2011: Year in Review

It’s time for another review of the past year! So many awesome things happened, and I want to record them so I can look back to see how far I’ve come.

First, some perspective. 2010 was a great year. Can you believe that 2011 was even greater? God has blessed me so richly. Here are the details.

Family

My family is the most important thing in my life. Everything I do is for little Zack and Pei Chyi.

Pei Chyi and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in March. This was followed a few weeks later with Zack’s 1st birthday. Zack’s birthday also marks a successful 1st year as parents. This is a Big Deal for me because there is no definitive manual on being a parent. I’m super glad that I didn’t screw this up.

I’m also settling into my role as Dad very comfortably. I love watching Zack grow, playing with him and teaching him new skills. Working from home has definitely helped me settle into this role, and choosing to have a home-based business is definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made.

Another highlight for our family is moving into our new home. We’ve lived here for 6 weeks and I can’t imagine being anywhere else. I’m looking forward to making many more happy memories here.

Business

David's Dip

I made the image above more than 2 years ago. It represents my transition from my full time job on the left to self-employment on the right.

During my 2010 review, I was still climbing out of the Dip (the low point). Today, I’m happy to say that I’ve climbed out of the Dip and am making my way up higher the right.

I realized that I really enjoy working with WordPress, more so than the marketing consulting and training I provided through Buzzmedia. So in 2011 I re-aligned my business and created ClickWP, a concierge service for small businesses and bloggers for everything WordPress.

ClickWP aims to make WordPress problems just ‘go away’ for small businesses and bloggers anywhere in the world. I’ll be focusing on providing technical support, but ClickWP also offers theme customizations and development. Please refer your friends if they’re looking for WordPress help!

I launched it in November but I’m very excited about it. I’ve already had good response to it and if I can pull it off, it will be a business that can free me from the constraints of a traditional job and enable me to be location independent.

Other Highlights

Here are some of the many other highlights this year.

Climbed Mount Kinabalu. Pei Chyi and I made it! It was a tough challenge but it was also a fun adventure. I’m really proud of myself and Pei Chyi for conquering South East Asia’s highest peak!

Turning 30. All my life I had wanted to be happy. In my 30th year, I’m happy and there’s nothing else that I could ask for.

Presented at WordConf 2011. My friend Colin put on 2 conferences this year which I spoke at. At WordConf I spoke about making WordPress bulletproof for clients.

Becoming an IKEA Brand Ambassador. In November I was invited to be part of IKEA Malaysia’s eFluencers and I happily accepted. WordPress, Apple and IKEA are my 3 favourite brands.

Getting published on ProBlogger. I submitted a guest post to ProBlogger and it was accepted – Take 5 Minutes to Make WordPress 10 Times More Secure. I should put up a badge on my blog that says “As seen on Problogger!”

Media appearances in The Star and BFM radio. In June the government mandated the blocking of several websites for internet users in Malaysia. I wrote a blog post and got quoted in The Star for my trouble. Biggest traffic day ever. Through a twist of fate I was also interviewed on BFM radio, twice!

Getting Started with WordPress course. This was one of my projects from 2010. It’s a 5-day online course to teach beginners the basics of WordPress. Unfortunately it promptly got outdated with the release of WordPress 3.3 but the experience was priceless.

Won an iPad 2. Thank you @MyMaybank for putting on that Twitter contest and selecting me (at random) as the winner. I had decided not to upgrade my iPad this year but I really enjoy the iPad 2 anyway.

Upgraded to the iPhone 4S. I’ve been saving up for the 4S and it’s a worthwile upgrade. Next year–a new Mac!

Great friends who supported and inspired me. I won’t name names because I’m sure I’ll leave people out but I’ve been so lucky to have friends near and far who have been cheerleaders, inspiration and given me encouragement throughout the year. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Looking Forward to 2012

After reading Benny Hsu’s post about yearly reviews, I realize that one thing missing from mine are goals for next year. They’re important to understand what worked, what didn’t and more importantly, why.

I think these require a little more serious thought so I’ll probably share them in another post. Call them my new year’s resolutions 😀

I’ll end with a 1-sentence summary of 2011:

A year that marks the beginning of a new chapter, new decade, and more exciting things for me.

Happy new year everyone, see you in 2012!


1 Comment on "2011: Year in Review"

  • Benny says

    Congrats on a great year! Happy to hear 2011 was a year of many great things for your David!

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