Are we (Singapore) just five years behind SV?

I was chatting with Ridzuan and come to the topic of the hassle to register for so many accounts. Yahoo mail, Gmail, Friendster and etc and etc. We are basically flooded with online service and applications. I was requested so many times in the past to register for a facebook account and I just can’t be bothered.

It is until recently Neo “force” me to join Facebook in order to create some buzz for EnI networking session. Ridzuan has also been a long time advocate of facebook. Omg it’s been so long since Facebook has started and only now have I start using it.

Why did I say so? This Facebook is a really very powerful application with the things we can get out of it. So much better than Friendster (Sorry). I heard from Ridzuan that even Bill Gates had a Facebook account. That time we were discussing whether Bill Gate is going to implement it with his Live Messenger.

The crux is that Singaporeans have been very slow in catching up with technological advances. Not to blame the VCs for creating such an environment but we also have to share part of the blame (for being lazy). Ironically, we always call ourselves a tech savvy country.

From now on, I will train myself to like the hassle even more. The next application to try will be Twitter. Bjourn, Aileen and Ridzuan have been talking about it. I, myself, have visited it but don’t find anything special. Hmmm let me spend some time playing around with it.

E-myth Revisited By Michael Gerber

Bought this book as I have seen this being recommended by a lot of people. Cost me 30 bucks for quite a thin book. But after reading it, I don’t feel like it is really as good as people had said. Maybe it is because I went through the minor lesson before and most of the second half of the book is already taught.

I will just simplify what is taught in the book. Every small business owner starts out by being the Entrepreneur, Manager and Technician. It is the tension between the 3 that makes things very delicate for one to handle. Later in the book, another tension of Innovator, Quantification and Orchestrator respectively mapped to Entrepreneur, Technician and Orchestrator respectively.

This book has been promoting the franchise(turn-key) model. Actually not really, but its main aim is to create a system to run the business. To me, once I got the system running, it means I got more time, more freedom. Only after the system has been setup would people want to buy it from you.

There are a few guidelines to follow according to the book.
1. Deliver consistent value
2. Operated with lowest possible skill
3. Impeccable skill
4. Document every process
5. Having predictable service.

For the second part of the book, the Business Development Program is very similar to the Business Plan taught during the minor programme. It is pretty basic and to get more details, it is better to read the E-Myth Mastery instead.

I would recommend reading the E-Myth Mastery instead. It contains all the tools that one can use to apply instead of just the story-telling in Revisited version. For people who likes Revisited are people who enjoys reading but for Mastery, it is more on the execution part. Decide for yourself which group you’re in, if not you’ll be in for a disappointment.

Practical Intelligence

I bought this book out of curiousity. What’s more important than investing in yourself especially when you’re young and innocent. haha

I actually quite regret spending money on this book. Should have bought better books like The World Is Flat. Still waiting for Xiujuan jie to lend me the book. If anyone knows her please hint her ok?

There are 4 habits suggested by the book: Mental flexibility, Affirmative thinking, Semantic Security and Valuing ideas.

Mental flexibility means to have a beginner’s mind and what you think is right is actually local to you. How many times have your past experience pulling you back from where you want to go? The only way is to think of yourself as a work in progress and not to get stuck with the rigid kind of thinking

Affirmative thinking is to keep track of what type of information is going into your mind and censor the the irrelevent ones. It is also to keep an attitude of gratitude and abundance. Sometimes positive thinking really helps.

Semantic security is how you use the language affect your thinking. Every message contains four components namely facts, feelings, values and opinions. Reading in between the line is much more important than the fact. There are 7 sin in the use of language: blanketing, aggression, directiveness, attribution, allness, dogma and polarization.

Valuing idea is to write the idea down as no one can trust their memory and giving every idea a chance to stay within you for a period.

There are 4 habits and there are also 4 mega skill. They are Bivergent thinking(divergent-convergent), Helicopter thinking(abstract-concrete), Intutological thinking() and Viscerational thinking(rational-emotional).

Bivergent thinking is the use of divergent and convergent thinking with the important pivot point to go from one side to anothe side.

Helicopter thinking is abstract-concrete thinking with the ability to think at high level as well as low level. Mindmap is a tool which helps as well as developing rich vocabulary.

Intutological thinking is to have a metaboxical thinking (think out of the box). It also includes the use of self talk and mindmap. Seems like mindmap is a very useful tool .

Viscerational thinking is the use of rational and emotional thinking. People seldom wont change unless they reach the “Popeye point”. How often have you seen someone stuck in a relationship, and after a long time, what makes them break out of the cycle. This shift in thinking is what is called the “Popeye point”. According to the book, the fastest way to break out is to do self-talk to give yourself enough reason to take action.

For myself, I find that the high speed problem solving is maybe the most useful tools given by the book. Normal method of problem solving thought is too linear and as the result not dynamic enough. There are 5 parts to it. Neutral is where you put things into perspective. Data is to gather enough data. Ozone is to do convergent thinking and Judgement is for critical thinking. End is when a problem is resolved. It is a process where you skip from one mindset to another and hence make it very intuitive.

I suggest people not to buy this book. Borrow from library instead. Will try books from Edward De Bono whom is quite a famous name I come across almost everywhere.

AHM aftermath

Wake up super early at 3 in the morning and took a taxi with Edmund to Esplanade. How I wish I’m back in my bed sleeping. It’s quite understandable since I only had 3 hours of sleep.

After deposited our bag, we went for a warm up and there I saw my previous PS Ong. He’s still the same. Seems like people in army never change. It took me quite sometime to warm up and very soon, it gets really crowded at the finishing line. I was shocked that people became so aggressive just to get to the front. I was elbowed twice out of the blue when the orange net came down.

I started the run slowly while people swish past me. Slow and steady will be my tactic. My objective is just to finish the race within two hours. I am enjoying the morning scenery and the cold air that I breathe in. I wasn’t long before I reached East Coast Park. As usual, it’s a freaking long route and after making the u-turn, my calf started to cramp. Holy shiitake.

No worry, stretching will be enough. I continue to run and not long after my thigh started to cramp too. I know I’m done for it. No choice, I have to limp to the finishing line. It’s quite irritating in the sense my thigh and calf really knows how to coordinate. Both took turns to cramp.

After finishing my race, I do some stretching and went to queue up for my belongings. I can tell you, next year either I don’t come for it or don’t bring anything. It took me 2 hours to complete the race and 2 hours to collect my belongings. A really stupid thing to do. This is the efficiency SAF has been known for.

Basically, it’s quite stupid to have so many counter and only one door to access the bags. C’mon there’s so many better ways to do it if you’re willing to think. There is even a guy that fainted in the queue. This really left a very bad aftertaste. Sigh, it’s not funny having to queue up with so many smelly body for 2 hours.

Let’s just hope that the next event will be planned properly and right now I’m enjoying the pain throughout my leg. No pain no gain. StandChart full marathon run you’re next.

EnI networking session finale

Today is the finale after sacrificing so many nights for planning. The team is in school early to settle the operation side of the event. Chairs for the VIP area were laid out specially designed by cherry. The stage and chairs from Nam Hup came right on the dot and the stage was set up swiftly with lots of plan surrounding it. After some fiddling with various arrangement for the bar stool catered specially for the invited guest. Everything is perfect only awaiting the arrival for the invited entrepreneurs not to mention our GOH Teo Ser Luck. For me, I was running here and there to settle the things. But still managed to keep my cool and break out as little sweat as possible.

Some of the guest arrive half an hour earlier, which gives us quite a buffer time to work with. Had some chit chat session with David Wee and especially Jack Sim. He’s one hell of a person that started World Toilet Organization for those who have not know about him. I’m especially proud that a Singaporean can do such big things for the society. I think I had a fair bit of advice from him after some private chat (if i take it positively). He’s direct and frank to the point as expected but I think everything has their value and maybe what he said is spot on.

The event started with Prof Lok giving the opening address and follow by uncle Teo with his speech. He’s eloquent and his jokes added some life to it. I never know that the officials had to work so late at night. After his speech ended, I am given the important task of being the facilitator for consultancy sector. The people I’m handling include my all-time-favorite Annie Yap, Rudy and Ken Reimer. I am so surprise that all of them still remember me! Seems like I got some X-factor :-0 . I was initially afraid that my sector will be empty but surprisingly, it is quite good. Especially Ken Reimer being so charismatic and is able to grab the people’s attention so easily. Not to mention Annie Yap, she got a following too. Nice and pretty and ever since the speaker series, minor student are in love with her. tsk tsk.

I wasn’t long before the crowd break out for informal networking session. I am running here and there to keep isolated entrepreneurs occupied. But it’s great to meet Eileen with her crazy idea of setting bank service in Second Life. She’s pretty and super eloquent. Saw her pictures in facebook when Neo found out her account the previous and added her. Find her more attractive in person. Maybe I’m one easily attracted to people who speak well.

It is finally time for the event to come to an end. Xiujuan and I were involve in passing the gift to Prof Lok who will be presenting the gift to the invited guest. After the presentation ceremony is over, its finally time for me to network with others whom I haven’t had the chance to. One big regret is I haven’t had the chance to had a talk with boss of Ya Kun. Nevermind, who knows I may be invited next year as one of the guest.

Actually the funny thing in the event is there are two person going around trying to get people to their event. They actually introduce themselves like this. “Hi, we are from mensa society and our IQ is the top 2% of the population….” Was talking to Elvin next day about it and he actually suggest why not counter them by asking “Ohhh really, so what intelligent question do you have to ask.” I was like LOL imagining it would be so much fun to see their reaction.

Wanted to have a talk with Jacelyn Tay and was quite shock Kelvin is actually chat with her about religion. A sensitive topic however, Kelvin is one who knows how to use his words well and is able to converse very well with Jacelyn. Good work kelvin for making a impression on Jacelyn. I had a group photo with her and also an individual one. She looks exactly like on Tv but she has such fair skin that most girls will definitely dream of. Actually I’m quite interested in how she overcame so much incident to be what she is now but find it inappropriate for this event. Nevertheless, I believe god is fair and wish her a a smoother journey ahead.

Finally when all the invited guest left, I get to know a Ridzuan’s friend Bjorn Lee. He’s damn eloquent and had a unique way of thinking. Talking to him makes me feel so small. Well this means there’s a lot of room for me to improve on. As the co-founder of E27, I was so shocked to hear that they have really the top people from Yahoo, Reddit and Facebook. Holy Shiitake!?! He’s so friendly that he help us out to carry some of the stuff to NTC. Feel so bad in letting a guest helping us out. I will have a look on how E27 is organized. NTU should have one like these since NTC is more post-grad focus. Neo and Ridzuan count of you!

It’s a damn long day for me but it doesn’t end there . I dragged my feet to LT19 for BioInfo lesson.

I will definitely remember this day, slogging things out with people of similar mind. Thanks Neo, Ridzuan, Xiujuan, Steven, Cherry, Zhou Jing and Sze Yong for making this event such a success. Thanks Catherine for being so supportive also but remember to keep your cool k? Must maintain your image. LOL

Shhhhhh

Yes, curious about the title right? As it is something secret, it shouldn’t be said out, hence I come to use this title for the article. Sorry for being lame again but I can’t help it.

A bit off the topic but my day is very eventful and had a long decision before making the decision to lay my hands on the macbook for $2640. Almost fainted. Hopefully, the bursary can come to good use to subsidize the cost. After that I meet up with my friend and had a good chit chat with them. Thanks Qianxia for the food you bought in HK, it is delicious and also help to save a few more dollars in my pocket and ease my hungry stomach .

It has been quite a few times watching movie with Steven and Huimin. Initially I dread at the idea of watching a chinese movie and I don’t know it has been how long since I’ve watched a chinese movie. It’s the pragmatic mindset of most singaporeans that find english movie more worth the value for money (it take a longer time for channel 5 to by the rights of a english movie).Before the show was screened, we had plenty of time and we just took pictures with funny pose. The shocking thing is after sitting on the sofa after 5 mins to rest my feet, I found someone looking at me (thinking: hopefully he’s not gay, noooo I don’t attract guy) and it happens to be my secondary school friend Chong Min. Haha. He still looks the same but a bit smaller. Maybe he is just like me, we need much nourishment from love life.

It’s the first movie directed by Jay Chou. I keep asking myself why the hell should I watch something about his love life. Wouldn’t mine be more interesting and draw more crowd? (juz joking)

The story started out with Jay and the main actress. As expected from him, the story is filled with cold jokes that make the audience laugh out heartily. I am particularly amazed by the Jay’s ability to play piano. His finger is moving so fast that it reminiscent Marksim. Hey, who knows Jay won’t use this theme as his next album, errr dragonfly?

The story is given a unexpected twist in the middle of the movie and this is where I know this movie is nothing about his childhood crush or what. The girl happens to be someone from the past who has travelled to the present with the help of a piano. And it really touch my heart as the story continues.
After the show ended, Steven brought out a flaw in the movie. Is correction fluid invented 20 yrs ago? This is a bit too high tech for them. Nevertheless, I like the movie very much and will recommend to all my friends of it.

Right after the movie, Huimin began to feel hungry, as expected, and we have our supper at the cartel. I was surrounded by pretty ladies inside. Just joking, how can it happen in Singapore. I ordered chicken salad and girls around me start looking in my direction. Please, it’s not a right only for girls to want to slim down. It’s the first time I had and it’s surprisingly full after having it. But just one suggestion, add more colors to the salad and it would be much more appetising.

I think i should end this post now. Any lengthier, I should be writing a novel.

Antique facilities

Back for my second week of school. Sitting at the same old lousy lecture theatre 19. Just cannot figure out why the school is able to beautify the “outside” and yet leave the inside “rotten”. (The super big plasma screen at the entrance of the school must have cost quite a lot)

The quality of the lecture theatre is really shiitake (super antique). The major problem is having the sliding tables that can came crashing down at the slightest touch of a finger. I cannot remember how many incident in LT19 before. Everyone should have one of such experience before.

Take a look at our latest innovation, iChair 2.0, where you can pluck out chairs and move to another place and plug it back in to sit onto. Cool huh? Nope. It’s not a new innovation but due to the poor maintenance itself.

Seriously, the LT need a renovation. Guess there is more of such LT. We, students, deserve a better facilities considering the rise of school fees in recent years. Such an irony that we pay so much for the fees yet we don’t see the quality of the facilities that match with the rising school fee.

C’mon do something to it. Make our money worthwhile. Ping Pang?!# there goes another poor chap.

Problem with planning

Thinking back two days earlier, I was literally boiling with blood organising a meeting for the BPC. The anger is not totally attributed entirely to the planning of meeting but also because just before that I spend the a few hours trying to install linux. Super pek chek. So after facing some hiccups in getting people to agree on a time to meet up, my temper just escalates.

Thinking back of this incident, it came to my mind can this be a business opportunity. So I try out the gmail calendar with Huimin. Holy shiitake, google calendar can do it. What can you expect from the billion dollar company… Well I guess i just gotta use it for planning.

But of cos the door is not close. If the application comes out to be 1. simpler to use and 2. can synch from multiple account, maybe the idea can hit the right group of people.

Installation of OpenSolaris

A super suay day. Installing OpenSolaris the entire day but failed miserably. Motherboard cant support dvd boot. After reading again the requirement was so shock to find out that OpenSolaris is a memory and harddisk monster. Needed 700+ mb of ram and 14gb of disk pace is a major shock where my 6yo computer had only a miserable 256mb to play with. >_<

It took me a few hours to download, combind the 3 zip file and burn the iso into a dvd. Now, I cannot even use it. zzZZzz Instead of giving up, I tried Nexenta instead and open up my cpu casing to power up the cdrom and power down the dvd (using both cause conflict to my system). Then to my horror, I found a dunnoe-wth capacitator was laying on top of my graphics. Trace the whole casing of where it come from and found it to be from my motherboard. Holy ****, I pray for my computer to be healthy for my last year in school T_T.

Luckily, it boot up and detect the Nexenta disc in the cdrom. But dunnoe ?!@# the installation hanged half way while I’m played with tetris that come with it. Nice try but it’s not going to work. Never feel like giving up too easy but really feel it is not my day. Maybe I will do it when I had a more powerful system to play with.

Sigh 1 day gone nothing done.

TMWSHF Lesson - Timeless Happiness

This chapter is a bit zen like. One should be living in the present and not the future or past. There is a saying why worry on something that may not never happen and lament on things that has already happened and there’s nothing you can change.

Practise gratitude for each little positive things and grow your destiny instead of blaming it to outside influences.

Finally I come to the last lesson for the book. Great. Hopefully this post will be beneficial to others.

TMWSHF Lesson - Ultimate Purpose

The quality of life is linksed to the quality of contribution. I guess it’s quite true. One will feel happy when he give a helping hand to the person in need.

As a human being, we cannot be so selfish and need to be learn to give instead. Actually it’s quite sad to see that as the society becomes more pragmatic, people has become increasingly cold-blooded. Please give up seats to pregnant lady or elderly as an example. A little kindness goes a long way.

One must learn to give either out of act of kindness or people who are asking for your help. The higher purpose of a man is to give, this is one of the way where man is able to live happily.

TMWSHF Lesson - Time

Time is the most precious non-renewable resource that one ever has. Therefore we need to be able to use our time wisely.

We can prioritize the things we need to do base on the 80/20 principal where 80% of the result comes from 20% of the work and vice versa.

In addition, we need to simplify our life and not to get into the thick and thin of things happening to us. One very good question we can often ask ourselves, “What will I do if today is the last day I ever can live?”

TMWSHF Lesson - Discipline

I think the book gives a very good analogy of what a discipline is. Discipline is like a cable where each small tiny act will build on top of each other to build one that is stronger than the constituent part.

When you have discipline, you are able to control your life and as the result have more freedom comparatively to someone who is always reactive. It takes lots of discipline to keep this in your mind, when the brain is always telling you that this is important, that is important. And hence, you need discipline to control your own mind.

Of cos nothing going to come easy. What comes easy goes easy too. But I’m sure there is a time where you overcome the hardest initial part which I will call it the ”cold-start” and once after that you are moving with so much momentum.

It is suggested that we can use the power of mantra and the vow of silence to train our discipline.

TMWSHF Lesson - Self Leadership

There are 3 attributes we need to build: strength of character, mental toughness and living with courage. There are also 3 areas in life we need to build up on: the mind, the spirit and the soul.

Continuous improvement (in jap means kaizen) by pushing pass the limit will unlock the mental and physical reserve you though you never had. Therefore we must learn to love pain, because it it pain that helps us to grow, which is like the building of muscle. We must beat down fear quickly as it is a life-sucking habit that consume your energy, creativity and spirit.

I was really enlightened by the sentence “what use if the lesson you learn but you cannot apply it”. I personally have been reading lots of books and everytime I read it, maybe I will feel motivated but after a week or so, I forget what is taught in the book. We need tools to apply what we have learnt if not we will just forget what we have learn right. For marketing student, it is like the 4Ps, 4Cs and etc.

The books recommend 10 rituals of radiant living to be practised daily in life

1. Solitude
   Having mandatory period of rest daily helps to achieve inner harmony.
2. Physicality
   Vigorous exercise to rejuvenate body
3. Live Nourishment
   Eating live food that are in direct interaction with sun, soil and water.
4. Abundant Knowledge
   Read 30 mins a day.
   Select what to read.
   Don’t only read but study them.
   Read them more than once.
5. Personal Reflection
   List down the actions and thoughts.
   Reinforce the positive and find ways to stop the negative.
6. Early awakening
   It is the quality of the sleep and not the quantity that is important.
   Wake up early to enjoy the sunlight that will rejuvenates your body.
7. Music
   It can change your mood and also serve as a motivation
8. Spoken word
   Mantra to build self-believe (remember, it is the inner world that change the outer world)
9. Congruent character
   Build character by cultivating virtues
10. Simplicity
    Live a simple life
    Focus on priorities

TMWSHF Lesson - Following your purpose

Everyone has a purpose in life and it is down to each and individual to discover it. We have to self-examine on what we can excel in and what makes you happy.

After discovering your purpose, we need to have a goal to pursue it if not it will just be a bull shiitake. Writing down your goal is very important as if will prioritize on top fo the many other small goals you have (make sense when each of us have so many goal each day that blurred us from the major one). Once you have written down, you will naturally attract the things you wanted according to the Law Of Attraction.

Here are the 5 steps for goal setting

1. Have a clear mental image of the outcome
2. Apply positive pressure (using public pledge or try to associate pain with bad habit and good with pleasure)
3. Set goal with timeline (for the different section of life like physical, financial, personal, relationship, social and etc)
4. Continue this for 21 days (to make it into a habit)
5. Enjoy the process and live now