Chirpy Improving...

Looks like Chirpy is improving. He can stand on the horizontal bar in the cage. His wing look a little off as well. Chirpy had a treat today. I bought worms for his meals. He seems to enjoy them. The only worry I have is he keep his beak open after eating lots of the worms. They are not really worms but caterpillars of beetles. I wonder how it feels with so many wriggly worms in the stomach.

Affluenza

B2 has this new term for his school work. He learn the socioeconomic stratification of family and their kids. The rich kids do not know they have things that the not so well off kids dreams of. The society is moving towards the haves and the have-nots....

Chirpy is Injured

Chirpy is limping. His right leg seems to have problem taking on the weight. Chirpy no longer jumps up and down quickly. I am feeding Chirpy with earthworms and some fruits as recommended by the experienced "old bird" in keeping birds as pet. I hope Chirpy will recover as it hurts to watch it limp about in the garden.

Sanity Check

Free Agent Nation was very engaging and motivational. It makes becoming a Free Agent looks and sounds like the best thing since sliced bread. I have positive feeling this is the right way forward for me. Reading The Rise of the Creative Class is a sanity check. It shows statistics that is not as optimistic as painted by Daniel Pink in Free Agent Nation. It also talk about the reality of being a Free Agent. Once a Free Agent gets a project, there will be deadline and pressure. Hence no different with working in a big company.



Daniel Pink is in an idealistic world. He is talented and writes well. He is also a practising Free Agent. Whereas creative professional demand other dimensions in work e.g. stimulating atmosphere, teamwork, camaraderie, flexible work hours or caring environment, stability is still sort after.

Homework Time!

My boys are doing homework now. It is half past 11 and they are still trying to complete their homework. School hours are long. One in P6 and the other in Sec 3. Both come home in the late after. I have no clue why do we load our school kids with so much work. Stress in Singapore starts young.

The Rise of the Creative Class

City tolerant of the creative class are more vibrant and grow a lot more economically. What is the Creative Class? The creative professions are scientists, engineers, copy writers, authors, movie makers, etc, etc. There is a strong direct relationship of population of gay to economic growth of the city. Maybe this is why Singapore is now promoting it openness to Gays. I think our government must have been given the statistics and convince of the positive aspects of "tolerating" homosexuality.

School Term Starts Tomorrow

The third term of school starts tomorrow. It will be early start again for the boys. Holidays are over. Routine starts again. It is good that school is back. After relaxing and certainly lots of fun 4 weeks, it is time for the boys to start to study again. We will have peace and quiet at home on weekday mornings.

Kate!

Had a good chat with Kate recently. Missed having her in Singapore not that she is in Singapore. Somehow, it is different feel. Now she is half the world away and busy settling into her new role. She is a good listener and has the patience to hear me rambling away and repeat same old story. Back to her home country, she must be adjusting to reverse culture shock...like having to do everything by herself, listening to weather reports and attending meetings after meetings after meetings. We did not really have much time to catch up as she was in a conference call and then have to go for a meeting. (Read work is just talking and listening.)

HELP NEEDED!

Does any of my readers know where we can seek redress for Developers who does shoddy work and stall for time by not responding? FAR EAST ORGANISATION is taking advantage of MCST all the time. He claims he win all the lawsuits as this is what he is hired to do. He make it clear to us that he has no desire to address our issues or concerns with the property Far East develops.

Far East Developer

We just had a meeting with Far East, the condo developer. It is very sad that a large organisation like Far East do not exhibit the spirit to take responsibilities to make sure the estate is in a good condition after selling their properties. We live in a development that is built by Far East. There were many things in the estates that do not work after we moved in.

While many complaints had been lodged, Jimmy claims he had not heard of them or he only heard them after the warranty period of 12 months is over. For such a big organisation taking a stance to bully customers by quoting legal acts and throwing all the legal terms at us and making us cringe and giving veiled threats. Best of all, he even boast he fights alot of legal cases and he wins them all.

I come out of the meeting feeling discourage and cheated. It is really caveat emptor or buyers beware. I guess one of the way to get rich is to be unscrupulous.

FRIDAY!

Thank God Its Friday! Weekend is here again. I have an extremely busy day at work. I am starting to feel energised. I meant energised by the work rather then the weekend. Weekend is nice too! School will start next week. I have a couple of trips lined up in July. Will have to go to Manila soon. So many places to go and so little time.

What is my plan for the weekend? Do nothing. Just relax with a good book in a cafe. My favorite haunt is Gloria Jean Coffee in Vivo City. The staff are warm and welcoming. They pay attention and know how to make my boys happy. PageOne has 25% discount if you own DBS card. If not, 20%. Same discount as Kinokuniya but no membership required. So much more competitive than Kino. However, Kino still offers broader selection.

Reflections on the Changes at Work

I was thinking and reflecting over changes that has occurred at WORK. I was up in KL two days ago to give a talk on How to Develop Brands. Usually, when I go to the office, the whole team will go out for dinner. Dinner is the time to get to know each other better and build relationship and fosters team spirit.

I noticed our team has more new members than old. There were 6 of us at dinner. Only me and one more colleague that's two of us is in the company for more than one year. Three in the dinner are in the company for less then 3 months. This sets me thinking... Our team were merged into a bigger entity in May '06 for "financial consolidation purpose only" in other words, our profits were attractive to others. "Every thing else was going to stay the same."

In the previous 5 years, it is the last 12 months our team experienced the highest turnover rate in personnel. Our growth has slowed down dramatically. Recently, I visited our office in Singapore. There were many pretty girls. Unfortunately, I do not know any of them because they were all new. I was in the Singapore office only a month ago when I had my farewell lunch with my good friend, Kate. The economies in Singapore and Malaysia are doing well. This may be the reason why our turnover rates have increased.

With the constant change of guards, I wonders how much we spend on cost of hiring and training, how high is the opportunity cost for lost knowledge and experience and the impact on our business. Change is good. For change to be good and healthy, I believe turnover must be kept to 10 to 15%. Any higher will likely to cost the company alot.

I thought about it. Anecdotes are not strong arguments in large companies. There must be facts and figures. Business performance is no longer at the historical rates 30% or more any more. It is in line with the rates of all other divisions. Through its actions, the company has got what it wanted. So the words that we want higher growth and stronger performance are just words. It is interesting to watch everyone repeating the mantras and doing and behaving in a totally different manner to ensure we get mediocre performance.

This is what I call "Actions speaks louder than Words."

Bird

The surviving bird is doing well. I decided to call it "Chirpy". Chirpy gets foster out to a friend every time I have to travel. I do not trust the boys to look after him. I have no idea if Chirpy is a boy or girl. Since we have a family of boys, it is natural that we treat Chirpy as one of our boys:)

Million Dollar Apartments

House prices continues it rise. Condos are now in million dollars and up. So we have lots of millionaires in Singapore. Granted, banks do own a big chunk of the value of the house. If you own a condo, remember! YOU are a MILLIONAIRE.

Colleagues

A busy day interacting with my colleagues. Many conversations and learn and share many things. My colleague, Pat has improved her outlook in work life. She looks brighter and more pleasant. I am impressed by the mind over looks. Looks improved when one is positive psychologically. I believe she probably have some cosmetic surgeries or facial treatment. Whenever it is, I had a pleasant meeting and it is a huge u-turn for her. Hurray! I hope she keeps it up.

BRAND!

Today, I gave a talk on Brand and Branding. I have a series of questions on my presentation slides by did not complete my slides. The questions have a life of their own and I did not follow my prepared slides and just let the talk flow freely. My audience was a group of senior managers from SMI or small medium industries. They are very keen learners and asked a lot of questions, very penetrating and relevant questions on how to develop their brands in a market place that is crowded and everyone compete on the same basis.

Building Brand is a simple exercise. It is not easy and it take time and patience. The message must be simple and clear. It must be consistent and repeated over and over and over, again and again. The attributes must be delivered consistently to fit the message.

Heartware

Money, it seems required for modern living. We must alway worry about money and day to day living. I always look at the life of monk and wonder if it is a good alternative. More Japanese in a survey says they prefer to be born a bird and I can understand why. A bird is free. Just forage for food and free to go wherever and whenever. Yet is this perception true? I wonder how it feel when there are not enough or no food. As a bird, what will I do? Have anyone see birds playing? I have seen birds fighting over food or courtship display, even making love. Life as a bird is survival and passing on the genes.

How about becoming a monk or hermit? Food is a bland affair. All vegetarian and no fancy flavours. Meditation and cultivating the mind. Imagine sitting for more than 20 years? National Geographic had a picture of a monk who meditate for more than 20 years. What would he have accomplished? Inner space or our mind is the Final Frontier, not space. No kids, no family, no love, no sex!, just peace and tranquility.

Ahhh! Maybe a monk is still better than a bird.

Millionaire's Reflections

I am thinking on reading Fooled by Randomness and when I read Millionaire Next Door. I felt good after reading Millionaire Next Door. This is why I bought the 2nd book by the same author, The Millionaire Mind. Fooled by Randomness was entertaining. It is has a point. Whatever recommendations Millionaire Mind has can also be applied to non-millionaire.

So the question is "Is it Karma that determine whether we are Millionaire?" I am just thinking of a friend of mine. He bought a condo a few months ago. This condo is just a paper condo. The foundation is just being dug. With the price going up, he has made $800,000 as at today. Is this luck or random event? Why did I not buy a condo? This guy is 15 years my junior and he is much richer than me now because he bought at the right time. He do not even have to come up with much money to buy as it is on differed payment scheme. With maybe $15,000, he earns $800,000 in about six months.

So if this is a random event, why not me? Lady Luck did not smile on me? It is because I did not participate in the property market that is red hot right now. Should I jumped into the bandwagon now? Sigh! I believe in destiny. What is not mine will not be mine. Although I have a Scientific and Logical mind, I also believe in fate. This is why I am blessed with a great wife and three expectionally adorable and handsome boys. They are worth more than millions. Of course it will be nice to have a million dollars to buy them whatever they want....

Finding Forrestor

This is a movie that I do not get tired after watching over and over again. William Forrestor is a gifted reclusive writer who wrote only one novel in his life. He stopped writing after his novel, Avalon Landing was published as he was upset with all the critics. Jamal Wallace, a black student who scored extremely well in a states test. Jamal break into William's house as his friends dared him to. While in the house, Jamal was surprised by William and ran away leaving behind his bag containing his notes. This is the start of the relationship between a master and his apprentice. Jamal's writings improved dramatically under the personal tutelage of Forrestor. In school, Jamal offended a frustrated Professor Crawford who thinks he knows a lot about writings. Crawford accuses Jamal of plagiarism. Jamal maintains his integrity of not revealing his relationship with Forrestor and was in danger of expulsion from the prestigious private school. At the last minute, Forrestor came up to reveal the truth in the annual competition of novel writings. Jamal was vindicated in a heroic fashion and the story end with Forrest willing all his books and apartment to Jamal when he died.

Sad News

I am sad to report one of the mynah birds pass on the bird heaven. I am heart-broken. Now I may have acquired bad karma. I resolved to ensure the other bird do well and grow up healthy and strong. Now I am feeding it with rice and moist bread. For a small bird, it sure does eat a lot.

Luck is the way to your Millions

Random luck is your ticket to your Millions. I am sure Warren Buffet and Bill Gates will disagree. Me? Since I am still on my way, every time when the jackpot go past a million, I will join the queue.... Lady Luck will smile on me one day with TOTO:))

How to be a Millionaire

Accord to Nassim Taleb, in his book, Fooled by Randomness, it is by chance that anyone get to become a millionaire. Taleb was featured in our Sunday Times column. He came from a well-known political family in Lebanon. His family was rich before the fall of Lebanon.

He put up a very good point. The formula to accumulate wealth is similar to observing swans. There may be 4000 white swans, the conclusion is all swans are white. Accumulating wealth for most people will be like concluding swans are white e.g. riding the stock market or investing in property where the long term trend is up. It takes one black swan to prove "all swans are white" wrong. So it may take 10 years to accumulate a few millions but a few minutes to lose them all. His strategy is to take advantage of the rare event and make the most of it. George Soros is a good example where he make billions on unique events.

FOOLED con't

I am at Page 93. So far the anecdotes are on traders who get rich even though they are bad traders. The position of "Risk Managers" is a recent creation and a job that is secured and gives high returns as Risk Managers do not get fired. Traders may make more money in their good years but their career life can crashed anytime. Usually no traders survived more than 10 years. Stay tuned as I unfolded the secrets of earning Millions....

Catching Birds by Hand

As we were walking back to the car park at AMK Ave 1 and Ave 10 junction market, we saw two mynah birds hopping about. Mynah birds are very common and is every where especially where leftovers and food scraps are available.

I notices the birds were hopping away and expect them to fly away as we get closer. I saw both cannot fly well. So I caught one of them by hand. B1 was worried "daddy, they may have bird flu?" The birds did not look sick. They just cannot fly well. With one bird on my hand, I ran after the other and catch it with my free hand. B3 was excited. He wanted bird seeds to make a bird feeder. Our trip to buy bird seed ended with two live birds! B1 wanted me to leave the birds alone. At their current conditions, the birds will not survived too long. Cats will hunt them down and eat them up. I have seen a cat catching adult mynah before.

We went to buy a bird cage immediately and put them in a cage to bring them home. We will let them grow strong so that they can fly and release them when they are ready. Hopefully, they survived. We had tried to save a baby yellow mynah before from crows. Unfortunately the yellow mynah died. This time the birds looked more mature and I hope they can eat by themselves.

Unique Building along PIE right beside CTE

Every time I drive by the building that look like a ship, I wondered. Infineon with a giantic symbol that looks like a swoosh similar to Nike. It is very modern and unique. The design is very attractive. I thought it must be very expensive for a company to build an architectural significant building to house their operations.

Today, I learned that the building was built by Ascendas. It has feng shui elements. The building looks more like an office building inside even though it house manufacturing operations. There is a childcare center and the canteen is open to public. Carpark is free! Inside is glass and steel, very zen. I really like the building and everything still smells so new even though it is 3 years old.

My electronic engineering knowledge got updated significantly today. Visiting Customers is the best way to learn.

FOOLED!

I have finished reading A Passion for Success and now on Fooled by Randomness. I am only on chapter two. It is a consolation to know I am not rich because of random chance. I give a review once I finished reading. This book comes highly recommended by many readers.

The author challenge the findings of The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind. Both I had read as well. Basically, he is of the opinion that it is chance that one become millionaire. That all millionaires were persistent, hardworking people does not make persistent hard workers become millionaires. Plenty of unsuccessful entrepreneurs were persistent, hardworking people. The author of Millionaire series also looked for traits these millionaires had in common and figured out that they share a taste for risk taking. Clearly, risk taking is necessary for large success --- but also necessary for failure. Had the author done the same study on bankrupt citizens he would certainly have found a predilection for risking taking.

So, how can YOU get to Millionaire status?
Will let you know soon...

Books at Great Discount

Page One, the bookstore in Vivo City is offering 20% discount for the Great Singapore Sale. DBS card holders get additional 5%. A total of 25%. Much better deal than Kinokuniya. Kino requires membership that cost $20 per annum. The selections are quite comprehensive.
There are seats with paranormic views of sea and Sentosa. It is a great place to read and relax.

A Passion for Success

by the CEO of Kyocera, Kazuo Inamori.

This book is light reading. It is hard to put it down once I opened the covers. The advice are sound and practical. The business principles he establishes may run counter to everything we have ever learned about business management.

"To excel in life, you must be willing to encounter many barriers. The biggest of all is your own mind, which seeks comfort and ease. In school, a student with "C" average who studies just enough to pass can graduate just like someone who studies intensely and achieves straight "A's". However, the difference between these two people is much greater than just two letters grades. To excel, the "A" student had to break through many barriers - some of which must have required excruciating efforts to overcome."

To be truly successful and achieve great results, we must first fall in love with our work.

New Look

With help from Boh Tong, the famous writer of Cabin Crew stories, my blog has a new look! Hope you like it....

White Clouds, Blue Sky

I am sitting right in my home office and gazing out. The weather is beautiful. The sun is bright, the sky is clear and white clouds billows moving about slowly. It is peace and transquillity. Kids at the computer playing games, wife reading the papers... a great Sunday morning.

I "harvested" about 15 limes, larger than those you get in the market from my garden. I washed and cut them up and squeeze very drop of juice out. I added loads of sugar and add boiling water. Hey presto! Home-made lime juice fresh from the garden. Fresher than the brand "Fresh" fruit juice in the supermarket. As I was making my home-made lime juice, I told my eldest the lime was in the tree 15mins ago, lime juice can't get fresher any where else. Dad, you can get it in the farm. It feels good that to have a minute slice of a farm!

Altantis

I am reading Altantis as bedtime story for my little one. He asked what is a legend? I told him legend is a long about long long time ago before daddy was born and before daddy's daddy was born. He asked why aircond is called "aircond" and why is there A B C? I explained ABC is a language that helps us communicate so that we can understand each other. For example, if he is in pain, he can tell me and I know what he meant. If he says aircond, I know he mean the object that cools our room. If he is given to our next door neighbour, then he will grow up knowing French rather than English.

I think he is satisfied with the answers and fell asleep right after. It is a good evening. Kids asked the darnest questions.

Family Down with Fever and Sore Throat

The infection is going around. B1 was sick last week. During dinner on Sunday, B3 took a piece of ice from B1 drink. Only two drops of ice water dropped into B3's hot milo. The next day B3, had high fever. We should have stop B3 from drinking the Milo and washed his hands right away. Two days ago, B2 fell sick and this morning, Mummy is down with fever. Meanwhile I am feeling lethargic with sore throat.

The power of microorganisms. My family is like a domino, one at a time. Family doctor is happy. My total bills should about $300. Antibiotics are expensive!