The Pandemic

 Maybe 5 years later when we look back at year 2020/21, we'd probably still remember some of the happenings. But 10 years later, or 20 years later, we'd only be able to recall so little about it. That's the whole idea of why I started blogging but I gotta admit that it's difficult to make it consistent.

Well, while the memory of 2020 is still vivid, let me just write it down.

Let's break 2020 into 4 parts.

Part 1 : Jan-mid March
We were on the rise, recording good numbers, and were planning for new outletsssss opening. Things were looking so good we really thought 2020 is the year we fly.

Part 2 : Mid March to Early May
Then we all know, 18th March 2020, the beginning of the darkest period of Malaysians in recent year. And for retail business, it suckssssssss. Can you imagine while you are flying high and fast, out of sudden you got pulled down from the sky ? and your dreams and goals got crushed and put on hold for an unknowingly long period.
Days were dark, and it got darker when it's your first time handling things. Just when you thought things cannot be any worse, communication with team gone haywire just gave you another mega punch.
On one side we made monetary loss, on the other side, talents left, team morale dropped, and I went into darkness.

Part 3 : May to December
MCO was lifted and business rebounded. This was an interesting period. Opportunities just came knocking door, sales were good with minimal manpower. We were covering the business with 60% capacity while trying to create different revenue streams. Suddenly, the sun shine so bright that it made you forget about the past cloudy days.

Part 4 : Stepping into 2021
"Things are now back to normal, the new normal, with less uncertainties," we thought. We pivoted from our original plan and prepared to restart. December number was good and January 2021 is supposed to be on par or probably better considering CNY shopping spree kicks in.
Mana tauuuuuuuuuuu MCO 2.0

Kthxbye, let's go back to part 1 aforementioned. 

Just want to share the roller coaster we in the retail business (I believe most of the businesses too) are riding. It's just both mentally and physically tiring. It is difficult to hold everyone together, to show hope when even I could not see, to stay calm, and to decide whether to move on or not.

Sometimes it's because we have been suppressed by lows for too long, a little bit of good things got us over celebrating. Heh. But it is what it is.

Final words : The world outside can be too noisy. All you need to do is answer to nobody but yourself.

Rediscover myself

Wow! I finally gotten the account back. The last post was 2 years ago, I was supposed to pen down every stage of the journey but I lost the account for quite some time. Now that I have gotten it back, I shall continue blogging.

It’s also a good moment to record. Fast forward 2 years, we are much bigger now. Sometimes when I look back at the target we set, we have achieved so much more. But then, without those target, we would not be where we are today.

For this chapter, I wanna talk about rediscovery of myself. I have been building the company since day one, banging wall, and failing here and there. Definitely won’t skip credit for that. Still, as a person who is hungry for growth by nature, I reached another obstacles, bottleneck, threshold, whatever you call it.

And this time round, after tirelessly looking for solution, I look into myself. Yes, fundamentally there is a problem that I need to solve. It is SELF AWARENESS.

Self awareness is knowing who you are and accepting the fact. Self awareness is knowing your strength, and acknowledging your weakness. Self awareness is admitting everything about you truthfully. Self awareness is be as naked as possible to yourself.

After knowing who I really am, my weakness, my strength, I need to work around these. I came to realise that I am good at planning and bad at xxxxxxx (not disclosing here). So I need to get help on that.

When we were younger, we were taught that thing is either wrong or right. But I think this is the biggest mistake in our belief system. There is no absolute right or wrong. Perspective matters. And there is no single absolute best solution or method.

Accepting who you are allows you to build things the way you want.
See, end goal can be the same, but methods can vary. Different individual does thing differently, yet producing equally good result.

After all these turbulence of understanding myself, how my mind works, things suddenly become so much clearer. And I feel so relieved. Of course, there are so many things to do to finally reach this understanding. I believe it’s a journey everyone needs to go through by himself. Or may be it’s just me, who is so complicated. Then again, I accept me being such a complex person :)

对自己有要求才对得起自己

还记得小学时最讨厌的事就是笔顺练习。每上完一堂课就要写一大堆的作业。从一撇一纳，到十多划的《鼎》，麻木乏味的笔顺练习让我们学会了认字，写字，从而能够造句，写文章表达。还真的要感谢严格的纪律，才学会这些。
慢慢的长大了，没有老师的监督，不需要被教育系统里管教，自由了，也任性了。自我提拔的心态，也停止了。
即便了解自律的重要性，我们也只不过听听看看就好，反正不自律也不会被惩罚。却不知道最终惩罚自己因不自律而不长进的，是后悔也迟了，堆满了遗憾的自己。

刚开完会，看见团员想进步却又不努力，心里是很失望。失望为什么人可以对自己没有要求，为什么有更好的未来没有去奋斗，为什么就得过且过。一年后，两年后，还没有改变。这次尝试设一个挑战计划，每个人有一个挑战，希望三十天后大家会变得更好。可是即便这样做，参与性也不高，大家放佛就在找一个可以逃避的方式。

要变得更好，就必须向自己挑战，做没有做过的事。事情没有很简单舒服，但结果会是更好的自己。就这样简单直接，有很难吗？一向来的领导概念是偏向于启发性的，希望可以让身边的人自己找到自己想要的，激励他们，变得更好。但好像都没有很足够，大家就比较喜欢有人自己以身作则，好像是要自己做到了，他们才愿意尝试。既然是这样，如果管用，就这样做吧！

When engineering blends into business

4 years in engineering school moulds me into one who likes the bird's eye view. I like to understand the entire system before going to the ground to further do the work. I also like to build the branches that help to develop the future. And I am heavily influenced to the word "sustainability", be it in terms of growth, operation or sales. To me, this word means a lot; it kinda feels like an automated system that is self-nurture and gives compounding growth, as if it breaks the 1st law of thermodynamic, where energy can now be created because of constant work that results in better result which in return motivates the work to be done on an even larger and efficient way. And bigger result. We sometimes call it the viscous cycle.

That is the belief I always have. So this is how Pott Glasses develops and will be developing. What is it now for Pott Glasses? We are now focusing on developing new sales channel which can drive recurring if not consistent sales. We are also focusing on duplicating what are in place, at the same time optimising them. To be able to do things like this, it requires a lot of learning, studying, getting reference and a lot of cross-discipline application. Unorthodox way of doing thing is really fun without getting limited by any norm or constrained by the dogma. But of course, there comes a constant fight with doubts and nothing to bench mark against. It all boils down to the risk taking mentality.

We are really not doing anything that we are used to or we had done before, at least not the speed of growth and hiring. And all these lie on one and only one thing, the vision of self sustainable business. So when I zoom into the details, thankfully the entire thing does not obey 1st and 2nd law of thermodynamics or come to think about it, it really obeys, but the attributes are now different.

With human resource in place, we can create energy and transform all these energy to our work. When the work gives us result, it motivates us and makes us further committed to creating the bigger impact. The key here is to be able to envision what the future should look like, and align the team members' personal goal to the company goal. Work has to have more essence than just financially sounds. We need to make sure the part where we add value to the customer is where it makes us feels rewarding at the same time. Think of it as a mutual gain that gives a long term healthy relationship.

I always believe that empowering human is the way to go in growing and running the company. We need a goal that resonates with everyone's one in order to have the utmost commitment and energy. Moving forward, we are going to face more obstacles and words from naysayers. But I guess that is what makes the journey exciting.

Trying to recall all the things

My intention and urge to write a new post died almost as soon as it appeared, every single time. Mainly because I want the blog to have good content, to have rich emotion and to have essence. But i think I've been missing for some time, and it kinda defeat the very first intention of starting this blog. Just like how each chapter is being name, entrepreneurship #n, I wanted to write down just about everything i met along the journey, no matter how big or small it is.

So let's see what i can recall since my last post in Feb.

Things turned a bit sour after we got back from Chinese New Year. The sales wasn't performing but we were still pretty chillax. We assumed that it's due to post CNY. And I proceeded with my plan to go Bali with Chuckie and KJ. Sales dipped even further the and we started to get panic. On top of that, there're so many things to plate to be done. The expansion plan, our B2B sales, our KPI etc. Out of sudden, I felt so lost. 

I began to wonder what's our forte, what's our USP, what are we good at. All these questions did not help to reduce the pressure, they did the opposite. In the accelerator program we joined, CGP, we faced the same question too. 8 months in the program, we're supposed to be very clear about our direction and it's about time to take off, but we were not!

Actually we were told about what we are good at and what we should be focusing, but we just refused to face it. We are simply a retail company, but because it doesn't sound sexy enough, I personally don't quite like it. However, there's something we are good in. We are good in lean management, we are pretty innovative, we have good brand, we know that reducing friction in buying process is the key, and more importantly we've been profiting since the beginning.

We had to convince ourselves to accept this truth and work from here. So we did. The moment we accept the fact, everything becomes so clear. It's about proper execution to get things done efficiently. 

Sometimes I really think that it's super hard to create "sexy" business that make money. But when I change the perspective that the sexiness is about running a validated business efficiently, epiphany moment appeared. 

22nd of July marked the birth of the 3rd outlet. Same old thing, quarrels among the team and miscom, but we were aware that it's part of the process. Let it happened and let it past. 

How do I feel now? Mixed feeling. I am trying to build and build and build. The team, the company, the customer base, hope to harvest the result in one year time. In terms of pay check, good enough to live by. Gotta delay the gratification and believe that the direction that we're heading towards is the right one. 

Till then, see ya!

The miserable start up life that eventually worked out

It’s a quarter to 9 now. I just got back from the beach waiting for a beer session. Today has been fun kayaking for hours exploring some snorkeling spots ourselves and free-dive to search for turtles. More than these activities, I am writing to celebrate the goal that I set 3 years ago right before I ventured into the business. Though it came a year later than my plan, I think I still made it and it’s important to celebrate this. No, I am not bragging about what I have attained, I have no intention to do that at all. I am, however, especially happy and excited to share that 3 years ago, I set a goal to attain a free and easy lifestyle, to be able to take leave as I like, to be able to work on computer from anywhere and to have a team to take care of the operation. I wanted a paycheck to have my necessary expenses covered (housing, car and daily expenses) with a little overflow to travel and explore the world. I want to celebrate this very moment that I’ve made it, and I hope this blog is able to encourage you to celebrate your success too.

See how detailed and how average my goal was. Compared to the lavish lifestyle and really filthy rich (which is one of my ultimate goals), the goal I set 3 years ago is simple but uncommon to many.  To aim for an free and easy lifestyle at this age seems to be non-mainstream goal. I admit as I started running the business, I became greedy, I wanted more (I still want), but I think we owe ourselves some credits, so important that these credits tell us we should take a pause and pad on our shoulder and tell us we are good. We made it.

We grow up being taught that keep pushing the boundaries is a good attitude to have towards life. We are taught that we should keep raising the bar because that’s we should strive for better living standard. While all these are good practices to have, I realised that many of us are trying too hard that it hurts. We never get contended. We are programmed to be reaching new height after another that it eventually breaks us up internally. How irony things work.

My plan was to get what I wanted in two years time, but hey, 2 years for a business is really short. It’s just about the time you start to know the game, people start to know you, things start to work out, you become mature. Then a year later, here I am, proudly acknowledging what I have gotten.

In this 3 years of running Pott Glasses, I am lucky to have met a lot of great business people. People of the same age like Eddie, Joddess, Mandy, Jodie, Roger, EJ, Bryan, Johnson and so many more who are doing much better than me in the business. Then my mastermind group, Julius, Sereen, LeeChin, Ryan, Larry, who have more experience in business than me and guided me. Not to mention the excitement to meet the legendary Beer Factory founder Kent Chua and Sakura Crystal and ever growing Makan Culture founder Alex who have achieved great height in business at the young age. How can I forget Fax and Wee Kiat!

These people open my eyes to the world of business. They show me there’s no limit to possibilities and they inspire me to set higher goal and to put me out of my comfort zone. I am so prepared to expand the business this year. I am so excited to bring Pott Glasses to another height with my business partner Hong. But before anything, I would like to share what I have experienced so far.

One of the articles that got me kicked start my business journey is “How quitting my corporate job for my startup dream f*cked up my life”. I would read it every now and then. It feels very relatable every time I read about it, if not more. Long story short, he wrote about his struggles and eventually made it after 2 years (that is also why I set 2 years). And if you read about it, the author also mentioned that he’s at the beach when he blogged that. I actually envisioned myself to be in similar setup and yes, I made it, so literally.

In these 3 years, if there’s one struggle that I always face and hardly get resolved, that would be the mental struggle. Mental struggle haunts me on how incompetent I am compared to my peers, compared to my competitors and this breeds the intention of giving up. Peers in MNC are making good money, setting up family and entering another stage of life. Me on the other side paying rental, not giving anything to family, reinvesting the money to the business and bank account went back to square one. Then the number of competitors grew tremendously in 2016, seeing glasses shop opened after one another, and the big players started their price war game. Then another one came out with another marketing trick. All these just were so good at breaking my mental strength. Insecurity kicked in bringing her friend, insomnia along to accompany me for countless nights and became a regular companion. Halfway through I got steered away the initial goal, wanted to try out more things, and even gotten an offer from VC.  Many dilemmas that I had to fight through, I had to answer to myself; And I couldn't tell if I had missed a boat or the decision was made right.

I sometimes had to turn to alcohol (don’t feel like covering the fact and make running business a glamorous thing so I prefer to tell the truth). This negative spiral could’ve grown out of control but thankfully I started to learn to take control of the mind. Thankfully good news and sales came in in time. Thankfully exercise does release endorphins to steer me back to think positively. Thankfully all the kind words from friends (Sijing especially you) help to regain the faith. So here I am now to share and hope to encourage you to give yourself more credits on all the work that you’ve done. It may not be perfect yet, but hey look how far you have come along, hey you have achieved one of your goals. Oh yes, one more thing. Every one has their own set of success. Some want work life balance, some want tonnes of money, and maybe some are like me still exploring. Let’s focus more on ourselves rather than letting others to define. Meanwhile I have already gotten what’s next on my list. Definitely going all in for expansion and building my team.  Let’s enjoy the moment now.

做到了！

终于我们也突破了新的的业绩。我们终于做到了。写着一遍部落格不是要炫，只是想把这成绩和心情用文字把它记录下。每个月的挣扎，每一次的低潮，每一个烦恼，也不就是为了这发光的时刻。在月尾结账的时候，心里是多么的紧张。就这一次，就这一次让我们突破。业绩固然重要，但更重要的是那努力后的来结果的那信念，那份感动，那让我们更相信坚持的，更相信自己能做到的那把火。

有了一次的突破，接下来就会有千千万万次的突破。出了这让我控制不了心情的业绩，另一个让我值得去想的是，其实生活还有很多领域是我们忽略了的。心灵，健康，家人，友情，爱情，个人目标等等。有时是不是该停下脚步，把时间放在这一些已被遗忘的事情呢？

2018年会是一个充满很多突破及圆梦的一年。我很期待😊

The seemingly uncommon common thing called Insommina

if it's wasn't Michelle posted some apps about recording the sleeping hours or whatsoever, I wouldnt have known that she suffered from insomnia as well. To me, insomnia sticks on more more than the shorts does, and I just couldn't get rid of it.
There are many reasons I think insomnia loves me. Stress, expectations, celebration and disappointment. Running a business is tough, on a higher view, life can be tough. If it's not tough, I'll find the challenge. This leads to hype, expectation and rejection is inevitable. All sort of emotions are tied to insomnia and I sort of get used to it.
Don't get me wrong, I hate it. And I think that it's a serious issue. This post is meant to hightlighy the on the ground issue i face as I take on my life. I am actively searching for solution. Self healing, self coping, whatever it is, I need a healthy solution. Not cans of beer every night. I do this very often because I cannot risk a night for insomnia.
Till then, see ya!

First sense of disappointment

Today is the first time I got a sense that mum is not very proud of me running an optical retail business despite holding a civil engineering degree. It broke my heart. Of course I wouldnt know if I have broken her heart and disappointed her when I decided to walk this path. All along I thought she is proud and happy, because she's very supportive in every aspect.
But in the conversation with my secondary school teacher then only I found out that she'd mention my degree before my current work. And the tone of conversation carries a certain disappointment . Couldn't blame her for that, after all she has spent years grooming me to who I am.
I came across a lot of articles from start up founders saying how hard it was to get encouragement and support from family but I have never experienced that. Today I get a bit of sense of it. It will not change what I do but I prefer to pen down the feeling because it reminds me everything has a deadline. Time to put in double hard work and get some result.

Not so happy,
Hau

the will power derived from desire

Want and desire can be mysterious. The difference between both ly within the will power each posseses. To simply things, I'd group them under the same category, the feeling of getting thing that is out of current reach. This thing can be obtained either immediately or through hardship. And it's different from things one needs. Because of this, uncontrolled want can be devastating. What is meant by controlled then?
To control is to be conscious about it. Will power is only being generated when there's a presence of want. Without this element, we do not move forward. Here's the thing, we need to be conscious about this fact and utilise it.
This is often the case: I have an iPhone 6s but I want an iPhone 7. Being conscious means that I'd work for it. Being uncontrolled can make life miserable. But, even after buying Iphone 7, I'll get uncontented, I want more. Maybe iPhone 8. Then I work harder, I get hungry. Of course if this is healthy I'll be moving forward all the time.
Now. Take a deeper thought on this. The adrenaline derived from the  desire of wanting an iPhone 7 is higher than actually owning one. Get it? The happiness level of planning a trip is much higher than going for a trip. See how our mind work? We do not need these things, to be exact, we do not need to own these things, we just need to dream about it. And that is the beauty of it.
Having snacks for birthday was fun, not until you want more, like having KFC, and then more, like throwing a party, and even more, making one extravaganza. We are constantly pushing ourselves to taste the boarder of our limits. Without being aware about this fact, the desire will drive us crazy. Nothing can content us. However, we can manipulate this feeling.
We always aim high, just to abstract the adrenaline and the will power, and turn that hard work into more fruitful things. Work hard, earn more, and instead of buying a new phone, save for new house down payment. Being practical about life, but not to forget to dream wild. Because all we want is the intangible feeling, not the tangible product.
Oh well, occasional vacation and luxury items can be good, if you can afford

The Journey Thus Far

Just got back to the room with fried chicken and beer as supper. It's my second time travelling by flight attend sharing session with undergraduates and get my accommodation covered (the first one was in Curtin, now in USM). A little pride dancing around inside.

When I first got the invitation from Chun Kit, the project director of Enactus, the first question that came to my mind : how on earth that they found me, and why me? But Tai Hau being Tai Hau, I grab every opportunity that comes to me. I love talking in front of crowd, I love sharing, and I often get inspired attending talk. This is the very reason why I accepted the invitation, to talk about the journey in front of 100+ undergraduates from USM, UMP and UUM. Very honoured and humbled to be invited.

I feel both excited and nervous at the same time because I am sharing the stage with the legendary burger cafe's founder, Wee Kiat. An infamous face in F&B industry, an enlighten start up founder cum blogger and EY Young Entrepreneur nominee. Then I found out more about another speaker, Mr Ko, the executive director of + Solar, the dominant player of solar power industry in Malaysia, with a turnover of multi million dollar.

Okay Hau, wait a minute. What are you going to share? And who are you compared to these guys?
Self doubt and low esteem kicked in, adding even more fuel to my burning nervous. With all the overflowed jobs that pilled up since last week and Air Asia post event follow ups, I had little time to focus and plan for the talk. I decided to do a more down to earth sharing, instead of talking about all the cool stuffs, I wanted to share about the challenges and emotion.

So the talk began. And ended. Followed by Wee Kiat's and Fax's.

I learned a lot from both of them. Not just about the story, but the way to present too. Wee Kiat has a lot of empathy elements in sharing, and he can connect well. I got the chance to ask him more about his journey personally (I've read his blog and really respect this guy a lot)

Then Fax. This guy is good! Speaking of gaining experience and garnering resources before venturing into an industry that requires solid fundamental and technical knowledge, he has executed flawlessly. Spending 4 years working with different companies to starting up his business with 100k and getting multi million turnovers in the 5th year, this is the technical-to-business path one will take.

Then come to this point when I start to think, what would the audience perceive about our sharing. Was mine too shallow? or too irrelevant?

We had tonnes of photo sessions after the sharing. Before leaving, a young lady walked up to me and thanked me. Funny thing was that I asked her : why thank me?
She answered that I cleared her doubts and the questions she has been having all the while. Whether or not to choose to start a business. This sharing I really opened up to share about my own feeling and experience rather than giving all the politically correct answer. And she valued it.
"I was so focused during your sharing and you've given me the answer" this makes every single second spent preparing the talk worthwhile.

I think our sharing resonates with different people. Some find mine relatable, while I find theirs relatable. I admire and respect them for what they've done, they may find the same about me.

Everyone has their own story to tell. Let's not be inferior about our own, You'd never know how powerful yours is. After all, every business is different, there's no way to compare, and there is no need to compare.

It's okay to ask for more.

It's okay to ask for more. There's this saying, if you want 1 million, aim for 10 million. It's okay to aim high, because even if you fall, you'll be somewhere higher than what you initially wanted to.
Couldn't make 10 million, you might have made 5, or 3 , or even 1.5, that's still higher than 1. And you know 1 is good enough. Want to run a sub 5 marathon? Train with sub 4, you might be able to improve faster.
Along the journey of going after that 10, you'll ask for more. How about 20? It's okay to ask for more. You've stretch beyond your initial limit, you've grown, you're stronger, more ambitious, and asking more drives you.
Ever heard of this saying "if you're the smartest in the room, you're in the wrong room. " ?
If you're want 1 mil, aim for 10 mil, mix with 20 mil guys. It's okay to be the dumbest, it's okay to do more work to catch up, it's okay to get rejected, because anywhere you fall, you'll be making more than 1 mil. You will get disappointed, feel like you're negligible compared to the people around you, and that's okay. Hey, you're mixing with those who are way better than you, what's the disappointment?
The real disappointment should be not able to mix with them.
It's okay to ask for more. It's just not okay to be over greedy. Chase for what you want, be happy with what you have.

Our second shop

The opening of new store was nothing short of amazing. My mind is still filled with the hangover but I see huge challenges ahead. Before everything, I'd want to blog about it because this is the transcript of the journey and grand opening of the second store should not be missed out. Many congratulate me, and I thank you guys for coming and all the supports. Your flowers, gifts, buying glasses from me, I have endless gratification towards these.

Opening this new store doesn't come easy. We've got to be very rational and objective in making the decision. Thanks to the smooth sailing of the first store, we are able to snowball the capital to opening the second one. When everything is so smooth, we start to fall into the comfort zone. The zone where we feel kinda satisfied, and kinda work lesser. But like aforementioned, it's part of the plan to open new store, and it's a step that we have to take. As much as opening a new store gives us joy and feeling of success, it gives us as much challenges and headache, if not more. This is the very reason of the inertia for us trying to move away from the original plan. 

Now, I feel like everything starts from zero again. It's time to give out flyer with the not-so-thick but gotta thicken it face. Start to worry about everyday sales. Start to worry about maintaining the quality. The competiton, the sustainability and so many more. It feels exactly like the beginning. And to pick yourself up and fight through the challenges, the hurdle is even higher, with your expectation and ego serve as the foundation of the hurdles. Well, this is really what I feel like saying. May the force be with us and really, we need to create the success ourselves. Looking forward to more shops in the very near future. 

Entrepreneurship #12

Start-up industry is booming nowadays; we see new start-ups making headlines on the tech blog almost every week. And the wave has hit Malaysia for quite sometime. What has been supporting the environment is the increasing number of funding organisations and accelerators. I'm always interested to find out how the start-up events look like, how pitching looks like and how talking to investors feels like. The ASEAN Young Entrepreneurs Carnival was the first start-ups alike event that I've attended. Would like to pen down some takeaways from the events:
1. Abundance of opportunity
I always want to find our more about Magic, Cradle, Axiata etc. From what I gathered online, these organisations have been very supportive to new start-ups, in providing mentoring, funding, connections. I finally got to talk to them during the event. Now I'm being more informed with the available resources. There are indeed a lot of platforms to tap on, and thankfully I get to know about these platforms before it's too late.

2. Meeting new faces
The people I met in the event are very passionate about things they do. Many are very pragmatic on the methods of doing things. I met Tripovo, VASE, BEAM and few others. Meeting new faces means gaining more insights on doing things. More brains means more ideas. For instance, BEAM seems to be a very good social network that gathers human resources in start-ups industry. You can look for UI/UX designers, marketing or join their networking event. VASE on the other hand is a start-up that helps you to get survey if you're keen to find out the opinion from public.

3. Exchange idea
There's a question that has been bothering me for quite some time : do we need funding? Glad that I talked to two people there who gave me more insights. The thing is that many start-ups are getting funding and it makes me wonder if we need funding and how will funding help us to grow. Then these two people share with me about their experiences and things to take note. Really didn't expect to get answer from this event!

4. Get challenged
When you're in event like this, you get a lot of questions about your products, services, business plan etc. I was excited to talk about Pott Glasses. But what I've forgotten is that the idea or services we have might not be suitable in the market. So the feedbacks gained are actually very realistic and constructive. With all the feedbacks, I can rethink about the idea before implementing. And if I can answer their questions, it means that we are on the right track. Take feedback with open mind and start doing something on it!

Definitely looking for more event like this!

Entrepreneurship #11

Last Saturday, I got invited to share my entrepreneurship journey with the strong 300 crowd of MBA students from PBS. I thought it'd be a good idea to pen down the entire process, after all it's my virgin experience to talk in such a huge crowd, and I strongly believe that this is one of the many to come. 

When I first gotten a cold mail invitation from Dr Brian, I thought it's a scam, really! Then he called my shop number. "Hi, is this Tai Hau?"

The conversation brought us to a short meet up. We met at Cosan few days later. I was then briefed about the event, and why I was invited. 

After the meeting, I went on to draft my script. It's super duper hard to come out with some informative and credible speech. I adopted the 7 steps method learnt from Steve, and eventually came out with something presentable. 

I was initially stuck with the concept of Human Governance but after talking with few other mastermind members, it seems like everything I do in Pott Glasses embodies the conscience element. Especially for the One For One campaign, human governance plays a major part. 

And so I practiced and practiced. I really wanted to nail it. If I were one of the crowd, spending my Saturday to listen to talk and sharing, I'd expect nothing less than a perfect sharing. Indirectly I'm giving myself a lot of pressure. I remembered a story from a TED speaker where she practiced the speech for more than 30 times. That's the kind of commitment and responsibility one should have should one be given a chance to speak on stage. 

Final rehearsal was to present in front of 7 mastermind member : Steve, Ryan, Carol, Dr Sam, Artus, Sky and Anne. I gave myself 8 out of 10 and glad to receive good feedback.

That last rehearsal 

On the day itself, I woke up pretty early to have breakfast. I don't know if I'm fortunate to sit in the earlier session of the talk (CEO of Kenaga was speaking in the first session) or unfortunate. It's good to meet and chit chat with other speakers, Alex from WordMatters and Amir from AisKosong app. 

Time flew, but at the same time it's feel kinda slower than snail (you see when you're nervous you lose conscious). Eventually we were invited to up to stage. 

"We have Tai Hau from Pott Glasses...."

Couldn't remember how Dr Brian introduced me, all I was thinking was whether I want to sit or stand, how to look at the crowd, how to ask my 2 questions. 

Then I got the mic. Being the first one to speak gave me some advantages. I got their full attention. And slowly, I relied less on my notes. Of course I missed out some points, but I guessed in earned the stage in return. Things got pretty smooth. It all ended with great ovation. Q&A session was more interesting. Everything was unexpected. 

One of the question : how do you compete with big player? 

If I haven't read the book blue ocean strategy, I think I wouldn't know how to put it in words. Thankfully I've read it, studied and applied the strategies. 

"In blue ocean strategy, we talked about profiling, analyse how other companies do and pull down some points for our company at the same time provide other values ..."

And that was pretty awesome too! 

They served us very nice nasi briani and that concluded my virgin stage sharing experience. 

I give myself 9 out of 10. Being comfortable and knowing what you're talking on stage is very important. You really don't want to rush through everything for the sake of finishing the "prepared" speech. What's more important is to engage the crowd from time to time, putting more emotions and make them stay curious. More room to improve. 

I'm very grateful to have a chance to speak and Dr Brian, if you're reading this, thank you for inviting me, once again. 

Till the next one.

From the left : Dr Brian, Alexandra, Amir



In action!

After all this is the selfie era :)

Entrepreneurship #10

So many things happened.

Interview after interview, and also our virgin lookbook photo shooting. Many things in my bucket list got ticked off. Feel very good to be interviewed and able to work with model and photographer.

However, we also elevate our level every time we achieved our goals. So here I am today, brain filled with so many things to do, so many challenges to feel.

Firstly, I am preparing to present to the big corporations, to see if they buy my idea. I prepared my prezi presentation for 5 hours only to receive bad feedbacks from my friend from corporate world. And there're so many things mentioned that I really did not expect. Gosh, yet another time I need to step up to play at higher level, I need to have a breakthrough. 

One thing true about entrepreneurship is you have to have frequent breakthrough. There is really no such thing as complacent at your comfort zone. And the only person to push you is yourself; if you don't move, there's no one going to push you forward. Embrace the challenges and keep pushing forward. I'm tired, but I will continue.

Then, learnt about sealing deal. In dealing business, you should set the boundaries very clear, and never give way for the sake of sealing the deal. Whatever agreed before signing the deal will serve as the ground rule for the deal to function. And we often overlook whatever we promised. Do not ever agree on a deal with slight disadvantage on ourselves, even just a bit. This take training and firm stand. 

I am tired. I need a rest.

Entrepreneurship #9

Talk to the person you want to talk to, more like the person you model after. When I first started this business a lot of naysayers and people who don't have the same mindset gave me negative feedback. Hold me back a little definitely, and from time to time I felt very down. But today, I am where I am now, because of the urge to succeed, because I've read somewhere that someone reached a pretty high stage within a short period of time, because I believe boldly, because I just thought that it could happen, because I pushed myself pretty hard and kept every low time to myself, because I know I'm the only who can change things to what I want, because I know I have to fight for it, so here I am today, business going well (but I'm not satisfied yet). And today I talked to a friend about bringing it to another stage, immediately he told me that it's gonna talk more than 6 months. I would have felt discouraged if I hear this 6 months ago, after all we are all conformist, we like to get assurance. But these are not the people we should hear from, instead we should listen to people we look up to. They've achieved what we want to do. If we play the game at higher level, we are supposed to believe to ourselves and make things happen. 

The point is that potential is unlimited, don't limit yourself because someone told you that you can't, very likely the person couldn't do it that's why he told you so. Talk to someone who's done it, he will encourage you, guide you and tell you it's possible. Find the right group, then you can fly higher.

A long lost feeling. Just eye contact. Two collisions. It's amazing. It's worth remembering. It's the feeling of love in first sight. It comes and goes. But at least it happened.

Entrepreneurship #8

After 9 exhausting months preparing for Pott Glasses, I finally signed up a course to learn more. Yes, it's that generic, to learn more. I enjoy learning, things that I like and it's also education that brings you to a higher level. Of course, I had another intention, that is to meet more people, of same mind set and experience.
It happened by chance, after I was convinced by Steve. It caused two sleepless night after talking to him because I realised that I was playing the game alone, without any proper support and guidance.
Long story short, I'd love to share what I learned in this 3 days course

1. Sales pitch
Off hand, I couldn't give a proper and convincing sales pitch. This is so so so important, be it meeting new people or selling my glasses. The sales pitch comes with an intention to sell, so it must be convincing. But I really did not know how to craft one. I always see someone who is really good in selling things or himself but just couldn't pick up the skill. This course thought me how to go about this in a very systematic way. Pretty good!

2. The consistent positive energy
Emotional fluctuation is what I often experience. This gets more frequent after I embarked on the Pott Glasses journey. But it's really good to have Steve to remind me to stay high energy, wipe out all the negative voices, even the little one.

3. Meet really good people
This guy saw that I am one of the youngest and asked about my age. He said he made 2M when he was 25. OMG! I was really shocked. But at the same time I increase the level of possibility. Becoming millionaire by 27 is very possible. Love how meeting all these living examples make me to not only dare to dream, but also find ways to make things work.

4. The power of creation
When everyone around is either entrepreneur or aspiring to be entrepreneur, I feel like living in an environment that is full with possibilities. Though the economy is not doing well, I did not hear a single word about this issue throughout the course. Rather, everyone is talking about creating new business, new collaboration, networking, expanding the business etc. This is what I like about entrepreneurship. It is always about self-creation. Looking for money? Create a way to earn it. Looking for networking? Start finding ways.

5. Stop looking down at yourself
I am 25 so I do not have network. I am 25 so I am inexperience. I think this is what hinder me from grabbing a lot of opportunities. So why can others do it but not me? On top of that, make use of this 25, people like our energy, they are willing to pull us up :)

The journey is getting more exciting. Be responsible to myself, make sure I give my very best in things I do and push through all the challenges.

Entrepreneurship #7

Instead of some moody post about the down time I faced along the journey, I decided to post something I think insightful, no, I mean worth giving a thought.
Long gone are the days when your product takes off by itself so long as it's something that solves people's problem. Now what's more important is to convey the message right and create hype from time to time to stay fresh in the market.
I won't use Starbucks this classic example. Let's discuss more in local context.
Pestle and Mortar, Lansi, Cosan Coffee, Project Space, Daniel Wellington, and the latest addition would be Sangkaya.
These are my reference models. I always wonder how do they attract people and why do people "want" to buy their things. Excellent examples on doing right in marketing. They are able to deliver the message clearly and correctly.
To create the 'want', you've gotta try all sort of methods. From creating good landing page to Instagram sponsorship, you basically need to try from A-Z. Never look down at those frugal or non-theocratical-backed methods. After all just because it's not mentioned in any book or article doesn't mean it does not work. Furthermore, always remember whatever works in the US may not work in your country, in fact the percentage of it not working is actually very high. So apart from practicing whatever you get in the book, try to meet more local entrepreneurs, talk more with them, discuss and see if their strategies can be used for your business. Bear in mind your final goal are to gain leads and to expand customer base, not to validate whatever methods you get from Marketing 101(I mean sales or marketing books in general).

Image Credit : http://www.plnl.org/featured/mac/