How I started my company in Japan

Meanwhile back at home on the 3rd floor where I started the company - its now my home workspace where I'm accompanied by Mirai and Kizuna.

 

Over the years ever since I started my company, I would be so envious whenever I visited my clients offices - seeing a load of warm bodies in large offices all working together towards a common goal. I got particularly envious when I visited the Comic Fiesta Offices in KL which are so stylish!

 

For so many years my company only made enough to make ends meet and without cashflow it was difficult to grow fast. I didnt want to take investment from anybody because I didn't create this company to be a machine to churn out money just so that I could buy fast cars and expensive apartments.

 

In most cases, folks invest in your company upon understanding what your exit strategy is which is either to sell the company or go IPO. Neither of these two options interested me - I'm already pushing 40 now and am not about to sell my life away.

 

Another reason I started this company is to be honest why a lot of other bosses start their company - so that they don't have to listen to others ^^

 

Amazon hired me to run the technology side of website development - they paid my salary so its only natural that I listen to and execute tasks that are given to me and I was perfectly fine with that.

Its not that I don't like listening to others - its just that I had my own vision of creating something that was not possible while working for others.

 

I feel that taking investment means that I would effectively go back to being a salaryman listening to investors with the pressure of money on my shoulders and that is not how I want to live the rest of my life. It is rare that you would find an investor who gives you money to splurge without their say. Oh wait there is KickStarter and Indiegogo for that ^^

 

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with working for others and in fact I think that it is essential that you go out and get work experience. I learned so much during my corporate years especially at Amazon where I discovered a lot about my skill set and what I wanted to do in life.

 

As for the staff at my company - I'm under no illusion that everybody will stay forever and realize that folks will want to move on (just like I did) but while staff are working for me, I want to make sure that I provide the platform and environment that will enable them to grow, learn and do cool things at influence millions of consumers at the same time.

 

There was a sacrifice that I had to make to attain the freedom that I have right now which was to cut off my life support systems. Giving up a steady paycheck is not something folks like to do willy nilly as money pays for our basic human needs of food and shelter.

 

However, if there was one piece of advice I would give to folks who are interested in building a career - that would be to make sure you could start all over again if you lost your job or everything.

This not only involves making sure you got off site backups of your data but also making sure you equip yourself with skills from Google Sensei and a network of people who need your skills.

 

While the future was uncertain, starting my own company was like setting sail on an exciting adventure. I expected to encounter rough stormy seas but even if I became shipwrecked I would be able to build a new boat assuming that I land on a deserted island that at least had a few trees - I call that island Google ^^;

 

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