How My Journey Began...

Hi, my name is Marlina.

I graduated in 1999 from the University of Reading in England and in year 2000, did a Masters of Science at the University of Central England in Birmingham, England.

With those qualifications, others (including myself) thought it'd be easy for me to get a job back home in Malaysia, but that was not the case.

It was absolutely difficult for me to get a decent-paying decent-job!

I'm not a picky person. I took one job as an engineer's assistant where I wasn't paid a single cent for three months. I had to quit when my funds for transportation and food got dangerously low.

The Asian Economic Crisis had ended but I found myself selling annuities, insurance and dabbling in MLM (multi-level-marketing). I had to knock from door-to-door trying to promote things that people didn't want to buy and never will. Sometimes people would shoo me away as I was just another annoying salesperson.

It wasn't bad luck or anything because other Malaysian graduates had difficulties in finding a decent job during those times, too. And I was one of them.

Finally, after more than half a year, I got a job as a quantity surveyor. That job was okay but things didn't go too well when they seconded me to another firm. I resigned just a few months after I got married. I worked for only a year in that company.

Once again I was involved in a couple of MLMs that seemed to spring like mushrooms after rain in Malaysia. Well, I didn't make much money on those ventures but I gained plenty of experience on the business and made new friends.

Over the years, I've worked in a bank, in a petroleum company and have tried selling unit trusts. My career has been very colourful. I've been involved in quantity surveying and construction, engineering, marketing, sales and human resource. I was turning into a jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none!

At the same time, my husband was travelling around Malaysia frequently for his job assignments. I was getting tired of coming home to an empty house after work (we have no kids so there's only the two of us in our family). His job in oil & gas meant that he had to go off-shore (on oil-platforms) or out-station on-shore many times and even for weeks and months.

My recent job was a new position at another petroleum firm. By this time I was getting sick of working for other people. Some of my previous jobs were 7-day week jobs with little pay and long hours.

I was very depressed, tired and disillusioned with my career.

Even though I was getting good money, I HATED my job. I was being paid to do things that were boring (to me) and I had no interest in whatsoever. I'm also an environmentalist of some sort. So working for an oil & gas company was against my principles and made me unhappy (my hubby feels the same way but we have no other choice, for now).

Being stuck with an office job meant that I had less time to go sight-seeing, less time to write (I love writing!), and even less time to be with my husband as he was often out-stationed. Not to mention the traffic jams (if I drove) or the endless standing on the over-crowded LRT (Kuala Lumpur's Light Rail Transit system) every morning just to get to work.

I was going to be thirty soon (in 2006) and knew I had to do something to change my life. I enrolled for the Silva Method Course in Malaysia and learned more about myself and my priorities. I also enrolled in Azizi Ali's (famous Malay financial writer) best-seller writing course because I know I'd write a book about my career experience someday (have to get started, though!). I read 4-5 books per week on business, the internet, psychology, finance and just about any non-fiction topic that caught my eye. I was hungry for knowledge and I wanted to make a better life for myself.

I decided to quit the new job. Even though it paid well. Even though I knew I'd be good at it.

You see, since two years ago, I had begun surfing the Internet for an opportunity to do business whilst on the move. I wanted to accompany my husband on his out-station trips but it was impossible to do so if I had an office-bound job.

I enjoy travelling and sight-seeing, especially looking at the natural wonders of Malaysia. I didn't really appreciate Malaysian tourist attractions when I was younger. I used to write about places I've visited in Europe or the USA, but after having travelled around the globe during my student days, I realised there's no better place like home.

Site Build What...?

Last year (2005) I came across a product called Site Build It (SBI). I felt dubious at first. I'd come across many websites offering just about every type of hype under the sun. I've also attended a few internet-seminars in 2004-2005 but I wasn't moved. I had subscribed to many e-business and internet marketing newsletter so I'd learned quite a bit about the subject. I also went to forums that mentioned SiteBuildIt but were not affiliated to them. I downloaded the free e-books such as the:

• Netwriting Masters Course
• Affiliate Masters Course
• Webmaster Business Masters Course

Overall, the reviews on SBI were extremely positive. SBI has a built-in site-builder, search engine optimisation (SEO) features, traffic analyser, auto-responder tools - just to name a few.
I wanted to build an SBI website but I had to convinced my husband that this was the way to go. I read reviews on SBI, read comments by other people, studied the SBI offer and visited other people's websites that used SBI.
SBI also has a SBI Quick Tour Slide Show which is a fast step-by-step demo of how SBI works.

It was in early February 2006 that I told my husband that I wanted to get SiteBuildIt. I was afraid he would say no so I took out money from my bank and said I'd pay for SiteBuildIt myself. All he had to do was buy it for me with his credit card because I didn't have one.

Fortunately and luckily for me, he agreed to get me SBI and he paid for it! So I guess SiteBuildIt is my present for my 30th birthday (which happens to be on the 29th of February - leap year).

So now, my job is - travelling around Malaysia with my hubby, writing about the places I visit, taking photos on my digital camera (new hobby!), being creative (designing the website) - doing all the things that I love and enjoy.

Click here to learn how you can do the same.

About Me