Latest Entry
Nov 28, 2008 Personal
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I’m not going to write too much today, and I don’t really want to make a list of people to thank, because I’ll probably miss out some of you.
But basically, I just want to say thank you, to all of you out there.
Thank you for giving me your attention and taking time to read what I have to say. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and interacting with me. Thank you for being so inspiring and for making this such an awesome journey.
So yeah. Thank you, for making the world - and my life - better.
Happy thanksgiving.
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Recent Entries
Nov 26, 2008 blogging
Mashable tells us about Wordpress Direct, which has apparently reached ten thousand users.
What do I think of this? I think it’s really sad - the number of people who don’t get it.
Yes, you can probably make a blog with decent content using a plugin like that (albeit by stealing it from others). And yes, you probably can earn money from it, because it’s optimized and all. And it doesn’t take that much work.
But in my opinion, in doing so, you miss the whole point of blogging. Blogging shouldn’t be about making money. Far from it. It shouldn’t even be about the content per se.
More than anything, in my opinion, blogging is about the community.
It’s about who you’re reaching, who you’re interacting with. It’s about the connections you make, and the people you can influence or inspire. It’s about connecting with like-minded, intelligent people and improving each other.
That’s the value of blogging, in my opinion. It’s about the people, the community.
Why do you blog?
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Nov 24, 2008 Events
Over the past week, I’ve been attending a lot of events, as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008 Singapore.
Thinking back on the week, though, one thing struck me. The session that I enjoyed the most, and gained the most out of, in my opinion, wasn’t the talks. It wasn’t listening to experts, etc. It was the networking session - just interacting with other people who are passionate about the subject.
At the end of it all, that’s what I think matters the most - the people. Not “experts” or concepts or anything. Yes, those are important. But what’s the most important is the people (to me, at least).
What matters the most to you?
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Nov 17, 2008 Announcements, Events
This Saturday, I’ll be hosting a breakfast at SpeedNetwork the Globe 2008, a part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week@Singapore.
I think SpeedNetwork the Globe seems to be a really interesting event, and I’m very excited to be able to be a part of it. It’s a whole day event taking place concurrently in Singapore, Stockholm and Silicon Valley. There will be speakers at each location, and there will be live video streams and online discussions taking place.
It’s essentially one event in 3 locations - and a true demonstration of how technology has broken down boundaries and made it easy to connect with anyone.
Sounds cool? I think it is. I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope to see you there. You can sign up here.
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Nov 14, 2008 Sports
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Everyone who watches any sport would have seen or heard stories about players who wanted to move to a new team/club. Players who didn’t want to be on their team anymore, and wanted to leave. This season, in soccer, it was Dimitar Berbatov.
Berbatov’s is actually a great example, because it really demonstrates my point. Before he was sold to Manchester United, he was a negative influence on the Tottenham team. He didn’t want to be there anymore, and it was clear for all to see. It was damaging for the atmosphere of the team, and ultimately very disruptive.
In the end, even though he was arguably one of their most gifted players, it was better to just let him go. Because forcing him to stay where he didn’t want to be would have been even worse - the discontent could spread more easily, it could cause problems with the atmosphere of the team.
And there’s a great lesson in there. More often than not, it’s not worth it to force people to do something they don’t want to do, even if you can. The effects of having discontented, unmotivated people could be worse than not having people at all. It’s better to have a small, focused, motivated group who love what they’re doing, as compared to a large, unmotivated group that doesn’t want to be there.
Forcing people to do what they don’t want to do doesn’t work anymore (if it ever did).
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Nov 12, 2008 education
Scott Ginsberg once again hits it out of the park with a great anecdote, culminating in a brilliant statement.
“I guess I didn’t realize you had to attend school to be a student,” I said.
Nothing much I need to add to it, I think.
What are you studying?
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Nov 11, 2008 Announcements, Personal, personal branding
I have the huge pleasure and honor of being featured in Today (a local mainstream newspaper). You can check out the article here (pdf).
Yes, I’ll admit, it feels really good to get featured. It’s a huge step forward for my personal brand, that’s for sure. But more than anything, it’s great to be able to share my thoughts, and get my message out to a whole new audience.
To those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now, thank you, you are why I love blogging, and why I keep doing this. And for those of you who are new here (maybe you came here because of the article), thanks for dropping by, and I hope you’ll find value here.
Oh, and one final thing. If I can do this, so can you. I’m nothing that special, I’m just a kid from Singapore.
It’s easier than ever to build your personal brand. What’s stopping you?
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