Understanding the real world!

The talks on Monday lecture all were extraordinary. We were told about the real life of entrepreneurs, which shared the common traits.

First thing is that you must be passionate about the business that you are running, and believe that it works. It is extremely crucial in the first years as you wouldn't likely to make any profit, and faced a lot of disillusions and/or discouragement. At the first year, Mr. Chin Leng from SingaporeBrides.com not only faced countless rejections, financial difficulties, but also discouragement from friends. If his belief is not strong enough, can he carry on until the day of success? The same thing happened to Mr Hoong An with HungryGoWhere, who made 4000$ revenue at the first year! It actually happened everywhere. It is fierce, it is cruel. But it's life. Through the sieve of belief, businesses and entrepreneurs are tested, and only the best ones can survive.

Preparing mentally alone is never enough for business, you also need capital, resources, at least enough to carry you until the day of break even and making profit. Talking about this, it is suggested by Hoong An from Hungry Go Where that we should work for several years to accumulate experience, capital and networking. "It's excellent way to learn while you're being paid!" he said. Later Mr. Leslie from Redsport also talked about his past experiences that eventually built up him and led to the creation of RedSport. Well? I guess NUS will not be able to catch up with Harvard then. Haha. Just kidding. (It's even a fault in logic. Who said we can't work when still in school?).

I think no one can make a successful business out of the air. It actually requires a deep understanding of the (area of ) business itself, knowing what is the bad point(s) and coming up with a better solution. Normally, by working on a specific job help us understanding the thing deeper and can see the wrong things happening. Reuben mentioned that Mr. Ash Singh saw the potential in Tshirt and set up a business for that, but I am sure he did a lot of researches and analyses  before he actually enter the market.

There are still a lot of  vague thoughts bouncing in my mind. I have been reflecting and writing this entries since the lecture ends, but somehow I still can't think and write everything down clearly. Partly is because I want to write down my experience / emotion after the talks. But let's just take it as it is for now. I will continue thinking about it and write more.