Why do i race?

Had an interesting conversation with the medical doctor last week at Alexander Hospital where I went for the full medical checkup.

Doc : "From what I am looking at...you are quite overweight"
Fata : "yes. looking at the BMI, I am almost obese"
Doc : "but I see you are training quite hard....your excercise level and intensity indicates you have strong cardio strength"
Fata : "yah...I do that to train for the coming race .... the Half Ironman"
Doc : "oh...Wow.....sounds interesting...tell me. Why do you race?"
Fata : "erh..."

I did not have the answer to this question . In fact these days I keep getting similar questions

" why do you race?"
"why did you decide to be an entrepreneur?"
"What is an civil engineer got to do with Bioenergy?"

Actually yah...the mother of all questions seems to be ... "Are you mad?"

Many of my close friends would have understand the kind of person I am..that my life philosophy seem to be "to commit to something really ambitious and kill myself trying to get to that target.."

Today my coach, my dear sensei, voiced concern over me cramping everything I want to do in a super short time. That I want to do everything without actually thinking of the consequences....that if I were to carry on like this I would crash badly.

I have been doing a bit of thinking about this, about all the comments from my friends and my coach . And my question to myself is :

" Am I sleeping very well?"

I am attempting to use this as an indicator of both my physical health and my mental health.

My FATALOGY on Sleep postulates that :

"The level of one's well being is directly proportional to how much and how well one sleeps"

Simply,
1) If you worry too much you cannot sleep.
2) if you sick, you always want to sleep

Ok, the exception is if you your hobby is sleep, then boh pian.

I start by assessing what’s on my plate:

1) I am CEO of a startup company
2) I am trying to be a father, starting a family
3) Trying to run my first ever 70.3 race

what are my possible risk ?

1) startup company fail - risk losing all my efforts and all my savings and opportunities
2) lose health if continue trying to manage everything all the time (thus no time to recover)
3) Cannot finish the race well
4) Cannot complete the race at all
5) stress out too much so that everything fails!

I don’t have the answers to mitigate these risk.

But I am sleeping well. That speaks a lot


Most of the time...I fall asleep quickly and I wake up naturally without alarm.

Dix complains that I am cursed with the not being able to sleep later than 930am...even on Sunday.

In fact the last time I had failed to sleep well was before I took the jump, when I was still answerable to my boss and the worrying about reporting bad news about projects.

These days...I report to myself, I know the implications of bad news, good news etc. I don't get overly excited nor do I get depress. Yes there are moments of anguish and frustration but somehow I have inherited the mutant qualities of my ex-boss (current mentor)- the nonchalant yet purposeful attitude towards problem solving.

As for cramping too much stuff, I don’t know how much is too much. I am crazy but I am not stupid.

Therefore, in conclusion, I realize the concerns are real and the risk could be huge. But compare to a person who is buying a 1.5 million house with a civil servant pay hoping to flip that ….. I have a lot less to lose.

At most I will
- lose my business (but I would gain the knowledge so I wouldn’t fail again)
- not complete the Race (but I would have gain better fitness from the training)

But I am sleeping well!

PS : I passed my complete health check this afternoon and the doc has cleared me for the RACE! ☺

Finally, our Processor is ONLINE!

Today is a great day.

After 6 months of planning, designing and the last 2 weeks of slogging it out at in the lab and a dozen spillages covering me and haiwoon with loads of disgusting used cooking oil....

We have Biodiesel from the processor which we had painstaking brought to reality!

it's a great feeling being able to convert our ideas into reality through engineering and being a maverick about it!

quoting Hiro Nakamura on his impending quest to "save the world" : "Now for the Hard part".....

Here's a view of our processor!

Finally Our "1 Min of fame"

After Much anticipation, there is finally a day where:

1) the world is peaceful - no new war, no new disaster
2) the national leaders are resting - the boss is in Langkawi with our neigbour's boss
3) the only other news worthy item is - our neighbour's ex boss is in hosipital

the result of these "unhappenings" is ..... there is finally free air time for our segment is done 4 weeks ago shown. And it was on both CNA and channel 8 as well!

Let hope that this additional publicity would bring the company to yet more unopened doors and opportunities.....

But that;s for another day....Today.....life is good!



the channel news article

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/276119/1/.html

Will post up the chinese version as soon as i can


FATALOGY On Self Publicity

Week 1-2

Don't know if i would be able to log this journey into becoming my own boss as religiously (i doubt i can) but here are some of the happenings last 2 weeks

1) CNA interview

somehow the video we did on the bd trials with the Musso Club caught the notice of the PR people from ITE HQ and subsequently Channel News Asia deem it as news worthy and wanted to do a piece to be shown on Singapore Tonight.



The button was pressed 2 weeks ago while we were in the middle of scaling up the setup by 20X. So in the days that follows I had to juggle all the work really had. like writing a press document, helping setup up teh new system, finialised the design of the 100X sacle up set, manage Todd's new factory's building, keep up training......luckily we had the help of some ITE staff which helped prepared some of the materials needed to do the press wanyang....

Terence gave me last minute Tuition, more like a 5 minute tutorial, on how to constantly stress on the 3 points i want to talk and bending the answer to my advantage. (for a CEO of a 83 man company, 5 mins of 1 to 1 tuition is quite a lot!)

Well the taping happened in our worshop last friday, we had finished the setup just in time and i fixed the filtration system in such a way that you can turn on a tap and the golden liquid (BD) would flow out into the beaker (for the dramatic effect). The CNA guy came with a cameraman and proceeded to ask me questions about what is biodiesels, what is the market etc....i kinda stammered a bit because some of the questions i had not prepared for the onslaught of queries (MUST remember to ask for questions prior to interview if there is a next time).

Then there was the lab part and they shot our 2 champion student workers at work playing with titration and the GC. Huda was kinda nervous when they interview here but i think she did splendidly.....

Thereafter, we did the most exciting part.....the vehicle trials....Jeffery the the gang from the Musso Club volunteered thier trusty cars for the demo....and viola....the results were the same as the first trial we did....and this time we caught it on the CNA video (hope it comes up)

2) KT, Naina and Angelia

It's kinda wierd having the last day of work on friday, saying goodbyes to all the staff and yet appearing again on monday... as if nothing had changed...under the current arrangement, i will stay on to work on some projects for KT for survival to tie over the cash crunch at the business....this is an ideal arrangement although for myself it's a constant juggling act of trying to do many things at one time.....(like what's new)

Angelia and Naina were very concern about my welfare.....when they realised i have not even gotten a table for the office...they jumped into an action plan to help me get redisgn teh arrangements of the tables, explained to me the need for a airport, the need to have my back facing the wall.....and eventually they gave me an airport (the water kind...not themac kind) as a present....It's really a nice gesture! Cool!

3) On EBD

We went to EDB last month to inquire if we could tap into some grants to develop the yet to design 100X plant....after i submitted our first draft to the officer....she infromed me that it's her last day at work and she has passed my case to another colleague which is on leave......and up till last friday...no reply yet.

interestingly he most important criteria in the application of the innovation commericalisation fund is

1) innovation
2) project must not start before approval

with the depts delaying thier approval, we are running out of time. All i need is a simple yes or no so we could move on wirh decisions...

If yes.....happy....we get some money

If no....not game over....we will fund the development ourselves....

Simple?

Will try to call them again tomorrow to sort it out again!


ok that;s it....

looking forward to stalking the TV to lookout for my 1minute of fame tonight!

A tale of a coffee shop

Assuming there is a famous coffee shop called "Tua Zhong Kopitiam"

This Kopitiam is the best in the area, as it has the best stalls in Singapore. the tables are clean,it's services are very good and it has always been ranked top kopitiam to makan in amongst the kopitiams of the world. It has also has food stalls that are ranked tops by any measures and these stalls are run by the best hokkien mee fryer, best chay tao kuay maker, best fish ball soup etc

The owners of the kopitiam stalls hires a full team of managers to run the different aspects of the shops. They have a manager to take care of the health of the stall owners, a manager to defend the kopitiam against thief, a manager to developed the kopitiam into the kopitiam of the 21st century, a manager to keep up foreign relationship with other kopitaims and suppliers so that they will supply the shop with cheap coffee powder to keep the sales going. The managers of this kopitiam is being elected to to their positions by the customers and the stall owners. And the managements collects monthly contributions from the stall owners/customers etc to keep the various departments running smoothly.

One day, the General Manager realised that his team member's pay package is not up to par with the other kopitiams and if he doesn't do something quick he may risk losing his well oiled team of managers to food stalls which can pay these manager a higher pay. So he held held a meeting with all the stalls owners and announce that a decision is made to raise the pay of the managers.

Since the managers have been doing such a good job running the kopitaim for the last 40 years, all the stall owners, customers agree to the pay raise. The way to pay the managers is based on a average of the earnings of the top eight stall's takings in the the kopitiam.

After the decision is made, some of the stall owners and customers raised some questions,

Mr Ter Bak Che (owner of the Tok Kong Bak Kut Teh):

"Running a stall is differently from managing the kopithiam, the stall owners take on a lot more risk than the managers....if tomorrow kena some ban on pig import or mad pig disease, the stalls would face a risk of closing business. The manager (grant that he works very hard to ensure that the risk is minimum) would only get voted out of office every four to five years when the stall owners and the customer's vote. As we stall owners takes on the risk.....it is only right that we reap the rewards....should we actually give the managers some risk...to make them earn their pay rise?"

Mr Lim Goh Pee (Regular customers of the Kopitiam):

"I don't mind giving the managers a pay raise, and it is logical since they have worked hard to manage the shop well, but should the pay rise be based on something more than the average takings of the the stall owners, what about some kind of appraisals? some kinda of KPI?"

"for example, the manager in charge of the health and hygiene can get a pay bonus if by the end of the year (baring all the extraordinary incidents of Bird flu, SARs etc) there is an improvement to his scope as assessed against previous records and the international Kopitiam health standards"

"Maybe, like many stall owners and their employees, a portion of the pay is fixed and the big big bonus would come at the end of the year upon the assessments"


This analogy is what i used to explain the minister's pay rise issues with the kopitiam uncles at my office area. 40-50million (i may be wrong about this one)in total for the minister's pay may not big enough sum for the average public to gripe about. But a prawn noodle uncle who faces risk and returns issues everyday.....even a $10 increase in rent which his kopithaim ask for which they don't deserve is a lot.

Personally i think there can be a better way to reward our super hardworking, under appreciated ministers.

FATALOGY on Minister's Pay rise,

FATALOGY ON GYMs

Last sat, out of desperation to clock my required training hours, i decided to hit the gym, The kind that gives you a towel and a locker and a whole ton of machines to movtivate you.

i bought the day entry pass, took the locker keys and head for the "ellipitical runner" i press a few buttons and decided to do a fat burning workout...the computer then decides that i need to work at a heart rate of 155 and promptly starts to blink all sorts of information like:

1) no of stride per min
2) no of steps per min
3) no of calories burnt so far
4) no of i could burn if i keep this speed for 1 hour
5) current level of resistance
6) next level of resistance

that's just the amount of info on the big screen, i cannot even remember whats on the small dials etc....

As i was grudgingly running along staring into nothiness...hoping beyond hope the machine don't scold me for running too slowly, i started to observed the Body Combat class being held at the opposite room......

the music is loud, the room was packed and there was a lady instructor on the stage shouting instructions for the people to punch! Kick! duck! jump!

that's when i realised there is a lot of angry people in singapore.....these people all looked like they are punching somebody's guts out. And most importantly they all have that intense killer look on their face.......and lagi best.....most of them are ladies!

Today, i went back to that same gym, did that same hullabalulah and started on the stupid machine again.....that's when i realised why i hate gym....

1) in the gym, your sole motivation is the approval of some heart target...on the tracks.....HR is just an indicated...the real real rush is getting to the finish line and runnign your hearts out.
2) in the gym you punch some imaginary person's guts out, while you bike you just push a little harder to get a head of your buddy to fart in his face!

get it??

i enjoy sports.

i do sports because there is something more to it than heart rates and calories burnt, looking good and staying in shape.

i ilke the idea of running across a finish line, biking up a stubborn hill, tossing the frisbee across the end zone.

i love the friendly banter and tuants exchanged during a cycling sessions, i love coming home from a workout knowing i have discovered new biking route and improved my cadence....

to me, sports is a way to interact with the world, not a mean to release some hidden frastration.....(in fact i have never resort to working out when i stress.....i eat really good food!)

ok....enough rambling.....my conclusion....in desperation....i will be slave to the machine....but as long as there is a sunny day....you know where i'll be....

FATALOGY on GYM

The Leap

Leap
–verb (used without object)
1. to spring through the air from one point or position to another; jump: to leap over a ditch.
2. to move or act quickly or suddenly: to leap aside; She leaped at the opportunity.
3. to pass, come, rise, etc., as if with a jump: to leap to a conclusion; an idea that immediately leaped to mind.
-idioms
leap in the dark.
1. leap of faith, an act or instance of accepting or trusting in something that cannot readily be seen or proved.


Today I took a leap.

After much procrastination, self doubt and contemplation, I have done it. I traded the security of a steady job with the opportunity of making my life story a little more interesting.

What is life going to be in 30 days? come April, i would not need to report to work at 9am, i can plan my own time, pay my own salary and make my own decision on how i want to run my company. For some people this may be the most scariest thing but i beg to defer, i think this is a privilege. A privilege given to me by

1) My Boss - that he assure me that i am doing the right thing and that the path can only be walked by one alone in order to understand the meaning of the struggle
2) My wife - that she allow me to spin in seemingly aimless orbit and sometimes biting more than i can chew. She is the center of my world, my constant and my source of hope and dreams.
3) My friends - they have given me the courage so that i may jump knowing that no matter where or how i land, they would be the same old pals who's got my back in good times and bad.

So thank you all for the previlage and I hope in 10 years time when i look back at this blog entry, it would prove that the efforts was well worth it!