Doing business in Malaysia..

Assalamualaikum wr wbt,

I hope you are in best of health and iman.

Let me be straight here. I do not come from a well to do family. We are from a very humble background. My dad is a driver, as he only passed his O Levels. My mom only studied until primary 6 in the rural Malaysian education system, and she worked mostly as a cleaner for most part of her life.

Life was hard, but we were never in a state of poverty. Although it is kinda sad to say this but we never had an actual place to call home...and we had to "tumpang" in relatives homes a few times. Otherwise, we had to rent a small unit somewhere just to grab a roof over our heads. My parents divorce did not help while I was 9 and 14 years old (they remarried and divorce again)

So in actual fact, to venture and start-up my own enterprise was the counter-intuitive decision I have ever made.

The deck was stacked heavily against me since day one. I had no real connections. I was not what you call an ultra sociable person. I was a moody and only open up to a few close folks. And even then, I was raised up in Singapore and I had not much of a friend base in Malaysia, although I do have some few contacts who are highly supportive and appreciative.

In Malaysia, its all about connections, connections and CONNECTIONS!!!

From this article, we can see that Malaysia ranks 3rd in crony capitalism.

Anybody who can hook up with a Tan Sri or Dato's or any YBs is as good as striking lottery.

Personally, I hate it. Ironically, I do not believe in meritocracy either. Meritocracy is just an illusion for the majority to suppress the minority (but thats for another topic!) On the other hand, getting jobs or projects, simply through who-you-know or mere acquiantaince... is not a bang up way to secure competent vendors or suppliers.

I have always believe and stubbornly stuck to my ethics, to be morally upright (or uptight to certain folks) and shy away from any hanky panky. However, such idealistic standard means it has been one very very very slow struggle to bring income in.

Although in spite of all these obstacles, we are slowly gaining some foothold and momentum, but it has been one very painful journey!

Being a business owner...client cannon fodder - Part II

Well...after some semi-conherent rant in Part I, there are still lingering doubts before I took the plunge, mainly due to:

• I have a wife and 2 growing kids. This is a commitment on a gargantuan scale for somebody who does not come from a decent financial background. (to be described in the next few points)
• I am the only son of my mother who has NO pension, NO savings, NO EPF and NO life insurance. Basically I am her ATM withdrawals.
• My dad screwed up his finance really horribly (yes you did!) and made some ill advised financial decisions and to cut things short, I had to settle my study loan (in Singapore dollars...roughly 2.5x and it was in 5 figures still). On top of that, he is not from a well to do family either. 
• So in total, my upkeep is practically 3 different families, on top of my house (I bought for my mom..on her insistence), my cars (plus one for my mom also), my credit cards, my life & kids insurance (which comes about 800++/month) and the day to day pitfalls we do sometime encounter.
• I am NOT a sociable person. I do not easily make friends and I do not frequently mix around. My days are spent cooped up at home or room with my trusty ol laptop and a must-have blazing fast internet.
• And many other reasons, which I think I wont list as the list is becoming quite depressing...

I think these points are enough to make even the hardened, veteran son-of-a-gun pause...no??

However, strange as it sounds, those exact points are some of the main contributing factors that cause me to hop 13 companies in my 12 years of working life. I needed the $$$...sometimes I went to contract non-permanent mode just to bump up my salary.

I really wondered, if I came from a more sound and stable financial background, what would have happened...I guess I wont even be here to write this down....and just be another salaried shmucks (like you??? hehe :P)

Ultimately, what triggered the impending jump to entrepeneurship was my mental and emotional exhaustion and sacrifices, labouring and spending my weekends and free time, to deliver work, for the sake of making others rich. I had no qualms making others rich, but I had to make some sacrifices to my family time and health.

I gathered although going on alone with my own venture will not be less kinder to myself, but at least I was reaping the rewards, if there was any.

And at that point of time, I was very angry with the state of the software development industry in the local scene. It was full of silliness, corruption, mismanagement and downright wastages. I am the kind who always stick to this motto..

"If you do not like something, go and change it!"

And so yeah...hey you ..Mr Challenge...you threw that gauntlet...so I picked it up and spit back at your face..

And I took that bold step and wanted to do it my own way, without all this silliness and shenanigans.

What can I possibly talk about? Silliness? Shenanigans?? Well...maybe in another post....insyaAllah.

I always believe in my religion...and always have faith that He will provide susbstance for us if we work hard and pray hard...

So there you go...that's more or less how I jumped off from the Cliff of Boringness....

:)

Being a business owner...client cannon fodder - Part I

Ladies & GentleMachoMen,

Like a certain Macho Man Randy Savage would say...'ooooo yeaaaaaaaaaa' ... I am a proud co-owner & founder of a company called iWAFS...which specialises in IT (mainly software development & integration)

It was formed in early 2012, and thankfully still kicking around up to now. It has been one wild roller coaster ride and let me say this with no small amount of pride, it was not easy but we managed to pulled it off!

Of course, the first and all important question is - Why did I decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship (or more accurately technopreneurship in my case)??

Did I wanted to become the next Bill Gates? Or maybe Steve Jobs?
Was it money?
Was it the "I want to do it my way" lifestyle?
Or was I just simply a lunatic bufoon?

Well the answer is No!, No!, No!, No! and finally (Still deciding on the buffoon part..but partial lunatic do has some bearing) for each of those questions above!

According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test that I took (www.16personalities.com/), I was rated as INTP

We can find out more about INTP here. And here is the main crux of my problem:

"People who share the INTP personality type aren't interested in practical, day-to-day activities and maintenance..."


BINGO!!!

• I have problems working in the morning...after my usual nocturnal late working hours 
• I do not like to clock in to work for the sake of clocking in and put a show of non self-effacing...just to chase promotions and praises
• I have problems with repeated mundane day to day routines & chores
• I have problems holding back my frank opinions...especially in the face of absolute stupidity...(which seems never cease to rub the people the wrong way)
• And the part which I think broke my back (in being a salaried worker), is to work and sacrifice my days, weekends, holidays and sleeps for stupid rich folks, Datuks and Tan Sris, who never fails to display their ignorance and idiocy...just for the sake of $$$

And the positive indicators for me to start on my own are: 

• Constant request and calls to do freelance works
• Tend to solve employer's issues or problems on my free time or holidays
• The initiative and drive to manage and drag the project by the horns to the finishing line (with little supervision and assistance from anybody else)
• And I am super high discipline and objective oriented

So roughly in mid 2011, I decided to take the plunge as a freelancer.

And in mid 2012, I formed iWAFS with some bunch of pals..

To be continued

I am back!

It has been a long 5 years since my last posting...

Well, I have always been a fiercely private person, and this whole blogging project was actually a time-burning exercise during my comatose time in Experian.

But lately, there are some real significant close-to-the-heart life changing events that I think it's high time I note it down somewhere...(unless blogspot is taken down!!)

Also no small help to somebody who actually dug this and posted in FB (does he actually have that time to do all that???)....I guess you guys better get ready to be tickled, annoyed, pissed and revile me...

:)