Ni wen wo ai ni you duo shen

“Mooncake represents my heart!”

Wushu
NWTC, 99Wushu, White Lotus, UCLA Wushu / gym. This week I’ve been working more on short sections and speed over full forms. Only day I did full forms was at NWTC because they were the only place with enough space to do a full form. I’ve been training every day except one day for recovery.. shoulders have been feeling a little tight and same with my back. Overall I am probably in the top shape of my life though. I am going to bring home a medal from the 10th wushu world championships.

Film
Went out to an audition for Wizards of Waverly Place. It went alright. I said my lines confidently and naturally, but regardless when I came out of the audition it made me realize I want to take some more acting classes and practice more to refine my art. It’s always good to get more practice and I am a firm believer that everything takes practice. You can be talented, but to get to that next step, it still takes practice.. whether its acting, martial arts, giving speeches, etc.

Today I went to a meet and greet with a sports agent. They help book for fitness magazines, sports commercials, and anything athletic related. They liked the pictures I had and seemed satisfied with my athletic qualifications. I’ll be hearing back from them on Friday.

Tea
AngelsTea in Nucleus Art Gallery. (Read here: http://www.angelstea.com/angels-tea-in-nucleus-the-art-gallery-and-store/) Uploaded a few more pictures to the gallery and did some facebook updates. Add Angels Tea on facebook and twitter http://twitter.com/angelstea ! Valentines day should be a good time for people to consider Angels Tea as a sexy fun gift for their significant others.

Good news is that I’ve already had to make a re-order since my inventory was running low. My family has been supportive as well and family friends have helped spread the word in nor cal and I have made a few sales to get me off my feet with this. Thank you guys! Of course the true test is to continue pushing forward and get a large retail location to distribute my product, but sales are sales and the support behind me is a very positive thing.

WushuKicks
Set up a bunch of sites related to wushukicks. Hoping to cross promote and build up traffic through related markets. I began to evaluate other niches. It goes without saying.. wushu shoes occupies a small market compared to all of martial arts shoes or martial arts equipment. Also sketching in my idea book how to redesign wushukicks cleanly. Looking to get this done soon.

Filed for incorporation at the Secretary of State building. Next step will be to set up online merchant services. Also other To Do items include: Making new business cards, getting QuickBooks Pro, and making a wushukicks intro video.

Martial Arts Nutrition
Quite a bit of back and forth has occurred with the design. The lab has tested and labeled everything on their end. I believe we are at the point where we are going to get this product up and ready soon! Excitement is in the air.

General Business / General Thoughts
The bottom line is this – everything costs money! lol

Incorporating costs money. Merchant services costs money. Pay pal takes money. Shipping costs money. Joining the Realtors board costs money. Owning a realtor supra key to open lock boxes costs money. Maintaining your membership with your local board of realtors costs money. Product development costs money. Manufacturing a product costs money. Gas costs money. Business license costs money. Franchise tax board wants money. Sellers permit costs money.

Aiyah! Why didnt anyone tell me this BEFORE I got into starting up my own businesses. (I complain, but I love the entrepreneurial lifestyle.)

I got some great accounting advice from my uncle who is a CPA and also from my mom who was a controller for a tech firm. Now I am slowly getting all my bills, accounts, and expenses in order so that I can actually see my profits and losses.

My other uncle, a former CIO, encouraged me to read “never eat alone” – a book about building relationships and connecting people. I read it that day just because I figured if I didn’t read it right then, I would probably never get around to reading it. The book has a lot of common sense ideas, but 1) its good to re-enforce those ideas and 2) within its 250ish pages it obviously did have some new information and advice that I thought was clever or motivating.

We had an entr meeting with Dave, Misa, Jaemin, and Alison yesterday. Seems like everyone has encountered the freelance blues at some point.. which is working by yourself and having your own time, but feeling strangely unmotivated. We determined a good solution to that is to work WITH people wether mentors or partners. Even if you are successful its never fun sharing that by yourself.

Seems like Dave is FINALLY going to take some caffeine and maybe start working on getting our clothes design manufactured. I give him a hard time, but I know he has been swamped with Nom Nom (www.nomnomtruck.com) and I have been equally busy preparing for World Games.

Moon Festival
Despite all this business, I had a really relaxing day with my relatives on Chinese Moon Festival. First we visited grandma then we had some crepes for lunch, mooncakes of course, and a nice bbq at my uncles house. All us cousins went to the mall and played with every single contraption in the “As Seen on TV Store”. I had some good chats with my cousin Lydia and took note that its really key to maintain a balance between friends and focusing on success.

The next day we went to a Taiwanese dinner that my aunt invited me and Lydia to. I bumped into the random-est people there: Vivy, a college friend that I hadnt seen in a long time, a bunch of the Miss Taiwan Pageant girls which I saw at the Miss Taiwan Pageant only because my roommate Eliver knew people there (read post: http://www.casualiscool.com/pictures/miss-taiwan-approves-of-angels-tea/), and my aunts friend who happened to be on the US National Taekwondo forms team.

When I set out to write this entry, I was trying to make it as short and matter of fact as possible, but I am glad I wrote all this because sometimes I look back and I think “what have I done all week”, but as soon as I write it down it makes me feel like.. “okay, I have been remotely productive”.

My To Do List: An updated evolving list of accomplishments I want to achieve in the next 3 years:

Start an automated 6 figure business ($3k/mo cash flow) that is self-sustaining and socially conscious
Learn mixed martial arts to a competition level (kickboxing/mma competition)
Act in a feature film (preferably these 3 types: hollywood blockbuster, hk action movie, china wu xia period piece)
Produce my own short or feature length movie
Learn to knee drag (or handle turns better) on my motorcycle
Develop and wear my own clothing line
Combine martial arts and fashion (WushuKicks / I-N)
Own 3-5 residential real estate properties (LA, Pasadena, Mountain View, Taiwan, Singapore)
Open a cafe (A’s faves idea), restaurant (midnight idea), or bar (small upscale idea)
Maintain > 8% returns through stocks / traditional investments (funds/stocks)
Walk under the rain in a tropical rain forest
Learn another foreign language (conversational proficiency – French/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese)
Move to a foreign country with only 1 months food/rent and maintain a comfortable standard of living
Travel to: New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, South Africa, India, Germany, Russia, Dubai, Ireland, Spain
Done——————————————————————————-
Learn to fly a plane – [Mach1 Aviation in Van Nuys]
Make the US Wushu Team – [2009 US Wushu "A" Team, 1st in longfist, 1st in straightsword]
Place top 6 in wushu world games – [Gold Medal at Worlds in 2009]
Skydiving – [14000ft @ Lake Elsinore]
Buy first car
Start a company [WushuKicks Incorporated in 2009]
Get motorcyle license – [Class: C M1]
Work in corporate – [KPMG, City National Bank]
Work with Jackie Chan – [Spy Next Door Premier @ The Grove in 2010]
Work with Jet Li – [Movie to be released in 2011]
Travel – [China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, England, Amsterdam, Vietnam, Singapore]

This status update is more for myself to organize my thoughts, but also for anyone else who cares to see what I’ve been up to.

1) US Wushu Team Trials is coming up in less than 3 weeks. I registered on June 1st and paid my USAWKF (kung fu federation) dues. 2 years comes around fast.
- I started taking some Sport Multivitamins because I think I work out too much and eat too little / dont get enough nutrition. Even though the past 2 days I’ve been sleeping less, I do feel slightly better because I’ve been eating healthier. I do plan on sleeping more than 3 hours tonight though.
- I’m also flying up north again for my final training session up there before team trials. Nor cal is MUCH more relaxing than hectic LA. =)

2) Enrolled and working part time under Coldwell Banker to learn more about properties. Met a good mentor who will teach me and hopefully provide me the experience I need to put my real estate license to good use.

3) Web based projects under way! After almost 9 months of conceptualizing and calling and researching I finally found a suitable avenue to get one of my products created. Yes, I’m being a little vague, but I gotta keep it a surprise until it’s done. Also I set up the outline of the site. Now I just have to tweak the CSS, adjust the layout, and add content.
- On another note, for my martial arts related project, the designer is supposed to finish our prototype this week. I can’t wait to get something in my hands and feel my concept in my hands.
- For my third project where I am helping on biz dev I finally found a new web developer for our site. This site is much more complicated and requires complete back end customization and I dont have the time/know-how for that so we gotta bring in a pro. I am having lunch with him tomorrow.
- For the first time I can taste progress because I will soon have something tangible. I know that all the other work involved such as meetings, research, sourcing, conceptualizing, etc are all important but I just want to see the finished product damnit! And after that I will be eager to achieve proof of concept. Those are my short term milestones.

4) On reflections – My good friend’s mom and a classmate from UCLA recently passed away. From this I am reminded of 2 things. Though death is tragic and must be very painful for those closest to them, life still goes on and the world does not stop its hustling and bustling. The second thing is that life. is. short. You could be 23 and figuring out what you want to do with your life and what careers you should take and then the next day you could be gone from this earth. It truly is a reminder to enjoy life and do what you love.
-I think I’ll plan on living my life as if every YEAR was my last. If I were to say every “DAY” then I am sure I would be broke and dead before the end of the year.