Then and Now

Just not too long ago, I closed sales from as little as RM450k to slightly more than RM18m a year; I dealt with all levels of people from the Business Managers, to IT Directors to bank owners; I have accumulated enough flying and hotel points that I got to stay at the same room every time I checked into the hotel of my choice; I never have to worry about entertainment expenses whenever I was traveling on business; I enjoyed making decisions on strategies in winning sales; I enjoyed my jobs for the past years.

Just a week ago, just when I got a little excited about the prospect of revisiting one of my favorite cities, Bangkok, with this new job, I was bogged down by chores of checking hotel rates, applying AND justifying for an expenses advance for a mere additional RM500, then took a budget flight arriving at the hotel at 2.30am local time.

Just yesterday, I was told I should’ve made notes when attending conferences even though the presentation notes/slides were expected to be distributed; how to make myself ‘current’; and my boss made a call in the middle of the sales meeting to a principle in Singapore just to verify if what I’ve reported was true; suggested some ideas in making appointments with prospects; then another fella seized the opportunity and commented about time management; and wrapped up the 2-hour meeting by deciding to hire a junior sales exec which I planned to reject.

Life’s a bitch!

The camera I brought along probably saved my sanity.

My Birthday

Today’s my birthday. It’s a very important day for me. I guess one must not take birthday for granted, as life is simply too precious, short and fragile. It’s important to me because 2 years ago I wasn’t even sure if I got to see today, more so I’m now sitting in a café in downtown Bangkok, enjoying a pizza, iced tea and WiFi for lunch!

The last business trip I was in Bangkok must be 5-6 years ago… Traveling was part of my job then so it didn’t mean much to me whether I was in Bangkok, Sydney, Jakarta, Seoul, Shanghai, Toronto, Sao Paolo… I didn’t really appreciate the opportunities traveling in company’s expenses, making friends all over the places, closing deals in vast different business cultures.

Although today I’m in Bangkok, under company’s expense, I didn’t get to stay at my favorite hotel, I didn’t get to fly at the schedule I plan, I had to share my room with my boss, I even had to justify to a sweet-young-thing office admin to apply for expense advance just 1 day before my trip, not to mention not having a company credit card for my expenses.

But guess I’ll learn to move on, and look at things from another perspective; from the brighter side, and be more generous. Life is too short, it’s too precious to waste.

Sony Ericsson in Bangkok