| Be Hungry, Be Very Hungry |
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 06 May 2008 16:26 | |
|
It"s been 8 years now since I"ve started my venture. For a while, I"m satisfied with what I"ve achieved. For friends who know me, they all know that I"m a simple person. I don"t have many material needs. I don"t aim to stay in a private condominium or drive a flashy car. Like any boys, I like and admire Ferrari but I never desired to drive one. I"m happy to stay in my humble HDB abode and take the public transport. Well, I did aim to become a millionaire by 30. The goal was more chosen as a marker rather than the million dollars. Anyway, I"m 36 now and I"m not even half-way there. :p I"ve no regrets. In fact, I"m happy. Yes, I"m struggling with the daily mess and firefighting but at least it is my own mess and not putting out fire of others. I get to make my own decisions and be my own boss. I"ve a rebellious streak and for friends and colleagues who have worked with me have seen the anti-establishment side of me. So I"m happy that I get to make my own decisions and plot my own future now. I"m not rich but I make enough to live comfortably within my humble lifestyle. No matter how much you make, if you spend more than you make, you"ll always be poor. So what if you make million dollars a year but you spend spend twice that amount? You are actually in the negative of a million dollars. If you make $3k a month and manage to save $1k a month. In one year, you would have saved $12k and be wealthier than the person who overspent his/her million dollar salary. However, with the recent inflation rate of 6.7% (CPI of March 2008) and ever increasing oil price, it caused me to think: by simply keeping my money in the bank and just making the same amount of money, I"m already losing money at a rate of 6.7% (economists, feel free to correct me if my layman understanding is not accurate). At this staggering rate of global price increases and inflation, I"ll soon find the amount I"m making is no longer sufficient. I shudder to think the university fees for my sons in about 15 years time. I think I need to make more money so that I can keep pace with the inflation. Recently, I attended the open house of my client"s office. It was a casual party and I had the opportunity to meet my client"s husband as they share the same office. He had started his company for about 3 years now and he already have a staff strength of 10 and is continuing to expand. Me, after 8 years, I only have a staff strength of 3 full-time and 2 part-time. I still don"t have an office, even though it was a conscious choice but I can"t help but think if I would have survived if I needed to pay office rental. For 3 years, I"m still in the same accounting mess (well, getting better each year) and many projects are not progressing. I feel that I"m running in circles and I"ve not been able to expand my company even though I need to but I just don"t think I"ve the resources to employ more. The revenue potential seemed to have reached a bottleneck. I feel stagnant. I"m stuck. My heart feels a dull ache when I read about successful entrepreneurs who have launched their IPO and have an army of staff. A few of them just took 10 years to reach that stage. I look back at myself and I only have 2 more years before I reach the 10 year mark. Can I reach the same level of success? I wonder. But I"m still comfortable at where I am. I can still get by because I don"t need and spend much. I"ve also realised my dream, the dream of being an entrepreneur. I"m so comfortable that I believe I"m taking things too slowly. I don"t have a sense of urgency (maybe I do but somehow it doesn"t feel urgent enough). However, deep down inside, I know my dream has so much more potential than I ever dream of. My dream can achieve so much more (not in terms of monetary) but to build the new features, I need more funds. I need to be hungry. I"ve tried the Zen approach where less is more. Maybe this approach is no longer sufficient. Maybe I should start aiming for that swanky apartment in district 9 and the fiery red Ferrari. Maybe I should aim for more stuff and not rest on my laurels. I"m going to be more aggressive from now on. I need to be hungry, very, very hungry. I want to feel inspired again. |