Explorator Labs 和 Chat Everywhere 創立的本意從不是賺大錢，因為對我來說賺很多錢的意義不大。沒錯，錢能解決很多的問題，但也只能解決錢能解決的問題。

最近有位老朋友問我，你知道嗎，我認識一位在某公司做軟體工程的在多倫多，工資很高。你為什麼和錢過不去呢？

我回覆他，因為對我來說，有太多的錢對這個階段的我和公司來說不是一件好事。金錢也不應是我們生命中唯一追逐的東西。

我雖然沒有一個富裕的家庭背景，公司也沒有背靠金礦（只有貸款😅），我只有一顆真誠的心和一個過於理想的願景。

我不知道這樣對不對，也不知道在這個社會現狀能否做到，但我只想盡我最大的努力試一下，嘗試把這個願景實現起來。

如果我有一份工資很高的工作，我也就更不會去想這些願景什麼的了，而人生也就這樣一瞬即逝不回頭。

我們的願景很簡單。

我們只想努力地讓大家的生活變得更好，同時做著自己喜歡的事。只需要專注怎樣把大家的餅做大，而不是我們去食別人的份。

我們只想玩正和遊戲，因為零和遊戲中大家都是輸家。

所以，我們沒有很長遠的商模，沒有融資的想法，沒有賺大錢的計劃。

我們只想把所有的精力放到怎樣使用科技的力量來解決大家的痛點，結合我們做開發的興趣愛好，長遠的維持下去。

這條路沒有明確的方向，我們也不知道我們能走多遠。但既然需要有人把路先開出來，那就讓我們成為第一人吧。

告訴大家一個冷知道，我們的公司名， Explorator ，意思是拉丁文中的 拓路者。因為公司的目的和作用，永遠，也只需一個。

把路開出來，把火傳下去，在有限的光陰𥚃照亮他人路。

Founder-product market fit. I first heard of this idea from Naval Ravikant and didn't quite understand what it meant until I reflected on the growth journey of Chat Everywhere.

I've always been a giver. I tend to give without expecting anything in return, which is quite silly in the business world since it's basically free work and, by definition, financially unsustainable. But it has always been a struggle for me to overcome because I don't want to give up who I am just to live the life I want.

So, I've been operating Explorator as a Giver company whenever we can, toward our people and clients (in that order). And of course, I've learned some hard lessons along the way.

I never knew if this was the right thing to do in the past 5 years, but I know this is exactly how I want to build my own company. If it fails, then at least I have no regrets.

Very fortunately for me, I've been able to attract other givers to join our team to build this 'unreasonable business,' and clients that trusted us. We've been operating this way but struggled to scale because I am not willing to give up our values.

Until last year, we did another giver move. We released Chat Everywhere for everyone to use, free of charge. In fact, we are absorbing the cost ourselves without knowing if this will eventually work out financially. Then, to our surprise, we gained a lot of traction in Taiwan because of how easy it is to use.

That said, we still didn't know if this project would last since we didn't have a pricing plan at all. But over time, more and more people reached out and told us what they wanted to see in the app. So, another giver move, we just built exactly what they asked for!

Then influencers made a video about us, helping us get exposure without asking anything in return. Resellers reached out to help us sell it to the B2B market.

Thank you 茶米老師，益師傅，Amy，貓老師 and everyone else for helping us all along. 💛

This is the moment I understood what founder-product market fit actually means.

We still have a long way to go. $24k revenue generated is only the very beginning for us, but we are clear about what our mission is, what our team is capable of, and how we are making this world a better place than we started.

Let's go get it.

I think you really need to love what you do to start a business or any significant venture because it's probably the single hardest thing you will have to face in your lifetime. So if you ain't obsessed with it and not extremely determined, then you will give up eventually.

On top of that, since determination is where any sizable amount of success is based (probably more than luck and intelligence combined), it's even more important to make sure you love what you do and it is extremely meaningful to you.

To see it from the other side, when you obsess about what you do, you will become this unstoppable machine and you will learn and do whatever it takes to get closer to your mission and goal.

The best part is people around you will start to notice and help you out!

---

Also, something that I learned lately is that exponential growth is just constant growth being stretched over a long period of time. So we just need to make sure we are growing every day, no matter how small it is. This applies to everything: customer count, user traffic, books you read, people you helped, etc.

I think we are too short-sighted (including myself) from time to time, as we focus too much on short-term growth but neglect the "big picture."

Organizations are just a group of people working together to achieve something more significant. Which otherwise impossible to reach for any individuals (e.g. NASA, SpaceX, etc.).

To build a company that can last, we must start with a why, the purpose of such company, which has to be something more than just money and fame.

But to make an impact in this world, benefiting people around us and generations to come from our work, making the future better for humanity as a whole.

The same applied to individuals. Are we spending our time making an impact or just going after the bank balance?

Life is an infinite game, but are you playing it with a finite mindset?

I came across this great video the other day and sparked some thoughts on Leader v.s. Boss.

It's much more comfortable, more straightforward, less to concern when being a boss. They are only responsible for the result (a.k.a The money). On the other hand, being a leader is much more difficult. Not only they need to keep up the result, but also the Morale.

But what's interesting is that we are much more willing to follow a leader than a boss. Regardless of salary, workload or even career opportunities. Why's that?

Because bosses demand, but leaders (you guessed it) lead. Boss talks about what needs to be done and set expectations with no consideration of their people. On the contrary, leaders put themselves in people's shoes, offer helping hands and work together for a common goal.

Leaders are those who give us the feeling of belonging, knowing they got our back when time is tough, and they will work alongside us through challenges. They are those willing to put in the effort of building the Circle of Safety, to protect their people against outside forces.

Because of leaders, we feel safe being around with them, knowing they will nurture us and assist us in becoming someone better. They inspire us to work for something more than just ourselves, they gave us meanings of our work.

Leaders let us realize that we are not a replaceable gear inside a big machine, but the definition of it. They inspire and lead us to a better future. A future of humanity.

I recently came across this "rule" from a book The Rules Of Life by Richard Templar.

This immediately alleviates a lot of my consistent worries around the decisions that I made in the past.

I want to share this with you all, hope this viewpoint can also give you relief in your personal and professional adventures.

No Fear:

There should be nothing in this life that you are afraid of. If there is, you need to do some work on overcoming that fear.

Whatever your fear, face it head-on and defeat it.

No Surprise:

Life seems to be full of them, doesn't it? You are going along swimmingly and suddenly something huge rears up ahead of you.

But if you look carefully, there were clues all along the way that it was going to happen. Whatever your situation now, it is going to change.

So why does life seem to surprise us then? Because we are asleep half the time.

Wake up, and nothing can sneak up on you.

No Hesitation:

Weigh up the odds and then just get on with it. If you hang back, the opportunity will have passed. If you spend too long thinking, you'll never make a move.

Once we have looked at the options, we make a choice, a decision and then go for it.

No hesitation means if there is a certain inevitability about a situation, then just throw yourself in head-first and enjoy the ride.

If there is nothing to be done, then waiting doesn't help.

No Doubt:

Once you have made up your mind about something, don't go over it again and again.

Stop thinking and enjoy - relax and let go. Tomorrow will come along as certainly as it can. There is no doubt about life. It just is.

Be confident. Be committed. Be sure of yourself.

Once you have committed yourself to a set course, a path, a plan, then follow it through.

Have no doubt it was the right thing to do and no doubt that you will succeed. Get on with it and trust your judgement completely.

Is it risky? Yes; Is it hard? Yes; Would it fail miserably? Could be; Is it still worth it? Definitely.

As you may know already, I started a new venture named Explorator Technology (Explorator), with a mission of bringing technological advancement to everyone.

Some of you might be thinking why this guy do something like this? Isn't it too risky? Why doesn't he go for a stable job for some more work experience first? Or at least wait until graduation?

Let me explain!

1. Realizing my purpose

For the past couple of years, I always felt like something inside me is missing, but I didn't know exactly what it is.

My thinking is that if I put time into what I like to do, I might be able to find out the missing part eventually. So I started freelancing, went to different events, started writing, and travelling.

During my trip to the UK, I came to realize that my purpose is to do something good for this world, not for the sake of money, not for public recognition, but to give back and help others.

2. "Be the change that you wish to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

In the past couple of months, I keep thinking about what can I do to fulfill my purpose of bringing good to everyone. Throughout my time at BiteSite and working as a freelancer, my vision of the world of tomorrow is getting more vivid day by day.

I envision this world is a place of kindness and that everyone is lifted and inspired by each other. Where open-mindedness is encouraged, and all of us are urged to explore the possibilities of our own. We are all working as a team through triumph and setbacks while having fun at the same time.

This is why I am here to make the change, Explorator means more than just a company, it represents a harmony and a vision of this world.

3. Support from you all 💪

The support I received before and, after I start Explorator is enormous, I can't stress enough how grateful I am to have you all in my life!!

Hence, I would dedicate this section to those who helped me starting Explorator.

1. Family

   My family are always being incredibly supportive of what I want to do, from letting me come all the way to Canada six years ago and then starting my own venture. They never doubting my capabilities and only reminding me to learn and grow.

   Without them, I wouldn't be able to set foot here in Canada or even be able to write this post.

   I appreciate everything my parents do for me, my younger sister and brother. It is nothing but the hard work of our parents who made a lot of sacrifices to get us here, and the least we can do is never forget this.

2. Friends (sorted by magic only)

   2.1     Ashar

   We both always wanted to start a new venture since the first day we met (pretty sure that's how we clicked, don't tell anyone if it's not). What we have been through definitely give me a better perspective of how to start Explorator.

   2.2     Oscar

   Then it comes Oscar, my high school & robotic team friend (not a robot), he started a tutoring company in Sydney a year ago. He reached out to me one-day saying "Yo, are you interested in building software for us since you have been doing freelancing?"

   Then that's the Aha moment for me to start a business, without his support and entrepreneurial advice, Explorator is nothing but only a dream.

   2.3     Juan

   Juan began as one of our web development 101 trainees, and throughout our training he shown me passion and drive for whatever he does.

   Now he's officially a part of our team, taking care of our daily operations. His excellent work has blown me away every time.

   Glad to have him on board, to make Explorator possible!

   2.4     Yuhan & Franko & their gang

   Because of your feedback and support, we have adjusted and recruited some exciting people! You guys rock!

3. BiteSite

   Before I started my co-op term at BiteSite last fall, I have no professional software development experience. Only my entry-level project management and development knowledge.

   Casey, founder and CEO of BiteSite, put in a significant amount of his time on tutoring me and giving me countless advice on entrepreneurship, career, and life in general.

   During my time there, I kept bringing up ideas related to my future goals, and he has always been so supportive, sometimes even getting more excited than me. Because of his advice, we were able to start Explorator right now and not three years later.

   My time at BiteSite lead me to a realization that it's possible to learn, grow and have fun at the same time, and that's the culture we are building in Explorator.

   Congrats🎉 on winning the Employer of the year award!!

   

4. Freelancing Clients

   Justin, Patrick, and Josette have been my freelancing clients and when I brought up the idea of starting this company, asking them would it be okay for them to transfer our projects under Explorator. They all said yes without skipping a beat!! .

   Without your support, starting this company would have been more challenging.

   4.1     Justin

   You are my most extended client, right from the first day of my freelancing career. Your understanding is invaluable to me, and I accumulated most of my development knowledge through our project.

   Thanks for your longtime support!

   4.2     Josette & Patrick

   I appreciate the opportunity of letting me develop OptionStorage. The mission of this company is much inspired by the work you guys do at Haiti. Make me want to give back to where I am from!

   Check out all the meaningful works that they do at Haiti here.

5. Web training group

   Before Explorator came into existence, I started a web development 101 training program for people who are interested in web development.

   The early members Juan, Daniel, Runnan, Yashar, you all inspired me to started Explorator, enabling me to see how much value I can give to people who are eager to learn.

   I sincerely hope that you all will thrive in the software industry!

6. Everyone who knows me

   I know I am not the most "normal" person, sometimes I do wild things and weird stuff, but you all chose to stick around. Embracing my personality and thoughts, which gives me an enormous amount of courage to go after what I want.

   Thanks for being awesome!

For me, there is no better time than right now to start Explorator. I understand that this is not easy, it might even take years to stabilize, but we are committed to make this a reality.

As long as we are inspiring and supporting others, Explorator did what it is created for.

Explorator may not be the most successful company in the world, but it will definitely be the most impactful. For us, that's the definition of success.

"勿忘初心"  - To every Explorator.

What is uOttaHack2019?

A hackathon.

Okay it's more than that.

Quoting from uOttaHack's website.

Our mission is to empower students on campus to explore their passion for tech, through building a community of like-minded individuals who innovate and disrupt the worlds of business and technology.

"Disrupt" is the keyword there. ⚔️

1. It's the team that matters

How many times have we been blinded by the prize, but overlook the people around us?

Yes, we were there aiming for the biggest prize, but we were also there to learn, grow, and enjoy our 24 hours together.

Not to mention taking a break from the overload of school work.

Even though we were still steps away from winning, but we had a great time working together!

After all, unforgettable memory is always better than just a Github repo (so we did both) 😉

2. See what's possible

During our demo time, I was shamelessly asking around for presentations from other teams.

Turns out it was nothing but amazing work, that they managed to put together in 24 hours only!!

From contact-less blood pressure measurement to music synchronization website, there were a lot of surprises.

From first place winner to the most useless award (yep its a thing), ordinary is the last word I would look for in this hackathon!

Check out all the other projects here.

3. Talk the unusual

Through the diversity workshop organized by uOttaHack and Isabel, we have a chance to dig deep into problems that we ain't usually exposed to.

Such as gender diversity in the tech force, what does diversity mean to us?

This workshop provided us a platform for like-minded people to exchange perspectives in a safe environment.

More importantly, by shining some light on those topics, we can help to bring up awareness of the underlying problems in the current tech industries.

Big shout out to my team, Julie, Lathan, and Zihan. We did great!!

Finally, being part of a hackathon is not an easy task by any mean, especially when you have to work straight for 24 hours.

But it's the journey that is worth remembering, all the goods and bads that we went through as a team!

Thanks Ashar for proofreading. All photo credit to uOttaHack team.

Have you ever wonder how many decision we make every day are non-bias, purely for the best of our interest?

I got the book The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli while I was travelling to UK, and I immediately fall in love with it.

Dobelli talks about the cognitive biases that we have but unaware of in our daily lives. By understanding them, we can stop relying on our falsely mental shortcuts to make decisions, hence improve our decision-making process.

"Cognitive bias is a mistake in reasoning, evaluating, remembering, or other cognitive process, often occurring as a result of holding onto one's preferences and beliefs regardless of contrary information. " - Chegg Study

I chose the top 3 cognitive bias I came across so far, with the aim of helping you to make better decisions.

1. Survivorship Bias

Survivorship bias is the most underrated cognitive bias in my opinion because we have a tendency of taking in information from reputational individuals without evaluating correctly.

One example I reciprocate the most is the "advice from successful people", we hear them day in and day out, telling ourselves that we will be as successful as them by replicating what they did.

Which seems reasonable at first, even more so as we hear the same advice from other credible sources.

But it doesn't directly imply that it is a fool-proof way to success.

"Business success is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics" - Tony Robbins

“Don’t just follow the trend,” - Elon Musk

Before we think those are golden rules of starting the next big thing and how to live a good life. Be aware of survivorship bias.

By no mean they are not true, but we should also take their conclusiveness into consideration, just because they are said by reputational people, doesn't imply that they are correct in all cases.

Especially in the present time, media has no interest in companies who failed to start, only those who survived and thriving. Hence success story is more visible to us than failure.

This misguided us to overestimate our chance of success.

To overcome this, we should dig into the graveyard of failures, get opinions from people who didn't make it.

In my opinion, failure is more valuable than success very often.

Next time we come across "best advice of xxx", remember to see both sides of the tunnel before diving deep.

2. Social Proof

"If 50 million people are doing something foolish, it is still foolish." - W. Somerset Maugham

Remember the last time when you were walking on a street, saw there is a long queue in front of a restaurant.

Then all of a sudden, you decided to walk in and see what they got.

The same logic applies to other aspects as well, such as buying in cryptocurrencies because everyone is making a fortune from them (Needless to say, I fall victim to this as well back then).

Be careful of getting into the trap of social proof, because we often misunderstood the correlation between popularity and believability.

Just because one option is more popular, not necessarily means that it is the best option in hand.

We should adequately evaluate each option available to us in all aspects, without overly weighted its recognizability to other factors.

Advertisement industry is the master exploiter of this thinking pattern, we can see them everywhere, such as The most trusted brand, Best selling product, Unbeatable price, etc.

That being said, social proof would be useful during an unclear situation with a lack of trustworthy information, especially when people "like you and me" appear.

3. Sunk Cost Fallacy

The past should play no role in the decision you are making right now.

Think about the following situation, when Dobelli was trying to leave during a movie play.

Dobelli: 'Come on, let's go home.'

His wife: 'No way. We're not throwing away $30.'

Dobelli: 'That's no reason to stay.'

His wife: 'The money is already gone.'

Similar scenarios happened to us every day, from expansive software to never-ending projects.

How many times did we refuse to explore alternatives because we invested too much time or money already? Then it becomes a reason to carry on, even though it's apparently a lost cause.

This irrational behaviour is driven by our desire for consistency. After all, admitting a fault that we made in the past, or cancelling a heavily invested project halfway through is not the most appealing image we want to send.

Sunk cost fallacy is when we illogically take into account the unrecoverable cost into consideration as a factor of future decision.

To overcome this, keep in mind that only our assessments to the future costs and benefits count toward our final decision, not how much we invested already.

Personally, I have been very curious about how we make decisions since our lives are constructed based on the choices we made every day.

If we can optimize our decision-making process, we can be more effective at prioritizing our time and resources.

Lastly, I strongly encourage you to get the book from Amazon or Audible, if you are interested in how to think clearly. 😉

Hope we all learn something today. 🙌

Traveling alone might sound scary to some people, and it certainly is sometimes.

But once we overcome that fear, we are able to grasp who we truly are and learn how to spend time with ourselves in the world of distraction.

This is part two of What it’s like to travel SOLO. Compared to part one, I am  digging deeper into each of my thoughts.

Learn how to spend time alone

We live in a world of distraction — constant bombardment of “new things”, that turns us into cyber zombies. As such, we are fed on fresh information and crave for more every day.

Social media is definitely one of the critical factors, by offering a new way to live as more connected. But in reality, we are trapped in this never-ending stream of distractions.

Looking deeper, most of the distractions are from the gadgets that keep us connected 24/7, like our phones, laptops, and even smartwatches.

To stop them hijacking our focus, we have to switch them off for good. Only then we will be able to take back control of our consciousness and live for ourselves only.

It’s time to pick up the skill that we should’ve mastered since a young age.

How to spend time with ourselves?

For all John Green fans out there, here’s the quote.

“It’s a metaphor, see? You put the thing that does the killing right between your teeth, but you never give it the power to kill you. A metaphor.” — John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

See the bigger picture

Our brains work like computers as it's fed and run by impulses. Everything happening inside and outside of our body can stimuli our brains, and every impulse takes up a certain amount of mental power to process.

Unfortunately, every decision-making signal coming into our brain will get prioritized purely based on its' degrees of urgency.

It would make sense if we were living in a hunter-gather age since we are choosing between getting eaten by a lion in front of us or which cave to go for dinner.

But it does no good to us in this modern era. Not only it limits how far we can see during our decision-making process, but also neglects what is truly important to us in a long run.

When we spend time alone during travel, we are actively cutting off those attention-hungry signals, telling our brain that its time to focus on the long term.

Hence, it enables us to see the bigger picture and discover what is truly important to us.

See through loneliness

“Loneliness isn’t feeling like you don’t really know anybody. It’s feeling like nobody could ever really know you.” — John Gorman

We often correlate loneliness with the number of friends we have. We think, the more friends we have, the less lonely we must be.

Which is nothing but a delusion, the numbers of friends on Facebook and the number of followers on Instagram, doesn’t mean anything besides giving us a hit of dopamine and a feeling of importunate.

How many of them are truly reliable, someone we can count on when things happened?

Loneliness comes from the inside, signalling us our natural desire of being understood, and the calling of confidantes.

Intimacy may be the ultimate solution.

Take on the unknown

There is only one way to reach somewhere we have never been, that is by trying something that we have never done before.

We may like it, we may hate it. But without trying, there’s no way to know.

Most of our regrets are from things that we have never tried.

The risks that we never have the courage to take on. The comfort zone that we believe it’s better to stay in. The vulnerabilities that we try our hardest to hide, but sacrifice the opportunity to yield a stronger relationship.

Unknown takes courage to explore, but that is the only way to live fully.

Know ourselves better. Treat others with empathy and respect. Make un-regrettable decisions. Discuss with an open mind.

I learned a lot from this trip to London, not just seeing things from a different angle, but also understanding myself more.

One quote that resonate with me throughout my journey.

“旅行，就是為了找到回家的路。” — Peter Su

Traveling is to find who we truly are.

This marks the end of the what it’s like series, thanks for everyone following along! 👍

Special thanks to Laura and Ashar proofreading this article.

This is part one of a two parts story of my experience traveling by myself to London, UK. ( Have to be specific here, since there are more than one London in this very world. )

In part one (this article), all my thoughts of what traveling alone will bring you are listed below, with a brief quote for each one. In part two, I will dig deeper into each of them, walk you through my thoughts and journeys.

I recommend to pause and give some thoughts on each one, they are crafted with care. ( Its like people, the more you care, the more you see. )

Open your heart

Open-minded can help you think differently.

Open-hearted can help you feel differently.

Learn how to spend time with no one but you

Turn down the world, isolate all distractions, and Listen to your heart.

Once you know how to spend time with yourself, you no longer emotionally dependant to anyone.

See through Loneliness

“Loneliness isn’t feeling like you don’t really know anybody. It’s feeling like nobody could ever really know you.” — John Gorman

Inner Peace

When we have peace within, conflicts from outside will never penetrate.

The Unknown

Taste the excitement of exploring the unknown.

Ownership of time — Freedom

Own your time, own your life, own the journey of yourself.

Thats it for now, hope you enjoy it. Look forward for part two !

Welcome to the 3rd episode of What its like series. It’s time to talk about coding!

I have been seeing a trend from people around me getting into the software industry without a concrete understanding of what coding actually is.

Hence I would like to share my personal view about coding at the conceptual level, without getting too technical.

Hope this article can give a clearer image to those either interested in coding or have experience in the field to see in a different way.

1. Coding is another way of thinking

2. Coding is a tool for problem solving

Mathematics is a tool that we human invented to formulate the nature, help us understand the world we are living in.

Coding on the other hand, is a tool we need in order to harness the speed and accuracy of a machine by giving them precise instructions.

Most of the time we don’t actually need a computer to get the job done, but it will take a way longer time. Especially in some repeatable task such as data manipulation, pattern searching.

Unlike human, modern computers are capable of performing over 1,000,000,000 calculations per second, 24 hours a day without a single complaint and mistake. It is clear that why computer exist at the first place.

To utilize the power of a machine to solve our problems, we must tell them what to do in a language that they can interpret, which is (surprise surprise)code 💻!

3. Coding is an creative art

There is no absolute right or wrong approach to solve a coding problem, one can write 100 lines or just 10 lines, but still have the exact same results.

The difference is the elegancy of one’s solution, a balance of readability, performance, side-effects and sometime laziness 😛.

Because there are many factors we must take into consideration while coding our solutions, this is what makes coding different from solving a math problem.

How to fix this bug without clutter up our code? How to maintain performance while scaling up? How to add a new feature with minimum changes?

We often don’t relate coding with creativity, but what make a painting & code so stunning is the hidden harmonies between lines and shapes. It requires a tremendous amount of creativity to produce.

Every line of code is crafted with ❤️ don’t take them for granted.

As an international student who came to Canada from Macau, all alone, 6 years ago, I faced substantial language and cultural barriers.

Sometimes even I have difficulty believing what I have achieved, from being a programming mentor for high school students, to an experienced freelancer, and currently a software developer at BiteSite.

No doubt, I have achieved a lot in this period of time, but it is important to know that I encountered many failures in my journey to where I am today.

By sharing my journey with you, I hope it will resonate with people who are going through tough times. So they know that they are not alone and the effort they put in will not go to waste.

1. What failures have I been through?

Frankly speaking, I am not sure if my failures are bigger or smaller relative to others, but I can say with confidence that what I have been through was not at all easy. I have seen failure in my education, my career, and my relationships.

I had to retake grade 5 due to my weak English skills, and lucky me, I got to experience that again in grade 10, which pushed me back two years from being admitted into university.

Failing multiple courses my freshman year, missing my co-op work terms, and being rejected by more than 30 times for job interviews. I had experienced one of the worst times in my life.

Failure for me is nothing but a reality that I have to face every day, and I believe that it has come to a point where I would be surprised if I didn’t fail on my first try.

2. What have I learned from them?

Failure in modern society is perceived to be something experienced by the weak, but in my opinion, that is what makes you stronger.

For me, my failures have led me to gain new perspectives and challenge my own self. More importantly, a reminder to stay alerted for what’s ahead, be humble and keep learning.

“It’s fine to celebrate success but its more important to heed the lessons of failure” — Bill Gates

Without failing grade 5 English, I would never realize the important of improving my English, which later becomes one of the very reason coming to Canada and start writing.

Without retaking two years of high school, I would never found out how limited my time is, and how to make the most out of every second that I live.

Without missing my co-op work terms, I would never understand the important of being different and being able to stand out from the crowd. This realization led me to start doing my freelance work and take initiative at work and life.

Without a heartbreaking relationship that ended, I would never grasp the significance of a meaningful relationship.

Without all the failures that I have encountered, I would have never been on the path which I am on right now. We face challenges because we are strong enough to handle them, and it would only count as a failure if that is all we can see.

3. What I got from my journey?

Looking back to the old days, what I came across was necessary to push becoming better.

Since I started writing on Medium, I have come across like-minded people who have been through challenges, yet kept working on their goals. This is exactly my vision and mission of the What it’s like series.

Since I started my freelancing career, I gained a lot more insight and skill for web development and at the same time earned the privilege of helping others in transforming their thoughts into reality. Thanks to Justin Wang for supporting me from the very beginning, with building Audit Market Map, piece by piece.

After being selected to be a programming mentor for one of my co-op terms, it was an unforgettable journey I went through with DM High Voltage, realizing the impact I could make to other students’ lives.

Since I started working at BiteSite for my current work term, I have had a delightful experience. Not only having a glance at the professional work environment, but more for the joy I get while working with BiteSite’s team Casey and Tim and Denis at International Safety.

During my journey of “failures”, I have learned invaluable lessons through setbacks, met incisive people by stepping out of my comfort zone, and gained memorable experiences through tough times. Most importantly, shaped my character into who I am today.

Sometimes the destination doesn’t matter as much, when the journey itself is worth more.

4. What I think about failures?

I started from a place where everyone would consider difficult to reach where I am right now, but here I am, after fighting all the embarrassment, rejection, and scarcity that has come my way.

Every fall I have had, gave me a clearer perspective of my circumstances, and made me realizing that there are still a lot more to appreciate, especially the people who were willing to offer their helping hands, and to walk me through the storms.

Failing itself is easy, but to fail greatly, one must keep grinding, do the undoable, talk the unseeable, and walk the unconventional.

Thanks for reading along with me, it’s my pleasure to share my views with you. I hope we all gained a new insight that we were unfamiliar with.

Special thanks to everyone supported me during my journey here.

Ashar, Michael, and Yuhan thanks for proofreading this article for me 👍

Welcome to the 1st episode of my What It’s like series, this is not the most polished piece I produce, and it didn’t make it on time. My apologizes to those who are truly supporting me. There still a lot to learn, but I can ensure that it will only get better overtime.

That being said, thanks for giving me a chance to write and share, feel free to give me some Claps if you learn a thing or two from this.

Now, let the show begin !

Being different is because I don’t want to be labeled.

Since my high school life started in Canada 6 years ago, I started realizing there’s always a constant stream of stereotype and labeling being applied to me, just because of the way I look, speak and behaves.

Throughout the high school time, I have learned to respect, and treat others equally despite their race, age, background, personality.

But things started to change after graduated from high school 3 years ago, the feeling of resisting my own culture have been growing slowly from the deep down. Particularly the thought of breaking the stereotype of a typical mainlander.

Personally speaking, I have never been a fan of the word stereotype, especially when it becomes an excuse of judging someone without understanding what are they going through.

The thought of resisting to be labeled of have grown inside my head, oftentimes I would take an extra step to surprise others who already have a “default” image of who I was.

Overtime I grew to understanding that the key is to think and be different from the “normal”.

Be different takes ignorance of other’s opinion, and courage.

An opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive - Wikipedia

Opinion is similar to stereotype, non-conclusive, non-constructive, not evidence base thoughts being said out load.

Opinion is cheap, usually those who is lack of understanding, have the loudest opinions. If someone comes with a good intension, they will have a constructive conversation with you, try to find out what’s the best decision to make for you.

Hence, stop holding back because of opinions of others, especially stop holding back from your true self. When you are aware of that and act upon it with courage, you will start building up self-confident. That is what It’s like to be different.

Think differently takes insight.

In order to think outside of the box, you have to first be able to there is indeed a box. Which takes experience, either life experience of yourself, or others. The former is basically what Be different will bring you, the later is what communication, interaction with incisive people gives you.

Once you have enough knowledge and insight, you can start connecting the dot between everything you know, then you can see what is outside of the otherwise invisible frame. To get out of what you familiar with, and try your hardest to explore other possibilities.

Mindset drives everything.

The most critical step of thinking and being different is one’s mindset, without a proper mindset, everyone will settle in the familiar, and never explore the unknown.

According the law of average, we are the average of 5 people we spend the most time with. Be sure to choose who you surround with wisely. Don’t let people drain your attention for granted, and let go of those are toxic from your life.

Instead, surround yourself with people who can empower you, be supportive and assertive of what you do. That’s what a friendship or relationship should be, lifting others up when they are down, and elevate together to become better together.

After all, someone might argue that they ain’t born to be different, but to fit in. Which I respect and do agree, as long as they have a clear differentiation between the fear of change, and their nature.

Being different might not be the best way to go for everyone, but it will bring invaluable experience to our lives.

Ask yourself, you want to be you, or everyone else?