Hardcore > Intelligence

Mar 302011
 

Michael Jordon was cut from high school basketball team because of his “lack of skill”. But obviously we all know what a legendary figure he is.

Thomas Edison’s teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. He tried more than 9,000 experiments before he created the first successful light bulb.

Abraham Lincoln had 12 major failures before he was elected the 16th President of the United States of America.

They were not all that smart and talented, but they were freaking hardcore. So hardcore that they achieved what people didn’t think they could achieve.

And yea, I always feel very small when I’m with hardcorepreneurs. I have this irrational fear that they are going to snap at me because I’m not as hardcore as they are. Unfortunately, hardcorepreneurs are hard to find.

If I have a choice, I don’t want to be smart. I want to be hardcore.

I build Learnemy, an online marketplace that finds you the right instructors and classes in Singapore. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter    
 Posted by Elisha Tan at 12:25 am  Starting up, Thoughts  2 Responses »

Where art thou, Elisha?

Mar 212011
 

Quick update because I can’t stand the stagnancy of this blog, like seriously, no posts in more than 2 weeks straight?!

Stuffs up my sleeves:
- Business plan for Startup @ Singapore semis
- Therefore the finances headache. I really hate digging information to prove that I can gaze into a crystal ball and make numbers hot.
- Practice pitch for the said competition. Gonna take it real seriously, i.e. new and proper pitch deck fit for investors’ eyes.
- Alpha-prototype. I can no longer stand my laid-back I am with Learnemy’s progress. Will introduce all of you to Learnemy’s humanbot + blog pretty soon. (Ok fine, like it isn’t obvious that humanbot is me)

With all the stuffs up my sleeves, I can safely tell you that I don’t have beefy biceps. It’s just an illusion because of all the stuffs I have up my sleeves. I INSIST.

Meanwhile, visit Learnemy now! Something new will be up tomorrow. :)

I build Learnemy, an online marketplace that finds you the right instructors and classes in Singapore. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter    
 Posted by Elisha Tan at 11:14 pm  Personal, Starting up  3 Responses »

Accidental humor

Mar 052011
 

My tag cloud is hilarious. I love how my tags come together to form meaningless sentences.

Go on to read how I preach just for fun, how Learnemy intends to prank RoR (perhaps I should pull some stuns at the RedDotRubyConf 2011), my pitch on website woes and how you should join Founder Institute to be a slightly less awesome zombie.

lol.

I build Learnemy, an online marketplace that finds you the right instructors and classes in Singapore. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter    
 Posted by Elisha Tan at 10:09 pm  Personal  No Responses »

Ideas are cheap

Mar 032011
 

Ideas are cheap but this t-shirt is not. You can get yours here.

I don’t have extensive knowledge or experience about entrepreneurship but from what I’ve experienced so far, ideas are really cheap. Although all great innovations start with an idea, there’s more to starting up than an idea. Finding a core team member, getting fundings, knowing people in order to get fundings, or even making changes to the company are perhaps as challenging as getting the eureka idea itself.

And not as if any idea is all that unique. There are people who are much smarter than I am who probably have thought of the same idea but didn’t make it because of funds, team member or even simply because the idea is too ahead of its time.

So what if Zuckerberg stole the Winklevoss twin’s idea for Facebook. In fact, the twins became millionaires (and will continue to get richer riding on the success of Facebook) because Zuckerberg stole their idea and they whined sued Zuckerberg for it. Talk about who’s having the last (expensive) laugh.

I really don’t get why people are so secretive about their ideas. Ideas are cheap, execution is gold.

I build Learnemy, an online marketplace that finds you the right instructors and classes in Singapore. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter    
 Posted by Elisha Tan at 10:41 pm  Starting up, Thoughts  2 Responses »

Rock’on

Mar 032011
 

Yo I can pitch! Mad props to Ming, whose aggressively blunt comments upgraded my pitch script to what it is now.  All of you go check out the stuff he’s building!

Pitching at Founders Drinks and the SMU monthly event were really fun. The people you meet and the stuffs you learn from these people are really valuable. All new entrepreneurs should go for pitching sessions like this, more so since your pitch can create a good topic to talk about during networking sessions so you don’t feel that awkward during such events.

Note to self: Double check if clicker is available and if slide deck is allowed.

Seems like I need to think through more thoroughly on my finances and customer acquisition strategy.

Speaking of customer acquisition,I once gave up on a business idea because I couldn’t figure out how to acquire customers. It such a ridiculously funny story, but I shall save it for the next time.

Oh ya,  Learnemy got into the semi finals of Start-up at Singapore business plan competition. Hoping to also get into Ideas Inc’s semi finals so I’ll get the 15k funding I need!

I build Learnemy, an online marketplace that finds you the right instructors and classes in Singapore. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter    
 Posted by Elisha Tan at 1:47 am  Starting up  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,