BUT HE MAKES AN AWESOME POINT when voters choose leaders. He takes us presidents election Bush vs Kerry ( page 20), leaders are voted in who say “stay the course” rather then wishy washy…..And Kerry is seen as a wishy-washy decision maker….changing his mind on many different debates….therefore not winning the votes from Americans who want a strong leader who will not bow down and give up so easily…..

whether we like it or not, trial and error is a great way to solve problems in a complex world…but leadership is not seen that way.

He reflects on the fall of the soviet union, explaining that feedback was supressed…..only central government made decisions, engineers were held captive from open free thinking and trial and error.

Book is also loaded up with great quotes, one by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping:

“Cross the river by feeling for stones” – Deng Xiaoping

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better” – Samuel Beckett

“One doesn’t have to be a Marxist to be awed by the scale and success of early-20th-century efforts to transform strong-willed human beings into docile employees” – Gary Hamel

Throughout the book, the author Harford constantly refers to Peter Palchinsky’s principles:

1. Try new things, expecting that some will fail
2. Make failures survivable: create safe spaces for failure or move backwards in small steps.
3. Make sure when you know you’ve failed, or you will never learn

Funny thing also was it brought up Shenzhen, noted as one of a charter city from mainland China’s competitive threat to Hong Kong as China’s first special economic zone. (page 150)

Organizations many times have to take the bottom up approach, to have workers that are willing to adapt and speak up. Also “whistle blow” when his/her company isn’t following regulations or safety standards. And to reward these whistle blowers….the company must not punish them or ridicule them,

Trial and error will always be part of how any organization solves a complex, ever shifting problems (page 66)

On page 49 he talks about US president Lyndon Johnson was always confronted with a unanimous view from his advisor team, not to show dis….WRONG he needed to be presented with all kinds of perspectives, choices, data, information….clues…..

He proclaims Google as a great innovative company, and highlights that some of the recent biggest technology failures have been Google’s, but Google is smart to cut off those programs/products and focus on the winners.

The book’s last paragraph sums it up nicely:

The ability to adapt requires this sense of security, an inner confidence that the cost of failure is a cost we will be able to bear. Sometimes that takes real courage; at other times all that is needed is the happy self-delusion of a lost three-year-old. Whatever is source, we need that willingness to risk failure. Without it, we will never truly succeed.

Not from today’s book, but something I thought would be interesting to include in today’s post: From Harvard Business Review’s 9 things Successful People do differently:

1. Set specific goals
2. Seize moment to act
3. Know how far you have to go
4. Be a realistic opportunist
5. Focus on getting better
6. Have grit (willingness to commit long term)
7. Build willpower
8. Don’t tempt fate
9. Focus on what you WILL DO, not what you won’t

This was a great read, as a “leader” and a businessman, I realize how I have to stop being afraid to make a mistake….but yes, I also cannot be too extreme in making crazy risky decisions that can completely bankrupt me either or lose my income. If we can master this balance…I’m sure we will be ahead of so many others in life.

Incoming search terms:

• adapt: why success always starts with failure reviews

I think, just like I am a fan of coworking, couchsurfing, and minimalism.

I think the same will happen not only in “adult world” but in children’s learning environment, aka “schools”. This is disruptive, and I recently read an article Peter Thiel takes his dream kids out of college to do business! He is definitely not making universities happy doing this. Taking top students out of college…..

My friend Marshall also sent me this program, called the Khan Academy as another popular new way for people to learn.

But I think more resistance will come because the university costs feed the system. Get a loan, pay the school, get into debt, pay back the debt for the rest of your life.

How much do we really learn in school?

Again, I see this as social media in action. But sure, even today I have met kids being home schooled. It is possible to learn outside of the classroom, but we also need to INTERACT eith kids our age. We also need to face kids we naturally wouldnt be friends with. Yes, I mean the bullies wjo beat up kids for their lunch money, the stuck up girlie girls who taunt the odd girl out. Why would I possibly say that is necesary…

Because when we get older, we are stuck dealing with those personalities in life. landlord, boss, police, lawyer. We cannot shelter ourselves from people we dont like in grown up life, we have to face them. so in the children phase of our life, we need to learn how to deal with all kinds of people too.

I have to say I was never a fan of structure. A fan of being forced to take a class in school i had no use for. I remember my struggle in high school cemistry, i saw no point in taking it. I had to though to get into university (or so the nuns in my catholic school told me). First day of class Sister Felimina rolls down the chart for the Periodic Table of Elements. She tells us that by the time this class would be over we would have memorized every single symbol, elements atomic number, and atomic weight on this chart. I raised my hand and asked “why”. Obviously this didnt go over well….as I was challenging her whole curriculum. She told me that it was imperative to memorize this to prepare for university, as she said in university it is expected you have this memorized already, or at least it would put you at an advantage over the other students. She mentioned some of her all star students who came back and said how much her class helped them for university. Each friday we would have tests on a new column or row of elements on the chart.

So she asked me to stay after class to discuss further. She asked me why I am being difficult. That this class will not only help me in my schooling but also in daily life. I still wasnt buying into it. She asked what i wanted to be when i grew up, i said a businesman. I cannot remember the exact rebuttal but she said i would need chemistry in business so that if in the office if someone was going to mix two deadly toxic fluids together it would set on fire or explode……i still said i don’t know why i need memorize the periodic table of elements….i said it was a waste of my time and i can always look back at the chart in the future if i needed to. she said it was necessary…..and this struggle continued for the length of the time I was taking the class.

Going into university, the first day of my chemistry class, the professor showed us a standard periodic table of elements and said this sheet can be brought to even quiz and exam for the whole semester, and not to waste time memorizing the chart, as its an easily accessible piece of information and as you used it more you would memorize what you needed.

Man, that was funny…..

Incoming search terms:

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But life is always re-inventing yourself, adapting to the environment around you. And people are constantly approaching more more as a social media guy, integrating social campaigns, connecting people, building community and environment. People, and businesses see the importance of social media.

But more and more, I am being asked about integrating to facebook, or twitter follower management, or building traffic on a blog. This is all social media. In a way, I already have announced I’m an online social salesman, but its screaming it outloud now…from inside myself as well as from friends and business associates all around me.

But then there are those “hesitations” I have to be a full time consultant. Is that a business? Like the image I posted on this blog, it says “Consultant – If you’re not part of the solution, there’s good money to be made in prolonging the problem.” In a way, I have in my history been under the impression consultants are short term, expensive, overrated people (maybe because I have always heard it from the position of a full time staff in a company?).  But I am also afraid to be measured by time instead of value.  There are ways to  create proposals that are not just based soley on time, I’ll get creative.

<a href=”http://www.leonstafford.com”>Leon</a> has been helping “coach” me the past few weeks here in Hong Kong, with the focusing of business and IT management.  Just being able to lay it all out there has been helpful.  And he, as well as others are screaming my maximum value is my knowledge and I have to focus on making money from it.

Here are some bullet points to solidify my position:

• Connector – I truly love connecting people.  I can do it all day long.  I want to focus more on organizing my contacts.  I have gotten restricted on facebook for friend requesting too many people (I had  imported my business cards contact info).  I love seeing the strengths in people and find ways to connect them with other people who can maximize each other’s strengths.
• Event Organizer, Community Builder – I have been organizing twitter meetups, couchsurfing meetups, somewhat complaining its exhausting but that was when I was exploring and experimenting. Now I have a purpose. I just hope to keep it “original”, I want it to still be fun for everyone.
• Story teller – I think I’ve always loved sharing stories. Heck that was a primary reason I started this blog, to share stories with everyone about my travels in business, entrepreneurship, and then to China. I do prefer to tell the stories in person, as I get to use my hands when I talk (yes, I have Italian heritage) and can jump around the room and explain how the story goes more real time.
• Motivational writer / speaker – I love getting blog comments about people who have gotten some inspiration in their daily worklife, or career, or just direction in life. That makes it all worth it. I haven’t really spoken about motivational things, publically, but I think…when I am focused….I am good at inspiring others. And have been told that multiple times. Just recently its FOCUS that is bogging me down.
• Positioning – White guy in China – Yes, its true, I am also able to play the card of a “white face” in China, and it helps me (and probably hurts me in other cases) but I have been able to speak in China about social media as well as many other internet marketing topics, building up my relationships here, and leveraging that with my friends / contacts back home in USA. So I gotta use it, right!
• Industry Changes in Internet Marketing – I’ve been blogging about the changes in SEO and internet marketing ….I knew when I came to China, and saw the industry getting standardized into link building machines…Chinese are very systematic….they will keep on trying until they figure out how to maximize the opportunity. And Google had to find ways for these massive link systems to not affect their user (searcher) experience. Now, links are people, and social media and SEO / internet marketing have combined….people vote for what they want to rank and what their friends like….and this is the future for sometime to come

I have always been attracted to the power of the internet….but I am also a guy that likes to deal with people, get outside, travel, inspire. And the new internet is about people, people are websites now, not websites are hiding companies behind cloaks. We have to come out of our shell and realize, people do business with people!

Incoming search terms:

• consultant
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Sure, you can spin things in different ways, and life is always about perspective. There is that saying “history books are written by those who win the war, not lose the war”, and I’m sure for the most part the rich and famous businessmen of today will be remembered as really nice, smart guys, right?

But in today’s online, transparent world, the world audience can more clearly outline all different perspectives and angles of a startup history, which founder was good and which founder was “evil”.

Reading this gawker article, I am borrowing some excerpts and bullet pointing each of these “not so nice” things these famous tech entrepreneurs have done:

• Paul Allen says in his new book that fellow Microsoft founder Bill Gates twice watered down Allen’s stake in Microsoft—with Allen’s consent but to his later regret.
• The “spiritual leader” of Twitter and man who coined the company’s name, meanwhile, still feels betrayed that he was fired by eventual Twitter CEO Ev Williams
• Ev Williams also left a bitter trail of colleagues at Blogger.com, the company he co-founded and later sold to Google.
• Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has admitted to sending instant messages in which he wrote “I’m going to f*****k them” in reference to associates with whom he was collaborating on a Facebook-like website.
• Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, who once admitted, before some of his scammy advertising partners were publicized, that “I did every horrible thing in the book to — just to get revenues right away.”
• Steve Jobs misled his Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak about the size of a bonus the pair received from Atari, giving him only $350 and keeping $5,000 for himself.

There are tons of great comments there after the original post. I also like a few of the comments in there, sharing below:

johne 04/21/11
Here’s the problem.
In order to succeed you must get obsessed and stay obsessed.
It makes you a dick, but you get shit done.

themightyspitz 04/20/11
[[[referring to a quote from joker character in Batman movie]]] You and your kind….all you care about is money. It’s not about the money; it’s about…..sending a message.

The article also says that Bill Gates now donates a lot of his money to charity organizations. But does that make it right? Actually, maybe if that money goes into his hands and then back to charity organizations, that will make the world a better place then where it was/would have been had he not maybe stepped on people’s toes to build Microsoft to where it was.

Another point is the article says TECH CEO – why does it need to be applicable to just technology companies? I think its hard to be a CEO, or a leader…..you have to be responsible making DECISIONS and when you make a decision, many times it helps some people, and hurts/upsets others. Sure we try, as a leader / decision maker to make the best win-win decision, but its just not possible to make EVERYONE happy.

This made me think back to a good quote from my motivational quotes page:

“Please all and you will please none.” – Aesop (fabulist)

There are a tons of comments on the gawker article, another stating that “its not personal, its business“, which is another reason against mixing friends and business, BUT you also want to do business with people you trust and have relationships with, which normally means friends. I have personally tried to work with people I don’t get along with, and it can really explode. And its dangerous to do business with someone you never met…even retail customers, the reason you can do that is because the amount of financial risk is low. When you need to do a long term business deal, you want to do that with someone you trust, and that someone normally is a friend.

Anyway, I think we need to separate business and personal, just like a sports game or a video game competition between friends, during the game we fight against each other, but at the end of the game, we shake hands and congratulate each other.

Because business is just another “game” and we can’t let it get too personal.

Unfortunately, people take it personal, get emotional in the workplace (I have to admit, I do mix emotions as well), but in the end, business is just one big game of risk.

Incoming search terms:

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Its just becoming more clear…I want to develop social media, communities, I get the most fulfillment from that. I think it is the most difficult, and its also the best way for me to utilize the years I have struggled in China business….its the connections and the trust I have built in the meantime. Sure I may have made some mistakes, some people didn’t agree with me, and I didn’t agree with them, but that is life.

So many people see me as a business consultant. My Hong Kong accountant invited me to be an advisor on their accountant association, I met with him and his partner last week. I’ll have to make some presentations about USA business, and they have a decent amount of members in the UK. More on that later as I confirm it and learn more myself. But it just feels so rewarding to be asked to be part of these clubs….and I have no problem connecting more people once I get familiar.

Just as an example of how I am getting more equipped for international business…I am typing this blog at 4:53pm on Sunday, awaiting the 5:50pm train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. I’m in the waiting queue, and holding my laptop against my thigh to type it as I’m standing up. (I try to blog from my tablet, but the touch screen just doesn’t work for long passages, at least not for me).

I have 2 3G wifi hotspots one for Hong Kong and China, a tablet for China (its also a phone), an android phone for Hong Kong, emergency power packs (these train stations NEVER have electricity power outlets!!!!!!) so many wires and adapters for different power outlets…I’m a walking office.

So I have 3 choices:

1. I can complain and cry about it – Some people may feel this is what this blog is about, my crying and complaining about my personal hardships in dealing with a small business overseas in China / Asia. Well, maybe it does help me to “talk outloud” and share my feelings…its soothing in its own sick way. Come on, what do people like to write about, and read about…its problems, struggles, passionate fighting for something, a cause.
2. I can change it – I could say “I don’t want to do this anymore”, go back to get a dayjob in America…I see this is giving up, and I have survived this far. Not something I can accept. We only have one life to live, if anything I hope to write a book about this, its definitely been an adventure.
3. I can deal with it – I think after returning to Asia late last year…taking the return ticket to Hong Kong I knew in the back of my head I wouldn’t be coming back to America so soon. Sure, I thought to myself I can always come back to America if I don’t feel right coming to Asia again…but the opportunities are in China. Things are growing, things are happening here….its just hard to partake in it as a foreigner….but I will not give up.

So as I wait in the Hung Hom Hong Kong train station to go to Guangzhou, I just realize that I have to accept the fact that….things will forever be changing, I cannot fully control, and I just have to accept it and make it work.

Another post coming soon comparing myself a few years ago to now.

Incoming search terms:

• i feel more equipped to

It was hard to quit my job, but after it was announced to him and to my fellow workmates, it was a sigh of relief. I actually did enjoy the team I was working with, I just wanted MORE CHALLENGING WORK. I w as working on Wall street, I saw psychiatrists and they would tell me how can I not be happy, I am working in a dream job in the center of the world, a dream to so many…..I JUST WAS NOT SATISIFIED OF THIS BEING MY LIFE, to go to a job to do work I wasn’t fulfilled doing, to repeat over and over, I needed to take more RISKS.

Anyway, in this dream I had, I mentioned that I wanted to do my own business full time, and then my manager told me, well “we have this incubator program” and if you stay with us, you can work there and we have a huge network of support services to get you on your feet, for a minority share of your business.

IMAGINE THAT! Yea, I know, “in your dreams”

This dream came from some articles I read of Yahoo! Company setting up a free coworking space in Silicon Valley near its own office to attract entrepreneurs and startups, to inspire them to work inside Yahoo! Or maybe be acquisition targets, whatever the exact reason Yahoo setup this free coworkign space is to ATTRACT TALENT! Entrepreneurs HAVE GUTS, they are motivated to do something different, to change something, to make a difference….and I see Yahoo! Making a smart move having this coworkign space near their office, I am almost certain it will be a positive return on their investment.

Then you see Google now making some changes, with Larry Page coming in as CEO again, and trying to cut out the red tape as Google has grown to be so massive

INNOVATION IS KEY TO ANY COMPANY.

Just seems that as companies get bigger, they get more inefficient, slower, and “dumber”. I mean, really. I don’t know how Google can spin things around being so massive…. There have been blogs I’ve read that say Google should also have an internal incubator, and when staff want to leave to do their own startup, maybe Google can incubate them inside their own company, but LET THE STARTUP be free of all that red tape and office politic crap that slows them down……

Yet, then if Google were to implement that, wouldn’t every staff want to quit and work in the incubator? And by trying to quit, you would be rewarded.

Maybe the Richard Branson method is the best way, allow all these projects to be run independently from the parent company, don’t herd sheep, harvest cats as he says. I’m not an organizational structure expert, but I just can’t help but feel huge, massive technology companies are efficient and effective, and over and over I see startups that are bought out by these massive companies lose their key people, lose their drive, and flop.

Anyway, wonder what I would have said if my old manager had let me startup my company with the support of Deutsche Bank instead of leaving the company. I would have seriously considered it, heck, if I had known they had that platform I would have been applying for it as soon as possible! But these large banks are afraid to be different.

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I have always wondered this since my day job at Deutsche Bank…so many people were not happy there, going to work day in and day out, when the sun is outside and it’s a beautiful day for a walk in the park…but because of schedule, management, and control we need to “punch in and punch out” at a set time to prove we are adding value and earning our salary. Doesn’t matter if we work faster or more efficiently then others, we still had to work the same amount of hours to show management we were putting in our time.

But companies lose people due to that…everyone wants to be their own boss, it’s a dream I think most people have. And its becoming more and more of a reality with the internet and technology. We can sell online, we can offer our skills and services online as a service. Location becomes more and more irrelevant, and the specific time we check in and out of an office is obsolete.

But still, as a “boss” management is my weakness I have to admit, I try my best to be flexible, accommodating people who want to work from home or have flexible hours….yet still there is nothing like SEEING THE PEOPLE WORK IN FRONT OF YOU. And teams….to have people work in teams…rather than large amounts of emails blasting back and forth or long boring conference calls where half the people on the call don’t need to be on the call.

As readers of my blog can tell, I have been exploring the best place for me to station myself…with China being a “hot market” yet so strict with internet censorship, and Philippines as a great English speaking support center but little sales opportunity, and America too expensive with not enough growth in my eyes…I’m just stuck seeing the best in one location offset with the hardship of being there at the same time.

So with everyone wanting to be a freelancer, location being less and less important, we need to adapt right? It also “hedges” the bet more between which country to base in, as you can manage workers in China, Philippines, Hong Kong, USA, Europe via online tools….YOU JUST HAVE TO WORK AT IT. Managing the freelancers becomes a full time job! And it’s a valuable job. Leon explained to me how its an endless pool of resources. Its more efficient…you can find experts in all kinds of fields, and grow your team.

Its just more LEARNING and adapting I have to put up with. While traveling like a madman between Hong Kong, Dongguan, and Shenzhen (with a sprinkle of Philippines), studying Chinese, and writing these blog posts. But learning how to manage an army of freelancers is a necessary thing, and it only can get easier once you break the ice.

Coworking and freelancers…the future of work. What about EDUCATION, do children still need to go to a classroom to learn? I actually think the main reason for going to school is not the education but the facetime with other students the INTERACTION and learning about yourself, your personality, and how to deal with all other kinds of personalities. Maybe then going to school is necessary (even if the young kid hates it!) but is going to the office really necessary (and most people hate that too!) And then you start thinking of the office politics, how much time and energy is wasted on that B.S.! Plus the rent for the office ,the electricity, overhead, and the cost the workers pay on commuting back and forth.

Incoming search terms:

• laptop coworking

I am addicted to blogging, and sharing with the world what I am doing. But I think it has been really effective…as most people are so afraid of the NEGATIVE of being public online….there is SO MUCH POSITIVE. If people know what my goals are, and my interests, those who agree and have similar visions will come together and help each other succeed. This is the new world, the social internet, and it will only become more open, more collaboration, more compounding and exponential growth as a group, not as individuals.

So let me take today’s blog entry to explain what my business (es) are, as I know even for me its hard to keep up, there is normally in an article the “5 W’s” – who, what, when, where, why, and how. I will mostly cover the what and where.

WHAT: do I do….

1. Internet marketing consulting (SEO, social media)

   I think this is my passion…my calling in life…I wouldn’t call it SEO anymore, sadly SEO (search engine optimization) is getting such a bad name lately….and really the opportunity and growth is in SOCIAL media….which is what I naturally believe I love to do….meeting, networking, connecting over an online medium. I have grown into this business overtime….mostly by friends and referrals seeing my success and interest in it. I have a few projects in China/Hong Kong and USA that I advise and service, leveraging teams in China and Philippines to help me build contents, build links, and overall grow online presence for these clients. This consulting business is what mainly “pays my bills”, as ones following are more in development / growth stages.

2. Ecommerce between USA and China

   Ecommerce is a broad term, but since 2004 and newyorkbarstore experience / bar products business (rough ride for me), its been there to keep my interest in the online world, become an internet marketing consultant (above) and sourcing bar products in China is what got me to Asia in the first place….

   But most exciting now is the Loadpipe “pipe dream” as some call it, connecting USA and China ecommerce is coming alive. Since the beginning of 2011 I joined a great team and exciting opportunity to convert a factory into fiveislands ecommerce warehouse center, being what I’ve always dream of making, a dual ended (China domestic market and a export / USA / international shipping from China) distribution platform and system. It just seems perfectly aligned. And we have a quick page made for a holding company of domains called cyberchina.com limited in Hong Kong to build a massive network of shopping carts and content delivery networks to build buzz and business on the web. So excited about each day’s developments here.

3. South China Coworking / Internet / Ecommerce Meetings, networking

   I have always loved the coworking idea, since back in 2007 working in San Diego I loved the idea of a middle between working alone in your apartment, a coffee shop, or a boring / expensive corporate office. It has always been such a massive idea, SEEMS LIKE SHENZHEN China is well positioned to be next. But community is key, working in boot hong kong coworking, testing some shenzhen ecommerce meetings, and learning Manila, Philippines meetups didn’t have enough interest, I have learned where and how and gotten some people supporting the idea and growing it.

WHERE in the world I am and will be

For those reading this CRAZY blog of my life….may have experienced my near decisions to live in New York or Philippines…..they were VERY close to being reality….and maybe I upset some with changing my mind…this is a rather big life decision, and I have to make the best choice…..

So I took that return flight back to Hong Kong in November last year. It seems like again, I belong in South China, as the opportunities for entrepreneurship and startups is in South China / PRD (Pearl River Delta) are growing exponentially – for me at least….just based on my 1 year in 2010 exploring many places in China, USA, Philippines – money flow (as Warren Buffet tells us – follow the money flow) is all in China now….whether we like it or not, its a fact….and I can feel my business and my opportunities going to China and Hong Kong as the “path of least resistance”. Listening to my heart. this is where I belong for the next few years at least.

So hopefully that helped people understand what I’m up to these days…writing it down has helped me…and may as well publish it to the world and see what people think too, I don’t have anything to hide.

Incoming search terms:

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I know, I think this is hard, to accept facts that we are born with some advantages, and over our childhood, whether its due to our environment (I love the idea we are products of our environment) or preference for what we like to do….we form strengths….and unfortunately weaknesses due to lack of focus and attention on those things in life we are not interested in, or do not dedicate time developing.

As we get older, we get more and more focused on a specific job, industry, or function…..and its harder and harder to learn new things. Forcing ourselves to learn new things is hard (speaking for myself, but I am sure I am not alone), yet we have to face facts and realize that in today’s rapidly changing and growing environment, where information and ideas spread around the world in seconds….we gotta WAKE UP AND SMELL the coffee…..its sink or swim time.

What are my strengths? I do see myself as more of a generalist….I know, that annoying saying “jack of all trades, master of none”, that has been haunting me for my whole life…..and as I approach 30 years old, I think now more than ever what are my real strengths in life and in business…..

One thing I have learned, and realized in life, true value is the team and network around you. I think my mistake when I first started my trek into “entrepreneurship” was focusing on the product or service. Of course that is important and core to your success….but I think even more basic is ensuring you have the SUPPORT NETWORK around you. Now, that is NOT only customers, but its also suppliers, operations, knowledge or at least people to go to for that knowledge.

Because as much as we think our current product or service is, life moves on. And we need good people. Trustworthy people, people from all kinds of backgrounds, skillsets, and cultures.

Problem is, and maybe thats why some entrepreneurs go to MBA school, is how to meet these like minded people? As the network, the “who you know” becomes more and more critical. Its not really the knowledge you get in the classroom, its the network you build with those other “educated” and “networked” people in the room with you.

I keep on going to that DISC method to measure personalities and strengths. I just keep remembering the presenter stressing that in order to be successful, you need to make sure your office, department, team, whatever group is it, has these 4 styles of people and personalities.

So who am I? I am a D and an I….meaning Dominant and Influencial. Of course this depends on the situation I am in, but normally I see myself as Wolverine in the Xmen group…I am rather emotional….and let my mind get ahead of itself…..but I also see that as raw passion not to let things get in my way.

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BUT, he puts a different spin on it, and it scares me a bit because I feel I somewhat can be categorized under one who loves starting ideas and is addicted to it. Here is an excerpt from his analysis:

Fear on the left, fear on the right

Some of us hesitate when we should be starting instead. We hold back, promise to do more research, wait for a better moment, seek out a kinder audience.

This habit is incredibly common. It eats up our genius and destroys our ability to make the contribution we’re quite capable of making. Call it hypogo–trapped into not enough starting.

Surprisingly, the flip side is also true.

Some people deal with the fear and hide out by doing something else. They overstart, constantly dreaming up the next big thing, bigger than big. They might start a zeppelin transit company on Monday, and then drop it for a Stirling engine patent application on Wednesday, and perhaps, if that doesn’t take off in just a day or two, aim for a business focused on home delivery of notary services by the end of the week.

Fitzgerald nailed it when he described Jay Gatsby’s attitude: “What would be the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?” It’s easy to fall so in love with the idea of starting that we never actually start.

Life is hard right? Either we are too scared to start something, or too scared to finish what we have started?

TOO SCARED OF FAILURE

I will be first to admit…yes, one reason it is hard for me to commit to 1 single startup idea is the fear of failure.

Do stock investors buy only 1 stock with all their money? NO. They diversify. I do understand its hard to run a few businesses at the same time….but I have to feel entrepreneurs need to do something to keep themselves safe.

I am fully invested in my businesses. I know so many entrepreneurs who take out loans, every cent they have in the bank, and put it into 1 single business….and then they are so WEAK when it is having financial problems.

I will not name names, but even at this very moment I am talking to friends in that exact situation…..they dedicated everything to 1 single project…..and then they got into a bind.

How is that smart? I cannot understand this.

Sure, I have to admit, I am afraid to put 100% of my time, money, and life into 1 thing….because that is the same as gambling on the the stock market in penny stocks, right?

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But I just have to face facts…I am going to stay in Asia for the foreseeable future, and running a USA business while here makes no sense to me. I have talked to call centers, stayed up all night myself for months on end, talked to possible USA sales partners, just nothing that makes me feel like “I can sleep at night” on Asian timezone. My friends always ask – “how did I get into the bar products business” to begin with?

From front to back this business is built, suppliers, logistics, and customers….it is definitely vertically integrated. It just needs the attention and care of someone on the America side, with a portfolio of other USA ecommerce businesses. Maybe someone who wants to run a small business from their home, with a warehouse in the back and some part time staff.

There are also so many possibilities to build up this business…..but I am not in America….I almost stayed behind in New York when I arrived back there in September 2010, looking to open a retail store / distribution center, but then more nyc warehousing issues….I was convinced by many during those rough days in New York to take that return ticket to Hong Kong and think things over when back in Asia.

Just seems I really see myself sticking in Hong Kong, sure its expensive…but its free (free information) on the internet, and I can easily travel within southeast Asia as well as internationally. Seems like the best center of the world in the current economic climate.

I am still emotionally attached to it, but by hitting the submit button today…I know it has to be the best thing. I have to start fresh. Leon “cheerleaded” me through it today at a cafe, photo he took is on this blog.

Normally I would type more…..but really just want this to be a shorter blog post

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Spring 2000: Freshman year wrapping up, summer internship hunt is on! Interviewing, networking, looking for a place to land my first college internship – get some experience, see what it’s gonna be like when I graduate college w/ computer engineering degree & starting making those six figures, baby! (seriously, this is what all the students were thinking – frosh to senior). Bling bling!

One of my fraternity brothers, Josh Griffiths, was at the time working part time at Kozmo.com, and he really said, “dude, you gotta work here”. Every day I’d be in the fraternity house, around dinner time doing the freshman pledge thing, and see him come in rocking jeans and a t-shirt….man that was awesome – I needed to get in on that deal! Josh has this special aura about him too; the cool Cali aura, but I’ll get to that another day!

Few weeks later, I was selected for the kozmo.com on campus interviews, Josh wasn’t interviewing, but he prepped the interviewers for me. Man, they were cool, all these other big firms, Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs, wearing suits – Kozmo.com crew – jeans, visors, rockin out – NICE! So I, as instructed by my on campus recruiters, had a new suit, tie, and the whole deal. After sitting in on some other interviews, I sat down with the kozmo.com guys – YES! They looked at my suit and made some kinda wisecrack….hah, I definitely woulda done the same thing in their shoes. So they go on, bring up Josh, talk a bit more, I’m only a freshman, but I got heart man, I want in!

Second round interview NICE – on site interview, only a few from first round are selected. Josh sits me down in his fraternity room, something like, dude, do not wear a suit there, I know these Stevens recruiters will tell ya – you MUST WEAR THE SUIT, but dude, just yea-yea ‘em, and when you go to Kozmo.com at Broad street in New York city, you freaking wear whatever you want – meaning freakin’ wear shorts and a t-shirt, you got that! I’m thinking here, I gotta impress them over there, I gotta show them I really want it, of course once I get the job I can wear whatever I want, but in an interview? no way, that’s like a slap in the face….so sorry Josh, I didn’t listen to ya and I rocked the full fledged suit and tie.

I wake up early on an April 2000 morning @ Stevens Tech freshman dorm, throw on this suit, walk down to the PATH subway to the World Trade Center (WTC) in downtown New York. But I mean, yea I’d been there before, but to partake in that morning commute, crammed subways, mile long escalator getting outside of the World Trade Center Mall (basement of the WTC), that is something you had to witness to understand. Walking down from the World Trade, ten minute walk down broadway, left onto Wall street, then there, 80 Broad Street, New York City – which if you’re familiar with the city, is a few blocks away from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and man – that was one big freaking party over there! I’m trying to get to this interview, and I’m not sure what was going on that day, my first time witnessing this, but there were free tokens, shirts, hats bursting out of the seams. One big party – some IPO going on, bunch of promotional stuff pumped into everyone’s hands walking to their offices, unbelievable.

Rolling to the interview, I had to speak with Andres Correal, much laid back, type B personality, first thing he says – grins – thought we told ya in the first round, if you’re coming onsite, can the suit! Dammnit, I shoulda listened to Josh – but ah well, maybe it helped- I take off the tie. Sitting down with Andres, rather quickly, and then had a few more technical guys talk to me, test my knowledge, brain teasers, etc etc. I got the job! Had a couple other offers – one working with some on-site school database system and another at some backend office for an investment bank – no way man – you got a new kozmonaut here, baby!

Few weeks later, freshman semester is over! Move into Delta Tau Delta fraternity for summer housing – man, I couldn’t have had a smaller room, but it was a room….a.k.a. Cedar Closet. Crazy hot summer, first day at the office of kozmo.com I was assigned to the DBA group, they had just leased a new floor at this 80 Broad Street corporate building, so cubes (well half cubes here) were still being installed. Ahfan Chan was my manager, very nice woman. Not sure if it was the first day or not, but I remember many coffee breaks at Starbucks on the corner. Very friendly people – remember getting my logons and the first day I ordered my first Kozmo.com video, scheduled delivery for 5pm that day so I could watch it that night. Sweet, I was in it, dead center of the dot com mania, and it was awesome!

Eveninigs come back to the fraternity house, pop in the new kozmo.com video in the pledge room, beers with the boys, life was good. John Davidovich as another brother there, working for a financial advisor firm, I forget the name of it now. He was looking to get me a part time gig there, Y2K or some sort of computer work needed to be done at night there…..nah man, I’m content @ kozmo.com – no need to stress myself out installing software after-hours at some financial firm…..you crazy!? But that was a memory of the times, IT work everywhere, money to be had, opportunities were a dime a dozen.

That same financial firm was slinging mutual funds, large cap tech funds! This is it, get in now, get in on the stock market boom, attended some presentations, looked at the 30 year charts, the rule of seven, yup, take your money out of the mattress and give it to these fund managers – they’ll make you rich! You’re only in college, a freshman? well then, just budget a few less beers a night and sock it away in these funds. Become millionaires with the rest of us! Well, we all know how that story goes….luckily, I was too lazy to open all these accounts, I had no idea what the stock market was, just some letters and numbers at the end of the evening news. I was a .com guy!

As much as I loved the tshirts and shorts to work, I quickly found database programming was not my destiny. We worked with a few different departments, software programming, marketing, and business management. Starting learning what others in the company were doing. But you got that feeling, late summer, rumors were out – no IPO coming, slowing growth, very early, but the sobering was beginning. I was scheduled to continue working there through the Fall, but I received a call from my Stevens Intern Program that I had to re-apply for a new job, and that one of my other offers I had declined was still available for september….no freaking way man! I was out of Kozmo.com due to cutbacks end of summer 2000, cutting me short of my 6 month experience. In any regards, I enjoyed my time there, walked down the Wall Street IPO mania every morning, took a tour of the exchange, and opened my eyes to New York City. wow.

Any job after kozmo.com was never the same, not that passion, heart pulse feeling of PR news hitting, kozmo/starbucks, kozmo/amazon – deals deals, growth, opportunity, to the moon! I hold these times I had there close to my heart, I was lucky enough to get a piece of the dot com world, and kozmo.com was probably one of the prime places to be

Note: Originally I posted this on Sunday, December 24, 2006 on an old domain miggity.com, but I’m going to re-direct the traffic here, merge the websites.

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I do not consider myself a programmer. I have the basic idea, I understand the language. Sure I have made websites and spent hours tweaking code to make things work. Maybe that is what a programmer is? A PATIENT person to keep on testing code and scripts and looking at help files and posting on forums. THAT IS DEFINITELY not me.

Some programmer friends say I should spend more time to learn programming….but I hate it. Really, I am a connector between business and technology, I switched my major at Stevens Tech from Computer Engineering to Engineering Management in my sophomore year BECAUSE I hated to do programming. I spent summer 2000 at an internship Kozmo.com doing database programming….I was miserable at the work I was doing, but I loved the energy of the startup. This will probably sound racist, but whatever – the majority of the IT department in this New York city were Indians and Chinese. They were nice, I am still in contact with a few of them to this day, but it seemed strange to me, and they were not American born Indians or Chinese, they were immmigrants on F1 Visas or whatever. Why weren’t any Americans there in the IT and programming department?

Most of the Americans I saw, whether they were white, black, indian, or chinese backgrounds, were in the business department, were in the project management department. I met a IT business liason, and I loved what he did. He worked between IT and Business departments to ensure proper communication was done.

So after that summer programming internship, where I dreaded debugging PL/SQL database trigger scripts each day, I switched my major to Engineering Management. I remember the comments I got from my IT friends at school. “don’t take the easy way out”, “EM is not a real degree”, and other comments like this. But at the same time, the smaller class of EM majors told me, let those techie nerds say what they want, but they can’t do what we do. The EM majors were the sales and marketing people, forget even about the course load, just clearly could see in a school function…..the EM majors were outgoing and natural charismatic personalities. And its always kind of been this love/hate relationship of IT managers and the actual IT workers. But I am noticing many excellent programmer SUCK at managing a project. They even prefer to stay in a lower position if they don’t have to manage a team. It’s a completely different skill all together.

Then we have link Mark Zuckerburg, and the facebook movie the Social network all over the news, who is an excellent programmer himself. And then people talk about Google too. So I am constantly in sometimes heated conversations with my fellow entrepreneur friends, and they use these as case studies that you have to be a techie yourself in order to lead a successful IT startup. Or have a programmer partner. Maybe they are right about the partner part, but if you watch the social network movie, doesn’t seem like those business partners were well treated as the facebook business grew, right?

Anyway, I am writing this rather emotional post based on some recent heated conversations I’ve had with programmer friends here. As the world gets more and more flat will there be less of a need for marketers and sales people? By saying that technology will be able to naturally market the “best” product and weed out the rest. Obviously I would not like to agree with this, as I feel I am mainly a connector and a marketer, but bias aside, I really think the world is going to NEED NATURAL HUMAN BEINGS to market and sell technical products, as well as lead them into the marketplace.

Pic is something i bought off fiverr of a cartoon of me, seems like a programmer nerd, right? hah!

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Some want to teach english, others want to start a business, some who want a fresh start and a new type of job. I also sometimes get it for Americans moving to Philippines, but the red hot one I get every dang day is Americans moving to China.

Recently I received this one, I will remove contact information and personal / sensitive info, but to give you guys an idea:

Hi Michael,

I am looking at moving back to China to do something like what you are doing. I have lots of questions actually that you most likely have the answers to. I was talking about opening a small office there to help do labor intensive jobs working w/ managers I would set up in the states that would manage but really sell and interface w/ the american client or whatever country we work in. I love austria and france. I know lots of people in kunming but no one in Shenzhen so I am looking for someone there that might want to spend a little time figuring things out. If you know anyone available I’d appreciate the lead. I am also pursuing teaching english just to pay the rent but I actually really like teaching. They about wore me out last spring though. 70 per class jr. highers 4 classes a day.

Hope to hear from you soon. I am planning to fly over by the end of the month. I am open to suggestions and definately want to get some of your smarts and thoughts. thanks

Greg

I am working on ways to service this new demand. I have a friend, Joshua Whiting, from NY who is really networking like crazy to get back into China. Have been trying to connect him, also getting lots of facebook messages from friends, either who they themselves are coming or want me to meet friends of theirs who are interested to move here. I met some headhunters recently and try to connect them. Also I made a quick page on this blog on getting a job in China with links and hope to add to it as I go.

A couple months ago I mentioned I was looking for PRODUCTS to import into China and my friend from Stevens Tech, Larry facebook status updated, and then blog commented the following idea:

I was serious about the cheap american labor thing. I’m sure the visa issues would be .. well .. issues, but I imagine that there are fresh college grads that would love the adventure (if not the salary) that a rotation in china could offer. Plus, it would look amazing on the resume.

Also, like the middle class in the US, I’d go for status symbols. There’s nothing like a little bit of money in your pocket to make you want to pretend you have even more money in your pocket

Seems this is making more and more sense……there is a demand on both sides…..a dropping US salary, dropping USD currency…..less labor pool in China with increasing demand in their domestic economy. Just how to put the pieces together.

My friend Gary laughs at me saying I should become a visa agent, as I’m getting requests from Filipino friends, American friends, and people all over the world who want to get Chinese work visa or a expat passport visa ….which is a bit distracting and tiring…but I love enabling people.

Going to make a survey soon…..stay tuned. Any ideas out there?

* Image credit to Jack Masterson , a photo of european immigrants coming to Ellis Island, to immigrate into America. Is this the future of China?

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People have been @ replying me asking me questions about battery life, does it work with a SIM card, etc etc, so  I promised Piotr and some others I’d write up a blog entry about it.

I am trying to increase my productivity….but also I am trying to not have to carry an expensive smartphone with me as well (after my mobile phone was stolen I’m afraid to get a big, expensive mobile phone). So I have my laptop (where I am typing this blog now), this viewsonic tablet, and a HTC wildfire mobile phone (a smaller screen — less flashy, cheaper —- android phone) I also am carrying around a 3G hotspot that allows up to 5 connections to connect simultaneously.

Some specs on the Viewsonic tablet

I am loving this tablet….some people say they are like a big phone….but I see it as a laptop in the subway, train, bus, even using it in a taxi . And the screen makes it more social to share what I’m reading or doing on my phone with people around me. I was in HSBC bank today….I am on 3G so I don’t need to search for wifi, when I’m in the waiting room, I am replying emails easily….typing with both hands easily spread out…..

I really see laptops….and definitely PCs dying soon……sure its more convenient sometimes, but for the majority of a normal person’s day to day work…..you can do it from this tablet.

Sure it gets some strange looks, one guy in the elevator said to me “is that a big iphone”? I have also been typing and walking, crashing into people a bit….but I am so happy that I can have a truly mobile office…..its really destressing to me. To me it kills dead time waiting for trains, taxis, meetings…..I can get my data in these annoying gaps….and not from some cramped mobile phone screen…..

Plus when I am using a laptop (as I have whipped out a laptop in buses, taxis, and other public transportation systems) you have to wait for it to come out of standby mode…..this tablet I have not powered off since I charged it up last Saturday…its always on….and I quickly unlock the screen saver and can get to my work.

I hope I don’t get robbed again….but you know what – THERE ISN’T ANY DATA that isn’t back up…its always syncing my calendar, my contacts, my email….I can access things via dropbox app, passwords too. Its just amazing…..

The world of technology is moving so fast…I do agree mobile is in the lead….even above social media…..mobile will soon replace PC and laptop…..and there is so much software apps and solutions that need to be developed to make it happen!

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