mike.:.lim

Just back from Blog Out 2007, interesting event held by The Digital Movement. There was an interesting mashup of people from different focuses:

• Cool bloggers like Estee, Michael Cheng, Veron
• Grassroot organizations like E27, TDM, Project Senso
• Experienced entrepreneurs like Bill Claxton, Todd Murray
• Young entrepreneurs like Shen Cheo of Nuffnang, Yinghan of Hitchoo.com
• Geekapreneurs like Uzyn, Choon Keat, Herry, Harish
• Business people from Microsoft, Eubiq (Very innovative Singapore company)
• People from traditional media like Jennifer Lewis and ex-CH8 reporter Ng Kee Haur
• Students

It’s definitely good to have all these cross-domain conversations, where new ideas can spring forth, cross-pollinate and enrich the local scene and have FUN.

So let’s just keep pushing the new medium as much as it can, before technology and creativity runs out of steam and becomes the sole domain of the big corporations (which we already are in some way - think Google, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr).Anyway, great people, great event, great atmosphere. Moving forward, it will be wonderful to mash the technology aspects with the social implications. How Internet has helped to free the voice of the people, create strong grassroot movements like this, the implications for society etc. Good technology does not exist in a vacuum but has to make a positive and significant impact on people’s lives.

http://whysgentrepreneurssuck.com - Interesting site by a very thoughtful and rational person (whoever he/she is ;-)). I was thinking of being evaluated on the “suck” level at a later stage, but just discovered I got featured in this article and being mentioned (in a negative light) haha.

Well, in short, if I were to launch other kinds of products (eg: biomedical, enterprise software solutions), I would do the proper due diligence for the market research, eg: finding out the disease’s incidence rate, current efficacy of treatments, profit margins, market size, etc.

However, this idea is fascinating to me on many levels. And while I do not have the resources (or ideas thereof) to conduct the focus groups, feedback is encouraging. Aside from this, we have done competitive analysis, and do have some indirect and circumstantial evidence of the validation of this business idea.

Anyway, all I can is that we’re working hard on this idea and transforming the dream to reality. I have no illusion that this venture will work out 100% like a pitch-perfect musical instrument. If I wanted to do that route, I would do something “safer” and less interesting like consultancy, retail, enterprise software. Being the practical Singaporean, neither am I impractical to be navel-gazing at it all the time, and not be unaware of other opportunities.

Many thanks for the suggestions though. Will keep your criticisms and feedback in mind, I am always willing to learn.

Good luck for own your venture as well, sounds promising!

I had the immense honor (and luck) of meeting Tim Draper in Singapore yesterday afternoon at the Hog’s Breath Cafe at Chijmes. Wow.

It was a warm, informal and enjoyable event with much joy and laughter. Thanks to BL, we managed to organize an entrepreneur’s version of speed dating in order to be able to talk to and pitch our dreams and ideas to Mr Draper himself. I did try my hardest to pitch my idea to him, but it was obvious that it wasn’t that interesting or viral enough for him. Well, better luck with the next VC!

Tim radiated much warmth and generosity for a man of his stature. In fact, I had met Steve Jurvetson in Silicon Valley as well, and he was just as tall, approachable and charming.

During his speech, Tim made a quick comment about how Singapore has everything dictated and regulated. He did have some reservations when the Singapore government tried and organize its resources to boost entrepreneurship in our country. But looking at the immense energy that our group radiated, it was obvious to him that the planned initiatives were paying off. He also mentioned that what Singapore needed was one “big win” - a company that makes it really big, in order to act as an inspiration and make big success look real easy for the rest of us.

Personally, I feel that indeed at recent events (e27, Nexus) there’s this buzz that wasn’t in existent a few years ago. Unlike previously, smart graduates are willing to take the route less ventured, have a few years roughing it out in the tumble of business success and failure; and not just join the corporate rat-race. A small thanks to government-backed initiatives like NTU’s TIP, NUS’ NOC, and MDA grants, which helped produced gems like E27, Singapore Entrepreneurs and The Digital Movement. But of course, not forgetting that the real engine lies in the dynamic people in these groups.
Anyway, great bunch of guys and gals, we made Tim wish he was 25 all over again. Very good luck to all your endeavors/ventures and keep up the good work!

Just saw a very interesting BBC documentary entitled "The Hawking Paradox" on Channel NewsAsia's Documentary of the Week.  

It explains how Professor Stephen Hawking, who happens to be one of my childhood heroes, made a scientific U-turn, contradicting a claim that he made 30 years ago on the black hole information paradox. What is remarkable is that he did this in-spite of his failing health from ALS.

It is heart-wrenching to see him painstakingly dictate letter by letter of his new paper to his research student. Yet it is inspiring to see the unfailing determination of the human spirit at work. Add to that his rather cheeky admission of having lost an old time bet makes him out as someone who is very smart, yet genuinely funny at the same time.

His paper "Information Loss In Black Holes", which is rather short and wittily written can be found here. For a good technical discourse and explanation of the paper, you can read it here.

By the way, Stephen Hawking is looking for a new voice synthesizer to replace his current one (which happens to have a Yankee accent). If someone manages to create a software version that makes him sound like the sexiest British man alive, I am sure he would be more than thankful for that.

Yesterday I attended the ix2006 Academic Forum organized by SMU. Overall, it was a slight disappointment for me, as I was expecting more dynamic and interesting contents from the speakers, especially when the topic was supposed to be about disruptive technologies like wikis, blogs and Instant Messaging (IM).

Most of the content was a pretty straightforward explanation of the technologies and the technically inclined amongst us were quite distracted. However, I did have the chance to bump into Justin and Bjorn, who happened to have already known Todd in California. (small world indeed!)

Mr. Euan Semple, a speaker at the conference, who has 21 years of valuable experience and was was most recently BBC’s Director for Knowledge Management, shares a similar view of things. I was not able to talk much with Euan. But I am wondering what Euan, being an entrepreneur himself, thinks of an education in technopreneurship (the 4-month course that I am taking).

Most people would be skeptical of such an idea (how on Earth can entrepreneurship be taught?) . I was quite skeptical myself before I signed up for this course. But at the end of the day, I decided to take the plunge as I see a course like this as a way of learning from the collective wisdom and experiences of others.

So far 1 month into this course, I have learnt quite a bit from our lecturers, as well as the differing experiences from our classmates (including Todd, who's from America and some others who are practising entrepreneurs). It has helped taught me how to look at things not just from an technical standpoint, but from a strategic view of the industry and a marketing standpoint. It is my belief that this knowledge will short-circuit the business learning curve and help to increase my chances of succeeding as an entrepreneur.

I have just returned from a fun, interesting, physically and mentally exhausting trip from Outward Bound Singapore (OBS). Having signed a verbal Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the instructors, I cannot really divulge the exact things that happened there, however here are the lessons in life and business that I have learnt:

1. Always expect the unexpected

We can never dictate when changes will happen, or whether they are positive or negative ones. During the OBS course,we were given a series of events that caught everyone off-guard. How does one cope with unexpected changes when they happen?

1. Have a supportive team or network
   You will never know when you are caught in a sea of unexpected changes. Being alone in such a place can be a terrifying experience. This is when having a supportive team or a strong network of family, friends, colleagues and other business people proves vital. It is true that most of their time, they maybe too busy working and managing their own lives.

   Hence it is always important to remember to stay in touch. This can be in the form of meeting up for lunches, emailing or MSN-ing each other, attending some business seminars together or hanging out as activity partners. Golf anyone?

2. Cultivate a positive attitude and embrace change
   It is always much easier to complain about changes than to do something about it. After all, it takes little effort to complain about changes, the real effort comes in overcoming the inertia and doing something about those changes.To me, there are several techniques that I have used:
   • Cultivate a light-hearted approach to life and have a good laugh about it.
   • Break down a complex problem into several smaller ones and deal with each one individually.
   • Always be a fighter and deal with problems in a proactive, calm and controlled manner.
3. Always have a contingency plan
   • For the self, buy personal insurance (life and travel insurance).
   • For the company, if the cost is feasible, buy corporate insurance.
   • At your company, have a basic Business Continuty Planning (BCP) in place. At a very minimal, make sure that your company's data is properly backed up using either a RAID array or a backup software; always document your own work and make sure that your colleagues do the same.

2. "TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More"

The above quote comes from Jason, one of my TIP course mates. With teamwork, what can be achieved in a team is greater than the sum of the efforts of individuals. The various activities at OBS has brought this point home. However, you may have a team but not teamwork. The important thing is to get everyone to agree on the objective, and help each other in getting there.

However, Jason did bring up a succinct point: that it is very easy to have teamwork for a short period of time, but later on, it is inevitable that differing goals and personal agendas would end up disrupting the teamwork.

It is true that no team can stay focused together for eternity (see point 1. above). When your teammate or colleague's objectives or goals differ from the common objective, it will be time to either re-align his or her objectives via a frank one-to-one talk; or else bid adieu (on friendly terms, of course).

3. Ingenuity springs from perseverance and perspiration

"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration." - Thomas Alva Edison

In this day and age where "creativity" and "thinking out of the box" have become buzzwords, it is easy to neglect the importance of good old fashioned hard-work and determination.

At one of the obstacles in OBS, our team did not figure out a way to overcome it before attempting it. We went ahead and tried many different ways of overcoming it. One-quarter of the way through, we harboured thoughts of giving up since we were expending our energies and getting really tired. Nonetheless, through sheer determination, we kept going at it. It was in the midst of endless trying and experimentation, that inspiration suddenly struck, and we made it all the way through.

What this means is that there can be no substitutes for hard work, no matter how smart or strong you are. In the midst of the struggles, you may never know how close to success you really are.

4. The value of experience

After successfully clearing the obstacle, it became much easier for subsequent teams to clear the obstacle. This is because we had gained the knowledge of clearing the obstacle by doing it, and shared it with the rest of our teammates.

In a corporate environment, having an open culture of trust that promotes sharing of information and experiences, will make it a much more innovative and productive environment.

5. Never stop innovating; innovation always involves risks

At one of the events, we were the last team and a far way off from the leading team. Dale, another one of my course mates, then suggested a shorter and more direct route that no other team was taking. After some discussion, we realized that we did not have much to lose anyway and decided to take the risk. As it turned out, it turned out to be a brilliant move and we ended up being the first team.

What this shows is that innovation is potentially very rewarding and always involves a certain amount of risk. This is because either few people or no one has even been down this path. Just because almost everyone is doing things a certain way, does not mean that it is the best way.

In summary, OBS has certainly helped us the TIP students to foster bonds, and to challenge us mentally and physically. We have learnt not only many physical skills but many valuable lessons as well.

Many thanks to our OBS instructors: Kevin, Louis and Jon. All of them are fit, nice people and not bad-looking too. If any ladies out there are interested for a date with them, feel free to drop me a line.
Likewise, many thanks to the NTC and NTU Ventures staff: Wilson, Peiling and Susan for their help and support during the course. Of course, last but not least: a big thank you to all my TIP course mates for being such friendly, fun, nice and helpful people to be around.

Thank you all for the hard work.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step” - Lao-tzu (Chinese: ???????? - ???

Thus begins my faltering steps into this brave, new (”old” by many bloggers’ standards) world of blogging. In many ways, blogging reflects both an age-old idea of letter-writing and the inherent human need to interact. For me personally, expressing my thoughts on the blog garners a hope to be understood by others, to reflect upon my own identity and understand my place in this universe.

Anyway this week marks the start of a 4 month journey into a technopreneurship course called Technopreneurship & Innovation Program (TIP) conducted by Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Technopreneurship Center (NTC). “A what?”, many people might question. Is there a need for attending a course that teaches you about technology entrepreneurship when you could plunge head-first into becoming an entrepreneur?

Judging from the responses I got from some TIP alumni that I had the honour of meeting, this course does help in fostering critical thinking and developing team building and leadership skills. However, this poses a question about a weakness in Singapore’s much vaunted educational system. Does a “one-size-fits-all” approach to education impede the development of critical thinking skills?

Fortunately, things are slowly changing in Singapore. From one of the TIP participants (who happens to be working in the educational line) I learnt that there are plans in her school to introduce entrepreneurial classes at the high school level. At least this is a positive step in the right direction.

Thinking further along that line, as a whole Singapore has to grow to be a more disorganized, organic country than a neat, systematic one. Having a culturally, politcally and socially diverse society would help develop Singapore into a nation of thinkers and not be dismissed as a herd of “stupid” followers.