Projek Mencari Harapan

For the last couple of weeks i have been hearing or reading about people in desperation. They need some sort of lifeline so to speak. These people do not exist rightbefore us, but they have been hidden deep in the rural areas of Malaysia.

Some need money to pay for the food on the table, other need money to pay for tuition fee and few could use the money to fix the leaks at the rooftop abovr their heads.

I realize not many people are fortunate like myself or my family. We have good shelter and food to eat and some money to splurge. But when i think about this again, how could a 5000 sq foot house but only 2 people live in it, or how can someone earn fortune but still insist that he has not had enough? Amazing isnt it to see things through different perspective.

Anyway rhetoric wont solve anything. We need action. A real action, hence i want to launch this, Tabung Mencari Harapan in Kuala Krai, Kelantan. Let's aim to find sponsor RM1,020 for each student of 10 people so these students can pay their accrued tuition fee and room and board at Maahad Tahfiz over there.

Dont deny their right to have good education. Do not deprieve their need for better education just because their family cant afford them a better education. Help them to get out from poverty by giving them an access to good education. We can do this as a society of conscience. As a society of one.

I dont know how to do this alone but if the God wills it, insya allah we'll manage to find these generous sponsors. I do know that i also have many generous friends who care about other human being. I have proven it inthe Projek Tandas. Insya Allah this let's us all work together for this. Ameen.

Italian feast festival!

Hari ni aku buat sejarah sebab aku masak full fledge course. The theme for today is Italian food. So aku masak spaghetti aglio olio e pepperoncini, bruschetta, mushroom soup, and banana foster with vanilla ice cream.

Penat tu memang penat la buat food ni sendiri. All done by myself. But ada rasa kepuasan hati lepas tengok food almost habis dek penangan tekak-tekak lapar budak-budak ofis aku. Lepas tu datang pulak dah nak kena kemas pulak. Memang bangak kerja kena buat. Aku pulak tak makan seharian, sebab layankan orang datang.

Now baru ada masa nak berehat.

Hari hari terakhir sebagai bachelor

Hehehehe, betul ke ni? Taklah, saja je buat gempak. Sesekali berangan juga tentang apa rasanya jadi orang yang bakal diijabkabulkan.
Tadi aku ada terbaca tentang keluhan seorang suami bilamana dia dapat gaji di hujung bulan. Gaji $3,000 pun tak cukup bila hidup di KL ni. Agak seriau juga bila fikir-fikirkan bab ini.
Adakah mampu melayari bahtera rumahtangga dengan keadaan kewangan terbatas? Atau pun mampukah suami isteri cari titik kompromi, dan cari solusi untuk atasi masalah ini? Tepuk dada, tengoklah poket, kan?

Managing Expectations and Managing Human Beings

Nowadays there are no more solo entrepreneur. Now, more than ever, each individual relies to the power of crowd, or the masses, in order to produce either products or services that has high quality, robust and secured.

I am now understood the power behind the teamworks which can produce wonder, many times over if we compare with the output of single individual. Anyhow, comes to the next question - how do we manage the crowd? Especially if the crowd exists in your company? Even 3 is a crowd, what more if you have 10, 20 or 100 people in your organization?

Taking lessons from the Atlassian company, which grew from 2 men company to multinational company operates in few major continents right now, it is best to create culture to support the growth of working communuty within the company.

And the way i look at it is by redefining the culture as a set of expectation guided by founding principles for whom their properties are held true by the community members. It had to start from the founders. I believe in managing people to one goal, it has to start with the reason why the company starts its journey. If anyone lost this, or if anyone does not get the hang of this essence, then it is best to remove such person as soon as possible. We need to keep everyone's personal goal align with the company's goals so that the momentum can be focused and executed well.

When I started SimpanKira a few months ago, the aim is to make accounting easy to learn and fun to do even for those who do not posses accounting skill. The enjoyable experience of discovery in learning the accounting while doing the job has to be the utmost priority for the apps to be successful in the market. Then I realize that this reason alone is not enough to make a compelling argument for other co founders to join me and building this amazing apps. It also must have something that they always look up to.

So i made it clear to everybody that we do this and aim for USD 15 million valuation in the next 3 years. Have I ever achieved that valuation in my previous startup? No way Jose! But that number seems to be sexy for us. To sacrifice and to put the rest on hold so we can rally together for this reason. USD 15 million could mean anything to others, but to me it means I could establish my scholarship program for talented students who are coming from poor family. I have been keeping this dream since 2007. For once i want to do it at bigger scale so I can bring impact to other people's life.

Hence, in order to make everything works well in moving towards the same goal, I must express myself clearly in terms of expectation and have a clear vision for the company. For anyone who cannot take the heat or comply with the expectations, he or she must go and make space for others who are enthusiastic to achieve something greater beyond themselves.

Hey, life is too short for doing small things. Let's do something and amplify it to 1,000,000 times over. All this can be done if we manage the expectations well and sincerely to others in our organization.

My decision to leave

I believe in order to achieve greatness, one must be ready to sacrifice and strengthen his conviction to march forward. Only by burning the boat, he can do so much more. Only by taking more risk, he can have more options on the table.

Thus i decided to resign from my current position at my working place so i can take up more risk and put focus on where it should be. I believe only by doing this, I can aim higher and achieve more without having any chain shackling myself to do more.

Tentatively, I will submit my resignation by October 2014. That will give me 3 months time to plan for my exit and also to leave my workplace in better condition before i bid farewell to them.

Malaysia dan tragedi

Kali ini dah masuk 2 tragedi melanda Malaysia. Yang pertamanya bila Malaysia Airlines MAS MH370 hilang di Laut Hindi. Samada dirampas, dibom atau pun ditenggelamkan, itu semua menjadi tanda tanya bagi semua orang di dunia ini.

Dan kini datang lagi musibah menimpa MAS. Penerbangan MH17 ditembak di ruang udara Ukraine pada hari Khamis lepas dan mengorbankan 298 penumpang berserta anak kapalnya. Tiada yang mengaku bertanggungjawab atas kejadian ini. Tapi banyak bukti menunjukkan kumpulan pemisah yang pro Russia bertanggungjawab dalam menembak jatuh kapal terbang ini.

Jadi seluruh dunia berasa marah kepada Russia. Anehnya rakyat Msia pulak sibuk nak marahkan kerajaan dan pihak pengurusan MAS. ANEH tapi benar!

Aku rasa rakyat kita ni semakin tolol dan singkat akal disebabkan kurangnya common sense di kalangan kita. Patutnya yang dimaki adalah ketua kumpulan pemisah di sana. Sebab merekalah, kapal terbang milik Msia dijahanamkannya. Sebab merekahlah, 298 nyawa manusia yang tidak berdosa mati dengan sia-sia. Kalaulah aku ini PM Msia, dah tentu aku akan buat pakatan tentera sulit dengan kerajaan memerintah Ukraine dengan menghantarkan bantuan senjata dan medical kepada mereka supaya mereka berperang habis-habisan bunuh semua kumpulan pemisah pro Russia itu.

Aku juga akan buat pakatan dengan NATO untuk beri amaran kepada Russia supaya tidak masuk campur dalam urusan Malaysia membantu kerajaan Ukraine untuk hapuskan kumpulan pemisah ini.

Apa yang penting, maruah kedaulatan negara kita terpelihara, kematian rakyat kita dibela dan kematian rakyat kita dalam insiden ini tidak akan dilupakan.

Aku dan mama

Gambar dengan mama, tanda kenangan zaman aku di kolej. Sempat pulang untuk bercuti musim panas. Aku singgah untuk bertemu dengan mama. 4 tahun di kolej tapi baru kali ni aku dapat luangkan masa bersama mama dan keluarganya.

Tapi sekarang ni semua orang dah jadi dewasa. Mama juga beransur tua; menghampiri masa persaraaan optional. Mungkin kini aku patut luangkan lebih masa melawat mama. Berbual-bual dengannya. Paling tidak dapat dengar ngomelannya tentang cikgu-cikgu di sekolah tempat mama mengajar.

Insya allah. Tunggu ya mama, nanti ayed datang ke rumah jumpa mama. Rindu mama!

Berita gembira

I got good news from LinkedIn yesterday. Ada orang dalam MAVCAP mintak aku datang jumpa dia sebab dia berminat nak discuss on SimpanKira, as a VC. Interesting! Of course la aku haooy nak mampus sebab aku usaha cam nak mampus kot to make this happen, i mean the apps. My team works so hard to turn this into reality. So we all deserve to get pat on our back.

Tapi.......

Apa-apa pun kena tunggu Isnin depan. Tengok apa katanya.

Seminggu Lagi Untuk Ramadhan

Kira-kira 7 hari untuk Ramadhan bagi tahun 2014. Aku tak tahu tahun Hijjiriah, so petik tahun Masihi ajer lah kan.

Kejap betul masa berlalu. Tambah-tambah lagi bila dah masuk hampir pertengahan 30an. Perjalanan masa yang menakutkan dan kadang-kadang menyeronokkan.

Bercakap pasal Ramadhan, terfikir tentang ibadah puasa. Aku nak gunakan masa ni untuk jadi training ground bagi kesihatan aku. Now berat badan 89kg. Aku nak bawak turun ke 79kg. Insya Allah boleh. 

Jadual makan yang tetap, minum air kosong yang banyak and also rehat yang cukup.

Perlunya rehat penting bagi aku. Baik untuk otak aku and also motivation level aku.

Perlu mengejar misi Ramadhan ni dengan serius. Ameen.

Going fit for Real

Insya allah in one and a half week more, ramadhan will arrive. It is a good time to start training ground to inculcate a good habit. Or multiple good habits.

I plan to achieve 80 kg by end of Ramadhan. Now my weight is 89kg. It doesnt look good right?

That is why I want to lose weight. I want to be healthy again. I want to have a good night sleep. I dont want to die anytime sooner because of my weight.

So I demand myself to be strong at being disciplined, eat 5 times a day and eat less than required calories per day. 30 days challenge begins on Ramadhan 1st!

Keluhan Rahsia Hati

Aku rindukan salji, aku rindukan suasana dingin di musim luruh, aku rindukan cahaya matahari redup di kala musim luruh mula mendekati bandar.

Aku nak datang kembali ke bumi Amerika. 2015. Akan datang.

Bisik jiwa

Aku sekarang sedang berperang dengan perasaan sendiri.

Samada mengejar mimpi orang lain, atau berlari mengejar impian sendiri.

Takut. Risiko.

Tabahkan hati. Kuatkan hati, ya tuhan.

Kunjung Pulau Jawa

Kalau roboh kota Melaka,
Papan di Jawa kami dirikan,
Kalau sungguh bagai dikata,
Nyawa dan badan aku serahkan.

Aku sekarang berapa di Jakarta. Kota raya yang cukup besar menghuni jutaan manusia yang saban hari kerja keras. Semuanya untuk mengisi tembolok memasing.

Tujuannya di sini atas urusan perniagaan. Cuba cari jalan untuk memajukan perniagaan kami.

Aneh di sininya aku lihat cukup bantal peluang-peluang perniagaan tapi musykil kenapa peluang-peluang ini tak diraih oleh orang-orang tempatan. Hanya segelintir saja yang tegar menyambar peluang sana macam helang menyambar mangsanya.

Aku kira kunjungan aku di sini sebabnya jugak atas urusan personal. Cari talent bagi mengisi permintaan dan keperluan market IT di Malaysia.

Jadinya kunjungan ini bukan jadi yang pertama. Dan tentunya bukan jadi yang terakhir.