Hello friends! I hope you are having a happy and productive week. In this blog post, I will be sharing my goals for this month so that I can hold myself accountable and actually get them done!

 

Feel free to read through and reach out to me if you think there is any area that you would like to collaborate with me. You can reach out to me very easily here.

 

I have highlighted key action items so that I can keep track of my progress moving forward. Also, this post will not be fixed — I will be constantly adjusting it as things change.

 

🚀 Contribution

 

👨‍💼 Rakuten

 

• – Study project management course

  I am thinking about continuing project management course made by Google. My original objective was to complete this within September but I am going over. Not sure how relevant knowing these skills are to actual project management. Maybe I’ll go through it very quickly to get the basics.

  I’m thinking perhaps a better option would be to get my AWS Cloud Practioner Certification. I took the course already so I would need to maybe review it for 2 days and take the test on the third day. The test is 90 minutes long but people finish it under 20 minutes so it would be quite easy. If I were to do this I could aim for the first week of October?

 

🌐 MakeValue

 

• – Think of clear messaging + Youtube?

  There is clear value in what I teach as seen through the positive feedback I get from my students. I should try and find out what drew them in the first place and design a marketing scheme to bring in more candidates. Maybe I can work with SeungYoon to get the marketing language right… But at the same time, I don’t want to look spammy. For example, I did not have to reach out to people and convince them I have content that can be valuable for them. Candidates who already knew who I was or saw my blog reached out to me first. I like this approach more than plastering myself and my course for hundreds to see… I should talk this through with SeungYoon to see what is a good approach.

  Update 9/14. Based on what I learned from SY, seems that Youtube is the most effective way to not only grab people’s attention but also leads to higher conversion. This is because after seeing a couple of your videos people start to really get to know you.

  Therefore, the easiest straightforward way would be to convert my written content into Youtube videos. I can simply learn what I’ve already written, film myself with the equipment I already have, send the recording to an editor (100 USD / recording), and publish. Obviously, this takes time and effort.

  The better question is: does it makes sense for me to attract people to my coaching program now? The answer might be no. I need to first think about the end to end picture:

  1. Build a coaching system where I can impact more people while using less of my time by leveraging other people.
  2. Make Youtube videos to attract candidates to my coaching program.
  3. Manage the system and make sure the system is risk-proof.

  So I should begin by building the system. According to SY, I should keep the 1on1 structure. What I should do is 1 hour for initial fit interview, 1 hour for first session, and 1 hour for last session 2 months later. That would be 3 hours of my time. Knowing that there are total 16 hours per student, I would be saving 80% of my time. That is awesome! Currently my course is priced at 999 USD/month, or 1998 USD. Assuming that I get 50%, that is 1000 USD and 1000 USD for tutor. 1000 USD / 13 hours is 77 USD / hour which is an ok rate whereas my rate will be 333 USD / hour. That is awesome. Then I just need to find tutors who would be able to teach the content I have prepared. I could just ask in XN group whether there are any ex-management consultants who would want to teach for 80 USD / hour. I have all the curriculum prepared and the only thing the tutor needs to do is guide the student through the coursework. I think at least 3 people would be interested! Wow imagine that. — That is cool. I think I can try this today.

  I’ve made an update to the system above. I thought it would be smarter to focus my program on ‘content creation’ for 2 reasons: (1) focused – the ‘content creation’ part of the program itself is quite heavy and many will find it difficult to digest within 6.5 weeks (2) I can leverage more teachers. Therefore, I will do as SY recommended and only lead 2 sessions (beginning and end) per candidate and have the remaining 14 sessions covered by a teacher.

  Update 9/15. I uploaded it to the group chat and already had 2 people interested in the deal which is fantastic. I also secured one more person yesterday afternoon. So that makes a grand total of 3 potential teachers. That is great. So now that I build this system (called the file “210915 MV_Business Model_v1” for future reference) and began reaching out to potential teachers, next step would be to attract potential students to get the ball rolling. Unfortunately one of my students dropped today because she was bogged down by work–well, the exact reasons were (1) handling 3 projects at work (2) looking to change jobs = distracted. Therefore, I think an important lesson learned here is to either spread out the learning so that the course is less burdensome for students (for example, instead of making have 2 sessions per week shrink it to 1 session per week) or select only candidates who would be willing and dedicated to take on this rigorous course. I’m leaning closer to the second option. I think if you’re not motivated and unwilling, then spreading this course over 4 months instead of 2 won’t change much. Therefore, I should learn how to have many people become interested in my course and also select members who I believe are ready for the challenge.

  This brings us to the second bucket “2. Make Youtube videos to attract candidates to my coaching program.” According to SY the purpose of having Youtube videos is to (1) provide helpful information related to my course, and (2) build fandom. Having this in mind, the content I should share is basically what I am writing in my blog on a regular basis. I wrote the content so I don’t think it would be too challenging to memorize the key points and say it back looking at a camera. I have the camera (Go pro with stand + my phone with stand), the mic (rode), and SD card to store the video/audio all ready and good to go. Next, I would have to find a person in Korea who is good at editing. According to SY it costs around 100USD to edit 1 video. Assuming that 1 video brings me 1 new candidate, net profit would be 1,000USD (~1,100USD total per candidate – 100 USD for editing). This is totally fine because I don’t want to spend time editing videos. That is great.

  How long would it take for me to film? I liked Ali Abdal’s idea on ‘batching’. Basically recording 3 videos in one day instead of spreading it out over multiple days. If so, I could spend one day a week, maybe Saturday morning, to record 1~2 videos and send it over to the editor. That seems doable.

  So to complete bucket 2, I should:

  1) Find a good editor who can edit ~10min video for under 100 USD: SY recommended that I post on university portal sites (non-SKY universities work better). I should set a timeline with him/her.
  2) Make a recording set at home I can fix: I should study 신사임당, EO and similar Youtubers to see how they framed their videos
  3) Make a dedicated folder on my Google Drive where I can share the video and audio file to my editor
  4) Make an account on Youtube for my videos: should I recycle a channel that I’ve already made? or should I make a new one? I think I will go with the account I have now. The email address I used is [email protected]. I’ll have to find a better user-friendly name since my target audience will be mostly Korean. I think I’ll settle with 매이크밸류. It is directly connected to this website. Also, a very popular channel in this space is called 채인지 그라운드 which is English written in Korean. So this works. Consistency is good. So I finished editing my Youtube profile! That took more time than I thought. But it is done. From English to Korean. Now, I just need to write and film. Write and film like that’s super easy…
  5) Make a schedule on when I will film, send edit, upload: Ideally I should be able to produce 1 video per week

  Now, let’s think how this would look like in reality.

  1) write and publish content — 7 days — finish Monday
  2) learn the content — 0.5 day — spend Saturday (!!! from Tuesday to Saturday – 4 days – write my second piece so that it can be ready by Monday of the following week !!!)
  3) film the content — 0.5 day — spend Saturday
  4) share content to editor to edit — 0 day — forward content to editor Saturday afternoon
  5) wait for editor — 3 days — have content back Tuesday
  6) publish content — 0.5 day — make thumbnail, caption etc. and upload Wednesday
  = 11 days to upload 1 content on Youtube

  Seeing the process broken down like this it seems totally feasible. Well, with the exception that I am busy Saturday mornings… but if I make better use of my time I think I can make it work.

  Saturday
  – 10:00 ~ 11:00 MV Class
  – 11:00 ~ 12:00 Learn content / set up camera, program etc.
  – 12:00 ~ 13:00 FireSide MTG
  – 13:00 ~ 14:00 Lunch
  – 14:00 ~ 16:00 Film (2hrs)
  – 16:00 ~ 17:00 Upload video and audio file to Google Drive and forward to editor (1hr)

  Awesome, that seems feasible. So, does this mean I can start this week? Well, yes? Yeah! Why not? I just need to find an editor.
  공지글:
  영상편집 가능하신 분 찾습니다.

  제 소개부터 먼저 하겠습니다. 전 두바이에서 태어나 모로코, 스페인을 거쳐 한국에서 대학을 나오고 지금은 동경에서 Rakuten이라는 테크회사 미래전략실에서 매니저로 재직 중입니다. 대학교 3학년 때 아무런 연줄 없이 효성 그룹 회장 비서실에 정규직으로 취업했고, 이후 전략 컨설팅 회사로 잠시 갔다 지금 Rakuten으로 이직했습니다. Rakuten은 일본회사임에도 항상 A 또는 S 평가를 받았으며, 새로운 부서로 이직한 지 6개월만에 매니저로 승진했으며, 꾸준히 아마존, 맥킨지 등 유명 글로벌 기업으로부터 연락을 받고 있습니다.

  저는 주변 친구들보다 더 똑똑하거나 특별히 갖춘 게 없습니다. 하지만 아주 평범했던 제가 빠르게 성장할 수 있었던 비결을 영상으로 담아 유튜브에 공유하고 싶습니다.

  이 여정에 함께할 편집자분 계실지 싶어 연락드립니다. 촬영과 녹화는 제가 하고 자막 및 간단한 편집만 요청합니다.

  제가 생각하는 편집비는 10분 미만 영상 1개 당 10만원이며, 대략 1주일에 영상 1개 생각 중입니다.  함께하는 편집자분의 커리어 또한 제가 개인적으로 관리해 드리겠습니다. 댓글 남겨주시면 메시지 드리겠습니다.

  I uploaded this post to 3 places. 2 places on facebook and one on SNU community site. Lets see what happens!

  Update 0916 EDIT: Well SNU community sucks lol.  They weren’t very happy. So I will try Ewha and Korea University. Trying to find a Korea University friend…

  Now that Youtube part is somewhat settled, let’s think about how I should orchestrate with the teachers. Currently, there are 4 teachers who are interested in teaching. The rate is at 80USD/hour, 2 times a week for a total of 2 months.

  1) Make a group chat with teachers: Stella, +2 friends, 맹주성
  2) Ask members to fill out survey within 3 days: explanation(walk through class, encourage, 큰형/누나 = read and agree y/n), commit (if sign up teach 2 times a week for 1 hour, total 2 months — 14 sessions, I will do first and last = read and agree y/n),
  name, date of birth, Linkedin profile, preferred teaching time November onward (Mon~Sun, 10-11 / 11-12 / 1-2 / 7-8 / 8-9 / 10-11 / 11-12), available date for check-in (Saturday Oct 2: 9-10, 10-11 / Monday Oct 4: 9-10, 10-11, 11-12, 6-7, 7-8, 8-9)

  3) Host internal meeting: structure (what will you be teaching? when will you begin teaching? how will you be paid?)
  – Who are the students? University student ~ under 5 years working experience / passionate and motivated but a bit scared
  – What will you be teaching? method: 1on1 / content: mine / style: 큰형누나
  – How often will you be teaching? I teach first and last class – evaluate student last class / 1-hour session 2 times a week, total 2 months
  – When will you begin teaching? after I get more clients, I am going to build a Youtube funnel and post 1 video per week
  – How will students be assigned? I will assign
  – How will you be paid? Korean bank, beginning of each month – when students pay
  – go over content from beginning to end

  9/16 Update. Wow. Awesome. I did it! I am looking for an editor and I found 4 awesome teachers. They are all from Bain. Very experienced and I think they all have nice personalities which is nice. So… all I need now are students. Students students students.

  What I also need to do is change the curriculum. Let me do that now that I am motivated.

  9/21 Update. I’m moving forward. I finished scouting teachers and also prepared course introduction on notion. I just need to

  1) Prepare information in English (+prepare the information in Korean)
  2) Forward material to 강산 (서울대학교 맥사), 솔우 (Waseda), 유진 (Hitosubashi), 장서진, (고려대학교?), (연세대학교?)

  Questions to ask candidate:
  0) MakeValue is a 2 month program. 1 session will be held twice a week for 2 months (total of 16 sessions). Each session will be 1 hour long. The program will enable you to work through complicated problems in a logical and structured way so that you can consistently deliver exceptional output in the least time possible. The concepts we will be teaching may be challenging so we will require discipline, focus, and commitment on your part. Our ideal candidate is somebody who is willing to put in the time and effort required to master these concepts. : I have read the statement above
  1) Name (i.e., 홍길동)
  2) Age (i.e., 1995)
  3) University (i.e., Yonsei University, Hanyang University, Kookmin University)
  4) Affiliation (i.e., Yonsei University, Hyundai Motors, Ringle)
  5) Current Status: University student, Working for a company, Entrepreneur
  6) Purpose: Self-development: become future-proof, Career: enter / transfer to global management consultancy or similar global top tier firms, Other
  7) Knowledge level: accounting/finance? — I am familiar with the following concepts: profit, revenue, fixed cost, variable cost, breakeven point, conversion rate, CAGR (0-5)
  8) What is your main language: English, Korean, Fluent in both
  9) We provide our service on a first come first serve basis. However, we may be flexible depending on the urgency of each candidate. Please let us know your current situation: I would like to start as soon as possible, I can start within 1 month, I can wait 1 or 2 months, I can wait 2 months or more, other
  10) Please explain in what you have written in question 9) *Optional
  11) Please share with us your expectations about our MakeValue program. *Optional
  Here is the survey: https://forms.gle/LptLV34xuQZpbjJd6

• Consider expanding 1on1 coaching to group coaching sessions. 1on1 coaching is not very scalable so I could try group coaching next time. Also, I should think about using the recording sessions. Maybe I could group them and sell that as an online course along with the course material? That way a lot more people will have access to the content I teach without having to set 1on1 time with me. That will make my course more scalable. (I explore this idea in greater depth in the finance section below.)

 

• – Make site and content available in English and Korean.

  I write all my content in English for a global audience; however, candidates who are actually interested in my coaching sessions or reach out to me are Koreans. These are people who know me or heard about me in Korea. So I’m beginning to question whether I should shift my target audience from global to Korea. The number of potential candidates is obviously much lower than aiming global; however, I have a feeling that my edge is more recognized in Korea. Also, when I write a post on Facebook where the majority of my ‘friends’ are Korean, I usually get +100 likes; whereas if I post on Linkedin, I would get +3- tops. The only reason I am still a bit hesitant is that I only wrote and shared around 10 articles in English so it is a bit too early to judge. I am also pretty new on Linkedin as well. What I can do before going to Germany is to make my website bilingual and upload posts in not only English but also Korean so that it is easier for the Korean audience to interact. I can save time and effort by using a WordPress translation plugin. This site looks good. I will just have to edit the awkward parts or just hire a ghostwriter for 100 USD to look over all the content and check if there is anything strange. I think I would only need around 2~3 hours to figure out how to do this which isn’t a lot of time. This is cool because from now on I can share my content in Korean for my Facebook audience while writing in English! I’ll have to figure this out within this month. Even with my busy schedule in Germany, I could find 1~2 hours a week to write at least 1 post on my blog, but I am not sure if I would have time to teach… However, I think not teaching for a while is ok because my time in Germany will further enhance my skills and make my market value higher which I can then leverage to deliver better content later on.

 

🔥 FireSide

 

• – Onboard new members to slack. (COMPLETE)

  I was able to successfully migrate 87% of the original members to our Slack group. I’m not sure if the remaining 13% will make the jump. If not, I guess they are not a good fit for FireSide anyways so it is a good thing they don’t come over. There are a couple more members who I need to onboard before we implement the new onboarding system. I will send an individual onboarding link to those new members so they can move into Slack. The members will have to write a brief self-introduction in #introductions.

 

• – Launch onboarding process.

  The most important mission is to help current members understand how to invite new members. FireSide is an invite-only community. However, upon much consideration, I thought that invitation alone would not be enough to maintain the group culture and quality. This is because some people would invite people who would benefit from the community rather than benefiting the community. For example, instead of inviting somebody who could add value to the community, some members would invite their younger sibling who added little and instead took from the community. Therefore, we decided to add 2 more layers to make sure only the best candidates are able to join FireSide. Members who would like to recommend a new candidate to FireSide will have to write a short recommendation explaining how the candidate would benefit FireSide. Then, a separate FireSide Committee will read through the recommendation list and vote on which candidates should join FireSide. I already think this is going to be an upward battle because of 2 reasons. First, it will be cumbersome for current members to recommend a new member to the community if they have to write why they should join. Also, if there is a possibility their candidate fails to pass the FireSide Committee, they would have to awkwardly communicate to their friend they failed, which could be a reason why they wouldn’t be encouraged to recommend in the first place. Second, it will be burdensome for Committee Members to go through a list of recommendations every time.

  Update 9/13. I had an incredible meeting with my team on Saturday. There was a lot of progress made. I saw a sneak peak of our website and it looked really sleak and beautiful. Ofcourse, some adjustments are needed here and there but the overall content was above expectation. We are on track to deliver by end of month. I am working on collecting the gmail accounts for users to log-in.

 

• – Find engineering resources.

  Our team is composed of 2 back-end engineers and 1 UI/UX designer. However, we are all working on FireSide as a side project. For example, one engineer is working full time in Seattle and the other is in his last semester at college. Also, the engineers are quite new to building products; therefore, they have to learn how to build from scratch which is burdening them considerably. I want this to be a fun and meaningful project for all of us rather than have it burn us out. So, I would like to find an engineer who can be my partner to develop this project together. I spoke to a senior engineer yesterday. Unfortunately(?) he just quit his company to start his start-up so it would be quite unlikely that he joins FireSide. I asked him to recommend me a few of his engineering friends and he said he would get back to me.  What would be ideal is to have a partner I can talk with whom I can trust and who is a kick-ass engineer. Then he could lead FireSide development during my absence. Problem is that I don’t know anybody like that. I should do a better job and trying to find somebody in the next weeks.

 

🇰🇷🇰🇵 Korean Peninsula Policy Consensus (KPPC)

 

• – Prepare material for GSC webpage.

  Global Shapers Team is working on building its own website. I made a single page for my profile so once the site is up and running I might share the link here. They would also like to gather material on the collaboration work we did with Korean Peninsula Policy Consensus, the NGO I made. In July we had a 1 month session among GSC members, South Korean students, and North Korean students to think about issues North Korean defectors have to face in South Korea. It was a meaningful session. I asked the Korean head of KPPC to make a few slides to summarize our activity.

 

• – Package GSC x KPPC project outcome and share.

  It is closely related to what I wrote above. 3 teams prepared presentation material on our findings. So all we need to do is compile our findings into an easy-to-read format and share it. The content should be shared on GSC webpage as well as our own KPPC webpage. Will have to think about what else we could do with the material.

 

• – Recommend HJL to GSC.

  Well he is my best friend and I think it would be nice to have him part of the group so I will try and find time to recommend him. I already sent the organizers a message and they will get back to me soon I hope.

 

 

💰 Finance

 

💸 Rakuten Salary

 

• I believe changing my main hat to Symphony will have a positive impact on my salary. Not immediately though because the Symphony organization is not completely set up and there are quite a few missing pieces. I will be working in the Global Delivery Team under Ahmed as a program/project manager. In the last 1on1 conversation I had with Ahmed, the compensation package for program/project manager role for global delivery is quite high, and that I won’t be disappointed. Again, not sure how this will play out because I am not sure what I will be doing after 6 months in Germany.

 

• I might do as I stated above in the ‘opportunity’ section and move to India, then back to Japan and then Singapore for my experience. If so, I am not sure whether it would make sense that I am part of the global delivery team. But we will have to see. I will try and let things play out. What is clear is that for now I will move under Ahmed in the global delivery team and see how things go from there. It would be nice to see a boost in revenue from Rakuten but low expectations for now.

 

💲 Investment

 

• I still have more than 80% of all that I own invested. Around 15% in funds, 25% in stock, 10% ETF, 10% for my brother to invest, and 25% in crypto. The weighted portfolio delta is around +30% so I think we are doing ok. In terms of gains distribution, stock is up an average 42%, Fund up 37%, Crypto up 32%. Others are less than 10% but all positive.

 

• I do think I will be exiting a sizeable portion of my stock. I will have free money lying around I guess some time later this month’s Q3 earnings report. I’m not sure what I will do with that cash. Maybe I will just hand it over to my brother so that he figures out what to do with it rather than actively investing. Not finalized though. Will have to figure this part out. Don’t think I will be exiting any of my other accounts any time soon.

 

👩‍🏫 101 classes

• Group sessions to increase scalability. So connecting back to the idea of scaling the coaching business, I would earn more and make a bigger impact on more people’s life if I expanded the 1on1 coaching session to maybe 4~6 people per group at a 70% price. With 4 students I would be earning 40% more and with 6 I would be doubling my earnings. I wonder why I never thought of this simple calculation before…

 

• Marketing part 1. Having that said, the only way this would be feasible is if there were a constant stream of candidates will to take on my course. Also, it means that all candidates within a batch need to not only speak the same language (i.e., English or Korean) but also be at a similar intellectual level—I wouldn’t want those who are fast thinkers and ahead of the pack to feel frustrated at the other candidates. Maybe for those candidates, I can hold a separate session at a premium offering? Let’s see. Anyways, what I need is a constant stream of students. To do so I need to advertise myself more aggressively. I have no idea how to do that for now so will have to speak with SeungYoon to figure that part out. Maybe he can point the right direction for me. I’ll set up a call with him soon. Once I learn what to do, I guess I could dedicate the rest of this month to build out my messaging, channel and sales funnel.

 

• [UPDATE] Marketing part 2. So I actually spent 1.5 hours today talking with a friend who is an expert online marketer. The following are some notes that I jotted down throughout the information session:
  1. Leverage other people: it is possible to do more while doing less and that is by leveraging the help of other people. Of course, there is a price attached to other’s labor, but the investment is worth it. For example, my friend runs 3 separate blogs and a youtube channel that funnel him an almost endless stream of clients to his project. For each blog, he hires 3~5 part-time writers who get paid around around 15 USD to write one blog article (size 10 font, 2 pages). Writers can be easily found in university community pages. These writers get tasked to write 2~3 posts per week which means that 6~15 articles are published every week. The only thing my friend does is select the keyword each writer should focus on which he does by quickly searching keywordtool.io. For the youtube video he just films himself and sends off the recording to an editor he hires for normally around 100 USD. He focuses only on what he must do and outsource everything else.
  2. Quality is more important than quality: instead of changing my coaching program from 1on1 to group sessions, my friend suggested keeping the 1on1 structure because often times what candidates want is a personal and customized coaching experience rather than a group setting–basically, my coaching program would be less attractive if I diluted my attention to many people. To make this scalable, he suggested that I only get involved with each student in the very first session and also the very last. I can hire people to fill in the middle part. True, I won’t be the person leading the coaching session, but the candidate will be getting a 1on1 experience which they would value. My friend emphasized that there is a whole bunch of smart people who can easily take over our role; therefore, it is better to make a strong curriculum that these new coaches can learn and deliver on your behalf.
  3. Power of Youtube and Blog: regarding which channels are the best at funneling prospecting and qualifying candidate, my friend recommended blog and youtube. Blog because it is easy to automate following what I’ve already mentioned in #1, and youtube because the channel gives an opportunity for your viewers to learn about you and build a relationship with you without you having to be proactively involved. People who contact my friend after seeing his youtube channel has a much higher conversion rate (almost 20% of the people who reach out to my friend actually become his clients). With these 2 channels my friend receives around 20 enquiries about his program EVERY DAY. Staying on Youtube for just another moment, the most important videos are the very first one you upload, the first one you upload after your 100th subscriber signs up, and the first one you upload after your 1000th subscriber signs up. Apparently, Youtube algorithm helps boost those videos. Also, write the keyword you are targeting at the very beginning of your youtube video title, use hashtags(#) of the related keywords that you want to highlight in the description box below and your personal contact information.
  4. Focus Keywords: the key words for my coaching are ‘[content] making amazing output consistently’ and ‘[networking] building a network of talented people to bring you amazing opportunities’. These key words, however, are not very tangible and may not translate to a definite result. This is why my friend suggested choosing more specific keywords such as ‘getting a job abroad’, ‘resume / CV review’ etc. I’m not sure if that is the angle I want to approach my coaching though. But he definitely has a point. I need to make my keywords much more tangible and easier to understand. I’ll have to think about how to do this! SEO is so hard to get right!
  5. Recurring Check-in Sessions: my friend holds an information session 2 times a month for all candidates who are interested in his program. So this is the flow: (1) he shares his personal contact information on his various channels (3 blogs and youtube), (2) prospecting candidates send him a message asking to learn more, (3) my friend collects their phone number and email address, (4) he tosses the phone number to his team members, (5) his team members inform the prospecting candidates of the information session that is coming up, (6) his team sets up the information session and invites all members. I thought that was pretty smart!

 

• [Update] I don’t think I’ll have time to teach once I am in Germany. Maybe it is possible but the likelihood of finding a time that works for my student and I would be challenging. As I mentioned above, I should think of my time in Germany as an investment. I will be more knowledgeable and better at work that I can later leverage to deliver better content for my students.

 

 

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Family

 

• – Send nice heartfelt letter to mom on September 13th!

  It is my mother’s birthday next week! She is back in Jordan and I’m here stuck in Japan. I could send her a nice package from here… But I’ve never done that before and what if the package gets lost along the way…? Which is a terrible excuse. Hm. What can I do that is something special and memorable without having to physically deliver something to her? Maybe I could write a long letter by hand and then take a picture of it and send it to her? I think that would make sense. I also bought her nice cosmetics and shoes when I saw her in Seoul last month. I think a nice long warm heartfelt letter would do the trick this time.

 

• Father’s retirement present. He will retire this year. Maybe I should think about preparing a special gift to celebrate his many years of providing for our family. Yeah, that would be very nice. What would be a nice present? I mean, they will start living in Korea beginning of next year. Maybe I could buy him a nice massage chair!? Something like that would be neat right? Hm. I should think about this. Maybe I could search for information on the web on what might be a good gif in this situation. I still have around 3 months left until they move into our new house in Korea so I’ll do some research and share my findings here moving forward. Any ideas?

 

• Brother investment. Well, I am taking a risk on him with my investment. It is around 10% of my assets so it is quite sizeable. I will have to exit one of my large stock accounts soon and will have money lying around. Given that I don’t have any particular plans on what to do with that money, perhaps the best thing I can do is toss it over to my brother so he can play with it. That would increase my size in him from 10% to almost double. He has a good track record and already made around a 15% return on the money I gave him 2 months back so I think it would be safe to trust my money to him. Besides money though, what else could I do to improve my relationship with him?

 

 

💪 Fitness

 

• Regular exercise. I am going to and from Rakuten by bicycle so that is working my legs. I also do 30~50 pushups and +60 seconds plank before taking a shower which is also not demanding at all. No plans to ramp up my exercise.

 

• Sleeping. I started sleeping at 11PM and waking up at 7AM for almost a month now and it has worked great for me. To further improve my sleep, I could stop using my phone after 10PM. Hm. Then what to do until 11PM? Lights are out and my girlfriend is probably next to me browsing the web. What should I do? Just look at the ceiling? Go to the other room and read a bit? Hm. Tricky.

 

• Supplements. I bought multivitamin capsules. When I get really excited to eat I chomp on the food so fast and hard that sometimes I accidentally bite the side of my cheek or lip. What normally happens after this is that I have a white rash that stays with me for almost a week. That rash really takes the life out of me. I can’t eat anything hot or spicy without torturing myself. Turns out that it is because I have a vitamin B deficiency. So I bought some multivitamin tablets with plenty of vitamin B in it. Hoping that this would work for me!