Such Is Life

It was another exhausting week for me…and miserable too :( Well, we have finished the planograming for our Subang store. Thank You GOD, Praise To The Lord, Bless You GOD. We also have a walkabout with Juan Carlos, together with his Boss; the Merchandise Director. The Merchandise Director didn’t go into the details too deeply by walking from one element to another element to inspect the assortments like how we used to practice previously, this time around, perhaps due to the time constraint, he just have a glance through of each of the department and I got hentam very badly :( I was bashed from the beginning till the end…from the right to the left. In front of everyone. The worst hit was the Luggage Deparmtnet, claiming that the designs are brutally ugly & very outdated. The Merchandise Director wanted something fresh, trendy, contemporary, striking and sporty. I didn’t study fashion, I don’t follow trend but to me these collections were not that bad either, it was acceptable and a sales generator. Well, everyone is entitle to their own opinion and print designs are always a bit tricky because they are a very subjective matter. Some people may prefer these designs to other designs. Since the Merchandise Director have issue such a comment, I guess we just have to work on how to improve the collections further. And we are being challenge to bring in new brands of Luggage such as Hush Puppies and Slazenger to add value to the category. Next, it was the Toys section. The Merchandise Director wanted Thomas & Friends. Thomas & Friends is not that popular in Malaysia. Slowly, it’s being phased out even though the cartoon is still being aired on the Astro Channel. Last year December, The English have a Christmas catalogue and they didn’t even advertise Thomas & Friends toys even though their stores still carry the physical stocks. Even our Japanese counterpart only features a small quarter of the page, the rest of the pages in their last year Christmas catalogue were emphasizing the other brands. Based on my observation, the Merchandise Director is from the upper class of the society, sending his children to International Schools, therefore I doubt whether he have a pulse on the society in general. And I also begin to find Juan Carlos is totally contradicting with his strategies. It is making me very confuse. Am I a hypermarket format or a departmental store concept? I am asked to fix the department but no resources were given. Extra pages of the catalogue were given to the Team Tex because they are overstock but not to drive sales. I have been told to retain and improve supplier’s support but yet Juan Carlos still insists to buy from GSA. I feel like I am being used. I am here not to fix the department to bring it back on track but to implement the changes as per Juan Carlos's request. If this trend continue to be like this…I will lose my supplier’s support, I will also lose my grip & foothold in the industry. I will be totally finished. I am trying to break out from all of this…but sadly I can’t even secure a new job. Of course the Rocket Internet has called me for the second time (which i am very thankful of) and an offer from another Supplier…which is not my cup of tea. I know what I want but why it is so hard to find the right one. And at the end of the week…I feel like slumping down on the floor and sulk for the whole day.

But I also find that this learning process is very useful. It promotes concentration, determination, adaptation, change and discipline. If it had been easy, then I’m not so sure that I would have learnt the lessons that failure teaches me. Twists always make things more interesting, yes? I think my failure scars are like battle wounds - beautiful, in a way. They show what I’ve been through and how strong I am for coming out of it.

So, Yingze – Keep Going. Be brave to leave your Comfort Zone and go anywhere in the world to claim your future.

"We also need to accept and embrace the concept of failure, not because failure is a good thing but because it’s a natural part of the path of progress. If you’re failing, at least that means you’re trying — not remaining on the outside of the arena, looking in. And we need to learn to deal with our inner critics, who are so adept at shutting us down when we dare to try" - UnKnown