Mother's Day Home Trip - Part 1

I went back to my hometown last Saturday and returned lastnight. It was a last-minute arrangement. I felt I could tap on the Vesak replacement holiday on Monday and spend extended time with my family. Overall, the trip was good though it was a little too long. I was getting very bored on the last day and could not wait to come back to Singapore!

My bus ride on Saturday was terrible. It took me 9 hours. This is how - 6 hours from SIN to Klang, 2 hours stuck at Klang area, 1 hour from Klang to Banting. They changed the long-distance bus interchange to a new location at 中路. I've got to take a cab to go to old bus interchange to take another bus. It is so convenient! According to my cab driver, many people protested and are still protesting about the authority's move. Furthermore, the traffic congestion and road/bridge condition is very messy now. They are still constructing a new bridge to smoothen the traffic flow and it will not be finished soon. I decided not to take bus ride anymore in future.

I met a couple of old secondary school friends who live in Klang. One of my friends is very established in his career and life now. He started his own business in the U.S five years ago and is expanding his enterprise across the globe especially the European continent and the Middle East. He is hiring 7 persons to work in his office in Klang. One and a half year ago, he only hired 2 persons. He has a business partner in the U.S. who is in-charged of the operation there. They can execute their businesses and operations around the clock. Their customer orders keep coming in from all over the world and they hired Fedex to ship their goods everyday in contract agreement. The growth potential seems to be huge and unstoppable now.

My friend also mentioned about the hardship he went through in the first 2 ~ 3 years. After his graduation at Kansas University, he worked for other people and designed website for them. He learned the business model his employer used, got to meet clients and grasped the opportunity to run his own from there. Besides his career, he also acquired one shop house for his warehouse and office, one 2 and 1/2 storey house at Bukit Tinggi and two cars. His achievement really caught the attention of my other friends who do not meet him for longer time. They are amazed and wondered how this guy did it.

It took some times for my mind to accept this 'changed' friend. Upon further reflection, I realized it is not so much about his great ability that he achieved so many successes. It is the environment (the U.S) he lived in that made him so enterpreneurer. The environment encourages people to take risk and being open-minded. It is about grasping opportunity whenever or wherever it arises. I guess it is about living our life fully as if there may be no tomorrow. If we view life this way, we will wipe off all our unwanted worries and prepared to take on opportunities.