The sound of firecrackers rumbled along with cheering, this was not a scene spotted at the baseball field, nor was Chinese goddess Ma-Zhu parading the streets, it was the welcome party for our CEO, Albert, who challenged himself on a 30-day tour around Taiwan by foot. G!VOICE specially invited Albert for an exclusive interview to talk about the journey and his new year resolution for 2012…
“Each year I want to do something very difficult, something outside of my comfort zone, something that worries or scares me.” From Albert’s hearty smile, it is hard to imagine to difficulty and exhaustion from the journey.
As the leader of the company, Albert thinks that he is in a relatively comfortable environment that to a certain degree, gives me too much freedom. “If you stay in this situation long enough, you’ll become numb because no one will interfere with your decision and your mind becomes lethargic. When you become complacent and stay in your own circle, you already start to deteriorate,” said Albert. Looking at it from a different angel, Albert actually isn’t that free because he carries the huge pressure of the company’s objective on this shoulder. Gamania only started the map out in Europe in mid 2010, Asia was still a little wonky, GTW faced with fierce competition from SoftWorld International Co., Albert accumulated much negative energy inside and desired to have an explosive release.
Throw yourself in a place where you are at your wits end
“I want to throw myself in a place where I’m at my wits’ end, to give myself huge psychological pressure and to know that I’m not enough. This is when I started pondering deep and cherishing what I have now.”
▲Photo by Albert
Albert had climbed the high mountains, cycling around the island several times and even went through a marathon in the pole. He didn’t think ‘walking’ would be difficult. Little did he know, the walking related injury was just as grave and serious. His joints were hurting all over, the bottom of his feet covered with blisters. After he sorted out the wounds and wrapped around his feet like mummies, he carried on the next day and kept on walking.
▲Photo by Albert
Albert remembered that, “on the 3rd day, I was at the end of breaking down. My body ached severely and I could barely walk.” In the past, he won every extreme sports that he attempted and was definitely a man with iron-will. However, his physically condition only allowed him to walk every 200 meters with a short break. Surprisingly, the thought of giving up actually entered his mind.
▲Photo by Albert
The courage to gamble with yourself
He posted his status, “Might give up” on Facebook. In an hour’s time, his Facebook wall was swarmed with friend’s consolation and soothing words. This made Albert, who never likes to lose, even more unhappy, “Do I need to be consoled?” Although, this happened quite some time ago, now reflecting upon it, the expression of unwilling submission to defeat still written all over his face.
The next day after the posting incident, Albert was still mad at himself. He wanted to walk it off so he walked for a particularly long distance which resulted in more pain. His anger turned into an excitement, “I’m ill from being over-competitive, when I was at the peak of the pain, I knew I’ve got it and that I could walk on.” The journey thus carried on.
Walking is a sentimental thing
Albert described, “Walking around Taiwan by foot is a very sentimental thing. If you ride on a motorcycle, you often miss it without having a clear look; if you ride on a bicycle, you could stay and have a clear look then move on; but if you walk, you get to look at everything crystal clear without even passing it.” He saw many marvelous and wonderful details of the island: dried up corns hanging outside of aborigine’s house, antiquated anti-communism slogans in the rural country side, harvested field, chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, sheep, old people having a laugh under the tree in the afternoon, thousands of sparrows jostled against the wall and only two hundreds of them were willing to fly off after seeing a person.
▲Photo by Albert
▲Photo by Albert
However, the most memorable thing witnessed during Albert’s trip was the hospitality experienced in Taiwan. When he was passing by Da-Wu, he encountered sudden pouring showers. Although equipped with raincoat in his backpack, he wanted to let the rain fall on him. Walking alone in the rain, in the eyes of others, he seemed like a lunatic.
Walking in the rain unstrained and free, a motorcyclist approached him from behind and handed him the raincoat, “Young man, take this,” then drove away coyly. Albert said, “I could imagine he must have started looking for a raincoat for him for a good five minutes since he saw me walking in the rain. I wasn’t even sure if he heard what I said and my appreciation. I’ll always keep this raincoat.”
▲Photo by Albert
▲ Photo by Albert
1,000km in 30 days, after this journey, Albert once again proved to himself, he’s still the headstrong man. In 2012, Albert set up a even higher bar: he wants to walk through the north section 2 of central maintain range in Taiwan. Of course, his wish for the company every year—to be better each year!
▲ Photo by Albert
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Albert’s encouragement for Gamanians in 2012:
be enthusiastic and never settle for less!
2012 is a crucial year for Gamania, although we seem to say that every year, this year is particularly true.
There have been many results that allowed us to lay a better foundation in chasing our goals in 2011. First was the success from the battle with convenience stores. Now that we’ve stopped collaborating with convenience stores, we’ve earned more profits and the sales of other competitors have declined significantly.
The revenue in Asia has reached record high. Newly launched self-produced product, Web Koihime+Musou in Korea also bought in hundreds of million NTD in revenue. We only started in Europe and North America but we are picking up slowly.
In terms of R&D, our self-produced teams have matured and we look forward to their performance in the tertiary phase of developed product.
In 2011, we have won a lot of wars. In 2012, we will fight for victory in all front in the operation areas. On the product side, we seek to add depth to our game content and R&D. We want to expand our footprint and mark our place in the world.
I hope Gamanians would have strong will to challenge. We should never be satisfied with status quo. It is not that we don’t cherish what we have, but we seek challenges. Is it enough to surpass Soft-World International? Of course not! We should exceed far ahead. I hope we could always have the momentum to pursue, to excel with the most enthusiastic attitude and continue to challenge yourself!