I remember my interview for a full time job. It was actually for the position of an Equity Analyst at Deutsche Bank, London. Before the interview I had made all sorts of preparations. I read up on things about the Company, I practiced answers to questions I thought the interviewer would ask and prepared myself for any test they would make me do.

I went for the interview the next day in my suit, CV in my hand and it went terribly. Unsurprisingly I didn’t get the job and I never really thought of why.

When I started Netccentric, we hired a lot of people and I sat in the chair of an interviewer. I began then to understand what interviewers look for. Having personally interviewed and hired probably a hundred candidates or so in the past years, I began to reflect on my first interview and cringe at how bad it was.

So I thought I’d share my mistakes here so nobody would ever follow me and make the same ones. Here they are:

1) I didn’t show ENERGY!

When you read tips on how to ace a job interview online, they always talk about how you must be confident and how you must smile. The truth is… YES… you have to do just that. But doing that alone IS NO LONGER ENOUGH. It’s almost as if it’s a GIVEN and it’s EXPECTED that an interview smiles or at least appears as confident as he or she can be.

What these articles don’t tell you is the other MORE important thing you must have:

That’s ENERGY and ENTHUSIASM. Energy and enthusiasm attracts people and rubs off on them! A lack of energy and enthusiasm does the exact opposite: it repels them.

Put yourself in the shoes of an interviewer. Two candidates, both of equal qualifications and skill sets come before you. Both also appear confident and smile at you. However one of them is VERY VERY enthusiastic about his job or living life in general… and the other is rather normal. Like what you would expect from all other candidates.

Which one would you hire?

2) I didn’t REALLY know enough about the company

The other preparation tip that people often give you before you go for an interview is to prepare for it. To learn about the company you’re interviewing for. So what I did was Google up the company’s corporate website and read up on it. When asked about what I knew about Deutsche Bank I recited almost word for word whatever was on their website… making it a point to even remember key numbers and statistics.

Wow I thought… I totally aced that one.

I was wrong!

The interviewees in the past who had really impressed me told me things about my company that wasn’t on our website. Some of the things were from articles they read online about us and some… even more impressively was from what people in my industry had said about us.

That’s what tells an interviewer that you’ve REALLY done your homework. Not because you went to www.db.com or www.netccentric.com. But that you asked around about them and did your own research.

3) I didn’t ask the right questions

“Be Interactive! Ask questions… show you’re smart”. That’s one of the other tips I was given. So before I went for my interview I prepared some questions I would ask if they were to ask me what I wanted to ask.

The question I asked was “Is there a Chinese Wall in my department vs the sales?”. The short answer any banker would tell you is YES… (you can google up what a Chinese Wall is). While I thought it was a smart question at the time, when I look back it’s really really… not just an elementary question but worse.. a TOTALLY IRRELEVANT one.

Don’t just ask questions for the sake of asking. Ask them because they MATTER. Questions like “What’s expected of me when I take on this role?” or “Who would I be reporting to? What he or she like?”.

These are the right questions to ask. If you want to ask questions about salary… well you can too but that sometimes backfires because the interviewer can think you’re too money minded. Besides there’s always a right time and place to ask about salaries and that’s when they give you an offer and show they want you. Not during the interview when they’re still deciding.

4) I didn’t TELL STORIES

The way I answered my interview questions was the way I would answer questions in an exam. Question then answer question then answer. Straight to the point.

Yes many questions warrant direct answers but there are questions that give you the opportunity to tell a story. Interviewers are people too and people are generally more engaged by stories than they are just facts or figures or statements. The key though is finding a relevant story.

For example if you’re asked “What makes you think you can do well in this equity research role?” (equity research is really a role where you study stocks and you write analyst reports that recommend whether to buy or sell a stock).

Instead of answering “Because I’m well-qualified, good in math and have done lots of research before in my previous jobs”.

It could be:
“I picked up a very keen interest in equities since I was age 15 because my family was all involved in the stock markets. I started by reading books and how to analyze stocks.

Then at university I decided to put this interest to test. With my knowledge and research I started virtual trading accounts and bought and sold stocks based on my own recommendations with virtual money. My virtual portfolio did well. Getting me over 30% returns in a year. So I think I’ll be really good in this job”.

Note that the story above is my own story and it’s true. Everyone has their own personal story that relates to their own job. So tell that story. A story that tells of your past personal success or explains why you’re so interested in this.

5) I didn’t show them that I was hungry 

Hunger, motivation or ambition is what many people look for. When I answered questions about the company I didn’t show that I really wanted this job. Perhaps it’s because at the time… well I didn’t really really want it. I had many options available and even if I didn’t get this one I had another one.

But that’s not necessarily how we should portray ourselves to interviewers. We have to show we want a job! (because really if we don’t really want a job then why even bother going for the interview). And yes you don’t want to appear too desperate such that they think they can offer you less. At the very least though if you know your worth and know how good you are then I think there’s nothing wrong with saying

“Listen… I have some other opportunities waiting for me out there but I really like this company and I really want this job. You guys are at the top of my list.  If you decide to hire me, please help me make this decision a no brainer for me by offering me a decent package and I’ll be happy to see you here on Monday!”.

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So that’s my two cents. Feel free to share this article of my own mistakes and feel free to leave comments if you have any of your own experiences to share.

Every now and then my friends and I will visit a casino. Whether it’s in Singapore, Australia, Macau… we somehow always find ourselves in a casino doing some gambling. I’m very cautious when it comes to gambling and the fear that it might turn into an addiction so I normally set myself a limit or a gambling budget and if I hit it, I’ll stop. Not a single bet more.

To add to that, I also don’t gamble big because I believe I have bad luck in gambling. While my friends often have moments when they win big, I normally go to casinos and lose. I imagine myself being the model gambler at a casino. I walk into a casino with some money and leave it all in the casino when I leave. So I always try to keep my limit to a minimum. Maybe $200 or so.

Then one day Ming watched me play a game of Baccarat at a table and he said “You know what… you’re playing this entirely wrong”.

I was intrigued. What do you mean entirely wrong? Isn’t gambling all about luck? And isn’t Baccarat a rather simple game. You bet on banker or on player and it’s an almost 50% chance to win either way. This is what I learned that really drew similarities to business.

1)   In business and in gambling, we have to take our chances and bet big at the right moments, or slowly lose it all.

Ming said “In gambling you cannot just keep betting the same small amount you bet. If you keep doing that you’re going to end up nowhere and eventually because the odds are slightly tipped against you, you’ll die a natural death. You have to see opportunities, then take the chance and go for it”.

It’s just like business. In business the odds are always stacked against you just like how the odds are stacked against you when you’re in a casino. You also have a limited amount of capital or resources in business and you have to make them count. If you constantly bet the same safe amount without taking any chances then eventually the odds catch up with you and you lose.

2) In business and gambling, you have to have enough capital

“Your capital is way too small. Your total budget is $200 when each hand is a minimum of $50 (which seems to be the case in most casinos we visit). With so little capital you lose very quickly and you’re not giving yourself enough time to bounce back when the tide comes. If you’re going to play like that then don’t bother gambling. You’re just throwing away money”. That was the next piece of advice Ming gave me.

I reflected on my past gambling experiences and it all made sense. I started with $200. The minute I lose the first two hands I’m down to $100. By right I should bet more in my next hand so I could make it back but I didn’t have the capital to so I walk away from the table prematurely and a loser.

It’s the same in business. Not every business idea makes money immediately. Sometimes we need to wait for the “wave” to come and then ride it but each day or week we wait we lose money. The longer we wait the more money we lose. So if we don’t have enough capital to wait out the tough times and make money in the good times the business dies prematurely and you never have a chance to ride the wave and make it all back. If we don’t have staying power to wait for the wave then perhaps it’s true that we shouldn’t even bother going into it.

3)   In business and gambling, you have to have resolve

One of my friends at the casino in Macau had a strategy in Baccarat. He wouldn’t bet on player or banker. He would bet only on whether the game would tie or not. He would look for games where there hadn’t been a tie in a long time and then bet on it. Ties don’t happen often but the odds if he won was 8 to 1. That means he can afford to lose 8 of the same bets before he gets 1 tie to break even. But if he increases his bet each time he loses he increases the payout and then could make more.

Another friend and I decided to follow his strategy. After 5 hands of losing straight we started to get jumpy. We were losing more and more money each time so we lost our discipline and decided not to go on with it. Literally one or two hands later, he got his tie and won big.

The difference between him and us was that my friend stayed the course. He had resolve… whereas we got scared when we were losing money and quit.

That’s like business. All businesses go through difficult times sooner or later and the ones who come out of it well are the ones who have a plan and are determined enough to stick to it.

When I think of these 3 similarities I can’t help but think of how business and gambling are alike. They both require capital, they both require people to take risks, they both reward the risk takers and they both test your determination and resolve. I realize now that perhaps I’ve been losing at casinos not because I don’t have gambling luck. But because I was playing it all wrong.

This week really flew by for me very quickly. I’m sitting right now in my living room on a Sunday afternoon as I write this on my laptop. Some badminton tournament is playing on the telly and on my left, Shorty is sitting with Fighter on the couch. Fighter is reading her book and Shorty for some reason tying up his hair.

I was deciding what to blog about so I pulled out my phone and flipped through all the pictures I took this week. I thought the pictures I took gave me a good representation of how my week was. So here it is:

1) I was so busy working that even when I was home I didn’t have the time to spend with Fighter. So one day Shorty brought Fighter to office to visit me.

He sat quietly on my lap as I did my work… well at least it lasted for a few minutes. Then he got bored and went on to greener pastures. By greener pastures I mean my female colleagues who gave him all the attention he wanted.

2) I think this next picture was taken when I was away over the weekend.

Fighter hanging out with Penny. Fighter used to be really jealous when he sees me carrying another baby but I think he has gotten used to Penny. He’s also learned to love her and “sayang” her.

Shorty’s strategy was to let him play with Penny. Sometimes we would cringe because not knowing how to control his force he sometimes can be a little rough with her. But Shorty made sure that we maintain our discipline and not overreact to it… for fear that if we do, he might resent her.

I think that has worked and he has really gotten used to having Penny around.

3) I’ve been treated to these cookies all week along.

I love cookies and Shorty has been making loads of them. Her reason for making cookies over cake or anything else is that cookies can be kept. Whereas cake.. well there’s only a certain amount of cake we can eat. And that’s even with me.

Her cookies are extremely awesome. I’ve stopped buying cookies from outside for now and just insist on her making more and more. My favorite is her oatmeal raisin ones but she has made others like chocolate chip or peanut butter ones. All equally awesome.

4) Weekends were spent with a lot of coffee. Fighter always insists on drinking whatever I drink. When I drink beer in front of him, he wants it.. but I insist on keeping it away.

The other one is coffee. He always wants to have a sip but giving him coffee would just make him bounce off the walls all day… from a caffeine high. Plus I’m not sure if caffeine would be good for him at such a young age. Yesterday I was drinking some coffee shake and he insisted on trying so I let him taste a little. Fortunately it didn’t have a major effect. He still went to bed a couple of hours later as scheduled.

5) Grocery shopping with Fighter is a joy. He doesn’t like to sit in the trolley but he likes to sit on this basket trolley thing.

He sits there quietly and plays with all the groceries we buy and put inside there. I had a hard time trying to convince him to get out of the trolley once we were done.

6) Since my 160KM ride in February, I haven’t been waking up early and doing any long rides. I just started being lazy and well.. lazy to wake up so early. This weekend though I decided to get back into it.

Did an 80KM ride with some 50 or so other cyclists from a cycling club. The experience of riding in huge groups of cyclists is really amazing and I wish I had brought my sports camera along to capture the moment.

I was happy to know that I could still keep up with the group after having not done a long ride in a long time. Before that my rides on weekends were like 20-30KM or so.

Alright I’m gonna go spend some time with the family now. I’ve got a really busy week going ahead with lots to do. Update again soon guys. Have a wonderful week ahead.

I was born with an eye ptosis. When I was a baby, doctors told my parents that I had to go for surgery to correct it. If I didn’t I would lose my eyesight.

My parents were very worried but was concerned about putting me through surgery at such a young age. So with the doctors in agreement, they waited until I was 2-3 years old before I went for my operation.

I have this memory lodged somewhere at the back of my brain of me being in surgery but my dad said it was impossible because I was put under general anesthetic. I guess it was just a dream that my mind recreated and stored into my memory.

The operation was successful and I was the youngest in my family then to ever go through an operation. It was a record that I held until yesterday.

While I was at work on Monday, Shorty told me she was bringing Penny to the hospital because there was an odd swelling near her crotch. I was scheduled to go to Bangkok the next day for some meetings but I didn’t think the swelling would amount to anything. So I booked my flights anyway.

A few hours later, Shorty messaged me. Penny had a hernia. Her ovary had dropped into a hole and the swelling we see on her crotch is her ovary sticking out. The doctor said they need to operate on her as soon as possible to correct it.

Like most modern parents would do, we searched online for information about her condition. We found that it wasn’t common but it also wasn’t totally uncommon. And if operated quickly with a good doctor it’s something that can be resolved without too much fuss.

Still the thought of Penny, barely 1 month old going under the knife was heartbreaking. I canceled my trip to Bangkok (as a result burning my budget airline flights) and the next day followed Penny to the hospital.

Her surgery was set at 11.30AM. We wheeled Penny in on a full sized hospital bed and were told to change her into a hospital gown of sorts. We changed her, wrapped her up in a thick blanket that the nurses provided and then waited. There was a man on a hospital bed in the queue right ahead of us, waiting to go into the operating theater. Just like anyone going for surgery, he looked a little worried.

I thought to myself that on the bright side, Penny didn’t know what was going to happen. She didn’t have to worry.

Finally the time came and the nurses wheeled her away from a teary Shorty and me. I too teared at the sight of my tiny daughter on a bed too big for her, being wheeled away into an operating theater. I patted Shorty on her head and she sought comfort on my shoulder.

“So poor thing…” she said.

“Don’t worry” I replied. “She has the best doctor and healthcare…. she’ll be okay”.

We went for lunch to calm ourselves down and a little more than an hour later we were called back into the operating theater. Penny was out and crying. Awake from her anesthetic. Shorty recognized her cries almost immediately. I had my doubts but when I listened to it a second time I knew Penny was wide awake.

They only let one person into the waiting area so Shorty went in and calmed Penny down. The operation was a success and Penny was fine.

She gets discharged today and she walks away not just with her ovaries all fine but with a new record. The record of the youngest one in my family to had gone through surgery.

At just over a month old.

I used to enjoy driving. There’s nothing like having the liberating feeling of being able to go whenever you want to, whenever you want to. I enjoy the experience of it too. I enjoy feeling the acceleration of the car and feeling the handling of the car around the corners.

That was some time ago. I don’t enjoy driving anymore. Driving has become really stressful for me and it’s not really just the traffic in KL. It’s the certain type of drivers we sometimes see on the road that make a stressful time even more stressful.

Here’s a few:

1) The people who double and triple park around schools to wait for their kids.

Perhaps I haven’t had to send my kids to any of these schools yet so I can’t relate.

But I can tell you one school in KL that contributes very much to this. Kuen Cheng. The school’s entrance is off the Federal Highway. I don’t even know how that happened. How did a highway just get built in front of a school entrance? Or how did a school get built with a highway at its entrance? Whichever way it is.

As a result of this and inconsiderate parents, right before school starts and right after school ends, you’ll see cars double or triple parking at the entrance. Effectively making the 3 lane Federal Highway into a 1 lane trunk road.

Resulting in a massive traffic jam!

2) The motorbike who cuts in front of you at a traffic light only to ride very slowly once the light turns green.

You’re sitting in your car waiting at the front of a traffic light. The roads ahead of you are all clear and you’re looking forward to rolling down them the minute the light turns green.

Just before that happens though a motorbike cuts through from behind you and parks himself right in front of you. No big deal you think. Then when the light turns green he accelerates so slowly you look twice to see if he’s on a motorbike or a bicycle. Worst part is he doesn’t keep to the side. He sticks right in the middle until you give him a little honk.

3) The driver who don’t want to give way to you even if just letting one car go isn’t really going to change his position much.

It’s after work and the roads in the city are grid locked. You’re trying to turn out of your office into the main road. Even though you’re the only car and even though traffic is not moving, nobody on the main road wants to let you in. They fight you in a game of chicken till the bumpers of your car nearly make out before they back off.

4) The driver who insists on making an illegal U-Turn even if that means he’ll get stuck in traffic at the opposite direction and clog up the road.

You’re at the traffic light trying to make a right turn. The traffic at the opposite side of the road is not moving but you think… no matter. Fortunately you’re not going into the opposite direction. No no. You’ll be turning right off into freedom and no traffic.

Then as your light turns green the car in front of you tries to make an illegal U-Turn instead of turning right. As a result of that and heavy traffic he gets stuck. When he gets stuck, everyone else behind him gets stuck and when that happens, you get stuck.

You curse and swear and watch in anguish as the seconds tick by and your green light once again turns red. No amount of middle fingers would be able to express how you feel.

5) Drivers who think yellow lines mean “PARK HERE”.

Traffic is heavy at the intersection you’re at. You’re waiting for your light to turn green by watching the light of the perpendicular direction turn red. Finally it just turns red. That means your light is about to turn green too.

But surprise surprise! A driver on the other side decides to use whatever few yellow light seconds he has left to cross the intersection. Because it’s jammed on the other side he ends up sitting right on the yellow box area and blocking you. The light turns green but you can’t get across so you hammer the honk and try to cut to the right to avoid him.

RedFM has this new segment this past month called REDefine. When I met JJ (one of my favorite radio announcers of all time), he told me how they wanted to do more with radio. More than just being about music or giveaways or even the prank calls we’ve grown to love listening to.

They wanted the content of radio to educate and maybe even to inspire. That we won’t just get entertainment out of our radio stations, we would get more. They wanted to this with a series of interviews with people who have done interesting things in their lives.

So when they engaged me to be a part of this I happily agreed to it.

It was my second time meeting JJ and really JJ is in real life exactly like how he is on radio. Funny, full of energy and really witty.

We spent an hour in the studio in one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever had. You can listen to the interview here.

We talked about business, family, life and more.

If you want to listen to some of the other interviews they had on REDefine you can click here and listen to their podcasts.

Came across this entry on Dayre today. It’s written by an ex-Singapore Airlines air stewardess and she gave a very insightful, funny and sometimes sad account of how it’s like to be a stewardess.

I’m told that it has gone viral now in Singapore but I thought I share it here anyway for those of you who haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

So if you haven’t read it do click here.

1 Year After SQ

I’m in Bangkok this week for my Entrepreneur Organization Forum Retreat. Part of our retreat is a learning experience. Where we take the opportunity to visit an entrepreneur and learn all about his business, his struggles and his industry.

This trip we visited Mr Soh Chee Yong, the President of Creamo (the 3rd largest ice-cream player in Thailand). Mr Soh told us his story and gave us a factory tour.

1) It all starts with COOKING

Yes that’s the word he used to describe it. This is the kitchen. There are huge cauldrons and woks there where the ice-cream is mixed together and cooked. If you lychee or coconut or chocolate flavor ice-cream then some flavoring or the real thing is added in.  The end result is some sort of a paste.

2) The paste is aged…. just like wine or beef.

Once the cooking is done they’re all cooled down and kept in these huge tanks for aging. They age them for 24 hour or so to let the ingredients all settle down before they go on to the next step.

3) The paste is squeezed on to the cups or cones.

If you look at the bottom right of the picture, you’ll see a conveyor belt with trays on them. If you look closely these trays all have ice-cream cones on them with the paste just freshly squeezed in them but not yet frozen. The workers then take the cones out of the tray manually and then put it on to the bigger blue trays you see on the upper right. Those blue trays go on a conveyor belt that takes them into this huge refrigerator. The journey through this refrigerator takes one hour before it comes out from the other side. By then it’s frozen.

4) The conveyor belt then takes it to the end of the line for packing

Workers then pack everything and ship them out.

On the left side of this picture you’ll see packing going on for not the cones but the big ice-cream tubs. That ice-cream is made the same way as the cones except that you don’t need the machinery to squeeze the paste on to each cone. So there is a mixer that squeezes all the paste into the tub and then freezes it and off for packing. These big tubs normally go to restaurant chains like the big steamboat chain in Thailand that is a long time client of Creamo.

5) Storing ice-cream is expensive

This huge building above is not just any warehouse. It’s their warehouse for storing ice-cream. Mr Soh told us that the challenge in the ice-cream business is that the longer you take to sell your product the more expensive it becomes for you because of the refrigeration costs to keep it frozen.

6) There are a number of entrances and exits to this big fridge

Inside it was buzzing with workers and forklifts moving stock around. All of them with winter jackets on and some covering their faces with cloth. The temperature? -20 degrees celcius.

7) Like any warehouse all the ice-cream is stacked as high as possible 

We decided to take a picture in the warehouse. I very cleverly decided to go visit an ice-cream factory in shorts and paid the price for it that moment. If I had a lesser powerful camera I think the picture might have been blurry from all my shivering. So that’s it everyone. That’s how ice-cream is made in an ice-cream factory.

I  started this weekend with a bit of a frustration. There were some work things that I couldn’t complete on Friday but because the weekend was here and most people stopped working I had to wait till Monday. It was something that seemed to happen more and more often with me these days. Looking forward to Monday when the weekend just begins. Not because I don’t enjoy the weekends but because I wanted to get my work done on Monday.

This weekend was just like that. I finished whatever work I could conceivably finish without having to wait for anyone else on Monday and then spent the rest of the weekend exercising (cycling and badminton) and spending time with my family.

With my wife I took her to our usual weekend cafe-hunting when we would find a new cafe and have brunch together once we put the kids to sleep in the late morning.

With my daughter Penny it was just having her lean on my chest as I watched TV. She seemed to really enjoy leaning on my chest.

And then with Fighter it was taking him to the mall for a little walk. This time as we walked into a toy shop he went in and chose a toy he really wanted and didn’t want to let go of it. It was the first time he’s been like that. Normally he forgets and he’s okay with choosing something else. But this time… there was this stuffed llama that he just wanted. So as expensive as it was I decided to buy it for him.

By the end of the weekend I had already began to miss the beginning. I’m looking forward to getting work done tomorrow of course but there’s something about the time I spent this weekend that was priceless. That I spent it creating new memories with my family and my loved ones.

I once told Shorty that I think I would be really happy living a typical American suburban life and going to Wal-Mart or Westfields every weekend but she didn’t believe me. She said I would be bored and always wanted more.

After this weekend I’m more and more convinced that I think that would be enough for me. Being able to spend time with my family every weekend. Take them out, play with them teach them, lecture them even sometimes… everything that would involve creating memories with them.

I didn’t do many of the things I set out to do this weekend. Shorty and I wanted to watch Avengers or Pitch Perfect 2 but we didn’t. Heck we wanted to finish watching the episode of Sherlock that we were on for days but still didn’t manage to. But still I feel contented and happy. I feel it was a weekend very well spent because it was a weekend that I spent building memories with my family.

Is having time to spend with your family on weekends not enough?

I think it’s enough for me. I can’t wait for next weekend to come.

You guys know I’m part of Entrepreneurs Organization. One of the initiatives that EO is doing this year is called EO Impact. An initiative for entrepreneurs to give back to society.

When we talk about give back though we’re not looking at just a one-time donation or even really a donation at all. We look at initiatives that are long-term. That instead of giving someone a fish we teach that person to fish. Sustainability.

That’s what a lot of my fellow members have been working on. Instead of orphanages to homes for example, we have kids at home bake cookies (my wife’s latest hobby) and find the people to sell those cookies too so they can have a constant stream of recurrent income.

This Saturday 16th of May EO will be organizing an event (bazaar and stuff) in Publika to promote this and all profits from the event will go to support the homes involved.

So if you’re free go check it out. Details in the flyer.

I was in Sydney this week for what must’ve been the shortest trip to Australia I’ve ever been on. Well okay wait there was a shorter one. My work trip to Melbourne a couple years back was just as short. Just 2 nights.

This Sydney trip on the other hand was also 2 nights but it was a lot busier for me. Here’s how it went.

I left KL for Sydney on a Tuesday night. I slept on the plane and arrived at 6AM on Wednesday. My first meeting was at 9AM. My meetings went on all the way till 1AM on the first day. By the time I was in bed it was 2AM. Then the second work day started.

Thursday. This one lasted till 2AM. Friday came and I spent most of it in the office too until night when I flew home. I arrived KL Saturday morning at 4AM.

I did manage to take some pictures of my Sydney trip though and I think they tell a good story of my trip.

This was taken on the second day right before we headed to work. I was feeling a lot fresher because at least I had a proper sleep in a bed before my meetings started. The day before I had only slept on the plane.

Here’s a snapshot of the meetings I had during the day. Well these meetings really lasted all the way till night and this is how the nights looked like.

On the first night we only managed to duck out for dinner about 9PM. Being Sydney though most of the restaurants had already closed by then so we ended up eating in a pub.

And ordered some beer along with it. When we got to the pub the kitchen was closing too and we just made the last order.

Learning from our mistake of eating dinner too late on the first day, on the second day we went out for a nice dinner. Italian food at the Westin in Sydney.

I enjoyed it and the great conversations we had.

On the last day of the trip I managed to duck out for a quick lunch with my cousin Michelle here. Michelle Tiah! She’s now working in Sydney.

She told me her lunch ritual is first to have lunch in a food court and then buy a coffee back to the office. She said the coffee in Australia was awesome so I asked her to bring me to her favorite place. She brought me here.

A place called Gumption. Perhaps I’m not a coffee person so I couldn’t really tell how this was better than the coffee we had back home in some of the hipster coffee places. I thought it was just okay.

This last picture was taken on one of the nights that we worked late. The office we worked at was at a really busy place called Martin Place. Whenever we left the office though it was totally quiet like this. And cold too.

That’s Angeline walking in front of me. She was freezing and practically did an Olympic standard sprint back to the hotel.

So that was my quick trip to Sydney. Really busy but you know what… I actually had a lot of fun!

The expectation of entrepreneurs is somehow to promote entrepreneurship. We get invited to give talks at colleges or universities to tell our stories and inspire other people to become entrepreneurs.

I’m a happy entrepreneur. I love what I do but I’ve never always known I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Life just took me on a path to be one and here I am. Yes I do enjoy some of the advantages of being one but I also see the advantages of working for someone and being a professional. I even think there are good reasons to be working for someone else rather than being an entrepreneur.

So for the first time, I’m not going to talk about why you should come out and start your own business. On the flip side, I’m instead going to tell you why you shouldn’t.

These are the things people tell you and why they aren’t right.

1) You will never be rich working for someone else

The world used to be a place where if you wanted to be rich, if you wanted to own a Ferrari or live a luxurious lifestyle you HAVE to start and own your own business. You will never be rich working for someone else. While that may be true in the past, that is no longer the case now.

Professionals today earn more than ever before. I know of investment bankers in Singapore who earn S$500,000 a year or even up to S$1,000,000. They’re young, have a lot of disposable income and drive some really nice cars.  S$1,000,000 a year in gross pay is more than most entrepreneurs (especially SMEs) bring in.

Perhaps it’s because of the growth in productivity, or knowledge per worker or the effects of technology. Professionals today have the capacity to earn an insane amount of money without having to take the business risks many other entrepreneurs will have to take. Couple that with the demand of talent in our job markets, it makes it very very easy for someone with decent skills to leave a job now and find another one. Because there is huge demand for talent.

So it’s no longer true that you have to be an entrepreneur to be rich. Heck it’s not even true that professionals will never be billionaires. Look at Steve Balmer or Eric Schmidt. Both professionals…. both billionaires. They just found great companies to work for and grew with them.

2) I want to start a business because I want to have more flexibility

This is only true for limited cases. Yes it’s true that if you start a business with the intention to generate moderate income that yes you can find a good time balance and have more flexibility.

However if you’re starting a business with an ambition to make it big. Flexibility is not something you will have. Sure you don’t have enforced office hours or a boss that pushes you to work. But you work when your client needs you. You work when your team needs you. You work when your company needs you and it doesn’t matter if it’s a weekend, your son’s birthday or your birthday. You work when you need to. That isn’t flexibility.

I have never met a successful entrepreneur who works 9AM-5PM. So time flexibility isn’t something you will really have.

3) I want to do what I’m passionate about

Passion is something that drives a lot of entrepreneurs but it’s not something that is exclusive to entrepreneurs. I know a lot of professionals who are really passionate about their jobs or their company or their industry.

My friend Suet Li has been working for Teach for Malaysia for years and she’s passionate about teaching and the education system. No less passionate than an entrepreneur would be about his or her business.

The only difference is that as a professional if you lose your passion in something you can make a switch to something else that you might find passion in

As an entrepreneur you can’t afford to lose that passion. Once you’re committed you’re in there. You have to see it through.

4) It’s a great time to start a business

Yes there are factors today that make it really conducive to start a business. There is a lot of capital available, looking to fund great businesses and great entrepreneurs.

But there are also other factors that make it a very very difficult time to start a business. The world economy we live in right now is more open than it has ever been in the whole world. That means in most industries you go into, chances are a behemoth from a large market like the US or China has the ability to come in and challenge you with more resources than you could possibly have. They don’t have to play fair too.

We also live in a world where technology is rapidly changing and quickly disrupting many many markets. The disruptors in this world quickly become the disruptees. Take the Blackberry for example. It became one of the first smartphone many people had. It made e-mail seem like text messages to us. Giving us a whole new reason to use our phones.

Then the iPhone came along and disrupted the Blackberry. Who knows what might come and disrupt the iPhone some day. If Blackberry, a company that was once worth $70 billion a few years ago is now worth a small fraction of that, who’s to say any company can’t and won’t be disrupted.

It is also a hard time to find talent. Multinationals are constantly competing with you for the best talent, for the best people you can hire and they’ll be competing with you now more than ever before. Ironically these are the same reasons that make it a great time to be an employee over an employer.

5) If I don’t try now, I never will

Inspirational quotes that we often see in social media tend to promote this. That if we don’t try something then how do we know we’re not capable of doing it.

I agree with that notion. We don’t know what we’re capable of until we actually try. However I feel this somehow motivates people to skip to the WHEN (do I start a business) and forget the WHY.

Why do you want to start a business? Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? Is it money? Because I just explained above that you can make money either ways.

Is it flexibility? I also just explained that above. Is it fame? Well being a successful entrepreneur isn’t the most straightforward way to fame.

Then why?

I was at a conference once and they had Donald Trump speak through a video conference. He said not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur. He knows people who have been professionals all their lives and are very successful.

So why do you want to be an entrepreneur? There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this. There is only your answer but what I’m advocating here isn’t the answer. I’m advocating that we really think about the answer and decide if that’s what we really really want.

I’m not saying don’t be an entrepreneur (heck I’m happy being one). I’m saying there are great merits too of being a professional.

I’ve been posting a number of Fighter videos on my Dayre lately but I thought just in case some of you guys don’t follow me on Dayre I’d post some here too.

1) Fighter does some exercise

This video was just taken this morning. My sister told me that Fighter likes this pull up bar that we have at home. So I lifted him up to reach for it and he seemed to know exactly what to do. So we had the idea to do this. At first I thought of putting an “eye of the tiger” soundtrack as the background music but just didn’t have the time to do it.

2) Fighter plays with his toy Ferrari

So my college friends and I had this bet back in college that whoever of us had a son first, the rest would pool money and buy that son a Ferrari when he hits 21 years old. I ended up being the first to have a son. So for Fighter’s Full Moon they gave me this toy Ferrari with the promise of a real one to follow when he turned 21.

This particular morning Fighter insisted on opening up the box and taking the Ferrari out and he started playing with it.

3) Fighter’s first words

Fighter says a lot of words but we’re not always absolutely sure if he really means what he says because he doesn’t say it consistently. He doesn’t even say Mommy or Daddy consistently yet. Well Daddy to some extent but not all the time.

The words he says all the time?

“There” and “Car”.

Yesterday news of Netccentric’s coming IPO came out so I’m finally able to talk about what I’ve been working on for the past 9 months. I feel really relieved that I can finally talk about the IPO and I feel excited about it. At the same time though I feel a little tired. Exhausted from the long hours of work to prepare for this. I haven’t been on a holiday for a year now.

So why did I go through all this?

Let me first bring you back to somewhere in the middle of last year.

Netccentric was having a great 2014. As a company we were growing rapidly and hitting new records. We were really pumped and excited but as Ming and I sat down we weren’t looking anymore at 2014. We were looking at the years after that. How were we going to continue growing at the pace we want to? How do we grow Dayre?

We decided that we had to raise money and because we have never found any VCs or private equity funds that we could get comfortable with we decided the only way to do it was to go for an IPO. We chose Australia because there were a lot of Asian companies with successful listings on the ASX and we felt that the investors there have a good understanding and appetite for technology stocks.

So our long road to IPO began. 

People used to tell me that IPO is a tough process so I went in with the expectations that it’ll be really really tough. 9 months later, how tough this was went beyond my expectations. It was fucking tough. There are so many things involved that I think I could write one whole blog entry about How to IPO and what it takes from start to end (note that I’m at the last lap but not at the end yet).

In short though, the next 9 months involved finding a lead manager/underwriter that believed in us, finding accountants and law firms and then going through a very painful due diligence process.  I learn that in an IPO, everything in a prospectus MUST be accurate. You can’t inflate or mis-state anything. If you say we made A$11 million we have to have it audited. If we say we have over 950,000 blogs, we have to prove it.

After 9 months of due diligence, conference calls, presentations to cornerstone investors we were finally ready to lodge our prospectus. That day of lodging was on the 25th of May 2015. On the 26th of May as soon as our prospectus went public, it was covered by the press. We were covered in the Australian Financial Review and closer to home on Channel News Asia and some other news channels.

If all goes well we expect to be listed on the ASX in a month.

Where are we today?

Today we stand in a great position. Netccentric as a company hit over A$11 million in revenue in 2014. Our revenue had grown 35% and profits up 400% from the year before. The IPO is set to raise us up to A$12.5 million with cornerstone investors already taking up A$7.5 million. The cornerstone investors who are betting on us include Kevin Tsai (The President of Want Want China Media Group), Tan Sri Pang Tee Chew of Mamee, my uncle Datuk Tony Tiah and KSK.

Netccentric is the result of all the work of Ming and I and the Nuffies for the past years. The Netccentric Group includes Nuffnang, ChurpChurp, Reelity, Ripplewerkz and even Dayre.

Netccentric will have a valuation of A$50 million (approximately RM140 million). The company Ming and I started with RM150,000 years ago is today worth RM140 million.  Ming and I think we’re just getting started and we’re putting our money where our mouth is. Neither of us will be cashing out a cent from the money raised in this IPO. All because we believe in one thing that Ming always said. That “The best is yet to be”.

You can read one of the news articles about our IPO here.

For the past 6-7 years I’ve had the pleasure of being a close friend of Pierre Pang. Pierre’s family is the Malaccan family that brought us the snacks that all Malaysians have grown up with Mamee Monster, Double-Decker and Mister Potato. These are snacks that have been around for decades and still are today so my initial impression was that this company was one that could just sit back and make money from its classic hit products.

I was wrong however. In the past 5-6 years I’ve seen Mamee Double-Decker innovate as a company over and over again in a tough competitive environment. Sometimes they fail but sometimes they succeed. In this article I’m going to tell you why I think Mamee is one of the most innovative Malaysian companies in the region.

1) Mamee Chef

Mamee Double-Decker has been in the instant noodles business for decades. The past 5 years though has been very difficult on them. Indonesian instant noodle players with huge budgets have entered the Malaysian market spending tons on advertising & promotion and pricing their products very competitively.

The Indonesian players put a lot of pressure on the local brands and stealing market share. The biggest brand for instant noodles in Malaysia (Maggi) wasn’t really affected because of its strong brand but the loss of market share came at the expense of the other players like Mamee, Cintan and more.

Mamee was in a tight spot. The natural thing to do would be to fight on price to gain back some of its market share but instead what they all did was take a trip overseas to see how the instant noodle markets abroad fared.

They learned that in China, Japan and Korea the instant noodle product had evolved significantly. They had gone from the regular instant noodles we’re used to in Malaysia to proper meals with condiments and good paste coupled with very springy noodles. There they saw the solution. They decided that they couldn’t compete head to head with a homogenous product against players who have more spending power than they do. So they innovated.

They came back not with a new product but with a vision. A vision to bring higher quality instant noodles back to Malaysia. The kind of instant noodles that people won’t be shy to eat for a proper meal. The result of that vision was a product called Mamee Chef.

For Mamee Chef they got a celebrity chef named Chef Ismail to cook the paste and the flavour of the soup. Then they invested in new machines to improve the springy-ness of their noodles. Lastly they added condiments to make it look more like a meal.

My personal favourite Mamee Chef flavour is Curry Laksa which so happened to be listed as Ramen Rater’s Top 10 Instant Noodles of 2014.

2) Sponsoring Manchester United

In 2011 Mamee Double-Decker went where no Malaysian company had ever gone. They boldly became the Global Snacks Sponsor of Manchester United. The 3-year deal cost them an undisclosed amount of money but considering that Manchester United is the most popular football club in the world, it’s safe to say it was a huge bet.

The sponsorship reaped huge returns. It wasn’t just from putting Manchester United players on Mister Potato canisters or the digital boards that we see during every game. The value they saw was bigger. Being the Global Snacks Sponsor of Manchester United lent credibility to their brand into places where nobody knew of them.

So in tandem with their Manchester United sponsorship, Mamee Double-Decker went on a huge regional expansion plan. They talked to distributors from countries who had never heard of them before, but because of its sponsorship were willing to open their doors and hear what they had to say. As a result of that Mamee Double-Decker was able to get their products on to shelves in many many more markets that they had ever been in a short time.

The value they got from the sponsorship was far more than the amount they paid for it. It was a huge bet, a bet no traditional Malaysian companies have ever embarked on. But they did it and it worked.

3) Mexican Wave

One of my favorite Mamee Double-Decker products is unfortunately a product that no longer exists. It was called Mexican Wave.

Mexican Wave was an extension of Mister Potato. Instead of the regular clean potato chip you see on Mister Potato, Mexican wave was the criss cut type of chips. The best part about it though is the flavors.

My favourite all time flavour was Seaweed. It was so awesome I remember our group of friends constantly asking Pierre to send cartons of Mexican Wave seaweed flavour to us. Unfortunately though Mexican Wave didn’t quite work out and Mamee Double-Decker had to discontinue it. So I’ll never have a chance to eat it again.

4) Perfecto

Replacing Mexican Wave though is a premium type of potato chip now with fresh garnishing called Perfecto. The funny thing about Perfecto is that most people don’t realize it’s a Malaysian product. I was in Ben’s grocer once and I saw an expat mother with one canister of Perfecto in her shopping cart. She looked like the kind of person who would buy Kettle chips or Lays and hardly the kind of person who would buy a Mister Potato. But she bought Perfecto.

Perfecto is Mamee’s new attempt to innovate in the potato chip category. Sure Mister Potato remains the largest potato chip brand in Malaysia in terms of market share but they’re looking to extend that. Going into a more premium position but not too premium. It’s still early days but looking at the response of Perfecto and its fan base I don’t think it’ll go the way of Mexican Wave.

Give me a choice between the two and I’d still go for Mexican Wave though.

5) Perfecto Popcorn

Their latest product of course is something we Malaysians aren’t really used to seeing at our convenience stores. Popcorn in a packet: Perfecto Popcorn.

The idea behind Perfecto Popcorn was that Mamee Double-Decker wanted to dominate snacks that we eat while watching TV. Movie theaters have successfully managed to train us to associate eating popcorn with watching a movie so why not eat popcorn at home while watching TV.

There are 3 flavours I’ve tried of Perfecto Popcorn. I found the caramel one nice but when if you compare it with Garretts or the really expensive popcorn then you’ll really be disappointed. What do you expect when you’re paying many many times more the price for Garretts.

What I do love about Perfecto Popcorn though is their French Vanilla flavour. It was a new, refreshing taste of popcorn that I’ve never had before.

 6) Cool Tea

One thing we don’t realize about Mamee Double-Decker is that they have a beverage business. They sell drinks mostly to less urban areas in Malaysia.

This year though they decided to try something new in the drinks business. Again instead of copying whatever we had widely available in the drinks market (like milk tea or ice lemon tea) they decide to innovate. They went for bottled leong cha that we’re used to drinking at coffee shops. In a move that even Captain Obvious would be proud of, they called this new product Cool Tea.

Pierre sent me a few cartons when he first launched it and my brother who’s normally critical on new products has been drinking one bottle every day. Every time I fill up the fridge with 10 bottles I see it go down faster than my bank account when I started having kids.

Cool Tea is a new product and I believe it won’t be the last beverage product that Mamee Double-Decker comes out with. I thought it was interesting because it wasn’t a drink that was widely available in Malaysia until now. I wonder what drinks they’ll come up with next.

———–

The thing about Mamee Double-Decker is that if you look at the history they’ve had tons and tons of products that they’ve created, invested in and failed. Mexican Wave and Funkees to name a couple. Yet they’ve never given up on innovating far beyond their classic products and have on the journey had some great hits.

That’s the fundamental principle of an innovator. An innovator doesn’t always get all products right but they keep trying and they eventually do.

I know a lot of very successful traditional Malaysian companies that have been around for decades but I think Mamee Double-Decker is one of the most innovative ones around.

On the plane back from Singapore the other day I was reading a book called “Start Something That Matters” by Blake Mycoskie. Blake is the guy behind Tom’s, the really comfortable shoes that I’ve grown to like.

The part of the book I was reading was tips about how he grew his company from a startup to what it is today. One of his tips for startup founders: To stop calling ourselves CEO on our name cards.

At first I thought I had read it wrong. I darted my eyes up a paragraph and re-read what he wrote and my eyes didn’t fail me. He said what he did. When I read on to hear why it hit me how much truth there was in what he said.

Why should startup entrepreneurs stop calling ourselves CEO on our name cards?

Because very often, unless you’re a huge company that everyone has heard of, calling yourself a CEO when you introduce your company as a startup tends to set off the impression that you’re a really small company. That the company is just you and some interns (and maybe an assistant).

Being a small company is nothing to be ashamed about, heck that’s what being a startup is all about anyway. It shouldn’t matter to you, but it may matter to other people that you might want to work with. Be it potential employees, potential investors or even potential business partners. Perception is just as important (or some would say more important) than reality. People want to work with winners and you owe it to your startup to do it justice by presenting yourself as a winner as often as you can.

I’ve never personally had CEO or any of these titles on my name card as a startup 7-8 years ago. All my partner Ming and I had was “Co-Founder and Executive Director”.

If I do a startup again though I probably just wouldn’t have a title on my name card. Just my name would do.

When people then ask me what I do? I’d say “My job is to <insert startup’s vision here>”.

That I believe would be a lot more powerful a statement than saying you’re CEO.

If however you’ve grown to a moderate sized company or at the extreme end you’re a very well known company like Uber, then by all means put on the CEO title in bold and emboss is in gold if you like. The irony though is when you get to that stage, you don’t even need to have a title on your name card and people would know who you are.

Today is my 31st Birthday. This one really crept up on me. It’s like I always felt I was in my twenties and I just realized today that I’m well in my 30s. I thought back to about 10 years ago to how I felt when I first turned 21 and compared it to how I feel today at age 31.

Here’s how I felt at age 21.

1) I felt “grown-up”

I was still a student so I wasn’t in any way financially independent yet however 21 is that age where you’re legal for anything in any country. It’s legal for you to go clubbing, legal for you to drink in the states, and legal for you to go to jail if you commit a crime. I felt grown up that I could now walk into any casino confidently and flash my ID.

2) I thought about my future

At age 21 I knew I was at the tail end of my university education so I did kinda know what I wanted to do. At that point I believe I still wanted to be an investment banker. I imagined working life to be dull and stressful and nothing like student life because a lot of people told me student life was always the best.

Of course I didn’t totally enjoy my student life so I had this impression that working life was gonna be really bad if it’s really worse than student life. Turns out I actually ended up liking working life more than my student life.

I was excited about the things I was going to achieve in the next 10 years. For some reason I didn’t think much about the starting a family yet or getting married as part of my achievements but really just thought about work or career achievements.

3) I wanted to have a huge birthday celebration

Alcohol, music, dancing and lots and lots and lots of friends. That was how I wanted to celebrate my 21st year. 21 is a big number after all. It’s the number that most parents give their kids a “key” as if to say you’re an adult now and can make your own decisions. Because I had lots of friends my birthday party was going to be huge. I was gonna invite everyone, and the most obvious place to have one was at a club. The club seemed to meet all my criteria.

Now I compared that to how I feel about turning 31 now.

1) I feel old

Not old old but I feel a lot more vulnerable than I did before. I’m quickly approaching the age where I have to worry about health and perhaps that’s why I made a resolution last year to cycle or exercise more and play less golf.

2) I thought about my kids’ future

By this point I kinda know where my future was heading so instead I find myself thinking a lot about my kids’ future. Which school with Fighter go to, how will his friends in school treat him, will he get bullied?

Is Penny going to be a happy kid or a grumpy kid? Will she go to a female liberal arts college like her mother?

I think of all these things and less about my future. The realization hit me that I don’t live for myself so much anymore. I live for my family.

3) I didn’t want a huge birthday celebration

The thing age and having a family does to you is that it takes away a lot of time that you have to mingle. So I hang out with a lot less friends now and during my birthday celebrations I opt for something simple. Maybe just a dinner and an early starting one too so that Fighter and Penny can be awake for it.

My birthday today so far is rather uneventful. I’m spending it like how I spend any other Saturday. Coffee in the morning, cycling in the afternoon and spending the rest of my time playing with my kids.  I thought hard to see if there was anything else I would rather do but the answer always came back as a no.

Perhaps its true that celebrating birthdays get less important to you as you get older. At least until you hit a really old age.

So happy birthday to me. My wish is that I would be able to spend many many birthdays more with close friends and my family.

I used to tell my wife that I envy her job. Before I leave for work every morning I think about how I would rather be the one in our marriage who stays home and takes care of the kids. The one that gets to spend more time with them. Shorty though tells me it’s a lot harder than it looks and so in the past months I tried off and on to do the things that she does as a mother.

Here’s what I did and how it went:

1)  Being the one to feed my 20 month old toddler at restaurants.

At most meals out, here’s how it works. Fighter sits in a baby chair next to Shorty and Shorty feeds him while eating her own food. I would then be busy talking to our guests and towards the end once Fighter’s done I would carry him away from Shorty so she could finish her meal. Sounds easy right?

Expectation:

What I decided to try one day was to be the one to feed Fighter while eating a meal. My thought process was really simple. Take a spoonful of whatever it was I was eating and while I was chewing my own food, feed Fighter his. Multi-tasking at its best. Whoever said men can’t multi-task.

Reality:

Fighter does a lot more than eat on his baby chair. He grabs the nearby fork and waves it into the air before almost jabbing it into his own neck. When I take the fork away from him he screams out of anger. Then I tell him off and he cries and a crying baby doesn’t want to eat no more.

If he’s not playing with sharp metal objects he’s playing with his food. The area beneath his baby chair becomes a mixed buffet of whatever he was eating. He grabs his food, throws it on the dirty dinner table and then picks up again and then tries to put it in his mouth. Fortunately I do a Matrix-worthy leap and stop it. He cries again.

I then resort to the worst case scenario. Bringing out the iPad and hypnotize him with Pink Fong while I feed him comfortably. In the brief moment of peace I reflect at what a lazy parent I am… resorting to the iPad once again.

2) Waking up in the middle of the night to my crying 3 month old baby girl and tried to comfort her back to sleep

Expectation:

3 month old Penny wakes up and cries. Probably hungry. I just feed her some milk and/or change her diaper then put her back to sleep.

Reality:

I’VE DONE EVERYTHING AND SHE’S STILL CRYING! WHAT’S GOING ON?!?!?

I rock her and go “shhh”. It doesn’t work. So I shush harder until my “shh” becomes “SHHH!!!!” sounding almost like a vulgar slur. I then take her for a walk around the room. Twenty minutes in and I feel like i’ve done a marathon and Penny’s still screaming.

Shorty wakes up and decides to take the crying Penny of me.

My heart says “TAKE HER TAKE HER!!!!”.

Shorty holds her for 5 seconds and all I hear thereafter is silence. I go back to sleep. Mission failed.

3) Spending an afternoon babysitting both my kids

Expectation:

Okay I’ll just put Fighter in his playpen. Penny in her moses basket and I’ll kick back and watch some TV with a beer in hand. A lazy Sunday afternoon. Nothing much to it.

Reality:

Fighter stop touching the shoes on the shoe rack!! NO NO NO DON’T PUT YOUR HANDS IN YOUR MOUTH NOW AFTER YOU’VE TOUCHED THE SHOES!!!

NO KEEP AWAY FROM THE STAIRS…. DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH THOSE SCISSORS! Shit… Penny is crying from all the shouting. I gotta go carry her… FIGHTER NO! DON’T EAT THAT!!! Okay okay.. stop crying Fighter… Daddy didn’t mean to scold you… I was just…. Penny stop crying too ok? I wasn’t talking to you.

*phone rings*

WHO IS CALLING ME AT THIS MOST INCONVENIENT TIME!!!

4) Changing my toddler’s diaper at malls

Expectation:

Ah there’s a baby changing room. That makes things super easy. Just lay Fighter down, wash his butt, diaper cream, replace the diaper and all good to go. Imma try for a Guinness World Record for fastest diaper change ever.

Reality:

Why are you crying?! Why are you crying Fighter? Don’t you want Daddy to change your diaper? Would you rather have a dirty diaper all the way home? Stop crying and stop struggling ok? No stop kicking me!

NO… DON’T TOUCH YOUR OWN POO… NO!!!

NO DO NOT PUT YOUR POO COVERED FINGERS IN YOUR MOUTH NOW… IT’S GONNA TASTE LIKE SHIT!!!  PUT THE FINGERS DOWN FIGHTER!!!

NO DON’T RUB IT ON MY WHITE SHIRT EITHER!!!

Look… this diaper is going to get changed whether you like it or not. STOP STRUGGLING!!!

OK DONE DONE DONE!!!

Okay now lets go wash your hands. Wait what’s that brown thing on your pants…. OH COME ON FIGHTER! I DON’T HAVE ANYMORE PANTS FOR YOU!! It’s the Donald Duck for you now!

5) Burping a newborn baby

Expectation:

Burp Penny and then put her to sleep. Done deal.

Reality:

Ahh this has gotta be the easiest of all. Just 10 seconds and I got myself a burp. This is too easy really. Too easy.

OH CRAP CRAP SHE PUKED. Ahh it’s all over me!! TISSUE TISSUE!!! Why you crying miss?! Did I puke on you or did you puke on me?!

Ok you wait here for a while. Let me go change my shirt now.

Okay all changed now. Why you making so much noise? Do you still have gas in your tummy? Ok let me try burp you again. HA HA… 5 seconds burp… a new record! Wait what’s that….

ARRGGHH NOT AGAIN !!! I JUST CHANGED MY SHIRT!!!

————

At the end of all this. I think I’ll keep my day job as a working dad.

#330

Shorty runs upstairs panting

Shorty: FATS!! I need your help!

Me: What?

Shorty: I’m trying to reverse our van out so I can take Penny’s stroller out of the back but the car doesn’t move!

Me: How can it don’t move?

Shorty: I just have to press the brake and then press the start button to start the engine right?

Me: Yes.

Shorty: Then I release the hand brake which is the leg lever at the bottom right?

Me: Yes.

Shorty: But after I do that the car still doesn’t move!!!!

Me: Hmm… did you shift the gear into Reverse?

Shorty: …….

3 long seconds past…

Shorty: Oh… hehehe… ya thanks thanks. Ok ok let me go back and do that now.

Me: Seriously… when I tell this story, people are gonna think I make this shit up.

#331

Packing for a trip

Shorty: FATS WHY IS OUR SAMSONITE BAG SO BATTERED! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH IT? You were the last one to use it!

Me: Huh no I wasn’t.

Shorty: Yes you brought it to Sydney with you.

Me: No I didn’t. I used my small bag for Sydney.

Shorty: Then how do you explain all your socks in this bag?

Me: *walks closer and looks at contents of bag* Really?

Me: *picks up camera charger that belongs to Shorty* So this Casio camera charger here…. this would really work well with my Casio camera… if I had one huh?

Shorty: Oh… hehehe… hehee.. *grabs camera charger from me*

So I was in Bangkok over the weekend for Ming’s wedding weekend. My business partner Ming got married to a beautiful Thai girl named Patty who’s a fashion designer and one of the two girls behind the label Innit.

It was a really small and intimate wedding. Just 12 tables. I really like small weddings like that because it feels really intimate so everyone is really friendly to each other.

Let me show you some of the pictures we took and tell you the story behind them.

Here’s me with some of us from Netccentric who made it.

Our company has close to 200 staff so with 12 tables Ming couldn’t invite everyone so he invited people he worked directly with and are really close to.

Here’s a picture of Ming and I in the morning.

I was one of the groomsmen so Ming told us to all come in a black suit. Then Patty made us a special Innit bow tie.

The wedding was held at this really posh boutique hotel called The Siam. It was done in a very classical colonial period type of feel. This is the entrance to our room.

Here’s the bathroom.

The bed area is pretty normal but one of the favorite parts is the tub.

It’s definitely one of the posher hotels I’ve ever stayed in.
After the wedding ceremony on Sunday morning we went out for a while for a massage. I happened to stand next to Xiaxue and my wife and noticed this.

Haha. Speaking of Xiaxue she convinced me to get on Snapchat lately. So if you’re not already doing so you can follow me on Snapchat @timothytiah.

This is Ming giving his wedding speech at the wedding dinner.

Ming always said the most important thing about wedding speeches is giving thanks to the parents of the bride and the groom. Advice I took for my very own wedding.

All dressed up for the dinner with Shorty, Pierre, Lay See, Fred and Velda.

For the wedding dinner Ming brought in two performances. One is a singer from the UK named Cole Paige. Ming met him many years ago when we were at Old Trafford and he was the singer and entertainer for that event. Cole is more than a good singer. He’s great at interacting with the crowd so Ming told him then that he would bring him over for his wedding one day. True enough he did.

The other performer they brought on was a Thai artist called New and Jiew. We’ve never heard of them before but they’re huge in Thailand. All the Thai guests at the wedding went crazy and mobbed them to take pictures of them later.

Shorty and I managed to catch them at the after party and took a picture with them. They’re so humble and simple. I often see celebrities in Malaysia with an entourage or their managers always with them but New & Jiew were alone on their own.

Each guest at the party got an autographed copy of their album.

All and all Ming and Patty’s wedding was one of the most well planned and personalized weddings I’ve ever been to. I mean so many things could go wrong at the wedding dinner. At mine for example the sound wasn’t loud enough so people weren’t paying attention to the speeches. But at Ming and Patty’s wedding everything was prepared. I could even hear New & Jiew in the afternoon doing a full rehearsal of their performance before the wedding dinner itself.

It was an awesome wedding and one that I was glad to be a part of. Congratulations Ming and Patty!