I have finally jumped on the bandwagon and become a smartphone user. Before that, my phone was strictly for calls and and sms.

Now I can check my emails on the go, surf the net, peep at facebook, take photographs (5 MP with AF and flash), play games, wi-fi tethering (using my phone as a modem) and lots more. This phone becomes my entertainment companion! No more boring rides on the MRT or buses. LOL.

I knew iPhone 4 is coming out soon. No doubt it’s a very sleek-looking phone with lots of apps and new features. But I hate to use a product that is so commonly adopted by the masses. I read from some articles saying that Singapore has the highest penetration rate for iPhone: 1 out 10 mobile users are using it.So it’s a no-no for me.

Well, I am very pleased with my Samsung Wave till now. So far so good….

I was living a routine lifestyle from 7-25 years old, going through the standard Singapore education system. From PSLE to O levels to A levels to National Service to 4-year university degree course.

You get what I mean? I had to study 4 years to get O levels cert, another 2 freaking years to get my A levels cert, another 2.5 torturing years to serve the nation and then the university years. I knew what lies ahead. For majority of the people, I can predict the future for them.

I know what lies ahead for them as well – that is after graduation, work your ass off until you are 65 and retire. In between that, there will be a lot of grumbles: salary is too little, no time, work’s stressful, boss sucks, colleagues suck, incompetent people get promoted etc. Blah blah blah.

For me, after I graduated, life is no longer a straight path. I really have the freedom to do whatever I want. I chose the entrepreneurship route. And never in my whole life will I thought that I will be doing business in Cambodia.

Whether it’s my internet marketing biz or my cafe… I create my own path. I make my own decisions. Whether I fail or succeed, I am the one responsible.

That’s what I call – LIFE

You get to choose what you want to be, where you want to be and how you want to be.

That’s what make life exciting isn’t it? Of course, you need people to give you opportunities and a little bit of luck as well to complete the whole picture.

Dare to dream, dare to fail and live the life you want.

So, my life kinda just started! LOL

Will be flying back to Phnom Penh again on 20th March 2010.

It feels good to be back home. Nothing much to complain. Singapore is still the very best (maybe except the weather).

My cafe is finally opened. Well, technically speaking… it’s not a pure cafe anymore. I would prefer to call it an eating house that serve good coffee! LOL. Our cafe serve Hainanese chicken rice, Singapore curry, Japanese curry katsu, pork floss buns, Kaya toasts etc.

I can’t say our chicken rice is “up there” with ChatterBox, but many Singaporeans and Malaysians residing in Phnom Penh commented that our chicken rice is good. Maybe it has been a long time since they tasted authentic Hainanese chicken rice, cos’ basically the so-called chicken rice there suck. LOL.

Things I learnt while doing business – Don’t trust anybody. Not even fellow Singaporeans. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.

Just for your information… the alcohol I consumed in Phnom Penh is more than the alcohol I drank in my whole life in Singapore.

Lack of sleep. Been running here and there to get stuffs and getting things done. And things are especially difficult because my partners and I have no experience in setting up a brick and mortar business and in F&B industry.

A lot of Singaporeans and Malaysians who are in Phnom Penh say we are very “adventurous” and have the “guts”.

Seriously, come to think of it, I think we are. We only visited Cambodia a few times and without in-depth market research, we started a business there.

Forget everything you know about doing business in Singapore, it’s totally different in Cambodia.

I lost my temper many times here.  I seldom lose my temper in Singapore. LOL.

I don’t know whether this cafe and succeed or not. Nevertheless, it’s a good experience and I have fun doing the business set-up process.

Besides that, November and December are traditionally slow months for health sites and my income did drop for this period of time. My all time high income was in October.

And along the way, many “unexpected” things happened as well – such as deciding to set up a brick-and-mortar business in Cambodia. My partners and I made a fast decision and before you know it, we are in Phnom Penh.  For the whole of November, I didn’t manage to focus on my Internet business at all, cos’ I was flying too often. What I am glad is that, my online income was still pouring in even though I did not touch it at all for that month.

Having said all these, it’s NOT meant to be an excuse on why I didn’t achieve my goal. I will strive even harder to make sure I achieve it in 2010. In fact, I set up another 2 new sites here in Phnom Penh!

I will juggle between my cafe and my Internet business!

Right now, as I am using the Internet, it is considered a “luxury item”. I am paying about USD$70 per month for an approx. 384kbps speed. My 3 partners and I shared the costs and we take turns to use the Internet.

When we cooped up in Singapore for too long, we tend to take things for granted. We think that our government is not doing enough, our wages are not high enough, things are too expensive, transport system not good enough etc.

Wait till you come to Cambodia. You thoughts will changed.

Singaporeans like to complain on the slightest issues. In my opinions, we are just too pampered. Our Gen Y generation never face hardships. We are fed with a silver spoon since we were born. We have good families, good education, good living environment… basically good life. The only thing we are worried is not getting a grade A for our examinations.

Please complain less and appreciate more. Singapore is really the BEST.

The cafe start-up is not progressing smoothly as we wanted.  Well, I expected that to happen anyway. It’s not so easy to start up a brick and mortar business. I don’t want to talk so much about it… wait till it’s finally done then I will shout it out again. LOL.

For now, let me de-bunk the myth of autopilot income from internet marketing. Yes, it is indeed POSSIBLE. I didn’t do anything on my websites for nearly the whole month of November and my income is still pretty consistent.

I didn’t touch my sites because I was mostly away in Cambodia. Internet access is limited and I can’t do any work. Even when I was back, either I am too tired to touch my internet marketing stuffs or I am busy with my new business start-up.

That’s the power of an Internet business. You do the hard work once, and you get to enjoy the fruits of labour.

I guess it all boils down to my drive to succeed in life.

Let me tell you something – I want to be successful in life.  Well, being “successful” is very subjective. For some people, it may be earning their millions, or it may be getting an Olympics gold medal, or scoring As in their exams and achieve a 1st class honours, or even doing social work that bring warmth to people in need etc.

I am a shallow guy… I use wealth as a benchmark to determine how successful I am. LOL.

Cos’ I don’t like the feeling of being poor. When I mean poor, I don’t mean I don’t have a home or go hungry for 7 days without food. It’s in Singapore context and comparing with some of my peers.

I came from a very humble family. I live in a small 3-room flat (I am still living here). My parents don’t have high education. My father used to work as a construction worker and my mother works in a supermarket. Household income is not high.

Don’t talk about having a car. My parents can’t afford. When I was young, I was very envious of friends whose parents have cars. The parents can fetch them from school.

I don’t get the chance to travel overseas for a leisure trip. It’s a luxury for us. Do you know I first fly on a plane ONLY in June 2007? Again I was envy of my friends whose parents can take them for an overseas trip.

When the PC was getting common in 1996, I was hoping my dad can buy one for me. No… they can’t afford. It’s only when my dad strike a $3000 4D in 1998 that I finally got a PC. I still remembered that my PC was delivered to my house on 24th Dec 1998. It was so damn happy that time. LOL.

I don’t have the money to buy the things I want. I seriously don’t like that feeling.

Although I came from a relatively poor family, my parents provided me all the necessary basic needs. I am grateful for their upbringing.

Maybe this is the reason why I want to be rich and successful in life.

Besides that, my school life was not smooth as well. I was last in class out of 42 people during my upper secondary school days. Erm… I seriously don’t know why my results sucks. No matter how hard I study, I can’t get it. LOL.

The worst thing is – the teachers are not motivating. Some of them just like the smarter students. Even if they do encourage, I feel it’s not sincere. It’s like the sake for doing it only.

Onto JC days, my results still suck as ever. I remembered my Economics teacher said to a few of us: You guys have no time already. You are not going to make it. I paraphrase it, but it’s something along that line. How motivating is that!! F**K him.

I practically suck during my high school and junior college days. Low self-esteem. But deep inside me, I was very angry. I wanted to prove to people and those f**k teachers that I can succeed in life even though I am not good academically.

So, basically from my army days onwards, I tried to look for all sorts of opportunities that can make me money. I know my grades in school suck, and I can’t compete with people who are academically-talented.

It’s these kind of small failures in life that make me very determined to pave a way out.

I don’t come from a well-off family and my grades in school are disastrous. I have nothing to lose anymore.

I don’t want people to look down on me. I want to be as good as other people. I want to afford the things I want to buy. I want to provide a good life for my soon-to-be retiring parents. I want to give my future wife and children a comfortable life.

All these above give me the drive to succeed. And I know that by working as an employee, I can never reach my desired income.

Of course, I know for many of the things I tried, some of them may not be as successful as I want them to be. The important thing is I work towards my goals and dreams.

Ok. This blog post may not be coherent because I just write what I feel without much planning.

It’s a business trip. Well, I can consider it as a leisure trip to a certain extent because it’s my first trip to Cambodia and I got to see a lot of stuffs.

My life gonna be a lot more exciting for the next 2 months as I will be running a cafe there with another 2 partners of mine. I am keeping my fingers crossed. It’s just the beginning and there are a lot of things to be done and get the cafe up and and running.

For the past week, I am only connected to the Internet for a few times and all I can do is to check emails. However, I am glad my income is still pretty consistent. Seriously, I did NO work at all on my sites. Right now they are all running on “auto-pilot”.

I believed for the next few weeks I will be even busier and will have less time for my online business. I will see how it goes. I really want to manage both my online and offline business well though.

Although it’s still in the pre-beginning stage, I can already feel some stress. Doing a traditional business is so much more difficult than an online business. The capital, the planning, the execution etc. There are so many things to be done. And of course, the uncertainties involved. I really salute those entrepreneurs who can make their companies so successful. It’s definitely not easy to get out the comfort zone and venture into the unknown.

But I think the time is ripe for me and also, I would like to try out new things and diversify my income. No risk no gain. As simple as that.