Well, I believe I have the DNA gene of entrepreneurship since I was born. I was in Standard 4 when I first started to sell nasik lemak at my school canteen. And of course I was chased out of the canteen afterthat! When I took my degree in 1999, I was selling hotdogs and cigarette. Now this was a very profiting business as I was earning more than 1k per month; taking into account that I’m not a smoker J. After graduating, I worked for various agencies and K-Economy Melaka was the last one. I left K-Economy and started my own biz in system development and designing. At times I wish I had left my previous job earlier. It had somehow suck my energy and effort big time. But God has other plan for me.
Talking about role model…ermmmm…let me see….ah it’s definitely Richard Branson!! I like his attitude and the ”go to hell with what other people think and just do the damn thing!” motto. J
MyPotPet falls under the social preneur category where making profit is the second objective. The idea behind MyPotPet is to get people, especially younger generations, value the existence of other creature, well in this case its those endangered species.
To be honest, it’s more than that. It’s how we see the nature, how we want to preserve them, understanding the threats and challenges that they have to overcome in order just to keep alive. Awareness is just a part of it, and the other is taking action.
By participating in MyPotPet, they will literally learn about this endangered species, the nature, habitat, social life and so on. For me, Facebook game is one way to approach people. In Malaysia, there are about 6,484,900 people who are an active facebook user. If we take 1% of that amount as those who play MyPotPet, we are looking at 64849 potential customers.
In business, If you have a database of 60,000 customers, you can literally survive. And bear in mind that the number is just for Malaysian only.
I see there’s a huge potential in Facebook games and application. And as I said earlier, it’s not just about profit, its having a community that shares the same passion. People might say we are opportunist, because we make profit from others sympathy and passion, we say “I need money to feed my children”.
First, this is not the out of the world technology that we are talking at. Its a flash based game intented to be played at facebook. The only thing that makes it different is the creativity and the good cause that serves as a blanket for the game. Seriuos, nothing extravaganza, no 3D, CGI technique, its a plain piece of game on flash. Period.
I’m positive about things especially in business. Maybe i’m doing ok now because I’m actually riding the wave. But technology change very fast. I can’t predict what is goig to happen in a 5 years time. But my strategy is to be flexible. The idea must be flexible, the team must be flexible, the plaform, the business model, they must be flexible. Otherwise I’m going to keep on repairing a sinking boat. And I’m sure I’m not going to do that.
Generating an idea has much to do with your daily routine and also your experience. There are times when we feel that we could improve something, and that something is what we always use. Take Wonderpet for example, its not a 3D cartoon..and heck its not even a normal 2D cartoon either! But the most important thing is message that is being delivered. So, the best part of the idea is not the fancy look and the high end technology, but it’s the message and the content.
An idea is important, sharing the idea with the correct person is also important. Yes, you can keep your idea to yourself and you can secretly work the idea on your basement, but at the end of the day, is that what you really want?
Socialising is another way to get idea. No man is an island for himself.
My advice for wannabe Contentpreneur is Get a life!!! Hahaha!! Ok, o.k. 2 cent advice is don’t think outside of the box. Everybody knows that, and heck there are lot of people are doing the same thing. What you really need to is tear the box, cut it into pieces and burn it. In layman English, just do the damn thing!
