The league of extraordinary gentlemen and women

by Paul Ong

I stumbled into class at 8.15am. Early, but that’s how it should be on the first lesson of a new class. I took my seat, my regular spot – left side of the seminar room, last row. Professor Lim walked in, introduced herself, and by the end of that first lesson, Litbullpen was conceptualized.

By the second week, the Litbullpen league of extraordinary gentlemen and women was formed. I had my doubts – I’ve never met a few of them, let alone seen them in school, and I had never worked in such a big group (8 members) before. But indeed it was the start to an enjoyable and interesting journey, filled with laughs and unforgettable moments. The group consisted of two finance students, three accounting students, two marketing students and a hobo who turned out to be our CEO. Everyone brought something different to the table, and thankfully it worked wonders for us – everyone stuck to the game plan.

Litbullpen was never an easy business idea to grasp, and I am thankful and lucky that the people I worked with could visualize the initial idea. The next 10 weeks, we brought the idea from our minds to life, and now, it is a working website, with a great business model. We toiled week after week, learning how to work together, splitting the work according to specialization and tying it all back up again when it was necessary. Through this course I realized that team dynamics is key in moving forward. Being adaptable and catering and communication with 7 other individuals is never easy, but all of us in the group took the time to get to know how each other worked, and how we functioned, and catered to one another, and this made working together a far easier task. We managed to accomplish all tasks on time, with great results.

Technological Entrepreneurship allowed us to garner hands on experience in setting up Litbullpen one step at a time, and week after week I picked up new skills and competencies which helped me in my bid towards being a real entrepreneur. Unlike other classes, I finally was able to use what was taught in class on my own grounds. From working with people, to working for people, and learning how to set up and run a business is what I take away from Professor Lim. When it comes to her, textbooks in classrooms does translate to life in the real world.

I always told me myself that setting up my own business was always the alternative to my target of working in the Finance Industry (yes like every other student from SMU), but after this class, I feel like I have good fundamentals and confidence of moving ahead and growing something on my own.

P/S: Credit goes out to our CEO, hobo, fish dealer and LITBULLPEN mascot, Jeremy Michael Ching. In him, we had a leader, a follower and a joker. Utility personnel who are adaptable are extremely important.