OMG! I Won!

September 3rd, 2010

I have been checking my Blackberry every hour for a winning notification email from Delivering Happiness Book team. No news.

Seriously, there are tons of amazing entries for “Win a Spot on The Bus” contest (see http://deliveringhappiness.ning.com/), do I stand a chance? You know, I would be genuinely happy for whoever won this contest. Of course, I would be happier if I won. 🙂

I came home from work at around 4pm, and I thought I would check my Blackberry one last time. I wasn’t really expecting anything, but I saw this:

Winner notification from Alana

OMG. I do know who Alana is. She is one of DHBus’s team members. My heart went “BA BUMP“! Should I pinch myself or my dog to make sure I’m not hallucinating?

If I was sitting on a chair, I would have fallen down to the floor, for sure!

I shouted out, “OMG! OMG!”

I’m definitely not OMG kind of girl. But there wasn’t any word that I could think of except OMG!

Then, I shouted OMG 100 times more while running around the dining table with cell phone still in my hand.

If that wasn’t enough, I went out to my backyard and shouted another 1000 times.

My dogs thought I was a mad woman, but I didn’t care. Haha. I was happy to share one of my happiest moments with them.

Now, what exactly did I win? See below.
=============================================
Prize: One (1) prize will be awarded, consisting of the following: A three (3) day, two (2) night trip for two (2) (winner and one (1) guest) to join the Delivering Happiness, LLC Bus team members on tour in one of the following cities of winner’s choice: Los Angeles, CA; Orlando, FL; or New York, NY. Prize includes round-trip, coach class air transportation for winner and guest from the major airport nearest winner’s home (as determined by Sponsor) to the city chosen by winner, and three (3) days, two (2) nights accommodations (one room, double occupancy) at a hotel of Sponsor’s choice. The dates of travel will differ based on the chosen destination.
==============================================

The biggest prize is not the free air tickets and free accommodation. Anyone can buy a ticket to L.A., but not everyone has the opportunity to tour L.A. on the Happy Bus with all the wonderful DHBus team members! We’ll meet entrepreneurs, visit great organizations, and help delivering some happiness along the way!

To read more about Delivering Happiness book, written by Tony Hsieh (CEO, Zappos), go to http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/.

“In DELIVERING HAPPINESS, Tony reveals the secret to his success at such a young age: leadership in culture and happiness.”
—Lance Armstrong

Delivering Happiness Book team is going on a 20+ city bus tour (they are in Chicago today, should be heading out to New York soon). Here are their city stops: http://www.deliveringhappinessbus.com/stops, and I just won a spot on the bus!!

Note: This post was written on 9/3. DHBus is now in Providence, RI.

Happy Bus

If you see this baby blue bus winking at ya somewhere, be sure to blow it some whistles and fly it some kisses.

Later that day, I went to take some photos to send to DHBook team. Of course, living in the “SillyCorn Valley” of the Midwest (Fairfield, Iowa), I couldn’t help myself but took the photos in a corn field just two minutes away from my house. Haha. I love the big blue sky and the no man’s land feel. 🙂 I was so excited that I forgot to take the book with me the first time, so I had to go back and get it!

My precious Happy Book

A dose of happiness for you

Me & Da Happy Book

Chilling

What's the secret to happiness? You gotta read this book!

One with nature. Being with nature makes me happy.

Me doing WOW

Big sky & corn fields

Now what? I need to pick a city to join the bus tour. I’ve never been to L.A., so L.A. it is! Also I need to come up with my Happy Bus bucket list. That’ll be my homework for the next two months. 🙂

I would like to thank the whole DHBook team for this amazing opportunity. I feel so honored to be selected. See you guys soon, on the bus!!!

See me on Delivering Happiness Bus website @ http://www.deliveringhappinessbus.com/contest.

I am so happy, happy, happy, happy, happy!

If you have any questions that you want me to ask the Happy Bus team during my trip, let me know by posting a comment here or twitter me @ououborneo.

It was instant love. The day I heard Tony Hsieh (Author, Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion & Purpose) talked about Delivering Happiness in his seminar at MAGIC tradeshow (Feb 2010), I was inspired to look for my own happiness.

I don’t think it was a coincidence to have found Delivering Happiness. I believe that when you are ready for a guru, he will come to you.

Tony (Author, Delivering Happiness) and I at MAGIC Tradeshow

After the seminar, Tony was sweet to stay and answer our questions. I waited in line to thank him for his inspiring talk and of course for a fan photo (I wasn’t the only one, okay?!)

I’ve been following every DHBook happy hour USTREAM (except during my trip to Melbourne – there wasn’t internet at my host’s) and loved every second of it (from Ava’s chicken egg business story to LiveStrong fundraising). I have of course read the book and have given it away to help spread the happiness.

When DHBook team decided to launch a bus tour (http://www.deliveringhappinessbus.com/), I jumped up and down with joy. Finally I have the chance to meet the whole team!

Delivering Happiness Bus Win a Spot on The Bus Contest

So, when they announced “Win a spot on a bus” contest, I immediately decided to give it a try. Having said that, I did give myself a few days to think about the reason “why I belong on the bus”. I am not going to lie. There was self-doubt. I am naturally a shy and introverted person. It takes time for me to open up. Would I be a good fit on the bus? Would DHBook team like me?

I turned to Tony’s book for answer and I think I got it. DHBook team and I hold the same core values. We are quirky and fun, eager to learn new things and are interested to meet new people. Also, we are all about building relationships with our open hearts. I think we’ll get along just fine. :rtdance1:

Initially I wanted to submit a video entry. My mind ran wild with ideas for the movie and I would LOL in my dreams. Then, I read the contest terms carefully, and saw “To enter, prepare an original essay of no more than 150 words…. Essays that exceed 150 words or are otherwise non-compliant with these Official Rules will be disqualified.” Arggghhh! Although we were encouraged to be creative, I didn’t want to take the risk of being disqualified. So, I scrapped my video idea, reluctantly. 🙁

Then, I took some time to recollect my thoughts, and wrote a 150 words essay on my immigration story – how I emigrated from Borneo to the U.S. ten years ago, and have been struggling to find my own identity, etc. It was a good essay. But after reading Colin Wright‘s blog post on “Time Released Personality and Your Brand”, I had to scrap that immigration story idea as well. Like how Colin puts it, “You don’t want to introduce the parents and look at childhood photos right away; there’s definitely a time for that, it’s just not on the first date.” Even though to me that immigration essay had my unique point-of-view, but my problems might not matter to anyone because no one knows me on a personal level.

Then, a light bulb went off. A McDonald resume that I have read before inspired me. So, I listed down my mission, goals, skills, etc.; everything straight from my soul and heart, honestly and sincerely. The most important reason for me to be on the bus would be to uncover my core values, and to inspire others along the way. It might be a life-long process to get to know myself, but the sooner I start working on it, the better! It’s only when I am comfortable with myself, confidence would follow and I would be able to discover my true passion, from heart.

It might seem absurd to you that I’ve spent so much time analyzing and thinking about this contest. It was actually a soul searching process on its own. I only live once, so I got to spend time doing things that I passionate about. I didn’t even pay attention to the time when I was having a blast playing with all the essay ideas.

I want to dream the biggest dream I can. 🙂 You should too. No excuses, just crush it.

P/S: You can find all the contest entries at http://deliveringhappiness.ning.com/.

~ OuOuBorneo ~

Explore. Experience. Evolve.

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OMG! I Won!

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