Articles Archives - Ranford Neo

While You Were Sleeping

26 May

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If you can recall the 2013 haze outbreak in Singapore, it was one of the most serious haze episodes in the past sixteen years – the first time PSI levels reached a hazardous range with the highest PSI reading of 401 recorded on 21 June 2013.

It was during this time when I chanced upon a video Josiah created called WHILE IT WAS HAZY.

The message Josiah shared resonated with me and I was deeply moved. While others were busy profiteering from the spike in demand of N95 masks or grumbling about inconveniences the haze has caused, it was comforting to know there were still people out there who cared for others.

After watching the video, I immediately connected with Josiah on social media to stay in touch. Fast forward four years to today, I finally have the opportunity to ask him about this initiative in detail and how it all started.

1) Hey Josiah, thanks for taking this interview! Share with us who you are and what is it that you do for a living?

Thank YOU for having me.

My name is Josiah Ng and I’m a content consultant at an advertising agency. I run a team of content creators who believe in using their work to impact our world in a positive way, working with brands to help them see how their businesses can be used for good.

2) Tell us more about your social initiative, While You Were Sleeping

While You Were Sleeping was a knee-jerk reaction to something I was constantly told while studying at university. People were telling me students in Singapore were a selfish lot who only cared about their grades and careers.

I chose to believe otherwise and wanted to prove we were a bunch who could also be gracious and kind. That’s how WYWS was born. I also wanted to use this initiative to encourage others to do the same; be kind to others in times of need.

What we did for the initiative was simple. In Singapore, it’s not unusual for many students to burn the midnight oil and study overnight in order to do the best in their studies. But this made many students tired. I was also hearing stories of how students were stressed to the point of breaking down. So we thought WYWS was a good way to help in this issue.

What we did was to go around schools to drop items such as snacks, drinks and encouragement cards to students who were sleeping at their desks, most probably because they had a long night of studying for their exams. We wanted to tell them that during the stressful exam period, there are still people who understand and care for them.

I was personally very encouraged when people started to reciprocate what we were doing. They too, started to do their own mini “WYWS” campaigns at their own schools and classes.

3) I find this name very interesting and meaningful. How did it come about?

It stemmed from a very simple statement that came to my mind when I asked myself “what should I tell these students who were tired?”

Well, they were asleep so… it became very easy, “While You Were Sleeping, someone cared for you.”

The name While You Were Sleeping just got stuck since then.

4) When did you first start? What was your first project and how was the response?

Wow, I think it was five years ago.

We decided to head to NTU at that time because one of my friends was studying there. People were giving us stares when we carried out the initiative and I was so nervous. Despite the nerves, we hung around to see the responses and when we saw smiles, we were encouraged.

After that, we decided to release a video about this to try and achieve some kind of a “multiplier effect” because there were only a few of us, which meant there was only so much we could do.

The video was released online and to our surprise, word went out and I got numerous emails with queries on how they could participate in this initiative as well.

This proved that my initial scepticism about Singaporeans being apathetic and unkind was right. From the positive response, it only shows we are a people that want to do good too; because we have good hearts.

Sometimes, it’s just that we just don’t know what the right avenues are.

5) What were some of the challenges faced while promoting this social initiative and how did you manage to overcome them?

I think the main challenge was to find time to do more.

I started as an independent guy trying to do something based on my own convictions but as more people came to know about this initiative, I was bombarded with emails and calls about sponsorship, getting on board and interview requests.

To be honest, I was a little overwhelmed at that time. To overcome this, I had to ask myself why I was doing it in the first place.

The answer I found brought peace and renewed motivation to surpass my own fears and tiredness to continue exploring how this social initiative could be expanded.

6) How can each of us play our part to encourage the culture of kindness in our society?

It doesn’t take a lot of effort or a lot of time. I’d like to borrow Mother Theresa’s quote, “not all of us can do great things but we can all do small things with great love.”

So that’s just it – Great Love.

Many of us started this because we love our fellow countrymen, we love the people whom we call neighbours and we love our country.

I usually also like to challenge others with the following:

Try replacing the word “Sleeping” from the name of our social initiative “While You Were Sleeping”, with another verb. It can be any verb as long as it’s something you’re engaged in or witness on a daily basis.

For example, some have come up with “While You Were Driving (the bus)”, “While You Were Working (in the Haze)”, “While You Were Eating”… and in observing and coming up with these new names, one will start to realise there are needs everywhere.

7) Share with us what does it mean to be a charity advocate?

Oh, it’s just something people have decided to call me.

However, I do believe all of us have a responsibility to give back, in some way or another. Giving back can be through financial means but it doesn’t always have to be so. One can give his or her time as well.

There are also other ways to explore another dimension of charity too, such as investing one’s talent for charitable purposes.

If you’re a great illustrator, volunteer your illustrations and expertise to a charity organisation.

If you’re an awesome chef, cook for those who are hungry.

If you’re a writer, write for those who have no voice…

I’ve personally realised and learned that if you invest your talents, two things happen:

#1: You find purpose and meaning in the gifts you’ve been blessed with (Pssst… this makes life much more exciting!)

#2: Doing charity work won’t be as intimidating as it used to be

8) What’s the main goal you intend to achieve for this social initiative in 2017?

I’ve actually empowered others to help run the initiative and many are doing this in their own schools on an ad-hoc basis.

I’m currently focusing on teaching and mentoring youths to do their own initiatives in whatever way they can. This comes in the form of giving workshops, talks, and doing interviews like this.

I’ve grown to learn there’s only so much I can do… but when others are encouraged and given the right advice, they can do great things for society too.

The needs of every individual community are unique. I’m definitely not able to address all these needs in person but when someone in that community gets empowered, he or she will be able to do so and make an impact in a meaningful way.

This is not to say I’ve all the answers, I don’t.

That’s why it’s important for me to reach out to more people, educate and empower them so they can eventually take ownership to pay it forward in their own communities.

9) In your own words, what does it mean to “Love the Life You Live and Live the Life You Love”?

Life, is a sum of many parts – the good, the bad, the ugly… and we just have to realise that it’s all worth it… all of it… the good, the bad, the ugly.

They all have a purpose and they all have value.

With this realisation, we will also learn to appreciate that this amalgamation of it all (which we call “life”) is beautiful. We should love it.

So love life, regardless. So chin up, live the life you love, regardless.

Greatest Takeaway

“Not all of us can do great things but we can all do small things with great love.” – Mother Theresa

In other words, The Ripple Effect; a spreading, pervasive, and usually unintentional effect or influence. A situation in which one event causes a series of other events to happen.

Everything we do will have an impact in this world and in the lives of others, be it big or small, directly or indirectly, intentional or unintentional.

The Ripple Effect of You, an article written by Dennis Merritt Jones on the Huffington Post shares what you “really do matter. Everything you do has an impact on someone, somewhere, even if you don’t know them… the question we must ask ourselves isn’t will I make a difference in the world? The real question is, what kind of difference will it be?”

The choice is yours to make. Make a conscious decision every time and choose to use your force for good.

Thanks Josiah for taking this interview and bringing our attention to the good that all of us inherently possess.

Through this social initiative, I’m sure more people will learn how they too, can give back to society in their own way.

Josiah Ng,
Founder of Social Initiative, While You Were Sleeping

Josiah’s passion and drive in telling poignant stories landed him in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of Film & Media Studies, where he was awarded with the prestigious Ngee Ann Kongsi Gold Medal in 2008. He also graduated film school with the Lien Ying Chow scholarship, Liu Ying Soon scholarship, Shaw Foundation Gold Medal, MDA Film Prize, and Cathay Film Prize. After running a boutique media company for the next few subsequent years, he went on to pursue academic excellence during his time at Chapman University, where he graduated as the Valedictorian with a B.F.A in Creative Producing.

He has also since been regarded for his keen visual sensibilities and has been commissioned by organisations such as The Institute of Mental Health, National Geographic Xplorer Magazines, Pangdemonium Productions, Touch Community Services, Health Promotion Board, The Ministry of Communications and Informtion, MCCY, and Habitat for Humanity to create thought-provoking content.

Josiah believes in using his talent in film and media for the benefit of others. His independent Social Initiative, While You Were Sleeping, is a project dedicated to encourage a culture of kindness amongst the University students in Singapore. The introduction video of this social initiative went viral on various social media platforms in a matter of hours and has since been adopted in five countries, spanning across three continents.

Beyond managing the social initiative, Josiah has also given talks at TEDx Singapore, various Secondary and Tertiary Institutions and has been featured on local media outlets including The Straits Times, MyPaper, KISS 92FM, Capital 95.8FM as a social capital enthusiast and a creative problem-solver.

Website: https://www.josiahcreations.com

WYWS was developed around the idea of simply doing something nice for a person while he / she snoozes (out of exam lethargy and stress!) at a desk!

Many have said that the Singapore culture is one that is selfish and results-driven. However, the insomniacs of this independent effort (YES, WE ARE COMPLETELY ALONE!) are seeking to challenge this notion and bring about a positive and refreshing perspective through dropping a

Personalised Note
Gift (Coffee / Sweet)

at a person’s desk WHILE HE / SHE IS SLEEPING.

JOIN US TODAY IN THIS WONDERFUL EXPERIMENT – Help us prove that we all care!

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/wywsleeping/

Creating a Travel Lifestyle

12 May

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“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine

Managed to get hold of a friend of mine who’s a lifestyle entrepreneur and an avid traveller. He’ll share with us what it takes to create a lifestyle he has an the various challenges it encompasses. Just found out he was featured on TODAY papers about his travel adventures as well!

1) Hey Lucaz! Share with us who you are and what is it that you do for a living?

Hey Ranford! My background is about five years ago, I was a student who embarked on my entrepreneurial journey at twenty-four and became financially free at twenty-six when I graduated from University. I began to travel the world and live full-time.

Currently, I’m still expanding my business in a travel and lifestyle network marketing company.

2) Let’s call the pink elephant out of the room. You’re representing a MLM/Network Marketing Company. How did you get over the stigma of this business model and continue to do what you do?

Well, it wasn’t easy at first. A lot of people, especially my friends, advised me to get out of it. Some made fun of me, laughed at me and ridiculed me. I wanted to prove them wrong even though I didn’t really understand much about the industry back then.

After some time, I finally understood the concept of Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)/Network Marketing and it’s brilliant! This is one of the most misunderstood industries in the world because we only hear negative stories and most of us were never educated about it.

It also took me awhile to finally embrace the fact that this industry is not for everyone. The reason is because everything we were taught in school for the first twenty years of our life since young; from primary school all the way to university, is the complete opposite of the education taught in Network Marketing.

I didn’t want the false façade of a beautiful life that was traditionally taught in school.

“Finish school, get your degree, get a good job, have a nice house, nice car, live happily ever after…”

Except most people miss out one thing; the fact that it’s a trap. You’ll have to keep working every month to pay the bills and mortgage, sacrificing your time and freedom to keep up with this façade of a “beautiful life”.

I continue to be passionate about Network Marketing because it educates us to pursue something that we all want, something we cannot put a price tag on – Freedom.

In order to achieve it, we are forced to help one another and pull each other up. This culture is different from the corporate world where politics and backstabbing is prevalent as one needs to move up the ladder.

This industry also forces us to grow as a person to pursue personal development. The journey towards becoming a better person, better leader, and better communicator is the ultimate reward in Network Marketing.

3) What are some of the obstacles you’ve faced when you first started and how did you manage to overcome them?

It was definitely rejections.

Being a student with no experience, credibility, a network, guidance and business knowledge was tough in the beginning.

However, I believe this shortfall served me well because I find myself listening more and was more willing to learn.

A lot of people come into this industry thinking they know how it should be done and talk more than they actually do. Having this disadvantage turned out to be an advantage for me in the end as I became a better listener and a keen learner.

4) What does it take to be a successful Network Marketer?

Most people come into this industry having the mindset of trying to sell or “convert people”. That’s why most of them fail.

The key to success in Network Marketing is focusing your time and effort to finding motivated individuals rather than to motivate or sell to people who are uninterested.

Another aspect is definitely leadership. Like what John C Maxwell said, “Everything rises and falls on leadership”. A leader is someone who inspires others through their action instead of their words.

Development of personal and team leadership is very important as well.

5) Tell us more about your travel lifestyle!

I travel about ten times a year! Some highlights of my trips include travelling to the exotic Fiji islands, fulfilling my mother’s dream of going to the Niagara Falls and an adventure I never thought I would, hiking scenic Norway!

A peak life experience for me was to take my parents on a one hour helicopter ride, flying across a majestic natural wonder and land right into the middle of the Grand Canyon!

I use to have this fear of solo travel as I’m terrible with directions and tend to lose my stuff easily. Last year September, I decided to conquer it in the most drastic way possible, embarking on a remarkable travel journey, visiting the Seven Wonders of the World in one single trip!

6) You’re living the life many can only dream about. Share with us more on what it takes to create such a lifestyle?

You have to first prioritise on finding the right vehicle that has leverage, something that makes you money even while you are on vacation. I learned a long time ago that working hard will not make you successful. Working hard four hours every day digging holes and working hard four hours every day building a business is still the same four hours of hard work.

But the rewards we get from working hard digging holes is a backache. You have to work hard and work smart; spending your time, energy and effort to become good at something worth getting good at.

7) How do you handle naysayers and people who put you down?

If people were to discourage you or talk bad about you, there are only two things you can do. Prove them wrong, or prove they were right. How I’ll handle naysayers is that I’ll shine so bright that it’ll outshine all their negativity.

8) For aspiring travel and lifestyle entrepreneurs out there, what advice do you have for them?

Who you associate with is the most important tip people usually overlook. One of your top priorities should be to get rid of negative people in your life and work your way into hanging out with people who have the same goals as you. Work towards that and encourage one another.

Second, focus on things you can control such as personal growth. Business will go up and down. A lot of things are beyond your control. Keep your personal development progressive.

Lastly, keep in mind that the ultimate reward is the journey, not the destination.

Embrace all the ups and downs, struggles and the victories, the good and bad people you meet etc… Once you’ve reached your destination and achieved your goal, you’ll have your whole life to enjoy it. However, you can only enjoy the journey once. Love it, embrace it and have fun!

9) What are some of your travel plans for 2017 and what’s the main goal you intend to achieve this year?

I’m cutting down on travelling as I intend to put more time and focus more on helping people and my team achieve their goals of financial freedom so that we can have more friends join us when we travel! I’m also putting in more effort to build my social media presence. So less travel and more work this year!

10) In your own words, what does it mean to “Love the Life You Live and Live the Life You Love”?

Be grateful, be humble and live your life extraordinarily. Ignore the expectations people and society has on you.

Greatest Takeaway

Rejections. All of us face them. From this interview, Lucaz shared it’s how you manage it that matters.

Multi-level Marketing/Network Marketing is a very controversial business model. At the end of the day, you have to be clear on what some of the life goals you intend to achieve and work hard to attain them, disregarding what others have to say.

Jim Rohn said “we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with”. Keep a close inner circle and progressive personal development path. I think this is what it takes to be successful in life.

Thanks Lucaz for sharing your knowledge and experience with us today. I wish you and your team success and I sure look forward to the day I can travel as extensively as you do 😀

You can follow Lucaz on his Instagram @lucazlee to check out his latest adventures.

All the best and have fun! 😀

Lucaz Lee
Founder of Revo Group
Lifestyle Entrepreneur, Regional Marketing Director, and Regional Trainer

Lucaz is a determined and driven individual who believes in the constant pursuit of personal progress. He enjoys teaching and sharing his entrepreneurial journey; his experiences, mistakes, challenges and the lessons learned along the way to inspire and help others achieve success.

He’s also the founder of Revo Group, an organisation of entrepreneurs working together, helping people to travel more, live more and become more.

His mission is to inspire people to retire young, boldly pursue their inner greatness and live an extraordinary life.

Website: http://www.lucazlee.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lucazleejh/
Instagram: @lucazlee

Connecting Businesses, Inspiring People

5 May

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Entrepreneurship has been a topic I’ve always been passionate about and I still am till this very day. Had the opportunity to meet Cehan through a networking event about a year ago and his passion and drive reminded me of how I was like when I first started out.

He’s the founder and CEO of Alp Group and I’m extremely honoured to be appointed as the director of Alp Biz, spearheading the entrepreneurial department for the company.

Today, we have the President of Alp Group Lujian to share with us their journey of starting up.

Lujian and I have also been on 938LIVE together before to share our story but for this interview, let’s hear from him on their progress so far since then and the ups and downs of starting a business.

1) Hey Lujian, the both of us are no strangers but for the benefit of our readers, share with us who you are and what business are you currently doing right now?

I’m a twenty-three-year-old student currently studying in Temasek Polytechnic. Currently, I’m serving as the President of Alp Group.

Alp Group has two main areas of focus, Alp Biz and Alp Investment.

Alp Biz – We aim to become the first-choice destination for Asian businesses to use Alp Biz as a springboard to connect with other Asian countries. We have identified four essential pillars to a successful business; Funding, Mentoring, Supplies and Market and we aim provide solutions for these areas.

Alp Investment – “Buy a wonderful company at a fair price”. Just like our tagline, Alp Investment’s main focus is on investing in the stock market. We aim to revolutionise the way people learn about investing and we cater to everyone with different information and courses, depending on how well each individual understands investments.

2) Tell us more about Alp Group! How did all of this begin?

Alp Group was founded by Cehan back in 2014, my secondary school classmate but back then, it wasn’t called Alp. Cehan called in a few other friends who were interested in investing and formed a community called bro’s investment club (we were all boys in the beginning) where we focused on learning about investing. We grew quickly and after about a year later, we had over a hundred members in our community!

Under the leadership of Cehan, we came up with our own unique way of analysing the stock market and 2015 was the year we invested our first ever stocks in SGX.

After we found success in the stock market, we realised there were many young people like us who were interested in investing but don’t have a clue on where to begin. This inspired us to spread our knowledge and experience to others.

We wanted to change the conventional way of teaching investing which were mostly through expensive courses and seminars with no follow up with the students after.

During this time, we also grew a community of business owners and start-ups where many of them were facing difficulties during the economic down turn. With all of this, we decided to go through a series of restructuring our organisation to address and tackle these issues, forming the current Alp Group you see today.

3) That’s interesting… Share with us more on the organisational structure of the company.

As mentioned earlier on, Alp Group has two areas of focus. In addition, we also have a department on marketing and publishing. We have four members in our upper management from each department and each team is led by an individual director.

Each department is able to run on its own but they work closely together as well, especially during certain events where collaborations between all departments are required.

4) What were some of the challenges faced when starting out and how did you and your team manage to overcome them?

The first challenge all of us face was the initial phase of starting out because everything was still very ambiguous. We were not sure about many things.

Another challenge for us was to find the right people for our team. We feel that working with a great team is the most important component in a successful business. It took us months to find right people that share the same vision and passion as us.

The most difficult challenge, and I believe other start-ups can relate, was how to turn our idea into a proper business.It took us quite some time to figure that part out.

Fortunately, we had many mentors that were very helpful and gave us tips along the way. Combining with the effort from the team, we were able to overcome these difficulties.

5) Let’s talk about teamwork. Understand that Alp Group has a management team of twelve, each in charge of their own department. How do you rally everyone to work together?

Over here, we put our teams first over all other matters. One of our favourite quotes is “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want far, go as a team”. All our team members share the same vision and passion so it’s much easier for us to communicate and work together as all of us share a similar goal.

6) Is it difficult working together in a team? How do you manage differing opinions?

It’s never difficult working with each other in the team as we are all closely knitted together, having the same vision in mind. By establishing this, we don’t have conflicts among us as we value every team member’s voice and opinion.

Whenever we have a differing opinion during a meeting, we’ll discuss and weigh the pros and cons of each, with every decision made in the best interest for the company.

7) What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs or business owners when it comes to team-building?

I think one of the most important lessons I’ve learned through this journey is when building a team, the key factor to look out for in a team member is the passion and vision. If he or she is able to share the same passion and vision, working together will be much more smooth sailing.

Another aspect I want to emphasise on is trust. You must always trust your teammates because they’re the one that got your back. Team work is like a machine, everyone has their own area of expertise. None of the pieces is more important than the other because it’s only when all of the pieces work together when the machine can function and run smoothly.

8) This has always been a burning question for me… How do you juggle being a full-time student and running a business?!

To be honest, it’s very difficult. The path of an entrepreneur is not easy. At times, I’ll reach home after midnight and exhausted but still with work waiting for me to complete. Most of the time, I sacrifice my sleep and rest.

I think what drives me on is the passion and responsibility. Passion is very important; it’s what keeps you going when you are feeling a burn-out.

Responsibility towards my team members helps me to pick myself up when I’m falling. I know for a fact that my team members trust me to deliver my part so it’s my responsibility to complete the task and not let them down.

It’s tiring but fulfilling. If you were to ask me, I’m living the kind of life I dreamed about since young!

9) What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs or “studentpreneurs” out there who wants to start their own business while pursuing their studies?

We are all creatures of habit and afraid of the unknown. Many of us are afraid of trying out new things, let along starting a business.

I believe that our youth is our greatest asset. Don’t be afraid to fail! Now is the golden opportunity for us to “fail” because it’s not always about the result but what you learn through the journey. Not all of us can succeed on the first try and whenever you are about to give up, think about what made you start in the first place.

We fell countless of times before we could first walk. Imagine, you had the courage to take the first steps when you were only a baby so what’s holding you back now?

Face your fear and step out of your comfort zone, only then can you truly grow and mature.

10) What’s the main goal you intend to achieve for Alp Group in 2017?

2017 is the year of execution for us and we already have a series of projects lined up.

For Alp Biz, we aim to establish collaborations with China and Malaysia. We’re also very keen to continue building a strong community of business owners.

As for Alp Investment, we will continue from where we left off last year and hope to maintain our track record of not making any losing investment from the time we first invested.

11) In your own words, what does it mean to “Love the Life You Live and Live the Life You Love”?

I think it’s about living life with passion. I think this sentence describes my life right now.

I love my life now because I’m pursing my dream, waking up every day knowing every second of my life is being used to pursue my “happiness”. I can proudly say I’m passionate about my life because it’s the kind of life that I want to live.

Don’t live a life where you leave regrets behind, enjoy the process of living the life you want to live and that’s when you’ll truly love your life!

Greatest Takeaway

“It takes teamwork to make the dream work”

I’ve been working closely with Lujian, Cehan and the team for a while now and I must say, I’m very impressed with the dynamics of the entire organisation. I’ve always wondered how they could work so fast and deliver with excellence.

Now I know the secret ingredient to their success so far and it all starts with attracting the right talent, having each individual team member aligned with the same vision, mission passion and purpose.

I gave a speech at Nayang Technological University recently on how youths are not leaders of tomorrow but leaders of today. Both Lujian and Cehan have demonstrated how age doesn’t stop you from pursuing what you want in life.

I’m really excited for what’s to come for this young company and young entrepreneurs. It’s a privilege for me to contribute to their organisation to make their vision become a reality.

All the best Lujian and Cehan, continue working hard and build an A-team to take your company to greater heights!

Lujian
President of Alp Group

Lujian is serving as the president of Alp Group. Other than overseeing operational activities of each department, he’s also working on Alp’s trading sector, mainly dealing with China. He specialises in publicity and marketing.

Headquartered in Singapore, Alp Group is a registered company and established as a platform for businesses and investors in Singapore, which are known as Alp Biz and Alp Investment respectively.

Alp Biz strives to promote business connectedness in Asia. This is in line with SPRING Singapore’s vision to advance the globalisation of Singapore enterprises – while building connectedness of enterprises. Alp Biz is committed to becoming the first-choice destination for Asian businesses to use Alp Biz as a springboard to connect with other Asian countries. The four essential pillars to our approach: market, supply, funding and mentoring.

In addition, to accelerate the development of disruptive start-ups changing our world today, we have leveraged the most comprehensive cross-sector ecosystem to nurture the next generation of start-ups via our Alp Creation Programme in Singapore. Our extensive connections in ASEAN and China provide our start-ups an unparalleled access to the global market for growth and expansion.

Alp Investment aims to build an efficient and effective educational system for investors to learn how to “buy a wonderful company at a fair price”. This is because we strongly believe that education is a journey, not a destination.

Our purpose is to offer those who are ambitious for financial success an insight which will aid them to acquire money, keep the money and to make their surpluses earn more money.

Website: https://www.thealpnews.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheAlpGroup/

Breaking Stereotypes

21 Apr

Ranford 0

Watch this social experiment and it’ll get you thinking on some preconceived ideas society has.

https://www.facebook.com/LifetimeAsia/videos/480487662075328/

I was intrigued after watching this video so I took a long shot and wrote to Anna personally and asked if she was keen to do an interview. Super happy she agreed so today, we have the privilege of learning from a female CEO on her experiences, struggles and lessons in the corporate world.

1) Hey Anna, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this interview. Share with us who you are and what is it that you do for a living?

I’m the CEO of The New Savvy and Director at Tera Capital, a private investment firm. I was also the President of the Singapore Management University Women Alumni. Heading the Women in FinTech Committee, I’m heavily involved in the founding committee of the Singapore FinTech Association.

I conduct workshops on personal finance and had given talks on finance, women issues and empowerment for organisations – Singapore Exchange (SGX), ShareInvestor REITs Symposium, Citi-SMU Financial Literacy Symposium, Female Entrepreneurs Worldwide (FEW), SG50 Singapore Female Leaders, Singapore Women Network etc…

I also regularly teach and mentor students and professionals on financial prudence and investments, facilitating their ability to be better informed when making financial decisions.

Participating in various charities supporting women and children causes, I have also become one of the main donors for a library building that is specially catered for underprivileged female students.

2) Tell us more about The New Savvy!

THENEWSAVVY.COM is an online platform that focuses on financial and career issues for women in Asia. Despite advancing in our career and earning more, women lack confidence in financial matters. 41% do not invest or manage their money. There is a lack of media outlets that engages women financially.

In particular, The New Savvy uses simplified, relevant language to help women make smarter decisions. We cover thirty-five topics ranging from investments vehicles, savings, buying property, marriage, fashion and health. We want to make money fun and promote better financial habits among women.

The New Savvy is a fast-growing, women-focused site and we have worked with many financial institutions and organisations namely Fast company, Singapore Exchange (SGX), MayBank Securities and others.

We are also content partners with Yahoo!, AsiaOne and CPF.

Here are a list of our press and partners.

3) Where did the inspiration come from to start this business and how has it been going for you so far?

There are two major inspirations for The New Savvy:

First, due to my family financial situation, I’ve always been fascinated with the intricacies behind the working of money. I understood that I have to take care of myself and my family and that realisation sparked off my wealth-building path.

The idea of making my money work harder for me really fascinated me and I felt that was a way out for me from living pay cheque to pay cheque, feeling very stressed every month.

As a result, I started learning to invest by reading Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham while in Junior College. I also read a lot of other finance books.

I’m lucky to have the opportunity to study and work in Finance. I learned financial management skills, picked up economic ideas and started investing since I was twenty-one. While I’m no expert, I’m familiar with financial products and managed to build a comfortable portfolio for myself.

Second, when I was in Hwa Chong Junior College, I did some volunteer work and noticed how many women were stuck in unhappy situations or marriages as they were not working or have any earning capabilities. That motivated me always to protect myself financially and to prevent myself from being caught in similar situations.

If proper financial knowledge and planning worked for me, it would work for many women too – which was why I started The New Savvy.

Overtime, we have expanded thirty-five categories in three areas of focus for our platform: technical articles, lifestyle pieces, and inspirational stories.

Technical articles are informative, must-know finance concepts in bite-sized to make it more palatable to readers.

Here are some articles; What’s the difference between ETFs and mutual funds, Bonds 101, Which Real Estate in Singapore Should You Purchase?

Lifestyle pieces are fun articles that discuss issues plaguing the modern women. All of them include a finance or female empowerment angle to them.

For example, When Women Earn More Than Men In a Marriage, 10 Financial Questions You Should Ask Your Date, How to measure your cost per wear for clothes…
Inspirational stories include stories of individuals breaking barriers, speaking up, living authentic lives. We also have interview sections where we question participants on their occupations or businesses, financial planning and thoughts on women issues.

We are also developing bite-sized financial online courses and looking at holding workshops for financial education every two months.

4) What are some of challenges faced and how did you overcome them?

There were a few difficulties when I first started The New Savvy:

One, when I shared the idea with people, most of them dismissed me thinking that it’s just another blog. Or they think that I’m limiting myself by focusing only on women. Many told me to make it as broad to ensure that we get more website hits.

Second, coming from a finance background with very decent earning power, it’s difficult to turn into an entrepreneur. I was giving up a good five-figure income and some people told me not to be naïve and “get a real job”. That affected my morale.

For a long time, I was wondering if I’m just impetuous or silly. Should I just continue earning money and be in banking? There’s a societal pressure, especially when you don’t know what’s going to happen and I’m doing this mostly to help other women.

Third, I wasn’t trained for this. It was an uphill struggle for me. I ended up working till 4am every day. Most of my close ones were concerned and told me not to overwork. I think I made every mistake that shouldn’t be made. But that’s life, isn’t it? You falter but you pick yourself up.

Last, a good product is useless if there are no users. How do I get the word out? How do I market TheNewSavvy.com to ensure that more women are aware that my product exists?

Most importantly, this difficulty had been in my mind non-stop since I embarked on this journey – How do I make women more interested in financial literacy?

In the beginning, I struggled a lot. My background was pure Finance and Banking. I was clueless on developing a website, producing content, digital marketing and publishing. But I knew it was something I wanted to do and HAD to do. It was a desire that couldn’t be ignored any longer.

I did everything from scratch myself. I looked around for website developers and researched on websites. I learned about how websites are arranged and how they worked. I did a short market surveys on what is lacking regarding women financial education and what women will like to learn more.

Additionally, I took up a digital marketing course and learned how to utilise tools like Google Analytics, Search console and understood the terms.

Till today, I am constantly learning in a humble manner while working towards my passion. I try to stay positive against all odds and trust myself for every decision I make for the company.

5) Speaking of challenges, how is it like being a female CEO?

I don’t see myself as a female boss. I see myself as a leader, leading my company to achieve our goals and profitability. My role is to build a great team that I can tap on and learn from.

To address stereotypes, we need to ask ourselves two critical questions:

What are the stereotypes?

Why do they exist?

A lot of female bosses are perceived to be “aggressive, bitchy, cold and emotional”. I empathise with it. Most women feel that to get a seat on the table or to get to the top, you have to be masculine and “be one of the boys” as that’s the widely accepted norm.

As for being emotional, is that a bad thing? Being in tune with your feelings can mean that you are an empathetic leader.

I think society is slowly embracing different kinds of leadership styles. Stereotypes are harder to ignore if they create systemic bias.

As a leader, I don’t focus on my gender or if I’m female. To me, my role is to ensure I do my job well and produce consistent and quality work each and every time.

I always believe that we should let our work speak for itself and let its quality demand respect.

6) What are your thoughts on the breaking a stereotype of CEO’s being male?

I advocate gender equality in the sense of offering equal opportunities to both genders, rendering the same amount of respect in both professional and social contexts.

Hillary Clinton attacked Donald Trump during the Presidential Debates for saying “Women don’t deserve equal pay unless they do as good a job as men”, framing it as an unfair premise for gender equality. Is it fair then to award women the same pay as men if there’s a shortfall in performance?

I believe gender equality should present equal opportunity, not equal entitlement.

Right now, I think feminism sometimes goes a bit too far towards pushing women and men to be overly against traditional gender roles even if their personal proclivities are in line with them… But in theory and in the long run when it’s no longer as big of an issue, people will just be freer to do what they like without the heavy pressures to conform (or non-conform).

In this sense, I don’t believe that gender matters for a CEO as long as he or she can fulfil the role well. However, to ensure that opportunity is open for all, I do have a few thoughts:

First of all, today’s leaders must make a personal commitment to increase women’s presence in decision-making – not just in their numbers, but in their contributions.

There are many ways to do this – quotas and numerical targets for women’s participation, training and mentorship to boost women’s confidence and capacity, private-sector engagement matching public-sector initiatives. Countries will find their own ways, if the will is there.

Employers must ensure equal hiring, payment and promotion policies. This is to support balance work-life conditions and give women the opportunity to lead. Managers must also learn to welcome women’s input and contribution.

With the support from the society as an overall, I think the assumption of CEO to a particular gender (man in this case) will gradually go away.

7) Who are some inspirational figures you look up to keep you going when the road gets tough?

I have many mentors that I really look up to and am grateful. They’ve taught me countless lessons and provide valuable advice whenever I need them.

My parents are the kindest people I know and I love them deeply! They’ve always taught me always to be humble and be willing to learn. Exercise often and take care of yourself. Be kind and have lots of fun!

8) Any advice for women out there in the workplace? How can they overcome this stereotype to perform at their best?

I have written an article related to this question earlier: Are Ambitions Unfeminine? Why You Should Be Ambitious Anyway!

Here are my five pointers for women in the workplace:

#1: Ignore the Double Standard

Some of the biggest obstacles to success are psychological. You can choose to be above them. Affirmations can be very powerful tools for changing negative thinking and blocking out the negative thoughts unhappy people may try and project onto you. Here are some affirmations for achieving goals, thinking positive and thinking big.

#2: Pursue Innate Talents

Pursue what you are good at and what you love. Use your talents and expertise. Do not be afraid to try many new things in search of your talent.

#3: Follow Your Passions

Talent and passion are a powerful force that pushes many women to achieve their career dreams.

#4: Use Pregnancy to Accelerate Your Career

Savvy women have turned the tables by becoming the employer and boss. More and more mumpreneurs are starting their own businesses, many during pregnancy leave.

#5: Support Other Women

Psychiatrist Anna Fels identifies two factors that lead to the realisation of childhood ambitions: a special skill and an appreciative audience. By supporting other women, you can play an important role in helping them meet their ambitions.

9) What’s the main goal you intend to achieve for The New Savvy in 2017?

Most of our current revenue stems from inbound queries. The New Savvy focuses on making Finance more relevant and engaging for women. I think brands see value in that. Women investors are an untapped market and I believe The New Savvy is the perfect gateway to reach these savvy decision makers.

Hence, we are looking into ways to monetize some of our unique selling points this year, something we are changing in 2017!

10) In your own words, what does it mean to “Love the Life You Live and Live the Life You Love”?

Personal – To live authentically and lead a balanced life.

Interpersonal – Relationships are very important to me so I always ask myself if I’m giving enough to my loved ones and how I can help others.

Financial – Being financially successful to me is having the choice and security to live the life I seek meaning in. And by extension, giving the people I love the lives they desire.

Greatest Takeaway

I like what Anna shared about title vs. leadership. She doesn’t see herself as a “female boss” but a leader. Leadership is about influence. Leadership is about communication. Leadership is about vision and direction.

In one sentence, she was able to sum up what it takes to be a CEO of her company.

“Gender equality should present equal opportunity, not equal entitlement”.

I’m grateful to grow up and live in a country that advocates meritocracy. Unfortunately, certain stereotypes still exist and the perception of males being the CEO of a company is definitely one of them. It’ll be naïve to think we can change this overnight so besides what Anna shared, is there anything else we can do as individuals or collectively as a society to make a progressive step forward?

What are your thoughts?

Thanks Anna for being so transparent and authentic in sharing with us your journey. The first step to change is awareness and I acknowledge your courage to take a stand in the cause you believe in.

Keep up the amazing work you’re doing at The New Savvy and continue to be an inspiration to us all.

Anna Vanessa Haotanto
CEO of The New Savvy

Anna Haotanto is passionate about finance, education, women empowerment and children’s issues. She has been featured in CNBC, Forbes, The Straits Times, Business Insider, INC and Executive Lifestyle. She was also nominated and selected for FORTUNE Most Powerful Women conference in 2016 (Asia) and 2015 (San Francisco, Next Gen).

Anna has ten years of experience in the financial sector and is currently a Director in Tera Capital. Her previous work experience includes positions at Citigroup, United Overseas Bank, a regional role in Business Monitor and a boutique private equity firm based in Shanghai. She graduated from Singapore Management University (Finance and Quantitative Finance).

Anna provides wealth management consultancy to select clients and conducts workshops on personal finance. She regularly teaches and mentors children and adults on financial prudence and investments, facilitating their ability to be better informed when making financial decisions. Anna gives talks for organisations and is involved in various charities supporting women and children causes.

Anna earned her financial independence at age twenty-eight. However, she seeks meaning in focusing her entrepreneurial career on financial literacy as she firmly believes that continuous learning empowers people.

For full bio: http://thenewsavvy.com/anna-haotanto/

TheNewSavvy.com is an online platform that focuses financial and career issues for women and millennials in Asia.

Despite advancing in our career and earning more, women lack confidence in financial matters. 41% of women do not manage their money; we are simply saving or depending on others to handle their financial matters.

The New Savvy uses engaging and simplified language to facilitate the financial knowledge of women as we move through our career and life milestones. We cover thirty-five topics to help women make smarter decisions, ranging from investments vehicles, savings, buying property, marriage, fashion and health.

Looking for inspiration in your education, professional career and entrepreneurship journey? The New Savvy provides dedicated insights that are compelling and fun to read. We profile individuals to inspire you.

We want to make money interesting to women and transform women’s relationship with money.

Stand Up, Be Proud & Speak Out

14 Apr

Ranford 0

Had the opportunity to share the stage with Gaurav at Ardor Buzz recently and that was when I first heard his message about speaking up on things that matter.

As we progress to become a more affluent society, bringing up difficult conversations and asking hard questions are inevitable.

Here’s a snippet of a recent interview by Mr Stephen Sackur for BBC’s HARDtalk with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to set the context of this article.

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews/videos/10154438667217217/

Let’s get Gaurav to share with us his experience in this arena and what it takes to stand up, be proud and speak out.

1) Hi Gaurav, thanks for taking this interview! Share with our readers who you are and what is it that you do for a living?

Thanks for having me on the site Ranford, I’m truly flattered.

My full-time job also involves trying to make Singapore a better place, although it’s quite different from the volunteer work I do with dialectic.sg. During the day, I work in the military. On the weekends and evenings, I spend a lot of time in the debate community. I used to be the President of the Debate Association (Singapore) for many years.

We aspired to bring the skills of debating to every student in Singapore regardless of background. I’m most proud to say that we expanded what used to be an elitist activity into one that is now part of the basic school curriculum and can be participated in by almost every school in Singapore. Nowadays, I still volunteer as a debate judge for competitions and an occasional trainer for less-privileged schools.

2) Tell us more about dialectic.sg and how this idea came about?

Many years ago, I was told young people were very disrespectful when they spoke up – they asked good questions but didn’t know how to ask those questions in a respectful way.

Today, I think youths are able to express themselves very persuasively in person. I’ve been impressed many times when I hear young people argue for a cause they believe in or question something they doubt. However, I noticed a new problem that was growing: online commenters were becoming very disrespectful.

Unlike in real live conversations, people were more rude online. There appeared to be no easy solution. Some respected websites even turned off their commenting feature to prevent “trolls” and rude commenters from ruining the page because there was no good commenting tool.

I decided to use my year off in Harvard to research the problem a bit further and design a better system for online commenting. After a lot of trials and research, dialectic.sg was born.

A “dialectic” is a process of intellectual discovery, where a thesis (an argument) is considered with its anti-thesis (the counter-argument) in order to determine the synthesis (the “truth”). Through this process, we’re moving closer to the truth by assessing both sides of a controversial topic in a structured manner.

The goal was to address the disrespectful, divisive and unproductive nature of online comments and to build a website that encourages respectful, rational yet robust debates on important issues.

The prototype took a lot of coding effort but once the idea was validated, we set about building the full site. Today, we have supported debates on controversial issues such as the Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others debate with PM Lee, on racial harmony with Minister Janil Puthucheary, among many other controversial topics.

Our volunteer researchers ask difficult questions that few others do because we believe it’s important to ask people the right questions and have a safe space for a robust debate.

3) Was it difficult getting people to speak up on controversial issues?

Yes, and it still is. We’ve got over a thousand active members, and have peaked at over ten thousand visitors a month but most people are unwilling or afraid to leave a comment behind for various reasons.

I’ve polled my audience before and some felt they prefer to read comments rather than leave their own. Others worry their comments are not intellectually developed enough and don’t have the time to research and prepare a good comment to meet the standards of the site.

Others have a perception they will be “black marked” for leaving dissenting opinions on existing government policy (although I tried to address this by allowing them to leave comments anonymously once they register). So yes, it’s difficult.

Fortunately, we have enough people who are willing to step up and be courageous enough to try to leave a comment because they understand that a democracy only gets stronger when the people in it are willing to express their views and engage with each other in the process of an intellectual debate. I hope that more people will continue to try and participate in the conversation, for all our sakes.

4) What are some of the challenges people face when talking about difficult topics or asking controversial questions? How did you help them overcome this?

The first challenge is many people don’t have time to read all the articles about an issue. We make it easier for them by doing a simple background brief or highlight the key facts and figures with some international examples of similar policies in action.

This helps frame the issues and is based on the famous Harvard Business School “case study” method of discussions.

The second challenge is many people don’t know what the questions are. They understand an issue is complex but may not be aware of the reasons why. We address this by highlighting the policy dilemmas at stake.

For example, when we debated whether to implement an English Language entry requirement for all immigrants , we highlighted the policy dilemma that many of our own elderly who came to Singapore during pre-independence did not speak English or any of the official mother tongue languages but were arguably “more Singaporean” than those who came later and spoke English.

When we raise these dilemmas in the background brief, people are made aware their comments should address the dilemmas if possible.

The third and final challenge is teaching people how to comment better and the site does it in two ways; one, we have simple lessons available online for commenting techniques and two, we built a real-time commenting engine that is quite unique. Essentially, as a person writes a comment, we assess how persuasive the comment is based on our database of “persuasive” comments and we provide immediate feedback on how they can improve it, as they are typing!

5) Why is it crucial to speak up on important matters, knowing the risk that one might get into trouble? Isn’t it easier to let things remain status quo?

Yes, it’s definitely easier to let things remain status quo. However, no good change ever happened in the world from people who just “accepted the status quo”. The world and our society will only improve when people believe that we can be better and are willing to put in the effort and courage to make that change happen.

This is true for dialectic.sg and for many other social causes out there. Change requires courage; it requires people willing to believe that the change is important enough to work for.

Singapore is at a point of transition today. Society is increasingly fragmented along many different lines (class, race, religion etc…) and we need to be able to handle disagreements better in order to thrive. I spoke about this at TEDx at Harvard previously and explained why a platform for socio-political debate needs to exist in Singapore.

6) What are your thoughts on the concept of “agreeing to disagree”?

We’ll not always agree unanimously on all issues. Society is much like any relationship; there won’t be unanimous agreement always. We must therefore find a way to disagree respectfully, find good balances and compromises.

Every question has at least two sides and we try to ensure that reasonable arguments from both sides are treated equally. This is not the same thing as saying both sides must always be equal. It’s clear that in some cases, one side is much stronger and deserves more attention because of that.

However when designing policies, we need to listen to all opinions fairly and then weigh our own assessment of the “truth” objectively. We must try to agree on facts and disagree on opinions. Today, I find it worrying that some are disputing even basic facts from science without any basis. This is unhealthy and dangerous.

7) Can you give advice to individuals who are keen to speak up but are fearful of being ridiculed or insulted simply because of their differing opinions?

A more general response is this – The key is to be able to listen to dissenters without being dissuaded. Take their criticisms and ridicule and re-interpret it as a challenge or feedback on what can be done differently or better. Use their negative energy to fuel your positive energy on your own personal quest.

When I first discussed the idea of building a website from scratch with a unique commenting engine that nobody had ever seen before, I was obviously chastised by many well-meaning friends. Many said that if such a thing existed, Google would have already built it!

I felt otherwise. Clearly Google had not already built it (look at how awful the Youtube comments were!). I told them that it was worth trying because even if I failed, hopefully I will inspire others to follow in my footsteps and try to build something even better.

What made me “immune” to such criticism was my personal conviction and belief. I didn’t care whether it succeeded or failed, I only wanted to try to make a difference. I believe it was important for me to use my blessings in life to give back to others in whatever way I could.

If you want to make the world a better place, you have to learn to be a bit thick-skinned and take criticism and ridicule in your stride. Once you’ve succeeded, you can look back at those events and laugh it off. Until then, keep persevering. Don’t be afraid to comment on an issue because of the fear of ridicule.

On a side note, you really shouldn’t worry about this happening on dialectic.sg because our system is designed to defeat such rude trolls! 🙂

8) Where do you intend to take dialectic.sg in 2017 and how do you see it helping the public hold better debates?

I want to continue asking difficult questions about important issues. Some of the topics debated on dialectic.sg were subsequently debated in Parliament and many of the views expressed there echoed comments received on the site, which is wonderful.

This means that our site is relevant to the national discourse and we’re part of the wider conversation that is making a difference. I hope to continue that mission. I’m also trying to recruit more volunteers to help write topic briefs for the site. The site is powered by the energy and passion of our volunteers and I’m grateful for that.

9) In your own words, what does it mean to “Love the Life You Live and Live the Life You Love”?

We must follow our own path with purpose and passion. We shouldn’t be afraid of ridicule or criticism along the way and we should take the feedback in our stride.

Each of us has a different path in life and it’s important to believe that you’re following your own path and enjoying that pathway. It may not always be easy and we’ll all stumble along the way but we must learn to pick ourselves up from each failure and stand up stronger.

Love is also best experienced with other people so share your blessings with others, be a part of their lives and remember that accolades are meaningless unless you give them meaning by using them to make society a better place.

Oh, and have fun along the way la.

Greatest Takeaway

I’ve always wondered how one can “agree to disagree”. Although I did write about this, I find it sometimes hard to put into practice. A great point to note is to agree on facts and disagree on opinions.

“No good change ever happened in the world from people who just accepted the status quo” and I think this sentence alone is a good enough reason for us to start looking into issues and speak up on them.

Like what Gaurav said, in order to make the world a better place, we have to learn to take criticism and ridicule in our stride. Keep persevering and don’t be afraid to comment on an issue because of the fear of ridicule.

Thanks Gaurav for sharing your knowledge and insights on how to engage in a constructive conversation. I have to agree with you that it’s definitely an uphill task but as long as each of us play our part and respect each other in the process, it’ll not be as hard as it seems.

If debating is something of interest to you, feel free to drop a note here to be a volunteer with dialectic.sg!

Gaurav Keerthi
Founder of dialectic.sg Gaurav Keerthi volunteers actively in the debate community during his free time. He has debated, coached, moderated, and judged since 1992. He was the President of Debate Association (Singapore) from 2006 to 2010 and a founding Fellow of the Raffles Debate Academy.

In television, he co-created and hosted Mediacorp’s Emmy-nominated student debate TV show, The Arena (2007-08) and was the moderator for Channel News Asia’s Bridging Asia: The Singapore Debates (Season 2, 2012) and The Year Ahead (2014).

He published a local bestselling book in 2011 titled Think Speak Win (with a foreword by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan) and is the founder of www.dialectic.sg (a patent-pending website which aims to make online debating respectful and rational again).

Gaurav did his undergraduate at Stanford University on a government scholarship and his masters at Harvard Kennedy School of Government on the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship where he graduated as a distinguished Littauer Fellow. He also enjoys running, playing guitar, singing karaoke badly and having long debates with his wife (who usually wins, since she’s a lawyer and better debater).

Dialectic.sg is a reinvention of online commenting. Websites, forums, and social media currently encourage comments that are divisive, disrespectful, and unproductive. The site uses patent-pending algorithms to help users write better comments, improves the quality of conversation through peer-based pre-moderation and structures the conversation to be balanced and open.

Our vision is to help build a society where we can have rational, responsible, respectful conversations about important issues facing Singapore. We want to catalyse moderates, educate commenters and influence decision makers. Dialectic.sg has been featured in The Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, the Boston Business Journal and has been showcased at Harvard University and TEDx at Harvard. The dialectic.sg currently has 1,062 members who have left 1,224 comments on ninety-one discussions. And we are growing every day.

At the 11th Hour

7 Apr

Ranford 0

What will you do at the 11^th hour?

Jun Yuan is a personal friend of mine and I’ve seen him create this mobile application from scratch. Had the privilege of learning from his co-founder Ting Hong on the work they do and how their journey has been so far.

1) Hey Ting Hong! Share with us who you are and what is it that you do for a living?

I was from the sales industry for about eight years, managing a group of fifteen people. Before that, I was working both part-time and full-time as an engineer before and after my schooling days in PSB Academy where I pursued my degree in Engineering.

Currently, I’m at the 11th Hour full-time with my Co-founder, Jun Yuan.

2) How did this idea, 11th Hour come about?

Jun Yuan ran a Bak Kut Teh stall where he faced many challenges with leftovers, especially during lull periods and raining days. He was concerned about the waste, sometimes as much as ten to fifteen bowls a day!

That got us thinking, what if we could come up with a solution that allows us to respond to these last-minute scenarios in real-time?

Jun Yuan was someone who used to run an F&B business so he can tell you that there’s not much resource out there to help F&B owners prevent food wastage. In order to overcome this, many F&B outlets run one-for-one closing hour promotions. Others run ad-hoc promotions using standees or fliers.

However, this doesn’t solve the root problem of food wastage. There were many initiatives by government and non-profit organisations as well but a lot of them have limited success.

When we brainstormed, what we concluded was that ad-hoc, last-minute promotions was the way to go. Imagine a situation where outlets can quickly create last-minute offers through a platform with a click of a few buttons and people from around the vicinity can see and take up these exciting promotions.

That’s how the idea of 11^th Hour came about.

3) What makes 11th Hour different from other F&B mobile apps?

Most other F&B mobile apps that we know, you’ll have to plan promotions in advance. By doing so, users can abuse and time the promotions. On top of that, if a merchant wishes to make any changes or end the promotion half-way through a campaign, they’ll still have to honour the deals.

For 11th Hour, merchants can respond to the current situation at anytime. They can immediately pull out their mobile phone or tablet to create a promotion in less than a minute. Users around the area will then be able to see and response to these last-minute deals almost instantly and seize any deal that catches their attention.

I’m sure nobody can resist turning down a good deal, right? For others, they find this a very unique concept; a fun initiative to tackle the food wastage problem.

4) What were some of the challenges faced when starting this business and how did you manage to overcome them?

At first, it was to have a reliable mobile app developer. The first two teams didn’t manage to commit full-time or produce satisfactory work after a long period of time. This delayed our project considerably. The third team was a local, outsourced company and they were the ones who developed the app that you see today.

Initially, we went out there to give flyers to increase the awareness. Many merchants were sceptical of the idea and were hesitant to enrol with us. It was only after being featured on the newspapers and magazines when we started to gain more traction. Subsequently, it’s our continued activities that more merchants started to believe in the idea and came on board to join us.

5) To date, what’s the response so far and how did you mange to let the public know about your business?

In the short span of time since 11^th Hour was launched, a number of media outlets such at The Straits Times, TODAY, The Guardian, Tech in Asia, Vulcan Post, e27.co, Eco Business and The Middle Ground picked up our story and featured us in their publication.

The Straits Times

It Changed My Life: 11th Hour may just clinch the deal

App makers, scientists pitch in to curb wastage

TODAY

11th Hour app an innovative solution to food wastage

An 11th Hour answer to cutting down on food waste

The Guardian

Tackling food waste around the world: our top 10 apps

Tech in Asia

This man went from university graduate to hawker to startup founder

Vulcan Post

Young Hawker-Turned-Entrepreneur Fights Food Wastage With App That Gives You Food Discounts

e27.co

Take all you eat, but eat all you take: This startup will curb food wastage in Singapore

Eco Business

A new app to save food at the 11th Hour

The Middle Ground

Reducing food waste with last-minute deals

I think this has been the most effective way for the public to get to know us and what we do.

Facebook has also been another useful platform to get the word out. Here’s a short video to introduce what 11^th Hour does.

https://www.facebook.com/get11thhour/videos/626526174199208/

Since late last year, 11^th Hour has been downloaded more than 10,000 times.

We’ve received great and constructive feedback from both users and merchants from time to time and overall, the feedback was positive.

6) “Failure is the mother of success”. Share with us the number of times you’ve failed and how did you stand up every time after you fall?

In my early years in the sales industry, I was expecting and demanding everyone to perform like me. I wasn’t able to get along with those who view things differently from me. After a while, I learned that everyone is different. All of us defined success very differently. Each individual has his or her own unique strengths that he or she can contribute to the team.

I was very blessed to have great teachers and mentors during that period, giving me countless opportunities to perform and shine. However, I still remained stagnant for a few years.

From this, I learned that if I don’t proactively improve myself consistently, I’ll not be successful regardless of the amount of help and opportunity given to me.

Personally, I believe that each and every encounter in life is either a success or an opportunity to learn.

7) To all aspiring entrepreneurs and existing business owners out there, what advice do you have for them when they hit a road block or come to a crossroad in their life?

Maybe I’ll just share what has worked for us so far and that’s to have a very strong belief in the vision and to stick to the process. I also believe that it’s important to consistently network with people who are way more successful or who have already accomplished what you want to achieve in order to grow or overcome any major roadblock in life.

8) In your opinion, what do you think is “make or break factor” for individuals when the rubber hits the road in business or life for that matter?

You must persist and not give up. Many people give up just when they are about to achieve success.

9) What’s your main goal you’re working towards in 2017 for 11th Hour to achieve?

We target to expand to three countries, more than quadrupled all our key metrics and have our very own in-house mobile development team.

10) In your own words, what does it mean to “Love the Life You Live and Live the Life You Love”?

It means making your dream become a reality and living it every single day.

Greatest Takeaway

I’ve read through all the articles about his company and I must say, what Ting Hong shared in this interview is just a tip of the iceberg. Together with his co-founder Jun Yuan, the both of them went through several ups and downs pursuing this endeavour and calling it a “roller coaster ride” is an understatement.

To wrap things up, the name of their mobile application echoes a very important question one must ask during their entrepreneurial journey or life for that matter – what will I do at the 11^th hour?

Both you and I are not immune to problems. That’s just the way how life works.

Problems can either make you or break you. The hammer that breaks glass can shape up the steel. It’s up to you to be a piece of glass or a rod of steel.

At the 11^th hour, what will your decision be?

Thanks Ting Hong for sharing your journey so far building this company and I wish you and Jun Yuan all the best. The both of you are game-changers in your industry 😉

Lim Ting Hong
Co-founder of 11^th Hour

11th Hour founders Tan Jun Yuan (Left) and Lim Ting Hong

Ting Hong is the co-founder of 11^th Hour and together with his partner Jun Yuan, they are set to take the F&B industry by storm.

The 11th Hour app is available for both iOS and Android.

When faced with excess capacity and lull periods, F&B businesses create last-minute deals on 11th Hour.

#1: Find last-minute steals happening around you.

#2: No middleman. Hear it straight from the merchants.

#3: Lowest price guaranteed

Website: http://11thhour.me/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/get11thhour

A TEDx Presentation: The Road Less Travelled

24 Mar

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Here’s a TEDx presentation where I share my experiences on the road less travelled and knowledge on entrepreneurship.

In this article, I’ll cover the entrepreneurship framework which will give you a macro perspective on what it’s all about.

My name is Ranford and I’m going share with you what entrepreneurship is all about.

Raise your hands if you think entrepreneurs are business owners. Okay, keep your hands there and look around.

We have about twenty to thirty percent of the people here who think that entrepreneurs are business owners.

This is actually the problem I’ve uncovered in the process of writing my book on entrepreneurship.

So you must be asking, “What’s the difference between an entrepreneur and a business owner?” Let me break it down for you, the definitions of an entrepreneur and a business owner.

Entrepreneurs solve problems and/or add value to the lives of others for a profit.

The keyword here is “the lives of others”. So it’s for people, and the profit is just a by-product.

Some of the characteristics of an entrepreneur are people who think of changing the world. They strive in chaos. When you give them system and structure, they’ll go crazy. They constantly challenge the status quo.

Entrepreneurs have a hard time in NS (National Service), they really hate regimentation. Life is such an adventure for them. They always think beyond themselves and they always think of giving back to society. They are always known to as the crazy ones.

Some examples I have for you are people like Thomas Edison, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs! I like what Seth said earlier about passion. These people are the really passionate people and I agree completely with what he said that the media is over selling passion. It’s more than passion that drives these people.

It’s for others. It’s for people. It’s for doing what they love and of course, for the profits. The media only promotes “passion, passion, passion”, it’s lopsided.

How about business owners? The definition of business owners is this:

Business owners solve problems and/or add value for a profit.

Do you see the differences now? It might not be very distinct but their primary focus is for profits whereas for entrepreneurs, their primary focus is for people!

This is where it gets confusing because in today’s time and age, entrepreneurs are always very synonymous with business owners. Because of this, it causes a lot of confusion when we talk about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs and business owners.

With this in mind, I’ve created an entrepreneurship framework for all of us to have a bird’s eye view on what entrepreneurship is all about.

But before that, here are some characteristics of business owners. They love stability and certainty. They’re always for profits and bottom line. They enjoy security and sustainability. Their mantra is always system and structure.

Some examples are people like Michael Dell and Donald Trump. You know, if you’re not good at doing what you are doing in the business then you’re fired!

Let me go straight into the entrepreneur framework.

As you can see, entrepreneurs and business owners are on the two extreme ends of the spectrum. They are extremely opposite of each other.

“Entrepreneurs solve tomorrow’s problems today”

“Business owners create and sustain the problem solving process”

You might be asking, “So where does a social enterprise or social entrepreneurship fall under?” It falls right smack in the middle, between these two quadrants right here.

That’s where Sophee’s organisation is. If you remember her slides earlier, she’s saying that there’s a double bottom line. The social and the profits and it falls right smack in the middle.

One very good example I can give you, is this lady by the name of Anita Roddrick. For those of you who know her, she’s actually the founder of The Body Shop.

These three quadrants are for profits so take note.

Where does the quadrant of charity exist? It exists beyond where entrepreneurship is – right here, for non-profit.

This gives you a very good bird’s eye view of what entrepreneurship is all about.

Do take note of two points:

One, each quadrant is not mutually exclusive. What do I mean by that? It means that an individual will be able to shift from one quadrant to the next throughout their entrepreneurial journey.

Two examples I have for you, the first example is Mark Zuckerberg. He started as an entrepreneur, founding Facebook in 2007. But today, seven years later, he’s actually the CEO of Facebook.

The next example I have for you is Bill Gates. Highly successful and rich guy who’s the former chairman of Microsoft. But today, he is focusing most, or if not all his time, energy and resources in his foundation called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

So the question you have to ask yourselves today is this, “which category do I fall into? Am I more of an entrepreneur or more of a business owner? Do I strive in chaos or in certainty? Am I more profits driven or passion driven?”

The next problem that will surface after you have an idea of the distinct differences between a business owner, entrepreneur, social enterprise and charity is you have to ask yourself “which quadrant am I more skewed towards?”

It is important to know where you are now before you can get to where you want to be.

I always give this GPS analogy. One day, you tell the GPS “Hey GPS lady, I want to go to Orchard Road!” And then she asks you “so where are you now?” and your reply to her is “Oh I don’t know, somewhere in Singapore lor.” Or “I’m not sure”.

And there are two problems:

Firstly, there’s a thousand or million and one permutations and combinations for you to get to where you want to be, the destination. Next, there won’t be a clear distinct roadmap to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

In the same way, it’s very similar for entrepreneurship. You have to know where you are exactly; am I more excited doing what Sophee is doing – social enterprise, or am I more excited being a food blogger? Telling people where are all the good food, like Seth.

Where are you now? Are you more profit driven or passion driven? Are you systematic or are you all over the place? You have to know where you are before you can know where you want to get to.

And this is what I have to share with you on entrepreneurship. Before I end my session, is it ok if I share with you my story?

I’m definitely an entrepreneur, and how do I know this? This is because when I was eighteen years old, I started my first business selling children clothing. I was really excited, I prepared a proposal, about five to eight pages long, ran to my teacher from the entrepreneurship centre and I shared with her “you know I’m selling children clothes blah blah blah..”

But this meeting was really discouraging because within three to five minutes, my teacher thrashed me and asked me questions like “So Ranford, what is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? What is your competitor analysis? Where your SWOT analysis? How are you going to differentiate yourself from the rest?”

And at that point of time, my proposal was thrashed.

Needless to say, that was an utter failure, but thank God for my character, because I’m someone who has this “I will never take ‘no’ for an answer” kind of person. So I launched into my next venture which is the flea market. Back in 2008/2009, it was a very popular thing in Singapore. What I did was I collected second-hand items all around and I went to sell at flea markets.

That was a very successful venture because it was little to no startup cost. Usually for second-hand items, there were no cost involved and when I sold them at these platforms island wide, I managed to generate quite a good sum of capital. That was a very successful second venture.

The third venture I did was called the carton wallets. You know those milk cartons that we drink? My mum has this ability to make it into a wallet. So I thought “hey, that is quite nice!”

What I did was that I tested the market first. I went to my flea market platform, sold it for 1 for $3.90, 3 for $10. Surprisingly, the response was really good. I upped the price to 1 for $5.90 and 2 for $10.

Subsequently we did a lot of marketing. We placed our products to create more awareness at this thing called “toy outpost” – a rental locker unit with other eco products to create branding and more public awareness.

In 2011, we tied up with Century Square during their Eco-Buzz Carnival to teach the public how to make these carton wallets.

At the same time, teach women from low income families how to make these kinds of wallets so that they can sell and generate more income for their families. This third venture was also success.

These are the workshops. The women from Whispering Hearts actually.

And the workshop for the public.

Right now, my latest venture is that I’m the founder of Entrepreneurship Hub. What we do is that we help aspiring entrepreneurs and new startups, teach them how to use creative and unique sales and marketing strategies to kick start their venture.

I do a lot of sales training. The latest one I did was at SIM with thirty students.

Not only that, I do entrepreneurship training, this was the whole of last year.

What I’ve just shared with you over the past ten minutes is just the tip of the iceberg on what I have written in my book called The Instant Entrepreneur.

This book will cover basically three things:

Why now is the best time to pursue your entrepreneur journey
Ten strategies that will transform you into an instant entrepreneur
Three key factors in order to be successful in starting any venture.

I’m running out of time so let’s connect on social media. You can add me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,.. I’m on Facebook Messenger 24/7. Today there’s a lot of you here so I can’t possibly take all the questions. Feel free to drop me a message and I’ll reply to you when I have the opportunity to.

For those of you who are really fast and are already in my social media, you can see that I’m no different from every single one of you here. I’ll like to use this to encourage you that if I can do it, so can each and every single one of you here.

I’ll like to end off my session with this quote, my favourite quote by Zig Ziglar and he says this “You can everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”.

And that’s the reason why I do what I do today, thank you.

Inspiring the Young to Save and Invest Early

17 Mar

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Inspiring the Young to Save & Invest Early

Today, I’m happy to introduce to you a friend of mine by the name of Kenny Chia! He’s a young man with a bright mind that breaks all conventional wisdom about savings and investments.

Here’s a short CNBC interview video of his co-founder Aloysius Lee, sharing some tips on how the young can start to save and invest.

This video caught my attention and I immediately got on the phone with Kenny to ask if he’s up to do a quick interview.

In this article, we’ll be talking about the importance of financial literacy and how the young can start to save and invest early.

1) Hey Kenny! Thanks for taking this interview! So tell us, what are you currently doing now and what’s the latest project you’re working on?

Hey Ranford, thanks for having me! I’m awaiting matriculation into National University of Singapore where I’ll be doing my Bachelor in Business Administration. In the meantime, I am working on TLS with my partner Aloysius. The both of us started in 2015.

2) Interesting… Tell us more about TLS!

TLS stands for “The Little Snowball”. It is a financial website/blog that mainly focuses on personal finance and stock investing. Our philosophy is “with the right knowledge and temperament, investing can be a highly profitable venture with relatively low risk”.

Our mission is “to educate and empower individuals to take charge of their finances and snowball their way to financial freedom”. We aim to accomplish our mission by writing useful articles as well as conducting investing workshops.

3) On a side note, how did “The Little Snowball” come about? I find this name really cute…

I got the inspiration from reading a biography on Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of our time who started investing when he was eleven and has since accumulated a net worth of USD$74.8 billion at the age of 86 solely by investing. The title of the biography was “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life”, written by Alice Schroeder.

The title struck a chord within me as I could see that investing was akin to gathering snow (capital) and rolling it down the hill through the passage of time (compounding). As the snowball rolls down the hill, it gathers more snow along the way and exponentially increases in size. Eventually, one will end up with an enormous snowball at the bottom of the hill.

The word “Little” holds two meanings for us, the first being our size. Jack Ma once said “Small is Beautiful”. We see the beauty of being small because it means that we are versatile.

We know that being small allows us to understand and connect with our audience who have just started investing. You can’t invest the same way an institutional investor does due to limitations of being a retail investor and we understand that.

Secondly is our mindset. Being “Little” means that no matter how big our snowball becomes, we still think as though we are small, always thinking how to grow bigger!

4) What were some of the challenges faced when you first started out and how did you overcome them?

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb.

I believe we’re still starting out!

We faced many challenges, even before deciding to start TLS together. Those were internal challenges; we were our greatest enemy. We feared failure, wasting our time and resources, absence of demand from the marketplace, criticism, etc. However, we overcame those inner demons by supporting one another and tackling every fear and doubt objectively.

In the end, we realised that things aren’t so bad after all; we had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Time was on our side.

When we decided to start TLS, that’s where the external challenges began. One of the key challenges we faced was sourcing for a venue to conduct our workshops. We looked around and found many suitable venues. However, they were very expensive to rent and would be uneconomical to do so.

Then I got a random idea, why don’t I just turn my room into a classroom? So I went about budgeting for a whiteboard, tables, chairs, paint for the walls, etc. Turns out, the renovation would only cost less than a thousand! I promptly went ahead with the renovation.

Now, we have a proper classroom to conduct our workshops in and need not pay expensive rent.

The only drawback is… I now sleep on the floor!

5) Why do the young need to save and invest early? Won’t they be saving/investing with their parent’s money?

Simply because financial freedom is easier and cheaper if they start early.

For example, Alfred and Ben is aged 20 and 40 respectively. They both want to retire with $1 million at the age of 60. Assuming a rate of return of 10% per annum, Alfred only needs to invest $158 per month till he is 60 to reach $1 million. However, Ben would need to invest $1,317 per month just to achieve the same results. Alfred would have only invested $76,000 in capital while Ben invested $316,000 in capital to achieve $1 million.

Time was on Alfred’s side, time is on young people’s side!

6) Why are you passionate about promoting financial literacy for the young?

I’m passionate about the subject matter and I see massive untapped potential in our youths.

Besides, in today’s economic environment, investing is a vital skill everyone needs to have in order to retire early or at all.

7) What are three quick tips for the young to start saving and investing early?

Save first, spend what’s left. Most people spend first and save what’s left. Problem is, there’s often nothing left!

Have a budget. Record every single purchase you make, review them monthly and challenge yourself to reduce your expenses.

Have a mentor. Learn from someone whom you know have been investing profitably over many years.

8) What’s the biggest milestone TLS intends to achieve in 2017?

We aim to achieve 100% growth in subscribers for TLS.

9) In your own words, what does it mean to “Love the Life You Live and Live the Life You Love”?

To me, it’s about playing the hand you were dealt with to the best of your abilities and make the most of out every moment.

Greatest Takeaway

One of the key lessons I’ve learned when I was in the financial industry is the importance of financial planning. Kenny takes it a step further to advocate about financial literacy, specifically for youths. He’s able to take something so complex and make it simple for them to understand. I think this shows the depth of understanding he has for this topic and how well he has already grasp these concepts.

Thanks Kenny for sharing with us your knowledge and I wish you and Aloysius success in building your snowman! Continue to inspire the young to save and invest early, all the best! 😀

Kenny Chia
Co-founder of TLS

Kenny Chia is an Equity Fund Manager & Educator. He will be pursing an undergraduate course (Business Administration) in National University of Singapore (NUS). Kenny is also a recipient of the NUS Merit Scholarship.

Kenny graduated from Singapore Polytechnic (SP) with a Diploma in Banking and Financial Services (Merit) with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.961 out of 4 and was awarded the DBS-POSB Silver Medal and GIC Prize. During his study in SP, he was awarded the SP Scholarship for all three years, been on the school’s Honour Roll for all six semesters and was appointed as the President of the Diploma in Banking and Finance Chapter.

Currently managing multiple portfolios worth six-figures in aggregate, Kenny combines value-growth investing strategies from Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch, along with his 15-Point Checklist Methodology to achieve above average returns. He strongly believes that in today’s economic and political climate, investing is a vital skill everyone needs to have in order to achieve financial freedom and retire early.

The Little Snowball is a financial blog that mainly focuses on personal finance and stock investing. The Little Snowball also conducts investing workshops aimed at equipping individuals with the right knowledge and temperament to invest profitably in stocks.

The Little Snowball is co-founded by Kenny Chia and Aloysius Lee.

Website: http://www.thelittlesnowball.com/

Dare to be Different

13 Mar

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Dare to be different because everybody wants you to be the same.

To start off this article, let me share with you two stories to illustrate this point.

A Crab in a Bucket¹

Once there was a young man on a beach, watching people catch crabs. A young man put a crab in a bucket, with a tiny bit of water on the bottom. The crab promptly scurried out of the bucket and jumped back into the ocean.

He caught another crab and put that crab in a bucket and the same thing happened. It escaped and happily returned to the ocean. A wise old fisherman came up to the boy and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

A wide smile crossed his weathered, bearded face and he said, “Son, you have to put two crabs in a bucket. That way, when one tries to get out, the other will pull him back in. Then, you won’t have to worry. They’ll keep each other in that bucket. They’ll be trapped, without you having to do anything else.”

The boy thought that was crazy but he did it. He caught one crab and then another. He put the first crab in a bucket, and then quickly put in the second crab. He was amazed. When the first crab tried to get out, the other one pulled it back in. And when the second crab tried to get out, the first one pulled it back in.

Five Monkeys and a Ladder²

A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage and in the middle, a ladder with bananas on top.

Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, every time a monkey would start up the ladder, the others would pull it down and beat it up.

After a time, no monkey would dare try climbing the ladder, no matter how great the temptation.

The scientists then decided to replace one of the monkeys. The first thing this new monkey did was start to climb the ladder. Immediately, the others pulled him down and beat him up.

After several beatings, the new monkey learned never to go up the ladder, even though there was no evident reason not to, aside from the beatings.

The second monkey was substituted and the same occurred. The first monkey participated in the beating of the second monkey. A third monkey was changed and the same was repeated. The fourth monkey was changed, resulting in the same, before the fifth was finally replaced as well.

What was left was a group of five monkeys that, without ever having received a cold shower, continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder.

If it was possible to ask the monkeys why they beat up on all those who attempted to climb the ladder, their most likely answer would be “I don’t know. It’s just how things are done around here”.

Why?

Most of the time, people do this out of a good intention. It’s not that they want to “put you down” or consciously dissuade you from doing certain things. They’re just sharing based on their personal experience and don’t want you to get hurt because “It’s just how things are done around here.”

To share with you a personal example, when I first embarked on my book publishing journey, I was told many times over not to do it because I lacked both the experience and credentials. I did it anyway and it turned out to be the best experience and the most significant milestone of my life.

Were they wrong? I don’t think so.

Where did the advice come from? It came from a good place, based on their knowledge and experience.

From this, I started to understand how to take advice with a pinch of salt. They’re not me. They’ve not been through what I’ve been through and/or are going through. They don’t live my life.

Ultimately, I make my own decisions and answer to its consequences because only I know what’s best for me.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to seek out mentors and learn from people who are already at where you’re heading towards to learn from them. The message I’m trying to convey here’s that you don’t have to listen to everybody and doubt what you’re actually in the process of doing.

An important skill I’ve learned through this is on how to agree to disagree. As a people-pleaser and a yes man, I find this extremely hard to accomplish.

How I attempt to put this into practice is to keep an open mind and listen to one’s opinion before making a decision whether what they have to say is useful to me or not.

Besides this, I’ve listed another three ways to help you embrace your uniqueness:

1) Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

Instead of expecting others to be or think like you, take the lead by practicing thinking differently for yourself first.

Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite is a book written by Paul Arden and he shared really interesting concepts on how thinking the other way can help you achieve greater goals.

Constantly challenge your thought process and start thinking in the opposite direction.

2) Find the Box

I attended an event last week and a Chief Marketing Officer taught our group that before being able to think out of the box, we must first find it.

In order to “think out of the box”, you must identify what “the box” actually is. Is it a problem that you’ve wanted to solve for the longest time? Or is it some answers you’ve been searching for but always hit a dead end?

“The concept of fresh eyes” is another interesting way to put this point into context.

Start so see each scenario from various angles and perspectives before making a conclusion. This enables you to have a multi-dimensional overview for every given situation. It also allows you to have a bird’s eye view of exactly what’s going on in order to piece together to conclude what your “box” really is.

3) Go Against the Grain

Take a closer look at nature and there are some lessons to be learned.

In this article “Facing Fear – The Courage to Swim Upstream³“, the author shares the journey of a salmon and how it relates back to your life. You were born with the ability to swim against the current. Resilience and perseverance is part of your nature.

Over the course of life, perceived obstacles and challenges threaten your survival and disorientates your direction. Before you know it, you’re unconsciously being swept away with the current of life.

Why try so hard all your life to fit in when you were born to stand out?

You know what you need best and by taking the road less travelled, it’ll give you the courage to dare to be different in spite of knowing that everyone else wants you to be the same.

Dare to be different. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

That’s when you can truly love the life you live and live the life you love.

Footnotes:

¹How Being a Crab in a Bucket is Causing You to Fail
http://sherievenner.com/2013/crab-in-a-bucket-causing-fail/

²The Famous ‘Social Experiment’: 5 Monkeys and a Ladder
http://www.wisdompills.com/2014/05/28/the-famous-social-experiment-5-monkeys-a-ladder/

³Facing Fear – The Courage to Swim Upstream
http://www.revealingwisdom.com/conditioned-mind-and-suffering/the-courage-to-swim-upstream-back-home

Photo Credits:

Crabs in a Bucket
http://anythingispossiblefitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/crab1.jpg

5 Monkeys and a Ladder
http://www.throwcase.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/monkeys-e1419187612146.jpg

Salmon Swimming Upstream
http://www.sbs.com.au/topics/sites/sbs.com.au.topics/files/styles/body_image/public/salmon_river-original.jpg?itok=g2NHJ91h&mtime=1471364192

What Publishing a Book Entails

3 Mar

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Up till today, people still ask me about my book publishing journey. In the midst of building up my new business, I went through all my archives and found a lot of information.

Decided to do up this article, plucking some resources from my press release, radio interview with 98.7FM, TEDx presentation and other speeches and interviews I’ve done since the launch of the book.

I structured this article in an interview format, covering most of the questions I’ve been asked over the years. It feels kinda weird because while doing up this piece, I’m like asking myself these questions and answering them at the same time, re-enacting the scene when I was on national radio or being interviewed by a journalist.

In Chinese, we call it 自导自演；playing the interviewee and interviewer role. But I thought structuring it in this format can help you get the most value from my personal experience.

It’s really comical, come to think of it. Nonetheless, hope you enjoy the read and don’t let this image of my mini role-play distract you from the valuable content 😛

1) What’s your book about?

My book is entitled “The Instant Entrepreneur; 10 Surefire Strategies to Guarantee Your Startup’s Success”. In this book, besides sharing the story of my personal entrepreneurial journey, I’ve also included strategies acquired through my experience and three key factors on how individuals can succeed in any new venture they launch.

2) How long did it take to publish your book?

It took me a total of eighteen months from the point of conceiving the idea of book publishing to the actual physical print of it. I must say, the feeling is surreal to be holding the very book that you wrote in your own hands. Definitely an experience I’ll remember for life.

3) How old were you when started your book publishing journey?

I was only twenty-one years old when I started my book publishing journey.

4) Where did you get your inspiration to write?

Entrepreneurship was a topic that I was really interested and passionate about so getting inspired to write was the easiest part for me. All I had to do was meet up with entrepreneurs and I’m all charged up and ready to write! Most of the time, I get so much input and content from them that I don’t even know how to put them down into words!

5) Why did you choose to tackle such a huge topic like entrepreneurship?

I’ve always found the word “entrepreneurship” fascinating because even though it’s just one word, it means many things to different people.

To some, it means taking risks and doing something that hasn’t been done before. For others, entrepreneurship is a “last resort” thing; when all else fails, then I’ll look into entrepreneurship as my last option for survival.

On the other hand, “entrepreneurship” can be one of the most feared words in the dictionary. This word can mean leaving a comfort zone to risk everything and stepping up to take the lead. The idea of entrepreneurship shakes the sense of safety, security and stability, three words that most people lead their lives by.

I personally know a lot of people that fall into the last category. They’ve never even considered becoming an entrepreneur and the thought of pursuing entrepreneurship is insane. Every day, I hear statements like,

“I’m not a ‘business’ type of person”

“I’m not good in sales”

“I can’t talk very well”

“I want to get a good job to have a stable income”

“working for people in my ‘dream job’ is my passion”

It’s the fear that people had towards entrepreneurship that drove me to shed some light on this topic once and for all. This was the main motivation for me to write this book.

6) What’s some of the challenges faced on the course of writing this book?

I think the greatest challenge I’ve faced was the lack of credentials and experience. Many ask me, “Ranford, what are some of the successful businesses or ventures you’ve done?” and I do not have an answer for that.

We live in a very practical society, especially in Singapore. Throughout the course of working on this book, I’ve come across many people who dissuaded me to continue embarking on this project, citing things like, “you don’t have enough experience on the topic of entrepreneurship, what makes you think you can write about it” and “who’s going to read your book if you don’t have experience and credentials to back up what you’re writing?”

Many gave me their two cents’ worth to finish my national service first, proceed to get my degree, secure a job and work to learn the ropes from my employer on entrepreneurship. Observe how they do it for a few years before leaving and striking it out on my own.

If my business is successful, write about my success. If I didn’t make it, I can write about my failure.

I nearly agreed with their train of thought because it seems like the logical thing to do. To be honest, I was extremely discouraged by these responses and I almost bought into their logic but I’m glad I didn’t. If I did, I wouldn’t be here sharing with you my story today.

That’s why the advice was only worth “two cents”!

a) How then, did you manage to overcome them?

As an avid reader myself, there’s one book which helped me reframed my thoughts to overcome this obstacle. The book was “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.

At that time, Napoleon Hill was nobody but he decided to learn from successful people and document everything. Today, he’s better known than some people that he initially learned from. On top of that, his knowledge has been passed down through the generations of over eighty years, leaving a lasting legacy to his name and publication.

In the same way, I saw myself doing what he did.It’s not so much to achieve personal success but to learn from the experiences of the successful.

This journey was definitely not an easy one, maybe because of the fact that I was young and this topic was way out of my league. However, I held on to the belief that “when one is committed, providence moves to”.

7) Eventually what’s your reply when people asked about your successes?

I usually share that I’m just a messenger, not the message. The purpose of writing this book is to learn more about entrepreneurship and from successful entrepreneurs. I’ll also add that I’m really passionate and interested on this topic as well. The objective was to consolidate what I’ve learned into a book and to share this knowledge with others.

8) How did you manage to contact the entrepreneurs you wanted to interview?

I just called them up and shared with them what I was doing. Surprisingly, many agreed to meet me despite their busy schedule. They were more than willing to take time to sit down, talk with me and share their story.

I think one of the main factors on the ease of securing interviews was the fact that started from the people I personally know first. At the end of each meeting, these entrepreneurs will usually share with me another two or three people that I should meet and learn from. Subsequently, I just kept meeting and learning from the people who have been referred to me.

9) Who influenced you to think about entrepreneurship at your age?

From a young age, I knew I didn’t want to work for somebody. Because of this, I constantly looked out for various opportunities to strike out on my own.

I attended many courses and seminars along the way and to distil it down to a few key people who have influenced me to think about entrepreneurship, I’ll say it’ll most probably be Robert Kiyosaki, Timothy Ferriss and John C. Maxwell. They were the ones who made me feel that despite my age, it’s possible to be an entrepreneur too.

My parents also played an important role in developing the entrepreneurial spirit in me. Knowing how I was like from young, they didn’t restrict me what I could or couldn’t do. They gave me the space I needed to explore what suited me best. Not only that, they are very supportive of what I do even though it doesn’t fit the mould of a typical “Singaporean son”. My family have been the strongest pillar encouraging this area of my life and I’m truly grateful. If not for them, I will not be who I am today.

10) What are your reasons for going into entrepreneurship?

As cliché as it sounds, entrepreneurship is about pursuing your passion and doing what you love. However, one must be able to make a living out of it as well. If not, it wouldn’t be called entrepreneurship, it’ll just be considered as a hobby.

On top of that, entrepreneurship is an excellent platform to create flexibility and control of my own life, which allows me to spend more time with my family, loved ones and the people I care for the most. Through this course, I’ll also get to widen my network and meet different people.

In the pursuit of entrepreneurship, I learn so much more about myself; what makes me happy and what makes me tick. Most of all, know who I am as a person.

I’ve to admit, it’s not an easy journey. Many entrepreneurs describe this as a “roller coaster ride” but I’m sure they’ll also tell you that once you hop on it, you’ll never want to get off as it feels almost like an adventure!

11) Who is your publisher?

I’m a self-published author.

a) Oh, what are the differences between self-publishing and going through a publisher?

That’s a very good question. Initially, I didn’t know the answer too but as I did my research, there are clear distinctions between both.

I always like to use the example of renovating a new house that you’ve just moved to. You have two options; one’s to hire an interior designer who’ll do all the work for you or two, sub-contract all your renovation works out to individual contractors to do it for you.

There are definitely pros and cons to each option. By hiring an interior designer, they’ll be your one-stop solution to all your renovation needs. You can have a peace of mind that everything will be handled by only one source and it’s easy to communicate and manage if any issues were to arise. However, the downside of this option is higher cost and you lose control on specific areas which you want to change as the interior designer is the main person in charge.

On the other hand, if you were to sub-contract all the renovation works to individual contractors, it’ll definitely be more cost efficient and you have complete control over individual areas of your house. But this comes with a huge price because you have to put in extra time and effort to co-ordinate and executive various tasks, not forgetting the assumption that each sub-contractor you hire has to be reliable! If not, you’ll be in for trouble…

Going through a publisher is like engaging an interior designer while self-publishing is like sub-contracting all your work; writing, editing, proofreading, book cover design, marketing and so on to individual vendors.

b) So which method is better?

I won’t be able to comment which method is better as it really boils down to individual preferences.

12) What’s the most fulfilling part about your journey writing this book?

It’s the sense of accomplishment once the book is complete and printed. I’ve to tell you, writing a book was not as easy as I expected it to be. Before I plunged into this book project, I thought to myself, “How hard can writing a book be?” I’ve written so many twenty page reports in school so writing a book should be as easy as doing that for five to six times, slapping it all together and sending it for print.

I was soooo wrong.

There are 101 things to do besides that! As I chose the self-publishing route, that makes it 1001 thing instead! It was through this entire book project where I got to learn first-hand the experience of publishing my very own book and I’ve also learned three words from this process, “IT IS DIFICULT”.

So think twice if you really want to publish a book of your own.

Having said that, being able to finish what I’ve started despite its difficulty was the best part of writing a book of my own. This book is now something I look to whenever the going gets tough. I know that if I completed something like this, I can complete anything in life. Also, it’s nice to share my experiences with aspiring authors to inspire them that if I can do it, they can too.

13) What advice will you give other young aspiring writers who want to get published?

“Start now, don’t wait any longer.” If you have plans to publish a book, just take the necessary action to get your content out as soon as you can.

A good tip that I can give based on my experience is to do a mock up of your book cover, the table of contents and a preview chapter. Next, go out there and start taking pre-orders. Once you’ve made your first sale, you’re now forced to finish your book in order to deliver.This was exactly what happened to me when I first started.

With the pure intention of testing out my idea to see if anyone will be interested to read my book, I went out boldly and asked for pre-orders. To my surprise, people actually paid me money because they were interested to read my story. That was when I started to get serious with my book project.

I didn’t want to disappoint the people who supported and believed in me so I took this as a commitment to them to finish what I’ve promised.

14) Do you have plans to write another book? If yes, what will the new book be about?

Yes, I intend to publish two books this year.

The first one is for my new business, Storyaire. I’ll be sharing why storytelling is the business of the future and how individuals or organisations can ride on this wave to communicate more effectively to their clients.

The second book will be a community publication on motivation and inspiration. Your smile is the greatest gift of all so what better way to end 2017 with some nuggets of encouragement and kick start a brand new year? For this project, we’ll be gathering photographers, designers and writers to contribute to this publication and all profits from the sale of this book will be donated to charity.

— End of Interview —

There you have it, a summary of my eighteen month book publishing journey condensed into less than 3,000 words for your reading pleasure 🙂

Hope you find what I’ve shared useful and if you have any questions that I didn’t cover in this article, feel free to ask me in the comments section below or drop me a message here or through any of my social media platforms.

I’ll include a short synopsis of the book and how you can get it below. Let me promote it one last time, okkk? HAHA

Cheers and hope to hear from you soon 😉

The Instant Entrepreneur
10 Surefire Strategies to Guarantee Your Startup’s Success

What you will get out of this book:

The Instant Entrepreneur will debunk all the myths of entrepreneurship for you once and for all. Not only that, this book will also teach you:

The True Definition of Entrepreneurship

Major Differences Between an Entrepreneur and a Business Owner

Ten Strategies That Will Turn You Into an Instant Entrepreneur

Three Key Factors That Will Determine Your Success in Any New Venture Launched

and be blown away by how simple these concepts and strategies can be applied.

Let the author take you on a journey to learn about entrepreneurship in a way that you have never seen it before… Enjoy the ride!

Website: http://instantentrepreneurs.com/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/TheInstantEntrepreneur/

My name is Ranford and I am passionate about life.

I believe that every one should live to the fullest potential, share their unique gifts and talents to help others and make this world a better place.

I enjoy learning and growing as a person and the best way to do so is through entrepreneurship and humanitarian work.

If you share the same values as I do, let's get in touch and see how we can work together to create a better future for ourselves and the people around us.

I look forward to hear from you soon ;)