In my 2nd year at university in London, I used to share a flat with two girls there, one named Julia, a British-Born Chinese
and another Gene whom I happened to meet for lunch just a few weeks ago (and whom I can’t seem to find a picture of at the moment.. ish).
Just like a lot of my other friends, Gene has now come back to be a very high-flying professional, a lawyer… at one of the best law firms in Malaysia.
As we sat down for lunch at Carls Junior exchanging stories of what we’ve been up to since graduation, Gene suddenly found the courage to say
“Tim… you’re very different now from how you were back at university.”
I raised an eyebrow
“Huh?? You mean different as in fatter? Yes I know I’m fat now”.
And she replied
“No… different as in.. you used to be a very happy person. Now you often look very tensed up and stressed and we can’t even have a proper lunch ON A SUNDAY because you keep getting all these phone calls from clients”.
I was appalled.. is my work taking over me.. beginning to consume me as a person?
I took it lightly until recently when I was in Bangkok I got into a fight with *ahem* because we spent our last day in Bangkok in the hotel room while I talked business in the hotel room rather than actually going out.
Same fight different day lah.
“You’re on HOLIDAY!!! Why can’t you just forget all that now?”
“I have to work lah! How do you think I earn the money to come here in the first place?”
So now that I know that maybe… just maybe it is possible that I’ve started losing it and becoming very addicted to work but to say that I am very different from who I was a few years ago back at university is….. shocking.
Okay why don’t you guys be the judge.
This is how I looked like 5 years ago.
Hahahaha no I’m kidding. That’s my friend Joe who went to Cambridge University.
Okay.. THIS is how I looked like 5 years ago (on the left).
This is how I looked like 4 years ago (second from the left).
This is how I looked like 3 years ago
This is how I looked like 2 years ago (the one on the right).
This is how I looked like 1 year ago (the one on the left… duh the one on the right of course) 😛
And this is how I look like today.
Do I look any less happier?
I don’t really see why and I can’t really see why I should. Sure I tend to work a lot sometimes at the oddest hours but I love my work because I love the people it involves.
I love my colleagues at Nuffnang who are also passionate, full of energy and always happy to crack a joke.
I love some of my clients who pay us money but yet treat me like their closest friends.
I love some of the nicest bloggers out there who are ever so supportive of what Nuffnang does.
So what is there not to love about work?
Ming in one of his previous internet ventures had this tagline
“If you ain’t fun, you aren’t doing it right”.
I think maybe… just maybe… we’re doing it right.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space