Ten Daze

September 10, 2008
9:33pm

Day 10. Ten days in Singapore. It’s weird to think about it that way, actually. Like I’m dreaming, but not. Haha. Sigh… So I’m sitting in my hotel room (which I have for another 4 days), on this huge bed that’s longer AND wider than I am tall. I have Filipino music lullabying out of itunes and somewhere in the background, the tube’s turned on to a past season of America’s got talent. From where I’m seated, I can see the Singapore Flyer through the window – it’s the HUGE ferry’s wheel by the Singapore harbor. It’s weird. I’m in Singapore.

Just now, from the other side of the room, I can hear two black dudes on TV. They’re New Orleans Katrina survivor. “It’s surreal,” one of them says. “One day everything’s normal, and then BAM. It’s like your whole life is changed; in a blink so much of it is gone. And there’s nothing you can do about it.” Bro, my thoughts exactly. Ok, so it a little selfish of me to compare my being kicked out of America to losing house, home and loved ones to a disastrous hurricane. But, hey… give a guy a break. I can’t help it.

I miss the life I had 6 months ago. Dammit. I miss my job.

It’s funny. Wait, no, rewind, rephrase. It’s sad. I love LRW and the people that worked there. I really do. They were aggressively (but not abrasively) action oriented, intellectually unmatched, and fucking passionate. Katie, Eric, Robin, Rick, Anu, Jess, Carly, Matt, Vino, Kevin, everyone… They all were unbelievably smart, were sharply driven by logic, and thought so far and out of the box that the box was a dot in the distance. They were so giving and open about the job, the responsibilities, and their own lives; I learn so much about the business and business in general from them. Every single person I worked with helped me grow leaps and bounds. Good to fucking great. They pushed me to become the best Marketer, Researcher, and Business-person I could have possibly been in a span of just over of a year.

And now here I am – in the real world realizing how spoiled I was… Research International is arguably one of the best in the world. Certainly in the top 3 in Asia! Great brand equity! Mention RI to any fortune 500 brand manager or consumer insights rep, and they will nod and smile, “Ahh. Yes. Research International.” The company has massive global reach and an extremely impressive list of clients that would make even Dave Sackman (CEO of LRW) wet his pants. But my praises stop there. What I find far from impressive are the procedures, processes, and products that come out of the Singapore Office. Man… Talk about dated inefficiency. The RI process takes longer to do, is unnecessarily harder to accomplish, and produces “insights” that aren’t as insightful as they could actually be. To top it off, the process is soaked in Asian-style hierarchal bureaucracy (This means layers and layers of red tape, silent disapproval, passive aggression, and unquestioning acceptance… all served with a smile, a bow and a gracious thank you in your pick of 3 different languages!) Ridiculous! Ridiculous, I say! 10 days in Singapore and 8 days of working for RI Singapore, and this is what have to say. Does not bode well now, does it.

Sigh.

But alas, I do have a plan. The plan still in conception and proposal stage, and I don’t even know if the higher ups will buy into it. But hey, I just can’t sit on my ass now can I? So what’s the plan, you ask? A revolution! I’ll start small. Plant a seed here. Plant a seed there… I need to show people (that matter) that there are better ways to do things. Better ways to say things. Better ways to think about things. Better ways in general! I’m a fucking rockstar, and I need to show people that I can rock their socks off! I just need to find the opportunities! That’s where God’ll come in and help out. Faith man. Faith. Gotta have faith faith faith.



PS – I’m sleepy now (its 100AM). I was distracted there for bit. I was typing and saw my toenails. Damn I really needed to cut them. While I was at it, I cut my nails nails too (the nails on my hands), coz they were getting long and I had the nail cutter out all ready. Man I have one of those cool nail cutters with the casing around it so that the nail debris doesn’t fly everywhere. SO COOL! While I was cutting my nail, CSI:NY came on, so I watched that first. Then House MD came on… So, I watched that too. Then I got back to this… and now I’m sleepy… I have a client meeting in at 830am (my boss is pitching a project to a big insurance and banking firm). I hope we win it. It’ll be part of the revolution! Viva la revoluthion (That’s saying it Spanish for you, baby)!

Peace out and much love!