Its been a while....

As the title said, it has been a while since I have done any up-dates on my blog. As I have mentioned in my last blog or so, I was on 2 personal projects since March. Well, one succeeded, while the other one still in progress.

So what have I been up to? The one still in progress is my fight against Hypertension. While I am able to maintain the pressure to some extend, it is not cxonsistent, just a meal of increased salt level and I back to starting point. Lately, I am on Micardis, which is another medication for Hypertension. So far noticibly there are much less side effects, unlike the Beta Nicardia that I have taken earlier. I am still aiming to go without medication in the end, this project would however need to be on hold for a while because of my the other project.

The project that I have succeeded is a job change. My last job is really a living hell. Trust my words, imagine a boss with no no calibre yet trying to dictate your strategy, coming out with conflicting directions ( and seriously don't know what he is doing). This is enough motivation for me to push myself to leave my company of 11 years.

Considering a man of 44 years old in Singapore it would be doubly hard to find better outlet in career. It is a miracle indeed to manage finding one in record time of 2 months, inclusive of interviews, a total of 3 months. The set back of the job is the need for regular travelling.

Not that I hate it, I always want to make sure my travel is fruitful, I plan all my trips and play through my mind what I want to achieve at the end. Planning is always very important for business trip because many things can go wrong. For instance, I once went on a trip to Penang with a target of 5 customers to visit, and what do you know? The sales who should be bringing me around met an accident on Penang bridge, with me in the car! Another time, the visit coincided with an adhod lunch of the branch office and I had 2 hours shorter to complete my tasks.

I love oversea trips not because you get to see the world, but because I get a bigger playing field, and in line of sales and marketing, the larger the territory, the more options you can expand to and the easier for you to grow. Of course the down side is that you get cultural clashes.

India for instance would always want everything from you, then want it very cheap, best you give them free.

Thai on the other hand would leave you sitting there clueless while they speak to your sales in Thais.

Malaysia? When you see datoks, you can just strike off this customers. They are more likely to try their luck on government project funds without yeilding anything.

Vietnam has no standard in what they ask for. For instance, the way they test the quality of acuistic is by the ear, not base on any standard specification. So even if you show them test data, it will not valid because they are not hearing what they want.

The challenge is to get business from all these people. That is why I am into psychology as well, sort of! You get to compartmentalise people into standard categories and you are more observant on human behaviour. However they act, there is motives, the more important part is to be able to read the motive.

I have not been reading charts for a while, partly because my subscription lapse, partly due to my need to settle down on my new job first. Probably when I re-suscribe the data, I will want to include Malaysia counters on my watch list as well. But it will be another 2 months later.