Today is a glorious day: my office macbook has repatriated onto my desk. After a month of repairs, upgrades, and re-organizing, the macbook is ready for more action. From the photo taken just now, you can see that my desk is the ultimate work station, with 2 laptops, and 1 net book set up to do all the work that can be handled within this cubicle.
For all those who live outside of Taipei, it has literally been raining for about 2 weeks now. How do people here cope with the weather? It is so humid, and the mosquitoes are like stukas (WW2 German dive bombers) everytime I enter my apartment door or restaurant. The only upside to all this rainy weather is that the air is purified thouroughly, or else the lingering smell of exhaust from the motorbikes would be constantly present.
It is during these long rainy days that I feel mellow and think of my mate, whom has been my best friend since the first day of college. We always used to walk out to a cafe in the French Concession back in Shanghai during rainy days, order our usual coffee and small cake orders and chit chat while observing the patrons and passerby's.
She'll always say: "Carpe Diem..." which means seize the day in Latin. Being the Roman she is (She's half Italian and raised in Rome and Milan), she always bombards me with either Latin or Italian. Carpe Diem has always stuck with me, because it was during my days in college that I learned to live life one day at a time, instead of living my day for some other day 20 years down the road. Many might be wondering what the hell am I saying, but I used to be (and still am a little bit...) one of those people that lived my present day for the future. Never really "seized the day," but more or less just wandered through my days...
So then college came, and it hit me that this life would be a total waste if I just let it brush by with nothing memorable. Either live life for the moments, or live life moment by moment.
Personally, I think we only get one shot in life, so might as well just go all the way every single freaking day.
I guess that was one of the reasons why I jumped at being part of an internet start-up.
When you can do things that mattered, and potentially change things all around you.
If I did stay on my original, more stable, more conservative, life plan... I would be in a consulting or accounting firm now, and do what every B-school grad does... analyze material day in and day out and wait for that 5th year to come around and get that promotion, then get that bonus.
Why live the life that someone else already wrote for me?
So many books have been written on the rigid culture life of corporate firms and companies... so whats the point of repeating other people's life? make more money? the chances that one will make it that big in financial sector is pretty slim, since its usually the big dogs on top that get all the dough. I know because my family worked and still works in the financial industry. Life is great, and pay is great... but it comes at a price that I am not willing to put on for sale.
I love challenges, and finding ways to overcome obstacles and challenges. In an internet start-up, there is no SOP when it comes to problems. For big firms, there is a procedure in place and a chain of command. In here (internet start-up) anything can happen, and a small ripple can cause an earthquake. When we say think outside of the box, it literally means think outside of the box. Combining the ideas, experiences, and inputs from everyone in the company and outside help, into one streamlined (not always... lol) solution is a very... inspiring moment. When all that crazy scribbling on the white board, comments from everyone, charts on papers all come together in unison and it all makes sense.
Our company is not a facebook or groupon. We are an internet start-up company that creates solutions for age old problems that no one take a second to notice, or have tried and fallen in the chasm. That's what I love about what we do. We are not thinking of a new life style or a new technology of some sort... our founders realized an age old problem, that no one has yet been able to solve... and we are trying to create the solution, or atleast be the stepping stone. We dont help people find internet friends half a world away, or find cheap deals for a limited time offer, we help people or small companies overcome their biggest challenges when it comes to business practices and the ensuing problems brought upon by globalization and technology. I think helping people is alot more satisfying than creating a new application where I will be glued to my computer screen for another hour or more. Patisco.com assists people in overcoming the small challenges and obstacles, so you can spend that extra hour with your family and friends, or make certain business fields transparent so the margin of error narrows; therefore bringing a piece of mind to our clients. Isn't that what technology was supposed to do? make our lives easier?
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