alain’s dance blog

I love this recent post by David Heinemeier Hansson on Signal vs Noise: You don’t have to sell your company to have financial security and the freedom to do what you want.

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating. During my bike ride for microcredit, there were many moments where I was swearing and wondering why I was putting myself through such pain. And yet, to the question “where else would you rather be?” I realized I loved exploring the West Coast on my bike. I loved the fact that I was inspiring friends around me to ride their bikes. I loved spreading the word about micro-credit. And it truly was where I wanted to be at that moment.

Same thing goes with the jobs I’ve had, and the organizations I’ve been involved with. To the argument that you need to sell your startup to gain freedom and security, my thoughts are very much aligned with David’s.

When you love what you do, it is an expression of freedom to put in time and effort into your work. I put many hours into Cat’s Corner, just like Fred and Ben do with Standout Jobs, and Shawn Smith does with Global Agents for Change. We might not get as much traditional “financial security” out of it as people with high-paying jobs or people who build a company to flip and have sold their business, but we are more than fulfilled through our work. And the money we earn is enough to satisfy us.

It took me long enough to realize this, but doing what you love is really all you need.

Keep checking in, I will be posting a wrap-up summary of Riding to Break the Cycle 2008 soon.

On May 31st 2008, I’m riding a bicycle from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico.

There are two goals to this 3000 km, 7 week ride. I’m raising $3000 for the AOC micro-credit fund, and I’m promoting micro-credit as a tool to fight poverty and empower women. All the money you donate will go directly to people in need, without overhead. So support me by donating today.

Standout Jobs is matching the first thousand dollars in donations, so if you donate $100, it means I will get $200 to fight global poverty. You will also get a tax receipt if you are a Canadian citizen.

If you wish to help me with my personal expenses such as bike equipment and plane ticket, please contact me at alainkinwong@gmail.com. As I will fly from Montreal to Vancouver to start the trip, your donation of AirMiles or other travel points is welcome.

For further information on microcredit, check some of the following sources:

• KIVA (also check out my Kiva lender’s page)
• United Nations International Year of Microcredit
• Microcredit Summit Campaign
• Grameen Bank
• Microfinance Alliance
• ACCION International

Feb 22, 2008

Thank you Ann, Sylwia, Alain and Sandra for being the first donors.

Feb 25, 2008 update

Thank you Gary for donating a bike for my trip.

Mar 1, 2008 update

Thank you Rik for posting on the frontpage of Yehoodi. Thank you to all you anonymous donors - fundraising total has reached $750. Yay!

I’ve been following the US elections a fair bit, and I have to say, the Barack Obama campaign has quite some viral Youtube videos supporting it. Here are my favorites:

• Yes We Can - song & video, featuring a star cast, by Will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas. Inspired by Barack Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ speech.
• Obama Girl by barelypolitical

I’m not picking sides on the election, but immensely enjoy Obama’s speaking skills. He has the gift to inspire.

Over the last two months, fellow dancers have repeatedly asked me about my new job and what I did there. And unfortunately, because Standout Jobs was still in stealth mode, I could not give an answer - until today.

We’ve launched. Check it out at http://standoutjobs.com

Standout Jobs powers your online recruiting efforts. Focusing initially on small and medium-sized high tech companies, we help them promote their employer brand and build one-on-one relationships with potential candidates. This is done with an easy-to-build interactive career site (think Wordpress), a one-stop job distribution system to post on multiple job boards, an applicant tracking system to manage candidates, and a bookmarklet to source and hunt down potential hires.

Think of Standout Jobs as Basecamp for recruiting. If your business is hiring, Standout Jobs can help you with relationship-based recruiting.

As for my official title, here’s my newly printed business card:

I’m in Palm Desert California with Fred and Ben preparing for our DEMO launch. Wish us luck!

We’ve also announced $2 million in new financing today from the great folks at iNovia Capital.

To read press coverage on our launch, check out VentureBeat, Mashable, GigaOm, TechCrunch, CenterNetworks and MontrealTechWatch.

I went back to work on January 2nd, and it’s a sprint until launch at the end of this month. The good folks at Standout are flying me out to DEMO where we’ll be announcing our product to the world. California here I come!

Until then, this is what we’ve been doing to relieve stress.

Pictures courtesy of Francis Wu’s Flickr.