I write down a lot of ideas and problems and reflect on them briefly before I sleep. You can do this in a notebook or on a phone note. I use Evernote which I sync with my Mac and iPad. I find that I often awake with the solution to the problem or a bright idea. Every time I add to the list I scan it to quickly remove things which are no longer a problem.

Try it some time =)

A personal reference is the amount of new cafes, restaurants, and glitzy shopping centers that have emerged in the past 3 years. Increasingly, Malaysians are flocking to designer coffee shops to sip drinks with increasingly pretentious names and be seen. For the young, it’s cool to check in to the latest shop and spend 10-15RM on a “coffee”. We’ll only pay $4-$5 AUD for a better tasting coffee in Melbourne, and wages are much higher comparatively.

I feel that it is a dangerous trend because such establishments encourage enhanced commercialism and for consumers to spend on lifestyle and technology. On the other side, it’s a great opportunity for business to capitalize and get massive presence and following by offering prizes that are relatively inexpensive to purchase for them, but have a greater influence on the population as a whole.

I’m looking forward to seeing this in another 3 years. =)

I Believe I can Fly ( flight of the frenchies). Trailer from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

You can view the website at www.sebmontaz.com”

It’s hard to capture exactly how this feels in a still picture. The breeze, the sounds of the trees, the fresh air. It’s 28 degrees outside, so it’s the perfect weather to sit on my veranda and write a blog. This is one of the best things about Melbourne, the parks and trees, and just the ability for recreation in general.

Can’t wait to sit on my Veranda for at least a few more hours =)

Tim Ferris was up early on Day 1, this was great. It was cool to see him speak, after frequenting his blog, twitter, reading his books and seeing similar video presentations. He doesn’t speak often, and this was the first time in Australia, so that was cool. I left soon after lunch, seemingly bored of the following speakers and taking the reasonable prediction that Branson would not be speaking that day as he was still in New Zealand according to his Twitter feed.

On Day 2, I arrived at 11am. It was boring, a total waste of time as for the second day in a row, as the organizers refused to give out an actual accurate agenda and it was all “subject to change”. For a seminar that was meant to be about money, business, and success – it’s highly ironic that they didn’t let us manage our own time, instead needing to stay around the venue, with expensive pies and pizza only available to purchase, and the weather outside raining heavily, which made going any further away quite difficult. I passed the time by reading books from the Kindle App on my iPad, hoping that the next speaker would be more interesting than the last. Approaching 5pm, it became evident that Branson would be the last act for the day, and at around 8pm, he emerged for a standing ovation, with Eddie McGuire and the audience asking him questions for about an hour. It was good to listen to, and made some of the conference more bearable, despite me not being the only person in the room, frustrated with the complete disregard of the organizers towards the audience.

I walked back the 2KM into the city to catch a bus home. It was a frustrating couple of days, and taught me to make better use of my time and not worry too much about a few keynote speakers if I can make a better use of 2 days with my own time.

I’ve been finally able to focus on projects that I’ve been neglecting for too long, things that I’ve put aside for other people’s interests. Re-focusing has allowed me to discover again what’s important to me. It’s allowed me to get on with things that have a greater value.

I’ve realized that I need to spend more time here in Melbourne and capture this positive energy. I’m in a good cycle and plan to continue it for some time. I need to plan a trip of 2-3 weeks back to KL in the next month or two to meet up with friends, settle a few things and then come back again to Australia. I plan to leave Malaysia for the next 6-9 months while I prepare things and get them into order.

The plan is to visit Malaysia in short bursts over the next 6-9 months to visit friends and check out different things (offices, meet potential business partners e.t.c.) before going back with a solid plan of attack and a registered company, work visa and recruit a team to work on our different products & consulting business some time mid next year. It may be sooner, but that’s only if one of our launches goes much better than anticipated. Create My Game and the Facebook version of Urban RPG have a lot of momentum behind them, and I can’t wait to recruit the product team for them in an office in KL. Our last job add got 150 awesome applications, and there is so much good talent out there!

It’s actually been very difficult to make this decision. I enjoy living in Malaysia immensely, and I’m going to miss it for the time being. Every morning the warm KL sun would shine through my window and slowly wake me up. I miss that. I miss the taxis and the animated Mamak shop owners. Ironically, the taxi I was in to the airport broke down 5KMs from the airport and I almost missed my flight home. I was helping the driver change the tire on the side of the road as cars whizzed past. He assured me we could change it in 10 minutes and we did, despite the crappy tools from Proton that came with the car to get the wheels off, and having to jump on the lever to jack up the wheel properly. I checked in 40 minutes before the flight.

Most of all though, I miss my friends and everyone who has become such a big part of my life. Even though I’m not a Malaysian, I’ve always felt welcomed by everyone. I’ve learned so much about myself in just under three years, and grown a lot as a person. I’ve developed some close friends that I don’t have anywhere else in the world. Most importantly though, I’ve appreciated a country that is so different from my own. I’ve been able to observe, and then live a totally different way of life, and get to meet and understand a whole variety of people. Thank you to everyone! =)

The most exciting thing about it is, there is so much more to be experienced. I’ve decided that Malaysia is the country where I want to expand my business and have a solid plan to do that. I’ve learned what I need to know, and now the plan just needs to be executed. I really can’t wait!

It wasn’t nervousness as much as it was revealing something that was very important to me for the first time. I was about to present my business at the time Urban RPG (www.urban-rpg.com), to a panel of highly successful judges, my fellow entrepreneurs and an audience. I stood up on the podium and started. Despite all my rehearsal on timings, the time seemed to fly. Before I knew it, my presentation was over and I had to face the wrath of the judges questions. They scolded me about my lack of numbers and planning information. They told me I displayed lots of passion, but I didn’t show how I would achieve growth. Compared to some of the other contestants, this was kind feedback.

I thanked them for their comments and stepped down.

That was the finals of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards in Melbourne, Australia almost three years ago to this day.

I made some great friends, met mentors, clients, and business partners from this contest. I still remember it vividly and followed up everyone. This was a shifting point in my entrepreneurial life. Then late last year I was asked if I wanted to help promote the competition. I was asked to apply for an Ambassador role for South East Asia & Australia. This aligned to one of my personal goals of promoting youth entrepreneurship, so I took it.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to witnessing two of my friends participate in the Malaysian national finals. They’re both great young entrepreneurs and a great influence on other young people. The winner tomorrow will be attending the Global Finals in New York, USA in November. This winner will be a worthy representative of Malaysia on the Global stage.

Best of luck to all participants tomorrow! =)

As much as I appreciate the lifestyle, I’m not quite sure which Game I want to be playing right now. Just like any good novel, my life in 2011 has largely been dominated by forces that have wrecked havoc with my sense of balance. Exhausted is an understatement, I can’t really quantify it with words.

A bright star, something that is overly distracting has been lurking on the horizon for some time. As I’ve gone into battle; helmet, automatic weapon in hand, and diving into the trenches with my comrades, I’ve felt more separated than ever from my core values and focus. While I love the toughness of fighting for a result, the bright light shining down on me has been a constant reminder that my focus is misaligned and I need to make a change.

So thus, I’ve decided to help my comrades to complete this battle, and then walk back on track. This path is also dangerous, filled with conflicting thoughts and unknowns. Distractions are as common as landmines, and walking this direction changes much of what I have believed in the past 18 months.

Still, pursuing something that I am passionate about is seemingly more important than slowly advancing down a trench where I could be encountered by heavy artillery at any time. My experience in battle won’t defend me at that stage.

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another” – Walter Elliott

I’ve spent at least two years persevering with a business that I started out of my own pocket, with no clients, no established market products, and just some ideas. It’s taken the best part of 2 and a half years and slowly climbing up the mountain that now things are looking better with a lot more potential.

We’re now consulting for 20 different brands, across different fields and sub-niches. In all, the games that we consult for reach at least 10 million people – and that keeps growing. I’m writing a proposal now to engage our 21st, a well known brand with almost 1 million active users across over 100 countries. The clients get bigger – and suddenly lucrative media buying contracts and long term retainers become apparent. I’m going to sign up our 30th brand before the end of the year – and then in 2012 we will go at least 50!

I’m not writing this post to boast, rather I want to inspire others. What we’ve reached now is a significant milestone for me. I’ve been nudging things along every day for the past 2 years at least. It’s taken a lot of persistence and looking past the immediate problems and constraints that exist. Furthermore, I’ve needed to be constantly dedicated to achieving growth of the business and delivering value in order to get to this stage.

If you know what you want to do – then just go out and do it! Nothing is stopping you from achieving it, just your own lack of action and lack of willpower.

So, are we Three Feet From Gold?

Not just yet…2am now…better get that proposal out before I get to sleep =)

As I catch five minutes now between meetings, I am reminded of the intensity of this pursuit. Right now this is taking a small but measurable effect on my health and sleeping patterns. I am grateful though to understand the effects and have an understanding of the boundaries inside of my control. I’ve always spoken about shifting up gears when needed – we shouldn’t spend our whole lives in high performance, but rather we should cycle between rest and performance. I’m looking forward to a couple of days in Penang this weekend, to see friends, and also rest and just chill out. The battle is intense right now, but the results are going to be totally worth it.

As a final footnote, my friend reminded me the other day about the importance of the hustle. We must never forget the importance of hard work and pushing ourselves to achieving those extra few percentages in our work. It pays off, especially when we maintain focus and watch the results of our actions grow. =)