Reflections at 33

2 major changes in my life at 32 have propelled me to take on the route of entrepreneurship. With the motivation to lead by example for my little gal and with the support from my hubby, I trade-off financial stability with starting a venture (of course, it is one with a mission and a team I truly believe in).

I reckon it is never to late to start trying. I hope when I reach 35 and reflect back, these 2 yrs will be the best ever. And when I reach 40, I can say to my little gal, "I hope mommy has made you proud."

~Fulfilling wishes, (a) fulfilling legacy~

World-class thinking

I was reading this book "How Rich People Think" by Steve Siebold who interviewed some of the richest people in the world for over past 26 years. In the book, he made reference an average person to "middle class" and a world-class thinker as "world-class".

The riches believe it is a right to be rich and the path to riches requires specific knowledge, referral network and monitoring their associations. The world conspiring to help them and they dreams of having enough money to impact the world and welcomes the masses to join them. They set an example and teach their kids to get rich, build network and for their dreams from young.

A compilation of the 100 differences below:

Middle Class	World Class
Focuses on Saving	Focuses on Earning
Thinks about money in linear terms	Thinks about money in non-linear terms
Believes hardwork creates wealth	Believes leverage creates wealth
Believes money is the root of all evil	Believes poverty is the root of all evil
Believes being rich is a privilege	Believes being rich is a right
Believes money is complicated	Believes money is simple
Believes rich people are crooks	Believes rich people are ambitious
Believes building wealth is a solitary effort	Believes building wealth is a team effort
Worries about money	Dreams about money
Believes money is negative	Believes money is positive
Believes rich people are shallow	Believes rich people are strategic
Believes the road to riches is paved with formal education	Believes the road to riches is paved with specific knowledge
Believes money is earned through labour	Believes money is earned through thought
Worries about running out of money	Thinks about how to make more money
Thinks about spending	Thinks about investing
Sees money through the eyes of emotion	Sees money through the eyes of logic
Underestimates the wealth building power of referral marketing	Knows referral marketing creates millionaires
Focuses on pleasurable activities	Focuses on money making activities
Sees money as a finite resource	Sees money as an infinite resource
Earns money doing things they don’t like to do	Gets rich doing what they love
Believes rich people are ruthless	Believes rich people are generous
Has a lottery mentality	Has an action mentality
Waiting to be rescued from financial mediocrity	Knows no one is coming to the rescue
Believes rich people are smarter	Believes rich people are more savvy
Sees money as controlling	Sees money as liberating
Believes money changes people	Believes money reveals people
Believes in working for money	Believes in working for fulfilment
Believes you have to do something to get rich	Believes you have to be something to get rich
Plays it safe with money	Takes calculated risks
Believes you have to have money to make money	Believes in using other people’s money
Believes jobs are the safest way to earn money	Believes outstanding performance is the safest way to earn money
Believes in financial scarcity	Believes in financial abundance
Sees money as a weapon	Sees money as a tool
Believes they aren’t worthy of great wealth	Believes they deserve to be rich
Denies the importance of money	Knows money is a critical component of life
Believes money is their enemy	Believes money is their friend
Waits for their ship to come in	Builds their own ship
Believes financial markets are driven by logic and strategy	Believes financial markets are driven by emotion and greed
Believes money is about status	Believes money is about freedom
Lives beyond their means	Lives below their means
Equates money with stress	Equates money with peace of mind
Thinks small	Thinks big
Believes people are out to get them	Believes the universe is conspiring to help them
Believes their thinking is unrelated to their net worth	Knows thinking is the catalyst of all results
Believes the more money you earn the more stress you experience	Believes the more money you earn the less stress you experience
Believes the more money you make the more problems you will have	Believes the more money you make the fever problems you will have
Believes the rich are obsessed with money	Believes the rich are obsessed with success
Believes the rich are selfish and self-absorbed (negative)	Believes the rich are selfish and self absorbed (positive)
Dreams of having enough money to retire	Dreams of having enough money to impact the world
Believes it’s shrewd to be cynical	Believes it’s shrewd to be optimistic
Believes the rich should support the poor	Believes in self-reliance
Sees the wealthy as oppressors	Sees the wealthy as liberators
Believes getting rich is outside their control	Knows getting rich is an inside job
Thinks the rich believe they are more intelligent	Knows intelligence has little to do with getting rich
Associates with anyone	Carefully monitors their associations
Have loosely defined goals with flexible deadlines	Have highly defined goals with do or die deadlines
Works as little as possible	Works as smart as possible
Loves to be comfortable	Is comfortable being uncomfortable
Is timid and scared	Is aggressive and bold
Longs for the good old days	Dreams of the future
Plays not to lose	Swings for the fences
Sets their financial expectations low so they’re never disappointed	Sets their financial expectations high so they’re always excited
Has a financial windfall and worries about losing it	Has a windfall and figures out how to leverage it
Externally motivated to make money	Internally motivated to make money
Suffers from lack consciousness	Enjoys prosperity consciousness
Believes money will make them happier	Knows money has little to do with happiness
Believes people seek money for power	Believes people seek money for control
Never makes the connection between money and health	Knows money can save your life
Believes ambition is a sin	Believes ambition is a virtue
Believes rich people are snobs	Believes rich people are guarding their consciousness
Believes rich people are arrogant	Believes rich people are confident
Believes self-made millionaires had an unfair advantage	Knows their advantage was hard work
Bases their beliefs about the rich on the minority	Bases their beliefs about the rich on the majority
Believes they’re missing something	Knows it’s beliefs that make the difference
Believes they lack desire	Knows we all have everything we need to be rich
Believes they must choose between a great family life and being rich	Knows you can have it all
Believes having a job gives them security	Knows there’s no such thing
Believes starting a business is risky	Believes starting a business is the fastest road to wealth
Believes it’s wrong  for a small group of people to possess most of the money	Welcomes the masses to join them
Believes wealth creates dysfunctional families	Believes unearned wealth creates dysfunctional families
Believes money creates corruption	Believes a lack of money creates corruption
Believes the rich are spiritually bankrupt	Believes the rich are among the most spiritual people in society
Believes if they become wealthy they will lose their friends	Believes being wealthy will expand their network
Believes you have to sacrifice your health to get rich	Believes being rich will make you healthier
Hands down their limited beliefs about money to their children	Hands down their unlimited beliefs about money to their children
Teaches their children how to survive	Teaches their kids how to get rich
Teaches their kids about money by example	Does the same thing
Teaches their kids how to save their pennies	Teaches their kids how to invest their pennies
Encourages their kids to be nice and make friends	Encourages their kids to be smart and build network
Teaches their kids to be happy with what they have	Teaches their kids how to go for their dreams
Minimizes the importance of money with their kids	Teaches their kids the importance of money
Teaches their children the games of the masses	Teaches their children the games of the wealthy
Doesn’t believe in personal development or self help	Believes they’re the secret to getting rich
Doesn’t connect travel with wealth	Knows travel connects them with the wealthy
Has access to the social skills of the masses	Has access to the social skills of the most refined among us
Would rather be entertained than educated	Would rather be educated than entertained
Believes rich people are workaholics	Knows millionaires have a ton of fun
Focuses on money when they need it	Focuses on money all the time

Thoughts on Turning Thirty

30 is an age that I have dread before turning 30. Yet when I turn 30,  I kinda welcome the next decade. It has been 2 weeks since I turned 30, it does not feel as daunting.While some of my friends threw a big party, I choose to keep it low key and spend it with just close friends and family. The journey through the past decade has its ups and downs, but as I begin the next chapter of my life, I believe it is the experiences and what we do each day that makes it meaningful than the outcome.

There are a few decisions I made in the last 10 years that mold the way I am today. Some of which I wouldn't say were the best decisions, but certainly the process or experience after making the decision provided me with some learnings.

Decision 1: At age of 20 - I went to Silicon Valley for the NUS Overseas College Program (NOC) 

It was certainly one of the best decisions I have made. The one year stint in California, USA was an eye opener. Besides making many new NUS and Stanford friends, learning to live independently, studying hard, working hard, playing hard, driving from California to New York, Sky-diving, coping with stress and acne, etc. While I enjoyed a lot, I have a deep regret: Not taking good care of my skin. I used to have very good skin but acne started to sprout and it has never since stopped. I have a separate post on how my skin condition spiraled downwards on another blog Secondchance delegated to skin-related postings. 

Decision 2: At age of 22 - I went for student exchange to Munich, Germany

It wasn't easy convincing NUS SEP coordinator to allow me to go for another student overseas program as he wanted to give other students a chance. I had to explain and justify my way. Thank goodness that Prof Chin Wee Shong was willing to collaborate with TUM and allow me to take half a year of my thesis in Germany and another half a year with her. I am also grateful that the Vice Dean of the Faculty was very supportive after I spoke to him. Although it was a short 6 months, I had the chance to travel around Europe. The challenge was to take classes in a different language. I recalled using Google Translate a lot when I studied for my Chemistry modules. Thank goodness the lecturers were kind enough to allow me to write my answers in English during the exams. 

Decision 3: At age of 23 – I applied to join Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd

It is hard to say if it was a good decision but it must have some pulling factor that made me stay here for almost 7 years. Some of my NOC friends started their own companies right after school and some of them whom have sold their companies and became multi-millionaire. There are other friends who joined multi-national companies and have gone overseas as expats. Each one of us took different paths and became who we are today. There were many lessons learnt. R&D in Singapore has just started to begun two decades ago. Not just the tech-transfer office, but also the research organization is constantly evolving. Management changes, company reorganizes, strategy direction pivots, takes on new bets, etc. One thing for sure, commercialization of technology is not easy.

Decision 4: At age of - Taking part-time MBA at National University of Singapore

The only reason which I find useful from taking MBA is meeting new friends. Lectures were generally very academic style. If I were to compare with my marketing classes I took in Stanford University during my NOC programme, the style is very much different. I like the way US schools teach. There were never right or wrong answer. The professors in Stanford would provide leading questions for the students to debate on but no one would be able to determine what was the best business decision at the point of time. What I liked about classes in Stanford was also how “real” it is, because representatives of companies will company and talk to us. I recalled when I was doing a case on Harvey Davidson, some representative from the company actually drove the motorcycle into the classroom. And when we were doing a case on Yellow Tail, we were asked to appreciate the wine during class. Debating in class with a wine glass was 1^st ever in my academic experience. If I were to choose again, I will not spend ~$57,000 ($52,000 + GST) on an MBA in Singapore. I will save the money and consider doing it in the USA.

Decision 5: At age of - Taking part-time Specialist Diploma for Cosmetic Science at Singapore Polytechnic

As part of my work in developing commercialisation strategy in Personal Care, I decided to take a short specialist course on Cosmetic Science, which is funded by my company. I met new friends from various companies, such as Unilever, Croda, Givaudan, Takasago, etc. Most of them were around my age. I enjoy the laboratory module where I get to make my own soap, shampoo, lotion and fragrances, and classes which were taught by industry speakers. However, I dislike classes that were taught by some SP lecturers. Some of them do not have sufficient industry knowledge and I could tell they were “smoking” us. Bluntly put, I am not there to learn what I can learn from Wikipedia which they sometimes “cut and paste” in their notes.

Decision 6: At age of – Saying “I Do” to Mr Sungsoo Ro

The most spontaneous decision I have made was to say “I Do” to Mr Sungsoo Ro on my 29^th birthday in 2013. Then, I was in Korea. Initially, we were still planning for our wedding to be on 17^th Jan 2015 (the earliest preferred and available date Fullerton Hotel could accommodate us). But somehow things between us started to move really fast and we had our ROM on 9^th Mar 2014. Then our Korean wedding happened shortly after on 22^nd Jun 2014. The date of our Korean wedding was firmed up very last minute as my father-in-law trying to get a slot at the beautiful Wedding Hall in Hotel ICC, Daejeon. 

It is a very popular place and usually couples have to book a few months before. But my father-in-law pulled strings and we got a slot on a very good date (22^nd Jun). Well, my family was very flexible and cooperative. We took leave and bought our tickets to Korea just a few weeks before flying off. I didn’t even have time to lose weight for the wedding. J I will allocate a separate blog post to talk about my Korea Wedding. Condensing the events that happened then into this blog post doesn't serve justice to the whole experience. J

Besides sharing the 6 big decisions I made, below are 6 mistakes I made which I will highly recommend others not to make in their 20s:

1. Not taking good care of the skin and body
2. Studying in school non-stop when you don’t have a clue what you are doing
3. Failing to try and build dreams.
4. Sticking with jobs that doesn’t teach you anything
5. Not mixing frequently with friends that build dreams.
6. Not using free time to test out various side hustles, hobbies, passions, etc

How to get started?

Many people have entrepreneurial dreams. But starting a business just seems to be a rather mysterious process, especially for those who have yet started. There are roadblocks, inertia, fear of the unknown and failure. Maybe out of a million people with ideas, only half a million actually start a business, and probably only 10% of these group actually survive the first year. Then again, I have witnessed how some of my friends have succeeded and become multi-millionaire at age less than 30.

I spoke to my mentor Mr Yeo Keng Joon lately. He is an active NUS MBA Alumni and has his own business. According to him, starting out on his own was not a difficult decision. He was versed in the industry due to his previous job. He knew what the market needed and he just aimed to do it better. His advice to me was not to jump into starting a business, but keep my eyes open to opportunities.

Sometimes I wonder what it takes to even take the first step. I have heard a funny analogy.. "Instead of jumping into a swimming pool full of water, what don't we just go into an empty swimming pool and fill the swimming pool with water over time?" It is the same debate on whether one should build experience first or just start a business straight after school. Entrepreneurs would need the right attitude to be prepared to fail and persevere through the hard times. It is the process and experience that matters. It helps that the business is build around what you know so that less resources is needed to acquire the knowledge, eliminating consultants and outside assistance.

In both a casual conversation with Mr Lim Ker Han, director of a chain of beauty salons in Singapore, and a talk by Mr Allan Lim from Nestle,  I understood the importance of the ability to make pitches. The ability to effectively communicate ideas to relevant stakeholders (management, customers, suppliers, investors) is an important skill to have. Every startup team would need someone who can pitch amazingly well.

There is this thing called the Sweat Equity, which is an accumulative value of the business that was build upon from days of hard work. Far more important than money is the investment of time to make sometime meaningful. An example was how Brett Kelly wrote a guide for Evernote software with the aim to take $10,000 over a year. But ended up making more than $100,000.

Recently, I went through a simple process of "Ideation to Validation" with 2 of my MBA friends. We came up with the idea called Journey Pal to target daily commuters who will be delighted to have an auto-notification for bus/train arrival times. We turned a general idea into a specific idea by narrowing the scope of who is likely going to use the app and how revenue could be made. We fan out some surveys and receive more than n>30 responses, which further validated there is a need for it. Excited as we were, we pitched to SMRT personnel during a Hackathon event. However, the idea was so good that SMRT is currently doing it in-house and is undergoing a beta-testing phase. Well, it was an interesting journey I had and I believe such process will be iterated many times in our quest to start a business.

There is this video which I would like to share and remind myself not to get fixated about getting the best idea and keeping it secretive. Some key pointers:
1) Ideas don't matter. Execution does.
2) Share you ideas to gain valuable feedback and create a social contract that holds you accountable.
3) Put yourself in a position where you feel as much pressure as possible by telling as many people as you can about your ideas.
4) Can I do something meaningfully different or better than others?

The Fallacy of the "Good Idea": Ideation - How to Start A Business

Dr Stephen Turner

Dr Stephen Turner spoke on 24 July on a Distinguished Technopreneur Speaker (DTS) Forum. He qualifies as a speaker as he is a physicist turned entrepreneur, who founded Pacific Biosciences in his pursuit to develop technology capable of performing gene tests and DNA sequencing at the cost of $1,000 or less. Despite difficulties in surviving on small grants, his determination and perseverance has put him in the lead to develop the disruptive single molecule real-time (SMRT^TM) technology platform that is unique in the field of DNA sequencing and offers the ultimate combination of speed, long reads and low costs. 

During his speech, he gave a succinct analysis of the entrepreneurial landscape in Singapore, which he found is rather entrepreneurial. Dr. Turner performed a quick word search on LinkedIn with keywords such as "entrepreneur", "CEO", "start-up", and analyse the prevalence of entrepreneurship in various cities. It was surprising that Singapore ranked closely behind San Diego which is widely regarded as having a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. What he felt was lacking in Singapore, yet a crucial determinant of success, is not the lack of entrepreneurs, but the lack of access to local VC community that has courage and conviction all ready to mentor and fund fledging start-ups. He also highlighted the importance of access to a chain of funding (from pre-seed, seed, series funding, bridge financing to an eventual IPO). Availability of a chain of financing will ensure start-ups continue to put efforts in growing, instead of worrying over cashflows. The reason he chose to establish office in Silicon Valley was primarily due to access to VCs and to allow VC to gain access to him. 

There are many ideas but execution is the key. What is the cost to test the hypothesis? How high is the risk that the hypothesis fail? The strategy is to challenge the hypothesis and prove it is wrong at the lowest possible cost, as such:

V = N(PsVp – Ce), V is net value, Ps is probability of success, Vp is value, Ce is cost of enterprise.

One way to start is to form a hypothesis which is going to be important in the future, e.g. for effective R&D efforts to transfer to enterprises, countries need to groom “soft companies”.

The other importance of a start-up is the team. Dr Turner gave an analogy of the game "Angry bird". Different people with different skills required to win the game. 

"What was the toughest decision you have made during your journey as a technopreneur?" "Many… To start a company and to keep going."

A valuable lesson with Dr Baey Lian Peck

The Solemnizer whom we are engaging for ROM is Dr Baey Lian Peck. I believe he is one of the first few solemnisers in Singapore as his license number is relatively small (J0007). I chanced upon his contacts when I was viewing through the list on ROM website. His name was the first after I filtered the list by location. I kinda googled about Dr Baey and had a very good impression of him. There was an article about him celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife Daisy. A snippet of the article can be found in a book "Serving a new nation" written by Ooi Kee Beng.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“A love that has lasted 54 years”, by Sarah Ng and Jean Loo, Sunday Times, 28 May 2006

Businessman and community leader Baey Lian Peck was playing a game of badminton at his classmate’s Grange Road home 54 years ago when he caught sight of his friend’s sister and fell instantly in love. The 21-year-old was so smitten with the 15-year-old student that he would drive her to school everyday to make sure other admirers had no chance of winning her heart. “It was love at first sight on my part. She’s such a beautiful and caring girl, and she had many admirers. I was naturally worried,” he told The Sunday Times.

Fifty years, four children and 13 granchildren later, they are still together.

Last night, Dr Baey and his wife, Daisy, celebrated 50 years of marriage with 600 guests, including President S R Nathan and Mrs Nathan, with a lavish dinner party at the Ritz-Carlton.

The couple founded American International Industries Group, the oilfield equipment company now run by their son, Henry, though Dr Baey still serves as chairman. He has also sat on several government boards, served 19 years as president of the Singapore’s Anti-Narcotics Association and was one of the founders of the NTUC FairPrice supermarket chain.

It’s a far cry from the days when Mrs Baey’s younger brother would chaperone the couple to Koek Road to eat porridge and ice caching. He popped the question — on a bench in a reservoir park one evening — two years into their courtship. The couple married on May 27 in 1956 and threw a wedding dinner for about 300 guests in a Chinese restaurant in Middle Road. 

Last night’s dinner was a more multinational affair, attended by the couple’s four children, a handful of government ministers and relatives, friends and business associates from Brunei, India, Malaysia, Portugal, Sri Lanka and the United States. The night began with a video slideshow to the tune of Elvis Presley’s Hawaiian Wedding Song, showing footage of their wedding in 1956. Guests, decked out in tuxedos and flashy gowns, were full of admiration.

Mr Ricky Sim, chief operating officer of Suntec Investment Group, said: “They’re one big happy family”. “It’s excellent that they’ve managed to keep it going for 50 years”.

After the guests had tucked into a sumptuous spread of barbecued suckling pig, shark’s fin soup and braised abalone, a second montage video appeared, showing the couple’s courtship, wedding, their children’s formative years and, later, their grandchildren. 

When the video showed Mrs Baey saying to her husband, “I will follow wherever you go,” there was hardly a dry eye among the guests. When asked the secret of their long marriage, both said: “Give and take”. Said Dr Baey: “We understand that we are not perfect and we give way to each other”. “It’s not sacrifice but out of the love we have for each other”. Mrs Baey was more matter-of-fact.

“We are husband and wife and should stick together whether it’s during successful or difficult times,” she said. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr Baey is an amazing man, with great achievements and always giving back to the society. He does not asked for any thing from wedding couples except that they donate to charity. We went to his house at Carribean for our Pre-Solemnization Meeting (PSM) and stayed there for about 2 hours. Besides hearing his amazing life experience and stories, he gave us some pieces of advice as a marriage couple.

One was relating to "Character". The first 10 years of a child will mold the character of a person. It is our responsibility as parents to inculcate the values and provide love during this critical period. Children learn fast, the good and the bad. As busy as he was, he would always make sure that he spend quality time with his family.

The second lesson was "无我" (self-less). The success of a happy marriage is always to think for the love one. No expectations. And give way to the other party. Even though sometimes you know that you are right and your love one may not be, just give in. The love one will feel it and be grateful, and will do likewise to you in the future. It takes a lot of effort be to consciously aware and practice it.

Such words of wisdom from a successful business and family man always make lots of sense and weight. In the very best as we could, we hope to be like Dr Baey and his family. :)

Verification of documents @Registries of Marriages

Taking a few shots @ Carribean (Keppel Bay) after meeting Dr Baey