Waiting game with the new job interview result

When I got off the phone interview last Wednesday, I felt pretty good. The last words by my interviewer were something like 'typically the next step is on-site interview, you'll hear from the end of this week if not early next week...'. I liked my chances.

Today is Monday and six in the evening. I haven't heard anything from the HR. I glued myself to the gmail all day, only to be disappointed.

I would flip the pages on the Digital Logic books to prepare for on-site. Then I would be distracted by the absence of invitation for the on-site. Again, I would tell myself that it was only a matter of time before that email popped in my inbox. Then back to the book.

All day, it was a back and forth between GMAIL and the textbook. So hard to stay motivated when things are so uncertain.

I have two gap years in my resume from 2014-2016. Those were the years I spent time in Nepal and in Australia. Nothing I did in those years will help me get a job today. If anything that was my weakness in the resume. Otherwise, my eight years of experience is solid as gold (plus I have been preparing for the interview).

Tomorrow will be another long day monitoring my inbox.. let's see

Confusion, Weakness, Opportunity, Failure

If I were to name all the feelings I have in me today, those 4 words would sum them up. I don't know how I am suppose to feel today. I don't know how I should feel today. I am just not sure.

Was it a failure?

Was it a success?

Was it just an experiment?

Was it just fun?

And, what am I suppose to learn from this all?

How am I suppose to feel now that all has happened?

When I meet my old friends, friends that really counted on me when I began my journey, what am I suppose to tell them?

Do I have to convince everyone that Nepal was NOT the place to be, in 2015, the year when I was there?

Do I have to have solid reasons why I couldn't get anything going in Nepal so I don't feel like a failure when talking to friends?

What about the move to Australia? How do I explain that to people in the US?

Do I even care about what other people think? What now seems like a two lost years, were they really lost? Is that how I feel? Is that how my friends and relatives feel about me?

There were (and are) so many opportunities in Nepal. How did I not find one when I was there? Why was I not able to recognize those opportunities while I was there? How did they all disappear? How did I get distracted so much?

Or, was it just a bad timing? Was it even possible? I don't know.

One thing is for sure... this time when I am back to US, I have become even more "homesick" about Nepal. No, it's not about the parents. It's about the people I met. It's definitely not about the food.

But there is something even more stronger that is attracting me, showing me the same opportunities I saw few years ago. That "thing" is showing me the problems I saw before but disappeared while I was in Nepal.

Is this an illusion? The farther away you are, the more easy, realistic and do-able the problems appear.   Even these days, everyday something strikes in my mind about Nepal.
Something that keeps telling me, yes, that's what our country needs. An idea so well executed that others will copy across different businesses and collectively make Nepal a great place.

What am I hungry for? Why do I still feel so restless? After all, I was there for a full year, what did I achieve?

What I am scared about is the very very tiny feeling that's inside of me today, telling me, did I give my 100% when I was there? Did I stay long enough to make anything happen? What if this tiny feeling grows by time as I continue to stay away from Nepal, in California? Will this feeling grow so big that it will haunt me for the rest of my life?

Do people even give it a second shot at things like this? Was it the first half? Will there be a second half in the future? Should I be prepared for that? Or, do I just forget everything like a bad dream and move on with a new chapter in life in California. I will have to do that and I will. But how do I get rid of the thoughts I have about Nepal and it's problems (opportunities).

May be I will find my answers soon...until then...

Dec 7th 2016 - California

WOW!! So much has changed since I wrote in September - solar wisely is up and running (little traffic), but no monetization so far. Meanwhile, I also tried out another online lead generation business. Let me tell you a bit more about that adventure...

This time the adventure was related to immigration. Basically, I built a website migrationquotes.com.au and using google adwords, drove traffic to the site. The idea was simple - aim high CTR on adwords, generate leads looking for migration agents, pass on the leads to highly qualified registered migration agents and get paid for the lead.

As of today, I am still generating leads. It has been over a month. After $500+, ~100 leads, 4 different Migration agents, I have signed up exactly 1 lead. I am expecting to get paid about $200 from that. Generating leads is not hard but most these leads are looking for quick answer to their immigration questions and then deciding to do the application process on their own. This is not good because I only get paid IF the leads sign up for the paid service with the agent.

So, looks like I am going to have to drop this project as well because the ROI is too small. However, I will keep the website up and running. SolarWisely.com.au will stay up as well (I haven't blogged for over 2 months now on solar).

That leaves me with 2 websites that are live, with little to no traffic, generating no income, but with some potential if I put more time on it.

Now, let me update you on what has happened in my personal life...

In November, Bijaya and I decided to move back to the US. Why? Because, as Bijaya said, I wasn't happy in Australia. Why wasn't I happy? God knows...or may be because I wasn't earning $$ (solar wisely and migration quotes both taking too long to generate ANY revenue).

We are both hitting our mid-30s. We have a daughter and we live in a two bedroom apartment in Brunswick, Melbourne. Our net worth? whatever is in Bijaya's checking account. Last time I checked there was about two thousand dollars. My $8000 toyota corolla is paid off, so that's something.

Bijaya is working full time and making about weekly that translates to $75-$80k per annum. It is not bad if she was in her 20s, single, and no kid. But she has a husband and a daughter to support. Because her husband doesn't earn anything, that income alone was not so significant.

Bijaya and I both know we'll HAVE to HAVE another kid real soon. But with this situation and no income on the horizon for me, things were getting tough, really tough.

We were also nearing the end of two year out of country stay "grace period" on our american permanent residency status. What it meant is, if we didn't enter US before that period expired, we were risking to lose our Green Card forever.

So, our stay in Melbourne could be summarize as followed: (i) we were broke (almost), (ii) with no prospect of additional income in the near future, (iii) expiring green card (iv) I wasn't happy (according to my wife).

In a way, the decision to move back to the US was pretty straightforward. However, it wasn't an easy one. I specially opposed the idea initially, primarily because my wife and Yahvie (our daughter) were having good times with families. Bijaya has 3 sisters, 1 brother, and 2 cousins in Melbourne. You can imagine how we spent each weekend. Going to the US meant leaving everyone behind. More than Yahvie, I was worried about Bijaya. "Family" was the reason we left America in the first place, two years ago. Now, going back again didn't make any sense to me.

But priorities have definitely shifted. Being stone broke sometimes helps put things to perspective. I will no longer believe that money doesn't buy happiness. It does, when you don't have money.

So, on Dec 3rd 2016, Bijaya and I flew to SFO, California. My cousin Rajan lives there. Bijaya had a scheduled on-site interview on the 5th in the city, and I have applied for few jobs in Milpitas/Silicon valley area.

Yahvie is back in Melbourne with her aunties (see how easy it was). Bijaya will return to Melbourne this week and if all goes well, she will sell/throw-away/clean-out our space in Melbourne, and bring Yahvie back to US to live with us. Together. Forever. In.The.USA.



To be continued...

New website ready to go - finally

Looking back at this blog site, it seems I retired from the blog the same time Kobe retired from NBA. I can not believe it has been five months since my last update.

Anyways, today I promise myself to write more blogs and frequently as well.

I have something to share with the world today. My first website regarding solar power is up and running. The website is http://solarwisely.com.au.

The website you see on that link is likely the 4th version. Over the past three months, I have build up the site only to tear it down. And I did that three times. Let's just say that it was hard for me to figure out what would work and what wouldn't - in terms of the concept for my business.

At first, I built the site offering only a commercial solar consulting, offering small businesses a paid consulting service. Then, in the second version, I decided to add residential sector and developed content for residential prospects as well.

One day, I sent out emails to my "old" commercial solar leads that I had saved from previous job as a salesman. Sixteen of them. I explained what I did and offered them my service at a discounted price because we had met before. I typed an email between 450-500 words and sent the same email to all of them.

Response? Zero, nada, nothing, zilch.

Would you be frustrated with that kind of result? I did. But I didn't give up.

May be they were just not interested in the product (solar) or my service. May be the email went to their spam folder. May be they have saved the email for future. Whatever it may be, I had to move on because it didn't work.

I stripped down the website and all it's content and decided to build a blogging site instead. Since my site http://solarwisely.com.au was a wordpress site, that was pretty easy. The hard part was generating the contents. But I had to do it. So, I set my mind to it.

As a first time blogger, I know I have a lot to learn about writing and blogging in general. The learning curve can be pretty steep but I am hoping it won't be that difficult.

The latest version of http://solarwisely.com.au has both the concepts implemented - blogging and consulting.

I realized if I am already blogging and trying to rank my website in search engine, why not have consultation service as well. People visiting my site to read my blog will already have some interest in solar and if they see that I offer consulting service, some might be interested as well.

There you have it. My final business model. Now, the only thing standing between me and the success is a really good blogging habit. I have to develop that habit, one day at a time.

Until next time...

Kobe Bryant's retirement

After two decades of spectacular professional career in NBA, Kobe is playing his last game tomorrow Wednesday April 13th @ 12:30pm tip off Melbourne time. Lakers are hosting Utah Jazz at Staples Center, Los Angeles. I never admitted I was a hard core Kobe fan but I would probably not miss a game when he is on television. I watched his 81 points game live against Toronto 10+ years ago. ESPN went nuts with the highlights for the next week, even went as far as "Kobe alert" next few games that Kobe played following Toronto game. Everybody was probably thinking Kobe is on a roll and may score 100. The Black mamba was my inspiration at one point in life and especially when I started to play 3-on-3 basketball game with the boys, I wanted to score like him.

Me in the center in one of those 3-on-3 games

I have watched his game since 2001, my first year in US. His partnership with Shaq, Lakers mini-rivalry games against Houston Rockets when Yao Ming was playing. Then the championships. First time, 3 in a row and second time 2 in a row. 

My only visit to his Home Court, Staples Center, in 2009

This was Kobe's career and his achievements with Lakers in 2 decades. I am probably the same age as Kobe with half as much time spent in pro career as him. I have considered Solar the 2nd phase of my career (just like Kobe's after Shaq's departure); the phase that will make me more mature, outspoken, and eventually grow old. Sales was the last thing in my mind before I took this job 2 months ago. Talking to strangers everyday and selling them stuff is no easy feat and equally terrifying. If you fear something, attack it. Scared of heights, go skydiving. Scared of water, learn to swim. Scared of talking to a stranger, be a salesman. That's been the philosophy of my life. 

Yahvie's 5th Birthday

Yahvie just turned 5. She is taller, weightier and smarter than ever before. Because we have a grand celebration each year, we decided this year would be no different. Yahvie had invited 4 of her classmates from school, then her aunties/uncles and a cousin brother Brijen. The stage was set. I decided to make momos for the guests. It turned out to be a pretty good idea because it's always less work then trying to cook 5 different curries and pickles.

Yahvie received a lots of gift from her friends and family. I and mummy gifted her a bicycle, which she already loves. Yahvie also has the next 3 weeks off from her school. We are still finalizing on how to take care of her while both of us work on our newly appointed jobs.

Solar Plus Storage training and Salesmanship

My first blog for the month. It's been a very busy month so far. First week and half I trained with the Sales guys from my new company. I have an official business card as "Commercial Solar Specialist" and I feel good about that. Training went really well as I was mostly training with my boss (aka owner) of the company. He's one of the smartest man I have met who seems to work 15 hours a day, non stop. During these times, I have drove around 1000+ KMs in the city. If there was one thing I underestimated about this job was the driving part. But I have no issues however. 

Then, came my  solar plus storage training. Today, I returned from that 4-days training course in the Moora Co-operative Community, about 2 hours drive from where I live now. Beautiful and quiet place, totally off-grid, relying on mostly solar, micro hydro and back up generator. Lots of information download in my "human system". Glen had nicely designed the course that included lots of theory and lots of practical work. Stayed in the lodge the whole time. I feel like I can now be a sales man that can truly tell the customers what they are getting into when they sign up for solar. I will only make those sales that make sense to the business owners from every aspects. Because end of the day, there is no point making money ripping someone off or telling a lie. That's just not me. I would rather die starving than live a crook salesmans' life. 

My boss/owner Joe called me while I was in training to let me know that he was organizing team building event this Sunday that he didn't want me to miss. I told him I was going. It gives me an opportunity to hang out with my colleagues and shoot some paintballs to my boss (if we are in a different team).

Wifey is starting a new job from Monday. 2 hours of commute to and from work each day. I will be dropping Yahvie off to school at 9am, go to my appointments all day, be back to pick her up before 5pm, feed her dinner, by the time mummy gets home from work. The whole routine is about to start in just 2 days and I am a bit worried about it. I will do my best to stay on top of things for sure. 

Regarding my Coursera classes, everything went out of order once I started my job. I am 50% through all my classes and I really don't know when I will be able to finish the rest. I really hope I can before the "window" expires. But my days are getting even tighter starting next week. 

Pictures are from the solar training course. My team designed and built a PV connected battery storage system for low power applications. We worked on the project for 3 days, 2 hours each. 

Autobiography of a Yogi; Meditation; Remembering Steve Jobs

Few quotes from Autobiography of Yogi - Paramahansa Yogananda

"One's values are profoundly changed when he or she is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture and that not in it, but beyond it, lies his own reality."

"Nature herself is maya. Natural science must perforce deal with her ineluctable quiddity."

"The science of Yoga is more vital than any other material advances to man's happiness and to a nation's longevity."

"The Karmic law requires every human wish find ultimate fulfillment. Desire is thus the chain which binds man to the reincarnational wheel."


"Receive your initiation ion the kingdom of god through Kriya Yoga."

"Liberation is dependent on inner, rather than outer renunciations."




Steven Jobs quotes:

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me."

Scott Harris and The Entrepreneurs Club Melbourne

As I was surfing the net for information in the afternoon this last Tuesday, I came across a local entrepreneurs club from Melbourne in meetup. Soon I found out they were organizing an event featuring business coach Scott Harris in just few hours in Dockland. I had never heard of the guy before, nor did I know how to get to the venue (thanks google maps). I looked up Scott Harris quickly and found out he was indeed a great guy, with the likes of Sir. Richard Branson, Donald Trump and Anthony Robbins as his disciples. I had to go. The event started at 6:30pm. I RSVP'd online via meet up.

I left the State Library around 4:45pm. Stopped by at the Myer to get a pair of formal shirts and a tie for my interview the next day. Then, I stopped by at Meccas to grab a chicken burger and headed straight to Dockland. I must say the event was REAL. I am so glad I went. Below is the note I was able to take during Scotts' 2 hours long presentation.

The topic was How to Make Effective Decisions as an Entrepreneur

1. Rules are made to be followed. Examples: Relationship rules, health rules, wealth rules. Whose rules? Go figure.
2. You can't do everything in life but you can do anything.
3. Learn to take notes, it's good for brain growth. (Guess what?, I was taking notes of what he was saying when he said this)
4. Play full out:: Life is short, live it with kids, wife, family, friends everyone.
5. F.U.N. ::: Fully Utilize "NOW" Live in the present. Don't delay life, no "if-thens". Enjoy the splendors of this life to the fullest.
6. Your destiny is chosen the moment you take your decision.
7. Human beings are designed to survive, not thrive.


If you are serious about success and achievements in life, you gotta have your own core values of life set and figured out. Then, you need to ask yourself the following 3 questions:

1. Time::: where is my time going to go today?
2. $$$ ::: where is my $$ going to go today?
3. Focus/energy ::: where is my focus going to go today?

If you have too many choices to decide on where to spend your time/$$/energy, use the "core values" as your guiding principles.  Hope you don't have a bucket full of core values. Ideally, you want to limit your core values between 3-7 in total.

Now, in order to become a high achieving, high efficient, successful person that you always wanted to be in your life, do the following 3 things:

1. Planning: Once a week, take time off to plan your next week. For each day of the week, decide where you are going to invest your time/$$/energy. Make sure to pass everything through the filter of "core values" of your life. Planning, to paraphrase Scott, "gets more things done quicker". So, do this each week.

2. Scheduling: Once a month, take time off to schedule your weeks. Each of the weeks, focus on different things if that becomes a need. The point is not to miss anything that are important in the long run.

3. Designing: Also known as "Life Designing". Every 3 months, take time off to reflect on what you have achieved, what is lacking, and where you want to go? If you feel you are in the right track, keep moving. If you need to change course, shuffle priorities and re-adjust your speed and direction. Because life happens too quickly to lose track of things.

The whole point of doing this is to bring consciousness in your life. Use the best times of your day for the most important things. With higher and sharper consciousness, you can learn to live a meaningful and productive life. And when you are ready, seek help from the coaching gurus who can guide us to reach our destiny quicker, safer and with high certainty.

I am officially a Solar Sales man!!

In my post exactly a week ago, I had expressed a bit of frustration on my job search. Today, a week later, I accepted a job. What a difference a week can make? Amazingly beautiful.. And it couldn't have happened with a better company and a better boss. His name is Joe and owns a sales division of Chinese Solar manufacturer SSE. Joe has been in his business for about 3 years and has been installing solar domestically and internationally up to 1MW. He has years of Sales experience and is known to build successful sales team in multiple companies. As I have never done a "real" sales job before, except selling momos (dumplings) at a farmers market, I am really looking forward to getting trained from Joe and his team. Thank you Joe!!

I had two rounds of interviews for this job. I don't know how hard it is to get a sales job in solar, or in any industries for that matter, but this one is special for me. More than the earning prospects, I am excited to learn the basics ins and out in solar industry as much as possible. Working closely with an experienced team, I am sure I can learn a lot. I am also taking 4-day technical training in solar next month and then plan on taking technical sales class online after that. I had already planned for those classes before, in hopes to land a job in solar industry. Now that I already have a "job" in the industry, my goal is to have my first sales when I go for the 4-day training. I would love to share the story with everyone.

I feel well ahead of the schedule and it feels really good!!! Bring it on Australia!!!

Sales job

It was towards the end of the week last week, I decided to revise both of my resumes, data analyst and solar sales as I wasn't getting any response from the jobs I had applied. I again thought, what's the point of investing time finding a job as a data analyst, when I really want to get into Solar and sales? It was my light bulb moment, then and there I decided to drop my quest for analyst job and narrow it down to Sales job only. I spent the next couple of hours to edit my resume to highlight more of my sales type of job experience from the past and briefly mentioned my engineering experience towards the end of the resume. Truth be told, I borrowed few phrases from the book "Autobiography of Yogi" to help enhance my writing skills.

Me and Babita had planned for joining swimming at the Brunswick Bath last week. The date we had set was for Thursday, Feb 18th. She called me off-guard as I had completely forgotten. Eventually, my wife, daughter, Babita and Prabhat (her husband) and off course me ended up in swimming pool around 6pm. After about 2 hours, we decided to eat dinner at a local thai restaurant. So we did.
But on our way to the restaurant, Bijaya noticed a missed call from "Joe" and the voice mail was addressed for me. I had given her cell# in my resume as I didn't have a cell phone. I decided to call Joe back the next morning in a fresh mood.

Joe invited me for an interview in Hoopers Creek at 3:30pm Friday, Feb 19th. I dressed up and showed up for the interview. It was great and Joe actually really impressed me with his business. I only wished to have an opportunity to work and learn from the guy. The job was "Solar Sales consultant" with base pay + the commission. I called me this afternoon to find out if I was selected. Joe recognized me with my American+Nepali accent even before I told him who it was. Then, he asked me to come for 2nd interview this coming wednesday. I am stoked about this opportunity because this is all I was looking for, a place and an opportunity to get into solar industry. With no major sales experience I was a bit concerned. However, Joe liked what he saw in me, acknowledged my self learned technical strength and truly believed in me. I am thankful to him for giving me the opportunity. I will not disappoint him.

Work? No Luck..

One month in, I have received zero phone calls from the jobs I have applied. 100% of the jobs I have applied have been on seek.com.au. I haven't been on the job market ever since I graduated from school and got my offer in 2006. Things have changed quite a bit since. Australia doesn't have semiconductor manufacturing so there isn't any job for me to match 100%. So, it's been a struggle to find jobs I think I actually can work.  Despite, my convictions are strong I will find a job sooner or later.

Reading, Learning, Writing

Two weeks of gap in my blog entry. WOW!! Even I can't believe that. I really want to continue to write and improve on my writing skills. Because it's important in both personal as well as professional life.

Progress since my last report:

- I have decided to take Glen Morris Solar PV + Storage course up in Moora Moora, Victoria. It's a 4 day course and I am signed up for March session. Really looking forward to that. Cost: $1500+ US$ = AU$2200. Payment method: Citi MasterCard, my only credit card from US. Feeling about the investment: Excited to learn off-grid solar installations and more, hopefully i can network with people as well.

- Reading the following two books:

• Autobiography of Yogi (almost half way now): Learning to become more spiritual via divine infinite cosmic powers. It's a book on self-realization. I have also started on Kriya Yoga learning via youtube channels.
• 4-Hour Workweek: Great book so far. I had this book reserved at the library and finally became available last week. Lot's of cool stories about people from all walks of life.

- Enrolled in following Coursera courses:

• Initiating and Planning Projects
• Intro to Public Speaking
• Writing Professional Email and Memos

Looking ahead

First day of the week was also the first day of the month. February is here, in full force. Yahvie's school, Bijaya's job search as well as mine has hit full speed. I had an appointment with Max Connect this morning. It is a government job search agency. The meeting was more of a formality with couple of signatures in privacy forms and things like that. I created a profile on their online database to help with job search. I am supposed to apply at least 20 jobs per month and fill out all the information about them on the back of a handout they gave me. It is going to suck, hopefully I find a job. I updated my resume over the weekend. I put focus on my data analysis part of the job at Micron as I noticed there were quite a few Data Analyst jobs in Australia.

I also spent couple of hours today doing a free online course on solar energy by Solar Energy International(SEI). It is a beginner's course that is mandatory to all who want to take their advance classes.

Regarding my certification for solar energy, I am still undecided between $12k priced Penn State's  course or individual classes from SEI, which are also cheaper. It may take me sometime to decide on that. It is likely going to depend on what kind of job I end up finding and how soon. It also heavily depends on how well paid job my wife can find.

I have been reading "Autobiography of Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda for a week. I try to read
one hour every morning. The book teaches significance about spirituality, yoga and meditation. I don't fully grasp the message of the book due to difficulty in vocabulary. But every time I am able to make sense out of a sentence, it's divine and deep. The book is also written in Nepali which I plan on reading after finishing the English version. Here is a snippet of what I read today:

"Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets-which is to say, his past-by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter. The soul is ever-free; it is deathless because birth less. It cannot be regimented by stars." Page 157, Chapter 16 "Outwitting the Stars".

Long live the Spirit...

This was a restaurant I owned back in US. I was in love with it for 2 years, then sold it and moved to Nepal

Clean tech, Solar energy

This is what I have accomplished in few days of my online journey of Solar industry:

1. There is a lot of Solar learning resources (online or offline) available from USA than from Australia. But for online material, doesn't matter where you live off course.
2. Clean Energy Council (CEC) is Australia's peak body for clean energy. They are responsible for accreditation/certifications and things like that for solar professionals.
3. In US, there is NABCEP and few more I believe.
4. This interactive career mapping tool available here was really helpful for me to scope out opportunities and path to the top in the field of solar. 
5. Downloaded ebook "The Clean tech Revolution" from Brunswick library and read the portion on Solar Energy. Lots of information on renewable energy in general and the history of alternative energy. It's very assuring based on the writers prediction that Solar career is the way to go.
6. "Net metering" is a concept where you sell energy when not needed and then buy back when needed, in it's simplest term. Very popular among solar owners in California. More here  
7. Among the solar certification programs I have come across, I liked Penn State's Graduate Certificate in Solar Energy program. Cost is close to $10k and requires 12 credits worth of classes. If you are looking to jump directly into project manager type of job in solar, this is ideal. If you want to slowly climb up the ladder from sales all the way up, SEI designed certification courses are probably the right choice, mostly because of the flexibility of the classes and the cost of the certification. Courses are also offered more frequently that way you don't have to wait for months at a time if you missed any course.
8. I signed up for free online course with SEI called RE100. It seems to be a basic crash course on renewable energy. 

It's been two weeks since I have moved to Melbourne, Australia. As I mentioned in my previous post, we have a two bedroom unit signed up that we are moving in towards the end of February. Yahvie has started going to public school since yesterday. It wasn't really her first day to school because she was attending in Nepal already. I guess it was her first day at school in Australia. Apart from venturing solar industry, I managed some time to update my resume. I am hoping to get a job as Data Analyst because that's what I did most of my engineering career at Micron Tech. Next week, I plan on searching for a job aggressively with the help from job agency assigned to me by govt welfare program. I am a bit more outgoing than I would've really liked. I am already itching to go out for dinner, movies, join a fitness club, and have a bit more pocket money to spend my way. Soon, I will want to buy a car, purchase toys and gifts for my 5th birthday girl. The lists goes on and on. So, I better get my ass off the couch if I haven't already and set priority to find a decent paying job. First thing first.

Change of thoughts

This past week, I spend my valuable time reading and learning more about drop shipping business. I watched every videos Anton send me via email. Slowly I realized how the internet had leveled the playing field in e-commerce. Anyone without any related background could do their own learning and by watching and learning from others alike that were already successful could write their own successful story. Although needless to say, without dedication and handwork nothing is possible. 

I was determined to work hard and, after 2 years of unemployment and to the point of being complete broke, I had no other choice but to give 100%. I had made up my mind to sign up for Anton's $1297 worth of training and go all in. It was last night. I had decided to sign up for the training around midnight after everyone was asleep including my daughter. I wanted to spend few hours and start training in the quiet hours of the night. But when the time came, I thought about the whole thing one more time. I was confused whether this was one of the many emotional calls I've had in my life or is this for real? Do I really want to spend that kind of money when I am broke? That's when I asked myself, what is it that I am looking to get out of this course that I can't find without paying for it? I thought for a while and asked again to myself, what is it that's stopping me to already get started even after learning so much already online? The answer was my product niche. Anton is not going to give me my product niche, so why am I secretly hoping that he would? Was that the reason I was getting excited about the course? May be I was. There is a lot more than just Niche selection in Anton's course but in reality I could learn most of those things on my own, mostly free. Anton does have his modules broken out and sign ups people separately for those modules, I thought may be I could sign up for the module I feel most valuable at significantly reduced price. Yes, I would have access to the forum for lifetime but $1300 for that? Without a niche? While I am broke? I thought I was crazy.

So I ended up not signing up his course for now. I decided when I come up with a niche product, I will try this again. I guess the question is which way is more effective "Do I sign up and get help from Anton to find a nice Or do I find a niche before I sign up?" What if you couldn't still zero in on a niche even after signing up? Trust me, your niche is all that matters. Rest can be learned, for free. I just need to spend more time finding my niche, spending money at this point won't help me achieve my goal. 

Today I am back in full force on my Solar Energy. I downloaded an ebook named "The Clean Tech Revolution" by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder from the library. This book was written a while back but I thought it would still be relevant because we are still in the revolutionary period. I have also been doing quite a bit of looking around to get some sort of certification course online or in the city so that I could start looking for a job in the industry. Few programs I came across during my investigation were Penn State, Chisholm Australia, Stanford University and Solar Energy International (SEI). Price ranges from $2000-$12000 but instead of taking couple of classes here and couple of classes there, I think it would be wise to get a proper certification  from job prospects. If I eventually go this route, I will have to max out my credit cards. Nothing decided yet.

I also went to the CentreLink today (Govt welfare) and have been scheduled to meet up with a job placement company on Monday. Hopefully I can find some part time job while I venture in a new career path as well as support my family as much as I can.

And today, the most anticipated match up of Australian open between the two greats, Federer lost to Djoko in 4 sets, moving him to the Finals. Next set set of semi is tomorrow and Murray is likely going to win that. Djoko vs. Murray for the slam and Djoko winning his 5th Aus open. Good for him.

Manakamana temple, destroyed in the quake of April 2015

My first Australia Day in Australia - a dull one

Hot summer day, beautiful sunshine with temperatures just high enough to be hot but not as bad. There was plenty of good tennis on TV. I wish I could go and watch the Australian Open in the court, live but I can't spend my little saved money that way. Gotta be smarter than that, now that I am a grown man with a family to raise.

As usual I stayed up late last night doing homework on drop shipping business. It was 3am when I hit the bed, so waking up was a bit tough. By 10am I was up, showered and ready to start my day. After my first cup of coffee, Yahvie wanted to go out and play handball. So we did, for about 30 minutes. Almost 5 years old now, she keeps surprising me with her memories and tells me how we used to play the ball in her play room back in Boise. She is as amazing as they come. In total, we had 3 sessions of ball game today, the last one at 7 in the evening and lasted for almost 30 minutes. 

All day, I have been restless today. Yahvie is handful and seeks all the attention while she is not watching her iPad. Great tennis on TV that I didn't want to miss. I still managed to research solar manufacturers in the USA, mainly Renogy and Grape Solar. Renogy is probably the most popular among DIY (Do It Yourself) solar buyers because of their price and quality. Looking at Amazon sales data, they sell a lot more products than Grape does. My idea of taking solar products to drop shipping is not bad after all as long as there are reliable whole sellers with quality products in Aliexpress or unless US company like Renogy is willing to let me sell their product. Target buyers would be DIY solar installers, and there are plenty of those and still growing especially in USA. At this point, I need to do two things to make this happen. Educate myself on drop shipping. Educate myself in solar panel installation. I also see potential in drop shipping many smaller PV products such as solar charger and solar flashlights. Best thing is this industry is about to explode in the near future. Here is some proof I collected.

Google trends and keyword search for solar panels search over years..

Cheaper the price, higher the growth

  2017 forecast is low due to solar tax set to expire in 2016, but the new expiration now is 2022. This graph wasn't updated at the time when I copied

My head is a mixed bag

Before I had come across Johnny FD's blog via Facebook post, I had done a bit of homework on solar industry. I was exchanging emails with one of the trainers from Solar council of Australia about his Off grid solar and Storage training workshop. Cost of his 4 days long course was $2200. I absolutely wanted to make sure what I was getting for such a significant amount of money. Training didn't start till mid February so I had some time to do my own research. Even today, I am still undecided about the training program. Although it seems I could learn a lot from the hands on training, again my problem is my financial status. Can I afford $2200 investment in my studies that won't give me return for quite some time?

Today, I decided to spend my time to create a list of niche products for my drop shipping business idea. Few weeks ago while I was still in Nepal, I had come across this article that talked about how to fast track $1 million business in under 48 hours by serial entrepreneur Noah Kagan, founder of famous AppSumo. I revisited the article again today to realize if the things Noah had mentioned in the article had deeper meaning now than it did during my first read. It surely did. After listening and reading Johnny and Anton's material, I understood more when someone talked about finding a profitable idea and validating it. As I was going through Amazon's best selling products to find what was popular on the website, I found that solar panels by Renogy were selling like a hot cake. After further research, solar panels and the accessories around it seemed to be a perfect kind of product for drop shipping. Here's why:

1. Cost was in the range of $100-$200 for 100W panel. (medium range price, could go higher for more increased watts)
2. There were accessories to go with the main product. (higher margin in accessories)
3. Product itself is a bit confusing to non-technical audience and needs guide for home installation (opportunity for value add with installation guides)
4. Google trend for the past 10 years was upward and keyword search for "solar panel" was quite high. All the data regarding Solar industry growth showed there were no signs of the growth slowing anytime soon. Pretty encouraging.

What I still need to understand?

1. Who are the competitors and how are they sourcing the products?
2. Renogy is California based manufacturer. Is it possible for me to sell their products as they seem to be great brand name? at least based on Amazon's sales data.
3. How good are the generic Chinese solar panels, quality and reliability issues?
4. Are there Drop Shippers available in Aliexpress selling this product?

In the next few days, I plan on finding more information on this before making any decisions.

What excites me is the fusion of the two ideas (solar and drop shipping) I had in my mind. But at this point, it is very confusing and a mixed bag. The only way to clear the air is by doing more homework. 

Regarding our move to Melbourne, today we closed in on a 2 bedroom unit nearby to where we are living right now, although the move-in date is 1st of March. Good thing about that location is it's only 5 minutes walk from Yahvie's primary school. We spent 30 minutes with the principal of the school this morning. Yahvie really liked the school and can't wait to start. Things are starting to work out, slowly but steadily.

Good night!!

Bhaktapur Durbar Square - Before April 2015 Earthquake

It's all about your niche, value-add and marketing

Another productive day for e-commerce learning. End of the day, I wanted to make progress that was measurable. Spent quite a bit of time reading threads in warriorforum.com. Username "Yaros" had an awesome thread of his own drop shipping store experience. It was so addictive I ended up reading all 5 pages on that thread. There is so much information for a newbie that it was all worth my time. Today, I woke up at 10 am as I had slept late night after binging 4 episodes of House of Cards Season 3 until 3:30am. As before, I jumped right into drop shipping learning mood after the morning rituals. There were no house inspection appointments today and the weather was rainy, so I ended up spending most of my time in the house, with my wife and daughter.

I am still undecided whether to take Anton's DSL course. He recently raised the price from a grand to about $1300. Although it may all be worth, it makes it even harder for me to jump on it because of my financial situation. In the meantime, I have been trying to learn as much as I can about drop shipping and e-commerce in general on my own. It appears to me that the more I dig deep, I find out that yes, achieving success has lot to do with product selection, good marketing is also equally essential. I would be okay with average product and great marketing rather than vice versa. I learned that no matter what product niche I was going to select, I wouldn't be the first one. There is going to be competition. The only way I have a realistic chance at selling the same product at my brand new store and be successful that many others have been selling before is with unmatched value add and great marketing. Having a great product will help the matter significantly. So, as a newbie I realized that the following three things would be a good place to start:

1. Niche selection
2. Value Add
3. Internet Marketting

Niche selection:
Andrew Youderian has a nice blog ecommercefuel.com. Whenever I come across new websites, first thing I like doing to estimate their credibility is to check their traffic via similarweb.com. Because Andrew's ecommercefuel.com website had significantly more traffic than anthonmethod.com, I was inclined to listen to what he had to say. Even more, it seemed his material were mostly available at no cost. So, I signed up for his "Profitable-ecommerce" ebook which was delivered via email. The reason I chose to read this ebook was because it talked about niche selection. There is more to the book but at this point all I am looking to know about is niche selection. Here is what it talks about on this particular topic that struck me:

• Pick a niche where you can add value to the product. 
• Try to sell "Passion" or "Problem" product. 
• Matured women buy more stuffs online than men but men spend more per transaction than women. Medium priced product catering to matured women would be ideal.
• Range your product between $100-$200.
• Accessories sell with much higher margin than the actual product, sell both.
• Find something that's hard to find locally but has enough demands overall.
• Repeat customers are high margin client, so sell something that's disposable or consumable. 

I found that it was also very very very important to learn about tools that are available to narrow down with niche selection. One of the tools I learned about today was Google Keyword planner. You can type in any phrase and get historical statistics on search volume that can also be broken out by countries and regions. 

I will talk about marketing in the near future when I do enough study on that but I wanted to share another valuable finding today. Aliexpress platform is used by quite a bit of people to find wholesale suppliers. Once you find the right supplier for your product in aliexpress, all you have to do is list their products AND copy their contents to your site (technical contents I mean). I checked out two such US based businesses that sold using aliexpress, a common thing between them was shipping information. Even though most of the suppliers in aliexpress give 14-35 days shipping estimate, their US based drop shipping sites promise 7-30 days free shipping anywhere in the world. This shipping info was found in both those websites, run by separate people. This could be a hint that the business is using drop shipping service to sell the product.

WarriorForum, travel like a boss podcasts and more

Today was my second day ever getting to learn more about Drop Shipping Life Style. After making a trip to Welfare centre in the morning (moved to Melbourne last week and currently don't have a job), I headed to Brunswick Library which was about 30 minutes of walk along the Sydney Road. Following Jonny FD's inspirational story, I wanted to borrow "4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss and get even more motivated. That particular book was checked out but I put a hold on it and then decided to listen to Anton's first video on Drop Shipping Mini Course which I had received via email few hours ago. Returned home and went out with the family to inspect couple of units to rent. We checked out two but none were appealing. As we don't have our own ride, it's a lot of walk in the middle of hot summer days with a 5 year old. Nice change of pace from the American lifestyle.

Rest of the day, I stayed busy between Johnny FD's blog, Anton's blog, Warriorforum.com and finding good neighborhood primary school for my 5 year old. While listening to one of FD's podcast, I learned about Warriorforum and I am glad I did. You never know where you're gonna find what you're gonna find. Some guy in one of the threads on that forum was unsure how realistic FD and his blogs were for whatever reason, then down below I saw Anton's reply where he convincingly deflected the charges and gave him links to three different testimonials site to remove all the doubts once and for all. The whole read was even more assuring for me. At this point, I have less doubts about what Anton and Johnny have accomplished and more doubts about myself and my confidence to jump start the business. Because I am a newbie, first thing would be to sign up for $1297 worth of training material from Anton. It's a significant amount of investment for me because I am cash strapped and have wife+kid to support in a country I have never lived before. I will give myself few more days and hopefully by then I will know for sure what to do.

I also came across dropshipaustralia.com.au website today. It seems the site is semi active and there are more questions then answers at this point. Regardless, at this point if I decided to go into this business I am definitely re-activating my LLC in Idaho and using that to get the business rolling. I will need a new EIN and a new business bank account as well. But I have help in USA to get me started. That's something I can count on. 

Until yesterday I wasn't sure what I was going to do in Australia to make a living. Now, I can't put myself to sleep without reading another thread on warrior forum.