maverick

maverick

Co-Founder of KICKSTART by night, Talent Development Consultant, organising workshops and conferences by day, and full-time single dad in between, Maverick is pretty much a renegade. An ex-monk who's always first to ask "why not?", Mav enjoys hacking the way things are done, and pretty much happy with the success rate of 50% (coz sometimes mom is right after all...). When it comes to business, give him a million bucks and he'll most probably get a new set of gadgets, drive home an Audi R8 and reload his Starbucks card. But give him little to nothing, and see how he starts switching on the little brain-matter between his ears. Challenge ACCEPTED!
Entrepreneurship, Ramblings

43 questions to check if you can be a lifestyle entrepreneur or digital nomad

• maverick

See that photo up there? It’s BS by the way. Tried and tested, and it only got my eyes freaking tired, with sand into laptop while my ass heats up to cook my balls.

When people know about our travels (Debbie and I try to do 90 days of travel a year, minimum 60), they always envy our lifestyle, and ask us how we did it.

Frankly, the how-we-did-it question is not even close to the real question they should be asking, which is:

What are you getting into?

And truth be told, there’s nothing much to envy about, which is why we hardly share our check-ins and travels on social media. Unless it’s something too stupidly funny. 🙂

Inspired by a post by Marcus Teoh, Debbie and I decided to compile a list of questions that should help you decide if being a lifestyle entrepreneur or digital nomad is something you really should strive for.

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Life Lessons, Parenting, Ramblings

Our shit and the day we don’t pick it up anymore

• maverick

A lot of times we look at politicians who created problems but don’t pick up the mess. I mean, you don’t have to look so far, Malaysia’s political scene totally deserves a channel on it’s own at Astro. Like a bad script for an action movie, the flow is usually:

  1. Shit happens
  2. Appoint scape goat(s)
  3. Misdirection
  4. Bury said shit
  5. Look elsewhere
  6. Post credit scene: Launch new campaign for next impending shit
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Life Lessons

But we’re having an affair

• maverick

I was at this cozy cafe, working as usual. The sun just set, a dark shade of crimson tangerine outlined the horizon. A cool breeze visited the patio of the cafe once in a while, the snuggly, cozy kind.

Yeap, a great setting to snuggle, and true to my word, at the corner of my eye, I saw an elderly couple walking in, holding each other tightly. They appeared to be in their early sixties, physically. The uncle is wearing a handsome polo shirt, smartly tugged into his slacks with a darker tone belt, that went down to his shiny, polished Hush Puppies. The aunty, wore simple khaki pants, floral blouse and an Egyptian silk scarf around her long, slender neck. Both of them wore specs, but what the glass failed to hide, was the adoration in their eyes.

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Life Lessons, Serious Shit!

Is your NLP trainer a convicted pedophile?

• maverick

This is a true story.

*The names had been changed, but definitely not to protect their identities or the crime.

The training and personal development industry in Malaysia is small, so when there’s a new player or program in town, it’s natural for us to be curious. Like the new kids in school, we would Google their names, try to find out a little about their background, and if she’s cute, whether she’s single.

So when a trainer, *Lee, got his/her NLP trainer certification from a master trainer, *Palov, that I’ve not heard before, I just naturally got curious.

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Entrepreneurship, Life Lessons, Ramblings

How to Battle the Green Monster of Entrepreneurship

• maverick

There are only a couple of green monsters out there. It’s not the Hulk, or how your private parts looked like after being stung by an exotically fatal jungle hornet*.

No, I’m talking about the one inside you (again, dude, not the one in your pants).

Yeah, let’s talk about jealousy.

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Life Lessons, Ramblings

Screw that reunion meetup lar

• maverick

Let me get it right first.

In no way am I referring to those reunion dinners that involves relatives, family members and loved ones. Those you can either rent a boyfriend, girlfriend or give-your-grandma-a-scare gayfriend, or sit there silently and be screwed instead lar. Remember, the aunties are just caring for your well being. 🙂

No, I’m referring to those with your classmates. Yeap, those who you’d copied homework from all your school days, those you ponteng class with, those you had a secret crush on for years, those who first populate your Friendster account (yeah, I’m that old). And because everyone is back in your hometown for CNY, it makes a good sense to meet up, kan?

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Life Lessons, Parenting

The hardest talk I had with my 7-year-old son

• maverick

Sorry guys, as much as you may think it’s the “where I came from” or “what’s that man doing with that rubber glove”, the truth is the talk I had with William, my 7-year-old, was more about the reality of life. (Sure, some would argue having too many unprotected sex is the key to jump starting a life, but I’ll probably let his school give him that moment of enlightenment).

“We talk about death before, and while we all try to live as long as we want, sometimes accidents do happen. One day, I won’t be around anymore, and I need you to know this: don’t expect your mother to care and support you as I did.”

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Life Lessons, Parenting

My fall into debt and the journey out of it

• maverick

A few months back (April 2016), on the way to school, I had a heart to heart talk with William, my 7-year old.

“Will, if it’s okay with you, for the next few weeks or even months, we will need to limit our spending a bit, because daddy’s in debt, and it’s so bad that I had to borrow money from your aunt last night.”

He kinda understood the concept of debts, but still, in his innocence, he asked how I got myself into debt.

And here’s the story.

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Relationships

Score Girls by Being a Clown

• maverick

No, not literally putting on white paint, green wigs and a big red nose and scare the shit out of kids and girls and probably your mom. What I mean by being a clown here, is to be funny. Like it or not, we loved to be entertained, and would pay top dollars sometimes just for entertainment. Being humorous is one sure way of enter-taining your way into a woman’s heart, and chances when you already had one, it probably will keep the relationship going for a long time.

“But I’m not funny lar….”

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Community Building, Entrepreneurship, Productivity

Hacking Emails & Events, and rock the shit out of ’em

• maverick

Ok, let me just say that this presentation at the 1AES Growth Hack Labs was no way for me dicking-off, showing the wizardry I have around events and email writing. Just that over the past few years of running KICKSTART.MY, FuckUpNights KL and other various workshop, creative email copywriting accounts to over 83% in the success of filling up those events. In this workshop I’ve shared stuff that has worked for me, cutting-off the BS around email and events marketing, and basically, yeah, dicking-off lar. 🙂

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