It was such an amazing experience being in a room full of successful founders which I was given the privilege by Alliance Bank & the sponsors. I was one of the 20 finalists shortlisted at the recent SME Innovation Challenge 2015. For more information on the SME Innovation Challenge, please read here, here and here. They all have wonderful stories to share and a good made in Malaysia business concept especially for Malaysians and the world.
When my business prospers, I will certainly join the list of sponsors for the SME Innovation Challenge. Being with new founders, really injects alot of aspiration and motivation. It is not all rosey and beauty for the founders to be where they are today. I was in one of the group that was split into 5, and one of the founders said, she had multiple nervous breakdown and almost kill herself to keep her company afloat. Another founder attended the Biz Smart Academy today and left her barely year old baby in the hospital admitted for dengue. Such were the commitment and dedication by the founders to bring their company to the next level.
We attended the first of the 8 full day training courses organised to equipped businesses with essential ingredients for success. I attended the course with a burning desire to learn, apply and starving for knowledge and success. It was great to be in a hall full of founders with the same huge appetite. The energy was exemplary.
Today's first full day was a course on Strategic Influencing by Eric Lau from Leaderonomics. There are alot of things we took for granted while running a business and Eric, in his hip and passionate presentation backed with strong references to real life case study put alot of senses to many. You should check them out at www.leaderonomics.com.
We also had the pleasure of meeting Christy Ng whom was the 2013 SME Innovation Challenge
Champion. She was generous with sharing her success story and gave some useful tips in tackling those judges during the final pitch. Another guest speaker was Ivan Lee from The Tapping Tapir, the Top 6 finalist for last year's challenge. Victor shared his experience in getting into the top 6. The biggest challenge faced by them two was in canvassing for public votes. They actually went to Pasar Malam and into universities to get students to vote for them!! Eeek!!! I cannot remember when was the last time I went to pasar malam.
