Idea is the hardest part

My procrastination of future finally comes to an end. After some "signs" mostly from news, friends and family, I have to think again what I want to do in the future.
Friends and family have been questioning for quite sometime but it was the news that woke me up. Apparently, the wonders of the IT has not stopped and it hit people from my time (same age). Again, mostly these wonders came from US.

Mark Zuckerberg is now a very famous person and become the youngest millionaire or should I say billionaire in the planet. I read about this guy about 5-6 years ago. At that time, friendster was my facebook. I made some research about this guy and facebook (including watching the social network film) and try to get something out of it. Based on the findings of my research about this guy, I am not too fond of him. One thing I believe that we all must have in life is honesty.

Another wonder I found lately is Gurbaksh Chahal. This guy is at my age and has a net worth around 340 millions USD. A net worth that is yet far far away from mine :P Like Mark, I also did some research about him (including reading his book The Dream). I found that he was a drop out, not college drop out but high school drop out. Yes, he has no high school degree and yet he built multi-million businesses. His businesses, in case you guys don't know, are online advertisements (ClickAgent and BlueLithium). If this is the first time you have ever read or hear about these two companies, don't worry I have no idea about these 2 companies when I first read/heard them. But the important is that these not-so-well-known companies made him millionaires.
Pierre Omidyar with his eBay also put a remarkable story from his humble beginning putting auction web in a web site that was used to display information about ebola virus. Now it is also billion-dollars business.

Those stories made me wondering, if something so small in the beginning can be so big in the end, this could happen to anyone. After all the world is flat. Something that I believed long time ago now hit back on me. I tried to brainstorm with a friend to come up with an idea. We even started to build it but it turned out that the idea has been implemented by someone else with far more sophisticated features. Something that I thought could be my gold mine just slipped away :P It is very hard to find a good idea. Somehow inside of me there is a barrier mechanism that tend to find weakness of all ideas. This can be good because it will protect me from implementing useless idea but it can also be bad because it will be difficult to start and learn something. After all entrepreneurship is all about willingness to learn. After few days of wondering what is the best idea to start with, something struck me. It will be the best to start with something I like. These are what ignited most of the people of wonders there. Well maybe not Mark because he got his idea from someone else. If it is from something that you like, others opinions will be secondary, although there are still no money flowing in your cashflow there are already something else you got in return. Satisfaction for doing something you like :) And I believe eventually money will come.

Les "tenses" en Francais

Ce semaine est semain de "tenses". Actuellement, j'ai appris les "tenses" avant ce semaine. Mais j'etait paresseux. Maintenant, je peut groupe les tenses.

Le premier est present. Present explique ce wue nous faissons maintenant.Par exemple' je mange, je parle, etc. Elle est differente de l'anglais. Il y a seul une type de tense de present. L'anglais a trois type de tense pour present.

Toutefois, cela est differente que les futur et passe en francais. Pour futur et passe il y a trois type de tense. Pour passe il y a passe recent, passe compose, et passe imparfait. Pour futur, il y a futur proche, futur simple, et futur imparfait. Pour futur est passe ont resemble l'anglais.

Fonds Communs de Placement

L'histoire est continue au sujet d'investissement. Ce temps est fonds communs de placement. Fond communs de placement est appele mutual fund aux Etats-Unis. Il est aappele interest fund en Grand-Bretagne. Bien qu'il soit connu dans nombreux pays, Je ne suis pas sure si les reglementation des fonds communs de placement sont les memes dans tout les pays. Dans l'histoire, je voudrais presenter mes connaisances au sujet de fonds de placement.

Fonds communs de placement est un systeme financier qui recuillent de l'argent de plusieurs personnes. Les fonds sera gere par le gestionnaire de fonds. Le gestionnaire de fonds est responsable de faire profiter des fonds en l'investissant dans le marche boursier.

Habituellement, Le gestionnaire de fonds va acheter des actions des societes en tete du marche. Cela depend de l'indiceque le marche utilise. Par exemple, si le gestionnaire acheter les actions au NASDAQ. Le gestionnaire va utiliser S&P 500 indice. Si le gestionnaire acheter les actions au NYSE, le gestionnaire va utiliser Dow Jones Industrial indice. Le gestionnaire peut, et habituellement, acheter des actions de plus d'un societe dans l'indice. Apres, le gestionnaire surveilles le prix des actions. Si la hausse de prix, toute les personnes qui ont investi leur argent dans ce fonds communs de placement recevoir argent. L'argent est preleve sur le benefice produit par les actions.

Ce type d'investissement est plus sur comparer a d'autres type d'investissement dans marche boursier parce que les actions sont les meilleurs actions sur le marche. Mais, comme autre investissement, il y a toujours des risques. Si le marche est en baisse le prix des actions sere en baisse aussi.

Le dernier dix jours

Aujourd'hui est le deuxime jour d'absence du chef. Pour moi, aujourd'hui est le jour de CR. Je dois faire des progres sur mon CR. Je demande plusieurs de personnes d'acquirir des information. Il y a deux occasions dans mon equippe. Le premier est mon amie anniversaire. Elle apportes croissant pour l'equippe. Le deuxieme occasion est mon autre amie viends de retourne de Ukraine. Elle a apporter chocolate et bonbon de ukraine. Ils ont l'air deliceux, mais je ne peux pas manger avant ce soir. J'ai pris quelqu chocolates et croissant pour mon diner ce soir.

la nouvelle historie du blog

Je veux commencer a faire des annonce de mon histoire en français. il y a aura des facon dont ecris, je sais. Une de raisons est je n'ai pas d'ordinateur avec clavier francais. Donc, accent et certain caracteres speciaux ne s'affichent pas correctement. La deux raison est mon francais est tre tre mal. Desolee. J'espere que cela ameliore le temps.

Mon premiere recit en francais sera sur les investissement. Aujourd'hui, pas beaucoup chose faire dans le bureau. C'est pour cette raison, je lu sur internet pour information au sujet d'investation pendant dejeuner heurs.
par exemple d'investissement ont or, terre, action, etc.
la derniere semain, j'ai ete interesse au sujet de investation en action parce que mon ami a parle dans le mailing list.
Il a dit que action est bon marche et relativement sur.
J'ai fait mes petit recherces au sujet d'action et j'ai trouve que investement dans marche boursier besoin d'une connaissance approfondie sur le marche.
Mon autre amie a dit sur un autre type d'investissement. Le autre type d'investissement est d'or. Or jamais perdu de sa valeur.
Le valeur augmente toujours.
J'ai cherce sur internet au sujet d'or. J'ai trouve une methode pour fait d'investissement dans l'or. Le nom est agriculture d'or.

L'autre type d'investissement est terre. La terre est toujours constante. Par consequent, tout comme l'or, la valeur des terres augmente toujours.

Be Grateful for What You Have Because You Can Always Have Less

Last night after tiring day of apartment cleaning, I did some video walking on youtube. The video was about successful Indonesian people living abroad. The video was broadcast on one of Indonesian TV station last December when I was in Indonesia. I watched this show at that time but only for few minutes since I had a guest at that time. I realized yesterday when I found it in youtube that I had not finished the whole show.
OK, long story shorts, the show was about few guys who left Indonesia and made brilliant career outside. There were one group (I think it was part of PPI) who gathered all of this kind of people from all over the world and they exceed their target from getting 50-80 people to be gathered (or probably contacted and collected their data) 400 people with the criteria. Due to the short time provided for the show, only four people was interviewed.
Those four people interviewed are extremely smart and achieved a remarkable achievement. However, I always put preference on the people who suffered the most compare to other people who suffered less when it comes to comparison. Why? Probably for me the success level of someone is measured from how hard he struggle for success. And people who suffered the most are better than the others.
Among those four the one that I choose was Prof. Ken Soetanto. IMHO, he was outstanding. He is one of the Dean at Waseda University and had four doctoral degrees. He said (at least he didn't denied when the host said) that he did not finished his high school. Later on I found out that he finished his high school but was not on time since his first school was closed and he had to work since then until few years later he start again his high school in another school.
He went to Japan when he was 23 and struggling to live there for three years before he got admitted to Nokodai for bachelor program and continue for master in the same university. And then, this is the best part, he took four doctoral programmes afterwards. He was disappointed because the Japanese at that time did not accept him to be a researcher. He went to US and work there in 1 or 2 universities for around 5 years before he returned to Japan again to be a lecturer. Afterwards, his career was shining than ever.
Amazing stories. The video somehow gave me another point of view to see life. Recently, I was soo ungrateful about almost everything that I have. My story with this people have some similarity. At least I was like them studied overseas and experienced living in abroad. I also most probably shared the same problem to decide to go home for good or not. Have I been as successful as them? No, at least not yet. Knowing there stories makes me think that there are other goals that can be reached beside coming back home and give to do everything, no matter that does not suit my qualification or worse does not fit what I want, just for some money. So, a new set of directions? Yessss....

Wrap Up

It's been a while since I wrote in this blog. Many things happen. It is sad that I didn't write my life in Sweden. But I will try to wrap up everything here. Okay, my last writing was about comparison between Ronneby and Bolzano. It was my first impression when I arrived and lived for several weeks in Ronneby. The next story is about my life in Ronneby after those period.

Ronneby was a small town in south-east part of Sweden. One of the most impressive finding when I was in Ronneby is the environment. Yes, it is a small town, not many people life here, no malls and so on. But what I mean by environment here is the living environment. There are still many trees, I saw rabbits many times and the most impressive one is I saw deers in the student housing.

My student housing was fun for most of the time. Yes, there are some times that I don't like the housing. One of it is when I come back from supermarket after buying groceries. The steep road to get to the housing was quite troublesome if you carry many stuffs. And you can imagine when you have to do it during winter when the temperature can drop to -20 centigrade. It is also not so near to the town nor the train station. Which takes some time if I went to shop or to go to out of Ronneby (Karlskrona most of the time). The positive side about the housing is that it is very close to the campus. Getting there can take 7 minutes if I walked slowly and enjoying the scenery along the way and 2 minutes if I took shortcut down the hill through the trees.

Unlike my previous housing in Bolzano, the housing in Ronneby was very warm. Thanks to 24 hours non-stop heating that did not cost extra charge. Ow I forgot to tell one of the unpleasant impression that happened during my last days in that housing. They did not give my deposit money back until now. I heard that the housing company went bankrupt. But still, not giving the deposit money is not a good impression for me.

I finished my study at BTH little bit late than I expected. I expected to finish my study in June 2009 but it last until September 2009. The reason is my master thesis took so long to finish. I even have to work on it during summer. But finally thank God it was over. I felt soo relieved. The result was like I expected. Although somehow until now I still think that I can get the same result with less effort. But nevermind, que sera, sera.

October was my last month in Ronneby and Sweden. It was marked by marathon of farewells, confusion of degree certificates applications and another confusions of what I am going to do next. Many friends that spent time together during my staying period in Ronneby said goodbye. It was sad. But life must go on. Meeting and separating are two things that happen in live. Applying for degree was not so easy task neither. I have to found out what the first and second university wanted and also, ofcourse, what the consortium wanted, BTH was quite helpful and it takes only 2 weeks for the process and I got my transcipt and degree certificates. For FUB it takes months. I received the diploma supplement on December and the certificate on January. Even during November and December I still have to send to them several documents that they need. But thank God I got all of them now.

And ofcourse, the most “romantic” part I did during that October was the planning of what I am going to do after I graduated. It was like the same thing happened when I graduated from my bachelor degree. When I think about this matter, it's not just about where I am going to make money for living. Its more spiritual to me. I put present tense in the last sentence on purpose. I do still think about it until now. I thought about this even before I take the scholarship. But at that time several close persons of mine convinced me to take the scholarship and postponed the thinking of this matter later. I thought about it several times during my first year in Bolzano. And I thought it seriously since my last semester at BTH. In general the results was I did not want to take PhD, at least not for now unless I have no other options. So based on the result it is set to find a job. Where? This is when the spiritual factor comes in. The place where I am going to work will influence my spiritual life. Especially I am planning to have family in the future. Therefore, their spiritual life will be also my responsibility. Knowing this fact, thinking about this matter was more heavy than what I did few years back.

Like most of the Indonesians, I want to come back and live in Indonesia one day. At least until now. This willingness that most of the time I found less or absent when I talked to other non-european friends. I have experienced lived in Indonesia and foreign countries. Based on my findings, nowhere is perfect. There are always pros and cons when we compare living in one country and another. Or when we compare living in Indonesia and abroad. Its just up to us which one that will make us happy.

I have seen a family lived in small house in Indonesia and the father has to work extra hard day and night, way much harder than any europeans that I know of, just to keep his family fed and get shelter. Their home is sheltered with zinc alloy which during summer the temperature inside the house could rise up to 50-60 centigrade and no air conditioners. Only one small old fan that sometimes breaks. Even during rainy season, still you can feel the heat. Which part of that picture that tells happiness? I will leave this question for you. But they said they live happy. I also have seen a family live in one of the city in europe. In small apartment with only one room in it (bathroom doesn't count), have children and afford a good life. Although only small portion of their earnings goes to saving and they are far away separated from their big family in Indonesia. They said they are also happy.

Many reasons to be happy as well as many reasons to be unhappy. We just have to come up with our own formula of happiness that combines those reasons in order to make decision on what do we want to do nest or where do we want to live. During my process of creating this formula I learn one thing. Try not to put people's opinion reason/factor in it. It only cost you more CPU cycle of your brain to work way much harder and no significant advantage in the result. We cannot satisfy all people. No matter how good our formula or decisions that we make there are always people that put bad comments on it. This is our life. Just do it according what we want based on our knowledge and preferences.