A CEO’s Reflections On The New Year, Resolutions & Entrepreneurship : ThunderQuote

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The following open email was sent by the ThunderQuote CEO to all ThunderQuoters, and we just thought we’d like to share it with everyone. Happy New Year all!

31 Dec 2016, 2231 hrs:

Dear ThunderQuoters,

On the last day of the year,

Would like to reflect on everything that has transpired in our journey, this year and the last-

2015 was a crushing year for the team and I, as we picked a (previous) business model and product direction that didn’t work.

There is nothing more draining, more punishing, than attempting to push out a product without proper product-market fit.

As the person leading the team, you will feel responsible for the choices made, and attempt to pivot your way out, hoping against hope that something will give, because you want it to work- must make it work-

You are a team commander behind enemy lines, trying to fight your way out of the closing jaws of the enemy, at night you hear the drumbeats in the mountain and the fires on the horizon.

In your darkest hour, the wolf hours, you will wonder if it was all worth it, wonder if anything is worth this.

But you have to keep the team alive, you have to keep them going.  You have to keep your head and your cheer, to keep their spirits up.

And last year I failed- I failed my team and my people. Nothing more utterly heartbreaking than watching them move on, one by one. Not even the monetary loss hurts as much as to see people who believed lose their faith.

Except my closest friend and my strongest anchor (JM), who has always been with me, always supported me, always believed that we could do something together, no matter how many times it took (and we’ve been through what, seven, eight times now?).

One day, we always said to ourselves. One day we will break through, and one day, no many how many people say otherwise, no matter how many businesses we need to create, or how many times we are crushed by the might of the enemy, one day, God willing, we’d make a difference in this broken world.

I can assure you, wanting something has nothing to do with reality, in entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, you are a scientist in the most economic sense. You test things, you try things- sometimes, they even work (often by accident). But if they don’t, you move on, you pick yourself up, you label the hypothesis invalidated, and you go earn back that money.

And then you try again, and again, and again, until the world breaks beneath your enquiry, yielding the secret that has been spoken by none other than Steve Jobs:

“This world, this society was designed by people, and you, as a person, can also influence and design the world you live in.”

You are only beaten when you stop getting up.

So now, in the closing hours of 2016, I reflect upon everything that has happened this year, and the blessings and unexpected success we have gained, not through our own strength but through the blessings of the LORD.

I give thanks for all the times we’ve had, all the experiences that have forged us (and the hardships to come, I welcome them).

I have nothing more I need, nothing more I can ask for, than to lead this new team in ThunderQuote, to finally join the fight I have thirsted for all my life- to battle against all comers, all who would stain this world with their malpractice and their hatred, with their corruption and their evil- whether intentional or not, against all greed and tyranny that has so polluted the world of business that I love.

To vindicate those who have always believed in doing the right thing, in fighting the good fight, who believe that the measure of a man is what he does when he is alone, and no one watches, no one judges. Who fights his own dark nature because he understands that the only salvation for the business world is in defeating our darker selves.

It is because of this that we need each other- because of this that we must help each other, to stave off the clutches of our avarice, our greed, our pride and contempt for those who most need our help-

“For this is what I believe.

That there is a right way, and a wrong way.

There is an easy way, and a hard way.

Because we live our lives in the valley plains, we are soft like the grass.

To scale the mountains because they exist, that makes people strong.

To run the trails because they are there, that makes us fleet.

To become breakers of rock and shoulder the weight of truth, that makes us courageous.

We have mined iron from the land but have not an ounce in our bones- that is the greatest tragedy.

To know the mountain all your life but never touch its heart.”

 

We are ThunderQuote.
One day we will be the bridge between all businesses, and on that day we will say:

“We are our brothers’ keepers,

We are the bridge-keepers.

Let no darkness pass our watch,

Let us forever seek the light,

Between the passing lanterns

We will guard our brothers (and sisters),

We will hold this bridge, because

We choose the hard way.”

Happy new year, everyone.

– Kevin Ng
CEO, ThunderQuote

ThunderQuote is the most comprehensive business services portal in Singapore, Australia and ASEAN , where hundreds of thousands of dollars of procurement contracts are sourced every month by major companies like Singapore Press Holdings, National Trade Union Congress and more.

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