I was blessed with a complimentary ticket to Anthony Robbins, and I turned it down. Gave it to my hubby who was jumping up & down with joy. I mean, c’mon, this is Anthony Robbins, the man with 30 over years experience in meddling with people’s brain, and successfully done so!  (lol)

Was caught up with getting my website off the ground that I figure out I just couldn’t spare the time. Plus I thought I was already ok, and the need for a seminar is not urgent.

Well, true & false.

True- I am ok (Sheesh, after attending series & series of seminars this 2 years & mingling with like minded people, I better be)

False- There’s always time, and there’s always room for improvement. So, end of the day, instead of one, I was blessed with two tickets! Thus, a decision was made in a split second for both of us to go.

Hmm…so how should I share this? Truth is, it can’t be shared, it has to be experienced. A live concert is different from listening to Ipod, eh.

But, here’s bits & pieces of it…

The program is not about changing yourself, but rather about becoming yourself. I was once again transformed to a better version of myself.

This time round, I worked on conquering the 2 prisons that had trapped me-

1. My anger (phwoar!) Those who’s close to me will know (or got torched)

2. My health & energy

Stuff that just drained my energy, depriving me of living life to the fullest, working on my business, well, basically, crap.

Tony Robbins technique focused on rewiring the programming we had, the self limiting beliefs, and replacing it with new ones. Ya, a bit hocus pocus you might say? Well, he has worked with 1000 over suicidal case, and have not failed one. People with 15 years of smoking addiction quit within minutes…

Ahh!! I’ll spare the boring details, coz really, it has got to be experienced.

All in all, I had a blast! I haven’t heard so many F words in a seminar, a word that is close to my heart, lol.

I did the Firewalk after all. Yes, yes, walk on hot burning coals. Though I know it’s just a metaphor for a break thru, which I told myself I don’t really need it. But, they said, do it for a great bar story anyway. Well, that GOT me. And I DID IT! YES!!…and got blisters to show off now. Ahahahaha…

On Sunday night, we partied with water pistols & thumping music, I danced like mad (suspense eh, what the f*ck has this gotta do with a seminar?). And I couldn’t remember the last time I got so high sans alcohol. Now, I understand what’s a natural high, couldn’t stop laughing.

There were tears, there were heartaches, there were tears of joy, there were peace like I’ve never experienced before, there were new friendship born, and there are lifelong lessons that I will continue to apply & learn from this 4 days event.

So, if this is what a ‘motivational’ seminar is about, count me in. Count me in anytime.

“There is always room in your life for thinking bigger, pushing limits and imagining the impossible.”- Tony Robbins

Sometimes, the journey of entrepreneurship is lonely, ya know. It’s you & the world, and you don’t get to bitch with co-workers how the boss sucks, and everything sucks. (Coz the boss is me, ahahahahah)

This is on my notice board right in front of me. Sort of like my bible whenever I got lost.

1.Dream big

2.Do what you love to do

3.Commit to excellence- be the top 10% in your biz

4.Develop unique ability

5.Accept responsibility

6.Develop a clear sense of direction

7.Refuse to consider possibility of failure

8.Solutions oriented

9.Develop workaholic mentality-work very hard at the beginning of your biz

10.Get around the right positive people

11.Be prepared to go from peak to peak

12.Develop resilience and bounce back-how long does it take for you to get back to normal? (Mel’s note: That’s me NOW)

13.Focus questions- ask yourself brutal questions

14.Become unshakable optimist-think/talk abt your goals all the time. Look 4 the good in evry situation

15.Dedicate yourself to serving others

16.Develop reputation for speed & dependability-which activity contributes the most to your biz?

17.Be very honest with yourself- what’s the situation honestly? Don’t self disillusion

18.Concentrate single-minded-ly one at a time

19.Be decisive

20.Backed everything you do with courage & persistence

21.Self-disipline – take time to plan, then decide & ACTION!

Courtesy of Brian Tracy (I think I got these gold nuggets from his seminar)

Boy oh boy, am I in a foul, foul mood today. No, not today, this whole freaking week. Yeah, goes to show you people, Mel is NOT always motivational ok. That said, I do have tricks & tactics up my sleeve to pick myself up when stinking mood hits (NO, I’m not talking about beer today, though normally it helps a goddamn lot)

I found this note I’ve taken a year back. Few pointers I heard over a seminar & resonate with (to? Bah, my lousy grammar), and typed it out. These kind of things are always always good for emergency use. Good timing to use them now when I’m in my woe-is-me, helpless, overwhelmed mood (Though I still think beer will still help a lot…..GAH!! MEL!!)

I hope it will help you as much as it had (and still have) helped me.

Next, oooh, brutal questions…time for a self review? Click here for self review questions.

During an orientation for Pre Seed recipients recently, I was very surprised to find out that only 271 companies were successfully awarded the Mdec Pre seed Technoprenuer fund since 2006!

Even more surprising, only 1287 applications were received over last 3 years. (about 20% success rate)

Hmm…which makes me wonder, what is the situation here? Is it because there IS really so few people that want to be entreprenuers? Or is it because the publicity of this fund can be improved?

Eitherway, I am doing my bit part to promote this opportunity for budding entreprenuers (tech related) to find out how you can go about having the government funding your dreams! How about that?

If you are up for the challenge, batch 20 is open now, you can find more information here.

Just want to share my experience, the support I received so far from Mdec is great, we are constantly kept updated of what’s happening on the industry, and I was also thrilled that they sponsored courses & seminars to help us in our journey. Courses that I will normally sign up myself and pay. I just attended a 2 days workshop CEO Powercamp which was conducted by Change Universtiy by 2 passionate coaches- Robert & Brenda. Their previous clients includes top names like: Gap, Nestle HK, Japan Airline.

Currently, Mdec is organizing a Nationwide Programme Briefing- next one is on 4th August 2009. Admission is free. RSVP here.

If you think you have a great idea that is marketable, and most importantly, if you have what it takes to be an entreprenuer, go for it.

Good luck and all the best!

It’s human Be-ing, not human Do-ing

I just got back from a seminar/workshop/preview, dead tired. Barely recovered from my Singapore trip, followed by the avalance of work when I’m back. But I still went to this workshop tonight because I want to learn, for my business.

I took time off from my work, from my family, from my dinner as I was delayed but I don’t want to be late.

The event stated 7PM-10PM. I arrived 6.50pm.

Typical of Malaysian timing, it started almost 8pm. No apologies whatsover, just so waiting for other late comers.

Time wasted:1 hour

Highlight of the event:

We were all stationed with a desktop, so that we can do the workshop live, which is cool.

Were asked to sign up his group, and check our emails for the verification.

Went to gmail to check, done the log in, suddenly I noticed an email about a conference I’m supposed to attend tomorrow asking me to register…so naturally I read on as I need to make sure my registration is in order.

At that time, Mr Trainer asked a participant a question, then asked me the same question. As I see this is an informal class, and there’s only 3 persons there, I told the truth and said, sorry, I tuned out for a while.

Whoah, all hell breaks loose. Mr Trainer lashed out on me, interrogating what I was doing, and I’m insulting him. To which I remarked, with all due respect, I came here on time, and waited an hour, I wouldn’t be here if I’m not serious and want to waste my time.

He goes on and said, well the class is just gonna wait for me now to finish the email! Which I’ve already signed out, and on Google Docs to take notes of whatever he’s gonna teach. I was fuming mad of being accused, and in such manner.

I logged off, and pack my stuff almost ready to leave, when he come to his senses and apologized.

So I stayed on, gave each other a chance…learnt some new stuff, all the while trying to decipher this guy.

And I came to this conclusion:

The speaker/trainer which I won’t be naming any names here, calls himself professional, he may be; he also may be doing a damn good job in his online business.

But in terms of being a tactful & being a human in a social setting, he fails miserably. In the self indulgence pursuit to be a no nonsense, fast talking, straight talking person, he in fact comes across as someone who runs other ppl down, obnoxious, rude. “Hak yan chang”.

And I was thinking, u hv to be a mature person who has a high level of EQ to be able to look past this and b frens with him.
As the w/shop moves along, I can sense/ suspect that there may be hope in this guy, and beneath the shitty exterior, there may be possibilities that a decent human being lies within. Time will tell.

For now, I will put this incident aside, and concentrate on being a human being.