Last Monday, I was invited to visit the @AirAsia ASEAN office that was just completed not too long ago on Thursday. I said yes before realizing that it meant me flying to Jakarta for a day just to have lunch there, and having to come back the same day as I have work to do.
And that made me feel so alive. A jetsetter. Me. Unheard of.
I guess all the effort really paid off eh? Soon who knows, I’ll be able to take my whole team with me, assuming this project takes off awesomely. Anyhow I’ll keep this post simple and talk about the food I ate at Jakarta. The next one will be about the office itself, which is really, really nice. If you can’t wait, check out the album on Facebook here!
When in Indonesia, make sure you drink Teh Botol SOSRO! Of course, drinking it from a kotak makes me go *palmface* LOL
In Jakarta there’s this place that’s called the financial district, where all the major companies invest in their offices here. Nearby the @AirAsia ASEAN office there’s this place called Potato Head that @kathyjah LOVES going, and so I insisted to Raman to pay them a visit too 
The place looks really cool and gives off a nice, warm ambience. I’m starting to see why this became my gorgeous friend’s favourite eatery.
In particular they had this really amazing cock and mocktails (don’t know if that sounds right :/) and here’s some example of what they call their mocktails:-
- No-Hito – as you would expect, a Mojito without a hit-o haha!
- Bloody Shame – Bloody Mary, without the alcohol, which is usually called Virgin Mary LOL
I ordered my cocktail drink (
but of course) and found it really good! If only I remembered what I ordered
And had this ordered for me… some fish-y meal with lala and yummy sauce. Whatever it is it sure tasted good!
But Katherine told me that the Wagyu burger tasted even burger, and it comes with this secret sauce… The opportunist in me decided to order it as well… and when THIS came, I thought to myself, this is worth getting fat for…
Here’s the tasty looking sauce… reminded me of my experience with
The Burger Lab, except that this tasted pretty great because of the Wagyu patty (duh) and probably costed a bomb too.
Thanks AirAsia for the hospitality
Before I left, I made sure to visit the noodle shop called Bakmi GM that everyone was telling me about, and grab something that looked like noodles and beef (wish I took a picture of the name, but I forgotten!). Whatever it is, this tasted soooo good as well! Now I know why my fellow Indonesian brothers Himawan, Handoko and Hilman Harryanto made such great instant noodles back during KTJ days
Anyhow that’s the end of this short post… next up – get ready to be awed by the sheer class of what goes on inside the AirAsia ASEAN office
So @Kathyjah suddenly tweets me to @theStar_Rage recommending me to be one of their young CEOs for a cover story. Thinking that I might as well give my work some hard earned publicity (especially with really awesome projects running right now!) I asked myself, why not? After all, if people don’t know what you do, how far can you really go?
It’s no secret that some of the most successful companies were all spearheaded by one particular face, that one person who carries their company image everywhere they go, backed by an incredible team surpassing even that person’s intellect or skill. The Tony Fernandes’, the Mark Zuckerbergs’, the Steve Jobs’.
Whether you like it or not, it’s inspiration that people are looking for. Then comes the successor planning and expansion to make sure the company can last with or without their icon. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m sharing with you this not to show off, but rather, to try and tell you that it’s okay to be confident and to know how to sell yourself in order to be trusted, valued and sought-after.
Here are some of the questions asked, some made it to the newspaper, most did not, so this is for your reading pleasure!
1. What are the company(s)/org that you own?
2. How long has it been since you started your company(s)?
I started SocialGrooves on the 15th of December 2010, so it’s been one and a half years since! Just after that I started EYE Project in March 2011 together with a partner-in-crime (Reza), and that’s about a year and two months.
3. What were you doing before you started your own company(s)?
Wan Mohd Firdaus
I was working in an investment bank for 2 years after graduating from Imperial College London in Joint Mathematics & Computer Science. During the time I was there, I took part in many social initiatives, like UKEC back in the UK (a student movement to create awareness about Malaysian affairs for Malaysian students studying there) as well as co-founded Young Corporate Malaysians (both with my partner-in-crime Wan Mohd Firdaus, who was featured in the article too!) and assisted Random Alphabets in many random ways possible. It was then I realized I could combine my passion together with the skill sets & experience I learned at ECM Libra to make a living out of what I do best – building and developing communities through sexy initiatives using social media. With the help of the many mentors who supported me, both on the social media side as well as the corporate scene, Socialgrooves.com and EYE Project was formed on a separate basis, with different set of people and goals altogether.
4. Was it always your dream and desire to start this business?
Not really, as I’ve never been the one to think about earning a billion dollars, at least once upon a time. I’ve always focused on doing my best to support driven individuals who are out to make a difference in people’s lives by building a platform for them that will amplify the effects of their work, and treated earning money as a by-the-way need, at least to feed myself. However as it becomes clear that a lot of money is needed to fulfill my ever-growing dreams, and also to prove to naysayers that there’s no money to be made by doing good, I soon realized that starting a business that will do just that became my biggest desire in life.
5. What drove you to begin your own company?
@JohanRaslan
At first I was contented in just looking around for companies that will be able to do what I just mentioned above and to work in there, contributing in every way. However I soon realized that no company has the same vision as I do, and since nobody will allow me to work on my own initiatives while being with them, I decided to take the leap of faith. My mentor, @imokman, told me that “it’s time to institutionalize your services”, so that I don’t end up overworking myself with the good things I’m doing… it’s just not that sustainable.
@RoslanBZ
With his memorable words, and all my clients and partner’s faith in me, the companies started without ever having to borrow money from anyone, getting various investments from supporters who is made up of Malaysia’s movers and shakers like Dato’ Seri Johan Raslan at PwC Malaysia & Roslan B Zakaria formerly from myHarapan, and that’s something I’m proud about! Then there are the people who believe in my vision and work with me as well, my partners, my colleagues, my army… Without them, it just wouldn’t kick off.
6. What were the challenges faced in the process of starting your business?
Reza Samsani
Many challenges, especially for me who’s not really business oriented. From knowing how to place a price on the services the two company offers (nothing to compare to), to juggling between people management skills (very difficult) and even the smallest things like implementation of SOPs/processes are the few issues I faced in the creation of the company. For somebody who’s always been doing this as a good will gesture, it’s not easy to “transform” into a business owner.
@BakiZainal
You will need a certain level of toughness in decision making in order to succeed. Luckily with the help of unlikely mentors like @BakiZainal as well as my business partners in both businesses I’m able to overcome these challenges, and as of today, both businesses are profitable (though not in a large scale, yet!)
Other challenges include ability to retain talent and paying good salary, as both companies are startups and will face similar challenges to most startups. People are generally concerned about sustainability and sustainability, and while the reasons to work with us are great, social businesses are still an unknown career path which not many, especially parents of our staff, are comfortable with.
7. What are your achievements?
Too many to count. On SocialGroove.com’s side, we’ve got many celebrities and social initiatives (NGO/NPOs) who believe in what we can do and trust us to help boost their efforts by creating/serving communities that they serve. Commercial entities get intrigued with our not-very-common way of thinking up bizarre but applicable ideas and hence we got ourselves a few clients who agree to our unique proposals, thus enabling customers to experience something you don’t get to see everyday.
As for EYE Project, the achievements has far exceeded our expectations. From being supported by
myHarapan at the very beginning, to getting corporate sponsors such as
PwC Malaysia,
MyEG as well as
GTI Media to even government entities such as
TalentCorp Malaysia supporting our initiatives, we are proud to say that we’ve proven to meet such high standards especially since we’re a small startup. Endorsement from the Ministry of Higher Education helps as well. Even our events, which invites Malaysian personalities to meet up with undergraduates for free in an informal setting, has gotten no rejections at all by our invited guests which includes corporate bigwig Dato’ Seri Johan Raslan, celebrity host Hannah Tan and Baki Zainal, entrepreneurs Jeol Neoh and Timothy Tiah as well as a bunch of successful others like Ahmad Izham Omar, Sajith Sivanandan and Jason Lo.
Flanked by Dato’ Seri @HishammuddinH2O and @aznilnawawiHM
Our most recent success is running the student-focused
GradMalaysia Graduate Careers Fair in partnership with SEC where we managed to get
Dato’ Sri Idris Jala to come officiate the event, and both him as well as
Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin went on as our VIPs to meet and commend the student leaders for their project work that were exhibited at the event. Student leadership never got that much recognition here in Malaysia until today.
8. What do you think made your success today? What’s your secret to success?
One, our intentions, most definitely. You can’t fake that. Two, having a series of successful projects behind you certainly helps as well, so one should never underestimate the power of volunteerism at a young age. Three, being stubborn helps as well, but at the same time, accept criticism from people who actually want to help; it keeps things real and grounded among your untainted dreams. My secret to success? I never treat myself seriously, I never think that I can take everything by myself, and I always never forget to have fun, either by blogging about really cool events I’m invited for (at
www.spinzer.us), eating something I can’t afford occasionally, or just giving a day to myself to rest, play games and tweet (@spinzer) all the way. That way, I try not getting burnt out whenever possible, where it’s just so much harder to bounce back up
9. What is your advice for young aspiring successful entrepreneurs today?
DS @IdrisJala_
Three simple sentences: Dream BIG, Start SMALL, Move FAST. I didn’t coin this, but when I first heard it from a friend’s mouth, I realized it was all I am. From someone who’d never dream to have a company on his own, who’d never think about the failures he could have ended up to be and never thought he would ever become a leader like the people he supports, all it really takes is for him to just do it, and make ALL sorts of preparation to make sure there’s no room for error. Sure, that’s hard work, but more importantly, it’s a journey that you’ve built for yourself, an experience none others will have. As DS Idris Jala said, it’s not important what you do with your first job, it’s what you learn from it.
From there, the world is your oyster.
Read more by theStar RAGE’s article here: http://rage.com.my/content/stories/youth-on-top/
With @TimothyTiah of @NuffnangMY & Wan Mohd Firdaus of @YCMS.
A week ago I got a surprise package from @NandosMalaysia, and was pleasantly surprised when I was reminded that Mother’s Day was coming. Not only that, they even prepared a gift for her, too )))))
However I was ever so busy with EYE Project‘s big project in partnership with SEC called the GradMalaysia Graduate Careers Fair (which was a success by the way, with DS @IdrisJala_ giving one of the best speech I ever heard & DS @HishammuddinH2O & family visiting the student leaders in between their packed schedule) that I could not plan anything for my mom.
Furthermore mom was away on an overseas company trip during the weekend as well, only coming back moments ago so it makes it even tougher for us to surprise her.
Luckily for us though, mom saw the gift from Nandos and was smiling from end to end even in her tiredness ))
The reason? She loved the quirky notes that were on the satchets and thought I was the one who came up with it! It really was all @NandosMalaysia‘s efforts but nevertheless she appreciated it that it came through me and told me that we have to pay them a visit together as a family.
I told her that we would, because they would be ready to have us. Won’t you now, @NandosMalaysia?
I just wanted to show you what made my Mother’s Day for my mom work… The quirky punchlines! This says “Forever Your ‘Ah Boy’” hahaha too cute! Yes I bet all moms wish for that too, regardless of what their sons think :p
This one says “I won’t ignore you on purpose, I promise.” and mom, I will do my very best to uphold this promise *crosses fingers behind :p*
Finally the most epic win of the epics! “I love you more than daddy. Don’t tell him.” Hahahahahaha! Guess this one really won her heart eh? You guys at @NandosMalaysia really know how to win them hearts! But now father will be furious since this has been shared on my blog- so whatcha gonna do? :p
All in all, it was a great reunion again with mom as we missed her presence, especially for me since I normally rely on her to dress me up real good for any of my big events… I can’t begin to count the number of stuff I depend on her to do for me. Can you? Come share with me.. After all, sharing is caring right?
Anyway I don’t wanna get too sentimental on my blog haha.. Whatever it is I owe @NandosMalaysia big time for this wonderful effort, for getting my mom fired up after an exhausting trip. God bless her for making it back safely into our arms… The only thing to do now is to go makan some good ol’ flame grilled peri-peri chicken!
PS – Will be making a little something special for mom soon… Can you guess what it is from the picture below?
We were invited to this exclusive private IMAX 3D screening of ‘The Avengers‘ at @TGVCinemas, Sunway Pyramid on behalf of Harley Davidson Malaysia and Echosphere – and how could I say no after looking at the itinerary they provided us with. Yes, even though this is the second time I’m watching it in the same cinema, one week after my first time right after it launched here in Malaysia!
It started off by meeting up my long time friend
Emily Er at
Harley-Davidson 3S showroom, located at Naza Automall, Petaling Jaya to take a look at what they have to offer. Strangely we were attracted to our own super bikes and this was my choice! Nice? Well it costs
RM300,000++ so it’ll take me many long years of hard work before I can think about owning one
Emily decided to choose this baby instead… I didn’t think it was as good as mine but it does have some badass skull shape insignia on it… The two are what we call CVO… can’t remember what it stands for, but it’s customized lah basically. No wonder it’s so pricey!
Now these babies are what you come to the Harley-Davidson showroom for. You might have seen some of them being driven by bulky looking people on the roads… and always wondered to yourself – how do they even handle these huge machines right? So do we. Emily admits she couldn’t even reach for the clutch, and the handles are waaaaay to far away to make a proper turn! LOL!
The #Avenger bike joined us at the scene too! We went to play with it after having our buffet lunch. How could we not haha… Here’s @RockeRina and hubbie, @imTheJessicat and boyfie with Captain America’s bike!
Then it’s Emily’s turn. She can’t take her eyes off
Captain America‘s shield.. bet she’s daydreaming about his body already after watching the #Avengers hahahah! (Though she said she loved
The Hulk at the end
)
And the lovely lady behind the wheels is Your Highness the @Helenness, founder of
Echosphere and a woman I’ve marked as one of our many future leaders. You’ll go far, just continue to learn and experience the toughest times, stay true to yourself and you’ll emerge a winner! Thanks for the invite
And now we’re all ready to move to Sunway Pyramid@ Some like @RockeRina here are pillions, sitting behind REAL Harley-Davidson bikers who will be following us to the private screening!
I mean, just take a look at them! Can’t get more authentic than this eh? The community meets often, organized by the Harley-Davidson guys here at Kuala Lumpur… They are just like family, and a cool one at that, too!
Emily and I chose to be in the comfort of the
Colorado. Nothing beats aircon
And the view is gorgeous, being surrounded by the loud roaring of Harley-Davidson bikes as well as escorted by police and their sirens… AMAZING!
We were winged by this cool looking marshall… You’d notice that other motorists will shy away from them… You NEVER play with a Harley-Davidson, unless you want to get in trouble. It was LOUD and SHINY wei haha!
Here’s a picture taken from
Felix‘s blog, just to show you how cool our entourage was… the bikes were as large as the cars okay! Read his blogpost
here!
Finally we arrived at Sunway Pyramid, and in STYLE too! The loud roaring of the Harley-Davidson engines, the wailing of the sirens and a cohort of important looking VIP people obviously attracted a major crowd at the unsuspecting shoppers. Here’s @imthejessicat greeting the audience LOL
And look who’s with us! It’s
@JehanMiskin the celebrity on his own Harley-Davidson bike
Emily of course couldn’t resist riding on one of them bikes. Thanks to @imthejessicat’s explicit description of her ride, Em is pretty happy she didn’t need to join the bikers during the trip, preferring to stay in the car haha
We had some time to kill before the movie so we went to
Haagen-Daaz for some good ol’ (but expensive!) ice cream… and this is what we ordered. Cute? These small morsels of what looks like Macaroons are actually bits of hardened chocolate with ice cream inside and costs a bomb! Nice to try, but definitely not value for money
And thus ends our adventure after having a really great time at @TGVCinemas’s IMAX theatre – comfy seats, super sound and probably the largest screen ever in Asia. Seriously amplified The Avengers to the very max, and leaves no curves *BlackWidow’sAssAhemAhem* out of our imagination haha. Happy but tired, we went to our Colorado where the friendly guys at Harley-Davidson Kuala Lumpur fetched us back – and returned back to our respective houses with an experience to boast about – hence this ridiculously fast blogpost haha.
And it’s not just an album launch, rather, a wholesome event filled with a bazaar, concerts, YouTube community meet up and even a Joseph Germani Meet & Greet session LOL! The whole event was a BLAST and I had so much fun… Congratulations to
An Honest Mistake for pulling of an amazing event at Publika, and super loved the performances right up to the end!
Here I am at @GermaniPro’s booth where he’s selling #GermBands for RM20. The reason? To start his own initiatives so he could do more of whatever he’s doing now. I totally support, that guy’s a self-made celebrity!
Oh and I met @JinnyBoy & @Dan_Khoo too, the acclaimed producers on YouTube (and one of them has just become a YouTube Partner too, congrats Jin and Reuben – make more videos for us to watch!)
And then I bumped into my long-time star,
@themingfeed and the lovely lady
Marianne who starred with him in several videos. This guy is really humble, and has the talents for sure. Can’t wait to see him at the top
Finally, Darren Teh, Lead Singer of An Honest Mistake and I met and he’s gonna rock Publika down! If you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s the time. This awesomely cool band has been around for some time and has gotten a lot of praises (and fans) and its only a matter of time before they go regional (I believe so!)
Leonard here, the man I can always count on. Thanks to him I was able to connect to many of the people in the entertainment industry. He’s the guy who does the real work and I have nothing but respect for him. Dude, I’ll support you wherever you go!
The event is on its half-way round now and it’s pretty cool meeting really awesome people here, from Dennis Lau the electronic violinist extraordinaire to Baldwin, super keyboardist (and gf) as well as Thong Kai. More people were there but I’ll have to go now to enjoy the music. Until my next update, toodles!
~~~~ CONTINUATION ~~~~
So there was a YouTube community gathering as well, and for the first time everyone got together and took a few photos!!!
The infamous pairing at JinnyBoyTV – Reuben Kang and Jin Lim! (too cute la they all)
This is me trying to get everyone together. Havoc man. What to do, it’s like getting The Avengers together kan? hahaha
Finally together! And I used @BryanLYT’s camera for this, cause mine not very high resolution. Thanks man! To the right, to the right
Here are all of them looking confused Part 1
Now looking confused Part 2. Damn jokers.
Finally got a decent photo of all of them. Super cool list of people here.. can you identify them all?!
Malaysian YouTube Community Assemble!
And in that super exciting moment I forgot to take picture with these guys… something that really deserves a highlight to my life, because it was one of my lifelong objectives to get all of them together and to see this happening… is super surreal. Guys, I present to you, an epic moment solidified thanks to PHOTOSHOP! Hahahahhaha. Looks damn good right? Had to add the super talented actress Sandra Tock in it as well yeah?
PS – to make this idea work, I had @BryanLYT take a photo of me standing where they were all at. Not bad leh… This is d original pic
And that’s it! What a day! Hope ya’all like the pictures, and don’t forget to support both An Honest Mistake as well as our amazing Malaysian Youtubers Community!
So… IKEA has done it again. Take a look at the simplistic beauty they call the Cardboard Digital Camera by IKEA below.
It was apparently given away last week to members of the press during the 2012 Fuorisalone, a design expo in Milan. I’m a big fan of gadgets, and this particular one is really grabbing my attention!
This is not IKEA‘s first time at surprising people. The last surprise we had was IKEA’s Uppleva, an All-in-One TV solution that looks like a blown-up iMac, but much cooler. All of these are not made available here in Malaysia yet, but when it does, you bet I’d be the first to get!
Oh, and I don’t think it’s a joke. The camera can hold up to 40 photos on internal memory, has a USB connector, and uses 2 size AA batteries. Now how cool is that 
Ps- my office has been IKEA-fied. Just one more piece to add before I show you the final look!
Posted via email from spinzer’s preposterousness
