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Waking up in a pool of sweat

Good morning All! It’s 8 am on a Saturday.

I woke up in a pool of sweat. I don’t normally see dreams. But saw one last night which I do not understand.

The last image I have is I entered a room (they did not invite me in – it was still being arranged). Its ceiling was at least 3 floors high and painted in white. Almost like an atrium which has become a project office. And dangling from the ceiling was two sets of big boards with words and dates written in black. One had my name in English and Chinese with dates. I was shocked to see it. The other had another person’s name, which I did not recognise.

Prior to this, two of us (me and the other named person without a face), parked our cars aligning something which looked like a stand (like a tram station). It was almost as saying this is my bit and that’s your bit. My bit was longer. Together (two cars) it was the length of the stand.

I was shocked to see my name in that big atrium. It felt like I and the other person have initiated something significant without either of us realising it. And people have flocked in to make it happen. The project felt as big as building the Yangzee River Power station or the UK’s High Speed (HS) Rail Project. I have no idea why these projects came to my mind.

How would you interpret this?

This may be nothing of significance. My life isn’t colourful compared to many people I know.

Projects wise I am proud of two involvements.

Turning around a stalled project in Abu Dhabi which I completed in 3 months from redesign to tender. It was actually quite a simple task. It was the only time in my life I was headhunted.

The other was completing the conceptual design of Croydon Tramlink’s £10 million worth light-current solutions. From the initial concept to winning the concession from the London Transport to actually awarding the contract to Syseca.

Both these projects were prior to the Internet. There are no mentions of me or mention of these two projects in anywhere. As there are no traces other than on my Linkedin profile, they are almost as things that never happened.

How strange is that? But I completed both as an employee with bosses and subordinates. I didn’t initiate any of them. I was just brought in.

The only other thing of worth started with a simple event I organised on 23rd Nov 2006, which eventually built the Manchester’s Tech Ecosystem. Since I spoke about this last time on Linkedin, one person blacklisted me. Another who was in Year 6 at the time, just laughed at me saying I must have been a small peg in a bigger effort. Both hurt for a while, I am over it now.

Some of us think about destiny and the legacy we leave. My youngest challenged me the other day on this saying when you are dead, you are dead, so why does it matter what legacy you leave. I didn’t have a convincing argument for her.

All I got right now is Techcelerate Version II. It has a simple vision (in terms of what I personally want to achieve) but it could deliver significant value. It has the ingredients of bringing change to a very fragmented market.

I’m just a peg this time around. But the package I am bringing to the market is slightly different. It’s a grass-root level effort, not a top-down initiative like what Brent Hoberman or Stuart Marks are pushing ahead. They have the muscles, I don’t. So I have to do this my way.

I might just be reading too much into a silly dream. But it gave me a boost to re-evaluate what I am doing. This thing called Techcelerate might have legs! Who knows!

What silly dreams do you see?

Published inLife