When Life gives you ingredients, Let’s cook.
Anyone knows what CTF means?
Don’t get me wrong it is absolutely not WTF.
Clean The Fridge is my most used life hack that I have ever discovered. I practice CTF whenever I open my fridge and get shocked by how much leftover and wait-to-rot stuff are in there. I will take 5 minutes to summon my creativity and most recent-watched recipes, then cook them.
Let’s dive into one of my most recent recipes, shall we?
I made Jam & Cream Crepes with these ingredients.
- Must-have stuff: Flour, Milk, Egg, and Sugar to make a dough
- About-to-expire stuff: 1-week-old strawberry and blueberry
- Secret-sauce ingredients: Positive Attitude, Time, and Rumpling Stomach.
Next, turn on this video and follow the instruction!
One bite, Two bites, I am pleased with how the crepes turn out. Is that because I am an excellent chef who can turn any ingredients into a good dish? No, I am not.
It is because I am proud that there was no food wasted, also I created a dish with blood, sweat and tears; Although the recipe may not be used twice, It will always hold a special place in my memory.
This pleasing feeling is my signature state of mind for the past year.
In June 2020, my hard-earned investment-banking internship got canceled due to the pandemic, so I opened my Read-Later Folder to see what else I could do with my Flour, Milk, Egg, and Sugar which are my knowledge, skills, and connection; I also did not forget grabbing my secret sauce ingredients (attitude, time and hustle). A week later, I stumbled on the BayCao BayXa Incubation Program which deadline was about to approach as fast as my fruit expired date was.
I decided to “cook” my business model and went on a two-month pitching tour to raise my very first 100,000 USD funding for my company, Trip On Me. This “cooking session” has changed my life forever.
Starting a business as a third-year student is like fighting a battle with a blindfold, my team and I had no experience, no prior knowledge, no network in a new country, nothing. Every day, we discussed about the execution plan. Then, we asked, searched, and tried so many things in the best hope that we would make it work as we planned. As exactly what you predict, we failed terribly in every aspect, from the operation, marketing, tech to even investor/board management. After hitting the bottom, I finally realized that I tried to get “ingredients” that were not available in my fridge to cook my “recipe” all along.
I took a backward step to figure out what “ingredients” my team and I had and what was the most feasible “recipe” we could make together? Then, I changed our business plan and convinced investors to give us the second chance.
Time passes by, Trip On Me gradually adapts to the market demand and later on becomes a trendsetter by providing staycation service at homestay and chill-at-home package shipped across the country and even to the US and Thailand.
As the company expands its product line, we receive many opportunities beyond our imagination. Now, we not only retail our product online as planned but also wholesale to bars, lounges and get paid to run a co-branding campaign with new FMCG, F&B companies.
If you ask me whether I am pleased with what my company turns out? I will say “Yes, Of Course”. Although I am not the most talented and successful entrepreneur, I am very pleased that I built a growing company from scratch and did not waste any “ingredients” in my fridge. :))
I would never be able to get these achievements without generous, sincere support and guidance from my idol, William Yu, aka Cansbridge Fellowship’s Founder, my mentors, Josh Gao, and Emma Juskovic, my board of advisors from Wildcats and my family. I also want to thank you Mitacs for sponsoring my wild pursuit in entrepreneurship through the Mitacs Accelerate Program allowing me to connect to Dr. Felipe Restrepo, my academic advisor, and Ivey’s Faculty and Office.
Thank you for reading my post!
