A good day

Back to my routines. The stress and joy of work. The progress in my reading. The calm in my work environment. Today is a good day. I wish everyday is like this calm, peaceful, no politics, no staff issues, just work and making things happen. Will more change be coming? Weathering change, being buoyant during time of great change is key to surviving and thriving.

Waiting for an answer for an email I sent to an old friend. Will my prayers be answered? I am very blessed. I believe I will thrive. How? I do not know. I will continue to pray for my team to do well in the upcoming changes.

Reflections

My mum is here to visit. She arrived Changi airport at 12:45pm. She look healthy and happy. She is full of life. I am very happy to see her in this state. She is on wheel chair and has difficulty walking. Her cheerfulness bring cheer and joy. She has also gain weight. She will be living with my younger sister who is recovering from breast cancer. I hope she has a good time here. She brought letters and food from Canada. I do miss Canada. It is winter now. I like the spacious house we use to live and I love the fireplace. It is nice to look out of the window when it snow. This are good memories. The negative is winter is long and shoveling snow before going to work can be a drag. Summer is great. We have summer hours which mean we work longer hours from Monday to Thursday and take Friday afternoon off. Many time we can take Fridays off. A three day weekend. We can go fishing, drive up north, explore the rest of Ontario. Lifestyle is different from here. We have only shopping malls in Singapore. Would be nice to live in Canada for a while...

Manila

Back to Manila. It is a city full of good looking people, traffic jams and jeepneys. The food is good(as usual from a Singaporean). Crossing the roads take bravery and courage. Makati is like our Orchard Road. What I like about Manila is the range of bakery - Goldilocks, Red Ribbons, Saint Cinnamon, French Baker, etc. Even Breadtalk is here. I find the bakery here offers a nice range of breads, pastries, cakes... dare I say even better than Singapore. I loved the ensaimada buns with cheese, butter and sugar...mmmm yummy! I will buy some and bring back home.

I am up early this morning. Had my swim, did a little meditation and pray for help in the office. Do I feel much better.

Lousy week

I have a hard time coming up with the title for this message. My feelings are in a turmoil. My division looks likely to be "integrated" into a bigger team. Looks like the small team that work for me will be gone. It is sad because I had spent time and energy building up this team. We have so much synergies and we are a high performing team. We grew our sales by more than 30% year on year for the last 3 years and profits doubled this year and the year before. 4 years ago when I join, we were doing over US$2 million in sales. This year we will have more US$2 million in operating profits. It is an achievement that makes me proud. We have 7 in our team when we started four years ago and today we have on 6. We have done more with less!!

I had dinner with a colleague last night. YP suggested I should start and do my own business. I have demonstrated my capabilities and why am I working to enrich shareholders? Very good point. Most people around me make the same observation. I have to reflect why. This is the 2nd time I have turn around a company that makes losses into profit and continue it profitable growth. I wonder why I am too scared to make it our on my own. YP asked how much does it cost to register and start a business in Singapore. I told her money is not the issue.

Why? Why? Why?? Why am I afraid to start? Why not keep all the profit for myself? Why not work in a company I own? I can now train and develop my staff. Recognise and reward them base on my own philosophy instead of someone else. She knows I love to train and coach. Start a consulting company, she says.

The time has come. The fork in the road is coming up fast. It is time for me to take the road less travelled.

Ex-colleagues and friends

Today, I have visitors. One from US and the other a bosom friend of her come over to visit. Both are ex-colleagues of mine since 1989. Long time ago. We catch up with news and talk about anything and everything. Shared our current job responsibilities, family. our aging parents, etc, etc... We have a wonderful time. I wish we can do this more often. We are all so busy with our lives, kids, work, exercise, relaxation, entertainment that we forget friends are the social glue to our lives. Mei and Chris are wonderful friends. I really their efforts to stay in touch and continue to touch my life.