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.

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	Thursday, November 25, 2004

Time and Money   ( on life ) "You are bloody wasting  my time!  ", I find myself exasperated and telling some of my colleagues almost shouting. I used to complain about wasting money  ( I still do (grin)) , but after getting older, and so much BUSYness, I find myself complaining more at the slightest wait or wastage of time. I remember the adage Benjamin Franklin used to say, "the road to wealth is as plain as the way to market.  Waste neither time and money ... " These two obviously are the main ingredients of success, and therefore let us put it underneath the microscope ... If you come to think of it, these two can also be related almost to the way that Einstein related energy and matter in his theory of relativity.  And one thing I discover is that knowing how a person values his money and time as well as its relation to each other is actually one of the keys to understanding a person. After all, people who have less money use time to earn or save money, while people who have more money use money to save time, or at least enjoy more wasting it.  That may be the reason why in poorer countries, convenience stores is still not a good idea -- people are willing to walk the extra distance, and buy in open air markets to save money, while in rich countries, people would be willing to pay more to shop with more convenience, and save time. So for people who have expensive technology that will save a lot of time, and finding it hard to sell in a developing country  the answer is really simple -- the potential consumer looks at his plate, sees that he has lots of time, but not lots of money, and is not willing to part with his money to save time.  In contrast to a consumer in a rich country, he simply values his money more than his time. We are all in different stages of valuing time and money, and understanding how a customer values one vis a vis the other could be one very important knowledge to deal and work with him effectively. So there are people who have 10 hours a day to waste, and would not mind wasting it.  And they cannot understand why there are some people who would scream at a few minutes wastage  ( the same way a person who have thousands of dollars to waste cannot understand why there are people who would risk jail for a few dollars) ....  After all, when you are in dire need of money, every cent counts....  So if you are in dire need of time, every minute counts too. I read that Andy Grove, chairman of Intel, and Bill Gates, chariman of Microsoft, have on several ocassions said harsh things also when they feel they were being made to waste time.  These, my friend, are people who are dollar rich, but time poor.  And because they have less of it, they value it more. So next time you meet somebody - do a mental check by yourself - How much time does he have, how much money does he have, and how much is the conversion rate --- His  willingness to spend time to save money, or vice versa? Then of course, there are also people who have plenty of both, and don't mind wasting both, but then that's another story ....  after all, we are talking here about winning ... In closing, I leave you a quote ( I don't remember who said it), "Value time!  Because that is what life is made of! ". Maybe even after what Ben Franklin said, I can consider myself successful when I can afford to waste a little bit of money and not complain.  But nobody can ever say that they have reached a stage where they can afford to waste time! How about you? 5:33:14 PM     comment []   trackback []

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