Dear future depressed self

You did it. You overcame all obstacles to be where you are today. Don’t be backwards looking. Look forward into the future with optimism in your mind.

Look at everything you have accomplished so far, forget the nay-sayers. Because at the end of the day, those who criticize don’t matter as they never entered the arena to begin with. They are merely spectators in the game of life.  (paraphrased from Churchill, MacCarthur?)

You are a true champion. You who toiled and battled in the game of life, you will achieve happiness and you are happy. Because at the end of the day happiness comes from within and nothing in this world matters other than time and relationships.

Both of which you have in spades and are prioritizing above all else. 

Here is to you future self! :D
_____________

Originally written on November 22nd, 2016 while on the flight from YYZ->KUL.

I set the date for publishing for December 22nd, 2016 because I have noticed I get big highs for a period of time then I will go back to average or even below average emotional state. This is an experiment to see if the act of writing and reading this will minimize the lows and maximize the highs. 

How America became a superpower

This video from Vox is amazing. I love this channel on youtube.

Australia Bound!

The move to Australia has been in the works since 3 month ago in September. My work with foodora progressing at a steady pace. Since being hired as a courier back in September of last year, I have quickly risen through the ranks. In November 2015 I was promoted to Courier Growth Associate in the office, then recently in August 2016 I was promoted to Courier Growth Lead for Canada.

This time, I am side stepping to become the Key Account Manager for foodora Australia in Melbourne. I will be managing about 50 restaurant partners for our platform. In some ways this is a step back as it is on the same ladder scale as my Courier Growth Associate position. But on the other hand it brings with it many benefits and rewards.

Before continuing here is some context; my foodora timeline:

July 2015	August 2015	November 2015		May 2016		June 2016	September  2016	September-October 2016	November 21, 2016
Return from bike trip in  France	Started work at Hurrier (now foodora)		Hired as Courier Growth Associate with Hurrier	Interview with foodora GM and HR for KAM position in Toronto & Vancouver	Passed up for KAM Toronto position. Vancouver position was in the works, awaiting launch of city.		KAM position offered for Vancouver with city launch. Also possibility of AU, France, Italy locations.	Interviews with Lionel, Head of Operations in Australia and Ana KAM Lead in Melbourne	Flight to Malaysia where we will spend 3 days as a mini vacation then continue on to Melbourne where I begin work :D !
	Running 2 full Airbnb listings downtown			This is also where the idea of moving to MTL or Vancouver came from	In the end we didn’t launch so no one was hired for Vancouver		After discussing with my GF we decided to go for AU – which meant I had to go through the interview process again with AU personnel	Everything went great, we started to look into paperwork and visa at this point.

The move to Australia is a calculated gamble. I have no idea how it will go. But I am going to give it my 100% and increase my odds of success.

For most people the biggest gamble would be the move to Australia with a girl I “hardly know” as my friends may put it. My closest friends have advised me to wait at least a year before committing to anything. Ditching everything to the wind, we moved in together after 3 month of dating, she met my parents on the third date. Finally her parents met my parents about 6 month of us being together. There is no greater feeling than finding someone you truly connect with on an emotional and physical level.

 The second gamble is financially. Izzy and I were both living quite comfortably in Toronto. We rented an apartment downtown (used to be my Airbnb). I personally had no debt to my name, as I had saved quite a bit from years of teaching and traveling. Izzy is a financial adviser in Toronto with Sun Life and making bank while doing so. She has a car she just recently leased last year. So between the old beater car my parents gave me and her car we were living the “American Dream”.

In fact one of the biggest road blocks for the move is the transfer of her lease as it is only one month old. As of right now it is still not yet transferred. If you know anyone please pass this along:
http://www.leasebusters.com/en/details.asp?ID=215275

Visa and paperwork is another stumbling block. As a Canadian citizen I can travel freely and have easy access to working holiday visa with Australia. Izzy is a Chinese citizen and there is no working holiday visa we can apply for her in Australia; at least not unless we go to China first. Even then there is a quota of 5000 people per year.  To overcome this we applied and received a tourist visa for Malaysia, and are waiting on a tourist visa for her and Australia. Hopefully it will come before November 25^th, otherwise Izzy will have to stay in Malaysia some more while I go to Australia first.

But despite all these roadblocks and challengers, one thing has remain true. I know I will regret it if I did not go to Australia somewhere down the line. I don’t proclaim to have everything figured out, and I don’t need to. Life is too short so I am choosing to live the way I want!


 
“Just Do It” – Nike

Peace from flight above the Pacific.

Foodora CA Experience November 2015-November 2016

The foodora CA experience has been tremendously helpful to my self-development. I learned about communication, office politics, results based work and most of all hustle and self-reliance this year.

In the office I loved to observe and just absorb everything. Every single person is there on merit and had something to teach me.

My main reporting officer was Mike the Head of Operations. He was my guide and model for this year. I observed his every action, from his swaggering walk to the way he talks to us. My biggest take away from Mike was talk small but carry a big stick. His communication skills are what I admire about him the most. In a particular vivid episode of coaching, I was pitching an idea to our head office in Germany. I sent in the email to Mike for criticism. He coached me as we exchanged comments and edits back and forth. Finally I trimmed down my paragraph to simply 2 sentences.  The biggest take away from that day was this: “Successful people don’t need to be sucked up to, less fluff.” (sic probably a paraphrase as opposed to word for word)– Mike M.

In the end Mike was let go, for reasons unknown to most people in the company. But whatever his shortcomings might be I respected him as a boss and leadership style. He was one of the best bosses I have ever had.

Nov 2016: Hurrier old office

October 2017: Halloween party at the office w/ 90% of the crew.

Job fair at U of T with Maude (Marketing Associate), Nour (Customer Success Lead), Shalaka (HR Director). 

Toronto Startup Open House 2016 with our MTL office on the TV.

The most OG customer service rep: Nour.

foodora impromptu drag Alleycat race 

foodora banner 

foodora Yoga @ Cherry Beach

foodora pumpkin carving contest w/ Jeremy (Courier Growth Associate), James (Dispatch Operator), Nick (Sales Associate), Liam (Rider Captain)

Peace from 2016! Hello 2017!

Freakanomics Inspired Post

The culprit in question. J'accuse!!

The air here is crisp and clean. Maybe it is only a figment of my imagination but at this altitude the air does taste better.

It is currently 5:13am in Taipei. The onscreen monitor flares to life as I check it to get a more accurate reading for this blog post. I am high above the clouds at 36000 feet. At this altitude, the pressure outside would crush me instantaneously if I somehow managed past the airline secure locks.

I am currently traveling to Malaysia with my gf Izzy.

On this flight I finished a great book by Steven Dubner and Steven Levitt -  Freaknomics: When to Rob a Bank. This gave me the inspiration to write this blog post.

Have you  ever noticed the plugs on flights are two pronged?
Thanks for Freakanomics I am beginning to see and wonder about a lot of things in my everyday life. On this recent trip with EVA Air I noticed the supplied headphones are two pronged. I had originally brought my own headphones to the flight and used them. The normal one pronged headphones works perfectly well with their onboard entertainment system.

Why would they need to manufacture these two pronged plugs? I have two hypothesis:

1. This measure is used to prevent people from stealing the headphones. I am guessing the airline recycles these headphones (hopefully after sanitizing them first). I tried the headphones on my phone and since it can only make use of one of the prongs, the music only came out of one ear.

The headphones can only work on the plane, there is little incentive for people to take them when we land. This argument is further strengthened by the fact some airlines only offer earbuds which are only single prong. Their quality is worse than the ones I received here on EVA Air, which are nice foamy over the ear headphones with pretty good quality of sound and bass.

2. It is somehow cheaper to manufacture these two pronged headphones. Since most of the manufacturing is done in China where economy of scale is key. There must be more factories making single pronged headphones than these obscure two pronged ones, this argument is discounted.



How to Fly First Class while only paying for Economy

I have nothing but good things to say about EVA Air. Out of all the airlines I flew with this one takes the cake for the service, presentation and comfort. However alas on a 15 hour transpacific flight, we can all use some more leg room and more washrooms facilities.

So how exactly do you fly first class on an economy ticket? Pause here to think about this a bit before moving on. The answer is quite simple and you may have already hit upon it. But you protest: That’s not allowed or legal!

Let’s examine that for a second, oh wait before that lets state what exactly is the method. The short gist of it is to simply walk into first class and take up one of the seats.

Sounds too simple to be true? I may or may not have done this on this flight and many others before it.

After the cabin crew does their initial round of flight checks for tickets and drinks and food. The flight descends into a dark zone where all the reading lights are off. The only thing separating your economy section and the business / first class is one or two sets of curtains.

As with everything is life it only takes someone with the chutzpah to actually do it and enjoy the rewards ;)

If you protest about how this harms others, just carefully consider your argument first and any obvious counters. I certainly couldn’t think of the golden rule equivalent objection to this or any other logical argumentations.

“Rules were meant to be broken” – anonymous.

Peace from the first class section? ;)

www.99success.org

I have been quite busy these past few month since coming back from Cancun with my beautiful gf Izzy. Long story short I have been hustling.

So here is where I stand. I want to be a WINNER in life. I was lacking motivation for a long time. I finally have found motivation and passion. It is as if I am born again.

Ok how can I be a winner in the game of life? I was a loser before.

Based on my own analysis I have succeed in all areas of my life except one: WEALTH.

Ok, so how do I get wealthy? Notice I said wealthy and not rich. There is a distinction here. Being rich doesn't equal happiness. Being wealthy does. Wealth is the freedom to do what you want, when you want without giving a fuck. Being rich looks like the same thing from an outsider's perspective but is actually not free, the rich person is tied up to their lavish lifestyle and may have to trade time in order to exchange monetary gains.

Here is a concrete example, a person who makes $40, 000 / year but works 10 hour/ week is WEALTHIER than a person who makes $80, 000 / year but works 40 hours / week. It is simple mathematics: ($40 000/ / 10 hours) > ($80 000 / 40 hours). The $40 000 a year person is more free simply because she has more free time on her hands!

However if we look at it on the RICHNESS scale then it is flipped. The person who makes $80, 000 a year is in absolute terms RICHER than the $40 000 a year. I don't care about being rich, I care about being wealthy.

Ok great now that the premises are set lets use deductive reasoning to find out how to be wealthy.

I believe it is possible to be wealthy and retire before the age I am 35. This is my long term goal. After analysis I believe the only way for me to achieve this in the time frame I set out is through being an entrepreneur. I can talk at length about the though process but lets just KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid :D); Stupid here refers to me of course and not you the reader.

Ok great so I want to be an entrepreneur. How can I do that and make money but at the same time enjoy my time?

This diagram demonstrates this process quite well. I think I have cracked the code.
What do I love?
Being out of my comfort zone and living on the edge.

What am I good at?
So many things but for the sake of this diagram: Public speaking and selling myself.

What pays well?
Being a successful entrepreneur.

Ok so the intersection of the 3 is where I can WIN. After analysis I think owning an online store is the quickest and more fun way to be wealthy. I have failed at some iteration of being an entrepreneur countless times, I have never publicly stated it as such. But this time it is different.

So I have set up my store, it is still quite modest and only starting out. Please help me promote it if you can as literally every new traffic to the website is helping me achieve my dream of being WEALTHY!

www.99success.org

Peace from the World.

Rugby & Asian Food Festival

This past weekend I attended a rugby match between Canada and Italy at BMO field.

My girlfriend won a contest at her work for her performance and we got some free tickets. In addition we also got an autographed jersey and ball from the whole team.

The game of rugby is really interesting to watch especially live. It is quite action packed. We didn't know any rules prior to starting the match, but google quickly solved all of that.

In the evening we went to the Asian street food festival by pacific mall and I met some of Izzy's friends. The most interesting thing from the festival is this NO2 infused popcorn that you can eat.

BMO field

A cool water park we passed by while biking

Izzy & her bike. She bought this on amazon and I assembled it for her. 

NO2 popcorn from Korea.

Peace from Toronto.

Cancun: Chicen Itza, Xel-Ha and Grand Oasis

The final couple of days in Cancun was a whirlwind of activities. We checked out Chicen Itza, Xel-Ha and a huge 5 star resort called Grand Oasis.

The road to Chicen Itza was about 2 hours long. We rented a smart car from our hotel and left early in the morning. Driving here is a mess inside the city. The roundabouts makes no sense at all, and there are no clear indication of lines on the ground. We are left to fend for ourselves in the urban jungle. To top it off police here are as corrupt as they come. You better have cash prepared if they pull you over. I was overly cautious while driving and always stashed my extra cash in my bag to lessen the bribe. If they see you have a lot of money they may demand more. Unfortunately I was still pulled over once and had to pay a hefty 300 pesos fine, or the equivalent of about $30CAD. It doesn't sound like much but $30CAD goes a long way in Mexico. Once you are outside of the city the roads become progressively better. However you have to be careful of speedbumps along the highway. If you are not careful you can be jolted awake going past one of these.

Chicen Itza is one of the newest 7 wonders of the world. Located about 3 hours drive outside of Cancun. We drove through the free road which passed by the local villages and it was a great ride over. The highway here is sparse of traffic once you get out of Cancun. The attraction itself is cool but nothing spectacular. It was littered with vendors hawking their wares. Really it was a souvenir day as we haggled the vendors and found the best prices on souvenirs. This was of course after our obligatory tourist photos with the big pyramid.

The day after Chicen Itza we relaxed by going to the siter resort of our hotel: The Grand Oasis. It was massive. There are swim up bars inside the pool area and 19 different restaurants are included in our ticket. In the evening we caught the show which is a mixture of song and dance and aerial acrobatics with elaborate costumes.

Xel-Ha was the last day of our trip before heading home. Here in Cancun there are three major tourist theme parks: Xplore, Xel-Ha and XCaret. Xplore is full of ziplining and ATVs, XCaret is an interactive zoo and Xel-Ha is filled with all the water stuff like snorkeling and scuba diving. The park is huge and connected to the ocean. We got to see a bunch of different fish and even come face to face with sting rays. They are like puppies of the sea and wills swim right up next to you to pet them.

Peace from Cancun.

Cancun: Isla Merjeres, Palm Oasis & Oh! by Oasis!

It has only been the third day for us in Cancun now and we are loving it. We have done so many things and activities it feels like we been here forever. I love traveling with this girl!

So the first day we flew in and quickly was brought to our hotel with the included shuttle. We checked in with ease but was disappointed to find a small room facing downtown (read: crappy) for our original check-in. I quickly went downstairs and worked my charm. As a result we were upgraded to the honeymoon suite with a pool facing view and it is gorgeous. Of course I made sure to tip the front desk girl afterwords for the change ;)

The first day we just explored the surrounding area and had some local Mexican food. Everything is so spicy! The climate here reminds me of Thailand except it is hotter and the sun is brutal during the day if you are not properly covered up. In the evening we came back and checked out the club attached to our resort Crazy Hot Coyote. As a guest of our hotel we had free entrance and caught the tail end of a performance. It was really cool just based on what we saw. We will definitely be back again to check out the whole show.

The hotel itself is amazing and well deserving of 4 stars. For the amount we paid I am very happy with the experience. The staff here is very polite and will go out of their way to help you out. It also helps that I am trying all the Spanish I learned from my phone on them at every opportunity :D The breakfast is superb and included in our price. But the most surprising thing is the price of a la carte items for lunch and dinner are surprisingly reasonable, in fact they are cheaper and way better than the other downtown options we tried. The other nice perk of the hotel is the pool. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

The Oh! Oasis is in central Cancun downtown. That is about 10 minutes by car to the hotel area which is the strip of 5 star all inclusive resorts and privately owned beaches. Oasis is a big chain of hotels and as a result of staying in ours we get free access to the Palm Oasis a 5 star resort with its own massive beach and water sports and entertainment. So that is what we did for the second day. We also got to eat and drink there for free even though it was not included in our package. Sweet!

The resorts and hotel are nice but by far the most fun we have had was yesterday. We went to Isla Mejeres. This is a small island off the tip of Cancun. The name means Island of Women. In ancient Mayan times this was used as a sacred place of worship. Today it houses a wide variety of collectives from tourist traps, beaches, turtle farms to hostels and hotels. We rented a scooter and zipped around the island. Stopping along the way we saw turtles in a natural hatchery, dolphins and sea lions in their version of seaworld. The second one we just snuck in again through sheer confidence and luck. Thus didn't have to pay their outrageous charge. To finish off for the day we took the ferry back and was entertained by the onboard guitarist on the second deck. The winds of paradise in our hair and spanish songs filling our ears. This is what I had imagined before coming here!

Peace from Cancun.