Kesempatan

This is a little story that I want to share. Not really to haolian, but just for everyone to know the importance of being able to think out of the box.

So I was buying BBQ items at Sheng Siong with a couple of friends in Hall. When we checked out with our items we met the CEO of the company, Mr Lim. Why, he was a really nice man! There were weird customers with weird demands but he took it with humility anyway. Really the kind of Chinese-educated entrepreneur that you would imagine. (Not saying the English-educated ones are not nice, but really if you compare trends, they do behave differently.)

So this Mr Lim said that if we have any community projects we can look for him. There is indeed a fundraising event coming up and all I could find on their website was contact@whatevercannottrmb.com. Which I am really not too sure if it will go anywhere beyond the Customer Service Dept.

So I did something really unconventional.

I wrote a letter. In Chinese. On an NUS Foolscap Pad. With a picture of us taken during the shopping (oh yes we did take a selfie). And I asked for his assistance for fundraising. Then I posted it to his HQ rightaway.

I honestly felt that since I couldn't reach him directly via email, the best bet would have been sending him a personal mail. And in a language that he is probably more familiar and close to. Chinese is surely a more emotive language, probably I can 打动 him more easily...

石沉大海 for three weeks. And I thought probably he thought I was weird. Or some stalker. Well honestly it is a pretty unconventional way to do things. I probably should have typed it out instead of writing something that looks like an O Level essay.

Yesterday, an email came. From the HQ. His secretary replied (see image at top) and asked us for more details. YES YES YES THIS IS IT!

Well to be honest, this doesn't work hundred percent of the time. The contact@xx.com email might have just worked as well. But at least I dared to do something new. Something extraordinary to last someone a deeper impression, like grabbing him for a selfie and writing a weird letter.

In life, we tend to get judged. Let's face it. I'm surely one super oddball. But you know what, if you're always trying to be normal, you'll never know how awesome you can be. Not trying to say that I am damn awesome, but if I did it the conventional way, my letter would habe been like any other fundraiser letter. Chances of 石沉大海 might be higher.

Stay weird. It's cooler. 不管黑猫白猫，能抓老鼠的终究是好猫。