About

I am SuperTommy. I believe life should be amazing. Some say that I’m an idealist who dreams of a world that may never exist. I say: first you dream it, then you live it. I live to Be Amazing and try to share that with as many people as I can; those who I know and those who I may never know.

Who is SUPERTOMMY?

My official or given name is Thomas K. Leung. My middle initial stands for Kit–a direct transliteration of a part of my Chinese name. I don’t really know what it means. I also never use it.

I didn’t actually come up with the nickname SuperTommy. I did further its growth but, I take no credit for creating it. It was a term coined in High School and I have since used it for just about everything in the digital world.

There are other organizations and people who use the term “SuperTommy”. I find it disappointing that I don’t come up as the first ten results on Google for every variation of the term. I am working on it. I would also like to come up first for searches of my namwe but, there are quite a few of me’s out there. SuperTommy seems more unique to me–at least I own the domain.

The gorgeous specimen of a male on the right is me–just in case you were wondering.

What I Do

I do a lot of things. I write a lot. I read a lot. I am interested by a multitude of topics including: money, business, marketing, technology, politics, economics, video games, health & fitness, life, and knowledge. I’m a little addicted to knowledge.

Professionally, I have worked as a programmer for a web start-up and an independent video game company. I am not a programmer by formal schooling. I’ve had no formal college training in programming or how computers work. Most of the technical knowledge was gained through doing.

I’m not in love with programming. I love technology but, not so much having to understand all the nuts and bolts of it. I’m more interested in using technology to accomplish an objective.

The internet has fascinated me ever since I got my first AOL account. I stumbled onto Fortune City and immediately wanted to make my own website. There was a lot of learning by trial and error.

Making and maintaining websites was a hobby for a long time. I learned a lot about the workings of websites and how to promote them. The technical stuff eventually bored me. It also got a lot more complex as a million and one web technologies popped up. I only know a handful of them.

I have no interest in being the most knowledgeable web programmer or programmer of any kind. It is good that I have this general know-how. My interests really lie in marketing and business. One of the reasons why I learned to make websites was so that I could promote it.

While that seems a little off the beaten road, I really wanted to reach people. To provide people a service that is a benefit to people’s lives. That is the real goal of capitalism and free markets: to satisfy the public.

All these new technologies are not going away. They are here to stay. I want to use the new technologies to inform people about useful products and services. I call this field “Interactive Marketing”. I’m an interactive marketer.

What I Write About

My interests are pretty broad. I have a general interest in creating things. I read a lot about business, money, and economics. I am very interested in politics–mostly in the discussion of politics. You can read about my politics in a section below.

On this blog, I generally write about anything that I want to. Often, I just write about life experiences. I figure someone else, somewhere, might be experiencing something similar or will later. I think it is always interesting to read real life stories.

I am a pretty private person. I don’t share everything. When I do share things that are personal, I keep a lot of extra information secret. I try to convey the point without spilling everything the beans. I always respect the privacy of others and won’t name them unless I know they’ll be okay with it.

I really want to write things that will help people. On the World Wide Web, help usually comes in the form of information. I tend not to write about things unless I feel that I am pretty well-versed on the subject.

This particular blog is not very focused. I’m just sharing my thoughts, opinions, experiences, and knowledge with whoever wants to read it. :)

Interactive and Online Marketing

I have a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. I decided years ago to pursue a degree in marketing because I felt it was a knowledge that I could apply broadly. When is knowing how to sell and reach an audience not useful? Didn’t want to get a degree in something narrow like Computer Science–I also don’t like math that much.

It took a while for me to figure out which part of marketing I was really interested in. I have an affection towards what is new. I took many marketing classes to finish my degree and while all of it–minus marketing research–was great, it was really the barely-talked-about interactive and online marketing that got me excited.

A good deal of Pace professors are also professionals in their field. They do have to teach the “fundamentals” but, it should be apparent to any marketing professional worth their weight that the landscape was shifting. I believe that the future of marketing lies in digital, online, and interactive media. The old rules of interruption marketing is just not going to cut it for much longer.

I’m not saying TV will be dead or that print will be dead. It is up to the marketer to come up with creative uses of all tools available. I am saying that interactive marketing will be leading market growth and changing the way we do things.

I’m extremely excited by interactive marketing. There are some things in your life where you feel like you want to get really good at it. This is one of those things for me.

My Political Stand

I am a defender of Liberty. That would make me a libertarian in the strictest sense. I am not willing to give up a drop of Liberty for anything. I think people should be free. There is never a good reason to enslave or be enslaved.

I am against big government. I believe that you either choose freedom or slavery. You can’t give up a little Liberty so that the rest of Liberty will be protected. Giving up any Liberty is enslavement.

I want people to be free and prosperous. That does not mean that we use government to make sure everyone is equal. Everyone has equal rights but, not everyone has equal means. Your cards are the ones you were dealt–it is up to you to make the best use of them.

The playing field should be fair. Government should never come in and help one group at the expense of another. The free market maintains the fairest grounds. You can only grow prosperous by giving the public what they want. There should be no obstructions to competitors who might be able to better serve the public. This ensures that the people get the best deal.

I am a proponent of the Austrian School of Economics and the groups promoting it. These are groups that understand Liberty is the surest and safest way for people to live freely, peacefully, and prosperously.

Attitude

I’m a pretty positive guy. I’m not Tony Robbins but, still pretty damn positive. I feel that anything is possible and nothing is ever that bad. I put situations into perspective. If no one is dying then the problem isn’t that bad.

I believe in positive thinking. Bad stuff happens to everyone. Bad day, bad week, bad month–I hope not! I try not to have anything more than a few bad hours. A bad day seems like a waste of a day. There seems like there are a lot of days but, there really isn’t! I try to make every day as amazing as it can be.

I think people are naturally good and moral. People want to help others and want to do good. We don’t want to steal or lie or cheat.

If anyone should spend as much as 30 seconds with me, it should be a very pleasant 30 seconds. If we spend more time together, it should a great time too. I might not always live up to it but, I will try.

Humor

I love laughing. I love smiles. I love good times.

Not everyone always understands my humor. I am quite sarcastic–much harder to pick up online. My humor is pretty dry–often witty. Sometimes people think I am an asshole because they don’t get my humor–or I might just really be an asshole.

Some people find me arrogant. I do make a lot of jokes about how fantastic I think I am. I think it is pretty funny. I do think I am pretty cool. I can do some pretty awesome things. Whatever. I’m not the only person alive who can do what I do.

Calling myself SuperTommy doesn’t help strangers better understand that it is mostly for entertaining purposes. I don’t really care if I am judged negatively–those people are missing out at least a little. Can’t please everyone.

There are really few things better than laughs. Life isn’t long enough to take it that seriously. :)

A Brief Life Story

I was born on May 6th, 1986 in New York. My parents came to the United States from Hong Kong. I am of Chinese descent. I don’t know much Chinese. I can listen and understand but, not so good at speaking. I was never that interested in learning it either–maybe in the future when China takes over!

I grew up in Brooklyn. Lived in Kings Highway for the first four years of my life. Then came my younger brother so my parents bought a house in Coney Island. It was an affordable two story attached house in a pretty ghetto area of Brooklyn. Coney Island has a fantastic history but, it wasn’t the safest place to live.

It was a good experiencing growing up where I did. I don’t have much street-cred. I don’t look it either. My parents always made sure I went to better schools–in another district if it had to be. So I did. I am a product of the New York public school system. I was lucky to have gone through some of the better schools. I do not think the public school system is sufficient in producing intelligent people.

I went to Public School 100 near Trump Village. It is near the New York Aquarium. I then went to Junior High School at Mark Twain: School for the Gifted and Talented. Sounds impressive. It did require a citywide test to get into that school. I managed to get into that school for art. I took the test with a broken right arm so I fiddled the pencil with both my left and right hands–I am a natural righty. I’m still not sure how I managed to pull that off.

High School also required me to take a test. I had also applied to other schools that didn’t but, they didn’t take me. My grades were pretty good. I was never an A student. I always thought it took too much work for that. I was okay with a B+. I didn’t need to work very hard for it. Putting in the extra effort for that A just didn’t seem worth it.

I went to High School at Brooklyn Technical High School. Those were fun times. Certainly not times I will forget–that was where SuperTommy was coined. I graduated from High School with my usual B average. I went to the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona to study Game Design immediately after.

I didn’t stay there. My heart wasn’t really in it–I wanted to do something else. I came back to New York and went to Baruch College–part of CUNY–for a year. That wasn’t the most fun. I then transferred to Pace University and finished my BBA in Marketing there–that was more fun.

Now, I am working at a game company. I mostly do programming. I know I can’t do that forever or for very much longer. It isn’t in me. My heart isn’t in programming. I have love for games but, not love for programming. I’m only tolerating the programming because I love games.

From here on, I am really on a journey to become a free person. I don’t like jobs because they severely limit freedom. How can I be free yet be tied to a place and time? It isn’t really possible. I don’t want to be tied to any place and time. I want to do what I want, where I want, how I want.

The future is unknown and that is exciting.

Reader's Comments

1. Liza | October 29th, 2008 at 12:30 am

   Hi,

   I am Liza Silva, I am a webmaster by profession just like you.I came across your
   site http://www.supertommy.com while looking for some material for my site. I must say,
   you have done exemplary work on your site. I would like to make you a business offer.
   I am principally interested in buying a number of text-links on your site.
   Let me know if you would like to hear more of this.

   Warm regards,

   Liza

2. Sandra | December 2nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm

   Hey Tommy,

   Wanted to see if you were interested in writing an article as a guest blogger for our political blog.

   Sandy

Comment

Name

E-mail