Home Again

While I was searching out an investment bank to join up with in Singapore I also had a chance to live the life of a permanent Lion-city expat. Thankfully enough, I found that the charm of Singapore wears off very rapidly before I sunk any roots. The daily routine marching to your desk with the rest of the army ants in their subterranean MRT tunnels becomes quite oppressive. The ultra-urban grind simply does not jive with this Idaho boy of wide open spaces.

The life of banking in Singapore is not in the cards for me and after knocking on the door of every merchant bank like an orphan looking for a chimney to sweep, I have come to the conclusion that it's not the time or place for me to be a banker. Apparently, my interviewers have agreed with me. It was fun while it was I was there, but I discovered that I would not be happy so far from home in such a permanent way so I have returned to my old Northwestern US stomping grounds.

So rather than calling this job search a failure, I am considering it an omen. The last 2 months of purgatory has been a necessary limbo for me to float in while I piece together a new vision of what I will be doing in the future.
I have made the decision to launch an import business from the States. It will be called Atlas Frontiers.

Atlas Frontiers

Atlas Frontiers will search out the finest and most unique home decor items from overseas with the intention of wholesaling to local retailers in the Northwest. I will use contacts I have already made in SE Asia to help me source the highest quality hand-crafted home decor and personal items for the young yuppie male demographic.

Guys aged 24 to 35 are increasingly finding themselves as single home-owners and the favorite John Belushi posters and puke-stained 2nd hand sofas from college just won't cut it anymore. Single men who are starting out in their careers are flush with regular paychecks and looking for a way to class up their first working-professional domiciles. Clean-lines, stark colors, and Asian-Euro fusion designs are especially popular, yet hard to find or define in the middle-aged housewife world of home decor. Atlas Frontiers will remedy this gap in the marketplace by offering existing home decor retailers a line of products and sales tools that can capture a segment of the market that has been relegated to the Ikeas, Pottery Barns, and Sharper Images of the world (the same stores your mom and girlfriend are shopping at).

Some will say that men don't shop for housewares for themselves. To this I would say that some would be right if they were making this claim 20 years ago, but today guys are getting married later in life, owning homes at younger ages or at the very least renting more upscale condominiums that require classier bedroom, livingroom, bathroom, and kitchenwares beyond what their former starving college student resources could afford. Younger men are shopping for themselves because it is too embarrassing to entertain clients or have a date over for dinner on the same paper plates and plastic cups used during your university days. When bachelors do buy for their house, they want their decor to be an impressive declaration of their style and success.

Today guys will shop for house and personal items alone, with their girlfriends, their buddies, or others will buy for them in the same stores that their mothers are picking up flower-patterned placemats. The simple fact is that style is not a unisex concept, but it is being retailed that way. Atlas Frontiers will remedy this.

There's my schpeel and the concept will be further developed on the company's website: www.atlasfrontiers.com. Masonfuller.com will stay up for my own personal use, but will not likely be updated as often. The focus of masonfuller.com will not be contained to travel topics and will likely post a variety of topics that are of interest to me at the time. Keep checking out Atlas Frontiers as it develops into a retail channel and company website.

Singapore for Awhile

Traveling around the world is a slower process than I had originally imagined it to be (if it is to be done properly, that is). I am in Singapore now after completing a 2500 km bicycle tour of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia. After that adventure, Singapore is comfortable to say the least (if you can look past the matrix-like bureaucracy of this form-fitted police state). Very clean, very organized, but not much in the way of creativity or innovation. Rules are rules here and no one steps over the yellow line on a subway platform because Big Brother is ever vigilant for such anti-social behavior.

I have seen so much contrast between China, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the rest of SE Asia! A few months ago I was riding through impoverished battle-scarred areas of Cambodia and now I'm zipping around in a futuristic wonderland. I think it would be safe to say that Asia holds some of the most diverse sets of institutions, economies, and cultures on earth. There will be so much change occurring in Asia in the next 20 years and I'm glad to have had a chance to see it before the modern world of global institutions transforms everything.

I have decided to stay in Singapore to hunt for an Ibanking job. Singapore has been a major hub for this part of the world ever since Sir Stamford Raffles landed in 1819 with the vision of creating a western outpost in the east. Despite its stifling environment, Singapore will avoid many of the future social-economic and political issues that will be exploding in Shanghai and Hong Kong in the future. HSBC and JP have made very significant in-roads in Shanghai with other banks knocking at the door from their bases in HK and Singapore. Singapore is a "back-door" to the rest of the Asian financial world so l am going to take advantage of it.

So that is the end of my travels for now. I have had so many irreplaceable experiences in the past 8 months. As expected, my view of this rock we all live on has changed forever. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to take advantage of this transition period in my life that I think it is appropriate for me to thank the people who have supported me along the way. I want to thank my friends for emailing me their words of encouragement. There were days where the world looked so alien to me that I would struggle to venture out of my room to even go through the hassle of finding a meal. During those times I would check my email if I could, and be refreshed at news from home and laugh at the witty comments coming from those closest to me. Thank you for your motivation.

Family. The only reason I could start something like this in the first place was with the knowledge that I had someone to catch me if I stumbled, got robbed, or simply couldn’t take it any more. The family has been behind me the whole way and I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for your love. It’s funny, but I think I feel closer to you since I left because I have had our happy memories occupying so much of my thoughts while I go down the road. It’s true that you can never fully appreciate something until it’s lost. I can’t wait to see you and hope you can come visit me in Singapore soon. Our next reunion will be like no other I’m sure.

I have had a great time posting these thoughts and I hope you have enjoyed reading them. As for this journal, I’m not entirely sure where it will go from here. This website will most likely change with me so we will see where it goes. I’ll know better in a few weeks.

BED BUGS!!!

I am swimming in bed bugs right now that have been leaving seething red welts that now cover me from head to toe. I picked up my little friends 3 days ago and they have taken the liberty of moving in to their juicy host where they enjoy their feast and multiply activity to the maximum. Like an irritated landlord, I tossed my backpack and clothes into a bucket of boiling water, evicting the little beasties (don't you wish you could do that to some of the memorable tenants on Holden Ln?) We also fumigated my current room and sprayed from floor to ceiling to catch any errant bugs. I guess I've been lucky to avoid this traveler's reality up until this point so I'm not complaining too much. Just itching.

I finally caved in and got a hotmail account. No one can escape the reach of Microsoft (All hail Billy G!). Add hellomase@hotmail.com to your MSN contact list and send me your MSN name.

*Progress to KL

I have been chillin at the KL National Library every day trying to resuscitate my knowledge of basic financial principals that have been lost to academic bulimia. I do not want to be stumped in any interview on something stupid like EVA, CAPM TVOM or current commodity prices so it's back to the books. It comes back quick and I have had a chance to learn some interesting things about the region that I wouldn't have known otherwise.

I also have made a list of 80 firms that will be getting a nice shiny resume and cover letter from me in a very short time. How do you compete with a Harvard degree when seeking highly selective career? It's all about statistics and persistence and my list of 80 will either yield a job or get very sick of the name Fuller by the end of 6 weeks.

My week in Kuala Lumpur has been a very nice change of pace by not having to pack a bag every morning and look for a place to stay every night. I have sunk some shallow roots here with my athletic club card and library card in hand. I'm also a regular at the morning coffee shop on the corner.