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!

The Day Before School Officially Starts

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain 

As I type this post, I am filled with apprehension about tomorrow. I guess its always the case before school starts, and it really does not matter how old you are. Somehow, I just don't seem to grow out of this weakness.

This holidays have given me ample time to recharge and take stock of my priorities. I have become closer to my family by virtue of a family trip back to visit my grandmother in Malaysia. The renewing of familial bonds with my cousins and extended family helped me to realize the importance of kinship. Not that I have not realized it before, just that, I have re-realized it. The hustle and bustle of daily life really saps the energy out of a person, and being the workaholic that I am, it inevitably sucks time away from being with family and friends. And hence, no matter how busy this semester gets (and I foresee it to be my busiest semester), I have resolved to take time out for my family every week.

The holidays saw me grappling with several choices, and I am glad I am finally making gradual advances in certain goals that I have set for myself.

Having read the readings/videos assigned for CS3216, I am glad to be living my life by the motto as stated at the beginning of this post. And I ask myself, how do you catch a tiger, if you're afraid to go into its lair? Jack Ma of Alibaba did that, and he caught Yahoo! (ya hu). And hence, I take another risk, and plunge head on into what could be a most difficult semester. Apart from getting acquainted with programming languages and design, what I really hope to achieve (as in my previous post), is to meet passionate and driven people. People who can complement me in terms of skill sets, in terms of perspectives, opinions, dreams and ideals. People who can challenge me, and close that comfort zone so that I do not again go back in there.

And hence, although I had ideas coming into this module, I will choose to listen, for I believe I will be very much inspired by fellow visionaries in this class.

Personally, I do not believe in reading too much into success stories (disclaimer: i try to be really humble at all times). I think it is inspiring, but I am tired of all that. I am tired of talking to successful people just to "learn" how they did it. I don't see the point. So what if Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were really successful at the things they did? So what if they were lucky, and so what if they found their real passion from a young age? Man, if I were successful one day too, I could say all that to a crowd wanting to have that once-in-a-lifetime interview with me too. Still, I fully agree that both men were visionaries, had very strong value systems, and persevered in the things that they did. And I fully respect that.

My point is, today's world is different. Although Warren Buffett's investing tenets would last more than a lifetime and would still be relevant many years down the road, the circumstances are different. The key to success today lies in being able to adapt to these changes, and being able to be flexible and not simply trying to follow/copy other people (this is a frustration I face many times in working with people). The same applies to Bill Gates.

Instead of watching all those Ted videos and getting inspired, let us build our own success story. We may not ultimately build the next Microsoft or Apple, bt we may just end up building the next Dell. Likewise, we may not become "one of the greatest value investors" of our time, but at least we would enjoy investing and picking out good companies and businesses. And maybe, just maybe, make a lot of money in the process?

And now, I am back to fretting over "Show and Tell" tomorrow.

Cya guys!