Yep, it’s been that soon since myBurgerLab hit the first 365 days mark. It has been an unforgettable eventful year. Seriously, the insane-ness of how things have revolve still caught me jaw drop.
Started with uncertainty, fear, with sometimes fake confidence has now evolve to commitment to create and make a difference to many. The journey of an entrepreneur is really not a joyride and the prices that one has to pay is sometimes a lot. My friend, Aaron Hee, sent me an article once which very much relates to what we called ourselves sometimes as Entrepreneurshit. To be honest, the E word is just a term. It’s your actions in the end that counts. Of course you will feel afraid, fear, uncertain, with all the what-ifs flocking into your head whenever you feel like doing/creating something. But I guess if one does not want to regret of not trying over one’s death bed, then all these adrenaline of fear will turn into “Screw it, Let’s Do It” and see what happens. If you ain’t dead, there’s really nothing much worse in life. Look at Nick Vujicic! We just have to stretch ourselves and break through that resistance to see how far we can go. Cleaning the grease trap was definitely a breakthrough for me and I always believe if I can do that, I can do anything.
I’m thankful for meeting 2 great partners in this course of my journey. Having gone through ups and downs from the times we had at Red Bean Bag to what we have today is just one hell of journey. We still joke about the burnt buns that we did at Red Bean Bag and how we had to work till super late in the first week of opening. Fun memories, tiring ones though. Sure, there’s always bound to conflict at times, and I guess that’s how we get to know each other better and learn to grow. I believe the key for us to really to focus on things which are bigger than ourseleves – customers, staff, community.
I always mention this to my friends, the best joy I have at myBurgerLab (apart from serving customers) is seeing who my staff has become ever since the first day they stepped into our team. Their willingness and drive to learn, build their character, provide good customer service, improve themselves and also the process, create different flavor burgers, create piece of art, contribute to the economy, and to work hard and play hard at the same time. With the average age of 23, these Geeks (that’s what we call ourselves as here at the Lab) will go far in life with these qualities in them.
The next 365 will be a very challenging one. Statistics has shown that 70% of startups never get past their 3rd year and half of the survival will get made through the 5 years. We definitely want to be longer than 5 years to create a community business which thrives on good food and service with awesome staff. Without any working experience of more than 6 months in a single corporation, everyday is a new learning experience for me, especially when it comes to managing people.
My 2 month experience in Piceri (headhunting) has definitely thought me how to search for talents, interview candidates, screen through them, develop them and to really see that jobs creation can really make a difference to a lot of people out there. Then came the 4 months stint at PwC where I learnt about the accounting process and controls to kickstart BurgerLab’s backend. I guess the long hours in the audit line did also prep me to cope through serving in an FnB outlet. @auditors – if you think Audit is bad, try the FnB industry. The next 6 months advertising internship at Wunderman,NYC was a fruitful one. The biggest learning I get from working in Wunderman was really seeing through how companies are actually willing to spend a potload of money for results which they do not have control on and it’s really left to fate which hopes that the Ad campaigns can make it. Since then, I always believed that if that cost is to be put into staff training and product development, it would be very much well spent. And I have to thank Trevor Owens and team for teaching me the Lean Startup Methodology – the biggest takeaway I have really gotten from NYC, which then we applied it into myBurgerLab. It’s definitely a weekend well spent there. And I have to say, the energy in New York is really intense. Coming back here back then feels so much different.
I shall part now by saying thanks to all our customers for the support, our Geeks for the awesome hard work, all the people who mentored me before and made a difference in my life (especially you Milestone folks 😉 ) and my family for supporting me into this.
If you have something in your mind and you have yet to start, my advice would be stop “Mind Mastrubation” and just take action.
Six simple words to ask yourself – “What are you committed in creating” and it will lead the way.