NUS: I will remember (III) Nineo..

I’m glad I’m writing these posts as I’m getting a nice opportunity to look back at my time at this wonderful place. Most importantly, my days are happier as I’ve decided to make a wish list of a few things I would like to do before I leave..

This is THE toughest post of them all just because of the sheer enormity of the contribution that Nineo has had on my life as such – not just my university days. Of course, it was never the company or the idea, but the people.. It has taken a LOT of reflection to come up with the 3 biggest things I will remember as there are so many. But, here goes..

Background:
Nineo.com was a dot com start-up dedicated to helping people find work they love. The business model has largely been scrapped thanks to a successful realization of the goal, without generation of any revenue(The story of many a dot-com, I dare say). The website now just consists of a page which talks about 27,0000 students and 9000+ projects. I applied to Nineo thanks to a senior of mine I was inspired by – 3 months into my 1st semester. And ever since then, spent my waking hours at the office till I decided to take a break from work 3 years later in July, 2009.

1) 15000 sign up target: I’m proud to say that I had a big part to play in the 27,000 student number. However, the achievement of that number was anything but easy. The toughest time was when we were a website with 3,000 students and one fine day, my mentor said to me -‘You have 3 months from now.. To hit 30,000 students’.

I was all of 18 years and 4 months then and such numbers sounded fictional. Nevertheless, I decided it could be done and somehow sat on it for 2 months. One day, things came to a head when my mentor basically told me that I better start doing else there would be ‘serious’ consequences. That was one of the many days I felt I was on the brink of being let go from the company. But, I realized later that it was never the case.. It was just in my head. That aside, I basically had a team of 3 who worked day and night signing people manually (as 2 months of ‘thinking’ had not resulted in any smart ideas) and we did hit my mentor’s intended target 15,000 right on the dot of our deadline – 12 midnight, September 29th.

Now, during this period, I had given my 3 teammates hell as I was a perfect example of an unhappy moping dog who was trying to ‘inspire’ 3 others. These things changed though with time as I had time to reflect on this and..

I learnt a BIG lesson in proactivity. A lot of the suffering I felt was self-inflicted. I had just looked at this target as one I was doing for my ‘boss’ rather than one I was doing for myself. Years later, I am very proud of the part I played but during the time, I had adopted a slave-ish mentality. It was one of those turning points.. I had a tough few months then but I also grew up a lot..

It was not the last of my tough times at Nineo. I had a very challenging period between January and June 2009 after which I decided to take a break.. More on that in a later post.
This second tough time practically was the making of the person that I am today. The sign up challenge was like the appetizer.. :)

2) Hard work and 9,999 failures: One of the biggest things I realized during this time was the value of hard work. I was working with people who had achieved more than I could even comprehend at that time and what I realized was an unfaltering willingness to work hard. More so, we also tried out hundreds of ideas at Nineo – almost none of them ever worked but I don’t remember ever being down because an idea never worked..

Failure was seen purely as an opportunity to get better. And as long as we were keen and hungry, there was ALWAYS a way.

Learning: At school, there is a lot of funny marketing about smart people who get good grades. There are rumors like ‘he barely studies/he barely needs to touch a book’ which I used tend to fall for. There’s no substitute to hard work. As my grandfather puts it, think straightforward! If you want something, you’ll have to sacrifice to get it..

And winners do..

3) ‘Tough, yet so gentle’: This is a people thing. I guess, at Nineo, the focus was entirely people which is why the people who came and went became much much better for it, even if the company didn’t (which itself was a big learning in business). The most amazing thing that I noticed was the ability of this special mentor to be tough, but yet so gentle.

He was a person who would never take ‘no’ for an answer. I was always stretched, always challenged, always made to look beyond what I could see, always hammered for talking too much, taking too much attention, lacking planning and organization, approaching tasks randomly with just execution and no thought, never using my brain among many other things..

When I look back now, I’m just glad that I got that treatment. I am someone who needs a whack when it comes to it.. And I got plenty of that. The difference was there for the people close to me to see..

Learning: Every hard hammer was balanced with a lot of love and care. I always knew a tight hug was on its way.. I had lot of tough times, but I never doubted that these came out of care..

In short, Nineo was not like a normal internship (as you might have figured by now). Nineo accounted for half of my university experience. I did not quite lead life like a normal student would – I used to be permanently dressed in formal shirts (usually in shades of blue.. Haha) and black pants. I worked all the way from Monday to the early hours of Sunday morning. The number of times I’ve walked back from Science to PGP at crazy hours is countless..

And.. Today, I can’t thank everyone at Nineo enough for making it so special. It takes years of pressure to make a lump of coal into a diamond. And I always felt that pressure with loads of love, care, trust and belief..

Let’s hope the results are coal-like..

NUS: I will remember(II) double rice and science canteen.

I know I promised Nineo today but given Nineo is a significant part of what defined my NUS life and given I do not have the time right now to do justice to it, I will go on to another thing that is very close to my heart – FOOD!

Now, for some background – during my time at NUS, especially thanks to work, I’ve had the opportunity to taste many a cuisine. I always loved mediterranean and hence, the stall at the business school, Thai food(no good thai stalls on campus), Indonesian(Science, Engine) and absolutely love Sushi and Genki sushi..

Having said that, on a regular note, I am an Indian food guy. I’ve heard things change once work starts but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the food experience in NUS and here are 3 big memories –

1) Double Rice: I may be on the thinner side but I do have a pretty healthy apetite. One of the highlights is the nickname I have at the Indian stall in the Non AC canteen at PGP. I am called ‘Double Rice’.. I’ve seen 8-10 staff come and go in the last 3 years and every one of them has eyed me suspiciously when I ask them to give me 2 cups of rice instead of the usual 1 cup but then, they’ve gone on to smile and joke about it since..

It’s a memory that’ll stay.. How many of us are called ‘Double Rice’ with lots of love, eh?

Learning: The Indian stall were the first sponsors of my talk show(coming soon in a post near you..) and it is amazing how much
I’ve felt love and care from them. I’ve heard a lot about them being slow, food not being good etc but I’ve always been a loyal customer.. :)

Thanks to Alice and the aunty and uncle who run the Indian stall.

2) The Science Canteen Indian stall: The next 2 memories come from the science canteen primarily because the Nineo office was at Science and I spent a significant part of my 4 years eating at Science. Here again, I have been touched by the love and affection. I am generally very happy with my rice, egg and yoghurt and so many many times, they’ve kept yoghurt aside just in case I came by..

I was especially thrilled when Alan Uncle and Anita aunty were blessed with a baby boy(Asher) recently..

Learning: It’s attention to small things that makes all the difference. The many times they’ve saved a yoghurt for me has made my day.. from time to time..

Thanks to Asha as well from the Science stall..

3) The Science Canteen Drinks stall and Mr.Wong: We were very regular customers at the drinks stall at the canteen as we would normally be up all night at the office and walk across for a curry puff, donut and some drinks. Mr.Wong became a GREAT friend.. he’s the person who runs the drink stall and overtime, we(the Nineo team) and him developed a very special friendship..

He was practically the caretaker of a board we had placed in the Science canteen on Nineo’s behalf and more so, just a great person who always spread joy and happiness. He always had his stories, about his kids, his basketball sessions on Wednesday. All in all, a great person!

Learning: This one comes from our mentor at Nineo. In my early days, I was amazed at the attention he gave to Mr.Wong, when normally, I would just pay the required amount and move. I realized that it is about how we treat EVERYBODY around us that defines us.. not just our obvious superiors/people we care.

Moreover, listening never hurts.. :)

A final special mention goes to Uncle Vincent from Sheares supper. Another fantastic person.. again, I enjoy the extra extra whipped cream the sheares team puts on my pancake just because I get thrilled to bits.. haha

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It is a close friend’s farewell dinner today and it is time to run. I’m sure I’ve not done justice to the whole food experience. As I’m a big food person, I’ll probably come back and edit it.. but these are a few memories that are sure to stay for a very very long time! :)

3 Learnings from the 8th Habit (continued)..

3 for the week.. :)

1) Empowerment: Empowerment comes as a result of trust, capabilities and transparency. He brings in an interesting point of how empowerment can fail if capabilities do not match.

I realize I didn’t take it into consideration in my last couple of experiences as empowerment works only if the people being empowered are up to the job.

3 aspects of competence..

a) Technical competence i.e. skills required to complete a job
b) Conceptualization i.e. ability to see the big picture..
c) Interdependence i.e awareness that everything in life is interconnected

2) Trust and trustworthiness: The noun always comes after the verb and always takes longer. The biggest question here is – are we saying and doing the same things?

For example, we could talk about building team spirit within our teams but have an on-going competition amongst the team members with only 1 winner. Why would the team ever want to collaborate then? The way to do this would be to align rewards to the success of the team so everyone has incentive to improve..

Personal trustworthiness (in Covey’s view) comes from –

a) Integrity i.e. walk the talk..
b) Maturity i.e. dealing with tough situations with compassion and empathy..
c) Abundance mentality i.e. see life as having enough for all so as to always feel happy for others’ success and hence, always focussing on win-win agreements rather than win-lose or lose-win..

3) We have the freedom and power to choose: We are not just a result of all that’s happened to us. We are not ‘like that’.. Every habit of us is just that – a habit and can be changed. Of course, unlearning it is a bloody difficult process but not impossible nevertheless..

Just the fact that we are aware that it is WITHIN our power to change our scripting is powerful. So, basically, if I am always rushing/always doing things in the last minute – I can change..

Thanks Matthew, Richard, Bei Yi, Crystel et al..

First, to Matthew, for introducing ‘Music of the Night’ to me..

Matthew was one of the finalists at Sparkz and sang ‘Music of the Night’ at our auditions – a performance that captivated my music side..

Listening to the original now.. must say he did a great job! :)

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Amazing how I’ve been enjoying Opera and other new performances thanks to influences from our 10 finalists..

Batti Batti – Thanks to Bei Yi

Broken Sorrow – Thanks to Crystel

Ommagio – Performed to perfection by our eventual winner Richard..

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PS: Our Sparkz CD’s are finally out..

NUS: I will remember(I) my first semester – admission, orientation et al..

Now, the danger with these nostalgia posts is that they can become very very very long. So, I’ll try and keep it to 3 points each – so as to remember the 3 biggest learnings..

Just as background – When I landed in Singapore on the 21st of July, 2006, I –

-> Had never used YouTube..
-> Did not know what buffering a video meant..
-> Had used the internet primarily for a few google searches, downloading and chatting..
-> Had never stayed up beyond 2am for 2 nights in a row – the thought was unimaginable..

Anyway.. that changed..

3 things I will remember from my first few months..

1) The Admission and the excitement: 7 close friends had made it together – all of us knew on the same day that we were getting together. NUS seemed like a picnic of sorts – we did our medicals together, got stuff for university together.. the excitement was crazy..

I had a bit of an issue getting my 1 day visa and could not fly with the other scholars(which was bloody disappointing then!) and reached 2 days late. Though my heart fell a bit when I first turned into PGP (the residence looked run-down then), I thought the place was, in one word, wizard!

The first few days were crazy – no cell phones meant you never know whether you’d meet again. And thanks to forgetting to set an alarm, I ALMOST missed my QET (or qualifying english test), but hey, no harm done.. Apart from getting frozen at the ‘exam hall’.. all went well..

Learning: Some things are worth working hard for. That feeling of excitement was worth slogging the entire year at DAV Boys Gopalapuram..

2)Orientation: So, here I was, a rather insecure(and hence egoistic to cover up) 17 year old kid who thought I had achieved a lot just making it into NUS when we were supposed to stick to tradition and make a fool of ourselves in front of our seniors.

Now, that was obviously extremely hard for someone like me.. I mean, what about my big ego? Haha..

Anyway, I did survive.. erstwhile pissing a few circles off thanks to not agreeing to certain lines being crossed.. but all in all.. I made a couple of senior friends that changed the course of the rest of my university life and that was worth it!

Learning: Some experiences are worth it just for the people we gain from them..

3) The jobless days: Few lectures into the semester and I was certain Electrical Engineering was not for me. Now, I had some pretty big plans for university and I was now actively on the lookout for something else..

Since studies was not going to be it, I tried my hand at CCA’s and soon the enthusiasm wore out. The excitement at excessive freedom turned to a complacency.. And soon I was up until 5 or 6AM every morning doing god knows what..

A few goofs came and went – like leaving my windows open in my lovely 7th floor room resulting in my IBM dripping in water etc etc.. All in all.. the best thing that happened was that I was looking for something to do..

And that led to the next phase – the Nineo days.. coming up tomorrow!

Learning: It’s only when we are in the brink that we do something to bring about change.. :)

I was complaining to myself about the intense humidity when..

I suddenly thought of a villager back home who may be busy planting or harvesting crops to make ends meet with the sun beating down on his/her back the whole day..

without having the luxury of good food, wonderful people around, a fully air conditioned lounge 2 floors below, fully air conditioned places to sit throughout the day..

left with just the thought of making ends meet – enough probably to feed his/her child..

And here I am, complaining..

Thank you lord for everything you have given me. I know that you have given me a lot more than what I is required..

The Nostalgia Series – 22 days left..

I just realized that I have 22 days left in NUS as a student.

I will be packing up for home on the 30th and by the time I’m back around the 25th of June, I will already be getting ready to shift to my new place..

Wow!

22 days.. only..

Anyway, being proactive and taking inspiration from Shilpa, I’ve decided to write my own nostalgia series..

21 things that defined my university days..

Why 21? Maybe because I’m 21 and I like that.. haha. I guess it’s simply because I need a day to make a list..

So, here goes – 21 things that defined my university life starting tomorrow. Will be nice to recollect the great memories..