Of Steve Jobs , Amway and Seniors

These past few days have been another huge emotional roller-coaster ride for me . I expected that much . The initial high of reaching a new foreign country with a lot of expectations , led by outburst of tears due to the realization that my life is never gonna be the same again after this ( I will not be able to stay with my same roommate , living in the same hostel with other friends and  attend classes with my present coursemates ) , subsequently followed by the mundane routines after finally settling in . It has been one hell of a ride out of my comfort zone , that's for sure . 

But then again , isn't that what I asked for at the first place ? 

***
In the recent days , after finally settling in NUS , another train of thoughts began to arrive . 
Great , now I am in most prestigious university in Singapore , now what ? 

I always believed that if you want something so badly , the universe will conspire to make it happen . And of course there's a quote that tells you to be careful of what you wish for . This is the best case in point that proves my belief . I used to think that if given a few months of solitary life , with me fixing my own schedules and timetable for at least 3 months or so , catering the schedule to my whimsical demands to be as productive as possible ( Think back of the old school timetable that every hour is filled with a subject , e.g 10 am to 12 am : Maths , and so forth , replace those subjects with the things that you want to learn ) , and adhering to that strict schedule , I could achieve ANYTHING . So , I asked for that freedom of time and space . And I got exactly what I wanted .

Well , not really that perfect . The fact is , I still need to allocate time for my studies , which isn't too bad because I was partly still interested in the subjects I am taking . Nevertheless , besides my schooling days and having the need to complete tutorials , assignments and studying for exam , I still have a lot of time left , I reckon . So what do I did with those freedom of space and time ?

First of all , readings . A lot of readings . I am not really a studious type by nature , but I am really interested in non-fiction books , especially biography books about successful person or books that offer personal and practical insights that will help in my self-improvement journey . On that note , I would like to highlight that the Central Library in NUS is such a amazing treasure trove of knowledge . They have all the most fantastic books that you won't expect to find in conventional Library . Case in point : Steve Job's autobiography by Walter Isaacson ! I literally wanted to scream when I saw it in the library . Immediately , I borrowed it without hesitation and found out that even us , the exchange students are allowed to borrowed up to a maximum of 20 books , and we can literally borrow them forever ( provided that we keep renewing them and no one reserved the books ) . 

The whole experience was fantastic , and this book was a good read for sure . Turning into such books for my entertainment , I found great joy in partially living Jobs life through Isaacson's narrative . After reading it , a lot of thoughts raced through my mind . While I enjoyed the charismatic salesman side of him and also his infectious passion in getting things done , his way , I am not really a fan of his fastidious personality , especially when it concerns an trivial matter such as the colours of machines in his factory . Jobs' reality distortion field especially is a very noteworthy ability that is a recurrent theme that contributed to his stellar achievements . And then there's his binary mentality where everyone is either a hero , or a bozo ( US slang for someone stupid . or in Steve's word , piece of shit ) . 



In reading this book , there are times where I would really feel he's a jerk , and there are times where I would unceremoniously be blown away by what he did .However , after finishing this book , no matter how much you read about his misdeeds and his jerkish attitude , there's no way anyone can deny that Steve Job has indeed leaved a lasting legacy and in his own words , has " put a dent in the universe" . It's an amazing journey and I am deeply touched by his life story . I can't help but to ponder and draw comparisons between our lives . He achieved his first millions around my age , and has been able to live out his dreams and stay true to it throughout his entire life . What am I doing ? or a more abstract question would be , what are we doing with our lives ?

This leads us to the second thing that I have been doing of late : day dreaming . It's in most people's nature to day dream , to ponder and wonder about everything under the sun when given the time and space to do so . I happened to be one of those people . With the newly acquired freedom of time ( only 2 schooling days per week ) and space ( each of us live in a single room in our hostel )  , the more imaginative and creative side of me took over whenever possible and I indulged in my dreams , ambitions and all sorts of imagination possible. Reading books like the above mentioned ones just served to intensify and flourishes those thoughts . I would be thinking of how to leave my own mark in this world , how I would be able create my own reality distortion field,  and many more silly and too embarrassing things to be mentioned in this blog .

But I relishes every second , every moment spent in this solitary confine in between four corners of the room . The solitary moments spent here gave me ample time to reflect , to learn , and ultimately improve myself to reach a greater height . In the previous posts , I have posted before about the power of introvert . And I strongly believe that only when an introvert's alone , he is at the peak of his creativity and learning capability . Yet, sometimes I would be itching to use those extra time to go out and work , earn some money and hopefully learn something .

This brings us to my first foray into business in Singapore ( sort of ) . I was introduced to this business by one of my good seniors back in my home university . He was telling me about this great business opportunity and he has a partner in Singapore that is eager to meet me to explain about this business . I asked him is it multi-level marketing (mlm) ? To be more specific , I asked if it was Amway . He did not reply me but merely hinted that it was a nice opportunity . Oh well , when facts and figures failed , I guess you just have to rely on trust . Trust I did . Being the opportunist that I am , and tempted by the prospect of earning some part time income ( in singapore dollar , no less ) , I went for it.

And it turned out to be Amway , or more specifically Amway Global . The moment that supposedly very successful businesswoman started dishing out the standard operating procedure (sop) , I knew it straight away that it was a mlm . For the uninitiated , the sop of mlm basically goes something like this : 
1) They ask you about your dream , coaxing you to think about the prospect of having your   
     dreams fulfilled , without trading your precious time for money 
2) They tell you the "reality" of the working environment now , harsh ,retrenchment , insecurity , 
     etc 
3) They tell you to imagine how their mlm can help you , by introducing you the concept of 
     passive income , buying from your own stores.. and etc. 

Or something similar . You see , the less adept mlm salesman sells products , while the more capable , adroit ones sell dreams . More often than not , the salesman that sells dreams and knows how to manipulate the mindset of the customers are the one that are successful.

Even I was nearly coaxed into their trap . But then again , I wouldn't say that mlm is a scam too . In fact , I myself have been a mlm marketer , an Amway distributor in the past  . I was first introduced about this mlm concept back in 2010 by a distant friend . Eversince then , I knew it wouldn't work for me , not at this age at least .

You see , in order to succeed in a multi-level marketing business  , which works like a pyramid scheme , you have to achieve either one of these 2 things :
1) Be on top of the pyramid , i.e be one of the early pioneers
2) Get a lot of downlines that will continuously fund your income.

No matter how much they sugarcoat and disguise the mlm as a "beautiful" business , and telling people that they are doing a "noble" job to educate people to buy from their own stores ( amway case ) , the reality is this : This is a business , and a business's core function is to be profitable . There could never be a win-win situation , where everyone profits and the company itself is hemorrhaging money . No , this is a business . So , this being the case , what are the sources of revenues for mlm then ? In the case of Amway , their main source of revenues are the weekly seminars , meetings , and monthly gathering of all hardcore pro-Amway supporters in a luxurious venue , showcasing all the already successful pioneers . 

In fact , I was really shocked by the cult-like status that Amway have gained with their brainwashed zombies lookalike supporters when I first attend an Amway meeting . An even more surprising fact is that there are highly educated people such as doctors , lawyers and other trained professionals supporting this business . I can only conclude two things based on this observation , people who are doing Amway are either one of these two types :

1) Naive , young people who have been brainwashed to genuinely believe that MLM type of 
    business is the best business to "help" liberate others and themselves from their suffering  
    and dependency of money .
2) Realistic business people who have no concerns for their conscience or guilt feelings 
    whatsoever who are willing to preach the wrong things and coax them into joining the 
    business and continuously "maintain" them to fund their living .

Don't get me wrong . I am not condemning the mlm or saying that it's a scam or anything . It's a real , legal business alright , and one that can return a handsome profit if being done correctly too . However , I would just like to point out the fact that a business is a business , and mlm is a business of coaxing people into paying for your living . No doubt some Amway products are nice and of great quality . If you're a great fan of its products , it's perfectly fine to buy them and use them for your own sake . However , it is when someone started selling this idea to others and coax them into taking money out to buy those audio cds , books , attending seminars  , meetings and etc , all that under the false pretext of "helping them" , that is when things get ugly . Personally , I find it disgusting and sickening . The true nature of this business is after all getting people below you ( downlines ) to pay for your lifestyle . Otherwise , how will the money come about ? 

The "motivational" cds , books , seminars , meetings and other miscellaneous events are merely clever marketing gimmicks which are meant to take the money out of your pocket and put it into theirs.  Personally , I feel that if you truly wanted advice and motivations , you can just find them in the web , or go confide with a close friend or so . You don't really have to waste money attending talks to "empower" you temporarily . Oh well , but that's my opinion anyway.

In one of the lectures that I have attended lately , my lecturer pointed out a very important point in doing business , that is , we have to understand that everybody have different operating ranges . For example , one person who is ideal for managing small start-up companies may not be ideal in being the CEO of a multi national company . Similarly , someone who is already born to be self-motivated might not understand why people needs to attend talks to be motivated .

On a separate note , there are some silver linings behind the cloud . If it wasn't for this business proposal , I wouldn't possibly be meeting a direct senior of mine ( senior who already graduated from the same university who took the same course as me last time ) who are working in Singapore now . And this meeting would be the trigger of a chain of events that will lead to me having a kick start of fulfilling one of my dream of interning in a multinational company here . 

Dang , I love good people . I love great seniors . Ultimately , I love how life seems to already have a good plan for me , just waiting for me to really set my mind on it and shows me the road that I am supposed to walk on . In a way , I am crafting my own future , by passionately wishing for what I want . That being said , I am loving every single moment of my life now , and I have no doubts that it would only be better . For now , I can only keep on waiting and wishing that my dreams and ambitions will be fulfilled , and the universe will do the rest , I guess ?

Here's to a brighter , better future . Oh yeah , to all of you beloved readers , Happy Chinese New Year in advance ! Gong Xi Fa Cai , Hong Pao Na lai * give me your red packets ! hehe * ! Here's a fancy video to brighten your day :) Thank Lord for good people . :)