Monthly Archives: June 2007

alamak, little boy

June’s blog have been one great source of entertainment, and if you do not know June, how she write on the blog is so different from how she portray herself!

Extract from June Low’s Blog

my boyfriend is funny.
he is the ONLY guy whom i know,(by far) who doesn’y know
Victoria’s secrets is a very famous retailer of to-die-for lingerie in the States.
He thinks it’s Victoria Beckham’s Own brand, that sells clothes.(designed by her)
She does has her own brand, but i can’t remember what it is.
I know for sure it isn’t called Victoria’s Secrets ((:
HAHAHAH

Eh! Little Boy! Even I know what is Victoria’s Secret loh!!!!
Even Channel 5 shows the fashion show of Victoria’s Secret every year, where you can see anorexic models parading around their lingerie. Alamak..

Maybe, maybe DOTA really is a boyfriend stealer.

Latest Update:
Eh… Even Uncle Heng know loh! *lol*

my first entrepreneur effort

I always thought that the “entrepreneur” genes in me came in only during my army period, when I started to read related books, and realize that, ‘Hey! I can make a difference in my life too!’ instead of the usual ‘study, get a degree, get a stable job’ routine.

However, due to certain incidents that happened recently, I realized that it was way way much earlier… in fact, during my poly days… or even, my secondary days.

During secondary days, my school tend to have some carnival during the Youth Day. I was always the first one to volunteer to work on the stall. And started to think of what kind of stalls should our class have. (Business Plan/Proposal)

After which, I began to rope in my classmates and work on the idea and improvised it. Then it would be ‘budget planning’ and getting the necessary stuff. (Setting Up)

We would sometimes try to ‘find out’ what other classes did and try to see how we can improve and differentiate from their idea. (Market Survey)

And a few days before the carnival, we would try to design some flyers and get it xerox and design some posters for the day itself. (Advertising & Promotion)

And the BIG DAY arrived! Setting up the stall, promo it, getting other classmates to mend our stalls (HR), getting schoolmates, teachers and parents to patronize our stall etc etc.

In the end, our stall are usually one of the stalls with the greatest profit!

*Hey… I never knew that all these activities can translate to a mini Apprentice challenge! Ha ha!*

Anyway, that wasn’t the *actual* first.

It was during my polytechnic days, I suppose.

I was giving tuition and I came to realize, instead of giving tuition, why not, I provide tuition matching services? And with some simple planning, I made some calls to Classifieds Ads and got 2 advertisements, 1 for tutors and 1 for students, which cost me about 60 bucks. And waited for the BIG DAY to come when the advertisements are being published.

I wasn’t really prepared. The first call came at 7.30am on my mobile and I was still asleep! I immediately sprang up and try to clear my ‘sleepy voice’ and registered the first tutor. That day alone, I registered about 200 tutors, and 3 students.

Matching began, and I have to admit, it wasn’t easy, especially for a polytechnic student. Calls began to swamp my mobile (it wasn’t the free incoming call era, mind you), calls to the student and tutor to coordinate the first lesson and prices, having to keep my files with me at ALL times (you never know when the next potential student calls) etc etc.

I managed to match 2 successful student by the end of a month. And it was collection of the 50% commission. Being a young kid, at 17, with a baby face (well, there are strangers and people who thinks I am 20, although I am going 25), I could see the surprised look on the parents when I visited their household. I would just say that, ‘Oh, I am helping my uncle to collect the sum as he is busy at the moment’. And it works, at least I thought so.

However, after 2 months, I threw in the towel. Maybe I was too young. Maybe I was overwhelmed. Maybe I wasn’t ready yet. Too much maybe.

But this is a good experience for me, now thinking back about it. And a good stepping stone for the rest of my years.

Fast forward to 2005. My second foray into entrepreneurship. Shall elaborate more soon. And this is the encounter which I realized I learnt most about friends and life.

Trying to be an entrepreneur

A quote from cobaltpaladin

…we don’t become entrepreneurs because our friend or neighbour is an entrepreneur. We become an entrepreneur because we have something we believe in – because we have a dream. A dream we call our own and passionate about. It is our own choice to become an entrepreneur.

We don’t need a culture to be an entrepreneur. To be an entrepreneur is a personal choice. It is from within, not without. A true entrepreneur challenges the norm and no matter what conditions we are in, true entrepreneurs will adapt. We go against the grain. We are the ‘weird’ ones. No matter how adverse the conditions, how difficult the path, the true warrior will walk…. alone if need be.

Remember, being an entrepreneur is a personal choice. And we can do it in Singapore, because we have the freedom to choose.

Reading these lines, gave me some thoughts.

I have some friends, whom I should say, quote close. However, they were like the ‘typical’ Singaporeans, where you were brought up to study, get a degree and find a stable job.

They were always trying to dissuade me from trying out some ideas. You have to get a job! They say. You are not young anymore! They added.

I used to be very de-moralized when I talked to them about my dreams. To the point that I just gave superficial answers when they asked me what I want to do when I graduate. There is no point for me to talk to them about my dreams.

Thanks, Cobalt Paladin. Your blog is now a ‘bible’ for me. It gave me new thoughts and inspiration on how I should work on my stuff. And I know how to ‘filter‘ away the nay-sayers when they boo boo my dreams.

It is my dream and I choose to live it. At least, I know when 10 years down the road, whether I succeed or not, I will not regret my decision. For the very least, I tried. As what all my e-mails says, “Don’t dream your life, live your dreams!”

MAJOR revamp

Went home at 3.00am last night.

Nope, I did not went to chiong. In fact, I wasn’t at home for the past 35 hours. Nope, I am not an angst-filled teenager who were running away from home. I was just engaged in some work .

And it set me thinking. What I had done for the past 18 months, which could be valuable archive for me, wasn’t documented! I had missed out on so much.

In addition, Cobalt Paladin gave me the additional inspiration and motivation. His entries, as an entrepreneur is an excellent journal documenting his journey to his success in his business. It also serves as a think aloud platform for him to reflect and look back on what he has done.

Therefore, why can’t I do that too?

Sooooooooo, as the entry title suggested, I would be going for a MAJOR revamp in this blog. Not just the entries, which I always had struggled to fill in, especially I do not have much of a social life. But the content. Content of my entrepreneur road trip with a couple of my buddies, content of my complains hee hee, contents of lessons learnt along the way.

Will start off with some archive lessons learnt from my previous foray. Stay tuned.

Back Today!!!

Ha ha…

Some of you guys might be wondering why there are postings to my blog despite being MIA for the past few days.

In fact, I am writing this now @ Sunday, 10 June 2007, probably 40 degrees weather, in my room posting all these in advance!

Will be back today and you will see the latest update soon!

Anyway, brought my laptop along, so will be updating regular. However, since there is archive for the past few days and next few days, you will get to see it soon!

Men In White Part 3

And here we are, at Al Dente.

However, it has it’s own fair share of adventure too. 10 minutes after we ordered our food, the *poor* waitress came and told us that the fondue is not available.

June was available. Clarence was fuming. (Ok, I exaggerated. Well , he wasn’t too happy about it. All of us wasn’t happy, too.)

The drinks was prepared but Clarence refused to accept it unless there’s confirmation that fondue is available, especially since the floor manager told us there is before we decided to enter.

Anyway, the poor waitress told us that there is fondue 5 minutes later. And we accept the drinks anyway.

And my conspiracy came after that. Will the chef and the bartender add ‘special ingredients’ to our food? I don’t know. Anyway, it was a typical makan session from Stickmen!

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That’s the fondue and tiramisu!

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Our drinks. Strawberry Margarita, Singapore Sling, Sex on the Beach and one more dunno-what.

Men In White Part 2

In true blue Stickmen fashion, we had to ‘shop-hop’ 3 places before we confirmed on where we had our supper.

Shop 1: Haagen-Daz.
We wanted to settle for the fondue. However, it was not available, perhaps sold out for the day? Anyway, we barely warmed the seat before we decided, nope, we shall not settle for anything less.

So off we go. ONE.

Shop 2: Max Brenner Chocolate Bar
Peered around the entrance. Saw fondue on some of the patron’s table. Decided to go in. Checked with the staffer about the chocolate fondue. Well, all I can say is we left the place even before we got to sit down.

So off we go again. TWO.

Shop 3: MakanSutra Glutton’s Bay
Found seats there. Disappointed. We were almost raising the white flags to fate when June saw a billboard of fondue by Al Dente! We were delighted! However, after lessons learnt from the previous 2 eateries, we were more cautious before we leave the Glutton’s Bay. Therefore, Clarence and I went in and CONFIRM that there is fondue before we called the rest in. and yup, there was. And off we go again, from shop 3 to final pitshop, Al Dente.

And yup, confirm and guarantee chop that pictures are up tomorrow. :)

Men In White Part 1

It just initially a bored Tuesday and got a SMS from Anthony that there was free tickets to the charity premiere of ‘Men In White’, a local horror-comedy.

Well, there was horror. Horribly Lame.
There was comedy. All of us are laughing how lame it was.

If that’s what the director had intended it to be, probably he has succeed it very very much.
However, at the expense of jeopardizing his reputation, I supposed?

*Sorry Kelvin Tong. I know you are a good director. But this film doesn’t do you justice. Apologies extended to Shuan Chen. This film doesn’t do you justice too, especially as your debut. You are a great actor. This film shows only 5% of your talent.*

The goodies was probably the ‘supper/desert’ session the rest of us went after that…

Look out for the entry tomorrow for the great pics of our makan!

Random Pictures Series #2: Uniquely Singapore – ‘Chomping Seats’

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Not really random picture series, but an excuse to kick start my random picture series.
As what the chinese idioms says, 百闻不如一见, this shot was taken from Lau Pa Sat (Tanjung Pagar, Shenton Way, Central Business District, Singapore Financial District ) when Xuehui and I went to meet Dave for lunch. (Getting my WorldCard for my “MIA-ing” by the way from Yvonne)

It’s so true! You see galores of tissue paper everywhere!  And I thought only ladies does that! Men do that too! OMG!

Seeing the scene yesterday, gave me an inspiration…. Ha ha… shall reveal soon when the time is right.