Been riding quite a roller-coaster lately.

With changes happening in life and tough challenges at work. One keeping me high up straight in the air while the other keeping me inverted ready to fall. Challenges once overcame will make us all stronger and better person. I believe we will survive!

Life’s changing and there are much to prepare mentally. How we set the foundation is essential and very very important. Foundation if not done well, consequences can be devastating. We’ve seen the good and the worst. We know we just have to do it right and all will be well.

There’s always two sides, or at times, many sides of a story. News journalists are human, bloggers are human, everyone commenting, adding fumes, giving their piece of mind and all those reading are all human. To err is human.

I am human too. And has made many mistakes in my almost 30 years of life and still am.

There are those who blame the government for the lack of support to the needy and poor and instead spend millions on a worldwide event. There are those who blame the blogger who has worked so hard over the years to build up his followings and well maintained blog with just one side of the story. And there are many (including me) who will start blaming everyone and everything when something went wrong or not the way its was planned.

But we always forget to first blame ourselves for the action and words that was used. Worst still online. With no need to identify oneself, we tend to say words which we think we need not take responsible for. “Aiyah, just use some random name and no one will know its me…“. Enemies or haters may even use someone else’s name just so to flame that innocent soul.

Stop saying things you only know or see from one side of the three dimensional subject – our world is multi dimensional. Stop judging things unless you’ve dived deep enough to understand the whole picture. Stop complaining and start contributing positively. Complaining won’t make this world a better place.

You will.

This post got me recalling some books I saw long ago by Istvan Banyai. Zoom, Re-zoom and The Other Side.

I’m guilty for allowing myself to be consumed by my career. Guilty for allowing myself to think of nothing else but pitch, follow-up, tasklists, milestones, emails to reply and the list goes on… but nothing in there belongs to my love ones nor myself. (Except for the iPad, which then again, am buying because I need it to help improve my flow of work.)

I’m guilty for allowing myself to impart such workaholic mindset into my dedicated and committed team leaders Diana and Kris. Everyone one of us deserve a quality break after this crazy period. Promise! At least one week leave for each of us come September ok? Take turn of course!

I’m guilty for not spending enough time with Abang, who is going through pretty tough time now due to work and other commitments. But he has always been understanding, supportive and concern. Every man has his limit. Promise to spend more time with you to plan for our future ok?

I miss myself very much.

We often complain that 24-hr a day isn’t sufficient. We want more time so that we can do more things in a day. With only a pair of hands, eyes and legs, there’s just so much one can accomplish in 24-hr. With the increase in awareness of what 24seven is capable of producing, my team and I often see ourselves running and chasing for time. We can never get enough time to do the things that are required of us. When we think tasks were completed for the day, clients and partners flood our inboxes with emails again.

We aren’t complaining of course! This is good sign isn’t it? Being the chief of the team, I need to ensure that my team gets a balance of work and play. So how then can I do more with the same amount of time within a day? I pay.

A friend keeps reminding me that one can never buy back lost time. But one can always pay for more time. So true right?

I may soon have to do just that after I formulate an appropriate equation for the things to be done vs the amount of spare cash that I can put aside to buy my team more time.

If you have spare time to sell, let me know. Maybe your time is just what my team and I need. :)

Couple of questions that keeps popping up in my mind, Why are people around me telling me that I inspire them? and Why do they tell me that I’m more than an expert in the field than I think I am?. These kept me thinking. I never want to see myself as a social media expert. I do things because I want to, because I am interested in doing it, and because I believe I can do better. No one moment I’ll think I’m an expert in anything. More often, I’ll tell someone that I’m a “jane-of-most-trades“.

Then I chanced upon “The 12 Types Of “Social Media Experts” – Which One Are You?” by Rohit Bhargava, then I discovered why I’m known as who I am today. Let me break it down…

Almost half a year into my small venture with my dedicated team and its been going well so far. I’ve been very lucky to have met quite a number of people whom are now business partners of 24seven. Its amazing how things fall into place on their own. When we started, I had a long list of leads I want to call and catch up with. But when we started till date, I have yet managed to go through even one-quarter of that list. Our namecards got passed around and thanks to good karma and relationship forged way before I started, contacts were also passed around. And its amazing how much these relationship eventually turn around. One thing for everyone out there, don’t underestimate the power of good karma, and never avoid building relationship with that new comer in a company. You’ll never know when he or she will get promoted and become the one who makes the decisions. Or he may know someone whom may one day be your business partner.

Good relationships though important, it is only the first step to the many great things that may come. You will need to have good referrals and credentials to back you up in the business world. Especially when you are small and starting up, the big corporations may know who you are, but in order to sign the confirmation, they need to make sure your company is reliable and has a team who can execute the work effectively.

One thing that my team lacks, is credentials from related field of work. With no PR nor corporate communications experience, we struggled when we present to new clients whom we have no past relationship with. And generating our first list of credentials is tough. But I’m glad we’re getting there. Slowly but surely. Thanks to all those who are giving us the chance to prove ourselves.

Another thing which my previous boss taught me, and something which I’d experienced myself not no ago, its that knowing big names from high up in the corporate leader may sound amazing and great. They may be the one who sign on the pay check for that deal, but the decision is made together with his team and the people executing and managing the campaigns. Knowing that big name may make it easier when the executives proposed something and mentioned your name. But that’s that. Unless of course, that big shot high up there is your Dad, than the story changes.

If you are starting up, or planning to, go get your credentials and referrals accumulated. Start paying forward and grab any opportunity that comes your way with real interests and passion. Don’t do it because you have to, do it because you want to!

Some thoughts from the @.@ panda entrepreneur.

Summing my life last week in cubes…

I’m blogging live streaming almost everyday at my other blog. If you are free, do drop by there to see-see-look-look. :P