2013 Aug U@live featuring Mr Tan Min-Liang

ladies and gentlemen welcome again my name is Valerie and thank you so much for being a part of you alive today the program today is in three sections firstly a ten minute talk by a speaker mr. min Yankton and then a 20 minute interview session with Vista Viswa siddhis even the chairman of the Uli of organizing committee and then finally a 30 minute Q&A session if you wish to ask a question please make your way to the microphones place along the aisles introduce yourself and speak directly into them this is essential so our online community is able to hear your question today we'll also be using pigeon-hole live for our Q&A session so if you have a smartphone a tablet or a laptop computer with you you can just launch your internet browser and go to pH live 80 just key in our event passcode which is you alive which is you a li ve and click go you're then free to fire away all your burning questions while also voting for any question that interests you the more popular questions with more votes will send a higher chance to be answered by our speaker also do remember to leave some feedback on the pigeonhole application after the event thank you so much for your kind attention and please sit back and enjoy you alive ladies and gentlemen a round of applause for mr. Minnie Anton thank you for having me thank you an us for inviting me over here so well it's good to see that at least there a couple of people here I was concerned that nobody would turn out so that's great I received the invitation to come speak with you guys about two months ago and true to NUS tradition I did absolutely nothing until about last night then I started panicking and preparing and stuff like that which is fine so if I'm glad that you guys didn't have to pay for this because you would not get your money back after this chat no nonetheless just a quick introduction about myself in case you guys may not be necessarily familiar with Razer we don't deal with shaving equipment so for those of you who thought that you know it's like somebody from Gillette or something like that it's a nice time for you to just skedaddle out but we're Razer we make probably some of the best gaming hardware in the world for example we make yeah razor so we make probably some of the best gaming mice keyboards headphones on the planet we didn't just these we don't just design and manufacture mice keyboards etc but pretty much if you look at any gaming peripheral peripheral out there we invented this entire industry so that's been great fun for us the past couple of years on top of that we design and build gaming laptops we've recently launched them over here in Singapore the Razer Blade we make some of the world's thinnest gaming laptops out there primarily in North America but right now we've started launching in other parts of the world so that's good we've also got a software platform that gamers come and log on every single day right we've got millions of them that common bought we do everything in terms of communications VoIP etc to boosting games and pretty much everything so in a nutshell we design things for gamers by gamers and that's pretty much our motto so a little bit about myself when we first found it Razer was just a myself in a my co-founder Robert crack off two of us not knowing anything better about business which was I think fortunate for us two of us back then a couple of years back we have grown to about close to 500 employees worldwide in 10 cities we are headquartered out of California where I spend most of my time but I come back to Singapore pretty much every month because the food is good and we've got a good presence over here so in true and us student fashion I think I've gone through at least two or three minutes so I'm left with seven so that's good um in a nutshell right I think today we know when I looked at inspiration and things like that I don't think I'm in the best position to inspire what I can do however is to share a little bit about on some lessons I've learned in the past couple of years having found a razor first of which and probably pretty much three lessons you know that I've learnt in the past couple of years from a two-man shop to a couple of hundred people right now the first lesson is it's actually fine to waste time all right so I've gone through pretty much most of my life having people tell me that I'm wasting my time and every time I've been told that I'm wasting my time playing computer games chasing girls etc these have actually become my most valuable assets or most productive well the gaming part has become well the other parts too right most valuable assets today all the time the I was told you know gaming is horrible or it's you're never going to amount to much from computer gaming I didn't really care like probably most of you guys and I spent most of my time playing everything from Altima to wasteland to you know World of Warcraft etc which I'm sure a lot of you guys play too so basically we I've - I've taken pretty much everything else I took pretty much everything I was passionate about and converted it now I'm not to say that I didn't enjoy what I was learning at NUS and things like that but that was my passion that is my passion and till today it's still a passion for us raisa isn't a business for us it's not a business it never has been and probably never will be because we do all kinds of crazy stuff at at Razer but really at every point of time that I was told I was wasting my time I was actually learning something I was actually doing something truly constructive for the future so the good news is if you guys feel that you're wasting your time even in this talk it could help you in the future alright so that's that's the first thing I pretty I learned pretty much in the past couple of years that it's fine to waste time now the second thing that has translated I like your shoes green Razer green awesome right and the second thing I've pretty much learned along the way is that it's actually pretty good not to work very hard alright it's it's great I'm one of the laziest bastards you'll see in any place and yeah I'm it's counterintuitive to the government telling you oh please work hard and things like that now I I pretty much in Nusa in pretty much every point of time in my life everything I wasn't very passionate about I was I wasn't very interested in I kind of did the bare minimum to coast through oh don't look at me like that most of you do the same thing alright so I it through pretty much everything I didn't really work very hard and I think at any point of time that you feel that you're working really hard and yep you know killing yourself getting something done it's either you don't really like what you're doing or you're not very good at it anyway alright so every single day I spend hours days months years for example trying to try to design get the most perfect color or or get the perfect angle or get the perfect precision out of all our products that's not that's not work for me I spent hours days etc doing that but that's real fun for us and in terms of that we've got some really great people at Razer who really like to do the other stuff that I'm not passionate about for example you know we I've got one of the best CFOs out there a really smart guy but one of the best CEOs who are really passionate about things that I'm not passionate about manufacturing and I mean some of you guys may be passionate about it but they'd like that and to them it's not work so don't work so hard do something that that you're really passionate about it could be something you're studying right now it could be something that you take from what you're studying it and bring it to something else and tomorrow for example if I have to start all over again I'll be absolutely happy to start all over again doing something fun just as every single day is fun for us at Raisa we do all kinds of crazy stuff so that's the second thing I really learned that it's good not to work really hard and the third thing pretty much and I think this is this is probably coming from a a very Singapore background is it's okay to get an F it's absolutely fine to get an F you know look at look at all my lessons right now you know it's fine to waste time don't work so hard it's okay to get an F this is a diabolical plan to make all you guys drop out so I can hire you guys cheap no it's it's not that but I think one of the things I think every single day you know we are we're so caught up with with with results you know we're so caught up with metrics that are artificial right the same things that that we are conditioned or told every single day that it's it's vitally important you have to pass it if they don't pass it your life is destroyed it's ruined etc in the greater scheme of things candidly nobody cares right in the long term at the end of oh I've got one minute oh dear I thought I was gonna do to you know be done with in five but it's okay to get an F it's absolutely fine why because in the greatest scheme of things when it comes to something you really care about when you get an F in something that you know three years ago or ten years ago it's not gonna be reflected in the work that you do or that you really want to do and you really want to do well so that's pretty much the third lesson I've really learned you know out there that is absolutely fine to get an F you learn something from it sometimes it's funny I got food when I was in in college first year FOD you know there was a nice acronym to have but that's one of those things which you know I feel it was something important that failure is great in many ways so that's the ten minute mark which is great so I've completed my task over here fantastic anyhow if you guys have any questions and stuff like that feel free to to drop me a note on my Facebook page search for me or on Twitter don't write anything rude I will block you and hunt you down or anything otherwise this one thank you very much you're amazing man oh isn't he amazing come on gosh I feel old you know it's been 11 years since I've been here in it in anywhere III feel I've been doing this for three years by the way this is the third year of your life and I say this hand in heart you are the most amazing guest I've had oh it's all right thank you very much you're the most amazing guest I've had you know hello it's okay not the clap it's fine okay and he didn't pay me unlike the other guests you know by the way I feel overdressed I wanted to remove my jacket but I was told that he contrasts the white shirt contrasts too much with my skin tone what what what do they mean by that I don't know okay so what's with you lawyers huh oh yes hello yeah there must be something wrong with the legal profession because all of you end up not practicing all the good ones you end up being entrepreneurs starting being really successful doing really good work and then the rest of them end up being judges and so on I'm making a lot of money how many of you from law here Oh nobody from no no no for you this is the brave soul there must be quite a few but they don't want to put their hands up oh come on yeah he graduated from law school in two or two right yeah anyways of course and and this is where he's ended up now one of the things I was told was in April this year there was an interesting incident right you want to share with us what happened April you know the the discount thing oh the discount coupon right you want to share with us one half sure sure how many of you know about that how many of you bought it online now it's only open in UK so okay okay share with us what have you know we took over an online site online shop with a third-party contractor build our online shop they left a discount coupon which was cryptically entitled one two three four so anybody would kill him one two three four a discount code for our UK store would instantly get 90 percent off our products 90 percent off okay right and so well being the Internet you know some guy found out he could have just profited from it from a long term because he wouldn't have come out on a radar decided to post it on Facebook tweeted about it it went viral and a whole bunch of people you know bought products on a stalk with 90 percent off before we found out and it took us I mean it took us about an hour before it got flagged up and we shut and how many people had bought it quite a number and enough to create a dent right and what thousands I the the I mean the amount was in the millions right the amount was in the millions millions of dollars okay right so we ran out so um we sat back and we said look you know what do we want to do right we on one hand we were totally within our rights to say look we're sorry was a mistake and things like that on another hand we said look is there something we can afford right now at least it was a genuine mistake it was one of our partners we want to take responsibility for it we axed the guys that were clearly trying to profit from this buying 20 or 50 of it and try to resell it for example and we said look you know you can have one but we honored it it was one of those things where we as a team sat together and said what would we do as gamers and we said we'll just do that and it was cool I mean we didn't expect to have a lot of press and things like that but there was a lot of press which was yeah cool in a not so good way because we made a mistake but yeah it was it worked out fine it turned out well well people appreciated it now for me when I read it it was extremely refreshing I can't think of a single company that I know that would have done the same thing I think this is a lot to do with the faith you have in people almost greater actually after that was that we had a whole bunch of gamers who came back to us and said look you know I'm sorry I profited off yeah your mistake and they cancelled their orders and that wasn't that amazing that was they cancelled the orders question is do you think the same thing would have happened in Singapore sure hello have a bit more faith huh no I mean we've got lots of gamers we're really passionate about what they do here in Singapore and I absolutely am pretty sure it would have it'll be the same thing in Singapore but what you did was you held the faith that people people in the end will not abuse it and you honor it and you move on right and and then later on you also came up with I mean you did something so you gave people the option of donating it to charity yes right you want to share with us that yeah so we developed some software recently raised us around if you guys haven't tried it out we've been working on it for a couple of years and originally we wanted to launch it's a it's a piece of software that resides in the PC that will allow you to have surround sound instead of just you know stereo sound it it simulates virtual surround so in all your games it comes a lot more lifelike right so we were planning to launch it at about 1999 some time ago but there was it there was a charity that a lot of the gamers in the company they were really passionate about it child's play so what we decided to do was to say hey guys until the end of the year we're gonna give this away for free if you download it now is sign up now it's gonna be absolutely free for you for life but in return we would like you to and put them on everybody on a guilt trip right every time you try to download it is they donate to child's play and things like that like they are getting something for 20 bucks for free so please try to donate up to 20 bucks for that and we have raised tens of thousands of dollars for child's play just like that and and and great it's really about believing that people will do this right and and and that's that that's what stood up for me when I when I saw the other thing about what you said just now you know you said you don't have to be you don't have to be efficient all the time I mean not in so many words but you said that and here's the thing my own sense is sometimes when you are preoccupied with efficiency you actually end up losing resilience okay let me explain you know for example in Singapore it's my pet theory that the reason why we don't have resilience we are not sufficiently resilient it's because we are not allowed to make mistakes and the reason why we are not allowed to make mistakes we have not had the opportunity make big mistakes when you're growing up is because you're told to be safe you know so when you take the safe path what are the chances of you tripping big slim right the classic thing is you when you go to a playground and and and this is this is very interesting my my own playground near my house you see this kid walking four-year-old you know walking you know walking like that like that you know psychomotor skills are really bad that's why we have all these problems in NS you know so they walk is because of you guys you know you just exercise your fingers so they walk and with with the made you know the helper in tow and this guy invariably Falls then you see this this bata boy coming from China he's standing there right Brazilian tough he goes there he climbs he falls he does himself he moves on and and that struck me you know here this kid is not allowed to fall because you've got the help on toe right before he falls you're grabbed but this is the problem is is it's a powerful metaphor of what we are you know and it's all about efficiency while getting it right the first time sure don't fall if you fall you're weak no what's your view on that I mean for us well I suppose I see pros and cons in everything I was trained as a lawyer anyway yeah right so you know I I tend to see pros and cons in in in all situations but he's suddenly concerned because he knows this is webcast ya know it's it's it's more like um I think at the end of the day failure is fine you know fear of failure is also perfectly fine I mean it it breeds different kinds of people and in different roles and and the one thing I think we've we've really learned is I think over the years is that there's always a role for for every kind of person right resilience is absolutely important you know if you're starting a company and you're going to go out there you're gonna take the hard knocks and things like that but there's some paths which are phenomenal for people who say look I just want to focus on a pure technical path I want to invent something I don't necessarily want to start something and and that has worked out really well I think for a different kind of individual so I think it's getting the right kind of position and the right kind of role for the right kind of person that's something that at least we try to do it at Razer what was that me sounding very government oh is that right you know I thought government is trying to get everyone to be entrepreneur yeah this one on the other hand I I don't necessarily see it that way i I I mean I would be absolutely fine working in a large organization or working for somebody in a large organization as long as I feel that I'm actually creating some kind of value value okay and I'm creating something I'm contributing something at the end of the day because it's it's not about being able to manage large teams or and and I think that's that's one of the things that we've been we've been told this is a measure of success managing people managing managing large teams but I've met some of the most talented engineers or most talented lawyers and things like that and they work absolutely well in a silo they just don't play well with others yeah but they're insanely intelligent and they're insanely great in what they do and if we were if anyone was trying to pull the guy and say look you have to manage a team and and that's usually the recipe for for huge failure instead so I think it took even you know ourselves a bit of time to say great we've got a technical path for guys who want to be great in what they do they don't necessarily want to be a CEO or CEO or whatever it is see whatever our chief entertainment officer we just bring we've got that position and company the it's it's really finding the the right path forward so I don't necessarily think entrepreneurship is is is good for all for yes yeah quick question before we throw it open to the floor now you started the company in Singapore then you establish a base in San Francisco well the other way around we could have opened two offices offices Hamilton no my question to you is do you think and your your net worth right now would be about 20 million I don't talk about okay let's say it's about 2 on a million modest estimate if it's that amount of money and it's a very fast growth over how many years ok quite phenomenal right do you think you would have been able to make this growth achieve this this this level of growth if you were based in Singapore just in Singapore and you know you can be in Singapore and have a global market sure sure sure the business you do well I suppose growth has never been you know one of the top most considerations that razor so I suppose it's it's tough for me so I mean I don't calculate all the time how much money or revenues so we're a little bit of a different company of sorts in the sense that for us it's always the product and we are insanely obsessed with with designing product it doesn't matter and to design great product for us it's really finding the right people in the right places to to do that so we started in in California primarily because there were a group of people that were really passionate about engineering or designing stuff and then when we came back and set up our office over here in Singapore it took us a while but we started finding people who who could do the same thing now and candidly speaking I think for those guys that know Razer we tend to do the craziest kind of products they don't necessarily translate to - and if it doesn't make any financial sense whatsoever for example like left-handed gaming mice why because you know every single unit we sell we lose yet it would give a traditional financial guy a heart attack because firstly most left-handers use their right hand anyway to play ya Bureau games it but it's one of those things that we're passionate about so growth in terms of a geography or or or jurisdiction has never been something that we talk about culture or culture I'm talking more about culture not so much growth in terms of numbers finance international numbers I'm talking about the culture do you think the culture the entrepreneurial culture in Singapore not so much talent er the culture would have allowed you to grow to scale at the pace at which you did if it was purely in Singapore and not simultaneously in San Francisco well I think to a great extent it's happening still you know a lot of the guys in Singapore are joining us they come to our office unannounced we we have to lock the doors most of the time now and and it's because they're passionate about gaming they turn up you know we fight we found some really really smart guys over here in in Singapore we've joined our office and and have been designing stuff for us it's it's I think even easier in the sense that there are lots of very passionate people in Singapore the question is whether there are enough outlets to provide for that I think we are a great outlet for people who are passionate about gaming so we gravitate to get a lot of people selling resumes and stuff like that to us the question is if there enough outlets in other areas like us or et cetera for them to to change those passions so I think Singapore even to today I mean even today is one of the growth drivers for for us as a company okay questions comments okay I should get to know you when I was watching a TV program in Shanghai because I actually paid I was based in Shanghai for a couple of years mice with millionaire I don't know whether you remember you you did that show with on this program called ICS so international Channel Shanghai because I was I was living there for a couple of years bombs to base their I mean like you I come back every month as well so my question to you is in in China I always had people asking me about you know you guys Singaporeans are not there to take Greece and no these days I actually find it is better to employ people from other country than Singaporeans so in your opinion you have been like based in California you have been traveling all over the world and you have an office in Shanghai where I remember I remember the show interview one of your employee in Shanghai as well so so my question to you is how do you think Singaporean can try to differentiate themselves now these days in this age especially where globalization and we are losing actually I mean I live in Shanghai for a while and I met people who speak English as fluent as American as well as as as the British so how can we try to substan this competitive advantage and how can we make ourselves stand out especially whether is it for people who are just going to graduate or just for people like me you know who like alumni yep great so this is probably one of the subjects I'm personally quite passionate about and it's one of the things I still a spouse I think on many many occasions that Singaporeans you know the terms of Kapoor Ian's we're a bit like global citizens of sorts you know we speak multiple languages we are fluent in in many cultures and and I don't just say this from the government should be a kind of thing where you know we're good at everything and all the kind of stuff we're not good at everything you know but there are certain things that we're really great at and and that's being able to balance cultures in a multiple situation and being really comfortable I think in in various locations so for example I think it would be great if there was a lot of focus to fund companies by Singaporeans even overseas for that matter it's one of those pet passions I think which would do really great there's there's no real reason for Singaporeans to be defined by locale that they have to be within Singapore to do something and things like that because at the end of the day and and I'm being I think you would share my my views about that Singaporeans like to come home you know they for some reason you go overseas Singaporeans like to hang out with other Singaporeans you know that's that's one of those things right Singaporeans like to find chakra et al in some other location when they had eating damn day at home you know when they when they travel and things like that they like to come together and and and stick together know the thing about about this is you know I I think Singaporeans tend to be global citizens there are pros and cons I wouldn't necessarily say and I know a lot of Singaporeans out there in Shanghai and the rest of the world you know taking risks but taking risks doesn't necessarily mean it's a great thing either as I say there's a role for every every type of person it really just depends on the on the company or the organization I mean if their organization does not value that kind of a mindset maybe it's a wrong organization you know that's the you don't have to go to that organization you can find another one so net-net the way i you know to sum it up I really see Singaporeans as a class of really global citizens and I think it's a resource that we have not truly appreciated that we know we are afraid that the Singaporeans go overseas and not come back I think that's a that's actually a misnomer of sorts because most of the people I know you know like James like myself like many of my friends come back on a regular basis I mean wise I come back on a monthly basis I fly back spend a few days here and and fly out and most of the guys I believe your family here yes yeah and it's it's one of those things yeah but you know even the the I think Singaporeans as a class of citizens have certain basic fundamentals associated like language ability appreciation of culture as I've mentioned all different cultures other than that it's already innate it's all a very individual after that so it's hard for me to to say look you know even though let's Singapore into my office some of them are not alright some of them are really you know kind of followed by the book and and things like that it's it's really you know outside our fundamentals which we have which is my point we've got great fundamentals as Singaporeans the rest of it is really up to the individual to to compete or to differentiate so to speak but our fundamentals alone are a clear differentiation the fact that we are multilingual the fact that we are you know multicultural in terms of comfort that allows us to adapt absolutely okay next yes my question a grim up grim so my question deals with razor's philosophy in terms of targeting a particular kind of market and I've noticed that Razer products tend to focus heavily on PC rather than say cross-platform or for other consoles so and it's not just for Razer it's for other gaming companies as well like SteelSeries or anyone that they don't focus on other platforms so what stops gaming companies from developing for these platforms and the second part of this question is that there's another platform like your mobile gaming platforms that have been left out entirely that there was this point when the PSP or your engaged mobile phones were the big rage that these will be the next gaming devices and now no one really talks about this anymore so why is this the case and does raise a plan to hit the mobile market anytime soon if there is an opportunity okay cool well it would be very careful in answering because the last couple of times I tweeted some stuff randomly became any ups and you know I got a lot of haters on my on my side maybe you try to trap me oh you're just a troll point planted here so so the thing about us is that and this is this is absolutely honest and I'm gonna get in trouble anyway so I don't care we don't really target markets per se right how a product is is actually invented at Razer typically starts from a bunch of guys sitting around playing games of course there researching and then some guy says wouldn't it be cool if this was done and then somebody would say oh yeah nobody wants that and it it usually ends up in it this whole big fist fight all right an office fight it's happened before but you know it some people would argue and things like that so and then we design it and then we are going to prototyping phase and we try it out we send it our pro gamers to test them and I think that so I can't speak for other companies I can't speak for example for Razer where we design products that we use ourselves now it doesn't necessarily mean I don't use the any of the consoles you know I play on the ps3 and play on the Xbox and and things like that to Halo Last of Us or whatever you know yeah I got in trouble because I tweet about Last of Us and it became like big news somewhere but anyway that's how we design product we we design products that we'd like and use ourselves we don't do focus groups we don't ask how bigger market is and stuff like that we tend to just launch it because we think it's cool and we think it's fun and so far what we've realized is because we are the users ourselves but there are lots of gamers like you guys out there that appreciate the stuff that we do so that's not really well now the thing is because we are in a leadership position lots of these other companies kind of slipstream and and follow the work that we do which is great I think we are trying to push forward and we hope that more people do that mobile gaming we have started doing things like PC laptops tablets and things like that we like mobile gaming you know one of my secret personal wishes is that you know gamers out there will be using our products during school so I've got a school program right that that is really quite badass we try to we try to encourage gamers who are in school to use our products because I think of all those times I'm stuck in a lecture and sending it and I get really bored I've got internet connection I could be playing League of Legends I could be playing dota or whatever it is right and and then I am stuck in a way where would be really rude for me to get off the lecture can we censor this but but you know that's part of that's part of one of the things I've always wanted to be able to do multitask everybody's been able to multi I mean I'm not gonna be offended somebody's playing some game out there like that dude but you know but it's fine you know that's that's one of the things that we do so mobile gaming definitely something we're interested in you know as to what products we're gonna come up with we are not talking about it right now yeah okay that before we come to you just one moment there are plenty of questions coming online this 131 people have asked this question is it but 31 but yeah so we're gonna put show it up there what viewed what - for the Alliance but what do you look for in an individual when you hire what do I look for is how many of you would like to be hired by him Oh trust me you should ask the guys in the company you may not wanna okay afterwards how y'all queue up okay okay now listen very carefully you must answer the question properly yeah sure really he thinks I don't answer my questions PAP yeah maybe I've got this diabolical plan to take over the country can you imagine well you're gaming the system so yeah me I gave me the system here that's right so if I ever run please vote for me I appoint you as an independent though so you know everything what do I look for I think outside of the traditional skill sets for example they're suited for the role so for example engineering you know the technical skills or a lawyer or or or a marketing person outside of that I think the key thing is really passion you know it's it's um it's a very amorphous term yeah but but in somewhat cliched well I want to say it's cliched in the sense that if you could illustrate it yeah so I've asked for all kinds of really difficult things from people who join the company like for example a three o'clock in the morning I said okay great now's a great time I've just finished playing my game we can meet up and and talk about it right if you want to join the company and usually because I'm jet-lagged I don't really care it's it's small things like that right of course I'm not gonna be difficult to the person but but passion really shines through and and particularly for our kind of business where we don't necessarily run it like a like a business it becomes inherently a lot more important that it's it's and I use this anecdote a couple of years ago I met with a competitor company that was one wanted to acquire us and and in the conversations with that competitor company they said look you know we can buy you out now or we will crush you very simply Wow right and I said ok you know kind of scary but that's fine and they got the the the the head of their their department to come speak with us to come speak with me and after the conversations and stuff like that I asked him and I said look you know are you a gamer yourself right and he says nah I wouldn't let my son play it's you know it's such a waste of time and instantly at that yeah in that two seconds I went back to my guys and I said look you know these guys will never be a threat because they are not passionate about what they do you know um even if they're much larger than us today it doesn't really matter because we're gonna kick their ass anyway right ultimately and today we are kicking their ass which is great but so I mean I wouldn't say that every single person in the company is a huge game and raise that no but every single person I daresay has a huge appreciation for gaming it's not one of those things that were they're gonna tell the guys no it's a horrible activity and things like that and that's why it's so important for us to evangelize gaming over and over again because it's something that we're passionate about and kick ass is good of course and and and you know you obviously focus a lot on enjoying it having fun doing it and I don't think it's just words I get the sense that you you know the interesting thing here is you know some time back we I had I remember a politician Singapore said you know we we you have very very serious fun and we are very very serious about fun and and also we also believe so much in spontaneity that we plan for it you know you know we form a committee to just study spontaneity you know so but but fun sure very quickly can you can you tell us what fun means to your why is fun such an important component to your success to the company's success well well given that when we first started out gaming wasn't a business right it was one of those things where it was not highly regarded as a career per se we had to develop a pretty thick skin before we entered into gaming and even till today you know I meet people where to go what you're doing computer games and you know gaming and stuff like that so fun became one of those things where you know internally externally it became really important for us you know the gaming sessions in the office that we still do have it was part of that it was a great excuse if we screwed out now we're just doing it for fun right we are still doing it for fun and it's also one of those things that keeps us sane that you know when bankers and stuff like that sit in front of me and say oh you need to to get this amount of bottom line and and and whatever we go like you know dude you know we it's it's fun for us you know don't don't spoil it for us and and that's one thing that we hold very dear to ourselves because if we don't get to design crazy stuff we just become another corporate suit yeah no offense to sue but it's a yeah there's no corporate but but so it's one of those things that continues to drive us and honestly speaking you know like for example laptops when we entered the laptop business I did it because I couldn't find a laptop for myself that I liked and it was crazy everything was big and thick and heavy or it was super thin and it didn't have the kind of power that we wanted so we went into it made absolutely no business sense whatsoever we spent millions of dollars getting the right talent investing in the right tools and stuff like that even to today we are kind of losing money in every single unit of yourself which is insanely expensive by giving every a boutique shop it it did become a product that we are proud of and we liked um at the end of the day and King things came to a head we sat down and said look you know if we make a mistake here it's gonna take down the company yeah it's gonna be tough still up tonight like a meeting like that well the less people and then the point of which really tipped it was that hey it's just so fun so life is short let's just do it and it's crazy but hey so we went ahead we launched the product I mean we went through a couple of iterations we're super insanely proud of the product but hey you know we realized that there are other like-minded people who who really appreciate it so fun is really one of those things that helps us make decisions which is really fun I mean it's great I mean we make decisions that that they're horrible but we justify by calling it fun but yeah you know it's and that's why that's why I million you should not list oh because the fun is going to be taken out taken out of the equation I will see you it's gonna be damn hard okay yes question my name is Nancy ping alumni so University of Malaya returned yeah you mentioned that is okay to get an F right then I presume you can tumble long life and get a lot of Pieria but this one cab it provided you learn from the failure if you get poor word and all that and you never learn anything and just get up and go ahead sure then I think it's a waste of time right so you should learn more from your failure and their more failure you have the better for you we learn for me right so let's talking about lifelong learning law yes yeah so you've got to in Singapore yeah these lines yeah then the other one you see you hate all the metrics and all that right metrics yeah the metrics is miss one so but it's all beliefs you need a thing that you must measure a thing if you don't measure thing how do you know are you doing better or are worse than before therefore you ought to have a standard so that you know we have done 80% maybe next time we'll be battery and do it 90 percent so if you don't have a measure how are you going to improve survive anything at all that you need to measure that might be five you're sick okay you're better than me but if you don't have a measure how do you know I'm better than you are you all better than me therefore although you hate all the industry but you still have to stick to some standard that there's a certain standard and then you can compare otherwise you go nowhere can you come then thank you thank you very much this is that's why I love him you know he's been here for three years every month right without fail reality check that has not died a real wisdom okay well you know the problem is I would respectfully disagree you naughty boy I know yeah so IIIi would say you know learning from mistakes is absolutely important I think that's one of those things which I totally agree with the thing about metrics I think on the other hand is it's hard to argue metrics when I have no perception of what metrics there are to to do it's like it's like designing a product somebody tells me look you know men and there are lots of products of all for all your razor fans out there I mean that you would say that look you know we could make a huge ton of money for example and as a metric if money was a metric for us if we just made some slight changes here and there but I don't have a concept of the metric so it's like you know we're asking our net worth and things like that I don't really care about it because at the end of the day what we are we are passionate about is designing products that we we love ourselves I'm not obsessed with how much money we make in fact if tomorrow we had to start all over again big deal you know shoot me it's it's one of those things so I think constantly in terms of designing products sometimes also the metrics are the ones that that that get to me and in the company people have kind of learned to not to tell me hey you know based off this we could do so much better or why don't you try to make a a cheaper product so that more people can it can enjoy it and stuff like that it's I suppose if there was a metric for for product greatness absolutely we would we would love to do well in that it's just that maybe my point is traditional metrics that many of us are are measured by an A to F or or you want to make a lot of money as an investment banker or go and be your management consultant those are metrics that at least for me it isn't something that that makes me passionate I mean if I want to make a lot of money I might have stayed in law right but I hey I'm having a lot more fun if family had a metric they'll be great but so that's us so it's appreciation of metrics maybe it's not that I don't like metrics per se but it's that the traditional metrics don't necessarily apply I guess in a way I mean you're differentiating metrics from measurement you can measure something that's intangible without actually applying metrics you know what I'm saying that's it that's the sense I get I mean you you can't put in metrics to fund but you can measure it in some way from from your deoxy indicators right how you feel right this is a question that professor Victor Savage has as well yes Victor yes what is the difference between the Entrepreneurship culture here as compared to USA is there a difference oh yeah there is a difference I think there is a difference and is that you know it's it's fundamental culturally and things like that one of the one of the points I'd like to talk about is for example you know if I'm in San Francisco and I'm grabbing my breakfast in in a Starbucks or something like that usually and this happens on a daily basis right there's a guy behind me or something some someone's about look I've got this business idea oh I'm gonna meet this venture capitalist oh I'm gonna do this or something like that breakfast I'll have somebody at the side everyone's got an idea everyone's trying to do something all right that's the Entrepreneurship culture in in the valley right everyone's go getting they want to do something and stuff like that in in Singapore it's a little different it's um it's more of let's look at all the fundamentals let's look at what we can do to to make sure that there's a good safety net or or so on and so forth now I wouldn't necessarily say it's well I would say that it's different I wouldn't necessarily say that one is superior than the other right because there are some great entrepreneurs that have come out in Singapore right like like well lots of guys you know everyone from ozium creative and high flux high flux Olivia's is is insanely intelligent so there are lots and lots of entrepreneurs that come out I don't necessarily think it's important for us to have a similar culture of sorts mm-hmm you know there isn't a necessity for us to say look it has to be that I need to go down to Sand Hill circle road to picture a VC every other day I think a true entrepreneur whether he's in Indonesia which I've met some great entrepreneurs in Indonesia for example Singapore Japan Taiwan you know Europe etc we'll find our way is there something in Singapore our culture that you think we can have a little bit more off that'll help I think we have more people that was a help in general I think as a group you know we've got a couple of million people and you talked about the larger pool it's a larger pool i I think I mean I've met some really smart people in Singapore and I continually meet them all the time I think trying to put a certain kind of framework to say it must be like the valley oh no no it's not about it right must be like the valley but is there some quality that you personally think we could have a little bit more off it's not a criticism of me but I'm trying to get you off the fence sure maybe because I I constantly see we have got so many roles in the company then but if you take talking about specifically entrepreneurship entrepreneurship okay is there a particular quality I think less reliance on a government may be you know that's that's one of the things I hear often I mean when I think government support for entrepreneurs is horrible idea you know it's it's terrible I mean the number of people that come to speak to me about investing their companies usually ends off with hey look you know if you invest X dollars I can get matching amount from the government and and things like that that's um I think that's a wrong tone why right from the get-go because I think all you know ideas or investments should be based off an idea or a passion or dream etc it shouldn't be predicated upon you know I can get help from the government and that know now don't get me wrong it's not because I didn't get any help from the government and things like that and and I did it but I'm I think it's a good thing and I still want to come back in and do whatever I can because you know I've seen also bitter guys that have sat back and say oh I you know government help me it's art and and they come back and suffer I don't think it that that's that's helpful either right um I think we've come we come from a great using its developed a crutch mentality somewhat you know I think it's um it's good in certain aspects I think giving them an incubator incubates or place for people to meet is incredible you know giving connections and stuff like that absolutely fine right but I think in general outside anything over and above you should be left hand out that should be left to market forces okay right because you didn't get any I mean in your initial you know investment phase you didn't get investors well we had angel investors we found a way yeah and and you're saying that you will you were forced to find your way and because you're a dog and you managed to get them right yeah you know just just as I would share you know it's like playing a computer game right you you reach our obstacle it's not necessarily a setback you know you try to find ways and means to get around it I mean I've been obsessed over certain level over and over again until such a point of time to find a cheat code or something like that to to get past it but but that's the nature of I think entrepreneurs in as a whole I mean if you hit a brick wall you just try to vault over it you try to find out but who could blast through it or something like that you know I must share with you something disgusting about this guy oh there are the many disgusting one of the many he I asked him what were some of setback so you had what were some of the frustrations he gave me this this blank the kind of look mean like what do you mean you know and and and the discussing thing is I think he meant it you know that that he really didn't face any challenges in the conventional sense of the world you know that I deal with a lot of entrepreneurs you know and in the nature of my work at you and and I can tell you that the constant thing I hear is the government doesn't do this the people suck this is a problem that's a problem but he just defined it very differently he defined it as in gaming words it's a challenge it's a hurdle I just need to find a way around it in fact it is exciting you know it's it's hard to get get our minds around that way of looking at things now did you have it value in Singapore or any so are you an anomaly I think most of the guys here would probably share the same mindset I mean unfortunately a much older but I'm it's a gaming attitude it's a pretty much gaming attitude I think to a great extent you know you you need a setback I mean of course from time to time and you get on it on a on a server you get a bunch of guys you know when you play the noobs are always on your side right the other side is like always the best right so how do you deal with it right you drop off the server yes no but but that's that's the thing I think everything is uh yeah I'm the guy region but I I think it's it's it's we treat the whole thing literally like like a game even a team you you you bring together as a game you know some people are good in the carry or whatever it is you you just you know somebody needs to organize a raid or whatever and and it's absolutely the same thing I mean I don't necessarily perceive it as a as a setback or challenge know that I look back don't get me wrong when something goes wrong we go like what I'm gonna do right that smile with you know you started it but but because it's just part and parcel of her of if you if you cheetah is a game it's not so bad and and it's difficult I mean it's difficult to faze us when you know you get a bunch of guys that have different intentions all together I mean you know I've had I've met up with as I've mentioned other corporate companies that go like how do you guys run your company and we go like pretty pretty badly you know usually we go like we rock you know at the end of the day so that that's fine you know but it's I think this is a very important point you know I and and obviously this is a bias sample a lot of you are how many of you are active gamers okay will will older people not older older people will older people ever be able to sort of get into the groove with you sure I mean what language I'm adapting look at some really really smart people or you think you're not smart like so I mean at razor you know we've the age ranges everything from teens we've got yeah we got child labor in the office teams to in a 70s right it's it's to us it's a mindset change to appreciate the way which we do things we have a bit of a perspective of life that isn't shared by many of the traditional guys but hey we don't ask we don't demand that our perspectives are forced on others and then we hope nobody forces their perspectives on us I think that's one of those things which we will very respectfully decline to agree but yeah we we have people in all age ranges in fact one of the people I respect immensely is my CEO he's in he's in the 60s and he's a force of nature he's a really smart guy and he's a huge he appreciates gaming in a huge way okay this is a very important question from cyberspace sure how many black t-shirts do I have okay this is a difficult one so I have a lot and I'm gonna hunt down the troll who posted aha oh yeah the guy okay that's fine I'm every volcán with the guy who's gay I have I have I've got a mate I have quite a number yeah okay there's one more one one what's a secret the perfect air so well I mean many many have asked me this anyone from here oh you see this is the this is the problem leaving gamers in this thing and I could have been respectable one do you know paid for this I'm sorry I was gonna ask him you actually paid to get this done all the time well a lot of care intention the same kind of attention I give to designing product perfection all right okay the final question any burning question here yes go good evening my name is Evie I'm a year for bio engineering student from NUS you mentioned about three values in your introduction it's okay to waste time it's okay to gain F it's okay not to work so hard and these are three complete opposite from Asian values values the Asian horns from me to working hard scoring a best grades being efficient so in fact is not only Asians Westerners respect this tree as well in fact like some Westerners even feel that is because of the tree values you mentioned that the Western was lagging behind now and the Asian world is charging forward how do you make the tree value stable about wasting time getting ass and not working hard how you make these values work for you so this is my first question the second question I only have two questions yeah gaming addiction people linky tend to link it to social problem how can gaming be a benefit to society looking at your hairstyle I wouldn't man your deception deception okay yeah I mean maybe first stop I don't really care what people think about my my my three values you're going to say about my hair no I mean I I suppose I may be you know it's like it's like we started off the company by not caring about how people perceived our values even internally within the company we still don't care about a lot of traditional norms we try not we intentionally try to ignore certain norms because we just don't like people who tell us what to do in general right so so whether it's a traditional Asian values or or Western you know perspectives of the way which we do things that razor or you know I can get bankers in a sharp suit telling me look you know min you could be worth so much more if you didn't run the company in such a crazy way that you do it yeah but it wouldn't be fun so you know so anyway that's one the other so anyway the second thing let me think what was this Oh was the question again Oh give me a diction oh yeah it's a horrible horrible thing okay I insist that we all observe a 10 second silence to recognize this a horrible horrible thing it's a it's a horrible horrible thing so I think all the noobs you get off the servers you know yeah give me addiction you know it's one of those things where you know back in the day you watch TV is too much TV right it's a sign of that it's sign of the times rock and roll you know I'm sure some of you might appreciate horrible influence on society it's gonna to destroy things Miley Cyrus good god all right so so that's the thing addiction I think it's part and parcel of life you know everything moderation I suspect even better when you're playing games it's probably John I'm still trying to figure it out how do you make these values work for you yeah I don't know we still try to figure it out you know we asked the question sitting cross-legged then ya can answer yeah that's my point I I think we're still trying to make it work for us I mean we are a bit of a random company you know it's we're run by Sherlock you know that's that's something I say all the time right okay great well oh one of our youngest alright my name is yoking Jun alumni I you have to help me out here because I've been sitting there trying to figure once this guy you know he he has these three values which are other question asked you know you have no don't care about wasting time don't care about getting F don't keep you know I wanted to ask you because from what I've heard throughout this session the first thing that struck me is this guy either he comes from a family with very deep pockets or very high intellect so you didn't share with us your family background I'll be you know you want to go into that because I think you're very unusual guy who cannot be from our Singapore educational system my second is suggesting here's a genetic flaw I don't know I'm trying to find out so maybe you want to share something my second question is because you have a law degree I'm not sure what values you bring to the table as an entrepreneur what what is it that through your education in the law school maybe it's not that helps you to build up such a successful business business given that you know you didn't know anything about business and quite a few people asked this question online as well about a related question how did you manage the transition from lawyer practicing lawyer true entrepreneur okay cool so very quickly family you know middle-class I think they're pretty normal I didn't have to worry about anything so that's great I think my parents took good care of us so I think that was one of the best things I mean I wouldn't I wouldn't dare say that I didn't rely on them at all because I think the very fact that I didn't have to worry about them it's a great benefit already so I think you know I have to really thank my parents that they are really independent from from that perspective clearly they were bit Maverick also you know is this stop at to thing you know she had four kids so I'm the youngest of four my mom was really clear right from the get-go that you can either be a doctor or lawyer right to the four kids and ended up the two doctors two lawyers right so she he really kind of really focused on on telling us what to do that was great but then of course I managed to slip stream my way out of being a lawyer so that was great so I think net net you know a lot I owe to my parents in terms of of guiding and and maybe a bit of the Mavericks streak coming from them too so that's one the thing about transition across to from a lawyer to to a startup so to speak is as I've mentioned it's it's just different ways of getting to the same objective at the end of the day so many people have said it's it's very different I don't think it's it's very different to when you when you look at a contract a single word can make a huge difference to the entire contract likewise when you design the smallest bits of a design can make a huge difference during the entire entire product so I think attention to detail was something I took from being a lawyer management as a lawyer is also very different what I tend to do is I get to people they were there I mean every time there's a decision that needs to be done I'll have two people give them their views and stuff like that or have them argue the hell out of it and then I'll just say okay this is the decision let's move ahead alright and of course I'm the highest court so that's good but but that's that's one of the things which is a little different I don't have a preconceived idea of any solution so many of the questions that you guys may ask me I'm kind of approaching it as a lawyer where I'll take a step back and I tend to be on the fence all the time but that's literally how we run things at Razer we try to get all the information we make a decision now it may be a wrong decision but we have a saying at the company that it's better a wrong decision than no decision yeah right ultimately and then of course if you reverse it so be a quick follow-up question what are the advantages that you you benefited from not being an engineer in in this firm which is essentially engineering driven well um I think on to a certain extent I get to ask really stupid questions right the engineers were kind of sneer at but I so as a addendum to that because it's sometimes so basic or so out of the out of whack the engineer will be able to think oh yeah well I I didn't think of that for example so I think that's a it's a bit of an advantage because it's approaching you know problems or questions from a totally different perspective and from the consumer user perspective from a from outsider's perspective right like have you thought of doing the hinge like that or have you considered putting a heat pipe on the other edge and things like that some I mean nine times out of ten the engineer rolls his eyes and things that were more on you know privately but it's the one time for example the guy goes okay I didn't think of that I'm gonna go back and and try it out and that that's helpful great at least that's what I'm told maybe they just wanna make me feel better right who knows okay last question okay so those guys on the Internet okay my name is Brock so from the from the point of view of someone who's interested in game design and development to achieve gamer of Razer what what kind of things do you want to see in gaming in the next like 10 15 years how do you see gaming evolving and like if you're not like looking at it from a business perspective as a pure gamer what do you want to see in games and also I asked a question I'm not sure able to see the light of day but what's the worst you've been pawned at a game which game right well first up what would I see in gaming I would say I think it's going to get a lot more immersive and I love that you know everything from oculus to you know VR etc I think it's it's gonna be great that it gets a lot more immersive I don't want to get more physical to be very candid with you when I see certain things of movements and stuff like that I I'm not a big fan of that I like to kind of sit and play my computer game maybe my finger remains right but a more immersive I think it's gonna get more pervasive so for example it's gonna start calling me on my phone for a mission or it's gonna be location-based where you know I can get location-based missions and things like that I think that's great so I think on that front it's a lot of work is being done I think on that level on a virtual reality on an augmented reality and wearables perspective biofeedback etc so so the worst I've been owned in a game let me think happens pretty often so not that often I don't know I mean we have our good days and we have our bad days you know it all happens so far I've got a better streak then you know I'm I can trim it at least at this point of time once I so far so good what's that and offered to take him on might be a big week with you great question okay final one one question from from here okay from online wherever there is that raise a product giveaway so yes our there is the product giveaways I'm sorry I didn't come with anything so that's a 37 freaking boats my god so is this why you guys came I'm sorry no who'd rather support Alliance of course you know we sponsored the Alliance we founded them you know it was great and they won one point four three million dollars yeah that's what people play they play computer games they win one point four three million dollars in a game that's great ok this valuable takeaway from anyways if you have nothing say so it's okay what is my most valuable takeaway from anyway Wow stress Wow Wow I'm trying to figure it out no no don't get me wrong I mean there lots of stuff you know that you're learning in in university it's it's it's a whole slew of stuff and I'm being on the fence over here everything looks nicer in retrospect I mean I'll be candid I skipped most of my lessons in NUS no you skipped therefore you won the class but you were somewhere oh yeah I mean no no no I was not in the school sometimes I had a great girlfriend back there did lots of great notes euphemism yeah I I think lots of takeaways would be you know it's a it's a it's a Oh at least law school should be take a nap no I mean I learned a lot I think I think the friends that I've made in his house he's trying to pursue convinced itself I've learned a lot sounds like a Sanskrit mantra no that's great I mean I think the friends I've made in law school you know I still keep in great contact with them you know all the time the contacts I've made so to speak you know I still meet them on a regular basis I think I think that is pretty much you know the most important thing I mean it's been 11 years since I've been back here wearing a complication gown which I rented and that's a ripoff that's that's got to be a good business to have the yeah it's really the friendships and stuff like that I'll be and I'll be honest to say that I don't really remember anything I learned you know over here but you know the the certain things follow and and really at the end of the day it's the contact that you make the friends that you make and and that's the relationships that that kind of follow through whether it's here in Singapore or I still meet some of them overseas in San Francisco or in Shanghai and things like that so that's the probably the greatest takeaway I've got from anyways that's good enough what do you think okay terrific session I'm sure there's a lot more that Minh would like to share with you outside just prevent him from having his meal right we've got something for you min oh great that's a great picture of you with a very handsome guy oh that's nice yeah just taking just now okay I'll try to look for the handsome guy actually yeah I'm looking well thank you so much man thank you so thank you so much thank you thank you and now we've got we've got something for you to do you need to write something here actually I'm pretty good looking you are you should write something something nice about me and the show and so on here sure yeah okay and then you got to read it out oh that's a lot of pressure you know you try and make sure it's grammatically correct oh come on you know Americans can't spell you know the other interesting thing I noticed about min is he doesn't have an American accent and isn't it interesting we've got people who haven't left Singapore who have an American accent all right so I've written waste time don't work hard get us all right thank you very much thank you and and and I'm sure all of you agree that then you know this is the kind of product that we would love to showcase give me an N much one good hand pocket I love to showcase as our product take credit for and and seriously my age you're the kind of guy I want to adopt as a son because you're rich

Channel: NUScast

Views: 18,024

Rating: 4.955801 out of 5

Keywords: U@live, Min-Liang Tan, Life is Just a Game, NUS Office of Alumni Relations

Id: 0OCMur3_2Xw

Length: 78min 19sec (4699 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/Flemtality]

I haven't seen this posted here yet and I always find it interesting to hear him speak.