Holy crap guys, it is really the final 3…well, if you want to be more precise, 2.5 weeks of my part-time studies left. This part-time post-Diploma has been one of the most challenging commitments I had ever tried to take on. The fact that I am sitting here now, able to talk about my experiences and how I got here should be a testament to what it truly means to keep “showing up” every single day. For a time, I had seriously considered leaving the course because it was just getting too difficult to manage both my professional work as well as school. Speaking as someone that doesn’t like to just go through the moment [aiming for a passing grade], I had hoped that I could do better at school. But I was also quickly reminded by why I was never really an A student in school. I mean, I did get a number of As here and there for certain subjects. But most of my grades were Bs, and then some Cs. Mostly, I was a B+ student at best. Above average as some might describe it. And yet, despite of what others thought of me, when it came to working on real-world projects, I was able to consistently show up and prove others wrong about me.

While everything might appear more consistent when you try to look at my past achievements and milestones, drill down to my everyday life and you would notice that I am not always as “consistent”. But I’ve learned one of the most important lessons the past two decades have taught me, “Being truly consistency is not about producing 100% every single day. Being truly consistent is about showing up every single day even if you might not be able produce 100% every single day.”

That is perhaps probably the only reason why for the longest time, when I decided that I wanted to follow my early interests in UX and to pursue it by being a freelancer, I was able to outshine others along the way. Here’s the interesting thing that I wanted to share with you, I didn’t outshine others because I was “better”, even though that might have been one of the factors, but not. I believed I was able to eventually “outshine” others because long after others have given up, walked away, I am still persevering, showing up daily. Over time, I would eventually getting better and better at what I do. And in time, I would be able to produce something so good that it is undeniable that I was indeed better than others in my field.

So, when I think about what these next two weeks of my life and work will look like, I think of the above image. My goal/mission is not about producing 100% of the goods every single day. It’s just not humanly possible. We all have good days and bad days. I am however thankful that since my freelance work started, I’ve been having more good than bad days now. Point is, you can always expect me to show up daily, no matter how tired I might seem.

Alright, I’ll end my update here for now. I need to pack up and get ready for school. Will try to grab some “Zzzz” on the 🚆 to school later. I’ll be back with more updates later in the day.

The Tortise and the Hare (a Children’s Book)

Growing up, I considered myself blessed that my sister and I were always surrounded with books. Back then, we weren’t rich, but we did live comfortably. Our dad worked for my late-grandfather, who also happened to be a construction/property development tycoon in the 1960s. So, we had quite a lot of nice things that most average families probably never could back then (during the 90s where I grew up). While my mum never got much of an education being an immigrant, she would still bring me and my sister to the library every single weekend. My sister was the bookworm in the family while I preferred to look at the pictures (hence I’m more partial to watching movie- and TV-show adaptations). Though I do admit that some shows don’t quite capture the story that’s been told in some of those books.

Anyway, sorry for going on and on. So, children’s books. While we had many, the one story that stuck with me, not just as a child, but even now as an adult is the story about “The Tortise and the Hare”, or “The Hare and the Tortise”.

A Story About Consistency Over Finishing First

The reason why I felt that this story stuck with me is because the lessons within this book aren’t just relevant for kids, but even adults like you and me. While the most straightforward and natural lessons we want to teach our children from this story is about not giving up, or not being complacent, I think the real lesson to learn is something much deeper than that. It’s a story about progress and showing up every single day. It’s about being kind with ourselves when we feel like we’re not making enough progress on some days as compared to others.

For most of my life, I’ve always felt like that Tortise in the story. Truth be told, I’ve never been known for being the fastest, nor was I the smartest in the room. I was genuinely never the brightest one. I’m usually either “in the middle”, or somewhere behind. If you really wanted to “find me”, you would have to really look just to be able to see me. Under normal circumstances, in a room full of people, I’m probably the least obvious person/candidate.

But that is also where I really began my life’s story/journey. While others would eventually stop trying, quit after encountering failure, I would eventually become that last man standing. For the longest time, that has always been how I stood out from the rest of the crowd. I’m that “last guy”. I’m that guy that others would see and say, “Look at that guy, man, he is still going. I wonder how long can he last.”

Well, time and again, I’ve been able to prove that despite of people’s doubts and disbelief, I was always able to surprise them. In fact, I am almost 100% confident that if you put me inside a room filled with people that share a common goal, I can guarantee you that I will be the last one standing, and still trying even after many rounds of failure. I guess I’m just very bad at quitting.

Anyway, our lecturers are about to begin the assignment briefing for this semester’s final project, so I’ll end my update here (for now). I’ll be back to share/write about other stuff later.

Gave Myself a Headstart on My Final Project

During the morning briefing, I suddenly had an idea 💡. I had been working on a portfolio showcase project up until a few weeks ago. It was part of a conscious (get off my ass) effort to build my second portfolio (after losing my first one years ago). About two months back, I hadn’t found a freelance project yet, so I was tired of waiting for something to come along before I started doing something. That’s how my Portfolio 2.0 efforts started. My first showcase project was a simple single-page application that I named “FocusFlow”. It is a Pomodoro-inspired web app, and I still use it now and then. The second showcase project is the one that I’ve decided to use as part of this final assignment.

AceIt: A Student Assignment Tracking Dashboard

After consulting with my lecturers earlier, they gave me a lot of solid feedback. See, based upon where I am progress-wise, I am sort of starting my school assignment from the end (with an actual working prototype). And then I will reverse-engineer the presentation slides from there. Looking at the notes that I’ve written down so far, it is clear that I needed some help to fill in some of those gaps, especially when it comes to topics like “Digital Marketing” and “Consumer Psychology. My lecturers gave me some very meaningful tips like:

• Consider how other companies are marketing their B2B white label solutions/apps.
• Include the AI-enhanced and Gamification features as part of Phase Two of this showcase project.
• User Surveys should target both students and lecturers (admin users).
• And ofcourse, I’ll need to generate my high-fidelity wireframes/mock-ups using Lunacy.

Anyway, glad I’ve done my consultation for today. Food coma is setting in already, so I’ll need a power nap soon.