Inspiring Action

by TS Lim

For our last Webcamp KK of the year, we decided to round up a bunch of local talents to showcase their work. We had a film-maker, an animator, 2 web developers, a sound engineer and even a prop-maker showing their work and made it the best Webcamp KK, bar none.

Once again, it shows how passion is contagious, inspiring and universal. Seeing others working hard on their passion inspires all of us to do the same. We plan to keep showcasing and featuring local talents from all over Sabah regardless of what industry they are in. There are always something we can learn from each other.

But we wanted something more. A way to inspire more people to take action and do great things. So we created INit.my, a platform to inspire others with passion of our local talents. We plan to do monthly webpisodes that features the awesome work of Sabahan. If all goes well, we will have our first episode by the end of January 2013. 

Exciting times are ahead of us. There are a lot work left to be done but this is a start. And of course, as always, this is an effort from the community. We hope you can come check it out and support INit. Let us know if you know of anyone who is doing great things. We would love to feature and promote them.

Nothing inspires us more than seeing local Sabahan making it big. Of course, if you want to meet some of them, join us at our next Webcamp KK and be inspired!

How will you measure your life?

by TS Lim

​Recently I read a post by Jason Fried on 37Signals blog explaining why we can only teach someone who are willing to learn.

He met up with the author of Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen who said (paraphrased by Jason), "Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven't ask the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It his your mind and bounces right off. You have to ask the question - you have to want to know - in order to open up the space for the answer to fit."​

Clayton's latest book (How will you measure your life?) is also full of insights on how we should approach our career, family and life in general. He provides interesting and insightful examples from the business world.​

​This book does not offer answers but rather tells you how to think about decision you make in your career, family and life. It tells you the type of question you should be ask when deciding your career path, what kind of family you want to raise and ultimately what kind of person you want to be.

It's a book I recommend EVERYONE to read. Go get it NOW!​

I really really love building on the web

by TS Lim

You probably have heard this a million times. Follow your passion. You should find out what you are passionate about and do that. I myself blogged about passion quite often.

But Mark Cuban have a different view on all this fuss about passion. He believes instead of following your passion (which you can have many), you should follow your effort, things that you spend most of your time on because time is a resource that you don't own.

This makes sense because if you are putting in a lot of time and effort into something, you are definitely passionate about it and most likely you are quite good at it too.  

I took a trip down memory lane and realized that besides sleeping, eating, being lazy and gaming, I've spent quite a significant amount of my life building stuff on the web.

Here's a short summary on some of the fun, failed, lame and stupid stuff that I've built.

Highschool years

  • A browser plugin review site. Back then, browser plugin was the craze.
  • Phrozz.com - Attempted to start a hardware review site with my classmates back then (John & Ed) hoping to get some free hardware.
  • Website for my school (KKHS). Also did a Flash intro (yuck) and interactive flash tutorials. Manage to win 1st for design, 2nd for content in the SabahNet Homepage Competition. First sign?

At college/university

  • dx's playground - Personal site to mess around with PHP. 
  • Website for the college's student government so that I can stay in the hostel.
  • Mamak.phrozz.com - A site for my Warcraft 3 Guild (Mamak). Scraped Blizzard's site for guild members' rank to display on the site. I think it was on Postnuke.
  • My thesis in university was basically building a 'better' CMS (Content Management System)

Entering the workforce

  • My first job introduced me to Coldfusion. Built some HR system and CMS with it. I made a simple framework to make it more bearable.
  • Managed to convince my boss to let me use PHP. Build CMS for clients.
  • Also did some Visual Basic, C# and ASP.net. Decided to go freelance and quit my job.

Flexnode

  • Eventnode - Web app to organize events/outings. My first app built with Ruby on Rails.
  • Reservation system for a resort. My first paid gig for Flexnode.
  • Biznode - Failed attempt to build a project management app like Basecamp.
  • Ravejoint - Managed to convince John to join me and build a food/restaurant review site. Plan was to sell ads from restaurants. Didn't work out.
  • Switched to consulting and built yet another CMS for Freeform. (KLue, Junkonline & Tongue in Chic)
  • Showtimes.my - Our take on how movie showtimes site should be like. Probably our most popular site.
  • Zoecity - Joined a US start-up that is based mostly in Kuala Lumpur. Built a few products ranging from social network to news aggregator to social sharing service.
  • Startnow.com.my - Attempted to build a site for entrepreneurs and action-takers. Another failed attempt. No traction at all. 
  • 2 months contract with Says.my. Awesome company and culture.

I left out a few projects here and there but I think it is safe to say that I'm following my effort and it's definitely my passion too.

I'm not a rockstar web developer by any standards but knowing that this is what I love to do and I'm good enough to make a living out of it, is all that I need to keep going.

I really really love building stuff on the web. What about you? Is your effort inline with your passion?

Pricing models for different types of product

by TS Lim

Read it Later recently relaunch as Pocket and moved from a paid up-front pricing model (iOS apps) to freemium. Nate Weiner (developer of Read It Later/Pocket) posted an insightful article on why they decided to make the jump.

He categorized products into 3 simple categories.

  1. Those that value fade over time like a meal. When you are hungry, it is worth more to you. After you consume it, not so much.
  2. Some products' value stay constant over time. The example he gave was newspapers subscription that shows up at your front door daily
  3. Products with value that grows over time. These are things that you don't see much value at the beginning but as you keep using it, they become more and more valuable to you. (e.g. services like Evernote & Dropbox)

He realized that Read It Later was charging up-front like a meal but its actual value increases over time. By using the freemium model, they can also madeit easier for new users to give Pocket a try without committing anything up-front.

Lesson learned here is to determine the type of value your product delivers over time then choose the matching pricing model.

Pricing in reverse

by TS Lim

Quite often, entrepreneurs build their product first before coming up with a price. Here's an interesting article on why we should do the reverse. Determine the price first then try to justify it. This is makes a lot of sense for those of you who sells your product online.

wrong: build something and then figure out how much you can charge. right: choose your desired price, then figure out how to justify it. -- Amy Hoy (@amyhoy

What's your evil plan?

by TS Lim

Finally got to read Hugh Macleod second book, Evil Plans. It is about why you should be doing things that you really love and care about. Hugh's Evil Plan is similar to a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). He also shares some interesting marketing strategies he used. Must read for anybody he wants more from their work.

"It has never been easier to make a great living doing what you love. But to make it happen, first you need an EVIL PLAN. Everybody needs to get away from lousy bosses, from boring, dead-end jobs that they hate, and ACTUALLY start doing something they love, something that matters. Life is short." -Hugh MacLeod  

Coming up with an EVIL PLAN is definitely fun and exciting but remember it is still only a plan until you do something about it.