KianAnn.com: Live Life

Today is the first day of the second half of 2009. First day of Q3 2009 already.

Time flies. Fast.

I’m happy about my progress for the first half. But I’m still darn far from the goals I’ve set out to achieve in the beginning of the year.

Really need to buck up and get focused.

I’m back here at LCCT Food Garden, waiting for time to pass before I board my plane home. Today I’m here in KL only for a day trip, leaving home at 5-ish and reaching home just before midnight.

Today, I’ve also got my Celcom prepaid mobile broadband card – so I’ll never have to pay RM30 for 2 hours of Internet Access in the hotel anymore. The daily rate for Internet Access is only RM6, and since I can access the net thru my phone, its great.

The only nuances, however, is that I will need to keep topping up the card in order to keep the account alive, and I have only one phone, so getting connected means I will not be contactable via my own phone number.

Another 9 more days, and its the last day of the first half of this year. Time flies. Come to think of it, so much has progressed since I made my first trip here to KL back in February. And its only been 4 months!

I’m grateful for my business here in KL. Today, my friend asked me if I still have capacity to take in more projects – I told him, wait – to let me settle the ones I have on hand first.

Things seem also seem to be spreading in the US. From one contact, it has now became 3 projects. The projects are a lot smaller though, but I’m not complaining. Actually, I like the US based projects – first of all, they pay in USD, and secondly, I don’t have to travel to meet them in person! Hah!

Hurray!

Its been some time since I completed reading another book. This one, Your Roadmap for Success by John Maxwell, is a great read.

Like most Maxwell’s books, this book is very detailed and provides really concrete steps, concepts and examples of the principles behind success. Here is my summary.

1. Success is a journey.
2. Success is not only a money thing.
3. If you make happiness your goal, you are almost certainly destined to fail.
4. Possesions are a temporary fix.
5. Success is knowing your purpose in life, and living it.
6. Focus on one main goal.
7. Concentrate on continual improvement.
8. Forget the past and focus on the future.
9. Where would I like to go?
10. A dream gives up dedication, gives us our potential, helps us prioritize, adds value to our work, predicts our future.
11. Be willing to give up in order to go up.
12. It takes hunger, tenacity, and commitment to see through a dream to reality.
13. There will be people who will criticize you, no matter what. Don’t let them distract you.
14. Share your dream, include others.
15. When our attitudes outdistance our abilities, even the impossible becomes possible.
16. Your attitude determines your altitude.
17. Couple a dream with the right attitude!
18. Your attitude is always a choice.
19. You can change, you can be more positive today.
20. How you think affects how you approach your success journey.
21. Associate with positive people.
22. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
23. Plan your success journey.
24. Have goals to keep you focused on improvement.
25. Articulate a statement of purpose, and have 80% of daily activities focused on this purpose.
26. Review your goals on a continual basis.
27. Never travel anywhere without a book.
28. Keep growing. Read, listen, attend seminars.
29. Be teachable.
30. Stay hungry for learning.
31. Let your learning lead to action, not knowledge.
32. Get into a growth environment.
33. Life is a one way street.
34. Face and overcome your fears. Most fears are unwarranted.
35. Fear is the price of progress.
36. Develop a burning desire to break through fear.
37. What happens in you is more important than what happens to you.
38. Feed your faith, not your fear.
39. Learn to fail forward.
40. Know the landmarks.
41. Excellence is always a choice.
42. There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.
43. Focus on getting good at one thing.
44. Develop character.
45. Get rid of excuses.
46. Practise self discipline.
47. Stay hungry.
48. Your family makes you complete.
49. Make your home a supportive environment.
50. Take effort to communicate continually.
51. Marriages start because of love, but they finish because of commitment.
52. Be a leader that attracts other leaders.
53. Possess uncommonly positive attitudes.
54. Raise someone up with you on your journey.
55. Make people development your top priority.
56. Limit who you take along. Spend 80% of time on the top 20%.
57. Give help unconditionally.
58. Always bring something to the table.

This Seth Godin’s post really explains my stand towards “proper education” as defined by 99% of the world.

Frankly, that is exactly what I felt about the books I had to buy when I was still in an academic institution. Those books were originally sitting in my bookshelf (and yes, I was stupid enough to buy each and every textbook my lecturers recommended as the primary textbook), but over a year ago, I took them out to make space for the thinner books that teach me more.

You know what? Those books have been lying there in the carton boxes for a whole year, and I’ve not even touched them. At all. That shows how useful and practical these books are in real life.

And its crazy. I see friends working hard at their jobs in the day, and furthering their education at night, slogging over assignments and rushing for project deadlines… Its a MAD paper chase.

Its a sad thing that papers are what our society recognizes and rewards.

If I were to choose again, I’d use the time and money trying more (and failing more if necessary) in real businesses. In that two and a half years I’d have learnt more stuff, learnt more practical stuff, and met more people.

I’m so overloaded with work. It seems like every second I’m awake I’m “fighting fire”, rushing work. Sometimes I wonder if hard work really pays. Working hard simply creates expectations for you work even harder. That’s kinda sick, but its true from my experience.

Really need to take time to balance off and chill out a little.

Oh BTW, Lata Berembun photos are up. Access them here, or just view the slideshow below.

Getting back to the jungles after 2 years of nuah-ness is fun. I’m going to have more adventure trips this year.

Its been a good number of days since I last wrote. Things have been going good, to say the least – I’ve got enough projects to keep me alive. The only trouble is finding means to overdeliver on these projects.

A friend (an experienced business coach) advised me to stop taking in new projects for the time being. And so I shall. I know I should. Afterall, these projects I’ve secured are good for the rest of the year, at least. Its not a lot of money, but its good for survival. It feels really good actually, to know this.

Anyway, today is already the 10th day of June – an in 20 days time, half of 2009 would be gone. I haven’t started on my bigger personal projects yet, and I should.

I know that if I want my business to “explode”, I need to sell something scalable. Unfortunately, web design and search marketing services aren’t… at least, not easily. It isn’t my ambition to build a massive online marketing agency – not one that requires me to have heavy overheads.

I personally think that is risky business.

Actually, I’ve been very hesitant to heed advice from my business friends because of this. I know, companies typically get big by raising capital, getting more manpower and getting more jobs. But big doesn’t mean profitable. In fact, the biggest companies in the world are in their deepest pits right now. I think being big makes you vulnerable because of the heavy overheads. Small is the new big. Technology has enabled the smallest companies to scale virtually.

But on the other hand, I know I need more than just me. Maybe I’ll get someone to help me by the end of the year. Maybe a partner. No plans yet.

Its quite a challenge thinking about leveraged income streams – how to expand profit 300% but overheads 30%. But I think its doable.

Its 1am and I’ve just got home after a 30 mins walk, lugging a tent from a friend’s place in Pasir Ris. Tired, yet with pressing things to do by… erm… yesterday.

Not exactly a nice feeling. But I’m glad I’m not on the other extreme (i.e. have nothing to do).

Looks like its going to be a loooooong nite ahead, and tomorrow later I have half a day of coaching to do in TP. Argh.

Need to learn to plan my time better.

PX and I have recently been attending a marriage preparation course at Daybreak FSC.

Today (just now) was the second session of four. Today’s session made me re-realise the subtle things that PX and I interpret differently, and how these could be potentially growth areas for our marriage. It was fun, yet enlightening.

I think its very useful for couples who want to get married and have the intention to stay married for life.

Thanks dear.

Its tough to read Small is the New Big.

Not because it’s technically tough, but because these riffs and rants and little stories by Seth Godin make you think so much, that you simply cannot read more than a couple of stories a day. I read this book over the course of 2 months (well maybe a little less), and here is my summary.

This is a tad longer than my other summaries, I know.

1. Small is the new big.
2. Embrace accountability, sacrifice anonymity.
3. Focus on what you do best. Hire people for what they do best.
4. Stop comparing. Do something remarkable.
5. The best stories change over time.
6. Understand the customers worldview.
7. Create a brand, but don’t do branding.
8. Hard work is about risk. Need to overcome this risk.
9. Remarkable – something worth talking about.
10. You have to be different, or cheaper.
11. Marketing is a show to satisfy wants.
12. Stretch your limits without threatening your foundation.
13. Change the things in your life, but keep the changes simple. That helps you view everything as an opportunity.
14. Build a product in its own genre!
15. Take initiative.
16. Your business has to work when it is small to survive when it is big.
17. If you need to monopolise to profit, find something else.
18. Make new rules.
19. Create a barrier to entry for competition.
20. Hire people who are good at zooming, not people who are just competent.
21. People aren’t stupid. They are just too busy to care about the stuff you care about.
22. It isn’t good to always judge a book by its cover, but its how are we supposed to read books with bad covers?
23. We don’t create purple cows because we are afraid of critics.
24. But criticism is not always bad. At least people are talking.
25. Hype attracts criticism.
26. Criticise an idea based on how well it meets its objectives.
27. If you do not like an idea, suggest an alternative.
28. Leverage on a standard that is already in place.
29. If you want to be excellent, don’t be obsessed at being cheap.
30. Your most influential customers are creating news on the net. They can make or break your product or service.
31. Big doesn’t equal successful.
32. When your goal isn’t volume, you can cherry pick.
33. Study because of the learning, not for the grades.
34. Grow the market, don’t try to beat your competitors.
35. To get feedback, ask short simple questions.
36. Sometimes bad ideas stick around because nobody gets in trouble for sticking to status quo.
37. Give people gift certificates after they buy.
38. Make stuff worth talking about first.
39. Build a fan club.
40. Flip the funnel, change it to a megaphone.
41. Being first matters.
42. Being authentic creates word of mouth.
43. Could you invent a new use for your product?
44. Are you bundling something extraordinary for free?
45. Do your products and designs lack style?
46. When people who have worked hard to get what they want, they will not be easily persuaded off it.
47. Sell to people who are in the mood to flip.
48. Flip the small things first, change behaviors slowly.
49. In business, you will sometimes need to take five steps back, before taking 20 steps forward. That is scary.
50. Ask for suggestions and feedback, and implement them!
51. A mission statement that says everything is nothing.
52. Spend good time picking a name.
53. Learn to earn attention.
54. Find out what the “always” is, and do something different.
55. Don’t rely on being “only”.
56. Advertising online needs to be specific. You know what people are looking for before they come to your store!
57. To get people to give you their email, let them know what they will get, and not get.
58. Tell stories to sell.
59. Don’t confuse urgent and important.
60. Have a quick start mode.
61. Humans satisfice.
62. Promotions need to be targeted.
63. Don’t buy the conversation. Create it.
64. People have herd mentality. They buy because their pals buy too.
65. Being featured with your competition is sometimes a good thing.
66. Hang out where the sneezers hang out, and they will find you.
67. Good marketing encourages the right type of conversations in the marketplace.
68. People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
69. A product for everyone rarely reaches anyone.
70. There is no corelation between success and hours worked. Focus on the issues that matter.
71. The only way to make long term profits is by respecting people. Market to people who want to hear from you.
72. Ask yourself “What If” questions to discover opportunities.
73. Safe is risky.
74. Make something people will want to buy.
75. No scarcity, no profit.
76. The only way to build an email list – send out something interesting enough to read.
77. Your company does not have to grow in size to be more profitable.
78. Small keeps you swift and flexible.
79. Offer a subscription, get a base, and serve that base well.
80. The fear of loss is far greater than the desire to gain.
81. Track your buzz on Technorati.com
82. Think big and aim high.
83. Are you willing to carry responsibility?
84. Tradition is a powerful influencer.
85. Respect your customer.
86. Take responsibility and pay attention to details.
87. When you scale, you risk authencity.
88. Is your advertising really working? Or does it only make you feel good?
89. People like verbs more than nouns.
90. People behave differently on video.
91. An idea is viral, because people understand it, they want it to spread, they will personally gain from it, and its easy for them to spread.
92. Make it easy for your customers, prospects, etc. to fill out forms.
93. Web designers need to learn to test marketing.
94. Build a small site that generates revenue. Test.
95. What did you do this decade?
96. You are more likely to succeed with customers (strangers) recommending you.
97. Ask why?
98. Are you in the wrapper business? If not, move out of it. If you are, get really good at wrapping.
99. Simple elegant web sites are good.
100. Are you going through too long a process to get things done?
101. You are your references. Many things are recorded online, forever.
102. Its hard to stay remarkable. Learn to evolve.

Actually, this point summary is quite useless to people who have not read the book. Read the book, because Seth has a magical way with words. Get the book here.

A couple of days and its 5 months into the year. Gosh that is fast.