The Life I Wanted It To Be

I was still at my lappie while I have these thoughts…

I always wonder why do so many local students nowadays do not wish to go into engineering courses?

Singapore always boasts that our maths and science education system is the best in the world and had produced the “smartest” pri-school students compare to some other western countries.

If the kids are so smart, why is the continuity not there to follow them through tertiary education to take up engineering or other science courses. Instead they opt for softer courses like arts, biz, accounting etc.

The only reason I can think of right now, is partly due to the heavy emphasis of maths and science since young. The kiasu parents and schools want them to excel in them because it’s the easiest to score well in exams.

Maybe the children are forced to do well in maths and science, not because they have an interest in it. So when they grow up, where they have much freedom to do and choose whatever they want, they will tend to stay clear of those maths and science related courses. They think they have enough of it. It’s time to do other stuffs.

Well, that’s my hypothesis. May not be the main reason, but partly.

More like a belated post.

Yeah, as the title says…

“How to Succeed At Interviews” by Dr Rob Yeung

All the credits go to this book. I guess I can get a job so fast is because of it. Period.

Prior to that, I have totally no experience at interviews. My IA “interview” is more like a tok-cock-sing-songs session. I can’t count that as one. LOL.

And I didn’t even attend the s*t+e^v$e#n c*h*o*n^g interview course though I paid money for it. Hahaha.

So again, I had to stress that the book that I bought is the only virtual guru that I had!

Yeah! Buy this book in bookstores if you are getting a job soon.

Yeah… I got a job.

Sales engineer.

I think I am damn lucky. After I came back from Taiwan, just sent 2 resume. One called me, went for interview and got the job.

And I feel honoured too. I asked the lady boss, how many resumes she had in hand and while waiting for my reply, did she consider other candidates too?

She said no… and was just waiting for my reply only.

Ok… the pay is not high. Even my mum said it’s low. Yes, I feel it’s towards the lowly side too.

But I feel I can still accept it. That’s why I take it… and of course the coy provides me with a van too, includes weekend travel too.

Maybe I am incline more towards entrepreneurship so I think towards how my employer thinks.

I am just a newbie, to some extent, like what ap said when her interviewer said that all fresh grads are useless.

The employer don’t want to pay me better because I think she can’t see my value yet. I have nothing to prove to her my worth.

I understand that, because I also hire people to work for me before. I pay my “employee” a native writer from US to write articles for me. To be frank, I paid her below market rate too.

She’s good… much better than those fucking writers from i*n*d*i*a.

So, when I approached her to again to write articles for me again, she negotiate for a higher rate, which I willingly accepted, because I feel she’s good and I can see her value that she provides.

So, I STRONGLY belive that if I can prove my worth to my boss, she will pay me better. My mentality is – prove to her that I am worth her money. If she’s not willing to pay, I can always go… with my better experience and track record. . Of course, if I can’t perform, I can’t expect much also, she may even sack me. Hahahahahahah!

There’s one friend whom I known from NS, which is from MAE. He got a bonded-job for 1 year and keeps complaining that the pay is below the market rate. By the way, he earns 2.6k. To him, 2.8k is the rate to keep his mouth shut. Always talking how bad the company is etc.

I mean. c’mon. You are just a fucking useless grad. You should be grateful that you got a job. You should blame yourself for not negotiating before you sign the bond. Thought that you will get the “market rate” ? You are being too naive. Employers want to cut costs and get the highest profits, don’t you get it?  They will likely to offer you lesser salary if possible. NAIVE thinking.

Anyway, you cant even prove your worth…. go out and prove yourself before you complain again.

Sadly, that’s what most Singaporeans want =>  good pay, easy work, short working hours, no stress.

How to find? *Shrugs*

Bought 2 books recently.

1st: Secrets to Dominate Your Niche by Thomas Fernandez & Sant Qiu.

Really a great book and a pretty thick book too. lol

Gain a lot of insights. Will be listed as one of the best books I have read so far. It’s so good that I keep reading and finish the book in 2 days.

2nd: How to Succeed At Interviews by Dr Robert Yeung.

I scour through the interviews books in MPH bookstore before I finally settle for this one. Looks good enough. Read through one quarter. Hope will prove useful when the crunch time comes. lol.

I think i can read through books pretty fast. Not exactly speed reading, but I can get the geez of a book pretty well. Unless it’s a technical book (eg: textbook |||) where I have to digest and read slowly to comprehend it well, otherwise I can read very fast. Maybe it’s due to years of reading newspapers. I roughly know what’s important and what’s not. lol.

Hahah. I have been reading books! Well, but it still seems that I am giving people the impression that I always slack and doing nothing. Maybe because I seldom watch tv, vcd, dvd, go outdoor or I sleep too much??!!

But deep down… i know what I am doing is productive. Though I must admit i love to sleep sometimes. But I make it up in the middle of night by doing things which I deem is productive! Hahahahah…

Back from the kelong trip.

I wouldn’t say the trip is fantastic. The trip wasn’t what I anticipated and the 1st half-day was really kind of boring. We had nothing to do and all we can do is play Monopoly and cards game? Well, none of us knew fishing and we didn’t any equipment.

2nd day is better. Went for “island hopping” to a nearby island. The guide brought 2 balls and we thought we were going to play some kind of ball games but hell…. we went “rock climbing” along the  coast!

Why hell? No because the rocks were difficult to climb, but we were unprepared. lol.

We wore slippers… |||

Not exactly the best “shoes” and damn… my slippers get very slippery when it get in contact with water.

I seriously felt that we were very lucky not to have any major accidents except for rong’s minor accident. Anyway, she’s injury-prone. lol.

The guide never brought any first-aid kit. NONE. If somebody just slipped off the rocks. I can tell you it will be death or heavy injuries.

But anyway, it’s overall quite fun towards the end. As I said, the place is not exactly the best, it’s the people who makes it fun. Yeah.

Now looking forward to taiwan trip. And I need a job soon. Hahahah.

My niche site has been making around USD100 per month for me so far. Anyway, the stats is for the past 2 months only. Haha. I need to scale up… hmmm.

Recently, got hooked on eBay. Started selling stuffs. I must say eBay is the fastest way to earn your 1st dollar online. The moment I get started, I earn money. And I was selling stuffs that I don’t need but they are brand new items.

But it was quite competitive selling physical items. I wonder how can people selling stuffs so cheaply online with cut-throat prices. That’s the main disadvantage selling physical items – competitive,  price slashing. Especially now with the greenback’s falling rates, it’s not to international sellers’ advantage. However, it’s easier to sell physical products compare to digital products. They have a higher perceived value. So, buyers will not think twice about buying if he likes the product.

eBay is fun to me. But if i want to be earn a lot more in the long run, I need to have my own niche products and get from wholesalers or suppliers. That’s what I have yet to do it.  But one thing for sure, I don’t want to deal with stuffs that have various sizes. Too much of a hassle and adding up the labour cost, the margins are not high. Not viable for me.

Been reading a new book borrowed from the library – The Google Story.

Simply amazing. They are extremely smart. PhD students from Stanford before dropping out to concentrate on their business.  They have no intentions to make any money from Google when they started. Adding values to people’s life is their main objective. Money comes in second.

Food for thought….

Yes! I am addicted to selling on eBay!

I know of a powerseller who says that it’s fun to sell on ebay. I always thought, how fun can it be? In fact, I always wanted to sell stuffs on auction sites like Yahoo or ebay, but in the end I procrastinated. After a few long years, I finally get started.

Right now I only managed to sell 2 items and both are digital items. I have yet to sell a physical product yet, but there has been a bid so far. So, if nothing goes wrong, the item will be sold and I can ship it to US. Yeah, and it will be my first virgin shipping to overseas.

I have 10 listings now… So I am waiting to see how it goes. Stuffs that seem junk to you may be worth gold to somebody else. I put up my Tiger beer coaster for sale… and it has one bid so far. That got me so excited when I first saw somebody is bidding it.

Well, listings cost money…. but it’s a small sum to me. Even if my items never sell, it will still be a good hands-on experience overall. Anyway, which business don’t need capital and don’t carry risks? The most basic listing just cost $0.15 each. Compared that to any traditional brick-and-mortar store, it’s really risk-free isn’t it? Hahah.

I guess I will addicted on ebay for some time.

Sometimes I do things differently  and I do different things. That’s what make me different from most of the undergrads in NTU.

I may not be the smartest or get what-stupid-scholarships. I used to envy people who are scholars or those who never ever get below B+ in school. Because I can’t get them. Haaa. But now I don’t. I pity them instead. Why? The more they are into academics, the more they will be employees for the rest of their life working for people that are less smart than them and getting a pathetic pay.

Ok… maybe earning $5000-$10k per month may sounds a lot to an employee… but that’s really peanuts to those who have their own business. Alright, to be frank it’s a lot to me right now… but I think their value is much more than that.

To me, the most important thing is being happy. That is what I am aiming for. Happy to go lim-kopi whenever I want to, wake up at anytime I want, doing “work” that made me happy, not squeezing with people in mrt and buses. That’s the reason why I wanna earn big bulks. Not because I can buy a lot of stuffs, but because of the freedom and happiness i can bring me.

Ok… some might say being rich may not give you happiness, but a lot of problems. I would say, “You think poor people no worries?”  They have to worry about bills and school fees. I rather be rich with problems than poor with problems.

If you are working as an employee and working 10 years down the road and you say you are very happy with your life… then that’s good. It doesn’t matter, as long as you are happy. That’s what I think. But if people complain about little pay, very stressful, no life, hate to squeeze mrt… then they better find a way to get out of the rat race and get out of it.

In my opinion, only running your own business can get out of the rat race. Aim for the freedom and happiness… Most probably, you are doing something you like in your own business.

I talked as if I have made big bucks already… Haaaa. But that’s me. I always have this goals in mind and will achieve that. But I guess I have to be an employee for the time-being. The money I made online can’t sustain me for a full-time living yet.

I don’t know what I am typing in this post. I just type whatever that came to my mind.

To all those scholars! I pity you guys! I can foresee >90% will not be happy in your work in 5 years time. Don’t be naive that getting superb good grades will get you somewhere, work in big companies and getting huge pay and be there for the rest of your life. That may work way back 20 years ago. But not anymore. People need to wake up.

But people don’t wake up also good to a certain extent. less competition for  biz owners. Hahahahha.

Well… I guess I am.

I can no longer eat as much as I used to be.

When I was <25, I can eat KFC’s 2 piece chicken meal and still feel hungry.

Now, I feel bloated after eating the same meal.

I could eat 2 big bowls of rice while I was <25

Now, after eating one bowl, I can feel my stomach has expanded.

I used to finish my Cafe Cartel meal feeling just nice.

Now, I can barely finish them up.

How’s that.

Life after 25 aren’t gonna be the same again.

It had been a long time since I last blogged. Well, I am not exactly those “blogger”  or “express feelings” type and my life has been pretty mundane so far. Hahaha.

Ok… it’s  chinese new year and I don’t really like this festival. Cos’ my family don’t really go bai-nian. Why? Since my grandparent pass away, our relatives don’t meet each other often already and my mum have so “misunderstandings” with my dad’s side. So no bai-nian. Only my small aunt visit my family during the 1st day.

Of course, I visited al’s house on the 2nd day. Besides that, I stayed home the whole day on the 1st and 3rd day. Boring with re-runs channel 8 shows. It’s just like a holiday for me. No significant meaning for me. That’s why I liked Xmas better. The shops are open and more festive feeling, although I am not really a 100% christian. Hahaha .

Ok, going to visit al’s boss house tomorrow. Hope it will be fun.

Well, I did nothing much over these few days. Can’t be bothered to write and talk about school stuffs. Hehehe.