Common sense is not common until it has gone through your head once

I was approached by some investors sometime around late 1996 to participate in the starting up of an IC design company based in Shah Alam (a city some 25KM west of Kuala Lumpur). As with most small startup companies, pioneers will need to play multiple roles. You are the receptionist, the engineer, the admin, the manager, strategist, negotiator, sales, finance, office boy, coffee lady, driver for the bigger bosses or customers and in some cases you may even be the janitor. As you will be involved in a wide variety of tasks, you will also encounter a wide range of problems. Frequently problems you would never imagine you will ever need to solve if I were to ask you during your final year in university. Yet these are problems you will need to be able to find good solutions to. What I have learned in the 2+ almost 3 years at that startup is that these solutions are usually simple common sense!

In 1998 the MD of a sister company and his business partner were invited to Ghana by the uncle of JJ Rawlings (the 10th President of Ghana). The purpose of the trip was very much to explore business opportunity and I was somehow talked into going as well. Prior to the trip, this MD and I were at the office of the CEO of our holding company and the MD asked the CEO for advice/guidance that would be useful for us during the trip. The CEO said, "use your common sense" and he explained it using an example as followings. He said, whilst holding a small PCB in his hand; "If this board costs $5 don't tell him it is $10. He will be able to work out the actual cost of the board. Instead find ways to do business with him by value adding." The simplicity of this example got me thinking. One would think that if a customer wants a product I have to sell, I would acquire it for $X and sell it to the customer with a margin. Yet it is true that if I were the customer, I will want to know if I am getting a good price. I will even bring my business elsewhere if I am not getting a good deal. Yet up until that point in time, this common sense was not common to me. In other words, common sense is not common until it has gone through your head once.