Academic Entrepreneurship & the Dreamers

Tomorrow will be the last day of Academic Entrepreneurship.My friends and I were invited to be speakers for two slots.I was pleasantly surprised when we were invited to speak. We were asked to speak as we did publish two books.Speaking in public is  always a nerve wrecking speaking  especially in front of our peers.I am impressed with Sue, Anis and Ani's presentations.They were calm and collected . They were polished public speakers.It hit me that we have come a long way.

We were the underdogs but we were dreamers. We dreamed of  writing our books. We started writing manuals for our students and the dream of having our own books keep us writing .The demands of writing and juggling a lot of roles at times require sacrifices. Sometimes I declined social offers or worked at odd hours to finish writing.A lot of money was spent on compact discs , paper , ink and pen drive .Now we have published two books and one book in the process of publishing.

 I still remember the first international conference in Malacca.I was so sick that I couldn't feel the anxiety even though I had two papers to present.All I could remember I tried my best not to vomit or faint.2009 was the year of presentations.All of us presented at as many conferences as we could.Initially we did not know what to do but we learnt throughout the way.At Colt 2009, Sue and I were bombarded by a Malaysian academician who didn't agree with our findings.We learn to take criticism wisely. Presenting in Kuching was a trip to confront fear as I had my former supervisor ;Prof Raja Maznah, as my audience.We only presented once in 2010 with four papers as 2010 was the year of journal writing.

Looking back, then I realise that I shouldn't expect less from my friends.They are polished public speakers as they have all the experiences from  their hard work and  sacrifices.