Moonsharke

A decision made last November caused me to relocate to Montreal and work in one of the finest game development companies in the world today. It’s just day 2 and I’m already loving it! The people here are very nice and friendly. The place is scenic and cool. It’s a change in pace of life as well. All so very different from Singapore.

However I have not forgotten the day all these began. That incredible moment when I simply made a decision to do something different instead of the normal day to day activities is simple yet life-changing.

Make your decision today and move on. You never know where your decision can take you.

I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Malaysia, sipping a cup of Earl Grey and checking the news on my iPhone. The wifi allows me to check out what my friends are doing this instant, see stock prices, and blog this little update, all from a little device the size of my pocket.

Technology allows us to interact with other people in a different way than we would be able to in the last few years. Now, at a touch of a button I can get in contact with anyone and do more things anywhere in the world with nothing more than a capable mobile phone.

It’s pretty amazing when I start to think of it that way. This is the geolocation irreverent business and lifestyle I want to have, and it is what i will be building for the next few years to come. Can’t wait!

What scares you?
What makes you stay up at night?
What intrigues you?
What makes you jump for joy?
What depresses you?
What makes you angry?

The last few months have been a huge wave of activity that came crashing over me one after another.

Right after I handed in my notice, I feel a sense of.. peace. It feels exactly like something that came out of a uplifting novel, and I began to see my shoddy life in a different light. I began to look harder at the lemming that I had became, see the mundane pointless after-work activities for what they are, and now distant myself from the elements that had attempted to sheep me.

I began to think for myself again. The budget had to be cut. I will start looking for opportunities to do. I will get in touch with those I distant. Relationships to rebuild. Friends to win.

Then they started coming. The good things. The pretty things.

I started receiving offers for jobs that don’t pay as much, but offered so much more in terms of entrepreneur experience and interpersonal skills, which i am a fan of. More ways for me to develop, mature up, become independent.

I even got a call from a game company that I was trying to get into a few months ago, and one humble interview after another resulted into a (good) possibility that I would earn a year-long paid internship overseas to watch game making masters at their work!

What’s more, I got a counter-proposal from my current employer that more closely aligned with my desired lifestyle to move away from being an employee and begin on my journey to own my own business.

All things said and done, I am now working lesser hours feeling more valued and additionally have more time on hand to try out small little projects that I have been itching to work on but had not the time before.

To throw in a bonus, my last friend meet-up resulted in us hatching a probably viable business, which could go a long way to make us financially independent. Capitalism ahoy!

In a nutshell, a lot has happened since I last wrote.

Contrast that to my activity for the PAST WHOLE DAMN YEAR, where I did pretty much NOTHING, achieved very little personal growth, and even consoled myself with superficial satisfaction in material goods and designer labels, doing nothing for the growing gaping void in my soul.

It is almost as if the universe, wanting to teach me a lesson, raised its hand and withheld all the good things that could happen to me so that I can get off my ass to just fucking MOVE.

And it felt good once I started moving again.

Still alive.

Inaction is death.

I looked around my desk. It was around two, I recall. Full from lunch andsleepy from the rain outside, colleagues cluster to chat about the coming weekends and what they going to do, what movies they are going to watch, what happened in that hot new TV series, and the general sharing spirit is in the air. Gossip spirit, that is.

I was never the type of person to indulge in gossip and idle chatter, so I turned my attention to my workdesk. The project is ending, and we are entering the tidying up phrase. Slow day. I busied myself with the news site, reading the various news of the day, consuming them slowly and fitting them into my general affairs mental picture.

Well.

A while back, I attended a small university barbecue reunion gathering and chanced upon an old project mate of mine. I was in the faculty club back then, albeit as a minor member, and I recalled that he was part of the executive group. He was a year my senior, and has since started his own company, and over the barbecue session I learnt that it is prospering. Good news.

As we parted, he took me aside and asked if I am interested in joining him.

Well.

As I sat at my workdesk that afternoon, I could not help but ponder his words. Entrepreneurship is something I hang on the tip of my tongue all the time, but I never got around to doing it. I read the books, I took notes like a student, but it remains a distant to-do task on the horizon. I am busy at the moment, I told myself, just keep at my work and wait for the next payday before I make a move. And the next, and the next, and before I know it, a year has passed.

A lot has happened in that period of time.

Something in my head gave. “What the hell, ” I thought.

I gave my month notice.