Sometimes you meet a bunch of people and you don't realise how well you get along. How well you will work together. And how successful you will all be one day.
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In December 2002, I had this crazy idea of doing this uni competition called HEWSO (Higher Education Workplace Olympiad). It occurred to me that I didn't have a lot of stuff to fill out my resume. Me, being one of those prepared people, I was already looking out for summer clerkships and internships in 2004. I needed some ammo to sell myself.

So I decided to put my name down and convinced Dawen, Tim and Carol to join in. Suffice to say, I was only prepared to put in minimal effort over the course of the summer. It turns out that we also had extra group members join us - Malik, Rosa, and Olivia.

Contray to my original plans, we worked our butts off that summer. We met up every couple of days during our uni holidays, put in long hours, and even did an all-nighter. I was up til 3am in the morning preparing our report. Sat on the uni couches in the lobby with Carol who's car was locked in til 7am. Got home, slept like 2 hours, and went back to uni to add the final touches. This is what happens when you put a bunch of high achievers and motivated people together who don't want to let each other down.

The thing was, this competition didn't even count for anything! There was no credit points for this. It wasn't even a subject! A few weeks later we gave a presentation to Kimberly Clark (the makers of Kleenex tissues) and they loved us. I still remember the call from Carol, I think I was in a bit of shock when I learnt that we had beaten out all comers from UTS!

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Fast forward 3.5 years: Where y'all at now?

- Tim's on a working holiday in Canada, New York, UK after managing the family business.
- Dawen's a senior accountant at a top insolvency accounting firm
- Carol's an accountant at a boutique investment bank
- Olivia is a lawyer at a big law firm
- Cameron's doing his MBA
-Rosa's a business analyst at Big 4 accounting firm.
- Malik's working and studying an education degree at Newcastle Uni.

Me? I'm still blogging! Still the same old me.

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We had a great time at Baia, an Italian restaurant on Cocklebay Wharf reminiscing about that all-nighter, our team name ("NeoStrategy" - represent!). And then we topped it off with our favourtie team activity - Karaoke!

I don't know why, I have this urge tonite to do something I've been pondering for a while. It's been my dream to have my own business. And I also want to start making some investments as well - such as trading on the stock exchange. Not large amounts. Money that I can afford to risk/play around with (hopefully not lose!). Maybe its a result of meeting all those HEWSO folks again.

My eyes are on the bigger prize. I can see it now. DJ Ho Inc! I like the sound of that. Successful business people show traits from a young age. I dont know what I want to do. Import/Export/E-Business/Services. No idea yet. Where can I see an opportunity now or in the future that isn't being serviced by the market. An area that I can build up a competitive advantage.

Who knows. Maybe its all talk. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was DJ Ho Inc.

I'm out like 3.5 years,

DJ Ho.