Khazun is Back!

[Khazun]

Hey Everybody,

Well, it has been 1-2 years and most of you have probably forgotten who I am. I used to be a regular and lined up as a Mapper for TLA long long ago (as well as having more posts that anybody, including Tim, hahaha )

Things got a little busy and I neglected WFG, hehe, sorry guys! Was talking to Mythos again today and figured I would at the very least resume posting here (god knows I have had more forum returns that the Stones have had return concerts!).

So, what have I been up to? You all probably remember me as being fairly business targeted!

When I left WFG I had freshly started a Webhosting Business. I continued to grow that business for a while, and it turned out being very successful. As a result, I expanded into hosting Game Servers as well, which also was rather successful. After about 2 years of solid growth, I sold these companies early / mind 2005 for a very nice figure and to concentrate on other ventures (keep in Mind, I was still about 16-17 at this age, and still in High School).

Hot off this I entered into the first ever Young Achievement Australia team from my School / entire area. For those of you that do not know, YAA is a practical Youth Business Skills Program aimed at 17-18 year olds, where Schools must enter in Groups of 7+ (average is about 15-20 people) and nominate a board of directors for their business. Each team is assigned 3-4 business mentors who are successful wtihin the local area. The company then has to sell shares to raise their capital (to ensure an equal playing field, no donations / parents funds), develop a unique product / concept and use their share capital to create, market and sell their product. Teams compete against eachother in regions, and at the end, are judged compared to one another. At the end of the competition, teams must also liquidate and of course provide a great return to shareholders. The process lasts about 8 months.

Due to my background with business, I was placed in the position of Managing Director. We competed against about 20-25 teams (who all had about 15 members, we only had 7 - we started with about 12 but I get trigger happy when it comes to firing haha!). The team I managed were incredibly successful, creating aunique product with the support of local tv personalities, and managing to negotiate exclusivity with both the local radio and newspapers. As a result we were actually the winning team (Company of the Year), a huge achievement considering the quality of some of the private schools within the city. We were also recognized as the team with the Best Marketing, Best media Promotions and as a result I was nominated as Young Business Person of the Year.

I was involved in other programs through this year, such as Winning Both Lions Youth of the Year Speaking Title and Bond University Law Trial Competitions within my region.

Following this my final year of Schooling had begun (the HSC) and was planning on concentrate on that. However, due to my dominance the previous year in YAA I was asked back to act as one of the Business Mentors for the 2006 team from my local area, whom I supported strongly.

I then concentrated on completing my HSC (finally!) and scored an average of 93-95%, landing in the top band in all of my counted subjects but one.

Here is when I probably should have had time to come back to WFG, but noooo! It's not that easy! Unlike most school leavers who take time off before work, I got straight to it. I entered into a sales position for a Marketing Company and within 2 weeks was the top selling rep within the company, and accordingly promoted to one of the Managers and Sales Trainers. I continued successfully in this role until the end of 2006.

Early 2007 (I still feel weird saying 2007!) I was nominated for the Young Citizen of the Year for my local area, due to previous success's, and won of course! Accordingly, I have now been asked to represent on the Youth Advisory Committee.

And that pretty much catches us up to now, whee I have a bit more time on my hands! I thought I would give Uni a bit of a go, but as expected, I am going Stir Crazy and am getting back into running my own ventures again! I am at the stage now where I do have a fairl yloyal backing to support through these ventures and am tossing up between taking on an investor, or more likely, borrowing a nice lump sum through business finance (bit risky considering I am only 18, however the loan has been approved if I want it).

And yeah, figured I would catch everybody up on what I have been doing, how has everybody else been?

-Alex

Edited April 16, 2007 by Khazun

[Khazun]

Hmm sorry guys, did not expect that to be such a novel. Here I was thinking I was abbreviating!