Wilson Ng started helping the family business since 9 years old. Since then, he had dreamt to be a successful entrepreneur, one who starts great businesses  ( he has started 7) from scratch with insight, guts and initiative. He keeps his focus on growing the business by creating value-- not on politics, or wasteful distractions. He brings the same focus to community service, teaching, life and family.

This is the main page which contains all postings. The reader can also choose a category: techdrivenlife, on life, on business, quotes, jokes, tidbits & reading reviews.  A new category, EntrepreViews, talks on entrepreneurship and also answer reader's queries.

	Monday, August 30, 2004

What is the value of 2 seconds?  ( On Tech)   When Bill Gates, founder and chairman of Microsoft, came out with the book entitled, “ Business at the Speed of Thought, “, it set off a new standard on how fast it should take technology to react in order to be really useful.  Every year, we see technology, and I believe the most important function it does should be to allow us to do it a little bit faster and lowers the time it takes to translate intent into action.  There was a time when the minute advantage also meant the slight edge you have over competition.  In this time and age, it might be more appropriate to call it the 2 second advantage.   We just upgraded hundreds of computers for a customer.  The difference between the Pentium III that he gave up, and the new Pentium 4 computer?  I believe it takes 2 seconds faster to load or run most processes.  But that translated between being welcomed by the users, as compared to perceptions of general slowness of the previous machines.  I believe that was the reason also why a great technology like Transmeta Crusoe, a processor that consumed much less heat and power, did not quite succeed.  It was just a second or two slower in most tasks.   In our country, being able to send short text messages to cell phones is a big deal.  It is the primary way to communicate, and on a daily basis, over 150 million text messages are sent or received – that of a population of about 86 million with about 20 million with cell phones. That generally means the average cell phone users send an average of 5 to 10 messages on a daily basis. I just upgraded my cell phone to one with a thumb keyboard. The reason?  It would probably enable me to write a short text 2 seconds faster than using the numeric keypad.  But if I am in the office, I used the computer to send that out.  It took me hours to configure to make it work properly, but the satisfaction of again cranking up a short note another 2 second faster than a thumb keyboard meant sometimes the difference whether many of intended communication get send out,  gets ignored, or gets deferred and forgotten.   Yahoo and Google became foremost portals and search engines. Their sites were kept simple so that on average, it would take 2 seconds faster to load than many of the comparable sites that were graphics heavy, or use less than optimal programming.   If a company would take 2 seconds on average longer to answer their phones, most of the callers might already have hung up.   In the Olympics, split seconds determines gold medals, and has beens. In technology,  people are becoming edgy, and I think more and more people are giving more thought on the “ faster”, rather than the “better”.  Success means you have to build your 2 second advantage.   Have you given it thought?       7:44:48 AM     comment []   trackback []

Choosing Your Battles ( On Business)   If you are like the billions of us, you would probably be also following closely the Athens Olympics 2004.  One of the top 3 countries that is winning is China, who will be hosting the 2008 Olympics.  The issue I want to highlight is China’s decision to choose its battles, which can be an important factor in facing life’s challenges.   China sent a delegation of 407 members, of which 80% of the Olympians were first timers, and their average was just 23 years old.  Many veterans were left home in favor of up-and-coming talents, and the strategy have been to sacrifice this years Olympics to gain much needed experience for the athletes who will be able to participate in the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing.  The obvious goal therefore is not to maximize this year’s medal haul, but to delay gratification to maximize the haul for 2008.   This has resulted in some disappointments, like for instance, in the field of gymnastics, which China traditionally excelled.  This year, the athletes averaged less than 19 years old.  This year, the  women gymnasts team finished seventh, while the male gymnasts finished fifth overall.    In life, we face many battles, and competition, and it therefore needs courage to understand that in order to win, a strategy would obviously be to focus your strength, and not to fight in every front. The other is to delay gratification.  Because of competitive pressures, many companies have made it their obvious strategy to maximize and optimize every deal.  In many transactions, it is considered a big no no to euphemistically engaged in behavior that “ leaves money in the table.”  But knowing what to sacrifice to build up future opportunities is and should continue to be a smart move.  For instance, E-bay owes its huge following to its decision at the start to give great deals to buyers and sellers alike as it was building up its business. The same can be said with many business successes like Hotmail, Yahoo, and Amazon.   A study was done early in the 70s where kindergarten students were given marshmallows, and were told not to eat them, because after recess, they would be exchanged with bigger ones.  As what happened, some of the kids ate them, while some hold on.  The proceedings were analyzed and a follow up study made years later.  It was found out that kids, who were able to “ delay gratification” and understood what to sacrifice in the present in order to wait for future rewards were found to be much more successful in their careers.   Do you have a concrete strategy on how to succeed in life? 7:43:46 AM     comment []   trackback []

Past Archives:

2005  --  June , May , April,  March , February,  January

2004  --  December, November, October, September