11. New & Old ~ Which One Are You?
- Arnaz
- Aug 30, 2017
- 3 min read
Sitting on my IKEA bar stool at our 16 years old refurbished IKEA bar table while typing on this 7 years old laptop ~
got me thinking, these old items have given so much to us. They have been our closest friends and companion, even became a part of our life.
It reminds me of the time when I did business back in 2006. It started from just a small trading business, selling a product which I believed so much. It was a 'Magnetic Bracelet', a health supplement powered by "Neo Dymium' magnets. It was selling at a retail price of RM 250 and was selling very well with our 30 days money back guarantee. We have sold more than 2000 pieces under the name 'BMT Magnetic Therapy Bracelet', and ONLY less than 10 pieces were returned to us for the money back. The magnetic bracelet worked and helped many with problems especially back pain and arthritis.
It evolved into a Multi Level Business marketing due to the overwhelming response from users who wanted to be a part of the business. The bracelet was then renamed to 'Dymium Magnetic Therapy Bracelet'.
In 2010, it collapsed.
Why?
My answer ~ mostly for the knowledge and experience.
It collapsed not because the magnetic bracelet did not work. It collapsed because people stop believing in it and start believing in its marketing plan or 'MONEY'.
The last aircraft which I flown for almost 10 years - Boeing 777
Being a pilot with Malaysia Airlines for 16 years I am trained to prioritise the life of my passengers in case of emergency and be the last person to leave the aircraft. The same principal I adopted in handling my sinking company, I stayed on with my company and tried to save everyone in it, until I myself sank down with the ship. At the end, I lost everything from my previous life including my 3 beautiful children, which until now (for 5 years) I haven't met them due to my inability to pay their guardian the child support allowance.
During the time the business was booming, I spent more time in China, managing the production side of the bracelet. Creating new design every month and making sure the quality of the products meet my expectation. Mind you, my expectation is huge as there was one time I hand delivered the bracelet to Tengku Mahkota Pahang himself when he was at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur. He was happy with it, and that was my happiest moment.
We had our own factory in China and managing it was tough as there were many other factories copying our products and selling them cheaper with much less quality. Sometimes, their placement of magnets were wrongly done and wrongly positioned, which can actually hurt the users.
To design a piece of bracelet from scratch is not as easy as it looks. It has to pass the basic flexibility and workability test, the smooth edge test, color test and lastly, the durability test.
A simple example, if you use a real diamond on it, you can't have a magnet on the same link as the diamond must have access to the light from front and back otherwise it won't sparkle. Same goes if you use resin for stone color effect, the resin will come off in a few months if it is placed on a wrong type of metal surface.
~ The diamond tester which we used to check the quality of our diamonds ~
~ The Gauss Meter
was used to test our magnets individually ~
The magnets have to be tested individually as the Gauss must be between 1600 to 2500. Anything less than 1600 Gauss wouldn't have much effect to our body and anything more can hurt or may even burn the skin.
The biggest hurdle was, to design bracelets which are relevant with the current fashion and trend. I did that from 2007 until 2009.
Now, almost a decade later, I decided (or even fate decided for me), rather than creating New, why not just save and cherish the Old. As the Old have something that the New doesn't, which is persistence and perseverance. If the Old survived the test of time it means that it is worth saving. It means that the Old have a strong and beautiful soul which deserved to be saved!
P.S. We still have some of the original bracelets left with us, but not much. They are 7 to 10 years old, but are still new and unused.
"To make it real again, we will be giving the 30 days money back guarantee for the purchase of our Magnetic Therapy Bracelets"
We will be updating the pictures soon in our shop listing, in the mean time, message us if you are interested!
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