There’s a lot of things that can happen in one year.
“The only wrong decision that you can make is the decision that you didn’t make by yourself”
This story is uploaded on rafiamjad.com
Part 1 : The Opening
Even though 2020 starts in January I do want to step back for some moments last year on the day I got admitted into my current uni. 😃 As you can see on the pic below that I didn’t show the best of expressions… In fact most of it revolves on regret that I didn’t research as much as I should had been about choosing a major when I left high school. I was just too ignorant of myself and I always thought, “I’ll be fine.” Well disclosure, I did some research, but it was nothing remotely close to enough. 😂 Long story short, I enrolled into the faculty of life sciences and technology (Engineering). I thought it’s like what it names said, life sciences + engineering, my favor was it sounds more like human physiology + engineering. As for me, it sounds more like human physiology + engineering. It sounds pretty close… Turned out, it absolutely was not. It’s nothing similar, and it’s the complete opposite of what I thought it is.
Mistakes were made and there’s nothing I can do about it. I cant, and I’m not gonna coward myself a year about it. Rest assured the best thing that I can do about it to move on and still do my best. I still follow my passion destructively. I don’t care about what my environment asks me or demand me to be, one thing to another I always want and need to make decisions for my own sake and not for other people. Likewise, I always spare every day researching about the products, markets, opportunities, ideas that I can somehow tackle and bring to Indonesia even though it means sacrificing my time that I should’ve used to study to excel myself academically. I just think it’s not that entertaining…
Part 2 : The Competitions that Built Me
September 2019: NTUST-ITB Cloud Computing Hackathon
My first great opportunity is the NTUST-ITB Cloud Computing Hackathon. (Even though my mates from informatics really carried my ass) This is the first ever competition that I participate in ITB, the most awesome thing about this Hackathon is the fact that it was only 24 hours, and we need to brainstorm the product, check the viability, write the code, test the code, cries, repeat. Oh, yeah also at the end of the 24 hours we need to pitch the product that we created. It was actually my first time to do a 5-minute pitch. The rule was actually each team need to present their product for 5 minutes and I took all the 5 minutes by myself and all of my teammates were dead pissed off at me for doing that.😅 😂
Well before the competition ends, our hopes were already closed shut. We don’t think our product is that great compared to other contestants and I also think high of my pitch as well. We were just waiting to go home I guess… Long story short we were ROLLED, and we were awarded the first winner of the competition. It was ecstatic, and I couldn't believe what I’ve heard. For all we know it was a miracle that it happened.
December 2019: Program Kreativitas Mahasiswa
PKM is short for Program Kreativitas Mahasiswa. It’s one of the greatest competition and probably one of the most competitive competitions in Indonesia when it comes to innovation. It’s a gem for undergraduates and a great catalyst for innovation. I personally don’t care about the prize but what I do care is to have my projects and ideas funded by the government. Because I don’t have that much of a financial stability to fund my own projects and ideas… This is what really turned my attention on. I spent most of my time to complete a solution in which that I could actually create impact in a grand scheme of things. Well at least for Indonesia. I wrote and submit 4 proposals for PKM and due to the confidentiality of such nature I will not be disclosing about the ideas. The deadlines were pretty tight as it was near with my academic tests, and it drains me mentally. Regardless it doesn’t stop me for doing it. I believe that
“all success are not equal and some success requires sacrifices of other successes.”
I tend to sacrifice a lot of things at that time but since I know it was my decision after all, I regret nothing about it. My failures were calculated…
I gain a lot of insights and quite frankly it changed how I think and my perspective about how I should become a good “Mahasiswa” As how philosophers in ancient Greek used to think, they always try to imagine the ideal version of something and so did I. Hearing and understanding the complaints from the people that was a subject of my PKM researches I depict a “Mahasiswa” as a group of people that can bring change to them. The people who should understood the growing problem well enough and one day will have the power and authority to actually implement and disrupt the system for the better good from the knowledge that they have gain over the years. I love to get personal to the people I help it helps me find a new sense of meaning and like the old proverb say
“put the people first and put yourself the second.”
March 2020: Agriculture Engineering Week by UGM
The other competition that I participate in really describe “sacrifice” in a more literal way. It’s Agriculture Engineering Week by UGM. It’s a national competition with a theme of innovation and contribution to help develop agrocomplex sector based on the fourth industry revolution. I love agriculture and tech so I signed up… That idea that I put on has some degree of familiarity on the PKM that I worked with before the only different is that I haven’t taken the time to implement it.
The most annoying story about this competition is the date! It’s so annoying! The semifinal where undergraduates come to UGM and pitch their product is literally the Day-1 I have a really important mid-term exam. To make things worst is the test is notoriously hard coupled with stories that many people failed on the exam. While my professor is not keen enough to spare me some time and I actually couldn’t have a legal excuse since the day of the exam and the competition is not exactly in the same date? But still the range between Bandung and Jogjakarta is 555 Kilometers! At the same time I have to prepare for the competition a week prior to the semifinal and the exam, it was hell.
The competition ends at 9PM and the fastest time that I can take for the train was at 11PM or so. I am already to drain out to even study… Well I tried studying in the train and do some practice questions, but I think it does me more harm than good since it makes me feel really dizzy. I woke up and arrived at Bandung at around 8.30AM and the exam starts at 9 AM, there were absolutely no time to shower etc. Yes, it was disgusting. I ordered a bread and milk at the train station and quickly went to ITB. I was late. When the papers were handed to me, I couldn't do anything than to stare at the problems and flip the pages back and forth. The only progress that I could make was only reading the problems repeatedly. To my surprise I was actually able to gain 24/100 on the exam, and I was already more than happy for that result.😂 🤣
The other good news is that I was actually awarded the best product award from the Agricultural Engineering Week Competition, it was worth the trade after all heheheheh…
Part 3 : Brave Healthcare
January 2020: The Idea
Brave the idea in of itself starts at 11st of January 2020. There were a lot of doubts and held backs when it comes to it, especially in the early development days. I still look back at myself at that time not more special than a kid with an idea. In case that you’re thinking. No, I didn’t get everything figured it out, not even until this far. I wasn’t prospecting to be able to as near as what it is right now. I point that out because most people that I talked with claims one of the issue that they tend to hold back until every thing and every plan has been laid out and the only job left was to execute it. The case is that’s not how it works. It’s more like
- You try out an idea
- You see how it works; if it doesn’t work → Pivot.
“In which there’ll be a lot of pivoting because no one has ever done something perfectly at their first try.”
February 2020: The Greater Hub
The first ever traction that Brave ever received is being accepted at a startup incubator The Greater Hub. I was beyond ecstatic to found out that the application has opened. To create a clearer context of how I choose this in my roadmap of my entrepreneurial journey. I learned this from Terry Djony. He is a fellow undergraduate and a CEO of his own startup company. It’s safe to say that he’s one of my inspiration to create a startup while pursuing my bachelor's degree. I always found the concept to be fascinating, running a company while studying for a bachelor's degree, but having an actual real-life use case pushes me in a different limit.
February 2020: The setbacks and thoughts of resign
The entrepreneurial journey is never smooth and probably one of the hardest moment on the journey for me is actually on the early stage. Where there were really few people that believe in you and for everybody now that you are just a mad undergraduate that overvalue your idea.
The cure to this is to actually tell as much people in a mild conversation why you’re doing what you’re doing. At that time, I only have 5 friends that I tell Brave with. Because I don’t like to be perceived a mad man by many people… In my university, excelling at academics are perceived already too much work and doing something that burdens you more that you already have could be stated as suicide. So I only tell my plan to the most of the visionaries.
Feedbacks for your idea is also great, I really encourage you to search for it from the people you trust. But never take feedback too emotionally and personally. Because that’s what I did in the early stage. An awful awakening realization that there’s only a minuscule possibility as my startup is building will succeed.
Well I can’t really blame her because everything that she said is logical and true. I couldn’t even find one a logical fallacy from her arguments. So for some period of time I was stuck in a pitfall, I found my self making a halfway done prototype suddenly to be meaningless. As I quote myself at the 1st of February 2020.
“Losing interest at the things you love is one of the worst feeling you could experience.”
I was in my worst shape imaginable. I put every electronic parts for the prototype in a box and didnt touch it for weeks. It’s feels like im toying with myself. And all there is left on me is only regret. Even until The Greater Hub applications are due in a week left. I call a friend and ask her opinion on the whole scenario. Which turns to possibly the best advice that I gained.
“[Well for obvious reasons,] not everyone is going to believe on your product, but you have to, because only when you do, other people would believe it too.”
Long story short, i gain back my momentum and proceed to create the prototype for my pitch as a tenant for The Greater Hub. I finished the prototype and the pitchdeck just in the nick of time to be presented at my pitch and yes, I sacrificed a lot of tests again… This time is not really as literal as Agriculture Engineering Week but still my friends thought i’m a mad lad for neglecting my academics.
This is also my first time experiencing with pitchdecks. I have zero experience prior to this let alone pitching to a startup incubator. I have to learn everything all by myself and present to the startup incubator at the greatest shape. I spent many endless nights learning and advancing my pitchdeck and my presentation skills to have a part in The Greater Hub. What matters is a learnt a lot of things and there was never a single moment that I thought it was a waste of time.
Even the day of the pitch held in the same day with a chemistry quiz. At that time I still vividly remember that I have a lot of things undone (relatively) and i go all in for my pitch presentation and neglect the prepartion for my quiz. Well, at least it’s not an mid-term exam I guess…
Fun fact about the pitch that I borrow my friend attire because I don’t have anything as formal as that haha. So I pitched the idea bravely *coughs.* I thought I did it well until some questions from the director and the judges. She asked me whether I have graduated or not… Inside my mind was “Maam, I am nothing remotely near to graduating, I just got in.” So I told them that and to their suprise and raised eyebrows that ask for a second clarification to make sure that I’m not joking. I still vividly remember the reponse to that was “Isn’t first year students supposed to adapt to the university environment first?” My response to that was actually saying uni is already too easy for me and I said that I have an adequate amount of time to develop this startup. While they doesn’t know that my academics are trembling before my own eyes… Well kids, that’s what you call bluffing 😆🤣🤣
I waited anxiously for weeks for the result to come out and it came in the least expected time. I was only checking my email for a random issue and found an email from SBM ITB that turns out to be a news of the acceptance of Brave into the program. I was beyond to escatic to have this as one of my earliest milestones.
It really opens up new possibilities for Brave. Especially I came from an engineering background rather than a business or finance background so it’s really safe to say that having a business mentor that has experience in a related field as ours really help Brave along the way. The Greater Hub also supplies us and taught us the components necesarry to built a successful startup like product-market fit, intellectual property, forming a founders agreement, etc. Almost everything that I never really know and understand when it comes to forming a company as Brave is in fact, the first company that I built.
July 2020: Bandung Pitching Day and The Founders Laboratory
Bandung pitching day is an annual startup pitch event with 30+ Venture Capitals invited and with over 2000 startups signed worldwide and only 50 qualified for the event and my startup achieves the most innovative startup title decided by the event judges which composed of Venture Capitals. My first ever pitch to Venture Capitals. No, we did not secure any round of funding at that time, the journey is not that smooth.
At July there were already too much pivot that Brave undergo. We started from helping people with mental health issues to solving a cardiac rhythm condition or more known as arrhythmia.
The graph above that is shown in the gif it’s called an EKG/ECG (Electrocardiography) reading. Basically its a graphical representation of an electrical flow in your heart. You may have seen it in movies or hospitals. The most well known signal of an EKG is when it goes flat line that means the heart is no longer beating as it no longer has any electrical impulses. The problem with the rhythm of the heart that is for some people they might have a condition where the beating of the heart is out of sync and may cause sudden death. As most sudden cardiac deaths are caused by abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmias.
Turns out that are a lot of Indonesians that suffer from Atrial Fibrilation (the most common type of arrhythmia) than I previousy anticipated. To make matters worst is the device needed to diagnose the type of arrhythmia is relatively scarce as cardiologists that we interviewed told us that the waiting list for these devices could reach as high as 4 weeks. Knowing these facts, me and my team and Brave dedicate a lot of our time to solve this problem.
The picture beside is a captured documentation of how I pitch on Bandung Pitching Day. I am very anxious and I barely could contain myself. I could barely speak if I don’t stand up and I didn’t find a comfortable and soothing spot for me to pitch! I couldn’t find anything that is on my height range for me to be able to talk comfortable enough. So I put my laptop on a water dispenser (Thank god it doesnt fall down)
When my turn has come to the pitch it feels like the longest 5 minute of my life. I could still remember every section of the pitch and the questions that were asked by Coffee Ventures. One if it being “What is your startup valuation?” Which was the question that I did not prepare. Yes, a really dumb one to not prepare one and going to pitch to investors. I wasn’t near ready to answer that kind of questions let alone the technology development was still scrappy. We still need more time to answer that kind of question accurately.
Nevertheless, we managed to won the most innovative startup award and we know there is a great potential for Brave. In the same month we actually simultenously competing in another competition by The Founders Laboratory. Where we also gain business mentor and was challenged to create a social media for our startup as a media of publication of our progress. We choose instagram and you could check our instagram here.
We completed all of their tasks and assignments and long story short we were also awarded the same award which is the most innovative startup by their criteria. Much love. Unfortunately though we archived all of the posts due to the confidentiality. BUT, we will be posting new stuff on January!! So please do follow our instagram page because we are short on followers T___T
August 2020: Swiss Innovation Challenge
This is really where things get escalated. Previously me and my team in Brave were talking mad stuff about bootstrapping our startup. As much as we are still just a bunch of undergraduates and not many in our savings. This competition gets us dripping like crazy. The winner for the first place is Rp70.000.000 and an invitation to Swiss Innovation Challenge in Switzerland. It really feels like no where around it than bank loan or an outside investment.
At that time we were really considering various bank loan options to bootstrap our company.
There’s like too many things that we need to buy for technology development and also for our operations. We were talking to 0 investors and it feels like we are short on momentum. Until we travel as far to the Swiss Innovation Challenge semifinal. The competition feels very unnatural for me because the submissions are probably the hardest that I have ever need to complete compared to other competitions. It was a comprehensive business plan where it covers not only the technical aspects of the company but also the non-technical (finance, risk management, marketing, go to market strategy, competitions, advantages, partnerships, etc.) It was nothing that I’m experienced with at a lot of hours and nights were spent to fulfill the submissions.
After I done my pitch, the unimaginable happen. Alfred Boediman contacted me and praised my presentation. He gave his number for a chat and we continued it to be a meeting. It still feels phenomenal. I couldn’t able to get my head around why would a Managing Director of Samsung Research Indonesia would want to spent his time advising a startup that an undergraduate built? My meetings with Alfred went relatively smoothly as I don’t remember flunking anything up and I’m pretty sure I gave a good impression to Alfred. Alfred taught many lessons and advice for Brave and he is now our legal comissioner in our company.
Alfred called it that we would won Swiss Innovation Challenge and we did. 😂😂😂 It’s not that im expecting it, well in fact I’m the last person to expect it to win. So when I do win, my happiness were all over the place. It was so all over the place (Screaming, calling parents, etc) that I forgot to mute my mic and just went AFK from my laptop so I didnt see my friends spamming my Whatsapp to mute my mic. 😂 I think there were like 200 people on the room… Well…
And most importantly, it’s the death of the bank loan plan.😂 All of the competitions money we gathered it’s quite sufficient as a bootstrapping budget for our company.
Swiss Innovation Challenge was a great if not so far the best milestone we achieved. We gain highly prestigious achievement and we were able to pitch the value to it to many potential investors. After Swiss Innovation Challenge we regularly have a meeting with Alfred. Alfred having experiences both in the startup industry and corporation taught me a lot about how to properly run a company. We are also lucky enough to be connected with Michael Agoes Wangsapoetra the Co-Founder and Advising Board member at Aksihijo Foundation. Michael is probably more well known as the ex-CEO of Sinarmas Cakrawala Persada.
Indonesia — Hong Kong: A.I and Deep Tech in Healthcare Startup Pitch
On September 1st I was forwarded a pitch competition with a topic of A.I and Deep Tech in Healthcare. I immidiately took the opportunity and got accepted to pitch to the one of the greatest startup incubator in Hong Kong, Kemenkes and Kemkominfo. I tried my best to present my startup and we didn’t win. However I stayed on the whole event and got messaged by Andi Hermanto who worked in InvestHK. To my surprise he’s interested in what we’re building and we decided to have a follow up meeting.
He introduced us to InvestHK and Cyberport and reccomend us to figure out a way for the company to be established in Hong Kong. Sounds really interesting right? Cyberport applications will be open on January 2021 and I surely will apply to it and the next article where I wrote everything that I learned in 2021 will be stellar! See you guys there, I hope I share the excitement! ^__^
Part 5: Kindness, Karma, Good deeds, and Faith
I admit it, for people seeing this in a third person perspective it seems like everything is going great, fine, and well-planned as if I knew this were going to happen. Even if I said that is not, it’s quite hard to believe? I love getting advices as much as the next guy but I hate overly general advice and vague advices like “yeah just a lot of hardwork, pray, etc.” So I’d like to try to give a advice I would say to just do a lot of good things, treat people nicely, don’t expect anything in return when you’re helping anyone, and always try to help when you could. You may have different religion but one thing we can all agree on is that if you do good and surely God will repay you with something much greater.
The Youtube Channel
I actually feel that since high school, my life has been entitled with helping people, in any way imaginable that I could get my hands on. I tried to make youtube videos to teach my friends that have trouble understanding certain subjects. Again, dare I say I sacrificed a lot of my time to study more subjects in school to make videos…
The statistics above shows the accumulated number of views, watch time, subscribers, and the estimated revenue. 6 thousand hours are indeed a lot of hours… It’s probably more time that I have ever spent to create those videos. *p.s i uploaded like 900 videos on that youtube channel.* It’s a great fun while it lasts. it’s a shame now it’s discontinued since me and my friends who used to run the channel are now too busy doing university tasks… Nevertheless, the point is those great numbers came with great sacrifices. Not everyone want to spend an extra time posting an explanation videos but I believe in something.
“I believe if I do good, God will find a way to help me do more good and therefore helped me to do more great things.”
It’s a principle that I believe in and has helped me through many journeys. It really helped form my thought process and decision making. It inherently helps me laid out my priority and sort my action taks. At some certain degree that it makes me feel that:
“An activity is pointless if you cant envision yourself helping someone with it.”
That’s why I really thrist for purpose and meaning on the activity that I do. It makes it sort of inevitable for me to create a startup that could impact millions of lives. That is for me is one thing that could grant me fulfillment. Even if it comes with huge fear and uncertainty, it feels much more to know that I tried to be one rather than to imagine looking back and realizing i wasted my youth on self-doubt and apathy.
Growth Labs and Para Juara
At August 2020 I was contacted by Angela Thrisnanda. A coworker of mine in Kabinet KM ITB. She initiated a project called Growth Labs to help 1st year undergraduate in ITB to do great things by connecting them with mentors and webinars with professionals. I was offered to be a mentor for the project and I happily accepted it! I tried to teach them everything I know and try my best to “theorethize” it in a easy to digest manner. The other interesting thing is more people are keen to collaborate and contact me personally to help them.
On October 2020, I was reached by Emel and her friends. Turns out she was asking for help for her business competition. I was more than glad to help teach them what I know about it. They welcomed me even though that we are absolute strangers. I think that’s like one of the first problem when it comes to collaborating that people tend to be over anxious and chickened out even before they tried to reach for help. I personally think that is a bad culture. I was introduced to Topher which introduced me to the startup he raised called Para Juara. Then he shamelessly pitched to me on recruiting me to be a mentor in Para Juara, It’s pretty much the same as Growth Labs but for High School Students. It’s pretty interesting to think of like — If I were a highschool student and have an option to be able to get an advice from a version of myself in Uni. I would definately take it. So without thinking long about it I accept the offer and now I routinely taught these highschool students what I know about certain subjects. It’s really fun actually, I don’t see it as being busy at all.
Indonesia — Hong Kong: A.I and Deep Tech in Healthcare Startup Pitch
On September 1st, I was forwarded to a pitch competition with a topic of A.I. and Deep Tech in Healthcare. I immediately took the opportunity and got accepted to pitch to the one of the greatest startup incubator in Hong Kong, Kemenkes and Kemkominfo. Although I tried my best to present my startup, and we didn’t win. However, I stayed on the whole event and got messaged by Andi Hermanto who worked for InvestHK. To my surprise, he was interested in Brave’s idea, and we decided to have a follow-up meeting.
He introduced us to InvestHK and Cyberport and reccomended us to figure out a way for the company to be established in Hong Kong. Sounds fascinating right? Cyberport applications will be open on January 2021, and I surely will apply to it and the next article where I wrote everything that I learned in 2021 will be stellar! See you guys there, I hope I share the excitement! ^__^
My First Webinar
On August 13rd 2020 I was scrolling my Instagram and found a devastating news. It’s about someone that was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. I never really have met the person in real life but reading his symptoms and story was already enough to caught my attention. I imidiately knew the right thing to do. The webinar that I brought turns out to be the most fun and my most anticipated. I work so hard on making the presentation and there were a lot of doge memes.😂😂
It’s really unfortunate that I don’t have a screenshot of the meeting with me so I forgot how many actually joined my webinar. If i’m not mistaken I think it was around 60 people and only 28 people filled it the feedback form. I was more than happy to find out that they actually enjoyed my first ever webinar! I was ecstatic and I was really looking for more, but I just didn’t have time to organize my own series of webinar… Maybe if there’s someone that read this would like to help organize and brainstorm it with me, feel free to hit me up on Instagram. :-)
My 2nd Youtube Channel
So the difference between my first youtube channel that I explained earlier, the first one tells more about scientific knowledge and supplements for people that want to take university entrance test. While Rafi Explains youtube channel is more about soft skills and life lessons in general. So far I have only put a recorded session of the design thinking webinar that I explained earlier. I could and I would follow you guys suggestions if you have any idea at what content I should put on the youtube channel.
Innovators at KM ITB
On August 6th *Oh gee, a lot happened on August ya* I was approached by a stranger asking me whether I would agree to be on an interview and the content from the interview would become an instagram post to further inspire more people to become innovators. I gladly agree to it and you can hear the conversation here!
The other good news is I was recruited to be in charge of being a head content and material for one of Innovators KM ITB projects called Initiator Class. It’s a series of events filled with webinars and hands-on activities for students in ITB to develop their skills to become an initiator. Below is a handbook that I made from scratch as one of my proudest achievements.
I’m glad that it recieves a lot of positive feedback, and as a present for you readers you can also read the handbook here. In summary, I explained how to think like an innovator using design thinking framework. I actually don’t believe much about frameworks, I think they’re oversaturated because it’s already so many of them…
Podcasts
I was also invited to do a series of podcasts from different parties. Maybe if you’re interested and have the time you can listen to it.
On Peer Podcast I talked about something really fairly general about startup. You can listen to it here.
Okay dude, first of all. I know those are the same pics on the three instagram posts. I am literaly running out of pics. At least the content of the podcast is actually good. At the podcast I talk about the resources needed to build your start-up and you might find the answer to be unconventional. You can give it a listen here.
Part 6: Characters, Personalities, and Traits of Mine
I recently take a psychology test, more precisely an entrepreneurial DNA test that was created by The Founder Institute. For those of you who don’t know. “The Founder Institute is an American business incubator, entrepreneur training and startup launch program that was founded in Palo Alto, California in 2009. Although based in Silicon Valley, The Founder Institute maintains chapters in over 180 cities and more than 65 different nations across the globe.”
Well in this section I want to talk more about the Entrepreneurial DNA result more than about the Founder Institute. Perhaps from knowing how I behave and think could help you form better decision making as an entrepreneur.
Risk Tolerance
I think this should be the most predictable trait of mine based from what you’ve read on this article so far. I have crazy high risk tolerance. I would take a bullet that noone would and I think it mainly anchors deep on my personality because of the philosophy that I believe in that affects my thought process.
Adaptability
Adaptability is something that I learnt from being in various environments and various different type of people. For everyone that knows me could claim that I could almost socialize with everybody. I think this is mainly because I am a freak when it comes to psychology and human behavior. I use my spare time to study those kind of stuff to further understand human interactions better because collaboration starts when team exist which means understanding one and another is crucial for the process.
Innovation
I love to innovate dude. I always try to find new things/product to solve problem. I think they are just inherently fascinating. I thought about developing products all the time. There’s really nothing I can explain how… I think it’s mainly because if you think about it philosophically, theres literaly no other way humanity is as great as it is right now without innovation. We could have easy access to clean drinking water, materialize food in 15 minutes through magic screens, see someone in real time from around the globe. There’s really no reason not to have innovation in your head.
Assertiveness
Assertive is really important because if you’re not being assertive you are less likely to be taken seriously. Like seriously, it’s particularly hard to gain attention when talking to someone and you cant present it well enough. There’s something called audience retention and overtime it tends to decrease naturally. I gain my ability to be assertive because I have been trying to lead a group of people since high school. I learn how to assert dominance in a subtle scenarios and be well known of my leadership.
I have to say I think it’s quite impressive… Even though it’s called entrepreneurial DNA but I do think those traits could be raised by experiences. And probably only by experiences, those traits are not theories that you can learn by book. You need a real life scenario to develop those.
All things considered, I’m not perfect and noone is. So I decided to also share my worst traits that I have. Just for better perspective of my statement.
Trust
I’m actually kind of surprised to find out that I have 20/100 for trust? I thought I was just being cautious but this is severely under average. Sometimes, I tend to override tasks when I could… This is also a backlash when it comes to external relations as I have high standards for trust and some deal might not go well just because I’m too skeptical of their motives.
Optimism
Yeah I think I tend to be overly cynical about future prospects. It kinda makes me have more plan Bs more than I have ever should. It also explains my cynicism about the future and the existential crisis that I sometimes have from time to time. Nevertheless, It do pushes me against my limit and became my motivation not to be mediocre and stand out.
Part 7: Work-Life Balance
How do you get so many things done and what is your motivation?
This is probably the most common question that people asks me. The short answer to that is
“I always do everything that I do passionately, I have never once in my life, do something or become something that someone expected me to be.”
It’s the 21st century! You have your own free will! Your liberty! Earn it! You should not take anyone, including your parents dictate you what to do. Well, you can take them as advices but never took it as your absolute life compass. Immerse yourself with the activities that you love, don’t ever feel burdened to do something because you feel that you don’t belong there. Try to speak your mind and heart out of it and I believe even your parents would understand your true passion.
It’s normal if you get shit on by your friends. Get’s underappreciated, ridiculed, laughed at, underestimated. Because at the end of the day, not everyone is going to believe in you, but if you do, they will see that and you might change their mind about you.
As what Gibran Huzaifah told his story:
“Being persistent pays off”
Well in this case of Gibran, the person who underestimated him was an investor. Yet, he still believes in himself and pursue the things that he believe is true and he succeed at what he believe in. Truly an inspiration.
How do you reward yourself and manage your stress?
I love to enjoy the little things. Calling a friend and tell them how my day went most of the time already soothes me out. I believe we as social creatures tend to love social interaction and would feel left out if we don’t have it enough. After a long day the most easiest thing I can do is ask whether there are any of my friends that are available for a call and I’d call them right away if they are.
After a long week and if I have the time I usually play party games where I can both socialize and play the game. I personally think that it’s most fun to spend my time that way rather to do anything else. CS:GO and Among Us are probably the best games I love to play at the moment. Among Us actually unironically help me with my communication, presentation skills, and being assertive. Like seriously, you need a good communication skills and be assertive enough to convince your friends that you are not the imposter or you are a crewmate. If you’re not being clear and assertive enough then you are less likely to be taken seriously.
Part 8: Main Key Takeaways
Main reason on why I wrote this.
I want to tell a story. I want to aspire and proof that ordinary people can choose to be extraordinary. I want to proof that a lot of things can be done in a year. Even though this year holds most progress than the year before but no year was a waste. It was all part of a huge process of learning and development. To the person that I am now that has learned a lot over the years. I want to remember how much I appreciate things that happened in this year despite the horrible that walked with us.
As much as I was inspired to take extra steps were from people that have taken it. Big names like Elon Musk, Brian Chesky, Nadiem Makarim, Gibran Huzaifah, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and more people that I could list all day. Well documented stories of their journey has been one of the reasons that helped my enterpreneurial journey and I would like to giveback to the people that made me as their inspiration too.
Don’t be afraid to try.
This is probably the most cliche advice you’ve ever heard. Nevertheless, I still want to put it out here. Because from what I see is people often let their clouds of doubt confuses them and pushes their problems to tomorrow. “Oh let that be tomorrow’s problem.” The most self-destructive thing about this way of thinking it’s actualy more on being a passivist. Because we as human tends to put ourself in a position where we are in the least amount of danger. Where we can have less pressure, fear, and anxiety. We trouble ourselves with absurd amount of fears to the point that we feel there’s no point to even try. We don’t give ourself enough amount of time in this busy world to reconsider that whether we are chasing an instant gratification or we are chasing an everlasting sense of purpose.
That’s what I usually think about at night. It forms me a reasoning to often think aboutworst things that can or possibily happen in my life had I never try to do something out of the ordinary. I never expect a lot about the outcome, what’s matter is that the effort was there. It’s okay if the outcome disappoints me, all I know that I was already more than satisfied to know that I put a huge amount of effort there.
On self doubts and self sabotage.
Most people that I interacted and consulted to me about their issues and insecurities. Mostly can be narrowed down to self doubt and self sabotage. It’s completely understandable that sometimes and most of the times you may feel that the odds are stacked against you. You want to go but you don’t know where to start. Starting alone feels too much to bare and it seems that there’s no right threshold to even try. To be pressured by unknown forces that you can’t even describe. Even fears of failing people’s expectation that was stacked on you.
In case you’re wondering, yes. I do spend a lot of time thinking about the same thing. Everybody must have felt anxiety at some point in their lives. The way I went through with it is to imagine my how my future self would feel if I had wasted all my time on self doubts and self sabotage. I want to feel or at least think that I have a huge potential that has never been brought up. I want to lead a team and see how far I can go. I want to test my limits and take the road less travelled. Even though it means sacrficing and go to the roads that others didn’t expect me to take.
Because on your deathbed, you’ll think back on your life. Whether the decisions that I have made is what you really want or you were just doing something because someone else told you to.
“There are no wrong decisions. The only wrong decision is the decision that you don’t take by yourself.”
Part 9: Credits to the People that I Love, Appreciate, and Aspire
Rini Yuliati
Honestly wouldn’t be near as far as I am right now without my mom. The one that always supported me passionately at almost everything that I do. The one that almost always try to cheer me up at the hardest days. There may have been bad days and fights because that what family does, but your relentless support is still godlike. There’s literaly nothing that can amount to the good deeds that you have given to me. Not even the boldest and highest mountains that streched as far as the eye can see. I love you and I appreciate you.
Gunawan Trieko Wicaksono
To my father that I always bother. To the friend that I can talk personally as if we are from the same generation. To the partner that helped the growth of my technical development over the years. To the figure that I looked up to when it comes to love and compassion. To the one that understands me. Thanks fo being a great father figure dad. I love you and I appreciate you.
Stefanus Ardi
To the first great person that I met on ITB. *Even though you may don’t feel that way.* To the one that unawarely inspire me to do great things. To the one that actually has great interpersonal skills but unaware of it. And to be one of the first to believe my idea and went along with it. That has helped so much for the development of Brave this year. Brave wouldn’t be as near as great without you. Thanks for your contribution and belief in me. I appreciate you man.
G.S
To the greatest hacker that I have ever met. The one that has unconventional way of thinking when it comes to cybersecurity (in a good way). The one that seems to always have a backup plan for everything. The shy yet adventurous enough to take risks and venture out together in Brave Healthcare. The one that is almost always useful in every scenario. The one that often take works over resting. The one that is often unaware on how many people look up at. To one of the people that puts Brave in a special part in their heart and believe that we can make a difference. Thank you for your belief and contribution this year. I appreciate you.
Nicolaus Boby
To my overly patient data scientist. The one that once also dreamed to go to medical school but ended up in ITB. The one that also has huge interest in biology. The one that once also an FPS addict (but a better player than me though.) The one that shares a lot of similiarity with me. The one that almost always give good advice and good insights when I need it the most. Thanks for all of your contributions and hours spent on Brave this year. Despite the uncertainty that Brave possess and the abundance of mistakes we had along the way. You’re still around to help. Thanks a lot man, I really appreciate it
Gabriel Dicky
To the one that has great initiatives. The one that thrives to be useful as much as he can take. To the one that barely complaint despite the workload and issues that he has. The one that is always motivated and keep it’s spirit alive. I really appreciate your work and taking the initiatives to learn the subjects that you havent mastered. It meant a lot for the development of Brave. I really appreciate every thing that you’ve done and the time you’ve put. Thanks a lot man.
Lionel Valdarant
To the one that is overly critical and technical. The one also helped a lot of the non-technical aspect of Brave. The one that most got into an argument with me. The supporting role of the hardware development team. And the one that bridge us to many possibilities by meeting us with angel investors. Thank you so much for your belief and your time that you have decided to put on Brave this year. May next year will be way more adventerous for us. I really appreciate you man.
Alfred Boediman
The one that has taught me a lot about enterpreneurship more than anyone else. The one that’s almost always have an answer to every question that’s brought up. The one that despite having huge amount of workloads and tasks still managed to helped Brave grow. I really appreciate your time that you decided to be put on Brave this year. Your help will always be memorable and appreciated from Me and the rest of my team in Brave. Thanks a lot Alfred.
Girindra Mahesadzikri
To the kind hearted teacher that everybody loves to a student of. The patient teacher that spend nights teaching me public speaking. The charming and overqualified public speaker. The one that does not fear to be different. The one that loves to be busy. Thanks for all of your contribution that you have given that raised Brave this year. I really appreciate it.
Terry Djony
For being one of the people that inspired me to go as far. The one that proves making a startup while being in univeristy is do-able and manage-able. Despite the chaos that I learned the hard way. Everything that was done was worth it. The simple role model that I tried my best to follow the steps of. Thanks a lot for your time filling the talks and webinars about start-up and enterpreneurship. I really appreciate it.
Dr. Wardono Niloperbowo
To possibily one of the best if not the best “wali dosen.” The one that supports and immidiately could know what I’m able to achieve at day one. The one that helped me at the best of his ability. The one that became one of the first people to believe in me and my potential. The one that speculates my growth better than anyone else. And one that gave me one of the best advices on my life. Thank you Pak Wardono.
Part 10 : Last words and appreciation to readers!
HI!
Hi! If you have made it this far, thanks a lot for reading this! It meant a lot to me. This article is about 8.5k words, and it took me a long time and effort to make it. I embedded a form in the website rafiamjad.com where you can give me a direct feedback after reading the article. Your voices, input, words are very very much appreciated. Even critics are welcomed so I can further evaluate the flaws and make rooms for improvement for the future articles. Again, thank you so much for your time reading this and I see you in the next article! Much love! ❤️
