About Us

Your success is our business.

We occasionally go off-topic but this blog is mainly about doing business in Singapore & China for start-ups. From ideas & strategy to the nitty-gritty details that will affect your business (but no one tells you about them) we try to help any way we can.

We learn from one another, so join in the discussion, meet other entrepreneurs, and let’s build a community that can propel us forward together.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:19-21

The company’s corporate governance system is based on five concepts: “the softest pillow is a clear conscience; when in doubt, disclose; don’t use corporate resources for personal use; put long-term interests ahead of short-term ones; and share wealth with employees.”

ON FAITH

“Authentic Christianity never destroys what is good. It makes it grow, transfigures it, and enriches itself from it.” – Claire Huchet Bishop

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’ ” -Erma Bombeck

ON THE POWER OF WILL & IMAGINATION

“The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.” – Lauren Bacall

“Experience has taught me that there is one chief reason why some people succeed and others fail. The difference is not one of knowing, but of doing. The successful man is not so superior in ability as in action. So far as success can be reduced to a formula, it consists of this: doing what you know you should do.” – Roger Babson

“Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work–and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.” -Lucille Ball

“My mother gave me a bumblebee pin when I started work. She said: ‘Aerodynamically, bees shouldn’t be able to fly. But they do. Remember that.’ ” – Jill E. Barad

“One thing I want to say about life is don’t be scared and don’t hang back, and most of all, don’t waste it.” -Joan Blos

ON CHARACTER

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you
really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – John Wooden

“Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.” – Bruce Barton

“Injuries too well remembered cannot heal.” – Benjamin Barber

“An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” – Orlando Battista

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

“It is easy to be popular. It is not easy to be just.” – Rose Elizabeth Bird

From Henry Ward Beecher:

* Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
* The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.
* The unthankful heart … discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and. As the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

ON HOW WE OUGHT TO TREAT OURSELVES & OTHERS

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness;
to an opponent tolerance;
to a friend your heart;
to your child a good example;
to a father deference;
to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you;
to yourself respect;
and to all men charity.” – Frances Balfour

“Someday you will find out that there is far more happiness in another’s happiness than in your own. It is something I cannot explain, something within that sends a glow of warmth all through you.” – Honore de Balzac

ON WORK

“The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren’t is the willingness to work very, very hard.” – Helen Gurley Brown

“At every crossroad on the way that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past.” – Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949)
From Mind Munchies : A Delicious Assortment of Brain Snacks!

* “You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.”
* “When it comes to practicing good ethics, saying no to a vice is not good enough. A quality life is never achieved by focusing on the elimination of what is wrong. True success requires you to focus your mental, emotional, and spiritual energies on pursuing that which is right and good. Trying to become virtuous merely by excluding vice is as unrealistic as trying to cultivate roses simply by eliminating weeds.”

“There are two kinds of fool. One says, “This is old, and therefore good.” And one says, “This is new, and therefore better.” -John Brunner

ON BOOKS

“A library is a palace of dreams.” – MC Beaton

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” -Lord Byron