because the other similar sites in Malaysia are just not good enough, and the best stuff actually comes from bloggers). After a small success with Food, we redo Property, launch Event and Map. Event and Map didn’t quite pickup, but Food is great, and Property is doing well. I guess I got complacent for a while, because iProperty is too big for us to challenge (not something can be beaten technologically), and other food players just didn’t keep up. In 2011, I decided to take MMW more seriously (I cut down my freelancing jobs, but sometimes couldn’t resist the temptation of money knocking on my door). I manage to launch MMW Foodie (Android App) and Malaysia Price Checker. I started to think perhaps it would do me some good if I can get some funding, so that I can resist these freelance jobs, and employ someone to speed things up. So I applied for a grant, and saw a chance on a reality pitching show, and go for that as well.

My last proposal is about Travel, continuation from MMW Food. The reality pitching show didn’t turn out good for me, mainly due to 1) Some judges misunderstood my idea (my fault) 2) They feel I shouldn’t do Travel because I have no track records, and I should focus on Food 3) They feel the market is saturated. What can you do when people don’t trust you, and ignore your track records? Market is saturated? It’s like because there is Yahoo (and Altavista), so you don’t need Google; at the other end of the world, another VC just invested USD 4 Million into Gogobot (a travel website), WTF!

My last adventure is a presentation for a grant, and we have the usual doubts 1) We don’t think you can handle Travel, just stick with Food 2) TripAdvisor is so great, so you can’t be better than them 3) MMW is not that great (Ouch!). We are a failure until proven success, so I should ask for Grant for something which I already did (Food); perhaps I should. I did list out our “unique” features which TripAdvisor doesn’t have, but I guess we “speak” but no one actually “listen”; then someone get very “emotional” about our food search cannot sort by popularity (which I later tested to be working, maybe he is using a Mac/Safari, which we didn’t test on because the user base is less than 5%) and start making remarks which make the impressions that we make shitty application; and he love TripAdvisor so much that I have an uphill battle (is he really emotional, or it's a "test", hmm). I am not saying TripAdvisor sucks, but they are the champion because they have the content and reviews, but they are complacent with features and usability (and user experience); actually the same happen to us with MMW Food, thus I want to make things right and better. Is 300,000 monthly visitors an achievement? You can say it is pathetic, or it’s okay, and maybe it’s great. Can you build a website with 300,000 MAU?

Everyone knows Google is great after it is successful. Given that if you have the chance to invest in Google in the early days, are you the one putting in money, or you are the one saying “There is no money in search” How sure are you about the remark and decision you make today, and how much are you willing to bet on it? I guess this are the questions investors (or evaluators) should ask themselves.

As a fund-seeker, there is a lesson to be learned from the Kentucky Guys: fail 3000+ times before finding an investor. Keep trying, haha. Prejudice, everyone have it; both the Investors and Entrepreneurs. Keep trying on a bigger data sets to get the "real" picture.

This post is getting too long; read the next post for How to Kick-ass in VC/Grant Pitching (Malaysia).

PS: Will my "exposures" back fire on my reputations and future chances? Probably, but then again; this is who I am. If you can't accept this, then probably we can't work together. 道不同不相为谋；千里马要伯乐。

Review: Paul Kenny's Building Sales

2011-10-10T13:24:00.000+08:00

Notes:

Love your inner Sales person?
Sales is sharing story with customer?
Dialogue: reach a mature understanding of what the client values most
Quality of Dialogues = Quality of Customer Acquisition
Dialogue builds rapport: if the perceived value is almost similar, people buy from the person you like the most.
To get the customer to reflect their unique needs to you
You cannot tell your way into a solution (you need this, that, etc)
Perception of your product matters to customer
Knows the Customer's DNA: Drivers (Ego, Security, Ease, etc), Needs (Function, Scalibility, etc), Aspirations (Project, Team, Personal)
Better Dialogue: Selfless Questioning, Listen (don't assume, non-judgemental)
Don't allow sales person to focus on monetary reward only (tie them to growth, customer happiness, feedback, etc)
Hire the person who asks the most interesting questions. Don't hire Franks (hot-shot salesperson at big companies)

Steve Jobs' Wisdom: 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

2011-10-06T13:49:00.002+08:00

Steve Jobs, R.I.P 05 Oct, 2011. Though he was not my favorite, but I do admire his talent and how he manage to change the world (in a not so subtle way, and a good way, IMHO). I am sadden by the lost, the fall of an icon.

Notes:

The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only collect them looking backwards.

You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

I had been rejected, but I was still in love.

The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.

You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As will all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heavens don't want to die to get there.

Death is the very single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by godma which is living with the results of other other people's thinking. Don't let the noice of others' opinion drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Review: Dharmesh Shah's building a great Software Business

2011-10-04T13:13:00.001+08:00

Improving one often degrades another

Sales Velocity
Acquisition Cost
Lifetime Value

Invest in the Experience (not product)

Don't make customers happy; make happy customers. It's not subsequent thing serviced by support team; it's a whole end-to-end process.
Monitor customer happiness from Sale, Support, etc.
Customer Happiness Index: use metrics (call them once you know they are unhappy)

Put virtual customer in meetings, what would Moly (customer) say?

Make not just great products, but superstars of your product. (Customer focus).

What do we have to do, to turn non-users into users. A better or simpler product? Is iPod a higher performance product? Or easier to use with easier access to music? Tap into a blue-oceans of users who are waiting at the sidelines.

Extreme trasnsparency with employees.

Brand is what people say about you after you've left the room.

Don't screw your customers.

The path of truth and justice to gain profits. Don't be evil.

Dream big. Execute small. Sell your company for a good price, then you can fuel your next dream.

Review: Geoffrey Moore's Making a Business in Software

2011-10-02T15:04:00.001+08:00

Geoffrey Moore wrote one of my favorite book, Crossing the Chasm (can't believe I didn't do notes on the book).

Innovation

Differentiation (Core)
Neutralization (Context): The market moved, but you didn't (getting back into the competitive set)
Optimization (Context): get the cost down

Core vs Context: Core is processes that amplify differentiation, Context is everything else which support the business (the necessary evil)

Innovation Waste

Differentiation that didn't go far enough (people like to play safe, but Steve like to go far)
Neutralization projects that go beyond good enough
Unaligned Innovation

There is never a game-over. Sun is the dot in dot com? IBM controls the PC market? Kodak moment?

Markets

Niche (Bowling Alley) -> Early Adopters -> Mainstream Market (Tornado)
Growth -> Mature -> Decline

Buyers (Performance, Relationship, Value)

Early: Performance (75%)
Growth: Performance (50%), Relationship, Value (25%)
Mature: Value (60%), Relationship (25%)
Decline: Value (75%)

Models

Product Leadership (Performance): Disruptive (Google), Solution (Autodesk), Product (Apple), Platform (Microsoft)
Customer Intimacy (Relationship): Line Extention (HP), Design (IDEO), Marketing (IBM), Experiencial (Facebook)
Operation Excellence (Value): Value Engineering (TSMC), Integration (SAP), Process (Dell), Business model (Salesforce)

Winning in Solution Innovation (B2B)

Target Customer: Pragmatist (follow majority's choice) manager in target niche
Compelling reason to buy: Fix a problem (top 3 problems) business process
Whole Product: End-to-end solution
Partners and Allies: Solution complementers
Distribution: Direct sales
Pricing: Value-based
Competition: Horizontal offerings
Positioning: Niche market focus
Next Target Customer: Adjacent niche market

Definite Separation

Pick a core (laser-focus)
Go really far (beyond reason)
Optimize Context
Small Competitiveness: Agility

Review: How to delve into Sales

2011-10-01T12:59:00.002+08:00

Notes:

Sales Organization: get people excited about your product, so that they'll share their needs with you
Interview: don't lead, let people talk (so that they don't prime their answers to your needs)
You want to hire someone who are interested in your start-up equity, at the same time most Sales people care about instant reward (show me the money!).
Compensation: don't user percentage, but maximum absolute figure (negotiated quarterly or so)
Weekly Pipeline Meetings, though Sale people don't like to be managed tightly.
Team Selling: post-moterm after every sale. What happened in the meeting?
Called before office hours and after office hours (to bypass the secretary); Friday afternoon is best for setting up meeting next week.
Call as high as appropriate
LinkedIn connected histroy: to find out about your competitor's movement.
Ask for favour in return for reduction in fee. Leave room for people to have small victory. Margin?
Forecasting: 10% if you understand client's needs; 50% if you given a presentation, and the client have something to buy from you; 75% if customer ask for negotiation; 90% you are told that you got the contract.
Don't hire too quickly, don't hire too senior; trying selling by yourself to get a feel, get sales service consulting company.

Review: Seth Godin. Are you afraid to truly make an impact

2011-09-26T11:32:00.000+08:00

Notes:

Wisdom of Selling a "Traditional" Software Product

Who can i reach
Will they talk about it with their peers?
Can I earn and maintain permission to continue talking to them
Will they pay for it after they learn of its values

Wisdom of Selling a "Connection" Software

Does the connections create demonstrable values
Is there an easy and obvious for someone who benefits to recruit someones else to join
Is it open enough to be easy to use but closed enough to avoid becoming a zero-cost commodity

Stuff

People like to do what others are doing.
People are waiting to be led.
Marketing = Tribal Leadership, create a Tribe of followers
Connecting People: Connect users to one another
Creating & Inventing something Interesting
FREE is a marketing tool (marginal ZERO cost production) to get connections, leads to perception of a better services and end up paying for it
Customer paying to be connected?

Review:

Seth Gordin is a famous Sales & Marketing Guru, but he is not my favorite. He is a believer that Marketing/Business triumph, not technology/technical skill. On the surface, I do agree with him that pure technology or technical competency is not enough to prosper in the market in most cases, but neither pure Marketing/Business is sufficient to bring success to tech companies. There need to be a balance, combining Technical brilliance with Marketing brilliance. But it's true that sometimes coders over emphasize on the coding side that they end up with a great product which no one use.

Nowadays, a coder (especially founders) didn't just code, we innovate and create something new (or disruptive); we are an inventor/designer/artist, who happens to be the implementer/manufacturer/coder as well. Why do we need to code? Because it's difficult for another coder to realize our creation. Can someone draw on behalf of Picasso? Do we admire his painting skill, or we admire his creativity?

What did I learn from Seth? Spreading of Ideas, Connecting People, Building a Tribe and Create something Interesting.

Review: Eric Ries's The science of lean startups

2011-09-25T16:20:00.003+08:00

Notes:

Stop wasting people's time: build something someone would actually use
Identify value-creating vs wasteful activity
Learn what we need to learn at the lowest cost: can a 9 months mistake be learned within a month?
Fisher Price Model: Learn -> Ideas -> Build -> Code -> Meassure -> Data -> Learn (Loop)
Agile Development with a Continuous Feedback Loop
Why do we build products: delight customers, get them to signed up, make a lot of money, change the world.
Continuous Deployment Principle: Make very kind of mistake only once, Quick Deployment, Cluster Immune System (to warn of potential mistakes)
Minimum Viable Product: 1/8 of the original features, talk with early adopters

Review: $0-100million with no sales people (Atlassian)

2011-09-23T10:31:00.000+08:00

Notes:

2 founders: someone to depend on
Freemium: product must sell itself
Use your own product
Measures everything
Test everything
ABM: always be marketing

Send T-shirts to customer
Cool Benifit for workers: 1 week holiday before startwork, welcome kit of T-shirt and Chocolate

Your 1st idea will fail
Long term thinking
Know when to switch gear: when not to bootstrap anymore?
Build somewhere you want to work
Give experience as reward: Treasure hunting game

Review: Fundable Startup (AngelList)

2011-09-22T21:48:00.001+08:00

7th Founder Showcase - Naval Ravikant Keynote from Founder Institute on Vimeo.

Be Exceptional at one of the following (Importance is ranked by sequence, where Traction rules)

Traction (Perhaps 20% per month)
Team (Reputation, not self acknowledgement)
Product
Social Proof (Reputation, Reference by someone known, Herd Mentality)
Market ...

Markets & Approaches (Unfundable)

Services, multiple products
Small Markets
Desktop Software / Dead Platforms (Silverlight, Flash, etc)
Conquered Markets with Network Effects (beating eBay or Craiglist)
High atom content (required brick and mortar)
Not too large, not too small

Team (Unfundable)

You don't get to call yourself visionary
Outsourced development, business-heavy
Sole founder
Part-timers
12 years experience (too genetic, what have you done)

Exceptional Team (Fundable)

Keywords: MIT, PHD, Columbia, CS, Cisco, Sun, Google, Microsoft
No adjectives / opinions of yourself
Show, not tell
Quantitative and precise, not qualitative and vague
Branded or measurable output
Recruit only the best. And if you can't, you're not ready.

Product Guidelines

No promises / vision
Show, not tell
Quantitative
Something hard with specific knowledge
Expect competition
Build only the best

Real Hacks

Advisory Round (Notable VC)
Cast a Broad Net, move simultaneously
Easier to pitch a new investor than to convert one
Sell the option to invest more later?
If you're having a hard-time, restart (go back to drawing board)
Don't sell more than 20% at seed round

Summary

Get to a funding hub
Recruit an exceptional team
Build something you are passionate and knowledgeable about
Test it against customers
Get social and customer validation
Raise on at least once exceptional characteristic

Friday Thoughts

2011-09-10T03:28:00.000+08:00

I like Friday night, where it’s always calm and quiet, where I have time to digest TEDs video before hitting the movie for another 2 hours pass midnight, and it made me realizeor think of something before I hit the bed. A little bit of time for self-reflection, I would say. To understand how we are going to come to terms with our own life.

I guess there are too many shits going on around us, we have corruptions which made us uneasy, people with their own agenda until they start to hurt others and good people have their hands tied. Are the politicians whom we voted still looking over our backs, and does the laws still uphold justice? Does Democracy and Capitalism still works well enough, or the rich and the immoral are running the world and the country now?

As an individual, it’s easy to escape the undesirable environment. If the company we work for sucks, we can always find another one, or start our own. If the country or government sucks, we can migrate to some other place as long as we have the cash. After a while, you realize there are always shitty people and shitty places; as if there is nowhere to run. No place is ever safe or good enough, and the knight in shining armor which we hope will come and clean the mess, just doesn’t appear anymore, or fall short of our expectation. Is it there is no one left to save us, except for ourselves? Like it or not, perhaps we need to be the hero to save the day.

I guess we do need a lot of hope and faith to live in our time. Sometime we need to forget, and sometime to look at the brighter side, and sometime to remember again. It’s like the movie where a group of people completed a big heist after facing numerous obstacles, and they get their dream and freedom in the end. Life is full of shitty challenges … you never know what you’re going to get.

Jason Cohen: Six ways to work out whether advice is helpful to you

2011-08-31T12:01:00.001+08:00

The Rules: There are no fixed and fast rules. 1 short post per day might work for professional bloggers with focus on impressions, but maybe not for a product blogs which might require lengthy detail.
Sales: Can a geek do sales better than a “professional” salesman? Perhaps. If you are building a software development tool, you probably understand the problems and its benefits better than any other salesman. You can answer “hard” technical question, you can execute a perfect demo and provide great support: which in some sense are sales. If you are selling a frying pan, it might be easier to train a professional salesman about the product and let him do his magic talk.
Trust your inexperienced gut: your “unconventional” ways of doing things might be the right thing for you. Pick things naturally right for you. Perhaps not doing the normal way is your competitive advantage.
Stuff changes, rules changes. What used to work might not work now.
King or Rich? Do you plan to run your business for life, or you plan to sell it for the right price? Is your business a lifestyle business, or business with high growth?
Bootstrap or Funded? Bootstrap needs to generate revenue stream as fast as possible, while the funded can focus on land grab and market share (think about monetization later).
Perhaps there is nothing wrong with running a one-man business with no sales team?
Less reading and more doing?

Patrick McKenzie: Software for underserved markets

2011-08-31T00:45:00.000+08:00

Selling to women: Groupon, Farmville
Not Feature, Benefit? Software is boring, but people are interesting.
The Emotion Business: Make people feel smart, make beautiful things.

Karl Treier: 20 Tips When Starting a Busines

2011-08-30T23:54:00.001+08:00

Be very clear why you are doing it
Don't judge by appearance
Once you decide to start a business, go for it.
Lead, Manage, Inspire, Make it happen
Don't be afraid to seek advice
Trust but verify
Be very careful about hiring friends
Retain your competency
Keep cash close
Buy second hand stuff
Use free software
If you decide to take investment, it'll cost you an arm and leg
Don't be overly optimistic about your financial projection
Sometimes you might fail for reasons you cannot predict
Keep striving for the goal
Negotiate with customer: Show me the money
Bad things happen, Don't Panic!
Give back to the community
Don't procrastinate, just do it

I demand FASTER and CHEAPER Internet in Malaysia!

2011-08-25T10:51:00.000+08:00

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

The Government need to FORCE Telekom Malaysia (TM) to open up the last mile connection to other competitors (leasing the connection to them at an affordable rate, like what is done at UK's British Telecom)
Broadband is not 512K/1Mbps connections, it is supposed to be 10Mbps by today's standard
Broadband should cost USD 10/RM 30 per month, not RM 50-100. It some of the most expensive cities in Europe can provide that, why can't Malaysia?

Dan Bricklin: What have I learned in 40 years of developing software products that people use?

2011-08-24T13:03:00.001+08:00

Dan Bricklin is the chap who invented VisiCalc (a spreadsheet app) for the Apple II, and nowadays he seems to have fun making Notetaker HD for iPad. Father of Spreadsheet having fun making productivity iPad apps? Sounds like a wonderful life :)

So, what can we learn from him?

What is a Product? to get a required job done.
2 week payback rule: make it a no-brainer for people to buy it (significant cost saving).
General Purpose tool? Meet wider a range of need. Spreadsheet not only does accounting, but you could create timetable and tons of other stuffs.
Must Have: people make the decision to buy for something very specific
Right channel of distribution: magazine, web, app store, etc
What the new power can do? PC make computer games possible, and iPhone made computer games possible while on the move.
Smartphone: Since it's a phone, u carry it anyway.
What to leave out (limited by resources or design)
Engineering: Keep trying, failing, get it right, make something better that your had dream of.
Many people assume you would fail when you take off (which is statistically proven true). Hopefully you can keep you cash flow on a up-drift path.

Free: The Future of a Radical Price

2011-08-16T19:35:00.000+08:00

How does free really works? Usually by giving something away for free, and get paid for something else instead. It works better in the digital world, will giving away more copies doesn’t cost significantly more money.

Jello – free cookbook to introduce jello to the world
Gillete – cheap razors expensive blades (same goes with printer)
Free Sample Store – charge for member entry, charge for rental of shelf space, charge for feedback collection. The Sample Store in Singapore.
Free Music – promotions, make money through concerts and endorsements
Amazon – free shipping when purchase 2 books
Free Newspaper – more circulation, more advertising. The Sun Newspaper anyone?
TED – free online video, high ticket price for networking opportunity
Free Stock Trading – free 10 trades per month (25% make more than 10 trades), make money through additional services like tax planning and portfolio management
Free Healthcare Software – sell anonymous data
Free Garbage Collection – recycling value

Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work

2011-08-16T01:19:00.000+08:00

Watch this video quite sometimes ago, and the speaker is quite an interesting guy who takes Work Life Balance close to his heart. So, how to make work life balance work?

Honest Debate: Certain jobs and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningful engage on a day to day basis with a young family. People work on the job that they hate, to buy something they don't need and to impress someone they dislike.
Face the Truth: Government & Corporation aren't solving it; it's up to you to design your life. Commerical corporation are inherintly designed to get as much out of you that they can get away with. Daycare at the office is nice, but it just means you would end up working longer hours.
Timeframe: a day is short, waiting for retirement is too long. You cannot delay life and happiness until your wife divorce you, your health fail on you and you have no more friends and interest.
Balance: small things matter at the right places. What's important and what's success? More money or a more meaningful life? Buying a PlayStation for your kids, or spend time bring them out and play silly games together?

The Place Promised in Our Early Days

2011-08-14T02:02:00.000+08:00

Premonition: anticipation of an event without conscious reason.

Velaciela: the Vessel to bring you to the place, where you always know you should be.

Review: Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

2011-08-11T12:26:00.000+08:00

When I first saw the Wikinomics title, I jump to the conclusion that I know most of the things about Wikipedia, Crowdsourcing, Openness and User Generated Content thingy. I assumption about the book is right, but it’s case study still provide some insights of Wikinomics beyond the common boundary of tech and web.

Goldcorp – A Canada gold mining company have problem identifying gold deposits after years of work and millions in expenditure. They decide to open up their data (this is a highly guarded secret) and offer a challenge to the world to identify gold hotspot based on the data. An enthusiastic army of geologist, computer scientist, mathematicians come up with ideas and suggestions never thought of before. The company went from $100 million to $9 billion.
Lifan – we know of open source software like Linux and Apache, how about open source hardware in motorcycle manufacturing. Company like Lifan in China, and a thriving ecosystem of suppliers in Chongqing, had built a motorcycle like building a PC (with its modular components, and standard interface). Manufacturer and Part Supplier sit down to discuss about making cheaper and better parts together.
Boeing – it’s no longer the time where time where Boeing come up with a 20,000 pages specifications to the suppliers to build its parts as it is. Boeing and its hundreds of suppliers sit down together since the early stage of design to decide on the best way to design and built its components together (the guys who will manufacture it should design it). They share the cost, risk and reward together. All components are assembled in DC about 3 days (much like LEGO).
Ideogras: P&G post up their problems and challenges, and offer rewards for those who come up with a solutions (50% of their IP are generated by outsider). Besides, they offer their IP (which many remain dormant and not used) for easy licensing by outsider. Certain market might be too small for P&G, but they are happy to license out their IP or technology.
Prosumers: Encouraging/supporting customers who "hack" your products, creating new features or uses that your company would have never thought of on its own. DJ like mixing of music (sadly it’s illegal to do so most of the time), Lego Mindstorm, Hacking of Kinects, PSP, etc. Kinects object it initially, but eventually embraced it; Music industry, iPod and PSP definitely rejected the idea until suing its consumer in court.
Human Genome Project
IBM contributed millions in Linux, make a profit by providing services or selling related products, while savings billions in developing their own server platform.
Platform for Collaboration: Contribution of idea, Open API, ability to build application on the platform and make a profit from it (Amazon allows other to create a customized version of Amazon store), etc.

Michael Pawlyn: Using nature's genius in architecture

2011-08-06T00:20:00.000+08:00

After viewing this video, there is a sudden surge of hope for:

More design based on nature to increase efficiency (up to 100x)
A more closed loop system: nothing goes to waste, all by products is fed into another system
The integration of sea greenhouse, solar tower and greenhouse to create an optimize ecosystem.

Besides depending on superb design and technological breakthrough (which might be out of the reach of most people), I think we should at least have a more efficient waste management system: stop everything from going into the landfill, think of various ways to use them. Example are bio-composition of food waste to generate power, worms for fish food and fertilizer.

Web Development Skills

2011-08-03T11:26:00.002+08:00

Web Developer used to be a lowly paid bunch as compared to their client/server developer counterparts, until the boom of Web 2.0. Web Development used to be simple, involving only ASP, Access, HTML and perhaps a little bit of JavaScript. If you are a web developer today, you probably need to be equipped with more than a dozen to programming language, skill and technology.

What skills today’s web developers need to be equipped with?
First we have some basic skills

HTML
JavaScript
CSS (don’t underestimate it’s power)
Web Development Language: PHP, C# or VB.NET for ASP.NET, Java, Perl, Ruby, Python, etc.
Database: MySQL or Microsoft SQL
Graphics Manipulation: Photoshop or GIMP skills
A sense of design

Server-side Skills (some System Admins doesn't even have these skill sets)

Amazon Web Services (and installation of LAMP stack)
Linux Commands, Shell Scripts, Configure Cron Jobs
APC or MEMCACHE configuration
Apache Optimization, HTACCESS configuration
MySQL Optimization
CDN configuration
Load Balancing (1 million visitor range)

And some slightly more advance technology

Google App Engine (GAE), using Python, Java or Go
Google Maps API
Google Web Toolkit, and framework (GWT-platform)
Web Development Framework: CakePHP/CodeIgniter, ASP.NET MVC, Spring, Ruby on Rail, etc.
Data Abstraction Framework: Hibernate, Objectify, ADO.NET Entity Framework
JavaScript Framework: jQuery, Prototype, Ext JS, etc.
Database: Google’s Big Table, NoSQL, Amazon’s SimpleDB
Chrome Web App Development
HTML5: Canvas, Offline Storage, File API, Sound & Video, Web Socket, CSS3, etc.
Search Engine Optimization, Sitemaps, RSS, etc.
Support for Desktop Web and Mobile Web (Smartphone, Tablets)
Support for Multiple Browsers: IE6/7/8/9, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera
Flash
Social Integration: Facebook Connect, Twitter API, etc.

Supporting Tech

Android (A great website probably have a mobile apps as well)
iOS
Desktop Tool Development (develop supporting tools for offline processing): C#, Java, etc.

I wonder how well a season web developer compensated today, especially in Malaysia. A typical good programmer in US would be paid around USD 100,000 per year (some capable of reaching USD 200-400K). It's quite pathetic that senior software developer in Malaysia get around RM 4,000-8,000 monthly (probably with not more than 1.5 months bonus), but then the rising cost of programmers would put a toll on start-ups.

Whisper of the Heart

2011-08-01T01:12:00.002+08:00

It's nice title, nice music, nice anime, nice story, and a nice lesson too precious to be tucked away.

Do follow your heart, as you would find peace, and purpose.

No matter how disagreeing the world or the people around, follow through, as it's meant to be a test.

If you have forgotten or given up, don't be lost and start looking again.

Even if you don't have yours, don't stop others from finding theirs, help them.

Follow your heart, as there isn't any other ways, to live the life you always wanted.

Country road
If you follow this road onward
It continues to that town, I think
Country road

By myself, without fear
I dreamed of going
Shutting up my loneliness
Protecting my strong self, I'll go

* repeat

Getting tired of walking then standing still
Floating closer, my hometown
The uphill road winding around the hill
I'm scolding that me

* repeat

No matter what discouraging times there are
I'll never show any tears
Without heart, I'll hurry and set myself free
In order to get rid of my memories

Country road
Even though this road continues to my hometown
I just can't go, I can't go
Country road

Country road
Tomorrow, the me I always am
I want to go back, but I can't, farewell
Country road

Raggae Raggae the Dragon Slayer

2011-07-24T23:01:00.000+08:00

Put some music in my food for me, and give me some Ragae Ragae source
Hot Ragae Ragae Source

It's so nice, I had to named it twice, I called it Ragae Ragae source
Hor Ragae Ragae Source

It's sad to see that the judges from the retail and marketing background didn't see the potential, while the guys from Technology background supported the idea. I guess there is no single most delicious source in the world (no one said his sauce is good, or bad), but the branding of Jamaica, Raggae Music and Hot BBQ source seems to be an interesting combo.

So 2 dragons invest in someone who can't count really well, probably don't know much about big business, who can write and sing pretty catchy tune, and make decent sauce. Sometimes it is difficult to break it down and analyse it to back our "correct" judgement, but rather it "feels" right.

Review: Start Now. No funding needed

2011-07-21T12:31:00.000+08:00

I still remember the days where I was so excited about the idea of government giving free money through Cradle, MDEC Pre-seed Fund and MOSTI fund; and I scramble to come up with some ideas and gather a team with lost touch friends. I tried three times over a period of 2 years, but I didn’t make it. On the surface, I did blame their “secrecy”, “biasness” and “incompetence”; yet perhaps I fail to write proposal which appeal to VC.

Start Now. No funding needed. from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.

Somehow, I decided that I could start something small without needing any funding; since I can't knock the idea off my head. I am a programmer, so I can absorb most of the development cost. I can do simple design and graphics, and I learn about SEO. By the way, I was trying to develop a property website. I took me about a few months to get the website running and feeding in data, and it didn’t quite take off.

The project was put in cold storage for about a year while I embark on something else, then I feel the urge to restart the whole thing again. I focus on food and restaurant this time, using a new framework. I made a few mistakes with the property website, where I develop my own framework (which was fun, but a nightmare to maintain). By using an open source framework, I can focus on developing features for the website rather than enhancing the framework. I put up some courage to employ people (burning my own money) to help me with the boring but important task, which is content building. I used to do it myself, but I felt it’s better to delegate these tasks to others, while I focus on enhancing the website’s features and performance.

Now, I have a monthly burning rate (paying others) and I am working for free (no income yet). But I feel it’s necessary to raise the stake in order to prove once and for all, either my idea will sink or swim with no regrets. I manage to break even after 12 months (discounting my own salary), and we are doing reasonably well after 4 years. Somehow, I started from a timid entrepreneur wannabe who are afraid to spend money to fund my own idea, and later it become natural to invest in my own idea. The good thing about spending our own money is that we run a very “lean” operation with no big overheads; I observe some well-funded competitors sank within a year or two (can’t keep up with the burn rate).

Recently I am tempted to aim for the ICON2 fund, why? Speed. The problem with a lean startup is that we are extremely careful and try to spend as little money as possible, thus the growth rate could be fairly slow. If I could at least double the expenditure, then I could shorten the time to build a successful product. At the same time, we have more luxury to experiment with various ideas, rather than doing things “safely” which hinder innovation and breakthrough. I think I had gain some maturity and success to move into second gear. Wish me luck!

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms

2011-07-19T02:48:00.000+08:00

Perhaps it's time to upgrade our educational system :)

The route to education marginalizes what you think are important
Why would we want to lower the standard of Education (so that more kids could pass?)
Many brilliant people think they are not smart (they don't do well academically)
Modern Epidemic: ADHD (being medicated from being distracted from boring staff at school towards Internet, iPhone, 100+ TV channels). We are getting our children through education by anaesthetising them (shut off their senses); we should be waking them up to what is inside of themselves!
Education System is modeled after the Industrialism: Ringing bells, Separate facilities, specialize into separate subjects, Educate children by batches (age). Kids have different levels of competency at different subjects, perhaps study better at nights than day, or learn better in smaller groups or individually. We are doing standardization, while we should go the opposite direction.
Divergent Thinking: essential capacity to creativity; the ability to see lots of possible answers to a questions. Kindergarden student scored 98% to be genius in Divergent Thinking, and their capability deteriorate as they aged. Why are they not getting better? We educate them, telling there is only 1 answer and it's at the back of the book (and don't look).
We have to think differently of human capacity
Great learning happens in group, and collaboration is the stuff of growth.

Anyone for Parti Kebebasan Internet?

2011-07-12T13:01:00.006+08:00

With the recent “hotness” of Bersih 2.0 and promising sign rallies (and objection to suppression tactics), and politics are suddenly “sexy” again with lots of “gossips a.k.a conspiracy theory a.k.a insider news” flying around, and the battle had gotten more interesting as the opposition actually had a chance (though the hope fluctuate quite dramatically), with dissatisfaction, disappointment and fear of the people rising rapidly, perhaps this is the best time to setup a Political Party and be a Politician?

If I am a politician, what should I champion? Since I can’t fake it very well, so I have to champion something dear to my heart, which is Technology and Internet. On the bright side, Malaysian has the most Facebook friends, everyone loves their iPhone and iPad (and perhaps some Android fans), we still love our local blog celebrities and we get non-government propaganda news from the Internet (newspaper and TV no longer have the balls). There is still a lot to fight for, such as The Censorship of Internet is getting out of hands with disregard to MSC’s Bill Of Guarantee of No Internet Censorship, such as censorship of RPK’s blog, TMNet blocking of Pirate Bay and other file sharing sites (a knife cannot be deemed illegal just because it can be used for killing), and of cause freedom of expression (at least on the Internet front), plus we all hope for better quality of Internet services. On a more drastic front, perhaps we should learn from Pirate Party to defend our rights for free software, games, movie and music (since most of us love it; and we pay when we can afford it, or when it’s worth it); and also to prevent the Government from spying or wiretapping our online activities.

Source: JDS

There is no better time to be an “Online” politician, as the Internet dramatically lowers the cost of running a campaign and increase exposure. First of all, we don’t have to apply for a police permit for Ceramah, as we can do a webcast (later archive it on YouTube) and people can send comments or ask questions by SMS, twittering, facebooking, etc.; and you can have millions of viewers and supporters without causing a Chaos. Secondly, your political party is a Facebook-like page, where everyone one who likes you automatically become your member (no form filling), and can proudly claim with proof that your party is 100,000 strong (of fans). You can do your party EGM and voting your Committee online so it doesn’t interrupt your member’s busy life and schedule, which is great! Then we will have the usual blog to let voters know us better (it’s virtually impossible to know your representative is like or what is he doing to help without a blog) and a Facebook page (or a more organize Q & A website or complaint tracking) for interactions (know the people through Facebook, better reach and time saving as compared to on the field tour).

Our Online Party is not meant to solve every problem or serve the need of every Rakyat (as each Rakyat have different needs and priority, which shall be served better by others), but we can become really good at what we do: champion our rights for good quality Technology and Internet. We fight for Internet Freedom and No Censorship, we fight for access to free Music, Movie, Software and Games, we lobby for better and cheaper broadband, and we vow for an Open Party (transparency in all our donation received, spending, etc.) and protect your online voice from richer bully who threatens to sue you for 100 million by setting a legal fund like EFF, and of cause the abolishment of ISA that try to instill fear into every citizen (the Government should fear the people, not the other way round). We shall focus on Urban area with high Internet penetration for competitive advantage. The whole point? To garner enough votes to form a better government with others of similar ideal.

So what do we need to make this work? A lot of courage and passion to make things better, a great speaker (ala Steve Jobs or Obama) and some cash to burn, plus the strength to withstand bureaucracy, threat, slander, betrayal and corruption; and pray very hard we don’t turn to the dark side after all these troubles, and doesn't end up a political prisoner.

If the government can preemptively arrest people for "illegal" protest and gathering, and they already behave such under the lenses and public scrutiny; what will happened to those who are captured? Who will defend them? Given the "power" you see in this video and online media, won't you think online media is the next frontier the government will try to crack down?

Anyone for Parti Kebebasan Internet?

A meaningful life, anyone?

2011-07-05T17:02:00.004+08:00

I guess I wanted a meaningful and fruitful life, yet I cannot ignore the fact that I am still in the rat race having to make time to make money for a living. What is meaningful? Doing something I really wanted to what, whatever it is.

Once I thought I wanted to be a freelancer (as compared to be an employee), as I wanted more control and making a living purely based on my own capabilities (as compared to feeling disappointed with others and companies). It was quite challenging and interesting in the beginning, but it sort of got bored and gotten fed-up with certain aspect of it.

Then I wanted to switched from pure freelancer to a web entrepreneur (building online services and databases which people require), which seems more fun, have a greater impact with better sustainability. I do really like it most of the time, but certain aspect of the work is quite boring and cause procrastination (as in right now). I felt it is a right balance between my interest and making a living.

Lately, I tend to skew the balance towards my interest rather than making a living. Psychologically we do indeed want to do something fun and interesting, but the logical and worrisome mind will be still thinking about making a living. Of cause the ideal situation would be that we have enough dough for a comfortable living, thus we can focus on your interest and meaning in life, rather than making a living. Again, my balance is temporary disrupted by my inner desire to do something “better”; so it’s of utmost importance that I get out of the rat race as soon as possible to achieve happiness, freedom and meaning (thus the luxury to do whatever the f*** I want, bypassing my worrisome mind). Or, if I can convince myself forget about making a living (which seems impossible due to my Chinese gene).

So how much is enough (can't be too abstract, right?)? I am not a financial expert, but perhaps achieving semi-passive RM10K monthly income or RM 1 million in cash in the next 5 years? Sound far-fetched? Perhaps, but it’s meant to be difficult but achievable; else everyone would have done it. Making a good income but with no freedom and time is equally meaningless.

As for the rewards, what do I really want to do?

Develop a semi-passive business to sustain my comfortable living
To develop a game which I would enjoy the most
To travel and experience life in foreign places up to a year
Take up some art & craft as hobby
Perhaps to start an urban gardening business

It’s all started with a dream :)

What you don't know about Pricing

2011-05-31T13:09:00.003+08:00

A few years back, I read an article about Pricing Strategy @ Joel on Software, and I learned a few practical tips about pricing.

The need for Basic, Professional and Extreme version of products, are different groups of buyers are willing to pay different prices for almost the same product (maximize the price buyers are willing to pay).
Once the sales start to plateau and go downwards (capturing buyer willing to pay the “fair” price), reduce the price by one notch to capture the buyers who wanted the product, but would prefer a cheaper price (“bargain” price). And repeat the cycle until it can’t get any cheaper in order to capture all the potential buyers.

After reading Priceless by William Poundstone, I learned a few more goodies, and never to base pricing on cost.

Anchoring - Whenever we try to estimate a numerical value, we are unconsciously influenced by related numbers just considered. A ridiculously expensive item next to a merely expensive one causes the lower priced item to be perceived as a bargain, and increases its sales. i) $200 LV iPhone cover is a bargain when put beside the $20K LV bag. ii) Restaurants in New York City will advertise a $100 hamburger, no one would pay that kind of price, but will buy a nice steak dinner for a somewhat inflated price ($40).
Extra high and low prices existing simultaneously on the shelf with low prices unconsciously influence choice. i) If a person is choosing between soups that cost $1, $3, and $5, they are more likely to choose the $3 option. If they are choosing between soups that cost $3, $5, and $17, they will likely choose the $5 option. ii) Starbucks has three cryptically named sizes of coffee: Tall, Grande, and Venti. Puzzled or indecisive customers tend to pick the middle choice, Grande. This is a classic example of what psychologists call “extremeness aversion.” When uncertain, everyone instinctively favors the middle option, figuring it’s safer. In fact, the Grande is 16 ounces — meaning that you’ve just ordered a pint of expensive coffee, rather than what used to be a normal size cup.
Every time a company raises its price, some shoppers switch brands. Manufacturers have been lowering package sizes for things like cereal and keeping the prices the same. i) Skippy’s peanut butter now has a dent in the bottom of its jar. It holds less peanut butter, but the price is the same.

Pricing Concept and Psychology

Poundstone argues that much of what we think of as "fair" pricing is nothing more than a collection of cognitive fallacies and biases. The most important of these fallacies are the contrast effect (pricing taking on significance from neighboring prices) and the anchoring effect (we are drawn to a particular number). i) It's all in the comparison. A $50 gift from Aunt Marge for your wedding is wonderful, unless you were expecting her to give you $200, like she did your sister.
Shoppers moving clockwise through a supermarket spend about $2 more per trip than those moving clockwise. One holds that shoppers think of their carts as cars and “drive” on the right of aisles. This makes it slightly easier for the right-handed majority to toss impulse buys in their cart.
The gross profit margin of the 99 Cents Only Store is twice that of Wal-Mart. Dave Gold, founder of the 99 Cents Only chain, discovered that he could get rid of slow-moving merchandise (priced at 79 cents) by raising the price. At 99 cents, the same items sold quickly.
Women seem to be less price-sensitive than men about health and beauty products. Political correctness hasn’t deterred retailers from taking advantage of that. You’ll find that many products are offered in “women’s” versions that cost more. Barbasol shaving cream for men is about $1.69. The women’s version costs $2.49 — and comes in a skinny can holding less
Most people would rather buy a $1,000 flatscreen TV with a $200 rebate rather than an $800 set with no rebate. They assume that a $1,000 TV has to be better (even when its only extra “feature” is a rebate coupon).
Based on the price of cell phone bandwidth, the “fair” value of a text message ought to be about 1/1000 of a cent. Instead, the average consumer pays over 20 cents a text, and usage continues to zoom. Needless to say, kids send most texts, their parents pay the bills, and those parents haven’t a clue what they should be paying.
The new Apple iPad’s 3G plans run $14.99 a month for up to 250 megabytes of data, or $29.99 for unlimited usage. Obviously, since it’s a new product, few can predict how much data they’ll use. But that 250 MB limit creates anxiety: What if I exceed the limit? Won’t I get socked with a huge bill? This leads to what behavioral economists call “flat-rate bias.” Consumers prefer the security of a flat rate, even when they’re better off without it. It’s a safe bet that the $29.99 rate will be popular and that many of those taking it would have paid less with the cheaper plan.

The Ultimatum Game

The ultimatum game is a game often played in economic experiments in which two players interact to decide how to divide a sum of money that is given to them. The first player proposes how to divide the sum between the two players, and the second player can either accept or reject this proposal. If the second player rejects, neither player receives anything. If the second player accepts, the money is split according to the proposal. The game is played only once so that reciprocation is not an issue.
A moment's reflection will show that the second player ought to accept any offer at all, and that the first player ought to divide the sum in such a way as to give himself the most money; for instance, assuming the ten dollars can be divided into dollar units only, the first player ought to give himself nine and offer one the the second player, who then ought to accept it. That would be the way of rationality.
The surprising thing about the ultimatum game is how seldom this occurs. The average split, according to some of the studies, was 50-50, and other results showed that most of the second players would reject any offer below three dollars.

7 Signs of Failure for Internet Startups

2011-05-31T11:58:00.004+08:00

Let’s see how well with my Internet Startup (malaysiamostwanted.com) fair based on sgentreprenuer’s Mapping The Startup Genome: The 7 Signs Of Failure

Not working full time - I am 80% fulltime (up from 50%) at the moment. PASS.
Solo Founder or 4+ Founders – I am a solo founder still looking for a business-savy partner with Internet Business knowledge. NUTS.
Don’t have a Technical co-founder – I am a techie. PASS.
Wrong Founding Team Composition for the Wrong Type of Startup – Based on the survey, I am The Automizer (Type 1): Common characteristics: self-service customer acquisition, consumer focused, product centric, fast execution, often automize a manual process. PASS. (Benchmark your startup - WARNING: the questionnaire is pretty lengthy).
Don’t Pivot at All or Pivot Too Often. I won’t say pivot, but introduce new-relevant product when necessary, and abandoned less valuable products due to limited resources at hand. PASS.
Don’t Listen to Customers. Not much direct feedback from users, but the user base is still growing organically (we must be doing something right, though it could be better) with some good comments. PASS.
Scale Without Validating Market. I think they mean capital and burn rate, but we definitely don’t have funding for massive growth.

At times I do hope for 2 things, a business-savvy-worthy partner to help me with customer acquisition and monetization, and perhaps funding to build the team and accelerate the growth.

At the same time, I do marvel the fact that she is started with self funding (never thought I would be doing this, most of the time thinking of burning someone's else money for my own glory, hahaha) and actually sustainable with good growth and prospect. Could this be the start of the not-so-typical family owned small Internet Startups kind of thing? Or we should join the get-funded-and-grow bandwagon? I hope I am not delusional.

In between escaping and solving a problem

2011-05-19T12:11:00.002+08:00

I remembered an old friend told me we create a solution to solve a problem, only to create more problems. We are not actually solving the problem, but shifting the problem. His famous example if we are tired of walking, we pay to take a bus. But the bus is unreliable and uncomfortable, so we bought a car but end up getting stuck in traffic jam and higher maintenance cost.

I guess I am doing the same with my career. At my first R&D job my focus is to give it all I got, but I soon realized the company had been unfairly remunerate me over the years. I was hoping a more rewarding career at a “real” corporate business software company, but sadly the company didn’t do well. Then I venture into freelance software development in hope of more control of my own destiny (and lessen dependency on external entities), where I found it to be too time consuming, flow of business is unpredictable, there is not much continuity and being plagued by bad paymasters. So now I plan to steer towards web products and services, where there is freedom of boundary and a platform to be built upon for the longer term. The downside is that the money is not instant and abundantly, but I can see good potential ahead; most important it is still full of hope and excitement, at the moment :)

Am I running away from problem, or I am solving them instead? One makes me felt weak and cowardly, while the other made me feel strong and in control. Should we stay and remedy the situation, or should be start afresh at greener pasture? To patch a broken program, or build from scratch again?

It seems difficult to differentiate between the right and wrong thing to do, and when I come to such crossroads there is only one question left: will there be any regrets in my choice?

Review: Inside Steve’s Brain

2011-05-19T11:41:00.003+08:00

What did I learned about “Inside Steve’s Brain”?

Highlights:

Keep a small team (less than 100 people), less they become unfocused and unmanageable.
No features creep, keep thing really simple (you know it’s perfect when there is nothing to take out anymore)
Design is function, not form.
Use repetitive prototyping (design, edit, refine) to select the best product. Avoid serial process (Waterfall vs. Agile).
Keep the players and fire the bozos.
Use carrot and stick: one day you are the hero, the next you are asshole (hero/asshole roller coaster).
Find a passion for your work.
Steal. Be shameless about stealing other people’s great idea.
Apple is the complete lifestyle experience: Hardware + Software + Service in a single package.

Goodies:

Focus on what’s important.
Focus on what you are good at, and delegate all else.
Sometimes you just have to start from scratch again, just like Max OS X.
Osborne effect: keep the new goodies secret until they are ready to ship, lest customers stop buying current stuff while waiting for the new stuff.
Don’t shit on your own doorstep: don’t bad mouth about your company and product in public.
Don’t listen to your customer for innovative new product, as they don’t know what they want. If Henry Ford as what his customers want, they would say a faster horse.
Design is for everyone, not just designer. Include the engineers, programmers and marketers.
Keep the best people around you. You can fire the projects or products, but not the bright people in it.
Don’t listen to “yes” men. Argument and debate foster creative thinking.
Let your partners the freedom to create and innovate.
It’s okay to be a passionate asshole.
Become a great intimidator. Inspire through fear and desire to please.
Insist on things that are seemingly impossible.
Celebrate accomplishments with unusual flair.
Don’t lose sight of the customer: The Cube failed because it was built for designers, not customers.
Concentrate on great products, not becoming the biggest or richest.
If you miss the boat, work hard to catch up.
Don’t be afraid of trial and error.

The World is a tough place to be, but we should be stronger

2011-05-07T02:44:00.002+08:00

We all know the world could be quite a cruel and unfair place, but are we cruel and unfair as well? If it’s not our doing, then whose doing is it then? Who are the bad guys who screw us, or are we the bunch destined to be screwed one way or the other due to our sin? What is the real evil here?

We are raised to be good, taught to be kind, compassionate, helpful and truthful. We even teach our children to be good, and frown upon their less than noble act. I guess we all believe in goodness, and believed that we are indeed good (no kid will admit that they are naughty), but it’s quite possible that we are trapped in the goodness delusion somewhere in between.

We believe that we are forced to be evil in order to protect ourselves, thus justifying our evil acts through “noble” causes. Is either me or you, so it’s better that you are on the losing end (不是你死，就是我亡). We believe we are helpless in this chaotic world (人在江湖身不由己), where selfish act for self-perseverance is justifiable and acceptable. A bit of trickery or perhaps treacherous is allowed (兵不厌诈), it is even considered as a good strategy. We taught about honesty, but we believed honesty doesn’t pay (忠忠直直，终需乞食). Is there still any goodness left within us?

We sacrifice a lot of things in life, so much so until we forgotten what is so precious about life anyway? We are unhappy most of the time because we sacrifice our love, our dream, our passion, our dignity, our righteousness and our believes in something which we know is of secondary importance, yet we spend all our life and energy fighting for it: money. Most people give in to the difficulty of life, admitting that they can’t or don’t know how to change for the better, or can’t afford to. We believed our life had been shaped in a certain sense, and we don’t really have many choices left. We are all doomed in a certain sense.

Our life is known to be fragile, where we can die in a split second accident, or have a slow death by chronic disease, something which we totally have no control of. Thousands of dreams are shattered every day, but many more conjured up there after; I hope there are more dreams created than destroyed.

What are the things that really matter in our life? Do we do the right thing, or perform as expected by others. Do we really try to live our life with no regrets, or did we compromise so much until we had lost ourselves.

Can we live a noble life with a noble cause, do it is not possible? Can we promise not to do harm to others no matter under what circumstances, so that the world could be a better place for our children. Can I be a good son, a loving husband, a trustworthy friend, and hopefully a great father before the end of time? Do we all have a decent conscient? I hope all of us can live a meaningful selfless life.

We all should take a moment to ponder 2 questions: Did I screw up my life? How can I stop screwing myself harder and start to do the right thing, even though it's not my fault?

回忆倩女幽魂

2011-05-02T02:17:00.004+08:00

倩女幽魂，一个充满幻想与回忆的故事，一部明知有可能会令人失望的重拍电影，但也是非看不可的重温电影。回想小倩，宁彩神，和燕赤霞的般若波罗密，已是十多年前的往事，感叹岁月不留人。

明明是小倩与宁彩神之间的爱情，为什么会杀出一个燕赤霞，把宁彩神变成靠边站的第三者。小倩与燕赤霞的感情太过简略，好像赶快车，感觉不到他们之间明知不可能也要在一起的决心；唯一的感动，也只有他们眼泛泪光的一杀哪。可怜的宁彩神，古天乐还不够班成为小倩的情人；这不是现代城市剧的快餐爱情，需要的是细水长流。

突然记得，我遗忘了小时的天真与幻想，很开心能在重温一次。无论是多么的慌渺，或多么的白痴，这幻想空间能为我在这现实与残酷不过世界，带来短暂的抽身，留下一点天真。

人生路．美梦似路长

路里风霜风霜扑面干

红尘里．美梦有几多方向

找痴痴梦幻中心爱．路随人茫茫

人生是．美梦与热望

梦里依稀依稀有泪光

何从何去．去觅我心中方向

风彷佛在梦中轻叹．路和人茫茫

人间路．快乐少年郎

路总崎岖崎岖不见阳光

泥尘里．快乐有几多方向

一丝丝梦幻般风雨．路随人茫茫

Measurement of Happiness

2011-04-23T16:10:00.002+08:00

Inspired by a TED video by Chip Conley's Measuring what makes life worthwhile, all of us are trying to achieve success. Most of us thought money shall bring us success, thus we are going for money. Is happiness a better indicator for success, after all we thought money could bring us happiness. Why are we pursuing money instead of happiness? Because happiness is hard to measure, difficult to grasp and quite illusive and intangible.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted - Albert Einstein

We have GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to measure the economic success of the country, since almost everyone is trying to make more money, why not. Did you forget the reason why we wanted to make more money? To achieve happiness, and to the fulfilled the lowest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which is physiological and safety. Should we focus on our higher level need such as Love/belonging, Esteem and Self Actualization? How can we measure such needs? Through GNH (Gross National Happiness), to measure quality of life and social progress in a more holistic and psychological terms.

200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” in the United States Declaration of Independence. 200 years later, GNH started in Bhutan, where the King has the wisdom to focus on his people’s welfare and happiness, rather than asking them to work harder and make more money (solving one problem but creating more problems). Bhutan’s goal is not to create happiness, but to create the condition that foster happiness.

Emotional Equation = Wanting what you have / Having what you want

Robert Kennedy, “GDP measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” GDP could calculate air pollution or destruction of forest (did it?), but it didn’t calculate the health of our children or the integrity of public official.

For company, rather than focus on employee’s tangible output, perhaps we should measure the intangible qualities as well. Is the extra sweet and polite receptionist appreciated for her contribution in making everyone who approach her happier? Is honesty and helpfulness in the workplace appreciated? Is staff who jell the team and make everyone cheerful important? Besides counting how much hours you clock in or how many work you completed, there are more intangible things to go around (and we probably need a reasonable metrics rather than based on subjectivity).

Is happiness something we have to pursuit? Or is happiness appreciating what we have. I know we still didn’t quite grasp “happiness”, and most of us seem to always go the wrong way, and knowing go that way. There must be something wrong with the world, the society and probably ourselves. What is wrong with our mind, are we not programmed to live a happy life, or are we corrupted by the dark forces of money.

We all know happiness is good, just that we are not heading the right direction. Last advice from Conley, we should start counting what is really important in our lives.

Echelon 2011 Kuala Lumpur: Startup Ideas

2011-04-22T01:36:00.004+08:00

Echelon 2011 Kuala Lumpur is a short and meaningful event; allow me to catch a short glimpse about Malaysia’s startup arena, how to fair in the 5 minutes presentation and what are the common questions from the judges, and what a typical startup look like.

Basically most of the ideas are common buzz nowadays with no spectacular breakthrough, so it depends very much on how you present your idea, how you answer question from judges and how to execute the idea eventually. I think most of the founders are below 30 (2-5 people), some with some sort of financial backing. The usual questions from judges hover around monetization, one particular judge seems interested if you are working on your startup fulltime, and some give good insights into some specific problems. A lot of emphasis is on social and geo-location.

Wootfood by Alphapod is something like foodspotting, find good food through photos. I think food is very important and unique for Malaysian (that's why I develop MMW Food and Foodie Android App), and there should be a good app for it. Their app and idea seems decent enough (funded through the 150K MDEC Grant); but since it’s a UGC platform, how are they going to solve the no contents less users issue (chicken and egg)? Co-founder TJ seems to be a pretty alright entrepreneur having started Ninja Jones before, good at PR stuff.

31Storey by FLOChip is fashion e-commerce site. The sad thing is, they sent a not so proficient designer to present the startup, rather its YCombinator alumni co-founder Ong Teng Siong (perhaps they don’t need the money?). The initial strategy is to persuade the blogshop owners to use their service, by presenting pretty storefront full of product images. There are some opportunities in this space, but their proposal is not very compelling.

FongFeiKei by Motif Channel allows you to sell your ticket away when you can’t make it for the event, overcoming inefficient means through forum, twitter and classifieds. They are some grey area in terms of legality of selling second-hand “black market” tickets and authenticity issue; they are advised to target business instead of individual. They have a pretty good approach to target cinema with their unsold tickets especially during weekdays. At the end, it might end up like a Groupon-clone with a different focus.

FanXT is a fantasy sports platform, I think people buy credit to play these games (they are some avid fantasy players on the floor, the market should be there). Most fantasy sports target US-based sports, so they target International sports like F1, World Cup, Tennis, etc. The judges question the legality of using famous players name in their product without licensing; and the need to buy player’s stats from 3rd party to make the game more realistic.

Second CRM by Soft Solvers Solutions is on demand / cloud / SAAS CRM solution, something like salesforce.com, only cheaper and simpler to use. The approach is “traditional” but I think is solid enough with some potential, but the only problem is Malaysian’s awareness of the need of CRM, even though it’s for free (no time to evaluate). So they need to target medium sized company, and do a lot of awareness workshop.

Tikam by CellKast Games, allow you to get random prizes. You get a fixed number of chances by logging in, or you can buy more chances. They guarantee the prizes will be worth more than the money you put in, by getting deals from sponsors. There is one viral element here: when you win something which you don’t like (winning a Carlsberg but you don’t drink), you can send it as a gift to your friend through Facebook wall posting, and probably you get some credit for sending as a gift as well. Grey area of it might be considered as gambling.

Posttude (sounds like Prostitute), to replace postcode and solve problem of areas without address. Why not use GPS lat/lng? GPS is a specific point, where posttude is an area, broken is 5-4-4 digit. The first 5 digit represent a bigger area (like a country), which can be zoomed in a smaller area (like a state), and the last 4 digit to target the exact location. You can extend the code further to cater for floors or specific unit (private implementation). Supposing you can buy your own name as address like tinyurl (URL shortening and redirection service), for example ###desmond as my address (the downside is need Internet as lookup, can’t be done offline). The question is how to encourage massive adoption and change human behavior? The presenter is an old dude with an attitude, with pretty catchy presentation.

Feed George is a location-based services, show you nearby messages, photos, restaurants, property, etc (something like my prototype, lamb). It won the people’s choice award, so it’s clear people do want more location-based services. I think the expectation is high, but the delivery might be disappointing (the same applies to my idea as well). Location-based twitter are not very useful most of the time, with chatting going on rather than relaying useful information to the general public (a better filter perhaps). Flickr photos might be nice to look at, but it gets bored easily. Foursquare places contains a lot error, and listing places is not enough (we need better review and evaluation how good is this place, what is highly recommended, etc). To deliver better location-based services, perhaps we should think of how to create good quality data, and more local contents.

WorkCrowd by AdExcel Online Networks offers Facebook-clone for the workplace, so that you can separate colleagues from friends, and also as an Intranet platform to increase workplace understanding and knowledge sharing with a social twist (badges), something Intranet forum and wiki failed to deliver over the decade. The app seems pretty solid, thanks to their existing funding and bigger team. Can social element really encourage office participation? Maybe, but certainly a leap forward than existing solutions. You own corporate Facebook? Sounds good to the CEO, maybe not to the works; good news is the CEO who pays the bills :)

MobileApps is an app store with the selling point of giving 95% cut to developer and accept wider payment than the current pitiful Android Market’s Google Checkout. I guess they try to win it through marketing, but I don’t think the proposition is compelling (it will get harder to compete with Android Market eventually).

My pick for the day is WorkCrowd (due to their solid product and potential corporate adoption, disclosure: the CTO is my ex-colleague) and FongFeiKei (nice twist e-commerce and deals, or I ran out of choices).

There are no better times to be an Entrepreneur

2011-04-15T12:20:00.003+08:00

I truly believe this is the golden age of entrepreneurship. There are plenty of business ideas which we can work on with require little or no money at all to startup (launch an online shop, blog, book, music, game, etc), and “online marketing” (blog, twitter, facebook, Adsense, viral video, etc) had provide alternative to conventional marketing which usually cost an arm and leg. Now we have Internet as the global platform, and the cost of hardware and services are fairly affordable to individuals. It is very possible to start business on a part time or full time basis, which you could choose to work alone, with little or no money, with plenty of helpful books and websites, and all it requires is an idea which you like and passion to persist.

Source: Ijeoma by Ijeoma

Not that long ago, Eric Sink coined the word Micro ISV (Independent Software Vendor), meaning you could start a software company with one or a few person, and still able to make good products which make good money.

Lately, we have the Micro Entrepreneur, teaching you how to start a successful business as a lone ranger.

Why suddenly we are going from Macro to Micro? Though many of us aspire to be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, but vision of being Microsoft or Apple is too far for most of us. Most of us even have problem with a starting capital of $100K, and probably still like to keep our full time job while we venture out. I guess not all of us are big time entrepreneur who goes for the millions winning all or nothing risk takers. We like a small business because it’s easier to manage, we would still like to maintain our freedom and we are satisfied of making just enough money for a comfortable living, and it’s much more satisfying than employment. I guess it's a lifestyle choice, haha.

If you are dissatisfied with your current job, it’s time to tinkle with the idea of starting a business on a part time basis, and things shall move on from there. Every dream requires the first baby step, so start something in the next 24 hours.

To the Brave People of Japanese Tsunami

2011-04-01T22:07:00.003+08:00

Realizing the Japanese Tsunami taken more than 10,000 lives with 10,000 more gone missing; and the brave fireman and technician who are trying to solve the nuclear crisis, knowing very well that they might never get to go home again. It’s one thing to have our life taken away by disaster, but we must give our tribute and respect to those who willing sacrifice themselves to save the life of others.

If possible, please donate through Google Crisis Response for 2011 Japan Crisis.

Why a company doesn’t listen to their employees?

2011-03-30T11:54:00.004+08:00

Many years ago when I am working with B Company, the company’s business and product is going downhill. Rather than letting it slip and leaving, a bunch of Techies decide to take initiative to come up with a plan to build a better product and give suggestion on how to make the company better (in terms of technical development). We propose our case to the management, where the management gave verbal approval and support to turn the tide around. At the end, all we get is verbal support, with no extra resources or monetary support (lip service from the management?). Sooner than later, almost everyone got disappointed and left the company, and the company went to its eventual demise (not actually dead, but it doesn’t matter anymore).

We come up with a plan to the management, and even write suggestions to certain key people, but I guess manager and CEO don’t take a bunch of Techies very seriously. What do a bunch of Techies know about business? They can’t wait to shut our mouth and move on with whatever brilliant plan on their mind, which proved to be non-workable either. The fact is, the company didn’t take the view and recommendations of employees seriously. Something had taken precedence, may it be the pressures from the board, dwindling revenue and with no mood to “restart” the business.

Perhaps our plan is flawed, thus the company didn’t take us seriously (I’ll give them the benefit of doubt).

Many years later, another set of problem is brewing at my wife’s company. Everyone seems to be working with unreasonable timeline and resources in most projects. Rather than acknowledge the problem and provide a remedy, the management just bulldozed their way through by asking everyone to work harder and longer. The employee thinks that such working environment is not conducive, but the management thinks that is the right way to run a business. There was hardly any postmortem or discussion on how to ease the pain or stop history from repeating itself. To the management, this is the only right way; while the employees think otherwise. The fact is, not everyone have the luxury to clock in more than 12 hours every day including weekends; if the company is not willing to accommodate these life/family oriented people, then they should put “workaholic wanted” in their job posting. My point is, the company knows what the employees are thinking and wanted, but the company couldn’t agree with them (or they can’t, in terms of conflict with their own interest?).

Today I read an article about Google, the “Shangri-La” for most programmers across the globe. They have their own problem brewing as well, where the company is growing too big and fat, losing the agility and dynamic of a startup, with increasing bureaucracy and slow decision making of large corporation. Larry page might be “trying” to turn the company around, and an ex-Googler gave all the constructive suggestions on how to make the company “better” again (sounds too familiar to me). Can Google really “restart” its culture again, or they will be eaten alive by their own “mutated” culture?

Is there still hope?

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

2011-01-29T02:55:00.002+08:00

It had been quite a while to see a movie which is beautiful, to allow the imagination run beyond the normal boundary of life, and yet touching the heart at the same time; and still feeling lost and helpless at certain moment in time. It’s nice, it’s complex and there is a lot to ponder upon.

I like Japanese animation for a few reasons, one being the “feeling” of their art work which brought life to the simplest things, and their closeness with nature; and also it’s one of the few genre that actually inspire imagination and ideas. It’s funny, and yet could be mind boggling.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, showing us how we do stupid things by focusing on things that doesn’t quite matter; and making even more mistakes, and finally when we know our time is up, and where we got to realize what we should be doing instead. Let’s hope we still have a second chance by then, before everything is too late. At the same time, it brings back the simplest memory of childhood, and every simple and unattractive thing seems sweeter. I guess it only can happens in memory.

After listening to Steve Jobs’ Stanford Speech, I realize that death is an important element in life, where it helps us to feel the importance of time.

Time waits for no one.

Are you living without regrets?

I hope I can remind myself what really matter, and what not.

Friendship v2

2011-01-17T02:15:00.004+08:00

Just when I felt like writing about friendship, I had déjà vu moment thinking perhaps I had done this before, and indeed I had.

Perhaps the “friendship problem” plagues everyone. We used to spend so much time together, and now we hardly have time for each other; worse still that we have nothing to share with each other as we no longer “live together”. We can hardly live without them, yet we hardly put them in the first place.

I used to think we would find our best and longest lasting friend in our secondary school, but my perception kinda changed slightly: I no longer feel the close knit, as I don’t quite know what to chat about and I don’t anything much beyond their official job description. Perhaps I lose out in maintaining our relationship through CNY reunion, as I already move out from our hometown; and the only contact I have with them is probably through wedding dinner (and I didn’t attend all of them). Slowly but surely, everything eventually felt more comfortable in memory, but not in reality. The distance is very real, and I felt it a lot. The same goes for ex-colleagues, what once seems so close had gotten so far. The only comfort is that it’s never forgotten, hopefully for eternity.

I am not quite sure what I hope for, and what I can do about it. It’s just a feeling of sadness, sad because it is no longer there. On one side I felt that it’s a natural progression, as we move on to a new chapter of our life and we meet new people. On the other side, I felt something wrong with the natural progression, yet I am not quite sure what can I do to make it better. I don’t look for them, and they don’t look for me, and everyone is occupied with their new life, and we don’t share the same things we used to anymore, except for our memory.

For out of some odd reason, we visited Christine in Hong Kong, a friend I knew through my KK trip many years back. In the beginning we have a lot to talk to each other, but then the conversation kinda faded; then she came to our wedding and became our MC, together with Terrence and Joanne. Then the friendship is “re-ignited”, or at least we found some interesting common topic again. I do feel the relationship is kinda special and fated in many ways with is logically, not quite possible. Perhaps her characteristic had a big role to play in it, where during my last visit I learned that she did indeed manage to maintain very close relationship with many of her old friends until today (we are talking about 20+ years of friendship and still going out together once in a while). I do envy their relationship and closeness, and wonder how they manage to keep close. Perhaps they meet up every weekend for Sunday sermon, but many church goers I know didn’t manage to achieve that as well. Perhaps it’s the close knitted society of Hong Kong, or perhaps she is really a people person with a lot of free time in her hands. But I do believe the magic lies with her.

Perhaps I am just too cool of a guy who didn’t invest much to maintain a relationship which is no longer convenient; or waiting for others to make the first step to “re-ignite” the relationship. I do take the friendship by heart, just that not sure how to make it “work” as I wish it would be. I know we are all busy with more personal and work engagement, but I wish I have some of Christine’s magic. As a consolation prize, at least I still manage to attend some wedding dinners, a CNY dinner session, hiking with them, and the really very occasional Yum Cha session.

Review: Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

2011-01-12T21:37:00.004+08:00

Today I read about “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” (I first read about from here) and found the analysis is thought provoking, and totally shed some new lights into parenting.

Today’s Chinese is not we used to be, we are influenced more by Western culture while maintaining our Chinese roots. We have a few new age concepts in mind, that’s academic isn’t everything (they don’t have to score A in everything) and to let our children to engage in activities which they like (they have choices beyond Piano and Violin). After reading the article, I was thinking perhaps we had gotten too soft and end up creating underperforming kids? Oh gosh, so much responsibility in parenting.

A few of my favorite quotes from the article:

“my daughters are NEVER ALLOWED to: attend a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play, complain about not being in a school play, watch TV or play computer games, choose their own extracurricular activities, get any grade less than an A, not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama, play any instrument other than the piano or violin, not play the piano or violin”

Chinese mom does not believe that learning need to be fun. And nothing is fun until you’re good at it, so it’s crucial to override their preference, fence of their resistances, force them to practice and never ever give up (or let the child give up). “Once a child starts to excel at something—whether it’s math, piano, pitching or ballet—he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not-fun activity fun. This in turn makes it easier for the parent to get the child to work even more..”. This is interesting: nowadays we worry that our children will commit suicide over too much pressure, that we no longer force them to be the best they could be. Once the child wanted to give up, as we could say is “you have done your best”.

The following example gets even better (I try to rewrite it to a shorter version, but it is so much more impactful to read it as a whole):

Here’s a story in favor of coercion, Chinese-style. Lulu was about 7, still playing two instruments, and working on a piano piece called “The Little White Donkey” by the French composer Jacques Ibert. The piece is really cute—you can just imagine a little donkey ambling along a country road with its master—but it’s also incredibly difficult for young players because the two hands have to keep schizophrenically different rhythms.

Lulu couldn’t do it. We worked on it nonstop for a week, drilling each of her hands separately, over and over. But whenever we tried putting the hands together, one always morphed into the other, and everything fell apart. Finally, the day before her lesson, Lulu announced in exasperation that she was giving up and stomped off.

“Get back to the piano now,” I ordered.

“You can’t make me.”

“Oh yes, I can.”

Back at the piano, Lulu made me pay. She punched, thrashed and kicked. She grabbed the music score and tore it to shreds. I taped the score back together and encased it in a plastic shield so that it could never be destroyed again. Then I hauled Lulu’s dollhouse to the car and told her I’d donate it to the Salvation Army piece by piece if she didn’t have “The Little White Donkey” perfect by the next day. When Lulu said, “I thought you were going to the Salvation Army, why are you still here?” I threatened her with no lunch, no dinner, no Christmas or Hanukkah presents, no birthday parties for two, three, four years. When she still kept playing it wrong, I told her she was purposely working herself into a frenzy because she was secretly afraid she couldn’t do it. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic.

Jed took me aside. He told me to stop insulting Lulu—which I wasn’t even doing, I was just motivating her—and that he didn’t think threatening Lulu was helpful. Also, he said, maybe Lulu really just couldn’t do the technique—perhaps she didn’t have the coordination yet—had I considered that possibility?

“You just don’t believe in her,” I accused.

“That’s ridiculous,” Jed said scornfully. “Of course I do.”

“Sophia could play the piece when she was this age.”

“But Lulu and Sophia are different people,” Jed pointed out.

“Oh no, not this,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Everyone is special in their special own way,” I mimicked sarcastically. “Even losers are special in their own special way. Well don’t worry, you don’t have to lift a finger. I’m willing to put in as long as it takes, and I’m happy to be the one hated. And you can be the one they adore because you make them pancakes and take them to Yankees games.”

I rolled up my sleeves and went back to Lulu. I used every weapon and tactic I could think of. We worked right through dinner into the night, and I wouldn’t let Lulu get up, not for water, not even to go to the bathroom. The house became a war zone, and I lost my voice yelling, but still there seemed to be only negative progress, and even I began to have doubts.

Then, out of the blue, Lulu did it. Her hands suddenly came together—her right and left hands each doing their own imperturbable thing—just like that.

Lulu realized it the same time I did. I held my breath. She tried it tentatively again. Then she played it more confidently and faster, and still the rhythm held. A moment later, she was beaming.

“Mommy, look—it’s easy!” After that, she wanted to play the piece over and over and wouldn’t leave the piano. That night, she came to sleep in my bed, and we snuggled and hugged, cracking each other up. When she performed “The Little White Donkey” at a recital a few weeks later, parents came up to me and said, “What a perfect piece for Lulu—it’s so spunky and so her.”

Even Jed gave me credit for that one. Western parents worry a lot about their children’s self-esteem. But as a parent, one of the worst things you can do for your child’s self-esteem is to let them give up. On the flip side, there’s nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn’t.

We all know success is a not an easy thing, which require utmost determination and perseverance, which I child might not have such quality (even an adult might not have what it takes). How much should we control and push our children towards the direction which we think is right, and that they could achieve magnificent feat when they grow up (did Jay Chow’s mom force him to practice Piano and he is thankful for her now). Did we give up too easily on our children, or do we have little expectation of them (we didn’t expect them to be someone great; but just someone nice).

How far should we go, and how much can our child take before they attempted suicide or become a very sad and stressful child. When should we give up, "knowing" there is a possibility that our child might not become what we had hope for them. After all, not everyone can be "successful" or be "great" by our definition. Not everyone can survive like Lulu and turn out to be stronger, and not everyone can be No 1.

Blink Revisited: Product Packaging and People’s Opinion

2011-01-11T02:16:00.005+08:00

Blink: We always thought that we should conduct a testing survey to find what others feel about our product, and what could cause most of the testers fail to provide an accurate feedback. We know that product packaging is very important, but what are the criteria of successful product packaging.

Below are a few examples:

A blind test shows that more people prefer Pepsi than Coke. Coke was worry and tries to create a New Coke, and testing show that people prefer a slightly sweeter Coke. Coke was so confident that the New Cake will a big success based on the testing result, but it failed miserably and people wanted the Old Coke back. How could this happen? Are the testers lying? It turns out when people prefer sweeter drink when they are taking a sip, but a whole can of sweet drinks is just too much; and real testing should happen by allowing them to bring back the product and use it like they normally do, and provide a feedback after a week or so for the feeling to sink in.
Once upon of time, margarine was not selling well because people prefer butter. So they change margarine color from white to yellow (so it looks like butter), and testing show that people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference (it proves that it’s not that margarine taste bad, but people’s perception of it). Then they renamed the product as “Imperial Margarine” and put an impressive crown on it, and wrap it with foil (those day foil was associated with high quality). You don’t ask people whether they like their Margarine with foil or not, you just ask them which one test better.
Christians Brother or E&J brandy taste better? Blind test shows that people like both equally. After the testers are told of the brandy’s name, they happen to like Christians Brother more. If the bottles are shown, the testers like E&J more. We need to isolate whether the product’s problem lies with the taste, name or packaging.
7-Up: if you add 15% percent more yellow to the green packaging, people report they tasted more lime and lemon.
Chef Boyardee Ravioli with Chef Hector on the label. Chef Hector needs to be an easily recognizable human being, and close-ups of the face work better than full-body shots. As Hector becomes more cartoonish, the more abstract he became, and the perception of taste and quality in the ravioli goes down.
Hormel canned meat: the tiny sprig of parsley between the “r” and “m” helps bring freshness to canned food.
Peaches test better in glass container as compared to tin; and people prefer ice-cream in cylindrical container as opposed to rectangular packaging.
Aeron Chair by Herman Miller: it was designed to be a high-tech new-age ergonomic chair. Tester doesn’t like the chair, with perception that wiry frame doesn’t hold, and said it looks weird and ugly. Eventually more tweaking made the comfort score got higher, but aesthetic scores goes from low to average. Not long after it was launch, it won a prize of its design; it became a cult object in the advertising world, and it starts appearing in films and television commercials. What was once an ugly exoskeleton chair had become beautiful. People don’t actually hate the chair, but they weren’t used to the new and unusual design: maybe ugly was just a proxy for different.
A group of Jam tester’s preference result gotten quite near to the expert’s opinion. When they are asked for their reasons of preference, disaster happens. Non-expect don’t have the ability to evaluate the jam based on detail such texture, taste and smell. Do you know that there are 10 dimensions of texture (adhesiveness to lips, firmness, denseness, etc)?
The Triangle Test: Pour 2 cup of Coke and 1 cup of Pepsi, and ask people to guess which one is the Pepsi. Only one-third would guess it right.

It is not that clever packaging could save a bad-tasting food; but lousy packaging could ruin tasty food. Why doesn’t Pepsi’s dominance in blind test translate to real world success? Because in the real world, no one ever drinks Coca-Cola blind. The unconscious association with Coke involves the brand, the image, and the red can and logo. Coke tries to focus on changing the product, while Pepsi focus on youth and making Michael Jackson their spokesman. There a lot to be learn about how to perform a real world testing which translate to real world result.

Smart People Bad Employees

2011-01-06T12:28:00.002+08:00

Today I stumble upon an interesting topic, “When Smart People are Bad Employees”; which I agree, but too bad the article fall short by just categorizing the people without going into further analysis and "troubleshooting".

I guess I met a few talented or genius people in my life, and they do come in with “weird” characteristics or just plan difficult to work with. They can be 10 times as productive, or complete a task which no one else is capable of; but they are selective, doing only things they like, and in their own way (which might be very difficult for others to pick up later).

I guess we need to find a way to work with smart people, or find a mechanism to allow the superstar to perform at its peak without damaging the team too much. I guess superstar perform better in solitaire rather than team, thus he can spread his creativity and gone into warp speed 9 without any burdens and disruptions and create a wonderful product at the end. The problem? No one will be able to support the product when he leaves the company.

It might be hard to find talent, and it’s even harder to find talent that can we can milk. We need to learn what make them tick, and we might need to accommodate their needs with special exceptions and treatments. Some superstars are known to be problematic or a jerk, but they have the power to create miracle where no one else can, and hopefully he does not destroy your team in between. It’s difficult to gauge what to do, what not to do, or how to do it: it’s just a matter of how much of the price are we willing to pay in order to get the prize. Every now and then, we get disciplined superstar like Michael Jordan or Michael Schumacher; while most others become their own boss like Tiger Woods, Steve Jobs, etc. You have to admire how Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho manage their group of talented millionaires footballers; and how Google is having a hard time maintaining their talented millionaire employees.

Perhaps superstar survive better by being their own boss, thus they can set their own rules in order to perform; and hopefully will not drive their employees to madness. Talent is a powerful but unstable element, and Discipline could stabilize the element, and these two are hardly found together.

Somehow, I had chosen not to work too closely with these genius people who I had met, perhaps I couldn’t figure out a way how we can work together; the situation might turn out to be too “uncontrollable”, or everyone wanted to be in control, including me (perhaps I haven’t meet a dependable genius ). I always thought that I am smart (but not a genius), and I have higher discipline and a team player, thus I could create value for my employer. I guess I had change, as I had too much of my own thoughts and way of work, and could turn out to be a problematic employee. Nowadays, I think I can only work for a really good employer, someone who doesn’t do too many stupid things. My tolerance level for stupidity and bureaucracy had gone down a lot.

A Taste of Success

2011-01-04T12:24:00.002+08:00

What if you need to feel success, before you can succeed? But how can I feel success before I succeed? What if the feeling of success can be “artificially” created: a synthetic success?

I try to learn swimming for many years, but fail miserably because I can’t float properly. I know how to paddle and kick, and move my hand, but I just fail to move my head up and get air (probably due to fear) while maintaining flotation balance. I try to get professional help eventually, which helps to increase my “movement” skill, but still fail to solve the breathing problem. One day we tried a float (we didn’t use these before because these are for kids, haha), where I could breathe and float better because there is a floatation device in front of me (though it might not float every well given the pressure I put on it). With the float, I finally felt the “feeling” of catching a breath while swimming. When the float was removed, suddenly I can swim and breathe, MIRACLE! I think the rewired my mind and body when I actually succeed in swimming & breathing with the help of the float, thus giving me the “feeling” of successfully performing the action. The float is the tool to create synthetic success in swimming.

Remember when I was young, I couldn’t balance well on bicycle and was very afraid. I always need the 2 mini support wheels on the side, or my dad to hold my bike. One day, I was cycling while my dad was pushing and holding from behind, then he push and let go. I was cycling by myself perfectly for a few seconds due to the momentum. I felt the “success” of being able to balance myself properly on the bike, and I learned how to cycle.

I think success is not a constant path where we collect millage slowly every day. There is a big canyon or a very steep hill in front of us, and we only gain the feeling of “success” once we cross that; we need breakthrough, and repetitively doing the same thing for 10 years doesn’t create “success”.

How do we create breakthrough? One of the methods is through synthetic success. What if I can show you a glimpse of you future, where you had become a millionaire; and you felt it’s so real and believed that future. Will your chances to be millionaire be good? Is it hard to be a millionaire? Will a millionaire felt that it’s hard to be a millionaire? If a self-made millionaire had gone bankrupt, it is easy for him to become a millionaire again? I believe once we felt success, we already rewired our mind and body to be successful.

I had been a freelance programmer for years, and I felt it’s easy and natural. For most employed programmers, there felt it’s difficult as they don’t know where to get clients. Neither do I, but somehow it just work out through word of mouth and reference by friend and family; and I am not a guy that is good with sales either. We probably have almost the same skill level, and we aren’t good with sales and PR either? So why I can make it, while he can’t? I already felt “success” (though it might not be a synthetic one), and he haven’t. It’s natural for business to create business, and it’s natural for employees for continue work for others, because both of them had felt success in what they are doing: they learned how to do it.
If I can synthesize the feeling of success in many scenarios, then it’s possible to accelerate the success almost instantly. If you know (or truly believe) that you are going to succeed, you probably will. The question is how do you truly believe, or how to trick your mind to truly believe.

Talking about tricking the mind, I remember about the movie “The Beautiful Mind”. The guy had a problem with illusion, where he truly believed that his illusion is real. The doctors solved his illusion with medication, where his illusion stops as well as his mind, as he can’t function normally as his mind and body are always drugged. Once he stops his medication, his illusion came back (to him his illusion is a reality). Until one day he realize something, which the little girl which he had known for the past 10 years didn’t actually grow up, and he successfully rewired his mind to believe that it is indeed an illusion. Though he still had his illusion and sees the little girl, he just ignores them because he knows they are not real. It proves that the mind can be tricked, and not all problems need to be eliminated (we can find a way to live with that problem).

The human mind is very powerful, and it can achieve whatever it believes. The mind can learn, can be rewired or can be tricked to believe. A lot of time we know and understand about certain theory or concepts through logical thinking, but we just didn’t truly believe or felt the reality of that believe. How can we truly believe? How can we trick our mind to truly believe?

For every problem, there is a solution, no matter how impossible it may seem. Just like the chicken and egg problem, someone could figure out the answer. When you truly believe there is a solution, will you find it? What happens when you give up?

2011

2011-01-02T01:23:00.003+08:00

I always like the beginning of the year, where it represents fresh start and new hope, and we can decide on our ambitious master plan for the year. We review what we had done, and decide that we had not done enough, and renew our interest and determination to achieve even more for the year.

Looking back at my “master plan” aka New Year resolution for year 2010, I realize I had few misses and a few changes of plan. I decide that I wouldn’t not have enough time to venture into new online creative business, where it’s better to focus on my core business plan instead. I also decided that property investment might not be ideal as it involved quite some physical maintenance, where I could achieve good return on share market investment as well (with more liquidity and flexibility).

On the bright side, I did get married and gotten myself a lovely wife and started our lovely life together in our lovely home. And I did start to donate slightly into UNICEF. For MalaysiaMostWanted, MMW Food remains the top online food guide in Malaysia, and we ventured into keeping track of historical property price.

2010 had been quite a hectic year with badly managed projects (which didn't become very profitable), marriage and travel planning, thus my business accomplishment is slightly less than desirable. This in turns serve as a reminder to get me to focus more energy and time to a more concrete plan this year.

My objective remains the same, which is to gain freedom in life (no longer be selling my time, soul and life for money). To do so, I shall achieve the following in 2011

To expand MMW to Travel and Price Comparison, and to upgrade existing platform in tune with current standards and expectations
To start mobile application development to complement MMW
To start an International Information Guide on Cool Products, Freeware, Comics, etc.

My business model is very simple: to create and systematically archive web information, so that it can deliver useful information to users. How do I make money? I am not very good at this yet, but theoretically, the more information I have the more powerful I shall become. It might be hard to earn millions, but it shouldn't be too hard to generate a comfortable monthly income.

I am very motivated and there are a lot to be done. It’s time to fire warp speed 9, and ENGAGE!

The Hong Kong - Shenzhen Travel, Part 2

2010-12-31T12:13:00.004+08:00

We wake up fairly early (Christine is a bit reluctant to wake up the lazy pigs, haha), being greeted by her lovely egg and toast breakfast. We are running late for our hiking session in Dai Yu San, taking almost an hour of bus ride.

We meet up with 2 of Christine’s good friends, Iris Chan Po San and Marco Yu Ka Wai. It’s funny they always call others by their full name, like what we used to do during our primary school years. It was a not so sunny day, and we could see the cable car towards Dai Yu San. The trekking path is mostly like a village path, with very good path condition and some people do cycle around there. We will track from Tung Chung (東涌) to Tai O (大澳).

The highlight of the trekking is probably revolve around our chit chatting, as we have more than a few hours to kill and to know about each other’s culture and background. Though we Malaysia might have learned our Cantonese from Hong Kong TV series, but unknowingly we already mixed some local language into our Cantonese, such as Lui (钱), Mata (警察), Long Kai (走街), Hou Xian (好闷), etc. We say raining is Lok Sui (下水), to them it sounds like going into the water. The funny thing is playing badminton is Da Yu Kau (打羽球), to them it sound like hitting the breast (打乳球). Malaysia translate out Chinese Name based on local dialect, for example 陈 could be Chan in Cantonese, Chen in Mandarin, or Tan in Teochew; and we spell our name based on Malay Language pronunciation, not English. For Hong Kong it is mostly Cantonese translation and English pronunciation. We found that when a country gotten more advance and develop, they have less tolerance for corruption and unequal treatment, which is something our country have a lot of catch up to do.

We pass through a bay area to have our lunch, and it was drizzling and gotten quite windy with strong waves. We have some local flavored Maggi Mee (一丁面), where we can choose any two of Luncheon Meat, Sausage, Ham, Egg and Five Spice Meat. The journey proceeds further where we can see a wide horizon ocean from the hills, and it’s getting windy and cold. Finally we reach the Tai O village with high-leg kampong-like house made of wood and covered by zinc. We manage to sample some delicacies in Tai O, but the place is crowded with weekend tourist. I can’t really remember the name of the food, but there are some sorts of Taiwanese Pancake, Fried Little Crabs, Nor Mai Chi, Curry Fishball, Grill Dry Squid and Fish, Dau Fu Fa, etc (too bad we couldn't get the famous cheap and nice little pancake - 鸡蛋仔). We took a small boat ride form HKD 10 per person, but we could go out to the open sea for white dolphin watching due to the weather. Po San passed up some warm pack which could generate heat to warm up our body, which is something new to us.

We took a ferry to Tuen Mun (屯門), took about an hour and almost everyone fallen asleep, and the journey is very cold (luckily the have plastic cover on the open air deck). We meet up with Joanne, Zhu Jai and their lovely son, Pak Cheng (looking at him, it would make you feel it’s nice to have a kid). The seafood dinner is great, with crispy cheese crust lobster, abalone (1st time we have this in a seafood dinner), zhuk sun, crab, fish, etc. We have no idea how much is the dinner (probably quite expensive), and thank you for the treat from everyone. The cold air from outside is sipping in, and the toilet is far into the outside. We did Christmas gift exchange, where we pass them the Facebook slipper for Facebook fanatics, and Kung Fu bible of 癸花宝典 - （前）诺要成功，必须自宫；（后）就算自宫，未必成功。The place is 南记, 东菇厅, 三聖村. On our way back, we take a discounted taxi (it seems like taxi could offer a 10-20% discount at certain time and place).

Another fulfilling day of nature, food and cultural exchange, with new and renewed friendship. I do admire Christine’s ability to keep such a close relationship with her friend despite their busy schedule, maybe it’s due to the religion and Sunday sermon, or it’s the way of life of Hong Kong people, or perhaps it’s the special ability of Christine.

Did I sell my time, soul and life for money? 为了金钱，我出卖了灵魂，成为奴隶。

2010-12-31T10:38:00.004+08:00

Sometimes we spent so much time working, and serving people we didn’t like or working towards ideal which we didn’t believe in, is it worth it?

Of time, soul, life and money, which one is more important? It is worth it to exchange the time, soul and life for money, where we believe more money would get us more time, soul and life in return? Ironic, isn’t it.

Did we work for survival (cloth, food, house, transport), for comfort and luxury, or to escape the rat race towards freedom (so that we no longer have to work in the end).

Perhaps work is indeed a part of life, which work get out of control most of the time and disrupt the balance of our life. Though we can’t fully love our work (there will always be unreasonable deadline, difficult customers and other problems), at least we could work in something we believe in, something which get us some sort of enjoyment and satisfaction; and pay very hard that it doesn’t get out of control. Sadly, most of us work in something we neither like nor believe in, yet have to deal with shitty elements like problematic clients and lousy bosses.

I believe I work for freedom (thus sacrificing my current time, soul and life). It’s like a rocket leaving earth gravity, you need a certain speed and momentum to leave the rat race. I am a “perfectionist” in the sense that I believe work could be so much better than the norm belief: I can have a business without direct clients to deal with, without the need for office or direct employee, can work from anywhere, do very little work or no work at all, be interesting and engaging (though still suffer from problems to be solved) and still earn an above average income. Sound like Utopian? I plan to achieve it within 3 to 5 years to come :) Logically it sounds crazy, but in my mind it seems like something natural and possible.

1st I need to believe, secondly I need to constantly think and observe about it, and if I still cannot shake off the idea, then I need to implement the idea without looking back.

I did sell my time, soul and life for money, and it already lasted for almost a decade, and hopefully not for another decade. Do I still work after I gain freedom? Perhaps, but not slaving for money anymore.

The Hong Kong - Shenzhen Travel

2010-12-31T01:30:00.005+08:00

We have to work through the night before departure, as if there won’t be a vacation if we didn’t force ourselves to have a vacation. And this is one of time we felt less like a tourist, while trying to go with the flow and experience life in foreign land through our friend: Christine. It’s one of those things we should do in our life: to experience Christmas in foreign land though the air ticket is more expensive, and to visit a friend in foreign land.

We land in Shenzhen, because it’s about 40% cheaper than Hong Kong, though we need to get a double entry visa for China (RM 50, takes 3 days to process). Shenzhen is quite a vast city, with many landed property and high-rise buildings arranged in a systematic ways, though it was covered by smog. I think Shenzhen is “safer” than it used to be, with no touts in sight as well. We took a bus for RMB 20 to Luo Hu - 罗湖 (border gate to enter Hong Kong with MTR) which takes between 30-45 minutes. The border is a bit confusing as it was crowded with commercial centers and shops, and it shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to cross the custom of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, we pick up our Octopus Card (minimum is HKD 150 with HKD 50 as deposit) and ride MTR to Tai Wo (太和) to meet our good2 friend.

Christine waited for us “impatiently” in front of Watson dress in jeans and boots (one of the nice things in Hong Kong is the nice Winter Clothing and Boots), as Mei Ru called her way too early before we cross the Hong Kong custom. It’s nice to see her again, as beautiful and energetic as ever. Tai Wo is like one of those HBD residential areas in Singapore, with lots of apartments and commercial centers to support the local neighborhood as well, with kindergartens and basketball court. Then we have the typical Hong Kong apartment, with nice metal gate and postboxes, watch by a guard. The apartment probably has 30 floors, with a total of 6 lifts, and 2 lifts servicing each alternate floor. It is a nice apartment, not too old and clean. Christine stays at the 28th floor, a nice cozy space of about 300++ square feet with a pretty nice view outside the window. We meet the famous white cats, Ah Fei (Fatty) and Ah B (it’s easy to get confuse as Ah B is the Fat one, while Ah Fei is the shy one, even Christine herself get confused). It’s quite a new and renovated unit, quite comfy for 2 people with 2 rooms, but probably less space for storage (or requires better space management setup). This is the space you would appreciate those Ikea double decker (where your bed is on top of your work desk), extendable dining table and wall made up of wardrobe (to save 3 inches of wall space). We did a bit of Christmas gift exchange, where Mei Ru gave her a hand-made clay of Ah Fei and Ah B (which she actually found time to make), and Christine gave us a Green Crystal Planting kit and a Green USB Boy. We like our gift, though we express it differently :p

We have lunch at nearby neighborhood shopping complex, where she bought us our first meal in Hong Kong (洗尘). It’s Christmas Eve, so we visit Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀) area to have a “feel” of the Christmas mood in Hong Kong. Surprisingly, we did have one of the best meals with very good dishes in a Vietnamese restaurant (老赵). The salty Vietnamese Put Zai Gou (砵仔糕) is nice, together with the very delicious beef noodle, the soft shell crab is not bad (maybe a bit salty), the nice curry fish pot with garlic bread, sweet and spicy big head prawn (almost HKD 400 for 3 person). I think I shall remember this meal as one of the best in years to come. A few streets are closed for traffic, with presence of policeman and probably a few hundred thousand people walking around. The lighting on the street a bit of a letdown (seems like Singapore Orchard road win this time), but the cold weather is priceless. They do have some nice decorations at certain places, like an 1881 classic carousel with large blue Christmas tree, and “ice” sculpture near the seaside. We didn’t go for the lighting show at Area of Stars, because we saw it during our last visit. The bay area is really too crowded with “bumper to bumper” traffic. We grad a cool mango jelly coconut drink at Hui Lau Shan and try to escape before the countdowns happens.

Superstar Aaron Kwok is performing on the street that night, and we are too far to get a glimpse of him. They spray paper snow, which does have a small moment of Christmas feel. The side of the performance area is covered by black cloth to make sure the walkway is flowing without people stopping to peak at the performance, but we did get a glimpse of his back when one of the cloths was blown away for a moment. We reach the MTR station at 12 midnight, and heard the countdown started. An uncle complaint why there is a countdown for Christmas as it was not New Year, or are they counting stars? Haha.

It had been a tiring day, as we have barely any sleep before we depart due to work and packing. Christine was worry we might get felt cold at night, but it was alright with the closed window, mini heater and cozy blanket. I felt asleep on the s 2 seater while Mei Ru went for a bath, and I was surprise I could find place to stretch my long legs.

Another 2 and a half day with her, and more experience of Hong Kong culture and her friends. Hopefully I have the energy to finish it :p

Book Review: Blink

2010-12-17T02:21:00.002+08:00

The ability to make a spontaneous simple and accurate decision based on less information (so called “Thin Slicing”) is better? Or complex decision making based on analysis using more time and information (Thick Slicing) is more reliable?

Note:

In an attempt to determine if an art piece is a fraud or genuine, after scientific test and historical documentation analysis had cleared it, yet some expert still felt something is “wrong” when looking at it for the 1st time, but couldn’t tell what is wrong.
An experiment on how to tell whether a couple’s relationship would last or not, just by observing a conversation video between them for 3 minutes. How much do need to know about them in order to make an accurate decision, or how many factors or behaviors should be taken into account? Based on a Love Lab experiment, we only need to observe the 4 horseman: defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism and most importantly, contempt (trying to put the other person lower than you) to determine which relationship would not last.
How to determine which doctor are most likely to get sued? Based on their qualifications, skills and history? Doctors who spent slightly more time talking to their patients are less likely to get sued.
Can you learn to invest like George Soros by listening to his methods, or he had a “feeling” attached to each of his decision which could not be explained, no matter it was backed by how many analytical facts. Can you be as good as Andrea Agassi by watching him play in slow motion?
Priming: subconscious exposure to certain words before an even can affect our performance. Student are asked to take a word quiz with words like “patient”, “slow”, “polite”, “courteous” are found to be more patient when there ask asked to wait in the line after the word quiz compared to those exposed to negative words.
Speed dating: would you have more success in selecting your soul mate in 6 minutes of conversation as compared to someone which you already know for years? What qualities do you look for? Does you current partner have the same qualities? Does the qualities you are looking for are affected by your partner instead?
Thin Slicing Error: CEO tends to be someone taller (statistically proven), Jews are smatter, White are more superior, Teacher are women, Doctor are man, People who dress sluggish are not potential customer, it’s easier to cheat women by charging higher prices (spot the sucker) even though they are professional and etc. We might make an error in “think slicing” based on our knowledge, experience, biasness or prejudice (consciously or subconsciously).
War Game: If we have more information and intelligence, together with various comprehensive analytical methods with takes in various factors, we should win right? Or we need the ability to make spontaneous decisions based on tight scenario?
How to determine if a chest pain in serious? By reading the ECG, taking into account past history, diabetic, smoking habit, high blood pressure and a dozen more factors. Would taking into account 20 factors is more accurate than taking into just 4 factors (like the 4 horseman, to be determined based on experiment)? Is less more?

We can actually make simple and accurate decision by taking into account a few correct factors (given that we know what factors to look for), and we might not be able to make a judgment if we have more information (confusion and which factor are important, or not). Sometimes we have a “feeling” which we cannot explain, a spontaneous action which happens naturally, and we tends to be affected subconsciously by exposure to words and emotions around us. Does our brain have a natural way of digesting information better than our logic mind could explain? Do you believe in your "gut" feeling?

The Black Knight

2010-11-27T22:18:00.004+08:00

Recently, my trusty Dell Inspiron 6400 (I named it "mostwanted" as in my web app) had gone into semi-retirement after faithful service of almost 5 years (quite remarkable for a notebook's lifespan). I bought it for RM 2000++, with 2GB RAM and the budget Pentium Dual Core Processor (not even Core 2 Duo); and it had brought me much profit and fun. Recently the system is getting pretty unstable and I am afraid the Hard disk might got off without prior warning, thus I had bought in the replacement.

I choose DELL again, as the system is reliable, I can buy it online (save the hassle of driving to the shop) and it's home-service warranty is amazing (again, don't have to send it to the factory for repair, and collection). This time I up the budget slightly as faster performance equal more productivity, getting a Dell Inspiron N5010 with i5 Processor (with noticeable hot air blowing out from the left) and 4GB RAM, and throwing in a 1GB ATI Radeon 3D as well (so that it won't used up my RAM, and better performance for future apps) - for only RM 2699, plus few hundred extra for 3 years warranty. The outlook and design of this new generation is much better than the older model, with shiny one-piece metal casing which look solid and classy (the only flimsy component is the keyboard), even the charger have a nice circle LED light. The only drawback is the Seagate Hard disk, where I have better confidence with Western Digital one. I named this baby "optimus", as in Optimus Prime.

I do have a thing with gadget, with my Camelot PC and Garmin eTrex Vista HCx GPS. And it's almost time to get a Android Phone, probably LG Optimus One (only RM 899).

Book Review: Turning Points, the UMW Story

2010-11-21T22:59:00.002+08:00

It’s not everyday we have a local enterprise success story to read about. From a small business which started from 1960 to an enterprise with 11,000 strong workforce with more than 90 companies in 12 countries. There are bound to be something interesting and something to learn from.

It all started from a small bicycle shop in Singapore by Chia Yee Soh at the age of 14, then upgrading to an automotive (motorbike) repair shop named United Motor Works. On the Malaysia side, the hero is Eric Chia who works to expand UMW business in Kuala Lumpur, by focusing on industrial equipment by distributing Mitsubishi, Kamatsu (Tractor) and eventually the most successful Toyota Forklift.

Eric Chia is a true entrepreneur who would stop at nothing to expand the business, venture into the unknown and could excel within chaos. He setup multiple branches, multiple related businesses (such as construction, recon, credit, etc), and multiple joint ventures with foreign company and multiple distributorship. He is dynamic, extremely hardworking (means working until late night and weekend for his employees) and very generous (take care of his employee like family), and forward looking by employing graduates and training up local talents.

During the 1980s, Eric Chia lost control of the company due to aggressive expansion and little risk management (the thread of early entrepreneur: this thread brings the company its early success, also causing the problem it faced at later stage), and faced with heavy financial crunch when the economy is bad. His business comrade Shiew Wan Shing was nominated by shareholders (and PNB) to take over the management and turn the company into a more professionally run (and less chaotic). 4 years later Shiew died in robbery.

I felt sad for Eric Chia when he lost his company which his is so passionate about. I admire his spirit and entrepreneurship, but his ad-hoc and common practice of working long hours isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite. No matter what, he is still a man to be admired, and I truly believe the man of his caliber and success, he wouldn’t go so low in the incident of Perwaja Steel (unless the author had misled me).

UMW continue to prosper over time, starting with industrial equipment, then to Toyota franchise and Peroduo second national car, and finally into oil and gas and beyond. There is an evolution and major shift of business focus every 10 years, while the core business still maintains a healthy operation.

Book Review: Fast Boat to China

2010-11-21T19:01:00.004+08:00

What I learned for the first two chapters of “Fast Boat to China”?

What do we know about China? We know

China is growing strong with great potential
China is the World’s Factory
China is consuming a lot world’s resources, and driving up raw material prices such as steel and oil.

Do we know what the Impact of China’s Growth is? We suffer job lost due to outsourcing to China

Low-end blue-collared job such as factory worker for Textile, Furniture, Apparels are outsourced to China, causing Factory in other parts to shut down and many low-income group lost their job
Low-end white-collared job such as Call Center, Accounting, Back Office Paperwork are shipped to China (and other cheaper part of the world), causing many low-income group lost their job.
Middle-class engineers and technicians loose their jobs as well as most High-Tech Electronics and Automobile factories are setup in China.
High-end programmer, engineer, scientist and research loose some of their job as more company setup R&D centers in China (including HP, Microsoft, IBM, etc)
Expatriate who demands high salary working for multinational in China are slowing being replace with local talent with a fraction of their cost and benefit.

What kinds of job are safe from outsourcing? Lawyers, Doctors, Policeman, Postman, Rubbish Collector, Plumber, Waiter, Maids and etc. That’s given the influx of immigrants doesn’t take away our job as well.

In return, we get cheaper goods from China in exchange for our unemployment and dying economy. And we get cheaper maids and cheaper restaurant food thanks to immigrants.

Why business move to China? Initially china is cheap with abundance of cheap materials and labors, thus it’s cheaper to produce things in China to sell to the rest of the world. Then China grown bigger with a large domestic market and middle class citizens, with more business moving in to sell to the China market. The cost is growing, the labor will “shrink” as the growth of foreign investment outgrown the growth of local labors and talents. Too many companies are fighting to employ the workers and professionals, where not every one of them are qualified with the right skills and correct mentalities. Slowly, it is no longer cheap with abundance of workforce, but the domestic market is growing. Eventually, China will be like United States. Will China still be attractive by then? Probably yes, but in another way.

Most Multinational Corporation spread their operation all over the world, but how many of their workforce is actually in their home country? How much taxes the pay to their home country? Is it a national pride, or there are issue of patriotisms and loyalty in question here? Or it is supposed to be purely business with economic consideration? If the company loose out in competitiveness because they didn’t outsource, it wouldn’t do good to the home country as well.

China will probably grow into an economy superpower, but it might not take away our jobs for long. Then again, other country like India, Vietnam and Indonesia will probably follow China’s footstep. Will our job ever return to our shores?

My Conclusion
Again, we can’t stop the change (impose trade restriction or abolish free trade, which are not a popular policy by today's expectation), but to change oneself (what used to work before might not work now) and adapt with a newer model (we move from agriculture to industrial to high-tech, and continue to evolve). The transition period is unpredictable and tough, but it presence a good opportunity, and things will eventually stabilize (until the next wave of change).

Book Review: Man and Boy

2010-11-19T23:19:00.004+08:00

Somehow, I was quite hooked to Man and Boy, about a married man (Harry) who screwed up his life after he slept with other women: his wife (Gina) taking his son away and he lost his job. I am curious on how he manage to “restore” his life. I pick up the first chapter of this book in Nepal many years back, and I am fated to finish it now after I found it in my house few weeks back.

It’s funny that how such an unfortunate event can actually be good for someone, fulfilling the prophecy that there is always a silver lining no matter how hopeless something might seems like. I guess we always hated when things turned upside down (or not within our grasp), but it is these incidents which actually elevate us to be a better person. I know, “exam” is hard, and no one actually likes “exam” although it is supposing good for us. I guess we like the serenity and predictability in our life.

Anyway, the Gina felt that she had sacrifice a lot (especially her career) to build the family, and now she felt betrayed and regretted all her sacrifices for him and the family. She takes the son away from Harry, put the son with her father who actually abandoned her when she is young, and flew off to Japan to a job opportunity that she had always wanted. Harry pick up his son again and eventually learned to become a real father (a role he had conveniently neglected all this time). Gina promise to come back for the child, once she had settled in Japan. I guess the role switching is quite an irony here.

Anyway, the focus is on Harry: he gets a chance to “restart” his life. He learned to become a father, learn to put his son before his career, learn to get closer with his parents, and perhaps learn to really “love” someone. Love is not just about having a good time together, enjoying each other company and sleeping together. Love is having to accept something inconvenient, and having the heart to accept it for the rest of our life. Having said that, it also made us with wiser and more logical as we grow older; thus harder to fall in love based on emotional feelings alone. We get to think about many things with consideration into the far future, and we are not just thinking about ourselves anymore. Selflessness is something we have to learn eventually; and it is a requirement when we build a family with children. It’s no longer about what we like or what we wanted. Will we loose ourselves? It’s a bad thing? I am not there yet.

I like the style of writing, when the writer never dwells on the same issue more than 2 pages. Each chapter is separated into a few sections, where it switches focus on different events and perspectives. Without one realizing, he is back with the story I am interested again.

I seldom read fiction, because I think it’s a waste of time; perhaps Alchemist changed my mind. Not sure since when I started with Business & Marketing book; perhaps I was never quite a reader, as I can’t recall reading anything else besides the Chinese Kung Fu Novel of Jing Yong (金庸) – that was also for the purpose of improving my Chinese.

Life is full with surprises, doing something I never quite expect: hiking, dancing, karaoke. I still wonder why life is like a box of chocolate? With many flavors?

Review: The Long Tail

2010-11-12T11:20:00.004+08:00

Sometimes it is easy to forget about some important detail of a book, if we don’t make notes (which we are usually lazy to do so while reading).

The Long Tail is quite an eye opener, another brilliant theory and observation in the same category like Crossing the Chasm. Basically most business focus on the top best seller, as 20% of the goods contributes towards 80% of the sales. If I only have 1000 shelf space, I better put in the top 1000 best seller in my store to maximize profit (assuming best seller can sell an average of 1000 copies per year, it would be 1000 x 1000 = 1000000 sales per year). What if I have unlimited store space? If I can put 100000 items in my store, within 99% of them selling an average sale of 10 per year, I would still have extra of 99000 x 10 = 999000 sale per year, which is very significant. What if I have 1 million items?

The Long Tail is all about having more products and more variety as possible (extend your sales volume beyond the best seller), given that the cost of holding stocks is almost ZERO (think Amazon, iTunes, Pandora, Netflix, etc). Even if non-best sellers only sell an average of few items per year, their large number of product do make up the sales volume.

For Example, Google AdWord’s flexibility and low entry barrier allow any business owner in the world to put up advertisement as low as USD 0.01 per click. Rather than depending on a few thousand large corporations to put up advertisement, AdWord allow millions of business owner around the world to put up advertisement based on their own budget.

The local books store chain could probably carry ten of thousands of product, while Amazon offer millions of items yet at a lower price. The local music store is dying, while Netflix and iTunes are flourishing with millions of offering, yet cheaper again and allowing more flexibility (you can buy just one song rather than the whole album).

How can we make long tail work?

We need a large volume of products or contents, and the cost of making these items available must be almost ZERO
We need to reach a large audience, most by utilizing the Internet (with the help of online marketing through Ads and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Viral Video, Blogs, Social Media like Facebook and Twitter, etc)
We need a powerful search engine, so that people can find the needle among the haystack (and recommend similar products, like Amazon)
We need a good review system, so that people know what’s good and what’s not. Even a niche item could be a potential best seller.
By learning the customer shopping pattern, we could recommend niche product which could be of their interest.
Sampling is possible by allowing downloading one chapter of a book, or preview 30 seconds of a video or music.

The Long Tail is not for every business, but it’s something to look into besides focusing on the blockbuster.

The Money in Life

2010-11-11T22:08:00.003+08:00

In life, we need a constant reminder of what are we actually doing day in day out. Sometimes we easily had forgotten about our objective, determination and what we passionately set out to do in the beginning. The passion is no longer burning, the urgency is lost, the determination is weaken, and we live day in day out without remembering what we set out to do in the beginning. We slacked. We need to be reminded. Perhaps we still know what we need to do, but we forgotten the feeling and emotion which prompt us to do it in the first place. We lost the emotional part of it, leaving us with logic which might not be very inspiring.

There are probably 2 groups of poor people: 1 group which are very determined to make a better living, and another which accepted the fact that they shall remain poor forever.

For middle class, most will subconsciously choose to remain a middle class due to comfortable living with less motivation to strive for a better livelihood. Middle class don’t face hunger or living without the roof; we might have overspend in shopping, with less money for travel, or cursing about money lost in stock market, theft, accident or pure stupidity. We get a bit troubled by minor financial stress at times, but still worry about some major catastrophe which might strike us or our family member. Generally, we are still living pretty comfortable most of the time, though our financial security might not be guaranteed (but only a small group of paranoid will worry about this).

What is our reaction when we lost our money? We can accept it as fate or luck, and just forget about it. Or do we become more determined and motivated to make tons of it so that it doesn't bother us anymore (I am the latter).

I am one of the paranoid, which worry about major catastrophe which might happens, and get upset by minor financial lost a long the way. The thing is, I don’t want to get upset due to minor financial lost, and I don’t want to spend my entire life making money. I get worry about the health risk of my parents, and my wife’s parents, and probably my children if I have one or two. I get upset due to money lost from theft and accident, having to spend countless hours just to get a better bargain, and not be able to do things spontaneously due to financial consideration.

Most people would accept these as the norm, the norm of middle class where everyone faces the same problem. If the middle class is to make a change, how? It’s too risky to quit the job, and it is either too stressful to start something part-time or there is no time to spare. The solution seems too complicated that most of us don’t bother to give much thought to it. We accepted the fact that we are normal and its okay since most people around us live in the same condition as us (except a few rich or poor dude which we don’t know really well). In fact, we felt that we are much better off than most people. It’s too difficult to have a breakthrough, to up one notch; why bother. Can all of us to rich? Why not. But not all us are determined to be rich, and most of us are satisfied with the current.

In comparison, there are always many more who are worse than us, and many more who are better than us. Each of us has a different kind of worry, and a different objective. Perhaps deep down I hope that people will be like me or have the same kind of thoughts with me. Just like not everyone like hiking, perhaps it’s unrealistic and futile to expect others to understand or agree with my way of life. Rather than worrying too much about others, perhaps I should focus on the things which I have control of, which is myself. I guess we all subconsciously hope to have more comrades and more people of the same kind, where we hope to assimilate others into our world. Everyone chooses their own way of life, either we agree with them or not. Not everyone wants to get married, and not everyone wanted to start a business.

It’s true that there are more meanings in life besides money, but we can’t deny that money affect a large part of our life as well (we do live in a material world). If I can solve 50% person of life’s problem, why not. Perhaps this is the easiest part to solve, while others are either too subjective or out of our grasp.

Inception the Mind Game

2010-11-02T16:44:00.002+08:00

I found that the Mind (or more precisely, the thought of an idea) had a very deep and powerful impact on me. Once I thought of doing something for several times, I found it very hard to shake it off my mind by not doing it. Once I found something better or more comfortable, I found that it’s very hard to go back to the old ways. I guess it’s good in a certain ways that I am always improving and “evolving”, rather than repeating the same old thing over and over again.

I have the idea of being an entrepreneur planted in me by my brothers during my secondary school years; and after numerous tries, I am self-employed and a semi-entrepreneur with still very motivated to move forward. I couldn’t shake the idea off even though I fail for a few times; and opportunities shall creep in again and again for me to do what my mind set to do. I am dissatisfied with the ex-bosses and ex-companies, and felt that I could do a better job on my own. Though I couldn’t be exceptional in every things, but I could find a formula which work for me eventually. I continue to find ways to do it; I couldn't give it up. Now, I couldn't go back to the old ways.

After I gain some success being a freelance software developer, I have an idea to move up one notch. Along the way I kind of ditch the idea of starting a software house to develop business application or do consulting; I wanted to something I like, something fun. Software Development for Business is frustrating at times, due to clients who aren’t quite sure what they want, business process which are either too complex or uncertain, and requirements which forever changes. Basically, I am just doing it for money, where my client pays for my services and patient. The only consolation is that I like programming, which keeps me going for a few years, until I found something better.

Still programming, but programming for something I like, something which I found interesting. I develop web application for people to find great places to eat, a way to compare and analyze property prices, and hopefully a few more fun projects like travelling guide (which I had been trying to do for the past 2 years), product price comparison or developing the most comprehensive archive of every places in Malaysia. Once I started on these idea, I couldn’t stop thinking about them and gotten very motivated on work on these idea. On the other end, my productivity on developing business application had gotten lower due to the lack of interest.

This dilemma is killing me slowly, where I end up procrastinating a lot while developing business application for others. I end up wasting even more time and doing less, with even less time to do what I wanted to do, and satisfaction level is at all time low.

My mind had taken control of me, and perhaps I had found something which I really like to work on (which is really great!)? It’s time to make a firm stand and stop “lying” to myself and not doing the right thing. I need to dedicate more time to do what I wanted to do, and make it work. To have peace and satisfaction.

OMG! How am I going to say NO the next time customers come knocking on my door? Say NO?!!! It's tough.

I get to know Edison better lately, because Mei Ru and I got him to be our wedding photographer, and he started sharing a bit of himself to us. He doesn’t want to turn his hobby (which is photography and editing) into a profession, thus he just does it on a “part-time” basis and he picks his clients (usually friends who are less demanding). At the same time, he don’t mind doing boring Graphic Design and Publication Work as his main job; as he treated that as work, not a hobby. So he got a very clear separation of work and hobby, and he doesn’t mix them. Just like Si Theng (another friend of mine), just treat baking and card making as hobby and don’t intend to turn them into business (just doing it for friends), while working on her maybe “boring” day job while she get to go home on time to play with her hobbies.

My problem is like I mix work with pleasure. I wanted to build a sustainable business which I would be happy to nurture it everyday; something I would like to work on for long term in the future. I still have my hobbies like Hiking, Dancing and Travelling. Another thing is there is limited time, as I can’t segregate 50-50 for work and hobby; thus I want my work to be something I have passion for, and something I would spend a lot of time to build upon. I have big plans for myself, where I refuse to walk the conventional path, something most people are willing to compromise because it’s a norm. I wanted a satisfactory change, I wanted something better, and I am trying to build something better while I can.

I am trying to build something better, while I can. I do need to remind myself that constantly before I loose track of it. I wanted something "perfect" for me.

Be True to Life

2010-09-07T00:40:00.004+08:00

Suddenly, I felt that it is the utmost important for me to do what I wanted to do with my life. No more excuses of being busy or have no money. I need to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish, sooner or later (and hopefully not too late).

A lot of time, we hear words like “I wish I could do this and that, but it’s too late or I have no time or money …” Perhaps the obstacle isn’t that great, and we probably could make it if we really wanted to. Perhaps we do not have enough determination or desire to achieve what we wanted. Perhaps we are confused about what’s important, and what’s not. I have to admit, human are weak and confused at times.

Be True to my life: to accomplish what I wanted to do with my life, so that there are less regret and more satisfaction (and memory). We all live a busy life in a fast-paced world; yet time passes through and we have no idea what we had accomplished for ourselves. We are drowning into the void of business for unknown reasons. Perhaps we had loose track of what’s important in our life (or our mind)?

What is the real life? Is the Matrix the real thing, or Zion is the real thing? Can making a living co-exist with living our dream? Or we always have to sacrifice our life in the name of survival?

I plan to become a Millionaire by 25, then 30 (and it hasn’t work out yet). I wanted to travel around for 1 year before I reach 30, that didn’t work out as well (and I forgotten about it). I guess there shall be many misses and delay, but I still believe I shall make it one day (maybe 35 or 55?). Now I wanted to be eligible for retirement (don’t have to work anymore).

I manage to trek Kota Kinabalu, Tahan, Mount Semeru volcano mountain, Annapurna Circuit and hopefully India soon, and I do really feel great about them. I have friend who tour Europe for a month, or stay in Spain for a year, or heard of others taking working holiday in UK or Australia. I already spent 10 years in a office desk (though I change it to a home desk), and probably will continue to do so for the next 10-20 years (which I hope to cut short). I should explore the world outside my desk more often. I am glad that I tried dancing, went diving and rafting; but haven't tried bungee jumping and sky diving yet.

I believe I can live the life I wanted to live, thus I shall. Without believe and hope, there is nothing much to live for anymore. I wanted to be true with my life. I don’t want to sacrifice or get busy for nothing; I wanted to do something meaningful.

Of Judgment and Ruler

2010-08-07T13:12:00.003+08:00

I think it’s of our nature to judge someone and something. The flower is pretty, he is smart or she is a quiet person. We judge things based on the “ruler (for measurement) in our heart”. What is beauty? What is reasonable or norm? What is right and wrong? Should we continue to judge, or not?

When I told someone that I am going off a few days for a short holiday, some people will react by asking why I am always on holiday and not working. In fact, I am just exercising my annual leave of 10 plus days; so our “ruler is different”. When I go off for a month of vacation, that might be something that is deemed “impossible” for most people; and there are still people who travel away for months or years. So again, we have a different kind of measurement. Some people believe in work, some believe in casual vacation, some believe in soul searching travelling.

What if our judgment is of conflict with others, or even hurt someone else’s feelings? It’s rude to say someone is ugly or stupid, so we can sort of avoid it most of the time. What about laziness? What if we have a lazy worker or colleagues, which their laziness would affect us since we have to work together; should we tell them that they are lazy and ask them to bulk up? And will they really bulk up if we tell them that they are lazy? Will judging and criticizing really work? If someone is “lazy” by our standard, what should we do? We can allow them to be lazy, or find ways to motivate them to be less-lazy. Most of them, we just go on with the criticizing or just “ignore” them to get the idea off our mind. To “change” one person is a difficult job, and there is the moral question of should we change them or not.

While on the Tahan trip, a new friend reminded me of the idea of “there is a ruler in every man’s heart”. We have our own believe, principle, scale, judgment of what’s right or wrong. If we imposed our own judgment too strongly, could we end up as too self-centered? If we don't reflect our own believe, could we loose ourselves with no identity? Sometimes I do believe silence is golden; where we have our own believe in our mind and heart, and only speak when necessary. But most of them, we might talk too much. After all, talking is a necessary part of human sociality.

There is no straight answer or conclusion. Last time I used to ask myself that should me tell someone if they dressed wrongly, or do something we deemed wrong. Now I have a slight change of mind. I think we shouldn’t criticize (or at least try to restrain it), or totally stop someone to do something. We could give some opinion and let them decide what to do. Sometimes it is more difficult when the things they do have a more direct effect on us, and that requires a high level of tolerance and acceptance which I have yet to master. Perhaps our heart is not “pure” enough, as we are still bothered by many things and people around us. Like my sis’s Tao teaching said, human must strive to practice 八德 (Eight Virtue): 孝 (filial piety)、悌 (brotherly love)、忠 (loyalty/honesty)、信 (truthfulness/trustfulness)、礼 (propriety)、义 (righteousness)、廉 (integrity/purity)、耻(shamefulness). Perhaps sometimes science and logical thinking are limited in a certain ways, we would need to refer to the old teaching to seek the “truth”.

Gunung Tahan

2010-07-30T01:15:00.006+08:00

On 16 July 2010, Mei Ru & I, Chim, Cynthia, Soo Min, and Teacher Tham & Son joined Thong’s expedition to climb the Merapoh-Tahan-Merapoh trail. It’s 4D3N, and the experience is really very enjoyable.

Chim arranged most of the things, including Hassan’s van to drive us there. Merapoh is in Kelantan (near Kuala Lipis). We depart at night and reach there sometime after midnight, where we have to “self-service” at the dorm.

Before we start our journey in the morning, one of the officer will have to take not of how many containers, plastic bags, batteries, etc that we have with us, to make sure we take them down with us as well. This exercise is quite time consuming, and we doubt its effectiveness as well (it’s impossible to keep track of everything, perhaps it’s just meant to sent a message). We took a 4WD to go through to sloppy road (and we pretend it to be a roller coaster ride) to reach Kem Kuala Jeram, a river where they keep the fishes.

The journey on the first day is quite slow and tiring, perhaps we over carry too many food (afraid will die of hunger). We cross 4 rivers and camp at Kem Kor after 7 hours of journey. Nothing spectacular about the route or the camp. Gotten about 10 sand fly (“agas” in Malay) bite mark (nothing as compared to my record of 50 in Liang). Thong cook us a good dinner with Thong Sui, satisfying. It rains on the 1st night, and out tent leaks, so Chim the handy man solve it by covering it with an extra layer of rubbish bag.

2nd day is the main challenge, expected to walk a minimum of 10 hours so we have to depart around 7.30am. Thong packs us some black soy fish with rice as lunch, very appetizing. We ascend quite a lot (I notice it even more when we come down), walk, walk and more walking. The “prize” of the mountain is after Bonzai, where the view is spectacular. We can see more than 180 degrees of clear mountain range, and the area is rocky with sand, marble, short bushes and plenty of small monkey pitches. We spent quite a lot of time here with a lot of pictures taken. It’s really spectacular. We collect water at Kem Botak and proceed to the top.

The peak had quite a wide space, but it did flood when it rains. We have no choice but to “move house” from the more sandy ground to some rockier surface, else we would have a sleepless night. The night is really very very cold, and my glove and thick socks (covered by sleeping back) seems to provide very little insulation. It’s windy and definitely one of the coldest night ever. The peak is full with wild orchid, and there is an amazing “ocean of cloud” in the morning in multiple directions. The view is definitely one of the very best, as good as Jelawang (or better). We get some casual wedding photo taken here :) We we have peninsular's highest toilet here as well.

The journey down is really very painful, because the ground is hard most of the time with lots of roots, and I am wearing Kampung Addidas. Perhaps boots are more suitable for Gunung Tahan, as the path is quite wide. After 9 hours of excruciating pain and “bubbles” popping up beneath my feet, we finally arrive at Kem Kor and had a good dip in the water. The worst part is over, and everything else is just a piece of cake.

Most of the time, we travel with Siong Har because it’s comfortable, thus we seldom have chance to mingle with a new gang. Our last trip with Jian Hwa and Ali Baba to Gunung Kuning is quite refreshing as well, as we are more involved in the cooking for the 1st time (we always depends on Siong Har and Ah Fong most of the time). For the Tahan trip, we did meet many people with interesting personality and story.

Soo Min is a very funny and special girl, who somehow hooked on Marathon and now trying hiking and camping. She is someone who like things clean (imagine she use wet tissue to clean her feet before having lunch), yet able to bear the messiness of hiking. She can’t sleep together with stranger, thus she take sleeping pills and put on ear plug; she is willing to explore and adapting. Teacher Tham come to Tahan to fulfill his dream of hiking Tahan 20 years ago, and he met his colleagues in the mountain. He “retires” early to become an editor for student comic and magazine, made quite a big change. He did this trip with his son, which I think is a very precious adventure between a father and son (we don’t get any father and son team so far). He is a funny person in a funny way, and he categorizes himself as a “violent” teacher; perhaps the job of teaching really put people on a lot of stress. Chim is as caring and friendly as ever, and Cynthia is a person hard to imagine being involved in hiking. Perhaps like what Teacher Tham said, I am also “too gentle” for hiking. There are more interesting things about this group of friends, just that I don’t know how to describe further. Min Yi is supposed to join us, but she had to take some Chinese exam to qualify for something in China. She is also another interesting character, having travelled Europe in backpack and perhaps planning to move to China for a while.

The experience is really fun and good; perhaps it had been a while since my last hiking and camping trip. I always find peace and fun, and good company; not to mention a whole lot of dirt to clean up when I get home (and thanks mom and dad for the help).

Perhaps I might come back to Tahan again for the Merapoh-Tahan-K.Tahan 7D6N trip. I was told the K.Tahan trail is more spectacular. Who knows :) Life is full of surprises ...

Photos: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Who am I, again

2010-07-28T00:54:00.003+08:00

A man plays many roles, as a son, a husband, an entrepreneur, and a citizen of earth and my country. The question on my mind is what I had become and what I want to become.

When I was young, most of it is about study and school life. Then came the moment to decide what discipline to study at college. Somehow I was influenced by In-Tech and Computimes, and is choosing between Engineering (Lego influence) and Computer Science; and I choose computer science because it requires less money to startup my own company (rather than the millions requires to setup my own factory). Why I wanted to start my own company? Perhaps it’s because I wanted to be like Bill Gates, or perhaps it’s the words of my brother that we need to be an entrepreneur in order to succeed (he didn’t became an entrepreneur as of this moment). That’s how I tie my fate with software.

College years are an eye opener for me, as I finally feels that the thing I learned are useful as in applicable in real life (I have no idea what the science and mathematics subjects are for during my secondary school years). It’s fun, and it’s quite easy. I am actually quite motivated to work on projects, and exam are a piece of cake (as compared to STPM, maybe the scope is smaller or other students are less competitive).

Though programming is fun and all that (at one point, I do find programming troublesome and wanted to become a system administrator because it’s easier), but I am still a techie but not entrepreneur-ing yet. I work on R&D projects (I learned that I am not good enough for scientific research, just pure programming skill) and C++ patterns which is really fun, inspired by people like Mun Wai and Andrew Keith. I am good, perhaps not really talented, but I found my own space and my own world, and I am happy and comfortable with it.

My entrepreneur-ing started when Kwang Yee asked me to join him to develop some insurance software for Pocket PC. Somehow I really like the idea and jump ship without giving much thought into it, as I am just too excited. Soon reality kicks in as I am thrown into deep sea and expected to do sales (I thought I just need to handle programming), and I realized we didn’t ironed out a lot of partnership detail and I am in for a lot of shock due to different expectations. Perhaps both of us are immature in a certain sense, as he is street smart while I am just a techie good with programming; I can’t be him.

Anyway, this failed entrepreneurial spark the opportunity for me to do freelance programming for a while, and I landed another job developing business application (out of my R&D forte). I learned the business part of software development and project management, while still continue with part-time freelancing. A few years down the road as the company is not doing well with little challenges left for me, I came out with the idea churning property statistic out of classified advertising. It took me almost a year to develop the website to cover new property launches (not my original idea, but this will serve as the platform to attract visitor who are interested in property) while I continue freelancing to cover the bills.

Somehow my Endeavour is not very fruitful, and Mun Wai asked me to partner up with a few guys to start a software company. At first it’s quite promising (with a few problems), but we still have to part our ways due to different expectations and commitments after a year. We did have revenue of about RM 100K, an office, MSC-status and a staff, superb! I did learn a few things about software startup here, which changed my mind of wanting to do a startup. I decided I wanted something mobile and lightweight, as a conventional software house is too heavy with the physical office maintenance with staffing issues, running cost and the continuous need to seek business, and also issues between partners.

My last software startup serve as a wakeup call and made me realize what I wanted to do, that I am running out of time as well. My freelance business pickup up, and my web application on food and property is doing really well. I found that I can create a business which does not require high capital, does not require permanent on-site staff with high maintenance, does not require an office with running cost, does not need to seek for more clients and offers me great mobility with recurring income. It’s almost a perfect paradise, and I had the correct skill set and experience to make it workable, and I am comfortable with the profit level. It just requires some hard work and innovation for a few years to build the platform; and it could set me free to retire by yachting into the Caribbean seas. Perhaps not so perfect, but it’s the best plan for me so far.

For the past few years, I received a few invitations for partnership from other entrepreneurs, to work together on some new idea, or to contribute to their business, or to create a software startup (to move beyond freelancing). Somehow I no longer feel excited, due to a few reasons.

Developing software for the sake of money is boring. Software Development need to be fun in order to last (perhaps I am too pampered with choices)
Partnership is like marriage, and it’s not easy to find someone compatible. At this stage, I would prefer a “best friend” or “girlfriend” in business, not a “wife”. Partnership is a sticky business; it’s not something I am willing to jump straight into it. I prefer natural progression, step by step; we need to work together for a while before we talk about marriage.
I had extra baggage with me, which are my freelance business and web applications. I am not willing to stop them or bring them into the new venture; because it’s extremely tricky when we have to split.

Perhaps I had been a lone ranger for too long, or perhaps I had mastered the way to survived as a lone ranger; or perhaps I had found my ideal business. I no longer dreams of making millions per annum in a software company with 100 strong staff, where I need to exchange money with lots of hard work and loss of freedom. Perhaps I really know what I wanted to do, for now. Can I withstand the temptation of money? Or am I too lazy to work too hard? Or I am afraid of commitment into a business partnership without courtship? Perhaps it’s a bit of everything :)

Why do I like Hiking?

2010-07-21T12:54:00.003+08:00

As a casual hiker, I came along this question quite often. Why do we endure all the dirt and pain, and what joy could be possibly get from hiking?

Some would say it’s because of the good food, or the food could actually taste better because we are tired and hungry, and with the company of our comrades. Some say it’s the beauty of the nature, the wonderful ocean of cloud and the charming mystical forest. Perhaps it’s because of the swim in the icy cold water and drinking from the sweet river stream. It’s possible that the feeling of conquering the mountain and standing on top of the world for just one day.

After putting some thought into it, I do it partly because it helps me to escape from the city life. When I am in the mountain, I cut of all communication so that I am no longer disturbed by any phone call. I am very focus with only one objective, which is to reach my destination. I don’t have to multitask, and there is nothing else to distract me except the beauty of nature. I walk, I rest, I drink, I eat and I sleep. All is very calm and simple, and I can put all the worries and extra baggage of city life behind me, don’t have to worry about work or people asking me to do this and that. It’s just so serene and simple, like the Zen of life. It might be tough, tiring or even painful, but it’s nothing as compared to the silence torture of the city life. I finally found a peace sanctuary within these few days.

Too bad that it’s just a temporary escape, that my phone start ringing again the moment I step back into the city, with work and responsibility start flowing back again.

I was wondering is there a way to escape the unpleasant disturbance of life, which are more long lived? With my choice of life and career, I found that I am moving into a direction which I could permanently move into my peace sanctuary. Why didn’t I go back to employment since it’s comfortable and simple? Because I know there is no escape, as I would need to suffer a slow pain. I am trying to achieve Nirvana or Zen of Life in a shallow level, where I no longer need to do something deemed unnecessary. Again, I longed for FREEDOM.

Does motivation by money works?

2010-06-04T13:04:00.001+08:00

Basically, monetary reward based on performance work best for simple and straight forward task, such as for factory worker or call center personnel.

When a task gets more complicated (which requires some conceptual and creative thinking), the magic on monetary reward based on performance only works half the way. After the worker gets enough money to satisfy their needs, giving them more money isn’t going to improve their performance much. If you are paid $300,000 per year, are you going to work twice as hard (or inspired to improve efficiency better) to earn another $150,000 worth of bonus? Since your basic and security needs are satisfied, you probably will be looking into esteem and self-actualization needs (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), and money can’t buy these needs.

3 factors lead to better performance & personal satisfaction:

Autonomy – The desire to be self directed (I know what’s best to do to make my own destiny). Rather than always telling the employees what to do, why not allow some levy for them to decide how to make the company or product better (example of Google’s 20% time)
Mastery – The urge to get better at stuff (it’s fun and satisfying, and feel good for self esteem). Example? People using their free time working on open-source projects, and give it for free.
Purpose – if the profit motive gets unmoored from the purpose motive, bad things happens. We all want to believe that we are working towards a greater good, and we are purpose maximiser (we care about purpose)

A few years back, all I wanted to do is to make enough money so that I have less to worry. Once I made enough money to satisfy my basic needs, I wanted to work of something more fun, challenging or something more meaningful (even though it means making less money). If one day I could afford to make money not an issue, that would be the day of pure real living (living exactly the way we wanted, working on what we really wanted). Money is just the means, never meant to be the end.

China and the Chinese Market is gaining 25% web presence rapidly

2010-05-31T00:57:00.005+08:00

Of the Top 100 websites released by DoubleClick (Google) AdPlanner 1000, there are 25 websites with Chinese-language content, followed by Japanese, Russian and Korean. Though English is still the dominant language on the Internet, the Chinese Language or the China Market is a force not to be ignored. If we didn’t use it or don’t know about it, it doesn’t mean it is not there. They have their own Chinese version of Google, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Messenger, PayPal and etc, and all had made it to the top 100 websites.

8 - baidu.com (Web Portals)

9 - qq.com (Email & Messaging)

11 - sina.com.cn (Web Portals)

15 - 163.com (Web Portals)

16 - taobao.com (Shopping)

17 - soso.com (Entertainment)

19 - www.youku.com (Video Clips & Movie Downloads)

21 - sohu.com (Web Portals)

28 - tudou.com (Photo & Video Sharing)

33 - tianya.cn (Online Communities)

36 - hao123.com (Online Directories)

38 - xunlei.com (TV Programs)

46 - sogou.com (Web Portals)

47 - 56.com (Multimedia Content)

52 - ku6.com (Multimedia Content)

55 - ifeng.com (News & Current Events)

62 - alibaba.com (Management & Corporate Operations)

68 - gougou.com (Web Services)

70 - renren.com (Social Networks)

82 - alipay.com (Banking & Personal Finance)

88 - xinhuanet.com (News & Current Events)

90 - pconline.com.cn (Mobile Phones)

92 - 4399.com (Online Games)

97 - zol.com.cn (Hardware)

98 - mop.com (Roleplaying Games)

The Edge just published an article about Hong Leong Asia's (listed in Singapore) business in China producing refrigerator, diesel engine, plastic bottle and etc. Though the profit margin for each refrigerator is about RMB100 (RM 48), but it could sell between 30-35 million units per year, equivalent to RMB 3,000,000,000 (RM 1.44 Billion).

We all know China is growing fast (already the 3rd largest economy) and have the potential to be world biggest economy by GDP in times to come. Though we might have heard a lot, but we have not quite felt the impact (for those outside of china or not in touch with the Chinese language).

But we all know, the Chinese or China market is something that we couldn't and shouldn’t ignore. For Software Marker and Web Company out there either big or small, maybe it’s about time we look beyond English language.

Never be to busy for life

2010-05-18T01:38:00.003+08:00

Most of the time, we are so busy until we are not quite sure what are we doing, or why are we doing it. For example, we might have a very busy and demanding job until we have no time to think why work there in the first place. Is the job fun or satisfying, or we are in just for the desperate need of money? Is it inline with our life objective, or do we know what we wanted to do?

Let’s say there is a hard labor who earns RM 600 by doing odd jobs at the construction site. Does he think of ways to improve his life, or he is just too busy working and coping with a difficult life. Will he consider taking night classes to move on to a white collar job, or would he think about starting a small business such as Nasi Lemak stall. Let’s say he succeeded in making his life better and now able to earn RM 1500 per month, will he be satisfied or try to be better? Maybe he could try to get a part-time diploma or degree in hope on landing on a better job, or expand his Nasi Lemak stall into a restaurant. If he manage to double or triple is income, will he try harder again to improve his quality of life again?

In real life, most of the hard labors will probably remain a hard labor for the rest of their life, as they don’t know what else they can do or they have no time or money to venture further. We can come up with a thousand reasons not to do something, but we just need one reason to do something. So there will always be hard labors who manage to improve their life, and fewer who succeed into greater heights which impress most of us.

Sometimes we tell other that we have 10 years experience in doing something. Do we think about did we gain 10 years of experience learning new things, or did we repeat the first year 10 times? Most of the time, we learn something new when there are changes, such as when we switch team, project, department or job. If we are afraid of change, then it’s less likely that we would learn something new.

Why is this important? Rather trapping ourselves in the infinite loop of being busy forever, I think we need to take a step bank to rethink about the things we are doing. Is this capable of bringing me to where I want to be in the future, or I need to change?

In my work in educating children, I found it to be cruel to tell a child that they can’t read, write, count, sing, play music instrument, draw or use a computer. Even though I know some of them really sucks or hopeless in doing certain things, we as educator should not deny their rights or kill their dream in doing something. We can only try and encourage them, and let things take place; we don’t have to add a stab to the already cruel and realistic world. A child always say he wanted to be Datuk, Prime Minister or Town Council (too many political news for the children). I just tell him what he need to do in order to become one.

As such, I don’t think we like people telling us that we can’t do something, such as being we can’t be a singer or a millionaire. Though many dreams are fallen every time, but we do need to hang on a certain dream (or hope) to move forward. The property prices in Malaysia is growing like no body business, and few years down the road middle class white collar worker could only afford some cheap apartment (no luxury condominium or terrace link house). Anything which looks nice today easily cost RM 500,000 to a few millions, which are beyond my reach at the moment. If I wanted to own one of these babies, I would need to rethink about my work and my life. If I wanted to change my life, I need to change. If I tell myself that I could not own this forever, it would just be too depressing to bear.

Take a step back, and rethink what you had thought of before. It's like a new year resolution which we had forgotten about.

Kathy Sierra: To Create Awesome Users

2010-05-14T01:53:00.003+08:00

Basically is about a paradigm shift from creating a awesome product to actually help your user to become awesome. It's a bit lengthy, but it's good:

Rather than trying to be awesome in terms of your product, service or company, the real secret is helping your user to be awesome
Help your user to be better at their passion
We gave colourful and user friendly sales brochure when we try them sell them something; yet we gave them not so useful black and white manual when we actually sold them something
Rather than trying to sell them a camera lense, teach them how to capture cool waterfall motion effects which require a special lens.
If I teach them that, people who buy from Nikon would buy from Canon too. People tend to have a stronger emotional attachment to those actually trying to help them to be better
Don't make a better [X], make a better [user of X]
Blog, Tweet, Teach your users to be better
What the brain care about? Nice things, Cute things, Funny things. Talk to the brain, not the mind.
Focus on what the user does, not what you do
Write document which focus on 80/20 rules. Show them the 10 cool things which the user can do.
Make the right thing easy to do, wrong think hard to do
Element of Fun Learning: Thrill, Discovery, Challenge, Self-expression, Social, Novelty, Sensory
Shift away from "I Suck" to "Okay, it's nice" to "I'm really good at this"
Add the "WTF?" button to measure how frustrated your user are
Upgrade: make sure you upgrade does not make your user feel dumb again
Upgrade: make sure it can still do the one thing it's suppose to do easily

Ice Kacang Puppy Love (初恋红豆冰)

2010-05-03T19:06:00.002+08:00

I thought this would be a simple and happy love story, but it turns out to be fairly complicated; which is true in a certain sense, as sometimes love is not as simple or comical as shown on movie.

I still like Ice Kacang because its “depth” do interest me. Ice Kacang is about the “love” engagement between Botak (Ah Niu) and Fighting Fish. It had a few interesting characters around such as the comical bully Ma Ling Fan (by Gary Chow), the weirdo girl Bali Peng who like Botak, the White Knight singer who keep delaying his singing career (by Victor Wong), Botak brother who couldn’t make up his mind to open a new coffee shop in the city and Botak sister who dares to go for the one she love (unlike her brother). It is complex as the love interest of all these people somehow cross path (physically at a cross road). Then again, there is a lot of story and characters which we could relate to.

Ah Niu is a very shy boy, who fails to tell his love interest his real feelings, until the very end. Somehow, he retreated again when he had his last chance when Fighting Fish is going away for study; he was knock down twice when he tries to give chase, and still didn’t do it when he finally caught up with her. He loves her in his subtle and introverts ways, drawing her portraits, listening to her and protecting her whenever he can. Then again, it’s so difficult for his feelings to leave his mouth. Sometimes we guys just need to boost up the courage for 1 second to make the eternal change in our life. The feelings might be true, but it does not translate into a lifetime relationship without words.

Botak’s brother is good at making coffee, but he did not dare to venture out because he felt less confident about the defect on his leg (also influenced by his father). One day Fighting Fish told him, “Making coffee is about using your hand, not your leg.” A lot of time our dream is stopped by something totally irrelevant, we just have to see through it. The White Knight is a singer who keep on delaying his dream, as he sees no urgency in it until he witness the death of an uncle who waited to win lottery in order bring his wife to here from China (he win lottery in the end, but died immediately).

There is something about human relationship which bothers me. We can be very close with someone where they are the sky and earth to us at that point of time; yet we “forgotten” about them years down the road. Though we didn’t really forgotten about them, but we didn’t keep in touch with them anymore and we could not be as close as we used to be (gone are the good old days). Something or someone will fill the gap, and we have to move on and serving them only in our memories. Perhaps this is how things meant to be, but I still feel sadden by this.

Echoes of The Rainbow (歲月神偷)

2010-04-25T02:14:00.003+08:00

We live in a “comfortable” time, where there isn’t much war and turbulence around us (except natural and financial disaster). And if we are lucky, we will be educated with a comfortable job, and parents who could take care of themselves physically and financially. Thus, we would have no dependent (unless we have children or a spouse who is not working).

The good thing is we don’t through much hardship or difficulty in our life based on our surrounding, unless we come from really poor or problematic family, or we have a streak of bad luck and misfortunes (such as sickness, unnatural death, etc). Thus, we are not tested in our ability to face despair in our life.

I was watching Echoes of The Rainbow (歲月神偷) and felt that it’s a really “touchy” story. First we have a poor family trying their best to save the roof of their house, including pulling the roof together with their bare hands. Then they are heart broken when knowing their elder suffered from leukemia, which is very deadly at that point of time. They did all they can to keep their son alive, trying their best to go through the hard times (to believe or not to give up), but it just didn’t work out pleasant in the end. They face quite a lot of financial challenges (corruption, bad business, medical for their son, poverty), but that is nothing as compared to the lost of their child.

What’s the reason for us to work hard everyday? So that we can live a better life, or to protect and care for the people we love (our parents, spouse and children)? I was told happiness comes when we help others to achieve their happiness. No matter how selfish we think humanity might be, I think we do want to protect the people around us, even though it might incur great lost to ourselves. We live and work hard for the happiness of the people we love. We wanted a better future for our children, we wanted to make sure our parents enjoy a comfortable retirement and we wanted our spouse to be satisfied and happy.

Since we live in more “comfortable” time, we should be able to achieve more and do better than the previous generation. We should be able to give back more to our parents, and provide a better life to our children. If I only need to fend for myself, I don’t really have to work very hard and I can have a very enjoyable lifestyle. Perhaps I do feel the responsibility to protect and provide a better life for the people around me, to shield us from hardship and despair as much as I could. Then again, we could only do what we could, and the rest is up to fate.

A bigger dream

2010-04-05T13:14:00.003+08:00

A few weeks back I visited Seri Pilmoor, a semi-d / bungalow property in Ara Damansara (strategic location surrounded by PJ, Shah Alam and Subang Jaya) out of curiosity.

It’s a pretty nice house, and what I like most is its open-air rooftop garden. I could imagine myself working or relaxing at the rooftop, enjoying my Jacuzzi or reading on the sofa. It’s a nice idea and nice place.

Basically the bungalow cost about RM 4 million, something which my entire family combined also could not afford. The semi-d cost RM 2 million and all the 20 plus unit had already been snapped up at the blink of an eye.

So, I have to conclude that there are really quite a lot of rich people in Malaysia which could afford million ringgit houses (including all those houses in Mont Kiara, Damansara Heights and Bangsar). Secondly, I could not afford these houses at the moment and I didn’t even plan to make so much money 10 years down the road. To own one of these babies, I should be making at least RM 200,000 per year minimum. I always planned my life in a simple way, living in a simple house (costing between RM 100K – 400K) and driving a simple car (RM 50K). If I aim for something bigger and higher, I would need to make bigger sacrifices today (which I could live without such luxury, and still feeling comfortable financially and freedom wise).

The problem is sometimes I have dreams which are quite expensive, such as a garden rooftop bungalow. Secondly, knowing so many people in Malaysia are making so much more than me. Thirdly, knowing something I couldn’t possibly afford now and possible in the future doesn’t really feel good.

In order to get what I wanted (which is to earn possibly 300K per year), I need to be the CEO of a sizable company, setup my own company with its stream of clients and workers or hit jackpot.

If I continue with freelance (or 1 person business), this is something I would likely not be able to achieve. At the same time, I am not quite willing to expand into something bigger, though I have a feeling I might have to do it eventually.

Perhaps there is not such thing as being small and satisfied when the bigger opportunity arises.

I always get something from trying

2010-03-28T23:40:00.005+08:00

I went to TEDx Kuala Lumpur last weekend with the intention of learning something, and also trying to pickup some networking skill (I thought I needed some improvement due to the nature of my work).

After a few networking attempts, I do manage to get 3 business cards which doesn’t quite relate to my line of work. It’s proven again I suck at networking or socializing with stranger; I thought I had improved, but not quite. I spent hours of free time eating, drinking, looking around and wondering what to do next. It’s just uncomfortable and proven not quite my thing, again.

I observe people who are just like my, standing or walking alone with no friends around (it’s not a pleasant sight, and I happens to fall into this category). There will be people who always stick with their friends; and the voice of networking-pro and socialites fill the room as usual; as always, with one or two geeky person who really blend well with others.

Though I fail at my networking, but I don’t think I felt TEDx empty handed. Besides the quite alright speakers and topics, I do realize something: no matter how good I think I am, I am not visible within the local scene (not as good yet). MMW Food could be the top restaurant website in Malaysia, but still many didn’t realize its existence (a handful could have stumble upon it, but its presence or brand name is not felt). Meaning I haven’t made a strong impact as one of the more prominent Malaysia websites.

I tried to compiled is list of prominent websites about Malaysia, and MalaysiaMostWanted.com probably ranked at the 24th place, and the top ten spot have at least 500,000 visitors per month. If I wanted to make an impact, I would need to be at least 5 times better than current state before people would recognize MalaysiaMostWanted.com.

I am a believer most of the things are worth trying, as we always get something in return though we would probably fail trying (I mean my networking attempt). Thus, I need to keep exploring new things, be brave, never give up (in fact, all of us should try more often than escape) and try to pick up a few things in between. Life just need a bit more perseverance.

Why you should support Obama

2010-03-28T11:26:00.002+08:00

Obama is someone almost like our MCA ex-president Ong Tee Keat, who try to fight for justice, truth and what’s really good for the people and country (or at least it seems so); the difference is Obama could be more charismatic in getting more political support (and try not getting pushed down while doing good) to make sure all the goodness spoken of is done. It’s not an easy thing to convince the mostly selfish congressman to do something really good for the country; as it also means less money in their wallet. Obama need powerful persuasion and charisma to pull that off; giving these guys even more money will just make it worst. It the time of despair, we need to awaken the conscious (which we believe it doesn’t exist within politicians) of people while there is still time, else we shall all perish.

I am talking about US Health Reform, something that is more critical and difficult to accomplish than our PKFZ scandal. Based on Micheal Moore’s Sicko documentary, US health care is in dire state. There is not such thing as free or low cost government hospital in US (because government hospital or so-called socialized medicine is an evil communism plan). When poor people with no insurance who gotten sick is admitted into the hospital, they shall be sent out from the backdoor; insurance company try not to approve medical claims as more rejection means more profit; US citizen is fleeing to Canada and pretend to be Canadian to get free medical care; US slip to position 37 in world healthcare ranking, one step above Slovenia; the mortality rate is very high with people dying around age of 70.

Why change is so difficult? The entire Healthcare Insurance industry had gotten too rich over the years, and they are buying over the support of congressman. If a congressman vote for the US Health Reform, he would loose his handsome pay. Hilary Clinton once tries to fight for US Health Reform, but she was silenced and bought over (turning to the dark side).

Obama would probably loose a lot of financial and political support for pushing through the US Health Reform (a vote of 219-216). Rich people don’t like the reform as they will have to subsidised the healthcare for the poor. We should look at things at a higher level, or on a humanity basis. If US citizen enjoys better health, it would make happier people which could eventually means bigger consumer market (and workforce) and better economic growth. Besides, the government are polling collective resources to help the your needy countrymen.

Sometimes, no matter how hard it may seem, we just need to do the right things to ensure a better tomorrow (and to stop things from getting worst). In Malaysia, we too need a selfless and charismatic leader to push for a reform.

TEDx Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia Needs You

2010-03-28T01:20:00.007+08:00

I attended TEDx Kuala Lumpur today (it's yesterday now), and the theme is about What Malaysia Needs?

Peter Nicoll tells us there are quite a number of homeless people on the street (just like what we see on TV about US homeless); Yvonne Fong talks briefly about Neurofibromatosis (she might not talk much due to her condition, but I still have to admire her dedication to make a better life for herself); Surech Kuppusamy about her journey in conquering various death zone (above 8000m) mountaineering experience; Afzal Abdul Rahim (ex-CEO of AIMS, current CEO of TimeDotCom) talks about cheap and fast Internet is not possible in Malaysia (without subsidy) because we miss the opportunity to liberalized and be the regional hub, and we surf too much (90%) foreign content (time for local developers to do something).

Aloha Lavina give us some perspective (pure awareness, concentration, timing) about photography; Urmilah Dass talks about stress (long term stress is bad); Raj Ridvan Singh talk about the need for scientific foundation education (teach us values, love, friendship, etc) as times had changed (what come naturally last time doesn’t work now).

I particularly like the topic by Steve McCoy, where he talks about the need to change our economic model from exploitation of (natural resources, human resources, etc) to restoration (there are many smarter and better ways to solve this problem). In seems to be difficult for the world to change; but we do need to dream of change (Martin Luther King said I have a dream; not I have a problem or solution). What catches my attention most is the following quote, “You should be pessimistic if you understand the data (about global warming, economic crisis, humanity crisis, etc); but it’s human nature to be optimistic”. Time is running short; but we do need to have hope to solve our problem.

Talking about hope, Pete Teo (musician who started 15Malaysia) steals the limelight in the most true to the heart manner. Pete Teo is very sincere, charismatic, talk slowly, slightly quiet and introvert, perhaps inspiring but definitely brave. He touches slightly on Malaysia’s problems such as corruption, abuse of power, education, censorship (his joke on foreigner assumes Malaysia doesn’t fuck based on our film and gay people always repent at the end; and rais yatim is "funny"). Suddenly all hope is lost as he mentioned about Teo Beng Hock death (like it or not, this news does strike fear and lost of hope among citizen of Malaysia – what are the chances of a future father and a man who is going to get married the next day to commit suicide?). At that point in time, it seems like all hope is lost. 1% of Malaysian population had migrated in the last 18 months alone; this is a serious sign of despair. As Malaysian, we can choose to flee or try to make a change. Pete Teo urge everyone to do the least each Malaysian can do for Malaysia. For those who have not register as a voter, please do so immediately; for those who have, please tell your friend and family to do so. We could all cast our vote for a reform, doing our part for a better Malaysia.

I do feel the despair for Malaysia, with too many negative energy, too many problems with too little hope in sight. For example, I think the people believe in Ong Tee Keat and his determination to fight corruption. If he didn’t win the MCA election (which he probably won’t based on fraction support), all hope is lost for MCA as it no longer represent the people’s will (our elected representative put their own short term gain above the people). If we did not achieve true MACC and Judiciary independence; the Government still put their own interest above the people. When the people are fearful of the government, there is something definitely wrong. Government should fear the people. It doest not take a genius or perfectionist to run a government; you just have to make less mistake and have less corruption than the fool next door. PR is not perfect, but it seems to be the lesser of 2 evil (with some leaders of good character still alive; I hope they live longer for the well being and future of Malaysia). And it seems like Badminton is a sports which could unite all walks of life in Malaysia. It's in time of turbulence, which make you feel more patriotic and to care for your country.

Hopefully I won’t be forced to leave the country one day; long live Malaysia :)

What's wrong with DELL?

2010-03-27T19:48:00.004+08:00

It seems like I’m in the roll of complaining about corporation ways of doing business lately, starting with AirAsia, Maxis and now DELL Malaysia.

Personally, I like DELL because if offers good value for money and it allows some level of customization to their hardware.

Lately, Mei Ru bought a CPU (the box, not just the chip) and a monitor (a separate item on promotion) in a single transaction. Somehow, the goods come in 2 separate deliveries at 2 separate days. I’m sure this will increase their cost, and not to mentioned the unnecessary extra carbon footprint. This is not an obscure case, but definitely the norm. I try to order 2 different model of computers in a single transaction a few months ago, and they come at different delivery at different day as well. Not only it’s neither cost-effective nor carbon-efficient, they are causing inconvenience and wasting my time to allocate resources to wait for the box to arrive and collect it.

This is just plan weird, or too much bureaucracy going on that no one bother about saving cost anymore (besides doing retrenchment). First of all, the goods did arrive within 5 days after order being placed (efficient, with no issue of long waiting time), and each delivery is separated only by 1 day. There is no reason why they can’t wait for another day and deliver it together. It could be a stocking or delivery arrangement's limitation, but there is definitely something not right about this.

Another minor issue is Dell’s customization options are really limited nowadays. Most of the time, you can’t customize the CPU and graphics card, and with limited option available for RAM and HD space.

DELL had lost their number 1 spot to HP and Acer, another great company with sound business model going down to waste due to bureaucracy.

The Maxis Corporate Promotion Problem

2010-03-27T19:09:00.003+08:00

Not that long ago, I tried to apply for the Maxis Family Plan to include my father as the sub line. But I was told at one of the service center that I can’t do that because I am marked as a corporate account (though I first registered for the line as personal many many years ago). I suspect it got something to do with the corporate promotion I take up in my previous company many years ago, but I had since switch to another package (nothing to do with corporate). Again, I was told to go to KLCC as that is the only place I can apply to being “unmarked” as corporate.

After many months, I finally got a chance to drop by Maxis center in KLCC. I was told I cannot “unmarked” from corporate unless I got a letter from my ex-company. WTF! The phone line is mine, and I no longer work there and neither do I use the previous corporate plan anymore. Why do I have to ask my ex-company on something regarding MY PERSONAL phone line!!! It turns out my ex-company sort of own or “take over” my phone line when I signup for the corporate plan (which I am told nothing of this nature at that point of time). Though my name is still there, but my I/C number is wiped out and the backdoor owner is my ex-company.

After showing my dissatisfaction and raising my voice slightly, the guy said he could help me solve this problem with some kind of re-registration again. Good. At the end, I was told to pay RM 50 for advance payment (I’m fine with this unreasonable inconvenience), and another RM 50 for registration. WTF! I have to pay another RM 50 to claim back my line (which I probably had paid when I first registered my line). I was thinking perhaps it would be better and cheaper just moving to another Telco like Digi or something. Then again, I am too lazy to shop around and just want to get things done.

This got me thinking. If I owe Maxis money for my phone line, will they chase after me or my ex-company? If they are going to chase me for money, why do I need to get my ex-company’s approval to unmarked as corporate? For god’s sake, it’s MY phone line. Again, this is another corporation and procedure bullshit, which defy logical thinking and reasonability. Why so many large corporations have to screw up in big and small ways, or did they intentionally do so just to squeeze more money out of us.

AirAsia 5 Evil Plan to get you to pay more

2010-03-25T01:01:00.006+08:00

While I was booking for local flight from Kuala Lumpur (LCCT) to Johor Bahru, I found that AirAsia website had put up multiple checkpoints to get you to pay MORE by DEFAULT. The website is designed in such a way that it's very easy for you to pay between RM5 - RM100 extra for services which you might not need. This time, I do feel they had indeed turned "evil" and no so customer and service centric anymore (no longer quite the people's airline).

Evil Plan 1: Check-in Baggage (RM30 - RM60)
While you are keying in for data for GUEST, they automatically selected 20KG baggage for you which cost RM 30 at each check-in (meaning to say you have to pay RM 60 extra for 2 ways). Please make sure you select regular baggage (RM 20 for 15kg) or no checked bag. There is option for you to pre-order your meal or an comfort kit, luckily it’s not selected by default.

Evil Plan 2: Seat Selection (RM5 - RM25)
They try to get you pay more by selecting a seat (RM 5 for Standard Seat, RM 25 for Hot Seat). Beware at this point, although you selected “Continue without picking a seat”, there you still prompt you a popup message box. If you click “OK”, it will redirect you to the seat selection page without a proper go back link (press the browser’s back button to go back). So, remember to click “Cancel” when the popup appear.

There is a SkyBus service from RM 13 as well, which is not selected by default. So don’t click it unless you plan to take the bus from Sentral.

Evil Plan 3: Insurrance (RM 15)
The insurance is selected by default (RM 15 per person), so you need to read the fine print in order to see the Cancel button on your right, at the fair panel to remove it. Check under the Services and Fee section if there are any unwanted services (you might need to go back to previous pages to remove some of them).

Evil Plan 4: Convinient Fee (RM 20)
Lastly, there is an “Convenient Fee” of RM 20 if you pay by Credit Card or Debit Card. There is no escape for this, and you won’t know until the payment had already been made.

Evil Plan 5: Early Check-in and Boarding (Purchase 2nd ticket at Premium Price)
Usually we are advised to reach the airport 2 hours before flight, but many of us might take this advice lightly. AirAsia is pretty strict now by not allowing you to check-in if you try to check-in less than 1 hour before flight time. Even though you had checked-in, they won’t allow you to board if try to board in less than 30 minutes before flight time. Maybe it’s their way to improve efficiency, or try to get you to pay more to buy more expensive second tickets at last minute.

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Personally, I think AirAsia make many unscrupulous attempts into making you pay more for extra services (which you might not need). If you are not careful, you might be tricked into paying between RM5 – RM 100 more.

Too bad other airlines had not been able to catch up with AirAsia pricing, so we would need to find ways to maneuvers around their attempt of putting their hand in our pocket.

Engage in Location-based Application War

2010-03-24T01:08:00.003+08:00

Not that long ago, I thought of the idea of Location-based Message Board (LaMB), where people could tag their message / tweet / status at a specific location. LaMB could retrieve location-based information from Wikipedia, Flickr, Google Local Search, Wikimapia, Yelp, TripAdvisor and etc. The idea is cool and useful (and the technology and hardware is available to support such application), and I was so excited about it.

After a few hours of research and googling, I found a handful of competitors doing location-based application: Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Rummble and Flook. It’s common to find a few startups with million dollars funding venturing into the latest buzz; but there is a bigger hidden threat: Google. Google Map itself is slowly (but definitely) expanding its location-based information layers such as Wikipedia, Photo (from Panorama), Webcams, Real Estate, Hotel Prices, Navigation, Bicycle Route, etc. I am sure it’s just a matter of time before there integrate with all the information sources I mentioned above; and eventually with their own location-based messaging plus integration with Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla. In fact, they are probably already doing it with Google Wave.

Under such heavy “threats” from heavy-weight players, where does small application developer stand? How can we carve out a niche in this new yet crowded battlefield?

Integration is the Key to Survival
Google is definitely the main threat here, as I have to be careful in choosing the right technology and approach to avoid being crushed (or become irrelevant) by standing in the way of this Internet Behemoth. In terms of Technology, I think there is a need to embrace Google Maps (duh!), Google Friend Connect and probably Google Wave (Information Collaboration, crucial for crowd-sourcing information and could potentially influence the platform used on Wikipedia and Wikimapia in the future). As part of Information Broadcast and Messaging, there is a need to integrate with Google Buzz, Facebook and Twitter. There are so many technology and platform to integrate with, and we haven’t even starting to build our actual application.

How to make our application useful, unique and avoid being crushed by others easily? We probably need some niche and less than conventional fun factor built in.

Go Local
For starter, we could target local (Malaysia) information. Though the potential market could be smaller, but we might have the best compilation of local information. We might need to compile useful local information such as Travel, Food, Event and Property which might not be widely available yet. We might need to generate this information, thus controlling the source and be the local information provider as well. Global players might be slow to conquer Malaysia (thus giving us some head start), and might not be attentive to be local needs and culture.

Fun Factor
Not only the application needs to be useful, it needs to be fun as well. Some players already integrated some simple games into application such as earning badges, dropping virtual items and promotion to become mayor. Messaging could be addictive is well, but it’s too common and available on multiple platform.

There is an interesting game about Monopoly on Google Map, which is quite interesting and with some good potential (too bad the game got shutdown after a while). Perhaps there is a potential for civilization, risk or tower defense kind of game on Google Map; or an RPG roaming the hidden map on Earth!

Jack of All Trades Symptom
Sometimes we might try to do too much on a single platform. We try to do messaging, information aggregation and game at the same time; and we might end up being average in everything.

I think we should focus with some useful in the beginning, and think of ways to make it fun and engaging eventually.

Our Approach
Do we want to be a mobile application (like Foursquare and Gowalla), or do we prefer to be a location-based information center (like Google Map itself)? Do we wanted to be like a social network (like Facebook), or do we take the path of public information aggregator (like Google search)? At this moment, most location-based player took the path of mobile application (you need to be physically be at the location, authenticated by your mobile device) and thus physical games is possible; and there is a tendency to be more social network-like. For every path chosen, there are bound to be gains and sacrifices (duh!).

I would prefer the path of public information accessible from anywhere and anyhow (either mobile application or notebook at home). The more I try to protect my turf by restricting the user or control the out flowing of information, the less likely I would get public acceptance and prevail in the long run. This is not the age of selfish game, as information could be attained from multiple sources and platform; thus we need to be as widely and easily available as possible.

Conclusion
At the end, we wanted to be the platform to a whole load of location-based information and messages, while making the tool as usable as possible.

The Challenge of Business Ideas

2010-03-19T01:59:00.005+08:00

I supposed coming up with random “good” ideas is considered easy, but it’s no enough. In order to turn our idea to support our livelihood, we have a few things to consider.

The number 1 challenge is most ideas already been thought of by someone, and probably already executed. Let’s say I want to build an accounting system or a coffee machine, and there are easily thousands of solutions out there. So how do I persuade others to buy my solution?

Niche
I could specialize or target the niche, such as accounting system for hotel, or coffee machine for geek. We could go local as well, providing something in our own language and culture. There are probably fewer competitors there (but still a handful of them), and the pie gotten smaller as well. So I have to evaluate if the pie is big enough for me, and how could I beat these competitors.

Innovation
We might try to put in a few tweak to make our solution better in terms of performance or user friendliness, but it might not be enough to win customers over with these minor enhancements. We need “revolutionized” certain conventional ways of doing things, creating something fresh and inspiring. For example, Opera introduces Tab Browsing, Add-On (Plug-in) made Firefox popular, and Chrome with its clutter-free Interface and Lightning speed. We need to be more than just another solutions, though the competitor will catch up with these innovations pretty fast.

Cutting-edge Technology
We could introduce some cutting-edge technology into our solutions, such as what Google and Bing is doing with the current search engine war. But not many of us could effort to spend so much money in R&D to gain a competitive edge.

Price
We could always set a lower price, or even give our free version (and charge for premium version). Though price does play a role, but marketing is more important in order to let customers know your solution exist in the first place.

Marketing
Most of the times, I think the features of the solutions itself is nothing if compared to the marketing effort. I think a lot of accountants would agree UBS accounting software is not the best in the market, but it’s the most widely used and most well known in Malaysia. Even though I could create a better accounting system, I don’t think I could beat UBS without a huge marketing budget. Organic growth is only possible when the competition is non-existent or too weak.

People Connection

Besides marketing, connection is equally important in the sense who do you know (who could help you sell more). Basically I would not create a product if I didn't know someone who could at least help me sell a dozen copy (the quantity depends on the price). We need either a very solid salesperson, or someone who know people around the industry. May the best win may not hold true most of the time, triumphed by the one with more connections.

Late Comer Strategy
Since most of our idea is not really new, thus there are probably many similar solutions already capture most of the market share. We can try to hit it with more marketing effort, but certain solutions are “sticky” and made it hard for their customer to migrate to other platform. How can we steal their market share? How about a feature which could migrate the entire UBS accounting to my accounting system easily?

Conclusion
What ever space we plan to compete in, there shall always be competitors: sometimes they are huge (Google, Microsoft, etc), and sometimes there are ten thousands of them. Very seldom we shall gain the first mover advantage, and being a first mover we could be limited by resources and market idea (and acceptance).

How can we really compete in this harsh environment out there, where we are limited by manpower and money? In such situation, we have to go back to the idea itself. We must be able to solve a problem which haven’t been solved, or solve it better than others. It’s true that bigger company have more brains and financial muscle to do things in a bigger scale; we just have to come up with some nifty which everyone likes (my head is banging hard now).

Now I am banging my head on how my idea could survive the onslaught from my biggest ally and foe: Google Buzz & Google Map.

The Aging Malaysian Entrepreneur Wannabe

2010-03-15T13:59:00.003+08:00

I should be 30 this year, an age where I should be married with 2 or 3 children running around. I should be a hardworking management level employee of a tech company; leaving my programmer traits behind as it is after all a low level tech job for young people. I didn’t comply to the should be, due to many reasons which is due to passion, believe, coincidence and luck.

Basically I like programming because this skill allows me to turn many ideas into execution, which is very exciting and harbor many opportunities. Currently, I use my skills to work on freelance and turnkey projects in order to make a living, but it kind of getting boring, tedious and not so "stimulating". Basically, creating applications to solve daily business problem isn’t very exciting; but it’s a more “stable” means to generate income. Many years ago I thought of implementing the business model of a typical software product company, where I create a useful business application which I have domain knowledge in, and resell the product many times. The main reason I didn’t do it because I don’t have a strong sales channel to sell more than 10 copies of the same software. And nowadays, maintaining a piece of product for a bunch of clientele seems “no so interesting” 10 years down the road, though I could make a good living if I could make it.

What would I prefer to do? Once in a while, I would come up with some ideas and try to get it to kick start through self funding. I tried self-funded and do-it-alone style, which I get more satisfaction than freelancing on turnkey projects. I manage to get some small success with a small steady income streams, and the implementation is getting more interesting by the day (I get to try out new ideas and enhancements). The thing being a lone ranger is that I must be very careful in picking the domain I am working on, as I must ensure that I have the capacity to implement it, and a property strategy to beat my competitors. So I restricted the ideas which I can work on. And working alone means there isn't anyone to challenge me, and perform a check and balance with me. I could be right, it could be better or I could be a total sucker, and I just wouldn't know.

The problem arises when I wanted to work on a bigger idea, which requires more people and money. I had tried to secure funding before by applying through Cradle and MOSTI, but no luck (perhaps I am no good at this). Another challenge is about setting up a good team, which is even more difficult for my case. For example, Cradle would like to see a more diversified team rather than a bunch of techies, and I have a big headache securing people from different background such as sales, marketing, business development, management, etc.

The other main obstacle is age. It’s not that I am too old to do it (financial burdens had yet to land on me yet), but there are less people around me who are interested. There are very little people who have interest in entrepreneurship, and they even less who are willing to take some risk to work on the idea (basically, there isn't perceived risk in employment). Nowadays, most people don’t even have time (or not willing to spend time) even on part time basis to work on it. I know of 2 pretty talented people but both of them have their own issues and attitude crisis: one think that he is always right, and the other just want to have fun with his work and disregards others and other things. And a few just gone into "retirement" from the business of entrepreneuring.

I have both people and money crisis. All these could be due to the fact that I am not really a social person, as I am shy with networking and lazy to entertain customer beyond basic requirement. As such, my social circle is smaller and I didn’t find opportunities to mingle with people with the same passion as I am: a Technopreneur wannabe. I should really get out more often rather than trying to churn out miracle in front of the computer. I need to find the right people to build my team and get the proper funding and support.

Finally, do I have what it takes to make it? I believe I do, and I am working on the right ideas, just that I haven’t really proven myself to the world. No matter what, I have to safeguard this sacred confidence no matter what others think (it sounds weird, but I need that to keep moving). But I have one problem, that I am not used to playing it BIG. I work alone most of the time, and I am too lazy to manage a whole company (the most I am willing to do is to manage a team). Thus, I need someone to run the company for me, while I work on the product and idea. I just hate accounting and visiting government offices to get the paper work done, or pay bills, salary and etc. I need to find someone who likes to do what I dislike to do, and he should do it better than I could.

Yes, I am aging and time is against me. And with this sudden spark of idea coming up this year, I will be taking a plunge and investing more time and money to make it work. At the same time, I should meet some people to get a feel of the real world out there; to make sure I am not hallucinating.

Why are we always so busy?

2010-03-13T00:22:00.005+08:00

I still remember the weekends where I am always free and stay at home, and wondering why others are so busy and what are they up to. Perhaps I don’t have much social life, but my schedules are much easier to manage and predict then.

There are some friends in our life who are forever busy with something else, thus we shall not be able to get hold of them for any kind of activity. In the end, we might just give up on them and never bother again.

Due to this “busy-ness”, it makes group activity organizing very tedious and painful. A lot wouldn’t bother to join, and a handful would not make it at the last minute. Perhaps a lot of the married ones (with children) need to spent a lot of time with the family, and running family chores. At the end, we all shall have less time for friendship, and friendship is only within memory with no maintenance (it is happening, and it will happen). There is always something else better to do, but I am not quite sure what it is. Maybe sometimes we are just lazy and prefer not to do anything.

The same “busy-ness” is starting to be applied to me slowly. My schedule is getting less predictable, and there seems to be something on every weekend. But I always wonder what I did during the weekends. I seem to spend a lot less time on camping or even movies, and I vaguely remembering attending some social events like makan-makan and running some errands. Wedding preparations seems to take up some time, or did I just loiter lazily at home?

The problem is, I seem to be busy but I am not quite sure for what reasons. Why I can’t felt “free” anymore or the real “busy-ness” is actually the many things in our mind. There seems like a lot to be done, and yet we haven’t finished it yet. House to be furbished, Wedding to be prepared, Projects to be completed, Dreams to be accomplished, and many more.

I am busy because there are many things on my mind. I am busy because my life involved more people than it used to be. I am busy because I want to escape the “busy-ness".

This is just pure madness.

Why are we always so busy? We finish 1 thing and start 2 others. Life never seems to slow down so remember to push snooze now and then.