Designing a Business.. or "ME"

m∑
. . EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
“Designing a Business” (DAB) was a great
sound to me from the first day that I saw it
in the list of my elective modules of my
Master course. Even though I had to wait
for being a part of the DAB-class for two
months later because of making the wrong
selections, I thought I still got what I
needed from the DAB-lectures and much
more than that by somehow.
As a mixed
module of
Designing and
Business, “DAB”
gave all students
the chances and
opportunities to
make their real
business from the first of first steps (Mace
Kingston, 2013). Students would start from
finding their group as to become a small
company. Every team, then, focused on the
most simple thing as creating an idea,
making prototype of product into harder
things as doing market research,
manufacturing the real goods, setting up
social network and finally, making it real as
selling their products in the market, doing
financial calculations and so on.
There could be many and many things to
write for what or which a student could
learn from “DAB” and all of the key learning
is also able to be different based on various
view of each student. As the purpose of
this report is a reflective essay of a Master
student in Business, I do not want to avoid
mentioning about any lesson in business
aspects as Finance, Marketing, Human
resource and so on. Nonetheless, in my
personal perspective, I already had many
and many times to study and learn them
from thousands of books, on Internet and
also in other modules of my Master course.
Thus, from my own experience, the most
important and expensive lessons for me
from DAB is not only about „how to design
a business‟. It is about Designing Me and
having a strategic planning for my missions
in near future and I also wrote about them
here in the way of my-own. This seems to be
how a true reflective essay should be and
also become an explanation for any reason
why I focus on writing this report like this.
As follow the general principle, the
structure and the writing style of this
report must be in an academic way.
However, while it is in first person that it
can be informal and become a story, I
guarantee for every single word and
sentence has been written carefully (I have
tried my best with my poor English) and I
hope that reading this “DAB-tale” may not
become a boring journey but very enjoyable.
Last but not least, this report could not
avoid the limitations and shortcomings
(excess of the required number of the
words count, >2000 and so on) and would
base on the personal opinion. However, I am
confident enough to say that critical
thinking is one of my strongest skills as I will
not give judgments subjectively.

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How to follow this journey
There are no special rules to read this report
Just follow every page in the order
And just ENJOY everything…
…like Alice

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. . CHAPTER 1
- “Designing a Business” in terms of Opportunity -
Go to school is one of the most valuable investment of human beings in my opinion. Although
to study and to learn in the modern times with the development in technology is now easier
than a hundred or thousand times compared to 100 years ago, if you need a knowledge, just
type an appropriate keyword on Google or step out and find the nearest bookstore around and
you can own any kind of knowledge from anywhere of the world, students today still invest a
large sum of money and time to go to study, keep studying in higher level and even to study
abroad.
There will be numerous answers to this popular question but in this report, I will only talk
about my personal replies which was also the reason why I chose the module "Designing a
Business" (DAB). “DAB” gave me the learning environment which I was always looking for as
also many other chances related to promoting and shaping who I am.

5
In 2013, I came to UK to
study business and my future
mission seems to be a
business-man; however, to be honest, it was
more like the duty of a son with his family
(in the past, I also finished my
undergraduate by having a bachelor degree
in mechanical engineering for my parents). I
knew, from so long, I always wanted to
become an illustrator or a designer as the
most essential things that I
wish to do for my whole life.
I knew I will be happy for every single
moment with this path.
Nonetheless, we all seem to know that there
is always a big gap between what we want to
do and what we can do. In my case, I chose
to do what is mandatory for me as for my
family but I would also never forget to act
with the open eyes and seek for any
opportunities which bring me closer to my
own desire and my own way. That was when
I have found “DAB”, a mixed module
between Designing and Business.
I didn‟t choose to study “DAB” from the
beginning because of some
misunderstanding but after visiting my
personal tutor, Dr. Corrine, and having a
chance to attend one of her lectures (DAB-
class), I have known only one thing about
DAB-class, that-place-was-for-me. The
second thing was that I have already started
two months of my main course without
knowing anything about DAB-classes…
Generally speaking, I might not be able to be
a part of that-place-was-for-me anymore.
According to Kennon (2013), he has
mentioned in his article
about the definition of the
opportunity cost, “For an
economist, opportunity cost is
what you give up by making a choice; the

4
yield you could have earned by investing or
doing the next best thing”. In relation to his
concept, I decided to give up my first
studying strategy which I planned from
home before coming to UK and immediately
emailed to Dr. Corrine, my course leader
and University‟s office to look for a chance
to be a member of DAB- class. “Luck is
what happens when preparation meets
opportunity” (Seneca, 4BC-65AD). I still feel
how happy when I had the approval from all
of them to attend to that-place-was-for-me.
Of course, I also had to give up a module in
the second semester to replace it with DAB
but whether at that time or till now; this
opportunity cost was forever too effective
and profitable for me.
By consider two types of “Opportunity Cost That Influence Your Investment Portfolio” of
Kennon (2013), I analyze my determination for pursuing to study the DAB-module despite of
being late for 2 months as following pages.

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Figure 1. “My potential future?” [Source: Newton (2014)]

6
 Examine Liquidity Opportunity Cost
To get a Master degree, I just need to reach a sufficient credit with an efficiency mark
by choosing the appropriate modules but my main goal is always to acquire a foundation
of knowledge and good education.
DAB did not only bring me close to my favorite phrase
"Designing", but DAB actually also became the best module
which has supported me for the background and knowledge
that I needed in both Designing and Business.
Moreover, DAB was really a lot harder than many other subjects which I will mention
the reason why, in the next section as also through this report.
In addition, “the biggest opportunity cost when it comes to liquidity has to do with the
chance that you might miss a very good investment because you can't get your hands on
your money” (Kennon, 2013). I have paid a big amount of money to get the Master degree
but with many different options, why I will not choose the best one.
 Compare the Opportunity Cost of Investing Your Money Versus Spending It
As mentioned above, this section is also a brief explanation
about why DAB is different to other modules and why it was
more difficult than others. DAB is a module which has been
designed for students to actually build a business, to create a
real product and to sell it to the market on their own and of course, it requires a lot of
investments of their time and also their cash (as the purpose of learning is to practice

7
and experience, it will not necessarily a large sum of money if student knows how to
distributing and controlling the cash flow).
Money is only worth for what it can do for me and I
understand that nobody can define my worth beyond
myself. Hence, the only remaining issue is to look at all
of the choices and to be confident to make the final
decision. I was aware of what DAB would give me
and I accepted any price for taking along the journey
which I could have with DAB- class and DAB-students. This is a practical and
sustainable preparation and also a solid luggage for my future.
In addition, opportunities do not usually come easy and then it will be many challenges
as the risk to assess whether people who are getting the opportunities do deserve or
not.
Risks are the threats which exist and take place
under any forms of society or any aspects of life.
They are always a common reward which does not
refuse anyone, any group or any organization and so on who is pursuing the
opportunities. Building a business will never become really simple. The more we look for
opportunities, the more we create risk. Therefore, 'risk management' and 'learning how
to handle risks' are two vital skills which I understand that I can spend whole life to

8
practice and acquire them over and over again. Figure 1 illustrates the different factors
of risk with their percentage for an organization (Accenture, 2013).
Figure 2. Top external pressures of an organization (Accenture, 2013)
Anyway, the learning environment of school and university is still the easiest place for
me as any students to take risk and learn to take risk.

9
In summary, DAB has brought many great opportunities for me to learn as below
- Give an essential environment for learning both of designing
aspects and business factors (e.g. joining the Dragons‟ Den
competition under University‟ system, selling products in
Trade Fairs and attending in Bright Ideas event) as well as the combination of them (e.g.
how a product design may influence the purchasing decisions of customers)
- Create the actual challenges and practical experience of building a business as
becoming an enterprise from first of the first things (e.g. starting with the ideas to
make an appropriate product or doing market research to identify which type of
product can be potentially and serve the customers‟ needs)
- Practice over and over again to improve my important skills, as I called “3C-thinkings”
(Creative thinking, Critical thinking, and Communicative thinking which it involves many
aspects such as teamwork skills, negotiation skills, presentation skills, how to build the
beneficial relationships and so on)
- Understand the value of setting up the Network (as been understood as
Communication skill above, knowing how-to work in a team as also not-to, building the
business communities through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, wordpress and so on)
- Provide the problem-solving skills and more important here is to support to solve human
issues (e.g. make the product which have a solution for customers‟ problems but in
another aspect, I have learned more about solving the personal and internal problems of

10
a business organization as I always thought of coming here to learn about business but
at last, I have learned more about people… and me)
- Designing me (reflect and identify the core value of myself) and giving me a realistic
imagination of my future goal as what I have to do from now to make my dreams come
true. As Kalam stated, “You have to dream before your dreams can come true” (Brainy
Quote, 2014).
The last thing I want to emphasize again about the
opportunities here that there is always a chance for
everyone who dares to change and dares to take
the risks. I still often talk to myself that, “the more
you challenge and the more you fall down” would
make “the more you learn, the more you dream and
the more you achieve”. Adding to this point, I am
taking a small risk by writing more than 2000-words (one of the minimum requirements of this
report) but I will accept any consequence from my decision (because… firstly, I have more than
2000-words to write and secondly, I may have an unknown opportunity by doing this).
Overall, before moving to the next part of this report, I would like to quote two of my favorite
statements, “The door is wide open for opportunity” (Young, 2013); hence, "Be ready when
opportunity knocks" (Goldman, 2012).

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. . CHAPTER 2
- Skills gained from becoming a DAB-student (a.k.a. MACE-student) -
Creative thinking
DAB-class gave an imaginative and creative environment for all students.
Everyone has learned to think as what to think and how to think to build
a new idea and furthermore, the true definition of an idea can be
different to what anyone has thought about it before. It cannot be
denied that it is very easy for everyone to type the keyword “creative
thinking” on Google and… after less than a blink of eyes, you have got
about 223 million results in your hand for your curiosity.
As attended to the Bright Ideas award event, I and other students had
been fortunate and blessed to face to Shed Simove (a.k.a. the Ideas man).
According to Taal (2013), she wrote about Simove as an incredible person
of making ideas and… his secret was very simple, “I try to see my life as an
experiment, then I never fail – Shed Simove”.
With his charismatic and impressive performances of events that day, Simove did not hesitate
to talk about the secret of his success in developing the seeds of unbelievable idea. Simove
mentioned about three methods on the way of building his ideas but I will only describe about
his simplest method (honestly speaking, all three methods are simple as not anything new to
anyone) in this section of the report and also in the brief way, the “twisting-the-ideas”.

13
“Twisting-the-ideas”, from the explanation of Simove, is to look
for and catch everything around you (e.g. new information, old ideas
or whatever-they-are even for what-already-happened-but-still-can-
be-improved and so on) and apply it on your own thinking (being
strange, being different even for being weird and being freaky) to make your own
unique idea. In other words, this work is like you enjoy cooking and create a new formula
based on the experiences of other recipes.
For a practical instance, I mention about a very-
effective team in related to the concept of “Twisting
the ideas” from my DAB-class, team “Loo Lala”. Before
seeing Simove in Bright Ideas event, I already had a
discussion with one member of "Loo LaLa" that she
absolutely could use the idea of a product in her country which had-not-been-existed in the
UK. As we all knew in recent time, "Loo Lala" has brought the real results far beyond our
expectations. They also contributed to the market a promotional clip as witty-and-memorable.

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Like any other opportunities and wonders in my life,
attending to the Bight Ideas award event,
meeting Simove and listening to his precious speech
would become not only the good memories
but also the beneficial and worthy experiences
of all the essential lessons and irrefutable truths...
that I will forever respect them and remind me
from the bottom of my heart…
About continuing to be “creative”

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Critical thinking
The second skill is neither also new nor unfamiliar but in my view, it
would be necessary for both thinking coexist, critical thinking and
creative thinking. Even though it could easily infer that these types of
thinking have the conflicting trends, it also means that there is a close
relationship to both these types of thinking. They are always supportive and complementary to
each other. Notwithstanding, if not used carefully, critical thinking can completely eliminate
creative thinking and in a worst condition, it perfectly eradicate all of the thinking ability of
the user. Adding to this point, critical thinking is simply a development of the doubt and
anyone of us almost gets the confusion between the negative side and positive side of it easily.
As mentioned from the executive summary, I believed that
critical thinking is my best skill and immediately upon emphasized
of this, I was able to find me in a wrong expression by having a
subjective judgment. Because that if I applied critical thinking,
all of my reviews, my comments and my opinions should be come up in an objective way.
However, also from such conclusion like this, once again, I was also proving how good my
critical thinking is, by having self-doubts and so on. This is a vicious circle of critical thinking
in particular and philosophy in general.

17
Hence, in order to make it simple and do not waste of time, I will only put both critical
thinking and creative thinking in the comparison, based on the perspectives of the experts.
According to Fisher (2002), Table 1 illustrated a conceptualization of critical thinking and
creative thinking along the lines below.
Critical thinking Creative thinking
Analytic Generative
Convergent Divergent
Vertical Lateral
Probability Possibility
Judgment Suspended judgment
Hypothesis testing Hypothesis forming
Objective Subjective
Answer An answer
Closed Open-ended
Linear Associative
Reasoning Speculating
Logic Intuition
Yes but Yes and
Table 1. Critical thinking vs. Creative thinking (Fisher, 2002)
Besides, as also can be seen in Figure 3 and Table 2, Puccio, Murdock and Mance (2005)
indicated a model for the operation of that both thinking in the characteristics and behaviors
which supported students to approach a range of problems, both inside and outside the
classroom.

18
Figure 3. A model for the operation of that both thinking in the characteristics and behaviors
(Puccio et al., 2005)
Steps
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Assessing
Situation
Exploring
a Vision
Formulating
Challenges
Exploring
Ideas
Formulating
Solutions
Exploring
Acceptance
Formulating
a Plan
Cognitive Skills
Diagnostic Visionary Strategic Ideational Evaluative Contextual Tactical
Affective Skills
Curiosity Dreaming Sensing Gaps Playfulness Avoiding
Premature
Closure
Sensitivity to
Environment
Tolerance
for Risks
Table 2. The process for the operation of that both thinking in the characteristics and
behaviors (Puccio et al., 2005)

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There are seven steps of the paradigm of Puccio, Murdock and Mance (2005) which identifies
which factor of characteristics and behaviors of thinking will be involved or removed from the
start to the finish of the process. For instance, in first step (1), when someone assesses the
situation, they will rely upon their curiosity and have diagnostic skills such as analyzing,
describing and selecting and so on.
For an actual example, in my trial class under the approval of Dr.
Corrine (before being truly accepted to attend the real
DAB-class), I gave a series of critical comment and feedback
to one DAB-team (a.k.a. Memoby group and also my team in
DAB-class then). At that time, Memoby team was confused and
nervous with so many different ideas about making their products.
One of those ideas of Memoby group was about making a Teddy-bear for the babies which had
their parents so busy to spend an effective time with them. Therefore, the mission of Teddy,
besides of becoming a friend for the babies, shall be able
to carry a recorder which had the function to imitate the
voice of their parents and made the babies feel the
presence of their parents around.
As Memoby group wanted me to criticize them as
much as possible that time, I had assumed a lot of my
mixed opinions about this product, such as whether the
product would be safe for children (there could be many
negative feedback and criticisms about the harm caused
by exposure to electromagnetic waves from the recorder to the young brain of the babies) or
some strict view about the family relationships (children need to have the physical and mental
contact with their real parents and cannot learn to be loved through an electronic toy).

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Figure 4. The battle of human‟s mind [Source: Infographics (2013)]

21
You think you whatever you land on
The is just a dead you can claim
But if you every rock and tree and
Has a life, has a , has a name
You think the only who are people
Are the who look and think like
But if you walk the footsteps of a
You'll learn you never knew, you never
(Pocahontas, 1995)

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Communicative thinking
Finally, there are not any
necessary skills which to be
served for human being which
can be better than the
communication skills.
Communicative thinking is a tool to shape
and identify us, the people on this planet,
and also make the differences between
human with other creatures. Although all
organisms on Earth have their own way to
communicate, people have developed their
communication skills to the level of
which is very difficult for me to express in
terms of my words' limitation and also my
poor language (if apply my critical thinking, I
am trying to illustrate one of the weakness
of my presentation skills: „cannot-find the-
word-to-express-an-issue‟).
Communicative thinking and
Communication skills are
important to the extent that it
came with all the other skills
(whether how well creative
thinking and critical thinking you have, it
will just be a mystery if you do not have a
proficient ability to communicate it to the
outside) and practicing or training
communication skills is a journey through
the development of human life (from the
child who is learning to speak until it can
stand in public to present and so on). In
short, no one can deny the immense power
of communication skills and as Goins (2011)
has emphasized in his personal blog,
"Communication changes the world like
little else can".

23
There is so much to say about
communication skills and most of them are
awfully obvious and simple. According to
Hammett (2012), he points out five
communication skills that an entrepreneur
will need to experience and practice
(clarity, empathy, enthusiasm, body language
and negotiation) and each of them also can
be dissected into tens or hundreds of
different and smaller skills.
As a consequence, I will only describe and summarize some key point
of communication skills which I found via DAB-classes.
 Team work in terms of being friends, doing stuffs together, truly understanding each
other (i.e. you have ideas, you may argue, but it will mean nothing if you cannot convey that
message and the main work can be ruined). In other words, a good team work is to
abandon the ego of each one to step toward the common aims, targets and ideal.
 Negotiation (persuade your colleagues to listen to your views which is even harder to
convince someone to buy your products)
 Presentation Skills (many opportunities to practice public-speaking in front of not only
in DAB-classes but also for the strict judges and examiners of Dragons' Den as well as selling
products directly in Trade Fairs market and so on)
 Doing many practical market research and survey (As Figure 1 illustrated my potential
future, if that is possible, I really enjoy working with a position of a marketer somehow)
 Building the social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress)... At the time I am
writing these lines, I am increasingly understanding and recognizing the great value of the

24
invisible force by setting up social networks in this modern era. According
to the latest statistics of network for Facebook, Mark Zuckenberg already
seemed to own for himself a small country of 1.23 billion people (Smith, 2014).
 And et cetera…
...because if I want to list out all the information in the
field of communicative thinking and communication skills, it will not be difficult to get a solid
long list of every aspect of them, from the smallest to the largest.
However, the key to build a successful communication is how possible someone encapsulates
any information only on one side of a business card.
Overall, I define the core value of communication skills as simply as an important recipe which
helps us to turn people around become friend and to make the world smaller and closer.
It means let‟s enjoy communicating as having fun – It is the philosophy, isn‟t it?

26
The only and little issue I have is that my
critical thinking is strong
whereas my
speaking skill is
not able yet to communicate
well (as I always wish English
is my mother tongue) and for a practical
instance, I have had a tense conversation as
a fierce debate with my DAB-team (I will
not report this in details here and just say
that now I have really matured for the
teamwork). As a result, I have also marked
another small plan for my near future, I will
continue to learn more about English as
focus on studying English speaking right
after the completion of my Master course
in September. And I will only add one more
point which I found it interesting about the
communicative thinking and communication
skills prior come to the next parts of the
report.
As communication skills exist in all aspects
of life, so if there is any way which is
necessary to lead a man not only to the
public speaking
but also step
him toward the
political realm,
it is about owning the powerful
communication skills. I would like to share
the Figure 4, a graph of how to map the
political ecosystem, created by a human
rights and environmental activist named
Van Jones (Rodiguez, 2013). Because this is
a truly complex category, I will not spend
time to explain why it is really important to
me or how it is relevant to my reflective
essay. In which I am summarizing here,
Figure 4 illustrates a very proper model of
modern communication (or rather is the
interaction) with the main elements in
today's society.

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In addition, as can be seen at the right and bottom corner of the graph, I am glad to know
that the "artist” played a significant role in terms of the ideas and masses.
Figure 4. A graph of how to map the political ecosystem, created by Van Jones
(Rodiguez, 2013)
The following footnote from the original article of author:
“On the left you have action, and on the right, ideas; elites are at the top, and
the masses are below. There‟s an inside game and an outside game. On the inside,
there‟s big money: elites are throwing millions of dollars into political lobbying.
The inside game is the force that creates policy. On the outside, we apply
tremendous pressure so that our elected officials pass laws that give us power.
The Occupy and immigrant rights movements are forceful players in this outside
game, making sure that the inside is moving.” (Rodiguez, 2013)

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Taking all of „3C-skills„
(Creative thinking, Critical thinking and Communicative thinking)
into consideration, I think that whether how many times you practiced or how much
experience you got, these skills are still the most difficult exercise and homework which
even if you chose them or do not,
you still spend a lifetime to learn it
over and over again.
Figure 5. “My potential future - part 2?” [Source: Tellwut (2013)]
Thought as understood by me personally, the key point is whether whatever I do to
become in near future: an engineer, a designer or a marketer; sooner or later, I have
already learned to enjoy them as a gift of life.

30
Other skills
Logical thinking and business skills are also very essential but it was not
something I really improved from DAB-classes; thus, I do not reflect them in
detail in this report.
In summary, according to Business School Edge (2013), I set up the following charts and graphs
which indicate my own evaluation (ranking) of '21 skills to succeed a business' (of course, the
skill components are closely related to each others of same group as cannot exist alone).
Figure 6a and Figure 6b illustrate these whole pictures.
Figure 6a. '21 skills to succeed a business' (Business School Edge, 2013)
•Time management
•Meeting
management
•Leadership
•Systems
•Personal
Productivity
•Imagination
•Inventitiveness
•Problem solving
•Brainstorming
•Making
connections
•Strategic
•Project
•Financial
•Risk
•Logistic
•Written
•Social
Networking
•Speaking
•Sales
•Negotiation
Com-
munication
(1)
Planning
(2)
Productivity
(3)
Creativity
(4)

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Figure 6b. My own ranking for '21 skills to succeed a business' (Own visualization)
Honestly speaking, the evaluation of all skills above can be changed as flexible which depends
on the different circumstances or dissimilar condition as well as the several of specific
specialization. It cannot be argued that some skill might be better than the others and the
assessments could be based on how the user feels friendly and comfortable with some skill but
not with the others. For example, an artist usually prefers to enhance their imagination sector
of the creativity skills (4) to optimize the properties of their product. Nevertheless, sometimes
their concept can go far beyond the main purpose of building the product (i.e. making a
solution for the issues of customers) and create the new but unnecessary functions.
Moreover, if the more we apply the imaginative thinking, the more it can push us away from
reality. Therefore, in my personal way, I try to keep the balance of all the skills and be flexible
to apply them depending on the actual conditions and specific facts.

32
Eventually…
…As can be seen from Figure 4 and Figure 5, there are obviously only 20 skills which were
Illustrated and mentioned above. The 21st skill, therefore, is the most important skill which
can cover and serve all of other skills and is called "the-ability-to-switch-off" (Business School
Edge, 2013). In simple words, this final skill is to relieve stress. We all are human, not the
machines. Thus, we should always remember to relax and unwind to rebalance ourselves, and
especially to improve our emotional factors as developing our emotional quotient (EQ) in a
positive way.

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Figure 7. This is your Brain on Google (Davila, 2011)

34
Figure 8. Fun facts about the Brain (Brain Health, 2012)

35
. . CHAPTER 3
- „Me‟-moby meets Maslow - (Blog version)
I would not analyze deeply about Memoby, the logo, the brand or the products of our team
because I thought everything was very clear to everyone in DAB-classes and also in actual
market. By the way, this report is a reflective essay to tell about what I have learned and I just
want to describe an interesting point about Memoby that I have not mentioned anywhere else
before.
And the description is also very short..
A simple way to explain the process of Memoby, from the idea to become reality, is about
applying the psychological model of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which was launched in 1943.
I have three reasons for using it. Firstly, I like to use this models extremely for analyzing all of
my issues (in my opinion, everything in life is operated based on human feelings and their
psychological aspects). Secondly, I also do not be able to think of something more appropriate
to apply it to the interpretation of the Memoby process. Finally, I have found a perfect design
of Maslow's model as shown in Figure 7 below (Gargasz, 2010).

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Figure 9. Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs (Gargasz, 2010)
As words cannot be less, the Memoby product meets the 3rd stage in Maslow's pyramid for
customers' need.
People often say “Think-out-of-a-box” and I and my team made Memoby, a box. Nonetheless, it
does not mean Memoby box is similar to other boxes. In my opinion, when someone states that
he or she does “think-out-of-a-box”; it can be understood that they are getting out of that box
and prefer to come to a new one, seems to be bigger and better than the previous.
In terms of my own concept about business, it is about "my box is just better than yours" and
that's enough.

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. . CHAPTER 4
- Designing ME-
In conclusion, I am awareness that I am a product in my own hand. As listed in Figure 6b about
„21 successful skills‟ for an entrepreneur in particular, or a person in general, I am describing
about the importance of the skill called personal productivity. Although I also mentioned
above that it is better to balance all of the skills but "personal productivity" may deserve to be
more important than any other skills.

40
The process of building 'Me'-moby was also the process of designing „ME‟ and that was why I
always remind me about the name of our logo (as 'Me' is the part of the brand and took the
first place of everything). Nonetheless, this did not mean how Memoby was as how I am now.
The way how I have built and created myself which is the way that only I can understand on my
own and I think I may not need to write all of them here in a specific way. Everything already
can be sensed through reading this report.
This current paper has been overloaded for the limitations of the
words, with approximately 6000 words at these lines if the
reader is still trying to monitor and follow.
Interestingly, because this report can be done in the
informal way of writing, I did not really know which could
be the standard for the writing style of this report. It was
easier to do in the strict way as the academic way somehow.
However, after talking and criticizing myself a lot, I made my final choice and started writing
as the way I wanted this report to be or not-to-be (i.e. a report of a designer even though I am
not a business-man but also not yet a ). Perhaps accepting and applying the rules and
principles as the minimum requirements for now is still easier than breaking the rules but I had
my own reasons to do this. It does not mean I do not respect my tutors who will read my
report. It is just I respect them and the rules in a strange way on my own and chose to make
the difference (once again).

41
In addition, I knew that this was not good to read at all but it was more suitable
for the designs of my report.
And now I will just state for the most concise reflection of myself from the day I made friend
with "Designing a Business": I am not perfect... and I do not like to be perfect. From my
personal perspective, the unripe apple will be ripe but the ripe one will surely be fallen;
..thus,
..I would rather choose..
..to keep being a green fruit
…for all of its lifespan
..to be able
..to keep learning
..and improving myself
.. .
For the final summary, I will always remind myself of following and chasing
through these lines below for my whole life as well as for my near future.
 Continue to challenge myself of being creative
 Besides, still keeps the doubt about everything as about myself
 But I will balance both of creativity and doubt to do not fool myself out of my sanity

42
 I understand the value of "cannot-survive alone" in the
modern society. I will learn to love people around me; even if
they are my enemies, I will use the power of love to make them become friends (but if it is too
hard and wasting time, I will be more careful and avoid to be blind and indiscriminate)
 I will always strive to not make mistakes of putting my feelings at work. It was the most
unprofessional action and therefore, I will not try to argue with people who use the emotional
issues to protect themselves in a debate. It is just wasting the time for them and… especially
for me
 I always remind me that „to look for numerous reasons to blame and stop doing things‟ is
easier about a hundred thousand times than finding a motivation to keep-moving-forward and
succeed
 In addition, I will not forget to create the deadlines for myself. I enjoy
working under pressure and as from many empirical evidences around,
perhaps no motivation can be valuable and precious as a deadline. As
Napoleon Hill stated, "A goal is a dream with a deadline" (Brainy Quote, 2014)
 According to Widener (2014), seven steps for everyone to achieve their
„dreams‟ are: dream it, believe it, see it, tell it, plan it, work it and enjoy it.
Above all, I will always cherish the 7th thing as best. I will keep having fun,
keep smiling, keep making happiness and keep enjoying things for whatever it is on the way of
pursuing my dreams, my ambitions or my desires in life. I know "The secret of life, though, is to
fall seven times and to get up eight times" (Coelho, 1988) and my philosophy lies only in the most

43
awesome phrase,
 Last but not least, I know I do not like to talk much (I love to read and write) but when
I have to speak, they will always be my sincere words from the bottom of my heart and I will
not hesitate to share my experiences or the knowledge and lessons I have learned to those who
really want to listen.

44
With the most respect, I would like to present this report to Dr. Corrine
instead of making a direct word as "many thanks".
My tutor had actually given me an inapproachable opportunity in life
when accepted me to be in the classes of
"Designing a Business".
"Designing a Business" has not only been
one of my most interesting journey across the world
(I have met people from different background,
different cultures and different parts of the world
from “Designing a Business” classes),
but it is also a memorable adventure
..that I will never forget.
zAs one idea has just popped up in my head right now, I really want to make a comic book or
just some illustration, as well as create some melody and little musical for all the memories I
have had with my group members, my tutor, my classmates and my "Designing a Business" class.
As one of the sayings from the most inspiring people in my life,
Disney stated that . As if "Designing a Business" come back
to me once again in a dream, I will experience everything from the starting point
which I am not sure that I will make it different or not.
However, I am feeling in that dream…
I had left a mark of myself, in my own way, at .

45
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun sweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brother
The heron and the otter and my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain
Can you paint with all the of the wind
How high does the sycamore grow
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountain
We need to paint with all the of the wind
you can own the Earth and still
All you own is Earth until
You can paint with all the of the wind
(Pocahontas, 1995)

47
. . REFERENCE LIST
Accenture (2013) „Risk management for an era of greater uncertainty‟ [Online]. Available at:
http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-risk-management-era-greater-uncertainty-graphi
c.aspx [Accessed: 24th
April 2014]
Brain Health (2012) „Fun Facts About the Brain‟ [Online]. Available at: http://www.brainhealth
andpuzzles.com/fun_facts_about_the_brain.html [Accessed: 24th
April 2014]
Brainy Quote (2014) „Disney‟ [Online]. Available at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes
/w/waltdisney130027.html [Accessed: 26th
April 2014]
Brainy Quote (2014) „Napoleon Hill‟ [Online]. Available at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/
quotes/n/napoleonhi152852.html [Accessed: 25th
April 2014]
Business School Edge (2013) ‟21 Business Skills Needed to Succeed‟, 5th
July 2013 [Online].
Available at: http://www.businessschooledge.com/21-business-skills-to-succeed [Accessed: 24th
April 2014]
Coelho, P. (1988) The Alchemist: A Fable of Following your Dream. Harper Collins USA.
Davila, D. (2011) „This is your Brain on Google‟, 27th
September 2011 [Online]. Available at:
http://idaconcpts.com/2011/09/27/this-is-your-brain-on-google/ [Accessed: 25th
April 2014]
Fisher, R. (2002) „Creative Minds: Building Communities of Learning for the Creative Age‟,
Teaching Qualities Initiative Conference, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2002.
Gargasz, Z. (2010) „Understanding people- Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs and Clayton‟s ERG
Theory‟, 22th November 2010 [Online]. Available at: http://www.gargasz.info/maslow
_hierarchy/ [Accessed: 25th
April 2014]
Goins, J. (2011) „Communication changes the world‟ [Online]. Available at: http://goinswriter.
com/communication-changes-world/ [Accessed: 24th
April 2014]

48
Goldman, E. G. (2012) „Be Ready When Opportunity Knocks: Take Risks to Take Your Life to
the Next Level‟ [Online]. Available at: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellness_
articles.asp?id=1754 [Accessed: 24th
April 2014]
Hamlett, C. (2012) „5 Communication Skills Needed As a Business Owner‟, Demand Media
[Online]. Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-communication-skills-needed-business-
owner-2869.html [Accessed: 23rd
April 2014]
Infographics (2013) „Left Brain vs. Right Brain‟ [Online]. Available at:
http://infographics.idlelist.com/left-brain-vs-right-brain/ [Accessed: 23rd
April 2014]
Kennon, J. (2013) „3 Types of Opportunity Cost That Influence Your Investment Portfolio‟
[Online]. Available at: http://beginnersinvest.about.com/od/Opportunity-Cost/a/3-Types-Of-
Opportunity-Cost.htm [Accessed: 23rd
April 2014]
Mace Kingston (2013) „Module Description‟ [Online]. Available at:
http://macekingston.wordpress.com/module-description/ [Accessed: 22nd
April 2014]
Macquarie University 2010) „How Does Creative Thought Differ from Critical Thought?‟
[Online]. Available at: https://staff.mq.edu.au/teaching/curriculum_assessment/critical_creat
ive/differences/ [Accessed: 23rd
April 2014]
Newton, P. (2014) „7 Top Skills That Got People Hired In Social Business‟, 25th
March 2014
[Online]. Available at: http://www.intelligenthq.com/business/7-top-skills-got-people-hired-
social-business/ [Accessed: 25th
April 2014]
Puccio et al. (2005) „Creative and Critical Thinking: Assessing the Foundations of Liberal Arts
Education‟ [Online]. Available at: http://www3.wooster.edu/teagle/vendiagram.php [Accessed:
24th
April 2014]
Rodiguez, F. (2013) „Change the Culture, Change the World‟ [Online]. Available at:
http://creativetimereports.org/2013/04/01/change-the-culture-change-the-world/ [Accessed:
24th
April 2014]

49
Seneca, L. A. (4BC-65AD) “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”
[Online]. Available at: http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/luck_is_wha
t_happens_when_preparation_meets_opportunity [Accessed: 23rd
April 2014]
Smith, C. (2014) „How many People use 416 of the Top Social Media, Apps and Tools?‟, 2nd
April
2014 [Online]. Available at: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/resource-how-many-
people-use-the-top-social-media/3/#.U1YoLfldVqU [Accessed: 23rd
April 2014]
Taal (2013) http://www.awinningpersonality.com/right-mindset-for-success/ideas-man-shed-
simove-try-see-life-experiment-never-fail/ [Accessed: 22nd
April 2014]
Tellwut, M. (2013) „Ideas man Shed Simove: I try to see my life as an experiment, then I never
fail‟, 21st
December 2013 [Online] Available at: http://www.tellwut.com/blog/what-does-it-take-
to-be-a-market-researcher-infographi/ [Accessed: 22nd
April 2014]
Widener, C. (2014) „7 Steps to Achieve Your Dream‟ [Online]. Available at:
http://www.success.com/article/7-steps-to-achieve-your-dream [Accessed: 25th
April 2014]
Young, S. (2013) „The Door is Wide Open for Opportunity‟, 10th
June 2013 [Online]. Available at:
http://www.success.com/article/the-door-is-wide-open-for-opportunity [Accessed: 22nd
April
2014]

57
. . EPILOGUE
- My “never-ending-tale” -
One of the most difficult choices to
make is to choose the right or easy
path to step on. Nevertheless, I think
the procrastination, the indecision
and waiting until the right moment
comes to make the choice... that is
the worst option for me. I would
rather to jump directly any path in
front of me which makes me feel
comfortable enough, and starting
walking or running on the way till one day, I realized that it perfectly was not right for me and I
will accept to turn my head back and starting again with the second road.
People often get tired of having to start over and I am confident
to say that I have experienced about this as much as I am a
testament of myself for always doing things from beginning;
however, I was more excited with this game as a journey over and
over through time.
I am writing this report, indeed, in only nearly 3 days.
Why?

58
There are things happening at the right time, and right moment without any cause or reason
which can make you lose all your motivation to keep going and just want to surrender right
away. Nonetheless, whether how many times you look at things like this, it already happened
and nothing might be changed. Hence, things happen today have become the past of tomorrow
and if look from different perspective, as about the human beings, we are the smallest
particles of the whole universe and so all problems should have nothing to be concerned at all.
To be honest, three days of before typing to these lines of my report (i.e. at this moment, I had
only 11 hours to submit it via Turnitin and my Wordpress blog), my laptop suddenly had gone
wild and crazy without any specific causes. There were no errors in any software, hardware or
my database but I just could not open and work on my report anymore. The report has been
corrupted and as I have start working continuously since last week to complete the report
with no pressure, eventually, things happened again like that for me. What must come what will
have to come?
Did I cry? Not really. I was too exhausted to cry like a baby for once more time in life.
After looking for the hundreds of ways (e.g. ask friends, Google, read article about restoring
missing data or solving corrupted files), I almost put effort on every possible thing and the last
thing as which I have not chosen to do that purchasing software in order to recover error
files of Office with a cost of more than £100. I decided to start from the beginning again. It
cannot be denied that £100 was not a big money but also not small in many ways. However, no
one can be sure that the software would work and solve my problem as I never fully believed all
of the positive comment on Internet. Starting-over-again was a difficult decision
but I also felt happy because I still pursue my ideal from the famous phrase
"NEVER-GIVE-UP". In addition, according to the way of making the words
shorter, N.G.U means "Being Foolish" in terms of my mother tongue.
“I may not be smart enough to do everything, but I'm dumb enough to try
anything.”

59
Yes!
This report is the final journey with "Designing a Business" for 1 day without
eating anything, without sleeping for 2 days and 3 days of without having bath
and I do not complain anything, I just want to share that because it was a journey,
it would never come easy. In other words, starting-over-again and N.G.U are my
answer, my response, my reaction and my reflection for every time when this
life still want to challenge me once again. No one can know what will happen
next; so the best way to predict the future is to create it (Peter Drucker).
Everyone will leave this world someday, so why not keep trying and continue
enjoying this journey until every single and last minutes of it.
I also want to thank to everyone and especially to my parents who had given me the previous
opportunity of coming to this country land of fog (although I do not think it was really foggy as
rumored) to keep learning many things, to meet more people and to be a part of "Designing a
Business". “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” (Eleanor
.Roosevelt)
"Life, maybe, is not about changing the world.
Sometimes.. It's about doing our best to leave the world.
The way it is.
It's about respecting the DREAMS of the others!
And believing in your own!"
---------------------
Maxie (26th
April 2014)

Designing a Business.. or "ME"

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