三十八歲的林曉鋒單在科學園的浚湖樓就有兩間公司、一家意大利餐廳。採訪當天，我們先來到其中的科研公司Sengital。淡黃色隔板間開數個工作區，坐着一排排二十出頭的瘦削男生，每人對着兩面以上的電腦屏幕專心致志。

「當年你在中大讀工程時是否也像他們這種……」「宅男。」林曉鋒笑着搶答。「每天不是去實驗室，就是上圖書館。」

他沒有打過工，一畢業便創業。做老闆之前在中大機械與自動化工程學系，一口氣讀完學士、碩士、博士。讀博士時研究的是動作感應，並發明了虛擬鍵盤和滑鼠。

畢業前，工程學院推薦他參加電子展覽，其間認識了中大商學院的譚安厚（Hugh Thomas）教授，鼓勵林曉鋒參加創業計劃比賽。
 
 「我對此一竅不通，於是關起門來，一個月不眠不休，鑽研寫計劃書。結果比賽拿了冠軍，才發覺原來創業也是一個選擇。」

面前的他陽光、隨和，說話用字很正面。他說自己並非特別有創業家精神，一切只是順其自然。「我的生命仿佛跟着中大的教育走，一路循規蹈矩，教授叫我參加比賽我就參加，贏了一個，就參加下一個。人生每天都有很多機遇，我只是做了把握那一下。」

他的第一桶金，是靠做遊戲機手掣內的動作感應器賺來的。「只要你玩過Wii或PS3，就光顧過我的動作感應產品。」

正當想繼續問下去，他出其不意地說了句：「其實我對遊戲機手掣業務已喪失興趣。獎牌早已拿夠，是時候放在一邊，我今年的目標是拿文學獎、兒童故事獎。」

於是領着我們走出Sengital，穿過走廊，推開另一扇玻璃門──眼前的辦公室明亮鮮艷，墻上貼着手繪插畫，和那邊廂的氣場迥異，原因之一是多了女員工。

這兒是林曉鋒最新創立的夢想創意公司，做的是和電子工業風馬牛不相及的個人化兒童故事書訂製服務。

林曉鋒慷慨地讓我體驗了一次何謂個人化故事書製作。他的同事打開公司網頁，讓我輸入英文名字，揀選和自己相符的頭像。確認之後，林曉鋒指着辦公室盡頭的一部伺服器，說那裏正在啟動演算法，將三千個情節元素組件，摻雜排序，從一億個組合可能中產生出獨一無二的故事。

故事由伺服器傳送到一台足四米長的高速數碼打印機，一眨眼就列印出書肉、書皮、貼紙。工作人員用鐳射切割機勾出貼紙輪廓，再以光學定位機切除書的出血位。最後加上封面封底訂裝，整個過程在五分鐘內大功告成，一本A4大小、一厘米厚、印刷精美的故事書已被我捧在手中。

我的英文名字成了整個故事的主角。而組成名字的各個字母化為賦予主角的一件法寶，輔助「我」學習不同的美德，例如欣賞自然、關心老人、愛護公物、解決問題。

林曉鋒說這個是專屬我的故事，「即使有人和你名字相同，得到的故事也會不一樣。」

新業務同時在顛覆出版業生態。「傳統圖書出版牽涉作家、印刷、出版、發行、零售。我現在是一人獨攬。自家故事，自家印刷，自家出版與發行；傳統的圖書代理要有倉庫做貨存，我這裏不用；以往是代理付錢給供應商，而我是分錢給代理。」

商業模式的革命意味着一次又一次離開自己的安舒區。「我要和文人、作家、藝術家、畫家、插畫師打交道；此前未接觸過工廠的生產模式，也未做過品牌，未碰過涉及代理的生意，而且第一次有上市的計劃，林林總總都是從零開始。」

林曉鋒說他的夢想是藉個人化故事書帶給下一代正面的價值觀：「我讓小朋友自己當故事的主人翁，他們讀着自己的名字，看着自己的卡通樣在做好事，就會逆向投射覺得自己是個好人，覺得書中說的美德都是自己的本性。還有甚麼教育比這更強大嗎？」

林曉鋒不給人生設任何框框，在科研、商業、文藝創作與出版間游刃有餘，自言「根本沒有當在工作，而是每天輕鬆而充實地生活」，我認為這才是對下一代最正面、最有說服力的言傳身教。

Is it normal or is it extraordinary for a 38-year-old to own two companies and one restaurant in a single building at Science Park? Are we treated to some Silicon Valley success story? These were our thoughts when we entered Sengital, Mr. Alan Lam's technology company. Pale yellow partitions defined the workstations of some lanky men in their 20s each glued to at least two computers on their desks.

‘Were you like them when studying engineering at CUHK, that...’

‘Nerdy,’ Alan completed the sentence. ‘I was in the library if I were not in the lab. Every day.’

Alan has never worked for others but himself. After graduating from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at CUHK, he stayed on for an MPhil, then a PhD. His doctoral research was in motion sensing. He invented the virtual keyboard and mouse.

Before completing his PhD, the Faculty of Engineering recommended him to take part in an electronic exhibition, which got him to know Prof. Hugh Thomas from the Faculty of Business Administration who encouraged him to enter an entrepreneurship competition.

‘I knew nothing about it. So I shut myself up for a whole month to write the proposal. I got the first prize, and realized that setting up one's business was also an option.’

The Alan we saw was friendly and brimming with confidence. His positive vocabulary bespoke positive thinking. He did not regard himself as a born entrepreneur. He just let things take their natural course. ‘My life orbits around the education of CUHK. A professor told me to go for a competition. I did and won the first prize. Then another. Life is full of opportunities. I just took them when they came.’

His first million was made from the motion sensor inside the game console. ‘If you have played Wii or PS3, you have used my motion sensor.’

Even before the question was put to him, he answered, ‘I have actually lost interest in the game console business. I have collected enough trophies and should really put them aside. My goal this year is to get a literary prize, a children literature prize.’

So he led us out of Sengital to the corridor. Through another glass door, we came into an office with brighter colours and hand-painted illustrations on the wall. It was different from the Sengital office, not least because of the presence of female workers.

This was the dream company recently set up by Alan. It has nothing to do with electronics and makes customized children's storybooks.

Alan demonstrated how a storybook was customized with the name of this writer. She chose from the company's website a cartoon visage resembling her own. A server at the end of the office then started to work by shuffling 3,000 components to arrive at a unique permutation of the story plot out of a possible of one thousand million.

The story was then sent from the server to a high-speed digital printer four metres long. In an instant the pages, the cover and the stickers were printed. The stickers were cut with laser beam and the pages were formatted with an optical device. Putting the cover on, the whole process was completed within five minutes. The writer got her A4-size, 1-cm-thick, elaborately decorated storybook of her own.

The writer and the protagonist of the story share the same name. Each letter in the name stands for a magical device that guides the protagonist to learn of the different virtues such as appreciation of nature, caring for the old, etc.

Alan told the writer that the story so generated was uniquely hers. ‘Even if someone has the same name, she would get an entirely different story.’

The new venture will revolutionize the traditional publishing industry. ‘Traditional book publishing involves writers, printers, publishers, distributors and retailers. I am all in one—my story, my printing, my publishing and distributing. I don't need to have a warehouse for the backlist. It used to be the agent paid the supplier; now I pay the agent.’

Revolution in business model means leaving his comfort zone again? ‘I have to deal with the writers, artists, painters, illustrators. I did not have any manufacturing or branding experience before. Never had to use agents. And for the first time I am planning to publicly list my company. All these began with zero.’

Alan's dream is to bring a positive value system to the young with the personalized stories. ‘I make them the protagonists of the stories. They read from the stories someone with the same name and resembling them doing good deeds. They would project them back onto themselves and feel that those virtues in the books are part of their own nature. Isn't this education at its most powerful?’

Alan sets himself no boundary and traverses research, business, literary creation and publishing. He does not see work as it is but rather regards it as a way of living a fulfilled life. He himself is a shining example to the young.