General Object is Now Open!

Yaaay, we are open!

After the long hours of preparation, setting up and production, we are finally happy to announce that our products are now available for purchase. Shop now at General Object for your daily household supplies and all things for your dwelling.

Please visit our website www.general-object.com for product showcase and purchase!

Meanwhile we're tidying up our look on the world wide web, go ahead and follow our progress through our Facebook page.

Few Last

Healesville, VIC

Jak

As I was sitting at one of Jakarta’s hippest dining spots (if were not to meet friends, wouldn't be here), I started to believe that this is my dwelling place now. A group of young executives were having a chit-chat over dinner after their long working day, another table of well-off aunties were talking loudly about how their neighbors just spent millions of rupiah for a bag and in the more quiet corner, two young men were discussing their business while smoking a good rolled tobacco. Ahh, it felt so much like Jakarta.

A couple of reasons why I think people should come to Jakarta. Although sometimes it’s seen just as a city full of lifestyle and traffic, there is something phenomenal happening here. It’s just so alive and vibrant. It’s everyone in it who makes it like that. Everyone is contributing their energy, effort and their cash in supporting the rising small medium enterprises. Or wisely speaking, I should not use complicated words, as I would sound like the recently arrested (formerly up for election in Karang Asih) guy that just doesn’t seem as smart as he wants to. It’s a different sensation, Jakarta is. It’s the upper class to the lower class of the society who makes this all possible. Where else could you possibly find a society as broadly set apart as it is here?

Nevertheless, Jakarta is emerging in its own terms. The rising of pop-up markets is illustrative enough to show how vibrant the young culture is. Those who just don't find enough satisfaction in the everyday mundane and keep looking for a brighter future while enjoying the process. But hey, the ILO said to get young people to decent jobs. If the decent ones are not there, let’s just create our own. Good jobs are not at all easy to get, especially when previously existed jobs are not there anymore these days and suddenly totally new positions are available to those daring to take the challenge. It’s a big question mark really of how we all should react to the changes. It has really become the survival of the fittest and Jakarta is offering the land to survive (or so they said).

A Conversation with Evan and Dan's Manifesto

It's really early in the dawn when I was reading Dan Pink's Flip Manifesto, a great read that I think everyone should spare some time to have a read. As I was reading, I was brought back to some days earlier this week, when I had a chance to spend a day with Evan of H.D. Buttercup who was visiting Indonesia (Yes, thanks to people around me who know that access is far more powerful than notes). There were some things that simply clicked to me and made me realize how people who do great in what the do are simply doing things that we all have been reading from books but just never end up doing it. 

Quoting from Dan's first paragraph:

"If you're looking for business advice, you might haul out your old MBA textbooks or consult a management guru. But the shrewdest guidance often comes from an actual entrepreneur. Someone who's created a company. Someone who's faced the challenges of missed deadlines, cranky employees and dodgy supply chains. Someone, say, like Bob the Builder."

True that. I've learned much more during my times tagging along people whom I respect, rather than studying at any schools. I had animated conversation with people who truly have been in the industry and have gone through the sweet and bitterness of it. I learned the real world wisdom from them.

It was interesting how Evan said to me to treat work like a relationship. You got to give all you have, you got to love it, you got to give it all your time. Otherwise, it won't work. He kept asking me, what do you want to do? What? Is it really? Why? And that straightaway affirmed me that I was not firm enough. Wrote Dan in his text: "Of course, passion isn't bad. But business can be a bit like love. When people first fall in love, they experienced that woozy and besotted feeling that verges on obsessiveness. That's passion and it's great. But as couples bond more enduringly, that fiery intensity can give way to calmer warmth. That's true love - and that's where the magic is." More than the hot and steamy passion, we should go for the calm and deeper love because you have to live with it. 

Here is a nice video of John Paul Dejoria, illustrating how your work should be your lifestyle, that you enjoy it so much and you do with sincerity. Do what you believe, although you can't pay your bills, keep doing it. Overcome rejections because you will eventually get through it.   

And a more real-life application of what working means, this one is one of my favorites on just get up and do attitude. 

A final advice was to travel. Keep moving otherwise you'll stay. It's good to experience, to see what's out there and to keep yourself present. Eventually from all the years, you will realize how insignificant you are. How you can't do things on your own and how you should appreciate and respect others even more. 

We are lucky in our own terms. And I'm lucky to have have people around me keeping me aware of the things that I might miss out in life. Nonetheless, strive towards a larger goal. 

Everyone's going out

I'm staying in

I like it in here