Start of 2026

Table of Contents

Welcome, let’s set milestones, not goals

Welcome to 2026. This is my first post of the year. Usually, people love to make a “New Year’s resolution” at the beginning of each year. To be frank, I only did that before sober, so for the past 5 years I have never had a “New Year’s resolution” and this year will be no different, except I will have milestones instead of goals that once reached and forget.

Direction

For the past few months, due to the economy, and I want to be true to myself, I realised it is time for me to step up. Time to step up and create my own software products; products that I care about, and a journey that I can take the lead on. As mentioned in my last post, I have a love for mobile applications, of course, SaaS. In 2026, I will begin my entrepreneurship with them.

Let’s be honest, starting a business is about money. Some folks on a podcast said that starting a startup should not be about money because it is better to work for someone else. I think that is stupid, starting a business is about money, and the money is a reward for the work, insights, and risks a business owner has put into it. More importantly, money is not about buying luxury goods but freedom and time.

In the past, I did have a taste of entrepreneurship. I remember the challenges and excitement I experienced from my pop-up restaurant experience. The only regret I had was not turning it into a restaurant, if I had the courage to do so, yet faith led me to programming instead.

Originally, my goal to learn programming was because I was amazed that with a laptop, I could create a software product and start selling. But as time goes by, I only thought about how to get employed. Then I hop from one employable language/framework to another, which makes me less employable, even worse, stuck with languages that I don’t like, which makes me want to hop to another language, or working in a company with products that I have no interest in, but that’s the journey of an employee.

Be the owner of your life

I remember the days when I was still working as a chef. Even though I have the vision and creativity, I was too afraid to start my own business; I was very depressed from the pressure of my work and my dissatisfaction with working for someone else.

In recent years, I have thought of the friends who took the leap into starting their business, and I learnt something. They were never ready, they don’t know everything about before starting a business, they might not even have a perfect idea or first batch of customers, but yet they did it, and they iterate, pivot, and solve the problems and challenges along the journey.

It is time for me to take a leap. Of course, I have asked myself, “Am I ready?” I am not, and I will never be ready; however, I want to take charge of my life, and I will make many mistakes and learn many lessons along the way.

A Slip, forward

Talk about mistakes and lessons. Last year, I launched my first iOS app, CaffLog: Save Your Best Brew, without any research. I wrote the code and pushed it to the Apple App Store. The result? I have 1 download, and that’s me. It reminded me that the most important part before developing anything new is to research. I learnt that when I was an R&D chef, and I was using SQL in Google BigQuery for dishes and ghost kitchen concepts research back at foodpanda, and I totally forgot.

First flop is fine, but it’s time to move on. In the coming year I will be focusing on 3 aspects; first, research and validation, this will lead me to the right products to build and save my time from the lesser ones; the second is marketing, which is my weakest link, I need to work on my communication skills, from writing blog to X post, my messages must bring value to my readers. Last but not least is design, design for solutions to problems, and design for human interactions, and I believe software engineering is the realisation of the solution.

Moving forward

Here are the milestones in this journey.

Milestones

1. Earn my first $100 usd from App Store
2. Achieve $1000 usd MRR
3. Publish weekly blog posts on Clojure, Swift, and the entrepreneur journey.

These might not sound big and grand, but rather small and achievable yet challenging. For far too long, I have wanted to achieve something big in life, but then I feel overwhelmed and give up soon after. It is time to start from the bottom up, start something small. If you are still reading, I would like to thank you and welcome you to be part of my journey into entrepreneurship.