The Blog
Writing
Startups, tech, faith, games, and life in Southeast Asia. Written in public since 2010.
2020
- Sep 11 Anti Fragile - Local Edition In these tough times, I hear a lot of people talking about grit and resilience. That it's important to hang in there and tough it out. But I think it takes more than toughness to thrive in crisis. It takes being Anti-fragile.…
- Sep 8 Our one short life 'I love you guys' An unexpected message shot across my phone screen from a close friend. What sparked the random expression of a deep emotion, I wondered. 'A close relative just got cancer. Brain. Stage 4' My heart sank. Feelings of injustice…
- Sep 2 Sharpie When most of us talk about permanent markers, we rarely describe them as such. We simply call them Sharpies. There comes a point where your brand is synonymous with the action/group of things it represents. Google Bubblewrap Jetski Tupperware Post its Rollerblade…
- Aug 28 The misunderstood story of the Hare vs Tortoise We all know the classic story. Hare vs Tortoise. Slow and steady wins the race. But that's not what really happens here. The emphasis on slowness and steadiness camouflages the true lesson within: focus. I love how this video shows the hare…
- Aug 24 Knowing your season Competitive gamers know that winning a game requires us to understand the seasons and match our actions accordingly. In most games, it's as simple as the early, mid and late phases. Each of these phases would require a different playbook - a…
- Aug 21 Winning and patience We often believe that winning Requires us to take immediate action And a follow up with many steps We think by doing more The needle moves faster and further Until we hit the mark But perhaps sometimes Winning is simply waiting For…
- Aug 19 Why believing matters We dream bigger We act bolder We work harder We get out of bed easier We speak with more conviction We can't help but share with everyone We are more patient For the most important things in life, believing really matters. Because…
- Aug 18 2020 - it's not easy, but could it be the best? 2020 hasn't been easy We've been challenged to our limits Some of us have thrived While others have tilted But this is a needful season The air is getting cleaner The forests less ravaged Silly ideas for startups thrown away The return…
- Aug 17 Best ... ever The most glorious of days Often linger around the corner In the most unexpected ways You might just discover A happy happy day The best steak ever A wagyu 6+ at RM120 that happens to be the best steak ever? Love it…
- Aug 12 Getting Good is NOT an Accident A close friend and colleague(Greg) recently wrote about learning, and how most of us think that the act of consuming content makes us better each day(full post here - def check it out, it's great). TLDR; it doesn't. I've been a gamer…
- Aug 11 Popular wisdom is overrated Follow your passion rarely lasts. Never give up doesn’t apply to everything. You can be anything you want as long as you believe/work hard enough is simply false. The truth is Passion is a great starter, but success is what keeps us…
- Aug 10 Choosing Our best choices In dire circumstances Don’t come from absolute strength But rather a willingness to walk In spite of the absolute certainty Of the pain of failure Because of the joy and hope of success…
2011
- Dec 9 The Age Melbourne Magazine Top 100 Most Influential Creative Inspirational People – 2011 Couple of weeks ago, I unexpectedly received a phone call saying that I was selected to be on The Age Melbourne Magazine’s Top 100. According to Fairfax, “Now into its fifth year, the Top 100 celebrates the cities’ most influential people. From…
- Dec 8 Superman Saves the Day in Melbourne – Bucks Night Out So we had a pretty epic day on Saturday. We were all out celebrating a friend’s final week before enrolling into the school of marriage. Surfing in the morning and horseriding in the afternoon. Of course, to complete the ritual, we needed…
- Nov 28 M2e eBay Magento Integration – Token Expiration Issue For anyone experiencing issues with M2E’s Magento & Ebay integration, you need to replace a file which contains the token that M2E uses to connect to eBay’s API. The error that I am referring to is : Synchronize eBay items transactions/orders ...…
- Nov 24 5 Networking Lessons from a complete Networking Noob I struggle with ‘networking’, full stop. It’s an unnatural thing for me, and hopefully some people will empathise with me. But in my experience, there have been many wonderful moments where I simply get opportunities to meet truly amazing people. Some of…
- Oct 22 OZKitchenware – Our most exciting endeavour yet! Hi everyone! It’s been really eerily quiet here over the last couple of months as we wade through challenge after challenge in the business. I apologize for the lack of updates and will commit to posting more regularly! I think part of…
- Jun 21 Leaders: Remember to Ask then Listen It’s been a while since I blogged now, but I think I’d try to get into the habit of regularly posting again. I’d try to journal the things I’m learning on this journey on this blog as I go along. Watched a…
- Apr 11 Following the No Follow rule Linkbuilding – The rel=“nofollow” tag So this week we will be examining another key component of the link: the rel=“nofollow” tag. This tag was originally introduced in 2005 by Google by way of helping webmasters combat spammers. So how does it work?…
2010
- Dec 15 How to write Title Tags for Search Engines and Humans Search engines determine a website’s relevance to a search query according to on-page (internal factors) and off-site (external factors) signals. Today we will look at title tags, which are arguably one of the most important on-page factors to work on. They can…
- Dec 8 Why is SEO Important to Startup Businesses? So you’ve got your website set up or are thinking of launching it and you’ve heard of this thing called search engine optimisation (SEO). You’re wondering what exactly it is and how relevant it is to your business. You know traffic is…
- Nov 24 Google Live Twitter Feed Observations I just got home and decided to google my name. I know what you’re thinking but I tell myself its for SEO purposes! This is what I found: A live twitter feed from my twitter account on the SERPS for the search…
- Oct 8 Everything is good for something As a result of the conversation with T today, I realised that a lot of the stresses I’ve been holding in tension in this season of my life, do not justify the amount of attention that I have given them. Let me…
- Jul 10 BYM 2010 – Be Salty and Lighty So I had the privilege of being a part of the 100 selected for the Brightest Young Minds 2010(BYM 2010) Summit held at Sydney earlier this month. Folks have asked me, so how has the week been for you? In a short…
- Jul 10 Valleys – What do they accomplish? Warning: This post is a rant of the mind, without form or purpose, and best read with a pinch of salt. There are certain times in our lives where we feel we are caught in a valley. It’s usually characterized by the…
- Jun 15 The embrace of a Season Every now and then, we enter into a season of our life where certain memories, or feelings, or thoughts cause us to almost resent the very breathe that we draw, the very life that is the gift of the creator becomes a…
- May 31 My Secret Weapon – Teachability I was recently asked by a close friend, “What is it that you do that gives you the edge in business?”. As I paused momentarily to ponder the question, the answer jumped out at me with certainty. “I think it’s the fact…
- May 8 Life’s a journey. It’s better doing it together. So this is the very first post of this blog. It may stay it may not. The most important question behind any endeavour is the WHY question. It is what gives meaning to the project. It is what gives purpose to life.…