5 June 2013, Singapore – Scoot, LCC of the Year1, had concluded the World’s Longest Virtual Flight this afternoon at 15:45. Mohammed Firdaus Bin Ismani, 29, outlasted more than 2,000 other contenders to win the grand prize.

Scoot’s CEO Campbell Wilson and members of the Scoot team were on hand to present Firdaus with the winners’ cheque for $20,000 and a certificate entitling him to a years’ worth of Scoot return tickets to any Scoot destination.

An exuberant Firdaus attributed his win to “perseverance and coffee”. 

The contest was designed to celebrate the first anniversary of Scoot’s route to Sydney, Australia. However, a hardware failure prevented some participants from boarding. 

Addressing the issue, Scoot’s CEO, Campbell Wilson said, “At this stage, it appears that the problem was a server load balancing hardware failure. We are conducting a full investigation and will update the Scoot community as we learn more.”

“We understand the frustration that this has caused, and we are determined to solve the technical issues so all our registered participants can get a fair go,” continued Wilson. “Once the hardware issue is fixed, and the application thoroughly tested to ensure stability, we will email all original registrants so they can take another crack at the $20,000 and a year’s worth of flights.”

For more updates on the Scoot World’s Longest Virtual Flight, please visit www.facebook.com/flyscoot.

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SINGAPORE, May. 29, 2013 — HP today announced its first Chromebook, widening the company’s extensive PC and workstation portfolio and expanding its multiOS approach to offer customers more choices.

The HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook boasts a display that’s approximately 2 inches wider (diagonally) than any other Chromebook in the market today. It provides a fast and easy gateway to a seamless Google experience with popular products like Search, Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive and Google+ Hangouts for multiperson video chat as well as access to apps in the Chrome Web Store.⁽¹⁾ A 14-inch diagonal design provides an ideal balance of mobility and comfort, while the HP BrightView display lets users see and surf easily.

The HP Pavilion Chromebook joins HP’s PC portfolio as an ideal companion PC for the home.

“Google’s Chrome OS is showing great appeal to a growing customer base,” said Serena Yong, general manager, Printing and Personal Systems, HP Singapore. “With HP’s Chromebook, customers can get the best of the Google experience on a full-sized laptop—all backed up by our service and brand.”

Instant access to digital life

With the HP Pavilion Chromebook, customers can effortlessly and quickly access Google applications, social networks, websites⁽¹⁾ and other content such as photos and documents. Constant automatic updates to applications and the Chrome OS mean that software and security is effortlessly kept up to date.

Powered by an Intel® Celeron® processor and Intel high-definition (HD) graphics,⁽²⁾ the HP Pavilion Chromebook includes a 16GB solid-state drive for fast start-up times. Extra hardware security via the built-in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) protects against unauthorized access to sensitive data and credentials so customers can feel confident that personal data is protected. The HP Pavilion Chromebook weighs just under1.8kg.⁽³⁾

A full array of ports including HDMI, USB 2.0 and Ethernet jack, and a combination headphone and microphone jack allow for fast and easy connections to displays and other devices. 

The HP Pavilion Chromebook features an HP Imprint design in sparkling black, up to 4 GB of memory and a removable battery. An HP TrueVision HD Webcam⁽²⁾ offers superb viewing experience, even in low lighting conditions.

With 100 GB of free storage on Google Drive for two years,^(4) (5) customers can access their content from any internet-connected device—while at home or on the go. Plus, users can visit the Chrome Web Store to customize their HP Chromebook by downloading applications for work or play.

Pricing and availability

The Chromebook is now available in Singapore at the price of S$449 on the HP Online Store and Courts.

Additional information about the HP Chromebook is available at www.hp.com/go/chromebook.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

(1) Internet service required and not included.

(2) High-definition content is required for high-definition images.

(3) Weight will vary by configuration.

(4) 100 GB of free storage for two years, starting on the date offer is redeemed on eligible Chrome devices.

(5) Additional information about storage plan refunds, renewals, cancellations and expiration is available at the Google website: www.google.com/drive.

Intel and Celeron are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance, market share or competitive performance relating to products and services; any statements regarding anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the competitive pressures faced by HP’s businesses; the development and transition of new products and services and the enhancement of existing products and services to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its customers, suppliers and partners; the protection of HP’s intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; the hiring and retention of key employees; assumptions related to pension and other post-retirement costs and retirement programs; the execution, timing and results of restructuring plans, including estimates and assumptions related to the cost and the anticipated benefits of implementing those plans; the resolution of pending investigations, claims and disputes; and other risks that are described in HP’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including HP’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2012.  HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

© 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

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Press Release: HP Printers Offer Education Content Directly to Students Be more aware about the technology you are using! “I can read Wikipedia”

SINGAPORE, May 29, 2013 — HP today announces its collaboration with leading education publisher Singapore Asia Publishers Pte Ltd (SAP) and one of Singapore’s proprietary Primary Math programme brand owners, onSponge, to deliver high-quality education content directly to students and busy parents through print apps on HP web-connected printers.

The education print apps offer a free service that allow home-users to directly print education content on demand or schedule for HP delivery at a specific day and time of the week.

“Parents and students often spend a lot of time in finding relevant and important content to address their learning needs,” said Serena Yong, general manager, HP Printing and Personal Systems, Singapore. “The new education print apps that HP is introducing with SAP and onSponge leverage HP’s leadership in tapping the cloud to deliver innovative printing solutions that allow families to easily and directly access a wide range of content for learning and development.”

According to Kelvin Yoo, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Asia Publishers, “SAP is always on the lookout for fresh and innovative learning tools that can enhance a student’s learning experience. Working with HP will allow us to help primary school students access readily compact, foundational and relevant learning materials directly from HP web-connected printers.”

“onSponge adopts a skills-based approach that students need for problem-solving and critical thinking, foundations for a well-rounded education. We are therefore thrilled to be able to provide our math learning resource to a wider student audience with HP innovative printing technology. The print apps are prepared for users looking for resources to enhance problem-solving skills pitched at introductory to mid-level standard.  This collaboration with HP enables us to deliver an appropriate amount of questions weekly to reinforce the learning from school but test the conceptual understanding students to achieve better results. It is about nurturing the ability to question, reason and apply, not adding to students’ work load,” said Chris Rogers, Co-Founder & Director, onSponge.

Complement In-Class Learning

SAP is a leading publishing group specializing in academic materials such as supplementary workbooks, guidebooks, textbooks, reference books, dictionaries and other educational materials.

The SAP education print app offers content which has been handpicked from SAP’s own best-selling primary school assessment books, delivered on a daily and weekly basis. Focusing on understanding key concepts through commonly tested questions in examinations, students and parents have direct access to bite-sized practice materials, all aligned to the latest curriculum taught in Singapore’s classrooms, that focus on understanding key concepts through commonly tested questions in examinations.

To make for a balanced use of time, the SAP Education Print App offers up to four pages of assessments per subject daily from Mondays through Thursdays. These bite-sized practice materials, which are more ‘ingestible’ compared to heavy chunks of information and exercises, encourage good study habits and positive learning by pacing children’s learning through daily practice. Each assessment paper comes complete with full answers, which enables students to self-access themselves after each practice or have their parents explain the answers and solutions to them. Parents can plan for scheduled delivery of these assessments on their printers each day, or opt to receive them on a weekly basis every Friday. Closer to examinations, parents can also choose to print mock exam papers for practice purposes.

Beyond Assessment: Problem-Solving and Conceptual Learning

onSponge Learning Print App will provide more Singaporean students with access to the brand’s highly sought-after +hinkingMath™ resource, exclusively put together in the weekly printables format by the curriculum design & development team in onSponge. The weekly print apps serve to provide parents and educators an additional avenue to access structured resources relevant to children from Primary 3 to Primary 6 whose repertoire of practice problem sums should ideally hone their solving skills with core techniques and the development of reasoning abilities. 

Promoting the development of cognitive skills and conceptual understanding in learning, students and parents will be able to access the step-by-step solutions of all problem sums on onSponge’s website and also post questions for online help while doing these sums. The flagship brand of onSponge, +hinkingMath has helped many students overcome their challenge in Math problem sums and the quality passes (A/A*) of their students for the PSLE result at onSponge certified learning centres is at 80 to 85% – this despite their students’ intake of entry score that range from 30 to 80 marks. Currently, more than 140 primary schools in Singapore have worked with onSponge for the use of their resource as supplementary materials to enhance the students’ performance.

Availability

The SAP print app is now available for download free of charge for owners of HP Web-connected printers. The onSponge print app will be available later this year.

The print apps are available on HP’s web-connected printers including HP Officejet Premium 6700 e-All-in-One and HP Photosmart 5520, 6520, 7520 e-All-in-One printers.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance, market share or competitive performance relating to products and services; any statements regarding anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the competitive pressures faced by HP’s businesses; the development and transition of new products and services and the enhancement of existing products and services to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its customers, suppliers and partners; the protection of HP’s intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; the hiring and retention of key employees; assumptions related to pension and other post-retirement costs and retirement programs; the execution, timing and results of restructuring plans, including estimates and assumptions related to the cost and the anticipated benefits of implementing those plans; the resolution of pending investigations, claims and disputes; and other risks that are described in HP’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including HP’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2012.  HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

© 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

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Scoot Celebrates its First Anniversary with the

“World’s Longest Virtual Flight”

27 May 2013, Singapore – Scoot, LCC of the Year[1], today opened registrations for the “World’s Longest Virtual Flight” – on which one lucky contestant will win S$20,000 in cash, with a further S$30,000 in travel vouchers to be given away!

The contest, in which anyone can participate by registering at www.facebook.com/flyscoot, will take place on 4 June 2013, a year to the day since Scoot operated its first ever commercial flight. Following the same route as the inaugural service, the virtual flight will “take off” from Singapore to Sydney at 9pm on 4 June 2013 and “fly” back from Sydney to Singapore at 5am on 5 June 2013.

Said Campbell Wilson, CEO of Scoot, “In the past 12 months, Scoot has gone from just one aircraft and one destination to a fleet of five aircraft operating to Sydney, Gold Coast, Bangkok, Taipei, Tokyo, Tianjin, Qingdao and Shenyang, with Seoul and Nanjing commencing in the next two weeks. It’s been a busy and exciting year for all of us at Scoot, and we’re incredibly grateful for all those who’ve supported us. Our online community, especially, has been fantastic, so we wanted to celebrate our first anniversary in a fitting way – and what more fitting way for an online community than to win cash and prizes for doing what they do best: clicking!”

Contestants “on board” must tap (mobile) or click (desktop) the “Scoot Virtual Flight” every 60 seconds initially…with the contestant who outlasts all others walking away with S$20,000 cash and free Scoot flights for one year! All participants will also have the chance to receive one of the S$30,000 in Scoot travel vouchers being given away throughout the contest.

In addition, 200 contestants will be invited to participate in person at Golden Village City Square Mall theatre, where they can enjoy a free movie marathon, make themselves comfortable with Scoot blankets and “win before they begin” with travel vouchers.

To participate in the “World’s Longest Virtual Flight” contest, simply register at www.facebook.com/flyscoot from 12pm on 27 May 2013, accept the contest’s terms and conditions, read the tips on how to stay safe, then “board” the virtual flight at 8pm on 4 June 2013 ready for “take off” at 9pm. Get ready to Scoot for S$20,000 cash!

– Ends –

About Scoot™

Scoot™ operates medium and long haul no-frills flights between Singapore and Sydney, Gold Coast, Bangkok, Taipei, Tokyo, Tianjin, Shenyang and Qingdao, with Seoul and Nanjing commencing shortly. Operating a fleet of Boeing 777-200 aircraft, Scoot provides – in addition to fantastic value airfares – a safe, reliable and contemporary travel experience with a unique attitude – Scootitude™. Scoot is passionate about changing the way people travel long distance. Book your tickets at Flyscoot.com or contact our call centre. Find out more on Flyscoot.com, Facebook.com/FlyScoot ore.Weibo.com/Flyscoot!

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I'll answer your question, but first I need to explain all of human civilisation in 2 minutes with the aid of a cartoon snake.

Humans like to think we're a clever lot. Yet those magnificent, mighty brains that allow us to split the atom and touch the moon are the same stupid brains that can't start an assignment until the day before it's due.

We evolved from primitive creatures, but we never quite shed ourselves of their legacy. You know the clever, rational part of your brain you think of as your human consciousness? Let's call him Albert. He lives in your brain alongside an impulsive baby reptile called Rex:

(Rex is your basal ganglia, but that's not very catchy so I'm sticking with Rex).

Rex evolved millions of years ago – unsurprisingly enough, in the brains of reptiles – and his instincts guide and motivate you to this day. Hunger. Fear. Love. Lust. Rex's thoughts are primitive and without language.

Here's the bit you're not going to like. Rex makes the final call on all your decisions. Every. Single. One.

We like to think of Albert as "our true self" – the conscious part of your brain. He's the talking, reasoning part. When we decide to go to the gym or write that term paper, Albert made that decision.

Rex does listen to Albert. Like a child, he will do a lot of what he's told, as long as he wants to. But if Rex prefers to crash on the sofa to watch Survivor and eat Cheetos, that's what you're going to do.

The incredible ascension of mankind that surrounds us is largely possible because we've developed systems to nurture our reptilian brains, to subdue, soothe and subvert them.

Much of this this system we call "civilisation". Widely available food and shelter take care of a lot. So does a system of law, and justice. Mandatory education. Entertainment. Monogamy. All of it calms Rex down for long enough for Albert to do something useful – like discover penicillin, or invent Cheetos.

Now let's look at your procrastination.

You're making a decision with your conscious mind and wondering why you're not carrying it out. The truth is the real decision maker – Rex – is not nearly so mature.

Imagine you had to constantly convince a young child to do what you wanted.  For simple actions, asserting your authority might be enough. "It's time for dinner". But if that child doesn't want to do something, it won't listen. You need to cajole it:

• Forget logic. Once you've decided to do something, logic and rationale won't help you. Your inner reptile can be placated, scared and excited. But it doesn't speak with language and cannot be reasoned with.
• Comfort matters. If you're hungry, tired or depressed your baby reptile will rebel. Fail to take care of yourself, and he'll wail and scream and refuse to do a damn thing you say. That's what he's for. Eat, sleep and make time for fun.
• Nurture discipline. Build a routine of positive and negative reinforcement. If you want a child to eat their vegetables, don't give them dessert first. Reward yourself for successes, and set up assured punishments for your failure. Classic examples include committing to a public goal, or working in a team – social pressure can influence Rex. 
• Incite emotion. Your reptile brain responds to emotion. That is its language. So get yourself pumped, or terrified. Motivational talks, movies and articles can work, for a while. I use dramatic music (one of my favourite playlists is called "Music to Conquer Worlds By"). Picture the bliss associated with getting something done, or the horrors of failing. Make your imagination vivid enough that it shakes you. We use similar tricks on children for a reason: "brush your teeth or they'll fall out".
• Force a start. The most important thing you can do is start. Much of Rex's instincts are to avoid change, and once you begin something those instincts start to tip into your favour. With enough time, you can even convince Rex to love doing the things he hated. There's a reason we force kids to go to school or to try piano lessons.
• Bias your environment. Rex is short sighted and not terribly bright. If he sees a Facebook icon, he'll want it. It's like showing a child the start of a cool TV program immediately before bedtime. Design your environment to be free from such distractions: sign out of instant messenger, turn off notifications, turn off email. Have separate places for work and fun, and ideally separate computers (or at least accounts).

Once you know what to look for, you'll start to recognise the patterns and control them.

There's an impulsive baby reptile in your brain, and unfortunately he has the steering wheel. If you can be a good parent to him he'll mostly do what you say, and serve you well. Just remember who's in charge.

For more posts like this, follow my board: Leading a better life

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Now here is a crazy video of one engagement. Backed by studded violin, harp, laser show, fireworks and parachutists presenting jewellery among others highlights, Low Taek Jho allegedly tried to win the heart of mandopop star, Elva Hsiao. The cost? An alleged £1m. The end result? It wasn’t pretty according to the description in the Facebook video:

However, the outrageous extravagance was reportedly not enough to move Hsiao’s heart.

Apple Daily says it understands that Hsiao (right), 33, rejected the proposal and only saw Low, 31, as a “little brother”.

If this is true, burned badly, he was. Burned. Moral of the story: money can buy you anything but love.

Complete description of the Facebook video after the break…

4.9 million wedding proposal ended up with elva rejecting him

Taiwanese newspaper Apple Daily broke the news after coming across a video recording reportedly documenting Low’s proposal.

His target – famous Taiwanese mandopop singer Elva Hsiao.

The daily cites a video uploaded a year ago to video-sharing site, vimeo.com, by British-based professional photographer Peter Rear. 
‘Surprise engagement proposal rumoured to cost of £1m (RM4.9 million).’

The rumoured cost is of little surprise as the event took place on a private beach at pricey hotel resort Atlantis, The Palm – the most famous hotel on the island of Palm Jumeirah, off Dubai.

Rear’s 5-minute 27-second video depicts the couple arriving in a black Rolls-Royce and strolling to the beach, where candles are laid out in a gigantic Valentine heart.

The couple, holding each other, then proceed to dine on an luxurious set – claimed to be the work of Dubai’s architectural and interior design firm Ali Bakhtiar Designs – as a laser show outlines the couple’s silhouette.

Singer is moved to tears, but…

The couple enjoy their meal while being serenaded by a harpist and a violinist. It is no ordinary violin either, for it is studded with what appears to be precious stones.

Breaking the romantic tone, several parachutists descend from the sky and land on the beach to present Hsiao with jewellery made by Swiss luxury brand Chopard.

By then, Hsiao is moved to tears.

However, the outrageous extravagance was reportedly not enough to move Hsiao’s heart.

Apple Daily says it understands that Hsiao (right), 33, rejected the proposal and only saw Low, 31, as a “little brother”. 

The newspaper also reported that a spokesperson had denied claims that Low had proposed to Hsiao at the event, stressing that it was just a “romantic dinner”. 

Penang-born Low, who is reportedly part of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s inner circle, is best known for his attempts to woo American socialite Paris Hilton and hard partying habits with his A-list friends in the United States.

Low, whose real name is Low Taek Jho, is the son of a Penang tycoon who reportedly has close links with Middle Eastern investors. 

Locally, he is reportedly involved with the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) – now known as the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) – and UBG Bhd, which is owned by the family of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.
The chubby-looking Low got into themedia spotlight two years ago after reports about his extravagant partying with controversial Hollywood actress Paris Hilton hit the front pages of newspapers, local and around the world.

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Let’s make you an entrepreneur in 5 minutes. (I like a challenge).

You don’t need qualifications, money, a planet-sized-brain or even a particularly good idea. All an entrepreneur ever does is create something that consistently makes money.

Think of a company as amachine you design and build. Here’s McDonalds:

Your ‘machine’ always has certain parts. It sells something to someone, and re-invests some of that to help make more sales in future. What’s left over is profit for the owners. Here’s Google:

If you can design, build, own and care for such a machine, you can become very rich indeed. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but most of the barriers that you think will stop you won’t. Interested?

Let’s talk about you

Are you young, poor, unqualified – a student, or hating your job? Maybe a touch rebellious? Perfect. You have no bad habits, and will work until your fingernails fall out and your eyeballs roll onto the desk. The world awaits you.

Older, wiser, bit of money saved, experienced with a stable job? Maybe a mortgage and kids? Your job is much harder. It can be done, but it might feel like you’re trying to dance backwards through quicksand.

The most important qualities of a good entrepreneur are energy and determination. It doesn’t hurt to be persuasive, but this can be learned. I started as a shy uber-nerd aged 21; I soon learned how to sell when it was the only way to feed myself.

Enough preamble. Let’s make you a bajillion dollars:

The idea

Please forget all of the terrible deluded nonsense you’ve heard about the value of ideas. Ideas are cheap, fleeting things; by itself a business idea is worth less than a half-eaten sandwich. At least you can eat the sandwich.

You do need an idea of course. But understand that even the most successful companies were not founded on wild or brilliant ideas. Starbucks chose the brazen path of selling coffee in Seattle. Facebook built a better MySpace. Google built a better Yahoo search. Microsoft copied Apple – who copied Xerox.

Original ideas are overrated. What isn’t overrated is timing. Google chose the perfect time to build a better search engine – good luck trying to do that now *cough* Bing *cough*. What you want, therefore, is an astute awareness of a need that is currently underrepresented in the market. You want to spot a product or service that can go places – original or not. It’s usually easier to refine an existing idea that isn’t fully realised than to create a wholly original one.

People fear setting up a business wherever there’s competition, but competition can be a good thing. The best place to setup a new restaurant is right next to another successful restaurant; they’ve kindly done the hard work for you of building an audience. Many a good business has ridden to success on the coattails of another – it is usually better to have some rivals over none. You just need to become 10% better.

I personally recommend trying to deliver something that you and your friends would buy in a heartbeat. You’ll know more about your field, you’ll understand your customers, and you’ll be passionate about what you do. If you can make your company about a why – not a what – you’ll inspire yourself and those around you. And to survive the next step, you need a fair sprinkle of inspiration:

Starting

Starting a company is a bit like parenting; everyone assumes you know what you’re doing, but babies and companies don’t come with instruction manuals. You stumble through it, learning as you go.

It’s at the start where you’re most likely to fail. Your aim is to build that magical money-making machine, but you probably don’t have all the parts and the ones that you need may cost more than you have. Your idea is probably at least half wrong too, but you won’t know which half yet. All of this is normal.

A big part of starting a company is convincing people to believe in you before they probably should. When Steve Jobs founded Apple, he had no money and no customers; what he did next is the hallmark of a great entrepreneur. First he convinced a local computer store to order his non-existent Apple computers, with payment on delivery. He then convinced a parts supplier to sell him the components he needed to build them – using the order he just obtained as proof he would be able to pay them back. Jobs and a small team worked in their garage to build the first computers, delivered them on time and made a tidy profit. Apple was born from nothing.

Most new entrepreneurs play a few gambits early on like this. If it sounds scary, that’s because it is. I once had to pay staff salaries on my heavily burdened credit cards when an early order fell through. You fake it until you make it.

While doing all this you need to juggle between making the perfect company (idealist) and paying your bills (realist) – an absence of either will eventually kill you. I believe it’s one reason why realist / idealist partnerships are so common in business.

Do not scale prematurely. Don’t try to be a big company early on – just aim to be one. Be slow to spend and to hire at first. Don’t waste time writing mission statements and policy documents. You’re small, nimble and on a mission. Make and sell things. There’ll be time for a HR department later.

Don’t be surprised if you change your company entirely. It’s a rare business that survives first contact with its customers. Try to avoid doing this more than once though, it doesn’t pay well.

Survive long enough, reinvest your meagre successes and compound them. Eventually, you can move on to:

Extracting yourself

This is the step most small businesses never accomplish.

Up until now, your magical business machine almost certainly contains one irreplaceable part: you. If your background is accounts, you’re probably the head accountant. If you’re a programmer, you’re probably the best coder. Whatever you do, chances are you’ll feel essential and somewhat overworked.

Here’s the hard part: you need to make yourself redundant. If you dropped dead tomorrow, your business should carry on working just fine. All of your time needs to be spent working on your business, not for your business. The alternative is you’re basically self-employed with assistants.

Some businesses can’t escape this trap. If you’re a brilliant copywriter – say – you’ll struggle. It’s because what makes you a great company is you, and unless you can bottle up you into a business model, you can’t grow.

McDonalds built a business that works even if they hire almost entirely minimum wage workers. Their process makes it work: every burger is efficient and nearly indistinct, and nothing is left to chance. Their brand is so strong people line up worldwide to eat there. Your business may be radically different, but it should be similarly robust.

If you accomplish this, you now own something that is self-sustaining. You should be able to pull a good salary even if you never go into work. Your time is now free to tweak your business endlessly into something better. Now to conquer the world, all you need to do is:

Scale

The final step is a bit like playing Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. Each question you get right doubles your money, or you’re going home.

Do not make the naive mistake of assuming a big company is like a small one but bigger. Oh, nevermind. That’s like telling your kids to listen to you, really, drinking doesn’t make you cool. You’ll learn the hard way.

As a company grows the rules and your culture change completely. You may even find yourself disliking the company you created (many founders feel conflicted like this, eventually). If you’ve made it this far, you have many options: hire help, sell, or double-down and see where the ride takes you.

Remember no businesses can grow indefinitely. Most industries are more efficient at different sizes – it’s easy to be a two-man plumbing company, but near impossible to build a 1,000 man plumbing corporation. Know the limits of yours well in advance. Software is an example of an industry that scales exceedingly well, which is why it creates so many young billionaires.

And finally

It’s never been easier to start a company. You can create a killer product in your student dorm without even registering any paperwork – that was enough for Facebook.

I think entrepreneurship is a form of enlightened gambling. Skill and tenacity are big factors, but luck plays a big part. However, as long as you can keep picking yourself up when you get knocked down, try different things and keep learning, the odds are in your favour. You just have to dare to chance them.

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The user_email had been changed. I had it replaced with an email under my control and reset the password through the WordPress system instead of changing the user_pass directly in phpMyAdmin. When I logged into the site, the first thing I noticed was this:

I immediately took down the site and had the index.php file replaced with a maintenance message. I was hungry and so was my friend.

Moving on, I had no idea how they did it. The only sign was that it was hacked about 6 hours earlier. The only file I could detect a change was index.php in the active theme folder. There was no raw logs for me to see. It was my fault since I didn’t have it enabled when I helped her setup the site years ago. So I did what I could: I replaced the core files if there were any unwanted changes, and I had old, obsolete, unmaintained plugins removed or replaced, unless I had seen the codes and understand what the codes are doing.

This sparked me to doing maintenance on my site too.

It was running terribly slow. I had too much bloat in the system. The only saving grace was that this site is hosted on local soil, fast enough, but slow nonetheless. I ended up removing competing plugins, cleaning up database, and implementing cache, CloudFlare. It also indirectly sparked me to hack the Facebook plugin.

If I was lazy or missed a step, there would not be a featured image to display in the og:image tag. This hack would allow a user to specify an image to use. Still a work-in-progress since I have yet to test out the hack. After the test, a pull request will be made to the git and hopefully, my name would be on the contributors list. Heh.

And oh, I don’t like it how the plugin gets the full size of the featured image and list it in og:image. It should at least be gracefully degraded from thumbnail size if the thumbnail size is not at least 200x200px. Preferences, I guess.

Related posts:

WordPress Plugin: Gigya Expected outage On the receiving end of DMCA notice

2012 had been a hectic year, as was with 2011. As usual, I overloaded myself with modules, assignments and side projects. As usual, my 2012 New Year resolutions were not kept. I did not lose weight. My grades were maintained than improved.

What was different between 2011 and 2012 are the friends I made and the friends I kept. They were and forever always are a great bunch of people to work and enjoy with. I gained a great group of friends or two.

Forged by our common times together struggling over the planning and steering of our CCA, SMU Assurance and Advisory Team and despite of our vast differences (I wondered how the earlier executive committee placed us together), we managed to our best abilities and deliver as much as possible. Additionally, grabbing the opportunity at Accenture’s Skill of Succeed competition with new-found friends was a good idea indeed. I picked up plenty and learned a lot from Accenture and my friends. We got 1st runner up eventually.

Through my non-curricular activities, I made more friends through Quora; I reconnected with friends from ping.sg and Youth Olympic Games days; I relived the joy of casual PC gaming through friends from Hackerspace SG.  I learned how to have fun, and be fun once more.

Through my academic studies, I made friends whom I don’t mind sharing my thoughts aloud and being silly in front of them. Without them, I guess opening up and accepting old wounds would not be possible. 2012 was also the year I had my first In-Camp Training. It was refreshing from the usual hustle and bustle I had for the past 2-3 years, and I now understand why the NSMen I interacted during my active days welcomed ICTs.

31st December 2012 also marks the end of my heightened state of committing oneself endlessly to projects, executive committees and other random stuff. I guessed I have kept myself busy all these while, ever since JC, when I became very distracted from studies. The sole goal of keeping myself from thinking too much is no longer there. Time does heal scars, no matter how deep they are. 5 years. 5 years is more than enough. I was probably made aware to this fact much earlier, just that I was in denial. Until now.

2013 should be the time for me to take a slower pace and really discover myself once more. I can afford this indulgence, since I had overloaded myself for too long, leaving too little modules for myself for the next two years. Enough of hustling, it is time to reap what I sowed and tie up loose ends. 

Welcome to 2013.

P.S. The Mayans were right. It was the end of the world for me, in a good way. 

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New Year Resolutions Reflections from Technology and World Change