#009 (31/07/2022)

"No one may want to read it, but someone wants to write it."

Hello, I'm Ryan! Welcome to my weekly journal. You're a very, very special person, you know why? Because according to the website's records, almost no one reads this journal. Zero! But you're reading it, so I really want to thank you. Okay! It's time for another weekly review. What do you have to share this week?

#1 Do every detail well

As you may know, Re Pillow is actually a "passion project" that I (Ryan) started about two years ago. I wanted to try making a truly comfortable and perfect pillow. So I embarked on this pillow research journey, studying how to make a good pillow, trying other pillows on the market, observing how others made them, and then researching on my own, before finally creating the first generation of Re Pillow. At the time, it was more like playing around with it; to be precise , it wasn't about making money, but about researching more. I personally found the research fun, and when I gradually experimented and achieved results, creating a truly comfortable texture, I was genuinely excited.

Originally, I only shared it with my friends, but later on, more and more people started buying it, and I gradually started to feel overwhelmed because I realized I didn't know how to do business. Everything was new to me; how to run a business, how to ensure that customers received the best products and services—it turned out to be not simple.

For example, recently we've faced the issue of customers complaining that courier company employees aren't very polite, or that delivery times are too late. We currently only use the courier company for deliveries, so we don't have complete control over this aspect, but we always want to do better. Therefore, we've informed the courier company and are looking for other solutions. When we first started with Re Pillow, sometimes I would personally take the bus to deliver the goods myself, but now I have too many other things to do, and I can't do it all. When I have to delegate tasks to other companies, and the quantities vary, this kind of problem arises. However, I know this is an inevitable stage!

There's a saying, "Small leaks sink big ships," and I think that's definitely something to be careful about. I've seen many companies grow so large that management can't always see all the problems. Especially with a large scale, there are so many areas where problems can arise. The company starts to develop various small issues, and with fierce market competition, customers gradually realize that other companies are doing better or are more attractive. This can really bring down a large company. For example, around 2010-2015, HTC phones were incredibly popular, but they were quickly phased out due to intense competition and various minor problems with their phones.

This inspired me to implement a new policy within the company: at the end of each month, colleagues must submit three suggestions to me privately before the company pays their salaries. Each colleague has a different role, and I hope they can see more things that can improve the company. This is just one method; I also have other plans in place to help Re Pillow Co. continue to improve. I genuinely want to do this, and I want Re Pillow Co. to truly succeed. I hope you can witness it together.

#2 Establishing a system so the company can do without me

For the past week, I've been gradually assigning more tasks to my colleagues, because I think the company could function without me. This is something I learned from Mr. Wong Kit-lung, a person I greatly respect in the food and beverage industry. Mr. Wong is the chairman of the Sue Fook Lou Group, whose well-known restaurants include Gyu-Kaku and On Yasai. In one interview, he mentioned that he didn't want to become a bottleneck for the company's development; that is, he didn't want to limit the company's growth. He wanted the company to be able to operate smoothly without him. Although this short sentence might not seem special to many people, it resonated deeply with me. I paused the interview to reflect on it further. Because I currently do a lot of things at Re Pillow Co. by myself, and there have been times when I wanted to go to the movies but couldn't, because I have to be on call constantly (for example, by the courier company or other colleagues ), I really can't be away for two hours without internet access. So Mr. Wong's comment is exactly what I need.

So, to the point that the company can completely not need me is probably not possible for the time being, and I don't want that either, because I genuinely love what I do every day. But I do want to be able to leave occasionally, because if I have any sudden illness or need to be hospitalized, I hope my colleagues can help me handle the daily operations and important matters to keep Re Pillow Co. running normally. I don't want the company to shut down because no one can ship goods or handle company operations while I'm not here.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my colleagues Ben and Chong for their help over the past two months (and Colly too! I really felt that each of them genuinely wanted to help me and Re Pillow Co. on this project, which actually went beyond their scope). I will also do my best to fulfill my role so that the company can have a stable income, and I hope we can continue to work together.

Although we are not well-known, we will continue to work hard!