I love Sundays and the go-with-the-flow easiness of it. Waking up early with the 1st thought- Hmmm…what to eat for breakfast-ar always makes me pop right of bed!

I love Sundays coz it promises many hours of reading- from Sunday Star for the travel articles (the only time we bought newspaper are Sat & Sun) to my greedily bought books from BookXcess lying on my table.

Hubby bought The Edge, and as usual I flipped through scanning headlines for interesting read. This week’s Edge covers 3 short & sweet articles- one on my fav bus company Aeroline’s-CEO (I think it’s not deserving to even call them a bus company, haha!), another of a yet-to-meet Facebook friend- CEO of Exabytes.

As a fellow (albeit, newbie) entrepreneur, it’s uplifting to read success stories and journey’s of other companies’s founder & CEO. It sometimes makes me feel less alone. (:P)

Few key words derived from the various articles on what it takes to be an entrepreneur- Persistence, passion, ambition. I scanned the list- check, check, check! And if I may add my own- hunger. The hunger for the sense of achievement (that $ can’t buy*), thirst & curiosity to learn, to unlearn, the hunger that will fuel you thru downtimes, that gets you up in the morning so god-damn eager to get to work.

These are some of the things that keeps my heart pumping, and eyes sparkling. What a lovely day to spend a Sunday, looking forward to yet another fun ride next week!

To those who are celebrating, have a lovely Easter!

*But money is a good thing too, lol

Man: “Would you marry me?”

Woman (in typical Msian radio squeaky voice, sort of like she inhaled all the helium from a blimp) : “But you’ve got RM5000 outstanding on your credit card balance, how can you afford it?”

Man (enthusiastically): “No problem, EAC bank now have -Just use your card as if the $ is already there, and when you realized you can’t pay us back, no worries, you could just sell your car, your house…even your wife plan!

I can’t believe my ears when I heard this just now. And I can’t believe people fall for this. Shame on the so-called financial institution(s), shame on the agency who came out with this ‘creative’ concept, shame on the sorry-state of our financial education, or lack off.

Nobody heard of saving towards something nowadays, nor having a planned investment that will gradually reap the return- which one can use towards purchases such as these.

Flabbergasted, it’s the word.

or rather, the CEO sucks!

How long does it takes to give a demo account user id & password to your potential customer?- who went all the way to your Company for a 2 hour discussion, obviously very keen on getting your software/working together. And who revealed that there is a potential regional project that we will be going into, and we want to identify one software partner in a week for this particular project. Doesn’t that spells- Business potential? Sincerity? Urgency? So how long does it takes for an on demand CRM software provider to give me the demo account?

3 working days.

After 2 sms (with no reply), 2 calls and 2 promises by the CEO that the account will be set up by Monday, it’s not. Followed up with a call, another promise- Tuesday morning. It’s still not.

My 1st sms was sent straight at 3pm after the meeting with him on a Fri-

‘Hi (name), it was great meeting you. Could you pls arrange for the demo account today instead of Monday, so that we could go over it over the weekend?’

No reply.

2nd sms send on Saturday morning (I think they work 5.5 days week?)-

Same sms. But with a request for a person to contact, an email address perhaps?

No reply.

Monday (the day the original promise to set up the account)- I called, no reply. I texted-

‘Hi (name), can you please arrange for our demo account today? My partner is based in Holland and we work in different time zone. We will lose 2 days if we can’t get it today.’

Few hours later, he returned call. No apologies for not meeting his promise. At this point of time, I’m still very patient. He promised, we’ll do it for you on Tuesday morning.

So, ok. My ‘plea’ that we lost 2 days has not only fallen on deaf ears, but I was given no explanation except that they are very busy.

Tuesday morning has passed, it was 3pm, no sign of account, no calls to me, no text, nothing.

It is extremely interesting to note that, on the same day (Monday), someone I know (and he’s not even a potential customer) got his real account set up under 1 day. And this is what IRKED me the most.

Questions formed in my head-

Is there anything I overlooked? Am I talking to the right person? (Well, this IS the person the Group Managing Director referred me to talk to) Maybe there’s some protocols, some reservations about working with us, obstacles to customize the system for us? Maybe he’s not keen to work with us?…What is happening?

Desperate to reach a CONNECTION after failing to get my message through and the slow responses-Plus the deadline for submitting our pitch proposal  is soon to be up, I texted this at 4.39pm-

‘Hi, pls sms yr email add. I’ve few questions re yr system adaptability for our regional project. I still hvnt got demo account.(name) got his set up<1 day.Would appreciate if i can understand any obstacles/reservations dats hindering the start of our partnership, if at all. Look fw2 hearing fm u soon.Tx’

An hour later, I received the id & password…and a call from Mr.CEO himself.

Immediately I said, Hi (name) got it, thank you! (with much relieve).

This is where this episode gets VERY interesting.

Instead of mending fences for the broken promises, he gave me a piece of his mind. He lectured that he’s not sure of my sms intention and it was not friendly. Anything, I could have call him. (Really? After my attempts to connect since last Fri??)

Then, he HANG UP on me.

Before I even get to open my mouth to explain.

A CEO of a company, someone I know personally, hang up on a customer. Wow.

It took me 5 minutes to regain my composure, but I took the initiative to call him back. Firstly, I intended to apologize for the tone of the sms. (Yeah, nowadays customers are the one apologizing to companies who think there’s only one CRM software in this planet). But still, for relationship sake, I certainly want to talk it through, and conclude the episode nicely. And certainly, getting a call hang up on you it’s not one of the way to conclude, no?

Apparently to Mr. CEO, it’s a yes.

He didn’t pick up my call. He didn’t reply my last sms- ‘Appreciate yr return call so we can talk. Tx’

It’s exactly one week now.

And I hereby conclude that the award for the worst CEO & customer service (and a very very very bad friend), not to mention Male Chauvinist Pig (Ok, I’m going overboard, but I think there’s an element of truth here) goes to : Mr. I should so be fired!

I’m so sorry for the Group MD of the company. So sorry.

By the way, it doesn’t take 3 whole days to set up a demo account, this Company got it done for us even before we ask for it. The attitude and the service is fantastic. Thank you SoftSolvers, and a personal thank you to Deep.

Bored shitless. Not to be confused with nothing-to-do-ness, on the contrary, loads of work to do.

But just feeling kinda bored these few days. The routine, the blah-ness, the chores, the responsibilities, the planning, the should and should not, the strings, my gosh, the strings.

I missed the days of spontaneity, the major throw-your-head-back laughter, the silliness of all.

And I’m not talking about work per-se.

“I’d kill to have a security device at home so I can know what my maid is doing at home with my kids.”- a friend said.

And I thought, what a sad world we are living in nowadays.

I yearn to have kids roam free, running from one neighbors house to another, their pet dog running with them.

Neighbors who actually knows each other’s name (at least I got that base covered at home)

Blue skies, not grey smog.

People actually have the brain & consideration not to double park and let you wait for 20 mins, without even an apology. Bangsar- check, Taman Desa- check, Damansara- check…actually the whole of Klang Valley, Penang, etc- check.

Fresh, natural food  is not a luxury, look at all the ‘organic’ shops around, look at the price tags.

Junk food manufacturer (and I’m not only talking about potato chips, but even ‘nutritious’ drinks fortified with WTF for smarter kids) admits that they are producing crap. Hey! I’m all for eating processed potato chips if I want to. Just don’t sugar coat things.

Emails, missed calls, sms are replied. Where’s the courtesy?

If it’s a no entry/one way on that road or in your condo car park, please- can you look up dictionary the meaning of One way/NO entry?

Days when people have the principle not to take short cuts that endanger, inconvenient others- just so they have their own little convenience.

People talk, as in talk, face to face, flesh to flesh (er, i think that’s another thing all together ) to each other.

A Twitter, sms or two is fine. But don’t Twitter, sms non stop when you are catching up with friends or anyone for that matter. What?! Their company is not enough for you?

Religions that unite, not divide.

Reality shows that’s beautiful, not perverted, ugly, shallow.

….the freedom to enjoy a beer or two, and the luxury of having just short of a handful of like minded friends to enjoy it with.

Completely broke down & cried.

Our Version 1 was almost completed, just final touches to improve the user interface. Dunno why, now it’s screwed up.

Had an online disagreement with business partner over her complaints of my ‘never-ending’ list on the completion of Version 1, that was already a great start to my Saturday working day.

Now, staring at the site, with all the carts f*cked up; when last night, I was beaming & excited and eagerly awaiting it to be completed.
Even got a customer who’s waiting to go online and order his one year cards from us tonight.

At this point, I dunno whether to continue pushing on to work on my today’s priority- Plan & action steps for next phase. (Great, since the site is f up, we are back to phase 1)
Or shall I continue to get beaten down and cry.

Cross between feeling like a victim/cry/curse/angry/fight/standing firm.

I am preparing our team members’ appointment letters, contracts, etc. And I am reading samples of actual appointment letters as a reference for me to draft them (boo hoo, where’s my HR manager?)…No wonder loads of people hate their work. Look at the appointment letters…are the management hiring a robot or slave??!!! JEEZ!!!!!

It all started out nice & polite:

‘We have pleasure in offering….

Then, it spiral downwards…

The Company may at its discretion extend the probationary period by another three (3) months.

You are advised that as a condition of your employment with the Company, you are liable to be transferred to work in any location, section, department, division, subsidiary, country or Line of Business at the absolute discretion of the Company. (If hell has a valid address, you bet we have the absolute discretion to send you there too!)

Should you be found to be medically unfit, your service shall be liable to be terminated. (translated- if you are dying, please don’t bother us)

Followed by MORE discretion..

An employee at the discretion of the Company….

But, they do end the slave contract with an encouraging ending though:

We take this opportunity to welcome you aboard and wish you a successful career with the Company. (Evil smile)

I am offended to read this letter, don’t see traces of humanity here…but ahh…you say, ‘Mel, just you wait till you deal with eeeeevvvvvil employees, then you will see why you need Evil Appointment Letter Writing Skill 101′…

Sigh…I mean, c’mon, is this it? Resorting to cold, technical jargons so that you can whip people into submission?!!

I went beyond beer…and bought these

Coz beer is my happy food (Yes food, never heard of liquid diet?) But these! These are a sign that I’m heading towards evil-dom.

I only bought chips for my own consumption, let’s see…less than 6 times in my entire life.

P/S: Pringles product review: Unless I have really gone insane, but the chips are much much smaller now. Yes, the size has shrunk. Maybe overall diameter shrunk by 20%. Even the chips are pathetic to match my mood.

P/P/S: Till my next upbeat-y, happy, motivational-ty post, I am officially calling it a day off for happy mood. Now, let me just work in silence.

Back from my 1st holiday ever in 2009, woohooo! Phuket, Kantary Bay, I love ya!

Worked for 2 days, then Hari Raya holidays, sheesh. Not that I don’t wanna work, but loads of kids around to entertain (myself included, LOL!)

Today, forced myself to wake up at a decent hour, gosh, and resume routine.

Only routine was heavily interrupted by mundane household chores, SHITES!

So, as of now, I am not in the best gung-ho mood, rather panicky. Man, this Coconect Version 1 Beta gotta get moving fast.

Back to work!

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