A brief essay on my personal experience to discover the things i am interested in

Story

Almost a decade ago, I was hooked to web designing. Learning HTML on the go, using all the scarce resources available to me. At that time, I was using the Dial Up to browse the WWW. It wasn’t simply fun, it was addictive.

Few years afterwards, I “gave up” web designing and spent more time on PC gaming - mostly with RTS (Wacraft III) and FPS (Counter-Strike). In addition to PC gaming, I was also into web browser game, notably, [ogame](www.ogame.org). Those 3 games, all together, consumed a lot of my free time (and study time) but had a small contribution to shaping my journey.

In University, I was exposed to more opportunities other than gaming. The latter became history and I was focused on the traditional mindset of focusing on studies and building up my CV.

My Involvement in university...

Uncover to discover any hidden beauties.

Explore the patterns in your life.

We Live Once. Dare to Dream.

Being at home since November 2013 has been a refreshing experience. The island has changed a bit but overall, the same culture and values prevail. It was exactly like when I left about four years ago.

That’s the problem. [1]

In Mauritius, we have a small population of 1.3 million inhabitants and this means that opportunities may or may not abound. Some businesses are booming, some aren’t. Business growth seems to be happening.

That’s another problem. [2]

Being a fresh graduate, that’s a relative statement, I have been job hunting since I came back. For the past four months, I prospected for opportunities and like a gold miner, I would scrutinize every possible corners.

I have reached the four months mark and I took a few hours off my schedule to reflect. This is what I have learnt,

From problem [1], the leaders and management teams are mostly in their late 40s and above. They...

One of the highlights of my AIESEC experience has been conferences at both local (chapter-level and nationwide) and international level (in other countries).

AIESEC’s conferences are organized by AIESEC members themselves, which usually set it apart from any other conferences. In addition, the agenda is also managed and mostly facilitated by AIESEC members and AIESEC alums.

There are “several” kinds of AIESEC conferences but I will cover just two of them. In addition, I will briefly mention the features of an AIESEC conference which will intrigue you, most likely.

Project Based Conferences

In AIESEC, the local and national chapters would run projects on a regular basis and each project would, usually, carry different themes. It could be about HIV/AID awareness, about social entrepreneurship, about environment and the list goes on. The recent updates which I received mentioned...

Why A Week

The Year 2014 started pretty slow which is quite usual for us in Mauritius. Yet, I had been accustomed to busy lifestyle back in Asia, something that I truly love.

I saw opportunities to link some of my personal & professional interests together and the upcoming O-Level and A-Level results happen to be the right moment.

Personal Interest Aligned with Professional Interest - I am into People Development, Strategy and Productivity. The workshop (an pre-outcome) will be about Career Strategy which will fall under Personal Development and Strategy most.

On the 20th January, I started my week of hustle with a meeting in Port-Louis, the capital city.

The aim was simple: The week had been dedicated to create results for the upcoming weeks. And to be honest, had I not hustle from 20th to 26th January, the potential outcomes would not have been possible.

A week of hustle is...

Was to listen to two inexperience and short-sighted young friends of mine.

Needless to say that I was inexperienced enough NOT to trust my guts to go ahead and to give up so soon, based on the biased opinions of two friends.

Lessons

1. Even if the market signals are noisy, have a quick prototype and start touching the ground. We never know.

2. Friends’ opinions are good. Listen. It is called showing respect. But do the exact opposite.

3. Believe in your guts. Being bold and take harsh decisions carry risk. But, some risks are worth taking.

4. Making Intelligent and calculated risk is a rigorous art to master. Fortunately, I started to learn a while ago.

Over the past one year, I have been adopting as much as possible the lean mindset or minimalist lifestyle.

There’s still a long way to go but there are now 3 things which have been eliminated from my life - almost.

Tshirts

No, I do wear tshirts. But I got rid of all the tshirts which I bought or received as gift during events. And this saved me about 10kg of luggage capacity.

CDs and DVDs

My ultrabook doesn’t have a dvd reader. All the old CDs and DVDs, I got rid of them. Those owned by my parents are slowly finding their way outside of our home.

Books

I personally don’t buy books although I love reading. Books have been replaced by the electronic version. If I want to read the old fashion way, I can always borrow from the library, though the library in Mauritius can’t compete with the University library in Hong Kong (where I’ve worked for a University from 2012-2013).

My lean...

No Smartphone Notifications

It is a very simple habit that I have started in 2013. First, I disabled all notifications from the various apps that I am using. Second, I set myself a specific time to check on my phone. Usually, it would be every time I take a “phone break” at a frequency of once every 2 hours.

I noticed that it is a relatively good habit to save time.

Maintain a To-Do List

There is always something to do. Better write it down immediately on a to-do list. I have been a traditional to-do list taker but not very discipline in writing it down all the time.

Now, I’ve got a cool app called “Any.Do” which is a simple way of classifying my to-dos into Today, Tomorrow, Upcoming and Someday. I write everything almost immediately and using an app eliminate the needs to carry a pen and a notepad.

A to-do list helps to keep a visual reminder of what needs to be done and...

From 2009 to 2013, I have been travelling a lot. In fact, more than I ever have in my entire lifetime (so far).

For 2013 alone, I have highlighted 10 top travel destinations, here they are without any preferred order ;)

Hirosaki in Japan

Hirosaki castle in Aomori prefecture in Japan :) “Northern” part of Honshu - the main island of Japan.

Sakura trees in Japan

Still in Aomori prefecture. This is the sakura alley and as you can see, it is all green. Due to my bad timing, I missed out on the blooming season. On a brighter note, It means that I will go back one day for the most beautiful season :)

Mt Fuji in Japan

Mount Fujiyama as captured from far away. It was an impossible dream to visit Japan at such an early age (I was 24 at that time and considering the high financial cost of flying and living in Japan.)

Macau

Macau. An over-crowded touristic place where gambling and...

Sheryl Sandberg:

So I sat down with Eric Schmidt, who had just become the CEO … and I said, this job meets none of my criteria … he looked at me and said, Don’t be an idiot. Excellent career advice. And then he said, Get on a rocket ship. When companies are growing quickly and they are having a lot of impact, careers take care of themselves. And when companies aren’t growing quickly or their missions don’t matter as much, that’s when stagnation and politics come in. If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.

If you find a rocket ship, get on it.

PaperG Cofounder, Victor Wong:

Managers are largely stretched thin managing their reports so they can’t always think of everything to be done that will benefit the firm.

No one will tell you what you need to do. Noting that every company (and every industry) has a central asset that they’re constantly trying...