10,000 Hours & What It Takes to Make an Idea Work.

And so today, I walked into CS3216 with still that bit of apprehension. I think in the next 3 months of my life, I will be living on the edge, and possibly building a global business brand soon enough.

As I mentioned today during "Show & Tell", I was different from most people in the class. I don't have a programming background, nor am I very good at design. All I can say is, I did computing for first 3 months in junior college, and I know basic Photoshop. However, this is not where my talent lies, and I am not born to write code. Yet, I still hope to be at the forefront of technology, the forefront of ideas, and I hope to be where the action is.

You see, this world is so beautiful because we have so many different people. People who are skilled at different things, and because of this, we have survived two milleniums. Because of this, we have built great organizations, governments and companies. Because of diversity, globalisation today is possible.

So, what I am trying to say here is that I am good at setting up business, and I believe I can complement programmers and designers.

Virtual Business Challenge (VBC) in 2004

Diversity was the crux when three friends set out to sell a game called VBC in Hwa Chong. VBC was basically a game whereby students signed up at a website to run virtual petrol kiosks, and compete with other teams to run the next virtual ExxonMobil, and in the process learn vital business skills.

And who were in the VBC team? Three people.

1. A Programmer - my friend was very good at programming in PHP and MYSQL, and he programmed the VBC game.

2. A Designer- he was good with user interfaces, photoshop and dreamweaver.

3. Me. Marketer, Salesperson, Accountant, Administrator etc. - brought the team together, came up with the concept of VBC, and how to make the game more appealing to students in Singapore, how to make it more relevant? brought in the perspective of a user, the perspective of someone who would play and use VBC. Subsequently, marketed it to 6 other schools in Singapore.

Our Success

In 2004, VBC spread to 6 schools in Singapore from merely Hwa Chong, and had 500 participants. It was a success, and it proved that a team of diverse people could work together to achieve stunning results.

So I had a great team to work with in JC, and we did many other things as well. For instance, we took part in Start-Up@Singapore at that time, and got to the semi-finals, where we met tons of people - entrepreneurs, VCs, judges, mentors, investors who gave us guidance and critiqued our business plan, which was really important because it broadened our network.

And seriously, I think we got this far because we had complementary skills, we could understand and communicate with each other, had common visions and single-minded ambition. You see, when you have got people who are really good at what they are doing in a team, synergy creates the maximum impact. In short, you free up time for people to focus on what they like and what they do best. It's a lot easier, because when people do what they like and what they do best, they are happier as well.

10,000 Hours 

And so it's been 5 years since my time in JC. During this time, I served my country, worked a variety of jobs, got started with investing and looking at great companies, participated in an overseas community involvement project in Vietnam, and last but not least, I'm back at Start-Up@Singapore as Sponsorship Director. In this period of time, I substantially broadened my network of contacts, honed my business skills in business law, online marketing and retail entrepreneurship, accounting for businesses, finance and how to raise equity and funds for start ups.

And to end off, I'm in CS3216 because I will like to recreate a winning team. And I believe I'm at the right place at the right time.

Please comment! and please let me know what you guys think!