I Believe There is More

Oh no, two entry in a day! Haha! Oh well. Just felt that this is something to write about so that when I refer to it a few years later, I am glad that I strongly held this belief.

Well today, one of our colleague and my best friend is leaving. (Just a note, a bit sad that he is leaving but he found greener pasture, so I am happy for him as well.) So we had lunch together, with other colleagues as well. So during our trip to the restaurant for a good lunch, the topic of conversation came to the age of the other colleagues that are not around. (Of course lah, then talk about them, in front of them? Cannot be mah!) As we go around how old is every other known colleagues that we have, obviously and soon it reach the lady's turn. So when her age was mentioned, well some of the colleagues could not believe that was her age. So they were making harmless fun of it. But I did not join in though, because I believe that she is not what other people thought she is. I just smile about it.

I STRONGLY believe that she is capable of greater things through many information that I have gathered and today I receive more information that proves it when I was going back home. She did a magnificent layout for an ad on a journal. I am amazed at the layout considering the fact that she did not do learn any marketing. I am impressed. In fact, I think she would make a great businesswoman if she ever does want to get into the business field. Because time and time again she has shown that she is smart and make good 'business' decision.

Got to stop here, taking a break from my schedule to write this, but just felt the need and also want to share my thoughts. :)

Cheers!

Work Longer!? Bah Humbug!

This morning, in the Straits Times, one of the the main heading in the front page was this "Work Longer to save for Old Age, says Boon Heng" Before I make any "nasty" comments about the articles, let me make a disclaimer here. Mr Lim Boon Heng has made many contributions to the labor union here. To tell you the truth, I am not in the union so I have no idea what contributions he has made, but I am sure they are good ones or else he would not be head of the labor union for such a long time.

Now coming back to the headlines. I definitely have something to comment about. I thought the government should create an environment where the old age is able to retire comfortably and have a CHOICE of whether to contribute to the society or not. How come now we have come to a stage where the people have to work longer to save for Old Age? Is that not ridiculous? And since old age is an evitable stage in life, as such we can plan for it, why now, we Singaporeans have to work longer to save for old age? Don't you find it ridiculous? Since we started working, we should be able to save a sum of money for old age. Or the standard of living has increased in Singapore too much that now a lot of people cannot live on their savings anymore? If that is the case, whose fault is it? Or during our life, we have too many outflow of cash, so much so we are not able to save for old age? If that is the case, again, whose fault is it? Now before anyone make a comment, I say first, we are responsible for our own retirement plans and we work out our retirement plans based on what is the outside environment. So if one is not able to achieve his retirement plans, one should still be part of the blame.

The moment I read the article and its headline, I am glad that I can do something about it, because to me, working for a living during old age is RIDICULOUS. I am absolutely glad that I learn about financial planning, increase my financial literacy and took actions. The government should actively push for everyone to have financial planning skills, so that people know that there are alternatives to saving, to prepare for old age. Have some time planned in our school curriculum to teach people the importance of financial planning and have financial planning skills be part of the curriculum. People skills which is another life skill might be difficult to teach in school but financial planning skill is not.

Our school curriculum is so full of imparting working skills, so much so that we know how to earn an income, but we do not know how to plan our finances well. In the end we know how to play offense (or do we?) but we do not know how to play defense well. Have anyone seen any good teams that only know how to play offense only or play defense only? Don't have right?
All champions material sports team know how to play offense and defense well.

Anyway, savings is too slow a way to accumulate wealth, just for your information, if you want to retire as early as possible. Brush up your financial literacy and take actions, please. Learn how to play offense and defense well. Don't wait until when you old age then you realise that you do not have enough to retire. Plan early.

Cheers!

Mindset ==> Solution to Problems

Today's lunch was good, I had Vietnamese Spicy Beef Noodle. Haha, strongly recommended. And for a noodle dish, it is quite filling for me. And at least I ate something I like before I go for training where I cannot eat too much.

Chatting was ok, but during the chat, it make me realise something. Before I talk further, I must make a disclaimer here. I am not criticising anyone here and all problems have different ideal solution to different people.

I realise that the mindset that we have will determine the solution we have for the problem in our lives. For instance, for me when I realise that if my wife is pregnant next time, the baby alone from 'notification' to birth is going to cost quite a few thousands dollar. The moment I realise that, my solution to the problem is "What can I do now to increase my income flow, either have a larger flow or open another source of income?" But for other people, they have different solutions. One of the common solution is not to have any kids. Another is "Start saving now." Just the 'problem' that delivering a baby would costs a lot, different people have different solution to it. Now I am not saying that all of them are wrong or correct because these people come from different background, you see. Some are having a stable job, some cannot even manage their finances well, let alone having savings.

Just a note here, it is strongly recommended that the just-born baby should be on breast-feeding for at least a year, in order to be healthy, smarter and less chance of developing allergies.

How many of us can afford this one-year period? In Singapore, the mothers only have 3 months maternity leave and they are back to work. What happen to the nine months then?? I am sure a lot of you when hearing, the first reaction would be "But I have to get back to work, otherwise I lose my job." Their mindset is such that time is scarce, and because job is important, they need the income to pay the bills especially when there is an extra mouth to feed. For me the solution would be find something for her to do at home, what that something is, I am not sure, but I will think of something out. So at least she can stay at home, be comfortable, earn some income and take care of the baby at the same time. Before any woman activist bombard my 'Comments' page, I stress here I will also share the responsibility of the baby.

So you see, our mindset will determine how we look at things and from then decide what are the solutions. Which mindset you adopt will determine what type of person you become.

Cheers.

Staying ahead

Well this weekend is definitely one of the most fruitful one that I have, in the knowledge aspect. I was watching a few episodes on a documentary on how Spain, Portugal (Yes, it was a superpower before), Holland, Great Britain, France and Germany actually become a superpower. As I always advocated, there are a lot of lessons to be learnt in history. Now some of you may say that history is boring, what has the past got anything to do with us? I tell u, there is a lot. Chinese have a saying, the "chariot in front serves as an example." The history serves as a mirror for all of us. It let us know what would happen to us if we continue on this particular path.

History is boring because many people cannot relate what they have learnt as lessons in life and the school system makes it worse by making students memorise all the stupid dates. Of course those dates does not add value to anyone learning history. It just add unnecessary burden to people learning history. It is what happened and how it happened that are more important when we are learning history.

Anyway, how those countries that I mentioned above became superpower is very different, but after watching half of the series, I realise something. It is because they are risk takers and they value knowledge very much. They dare to venture out or maybe to put it in a correct picture is their strong desire for greater wealth turn them into risk takers. Now, this is not an example of "money is the root of all evil". Who dare to tell me they are not seekers of greater wealth? If they are, do they dare to announce it, make a video of themselves and post it on Youtube? I dare him to do it. Most people choose to just stay in their comfort zone and do nothing of their desire for greater wealth, while a minority step up and do something about it and a minority of the minority that step up, succeeded.

Most of these superpowers took risk and in the end they are rewarded with wealth that is beyond their imagination, but they did not practice wealth management :P , thus most of these countries deteriorated. They would have been more powerful than what they are now if they did.

Countries like Great Britain and Germany value knowledge and innovation a lot thus they were able to tap on the trends during the Industrial Revolution again creating immense wealth for themselves. There was a time when the output from Germany actually exceeded Great Britain before and it is because they value education a lot, they provided free education to many children and did not restrict research in universities, and best thing is the govt provides all kind of material support to the universities which explain there are a lot of Nobel Prize Winners in Germany with Einstein being the most prominent of them all.

Reflecting these two characteristics onto Singapore, we can see where we are heading into. I hope our country's leaders is well-versed with history and looking at our education system.....

I strongly recommend the series to everyone. There are a lot of lessons to be learn which we can apply into life and business, a pity it is in Chinese though so only those that understand Mandarin can watch it. But hei this is the internet age. You can read up on these countries' history on Wikipedia!

Cheers!

Take Notice

Recently, I began taking notice of some of my thoughts, as in I am able to know how did such thoughts arises. It is very interesting to see how such thoughts actually arise and it allows me to know how I think and what trigger such thinkings as well. Sounds a bit out of the world but yes, it can be done.

It is similar to standing just beside your brain and see what are the triggers and 'ingredients' that went into the brain and the thoughts that are produced by it. As most of you guys would know, what we are thinking will trigger the relevant emotions that comes along. If you are having happy thoughts, naturally you will feel happy and if you are having angry, naturally you will know how a volcano feels :P. With this in mind, I am able to better know what are the thoughts that are manufactured in the brain and start 'rejecting' them. Meaning, I acknowledge the negative thoughts that I have, that it exists and use the fact that it is produced later on in any analysis, and drop the negative thoughts in my 'Recycle Bin'.

Knowing what trigger those thoughts gives me a better understanding about myself and also recognize the thoughts that I have faster, whether it is negative or not and take the necessary actions.

After such an exercise, it makes me really fascinated about our brain and what it can do. Sounds very weird, but our brain can allow us to stand as another party, peering into what our brain is doing. Amazing, isn't it? Haha! But I guess I will need to practise more, standing at a side as a spectator of my brain, to observe and understand more how I think. This will give me a better undertstanding and with understanding comes better control of my thoughts.

Maybe I might come to a point where I can start building a strong thought process flow in my brain :P Haha!

Cheers!

What is the greatest fear?

Was watching a video, a professor talking about Chinese History, he was talking about the history of Han Wu Di, how he became an emperor. Inside, there is a sentence that I can never forget and that is, man's greatest fear is actually the future. Now a lot of people are saying the greatest fear is actually public speaking but if you look from another point of view it is the fear of the future, a future of what is going to happen during the speech and after the speech that makes you nervous. Right? Let me give u an example, when you are going to make a presentation, the first question that comes to your mind would be what would happen if I made a mistake DURING the speech? It is the fear of what is going to happen during the speech that paralyze people.

So why do people fear the future? Well, this is because the future equates to uncertainty, thus the greatest fear of human is actually uncertainty. That explains why insurance is such a big industry in the world and it does not costs to much to 'manufacture' the products. Because it capitalize on human's fear of uncertainty.

Now what about LOA? After what the professor said, I realise why so many people are buying "The Secret" book and like all self-help book, we still see a lot of 'normal' people out there on the 'treadmill'. It is because to practice LOA, you have to manage your fear of uncertainty. In LOA, you have to place great faith and belief that the things that you want and visualize will manifest itself. No one can predict the future, that is the strong belief that most human have. This strong belief is the one that goes against the unwavering faith that you need to have about the things that you want. Now you see why it is challenging to practice LOA? :)

And the next challenging stage is this, after overcoming the fear of uncertainty, you have to overcome other fears as well. If you visualize yourself as rich, you have to overcome the risk of losing money, because there is no one I have seen that is able to become a successful investor without losing money. Nope. Not that I know of, if you have seen one, maybe you should ask him to start a course on investing and be his managers. You guys are going to be the richest man in the world. If you visualize your dream partner, you have to overcome your fear of making a fool of yourself in front of your dream partner when you approach and talk to him/her.

Overcoming fear is never easy. It takes a lot of emotional muscle. I can vouch for that. I tried to do something today and I managed to pluck out enough courage to do it but in the end I lost to nervousness. Sigh. I really need to practise more. But I am glad I have the courage to do it, so at least I took the first step and well I guess there is room for improvement but good attempt. :) Now is to make another step and climb up to my goal. :)

Tarot cards and fortune telling are spin-offs from our fear of uncertainty. Because we want to know for certain what will happen next this need to get rid of this fear is so great that a lot of people are willing to pay a few thousands to make their future more certain. I used to be very interested in fortune telling. I pick up some books to read about it before. I use it to predict my future, will I be rich, what type of person will be my spouse and so on. Well those are times when I am young. When become older, it occurs to me that it is my actions that will lead to the future that I want and I am wasting precious time doing this fortune telling thing. And those things that I predicted, they did not come true anyway. Haha! Thinking back I could have make better use of the time :P

Anyway, fear is inside us humans, it is unavoidable and since that is the case, why not make use of it and make us emotionally stronger. Conquer the fear of uncertainty and you can practise LOA better.

Cheers!

Respect Diversity and Appreciate its Existence

Well finally last week has ended. It was nice, taking things slowly, but things are back to normal. I can work better now. Just that I think it is time to reorganize my life. Think I am taking on quite a lot of things and I need to re-tune the schedule a bit, get the priorities and tasks organize before I 'fly' off again. So this week need to be focus on setting goals and revise the time schedule.

Life seems to be like our bedroom, we organize the room and then they start to get more and more messy until you come to a point where you really cannot find anything, you feel lost in your bedroom, that is a signal that you need to clean up your room. I guess last week's problem is because of that, too many things on hand and the brain just refuse to cooperate anymore, so need to 'clean up' and revise priorities and get everything clearer.

Last Friday, I went to a friend's place for dinner and since it was quite late so I took a cab home. Upon getting onto the taxi, I was very surprised to hear Tamil songs. Well, the driver is a Chinese so that is why I was surprised. As usual I chatted with the taxi driver and the topic came to the Tamil songs that are playing. He was telling me that the Tamil songs are very nice and the sounds are not monotonous. He told me he like Tamil songs because the relatively faster rythm can motivate him, and within one Tamil songs, a lot of musical instrument was played. He offered to let me listen to two of his favourite Tamil song, so being nice and curious I agreed, so he played the two songs and turn up the volume. Haha. Well, I do agree on some of his points and I can see why he likes Tamil songs.

This episode set me thinking, as usual and it makes me realize something. As long as we live in this world, there will always be differences, or what we call diversity. You will definitely be different from anyone in this world, be it physically and psychologically. We differ in race, culture, language, religion, country and many more. Problems arise when people wants to make other people be like him, that means reducing the diversity between people. Problems also arise when people start to think that certain differences are better than other differences, for instance some people say that the religion they are in is superior than other religions or a particular race of human being is far superior than other races. This is what we call racism. And the worse things is that these people reduce diversity or impose their thoughts on other people through violent means.

There is no way we can reduce this diversity unless you tell me all human beings are manufactured from a factory which of course cannot be. So diversity is something we cannot avoid and since we cannot avoid since it is like a law of nature, why not respect and acknowledge there is diversity. For instance, the Tamil songs I heard. They are nice and they do give me another angle at music. Thank goodness there is Tamil songs, so I can appreciate music better and make me see the differences between those Chinese songs that I listen to often and Tamil songs, and not have limited knowledge.

Diversity creates variety which adds spices and fun into lives, well at least for my life. So this is the part where you learn to 'make use' of diversity to add more color into your life. I like diversity because it gives me a lot of perspectives looking at things. Saying a difference is far better than another, creates too much negative feelings which in turn burdens the person who is holding it. What for? Live is phenomenal with its diversity. Since it is something that is unavoidable, why not make use of it and add more vibrancy into your life?

Cheers!

Interesting Week

Well this whole week has gone by very fast. It is Thursday night already. This whole week I am at the center for the whole week. It is always nice to be at the center for a long period of time. It is a time where I can 'recharge' my batteries, because I can take things relatively slower than compared to those weeks where I have training. Being with my friends at the center also helps because it develops another aspect of me because of the talks that we have and as I mentioned before is more intellectual and needs deeper thinking compared to when I am chatting with the trainees at the training where things that we talk about would always surround things that are, to me, very mediocre. For example, usually will discuss how the software can help one better, how is it working at other companies and what benefits and many other usual topics one would talk about if you are not familiar with each other (of course we did not keep on mentioning about the weather, but we did talk about food quite often :P) Well, I am not saying that these chats with trainees are boring and not intellectual stimulating, it does train me to see, read and understand people better.

As I mentioned, since I am at the center, I can usually finish quite a lot of stuff compared to weeks where I have to do training. But this week is quite unusual. I simply cannot get into the correct mindset and motivation to do the work. I tried to do the translation on Zhuge Liang Art of War but keep on running into walls, which really frustrate me on Wednesday. My reading is ok but the absorption is not to what I expected and I cannot derived more understanding from my reading. So I cannot work on my website and cannot do serious reading. And this is a period available for me to catch up before I go for training next week. I tried to tune the mindset and motivation but does not seem to work. Wonder what happen. Definitely no signs of burning out because I do not feel lethargic or turn off by my work. I wonder why.

Thank goodness, I worked round the problem, I decide to take things even more slowly. I picked up Cashflow Quadrant written by Robert Kiyosaki again. That book is easier to understand and I have the intention of seeking more ideas on managing my personal finance and my strategy on seeking financial freedom. Now the quality of the reading is better but still not up to what I want, but I guess I have to make do with it at the moment until I can pick up the momentum again.

Anyway, for those of you who are interested in finding more materials on leadership, I strongly recommend Jiang Yuan (将苑) or Zhuge Liang Art of War (There are disputes about the true author of the book) but regardless of the author, I think it has good contents on leadership. Have a read, digest its content and make it your wisdom.

Hopefully the momentum is back again by weekend. Stay positive and feel good! Cheers!

It's there when I need it.

Ever wonder how come self-help books can always top the best-seller list but we do not see those people around us achieving their dreams. A little about the self-help books market first. There are a lot of books out there that is suppose to help you build a successful life in your own term, for instance, having a successful career, marriage, being rich, travel around the world, turning your passion into a viable business and so on. Being a vivid reader of self-help books, I can tell you most of the methods that is stated in these books are genuine strategies that can really bring you to places you want.

So the question is, if everyone bought the books, read it, should they not be achieving their dreams or on their way to achieving dreams, but how come we are still surrounded everywhere by 'mediocrity' or put in another words, people complaining about the lives they are leading, hate their jobs, does not maintain relationship, in poor health and so on. Good relationship, good health and dream 'jobs' are the fundamentals of a successful live, a dream live, but not many people are achieving it. Why is this so?

I have been pondering this question and I am sure other disbeliever of self-help books does not even bother to think why but just dismiss that those strategies are lousy straightaway. Now other people would say, this is because these people never take actions that is why they are not successful, or at least achieve the fundamentals. But this does not explain why self-help books are always on best-seller lists, it does not explain the full picture. If these books are on best-seller lists, it goes to show that people want to be successful. So why they want it but never take action to achieve it? What is really stopping them or not helping them?

The conclusion I can come up with is this. Buying books is easier, as long as you have 30 bucks or so or work in McDonalds for 2 8hours-shift, you will be able to get the book and in your hands lies "THE SECRET" to a successful life. Now in your hands, lies a tool that can help improve your life, achieve success in your life. Then you will start thinking, "Hei I can CHANGE anytime now, because I have the TOOL now, but currently I am comfortable with my life now, well I can bear with my boss acting like a boss, my wife's nagging, my kids bickering, my neighbours' inconsideration and many more. But no worries, when I want to change, HERE IN MY HANDS, lies the tool to change. Let's carry on with my life, as usual" It is the convenience and the thought that they can change anytime plus the notion that they are still 'comfortable' with their lives that makes them reluctant to change.

The strange thing is people knows that it requires a lot of effort and time to build a dream live. But they are not taking actions. Funny the way human behave. Having the tool by your side is convenient to a certain extent, but the time lag from your current position to your dream position is going to 'kill' you especially when you have come to a point where you really need to change. Think about it. As the common saying goes "Rome is not Built in a Day"

For those of you who are on the way to your dreams, congratulations, you have taken a very big step. For those who have the books and want to achieve your dreams, my advice is start early, apply what you have learnt bit by bit into your life, as the saying goes "Start small, dream big"

Cheers!

The way to Criticise

I cannot believe that it has been three weeks since my Greatest week. Time past by so fast. I am still soaking in the happiness I experienced during that week. Haha. You can see that week is really a life-changing week for me.

In everyday lives, we always criticise about something, "This is not good.", "That is not good", "This is lousy and not up to standard.", "He is so incompetent."and many many more. All, these sound familiar right?

The thing is no one pay any attention to criticizing well, so being a critical person and still not hated by a lot of people, I am going to share with you my thoughts on criticizing well. A lot of times, we have seen many people can criticise very "well", they know where all the faults are, where all the weaknesses are. They always focus on the bad things and keep on bombarding on the same fault or weaknesses over and over again but to different audiences and behind the person's back some more. For instance, when the boss makes a mistake because he is careless, you just keep on talking about his mistakes, criticise about his mistake to many people like your family and friends and if you are stupid enough, your colleagues as well. :P

Now I see this kind of criticism is just a form of venting out. This is not criticism at all. I personally think that the word "criticise" has been used in a negative way too many times. A good criticism should be one that accompanies with a solution to change and recognize the good points as well.

For example, the center I am working in recently put up a proposal on a new career path for some vocation. We are given an opportunity to criticise the proposal. Well as usual, a lot of people say this cannot that cannot, but no one offered another solution or at least some directions for the person to think about, for instance, " This job scope is too minor, greater responsibility should be given instead" and so on. Such criticism would be good because it gives the person who genuinely wants feedback, a direction to think and it also shows the person that you are sincere in helping him to change and improve, because you bother to think about it. One should seek out more background information and understand why things are such before offering constructive criticism. Such actions would give yourself more credibility when you offer your criticism as well, thus increasing the chances of your criticism being taken into consideration. Point out the good points as well, to encourage the person that you are paying attention to the effort he has made.

Don't criticise for the sake of criticizing. It does not help at all. Firstly, you are just creating noise pollution, and remember the saying "Empty vessels makes the most noise". Secondly, it does not add credibility to yourself, people would just think you are just out there to create discomfort. Thirdly, it can affect relationship tremendously since receiver of criticism does not feel your sincerity of helping him and only sense your 'hostilities'. And we all know how we react to hostilities.

So do remember, criticise with the intention of helping someone to be better. Point out the mistakes, fault or weaknesses, give a solution or a direction for thinking and do remember to reflect this onto yourself as well, make sure you also do not have the same fault and weaknesses.

Cheers.

Another Confucius Saying

Just want to share another verse from Analects of Confucius that I really like. It is a saying that tells us, there are many things we can learn, as long as we open our eyes and ears and think things a bit deeper (not a lot ok, may go round and round in circles. :P) Anyway, here is the saying, which is found in Chapter 7.

Confucius said:"In a group of three people, there is always something I can learn from. Choose to follow the strengths of others, use the shortcomings to reflect upon ourselves."

As you can see from here, everyone that we come across can teach us something useful. As long as we reflect on the lessons learnt from and by other people, we can continuously improve oneself, and of course when you reflect on these lessons, you apply some wisdom to it because each situation is unique but there are still common principles in them. If you see this from another point of view, the passionate man in my center will teach me what stupid things I should not do, what things I should not say to people and so on. Haha! And he paid for the mistakes at his own costs and I get to benefit from it. :P

This is another point I want to make. By reflecting other people's behavior onto yourself, you are able to pick up lessons without paying for the mistakes made, now isn't that great? Recently, I have been receiving lessons in a particular area and the lessons just keep on repeating itself and I learn best through repetition also. So I guess I have learnt well. Now learning well is one thing, applying it CORRECTLY is another. That is why most successful people would recommend those that want to be successful to have a mentor or at least a group of friends who have the common goal. So that when they know the lesson and executing the principles in their own environment, they do not stray off too much. There are a lot of business books out there that teach people how to plan well, but never teach people how to execute well. Haha! Maybe that is a niche I can go into.

In conclusion, remember the Confucius saying above. Use other people's behavior to reflect on your weaknesses and strength and best part of these lessson is that you do not pay a very high price for it. Just see more and listen more.

Anyway, one of my friends is flying off this weekend for a conference! Bon Voyage and all the best to your presentation!!

Cheers!

Help on Those that Need Help

Was watching a lecture on Analects of Confucius by one of the famous professors that came to Singapore. In the lecture there is a saying that I find great wisdom in it. Below is the saying in English to benefit those that are not well-verse with Chinese.

Confucius said:" To fail to speak to a man who is capable of benefiting is to let a man go to waste. To speak to a man who is incapable of benefiting is to let one's words go to waste. A wise man lets neither men nor words go to waste."

Now where is the wisdom? I think when we offer advice, we should see who is the person we are giving advice to. We have to see whether he can benefit from our advice. If he can benefit from our advice then we should speak and let the person know our opinions, as such you would not let a person go to 'waste'.

If one is not able to benefit from your advice, be it his character or intellectual level, it would be a waste of your own time to advise him because your words will not have an effect on him.

To me it means that when I want to help someone, or offer advice, I must think whether the other person would be receptive to what I am saying. If not I would be wasting my words, but if he is receptive and I never offer my opinion or help, then I have 'waste' the person.

This implies that we need to help selectively, because our time is precious and also the relationship that we have built with people is precious as well. Doing the exact opposite of what Confucius said above may end up in a lose-lose situation which is definitely not wise.

What do you think? I hope the saying benefits you. Cheers!