An Entrepreneur’s Journey

After 8 years that I left the stock market, I reckon it’s time that I return to grow my money nest.

8 years ago, I got burned in the stock market. No one else to blame but myself. I lost money because I didn’t know what I was doing. I was simply putting money into the market hoping that the price will rise. I was no different than those housewives who are throwing money away.

I knew from that day I stepped out of the market, successful investing requires energy.

All along I knew I will step into the market again. But the time is indefinitely. Only till last week, I made a decision - to make my return. I thought it’s time to grow my portfolio, to understand wealth from another perspective.

I start reading on investment books, studying how the world best investors like Warren Buffet and George Soros make their money.

Now I know the type of investment that is suitable for my character. I am preparing myself to invest again. I am not ready yet, but it will be very very soon.

Tithing is what I do every month. It is a way to do something good. With all the blessings I have, it’s not too much to give away some of what I have.

Due to the near death experience, I have been giving away more. Giving treats to those who have supported me through out these years. I thought it’s a way to give gratitude for survival.

While I am giving, more came my way. This morning I received a call from Tina’s assistance, asking me support Tina in training this Saturday in Malacca. Tina has been very supportive in my business. She’s the one who got me to do training for Housing Board of Development (HDB) and Singapore Police Force.

I am blessed that my life is surrounded with an abundance of opportunities. I am so blessed that my life is surrounded with good people to support me. Thank you.

Yesterday I’ve created a new blog, Inspiration Junction. All inspiration and motivation stuff will be posted there.

I hope that blog will be a place where you can find your inspiration in life.

These 50 seconds could change the life of someone else. Enjoy.

A huge distinction on myself from doing the ice cream business. This business is no doubt face with mountain of challenges from the beginning. With everyone’s effort we had conquered them one by one. However, while we are able to conquer the external challenges caused by others, we couldn’t conquer our eternal demon.

As challenges grow bigger and uncontrollable, eg. weather; doubt started to seep in like water seeping through the underneath of the door. Most of us started to lose faith, motivation and confidence.

A meeting is required. And a meeting we had, an intensive one. It is a must to get everyone back on track, get everyone to align. From the meeting I had a huge discovery. I made a decision to be involved in this project, there is an agreement to fulfill this project, and I am willing to keep to this agreement. The problem is - it is not enough to just keep to the agreement, and to do a half a bucket kind of work.

A half bucket kind of work will give a half bucket kind of result, the past 2 weeks reflected that. Our doubt restricted us to perform at our best, bringing our result down by 70%. It was because I am giving too much excuses to myself, I am too lenient to myself.
I am giving too many reasons why we can’t sell at this location or that location, thus, didn’t sell at all.

Excuses like, it seems there isn’t any big crowd, I don’t think it worth the time to sell here. This resulted in wasted trip, time wasted, and didn’t sell at all.

When I give excuses to myself, I have to give excuses to others as well. When asked about the dropping result, I couldn’t answer, because I am only giving 30%. I am too ashamed to give any excuses.

There’s no more excuses now, no more reasons not to sell. I will go in, whack, and move on to the next location. 120% is what I am willing to put in. What if there’s still no result? At least I can hold my head up high to face the world. Now I am accountable to myself, giving my all with no regrets, no turning back. The challenge will grow for sure, but same principle applies to me; I will grow too.

Are you playing at 120% today?

Life has been rather exciting. With training business as my core, ice cream business as a learning process, I am into another great business. I secure the exclusive right to distribute a product in Singapore.

This is a new product created by an ex-teacher who is into business now. Her forte is creating, I’m into sales and marketing. This product can be classified as a stationary and an educational aid.

For those who knows the primary syllabus, you would know that children got to draw models to solve some of the maths problem sums. However, some children took a long time to draw, some didn’t draw it as nice.

What this product does is to shorten that time spend on drawing, so that the time saved can be used on other worthy things.

I am also learning from this business as this is the first time I got involved in a distributing business. This is getting me really excited.

The plan is to distribute this product through tuition centers and schools. For tuition centers wise, it’s to create a win-win deal where the tuition get to earn a supplement income without any effort, because we will do all the marketing. If you know of anyone who owns a tuition center, and don’t mind earning a supplement income, please let me know.

For schools wise, students are going to benefit tremendously with my plan. Selected students get to use the stickers for free, including a free talk throw in for the whole school. If you know of any primary school teachers who are looking for free talks, please let me know.

After going one big round, a 10km run, and realized it’s me. All these craps that’s happening around me is created by me. I would not have gone through those pain if I’ve know this earlier.

It’s me who created all those crappy stuff, even craps from others. Do I have to be responsible for them? You bet.

Being who I am is not important. More importantly, I have to be aware of how others see me, and change myself according to their liking. Then who am I?

Maybe I’m just a selfish bastard, maybe I’m just not loving enough.

Maybe I should just carry all that craps and make it mine, since I am responsible for it. I should just take all the action to change, since it’s me who created them.

It got nothing to do with people around me, it’s me. Their craps is mine to carry. I have to change so that they won’t be having their craps anymore.

In that case, do I have to be responsible for everyone around me? I guess not.

Finally, finally, finally….had a chat with this friend. In fact I’m surprised he msn me, telling me that our friendship is only at a surface even though we knew each other for years. It’s a hint that he hope to bring our friendship further. I am so thrilled when I got this message.

He shared about his life over the years. His fear, uncertainties, insecurity; things that he has never shared with me. All the years I knew him, he hid his feelings, looking strong, just like the old me….what a reflection!

I did the same thing, shared about how I felt recently, what happened in the past weeks; things that I don’t share with him all these years. I felt so good and love to gain another close friend.

My friend, if you are reading this (he’s not a fan of my blog), I want to tell you that I am extremely happy that we had this chat. Our friendship has gone to a new level from this opening up with each other. You have my promise that I will support you in whatever way I can. Thank you for the cautious word about my purpose.

I am so blessed to have great friends around me. Surrounded by love and support. Thank you all my friends.

Few days ago was our 4th Anniversary. Jean and me was wondering where to go for our celebration. Initially, we decided to go for a nice dinner at Swissotel The Stamford. Then Jean suggested to visit Bottle Neck Tree Park instead. Since we had never been there, why not pay that place a visit.

It’s a nice park with a restaurant, fishing pond, prawn pond and a few bottle neck trees. Those bottle neck trees are cute, they really look like your coke bottle that you see in the supermarket.

The restaurant serves mainly chinese food. In such a nice environment, the food is only average, that’s the only regret. One of the dishes we ordered was Hot Plate Deer Meat. This particular dish is one of my favourite, and I tends to have high standard on this dish. I had tasted very good deer meat many years ago, but this one is really no where near there. I was kind of disappointed with the standard of this restaurant.

Well, beside the food, I must give credit to the waitresses for doing their best to make us feel comfortable. They came over to chat with us, refilled our tea and make sure we are well taken care of. If I am to grade their service, I must say it is much better compare to some hotel.

We took a stroll around the park after our dinner, sat by the fishing pond after about 20 minutes of walk. The environment is good, the air is good, makes it even better with nature encompassing us. It has been a while Jean and I sat down to chat. No serious talk, just normal chat like normal couple.

I enjoyed the chat pretty much. It was a great night.

Met up with a friend tonight, he showed me another perspective in life. He’s one friend whom we had knew each other for years but never sat down one on one to chat. Most of the time we are out in a big group. This is the first time we met up to chat.

For the past few years, I don’t like to chat up with friends. I felt it was a waste of my time to do that as I can get so many things done with those few hours of chatting.

I had this realization last month. Being able to chat with friends, having a group of friends to support me is part of life. Life is about experiencing different things, being who I am, being able to strike a balance.

In the past, I was too caught up in chasing after money, building my business; and I had missed out on many other things in life. Building a career is only a small part of life, there are many other things to life.

Currently, I’m still adding value to my clients, building my business, and at the same time, I am also investing time with my friends, slowing down my pace to understand myself more. Doing things that I usually don’t do in the past. I am enjoying every minute of my time now.

Many years back, his life was in a spin, but I am happy now that he is very sure of his direction, enjoying his freedom and being who he is.

I am so blessed that I have many great friends around me. I give thanks that I am aware of life right now. I am much more fortunate than many others who are chasing after things that do not give them true happiness.

Now I live to enjoy my life to the fullest.