Working hard makes you invisible?

I came across the saying above few months ago - and today the exact same saying popped up in my head again. Is it true that working hard actually makes you invisible? Well, unless of course, if you are working hard to make yourself to be seen then that would be completely irrelevant.

Since the beginning of the new year, I've been totally swarmed with work, back to back events and hardly had anytime on hand to focus on "being seen". This I refer to appearing on media, interviews and etc. So when I stopped doing all that, am I making myself or the business invisible? But isn't business about being preoccupied about getting lots of "real work" and not socialising or attending functions. Isn't business about providing the best you can to your customers ? If so, why then these hard work will make the business less visible and less renown?

And if I'm only working hard to be seen and not working hard in doing the real work, wouldn't that also reflects on how your product/services is? Wouldn't this affect your business or business credentials in the long run? Yes, I may ended up being really popular, in the who is who list - but if my product / services is crap (due to negligence in running the business, because I'm working hard to be seen) wouldn't that make your affect your business or diminishing its value as well?

Xmas @RedRibbon Days

Since it is already 2011, and I've already begun a blog on 2011, I will not be blogging about our RedRibbon Days Xmas Annual Company dinner this time. For interesting reads on this, visit our other blogs at :-

http://redribbondays.blogspot.com
http://nikhida.blogspot.com
http://blackbunnyjournal.tumblr.com

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011 !

In a blink of the eye, 2010 is over and we are bestowed with 2011. 2010 has been an absolutely fabulous year for me personally as well as for RedRibbon Days. I'm extremely grateful for all the things that was bestowed to me last year. Firstly, we moved to a bigger office space that has the capacity to fit in at least 20 new employees! We are definitely in a much better position compared to when we first started - and totally ready to face new challenges. Secondly, I was thrown into "pr" work where I have to socialise with prominent socialites and the get to know the "who is who". Certainly not my preferred cup of tea, but an eye opening experience for me. I got to meet some very superficial people - whom I was introduced to and subtlety snubbed. This however, did not affect me in anyways - if it did in anyways, it only made me stronger and thirsty and eager for success.

As I sat down ushering 2011 last night, I asked myself if I have any resolution(s) of 2011. Quite frankly, this year, I decided to make things easier for myself and the universe. I do not need any resolution(s) - because I believe resolution(s) should be made when it is necessary. For the past 20 years of my life, I never failed to have a list of resolution. Do I actually see and attend to it? I've not much recollection for the past - and frankly speaking, I don't think resolutions works.

So this year, no resolution(s) for me.

However, I strongly believes that the universe is my genie, and my wish is the Universe command.

a wardrobe full of clothes, yet...

I'm not sure if I'm the only one that always felt this way, but of late, I've been struggling to find a decent work attire to don on for work. Everytime I open my wardrobe door, I only see a wave of dull, boring old clothes (despite the fact that I had just recently added on another cabinet!). I can almost feel myself saying out loud (for the past 1 week), "What should I wear today?", "I got nothing to wear" and "I am sick of my clothes".

If I have a wardrobe filled with clothes, why do I then feel this way? Is this normal ? How long does one need to throw out old clothes and replenish it with new ones? In fact, I realised every time I buy something new, I will be wearing the new attire for a week or so, then to realise again that I do not have clothes to wear. So, my question is, what have I been wearing before I bought this new attire that I have been wearing for the past week? Somehow, I don't remember what I have been wearing before my current merchandise.

And is it okay for me to spring clean my wardrobe every season? And how much clothes does one need to have in order to not have that feeling of "what should I wear today" or "Argh, I have nothing to wear!"

So, what should I wear tomorrow?

my 21st birthday

So it was my 21st birthday - again!! Okay, let's be truthful about this. It's not my 21st birthday, but hell, I do feel 21 still ! Anyways, age to me is just another number. So whether I'm 21, 35 or 50 - it doesn't matter. Bottom line, I truly feel good about where I am now. I am still very passionate about what I do at RedRibbon Days - and most importantly witnessing its growth by the day.

Anyways, on 26th November (my birthday actually falls on the 27th, but since 27th is a Saturday, we celebrated a day earlier) I arrived at work as usual - and had to admit here, I kinda knew that the girls will be doing something either on my table, my chair or my room. So, I went in and everyone shouted "Happy Birthday". I smiled, went into my room - and to my horror, they placed something obscene on my chair and table. Too obscene that I'm not even inclined to put up any picture of it here. Well, Nik seem to be enjoying it more than I do anyways! haha !!



It was work like usual - nothing special except that Nik and Ming Ne was acting kinda strange- disappearing every now and then. The day started off extremely well - first I received a Melinda Looi dress as one of my birthday gift and a very generous red packet. At that moment, I felt loved - truly blessed to be surrounded by people who cherished me and remembered my birthday.

It is tradition for us to have birthday lunch in the office - so when Nik came over and asked me for lunch, I eagerly skipped out wondering what they prepared for lunch. I was jumping with joy when I saw the spread of nasi padang ! Nik and Ming Ne had gone all the way (cant remember where they got it, though I remembered asking) for this feast. They got my favourite sambal belacan, fried fish, curry fish head, fried chicken, paru, petai and prawns - it was divine!! It was the most satisfying meal I had in a long time!


Nasi padang spread

Lunch was devoured rather quickly - and soon after a heavy meal, it was back to work like normal. Some time around 3pm, Nik came in again - this time to cut my birthday cake. I was not really hungry - but certainly ready for some sweet stuff after the heavy savoury lunch. I was shocked to see Atika and Az in our meeting room - as it didn't occur to me that they will be getting me an experience gift - to be experienced immediately!

I was thrilled to see boxes and boxes of shoes laying on the floor ! It was actually one of the many packages that I personally created and packaged up. This experience that I received was called "Serious Shoes Lover". When creating this package, I was thinking of the convenience of shopping without having the need to leave the comfort of your house/office. I like the idea of not needing to drive through jam and find parking (can be a bitch especially during peak hours). So when they gave me this gift, I was pleased. I felt so VIP.

The girls (well, we are pretty much an all ladies company) all got excited - all circling around me checking out the range of shoes and bag. The girls all ended up trying the shoes and bags. They were gleefully excited. It was a really cool experience (for me too, even though I was the one that came up with the package!) and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. So without much difficulties, I picked up 3 pairs of very lovely 5" heels (one black, one beige and another in dark blue/silver) and a gold clutch.

Here's some pic I took on that day :-


The angels that brought the shoes and bags to me !





My Louboutin birthday cake & another courtesy of Fuji Xerox

All in all, it was a wonderful day - and once again, I'm truly blessed to be surrounded by lovely people who went all the way to make my day truly special and memorable.

My Age and Passwords

You know you haven't been blogging in a while when you tried accessing the account and then you realised that you do not remember the password. Yup! It just happened to me - while trying to access my very own personal blogspot. Is it a sign of ageing or simply, there are too many accounts one need to sign up these days? In the world of the internet, almost everything requires you to sign up as a member, open an account and etc..I have an account with gmail, google, blogspot, digg, delicious, hotmail, yahoo, messenger, skype and the list goes on and on and on. While some site is totally fine with a short and simple password, some sites simply make it difficult and requires alpha-numerical passwords!

So about an hour ago, I was extremely pumped up and driven to blog about the year of 2010 - when I tried accessing my very own account and I realised I have completely forgotten my password. And it wasn't that long ago, that I celebrated my 3x birthday. So I had to do the normal process of "forgotten password" - reset the password. When I'm finally log in, I have totally lost the urge to write. My mind is now totally focused on am I getting older - hence the slight memory lost or quite simply, there are too many passwords one has to remember that I'm confusing one password with another?

when customer can't see themselves in our shoes...

Last week was indeed a very rough week for everyone in RedRibbon Days. At RedRibbon Days, we take pride in what we do, and each and every experience is of penultimate importance to us. Hence, when a customer come to us and passed crude remarks about our service and how we should be doing it, it was really upsetting. Especially so when the customer kept expecting us to compensate them despite the fact that it is totally not our fault and beyond our control.

In this very instance, one of our flight and flying experience was grounded for this week. And unfortunately, one of our customer had purchased this experience in conjunction with her dad's 60th birthday. I can totally comprehend the excitement and how eager they (the buyer and the recipient) must be. So on the very morning of the experience day, we received a phone call from the buyer, ranting to us about the cancelled flight. We then contacted our provider and asked them for a full explanation in regards to the cancelled flight. We then conveyed the reason to the client (the buyer and the dad) and even our provider called her to explain the situation. What happened next was unimaginable!

Instead of being totally understanding about the whole situation, this customer wrote us a threatening email saying that she will expose about how bad we are in doing what we do to her family/friends and even the media! My response upon reading the email ? I was appalled. It was made clearly that the flight was cancelled due to some last minute regulation that was imposed by DCA and even the Captain who was accompanying the customer (the buyer and the dad) tried to explain it to the customer, but it fell on deaf ears. In her email, she even asked me to close down my business ! What audacity ! And she even asked me to put herself in her shoe!

Quite frankly speaking, I was very apologetic and upset about the whole thing, especially when I found out that it was a gift bought in lieu with a 60th birthday and it was something the dad has always wanted to do. Yes, and I can totally comprehend how disheartening it is when the customer has to walk away without experiencing "the experience". It is after all what we had promised to deliver : an amazing and unforgettable experience for everyone; convenience of buying for the buyer and for the recipient, the opportunity to do a once in a lifetime experience.

I wonder if this customer can actually put herself in our position and try to understand the whole situation. We do try very hard to convey information as accurate as we can to all customers prior to their experience day, but when it comes to experiences that could be affected by weather, technical issues, airport security - these are simply beyond our control and we are not in the position to be liable for the inconveniences caused. So to come back to us and holler rude remarks and to ask for full refund(including delivery and packaging cost!) this is totally unacceptable for us.

I do try very hard to make our customers happy ; making sure their experience (from the minute the establish contact with us, to after the experience) is as pleasant as possible. For issues which is our fault, I have no qualms on bowing down, apologise and offer a compensation. However, for issues which are totally beyond our control, it is then not our obligation to please and compensate.