
How I scratched my entrepreneurial itch while teaching English in China - mustafabisic1
http://ninjodo.com/china-entrepreneurship-business-lessons/
======
moopling
I've lived in China, even did a bit of English teaching on the side from time
to time. My experience was that the bar for English teachers was very low,
people with no skills other than speaking english as a first language could
move there and have a comfortable life.

The chinese government perceives this import of low skilled workers as a
problem. Working illegally (on a non valid visa) in china is quite common as
an expat, but it was pretty much the only industry I saw that deportation was
strongly enfoced.

Reading between the lines, this doesn't strike me as a story of pushing
yourself to achieve your goals, but instead one about a person who lacked
focus, moved to china and settled into the easy ex-pat lifestyle of teaching
english. I would be hesitent to take any advice he gives.

~~~
mustafabisic1
Thanks so much for adding your 2 cents here. I appreciate it. For me, it was
more of a story of searching for his passion and path in life. But, you read
it like that and it's probably our fault to not communicate it right. Once
again thanks for adding value.

~~~
bertlequant
I lived in China for a few years as well, and most expats you run into are
usually teachers. This doesn't mean they are all low skill or lost perse. Many
are young and come there after college for a gap year or two, to travel and
experience something different. However, many are enticed by the ease of life:
16 hour work week for Uni foreign teachers, relatively decent salary, ability
to travel, and other assorted reasons. I've seen many people get into side
businesses while over there, but it was usually running a school (most likely
with a foggy legal arrangement and no ability to procure residence permits -
eliminating the true draw of a school for many parents over there). It's been
a while since I was over there, so things might have changed, but I think, for
the most part, the poster above is correct.

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happywolf
A few thoughts after reading the article:

(1) The writing style isn't impressive given the author claiming to be a
native English speaker and a teacher. A bit wordy and incoherent.

Example: I was in China from February 2007 until June 2010 I lived in 3 cities
while I was there, 2 years in Harbin (where they have the Ice Festival, and a
wicked beer garden in Summer), 1 year in Shenyang (awesome city where I
started my first business) and 1 year in Changchun (where I started my second
business, and met my amazing wife).

(2) Pretty obvious advertising on Ninjodo, and I feel this is the main theme
of the article instead of 'sharing of lessons learned'

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andy_ppp
I'm off to do the same thing from Japan of all places (girlfriend is teaching
English out there) and without a job. I realised recently that dipping your
toe in with part time work does not give you enough time to ever launch
something worthwhile (or that I would consider good enough), let alone do the
hard bit of selling it to customers.

~~~
mustafabisic1
You should get into some of Tai Lopez's programs :P just kidding. Actually, I
discovered a cool guy on Snapchat that might be helpful. Can I contact you on
your email in the profile? And check out this youtube channel.
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7dywl5wDxTu1RM3eJ_h9Q](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7dywl5wDxTu1RM3eJ_h9Q)
This is a cool designer guy, he's pretty much unknown - but we can learn so
much from him. I love those kinds of rising talents resources. Thanks for your
comment, hope this helps.

~~~
andy_ppp
Of course! Feel free.

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neivin
Ugh what's the deal with college aged kids going to Asian countries to "Teach"
English with zero qualifications?

~~~
westiseast
You can work 20 or less hours a week and earn a reasonable salary and have a
pretty fun life - booze, travel, girls, culture. Or you can work 40-50 hours a
week and earn a cracking salary, maybe save a whole bunch, maybe get exposed
to entrepreneurial opportunities that you wouldn't back home.

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mustafabisic1
Thanks for the love guys. If you have any questions about China,
entrepreneurship, saas or crm. You can ask it here and we'll answer asap.
Thanks again!

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hajrice
Great article – Really curious how much this is due to China rather than Asia
as a whole

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elvirs
unrelated: it says your real name is simon. why is your username here mustafa?

~~~
mustafabisic1
Simon is the CEO of Ninjodo and the author of the article. I work there. I'm
active on HN and love everything that gets on the homepage here because it's
intriguing. I submit various articles I think HN community will like. I wrote
we will answer every question here because I'm in constant contact with the
author :D Thanks for the interest man

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justinhj
After three spelling and grammar errors I stopped reading.

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Markoff
TLDR advertisement for agency hiring English teachers to come

the guy claim he has one of the most recognized brands yet nobody in China
ever heard about him

most probably just abusing HN for SEO optimization

~~~
mustafabisic1
Nah, man. It's nothing like an advertising for an agency. It's a personal
story of a man who developed a language agency 6 years ago in China and
lessons he learned from it! And I don't know why would that be known in Cuba.

~~~
Markoff
because you can try to swipe China on Gboard

there is pretty much zero information about developing anything, just personal
advertisement and only reason went people are upvoting it is because it had
magical word China in title, as someone who lived there better half of decade
I consider this article waste if time even for people who never been there

~~~
mustafabisic1
Yeah man. It says clearly in the introduction that it's a story. "A little
side-note. Did you read Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and grow rich”? In that
book, the author mentions a secret that he writes subtly. This story will be
just like that. Read carefully and draw your lessons from it." \- I don't want
to take anything away from you and your experience. I'm not here to create
enemies. Thank you for pitching in and sorry if I offended you in any shape or
form. :)

~~~
hluska
I understand that you're personally invested, but you're comparing this poorly
written drivel to Napoleon Hill?

You're officially hurting your brand and it's time to disengage.

