This memorial post comes 7 days late but I still wanted to post it anyway cos it’s a significant one year that had gone past.

It’s amazing how time flies..

When I first had to deal with losing my mother, I was really thankful for a very supportive network of friends and family. And rather than wallowing in self pity and misery, I turned to the Lord and He blessed me with this verse, “Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted. – Matthew 5:4”.

The Lord will never let you bear a weight that you cannot handle. He shall comfort you because He never allow you to remain sorrowful. Because His will is for you to rejoice in Him always.
In my mum’s last days, she kept telling me, “Be strong okay? Mummy has to go any way. Life will always go on. So live your life to the fullest.”

Indeed, she was right. Life did go on.

And life will go on.

The one year without my mum taught me is what she has always been telling me all my life.

No matter rain or shine, happy or sad, the sun will rise again. And life will continue moving. So we have to choose to be strong.. especially for those who are still living.

This one year taught me about resilience.

I didn’t know that I had inherited my mum’s hardiness until I went through the ordeal of picking up the pieces. It wasn’t easy to cope with the emotional demands of grief and the physical demands of getting back to running a full-fledged business and getting back to daily life.

She knew she left me in good hands – in the hands of God… in the hands of my dearest Daddy and definitely in the hands of my hubby, Calvin.

My mum used to to tell everyone (from her doctors, to family and even friends) that I’m an emotional kid who was very attached to her and outwardly, I look strong but I crumble like a cookie.
I hope today she acknowledges that I’ve proven her wrong.

This one year taught me about happiness.

I realized cherishing the present is where happiness lies. And it was the very first time, I truly understood the meaning of “happiness is a choice”. And it is a choice we can actively make every single day – TO BE HAPPY.

It was a very liberating experience for me as I started to make a conscious effort to pursue different matters in a positive light. It made my relationships and interactions with people more fulfilling, more positive and see my life very differently than before.

This one year taught me about compassion.

Compassion is something intangible but can always be felt and seen. I’ve never really understood why my mother was ALWAYS giving. Giving gifts, giving smiles, giving calls of concern… (seriously, I think my Dad and I are the only things she’s never attempted to “give away” lol~) but anyway, it always made me feel that she was so busy with the whole world but not with me.
But in this year, I realized something and that is, it’s only when you give, will you receive.

“Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” – Proverbs 11:25

It is certainly more blessed to give than to receive. And it doesn’t have to be something expensive… it can be something as plain as a genuine compliment or even a smile.
I do miss my mum a lot… regardless of our litle squabbles and obstinate natures.

But life on Earth will always go on and she now resides in my heart and not a day goes by without missing her. Till we meet again…

In loving memory.. Lucy U Po (18 Sep 1956 – 8 Nov 2012)

God’s Favor.

In particular, favor with the people whom I’ve met along the way this year.

Truth be told, I felt really ALONE earlier this year.. meaning to say, I felt like I was fighting a lone battle. Reason is because I felt that I couldn’t help my mother with her illness, I couldn’t get myself together and I didn’t want to burden Calvin with my family “problems”. I didn’t want to worry my father (simply because I felt he was stressed out enough) and so I’d rather keep up my brave front only to crumble inside.

But I really thank God that my family & I had favor with the people we met along the way.

Firstly, my mum’s presiding oncologist – Prof Simon Ong. He was a supportive, empathetic, wonderful doctor who really understood a patient’s needs and who really made an effort to clear a patient’s doubts, fears and worries. I felt that the security he was able to provide my mother was something that NO ONE could be able to offer her, apart from God. (LOL) He was supportive of both my father & I and really went out of his way to show his concern for my family. The gratitude towards him is really deep and I believe that things do not happen by chance and God introduced Prof Simon to us because He wanted us to be comforted throughout the journey.

Secondly, the nurses in the Ward 48, 78 of SGH. God really knew how to put the right people in our lives and to help us. And sometimes, I feel that we had good relationships with the nurses and they were able to care for my mother well.

My The Card Room wedding card printer, Shi Ling. I was panicking as I had to get my wedding cards printed in short notice and I had a budget I was working with. I just happened to find The Card Room through my online research and then I scheduled an appointment with Shi Ling. After going through the cards and talking further in the meeting, she was so helpful and willing to work within my budget and print the cards on time! Little did I know.. I bumped into her in church & found out she was attending NCC too!

My InterContinental banquet manager, Scarlet. There was actually several issues with my wedding banquet booking as it was actually made for 10 Nov 2012 and in the event of cancellation, the entire banquet fee was due. But she was perfectly helpful and willing to work with us to make the 31 March wedding possible!

And many more.. I’ll gradually add them to the list.

I really feel God’s footprints were everywhere throughout the year and I thank Him for letting me have favor with the people I meet.

After going through the year, I’m more aware of such divine occurrences/appointments/meetings that only God would have been possible to orchestrate.

Have you met someone whom you feel only God could have created that opportunity?

It could be His way of showing His favor & love to you!

Being an only child, I’ve grown up relying on a lot of friends for company. I never felt alone or sad that I didn’t have siblings because my friends were always with me.. studying, playing sports, shopping.. you name it.

And this year, my friends were really a pillar of strength to me.. And I’m really grateful for them.

• Ahmad Ibrahim secondary school girlfriends – AI Jie Mei

• Amber Gang

• Fuchun Primary friends – I’ve known them more than 14 years!

 Unfortunately, I can’t find a picture of the group! Cos it’s buried in my Facebook account and I can’t seem to find our group photo. Nonetheless, I’ve known them for more than 14 years now. It’s funny how cos we stay near each other in the same area of Woodlands, that we never lose touch! Our regular meeting place is Causeway Point. Go figure. But I’ve since moved out of the area.. but Whatsapp group is still very much alive!

• JC – AC & YJ mates

3 months in ACJC was all it took for us to establish a long term friendship. The four of us have supported each other in every single way and we just love spending time chit chatting over a meal or playing board games. They are my friends who keep me rooted — rooted to a character of humility. LOL. Why? Cos they are really amazing people yet are humble of their achievements. Are not pretentious at all. I simply love them.

My YJ Makkals.. Haha.. I think that’s the word. This group is what I call ethnically diverse. NO way in a Singapore school can you find an almost equal no. of chinese, malay & indian in a class, except in my class. Maybe things are different now. But I remember walking into the class in sheer amazement. I learnt a lot from them and they have been so open & supportive of me regardless of race and religion.

• NUS friends

Last but not least, the NUS friends. The funny thing is, I wasn’t in the same course as any of them. Haha.. I got to know them when I did cross modules in the Business school. I study Psychology but I had a strong interest in Marketing and hence, I think I took as many business modules as my core Psychology modules!  This group is interesting because.. despite coming from different backgrounds, workplaces, schools etc. we could converge cos of one thing – we just enjoy each other’s company. Chill out dinners, KTV sessions.. It’s a must-have after 2-3 months of jaded work in the workplace. Or so I think. Haha..

The friends I’ve made and their support in the past year is so important to me. Hence, I really treasure their friendships and will continue to cultivate them such that they can become life long relationships.

I hope you’ve got friends that you treasure as well.

Are you thankful to have them as well?

Is there anything special you can do for them in the coming year?

Let’s commit to having genuine friendships with others and treasure them. Do make the effort to let them know you care!

My wish for 2013 is for God to bless them with happiness and health and all of their hearts’ desires! Amen!

But instead of thinking how to get my unfulfilled goals done in 12 days, it got me thinking about what has already been done in 2012 which I am grateful for. And this reflection has made me realized, there’s no way I can cram all into one post and so I decided to spread it across 12 posts. 1 per day starting from today and leading up to 2013.

The most unfortunate thing is, my blog has not been updated since 31 dec 2011. So there’s a lot of “catching up” to do. But I reckon, the 12 things that I’m going to share will probably cover how my life went for this year.

In short, this is NO ORDINARY YEAR. 

To be frank, when I was thinking of what I wanted to blog about and thought of 12 things I am grateful for for this year, I was squeezing my brain dry.

I initially had GREAT hopes for this year — my dream wedding, my honeymoon (thank God for providing us with a beautiful wedding & honeymoon which I will touch on in subsequent posts :)), my parents’ retirement, our first home, our business achievement of breaking the million dollar mark annual revenue for this year. But this year has got to be one of the most challenging years I have ever had in my entire 26 years life.

And I thank God for accompanying me through the ups and downs, for blessing me with a great family and with friends & leaders of great faith who stood by my family.

Before I get carried away..

The first thing I am grateful for in 2012 is quality time with my family. 

I will always remember Chinese New Year this year. It was the day before CNY eve when my mum had to be admitted in A&E for anemia. My mother has always been the “SuperMum”, Iron Lady to me and for the first time, she was weak, pale & frail. And the doc actually said if we had delayed her admission, she could have died from cardiac arrest from lack of oxygen in the body.

At that time, I had to witness my mother undergo blood transfusion cos her hB level was 4.3 which was dangerously low. A lot of pints. I can’t remember how many. And we requested for her discharge to spend CNY for one day before readmission. That she wanted too.

I still remember her telling me, “I feel like this is my last Chinese New Year” when we went out visiting on the first day and I just had tears in my eyes. The picture you see above, was taken with a heavy heart but still with a smile in my face as I always like to remain optimistic even in times of difficulty/uncertainty. Let me tell you, it’s not easy going house to house wishing everyone Happy CNY, and then return to the car to check if my mum was feeling alright.

On the first day of CNY, we went straight to hospital to be readmitted after all the visiting.

It was during the admission that my mother underwent further tests & was suspected to be with stomach cancer. The days of waiting for the results was really agonizing. My mum who knew the results still couldn’t bear to tell us. And when the doctor broke the news to me for her, I remember it was just sheer confusion and distraught. I remember going home, crying in my bed.. asking God why this had to happen.

But as I began to accept the news, it just made me treasure time with my mum & dad more.

I still remember during one of the consultations, Prof Simon Ong, my mum’s presiding oncologist said something like… cancer is a very destructive & curious disease. It’s devastating news to the family but somehow, it brings the best out of everyone as people start to make time for each other, seek spiritual help, find time for things that meant the most to them.

He was right.

I started trying to spend more time with my parents, as much as I could. But it was challenging as I had to manage commitments from the business, employee management and at the same time, deal with the falling USD & economic changes.

And I was the only child. (LOL)

But seriously, I did not have the luxury of calling a brother, a sister to help out in the family, to spend time with my mum on my behalf.. etc.

Hence, the emotional burden was actually really really heavy, that I started developing skin problems on my face (unnatural break outs).

But I felt it made me work harder to strike a balance (thank God for Calvin to keep me in check) and also to rest in God for Him to do His work in my life. It also made me treasure our time together more.

I think it made us more resilient against this unknown thing called cancer.

And I felt I finally got something back that I kinda lost from the past 3 years of working, to understand what was truly important to me — time with my family.

The last three months of my mum’s life was spent in and out of hospital. But that did not deter my father & I from going to the hospital to spend time with her almost every single day. Watching my mum indulge in her iced milos and say, “This is Simple Joy” and she glancing at us from the hospital bed to see what we were eating, reading or watching.. How she tells her guests “Thank you for coming”..

The pieces of advice she tells me with regards to life, “Don’t work so hard”, “Be kind to others”, “Be yourself”, “Be strong”, “Be nice to your husband (lol)” etc. are things I will keep in my heart.

All these memories I have of time spent together with my mum & dad… I am thankful to have them.

Right now, I treasure the people who continue to be important in my life even more and will continue making it a priority to spend quality time with them in the coming year.

I hope that encourages you some way to do so too.

Think about the people who are important to you.

Have you been spending as much time with them as you can to continue cultivating the relationship?

Why don’t you commit some more time in a month to just have a meal, catch a movie, have a coffee or even just be in each other’s presence?

You’ll realize how valuable time spent during interactions and relationships is, and it’s something which no amount of money can buy.

I hope you have benefited from my sharing.

Till the next post tomorrow to continue with the 2nd thing I’m grateful for in 2012.  Good night!

It’s funny how this eulogy got written. It was written in a haste as I originally thought I would be delivering it on the day of the cremation. However, Pastor Pauline (the Pastor for the Memorial service) suggested that I delivered during the memorial service where most people are present.

Having to entertain guests and write an eulogy at the same time was NOT easy. Basically cos I had to keep my emotions in check while writing something that was so meaningful to me. I wanted to put in more thought and heart into it. But the presence of all the visitors.. friends, colleagues, family etc. actually made me realize the central theme of my eulogy — my mother’s unconditional love for others..

This eulogy is a tribute to my mother Lucy U Po (18 Sep 1956 – 8 Nov 2012) and I hope it speaks to you if you have known her. And if you don’t know of her, I hope this short synopsis of her life is suffice to give you reason to think about your own life and of how you can live it such that you too can say “I think I have lived my life well. I have no regrets”

—Start of Eulogy—

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. that’s why it’s called the Present.” Thank you everyone for being here. It’s the best present you have brought along for my family today. To my relatives who travelled from overseas to make it for today, thank you very much.

My name is Patricia, and I’m the only daughter of Lucy. I know you all know my mum personally in one way or another. It could be at school, at work, it could be in the neighbourhood or probably, simply because she’s my mum, or an aunt or cousin to you. But there’s only one way I know her. To me, she’s my dearest mother. The mum that I couldn’t have chosen but the mum whom I would choose again if I could.

My mum is an incredibly kind, helpful and generous person. She never fails to lend a helping hand to friends, family and even strangers. She makes the effort to know the bus 900 bus drivers, the cashiers at Shop & Save, the neighbour who just moved in and the child sitting across her in the MRT. Her smile is ever radiant and genuine that it warms even the coldest person in the room.

That’s how she stole my dad’s heart.

My mum is originally from the Philippines. She’s the baby of the Po family who grew up as a young, intelligent woman who later went to medical school with the plan of becoming a doctor. However, little did she know, my dad, her penpal for 14 years from Singapore, was to be her soulmate and life partner.

The first time my dad went to the Philippines was for a practical reason, to go on a holiday. He was choosing between the USA and Philippines but figured Philippines was nearer and cheaper. And he had a penpal who was excited to meet him for the very first time. My dad and mum always recall the faithful day with laughter. She was so excited about his arrival that she was jumping in the crowded airport to catch his attention and welcomed him with a beautiful smile.

That is the smile that stole my dad’s heart.

And that smile continued to radiate in so many people’s lives.

The friends, family, neighbours and colleagues who have stepped forth during the past few months to comfort her, console her and even care for her.. are the fruits of the seeds she has sowed in their lives over the past 56 years of her life.

When she was first diagnosed with cancer, she told the doctor, “I have no regrets. I think I have lived my life well.” Now I can’t help but agree.

As my father and I experience the love, care and concern from everyone during this journey, we truly understood the unconditional love my mother gave out of herself to those who crossed paths with her.

Today, in the presence of everyone, we want to say we are very proud of her – of the many things she’s done in her life, big and small.

And …

We thank God for being with her in this ardous battle against cancer.

We thank God for the victory she has had.

We thank God for making her a blessing in so many people’s lives.

We thank God that He has received her with open arms.

She fought a good fight in her battle with cancer and remained faithful of God’s love and grace.

What holds for us tomorrow is a mystery.

But my mum always says, Trust in the Lord.

And in the Lord we will trust.

We will dearly miss Lucy, a great mother, a loving wife and a faithful child of God.

We will always love her and remember her for who she is and she will always be in our hearts.

Before I end, I’ll like to share with you an SMS my mum sent me on Valentines’ Day.

It goes like this, “Love is d greatest Healing Power – at d end of our lives after all our successes n failures the value of our lives is determined by how much we have loved – :-)”

I hope we’ll always remember her unconditional love for us and remember to love others unconditionally as well. Thank you.

—End of Eulogy—

In memory of Lucy U Po, my dearest mother

Let me start off by saying that this year has been a really amazing year.. Truly crowned with Goodness (as declared in church in faith at the start of 2011). The miracles & blessings that God has showered us with have certainly far exceeded our expectations and He just made Himself seem MORE REAL &  FAITHFUL than ever before. Amen.

As I was looking through the little blog posts that I posted here, I think it’s evident that my faith in Him has grown even more stronger and why shouldn’t it?  When He has left His footprints all over my life!

2011 for our company, Zion Global Marketing Pte. Ltd. has been nothing short of a great year.

1. We ran another successful internet marketing seminar in June which garnered great reviews!!

We had close to 200 participants again and were blessed to receive many written and video testimonials after the event. Sad to say, our video camcorder became corrupt and we lost more than 20 video testimonials left for us for the event. (It was a REAL bummer.)

2. We created and launched over 30 brand new digital products in the form of  ebooks, video training courses and digital reports for internet marketers!

3. We launched our first Clickbank product, Affiliate Earnings Booster together this year!

4. We generated a mid 6 figure income for the 4th year running! (Praise God! Now that’s a real feat based on the small, close-knit team we have..)

5. [Only Internet Marketers Would Know] Our products were voted WSO of the Day in the Warrior Forum a total of 12 times (in just 6-9 months I think), generating more than $300k in sales over the same period of time and Calvin’s the Top 5 Most Popular Sellers on Warrior Plus!

We did go through “several bumps” earlier this year but I believe that those bumps helped us become more clear of and redefined our vision, mission and even direction, especially for the coming year. The truth is, Calvin and I did go through several learning lessons this year which caused us time, effort, heartache (sometimes) and even despair.

But at the review that we did yesterday of our entire year as a company, as business partners and as a couple, we had nothing but thanksgiving for God’s guidance in riding us through the storms (lol.. it’s actually not as bad as it sounds)

The important lessons we learnt corporately which I’ll like to share with you:

#1 Importance of Clear Communication

We know of its importance (definitely.. especially after running the business for the past 3-4 years) but this lesson is a HARD lesson that never fails to come up. It’s as though.. we went through Stage  1 of learning how to communicate before and then Stage 2 and now Stage 3.. I like to think that Life has impromptu examinations that cannot be anticipated but you can certainly prepare for it.

– Communication with business partners

When you communicate as business partners, it’s a MUST to set aside your personal relationships (friends, lovers, family etc.) There shouldn’t be the GREY area where you both (or the group) tread dangerously in. Communication should be clear, concise and to-the-point and basically, if you have your own interests to protect or concerns, you should voice it out and do not assume that it’s mutually understandable. (That was a big mistake I made but thankfully, rectified).

– Communication with employees

It could be the fact that Calvin and I are rather inexperienced in employee management and perhaps that’s why it’s an area which we particularly learnt the most this year. Goodness, the supposed GOOGLE inspired office policy of fun, fun, fun then work is DEFINITELY too idealistic  especially for small companies that strive on performance (yes, look at the tons of products we launched for this year.. we certainly are a performance-driven company.. haha)

When communicating with employees, in-house or outsourced, you have to be straightforward in your instructions, in your feedback and objective criticism. The mistake I made was I was overly sensitive and concerned about HOW the other person would feel when I directed him/her, when I corrected and when I reprimanded. I didn’t consider that the gravity of the issue outweighs my need of being nice. It didn’t help that the employees we had were of the same age group and that could have created a greater sense of familiarity and thus, developed that strong sensitivity towards their feelings. So when communicating, be objective.

#2 Be VERY Clear of Your Vision, Mission and Direction

When you are clear of  the vision and direction you have for the company, you will steer the company towards projects and plans that will support this vision. Once, when Stuart Tan (our personal friend and business mentor) learnt of the projects that we were interested in starting, he asked “Is this aligned with your mission?” and we realized that it’s so important to determine if what you are working on is CONTRIBUTING to building the path towards your goal. If it isn’t, chances are you’re wasting your time.

Also, when you are very clear of these 3 important elements of your business, you will then avoid shiny, golden opportunities (that may seem to have tons of potential & even bring in lots of money but be at the expense of the resources for your other important “vision-building” projects).

#3 Black & White

Everything has to be in black & white. You have to draft contracts and  binding agreements to safeguard your business and company against ANYTHING that can potentially jeopardize your company. Calvin likes to say, the closer the relationship, the MORE you should draft a binding contract in black & white, simply because more is at stake and having it in black and white just makes the expectations from both sides legal and transparent.

#4 Always Set A Budget & Prioritize Expenditures

I think we particularly did well this year in this area for planning for our seminars, calculating the monthly costs of the company as well as for our major renovation overhaul. Setting a budget is NOT meant to limit you to a number to work with at the end of the day but it helps you be aware of what the revenue and expenses are. It’s also important to prioritize expenditures, whether for investment, for marketing, for employee welfare.. etc. The thing is, when you know what the expenditures are and for what purposes will allow you to evaluate the value of those expenditures and make adjustments in future.

#5 Hire the RIGHT People for the RIGHT Purpose

This is one precious lesson that I feel any business owner should sit up, listen and READ. Hire the right people. The mistake that Calvin and I made was we were not clear of the expectations of the employees we set out to hire. Moreover, we did not DEFINE their roles nor did we drill down to the basic expectations and key performance indicators.

Worse was.. we tried to make our company revolve around our employees and tried to create work for them to do RATHER than have our company’s direction, vision and mission CENTRAL and have all operations, staff, projects and plans revolve around it. And see if the people we had in the company were the RIGHT people.

The people we had hired were great people with their own strengths BUT we failed to consider the job fit during the hiring process.

Be clear of WHY you are creating a position and hiring. Be clear of what kind of person you are looking to hire. Be clear of the VALUES you want the person to have and if it is in line with your own and your company’s. Do not be swayed by the resumes, the presentations, the first impressions as well as the promises.. Run multiple rounds of interviews. Two is the bare minimum. Go up to 3-4 if needed.

PHEW~ Can’t believe I’m done! I have taken 1 hour to write this far!!

As for US two… the IMLovebirds (this is a cute name that Calvin came up with! I just have to tell!!)….

We made full use of the time this year to play hard and work hard.

We got ourselves a XBOX 360 Kinect! Haha.. and tons of games to play over the weekends… travelled to Hong Kong twice this year because we simply love the people, food and shopping there! We didn’t venture to too many places this year and the past few years simply because we couldn’t afford to be away when we had in-house employees in the office. haha..

Last but not least….

WE GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!

Well… I couldn’t have said YES without this beautiful ring could I?

After 5 years and 9 months of dating, he finally popped the question on his birthday! It’s truly a MILESTONE for the both of us.. and really, whenever I think back of how we started off this journey together, I really really start to tear…

We started dating in University in our sophomore year that was in 2006 and he learned about internet marketing in Nov-Dec ’06.. He kinda forced me to read the IMC guide book and learn about internet marketing along with him. I had zero passion but when I saw the desire he had to get this venture going, I followed. We don’t come from rich families and we decided to stop all our part-time student jobs (he was a freelance sales promoter at Singtel, our local telco & I was a full-fledged tutor teaching 7 kids) and just focused on learning and mastering IM together, with whatever resources & money we had.

Bear in mind that we couldn’t afford a mentor at all!!

To cut the long story short, never in our wildest dreams would we have imagined that 4 years later.. we would accomplish this much for ourselves and our families. If it’s not God working in our lives through us.. I don’t know who is.

This 5+years together have been remarkable… And I can only imagine our married life together to be 10 times better.. *I hope* hahaha..

We have finally committed to making marriage plans and we’re now in the early stages of planning for our wedding and we have already seen His mark on us that this is His will and the wedding is happening in His time. We’re fully aware that we need our Abba, Father to continue guiding us in this next part of our adventure & journey and we commit this entirely to Him.

This is a moment truly of thanksgiving for 2011 and we will look forward to an EVEN MORE AMAZING 2012 ahead!

==================================

Dear readers,

Here’s wishing you and your loved ones a WONDERFUL and BLESSED new year ahead and may 2012 open doors of opportunities for you in every area of your life!

Visualize your future because it is BRIGHT and continue working towards the goals you have set for yourself.

More success, joy and happiness to you!

Cheers!

In fact, I have only briefly heard his name a couple of times when Calvin updates me on IM happenings. (*surprising!* I know that sounds really odd.. but the truth is I’m usually oblivious towards most of the IM launches/ happenings etc. ) It wasn’t until I opened up an email by Lee McIntyre (another internet marketer btw) just 2 days ago and went on to watch a video by Eric, that I finally KNEW who Eric Holmlund is.

The reason why I was inspired by Eric is not because of his internet marketing methods/secrets/techniques/products etc. So I’m not going to share about his latest launch here..

But rather, I was inspired by the things he did to glorify God through his blog and let his life be a testimony of His goodness. Little things like sharing his testimony on his blog, starting mission trips, and running a non-profit online prayer ministry etc… That really struck me as I saw how he used his internet marketing influence and skills to help grow the ministry of God. Something that I have not seen before in the internet marketing community and it’s something that I’ve always shared with Calvin about doing. Now, I have the perfect model to inspire me for the greater good.

In the process, I realized that I wasn’t doing enough to share about God’s goodness in my life! Which is something I ought to do especially when there are people who are reading about who I am, what I do and even who I believe in. My life’s got to be a testimony to others and that way, I can inspire others as well. Just like how Eric inspired me.

Before I end off, here’s an image my friend shared on Facebook:

Thank you Lord for everything.

50% of my INTERNET MARKETING knowledge is getting close to becoming outdated!

Isn’t that a “O-M-G” moment for ANYONE who is relying on internet marketing skills to earn a living? Haha..

But that’s the truth! It dawned upon me that I was sooo concerned about handling the backend services that I utterly forgot to continuously update my skills and knowledge which are so important in staying competitive.

It hit me even harder when I realized that I’m stuck in the same position as I was 1 year ago!

And the lesson is I’ve got to start learning – one of the things I love to do actually..

Learning is a continuous process of life and in fact, let me stress that it requires ACTIVE LEARNING. It’s even more so for an industry that moves 24/7, 365 days a week. And I’ve just got to get my feet up and start moving forward again. Frankly, what lies ahead of me or rather the thought of (sort-of) learning all the new tricks, strategies & techniques in IM all over again is kinda daunting at times but I’ve got the courage to keep on moving!

So why is Internet Marketing NOT for the faint hearted?

Firstly, from our experience, internet marketing trends do not last more than a year. What’s IN now will be OUT the moment the next whirlwind trend appears. It’s either you move with the flow or you gradually get phased out. You have to constantly be on the go and be on the lookout for hot trends, shifting buyer patterns in order to be able to use it to your advantage.

Secondly, you have to learn from failures and move on. It’s not as though every single product you create will be a winner, or every single product you promote will make you money and neither does it mean that every single money making idea IS a 6 figure launch. You’ve got to absorb all the learnings from each failure/unsuccessful trial, and CHANGE what you did wrong. Repeating the same thing that got you the bad results will just get you the SAME results.

Thirdly, analyse, analyse and analyse. You have to analyse your own performance, your competitors’ performance and your customers’ “performance” in order to find out what works. There are things like measuring the conversions of your offers, sales copy, videos etc. in order to see how effective your marketing strategy is. You need to analyse what your competitors are doing and see if there’s any way you can improve what they are doing. And of course, you need to analyse what your customers are buying, what they are interested in and test what marketing messages they respond greatest to.

Just going through all that made me realize it’s time to up the gear and become an active and humble learner once more.

One thing drives them: PASSION.

Calvin and I watched countless of presentations by Steve Jobs through the videos which were highly shared on Facebook in light of his passing. And that kinda led on to watching videos by Bill Gates and then Oprah. One word seems to have come out of their mouths every single time – PASSION.

“I was lucky — I found what I love to do early in life,” — Steve Jobs

I believe passion is really an unexplainable force that DRIVES one to achieve excellence in a particular area in life, seemingly a strong area of interest. This force comes from within and makes you love what you do and makes you unstoppable.

I know that might come as a surprise but the truth is, I haven’t totally discovered what my passion really is or rather, what I’m doing is NOT aligned with my passion yet. I am motivated to achieve success in various areas of my life and I have set goals to achieve the things I want in life BUT something’s missing… this unexplainable, unstoppable force… this love for what I do…

Yes, I have achieved some success in these recent years and you would think it’s passion that drove me to achieve these…

#1 Featured on news media
#2 Started a company with 5 local employees & 7 employees overseas
#3 Got an office in prime area
#4 Ran two seminars which had 200 attendees each
#5 Ran private coaching classes
#6 Invited to speak at events

But somehow I feel that my passion is not aligned with what I’m doing yet. Or I’m not doing what I really love to do and that means I’m not unstoppable yet.

I know that this may throw some people off and make them go like –“What?? You have problems with your passion?? Are you sure you’re not doing what you really love to do??” and I probably lose some “fans” in the internet marketing scene too.. if there are any..

Discovering your passion will serve you well and push you towards excellence. And that is what my daily task will be from today onwards — to commit more time to doing what I love.

Only when I’ve started doing what I really love will I then find my passion and purpose in life. And lead a life which I will not regret living, even if I were to die today.

That’s what I learnt from Steve Jobs this week.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs

Today’s been a real productive and a blessed day with an awesome launch of Conversions Boosting Mastery! And in fact, it’s been an awesome journey into the year of 2011 and it has certainly been ‘crowned with goodness’ with ‘paths dripping with abundance’ just like how Pastor Prince had declared this year to be. Praise God!

But at this moment, I won’t want to forget about the people of Japan who have been badly hit by the recent tsunami and are experiencing a difficult period. The devastation is something beyond my comprehension but I know that there’s still a glimmer of hope amongst the people. I pray that God will protect them and keep them strong in faith to walk on, knowing that it’s going to be a better day tomorrow. And I pray that they can rest in God’s presence when they are feeling despaired by what is before them.

If you can, please lend a helping hand by donating to the Singapore Red Cross’ Japan Disaster Fund. If not, do just bless Japan and its people with your hopes and prayers for them. I know every little bit of concern, help and love means a lot to them.