I got the bad news on a Thursday afternoon just half an hour before the clock hit 5pm.
Faced with this situation, I didn’t know what to do.
I was stressed but I knew I had to do something.
Morale in my little dotcom was waning, productivity was falling and if I didn’t find a solution to this problem soon, all the work we’ve done in the past few months would be wasted.
The dotcom that I had big dreams for would burn to the ground. I was scared.
I thought about all the people I would disappoint if this were to fall through.
I thought about my disappointed Father and Mother who believed in my ability to be a successful entrepreneur.
I thought about the uncles and friends who would look at my failure and say
“I told you that you should’ve worked for a few years to gain experience first… you didn’t listen to me!”
And most importantly, I thought about the sleepless nights I would have wondering how our leetle dotcom would’ve changed the world if I had prepared myself for circumstances like this.
The fear or failing so early in the game forced me to pull myself together and find a solution.
I knew that unlike all the problems before, this problem couldn’t so easily be solved over the phone.
I had to get out of the office and head to my supplier’s place right away to find the solution.
I was out of my office and in my car in 5 minutes, racing to the supplier’s place before she shut at 5pm.
Luck wasn’t on my side.
I kept getting red lights at every traffic light junction wasting even more precious time. I reached my supplier’s place at the stroke of 5pm.
She refused to help me at first saying that she was done working for the day but I pleaded with her.
I convinced her that if she were to let our company burn to the ground now, she will lose the big potential of our business in future and that it was in her best interest to keep us afloat.
I convinced her that if she failed to help us now and we survived this turbulence, we will ensure that all her competitors made plenty of money from us and she made none.
She relented at first but she eventually gave in to me passing me the package that I had come for.
With the package in hand,
I rushed back to the office.
My heart was filled with fear that I wouldn’t make it back in time.
This time, not only were the traffic lights against me… but big fat Magnolia trucks were getting in my way.
I barely parked my car when I reached my office and I rushed up the lift.
Watching the floor number gradually increase, I began to wonder if this was going to be the last time I was going up this same lift with a company to go up to.
The lift beeped and threw its doors open for me.
I ran right into my office to deliver the package in time to find my two colleagues looking at my puffed face with me panting like I had just ran a marathon.
They opened the package in relief to find the solution to their problem.
The Char Koay Teow that will ease their hunger. 
Now they would be able to work without feeling hungry…
Our leetle dotcom was saved… all thanks to the supplier that cared enough to fry us a few more packets of Char Koay Teow before she closed for the day.
On behalf of our tiny dotcom, I would like to say thank you to the nice Char Koay Teow lady.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space