Self Employed Journey
I started my self-employed journey in October 2019 and have been trying on different stuff ever since. My aim is actually to build a reasonable amount of income streams that can sustain my lifestyle as well as for investment to build my "passive income" machine. To be honest, I started with very minimal resources, a small bag of cash, and some connections with friends that are working on something that I am interested in.
Urban Farming - First Attempt
I first started a partnership relationship with my friend, Francis who started Urban Farm Tech. I have always been fascinated with indoor, vertical farming as I believe that having a sustainable and most importantly pesticide-free supply of fresh produce is one way to improve our lifestyle. The saying goes that what we eat builds who we are. This is very apt whereby the food we consumed will affect our physics and even daily performance as well.
Vertical farming is a way to go as it has 3 key features that I think are underappreciated by the market: transparency, consistency, and automation. Let me just simply break down why these three matter. Transparency is where we understand how our food is grown, harvested, packaged, delivered, and even cooked until it reaches our plate. This is when we will start to learn how to appreciate food, capability to plan our nutrient intake, be conscious about our carbon footprint, and heighten our food experience through understanding the taste, texture, and smell of the food. Of course, not everyone is as particular as what I had mentioned, even myself isn't that particular either. Most of the time, eating is just part of the routine activities for me to be supplied with energy and continue to work. Yet, COVID lockdown had helped me to slow down and learn how to appreciate every meal I had. I even picked up cooking and started to cook more than 5 times a week (which is unimaginable for me).
Consistency is the economic driver for vertical farming business feasibility. When vertical farming can be consistent in delivering a certain type of vegetable supply, it becomes easier to formulate and estimate the time and cost required. This will make the business scalable and able to be adopted in different parts of the cities. Imagine that if we can set up several satellite vertical farms around the sub-urban ring of a city where the rental of land/property is not as high as the city, then we will have a stable supply of fresh produce delivered to the kitchen as well as to the household. Once harvested, the vege can be delivered to the buyer within half a day which can significantly maintain the freshness of the vege.
Lastly is the automation is where I think is important to play the labor part of the industry. The average age of the farmer population is over 55 years old (remembered from MARDI statistic). Within 5 years' time, the whole labor force in the industry will be considered ineffective and we will need fresh blood or machine to help. In this case, it is likely that the young population will not take on the conventional way to farm but choose the more labor efficient way to do so. Hence, vertical farming has a good chance to be widely adopted by the local population within a 10-year time frame. To some, it may be a long shot but IMO, it is an eventual outcome. Planning to set up one once I accumulated enough budget for that, estimated to be around RM250k for CAPEX and 1-year runway OPEX. This amount of investment can expect a 1 year ROI conservatively.
I am optimistic about how urban farming is going to be locally as well as globally. It is just a matter of time for it to manifest and people start to appreciate it. Yet, I have found some other opportunities when COVID hit in early 2020 and I shifted to solely online business. Putting this part on a hold, still in touch with my buddy, and accumulating resources.
Go Doodle - Education & Online Business
I always wanted to start my own geek and ideally to be mobile and flexible. This means I need to build a business that is online-based, light in asset, and more focused on systems and services. Besides, I strongly believe that education is one of the evergreens and "do good" businesses that are never wrong to be in and it helps to build community. In short, it can help me to earn a buck, do good, and feel good at the same time. Hence, the decision to start trying in this industry.
Started Go Doodle which is an online art education platform where we recruit some fresh graduates with art backgrounds or artists who are interested to teach online. Furthermore, it is due to lockdown, most of the artists are stuck and have nothing to do. Then, this is one good way to connect with the artists and help them to connect with students that are looking to learn art or experience art as a hobby. The whole operation has been running from May 2020 until now. I am happy to see the feedback of the students as well as the art instructors as well. Yet, the shortcoming is that I have limited focus on the business after I have my eye on crypto which I will talk about.
In short, I see Go Doodle can grow to become:
- A creative experience center/platform for people to experience different types of creative activities including drawing, 3D modeling, bakery, etc.
- Can become a platform where people can kickstart their art-related profession/career with some training
- A good referral point for future job opportunities
The Pain of Depending on Trading Bot
Well, into my crypto journey. The most painful experience is actually joining a trading bot project and losing astronomical figures (near to 50% loss for me). The takeaway from this experience which took place right before the Chinese New Year of 2021 are:
- As long as the crypto is not in your wallet, it is not your coin
- Trading bot can be reliable but not the human
- Trading bot is not a 100% sure win strategy as the strategy and parameter are set by human
- Error in API or some shit may get you REKT to the ground
- Exchange is not your friend, leveraged trading bot will make you lose easier than earn
- Only a handful of sincere and professional traders around, not many can teach
- Following the signal doesn't mean a sure win but you need to be damn discipline and not to be GREEDY
- TAKE PROFIT when it hits the target, don't adjust the target or delay the profit-taking action (the market is highly volatile and change can happen within seconds)
From the hit, I started to be more serious about searching for ways to earn in the crypto market rather than relying on a bot/team. Own due diligence through countless scrolling and reading on Twitter, read up whitepapers, learn to read charts, get to know more crypto folks and more is part of my life now.
Lucky to Start Diversification
Again, I’m lucky to have thought of diversification in the first place. So I didn’t get REKT 100% by the team and still have half left with me to work around. Those 50% portion is actually diversified to Celsius Network which is a lending platform and now to be a hybrid of cefi, defi (with a small part into some altcoins).
Why do I have the thought of diversification? Well, I do understand the risk of the trading bot passive income thingy may not be sustainable and has its risk. So my take is to gradually reduce my stake in the bot and diversify into projects that I have more control over or less risk. This is what I learned from the sifus where they really experienced the 2017/18 bull and crash and still persevere until now.
The philosophy is to have a few bags of high-risk, high-return investment (referring to crypto) into like a low cap gem. But do take note that not all gems are real gems, it may be disguised gems. So whenever there's profit, remember to take profit and move up to mid-cap altcoins that I think are good, potential projects like Defi, NFT, Metaverse related. Then, once the mid-cap gem started pumping, take profit and move the profit up to the top tier blue chips coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum. I will also move some of the profit to stablecoin so that I have extra bullets to use when there's some correction. Just saying, saying it is easy but implementing it is not as easy. The two most important aspects are discipline and good due diligence.
Learning Portfolio Management
Then, this comes to the next aspect of due diligence which is portfolio management. In 2021, I am surprised by the growth of the value of my crypto portfolio. It is over my expectation and I am truly grateful for the event (REKT by XXXXXX) and have since taken my investment even more seriously. Of course, this involved luck as well as taking the right bet with a reasonable amount of early buy.
Again, I was reminded by one of my sifu, Aaron Ting who emphasized no matter how small our bag is, always practice active portfolio management. The essence of portfolio management is that:
- Always have an adjusted ratio of different risk level categorization (stablecoin, major coin, L1, Defi, NFT, L2, Private Sale & interoperable infrastructure like appchains)
- Depending on the market sentiment and trend, adjust the ratio of each of the categories (I also will get the sentiment on some coins, so not easy)
- Adjust the portfolio weekly, biweekly or monthly (Why? Because crypto market changes very fast, you don't wanna stuck with a full bag of shit coins)
- Keep a good record and track (it will help, trust me. How I do it? Excel)
Also, I will want to diversify my portfolio from super heavy in crypto into other asset classes (90% in crypto). As of now, I am looking into diversifying the profit into businesses and also possible assets like land or shops (residential property is not really my first choice now). Why I wanna do that? Well, of course, it is all about diversification and getting to build multiple streams of revenues.
Earning Yield from Different Sources
That's the reason why I am all into creating YIELD with my existing wealth and reducing the amount in the splurge just yet. There are a few that I am currently doing and some are in the planning. Let me list it out:
- Depositing coins in Celsius Network to earn sweet yield (doing and feel free to ask me about the experience, been on Celsius for a year)
- Yield farming with Defi protocol like Curve Finance, Aave, Ramp, Dodo, Sushiswap, Anchor Protocol, Firebird, Balancer, Ref Finance, Pancakeswap (doing, it is all about providing liquidity either with stablecoin or with pairs, you may need to be aware of Impermanent Loss)
- Staking with native tokens like on Near Protocol (10% APY), Avalanche, Harmony, Solana, Cardano, Polkadot, Ramp, etc. (doing, it is a no brainer not to participate as it is literally a free money making machine when the project is legit and actively growing)
- Invest in early rounds, preferably in private sales like strategic rounds or even seed round. If not, I can always opt for IDO/ICO/IEO or whatever they call. I can also choose to stake in launchpad like DAOmaker or Polkastarter where I can get some good slots of early investment into projects that choose to have their fundraising through decentralized venture DAO (doing and it has given me a good return as well thanks to sifus and community, of course, there will be vesting which needed to take note of)
- Play to Earn, I know but I didn't get involved with it as I have limited lesser interest in that. (not doing but gonna try with Atocha Protocol which I am working on where you can try to solve puzzles to earn, which is light and cool)
- Create to Earn, you know you can earn by just blogging and creating content on a blockchain? I am on a few already and earning quite a buck. There are platforms like Hive Blog, Steemit, Mirror.xyz, Myriad social which are providing opportunities for us, the creator to earn something while we create. (Doing, and taken profit as well, stopped for a while and wanna revive it back)
Of course, there are many other ways to earn in crypto projects but these are all that I am in the know and doing. If you would like to know more, feel free to hit me up. As for businesses, these are my plans to have more sources of revenue in 2022:
- Create more classes/sessions for Go Doodle community (doing, will require me to plan more sessions with more art instructors involved, so anyone who are interested or can recommend some artists to me, do let me know)
- Work out a short curriculum with my friend to get the young generation to start in the creative industry (discussed and starting this month with a draft, this is going to be exciting as it is always something that I wanna do)
- Start a finance/investment/crypto/productivity related channel, which can be Youtube (in planning, it is something that I am interested in but just having some confidence issue to really present it out, not gonna charge anything but open for patronage)
- Travel to China to source some lifestyle-related products to Malaysia (in planning and gonna do it in H2 2022)
These are the three that I have in mind and I think it is more than enough to get me fully occupied for the whole of 2022. I would say it is a blessing and privilege for me to be able to plan this out and have some confidence to pursue it with the resources I have.
NFT - My overall view
Now back to some crypto topic which is NFT. I think this is one of the HOTTEST topics in town even now. Just that, I would rather take it as a piece of technology that can enable us to do many things than something that you flip to profit (if you are damn lucky, got into Alpha and you really flipped it, well congratulations!). To me, it is more about the adoption of NFT and getting people to familiarize themselves with the term, the fundamentals. Here are some of my takeaway on the technology:
- A non-fungible token can be equal to a unique piece of information that you can own and trade, it can be art pieces, music pieces, tickets, graduation certificates, mortgage titles, payment receipts and etc. As long as it is unique, such a document can be turned into NFT.
- So why do people make a fuss about NFT? Why do we see many millionaires born through NFT projects? The first wave is from the collectibles PFP. It is a status, a ticket into an exclusive community. All thanks to the community and also big buy from big shots, some projects take off. What we see are these exemplars and it leads us to think that all other projects can achieve the same result. No, it is not and that is why it is exclusive.
- What people need to understand is that it should be a tool to build up a community than a money-flipping thing.
- So how it can be a tool to build community? First of all, ownership. You own a piece of the project by buying/minting the NFT. The project team will usually reward those who supported them through the genesis minting by establishing DAO, second airdrop, or other creative methods. AS LONG AS the team is sincerely there for the community, you are likely to be well off, just a matter of time for the team to build things up.
- Next, of course, it has to come to the competency of the team to deliver what is stated in their roadmap. We can see whether the team are sincere through communication on a social channel like Twitter, Discords, or Telegram. Marketing may not be a priority as long as the project has a reasonable amount of early supporters.
- Just like LOOT, a latecomer but a successful community-driven NFT project that is very successful and become a multi-derivative NFT project. I personally think that the creator is there just for the fun and not about the money. That is how people connect, and that is why an NFT project can succeed. The COMMUNITY.
- Don't get attached to a COMPLICATED project where you cannot understand what they wanna do in a few sentences. People tend to create complicated stuff to hide something shady (not saying all but in most cases)
- How to start? Mint something on platforms like Opensea, Rarible, Unique One. You just need to prepare some gas fee and a piece of art. You can just write a few lines of words and that's your NFT. (not to forget to have a 101 lesson on the security and setting up a Metamask wallet, search for Youtube video and watch)
- Once you get started, have a dip then only you are really in. Without the action, you never gonna understand NFT.
There is more in-depth NFT topic that I will cover in the future write-up. I will stop it right here before I get too lengthy.
Exciting tech - Interoperability & Appchain
So, the million-dollar question is: what is the next big thing? To me, other than file storage protocol that is highly underappreciated. The next thing is interoperability infrastructure and appchain. In easier terms, is a group of purpose-specific blockchains that can interact with each other. As of now, every blockchain is basically a silo. Within the blockchain, there are different Dapps. However, those Dapps will need to adhere to the economics and rules set by the blockchain in order to run on it. This will be painful for the users when the blockchain gets over congested or the gas fee is damn expensive. Ethereum is in that state now.
That is what Polkadot, Cosmos, and Octopus Network are here to enable the appchain (the next form of Dapps) where each function will have its own blockchain with its own economics. They can even create a blockchain without gas fee and create a whole new tokenomics to incentivize the users. There is more flexibility for the project team to play around with. Nevertheless, it is still pretty early to see how impactful the appchain is going to be. It is something that is worth looking at and being part of.
Fulltime In Crypto
And so, finally to the last part of my summary for 2021. I am now full-time into crypto as the Head of Marketing in Atocha Protocol, an appchain project built as a puzzle game protocol on Octopus Network. This is an unexpected event for me as I started as a moderator for Octopus Network and then thanks Aaron for the referral into the project team of Atocha Protocol.
I then started my role in September 2021 and confirmed by the end of October 2021 when we received our seed round funding. To receive the first funding, honestly, I am very thrilled and touched. Nonetheless, I will need to work even harder to get more people to be part of the community and know about the project as that is what my role is all about. To be honest, it is not an easy feat and I do love the challenge.
So why I wanna be full-time in this? In simpler words, I am just putting myself in where my mouth is. I kept saying that appchain is the next big thing, so being IN THE GAME and the one who is building part of it is gonna be very rewarding eventually. Even though the project may not be successful (but of course I will do whatever it takes to make it one of the best!), the journey, the experience is invaluable and hard to come by. What do I mean by that? In a lifetime, how many chances do a person will get to launch a blockchain from scratch, design a tokenomics and game mechanism that can scale globally, and also meet different talented developers, VCs, OGs that started a lot of amazing projects? What I told myself is that, just go and do, don't think so much.
What is it like to be in a crypto project? Like any remote work, I need to take the helm of planning & strategizing marketing stuff, connecting and collaborating with people to get Atocha Protocol to the top. I have the comfort of working from home but it requires me to have more discipline to be productive and effective. Thus, getting more self-aware about my productivity by the day. Being a new project, I need to start many things from scratch and the most challenging one is to build an engaging community. Learning along the way but what I believe is to be sincere and fun, that's about it. All will follow when I accumulate enough TRUST and FUN.
Here are some other things that I am currently working on:
- Engaging with different Near Protocol communities that have the potential to be interested in Atocha Protocol
- Form collaborative relationships with different Near ecosystem projects
- Market analysis and find the target audience
- Create funnels for the users to be onboard
- Create contents that can build brand awareness, educate and create better accessibility for the users/potential users
- Connect with gaming community, puzzle community, treasure hunt community, and any puzzle game related community
- Connect with brands/companies that have the potential to become the "SPONSOR" for different puzzle games which can be the medium to promote the products or services
- Explore DAO governance and available grants for future DAO establishment and proposal
- Create different systems/programs for the marketing department (this gonna challenge my delegation skill soon)
Frankly, I am equally excited and nervous to get through all of this step by step. I know it can be overwhelming for myself (as I never really do all this stuff ever before, but I know is an essential part to do so), just to tell myself that it is part of the journey and remind myself about the WHY of me doing this.
What do I want to do for 2022?
So WHY I wanna do this? Basically, I am someone who always likes FUN stuff and loves to explore places and people (not forgetting food, architecture, and COFFEE). So puzzle game is definitely something I can live with it and even take this to a global level where I can play Atocha Protocol powered puzzle game in any part of the world. This is a dream that is equally exciting and achievable to me! So let's just do it.
What do I think I need to upgrade this year? Taking this new responsibility will definitely require me to upgrade my skillsets overall, so let's break it down (personally and may not be directly related to the project):
- Second brain system - this is something that I wanna do for a long time but didn't really do it seriously. Previously was using Steemit and Hive for my output and stopped for a year or so. Now I come across Roam Research. I think it will be a great tool for me to build a second brain. (gonna do one sharing when I am using it for 30 days or more). The basic rule is whenever I read something interesting, record it in a note or something and by the end of the day insert it into my second brain. This includes whatever things I do in a day as well which may not be "informative". Just wanna get used to the output process. Why I wanna do this? I believe that having a second brain, I can always come back to refer to anything that I have learned or experienced. I will have a lesser burdened mind for the day to deal with whatever shit.
- Pick up swimming again - haven't been seriously exercising for 2020 and 2021. Gonna sign up for a club and have access to a good facility of gym and swimming pool. 5 minutes driving distance away, so it makes no sense to do so (even though a bit pricey). Still a good physical will give me better stamina and brainpower to move further.
- Finance recording - something that I have been practicing since 2017. Having the privilege to pick up since then enables me to compare year-to-year differences in my spending, income, investment, etc. Gonna continue this with an upgraded template (easier for account closing)
- Finance restructuring - haven't been serious about planning the whole structure on how my revenue, salary, and spending should be structured with different accounts under different companies and names. This year I want to have systematic bookkeeping, well-planned cash flow, personal tax waive, and corporate tax. Knowing that corporate tax is 17% on the profit up until RM500k compared with personal income, that will make big difference when I start to buy different assets in not so long future. This will also help build my personal and company credit score for a better chance of getting better loan deals.
- Have conversations with Mentors every month - I always believe that I am the average of the six-person that I spend time with. Hence, it is important that I can learn and spend some time with someone that I look up to and learn from. Just 1 mentor session every month, 12 sessions is good enough, and best to be a different mentor every month.
- Practice time blocking and featured task for the day - this is what I get from Ali Abdaal, one productivity Youtuber that I followed for a few years. Basically, I need to have a specific time block for specific tasks and have a highlighted single task that no matter what needs to be done for that day. I want to practice this and embed this gene into my body. Gonna be beneficial for my whole life.
- Build a content creation team - since I am heading a marketing department and interested in sharing my thoughts through Youtube channel (or even Tiktok), it is important that I start to build my content creation team consisting of scriptwriting, content copywriting, graphic design, video editing, voiceover, SEO, overall shooting set up and etc. By the first quarter of 2022, I will need to have at least a 3-5 person team to work things out.
- Build a small, similar interest group - it is going to be interesting and invest small group where we can share resources and invest together in the early rounds of projects. It will literally become like an exclusive club + VC. Already in the talk with a few friends and it is something doable in 2022.
Well, this is what came into my mind thus far. Not gonna rant further but 2022 is surely a year that is relatively challenging but a life-changing year for me. I wanna thank those who are part of my journey and still with me. 2022 is a year where we build the foundation and are ready for the boom in 3-5 years' time! Let's do it. #WAGMI
I wish you good luck in all your endeavors!
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