Last night I went to bed before Shorty did. I was just about to doze off when her phone beeped from a WhatsApp and woke me up. I got fed up so I got up, picked up her phone and changed my name in her phone to “Mighty Cock”.

Then I gave her a missed call today.

She called me “irritating”.

But while I was in the shower after work she decided to change her name on my phone and give me a missed call.

The games we play to annoy each other.

Only when you lose someone do you really realize how important someone was to you. That was how… my whole family felt yesterday at my grandfather’s funeral. My grandfather’s name was Tiah Eng Bee.

The family home in which my father grew up along with my aunties and uncles was in the small town of Kluang, Johor. It was a single storey house with just a few rooms where my uncles and aunties would cram together growing up. At the back of the house there were constantly chickens or ducks walking around the house, probably not knowing they would all eventually end up in the kitchen with my grandmother one day. To feed the family.

My grandfather was a politican, the only one in our family till today. During Tunku Abdul Rahman’s time, he ran for elections and became a member of parliament. We had old pictures of him in the 60s, pictures of him campaigning for votes and pictures of him with prime ministers or leaders that we only get to read about in our history books. On one picture he was shaking hands with Tunku Abdul Rahman, another with Tun Hussein Onn and even one with Tun Mahathir.

At the end of his great life, I find myself remembering all the things that my grandfather was… and wasn’t.

My Grandfather was wise

In one of our conversations a few years ago, he praised me for doing well in business but he cautioned me. He said “When you make money, make sure you save enough. Because the opportunity to make money doesn’t always last and the world is a cruel place for people who don’t have money”.

My Grandfather cared.

About 2-3 months ago, I was having a lot of challenges at work and I was really stressed out. My parents knew and I think word got passed down to my grandpa.

I went to visit my sick grandpa one day. There he was laying in bed, gaunt and weak… with hardly the strength to talk to anyone. When I walked in I smiled, shouted “HELLO AH GONG!!!” and waved frantically. We all knew he was too weak to respond but I could see him acknowledging me in his eyes.

Then as he saw me come closer, he opened his mouth and muttered the only few words he could say to me.

“How is your problem?”.

I said I had managed to overcome them and it’s all ok. I could see him breathe a small sign of relief as he slowly slipped back into sleep.

I left his house that day thinking…. that there was my dying grandfather who hardly had the strength to do anything. But he mustered the strength to ask me how my problem was. My grandfather cared.

My Grandfather was honest.

As an MP and a politician, my grandfather was never corrupt and he was never rich. He told us of the many opportunities he had to be corrupt as an MP but he refused to turn on the people who had voted for him. So he never was rich on his own, but he believed his honesty was why he was blessed with successful children that cared for him all the way till his last days on earth.

My grandfather was 89 years old when he passed away 6 days ago. The Tiah family came together to mourn him and to see him off to his final resting place that was on a beautiful spot on a hill in Rawang. He lived not just a long life but a full life. He struggled to raise a family, he served our country and community.

In the end he left behind a legacy in us. His children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I can only hope that I will be able to live a life as full and meaningful as his.

Rest in peace Ah Gong.

Just came back from the ChurpChurp screening of Battleship.

OMG YOU GUYS HAFTA WATCH IT!!!

I mean there are many kinds of great movies. The touching emotional ones, the ones that make you feel all mindf*cked (remember Inception?) and well there are the feel good action ones like Transformers or… Battleship. Almost made me want to join the Navy.

Last Saturday night, I went to pick up my cousin from my grandfather’s home to go to Zouk @ Sepang. I decided to check in on my grandfather so I sneaked into his room only to find him sleeping on his bed. He was snoring really loudly which made me smile because all these little sounds are a reminder to all of us on how alive someone is.

I left him to sleep and decided to come back on Sunday afternoon.

The next morning I woke up to receive messages from my Aunty that grandpa had passed away Sunday morning at 8AM. Life is fragile… one night you see someone snoring loudly away and the next morning, he could be gone to a better place.

At the age of 89, my grandpa not only lived a long life but a meaningful one too. He left behind children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Tiah’s that will do him proud. None of us would be around if it wasn’t for him and my grandma.

Take care Ah Gong!

I’ve been going through lots of photo or video shoots lately. Just yesterday a crew from a national TV station spent the afternoon in our Nuffnang and ChurpChurp offices to do a story on our working culture. I think the Nuffies have gotten used to having videographers and photographers in the office so much that they can carry on with their day without feeling awkward from a camera watching them from behind.

It makes me really happy when people outside come to our office, bask in the culture and tell us how much they love it. I love it because culture isn’t just really what a company creates. It’s something that the Nuffies have carried on and fostered along the way.

They also interviewed some of my colleagues who had other jobs before and asked them what the difference was. Here’s Nic Chay getting his mic on.

Just a couple of days ago Nuffnang and ChurpChurp came out in a cover story for Metro Biz in The Star. It was a huge 3 pager. The journalist behind this story was really resourceful. I didn’t tell her anything about our profit and revenue numbers but she managed to dig and find some numbers for our Malaysian operations.

Haha lots of people were asking me if those numbers were true… many thinking that the real number was higher. Well YES… those numbers were from 2 years ago (in 2010) and is true… for one subsidiary of Netccentric ie Nuffnang Sdn Bhd on its own. I guess for anyone to see the full picture of how much our group makes you need to look at all the other 20 companies or so that we have in Malaysia and in the other 6 countries we have operations in, in the region.

In any case I think there are far bigger companies out there than us anyway. I think we do ok. What I love the most about our company though (The Netccentric Group), is the PEOPLE.

The last photoshoot thing I was involved in this week was a meeting with Shorty and my pre-wedding photo shoot photographers.

It’s being done by a Nuffnang blogger named Kim in Pink. Shorty and I decided to support fellow Nuffnang bloggers since so many Nuffnangers are a talented bunch!

Have a good weekend everyone!

When I was in the shower last night I started thinking about success. To me, success isn’t necessarily measured by money. It’s about how well you do or how much you achieve in whatever you want to do in your life. Like being the best badminton player or a good artist. Sure money often does follow success but it is not equal to success.

Growing Up, My mum always told me that money and success changes you. So no matter how well things were going she constantly reminded me to stay humble.

I can understand why that is ever so important to my parents. In just my 5 years of doing business, I’ve seen businesses thrive and these same businesses go down. Nuffnang and ChurpChurp may be fast growing companies that recorded double and triple digit growth in the past 5 years in a row but economic cycles are such that all businesses will eventually face a downtime. So success is sometimes temporary or cyclical.

My Dad always said “be nice to all the people you meet on the way up, because these are the same people you will see on your way down”.

I have been guilty of this myself. There were times in the past where I did get carried away with my small achievements and it eventually led to this: one day my Dad shouted at me over the phone telling me to stay humble or I am nobody. I knew he was right. So I kept myself in check. Hence if I have humility today, that all comes from my parents.

I see it all around me. People whom I had known from before and gained success had suddenly grown arrogant. The signs are there. Constantly talking about their achievements, about how successful they were, how their success was due to how capable they were instead of help from other people. Some of them even aren’t that successful but portray themselves as very.

That is my biggest fear in life. That I will one day be carried away without people around me holding me back. What I always remind myself that, no matter how successful you are in business, career or studies… There will always be someone even more successful. Success is after all…relative.

Never take success for granted. Be thankful for it and remember why you were successful in whatever you did. All I have today isn’t because I am the smartest or the most capable. It’s because I’ve been lucky, and I’ve been surrounded by great people who helped me get to where I am today. And no matter where I get to in life, I know there will always be someone more successful.

You know the saying that goes “When it rains it pours?”. I think that’s totally true. When bad things happen, they happen all at one go. The past few months were very stressful for me. I had so many things going on and so many challenges hitting me at the same time that it got me mentally exhausted really quick. By the end of March I had already begin to feel like I needed a holiday… and the year had just started.

The good thing though is that while bad things all come at one go, once you’re done with all the bad things… the good also come at one go. The good things for me don’t necessarily come from money or career or things like that. It can come from the simplest things. Like coming home from an overseas trip one day and seeing this new stuffed popcorn in my room.

With a real-life Shorty attached.

After spending the past months solving all the problems I had and overcoming all the challenges, this week things have gotten a little less stressful. I even managed to get some exercise done.

Today the Nuffies all left the office a little early for this thing we have called “Fitness Friday”. We would pick a sport and go do some exercise together. Today’s was badminton. The Nuffies though are a devoted bunch. In between their games I saw them on their laptops sending off emails to clients or bloggers or Churpers and getting lots of work done.

I asked Sara (the girl on the laptop in the picture above) if she found Fitness Friday a distraction and if she would rather stay in the office in peace to finish her work. She said “No it’s fun”.

It’s for that reason that I love all the Nuffies. How do you not love coming to work and seeing people like that.

So if you’re going through a bad time right now, remember… that once you overcome it… the good things come all at one go too.

So Shorty and I have a bunch of friends who’re really into buying art now. We spent one weekend following them around looking at art galleries… at art pieces that cost in the tens of thousands. What Ming explains is that art… helps transform the feeling of a room in the house. It’s also one of a kind. If you see one that you like, there’s only one in the world.

I do kinda agree with that sentiment… but of course I don’t think Shorty and I can afford expensive art yet.

Shorty did see one artist that she liked though. It’s called Coplu. It’s really cute like in the picture above but it costs like RM25,000. I told Shorty that we’re not even in the phase of our lives where we can afford to spend money on Chanels or things like that… I think art is still a bit of a way off for us.

Heh on another note, I went to my friend’s house the other day and his mum was showing us her bags.

Guess how much the bags on this table are worth?

Wednesday this week was an extremely busy day for me. Well not just me but Shorty too. The night before she stayed back at work and came home for dinner only about 10.30PM, only to head back to the office first thing next morning. One thing she knew she didn’t want to miss though was the screening of Hunger Games that we had on Wednesday night.

If you haven’t seen my previous entry on The Hunger Games, you can check out the trailer here.

I had checked Rottentomatoes.com the night before and Hunger Games rated 91% with critics and98% of audiences loving it. That’s friggin high.

Shorty ended up having to work pretty late though, so dinner for her was some food I took away in this little plastic container. I took this picture of her eating takeaway like a boss on the way up to the cinema.

The movie though… was worth every bit of anticipation. In fact now that I’ve seen the full movie, I think they not only made the perfect movie but the perfect trailer too. The trailer showed exactly what the movie was about but didn’t give away any details on how the games actually were.

So what is The Hunger Games about?

It’s set in the future in a country called Panem which has a rich Capitol and 12 other poorer surrounding districts. In the years before, the surrounding districts had waged a rebellion against the Capitol which the Capitol won. So as a reminder of the pain that war causes the Capitol hosts this huge yearly event called the Hunger Games where each District would randomly pick and send one male and one female between the age of 12-18 into a huge jungle arena where they would fight to the death. The last man (or woman) standing will be promised freedom and riches.

What I thought about the movie?

I think we live in a time where movies with good special effects don’t necessarily come with a good plot or story. Like I love Avatar for how beautifully made and entertaining the movie was but the story is predictable from the start. You also never really fall in love or form a personal bond with any of the main characters. The same goes for Transformers. We know what the story is about. Decepticons want to destroy Earth and we know at the end, the good guys (Autobots) will prevail. Transformers and Avatar are still great movies and among my favourites. But what would a movie with good special effects and a good story be like?

The answer to that in my opinion is in The Hunger Games. The whole story evokes lots of emotion in me. Laughter, relief, sadness, suspense and it made me think about how it is that humans have a natural or unnatural love for violence even if it comes at the expense of others. Why do horror movies for example do so well sometimes? Today we’re disgusted when we’re told about how Gladiators fought to their deaths in the Colloseum in Ancient Rome as a crowd cheered on but who knows that could come back to modern society one day.

Throughout the whole movie though Shorty and I felt terrible for the people who were selected for The Hunger Games. The story and the themes behind The Hunger Games isn’t all that make it a great movie. It’s the characters.

When the main characters came on screen, the honest truth is that I had an initial dislike for all of them. As the movie went on though, that dislike faded away. By the end of it you’ll find yourself emotionally attached to the main characters.

The movie does remind me of that Japanese movie that came out many years back. Even saw this article that compared both the movies (without giving away spoilers) and I think it sums it up really well.

Unlike Battle Royale though, one thing I like about The Hunger Games is that it didn’t find the need to take advantage of the violence in this movie to make it gory or gross to watch. I know there’s an audience that loves that but gore makes even me feel uncomfortable sometimes and I found Hunger Games to be fairly tolerable on the gore.

I loved this movie… and I gotta thank Stephanie from NEF for engaging me and giving me the opportunity to watch and write about it. After watching this, Shorty told me that she was going to read the book too.

This is one movie you guys have to watch. If you don’t believe me… then believe both the critics and the audience at Rottentomatoes.com.

I really hope they make the sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

PS: Oh btw…. Lenny Kravitz has a part in the movie too. HAHA!

ChurpChurp to me is a little bit of an experiment. What Ming and I did was slowly put a bunch of really talented young people together from different backgrounds and different skill sets, and give them a mission to build an awesome company. We had to trust them to build a great one… because Ming and I was constantly traveling and working on expanding Nuffnang in the region.

Build a great company they did.

After some two years and lots of struggles even in finding the right passionate people, the awesome team behind ChurpChurp have put together a company that isn’t just doing well financially but they’ve made it a fun place to work. Under this group of young leaders they put together a community of social media users in Malaysia and Singapore that meet up at #churpout’s.

They’ve managed to get some of the most influential people in the country to be a part of the community. Everyone from artists like Ning Baizura or Sazzy Falak to radio announcers like Adam C or Jinn… to… well.. even Alex Yoong our first F1 driver.

ChurpChurp now is one of the fastest growing companies under the Netccentric Group having offices in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Australia.

Every now and then though I lean in to guide them and give them direction in whatever way I can help. Just recently during whatever time I had in Malaysia, I worked with them on the new ChurpChurp site they were coming up with. We felt that the old ChurpChurp site had become way too messy so we decided to scrap everything and build a very minimalist and zen one. We spent 6 weeks on the site going through the smallest details even on where the smallest buttons should be placed.

The final result was launched yesterday.

Internally we called this ChurpChurp 6.0 because it’s the 6th version of our website since we started. Having to evolve over and over with time… we finally settled on this one that we think will bring us far into the future. (Kinda reminds me of how Nuffnang itself changed its website multiple times in the first couple of years before settling on the one we still use today).

ChurpChurp started out a couple of years to go as a company that was meant to help its users make money by sharing messages on their Facebook or Twitter. Since then it has evolved to more than that.

Because the Churpies (what we call the people who work at ChurpChurp and incidentally what we call the ChurpChurp plush toy) really got into 9GAG and all sorts of viral articles, they came up with the “Discover” part of ChurpChurp where users can share any interesting articles they read online over at ChurpChurp.

So if you’re ever bored and looking for something interesting to read you can always go to ChurpChurp. And if you see a brand message that you think your friends might be interested in, you can share it and get paid for doing it.

I’m so proud of how far ChurpChurp has come and it reminds me how young people can get together themselves and build something great. Here’s to the Churpies at ChurpChurp (to the ones in this photo and the shy ones who hide in the background).

Check out the new ChurpChurp to see what a bunch of 20-something year olds can do.