Friday...

as I trudged forward up the slightly inclined slope from the 30th Street station to my house, with the fierce wind blowing in my face and a surrounding temperature of 0 deg C, i felt kinda terrible, especially when i was lugging my heavy laptop in my backpack...
todae had been a dae of mixed feelings...
I was part of the sales team meeting chaired by our COO...he brought us all to the restaurant cum pub which we went to last night for our meeting cum lunch (his treat)....
During the meeting, I spoke my mind on a few matters which have been bothering me for quite awhile...
and we all spoke and discussed how we can improve the current value chain....blah blah blah....
after that, i had another private meeting with my direct supervisor....
we spoke, and it's a dae of mixed feelings cos i'm trying to adjust and manage my own expectations well....probably my mindset is too idealistic....maybe i wan to lead too eagerly, perhaps in the real world where resources are scarce, maybe maybe....
I gotta be part of the team....instead of wanting to chiong ahead with my ideas.....which can never happen because the entire engine will not stop for an individual, certainly not an intern from Singapore, me....

Well, if at this juncture, u hav no idea wat i'm talking abt, that is perfectly normal....cos i'm juz grumbling....to release my pent up frustration with a couple of issues....
but i've convinced myself to manage and readjust my expectations to be more realistic oredi....
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Hey Iwan, in startup companies, which as the name suggests and which u shld noe since u r a biz student, have onli a handful of employees....
in my company's case, we have been growing very rapidly tis yr and we hav abt 18 employees in the US office right now...and so talking to my CFO or COO or even CEO is kind of an everydae thing for me and for my colleagues....no big deal in a startup company....dat's the way it is...
but to be fair, my CEO is a very brilliant man....i've seen his resume before and it totally puts me to shame...

shelle...nxt time we can go hav some drinks tog....i tink my threshold for alcoholic drinks will definitely increase after this 1yr...hahaz....but the martinis were reali good.....

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hey Icy, i wanna thank u for doing the favour for me....thks thks...i reali appreciate it very much.... =)

was happy to noe dat my bros are back on track again....
Both CS and ZW msged me todae to tell me abt their attachment plans...and they both sound great to me...
Congrats bros....u hav done well.....seize ur opportunities to learn as much as u can....
and before u start ur attachments later tis yr or earli nxt yr, be sure to chart out for urselves the goals u wan to achieve at the end of it and wat u wanna learn from it....
I am very very sure u guys will do exceedingly well....and remember 1 of our common goals too, which might not be the most impt but is another motivating factor for me......that is, to be up there at the rostrum during our commencement to be conferred the first class honours degree.....
Sometimes I get tired, sometimes i feel like giving up, but each time i tink of my personal goals and some of our common goals, i juz get motivated again and my energy level comes back up....
i hope it does the same for u too....

and ZW...jiayou man....we must and we will realise our dream of starting our company together....learn as much as u can from ur marketing engineering position, the marketing aspects, the technological aspects, and anythg else which u can pick from the brains of the staff there....
right now, right here, i am also doing the same thing....am learning as much as i possibly can....especially with regards to entrepreneurship, writing business plans, practical and theoretical marketing tactics, direct sales strategies, business strategies, leadership and management, and the list can go on and on and on....
I will talk to u more in private with regards to wat we can do.... =)

But, starting and succeeding in a business is not really dat hard.....Maybe it's cos i've seen and interacted with so many successful entrepreneurs who r multi-millionaires here already dat I have been influenced by them and by their success stories....
Everyday, I hear of companies being acquired and the founders getting tens of and hundreds of thousands of dollars....Some are high-tech businesses, some are simply web businesses with sound business models and concepts....but these tales DO inject a very high level of confidence in me....
what do they call it?
Self-efficacy? Yupz, I think that's the name for it....

Although I might have some element of it back in Singapore already, the experience and environment here so far have helped to develop this self-belief that everything is possible, and that it is all a matter of whether we believe in ourselves anot....

It's not directed towards entrepreneurship solely....it's about everything in life...
if u hav the self-belief, if u start off with the right attitude and the belief that IT CAN BE DONE, u will have a much higher chance of succeeding....
this is very very true and I reali hope to see that happening to myself and all my close frens....

right now, I still maintain that focus is of the essence and being motivated helps alot in my endeavours here....
thks for bearing with me for so long if u hav been reading till here....

miss u all...
Cheers! to success!

Self-efficacy and Self-belief...