2014 Year in Review

I have really been slowing down on my blog here, have been putting the Hong Kong and China business posts on Global From Asia blog and podcast and also deep into my work at Social Agent which is now Unchained Apps. But I will still be posting on the blog here more for a personal journal and reflection point of view, and not marketing it as much but leaving it public for those who care to read.

The year 2014 was another great year. Here are some highlights.

• Wedding – Well technically was married legally in China in October 2013, we had the “party” in Shenzhen on Jan 11. So started 2014 off with a bang.

• Baby Miles – For anyone following any social media account I have will see it filling up with more baby photos of my newborn son Miles. It was a rough first month with a trip to the emergency room but it makes us appreciate him even more, and appreciate life more in general.

• Merger in Social Agent – Another baby of mine, Social Agent that has been my passion for years now had a good year finding a great partner Unchained Apps that is also a Hong Kong / Shenzhen cross border technology company. I’m excited that our teams can combine and there is a ton of synergy with their development team and our marketing team, so 2015 is going to be an exciting year.

• Paid back Debts – I had been accruing some friends and family debt and it felt great to make those reimbursements after the merger. It made me feel that I follow through with my word and I make things work out in the long run. No one was pushing me for it, but it was a thing constantly on the back of my mind.

• Writer for Forbes China – I started as a contributor for Forbes China, using my podcasting skills I had picked up and they loved the audio component to add to their portfolio. I only got a few out this year but the team at Forbes in Shanghai is also learning how to host audio files separately from the web server and other technicalities, so I have some unreleased shows and posts that will come out in 2015. I’m excited to get one or two a month going out from now on there. Topics will be on entrepreneurs in South China.

• Wrote my First Book – I completed my first book, Hong Kong Business Supercharged and that is an amazing feeling of accomplishment. Sales haven’t gotten me so excited yet, but I’m working with my friend Dustin Ellard on a formal launch in 2015. The book launch came out the same week the Social Agent merger happened.

• Took 1 Month USA Roadtrip – After the wedding, I took my wife Wendy to the US for the first time. Attila and I had talked about doing a road trip for years, so we met up and the 3 of us drove from SF to Seattle to Chicago, Niagara Falls, NYC, DC, Florida, New Orleans, Texas, Vegas. Talk about an intensive trip with hyper networking, a trip for a lifetime. My wife wrote up a cool summary of her experience (In Chinese) and I posted the English recap

• Putting Dedicated Time to Skill Development I have become a student again in some ways. My friend Manu showed me an amazing skill development youtube video (which unfortunately is down…) that inspired me to more formally plan my skill development. To decide which skills you want to improve, read a book or two on it, read articles about it, videos, and master it over a few months. I have been doing that for negotiation and SOP / operations workflow and I really see improvement in my life. Before I would generally try to improve in a few things as I stumbled onto the topics online, now I am focusing which books to read and articles to find based on a skill I am trying to acquire or improve. Highly recommend it.

• Have released 64 podcast episodes Global From Asia has been a lot of fun! I stick to a weekly release schedule of Tuesday mornings 10am Hong Kong time (Mondays 9pm New York) and keeping the schedule – it truly connects with a passionate audience and I have met so many amazing people from it. Hoping to build it up even more next year with more masterminds, community sites, and maybe some meetups.

And overall I feel more focused – sure there are tons of ways I need to focus even more, but step by step. I think also I hope this motivates others who are “older” to realize you can improve and learn and develop at any age in life.

I’ll be posting my 2015 plan in a bit. I haven’t been promoting these posts on social media / facebook – just let those who want to read them to know where they are.