A business lesson from my Mom

I've haven't started my own business yet, but I can resonate with what Lori wrote about starting a business with the Significant Other. What Lori wrote reminds me a conversation I had with my mom when I was in junior high.

One day, out of the blue, I told my mom that it was such a wonderful thing that she was still working full time in a property management company while my dad was starting his business. (As you may know before, my dad was an entrepreneur and started many different kinds of business). My mom asked me why I said so. I said it was wonderful because her stable stream of income bring food to the table as I knew dad's business wasn't doing too well.

My mom jokingly said all I cared was asking for pocket money and new tennis shoes from them. Interestingly, at such a young age, I said, "you are talking about a family of seven that is totally dependent on you, Mom." Mom didn't say anything afterwards and she was in deep thought for a moment. And fortunately I wasn't grounded for saying such an insight to my Mom. ;)

Other than working full-time, my Mom also worked for my dad's business part-time as the secretary, public relation person, the office supply person and the receptionist... (you got the picture). Based on what I saw from my parents, it's not easy to start and maintain a business.

And I wish that my dad could have read Lori's post and the article 15 years ago. If he knew to set limits on financial and time investments on his projects, he could reserve the resources to confront with the Dip in his own terms, rather than spending it on too many dead-ends.

No More Free Drinks!

One of my favourite places for lunch is a tiny Thai food vendor in the food court. Usually when I have a craving for Thai/Chinese/Spicy food, this Thai place is the place to go. On Friday, as usual, I ordered my medium spicy tofu Pad Thai. This time, I noticed there are some changes of the store policy. Next to the cashier machine, there's a hand-written note about the new water policy. It said, "No more free drinks. We charge 10 cents per glass of water."

I always thought it was a nice gesture to prepare ice water for customers who ordered spicy Thai food for free! This Thai place is a monopoly business as it is the only Asian food vendor in the food court. And because of that, the average wait time from ordering to getting your food from the kitchen is about 20 minutes. That's about 1/3 of the lunch time of an average cubicle dweller! So if time is money, and a 'busy' customer like me spend so much time on lining up and waiting for the food, I think I deserve a better customer service and perhaps, at least a glass of water.

Does this Thai place have the right to start treating the customers poorly since it is the only Asian Food store for the entire complex?

I know it costs money to buy the plastic cups and straws, but charging the customer a dime for the water seems to be a "cheap" gesture. How about raising the price for everything in the menu by 10 cents? I'm sure the customers would not notice about it.

Sure, 10 cents for a glass of water is a relatively insignificant amount compared to a 7 dollars meal. And I'm sure a lot of people are willing to buy a glass of water from the store. (For obvious reason- you need to have something to drink while eating hot and spicy food. ;)) But still, the message behind the "No More Free Drinks" doesn't sound right.

They Once Were Nobodies Too

I was reading a soundview summary of Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Career Got Their Start last week. The main idea of the book is this- "Many successful people were once just ordinary twentysomethings. And everybody starts out as a nobody."

Just like what my mom used to tell me, "Everyone has to start from somewhere."

It's quite interesting to see the early lives of some really successful people. And here's my list of compilation of jobs/life situations of them.

Did you know....

Tom Clancy used to sell insurance before publishing his first novel in 1984.

Suze Orman was a waitress in Berkeley for several years in her twenties.

Milton Friedman was intended to become an actuary but didn't like taking the exams.

Albert Einstein was an assistant examiner in a patent office and was pass over for promotion.

Tony Robbins used to wash his dishes in his bathtub


Perhaps what they did early in life was a stepping stone to prepare for something bigger. (This is easy to say as we all have 20/20 hindsight.) Or perhaps they did what they had to do (to pay the bills) while pursuing their more gratifying "real profession/interests/hobbies" on the side.

And then, at one point, when they are ready, like Steven Stern wrote on a review of The Dip by Seth Godin, "they pick the right moment and the right place to quit, so that they can concentrate their fire on an area where winning is a much more likely (and indeed more profitable) outcome."

I was joking with my friend the other day that when we become the very best at something, people will say this:

"Oh, look at these two, they used to be actuarial analysts and doing benefit statements for years...."

New client, Old client

During a meeting on Monday, L was talking about how important it is to bring in new clients and new work since the retirement consulting business is changing. (Okay, let's admit that pension consulting business is not growing in the US.)

And L also mentioned that it is more important not to lose sight on serving our current clients with our best service- because for every client we lose, it takes 2 years to bring back the same amount of revenue. (Well, I once heard that it is 5 times as hard to bring in new customers than to keep existing customers happy.)

Then one of the co-workers thought that reminded her of a girl scouts song, Make New Friends. The lyrics are quite catchy and true. (Though I was a Brownie before, I never heard of this song ;))

Make New Friends

Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
and the other's gold
A circle is round that never ends
And that's how long I'm gonna be your friend.

Re-inventing Yourself like a Super Saiyan

I loved watching Dragon Ball anime when I was a kid. I love the part that Son Goku transformed himself to Super Saiyan when he was fighting with some villains more powerful than him. Whenever he met another stronger villain, he could always transform to a higher grade of Super Saiyan to defeat the villain and save the world.

In the world of Dragon Ball, the sky is really the limit of how powerful one can be.

This reminds me of the core idea of "Re-imagine" by Tom Peters- he talked about reinventing yourself in the changing business world with creativity and passion.

When we face business challenges which may be larger than us (outsourcing, tough competitors or shrinking marketplace), perhaps we should all transform ourselves (yes, that's right, just like a Super Saiyan) to deal with the changes?

A Brief History Before My Time

This is a story about a Hero.

He was born in a construction-worker family with 7 siblings, in China. When he was a teenager, the Cultural Revolution was still continuing. He became one of the members of the Youth Red Guards and traveled to some rural areas in Hainan Island for labor work. And hence, he never got a chance to finish high school.

Finally the Cultural Revolution ended. He had a bigger dream. He wanted a better future. Back then, Hong Kong was still a developing city in need of large number of people to work in factories. He heard about the "touch-based" immigration policy- as long as you arrived at the city district without getting caught at the border, you would be awarded the permanent residency by the government.

Perhaps he caught a glimpse of his future of what he may become. So he planned-the logistics, the food supply, team support etc. It was not easy to leave China that time. The local residents were rewarded if they caught anyone with an attempt to flee the country. He was caught once, luckily he was released. He knew that he had to perfect his plan. It had to be flawless. Or else, he might end up in prison for many years. (That would be another Prison Break story.)

He hid in the forest for a few weeks. (Better than the adventure in Survivor) He waited and waited until the opportunity showed up. Finally he walked many miles to the border of China and swam for a few hours to reach the Hong Kong border. His siblings had also tried to imitate his dangerous act but none succeeded.

Just like any other immigrants, he traded his old identity to a new identity. He wanted to improve himself, so he went to a night-school for English classes. His English teacher gave him an English name, Michael which he's still using it today. He didn't finish the entire English course because he was working at some odd jobs with odd shifts at that time. It seemed that making a living was more primal than knowing how to say "How are you?" or "I beg your pardon."

He worked as a truck driver, a garment factory worker, and a sales guy for jade (gemstones) before. His brother-in-law offered him a job as a cab-driver. He refused the offer. He had a bigger dream; he wanted to have his own business.

Perhaps, "once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur". Over the years, he started a car dealership, a fashion boutique, a red wine store (10 years ago, red wine was still too new for China to accept), owned a cab and an auto shop to fix used-cars. He was also behind the scene of building a panda museum, negotiating a direct cargo flight between US and China, bringing in a US pharmaceutical company to China and also working on a debt-repackaging deal of a hotel.

Some of his business ventures were very successful, some of them failed quite miserably. At one time, he owned 4 houses, some acres of land and his brother and sister worked for him. However, for the last 10 years, he had not been making any money at all due to some poor business decisions and bad business partnerships. To finance his business ventures, he sold all of his assets. Now, he didn’t have anything, even his 12-year-old car was stolen recently. Three days ago, he fell down from a bike and was sent to the ER. Fortunately, he only had to stay in the hospital for one day.

He once told me, “When he first came to this city, he came here with nothing. Thirty years later, he had nothing again. But this time, he had love and support from his wife and three children.”

“Money can be made today and lost tomorrow. Yet, only love prevails. When you have the power, you must help and give to the needed. Learn to share, because you want to be surrounded with people you love when you are successful.”

I know the story of my hero sounds quite depressing. But on a positive note, “it is surmounting difficulties that make heroes.” Today, my dad is still hopeful and working hard on a few of his start-up projects. He believed that if he tried hard enough, miracle things would happen. He taught me when life hits you hard; you still have to show up to face the adversary.

Since Chinese tends to internalize their emotions and this is something I’ve never told my dad, “Dad, now that I have the power, I must help you.”

A Quote that I've seen twice last week

"Care more than others think wise.
Risk more than others think safe.
Dream more than others think practical.
Expect more than others think possible."
--Author Unknown

My friend CL was explaining this quote with some real life examples to me last weekend. I thought it's a quote that every person with an entrepreneur spirit can remember. Last night, I was reading the first page of "Pour your heart into it by Howard Schultz" and I saw this quote again! After doing a brief research, it seems that the CEO of Starbucks is the first person who used this quote.

Things always happen for a reason, I think I should blog this ;) .

Consolation Freebies

I was reading the news yesterday and the foreclosure rate in my city skyrocketed. Hm...not that surprising. Since we all know how the Big Three are doing lately.

A few days ago, I received a real estates junk letter. There were two pictures that caught my eyes. The first one, featuring a home for sale, has a banner across the picture of the home. And the message is "Buy this home and get a free ipod nano." And the other one is "Buy this home and get a $300 Home Depot gift certificate."

Probably the real estates agent needs to put in more efforts in market research. If I'm going to buy a house today, I think I can also afford an ipod. Besides, an 8GB ipod nano is $249 and the national median existing home price in the mid-west is about $178,000. So the freebies is only 0.14% of the value of the house. I know it does take some creativity to get people to buy a house around the market price (especially in my area) right now. However, does giving away an ipod really attract a home buyer?

Maverick Actuaries

I was reading Maverick at Work by William Taylor and Polly LaBarre last night, just the first few chapters though. It mentioned that to be outstanding as an organization, you need to find out your true calling. Look at Southwest, they are in the "freedom business" to democratize the skies and people who work with southwest are the freedom fighters.

What values do actuaries stand for? Can actuaries be mavericks too? Other than dealing with numbers and reports everyday, what's the bigger picture? I remember one of my bosses told me that we are not just in the pension consulting business, we are not just merely pension actuaries who sign the funding valuation reports. We are in the retirement business.

In a way, we are in the freedom business too, an average person may work about 33 years (start working at 22 and retire at age 55). After all these years of hard work, all he/she wants, perhaps, is to have enough money to live through the retirement and do something he/she loves.

As a pension actuary, we can safeguard their retirement funds (i.e. make sure the company pension funds are well-funded and making contributions on time). Hence, when an individual retires, she has the freedom to do what she loves because she knows that her retirement fund is there for her.

What about other actuaries? For P&C actuaries (Property & Casualty), are they not in the lifestyle business? Since what type of cars and what house you live in is all about your living style, and hence, the need of auto and home insurance is part of the deal to your lifestyle right? (Just a thought)

P.S. I bought this book after reading the blogpost by Lori @ SmartLemming. Thanks Lori, I'm glad that I bought and read this book!

Personal Actuarial Service

I was reading the CRUSAP executive summary about two weeks ago. (It's not the most interesting read. Since I participated in one of the focus group while I was still in school, I thought it's worth a read to see what the result was.) In the report, it was mentioned about the potential areas for expansions of actuarial service to individuals.

I wonder what kind of actuarial service can be sold on a B2C basis. Who might need a personalized actuarial service/expertise other than buying an insurance or knowing how much benefits you will get at retirement?

Yesterday I read an article about a group of top executives from California State University system used an actuarial consulting firm to compare their compensation packages to other universities. And hence the top executives can use this research to their advantage during the time of negotiation.

This makes me think---what if we can sell this compensation research services to other executives individually before they negotiate their pay raise next time?

Well, this is just my attempt to link what I read to what I see it's happening.