I spent New Year’s Eve this year with my family. You know it’s funny. In my younger years, New Year’s Eve meant following my parents for some of their own functions filled with their friends. I would be bored there, along with all the other kids of my parents’ friends who were forced to go there too. I would think about all the parties I could have been having and how I was missing out.
Well the past few years, I indulged in all that. On one year I had a house party with my friends, another year we went to Cangkat Bukit Bintang and there were other years of parties. This year though I found myself wanting to go back to spend it with my parents… in one of those dinners that I used to dread going to.
I don’t know why… maybe it’s because I know my parents are getting older and I won’t have too many New Year’s left to celebrate with them. Or maybe… at age 27, I’m already feeling the age.
It was a New Year’s Eve party at Penang Swimming Club.
Most of the people there were my parents’ age and man did they know how to party. When the 60s-70s music came on, they all rushed to the dance floor to dance. There was something different about the way they danced. When our generation danced in clubs, a part of us was conscious to make sure… that we looked at least a little cool or stylish. When the uncles and aunties hit the dance floor to do the Twist, none of them appeared to care about looking cool at all. They all just seemed like they wanted to have a good time.
That New Year’s Eve party was the first time in that year that I began to reflect on what I did in 2011. At first when I though about the business side of things, I was disappointed. I felt that Netccentric hadn’t achieved as much as I think it could have achieved. So I made a resolution to do more in 2012. After I was done beating myself up I began to see the lighter side of things. The company has grown. The whole Netccentric group has grown to have 130-140 full-time staff in the region (with Nuffnang on its own having close to 100 staff). Nuffnang expanded to yet another country: Thailand.
And the company overall has grown in every other metric we could look at. We made mistakes this year too. Mistakes that cost us but we learned from them and we put more structure into the company so we could better cope with the growth.
As always one of the things I am very thankful for in 2011 is the wonderful team of Nuffies I work with on Nuffnang & ChurpChurp. To me, they are the best and I wouldn’t trade them for anyone else.
I am overall pessimistic about 2012 though. Since half a year ago I’ve been telling the Nuffies in our townhall sessions that 2012 will be a difficult year. It will be the year of slow economic growth or a recession. So on our side we have being doing all we can to prepar for it, trying to keep our costs low. E.g. we were supposed to move out to a new office in KL this year to fit our big team but with the recommendations of the Nuffies we instead changed the layout in our current office so we can fit more.
On a personal level, 2011 was a good year for me. It was when my relationship with Shorty matured.
Before I had a fear of getting married and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to take the next step. Somehow something happened in 2011 that changed that. I still don’t know what exactly happened but I just know my heart began to feel ready.
I had fewer friends in 2011 than I did in the previous years. A part of it is because I spent much of 2011 traveling for work so I haven’t had the time to meet up with a lot of my old friends. Whatever time I have left in KL is spent with my family, Shorty and maybe a few other friends.
2011 was a good year for me. Looking back I have a lot to be thankful for. 2012 will be a difficult year, but all we can all do is make the best of it.
My main New Year resolution this year? To do more to help the needy.
I feel that I’ve been given a lot in life to be thankful for but I haven’t done enough in return to help the needy. Sure on a company level Nuffnang and ChurpChurp was involved in many company initiatives for charity and social work in 2011. On a personal level though I haven’t done enough. Yes I did visit some orphanages,
donated some money, spent some time feeding the homeless
but I think giving is the kind of thing when you don’t know when you’re doing enough, but you definitely know when you’re not. I know so far that I’m not.
Happy New Year everyone! May 2012 be a wonderful year for us…. (and may the world not end in 2012)…
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