My Site

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….

I am addicted

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.

The way i do things

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.

Am I really catching up on age?

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.

I Lost My Mobile Phone!

Yup. That’s right. I lost my mobile phone… again. This is the 2nd time since I lost it in 2001. It was stolen the first time. But it’s a bit different this time round. I dropped my phone in the cinema after watching Ah Long Ptd Ltd.

However, the strange thing is, I don’t really feel terribly sad after losing it. I remembered clearly that the first time I lost it, I felt very bad and I got a bad scolding from my mum.

Why? I think the main reason is because the thief also can’t use my phone. So what  if I dropped my phone? You, the thief, although you got it for free, you also can’t fucking use it. Due to experience and knowing that there might be 0.01% chance that I may lost my phone again, I have done the necessary “precautions”.

I had my phone and sim locking feature activated. This means that if a person switches off my phone and on again, he need to key in password before he can use. SO HE FUCKING CAN’T USE MY PHONE!

So, even if he want to do anything funny to my sim card, such as calling those expensive chat-lines or call overseas before i deactivate my line, HE ALSO CAN’T  DO IT! I set a password for my sim card. So, if the thief inserted his sim card on his phone trying to make stupid calls, he will be asked for the sim password before he can switch on the phone.

In short, I have password protection for both phone and sim card. Double barriers.

That’s the reason why I don’t feel really sad. I feel sad for the thief instead. He thought that he can get a free phone, maybe to use or sell it.  BUT HE CAN’T.

I don’t know whether are there any unscrupulous mobile phone vendors who can help crack the password or not. But this means the thief also need “double” work to use my phone or sell it. And this cost money.

Alright maybe I lost my “huge” contacts. But it’s ok to me nowadays. I realized that many of contacts are so-call hi-bye friends where I may not call or sms them in the future. Maybe this helps to clear my list also. Haha. Anyway, many of my contacting friends are also in my MSN list. Not really a big problem in getting their numbers from them again. 

CNY? It’s just another holiday for me

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.

Bill Gates’s Words of Wisdom

Was randomly surfing the net when I read this. It’s so true.

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Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about eleven things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parent’s fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Loved that last, coming from Bill Gates especially!  Cool was king when I was a kid and it took me till I was 38 to get over that!

Hope you enjoyed as much as I did

At Bus Interchange

Yesterday, a blind uncle was approaching YCK bus interchange and asked which queue in-line was for bus 76.

I was at queue 72 which was just beside 76 and as I was the 1st person inline, I just walked out and direct the uncle to his queue. I helped him and make him the 1st person in his queue.

An Indian family was just beside him. I expect them to guide him or assist him, but they never said a word to the uncle. And the surrounding people seems like staring at me, as if I am an alien.

I was wondering if I never offered to help the blind man, will other people come out and help him? I just feel at the moment that if you are in need of help physically, not many Singaporeans will  stand up and help you. Most will have the mind-your-own-business mentality.

Well, I don’t know how to express my feelings in words. I have lots of thoughts but I can’t seem to write it down in words. Anyway, I just feel sad for the uncle. At least I have done my part. My bus arrived before his. So I am not sure how it goes for him. I hope he’s alright. God Bless.

I have a soft spot for blind people. Just like the 2 guys selling tissue papers at funan. One old guy and one young chap. They are the only people whom I buy tissues papers from. I just feel it’s a poor thing for them to unable to see.

That Guy Is Testing Me Again

Life has been pretty smooth for me in 2007.

But recently God decided to take notice of me again and giving me all kind of difficulties once more like he did previously.

Haha. Time to fight back and take up his challenge.

As always, I will survived.

Learn something new today

I realized I have not been blogging for some time and ap reminded me too. Haaa~

Well, today I learnt something new. I finally know how to DIY a computer. Tried hands-on while working. They need to assemble don’t-know-how-many-sets of PC for a particular school.  So I take the chance to learn while they do the DIY. At first I just use “eye-power”, observed the steps silently and see how it’s done.

Then Ricky (my manager) ask me whether I wanna give it a try. Of course I said yes. He taught me and I tried to assemble it myself later on. But due to crowds, I can’t finish up my own PC in one shot. I had to serve the customers and while I was doing my sales, another guy finish up the PC for me.

Ok… I know I am in the IT industry. But I can’t DIY a PC until today. I know many guys out there know how they do it donkey years ago and may think it’s simple. But I don’t care! Better late than never! Ha! I can’t say I can confidently assemble a PC right now on my own… but I roughly know 80% already. The rest of 20% is the “wiring” part and they are a bit confusing, but it’s ok, it can be figured out eventually.

I  am wondering how many guys in MSE can DIY their own PCs? Am I the only one who doesn’t  know till today? Hehe.