Before i begin…. thank you to Wise I’m using it for travelling on the roadtrip in Malaysia & Singapore. On the side i like to use Framer to do no-code website design and collect & display Testimonial easily.

Before that scroll all the way down to up to see from January to December 2023 timeline. I do micro-blogging posts on the go on my telegram and my instagram stories and compile it together into 1 year in a point form and is easy to see from month to month with short text and relevant links. I think this is my new format of blogging.

Let things passed with me getting it into action and then share my progress with memories to reflect on. I often ask how, what & why i do it. Making life meaningful is something i can create impact for myself then others. It is important to do for myself first, because i have always put others first and then is hard for me to accept when people take me for granted.

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📆 2023 - Timeline Goals (Jan-Dec)

· Go Mosque Everyday
· Stop Bad Habits & Sleep Early
· Feed More Stray Cats
· Buy Gold As A Gift For Wife
· Drive Car First Time
· Roadtrip Travel Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand 
· Get JPJ Malaysia Driving License Card
· Thailand Roadtrip & Camping
· 19/12/2023 - Pass DA PDL Malaysia License Motorcar
· 14/12/2023 - Pass B2 PDL Malaysia License Motorcycle
· Motor Ride in Paddy Fields
· Fix & Car Maintenance workshop
· Walk around Georgetown, Penang
· Bought Portable Washing Gun Car
· Pass Highway Code JPJ Theory Test Computer Test - 7/11/2023
· Sign up J.V Cergas Driving Institue in Kedah, Malayasia - 4/11/2023
· Learn Grass-Cutting in the village
· Ipad as a monitor on the go
· Fajar Siddiq & Euphorya Whatsapp Channel
· Father-In-Law Death
· Camping With Roof Top Tent: Fraser Hill, Bentong, Kuantan, Taman Negara, Terrenganu, Pantai Kekabu, Teluk Cempedak, Sembawang, Singapore, Kampung Punggai, Melaka, Kuala Selangor, Pantai Remis, Johol, Negeri Sembilan 
· Collect LKY Coin at DBS Bank Thomson Singapore
· Reach 700k Tiktok Views Viral
· Reach 100k IG Views Viral
· Setup Calendly for Fajar Siddiq for Business Consulting
· Setup Cal for Fajar Siddiq for Business Consulting
· Start Outdoor Camping with Roof Top Tent in Malaysia
· Setup Roof Top Tent Car in Malaysia
· Go Blue Mosque in Malaysia
· Euphorya Youtube Username Handle
· Reach 20k Views on IG/FB
· Last Day Hanging Out At Daily Coffee
· Fajar Siddiq Video Content Distribution Updates
· Try Telegram Stories for short videos
· Go Biru Biru Cafe Penang for Remote Work
· Go Daily Coffee in Kedah for Remote Work
· Received Stripe Payout to Wise
· Go Mersing, Johor in Malaysia
· Indiepreneur Twitter Community  
· 0FX Fees with TRUST Bank
· Senibong, Seafood in Johor Bahru
· Verify on Twitter & Instagram
· Ride Cable Car Genting Highlands
· Get 1 Year LTVP Visa instead of 6 months in Malaysia
· Buy BTO House in Singapore
· Open Trust Bank for Digital Nomading
· Get 10 Years Singapore Passport
· Digital Busking on Threads & Get Paid
· Stripe Payout to Wise
· Celebration Eid Al-Adha
· Attended 1st DE Rantau Digital Nomad Meetup 
· Print 1000pcs Personal / Business Namecard
· Attended Malaysia Gift’s Fair 2023
· 1 year of Marriage Anniversary
· New Rebranding - Euphorya Logo 2023
· Remote work with wife in Malaysia
· 12 years Euphorya anniversary, rebrand
· Celebrate Eid Al-Fitr first time with family in Kedah, Malaysia
· Open UOB Business Bank
· Makokeh Project: Juadah Ramadan & Raya: Popia, Laksa & Maggi
· Ramadan Batam, Indonesia Project
· Launch Ramadan Khatam In Progress Quran Community  
· Bought Ipad, Mac Mini & Sony Camera for on the go production -
· Post new 37th birthday telegram & twitter post
· Post new update & move to substack blog.fajarsiddiq.com
· new minimal look fajarsiddiq.com
· Stripe Mixer Office Event
· Meet Jamstack Makers Community
· MRR Goals Stripe
· Kuala Lumpur, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, Penang Roadtrip
· Play Lato-Lato for first time
· Mobile Video Editing Service
· Make Original Laksa Kedah
· Digital Nomads Meetup in Penang
· Bought new domain indiepreneur.xyz 
· Make Indiepreneur logo for the community
· Try jitter video software
· Kelantan, Malaysia Roadtrip
· Perlis, Malaysia Roadtrip
· Bought new domain makokeh.com for next project
· Create Bento Profile Portfolio Website
· Fishing 2 fish Sembawang Lighthouse
· Fishing Dev Hood Sembawang Jetty
· Caught 1st fish in Singapore
· Caught 2nd fish in Malaysia

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Before i begin…. thank you to Wise. I use this on apple wallet & watch to make payments & transfer easily when i’m travelling in Malaysia & Singapore.

Some cool & great things happening offline and in real life & launching my new personal site with a more relevant & minimal design focus look focusing on my remote design studio, vlog, podcast & blog. Check it out here: https://fajarsiddiq.com & full of surprises unwrapped in 2022 but decided to post this blog on 14th March 2023 on my birthday!

✅ Q1 Financial Goals
✅ Q2 Got Married Goals 
✅ Q3 Travel & Family Goals
✅ Q4 Legal Documents Goals

🚧 Content Creation & Business Goal for 2023 — (Hopefully goes smoothly & growing) 
Podcast Audio & Video Blog Snippets for Instagram reels, TikTok posts & youtube shorts. Hopefully, in the early year 2023, I can launch a mobile video editing service smoothly as I love editing videos on the go.

As much as I’m happy with my current goals, I still do have my previous goals from the previous year as I’m always learning and still trying to do things. Some of the things I take my time to do and some things in life I need to prioritize, especially health and finance. 

One of the reasons I wrote this wrapped up is because of goals. Do we really need goals in life? I believe we do need it, either short-term goals or long-term goals. It can help us to move forward in life. Goals give us a roadmap to follow and hold ourselves accountable even if we fail. I do face failure and struggle in previous goals in the year 2021, should I blame Covid-19 or time will tell have patience. I felt like it was so hard to achieve but I told myself I should take it easy and don’t be hard on myself. One of the best ways to not disappoint yourself or put high expectations on your goals is to live your life how you want to improve your habits better. In 2021 I had no resolution and I didn’t even write what I want to focus https://blog.fajarsiddiq.com/2021-no-resolution/ and another blog post on getting married https://blog.fajarsiddiq.com/jodoh/ There are stages in our lives that trigger us to think about getting stable finance, health, and family, etc.

I always tell myself, to not overwhelm things and say more “No” as I want to achieve the “less is more” concept of doing things. Getting things organized makes me feel happy and grateful but at the same time I love perfection but it can be hurtful, so I realize doing things in a minimal way is better. I learn a lot from my previous goal settings to not overdo it and set high expectations as it can affect my mental health.

As I’m growing older, I’m learning more about finance and how to deal with people. In my journey, I’ve seen many types of people from all walks of life and different background. I always try to practice a positive attitude & stay resilient.

This year I didn’t manage to write so much on my blog, but I shared more updates & wrote some snippets of thoughts on my telegram channel https://t.me/fajarsiddiqfs. I told myself not to add all these content updates to my blog. In my other updates like videos and images, I share them on Instagram & Tiktok stories. I open commissions for 30 slots on mobile video editing and also Coffee Chats with me for 1-on-1.

🍽️ Slice & Start Thinking
✨ Dream > Project > Task

🧀 Dream: Whole Piece of Cheese
🧀 Project: Quarter of Cheese
🧀 Task: A slice of Cheese

✅ Keep Doing
🔵 Learn > Plan > Prepare > Do > 🔴 
🔵 Learn > Plan > Do > 🔴 
🔵 Learn > Do > 🔴 
🔵 Do > 🔴 

🔵 New Experiment
🔴 Point when you realize it’s not the right time thing or approach (aka failed experiment)

📆 2022 - Timeline Goals (Jan-Dec)

· Countdown in Malaysia on my apple watch with fireworks
· New haircut, better weight & medication and food intake
· Google Adsense payout for 2022
· Process & submit legal documents to Immigration for travel 
· Bought new books, a Uniqlo t-shirt, pants, boat shoes, pillows & other home essentials
· Bought social media Figma design templates & screen studio software
· Grow newsletter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter followers 
· Create new Indiepreneur Community & logo on Twitter
· Attend online religious education class with wife
· Bought a new English Qur’an, Sahih International Version & make a video review
· Meet other entrepreneurs ask for advice & help other founders
· Bought a new Roku & Xiaomi Stick for my internet TV
· Plant more trees via voice-over projects with makers
· Practice Mindfulness, create Tiktok Commission Account
· Use ChatGPT & explore Artificial Intelligence projects for makers
· Got more design project contract work & partnerships for 2023
· celebrate my wife's birthday first time together at Menara KL, Atmosphere 360
· Plant Trees for 2022 Hacktoberfest instead of getting the t-shirt
· Make Homemade Pizza for my wife
· Got my monthly Stripe payout to grow MRR
· Got my Moderna Bivalent 4th Dose & complete 2 booster jab for Covid-19
· Create more folder directories for backup on google drive for content creation
· Verify my business account for Euphorya at Wise
· Give Feedback, Hunt & Tweet shout-out to help other makers launch in the community
· Fajar Siddiq Newsletter change name to Serial Indiepreneur
· Bought my first adjustable desk & chair for my home office
· Plan Productized Service Model for Euphorya
· Collect my official Marriage Certificate & Marriage Card
· Attend first tech event Jomlaunch 2022 in Malaysia with my wife
· Cook Saba fish with Teriyaki Sauce with wife
· Get to know my wife's family in Malaysia & spending more time with them
· Setup Wise card for apple pay instead of using a DBS bank card for travel 
· Create a new yo-yo combo snippet video on Twitter 
· Bought a new yo-yo & completed JomSpeed Challenge 10 tricks in 15secs
· Bought Louis Vuitton & Kate Spade Bag for my wife after getting married
· Grow my invoice with more Euphorya sales via pay now and wave apps
· Partnership with Bynoorwa Design Agency, my wife's business for Graphic Design
· Help my wife open a business bank Maybank
· Road trip honeymoon with my wife to Johor, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Perak, Penang & Kedah
· Got myself a wedding gift apple watch & iPhone 13 mini from my wife
· Set aside a budget for renting a house, family expenses & traveling
· Working remotely from Airbnb during Roadtrip Honeymoon
· Apply new HDB house listing from SBF to BTO flats
· Apply VEP auto pass card for my wife to drive a Malaysia car in Singapore
· 2022 Charity Projects to help more people around me and also the poor & needy
· First Twitter announcement in public after getting married
· Make a Wedding Event & Invited close friends & family in Malaysia only
· Got married to a Entrepreneur & Designer in Selangor, Malaysia
· Settle legal documents to get married & travel new state: Kedah & Perak in Malaysia
· Spend Wedding Items & make Wedding Event Website & Digital Card 
· Do many design contract work projects for Euphorya client 
· Got engage in the early month of May 2022
· Travel to Malaysia after 2 years of lockdown & celebrate hari raya aidilfitri in Malaysia
· Reach my financial goals for some personal savings
· Settle Family finance documents
· Clear my bills, tax, and other house cost expenses
· Move out of the house & shift to a new place in Singapore
· Introduce my Singapore & new Malaysia family via Facetime Video Call 
· Got my first GitHub sponsor through the discord dev community
· Volunteer to grow & help Indie-Makers Community: WIP, Makerlog, Maker’s Kitchen, Ramadan Makers, Jamstack Makers, Lioncity Makers, Microstartups
· Completed my Quran recitation full book in the month of Ramadan
· Won Fanzuruu Ramadan Video Challenge on Instagram reel posts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
· Got in Finals Golden Kitty Awards 2021 & Swag for Hacktoberfest 2021 in the year 2022
· Move my blog from ghost & revue to Publii & Substack
· Celebrate my 36th Birthday with my siblings and got my cake
· Making 10 first pages into a video for Stuck Book on Tiktok & Facebook
· Learn to cook Campbell’s Creamy Mushroom Chicken
· Got sponsored post by Microsoft for Hackathon Event content creation
· Staycation at Ji Hotel Orchard Singapore after 2 years can’t travel due to Covid-19
· Make first Instagram reels doing offstring yo-yo combo & learn to use the Inshot app to edit

A year ago i made a no-code game called "supermakers" and got #4 product of the day on producthunt.com I enjoy making the no-code game and share it with the community. I use withkoji.com to make the game. Bought a domain on namecheap and also deploy the website on netlify and upload my repo on github.com

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As a seasoned bootstrapped founder I want to find new ways to brand myself, build projects, grow my ideas and make money from it. Yes many of us wanting to start a community, newsletters and so much more. I decided to micro everything and put things together. From projects, commissions, blogposts, community discussions, podcasts, vlogging, and I'm planning to make my own marketplace where I use stripe + buy me a coffee + gumroad perhaps. Here are some of the links and things I do that I have put together to redirect the links using netlify.

🤑 Microstartups: https://fajarsiddiq.com/projects

☕ Microcommission: https://fajarsiddiq.com/coffee

✍️ Microblogging: https://fajarsiddiq.com/channel

💜 Microcommunity: https://fajarsiddiq.com/community

🔊 Micropodcast: https://fajarsiddiq.com/podcast

📸 Microvlogging: https://fajarsiddiq.com/vlog

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This year is special for me as it marks the 10th year anniversary of my design agency business in the year 2021. The old logo was designed in 2005 when I’m freelancing and in 2011 I register the business started as a design agency.

I want to revamp my branding and website and create a better business model around it! The philosophy must change.

Changing the business description from agency to remote design studio. @fajarsiddiq been doing remote work for more then 10 over years. There is a different between running agency vs studio. Back in the days we offered so many full ranged services & now we focus on specific services subs contracts various elements of projects.

Started as a freelancer, one person shop business, then running agency with multiple people working on behalf & now studio, focusing more on niche, creative & limited.

I spend the whole night researching colors and also make shapes from http://magicpattern.design/ made by @jim.ux to get inspiration. Thanks to him & other founders i know online who help me with the feedback!

I spend the whole night researching colors and also make shapes from http://magicpattern.design/ to get inspiration.

My Case Studies: Meaning of my name Fajar Siddiq

Life is always now — blog.fajarsiddiq.com At times i do feel pathetic, mainly because of reality check. Reality check comes from your responsibilities like paying your bills & saving money for your finance, taking care of your health, keep improving your learning skills and knowledge.

Colour palette from the year 2011 till now. I also like purple and blue as they represent the meaning of my name. These are the colors I use for my business and then later I got to know about stripe.com in 2018. Then I found out they use purple and blue too! I’m like wow! I love these 2 colors as well and it looks beautiful on branding and I love stripe.com ever since.

Time to finalize the design! - left or right is better?

Letter: “E” - Euphorya - https://euphorya.co agency logo

I choose left and most feedback I get from other founders choose left.

Productize Service

To learn, unlearn & relearn i have to make things better. I have to work hard, work smart & work long. I have a huge portfolio list of projects done. I realised i should take a pause, focus on up-skilling & networking to prepare when the market changes.

I have to remove & reject clients, i had to make new company profile & pricing. Pivot a better business model on a monthly basis to grow recurring revenue to scale & focus on the niche.

Practice, practice, practice! I use my personal site @fajarsiddiq as a service, www.fajarsiddiq.com to build audience, get lucky by exposing my skills more & help other makers & founders in the community. I launched a productize service model for myself and learn to grow. I spend about 2 years doing this and it works well grow $10k over in transactions via stripe.com.

Now i will implement productized service model on Euphorya business which is a slow start in 2021-2022. I have fewer clients, but it helps me to scale better. Euphorya has partnered with a few remote work of freelancers, & companies in the US, Europe, Malaysia & Indonesia for better growth.

There is other business, community & initiatives projectd by @euphoryadesign (remote design studio), you can check out @ilmproductionsg (creator-based production) & @dementclothing (print-on-demand merch), everything is a work in progress!

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💜 My history background

I was 19 years old and it was the beginning stage as an entrepreneur. I don’t want to be a business person, all I wanted was to make something & sell. So I learn graphic design in 2005 using MSPaint then adobe photoshop 3.0. I started designing by taking a photo and edit them into a digital graphic. Later on, I made a few t-shirts design sold them for $25 to 5 people in the myspace.com community discussion. My audience loves music + t-shirts because they like fashion. This was my humble beginning as a freelance graphic designer selling t-shirts.

✍️ How I started selling t-shirt merchandise

“Euphorya Clothing” - https://myspace.com/euphoryaclothing (closed)

In the year 2005:

1. Skills: Design (Inspiration comes from a photo I took & myspace.com band’s merch

2. Stack: MSpaint or Adobe Photoshop (Self-Taught)

3. Printing shop: print 5 t-shirt, and sell them to 5 people from the community. This was my first beginning sales as a start

4. Delivery: shipping postage or meet up with the customer on location

5. Services:  I also sell t-shirt design from $15-$25 per t-shirt design gig for my customer I gave them a .psd file and jpg a preview.

Later on, a music band comes to me looking for a “merch-designer" who can design + print their band merchandise for their fans. So I remembered close to 15 bands who ordered from me, each of the orders between 5-50 pieces. I have at least 1-3 orders monthly at that point. So I make animated banners in gif using photoshop my own ads to embed them on my myspace.com profile. The whole entire thing is just about me learning the “do-it-yourself” D.I.Y way.

✍️ My first startup clothing brand

“Dement Clothing” - https://dementclothing.com

Also you can see my other social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dementclothing/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dementclothing

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dementclothing

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/dementclothingtv

Build a strong purpose with vision & mission. If you have an idea, probably someone else has done it. What should you start first?

Here is my experience building my clothing brand startup to a profitable business.

1. Create an audience base on your interest that has an idea to bring people together. Community + Interest = Your Product ?

2. It goes well, creates a community first + creates an activity that people will get involve and engage in.

3. Then take pre-order group purchasing = example: 20 people in community + so you order 30 T-shirts. Extra 10 tees you can save cost on expenses and you use it for the next 10 members who are joining the community or sell it to the public by sharing on your social page. Price should be affordable between $12-$15

4. How I started, as a designer + a yo-yo player who likes to exchange videos, then I started to build multiple micro-interest of activities people who will get involved.

5. Activities need culture. Culture must be fun + engaging = consistent

6. For designing: just use photoshop or Figma, look for the latest trend design inspiration on marketplaces. Then create your own concept ideas.

7. Printing: method is the silkscreen, good quality ink, and good quality t-shirt. Partner as an agent to get a cheap price.

Some challenges after making it, I struggle between growing the audience by having our weekly community activities “Dement Go Social” every Friday, Saturday & Sunday as most people lost their interest but some still remain around in the community.

And for the business itself, we are out of funds to produce the printing t-shirts. So we are working on a new business model to work with B2B suppliers currently. In the future with the dropshipping model and build community online around it. There’s plenty solution nowadays with https://teespring.com, https://printify.com, and https://www.printful.com for On-Demand Print Merchandise. So currently i’m trying to do more research and trying it out on my side project https://makersmerch.xyz in 2020. The design + model was very simple for MVP but I still need to consider which on-demand print service has better fees, better quality, and fast delivery. Also easy to set up with a custom domain that I can build a blog around it and also other things like events for the community updates.

I will create more awesome simple vintage + streetwear t-shirts for lifestyle and also the sportswear industry in the year 2021 as I’m incorporating from the previous sole-proprietorship to private limited all in one bigger company and getting more people involved in the business side hopefully by 2021 ends. Below are the past works I’ve sold t-shirts and build a local community & internationally.

My goal is to learn to make money in the creator's economy as a maker.

Decided to reply to this tweet, wrote “my first dollar” as a draft on the blog on 19th Feb 2019 on Twitter.

Building a business model is hard and thinking of an idea can be difficult too for validation. No, I didn’t buy any domain for this project. I started using https://buymeacoffee.com/fajarsiddiq as most makers use it and I find it is very useful for tipping, so I connect my stripe account together with it. So I had the idea to build some tipping model around it. So I launched it on Twitter with this tweet.

So I collected some simple details like l domain, and using emoji.

Users cant DM me on Twitter for request orders. I use a PSD template to make this can drink. After that, they can upload this png file and it can be used on their personal site to decorate in a fun way how they also can use buymeacoffee.com too to get tipping for any side-projects or commission-based work they do. This was fun to build so I launched it on Twitter, the tweet that got me the first few sales.

After I tweeted on Twitter, in just 15mins I made $50+ and look at the dashboard overview. I was so excited and I felt this was an awesome MVP + experimental stage that I could learn! I try to understand the digital tipping culture too. Got the money via stripe 5 days later in SGD$ currency into my bank. Look at the dashboard below for reference.

Click this link to read full article.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fajarsiddiq/e/27464

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Here’s the breakdown: Stress > Anxiety > Burnout > Pre-Diabetes > Type 2 Diabetes

My story on focusing myself on a better life:

It all started from doing hard work. Who would think doing hard work leads to all these? Back in the year, I had a few client's works to be done, datelines were back to back, I had many big projects to deal with and also dealing with some toxic connections with people. I had some struggles completing my tasks as well from web-designing, coding, video editing, graphic design, consultancy, marketing, and sales. I don’t have any breaks, I’m always on the laptop and rarely exercise. I feel like entrepreneurship is not for me anymore!

As a seasoned solo founder is great to have a team to do this all for you but to build a team is hard and something I have yet to master. I tried to build a team 3 times while building my business and hoping to get things done better so I can focus on other important things for the business. I thank a few people in the team & community who have helped me in the past in trying to build a profitable business. Now most of them either work full-time or run their own business or being self-employed people. Glad what had happened to me was to bounce back higher today to share my story.

In the past, I overcome living with sad life in 2012-2013 when I lost my late mom, dad, and brother. It was about 2-3 years I was struggling with emotions to be positive. In 2014-2017 I pick myself up and I went through a life-changing journey and started a new business after that, doing multiple things that I love to do and it was doing okay and well until something happen in 2017.

Back in late 2017, I had some challenges which I face. (here are some I can remember)

TOO MANY THINGS WERE GOING ON.

- I was broke after broke

- projects were not paying me well & I got low-balled

- My MacBook Pro laptop got thermal issues and dead

- I had to deal with some debts

- I had client small and big projects ongoing to finish

- I had to borrow a laptop

- I was involved with toxic people

- I had some really good people around me too thanks for that

- I had panic attacks because I was very stress and is hard to manage

- I had sleepless nights and at times I shut myself down by sleeping more

- I ate a lot of food in a day almost every week and I didn’t realize I was very stress

- It was lonely, is hard for me to speak to anyone about what I’m facing

- I had tons of bills to pay and it sucks to run a business and I hate what I’m doing

- I feel like giving up because I felt everything is just a waste of time.

- I try to ignore everything and focus on myself each day.

- there we also some problems with toxic people: never let things go, can't move forward, bully, intimidate, lie, create drama, play the victim, act out of fear and insecurity and so much more.

In 2017-2018, One tweet I remember that I posted. I got active on Twitter. Started to focus on myself more.

Each time I try to be positive about it and is just so difficult. By nature or in real life I’m a very energetic and positive person. So when I face this, I had panic attacks and difficulty in breathing. I don’t know what the heck was going on. Later on, I realize I was burnout, from extrovert to introvert and it was not normal for me, I don’t talk that much anymore and I just tweet my pain when I got stuck.

2018 was tough, 2019 I overcome my mental health

I did this by building a connection with people on Twitter, Slack, Telegram, Discord, and some websites I sign-up for related to my industry. I build tons of micro-communities and keep talking with people just to keep myself busy and to make sure I’m not alone in this world. This was the only way I think to make me feel better! I started making telegram groups and help more people. I don’t know why suddenly I’m doing this? I felt that that’s the only way to overcome my mental health I guess. I don’t need some Doctors, Psychiatrists, or Specialists. I just need to connect more people with the good vibe, like-minded and people who are in the same industry I’m in. I try to help as many people as I can.

I thought I was alone facing this, little did I know I met other bootstrapped founders, creative entrepreneurs, and some independent creators/makers/hackers who went through the same struggles as me. I question myself, did I just found like-minded people with a good vibe? Yes, I did. The tribe I’ve been finding to learn more about entrepreneurship and share my struggles. I felt that my journey was lack of community & support as a business owner. So I was very active on Twitter and I join some slack/telegram groups to chat and also a community on a website. I started to build more projects in public, share my learning experience with others. Day by day I get to talk to many people and it was an awesome feeling. I keep making different types of side-projects from designing, helping others, read tons of articles and try many different software products on the internet. I fell in love again with what I do. Suddenly I met so many nice people in my life but I was still having panic attacks and stress. I just watch others do things online, I give more time to myself and manage to overcome it from time to time. I pause my businesses only do little work, I take more breaks, learn more latest design and technology by upskilling my skills, build the best personal site I ever made for myself with some tweak and hack, connect more people online, travel more and meet new people in life.

2019 I got pre-diabetes and was diagnosed with Type-2 Diabetes

One of the weekends while I was on the laptop, I got pre-diabetes symptoms. It was a horrible feeling for that 1 week in my life.

Health Warning: I was facing all this in at once!

- Sudden Weight loss (I lost 2kg)

- Sudden thirst & can’t control (drank 4 coke bottles, 1 soda bottle & 6 cans of red-bull)

- Frequent urination (I urine more than 20x a day, yellow in colour and I hate this!)

- Sudden Fatigue (i sleep 24hrs) & (I was very hungry and ate a lot)

- Sudden Excessive Itch (On my groin area, I keep scratching and hard to stop)

- Blurred vision (i can’t see clearly on my phone/laptop, I was very sad)

- I feel numbness on my left wrist all the time it was annoying

So what I did was I rest and started intermittent fasting. I saw some helpful links online and went for screening at the clinic. https://screenforlife.sg/ for Singapore and I read tons of articles. I then decided to sign up the screening quickly on my 2nd week. Got my blood test result, it was horrible and I was afraid I could get a stroke. I ask the doctor to refer to the government polyclinic and went for other screening like diabetic foot check, eyes, ECG and did another blood test. I got my results and I was sad yet angry, I didn’t take care of my health all this while. I have a family history of chronic diseases. I’m thankful my medical bill was subsidized

From August-September 2019 I did whatever I can to change my lifestyle

- I lost weight by cooking my own healthy meals

- I shop healthier groceries by looking at the nutrition facts

- I try to eat organic food and also more greens

- I change my food to fewer carbs and more protein

- I look for gluten-free or low-gi food

- I did intermittent fasting from 8 pm-12 pm (16hrs fasting just water)

- I learn to swim better and do 10 lapses every week + do walk like 10,000 steps

- I had trouble with hypoglycemia because I had to take glipizide (blue colour pill)

- I have to prepare honey always or some sugar if I have low sugar in my blood

- Side effects like sweat, stammer, I speak and move fast, hard to control myself

- I had to do the food prep and make sure everything is in order

- I change my t-shirt size from XL to L and it motivates me

- I had to buy some fitness clothing

- I try to sleep before 11 pm every night

- I also reward myself by eating cake and some nice desserts from time to time.

- I did not strict myself but no sugar or salt but I have some nice food dressings

- Whatever I ate it is all in a portion size

- I drank a lot of warm water

There are many things I did too, best tips here:

https://www.healthhub.sg/programmes/87/diabetes-mellitus

Every 3 months of a medical check-up at the gov polyclinic.

I did whatever I can for 1 year and each time I went for my appointment the doctor advised me on based on my blood test result. Glad they cut down my medication, no more glipizide pills and now I’m only on metformin pills 2 times a day. Its been a journey but this means forever in my life. You can beat diabetes by reversing it but you still need to keep up with it. It was all well until another challenge came up.

I also had a hernia for 10 years in my left bottom groin area, I finally can go for surgery said the doctor before covid19 but due to covid19 it was postponed and I lost my diet/lifestyle momentum. Some people might think is easy but I have to think about the recovery stage too as well as I’m diabetic said the doctor, that should be aware if there is an infection if not careful. Also thinking about my work and my things to do.

There is more I want to elaborate but let’s just not just give up and keep progressing and make it better. I was recently upset about my MacBook Pro data is gone and had to fix it. Some things are unfortunate, you can read the tweet thread. Some of my important work and video files were gone. Glad the maker's community help me out quickly but everything was about 1-month plus to settle financially. I was mentally disturbed as well. I lost my momentum doing my work online too.

Due to recent Covid19 measures and regulations, it was challenging for me, the first 3 months was okay but later on all this anxiety, fear and stay home change my lifestyle. I lost my momentum and other personal things happened as well.

Thanks to all indie makers community who have supported and created an impact on my journey. Especially people on Twitter, Slack, Telegram group, producthunt.com, getmakerlog.com, indiehackers.com and many other entrepreneurs I met online. I don’t know what to do but writing this article will remind me to keep reversing and get that lifestyle right back again.

I try to be more positive by writing more articles hopefully, make some podcast, ship & launch some nice products soon! 😃 💜 🚀 I do share my progress on if you need to see a quick update on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Telegram. I can’t fit everything here on the newsletter or article posts. I suggest you follow you me on social so you can probably see me building things in public. I’m also working on multiple things, you can visit https://fajarsiddiq.com

If it wasn't because of the indie-maker community I met online on Twitter from all around the world and people from all walks of life, I would have already given up in skills, knowledge, experiences in entrepreneurship, quit tech & design and probably be basic, find a full-time 9-5 job and do nothing beneficial. Mental health & chronic disease are both combinations of a huge major problem in work-life balance. If you can fix & reverse it, you are strong enough to go through anything in life.

These are few important characteristics of an entrepreneur: grit, resilience, and resourcefulness.

Grit - passion, and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. It is the ability to persist in something you feel passionate about and persevere when you face obstacles.

Resilience - Process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors

Resourcefulness -The ability and the means to meet situations effectively by finding quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties. Be open-minded, have confidence in yourself, think creatively, take action now, not later, never, never, never give up, see the glass as half full.

Also, I’m sharing first world’s wooden debit card https://fajarsiddiq.com/treecard and also transfer money to your friends using transfer wise https://fajarsiddiq.com/transferwise

“i’m not busy! i’m just focused. I can no longer say yes to everything. Just too much for me” — random thoughts.

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At times i do feel pathetic, mainly because of reality check. Reality check comes from your responsibilities like paying your bills & saving money for your finance, taking care of your health, keep improving your learning skills and knowledge. At the same time i find it tough to juggle with personal life, family, friends and community. You got to pay attention what brings out the best of you & what works best for you. If it is not in line with your goals & dreams, i will feel that it is not important part of my journey.

I know at times I have not done much and always learning. Learning takes time, adapting & growing as well. I feel like learning is the most important thing in my journey. Also putting it together as actions. While everyone is doing this “little end-of-the-year reflecting” I’m here trying to think how i can do it “better, not bigger”

I felt like there is so many things to get done, little by little until it is complete. One of the way to get this done is by following the culture. Culture have alot of meaning, often times we are just following and not doing.

💯 ️“Culture is not what you say, is what you do.”

— Marc Randolph, Co-founder of netflix

“Better, Not Bigger”

This is my current quote running on my mind, saw this quote on some google search. I actually made a podcast about this & also decided to write this blog.

💯Better, Not Bigger! by Mango Minutes In this 3rd episode i share about my struggles facing meltdowns, celebrate progress & not goals. Reflecting about what i've done in 2019, my left over todo's task, being pathetically broke & learning new things. No plans for 2020, will continue to eat healthier, save money, build better products. How i wanted to be someone who can mentor others and as well how i overcome my shortcomings during the highs and lows. 🌐Visit my website at https://www.fajarsiddiq.com

I began doing a lot of self-reflecting when I’m less busy.

When I’m busy, everything goes really super fast.

One thing after another thing.

From notifications, news and so much information.

1 week before the year ends, i cut down my activities on social media.

I hold my phone and ask myself, what i have done and what i have not completed in 2019. It was very difficult to answer those questions.

I told myself if i can do everything by all myself but no, i was wrong.

Because you need to do a reality check,

You need to surround with the best like minded people.

💌 Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself.

So here’s my 2019–2020.

Things like my finances, health and todos task i’ve done.

My goal is to create better connection to myself.

Shout out to my indie-maker friend Anne-Laure Le Cunff

For creating a template “Year in review”

https://nesslabs.com/year-in-review

A template to review your past year and plan the year ahead!

👨‍⚕ ️Health & Fitness

• I was going through burnout: end year 2018

• I overcome burnout in 2019

• I took break from business to focus on mental health

• I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, lost 6kg

• Focus on my food intake & work-out like swimming & running

• I changed my sleeping pattern: Bed at 11pm, Stop Eating at 8pm

• I did intermittent fasting

• I stop smoking, 4th time in my life

✍ Conclusion: I created a better lifestyle now for past 6 months: Eat, Shop & Cook healthier, Sleep & Wake-up early, Continue to progress my diabetes from sugar intake. Also working out at least 2–3 times a week. So this is what happens when you are stressed then it leads to burnout then meltdowns and then it hits you with chronic disease “diabetes”. So health is a very serious thing, especially genetically it runs in your family.

🤑 Work & Business

• 10 years in the design & tech industry

• In 2019, i took break from running my business, to learn more skills

• Planning to rebrand and also use new technology to build better service

• Also putting all my microstartups (side-projects) under 1 company

• My business in 2019 was to focus on networking: building communities across the world

• Help other makers achieve their goals in the community, i also build tons of small tiny projects that made some money.

• My progress on Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/fajarsiddiq

• My progress on Makerlog: https://getmakerlog.com/@fajarsiddiq

• Joined Nomadlist for Digital Nomad: https://nomadlist.com/@fajarsiddiq

• I’m pivoting from services to softwares as a service and other business models.

• Also work with better companies for B2B partnerships, sponsorships & collaborations

• I made money using Stripe, it helps me a lot. Other than that i did take some small gigs, enough for me to travel and eat.

• I made alot of new videos, especially for product launching

✍ Conclusion: I will be putting the side-projects as a learning progress and also part of my company. I will keep building it, doesn’t matter how long it takes, for as long it is done and it will be profitable. For my companies, i will continue to build & apply new technology and skills i learned and build it better. I will always go with the Zebra’s and not Unicorn, Independent & Boostrapped way of growing the business. Business is a long marathon, so always sharpen your skill!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5SNIHrBa36/

💬 Friends & Community

• I became maker “influencer” in the community to share about good products, feedback & reviews

• Manage to overcome from toxic friends to build better bonding

• For community across my businesses, it keeps growing as a fans.

• I met alot of makers & digital nomads in 2019 in real life, it was an amazing experience meeting them in person i get to know from twitter and telegram group.

• Most of my friends are married, currently hangout with friends from the community at Makerlog, Ramadan Makers, Open Podcast, JAMstack Makers and i was involve in many other communities as well at Maker’s Kitchen, Product Hunt, Indie-Hackers, Women Make, Newsletter Geeks and many more.

• I spend alot of time using whereby for video conference

• I really appreciate the people i met from the makers community (too many names to mention) they were so supportive, friendly & always with good positive vibes, you know who you are!

✍ ️Conclusion: So i spend time doing product reviews, i enjoy doing them in short videos like 2 mins or less. I make this videos to share with everyone in the community. Apart from that i got some swag from other companies.

🤑One of the community member i help in his journey, there were more people but this is among the best moments as well with indie-maker/digital nomad from India, Mohd Danish

👪 Personal Life & Family

• 🤷‍♂ ️My personal life was doing just fine, i’m still single. I wanted to find a partner but i think is difficult because i was single for 10 years and if i found one, i will settle down and get married.

• 💜 I have a few close friends which is like a best-friends, there were very supportive for me, there were someone who i have known more then 10 over years. There were also some really good friends like work related too, they did drop by and text me once in a while.

• 💚 I had good neighbours, my relationship with my neighbours were awesome, i love them, thanks for always being there for me too.

• 💙 I had this one very special close friend, who is always there for me 24/7. Who created impact on me the most. It was awesome! Who was very caring and concern. It was the best thing happen to me in my life too.

• ❤️ My family was everything, especially my siblings and also we build better relationships with my late mom & late dad family. I lost my grandmother this year. I also enjoy my time spending with my nieces and nephew, my little niece was born too this year. We did some good work out and change our lifestyle together. I made some awesome vlog.

✍ ️Conclusion: So i spend time more with my online friends more with other close friends, i also meet alot of people in real life and also spend my time with my family! I use to have a large number of friends but now i keep it small within my circle.

✅ Learning & Knowledge

• I learn how to build community really quickly by helping others. It was great to bring people together and make it more engaging, we achieve by sharing and learning together from all over the world.

• I learn a lot about JAMstack, A modern architecture — Create fast and secure sites and dynamic apps with JavaScript, APIs, and prerendered Markup, served without web servers.

• I learn how to use telegram! This was the app i always wanted to installed for many years, telegram prove me wrong that it is definitely one of the best messaging app for community and work related! I really love it. Before this i’m always on whatsapp, discord and currently i’m still using slack

• I learn how to do things more quickly by listening podcast and reading blog. I didn’t pick up any course but i did go to youtube to learn on the go kind of thing, so i just search what i want and learn it quickly.

• I learn how to use github and terminal! This was one of the best things as well and of course, the best design software! Figma! I learn how to use Figma and make mock-up and designs really quickly on the go as well.

• I also installed spotify for first time in my life knowing that it will help me to listen more podcast around makers, founders and entrepreneurs!

• I learn how to use Netlify & Gatsby! this was an amazing experience as well. I also switch my hosting provider to namecheap.com

• I love Chrome Plugin: CSS Scan Pro, Reader Mode Pro, Full Page Screen Capture, this apps are really good and simple to use.

• I love some nice mac menubar apps: Rocket Emoji, Getkap.co, Uptime Bar App. This are really helpful apps i have

✍ Conclusion: Special thanks to the makers community for sharing me all this amazing tools and also it have different impact on me on using it.

🚶‍♂️ Travel & Culture

• I visited Malaysia & Indonesia for nomading in Kuala Lumpur & Batam

• I also visited new offices of Stripe & went to GovTech office in Singapore

• Some cultures are not new for me, but one thing i learn more about indie-makers culture is meeting people in real life and that’s the best thing ever.

✍ Conclusion: It was fun travelling, going to places without any goals but just plans of meeting people, good food, good time, places where is safe and full of nature and culture

✈️ Hobbies & Creativity

• I keep improving on my new yo-yo combo “Solo-Ham” i always wanted to learn more combos for many years! I can finally wind up and do more tricks

• I also enjoy collecting stickers! I’m making this new project in 2020 https://laptopwithstickers.com

• I learn how to make podcast more better at https://anchor.fm/fajarsiddiq “MANGO MINUTES”

• I learn how to cook different recipes for healthy cooking as well

• I make more videos using gimbal, also update my instagram stories and post to feel more creative! https://instagram.com/fajarsiddiq

• I spent time making telegram stickers too for the fun of it https://t.me/addstickers/makerlogsticker

✍ Conclusion: It was really great to be creative and showing your best at what you do, If you think you’re talented then be persistent at what you do, because that is all matters to keep going!

📖 Emotions & Spirituality

• I spent time memorizing and perfecting my quran recitation

• I also focus on praying on time and perfecting my mistakes

• Apart from that i get distracted easily by notifications from social media

• I feel this year was great but i feel i did not achieve my finance well but i did focus on my health, community building, learning about new tech and design very well.

• I had a lot of meltdowns once in awhile, maybe is because of finance because i have some bills to pay and at times it drives me insane.

• I spend a lot of time alone as well to connect myself to god, focusing to repent and be better person by doing more good deeds.

✍ Conclusion: It feels good to recite al-quran, always guiding me to be a better person in my life. Also it helps me when i’m facing trials, tribulations and shortcomings.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4UZNV1B3Q0/

💸 Money & Finances

• I make very little money this year, it sucks! but i’m grateful, enough for me to buy groceries and travel short trips for nomading. As much as it is i want to be making good monthly recurring revenue so i can pay my bills consistently

• I need to save more money, i did pay some debts and yikes i got broke after that in some of my savings.

• This was the year of broke, I don’t make so much money because i want to focus on learning and building, so i have to sacrifice my time. I will need to buck-up in the year to come!

• I launched https://www.fajarsiddiq.com/work and i made at least $1,000+ and around $70 a month. So i guess is not enough. Is just branding & marketing services.

✍ Conclusion: I need to keep on growing multiple source of income, monthly recurring revenue target and also annually. Everything needs to be automated so i can grow my profit more and focus/balance more things better.

💸 Proudest Accomplishments

• Taking care of my health! Overcome burnout & improve my lifestyle because of Type 2 Diabetes. Food intake is so important. Cooking healthy food is a must.

• I manage to not give up in this tech & industry, i want to continue to keep on building my business and not be an employee

• To be compassionate and full of wisdom towards diversity & everyone i meet regardless of race & religion.

😠 Biggest Challenges

• Bills, After Bills, After crazy final warning letter bills. I hate it when i open my letter box and then i have hundred over dollars need to pay! Damn it. It was difficult times, i had to apply short-term social finance support for 3 months from the goverment, but i will keep doing it better.

• Fixing my sleeping pattern to sleep at night, fighting insomnia. I hate it when i can’t sleep at night because i think so much sometimes, so i must learn how to relax when i’m on bed.

• Not making enough profit, but i have enough just for food. Pretty messed up on this. I hate it so much but i have to be patience. It bothers me a lot.

🏆 Main Goals For Next Year

• Make money first, make money second, make more money third, save money always.

• No goals for 2020, just finish my todo’s task.

• Just continue to celebrate small wins and also focusing on progress and not goals. Goals is annoying seriously, i’ve been having all this thoughts like annually and it pisses me off. I just want to do be persistent at what i’m doing regardless small or big, but just keep on going.

• Loose 10kg, eat healthy, if i can do this then i loose more weight. Currently i’m losing at 6kg the most. I’ve got this!

• Go for surgery for my Inguinal Hernia Repair that i have for around 10 years already. Cost me at least $3,000 at least and since i have diabetes, the doctor said i need to see my progress because i’m eating medication metformine and glipizide pills for 3 months. Hopefully if i manage to do this surgery, it won’t affect any wound infection. I hope to get subsidy from the clinics and is cheaper. Will need to plan for this.

• Removal of tattoo on my right arm, already did for 2 years for 4x session. I need to go for more and also planning to remove it. I just want to feel more clean. I started this goal since past 3 years already. So i have to keep on going.

• Grow my youtube channel https://youtube.com/fajarsiddiq, my twitter https://twitter.com/fajarsiddiqfs and maybe get verified and also for my https://instagram.com/fajarsiddiq and i deleted facebook profile and only use fanpage https://facebook.com/fajarsiddiqfs

🙇‍♂️ Grateful & Blessed

Finally this are little things i’m grateful for.

Some good memories

Life is always now, be yourself and do what you do best at the same time, do what is right, know what is wrong and also keep striving to be better even when no one understands what you’re going through. Be strong and be patience in your journey, most importantly be grateful. Don’t forget the poor and the needy even if you’re broke, don’t forget that there is more people out there who went through more difficult struggles. So appreciate what you have and always know you can do it better. Always be nice on your way up and always help people. Knowing that, as you grow older things get taken from you, but nothing stops you to be better when you play more and have fun! So keep giving. Don’t chase after fame, focus on being better and not bigger. If you want to be serial entrepreneur, make sure you know what you’re selling, what you’re building and most importantly you must know how to maintain it, maintenance and persistency is very important. — Fajar Siddiq, 2019 end.

1. Buy (low amount of price) & Sell (higher amount of price)

2. Puppeteering (Leverage on others who have skills)

3. Monetize your own skills (knowledge you have)

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Since young, I have always wanted to become an Artist & Scientist. It was my ambition when I was 5 years old when my kindergarten teacher asked me “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. I started to be ambitious when I was 9 years old, I started to learn science as a subject in school and I bought myself a drawing block to learn how to sketch & sketch cartoon characters. I started to read a lot of books about innovation scientists like Thomas Alva Edison, Marie Curi & Albert Einstein (we have the same birthday: 14th of March). I love to draw and I love to be creative in my own ways how I visualize and feel about anything. At the same time, I like to think scientifically. I’m always curious about to subject, content, or problem. I believe in self-learning you can experience to improve your skillset. I have difficulties in learning other subjects in school, I was in the EM3 stream. I was very much interested in sports, art, science & computer.

I WAS 12 YEARS OLD. I THINK SCIENTIFICALLY & WANTING TO BE CREATIVE.

Later then I join the school art competition with 5 other primary schools in Singapore. I didn’t win, but my drawings & paintings were showcased on my school’s notice board in the general office walkway. I draw & painted a red bridge over a pond of my school where there is a red hut where you can sit, as I love the landscape view of it. When i was 12 years old i also became the “Science Monitor” (with green badge) that i would pin on my school uniform & i can access the school science lab. I became obsessed with science. I bought the telescope with my own pocket money for $100 at Toy ’R’ Us. I collected newspaper clippings Eclipse of the Moon & Meteorite Showers happening in Singapore. I also bought a microscope, view the insect's body and any particle on it. I also bought alot of Science Magazine for $3 at the bookstores. I memorize all planets in the solar system. I saw the full moon through the telescope and it created an impact on me. Later than I witness a meteor shower and saw shooting stars alot of times. It was the most beautiful thing ever seen in my life looking at night in the dark skies. I also bought Planisphere that came with the magazine to see the map of the stars and planets. I took part in the school science project when I was in the science club in primary school. I took 3 science projects & got awarded. Later than I graduated at 12 years old from Chongfu Primary School in Yishun, Singapore.

They gave me certificates for my participation & they awarded me.

• “On-The-Spot” Art Competition — Annual Art Showcase Chongfu Primary

• “Young Physicist in Physics” — Singapore National Academy of Science

• “Young Astronomer in Astronomy” — Singapore National Academy of Science

• “Young Entomologist in Entomology” — Singapore National Academy of Science

When i was 12 years old i started yoyoing in 1998, i started to make creative yo-yo tricks. So I tried to understand how yo-yo works. It involves science, technology, and art. I also played yo-yo professionally later after joining many contests & performing yo-yo shows. I felt it was a great skill toy for art & performance. I felt I could be more creative and skillful. So I draw this cartoon character of myself and wrote tricks I want to learn.

IMAGINE DRAWING THE SUBJECT IN YOUR MIND

A visualization is a powerful tool. When we visualize the drawing process in our minds, we train our brains. Even without making any marks, we are essentially giving our brains practice. The more practice that we give to our brains, the better they become at interpreting the world around us.

Graduated from Northland Secondary School. I did well for Technical Studies with grade 1 results. I did not took Art in examinations because i was in the Normal Technical Stream. I did well also for Computer Applications and got grade 2. I failed English, did very bad for Malay Language. I didn’t like Maths. I did just “ok-not-so-bad” for Science but i still love science. Later on i attended ITE Balestier, i took Architectural Design Course for 2 years.

I didn’t continue to learn about science but just doing more of a research about Astronomy later on, but i was very interested in computer graphics when i was 13, 14, 15 & 16 years old. I joined the computer club. Later than I took an extra school computer course to learn more about graphics and animations on computers. I was only 14 years old. After that i design camp tshirts for school in year 2000 and 2001 when i was 14 and 15 years old. I graduated from Northland Secondary School with a testimonial that I did well for Art, Computer & Sports. I love to run, so i joined school sports day and won 100m, 200m 4x100m relay and long jump. And when i was 14 years old I learn html and css. I created my first website on photoshop and export in html and published to one of the yoyoing.com/news website. I had 2gb of space given by the admin. I was a no-coder, but later then i was interested about computer science. I didn’t learn to program. But I saw how the code works after i export it from photoshop. It was cool, i always wanted to learn but i didn’t know how to start, so i continue designing & yoyoing.

I went to ITE Balestier in 2003 & 2004 when I was 17 & 18 years old. I graduated from Architectural Design. I didn’t do so well in my results when i graduated. But i did pick up alot of skills in the 2 years course. I also serve the National Service after that for 2 years as Provost. I also work for a Security Company as a Security Officer in the Mall & Clubhouse for 4years. I got fired from my last job for starting my startup doing graphic designs during my work because I was unproductive and more focused on the laptop. I came late for work because of my sleepless night from designing things and I became less uninterested during my day job. It was my mistake but also i found my purpose and what i truly passionate about, i was very obsessed for getting too attached to my laptop. I got distracted easily by many things except my laptop that i could focus on building my startup.

My first laptop i invested in back in 2005 when i was 19 years old, i paid installment at Courts Singapore Store for consumer electronics and furniture retailer. I use compaq, i believe in windows back then before i switch to macbook pro, Apple. I use this for graphic design and i use them to sketch on piece of paper.

During those years I started to play yo-yo for fun, enter contests and got sponsorship at Duncan Toys from the year 2002–2014. I also bought a Compaq Laptop to actually started doing graphic design more seriously. I was 19 years old, i didn’t know what to do. But I know deep down inside of me I love art & science alot. So I started to watch alot of youtube tutorial videos on making graphic designs. In the year 2014, i left the yo-yo sponsorship, i wanted to give other yo-yo players a chance to get sponsor who can take my sponsorship spot. Later than I went to mentoring other younger generations of yo-yo players for the yo-yo contest. It was more of a hobby kind of thing I was doing. I didn’t go serious about yoyoing as a career but I think I did pretty well to explore more about art from playing this toy.

I HAVE BEEN PLAYING YOYO FOR 20 YEARS.

Later I realize, drawing in art was a very powerful thing. You can visualize anything in your brain and you can draw or you can draw & visualize it to reality. Many of the drawings bring scientific concepts to life in interesting and unexpected ways. They also can bring any misconceptions. But glad mine had a great impact in my life of what I draw. I became a professional yo-yo player & performer after that.

I also created a nickname for myself “Killer Dash” when i was 12 years old, is just some cool yo-yo player nickname that i could call myself. I don’t know, nicknames were very trendy at that point of time. So why not have one? KD was it, Killer Dash. I drew a logo of it. I keep drawing and visualize everything i want it to be reality. Later on i have another nick name on Duncan Player Card, called myself “Pank Rok Malaya” — Punk Rock Malaya. No idea why, but i love punk rock music, i have punk rock attitude and i’m in the malaya region where i’m from and i speak malay language.

MY 1ST STARTUP — EUPHORYA

That year in 2011, I also started a small business. I co-founded a creative design agency name Euphorya. I registered my business and started offering graphic design services. I felt I was all a euphoric guy because I’m a happy-go-lucky guy person. I love to laugh and I like to make people laugh too, that’s me. I name my startup “Euphoria + Yo = EuphorYa”. The letter Y represents yo-yo or YOU. Like Euphoric You. You have to be Euphoric. I think euphoria has a good meaning. Is the experience (or affect) of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. Part of a series on Emotions.

I had $100 and i started to create blogspot.com page and bought a $20 domain www.euphoryadesign.com. It Before that i started Euphorya as a freelancer/side projects selling graphic designs for $20 at myspace.com community online when i was 19 years old. I was very curious again about graphic design. I still played yo-yo professionally till today, is just that my focus is now more on the startup I founded and the things I want to build online.

In my early years, I had this good close friend name Firrus. He was one of my best friends who were there for me during my journey. I have many friends. But who is really my friend when I needed them the most? Came along Erffan, he was there for me all through these years.

So as i build euphoryadesign.com and offered the design services. I was selling graphic designs for tshirts, logos, banners and posters. I was making about $50 to $150 design sales of each service i offered. Next following year something happened in my life. In 2012 i lost my mom 1st of March because she have heart disease and 17 days later my late dad passed away because he have 17 years of stroke. It was hard for me to continue the startup, i was struggling emotionally. I felt so lost for that year. In 2013 same thing happened again, this time i lost my late elder brother because he was sick. They all passed away because of sickness. It was hard for me to focus on my startup agency, i have very little clients and some understand what i was going through. In 2012 i started something simple and fun, I co-founded Dement Clothing to sell graphic t-shirts back in my neighborhood. I learn making graphic tees back in 2005 and 2008. So later on, i sold more than 1,000 t-shirts in the community. Now i have 2 startups, but i was trying to learn how to manage the 1st startup, Euphorya — creative design agency. So while running it i started to explore on learning Wordpress themes development and also edited a-lot of videos and get more focus with photography. I took many photos and created many videos for practice. Learning how to use video editor software and also make youtube videos.

More videos can be found on https://youtube.com/dementclothingTV and https://youtube.com/fajarsiddiq.

MY 2ND STARTUP — DEMENT CLOTHING

I started praying to god more that following year and in 2014 it was the year i became religiously inclined. I told myself I needed something else apart from just running startups and playing yo-yo. I prayed more consistently as a muslim and I started to pick up learning the Quran arabic language in the holy book of the Quran. I tried to understand it meanings and went for classes to learn from other teachers. Then I was so obsessed with the Quran recitation because of the beauty of the meaning and how it sounded. So i begin to do a-lot of self-practice and upload clips on https://soundcloud.com/fajarsiddiq I made a-lot of recitation mistakes and errors. So I decided to get inspiration and start watching more youtube videos of other reciters. In 2014 I went to Saudi Arabic for Umrah. And i prayed to god to guide me. When I was there, I founded my 3rd startup in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. I also created a logo in the hotel room with my laptop together with other people who went umrah too. Later than i met a few young passionate youth who loves videography, photography and who loves graphic designs during my umrah trip. We became friends and they were part of the 3rd startup. It was an amazing journey.

MY 3RD STARTUP — ILM PRODUCTIONS

After I got back from the trip, later than I started volunteering and also to focus on my 3rd startup. I told myself i wanted to contribute to the community. I was inspired by my late mom, late dad, and late brother's past achievements. Volunteering in the community has made me progress as better person. It teaches me patience, humility and to appreciate the uniqueness of differences, opinions and diversity. I did alot of video recording and editing of other Reciters and Speakers. I also experience Quran learning through video-editing process and while i was doing video-recording. It impacted me. I learn about sound design and engineering. At the same time i improved my Quran recitation.

So i continue my 3rd startup till 2017. I realized i didn’t focus so much on my 1st startup Euphorya while i was also learning how to build a startup. It was hard and i got really messy in running things. I was in a huge mess. I wanted to contribute to the community and also wanted to build my startup. It was a juggle i must say. I started to put chairs and table in my living. I was a solo-founder, i told myself i should invite some collaborative work like co-working style and also i need people around me. It was hilarious.

I’M NOW 30 YEARS OLD, I STARTED TO BUILD MY OWN CO-WORKING SPACE IN MY LIVING ROOM.

I put everything on the wall so i can see what my progress is, table and chair in the middle area of my living room. I had problem focusing on my projects because i was managing 3 startups and trying to make sales from bootstrap model (not funded) running my business

It was hard because my siblings moved out from the house we live in and got married. Before this they help to pay the bills and also now i owned the 4-room HDB Flat. I went from being full time being self-employed, bootstrapped my startup with no funding for years. No financial support. Just selling off something from my skillset online. Later than it was very stressful for me to manage the startup because it was in a mess and not really making money. I live alone for 3 years in the house by myself.

I didn’t really know about business and i need to pay bills. But i just wanted to do it because my guts tell me so and i was very passionate about designing and technology. I keep telling myself i can do this so i started to remember the nickname idea when i was 12 years old, “Killer Dash” But instead of KD i want my own name. I told myself if i need a name for myself for the branding to work. I have to put my name out there first on the internet before knowing my startup name and branding for Euphorya.

As i grow older, i felt it was tougher to be an adult rather than a kid or teenager. I start to have all these constant worrying about money and bills. It affected me so badly. I felt anxiety and stress easily. There were so many unhappiness and feeling of lonely being at the age 30 years old.

In 2017, i begin to focus designing again at Euphorya and also i had some clients. This time i drew a sketch on my own Personal Branding. I told myself, this could be the only way and motivation for me to keep on pursing on designing.

EUPHORYA BECAME DYSPHORIA.

I no longer feel happy about my life. I feel like closing down all my startups and just wanting to work as an employee. I applied job at Netflix but didn’t got it. So i just sleep and keep on sleeping. Meet up and hangout with my friends.

In Mid 2018, my macbook pro laptop i bought in 2012 spoilt because of the recent thermal issues updates on Mac. I also used external monitor HDMI to connect on my LCD display and it overheated. I had 16GB RAM & 500GB HDD. While i was editing, it heated up so badly and it went black screen on me. I tried to repair it but the logic-board was fried. If i were to buy new logic-board it will cost me $1000. I probably could buy a used macbook pro with that on carousell. Read more about thermal update issues: https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/apple-apologizes-issues-update-for-macbook-pro-thermal-throttling/.

I also felt alot of unhappiness after that because i had some big projects collaboration and clients datelines. It was affecting me personally, i started to private my instagram and remove some followers. I felt i need more time for myself to grow better. I started to look for my own happiness at Euphorya. I had so many troubles with datelines. It was hard to juggle and i was struggling, i couldn’t find anyone to help me out because some of the work are very technical. I had to borrow 3 laptops in 3 months from few friends to finish my task. Then later on, i got a new macbook pro 15' inch 2018 model. The whole new macbook pro feeling was new. From the keyboard, to the escape button, to the lock/unlock button and the new operating system, OS Mojave. It took me quite a while to get the feel of the laptop while trying to complete my left over tasks and datelines. But i’m glad i have a new laptop and manage to do more work, i felt is the new beginning but i still have to finish my overdue tasks and overdue datelines of clients work. It was blessings in disguise, yet is a constant battle for me. It was a beautiful test in my life.

After getting the laptop in late 2018, i was struggling with finishing alot of clients work. It was challenging, i was very exhausted and still feeling dysphoria. I prayed everyday continuously and rest more. Clients were chasing after me. It was very hard but i did manage it to do it bit by bit. I was moving so slowly like a snail but making progress. So i slowly begin to dream again. I started to take my small task to the next level when i joined Maker’s Community online. Talk to more designers and developers. More founders who bootstrapped their startup or side-projects online. That is the only way for me to “fit-in”. I have people who understand my situation, i get so many good advices and tips, it was a booster for myself! I became more confident as i discuss many problems with other indie-makers. They were people from all over the world! Some of them are Digital Nomads, who loves traveling & working. Finally i found “my kind” of people. Some of them got fired from job and some of them left their day job. There is alot of things i can relate:

• Multiple Startup Founders

• Designers & Developers

• Bootstrapped Startups

• Digital Nomads

• Side Projects Makers

• Indie-Hackers

• Open Startup & Side Projects

• Livestreamers & Producers

In the past 2012–2014 i have no logo but a profile pic. I have initial idea for my name. “FS” it means Fajar Siddiq. So i did some in the past. But i think i want something new, simple and unique. I registered FajarSiddiq.com back in 29th August 2012 and build it with Wordpress theme. Profile Picture & Logo is something i care about online for personal branding.

MY PROFILE PICTURE FROM 2012–2016.

I thought it will be awesome to have my own domain name for personal branding purpose like profile, blog, work, contact. So people can just google me on internet or visit my site. So that’s the purpose of it.

I mean everyone wants a good profile branding like logo and profile picture. So here’s mine through out the journey making one. It took me years to process from 2012 to 2019. I told myself i’m a graphic designer, is easy to design for others but when i designed it for myself i think is really hard. I have this perfectionist character to make it feel really good.

I want to create something that could create impact for me, not how it works! — Fajarsiddiq.com

MY LOGO PROCESS FROM 2015–2019.

Here below you can see how I designed & visualized it, I think all design is great. But is not how it works, is how it created an impact on me. I design everything from using a font, icons and I always start from sketch to black & white then finalizing it with some touch of colors. I had difficulties finding the best colors too, I love black & white especially. Then I realize I need something vibrant and attractive. From green, gold, silver, blue and now purple is my favorite color.

I’ve decided Purple is a great colour to my personal branding because it represents dawn that i could relate to the meaning of my name Fajar.

I think it represents alot of meaning in my own ways. Purple have meaning. How purple is created when you have red and blue together. So red represents like sunset & sunrise before darkness in the morning or night. Blue represents the day, blue gives me the present. The day i’m living in on earth. There is more meaning than that. My late mom gave me this name.

MEANING OF MY NAME FAJAR SIDDIQ.

My name “Fajar” means “DAWN” (Malay & Arabic Language)

What Fajar (Dawn) means? Is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in the atmosphere when the center of the Sun’s disc reaches 18° below the horizon. This dawn twilight period will last until sunrise (when the Sun’s upper limb breaks the horizon), as the diffused light becomes direct sunlight. Dawn has beautiful colors.

There are different types of astronomical, nautical, and civil dawn.

For more, you can read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn

In religion, Islam: Twilight is important in Islam as it determines when certain universally obligatory prayers are to be recited. Morning twilight is when morning prayers (Fajr) are done, while evening twilight is the time for evening prayers (Maghrib prayer). Suhoor (early morning meal) time for fasting (during Ramadan and other times) ends at morning twilight (at dawn). Fasting is from the beginning of dawn to sunset. There is also an important discussion in Islamic jurisprudence between “true dawn” and “false dawn”. Source: Wikipedia

MY FINALIZED DESIGNS FOR FAJAR SIDDIQ LOGO.

This was in early 2015, i tried to create something that i can relate about my interest. I love tshirt design and when i look at this design i feel like is some punk rock and hardcore band. After awhile i got annoyed because is for personal brand and is just bad for my name.

This was in mid year 2015, i think hipster trend is very famous back then, so i think having a cursive looking font logo will look cool. But after a while i have trouble looking at it when i zoom out. It looks rubbish to me. It looks okay when is zoom in.

This was in Early 2016, i don’t know why i want to call myself Visual Architects. I think the logo looks like some luxury brand, after a while i don’t like it. But i graduated from architectural design!

This was in Late 2016, i don’t know why i want to call myself the design service, i was inspired by the movie Kingsmen. After that i found it too funny because i’m not kingsmen, i’m Fajar Siddiq.

FUTURE & BEYOND OF FAJAR SIDDIQ BRANDING

So i’ve decided which profile picture i want to use for the next few years without changing. Also finalized my FS logo sketches and design it on photoshop. FS, Fajar Siddiq will be the future of the design that will created impact on me in life. I started to work on this in Late 2017, then finalized it in 2018. In 2019 I started to make the revamp website look of it.

Made some mock-up designs in late 2017 with the logo to get the feel of it. I’m full of purple and i think is too much. So i decide cyan blue will brighten up and relate to the meaning of my actual name, Fajar Siddiq for fajarsiddiq.com

HERE’S TO 10 YEARS EXPERIENCE AS A GRAPHIC DESIGNER. MY AMBITION AS AN ARTIST.

Finalized FS logo in 2018 — Fajar Siddiq, the confidence that i will be focusing on my future, my startups and the journey in my life. This will be used on all social media officially for www.fajarsiddiq.com

Finalized FS Profile Picture in 2018 — Fajar Siddiq, the confidence that i will be focusing on my future, my startups and the journey in my life. This will be used on all social media officially for www.fajarsiddiq.com

I also created other stuff for FajarSiddiq.com. It was amazing! I got a lot of motivation and inspiration from other makers and also my close friend to not give up and continue my journey!

It’s been 10 years since I’m in the graphic design industry! I use Figma software to do designs and a lot of blobs. Blobs represent the internet bubble! I felt everything from communities to products to startups to cultures is all bubble. The bubble can mean in a good way or bad way. You decide which bubble you want to be in! My goal now is to build things I care about & wanting to benefit others more. I will also learn more and different programming languages to make websites and apps so i will have my own products rather than offering services to clients. So lesser clients, more money will make me happy. I feel so refresh!

I also started to make branding for:

• Livestream Graphic Display

• Website Design in Light/Dark Mode

• Blog Design on Medium Publication

EVERYTHING CAME FROM A PIECE OF PAPER WHEN I WAS 12 YEARS OLD.

I drew it, i visualized it & i do it. That’s the way how i dream to achieve my goals & my interests in Art & Science. Despite all challenges in my life, i will keep on trying when i faced so many fears and insecurities. I told myself i’m now going to be 33 years old in 2019. I’m a grown adult, one of the good thing about being adult, i can be matured in the way how i think and feel.

“ THINK SCIENTIFICALLY, BE CREATIVE. — Fajar Siddiq”

Choosing my thoughts and feelings carefully to do things. At the same time, i want to feel young and energetic again, so i keep on playing yo-yo during my breaks when i’m on my laptop. I will continue to make beautiful things. My journey doesn’t ends here. Maybe sooner or later i get married, settle down or something. Anyways, I’m building my first side projects currently. Some are posted publicly and some is not. Some stuffs i like to keep it secret. For now, “GET WORK DONE!”. Let’s do this.

I have sold food snack crackers for $10 when i was 10 years old, colostrums suppliments for $60 when i was 27 years old, i sold my first graphic design tshirt in myspace.com community forum for $20 using photoshop software back in year 2005 when i was 19 years old. I was a self-taught designer back in 2005.

Came along Facebook, a very popular social network. I start to make a fan page & sold more graphic designs. Then in 2012, I started to learn more about WordPress Development, I develop some premium WordPress themes for a local startup company and I have clients from Europe, the USA & Singapore. I was a self-taught developer learning HTML/CSS, Js & PHP. As I was working on my laptop, traveling, attending yo-yo contests, and doing yo-yo shows. I wanted to explore more in the design & tech world.

I participate in events like hackathons & also went to tech, design & entrepreneurship talks. I watch tons of videos on Youtube, My favorite ones are Ted Talks & Techcrunch.com. So many insight…

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