Don't Stop Creating

The Six Rockstars, Sg. Pisang Waterfall, April 2016. 

The Notebook

I would say, I have always been a maker for all I’ve remembered. I love notebooks, which girl doesn’t? But at 12, instead of buying the same ol boring factory produced ones, I tailor-made notebooks using card boards as the covers, wrapped with cut-out magazine ads of Givenchy, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermes or Louis Vuitton. Fill them with green A4 papers (because we had tons of them at home from my mom’s Early Learning Centre – a Montessori kinder-garden she run!) folded into two making it an A5 size. Punched two holes at the sides and tied them intact with hot-pink ribbons. I’d gave them away to my closest friends with a personalised love notes on the first page.

At 17, I volunteered for Global Peace Mission and raised funds for the Palestinians by selling these notebooks and celebration cards which was also DIY-ed.

Tim Burton Wannabe

At 14, influenced most by Utopia, Gempakstarz and manga, I started to imagine and make-up stories for a dialogue-based short story on my own and sold them to my tuition mates. Yes, it was only dialogue based as I am not a gifted artist to draw. Although I asked my mom to register me for a drawing class, it went to waste as I couldn’t settle with the teacher. As much as I wanted to be this kid who could just persevere even if I couldn’t settle with the surrounding people, I just couldn’t. Being a total people-person, I am very particular of a person’s personality and if I couldn’t feel how that person’s personality is benefiting me (or how I could benefit them for that matter), I would usually just leave.

I have this, “it should be like this” habit which is annoying I know and I apologise to my family and close friends for having to bear this annoyance. But with having to narrate a story on my own, I was able to create a story just ‘like how it should be’ and I loved every bit of this job!

Asian Mary Berry

Hah, not even close! But, I love the fact how passion really drives people and at 81 this legendary baker is still giving an impact to the world of baking and cooking! I loved baking (note the use of ‘d’ – because to be honest, I really don’t know now).

I started baking since I was 11 inspired by the children playbook I found in my dad’s library. My family was undergoing a horrible financial crisis that time but when I told my mom I wanted to bake the lemon cookies with orange icing, she brought me the ingredients nonetheless. Hey, I was too young to be able to understand my parents’ struggles that time. But it was true for whatever good you invested in, it becomes an asset. So I continued baking, mostly making cookies but at one point in life I thought about how great it would be if other people could also taste my bakes.

At 20, I started my own baking business which I named Magnifique Bonbons. It was also an initiative to raise funds for the Cambodia Humanitarian Mission I directed under my college. I would say that it was a success for me. Although looking back at it, I realised how very little I knew about baking but my guts were bigger than my fear. So I proceeded and learned a long the way.

The not-so Gisele Bundchen

I partnered up with my friend who had a clothing line business and became her model. We agreed for every piece of bakes I sold, the buyer gets a 5% off her clothes which was donated into my Supercake for the Cambodians fundraising project.

Business-Class Couple

When I continued my studies in the UK, I had a major identity crisis which I didn’t even know I had – I stopped doing most of the things that I used to do back in Malaysia (not because I wanted to but because I was a little bit culturally shock). So I searched for comforts in new things especially travelling. I could have gone to Egypt alone for internship when the Morsi riot was ongoing. Which my uncle would have been proud of, if I fell as a martyr there. And I could have succeeded my childhood dream of seeing what Africa is really like. But, ‘thanks’ to my husband – my boyfriend then for brainwashing me to believe that I did not have to go to such places alone (he promised we’d go there together one day. So yes, we’re working on that).

While I was having a break from my entrepreneurial ventures, my husband was not. He was forever persuading me that I could sell my Nasi Lemak (because he knew I wouldn’t wanna bake anymore). Oh my god I tell you, he’s an amazing persuader. Don’t know how he does it. It’s not at all desperate. It’s a sharp convincing message in all the calmness.

And so we did sell Nasi Lemak during the Sidney Grove backyard sale, and how the Brits loved the sweet chicken rendang! We even knocked door-to-door and offered our Pakistan neighbour Nasi Lemak with sweet chicken rendang for free.

“It’s a Malaysian spice,” said us.

“It’s okay, we have our own spices,” replied the mam. And when she shut her door, we both instantly looked at each other puzzled, and burst out laughing. Hahahahahahahaha! Couldn’t help that, sorry!

Then, my husband did it again during Ramadan last year when he convinced me we could sell Roti Johns. I despised the idea because cooking is god, tiring. I didn’t wanna do it. But, determined into bringing out and nurturing my entrepreneurial self again, he added “Imagine how great it is to give people amazing food to eat, we could distribute them to the homeless in town and we could get all creative about it too!”. Aaaaaaaaaaah, and we supplied about a hundred Roti Johns during Ramadan.

The Next Steve, Richard & Elon

Now fired to change the world just like how these three entrepreneurs did it, we are hoping to get entrepreneurial again. But, don’t wanna say anything about it not wanting to jinx it! Researching and developing sure take time. We’ll see how it turns out. And one thing for sho, thank God I never really got tired of writing! Alhamdulillah…

Everyday, there are many futures fighting for your attention. But, it’s the one you pay most attention to that happens.

So, what’s your entrepreneurial story?

Fresh Graduates vs. Retirees

Newcastle University, Class of 2015, June 2015.

As my friends and I (the fresh graduates) are finding the perfect jobs for ourselves, so do our parents who recently retired. And I found a few similarities between us,

Which we: 

1. Think a lot about what to do in order to continue sustaining our lives. 
2. Jump into one profession to the other in search of a job that fits our soul. 
3. Have time to think about so many things and developing ideas but to execute them is another story. 
4. Talk a lot about doing business but mostly do not have the experience in handling a business. Because the retirees are from govt/private/NGO sectors and the graduates are from universities learning theoretical knowledge. 
5. Staying at home doing house chores and running household errands while regretting a few things that we could have made right – like; 

• increasing our savings while we earn and get allowances for future use. 
• investing in our self worth by doing the things that we enjoy so we progressively improve and be a master in a few things. (To do the things that we love, we need to pay for it, so that’s what I mean by investing in self-improvement). 
• buy quality things such as a Chanel handbag, Calvin Klein jeans, Dolce & Gabbana dresses, Cuisinart kitchen essentials – basically all things that last a lifetime – while we earn. This, I regret a lot! Cry cry cry! 
• make lots of friends and maintain the network as I tell you, networking is too important. Because life is a business itself, everybody has something to sell and everyone buys from someone else. Means everyone has something to offer which you might need later. So, maintain your networking! 
• listening to lots of other opinions and feeling limited to limiting opinions (everyone has something to say and honestly, opinions is one of the cheapest thing that people can give). And at the end of the day, its not people who will pursue our dreams, its ourselves. 
• use all the KWSP/EPF money for house renovation, travel the world, start a business that we have no experience in without a successful mentor guiding, buy a new car or throw a lavish wedding party for the children. And three years after that, more than half of the EPF money has been used and only some is left is to be used for the next 10-20 years. So please leave half of your retirement fund capital in the investment portfolio, let it continue growing for you and take only the dividend before you’ll regret it later. 
• not diversifying our wealth by investing in stock market, unit trusts, promising business or property. Have no insurance for medical coverage that when we fall sick, we need to use our savings to finance our medication instead of benefiting from the insurance’s company coverage. 
• not managing our wealth well – we have lands and properties. But we don’t manage it to become our income but instead, the assets become a liability to us. So, manage your assets well that you can earn from them soon after you bought them. 
• not starting to work on our dreams soon enough that when we realise it, we feel that its too late. 

Two things that I can say are,

Prepare monetarily for your future

And,

Give up on the things (and people) that don’t serve you anymore to give space for what does

Nothing is ever too late. May Allah grant us the best path for our own unique life story. Amen.