What do I get from spending my precious 1 week stay to learn about entrepreneurship?
Becoming a zombie was not great as it seems.
I am more of a hard worker, able to not sleep long hours as long as my task can be completed on time. But this was too much, from my previous post, I felt really like giving up. The business competition was too stressful because there was practically no effectual leader to lead so no tasks were being done :(
My team prefered not to decide earlier on who to lead (suprise suprise) so it was hard to get the steam up. There was no effectual leadership in the team so I realized I had to step in because without it, no work can be done. But I guess, by the time I stepped in, it was just too late. The real work had not been done for the past few days and business ideas were a mess.
I learned that sometimes we just need to step in to manage the company and leaders should be selected earlier so the team can function as he/she lead the team.
In a company, we need capable people. There are few types of people in a team, at the very best end was the "Make it happen" type of people, followed by "Help it happen", "Watch it happen", "Hold it back" type of people and finally "OMDB (Over My Dead Body)" at the end of the normal distribution curve line. The "Make it happen" will influence the "Help it happen" type of people so that this kind of people can indirectly influence "Watch it happen" type to get the job done.
My team lacked accountants. Wanna be my accountant? :)
**
Global Entrepreneurship Training 2011 or GET 11 was organized by Handong Global University under the sponsorship of UNESCO from February 6 till February 12. As the only participant from Malaysia in a training comprising over 38 nationalities from as diverse as Kenya, UAE and Canada, I am trully blessed to be given this opportunity to spend time in my otherwise monotonous holiday vacation.
I had no expectation on how I am going to achieve when I first arrived, I am more into learning and starting my very own burger stand (just kidding. hehe) business. I felt I was a kindy student participating in some big-boys training because a majority are doing masters and PhD while I? A sophomore only until next month, so techically speaking, just a freshman.
How did I fare? Great. Able to speak is one thing, able to deliver what you want to say is more important. But constant sleep deprivation did take a huge toll on my mood and concentration. Wah... It was hard to say but added up with stress and endless hours of workload. It was really tough.
Oh, now the schedule of my training. On the very first day, I went to Pohang alone, the rest of my KNU friends decided to take bus but I took train, actually I took train because the time fit my gym schedule. I had to leave my home for train at 1pm so during the time before it, I went to gym and exercised like shit. Reached Pohang at almost 4.30 pm and had a short orientation. After that, we had an opening ceremony with some nice dinner.
First day, my classes were Entrepreneurship mindset, Impact of Entrepreneurship and Creative Inovation and a small lecture by a professor that created "Super Corn". He was really a nationalist because he was more of my-own-country-first mentality and was frank to say, he rather help his own country than other poor country first. hmmn. Then we had Social Entrepreneurship lecture and ended up with a group introduction of my fateful team.
We really did not sleep early today and like most days, we (not everyone though...) slept at 3.30 am and woke up at 6.30 am (only me, I think) to start off our day at 7.30am. Second day was about learning how to start up a business and writing business plan, and continued with finance and accounting. I had to admit, of all the lectures, I really dislike accountancy (How ironic too when I took Diploma in Accountancy last time...). My thoughts were like, "Come on!, lets hire an accountant and let him do the job la..." so I was staring at the blank empty screen in front of me.
Next was marketing. It was not a difficult lecture and was continued by Business Plan Writing and Review followed by presentation. I did the presentation. Slept late again. Third day was more relaxed, we had business law (I like law) and ways to raise capital for business. My eyes were opened because I was more interested in raising money to start my future business than anything. How to start a burger stand if I have no money to buy chicken patties and the cooking tools. Should I ask mama? or investors? :)
We had a field trip to POSCO factory (this is my "millionth" time there so IT REALLY WAS BORING!) and we visited the mayor of Pohang city. He spoke in Korean spoken only during the olden days, as if he was mumbling at the wall. Nevertheless, quite a long speech but my concentration was really at the very least. 4th day of sleep deprivation. At night, we had "Culture Night" but I had nothing to perform, can't dance, too shy (haha) so just sat there and watched.
5th day was about Business Ethics, International Business and Strategic Planning. Lectures were great but Business Ethics lecture was a bit an eye-opener. Sometimes what we do in life depended on our actions and consciences. Is it wrong to send birthday gift to your business associate (example: banker) that will be deciding your company future funding? Is it wrong to pretend losing a game of goft after betting with your banker?
After that lecture, we continue with business plan writing until 8pm where we presented our ideas to the judges (almost everyday). As usual, I presented my team's case and slept late again. I envied my roomate when I saw him sleeping so soundly at almost 4 am. Woke up at 7 am and readied for the next class on the 6th day. First lecture was Business Communication (the professor was entertaining), then E-commerce (I like this class) and lastly intellectual property (worth attending). Classes finished at 7pm but I continued my task till the very next day - The D day, Business Plan Competition.
In total, I slept less than 3/2 hours per day, skipped 2 dinners due to project commitments and spent time staring at my laptop searching for things not related to my science major. It was interesting and brings back my high school Young Enterprise memories but I realised that the scope of the business was harder than in high school. Our team had to search for business law, in my case, since our company is going to be located in China, we searched for China's business law. Equipments too we need to gather, so we search for our product manufacturing equiptments through alibaba.com and the competitive market pricing together with per tonnage cost of raw materials.
Ah~ Competitive pricing, market survey, location, executive business summary, investors' profiles, SWOT analysis... Frankly, it was tough. I did learn many new things, meet many new people of different characters and most importantly, I survived sleep deprivation.. not turning into a walking zombie anytime soon..
Becoming a zombie was not great as it seems.
I am more of a hard worker, able to not sleep long hours as long as my task can be completed on time. But this was too much, from my previous post, I felt really like giving up. The business competition was too stressful because there was practically no effectual leader to lead so no tasks were being done :(
My team prefered not to decide earlier on who to lead (suprise suprise) so it was hard to get the steam up. There was no effectual leadership in the team so I realized I had to step in because without it, no work can be done. But I guess, by the time I stepped in, it was just too late. The real work had not been done for the past few days and business ideas were a mess.
I learned that sometimes we just need to step in to manage the company and leaders should be selected earlier so the team can function as he/she lead the team.
In a company, we need capable people. There are few types of people in a team, at the very best end was the "Make it happen" type of people, followed by "Help it happen", "Watch it happen", "Hold it back" type of people and finally "OMDB (Over My Dead Body)" at the end of the normal distribution curve line. The "Make it happen" will influence the "Help it happen" type of people so that this kind of people can indirectly influence "Watch it happen" type to get the job done.
My team lacked accountants. Wanna be my accountant? :)
**
Global Entrepreneurship Training 2011 or GET 11 was organized by Handong Global University under the sponsorship of UNESCO from February 6 till February 12. As the only participant from Malaysia in a training comprising over 38 nationalities from as diverse as Kenya, UAE and Canada, I am trully blessed to be given this opportunity to spend time in my otherwise monotonous holiday vacation.
I had no expectation on how I am going to achieve when I first arrived, I am more into learning and starting my very own burger stand (just kidding. hehe) business. I felt I was a kindy student participating in some big-boys training because a majority are doing masters and PhD while I? A sophomore only until next month, so techically speaking, just a freshman.
How did I fare? Great. Able to speak is one thing, able to deliver what you want to say is more important. But constant sleep deprivation did take a huge toll on my mood and concentration. Wah... It was hard to say but added up with stress and endless hours of workload. It was really tough.
Oh, now the schedule of my training. On the very first day, I went to Pohang alone, the rest of my KNU friends decided to take bus but I took train, actually I took train because the time fit my gym schedule. I had to leave my home for train at 1pm so during the time before it, I went to gym and exercised like shit. Reached Pohang at almost 4.30 pm and had a short orientation. After that, we had an opening ceremony with some nice dinner.
First day, my classes were Entrepreneurship mindset, Impact of Entrepreneurship and Creative Inovation and a small lecture by a professor that created "Super Corn". He was really a nationalist because he was more of my-own-country-first mentality and was frank to say, he rather help his own country than other poor country first. hmmn. Then we had Social Entrepreneurship lecture and ended up with a group introduction of my fateful team.
We really did not sleep early today and like most days, we (not everyone though...) slept at 3.30 am and woke up at 6.30 am (only me, I think) to start off our day at 7.30am. Second day was about learning how to start up a business and writing business plan, and continued with finance and accounting. I had to admit, of all the lectures, I really dislike accountancy (How ironic too when I took Diploma in Accountancy last time...). My thoughts were like, "Come on!, lets hire an accountant and let him do the job la..." so I was staring at the blank empty screen in front of me.
Next was marketing. It was not a difficult lecture and was continued by Business Plan Writing and Review followed by presentation. I did the presentation. Slept late again. Third day was more relaxed, we had business law (I like law) and ways to raise capital for business. My eyes were opened because I was more interested in raising money to start my future business than anything. How to start a burger stand if I have no money to buy chicken patties and the cooking tools. Should I ask mama? or investors? :)
We had a field trip to POSCO factory (this is my "millionth" time there so IT REALLY WAS BORING!) and we visited the mayor of Pohang city. He spoke in Korean spoken only during the olden days, as if he was mumbling at the wall. Nevertheless, quite a long speech but my concentration was really at the very least. 4th day of sleep deprivation. At night, we had "Culture Night" but I had nothing to perform, can't dance, too shy (haha) so just sat there and watched.
5th day was about Business Ethics, International Business and Strategic Planning. Lectures were great but Business Ethics lecture was a bit an eye-opener. Sometimes what we do in life depended on our actions and consciences. Is it wrong to send birthday gift to your business associate (example: banker) that will be deciding your company future funding? Is it wrong to pretend losing a game of goft after betting with your banker?
After that lecture, we continue with business plan writing until 8pm where we presented our ideas to the judges (almost everyday). As usual, I presented my team's case and slept late again. I envied my roomate when I saw him sleeping so soundly at almost 4 am. Woke up at 7 am and readied for the next class on the 6th day. First lecture was Business Communication (the professor was entertaining), then E-commerce (I like this class) and lastly intellectual property (worth attending). Classes finished at 7pm but I continued my task till the very next day - The D day, Business Plan Competition.
In total, I slept less than 3/2 hours per day, skipped 2 dinners due to project commitments and spent time staring at my laptop searching for things not related to my science major. It was interesting and brings back my high school Young Enterprise memories but I realised that the scope of the business was harder than in high school. Our team had to search for business law, in my case, since our company is going to be located in China, we searched for China's business law. Equipments too we need to gather, so we search for our product manufacturing equiptments through alibaba.com and the competitive market pricing together with per tonnage cost of raw materials.
Ah~ Competitive pricing, market survey, location, executive business summary, investors' profiles, SWOT analysis... Frankly, it was tough. I did learn many new things, meet many new people of different characters and most importantly, I survived sleep deprivation.. not turning into a walking zombie anytime soon..
2 comments:
your bf is a nice chap :) hmmn, u should really go but whether you can handle not sleeping everyday is another thing. lol.
Hi thanks for poosting this
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