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Don’t listen to your customers all the time…

Posted on: December 27th, 2011 - No Comments

“Instead, part of every entrepreneur’s job is to invent the future. I also call it “kicking your own ass.” Someone is out there looking to put you out of business. Someone is out there who thinks they have a better idea than you have. A better solution than you have. A better or more efficient product than you have. If there is someone out there who can “kick your ass” by doing it better, it’s part of your job as the owner of the company to stay ahead of them and “kick your own ass” before someone else does.

Your customers can tell you the things that are broken and how they want to be made happy. Listen to them. Make them happy. But don’t rely on them to create the future road map for your product or service. That’s your job.”

-Mark Cuban
Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222501?cm_mmc=Market-_-Outbrain-_-NA-_-NA

Eat right

Posted on: December 1st, 2011 - No Comments

My hero

Posted on: December 1st, 2011 - No Comments

I am ashamed to have voted Yes on california prop 8 back in 2008. I shall redeem myself on any future ballot.

Zach Wahls is fucking awesome.

Vacation, Day 2

Posted on: October 29th, 2011 - No Comments

Today, I woke up after a few hours of sleep and headed straight to a Dim Sum brunch. It might’ve been a bit rude taking picture of food while people were eating, so I just grabbed a few shots before all the food came. Dim Sum in China has pretty much done away with all the carts. This way they can keep the food prices down since labor rates are going up. You just order now and they bring everything to you in timed spurts.


After reaching epic measurements of food coma, we visited a relative and then went to check out my cousin’s new place.

On the way there, I took a couple snaps of what certain areas look like. Despite modernization in many ways, if you dropped a person here from America, they might be surprised at what they see.

It is pretty insane to see the amount of high-rise buildings everywhere here in Guangzhou. Shanghai is even crazier.

Cool Honda Fit parked outside of my cousin’s place.

Buildings in China are very misleading on the outside because many of them look incredibly old, however they can be entirely modernized on the inside. Space is really limited though, so people get clever with the architecture and layout of each house.

Here’s a picture of my cousin with the female relatives that showed up.

And her, with me.

20th floor. House prices are at an all time high here, and combined with an increased value of the Yuan, you can say that outright buying a house is getting expensive. The 4 houses that my parents bought a few years ago have already doubled up.

After that, my mom and I headed to my grandma’s place and went out to get a haircut. I had my hair royally fucked up by the same person who royally fucked it up the last time I was here. My cantonese is fucking terrible so it’s partially my fault for trying to explain a fauxhawk, but shit, he basically cut what he thought was the best look for my head and then proceeded to be offended when I asked him to cut certain portions shorter. In any case, the general service of this place is pretty top notch. They wash your hair and massage your head before the cut and then wash your hair again afterwards. One thing that American barbers aren’t conscious enough about is trying not to get hair all over your shirt and shoes. To me, the whole process makes absolutely no sense… You shower and get ready before going to get a haircut so they won’t think you have smelly hair or have the hygiene of a bum, but then you have to head home to shower and change clothes AGAIN after the cut.

Here’s my ultra fob cut.

In the evening, my mom and I headed to dinner with my aunt (dad’s side) and 2 cousins. One of them is around 40 years old now and the younger one is 35. I actually only have 4 cousins, and all of them are female. Compared to these 2, I’m still a kid but they’re cool as fuck. The older one moved to Toronto to open up an afterschool program teaching young kids various skills relating to art, design, and fashion. The younger one teaches design at a nearby college.

Before I left, I fully expected to gain 10lbs on this 3 week trip because what we eat here is pure gluttony. Literally every meal we have fresh seafood, chicken, pork, beef, 3-5 vegetable dishes, noodles cooked in every way imaginable, and some bomb soup. After a day, all you want is some bread and water. The ironic thing is that my mindset going into the meal is, “ugh, not this stuff again” but when you see the food, it is impossible to resist and I end up eating myself into oblivion.

I spent a bit of time showing them what I do now and they were impressed. Everyone is impressed when I get a chance to explain. My entire family in China is supportive of whatever the hell I feel like doing.


Wedding tomorrow. Kinda scared what responsibilities they’re going to give me.

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Vacation, Day 1

Posted on: October 28th, 2011 - No Comments

10/27/2011

Day 1: I should be excited. I have been anticipating this day for nearly half a year. And in fact, I have been needing this vacation for years just to clear my mind. Something just wasn’t right in my life. Truth be told, I have been mired in a long slump ever since my high school days when all I ever wanted to do was build websites and make money.

I can’t really describe this feeling. It is like living a blurred life which is mildly entertaining at times, but mostly underwhelming. I don’t feel like my mind is at 100% awareness no matter what I do. Beginning with that very first summer after high school, I have been trying to “find myself” – and forgive me writing such a cliche statement, but it’s true.

On this vacation, I had planned to visit four countries, where hopefully I could further open up my eyes to what other places/people had to offer.

And yet… I’m torn. At this very moment, I am sitting in the very last row of an Airbus plane aboard a China Eastern flight. I have a window seat, so it’s not as bad as it could be. But my god, I can’t help but compare this to being in a jail holding cell… except worse.

That’s not the reason why I feel torn. I just watched the film called The Social Network which is based on Facebook’s earnest beginnings. When the topic of monetization came up, it was stated that ads would kill the immense momentum of growth, and this is entirely true. When you have a free product or service, whether it is great or not, people will come. The great thing about Facebook at the time was that it was somewhat exclusive and considered VERY COOL. I strongly believe that greed and spam killed off MySpace. There were too many ways to exploit the site for traffic or money. Bands that nobody cared about were able to add millions of friends using bots and then spam bulletins. Facebook at the time had zero advertising, and it wasn’t until mass expansion was it even taken into consideration.

This is where I feel that the WheelFlip marketplace is headed, just on a much larger scale. I feel that we have something very cool on our hands. Even though it is a year and a half in the making, it’s still a fresh idea in an untapped market. Here, we have a first rate service that we are initially giving away for free. I believe that the longer monetization is held off, the more potential for the site to grow. Ads and fees turn people off. When the time comes, I will try to incorporate the most non-intrusive ways to make money off the site, just like what Facebook has done. There is no other web-app in the automotive industry that utilizes modern web programming practices

This is all related because I finally feel like I have a real career direction and that this break feels like poor timing. I no longer feel like life is flying by. I can smell the success, and I don’t even mean financially. Success, as I’ve been taught and now believe, is being able to wake up and do things that you are passionate about. Even if it means sacrificing, which I am right now. I am literally making enough to pay for rent, food, and gas, but it’s all gravy because the profits stay within the company. The money will come, I have never worried about that.

Despite the time away from my company and my newfound motivation, I still look forward to what is in store for me in the next month. I get to watch one of my cousins (I only have four – all girls) get married, visit family and relatives, and then travel to Bali to hang out with another cousin.

Currently, I am about 11 hours into my 13 hour flight to Shanghai. We have a 4 hour layover, and then it will be another ~ 3 hours to Guangzhou. FML… 24 hours of travel time. I feel like my leg muscles are dying, the people around me are obnoxious, and I cannot sleep in a 45 degree sitting position.

Tell you what though, I can’t wait for that first meal my grandma cooks for me.

Update: Finally, after 24 hours of travel, I’m at my uncle’s house in Guangzhou. We had a 4 hour layover in Shanghai which was miserable. Tomorrow is going to be a pretty hectic day.

This picture was taken while flying above Fukuoka, Japan. Oh how I wish I could have landed there for a day.

First purchase, a Cestbon bottle of water.

At Pudong Airport, Shanghai.

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