Tag Archives: Business

Busy again

Wow, it’s good to be busy again. At least now I don’t have to worry about what to do next, how to find customers or projects and mainly how to sustain myself and the people close to me and the household and such.

But also a bit tiring as I’m not really used to work for many hours a day anymore. And yes, I know it’s tiring to do the work I do, even for a few hours and then you need a break.

Still no clue though how to continue towards my biggest business dream, an internet company with a staff of around 200 people in Cagayan de Oro City. As I know now it is probably very hard to find people with the mindset and skills that I need to make that company work.

But that’s also why I’m mentioning it here. Because maybe you are the ambitious or not so ambitious person who wants to develop himself, help build a company like I have in mind, help build Cagayan de Oro City and The Philippines into a decent city and country where people can just find decent jobs locally and don’t have to go abroad, don’t need to have their mindset abroad because ‘abroad’ means a decent income in probably a not-so-decent job.

So please help me and yourself and Cagayan de Oro City and The Philippines by helping me serve the customer base I’m developing right now.

And yes, my commitment is there, as that company is one of my life goals and I won’t stop moving in that direction until I get there or until I die. And no, it won’t be easy, because with the current Philippine mindset and education don’t seem to be adequate to compete with other countries.

But yes, I promise I will make it work. Are you joining?

Everything starts with an idea

Everything starts with an idea, that’s what I certainly believe in. So it’s logical someone had an idea of showing some kind of toolbar in webpages being an Internet Service Provider. But the idea being implemented quite a while ago and still being active by the second largest Internet Service Provider of The Philippines seems like unimaginable. And I remember I had problems with my Globe connection before, figuring out that indeed Globe made changes to the html codes of webpages I was testing. Imagine, the mail man opening your mail, making changes to the letter inside and then deliver the changed letter. And you would presume the sender had written the letter.

And I remember I sent an e-mail to Globe customer support about it. And never got a reply.

And now, with my new Globe connection, using a fully different technology, last night there were some, or actually a lot, of pages working perfectly here on our local development system. But they were not when viewing them from their (real) internet location. And it didn’t make sense.

And today I wanted to fix it and found some kind of weird script (web page computer program) in my code. So I started looking for a virus, locally as well as on the web server. And I couldn’t find anything and it also didn’t make any sense what was happening.

And then I remember from before that I presumed, or actually knew, that Globe was actually making changes to the html source of webpages. And that that was even one of the main reasons we mainly used our Globe connection as a backup and not as our main internet connection, even though it was faster than our Smart connection.

So today, actually very happy with my internet access again, I encountered very big problems again with a very simple webpage that didn’t make sense. And it still doesn’t make sense, although I am starting to believe that the cause must be indeed in Globe making changes to webpages. Imagine, that is something like the people in the post office opening your letters and making changes to them. Who would ever imagine a post office doing that?

Well, Globe does, as after some research I found confirmation that also other web developers had experienced similar problems, especially making testing websites very hard.

And even if people were informed properly about this and agree with the addition of some ISP tool or advertisment bar or something added by their ISP, I still would disagree, as web page code, html code and especially web page scripts, are very sensitive and may stop working with the slightest error, especially if you add a generic script to any web page. And the script itself would take bandwidth, would consume from your daily or monthly volume if you have one. And it would take computer time, meaning webpages showing up slower. But the worst thing, as I found in my case, is that web pages might not show up properly or may not work at all.

So yes, the idea was probably a great idea. But in this case it should have never been implemented as to me an ISP should just provide the (internet) road towards your house and not change the content of the stuff going over it.

Fear and courage

The last weeks have been tiring because of my internet problems at home, in my office. And especially the message from my main internet Service Provider, Smart, hit me hard. I understood that I would either need to bear with my bad connection or look for another service provider.

And my fear is that i will never have internet access again from my home, from my office again. But of course that’s not true.

And this whole thing of a company that has served me so well for many years suddenly telling me they don’t want me anymore hit me hard as a person. And yes, I know it’s business and solving the technical problem might be expensive as it seems that the current technical solution is at it’s limit due to changes in the environment or something. But especially with internet access you don’t have so many options, especially in some locations like mine, where as far as i know Smart is basically the only, or at least the best option.

And it also hit me hard as for me it has been always very hard to find customers. So I am sometimes stunned when companies are not accepting me, not accepting all customers or just refuse to serve them, even if they could.

And i am still wondering if it’s just me and my situation and my choice to live here are causing these kind of problems. But even then, even if I were the only one, then why not just find a solution and get me back online again? I know I am ‘just’ one of the many, many customers from Smart and they could easily do without me. But the risk is they may lose me forever as a customer and e.g. writing here could do some damage to their brand, their name.

And the more I look around me I see businesses not serving their customers as well as they could, or as i think they should. And it keeps me thinking why those businesses are successful and why mine is not, especially lately, where I decided to put more focus on customer satisfaction, on really doing my best to serve my customers the best I can. But somehow the Universe doesn’t seem to make that easier, as lately, without decent internet access at home, I often had to go to the city, to an internet cafe to do or finish my work.

And it makes me think of what Napoleon Hill states “I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon trugh and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects.”. So this must apply to Smart and the people within and the leaders of Smart. But as of the moment I’m not sure, as them leaving me behind and not solving the problems with my connection certainly doesn’t benefit me. And not solving it also doesn’t benefit them.

And next to this I have been thinking what this adversity, this heartache carries for me in equivalent or greater benefit. As a famous quote of Napoleon Hill is also “Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the Seed of an equivalent or a greater Benefit”. But right now I just don’t see it, even though I am starting to see that this whole exercise that started with receiving and reading Think and Grow Rich makes me look more for the opportunities and somehow makes my mindset more positive.

And I am sorry as this post is a bit chaotic. But I’m just human, just like you and me, and just very tired of this additional setback, where just as I had found some new customers, just started some new projects, I lost my normal internet access that caused me an awful lot of hassle and cost me an awful lot of time.

And I am still amazed with all those people who didn’t read Think and Grow Rich, who didn’t think about their definite purpose or goals in life, who didn’t make it specific, where I did. And they seem so much happier or more easy going than me. It seems that I’m just struggling, still struggling, like I have done most of my life. The road towards success seems so endless, so tiring, so exhausting.

But yes, I also often forget how far I have gotten. When writing my desire document the most important thing I wrote in there was impossible. And now it’s just there and only one and a half year passed. And indeed, I didn’t even really do much effort for it.

And yes, the idea of having your life, the rest of your life, to reach your goal, your definite purpose, is very comforting. The idea of just not giving up until you get there, no matter what. That’s a very powerful idea and often keeps me going.

What about you? Did you write down your goal or goals and set specific dates for them? And do you read your desire document aloud every day? Did you even think about your definite purpose in life? If not, you may want to do that, as when reading my desire document now, it has come alive and gives me structure and shows me how i can look at things like those internet troubles i have right now.

So yes, you may consider that, even though I’m not the most successful person ever yet. But somehow, no matter my complaints, I am stronger now and am still gaining strength, by just doing those things, taking time to think about those things.

So better start now.

And yes, I found the courage to get moving again today and fortunately internet seems to work good enough in the afternoon right now.

Why not make customers happy

I was on my way to an internet cafe, pondering what I just heard in a phone call from Smart. And the thing that finally stuck with me was, why don’t Smart and Globe and all those other big companies just make you, me, humans, their customers happy, even if it would take some extra effort in specific cases like mine. And I think that’s even what Napoleon Hill basically states: if you just serve your customers, other people, you will be successful. And from my point of view, in my case, the solution of the issues that annoy me so much my Smart internet connection is very simple:

  1. Put someone in charge to solve the problem. And put him or her in charge until the problem is solved and I have my unlimited internet access at certain speed back OR until I’m satisfied with whatever solution is offered or found.
  2. Solve the technical problem, just install some other technology or figure out what’s causing the deterioration of the signal. My location is a bit remote and it seems that for whatever reason the device that is installed does not fit its purpose anymore.
  3. Get rid of the Fair Usage Policy the way it is phrased and stated. Just make it a real Fair Usage Policy like users sharing available bandwidth. Nobody will have any problem with that as long as Smart keeps their network capacity.

And while I was on my way to the city I was pondering what Mr. Napoleon L. Nazareno, the CEO of Smart Communications, Inc., who I wrote this letter to, would think or would want to happen if he knew the whole story. Would he really want me to apply for disconnection as his support staff suggested to me this morning? I doubt, unless he and the whole industry in 2014 are only about greed and not about serving customers, not about serving humans.

So I am still thinking of what to do next, as I don’t want to lose my Smart internet and I guess in the end Smart would not want to lose me as a customer.

And no, I don’t know what it is to be the CEO of a big company like Smart or Globe. And I’m quite sure he has many challenges and is certainly not interested, and should not be, in a specific technical problem with a specific simple standard connection for just one customer only paying PHP 999.00 a month. But yes, somehow he is responsible and somehow he should find ways to solve this problem, presuming I’m not the only one in this kind of situation. But again, if I were the only one, the problem would be easily solved: just install something that makes my internet connection work again and you’ll never ever hear any complaint from me again. On the contrary.

And that’s part of what annoys me very much, as I have always been very happy with the SmartBro solution. So I have always recommended Smart to my friends and other people who needed internet or had complaints about their current internet provider. And now Smart let’s me down, one of their biggest fans, always telling people the Smart network is or was better than the Globe network, at least related to internet.

And yes, I am very annoyed and tired as it’s not easy to serve my customers without proper internet, running an internet business partly from an internet cafe. But I’m trying to see the opportunity or opportunities who are certainly there, as e.g. this whole thing brought me into contact with the CEO’s of Smart and Globe and it’s also a very good example of my concerns related to big companies and humanity, treating humans as humans and not as customers of service representatives.

So looking forward to your help of making those large organizations human again. And I mean things like serving customers as human beings and not as profit centers or complaints to handle. And giving employees more freedom and authority to solve problems and talk to customers as human to human and not just passing on company policies and procedures.

Looking forward to your help and support!

Silence after rain

As you may have read it has been raining for about two weeks which is very unusual in Cagayan de Oro City. But yesterday and today the weather seems to calm down slowly and tonight, an hour ago, I was hanging some laundry and realized how silent it was, the nice type of silence with insect sounds that are so special in the tropics. So the last few days when searching for quotes and writing posts and such something like “After rain there is always sunshine” and such, but what is happening right now is something like “After rain there is silence, beautiful silence. And yes, that brings me back to what this house is all about, about enjoying evenings, long evenings, preferably with visitors, backpackers or luxury travelers looking for, well, a house and hosts like ours.

And I don’t know how to continue now, as I will keep continuing talking about business and earning money and such, as that is still a very high priority for me. And yes, that is what’s also holding me back to enjoy this silence, this evening, this house, the work, the things I like to do.

But maybe, maybe if you are reading this, you may want to think of visiting me, visiting us, visiting this beautiful place, The Malasag House, so you can enjoy this fantastic venue and help me enjoy it too again.