Lance Armstrong: A Lesson

On 22nd October, Lance Armstrong has been stripped for his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life. I personally find his story inspiring especially his fight against cancer. With his doping scandal, will it change my opinion towards him? Probably not. As I will always see him as a cancer fighter. 

I personally condone his action in doping. However, is he solely to be blamed for his action? I do not think so. We now live in an environment of hero worship. We all look up to someone who is an underdog and beat all odds to achieve fame and glory. We always look for someone can win and inspire us. In the current world of sports, achievements means a lot of money and rewards. As such, the temptation to cheat is as great as ever. Some may not necessary cheat but interpret the rules to their favor.

The same applies to the world of business. The reward of a successful product or increase sales is always an initiative to take short cuts or illegal activities. In business, these stakes are a lot higher. A good example is the melamine tainted baby food in China.

Whether as a sportsperson, a businessperson or an employee, possessing the quality of integrity is most important. Lance Armstrong may have gotten away for many years before he got caught for doping, now he faces a lifetime of shame. Many of us may feel that life is un-fair especially on people who got away cheating or doing things that is outright illegal. The temptation to get even is always strong. I feel that too.

To me, the way that I keep myself in check is by asking myself the following question.

"Whatever that I am going to do now, will I have the courage to explain it to my kids?"

If I answer "yes", I know that what I am doing is right. If I answer "no", chances are it is something that is not correct.

There could be other ways, but I want my kids to grow up right. I may not be able to predict the future but I know that living with integrity is timeless quality. My kids will always be my moral compass.

E-mail Management

Everyday I would receive close to 50 to 80 e-mails a day. Maintaining these e-mails has been a nightmare. At any one time, my Inbox can have more than a hundred e-mails.

There are times where I would open one e-mail stare it for a few minutes and close it. Moments later, I would open it again and do the same thing. No doubt is only a few minutes but all these wasted time would actually add up.

Since I got started with David Allen's GTD, my e-mails has started to become slightly more manageable. For me the best suggestion was the two minutes rule. The rule is, open the e-mail and read through it. If you can complete what is required from the e-mail done in two minutes, get it done and archive the e-mail. If it takes more than two minutes, file it and review it later.

From my own usage instead of two minutes,  I would extend the time to five minutes. The rest would follow the same principle.

If e-mail action items requires many five minutes, I would start a mini project and break down the work down to small chunks. Firstly, the work does not seem so daunting but also manageable.

What is your secret in managing e-mails?

Feeling Stress? Trying Yoga and Meditation

Lets face it, I have a full time job, family with two kids and a start-up to run. The stress is forever making me weary. During my waking hours, I spent most of my time working or managing the family. The stress can be so overwhelming that there are times where I just wanted to run away from all. I supposed this is the price of ambition.

Through the years, I have found certain ways to wind down or to switch off. Sometimes it works, while sometimes it did not. I am not an expert in stress management but what I have experienced is very similar to what has been described in an article from the Wall Street Journal. One of my main way to relax is to attend a weekly yoga lesson. In that short sixty minutes, I would experience all sorts of discomfort which includes cramp and pain. It was wonderful time to listen and watch the body. I have no time to think about other things else but to be within the moment. We have spent most of our existence on going somewhere, through yoga I learn to be being here. Once a week lesson may not sound a lot, but if you can mix your days with one or two pose into your daily routine, it will make a lot of difference.

One of my secret to mix yoga or workout into my daily routine is with an mobile application called Workout Trainer. You can find it on the Google Play. There are all sorts of workouts and programs that comes with detailed instructions. The workout caters for various intensity requirements. It even has workout that focus on certain parts of the body. For those who always complain about time constraint, there are even workout that can be as quick as two minutes. My favorite workout is the 5 minutes abs and arm workout. In 5 minutes, trying doing 100 pushups and 100 crunches. It is a good stress reliever.

I learned to meditate in 1995 through a Buddhist group in Australia. However, I never really got into it until 2012. To me, you really do not need find a quiet place  to meditate. If you are stuck in a traffic, waiting for the elevator. Just focus within yourself and observe your breathing. All you need is to feel and observe how your body breath in the air and exhale the air. Within that short moments, you should feel a lot easier. 

There you have it. This is how I unwind. There are times where none of my approach would work. When that happens, you can either built up a to do list, and go through it. The motion of crossing out accomplished items gives you a feel good moment. Do it enough, you would see that things are not as bad as it seems.

Good luck. And feel free to share your experience. 

The 23 million USD Hotel Deal

Last week, someone told me a deal where someone is selling his three stars hotel for 72 million Malaysian Ringgit (Approximately 23 million US dollars). The hotel is located in downtown prime area. It has around 150 rooms. Getting at least 80% occupancy is definitely not a problem.

Unfortunately, the deal does not many any sense. Assuming that the hotel is paid in cash without loan and the occupancy rate is 100% throughout the year. An average room rates of 200 Malaysian Ringgit (65 US dollars) a night. The annual sales would be around 12 million Malaysian Ringgit (4 million US dollars).

If the cost of operation takes about 30% of the sales. That is a profit of 8.4 million Malaysian Ringgit (2.8 million US dollars). The buyer would still need 8.4 years to break even.

That is a very big if, as such deals normally involve certain amount of loans and hotels are normally required to be refurbished every three to four years. As such, the value of the property has far exceeded the value of the business.

My gut feeling tells me that the current owner was never keen in developing the hotel business. Rather they are using the property as a form of investment and sell the property when the price is right.

In my future blog entry, I will try to explain how to evaluate a project.

Holding Your Ground and Looking for Customers

My business has been up since April 2014. Until today, we made multiple bids for hotel projects and have also received some import/ export queries. So far, our success rate is zero.

If I tell you that I am not nervous and desperate, I would be lying to you. Every month, the cash burning rate is around 1000 MYR/ 300 USD. The longer time I have no business, the bigger hole that myself and other business partners would be in.

For those who aspires owning a business and wanted to quit the current job. It is vital to plan ahead.

1. Keep your job until your side business starts to make money.
2. Save up! Forget about the movies, or eating out. Before you spent the next dollar, think whether it can contribute to your business funds or savings.
3. Calculate your personal monthly expenditure and the business's. From the calculation, you would know how much your business needs to make in order to sustain yourself and itself. 
4. Be careful of cost! I am lucky that my business partner own the property, thus we do not have pay the rental now. Due to our small operations, the services that we use are either the cheapest or free. For example, we are only using Google Drive's free 5GB storage for our work. 
5. Plan to call or bid for business on a regular basis. There are not many hotel projects out there in the market. The partners make sure to have weekly discussions on who and where to look for customers.

The above five points are just my personal experience. The business journey ahead remains uncertain and precarious. This is what being a business person is all about. For the person who is thinking of starting or struggling with the business, I hope this blog inspires you and tell you that you are not alone.

Good luck in getting the first customer. 

Blogging Again

Have not blogged for ages. No, I did not stop because my business folded. Rather, a new chapter is now open for my business.

Since April, I have setup another company that deals with hotel supplies and consultation. It is called Stark & Bare. The journey of setting it up has not been easy, as this is essentially a three person company. Each of one us has our own unique responsibility.

As for my role, I have to work on the accounting system, web page, and legal matters. The other business partners would be doing sales and marketing.

There has not been any business yet. The most important item is now about getting sales, but making sure we have the necessary system and process in place. In the coming blogs, I will share more about how my business is being setup and lessons learned.

Stay tuned! It is good to be back!

It is Your Problem

I have met many friends who aspire to become a business person. Many have tried and failed. While some did not even started. One of the biggest difference between running your own business and working are the magnitude of the problems that you would face.

If you are running your own business, the survival of the organization is your problem. This may ranges from employee engagement to the cleanliness of the toilet. In work, you only need to worry about issues that revolve around your area of job.

Therefore, besides only having passion. Are you willing to handle whatever issues that are thrown at you, regardless of its sizes and magnitude? In your own business, there is no such thing as a small problem. If is not resolve, it will come back and may get bigger. Even if you have a team to support your business, you would still need to direct resources and have the right vision to solve the problem.

If you are already in business. Ask yourself, what are the problems that business is facing? How can you solve it? You better start to think about it now, as it will not go away and you will have to solve it. It is your problem. You have to own it.