January, 2018 - 「WORK HARD」

What you do everyday more than what you do once in a while.

Welcome to the №26 Edition of

THE REVIEW ARMY

This email was originally posted on my newsletter.

January, 2018 — 「WORK HARD」

A LOT of things happened this month, and for a time I don』t know where to start this monthly review, but let』s just start with things that I』ve been working on recently.

On Jan 31, I sent Gary Vaynerchuk an email, as well as DM on Instagram, along with my intro video and a 41-page research on China digital marketing, which I spent the past 2 months on it.

I heard him talking a lot about China and getting into Chinese market soon, and this research could help him a lot, since he』s one of the guys who influenced me the most during my 20s, this is probably the best way to say thank you, and really get connected with him.

So far he hasn』t replied anything, but who cares.

During the past 2 months, I watched a ton of advertisements and marketing campaigns. Creativity wise, there』re many things attracting me, but I』m also pretty sure I may not want to really get into this industry. I still cannot find the specific reasons, but in order to be creative, there』re many ways, you don』t need to be in digital marketing industry, doing all those fancy advertisements and videos to be looked cool.

So, digital marketing as career, crossed off from my list, at least for now.

Work/Life

If you noticed the main title of this month review is WORK HARD, and I really mean it.

Wake up, take a shower, get dressed, eat, and go to the office, and usually I won』t be back to my crib until mid night… Being dumped by your loved one is not something you would get over very quickly, but buried myself in the work that』s meaningful for me, is way much more better than cringing in my room crying like idiot.

Men are wearing this mask of masculinity, we are taught to take whatever it is, and not express our emotions. And it also kills many people』s ability to convey their emotions and love.

I chose to speak up. Reach out to the friends I haven』t talked for a long time, meeting them in person or through video calls. It helps a lot, and it is the go-to solution for your boring time.

In January, me and my team are also working on a new app development. From zero to wireframe model and interaction design, to developement and testing, it is about to launch in Feb.

This time, product, design and development teams work extremely close together, and we』ve made the workflow as smooth as possible. The development team joined us in the early process, giving us many advice on product; me and design team also closely involved in the development process, which will make sure we have minimum misunderstandings on product development.

The past month has been busy, but I think we grow the most during the past 3 weeks, especially for the young people in our team.

And as we are working towards the same goal, we also have good news from our business collaboration opportunities. Our VR solution has already been launched on CCTV app today!

Yes, I also bought a new camera, Panasonic GH5 + 12-35mm F2.8, exclusively for my film project. The last time I bought a camera is probably 3 years ago, Fujifilm X100T, because I enjoy its compact size and old fashion look, and now cellphone camera has also become really good, this is shot by my Google Pixel』s portrait mode, it looks pretty stunning!

What I』m Reading

1. 11 Ways Emotionally Intelligent People Overcome Uncertainty

2. Complexity Bias: Why We Prefer Complicated to Simple

3. Vimeo presents: the top videos of 2017

4. How to Let Go: Learning to Deal with Loss

These 4 articles above are what I come acrossed during January, and by the way, because for the first I experienced being dumped by a girl. I also wrote an article about it, in order to remind myself facing the reality, and focusing on the things that matter to me now.

12 Lessons I Learned from Being Dumped by My Ex (Chinese Blog)

What I』m Pondering & Planning

Although our company is doing good these days, I decided to leave this company shortly after this Chinese New Year. The main reasons can be concluded in 3:

1. Boss Loses Passion

I still remember the shinning and hopeful eyes from my boss, when he』s talking about his grand plan on building the best VR solutions with our algorithms. Now the hope is nearly all gone, and they are looking for their 「what if」. In my opinion,

if you start thinking about what if, what if the startup won』t work and fail, you already lose.

2. Startup Is NOT Money Machine

In 2017, we didn』t realize our goal of making 3 business deals, and company is going not very well on finance, since we』re spending a lot every day. On our annual company meeting, our CPO spoke about moving to overseas adults industry soon, with a not-so-confident tone.

Making money is critical, but if a startup put making money at their first priority, I don』t believe this is going to turn out to be better.

3. People Are Leaving, Bose Stay the Same

I know they are probably having a very hard time, but staying the same won』t solve any problems. And they must know this better than I do.

We have a great team, people are very talented and eager to grow and learn, but this also turn out to be one of our serious problems: They bosses have their own perspective on things and usually won』t take any advice at the end a meeting. I think we could call this by my favorite book: EGO IS THE ENEMY.

Everybody makes mistakes, but at least I know when I realize I』ve made a mistake, I should take fully responsibility and admit it.

If I were them, I will go have a conversation with every person in my team, and make things transparent, so that we could still have confidence to work towards the same goal in the coming days.

For me, if my personal growth is not limited or slow down by the company, I will never think about changing the environment, I can always create the very challenging environment for myself, trying to learn something new every day. But this is not the case for current situation.

During my 1 year journey as a product manager, I soon realize I』m interested in social or dating apps, or video production, I want to make some really down-to-earth products. This is a good thing, right? To be able to see and know what you are passionate about and pursue what you love, but the problem is:

None of these things are what I learned from my daily work. And this scares the shit out of me.

What if I didn』t push myself to learn and document the process every week? What if I chose to play PUBG all the time on weekends, instead of burying myself in the office, and watch youtube tutorials or new articles? I may waste one of the best years in 20s. AND I WILL NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN.

Looking for a new job is really like looking for a girlfriend, it』s easy to get one, but hard to find the one you both love each other in the same way.

I』m still looking for opportunities, but not sure where I will go next. I will carry this question with my trip to Hokkaido. Let』s see what film will I come up with during my trip.

Thanks for reading and continuous support. Hope you find this email helpful, and I』m looking forward to hearing from yours!

「What you do everyday more than what you do once in a while.」

Warm Regards,

Zake