This blog site will be closed soon. I have a self hosted blog now at

WWW.BitsOfMyLife.COM

ThankSssss

I will be not posting (so often) for this month or so because:

1. I am practically working 6 days a week and I hate it.

2. Busy setting up my new upcoming sizzling business…AGAIN

3. Moving my blog to a dedicated server and my own domain name. No more free blog for me. So paypal me some money to pay my hosting..

4. I have 6 books to read and I am behind schedule. Thx

Wait till my internship is over, I will be back on track to creating something of values to my own life, not someone’s else.

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Ok stop asking what I have been doing for a month. I am NOT abducted by some creatures with flagella and football size brain.

I need to introduce you my friends. They are my intimate friends.

Yep I have done reading them. In fact now I am applying some of the real meats from those books. Not to mention my new notes and summary on those books where I spent nights and nights and coffees to create.

By the way, the only reason I can update my blog today is because I am obligated to do so. It is in my do list.

My latest new projects for April and May are:

(a) Adobe Photoshop CS3 Advanced Techniques

(b) Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Essentials

(c) Managing Cross Functional Teams

(d) Extension of Guerrilla Marketing – The Flanking Marketing and Offensive Marketing

(e) Search Engine Optimization – White Hat Style

(f) Conquering my own limitation. I have a motivational coach for this.

(g) 9 online courses encompassing selling, leadership, stock evaluation and communication.

(h) Neuro-linguistic Programming in the business context

Why do I bother to list them here since I know basically no one will be interested. If you think wow that’s a lot of things to learn, I am not even close to what others are doing. 21st century is Information age, the lesser you know, the riskier you are. It is a no brainer that your career depends on how competent you are not only in your field, but how you can think broadly from more perspectives.

I hope these give some of you people who are striving to shine in the workplace, be an entrepreneur or just be a better self. Remember, staying at your own comfort zone is dangerous. I know you guys can do better than me. So plan your time well and stop complaining no time.

Do help me out if any of you are good in those fields I mentioned. I am looking for a mentor or teacher so I can speed up the process.

Thanks to those who have coached and guided me.

Thanks for the gift from u, Shu Fen. Live your life to fullest and remember, “yesterday has nothing to do with tomorrow. It is today that shape your future, it is NOW, not even later.”

Leave the burden to those people who like to drill into the past.

Creative simply means having the ability to create. How would you boost your creativity?

1. Remember your ideas are special in some ways. Ignore what people say

There are no stupid ideas, only ideas that cannot work. Often enough, even ideas that are considered as not practical in reality will somehow work when the time is right in the future. There are only stupid people commenting on an unique or out of the kind idea without any basis. The more original your idea is, the more criticisms it will attract. We are too afraid of being tagged with “unrealistic”. Go ahead and let your imagination run wild, have faith with the ideas you have.

2. Put the hours in

Brainstorming session is a perfect example to promote creativity. Participants spend time drilling to get new ideas and no one is allowed to criticize during brainstorming session. You don’t have to spend 4 hours a day to get new ideas. Get a quiet place, let the wheels in your brain start turning and concentrate for a short period of time. Do this consistently and you will be amazed by the capabilities of your brain.

3. Creativity does not mean something life transforming

You don’t have to be able to come out with the next google phenomenon to be branded as creative. A new idea don’t have to be big, it just have to change the way people do things. Using a fork next morning to drink your coffee might just be as creative!

4. Criticism cannot be avoided. Make it a part of your life

One of the most valuable lesson in my life is the ability to take criticism. People like to criticize more than supporting a new idea. Take constructive criticism as a tool to refine your idea, hey at least they are doing you a favor. A good idea will eventually proof itself of its worth. We don’t need someone else to judge how good our ideas are.

5. Use internet wisely.

Internet has become a very expensive tool to be ignored. There are so many new ideas floating around the internet just waiting to be noticed. Don’t limit on the type of sites you surf. Dig deeper into the internet and you will find inspiration. Furthermore, if you have a new idea, discuss it in the internet forum with a virtual identity. You will often get some honest feedbacks on how to improve on your idea.

Remember during your kindergarden days, your teacher will give you a box of crayon to draw on? Don’t you still laugh at those drawings that you sketched? They are only crayons. You didn’t fear them in kindergarten, why fear them now?

When someone talks about marketing, they will think of humorous radio ads, hollywood style tv ads and 1001 colors flyers and brochures. Marketing means big budget needed. Big companies often see marketing as one of their biggest expenses every year. Does that means that for small guy like us, we could not have an effective marketing campaign because we are restricted to very low budget and I am not a marketing major?In fact marketing is very much simpler for the smaller guys. I first come to guerrilla marketing a year ago when I am searching to learn new marketing techniques beside the big budget marketing they taught in university. Guerrilla Marketing plans have or should have the following results:

Generate a lot of buzz

Maximum effect from minimal costInvest time, energy and creativity instead of money

Combine few marketing techniques to have a bigger effect instead focusing on one strategy.

Leverage technology, embrace technology!

Interestingly, the book was written way back in the 90s yet it is still relevant even today. Another more surprising thing is that my favorite marketer Seth Godin is also co-author of one of the guerrilla marketing series. If you have been a fan of Seth Godin, you will discover that purple cow is actually an extension of guerrilla marketing, which is creating something “remarkable”. When he says remarkable, he doesn’t mean it is different. Being remarkable means something worth talk about and hence the generating a lot of buzz and word of mouth.When you don’t have a marketing budget, it simply means you have to find a way around it.

This is where leverage and technology comes in. Imagine you are a salon owner, on Monday you discovered that you are only 25% booked for the week. What can you do now to get more booking? Newspaper? no way as it takes time to write an ad and advertise. Ask for referral? too much work to do.Email marketing is often a neglected tool and it is too expensive to ignore this powerful marketing weapon. Just pull out your laptop, type in “Book me for the next 24 hours and you will enjoy 20% off”. If you have 1000 email addresses ( which is not difficult if you collect them), what is the chances that 10 (1% response rate) will reply? VERY VERY likely.Oh wait, what is the cost of doing this? ZERO. What is the time needed? A cup of coffee. What is the response time? less than a day!So is marketing still the same old thing you learn from your textbooks? Not really.

For small entrepreneur, leverage and technology is your friend and you should use them well. Even Dell uses email marketing but they abuse the method so they ended up in my spam folder.Again, don’t overdo things. Combine relationship marketing with email marketing, you will have a much better result!

Recently I am bombarded with many new information. From marketing to web design and to investing insight. There are too many new stuff to be picked up. My personal do list is getting longer and longer and I know I need to prioritize. When we need to prioritize, we need to make a choice of what should be done first.

Looking at the overwhelming list, I spent 2 days doing nothing constructive, not even blogging. Then I realized that I am paralyzed by choices. When there are many choices, it suppose to be good because you have more freedom right? But when there are too many choices, eventually you will have a difficult time thinking which to take first, busy evaluating which should has a higher priority and the consequences of every choice you will make. You procrastinate, you give up, you stay stationary.

In fact that is what people do. When they are working 9-5, they know they are so many ways to gain new skills. They know they should take one but they don’t know which one they should choose. But it is already a good start if you know you are paralyzed as early as possible and you NEED to take action.

So now what can I do? I basically break them down to 3 essential steps. Again don’t make your life difficult by breaking down to many steps because you and I know well, when the DO list gets longer, the more lazy you will be.

1. Prioritize. Not rocket science but we don’t practice.

For instance, is investing an area I need to read deeply now? Not likely simply because u NEED money to invest. That can come later

2. Outsource

I should not call it outsource. If a thing has no value to your long term growth but need to be done, ask someone else. I don’t call it throw the ball away, manager calls it DELEGATE.

If laundry can be done by machine, STOP using your hand!

3. Increase your productivity.

Here is how I optimize my learning speed. When I am walking, I am on podcast.

If you read blogs a lot, invest on a wifi enabled device. Pick up your breakfast and start login on anywhere since the wifi is available islandwide and it is free (for now).

Audiobook when I am commuting in bus and MRT.

When I send my laundry to the laundry room, I am on short podcast.

When I am ironing my clothes, I listen to news on TV.

Before I sleep, I eat a chapter of my book on bed. (Good way to make you sleepy) .

Wait, you see, I never take away my entertainment time in between. When I am watching TV or MSN or exercising, all these books will be away. Work-life balance!

Just remember don’t overdo things. Move at your own pace and DO NOT overwhelm yourself.

Usually I don’t write movie review but this is a movie I have seen and I can’t wait to write a review to recommend it to others.

It was so great that one of the reputable movie review on the web gave it a 97% which I have never seen movie with that high rating. I are talking about very big sampling space too.

It is a musical Irish Film + a big dose of romance that is so engaging and filled with unforgettable melodies. If you like Music and Lyrics(2006), you will like this even more.

The plot of the movie is developed in such minute details that you feel like you are a part in it. No draggy dialogue, or actors singing all the time. It focuses more on bringing out the emotions of the viewer and it succeeded.

A  romantic fairy tale that portrays the love to a perfect friend. A soulful valentine to music and friendship. Can’t wait to pick up a copy of the original soundtrack tomorrow!

 By the way, I am a big fan of Ireland and their music bands…

NUS oversea college (NOC) has been one of my dream student program. I abandoned my student exchange program just to try on that. What can be more eye opening for a program that lets u be an intern in a high tech startup in Silicon Valley, guided by the founder or someone with a lot of entrepreneurship experience and study at Stanford Business School + the awesome view of San Francisco? Whenever I mention about NOC, people would say it is hard to get, need high CGPA, blah and blah or [Insert what your friend said here]. 

Trying to get into this program has been a long and messy battle. I tried during my last sem, I gave it all out and I did not even pass my first round of interview. To make thing worst, that is the last sem I am eligible for applying. I literally gave up on it and go for local internship. What a let down.

The application is opened again this sem. I am a person that won’t feel happy without a fight simply because I don’t want to regret down the road. So I ask them to give me a shot and they did.

And the story goes. I went back for CNY and I missed my first schedule interview. Under the email, there is an merciless statement. “We will not accomodate any change of schedule”

Oouch, that was painful and it was almost devastating. I could not accept the fact that I lost the war even before it started. I hate myself for it and I actually thought of giving it up since so many complications had occured. Eventually I can’t do it, I can’t get pass myself and I begged for a re-schedule.

Kindly and lucky enough, they gave me a chance and I passed my interview. Looking back, I have seen how far I have gone through, how determined I was and how other people with their silly thoughts of “u can’t or it is hard” could not affect me. I believe this is what people call PASSION.

The battle is getting tougher ahead. The upcoming interview will be almost deadly and the biggest obstacle of all is getting the approval for me to extend a semester for the programme.

Eventhough I know the chance of getting into the programme is slim, I want to give it my best shot to prove to myself I can pursue anything I want. I believe the result is not so important, it is the will to fight and the determination in getting what you want in life. It is crucial not to let people around you scare you off or doubt on you. Remember that we are in control of ourselves, not your friend or the overated CGPA in the result slip.

My working last week has been a little depressing. First time I realize the inflexibility while working, seriously crippling my plans and timetable. The freedom and enthusiasm to learn has been taken away because of an intolerable system. I have to pass away so many meaningful activities and talks given by precious speakers  in NUS and it is pain to know that I missed them. Eventually I got so reluctant to open my emails because I know I am going to miss something good. 

But isn’t that the working life? Doing something value adding to others and not yourself?

My flame to be an entrepreneur burns more fiercely after my internship experience. It is better to work 6 days a week and exhaust yourself for something that has value to you, not your boss and not the paycheck. It is the satisfaction that counts, the busy life that has meaning, the battle that is adventurous yet leads you to victory eventually.

 Another valuble lesson is:

Never choose 5.5-day workweek, give some time to work on yourself. You can OT to death on weekdays but weekends should be used to support the work-life balance idea.