TimothyTiah.com

Dear bloggers, here’s how I think we should write sponsored posts…

Earlier this week I updated my blog with a new sponsored post for Shell. I was really encouraged with the results it brought. Close to 1,000 shares on its own and really great quality comments from you guys sharing your stories not counting the comments or stories shared on other social media platforms.

Sponsored posts are tricky. Nobody wants to write a sponsored post that doesn’t get any engagement or anyone reading it or responding to it. That sucks but it’s not easy writing good ones either. Here’s what I’ve learned and my best practices so far:

1) Don’t bother masking an ad as not an ad

The reason for this is far beyond ethics. The truth is that we’re all so used to be being pushed with ads we know an ad when we see one. When James Bond drives an Aston Martin, we know it’s not because he happens to drive an Aston Martin. We know that it’s because the studio was paid to have him drive one.

Heck we’re so conscious of ads that even when something isn’t an ad, we think it’s an ad. Like my meme proposal years back. I remember some people saying that it’s a viral ad campaign from the restaurant or from the production house that produced the video when it really wasn’t.

It was genuinely a wedding proposal that I paid for and was not sponsored to do at all.

So don’t bother hiding an ad. Say it is outright or somewhere in your article or whatever way that suits you. Because your readers know better.

2) Write about products that only you care about or have used before

Bloggers or influencers have the power to influence people. This power is bestowed upon your readers by the trust they have in you. Abuse that trust and it’s gone. Lie to them and it’s gone.

So take this power seriously. Try a product before you write about it and only write about it if you’re really convinced it’s worth recommending. If it’s not then don’t. No pressure.

I used to use an iPhone and then I was sponsored by Sony last year  which I really loved and since then I’ve had other smartphone companies sponsor me phones but I didn’t want to write about it because I didn’t think they were great phones.

Credibility is the most important thing we have to guard. It takes a long time to build and just one action to destroy.

3) Provide some value to your readers

Don’t ever view a sponsored post as an ad and that’s it. The instant you do that is the instant you turn your mind off about how to engage your readers. Posting pictures of yourself and a product isn’t good enough.

Provide some value to your readers who take the effort to read your blog or a sponsored article. Tell them something interesting they may not already know, or make them laugh, or give them a perspective that they never had. Or heck give them a chance to be a part of your campaign by giving something away even.

Of course this particular point is easier said than done. because many clients want to have some say on how their products is covered. There are however great clients who are really accepting of these things. For example my previous sponsored post about Shell. The article was part of a national campaign that promoted Shell’s initiatives to improve their stations all over Malaysia. I sat down for a while and thought about how I could provide value and then I realized.

Shell was a brand that many of us grew up with. We used Shell almost like a family tradition and perhaps tracing back the history of Shell might reveal some interesting facts (like how Shell used to sell Sea shells instead of oil).  I spent about an hour or two Googling Shell and reading about its history. Plucked the interesting facts out and then started writing my sponsored post.

It involved more work than just writing a straightforward sponsored post. Neither do I get paid more for putting more effort into it. Why I did it though was because to add more value to my readers and fortunately some of you guys (not necessarily all) responded to it well. If more people respond to it well and comment, share it or discuss it then it’s better for the client and the brand and everyone wins. The only thing it took was a bit more of my time and effort. It also really helped that the clients at Shell and their agency were really forward thinking and understood how these things work.

I believe that in our world of sponsored/branded content, we gotta constantly up our game on how we can do better. Beyond taking pictures with products, beyond listicles and beyond hard selling stuff. It’s a hard thing to do because people change. Listicles for example used to be really popular until they got overdone.

This however is what makes it interesting. That we have to constantly find new ways to engage the people who follow us with the brands who want to work with us.


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My family has been using the same brand of petrol for decades. Here’s what I never knew about the company that produced it.

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I have been using the same brand of petrol all my life. It’s the same brand that my father used and his father before him. We pump Shell. Sure every now and then when we’re low on petrol and can’t find a Shell we settle for an alternative but every time we have an option, we choose Shell.

I don’t really know why. I’ve largely attributed it to habit so when Shell recently approached me for sponsored content I decided first to do some research on them. Every brand and every company has a story and I wanted to learn their story and the facts to know if it’s something I would feel an affinity towards.

In my research this is what I’ve learnt about Shell:

1) They were the first oil company in Malaysia.

This took me by surprise but it’s true. Royal Dutch Shell first began looking for oil in Malaysia at the end of the 19th century.Then in 1910 its first oil well was drilled in Miri, Sarawak.

2) Shell first started by selling seashells.

The company was started by Marcus Samuel, which originally sold antiques. He later branched into selling the import and sale of oriental shells to capitalize on the popularity of these shells as decorative items during that time. When he passed away, the business was passed down to his sons – Marcus Jr. and Samuel, who in 1897 renamed the company to The Shell Transport and Trading Company. (I guess we’ll never know what kind of business a company might end up in. Hey maybe one day Nuffnang might be an oil company too.)

3) Remember the oil tankers we have today? The Samuel brothers were one of the pioneers of it.

One day the Samuel brothers had the idea of making ships that were built only for the purpose of carrying as much oil as they could. This allowed them to increase the volume of oil they could carry and hence cutting the price of oil. Their business flourished.

I imagine before oil tankers came along people transported oil in barrels which was probably really inefficient in comparison with an entire tanker with one huge tank.

4) But how did the name Royal Dutch Shell come along then?

With his oil transportation business flourishing, Marcus decided to look to the Far East to find other sources of oil. In Borneo he found Royal Dutch Oil and the two companies partnered in 1903 to challenge the biggest oil company at the time: Standard Oil. This partnership and eventual merger led to what is known today as Royal Dutch Shell.

5) If Shell were a country how big would it be?

Shell (Royal Dutch Shell) pulled in USD$421.105 billion in revenue in 2014. That’s about 30% more than the GDP of the entire Malaysia in 2013. If Shell were a country, it’s revenue would make it the 29th biggest country in the world in terms of GDP. Ahead of Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.

6) Shell was one of the early international companies to start work force equality.

In the 1960s Shell undertook a policy that was uncommon among companies at the time.They placed local people in top positions in the respective countries they were in. Asians, Africans and South Americans were all placed in top positions in their respective countries and given as much independence as possible to run the Shell operations locally.

7) Shell has over 950 petrol stations in Malaysia

That’s more than 6 times the number of Starbucks we have in Malaysia (as of 2013. Each and every one of these 950 petrol stations will be undergoing a three-year transformational programmed called “Welcome to Shell” which will bring in a high standard of hospitality and customer service. There are plans to upgrade the Shell Select stores so they’ll have freshly prepared pastries and drinks from deli2go as well as improved facilities like prayer rooms and rest rooms. This will gradually be rolled out among Shell stations, so go out and experience it when you get the chance. Deli2go isn’t just like a case of pastries in the Select Store. It’s a proper takeaway Deli and the pastries are freshly baked on-site. If you want to see what it’s like you can check it out here.

The points above have kinda cemented my affinity with Shell as a brand. So I’ll continue to pump Shell as my father has and perhaps one day my kids might too.

Side story:

I have this awkward experience that I’ll always remember when it comes to Shell. Okay so here’s the deal. I was 18 and fresh into KL for college. It was my first time being away from home (Penang, where the heart is). I was driving around Subang when the light in my car lit up like a spotlight in a concert. Screaming for me to stop the car and feed it!

Being a good Asian kid I listened to instruction. I found the nearest Shell and stopped my car right next to a pump. I then followed the usual routine. Slip in the Bonuslink card, then my credit card. After that I mounted the pump into my fuel tank like a champ and settled back. All was good. Time to celebrate.

Celebration at a petrol station for me was first going into the little boys room for a wee and then off to the Select Store where I would buy a sugary drink (which duly contributed to my now high sugar level and the cyst in my pancreas) and a chocolate bar (ahh… I should’ve seen this coming).

Anyway when I got back to my car I saw someone cleaning my windshield for me. I was like ….

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He wasn’t wearing an attendants’ uniform or something so I was confused. Was this part of a new service from Shell? To help us clean our windows? Because I never got that in Penang.

Or was it just some passerby who couldn’t stand how my windshield looked like I had driven through a sandstorm, then up a tornado and through a swarm of flying bird poo.

I walked up to him and looked at him awkwardly. He looked back at me for a few seconds before going back to finish the last of the dirt on my window. My windshields front and back were sparkling.

As I was admiring those windshields my mind was working fast. Am I supposed to pay him? How much? Do I tip him? I thought people don’t tip in Malaysia. DO PEOPLE TIP IN KL?! OMG.

I awkwardly opened my wallet and pulled out the few remaining RM1 notes I had left (I was a student. Don’t judge). I handed them to him and said thank you.

He stared at me for a while and I was wondering if I had insulted him. Trying to figure out what I did to insult him. A storm of questions hit my head at the same time. Was I not supposed to tip? Did I tip too little? Does he want my drink too? Or my chocolate bar? Say something…. PLEASE SAY SOMETHING.

He did no such thing. He just gave me a confused smile and then walked away from me on to another car. I went through that same Shell station over and over again in the next few weeks but I never saw him again. So that my friends is the story of the Mysterious Windscreen Cleaner. And the good news is, with Welcome to Shell, you should this happening more frequently at the stations.

Ok enough of my rambling. Do you pump shell? What are your Shell stories like?

3 Prayers I had Answered

I identify as a Christian because I believe in the Bible and Jesus Christ but I don’t think I’m a normal Christian. In fact some Christians might not even consider me one.  I have this personal bias against institutional religion or relying on man to interpret religion for you. Perhaps I’ve been too disillusioned by the church scandals and dishonest people that I can’t bear to go to church.

I’ve not been to church for more than 5 years. Maybe even 7 but I pray to God every night before I sleep.

When I pray to God I thank him for things he has given me and sometimes I ask him for things. Often he doesn’t answer my prayers but when he does, he answers the ones that matter. Here are 3 times that I believe God answered my prayers.

1) Fighter’s Battle with Pre-eclampsia and Pre-maturity

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I don’t think I have ever prayed more than between July and August 2013. That was the time Shorty was hospitalised for pre-eclampsia and we were told that Fighter could be in danger. I had gotten Shorty the best doctor available, told the doctor that I would spare no expense in saving both Fighter and Shorty and I spent almost every available hour of the day with Shorty.

Beyond that I realized there was nothing else I could do but pray as Shorty and Fighter fought the fight. They made it.

On the 12th of August 2013, Fighter was born at 31 weeks and weighing only 1.1 KG. Shorty’s fight was over but Fighter’s just reached half time. Fighter would spend the next few weeks in the incubator and the Doctor told us that because he was born so premature he might face a lot of problems. He might go blind, his lungs or internal organs might collapse and the list went on and on. Shorty and I knew there was nothing else we could do.

For the next 5 weeks that Fighter was in the incubator we visited him every day and spent time with him. We made sure that we left all our worries and sadness outside and had only the most positive energy when we saw Fighter. Around him in the incubator we were always smiling, calling out to him and laughing but once we left our smiles turned to frowns as we worried about the results of his next test. I prayed for Fighter every night. I didn’t ask for a perfectly healthy Fighter.

What I asked for was that whatever problems he may face, he would still be able to live a normal healthy life like any normal kid. God answered our prayers and gave us more than that. Fighter aced each and every one of his tests and was discharged 5 weeks later as a perfectly healthy baby.

2) Netccentric’s IPO 

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At the end of last year I sat down with Ming and we discussed the future of Netccentric. The company had already grown from a S$65,800 investment to what it is today. The company was in 7 countries and growing and we felt that in order to keep up with the cashflow demands of a growing business established in all these countries we needed to raise money. We decided that an IPO was the best option.

The IPO process though was a lot tougher than I imagined. It’s not just the whole process of due diligence but the fact that the company would have to front a huge amount of money in legal, audit and advisor fees in this 9 month process. In that period of time anything could happen to derail the IPO, some within our control and some not within our control. For example if global stock markets crashed just before we were to IPO, we would have spent a fortune on professional fees but we would have to call off the IPO. Writing off whatever money we spent on it and whatever time and resources we put into the whole process.

I prayed every night over and over again that God would give me the strength to see it through and we faced hurdles after hurdles that sometimes caused delay. We listed on the 6th of July 2015. A month later global stock markets had a meltdown with investors selling their stocks and taking their money out of the stock markets globally. Investor confidence was badly hit.

I always believed that Netccentric crossed the finish line at the very last minute. If we were to list just a month later, it would have affected the response of our IPO and we may not have been able to list.

Now that we’re listed though, the money we raised has built us a war chest enough to grow and expand the company to what we believe it will become.

3) Finding Penny’s hernia

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One day our babysitter was changing Penny’s diaper when she realized her crotch area was looking a little swollen. She reported it to Shorty who then immediately brought her to see a doctor. It turned out to be a hernia. Her ovary had dropped into a “hole” and if it wasn’t corrected she would lose an ovary.

When both Shorty and  I looked at the spot we couldn’t tell that anything was wrong. Sure if you looked hard enough you’ll see it’s a little bit swollen but not to the extent of it being a real issue. We were fortunate that my baby sitter had spotted it and knew what it was. I attribute that to God looking out for us and Penny. After all part of my prayers every night is for the safety and good health of our family.

8 #Bersih4 Photos that made me proud to be Malaysian

This weekend is the weekend of Bersih 4 (#bersih4), one of the largest if not the largest rallies ever held in Malaysia. The objectives of the rally is to ask for free and fair elections, the right to protest and express ourselves, good governance of the economy and a transparent government.

The rally lasts for 36 hours straight starting from 2PM on Saturday till midnight on Sunday and it’s the first time I’ve seen Malaysians come out of the comfort of their homes not just to risk getting arrested or tear gassed but to spend the night on the street.

I’ve been watching the news closely every hour to see the progress of this and Twitter has been amazing throughout this whole weekend for finding the latest news and best pictures. Here are the best pictures (and videos) I’ve found so far.

 

Why parents should take a holiday without their kids…

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Two months ago, Shorty and I booked a holiday to London. It was the first time in more than a year that we had gone for a holiday on our own and we were dreading it. Dreading a holiday is an odd feeling because why dread something you’re paying money to go enjoy?

Well that’s the odd relationship I have with holidays ever since I had kids. On one hand I was looking forward to a good break but on the other hand I knew I was going to miss both Fighter and Penny so much. I didn’t want to go .

The day came and Shorty and I had to put on the courage to leave. We tucked both Penny and Fighter into bed and then hopped on to our night flight to London.We spent about 6 days there in London.

In those 6 days we video called our kids almost every day which made Fighter cry whenever he saw us because he missed us. We talked about both him and Penny all the time and we thought about them every time we saw something that we thought they would enjoy. It was tough… but it was worth it.

It was worth it because it gave Shorty and me time to work on our relationship. At home we’re too busy being parents we forget that we need to be husband and wife too. Heck we’re sometimes too busy to even care about what we individually need and love.

In London we could do all that.

1) We could go watch musicals and not worry if the theater would be an inappropriate place to bring kids (it probably is).

2) We could choose what restaurant to go to based on what we wanted to eat. Not on whether there was anything Fighter would eat.

3) We could sit down and eat at a restaurant and focus on one another. Without having to eat while feeding Fighter.

4) We could walk up and down stairs without having to always look for the closest elevator for our stroller.

5) We could sleep all night without having to worry about waking up to feed Penny or sleep in all morning without having to force ourselves to wake up when Fighter wakes up at 7AM.

Most importantly we had the chance to talk more and catch up on last time. To remind ourselves why we fell in love with each other in the first place.

When we came back to KL we were really excited to see our kids and they were too excited to see us. We dreaded leaving but we’re glad we went and now we’re glad to be back.

So I’m going to share what an old friend of mine told me a few months ago. Go for a holiday and leave your kids! Mommy and Daddy need a break too.

My early years in pre-school

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At the age of 3 I went to a nursery of sorts at the YWCA in Penang. The nursery was right next to the hostel so when we were out playing we would sometimes go to the hostel and see these grown-up women there who would smile at us and think we’re all really cute.

Then there was the fun fair. One day where we could bring our parents and play fun fair games like throwing a tennis ball at a bunch of cans. It was at this fair that I saw them selling huge pink fluffy balls on a stick. I tugged on my mom’s skirt and asked her what it was and for the first time in my life I had discovered COTTON CANDY. My mom bought me one to her regret because after that 5 KG of pure sugar I had, I was bouncing off the walls in the car. Harry Potter on a broom stick wouldn’t be able to catch me.

Nursery was also the first time I remembered injuring myself. I was running around when I stumbled and fell on to the concrete floor. No issue I thought. I mean I was still a little boy. Light and short. The ground hardly shook from my falling. I didn’t cry at first. All that changed when I saw my knee bleeding for the the first time. I don’t think I cried because of the pain. I cried because I saw blood and I didn’t know what to do with it. I cried because of fear.

I still carry this small scar on my knee till today. I’m not sure why of all the injuries I’ve had, this one became a scar and the rest healed well. Perhaps my body wants me to always remember this first fall I had.

St Christopher’s

My very first experience in a school environment was at my pre-school St Christopher’s. It was also the first time I was exposed to the concept of school uniforms. For St Christopher’s it was short sleeved blue shirts and dark blue shorts. Off I went to school each day in my school uniform, carrying a small school bag that really didn’t contain anything except my water bottle. I had no need for books yet because we weren’t really learning from textbooks.

So what did we do at pre-school?

We sang!

The teacher would teach us songs and get us all to sing along. We sang songs like “I LIKE BIG BUTTS AND I CANNOT LIE”…. no I’m kidding.

We sang songs like “How much is the doggy in the window” to “One little two little three little Indian” which we thought was a funny song to sing at the time. That’s because we had a few Indians in our class and every time we counted the Indians in the song we would look or point at our fellow Indian classmates. All in the most innocent manner of course because we were just 5-6 year old kids. We had not been exposed to racism.

We played!

Every now and then the teacher would tell us we could go outside to the playground and play. There were swings and slides outside. It was a scene of little boys and girls dressed in their blue uniforms running around the playground in circles, rolling off slides and pushing one another one the swings. As a kid there wasn’t a happier time.

Once I was so carried away with riding a swing with a friend that we didn’t realize that play time was over and everybody had gone back to class. It was just me and him. On the playground alone on swings. In that brief moment of realization I remember feeling two things. One was fear from being alone, and the other was also fear… but from being punished by the teacher for not going back in time. My friend and I looked at each other and we could tell we both were thinking the same thing. We ran back to class as fast as we could.

As I took each running step closer to the classroom I tried to forecast the punishment the teacher might give me. Maybe she would call my parents and tell them how I’m unfit for this school. Maybe she would lift a table with superhuman strength and heave it at me. Or maybe she might lock me in a dark cupboard with spiders until school ends.

What happened next was rather uneventful though. The teacher saw both of us walk into class. She gave me a look and said nicely “Please sit down”. That’s it…. no need to duck from a flying table. No need to learn how to picklock my way out of a cupboard. Just… sit… down.

Next on the agenda in class was what the teacher called “Playing with water” (really… as opposed to playing with fire). I’m sure at one point the teacher must have told us not to play with fire but to play with water instead.

What “playing with water” at school meant was like this. We would each wear this waterproof apron, roll up our sleeves and step outside where there would be a few wide buckets of water each on a small stool of its own. Floating inside the bucket were plastic cups and funnels. We would get around the buckets, four kids to each bucket and then just literally play with water. We would fill up the cups with water and then pour them through the funnel and repeat repeat repeat.

Sounds like a super boring game but somehow as the time that was SUPER FUN for me. As fun as going to the movies might be to an adult. Perhaps it was our imagination as kids then. A bucket of water wasn’t just a bucket of water. Maybe it was a Hoover Dam and each of those cups was floating ships in the dam. Each small wave we created was a tsunami.

How I gave an inappropriate present

You know how there are things that you did as a kid that you’re not proud of? Well what I’m about to tell you is the earliest of those many kids I’ve done all at the age of 6.

I was invited to a friend’s birthday party. I told my mom about it and my mom brought me out to buy him a present one day. For some reason I thought it would be funny to buy him a present meant for a girl. So I told my mom that my friend was a girl. My mom was a little surprised though. She sort of knew that this friend’s party I was going to was a boy’s party but I kept insisting that it was a girl and so in the end we bought him a Barbie doll.

The day came when my mom brought me over to the birthday party at Sunrise McDonald’s. She instantly realized it was a boy’s party and she pulled me aside and said “I thought you told me this was a girl’s party”.

I didn’t really have an answer to that but it was too late. We were at the party and the only present we had in our hand was a Barbie Doll. We played around at the party until it came to a time to opening presents. All the kids gathered around excitedly and I watched my friend receive the coolest presents ever. His coolest gift was an elaborate Optimus Prime toy and seeing that toy was the first time I remember feeling jealousy as a kid.

Then came the time to open my present. My friend ripped the wrapper open and saw the Barbie doll. His face changed from one of joy to one of confusion. The kids around us were equally confused. From exciting screams and laughs went total silence. Then everyone turned to look at me. What I imagined would be funny turned out to be NOT funny at all.

In the silence I could hear my mom talking to my friend’s mom. She was embarrassed and she was apologizing for this mistake and promised to buy him another present.

I went home that day to a big scolding from my mom. She banned me from a number of things as punishment for what I did. I had embarrassed her, my friend and even myself. Things weren’t the same anymore with that friend of mine. We weren’t very close to begin with but needless to say I wasn’t invited to anymore of his birthday parties.

He once brought his Optimus Prime to school and I asked him if I could touch it. He said no.

Looking back I really don’t know why I did what I did. Heck this isn’t the only thing. I don’t know why I did many many other things as a child. The consequences of these actions though are something that I remember all the way till today.

A week in London

So we’ve been in London all week this week. It’s my first holiday in 12 months and I think we really got a good time to recharge. And take lots of pictures too.

Let me tell you about our trip in pictures.

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Shorty and I having breakfast at Patisserie Valerie. Every time we come to London it’s like tradition for us to go out and find a good English breakfast.

It really more or less tastes the same as the English breakfasts you’ll find in hotels in Asia but for some reason we just do it anyway.

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At Baker Street station, Sherlock Holmes’ home. Sherlock is a little bit more relevant to us these days because Shorty and I have been watching the BBC TV Series Sherlock. It’s a really good modern version of Sherlock if you haven’t yet caught it go watch it.

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At Oxford Street. One of my favorite places to walk in London. It’s full of shopping. If you walk the whole stretch of Oxford Street and go into the shop there’s bound to be one thing that you’ll want to buy.

I didn’t really buy anything this trip though because the RM is so weak against the pounds so the only thing I bought was a couple pairs of shoes and a shirt.

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And this is Shorty in Oxford Street.

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Met Arya, our business partner here for the Nuffnang UK office. He met up with us for dinner on our first day and took us for ice-cream at this gelato store in Bayswater.

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Was yummy!

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Shorty and I took this photo while waiting at the EE store to get our mobile sim. We managed to get 12GB plans for a week. 12GB a week! How do you use that up. All the Dayre, Periscope and Snapchat in the world wasn’t enough to finish it.

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Shorty at Notting Hill. We came here to check out Portobello Market. I always remember this market because in my first year of university my friends were waking up early one Saturday morning to go check it out. I said I couldn’t be bothered to wake up so early (back then as a student waking up early would be any time before 10AM). So I never knew if I missed out much.

Finally I went this trip and really there’s not much to my interest at Portobello Market. It’s mostly antique stores and all. What was nice though was all the pastel coloured houses that we found on our way there. Would love to own a home there some day.

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Welcome to Carnaby Street. This is where I bought my pair of shoes. I love Carnaby Street for all the shoe stores there. Shoes and sneakers aren’t necessarily cheaper in London but you’ll find a huge more variety there than anywhere else in Malaysia or Singapore. So I always come here every trip and buy a pair or two.

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Met up with my friend Alex. He brought us to Home House which is the private club right off Selfridges. It’s a really nice old house that they converted into a private club house with a bar, terrace, gym and stuff like that. You need to be recommended by two other members to become a member and you need to pay GBP 1,000 a year or something.

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On Leicester Square. As a student I used to spend a lot of Saturday nights walking around Leicester Square. Love how happening it was and I remember coming here sometimes when they were having movie openings.

I came to Leicester Square a lot because it’s right next to Chinatown. So after a good meal at Chinatown we would just walk over.

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My friend Alex brought us to this really good Michelin star restaurant called Roka. I liked the atmosphere there. Not super atas or anything. But very chilled and relaxed and buzzing with conversations happening on each table.

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Here I am at the The Imperial War Museum. It’s one of my favourite museums in London now. Learned a lot there about World War 2 and the Holocaust. The Holocaust Exhibition there has a huge model of Auschwitz which was quite a sight to see. It gives you perspective on the size and scale of the whole thing.

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This wreckage here was a car that fell to a car bomb in Iraq. Can you imagine that this is what a bomb can do to a car. We couldn’t recognize it at all.

Okay that’s it for London guys. Looking forward to coming home soon. See you guys soon!

How to get inspiration to start something…

I often get asked the question “How did you get the idea to start your business?”. I think that’s an interesting question because every entrepreneur gets inspired to start their businesses in their own way. That’s something I also happen to often ask entrepreneurs whenever I see them. How did you end up starting this?

Here are the common answers I got:

1) I first invested in this business, but it wasn’t doing too well so I took it over in the end and turned it around.

A well known example of this is Tony Hsieh. He was first an investor in Zappos and was investing in a number of other ventures. Zappos was a promising startup but they had their fair share of issues and they needed capital.

One day Tony Hsieh saw an opportunity to acquire enough of the company and appointed himself CEO, moving from an investor to CEO. Zappos eventually got acquired by Amazon for over $800 mil.

I know of a well-known film company here in Malaysia that has a similar story. The owner was first an investor but it wasn’t doing so well so he eventually bought it over and turned the business around.

2) I was working for somebody when…

Sometimes sitting under a tree no matter how inspirational it looks doesn’t necessarily give you the best business ideas. You need to go out there and explore the world.

Working for another company sometimes gives you that opportunity because you get to see the inside of whatever industry you’re in. From there you can see problems or inefficiencies and with any problem lies a solution and hence an opportunity.

One of my Dad’s friend started out just like that. He was an engineer and he was out in the field one day when somebody he met told him about a problem that needed to be solved. Oil tankers all over the world were transporting oil but the problem is theft. Somewhere midway in the ocean someone in the crew could very well syphon out some of the oil and you’ll never really be able to know for sure because the tanker is so large. This was costing companies millions  every year.

He came out with the idea to do a tamper proof seal on the oil tanker. So if somebody ever opened it before it reached its destination, the people on the other side will know for sure. The company did really well and listed on the Malaysian stock exchange.

3) I heard about this company from overseas that does the same thing I do….

Many entrepreneurs I know don’t bother reinventing the wheel. They just look at business models that work elsewhere overseas and bring it back to Malaysia. The benefit of that is that someone else has already done it somewhere else so you can learn from their mistakes and figure out how to improve from there.

For examples of companies like this you have to look no further than the group buying site craze that happened a few years ago. Groupon in the US started out with the first successful group buying site and it spawned a whole new bunch of clones everywhere else in the world.

4) I was at a trade show when I saw this…

Every industry generally has a trade show or conference that displays all the relevant products in its category. So if you’re looking for a franchise to bring into Malaysia, you can go for one of the many trade shows that exhibit all the different franchisors and connect them with potential franchisees.

A friend of mine went to a trade show for distributing oil and gas equipment. He learned about the industry there and managed to win the rights to distribute it in Malaysia.

5) I was at a conference and I saw this…

Conferences are excellent places to learn about an industry and explore opportunities. If you’re interested in hotels you can go for a hospitality conference or if you’re interested in technology you can go for one of the many tech conferences out there.

Sponsored conference:

One of the conferences you can check out is KL Converge where you’ll find The Internet of Things (IoT) related topics, apps, workshops and technology showcases to living a digital lifestyle and becoming a smart digital nation.

The focus is on  ‘see’, ‘touch’, ‘feel’, ‘hear’, ‘show’, ‘speak’ and ‘cheer’, bringing together leading industry executives from multimedia, applications, Internet and creative content to discuss, showcase and celebrate the issues, opportunities and successes in digital space.

There’s going to be:Speakers

i) A list of great speakers there that you can view here.

ii) Exhibitions that aim to demonstrate inventions in robotics, programming, apps development and much more

iii)  Malaysia Developer’s Day, which will see innovators and entrepreneurs building mobile apps over the course of 24 hours.

It’s taking place on the 27-29th of August 2015 at the KLCC Convention Center.  For more information click here.

Things Shorty & Fatty Say #333: Would you rather…

#333

We’re on the London Underground on the way back home.

Me: I don’t think I wanna go to Bicester Village tomorrow ah. It’s just another outlet shopping mall and I’m not into designer stuff anymore even if it’s discounted. So if we go there I’m probably going to end up just spending money that I wouldn’t normally spend.

Shorty: What else do we have to do anyway? Just go and see what they have there mah. New place.

Me: We’ve already been to so many outlet malls everywhere. They’re all the same.

Shorty: Fine fine. Then you think about what we’re going to do next.

10 minutes later

Shorty calls out to me

Shorty: Fats fats…. would you rather <insert disgusting thing here that I will not repeat> or <insert equally disgusting thing here>.

Me: I’m not going to answer that.

Shorty: Whyyyyyy? Come on come on.

Me: No… that’s disgusting. I don’t want to play this game.

Shorty: We already not going to Bicester Village already!

Me: What?! What’s that gotta do with anything?

Shorty: Come on laa!!!! Come on!!!!

Me: NO!

Shorty: Ask you to say only not ask you to do!!!

Me: I don’t even want to think about it!

Shorty: Come on come on…. *annoys me constantly for the next 1 minute*.

Me: FINE LA FINE LA. I’d rather <insert disgusting thing here>

Shorty: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAA

Me: *sigh*… my wife.

PS: To see a list of Would you rather questions you can click here. This is just a small portion of the millions of them out there but you know eventually you get the hang of it and start making up your own. Like Shorty does.

Fighter turns two

A few days ago Fighter turned two. It has been two years since he was born premature at 31 weeks and put into the intensive car unit. Now he walks, understands us very well and can speak a word at a time. He has been such a joy.

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For his birthday I worked in the morning but I took a couple of hours in the afternoon off to bring him for a walk in the mall. I love being with him. It’s like to him (and to Penny), we are the most important people in the world to them in spite of our imperfections. To them we are perfect as it is with the parents of kids everywhere else.

If you haven’t caught these videos yet, here are a couple of videos.

This one is from my Snapchat.

It’s a collection of his videos on his birthday.
And this one is from my Periscope.

Unfortunately from the saved video here from my Periscope you can’t see all the comments that were left by the 500 people or so tuned in live. But in any case it’s good enough to experience the moment.

My dear daughter Penny on the other hand was fast asleep at the time so she couldn’t be a part of the video.

Sometimes in life I think we focus so much on chasing career, money and wealth. We compare what car the other person has that we don’t, or the house they live in, or what their net worth is. But I think the most important thing that we sometimes overlook is family. Our kids who bring us so much joy.

We after all are the past and present. They are the future. There are no kids that are better than others. They’re all a promising part of our future.