Don’t underestimate your impact

How many times did you give up to do something because you thought the stuffs that you’re doing were meaningless. How many times did you fail to put your 120% on something because you thought there’s only little impact and no one cares about it or nobody is gonna see it anyway. We all do things aiming to get recognized. If you’re in the business world, you probably know what I mean. When everyone around you is talking about ROIs all the time, your dedication and working attitude will be easily driven by what and how much you’re gonna get from doing it. If you feel like you’re not making anything out of it, you might choose not to do it. If you have no choice, you’ll probably gonna take it easy and just try to get it over without putting much efforts because there’s zero impact and you don’t see the point for working hard on it. However, if you realize this is an unmissable chance to show off because you can kinda expect something good is gonna come to your side once you nail it, or you find it your hard works will become something meaningful to someone you care, you’ll just basically do everything you can do and try to bring it.

I have to admit that I have been following this kind of mindset since working full time a year and half ago. I really think it’s not about how hard you work but how smart you work as I keep growing and building my own career. And what I meant by “smart” was to take it easy on something unimportant and wisely spend time and put effort on something more important.  I’m sure 99% of the people will agree of doing things smarter and I’ve never thought and seen if there was any problem with it until I got this text message from my colleague who went to a high school career talk with me this afternoon.

Dear (My colleague’s name):

Hello, I am a Form 5 student who studies in XXX school. Even though I am not Junior Form, I am so delightful to grab the opportunity of attending the seminar.

Thanks for your inspiring and uplifting sharing. I have learnt a lot through your story and experience. Actually, I have downloaded both Hong Kong Movie and TalkBox. Those are really useful in everyday life. Apart from that, I really admire your attitude toward your career path.

I am not studying ICT right now. I have chosen ECON and History as my electives. Yet, at least I can know more about the industry these years. In fact, there are full of opportunities and challenges, right?

You know? I am a physically disabled student. However, up to now I don’t give up my dream. Once again, thanks for such impressive lesson.

Humbly Yours,
Simon

This message was originally sent by one of the students. He sent this message to my colleague through Facebook and showed his special thanks to us. It’s just so blessed our present did leave an impression for the younger generation. But at the same time, I started to feel so embarrassed after seeing his message over and over again. I’m embarrassed because I can feel the real appreciation from the student. He shows his respect to us by sending in a thank you note like this. He would have to remember our names, probably googled our names, and eventually found us on Facebook. He’s brave enough to send us a message from nowhere. We, as someone who came from a so-called “professional” background, were complaining the school arrangement while we’re on the way. We’re feeling like such a waste of time doing this because we thought those kids were too young to learn about career and they’re not interested in anything we said. So here was the deal, we got the job done asap, students could get off on time and everyone’s happy. We didn’t even made a few new slides for the students but just re-used what we’ve been using for our clients.

I really want to take this opportunity to apologize to all the students I met today. We’re not working hard enough this time because we thought it’s not worth it. But right now, I need to confess. It’s such a big pleasure to be there with you guys today and shared our experiences and passion with talented younger generation. Simon, thanks so much for reaching out. You really did make me think and reflect a lot on this one. I truly appreciate your kind words and I know that you won’t underestimate yourself and let yourself down because you’ve taught me how the “little” impact can be much more bigger than what people can imagine. Please keep fighting for your dream and I promise I will do the same from now on.

Photo credit: PosAbility

7 reasons you should work for a startup before starting your own

You want to start your own business, don’t you? It is cool and attractive especially for those who are into the startup culture and working lifestyle. You get to 1000% focus on your own product and can really feel the impact of how your product or service changes people’s lives. Those are true and positive.You can even think of many other good things about starting your own thing without knowing much about startup. And the reality is starting a business can be much more complicated than you think. When I say “complicated”, I really mean to drill things into tiny details that can ruin your startup dream. Even though I can’t put a price on the value of the experience I’ve gained, I’d like to share my reasons why I think everyone should consider working at a startup before setting out to start a company of their own.

1. Built the network
Working for a startup gives you a great chance to build up your personal network. You get to work with different people such as your teammates, partners, investors or even your customers. These people are important especially when you start your own business later. They can be your potential co-founder, potential investor or other people via their networks can be part of your startup in the future.

2. Build your name
In the startup world, your reputation is incredibly important. It will dictate who you can recruit for your team, who will be willing to be your advisors and investors and what doors your network may open. A reputation is not build overnight and so building your reputation can be easier while working at a startup through representing a product and interacting with thousands of people via different social media platforms. There are few things more powerful than members of your team and especially the founders attesting to your work ethic and character.

3. Learn the industry
You have the passion and skills (or even $$) to start your own business  but it doesn’t mean you understand the industry and market situation. Understanding some basics of the industry and market is crucial because it gives you a more complete picture on what to expect in the future. By working for a startup, you get to learn more about the industry by meeting different people within or outside the company. You get to join the local startup community and meet with different startup founders and hackers. You get to experience the market reaction and learn how to response. You also get to know about the local labor market in your industry by interviewing different candidates or speaking at school career talk. All these are valuable for you and give you a bigger picture on what you need to expect and experience in your own startup.

4. Play the VC game
I am sure this is the game that almost every founder needs to learn how to play. How to to do a VC pitch? How to write a investment proposal? How and which VC should I choose? Should I raise VC money now? You have no way to learn these things without actually experiencing in a real business environment. You may be able to experience and learn how to get in touch and deal with the investors by working for a startup. Even though sometimes the VC game doesn’t go so well, you still learn the lesson and will be able to apply them in your game.

5. See how a team operates
You might think that team dynamics would be easy. You might have done a lot of class projects and been in many groups before, during and after college. How hard could it be to operate and grow a team? In fact, it’s very hard. I’ve seen how team dynamics can change dramatically and how many curveballs life sends you; our team has celebrated life and faced death, which you’re really not prepared for until you experience it.

6. Learn to be CEO
One of the best thing about working for startup is that you get to well connected with the management team (I wrote another post on “6 reasons why I work for startup“). With less (or zero) levels of bureaucracy, everyone is closer to one another. You get to experience how your CEO leads you and the rest of the team towards the team direction. You get to see how a CEO interacts and motivates you and other team members. You also get to feel the pain your CEO has to deal with on daily basis.

7. See if this is really your thing
In the end, startups need a lot more employees than they need founders. There is nothing wrong with just loving working at startups versus actually founding a company. It’s an incredible amount of work to get a startup off the ground, gain traction, build a team, lead your team and deal with all the fires of a growing startup. The hours are long, and the expectations are high. Working for a startup can give you some clues about running a startup and most importantly allows you to stop and think whether if this is something that you are looking for.

Even though the startup experience can’t guarantee you for any future success, it definitely puts you to in the game and helps you to better expect what things are likely going to happen while starting your own.

Have you worked for a startup before you starting your own? Do you find the startup experience helpful for creating your own startup? What benefits do you see?

Photo credit: nextgenstn

6 reasons why I work for a startup

After graduating last year in August, I landed my first, real full time job at TalkBox, the small tech startup in Hong Kong. When I say “small tech startup in Hong Kong”, people commonly will criticize/wonder right away and ask:

1) Is there tech startup in town?

2) Why don’t you work for HSBC or Morgan Stanley?

3) OK. If you like tech, why not Microsoft or Google?

Before you want to punch me in the face, let me share how insanely lucky I am. I got the job the old-fashioned way by sending in my résumé via email, and I made one good decision: I chose to apply to a small, startup.

1) More influence

With a smaller team, each person at a startup has more say. You should have more opportunity to voice your opinion and influence key decisions. And you want that, right?

2) More ownership

You might not be the founder, but you’re darn close. A sense of ownership, is a wonderful thing; they’ll give you one more reason to work better and harder.

3) More learning

Startup environments are tough courses in business and life. You may struggle and face a lots of HOWs and WHYs and no one will really tell you what to do, but YOU will be the one to think, evaluate and execute. You’ll learn more in 6 months at a startup than you will in 4 years at university…

4) More connectivity

With less (or zero) levels of bureaucracy, everyone is closer to one another. You should be well connected to your CEO as well as the international end users, vendors, VCs, friends, etc. that surround the startup.

5) More emotion

Working at a startup isn’t a constant high. Far from it. But it is intense, and the emotional charge you’ll get on a regular basis is a worthwhile learning experience.

6) More fun

The working environment, the atmosphere and the people are just way too much fun. Don’t think you can take a funny picture like this during office hour @HSBC HK

Don’t think you can do exercise in the office @Morgan Stanley..um or even have time to exercise if you are in the investment banking industry..booo

Are you working for startup? Are you ready to “start-it-up”? Leave me a comment and share your experience.

[photo credit: mortimer]