Author: Roshan Kanesan

Radio Presenter | Business Interviewer | Panel Moderator | Emcee Roshan Kanesan is a Presenter and Producer at BFM 89.9, Malaysia’s leading business and current affairs radio station. He hosts Open for Business, Marketing Mojo, and Enterprise Explores, where he leads in-depth interviews with the founders, funders, and operators shaping Malaysia’s business landscape. His work focuses on the realities of building and scaling businesses in Malaysia, covering everything from entrepreneurship and strategy to funding, regulation, and leadership. Roshan is known for turning complex topics into clear, engaging conversations, whether unpacking tax policy, dissecting startup business models, or demystifying venture fundraising. Beyond the studio, Roshan is a confident and engaging moderator and emcee. He’s trusted for his thoughtful preparation, incisive questions, and ability to create space for authentic, high-impact dialogue, whether on stage at founder fireside chats, industry panels, or investor forums. He works closely with business leaders, event organisers, and ecosystem builders to curate conversations that matter, especially around entrepreneurship, fintech, capital markets, and the future of commerce. Also, he’s on a personal mission to make pickleball the new golf, a fast-paced, social way to network, unwind, and compete.

Small Daily Improvements Lead to Stunning Results

Good morning again,

I was just watching one of Robin Sharma‘s Vlogs and came across this:

“Small daily improvements overtime lead to stunning results.” Robin Sharma

He makes such a good point, we underestimate the importance of daily improvement and practice. No matter how small the progress, daily progress eventually builds up a momentum that will propel you further forwards. W just have to keep moving forward.

“The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” Confucius

Once we “Just do it” and get something started, we just need to keep improving on it, a 1% daily improvement is better than a 10% gain one day and then being stagnant. Daily improvement will lead to breeding a great habit, daily practice.

Practice is so incredible important in our journey to achieve greatness, in a our attempts to climb mountains, cross rivers, you get the picture. If we do not practice, how do we expect to achieve results & goals?

All experts began as amateurs, all geniuses began as beginners.

Over the past week or so I’ve been focusing on a few things.
1. Waking up at 7
2. Swimming first thing in the morning
3. Blogging daily
4. Reading for an hour daily
5. Sleeping well

I didn’t achieve all this on the first day, but over the past 10 days I have seen great results, it just took daily improvements. I started by waking up at 8:30, and then 8:15 etc. I started my morning swimming by swimming 5 minutes the first time, and now I’ve progressed to 20 minutes and doing it at least 5 mornings a week. The blogging, well you know that story. The reading has been pretty steady, an average of 45 minutes a day now. And I’ve made it a point to go to bed by 10:30 everyday, so that my sleep cycle is readjusted, and the adjustment is indeed happening. I find myself feeling more refreshed in the mornings, and wanting to sleep at around 10. Next week I’m. Going to try waking up at 6:30, let’s see how that goes.

Anyway, I hope you get my point, daily improvement. Tattoo that on your brain. Before going to bed, take your journal and write about the things you did well, the things that weren’t so brilliant and the ways you can’t make tomorrow better. It set’s your actions in alignment with your goals. Don’t be busy being busy, don’t work so hard climbing the mountain only to realise that you climbed the wrong on. We all have limited time in a day, be smart about it.

Improve daily, be in line with your vision, put more living in your day.

Straight From The Heart

Arkay 6

Music

Good morning 🙂

How’s your morning been so far? I know my post is a little later than usual, was catching up with a friend I bumped into at Starbucks.

So, while chatting with Lauren I figured out today’s blog topic… Music. This hit me while I was listening to the great music here at Starbucks. (I do not get anything from starbucks, this is not product placement 😉 )

So anyway, what kind of music do you listen to?

Music is the soundtrack to our lives. It so incredibly important. It adds colour to our lives, makes life more exciting, cheers us up when we’re down, calms us down, and most importantly, it relates to us. It appeals to our emotions, our feelings.

As for my taste in music, it is…. varied.

What do you think I like?

Most people would say hip hop, and they’d be correct, but my taste is not limited to only that. Let’s take a list at my top 10. (plays collected over the past 2+ years)

1. Right round – Flo Rida
2. Marvin’s Room – Drake
3. Ultimate victory – chamillionaire
4. I’m on a boat – lonely island
5. Danza kuduro – Don Omar
6. Up all night – drake
7. Cookie jar – gym class heroes
8. Heartless – Kane west
9. Champagne showers – LMFAO
10. Tik Tok – ke$ha

So yes, most of my music is concentrated on hip hop and mainstream stuff, but further down my list you’ll see 30 Seconds to Mars, Slash, Michael Buble, Sinatra, Tiesto, Aoki, Santana, Linkin Park, Busta Ryhmes, One Republic, and … Taylor Swift. Yes, that is correct I listen Taylor Swift, sue me.

Each artist or genre appeals to a different side of me, a different area. And I’m sure you feel the same way too. I can’t listen to one style for too long, hence the varied selection. Right now I’m going through a Sinatra & Buble phase, thanks to my singing lessons.

Aside form listening to music, making music is great as well. Singing has been great for me. It’s helped me and I would really love to have a band in due time and make some great covers with certin people. Making music is a great form of personal expression, whether it is playing a song you know or composing your own stuff. It’s a great outlet for stress, creation and expression. Everyone should dabble in making music… it will boost your confidence and help you express yourself better. Whether its playing the piano, DJing, singing, mixing, producing, strumming the guitar, etc…… Anyone of them would be great…. It all matters.

So yea, don’t forget about music, don’t underestimate it’s power. It can motivate you, it can cheer you up, it can perpetuate your emotion, it can make you feel like a champion. Music is a force to be reckoned with…. a great source of power.

Here’s my cover of Frank Sinatra’s The Way You Look Tonight. Click here. it’s a little pitchy, I think, but definitely an improvement. #progress

Have a great day ahead,

Straight From The Heart

Arkay 6

Green Ways

Good morning readers, unlike the few days before this, I am not being accompanied by a Cafe Mocha, but my a cuppa green tea.

Speaking of green tea, today’s post will be green related.

I finished a chapter in Branson‘s book yesterday, the chapter in question is titled, Gaia Capitalism. It basically iterates his point on going green but still being able to make money, responsible capitalism if you will. He raises some very valid and interesting points. All of us can make a difference, if we all take small actions, over time it will mean something. So here are some suggestions, simple. Some I already practice, others I am adopting now.

1. BYOB. Bring you own bags when you go shopping.
2. Plan your travel/driving plans for the day so that you don’t waste time and fuel.
3. When driving try not to accelerate much,need a constant pace.
4. Car pool
5. Use less paper. Go digital, reuse paper, practice double sided printing.
6. Keep your tyres properly inflated, it helps your fuel economy.
7. Start using your own water bottles and/or containers when buying drinks (Starbucks, don’t buy bottled water unnecessarily)
8. When buying vehicles, try to look at the more fuel efficient ones.
9. Unplug unused chargers and appliances
10. Don’t leave computers on overnights
11. Collect rainwater
12. Watch Food Inc

Really try and watch Food Inc, it really opened my eyes.

Anyway, I hope that this post helps you guys. It may not seem like much, but if more people starting doing it, over time it will make a difference.

Oh, and I had a another idea. I love this Earth Hour thing, but I think it doesn’t happen enough. So I’m looking at making it a regular thing at my house and hopefully spread it from there. Wish me luck 🙂

Have a great day,

Put more living in your days

Straight From The Heart

Arkay 6

Do we watch too much TV?

Good morning dear readers, thank you for tuning in this fine cool morning, so cool that my mother was wearing a shawl in the hall. Lovely 🙂 I actually rolled down the windows on the way to Monash. I’m chillaxing at Starbucks listening to some nice music (the play some really good music) but instead of green tea, I’m indulging in a Cafe Mocha today. 🙂

I was thinking about how A couple weeks back I would’ve either still been in bed or watching tv at this time, and this thought got me thinking about the amount of time we spend watching tv and then I thought:

are we too distracted by mindless TV shows?

I understand that people like to watch tv for entertainment and to unwind but I think society has become too distracted by some really ridiculous shows. I am in no way innocent of these claims, and this is why I’m writing about it.

There were entire days I used to spend watching tv shows and for what? A story line? To appease my curiosity? To distract myself? To escape reality? Fill the time?

The answer: all of the above.

I would watch tv for the storyline and really can’t stop until the serial dies as I need to satisfy my curiosity. I also watched it to distance myself from life, I was feeling down and out and tv would help ease that hurt but it wasn’t really helping me, but distracting me from dealing with the issues plaguing me, it helped me escape reality. And most sinful of all, it just filled up my days, it helped the time pass in a time when I felt like I was in a coma, life was just passing me by… I wasn’t acting on life.

But what I’ve come to realise is that even though tv is a part of modern daily life we shouldn’t spend too much time with it… Because honestly, it’s such a waste of time. I am currently following about 13 tv shows, and I will not be following anymore! Thank god some of these shows are coming to the end and I will not replace them. I have started limiting myself to an hour of tv a day (especially weekdays), so that I don’t distract myself from more worth while endeavours such as spending time with my family, socialising, reading and writing.

The TV shows i follow include: Castle, Fringe, Gossip Girl, Hawaii Five-0, House, How I Met Your Mother, Leverage, Modern Family, New Girl, Sherlock, Suits, The Big Bang Theory, the Good Wife & The Mentalist.

I actually think tv is the worst way to spend your time because there is no stimulation, at least when I’m playing a console game I have to think and my mind is at work, when I watch tv is feels like my mind is in a coma, please remember I’m talking about TV shows and not movies or documentaries.

It’s an industry dedicated to distracting us from real life. Movies aren’t as bad because they don’t comprise of 20 or so weekly episodes and there are a lot of good movies that stimulate one emotional and mentally.

I love watching comedies, but I guess the issue is not about watching tv, but excess amount of tv people consume nowadays. I mean im not going to stop watching my serials, but I certainly will be making an effort to watch a max of 60 minutes of tv daily.
wish me luck 🙂

9 Alternatives to Mindless Television

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

Review: The iPad (3rd Gen)

Good evening ladies and gents, it is indeed a beautiful evening. I am currently chilling at the Golfer’s Terrace at KLGCC, sipping on some coconut water looking at a beautiful view of the golf course. How much KLGCC has changed in the past decade.

Anyway to the point,

I bought the White, 64GB, 4G iPad about 2 weeks ago, when it launched, and I’m ready to tell you what I think about it.

I love it.

More than my new toy this little tablet has been an incredible tool for me, increasing my productivity,reading and writing. I love reading magazines on this thing, and I type out all my blogs on it. I use it as my primary device, so much so that I can’t remember the last time I used my MacBook except to load music and videos onto my iPad. I don’t even need to sync my iOS devices with my MacBook cause I sync them with iCloud. I don’t even use my MacBook to surf, the iPad is especially useful with that. The Twitter and YouTube apps are amazing, (especially Twitter) and I basically only use the Facebook iOS app, not any browser.

I Love it. It’s so damn smooth, quick and easy to use. Simplicity at its best. Especially with iOS5, you don’t need a computer to set it up. The resolution is absolutely amazing, more pixels than my 63″ inch full HD tv. The battery life is equal to the iPad 2, but the thing is, the battery is almost twice as powerful. The new iPad has a 45 watt battery, the iPad 2 had a 25 watt battery. Why the same battery life? The Retina display, it takes a fair amount of energy to power the screen to its incredible full glory.

Aside from that it has quad core graphics but is still a dual core processor, A 5mp camera, dictation (no Siri) and personal hotspot capability not to mention 4G support, which isn’t that big a deal in Malaysia since we don’t really have proper LTE 4G.

The only issue I faced with the iPad was One day, while using the personal hotspot from my iPhone, the iPad got pretty hot. But it was one a tennis court and it was a hot day, that was the only time I expertise uncomfortable heat from the iPad. Oh, and the speakers aren’t all that.

I have absolutely no regrets buying this brilliant decide but if you have an iPad 2 I wouldn’t recommend upgrading, unless you can get a good price to sell your iPad 2. If you have an iPad 1, don’t think twice about it. I highly recommend it. If you already have an iPhone with personal hotspot and want to save some money, skip the 4G, that will cut RM400 from the price tag.

Hands down the best tablet in the market. Apps. Battery life. Magazines. Resolutionary. Smooth Performance. iCloud syncing everything together neatly.

Don’t believe me? By all means, please go ahead and do your own research then, no worries, I would do the same. 🙂

And about the name, I like it. Getting rid of the numbers was only natural. You don’t see an iMac 7 or a MacBook 8 or the iPod nano 4 do you?

Have a great week ahead!

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

Getting to Greatness without Burning Out

Good morning everyone, I hope you are having a great “Star Wars” day, may the 4th be with you.

Today I’m going to talk about how to reach your goals without burning out; very much inspired by Robin Sharma.

Robin calls it “Strategic refuelling”. It basically means taking a break after an intense sprint of hard work and excellence. Too many of us work too hard and don’t take the appropriate enough of rest to compensate for it. That is a life out of sync, out of balance and can only end in disaster. We need to refuel, take a break… Rest. Rest is way too underrated.

I heard this on one of Robin’s podcast,”life isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon”. Bullseye.

We can all achieve greatness if we want too, and join the pantheon of The Crazy Ones, but we must manage ourselves well. All The Crazy Ones took breaks to recharge, Branson had an island and Jobs had his retreats .

I learned this the hard way when I toasted my health and burnt out. That was more than 2 years ago, and I’m still recovering (but doing much better). We take our health for granted until we lose it. Please trust me when I say, nothing is more important than your health. Please please please, take this to heart. There’s no point being rich but sick and not being able to enjoy the spoils of your labour.

Always try your best and reach for the stars, but make sure you take breaks and rest up. Sleep well, eat well, exercise and have fun. Take a few days off after an intense project, you earned it. Take a trip to the beach after busting your ass off in work. Treat yourself to a vacation when you achieve a goal.

Strategic refuelling, one of the major keys to excellence, prolonged achievement and greatness.

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

Thank You

Good morning everyone, I hope you guys all have a great day 🙂

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

JFK

I would like to thank everybody who has been supporting my blog, the people who have taken time out of their busy days to visit my little site. Thanks to all of you my site has flown passed 1000 All-Time hits. Even better, thanks to you the previous daily record of 84 hits has been shatter, the new Daily record, set by you guys, is now 159 hits. Thank you.

“The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.”

John E. Southard

I really do appreciate all the support, I was just so happy when I saw the total tally for the day. The average for the last week, before yesterday, was about 50 hits a day, so yesterday was a real big milestone for my blog and me. Thank you.

“I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.”

William Shakespeare

Please keep on reading, commenting and recommending. There’s a new addition to the site, if you look on the right of your screen there’s a email notification widget, so that it will be easier to follow my blog. You guys are already taking time out your days to read but I have one more thing to ask, if you guys could use the Follow” widget on the right to get email notification of new articles, that would be great. But anyway, I already appreciate the fact that you guys are reading my work.

“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you,

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay6

Waking Up Early & Sleeping Well

Good morning all, and what a wonderful morning it is. I’m sipping on my green tea,chilling at Starbucks listening to whatever chilling music it is that they are playing. But whatever it is, it feel like a great morning, don’t you think so?

Today’s post is a simple one, one very close to home for so many…waking up early and sleeping well.

I feel that waking up early is integral to feeling like a champion, yes it may be hard wake up, hard to fight the desire to sleep in, (normally its difficult because you’re not sleeping well) but the rewards of waking up early are so damn great.

It feels like I have more time, that by the time I’m done swimming, showering, eating breakfast, blogging, reading for at least an hour and running a few errands, it’s only 12pm, which feel great cause before, when I used to wake up at 10/11 the day used to feel so short because it’s normal to feel that the day has come to an end when it gets dark, it’s natural. I so prefer sleeping before 12, getting 8 hours of sleep and then getting up to the to greet the sun. Not only, is it normal, it feel great.

It’s incredibly important to get enough sleep, don’t skimp out on that, skimp on tv time, but don’t skimp on sleep. At least 8 hours. Some people are blessed in a way that they auto wake up after 6-7 hours of sleep and still feel like a million bucks, but that isn’t for everyone. Follow what you’re body is telling you, aim to sleep early so that you can wake u early. I learnt the incredibly hard way about the importance of sleep… Because one day, if you continue to skimp on sleep, work hard and party hard, your body will burn out… And that, won’t be good.

I’ve spent the last few years reviving myself from my premature burnout, please do yourself a favour and take care.

Balance is just so damn important.

We can all reach greatness but we won’t all do it at the same pace, know your body, know yourself, listen to your body and most important take time to have solid, straight, proper, restful sleep at night and then start the day early.

The most simple advise, something we all learn so early in life but then forget because we don’t give sleep the importance it truly deserves.

Moments

Good morning everyone! Its a beautiful Sunday morning, I hope all of you enjoy the day.

Life is all about moments, all about the memories and experiences that make us who we are. We all go through ups and downs, highs and lows, the rise and fall. We are more likely to remember who we feel at a moment rather than what actually happened. We don’t remember days, we remember moments. whether they were good moments or bad moments, they are a part of who we are, don’t hold on to them too tight, but always remember them.

Today’s post is a little closer to the chest, it’s about defining movements in my life and I would like to share them with you.

Key Moment: Just before I started Sri KDU, my dad sat me down and talked to me. He told me that even though the school was a lot of money, he knew it was worth it because he believed in me. He wanted me to have the best education, the best foundation that he could give me, because he believed that I could do great things. That moment changed how I approached secondary school. I volunteered to become monitor, which lead to me becoming a prefect which lead to later becoming Head Prefect. Yes, I may have stepped on some toes initially and set back my social life, but I wouldn’t have done anything different.

Greatest moment: it was March 2008, the day SPM results were being released. I was so damn nervous, not that I was worried, but I always get nervous during big moments, i expected to at least get 7A’s, that would have been good. I remember this so clearly, I walk up to Mr. Sera, he looks for my slip, he looks at is and smiles, then he looks at me and says, congratulations. I take the slip and look…. The first thing that popped up was A1 for BM. WHAT!?!?! That was went through my mind. I achieved 9 A1s and 2 A2s…. I was stunned. Shocked. Incredibly Happy. I walk up to my parents and tell them the news. We hugged, everyone was happy and then it happened, something I have never seen before, my dad teared…. A tear of great pride…. I could feel how proud he was and that tear was…. It brought me a feeling that is still unparalleled. My greatest moment. I for A2 for Add Math, And the only reason Aunty Prems spared me is because of my overall result.

Roller coaster moment: it was after the interviews for UWC. I got a call, Deborah was on the line. “Roshan, i’m so happy to tell you that you’ve been accepted, you’ve got a place at the Mahindra United World College”. I was so happy, it was just the news I was awaiting to hear, I was so damn happy but then it all evaporated when I was told that I wasn’t getting any scholarship. Why so sad? Because my parents had a serious talk with me, they told me that they could afford 50%. So this was quite a blow to me. It was a major roller coaster ride… But in the end my parents, extraordinary people, managed to find a way to send me… They found the money.

Worst moment: this was a couple days after my 20th Birthday, it as February. My dad was on his way up the hill to pick me up. To take me away from MUWCI. This was the end of my MUWCI journey, the end of my stay on the hill. The worst moment came when I was in the car, driving away from the friends that had gathered to send me off. Moving away from them was so painful… Every metre forward hurt. It finally hit me. That wasn’t how things were supposed to go, that wasn’t part of the plan, it wasn’t suppose to end like this. (a post about MUWCI will come out in the next few weeks)

These were all the first things that popped into my mind. If you guys are comfortable I would love to hear from you. Your moments. Just comment below, no pressure 🙂 or if you have suggestions for more moment titles.

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay6

Moving on

Sometimes the cards we are dealt are not always fair. However you must keep smiling & moving on
Tom Jackson

Moving on, is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard.
Dave Mustaine

Moving on, so easy to talk about it but not so easy to actually do it, but it is an integral part of growing up and and growing into the best version of yourself.

Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting, it means being able to close a chapter or your life, whether it’s a mistake or a loss, and get on with the next phase. It means getting to the next step without holding back, without holding on to what was once and move towards what could be.

It means having the courage to face the world, to get out of your safe zone after the shit has hit the fan. To be able to say, “yea, I screwed up, but i’m not going to give up.”

“What don’t kill me can only make me stronger”

Is hard to move on, to let go of that that was once so sweet but then turned bitter, to let go of memories of great times, but if we decide to stay and hide amongst those good memories past, we will never be able to carve out memories.

As difficult as it is to move on from a rough patch, or mistake or bad phase or our lives, it’s even harder to move on from “reliving” the “Glory Days”. Being trapped in a vicious cycle of replaying a part of your life that was so great, it is living in a little comfortable dream and not letting yourself live what could be even better life. Living in an illusion that those were the best days and that you won’t get better ones, but how do you know you won’t get better days? Especially if you’re too busy watching replays and not out there trying to live life the best you can.

I’m not saying that you should forget shut the good old days, or forget about the bad times and mistakes; remember them, talk about them, reminisce, but don’t let it hold you back. It is all those parts that build who we become, learn from them, gain from them, appreciate the experience but don’t live your life wishing you had done things different, spending your days reliving good memories instead of making new ones, letting bad memories haunt you instead of learning from them.

Have a great day,

John Reynolds: Tommy, that’s a hundred thousand dollars on a goddam golf swing!

Thomas Crown: It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, John… What the hell else have we got to do?

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

Keep Moving Forward

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