*Update: I read it again and what i wrote feels incomplete. I've left out the outdoor adventures, culinary interests, photography, family, friends, volunteer experiences, etc. And they mean a lot too. I just don't know how I should fit them in. Suggestions?
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At a Stanford commencement ceremony, Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple & Pixar Animations) said something like "Stay hungry. Stay foolish. You've got to find what you love." He also spoke about "connecting the dots".
And "connecting the dots" is exactly what I'm going through now, at least I think I am. I'm pretty sure many of my peers are too. I'm trying to figure out what I truly love, and what I truly want to do in this lifetime. They're all entirely ambiguous right now and it's almost driving me kukubananas.
What do you love?At several interviews now, I've repeatedly been asked this question, "Why business? Why entrepreneurship?"
And the usual response goes to the tune of "the food business is in my blood" or "I started packing milo when I was 11" accompanied by gestures of scooping like how I used to from the 500kg poly bags. (They were amazingly huge and I remember getting "gelled" brows whenever I walked out of the clean room.)
It is usually followed by how I actually got influenced, and interested, along the way whenever I went to grandpa's warehouse for whatever reason - it could have been to "steal" huge tubes of frutips and packets of milo nuggets, to help with the factory's production or other menial tasks like repacking cartons of whatever or just to hang around WAALI-ing (walking around and looking important).
No doubt 7am to 11pm shifts were hectic and draining, but it was actually fun. I liked going to work. (If only I feel the same way now!)
Then when I was in secondary school, I remember sharing in class how I want to run a chain of mobile
ahpek ice-cream stalls because I figured the existing generation would probably get old and see no succession. In retrospect, even though the mobile
ahpek ice-cream
towkays still remain rather present (lousy foresight?), it somewhat reiterates how "the food business is in my blood."
I usually go on to tell the interviewers about how Ngee Ann's business course has further fueled my passion in marketing and entrepreneurship with its myriad opportunities for us to brainstorm innovative business ideas and actually going through the motion of drafting plans for them. (Since NP has been slightly generous, I figured it was only nice I reciprocate.) And it usually stops there. Has it really? To a certain extent, I guess it has. But there's only so much NP could have done and it probably was a catalyst to that something that was already going on in me (I think) - it tipped that business interest.
Today, I see myself reading business books, marketing blogs, and financial magazines. I'm constantly hungry to learn more and know more. Nonetheless, like all lazy teenagers (hurhur i'm still nineteen) I hit the trough occassionally, step back, and ask myself... "Should I be out there playing, not caring 'bout anything at all?"
And May Day has somewhat been like that. I slept in, ate, watched tv, read blogs and did mindless stuff, went out to take some photos, had dinner, more tv and now, reflecting. Perhaps it's a necessary balancing act?
I also usually share with the interviewers how I was inspired in China. It hit me how much value our boss was creating. He was creating jobs for the villagers, exposing the locals to a foreign enterprise and Indonesian architecture, generating business for everyone in the vicinity, educating them and what not. Though the business was not the most profitable, it was almost a success with what it had achieved. Of course there are the social (hell, gambling, smoking, drinking is ingrained in them anyway) and environmental detriments that might come along, but he was managing that well through education and conservation practices. There's no doubt as to why he's a well-respected figure in the village.
Now that I'm out in the menacing corporate world where politicking is staple, I really wonder how long I can stay on. I'm hardly enjoying my work, I feel no passion and I feel guilt (toward my employer) since I can hardly excel with such negative vibes thriving in me. I also have trouble appreciating the after-work drinks, crude talk and superficial corporate events. It never fails to boil down to the same old thought that I harboured during my internships in Taiwan and China, "I can't work for others!"
I almost know that I want to be an entrepreneur, but there's always the big ol' nagging question, "Have I got what it takes?"
Having said all that, would you now help me connect the dots, please?
And again, what do
you love?
P.S. Please look beyond the skewed article and help me with connecting the dots please!
P.P.S. DEOW! Here's your veh long entry..
P.P.S. Blog about your "connecting the dots" journey too and share it!
