Posted 7:18 PM by Andy
On the eve of Chinese New Year, it's a good time to reflect on how different my life is from just a month ago.

End of 2005. After I hosted the Christmas program twice, I flew back to the US in mid-December. In the US I saw some folks at Greg W's graduation show at Art Center. I hung out with my cousins and matched wits by playing poker with them. That was strange playing for fake chips when I had earned $400 in cash games during the same trip. I saw James, Christine, and Cherene off at the LAX airport on their way to Shanghai. I read 7 books during my stay. I drove down to San Diego and met up with my sister and bro-in-law. I was rear-ended but my bumper only suffered a couple minor dinks. I also ran a toll booth inadvertently, came back on foot and paid my fare, but was fined anyways. I played ball once and was out of rhythm two days after arriving in LA. All in all, it was a low-key trip mostly to re-energize my mind before the next phase of my life. I came back to Shanghai, took Situ, Qi, and two local friends out to Cashbox. Situ clearly made my transition easier to Shanghai so I wanted to either treat her to dinner or show my appreciation in some way. She chose karaoke so I complied. Later in the evening one of the local friends threw a minor tantrum because I had divulged she was a KTV hostess to Situ. I was upset because she was acting like a prima-donna when we were all out to have fun. After dancing for a bit, I vowed never to take her out again and have kept my word despite her overtures. Insecurity in a girl is very unattractive.

2006. The year is marked with new beginnings. I moved out to King's apartment at Longyang, a bit closer to the city. My new gig with eBay started on January 3rd. I work downtown at People's Square where the two main subway lines interchange. On the verge of completing my first month, I am very happy with my new career move. The position in product management is very strategic because I am offered visibility into various parts of the business and work cross-functionally to ensure our user experience is the best. We are currently second in the China market behind Taobao so there is strong motivation internally to execute and beat our rival. With Paypal and Skype, eBay has tremendous assets to leverage its existing commerce platform. So far I've been given a few small projects to learn the process. I came in at an interesting inflection point in the company. It has historically been good at executing incremental change, but the China market demands rapid responses to local whims. As a result, there are some discussions about running a local development team decoupled from the global team. There has also been an announcement to elevate product management to equal partner status with the business unit in introducing ideas for product enhancements driven from the executive leadership. I have a mentor Xiaodi to coach me through the PM role here for a few months before she returns to headquarters. My manager is a Hong Kong native who is very easy-going and surprised me when he pulled me aside recently to comment that he thinks I'm underpaid. We set a few goals so he can justify a salary adjustment for me at the next review in the fall. This experience of being taken care of is unexpected but very welcome. I've also been approached by three friends who would like to be referred into the firm.

My broad goals in 2006 are four-fold. Professionally, they are to learn my role here and master the finer points of product management, learn the intricacies of running a scaleable commerce enterprise, and familiarize myself with the organization. Socially, I want to build a vast network in Shanghai. I have no great idea about how to grow this organically, but I sense I need to have a dense interweaving network throughout the city to make my life here now and in the future more effective. To that end, I've deliberately attended mixers and have met various people. Financially, I aim to build a foundation to launch future ventures. Some activities this year that should help in that regard are selling my car to pay down my grad school debt, buying property in Shanghai to diversity my asset portfolio, and options vesting. This is really a long-term goal so this year builds on previous years and the accumulation will accelerate in my mid-thirties. Lastly, spiritually I want to be rooted and strong. Otherwise I would wither and die amidst all the pressures and temptations I encounter. Connecting to both the Chinese and international Christian communities will nourish this soul. Yep, only God can keep me in check in the face of bling and babes.

Happy Chinese New Year! I am off to Macau tomorrow for a few days.