what do you do when the trust is broken?

You made a promise, you constantly delivered on time...until some day for some reason you failed to keep up the promise. You failed and disappointed your people...

Damn.

What next?

What do you do when the trust is broken?

You can simply go away; or you can tell the truth in your apology and seek forgiveness; or you can tell a convincing story to cover your mistake; or you can just roll up your sleeve and start it all over...

But building trust takes time. You know that.

You know you just lost something really precious.
You know this time round it'll take much longer and it'll be harder.
You know you have much to lose and sacrifice in the process.
Worse, you know you might never gain their trust again, ever.

It might be easier to just start something new somewhere else...though in your heart you know what's the right thing to do.

Do the right thing. Ignore the noise, just go work.

Yes it's painful, it's so damn hard, it's like bracing for the bullets...

...it's also a chance to prove you really care.

thoughts on humor...and more...

One thing i learnt, after slightly more than a year in a public speaking club, is anyone can be humorous. If you see people labeled "serious" or "boring" crack out witty remarks and funny jokes often enough, you'll come to this same conclusion.

Opposite to what most believe, humor is not a character trait, it's not a skill, it's a state, when you're totally relaxed and comfortable and trusting the people around you. Traditionally, we are so busy categorizing people, and trying so hard to fit ourselves into those categories (It's fun sometimes i must admit, but be careful, such efforts shape our reality). We then try to live up to those category descriptions, and expect others to do so.

Homo sapiens use intelligence to create beautiful, coherent, closed intellectual structures then let them shut out real-life possibilities.

Time and again when we find an engineer or lab scientist interesting, we treat her as an exception. It happens so often, and we are amused so often, yet seldom do we question the presumption itself. Why are there so many 'exceptions'? Maybe those theories of categorization and stereotypes aren't right in the first place? Maybe the reason those theories seem right is simply because we choose to aligning our action to them?

Everything exists for a reason, but not necessarily a right one.

Humor is a state, the so-called 'boring' people may just have less chance to experience it. Or they may have been told all their lives it's not something that fits their identity, that they should even try to experience...

Like many other things in life, we should stop intellectually cornering the possibilities, and start exploring.

"Do what you love, and the money will follow"

?

I deeply believe in this statement, with one condition though.

When you do dive in to do what you love, forget this statement.

I'm back - Lessons - Announcement

It's been 18 days since I last posted an entry. The original plan was to post one every day.

There are so many things going on in life, but there's no excuse. I learned a lot from different people and different experiences in the past 18 days. And here's a quick sharing some ideas that may be of value to you...

1. Don't Add, unless You Subtract.
Chrisandre's note: from John Naisbitt's book Mindset. e.g. don't add any new activity (e.g. learning to dance Tango) to your daily life unless you're very sure which existing activity (e.g. daily workout at the gym) you're ready to give up. Understood as opportunity cost in Economics. It helps you focus.

2. Consistency. Consistency!
I would argue it's more important than focus or specialization (yeah i'm aware these are different concepts). Some people advocate being a specialist, others a generalist, i believe you've met them both. Personally i believe in a mix that people in IDEO call T-person.

Whether you want to focus on perfecting your trade as the world's top specialist, or synergize your diverse exposures to success as a generalist, this dichotomy choice doesn't really matter. Don't let it bother you.

What really matters is your Consistent action. Be it focused, be it loose; be it a daily effort, or a monthly one, or hourly or yearly, just make sure it happens every time it's due. If the workload is too daunting, move the deadline forward, slice and spread the tasks, just don't stop, don't give up.

Work with Consistency, eventually you'll get there.


Also:
The minimum posting frequency of this blog now changes to weekly, entries will be posted during the weekend.

when September ends...

Have you ever considered this before going to bed?

That you have just survived another day on this lonely planet(since we haven't found another with such rich diversity of lives yet) without suffering from deadly diseases, starvation, violence, torture...

If not, you may want to think a bit about it today? Before September ends?

It can be just another normal day, or you can make it special. It's your choice.

Answer it with Action.

why normal people can become ruthless evil?

Below are the notes taken from a TED talk (sorry i forgot the speaker's name)...

7 social Processes that Grease the Slippery Slope of Evil

Mindlessly Taking the First Small Step
Dehumanization of Others
De-individuation of Self (anonymity)
Diffusion of Personal Responsibility
Blind Obedience to Authority
Uncritical Conformity to Group Norms
Passive Tolerance of Evil Through Inaction, or Indifference

communication at individual level seems to make more sense...

Talked with an acquaintance whose hometown has been in the news headlines lately for social unrest and racial issues...i was once told by another person (from this same place) that those 2 ethnic groups never really get along and they have separate neighbourhoods...

Yet this guy has a neighbour who's from another ethnic group, and they formed good relationship.

On individual level, it seems like we can easily connect with each other.

Collectively, however, we are more likely to fall prey to irrational dehumanization and various prejudices...

Somehow.

Consistency

It's the answer to the question: what's the common quality needed for living both i) a healthy life and ii) your calling?

These are not one off projects, thus it's a bit more difficult to set concrete goals for them. But they can be done.

The challenge is to consistently take care of these aspects in life. To put in the efforts, to pay the price. These are important, long term benefits, requiring you to consistently work on them without an exciting picture in mind and only occasional emotional stimulants.

So? the conclusion?

Habits.

Hit!

When asked: of all the things that he had learnt in public speaking clubs, what's the one that proved to be most useful in other areas of life...

This author & presenter answered without hesitation: the ability to Hit the Point Quickly.

we as a species...

I got a weird feeling that, with the progress of technology, evolution of culture, and breakthroughs in various medical treatments, we have been putting more and more artificial stuff into our body...from plastic surgery to metal used in operations to artificial organs to some kind of micro chip...

These are not necessarily bad things...we should not fall trap to the popular "natural" label and blindly believe everything that's natural is the best choice...

...only that we may soon reach a point where we'll need to redefine what we are, or what we believe we are...

Boy, it's gonna change everything...

Tony Robbins vs. those who only talk the talk...

if tony robbins said sth and he failed (divorced guy with a book called Perfect Marriage), many will still think he's respectable. He's not saint, he's just a human being who's not perfect, but he taught us really powerful and useful stuff...

...what if he started teaching us these powerful stuff after his divorce (but before his fame)?

Watch out, the next person who only knows to "talk the talk", whom you are very likely to frown upon, may carry exactly the same powerful stuff that Tony's got.

technology technology...

Our relationships with technology is a bit like relationships with our close friends or family members, sometimes...

...when we get more and more used to each other's company in our lives, we may gradually take things for granted...when we become so (inter)dependent we can't even live on our own (whether we realize it or not), we start complaining...somehow...

Doesn't this happen to our relationship with technology too...?

pain

Went to fix a long-delayed problem with my tooth...

During the process, experienced several real acute pain that lasted one and a half second...

Suddenly realized, it's been such a long time in life that I had not experienced any severe physical suffering (and those coughs and fever were nothing)...not that I'm sick enough to ask for it...

But if you have similar feeling, you know we have one more thing to appreciate.

p.s. the dentist's skills were good, without narcotics those pain was inevitable...or so i believe...

division of labour...

...is not just about productivity and economic well-being for everybody.

It's about trust.

Whether you are a teacher or beer brewer or banker or dentist, whenever you are chosen to provide your service, your client is giving you their trust that you won't abuse the information asymmetry...

With trust comes responsbility. Take good care of both, play your little role with the big picture in mind.

And don't forget to be proud.

Yeah somebody must have said this before, but somehow we seem to have forgotten it...

it's Now.

another story in another public speaking club from a young lady...

You got the message, it's all in the title.

Stop hoping, waiting, planning, thinking, considering...

...whatever it is, ask yourself: does it really matter?

Then make a decision.

Drop it; or got Get It.

he went bankrupt when he was 25...

Went to a public speaking club several weeks ago. It was a weekend.

A young man was giving his first ever speech in the club, telling story of his first ever business venture, which went bankrupt when he was 25...

The lessons? He said...

1. Business models that worked in the past doesnt't necessarily work now.
2. You should always think outside of the box

Don't seem to be something really new or exciting or record-worthy right?

You won't think so if you Really listen to that Person telling his story, not just the ideas...

confession of your humble blogger...

This post is being posted on 29th...after a long long delay...

There are many reasons I can provide, but they're not important...what's important is this reminder I wish to present to you, my dear reader...

Don't Let a Day Slip by without Really Living It.


No matter how tight a schedule you've got, how stressed-out you are, how your time is beyong your own control...be mindful of what's happening between your Self and your surrounding...

You will discover something worthy.

By the way, I'm gonna backdate this post, and some following posts...don't mean to cheat, just that it looks better...

the argument in philosophy primer...

We can't really understand this world because we are part of it.

I first learnt about this idea in a novel-form philosophy primer. Then a quote by Hayek (or some social scientist I can't remember). Then in George Soros' book.

We can't really understand this world because we are part of it + our belief/understanding actually affects the reality.

It seems so obvious it should be common sense...but it never prevail in our mainstream education or decision makers' offices.

When it comes to shaping reality, too many forces are at play. Too many variables, mainly human factors.

So I have to agree with Mr Soros when he attributes the financial armageddon to the prevalence of such fundamental mistakes among elites in our society.

... ...

To simplify and inaccurately put it, collectively we as a species are stupid.

torture of spies...?

Torture of spies is a controversial issues in certain developed countries (reported by Economist a while back). To allow or not to?

The tricky part is that we don't have a reliable or agreed-upon way to quantify the role of torture in getting key information. In other words, if you successfully obtain key info from the spy after torturing him; you have no idea how many percent of the info is attributable to the torturing...you have no idea if you could get the same result (info of same importance with same timing) without torturing him. Some ppl say yes; some say no. No reliable way to prove.

Seems to me, that ultimately it's up to what we, or 'the authority', choose to believe....

Now you know the power of beliefs. It happens in social sciences all the time.

And in natural sciences too, some people said.

if your day sucked...

...why not just let it be?

It just occured to me that we buy into the self-help culture so much we automatically think we should always be happy. Even if we are not we should try or pretend to be...we should be positive and sometimes it's even a sign of politeness...

We can say it's right generally. Often it makes things easier and our lives happier (though we don't really know why in the first place happiness should be so important to a meaningful & fulfilled life).

And we forgot certain 'negative' emotions can be a source of really meaningful efforts or beautiful art works or dogged persistence. And we forgot these can be part of those precious experiences in life through which we grow...that we may savor decades later...

So if your day sucked, instead of rushing to cheer up yourself immediately...why not just sit back and let it be...let your life happen and feel it consciously...

...the moments that are meaningfully and beautifully melancholy.

urban legend by world-class gurus...

Zig Ziglar used it; Brian Tracy used it; Anthony Robbins used it.

The study has been widely cited. It tracked the achievement of Class 1953 graduates of Yale University and found that those 3% with written goals at the time of graduation subsequently did better in their lives.

The staff at Fast Company Magazine did the digging and found that the 'study' didn't exist. An urban legend.

Interesting. A study that didn't even exist has over the years spread all over the world and motivated peoples around the globe. So if my guess is right, there'll be plenty of people who are ready to defend those gurus.

Even if it's not real story, it wasn't their fault. Plus the story has value, etc, etc.

Turned out that what we want is not truth; what we want is story that sounds true and, more importantly, makes us feel better. Marketers know all these very well.

What your humble blogger here thinks?

No blaming here...but no matter how sincerely and passionately they want to help others...consciously or unconsciously, the gurus know it's business.

when they say "everybody has a role to play"...

...they are right, literally. Though this line is often used because of its political correctness.

Despite one giant scandal after another that blew through news headlines over the past two years, economist Dan Ariely told us the largest damage to the economy/business world comes no from a single super-greedy fraud or Ponzi scheme. It's from thousands and thousands of little "misconduct".

Same thing to the honorable & ethical efforts to change the world. Despite our hero complex, real changes are results of millions of tiny little consistent acts by thousands of seemingly insignificant people.

If you aren't those who occupy headlines all the time, it's about you and me.

when they say "rules are made to be broken"...

...they are right, literally.

There are many reasons we make rules. One of them: we need order and certainty. Despite the practical benefits (from order & certainty) that we have long taken for granted, it's mainly a psychological need.

In practice, in reality, there are always smart people who can spot the opportunity to break rules and take advantage from it. They take calculated risks. How about those rule-abiding peope? I'll leave this to you.

In practice, in reality, we always encounter situations where rules look stupid. Really stupid. So we make exceptions, again and again, until breaking these rules seem so natural and inevitable...then we set new rules.

Yeah you get it, once new rules are set, the whole new circle runs again.

9/11

The tragedy we can never forget.

As a matter of fact, I'm not quite sure... I talked about the Sentimental Moments, the period when heavy prices or extraordinary events remind us to be nice, so we treat everyone around with respect and dignity...

...but when the emotional impacts fade away with time, wouldn't we just go back to our thoughtless daily routine (or struggle for survival)? When our generations are gone, wouldn't it become just a little piece of the long & cold & lifeless history?

For those unfortunate who have been deeply hurt, everyday is the day to pray for the souls in the heaven; for people who are really determined to do something about it, everyday is the day to carry on the peace movement.

So why the hype in media coverage and austerity in thinking/conversation on this very day? Does it really make a meaningful difference?

You just never know.

We just have to do it, try to keep the painful memory afresh, with the hope that every year someone somewhere will join the great dreamers+doers trying to make a difference...

Theory Mending

Did you also notice this interesting phenomenon?

1.
There are tons of articles telling you different ways to find out what your target customers want (demand research & analysis). In some of them, interestingly, you may find at the end the last tip saying this: sometimes your customers don't know what they want...

It's just another way of saying: to hell with demand research & analysis and just follow your heart.

2.
In articles or books or blogs claiming the death of last century's business philosophy, and telling us how to stand out & do something really unconventional & counter-intuitive...you may eventually find something that's not so new at all: business fundamentals.

It's just another way of saying: last century's business philosophy is not dead yet.

I call this Theory Mending.

You have really brilliant ideas, ideas that really help, so you gain people's trust and support. As time goes by, however, people found your ideas don't work wonders in every situation...

It's very normal. Do you still expect human society to be logical and mechanic and running on certain universal laws?

Yet you feel obliged to mend your theory; you need to make it workable under all circumstances. Maybe it's the support you gained, the following you care, maybe it's the psychological need for consistency...for whatever reason, you mend your theory.

It's now more neutral and less mind-blowing.

Is it because of the rationality that we human beings uniquely possess? We put So Much emphasis on the beautiful consistency & harmony of theories (despite the fact that it takes us further away from understanding dynamic human societies), while sometimes even in a lengthy thesis, it's actually those sporadic sparks of inspirations that really make a difference for us...

Do we need conclusion? If so...

i) let's face it, we are mortals, we are not here to give the answers. We spark possibilities, that's it. Even your most loyal fans shouldn't believe in and rely on you 100%. They get inspirations from different sources and create their own philosophies.

ii) I'm not saying we should quite scientfic approach or logical thinking in social sciences and humanities. Just that when you're done, take a break, step back, and take a look at the big picture. We both know the most beautiful theory doesn't reflect the robustly chaotic world we build...

overwhelmed by life...

Somewhere on the journey, something drew you in. Like an ancient cave hidden by the road less traveled.

Then like an awe-inspiring giant fresco, the impact on your mind and senses were so rich and intense and inevitable you could not move or breathe.

It was like forever. The air swirls and freezes and you just can't breathe.

...the sunlight sets in...yet before you got a chance to step back and make sense of it all, another whirlpool rolls you in...

It was like forever.

Embrace it, then. Immerse yourself in it. The flows of life. Dive in.

Before you know it, you'll be lying on a beach savoring sunrise from a brand new horizon.

But now, Dive In.

what do you do with new ideas...?

when you get new info/knowledge/ideas...what do you do with it?

1. try to figure out whether it makes sense with critical thinking first? to see if needs modification? Maybe then you can try to integrate it into your practice and see what happens...

or

2. treat it as a truth first? To put it into practice right away, and change your existing practice if necessary...and see what happens (and then you may modify & adjust along the way)...

Which one is better and more efficient? I'm afraid most people won't be able to give you a clear-cut answer.

We only know the answer lies in trials and experiments. Sometimes you really need to roll up your sleeves and make mistakes before eventually figuring out what works for you.

Not for 'them', for You.

quotes from Albert IV...

It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.
Albert Einstein

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein

Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
Albert Einstein

End of the "series"...but there are far more meaningful & wise quotes from this superb violinist...go check'em out...

...maybe the reason of confusion...of a shut-out mind...is simply that you're too much into life...

quotes from Albert III...

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.
Albert Einstein

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstein

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
Albert Einstein

quotes from Albert II...

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
Albert Einstein

All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions.
Albert Einstein

Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.
Albert Einstein

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Albert Einstein

quotes from Albert...

...when my mind's shut out of life...i share quotes...

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
-- Albert Einstein

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.
-- Albert Einstein

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
-- Albert Einstein

the famous MJ quote, longer version

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
-- Michael Jordan

a few things about goals...

1. You don't always need them...
....especially in arts, or in things that you love and enjoy doing, things that make you stay up working until 5am...in fact, you should not set goals in these things. Goals may limit your craziness and potential for superb breakthroughs and innovations.

2. The single most important thing to remember is the Price (despite what they all say).
Whether or not you have a goal, if you want to create or achieve something, you need to i) Decide the price you're willing to pay and ii) Go Pay it. Deciding the price means you make up your mind to give up something else in advance. So you can get distracted less and put in efforts consistently. If you're doing goal setting and planning, when you add one thing to the daily to-do list, considering deleting one item from you daily activity list. That's the price.

If you decided it's best not to have a goal in your poem writing, you still need to pay the price. You don't need to force yourself to churn out how many lines per day but you better regularly set aside some time to put together your thoughts and feelings.

3. Visualization
Yeah you already know that...so what's the smell of in the air and what's the color of your socks?

ruined by mass appeal...

When I say I can see beauty & meaning in anything, I mean it.

I thought it over, and I'm serious about it.

When I say we can learn something from almost anybody, I mean it.

If you don't really believe so, don't act like you agree.

Please.

Sometimes, political correctness ruins ideas and sincere perspectives.

you heart will sense it

Some people enjoy impressing others; some enjoy connecting with others.

Some admire people who impress; some admire people who connect.

Some people play all the roles in their lives; some lost themselves in between.

Whichever type of people you are with, be yourself. Be what your heart wants you to be.

If you meet someone who's worth a real relationship, you heart will sense it.

idea evangelism, wordless...

Why does spreading ideas have to do with words? Why must it be in the form of speeches or writings or blogging or lyrics or conversations?

It doesn't.If you aren't a person who loves dealing with words, no point forcing it, just follow the guidance from your inner being.

The colours, the melodies, the shapes & patterns, the numbers & formulas, the real-world movies...all are perfect vehicles for idea spreading.

It may even go beyond ideas.

Then what you pass on, is a life-changing spirit.

music, unconsciously...

Music can change our lives.

Music that touches our souls; music with stories that move our hearts.

Music that unlock our unconscious minds; music that makes us cry.

Somehow. We just listen, and things happen.

Somehow. When we trust what we got inside, we live the freedom.

you wish...?

It was after an important exam, or contest, which you thought you totally screwed up. You wish you had put in a lot more efforts, you wish luck hadn't turned its back on you, you wish you could pass...

But you knew the chance was 0.01%.

Did you just let go and move on with your life? Had you been so disappointed with yourself you didn't even bother to check the results?

Chances are, you did check the results. And you might have passed.

Your brain, your rational judgment told you you wouldn't pass. But deep in your heart you didn't give up. When you said you wish, despite what other people think, despite what you yourself told others, your heart knew there was still chance... It could still happen, it was possible...

Your heart told you not to give up.

So when you started the sentence "I wish..." today, did you do that simply to feed the lunch conversation with interesting imagination or wild dreams? Deep in your heart you know the answer.

The question is, are you ready to pay the price?

what's your story?

A friend who's known for her seriousness just won a humourous speech contest.

Total surprise!

It's remarkable. It is the kind of story that people love to hear and love to tell and it's gonna be around for a while...

Doesn't it sound familiar? Hasn't something similar happened to your community or someone in your life? Or has it already happened to you?

If not, why don't just go create one?

financial wisdom (maybe not that financial)...

"You are most likely to exceed the budget when you have none,"

i repeat, Dive In.

Take your time to really figure out your Blueprint in life...don't rush, be patient, keep thinking, imagining...

When you're done, Dive In. It's how you get to know if you'll ever need any adjustment...

Learn to ignore the constant interruptions in this noisy world...with enough practice you can be really good at it...

...and allow me to keep repeating this...

Don't think, just Dive In.

confession of a bankerartist...

"I'm not proud nor passionate about my work. I didn't quit (and do arts full-time) because I still have something to contribute and I'm still learning. Plus I need to eat. Financial pressure will make my family and creativity suffer. The need to make money out of painting will pollute my originality. I compromise my time, my days in life, so that I won't have to compromise my arts"

you made the efforts to sketch your blueprint, now trust it...at least a bit longer...

Doing the things that you love, that you are truly passionate about, that you are born to do, may involve dealing with things that you don't like.

So you need lots of discipline to bring you where you want to go.

Over the months/years, you did the soul searching, you did the gap analysis, you identified your goals and determined the prices to pay, you made and revised the Master Blueprint of Life with detailed plans...then you plunge in to pay your dues day in & day out swimming towards your destination.

It's a tough run, it's not for everybody. You know what it takes.

Some days into the journey, things happen. They always do. It can be as trivial as a terrible mood after a bad day; or it can be someone or something that storms into your life story with the burning twister so authoritative it burns through your mind and turns your beliefs & plans upside down.

You feel like giving up.

It's like you're just enlightened/awaken to see all the flaws and stupidity and unnecessary plans that are just not going to make your dreams come true. The scheduled marathon training seems downright absurd given your calling as a physician...

There may be moments when you really believe your original Master Blueprint of Life is torn & crashed & destroyed and that it was wrong & worthless...

Not matter what or who they are, Don't let them do this to you.

Don't let them break your plan and discipline and hard-earned momentum just like this.

Just set aside some time in the weekend, or go to bed 30mins later each day for one month, or even take a vacation, to really scrutinize your Blueprint and your mind. Eventually you'll find the adjustments that your original Blueprint might need are no big deal.

And you'll be glad you did discipline yourself to still go run the marathons.

Encounters in Oasis

The caravans come, the caravans go. People come from the horizon, then disappear to where they're from. You shared the laugters, your shared the tears. You sing the songs of desert, you carve a moon in souls. And tomorrow, you're off on the road alone.

Go north.

You left nothing behind, you expect nothing beyond. The wine in the sand, the moments euphoria flamed; the endless silver horizon, the ancient dancers' ghosts. Yesterdays buried in sandstorms, forever gone.

Go north.

When the wind brings back the scent, the stars picture the oasis.
You craft your heart to melodies, drift 'em in the memory of eternity.

LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD!!!

I've probably said this many times already, allow me to shout it out again: LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD!!!

On the path to making dreams come true, we refer to successful people as references. When we see people who made it big have background, or character, or beliefs, or choices made that are similar to ours, we felt so much more confident and convinced about our odds of getting there.

On the path to making dreams come true, we refer to successful people as models. We try to figure out what they believed, how they acted, so we can copy and get the same results.

But sometimes you just can't fit in and align with those role models that you studied. Over the years you explored and figured out and adjusted your values, your character, your models, your strengths, your goals & ultimate missions in life...and they simply don't jive with what you got from those proven people.

You're so unlike anyone of them. It's so frustrating, it's so unfair...

It's not. It simply means you have to stop copying those authorities and beat out your own path. It simply means you're destined to be a leading pioneer who opens up a whole new paranoma for others. It means you've got to stop looking back, stop finding comfort and confidence from other people's stories; you just have to trust your guts and charge forward.

Nobody can tell you what's like out there, nobody can show you a neatly sketched road map, not a single billionaire life coach can tell how far you can go. You're on your own, you got to paint your vision from scratch, you got to LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD, then try & experiment & find your own route, 'cause you are the chosen one. No one's ever been there.

You Are.

5-min Tango drill...

This post is about Focus and Consistency.

It's better to do a mere 5-min Tango practice for 3650 days in a row, then to participate in a one-week intensive workshop and put it away after 3 months of enthusiastic dancing.

If you're not living in an island alone, there're way too many things that can distract you from your plan, whatever it is. And these distractions make you feel busy and less guilty about giving up on your scheduled practice/study/whatever...

Then just make it a stressless 5-min daily practice, make yourself comfortable with the notion of effortless "daily commitment", watch the momentum built up by your consistency (and enjoy the sense of accomplishment)...

You will become unstoppable.

think about africa...

Seriously. It's not a damn sarcastic joke.

When someone really got on your nerve, when you had a sh***y day, when you got the 1003th rejections or setbacks...think about Africa.

Think about those children who were born into rain of bullets and made child soldiers, think about innocent people that were raped and killed, think about people who destroy themselves and the innocent without really knowing the reason...

And think about people who profit from the civil wars.

Think about how easily we can choose to ignore the horrible things happening around the world...

why were you so into it...?

...have you ever been into something, some projects (like a performance, a competition, etc), that haunt you 24 hrs a day, sucking out all your energy, distracting you from all other things in life, making you excited and scared alternatively...until everything's done and finished...

...then you feel relieved and happy with what you've accomplished. Or you feel upset if things didn't work out. Or you regret all the sacrifices as the project literally turned your life and relationships upside down...

Either way, it captured your passion. It should have (at least) touched upon what you really really want out of life. Don't rush to shovel the experience out of your memory in your new-found relaxed days; carefully review it. Think hard.

we can all change, it's just the nostalgia...

...of the old days.

Nowadays there are all sorts of techniques out there that can help you change. There are lots of success stories too, about how a shy introvert was turned into a charismatic superstar, etc, etc...

It definitely makes things easier for us, compared with our ancestors who needed superior will power and lots of struggle in order to be what they aspired to be. On the flip side, it can also help us get over emotions like guilt, which we might actually deserve sometimes.

The guilt that can make us better persons, that makes us really go Earn what we've got.

But that's another story, I digressed. What I wanted to tell is the story of an introvert who successfully changed himself into an extrovert, and let's call this guy You. You made more friends and contacts, went to more parties and made more money and 'had more fun' in life...

Only that at some point of the journey, when you feel everything is great and finally you are enjoying the success & popularity that always seem so elusive when you were quiet and contemplative, something or someone triggers a nostalgia that makes you miss the old days when you paint alone in the room richly filled with winter sunlight and tranquility, or those moments when you learnt about human nature by being a quiet observer...

The nostalgia bites.

Then you wonder if it's possible to really change one's personality. Then you wonder if the sacrifices were all worth it. Then you wonder why you thought being an introvert or extrovert really have anything to do with your success and fulfillment in life...

No right, no wrong. It's just the nostalgia. It might never emerge in your life, or it might catch you by surprise. And it bites.

Advice? Before commiting yourself to any major "personality change", make sure you know what you're getting yourself into.

why profit seeking prevails...

Against what or whom is your prejudice?

Women? Gay? Muslims? Quants?

Prostitution? Gambling? Politics?

Traditionally, if we go learn about the stories, talk and connect with those people, get a behind-the-scene view of what they do, and why they do it, we'll have a good chance of changing our original perspectives.

With the advance of neuroscience (or the techniques of tweaking our minds?) changing our views & beliefs becomes much easier than ever before. If we care to spend time and energy, we can change our views on almost anything, anybody, without having to learn their stories first-hand. You know what I mean.

Which means we have the ability to Decide what we believe is 'right', whatever it is. It's no longer about figuring out what is right; it's about deciding what is right, then figuring out how to make ourselves believe it.

This can be a powerful tool. A powerful tool can be a destructive weapon.

Since we can make ourselves believe anything we want, whatever we do we're able to make ourselves believe it's right. When right or wrong is no longer a question, what drives our decision and action?

How about material benefits?

the Rockers in the concert...

The rockers are the leaders.

They make music, their fans listen; they sell records, their fans buy 'em; they hold concerts, their fans gather; they rock on stage, their fans join them down the stage; they tell a story in the song...

Their 20,000 fans tell 20,000 different stories when they sing along.

don't judge a book by its cover...

who deosn't know this?

Only that in practice, interestingly, we tend to ignore golden advices from great respectable figures.

This again proves that: Ideas are Worthless, Action is King.

This may also imply that we all have to realize, no matter what we think we are, we're often subject to weaknesses of the mass mediocre.

It's hard not to judge, it's hard not to have an opinion. And when opinions come, so are those stereotyped associations. What do you expect from people who are gross and sloppy and simply can't stop boasting?

You never know.

Until you take the efforts, despite the prejudice or preconceptions, to find out more about their stories.

it can be just another wild guess but it's important...

...the end of elite-led mechanism design/social reform or experiment , dawn of the Great Co-Coreation (now every human being is a synergizer of his own experiences in life and a co-creator of the System...the social structure/order is formed not by a large group of experts, not by numerous groups of communities..but everyone in it..)

then what's the role of those experts? what's the role of everyone of us? does the new order reward people whose synergization contributes more to the System? how are we going to distribute the rewards & resources? would there be a new kind of minority? would there be a totally new definition of competitive advantage and radically different definition of rich and poor?

when every unique individual contributes her/his unique tweak to the new System, contributes to the constantly-evolving new world order, how do we (or the System?) decide who gets more of the merit, money, respect..? what'd help us survive & what'd bankrupt us?

i feel scared, with slight excitement, when i'm writing down these questions (i'm afraid they'd slip away from my mind)...this seems like total chaos...yet we know you're more likely to be right when you feel scared...and unpredictable chaos is exactly what we should expect & embrace in this era...

the era of crowds, heading steadily to The Great Co-creation. Welcome.

a war in silence (heretics beware)

world-changing innovation does not come from a miraculous night when you are struck by a voice from heaven and turned into a genius. At least not for most people. It comes from consistent hard work and numerous failures, day in day out, that people don't notice (or refuse to take seriously), for a long long time. Till finally you got enough momentum to make visible impact, they line up against you, trying to crush you and restore the status quo.

We all know this too well. Truthful visionaries punished just because they're too ahead of their contemporaries.

There's something more dangerous: you quit long before your stuff is visible enough to challenge the status quo, even when it's rotten. You gave up on your calling and you are not aware of it.

Your success is built piece by piece, it depends on years of consistent hard work.

So are your opponents'.

Everyday they try to convert you. Piece by piece, signal by signal, through words and actions and design, implicitly or explicitly, everything in the system is just so conveniently organized, so they can show your efforts are stupid and worthless and you're all alone. It's not violent, it doesn't make headlines, it never stirs the public's emotions. It's a war in silence.

And it's way more dangerous. Beware.

When they attempts something radical and inhuman to trump your challenge to the status quo, it means they failed to convert you. You won the first battle, the most crucial one.

Now March On.

have trouble finding a market for your passion?

...maybe you should not have assumed there's a market in the first place. even if there is, it probably won't present itself to you when you're still hesitating whether or not to put in the 10,000 hours and create something meaningful...

Don't think too much, don't force yourself to come up with some good reason or justification that your passion has a place in the market. Just do it. Have the time of your life. If you need to provide labour in return for survival in the society, if the only thing available to you right now is a nasty job, so be it. Don't imagine and take for granted your 'entitlement' to make a living doing what you love.

Learn from life, learn from the nasty work you are doing, as well as your passion and your consistent selfless contribution to the world. Don't overthink, don't try to cash up on your pure simple/noble passion.

Never give up, though. Just go working, living, meeting people, listen, learn from them, learn from life, do at least as much as you think/plan. And for sure you'll see your market somewhere down the road...

Get busy; be patient. You'll be there.

unplanned adventure

Make yourself a blueprint of life, with clear plans and tasks plus crystal-clear visualization.

These are the right things to do, no doubt. They make your goals and vision so real they build inside your mind a sense of inevitability and resilience. Seriously it's something we should take time to do and practice...

But always leave some room for your creativity.

Everyday is an adventure, everyday you've got something to learn, everyday there's a possibility that someone something out there would turn your outlook on life upside down. And often, life changing moments originate from unexpected sources.

Travel with you map, focus on the big picture. Just don't simply rule out every path that happened to escape your imagination.

On Specialization II

My other guesses...

Specialization is meant for technical stuff, and technical stuff only. Somehow because of the economic structure (division of labour) or some other reason, we are made to believe we also need specialists (or experts) in arts...a field where measure of excellence is so subjective and unpredictable...

...then we have specialists constructing a system of rules & standards telling us how to determine whether a piece of art work is beautiful...so we can "learn" how to appreciate arts...then base our valuation or appreciation of a painting on specialists' opinions...

Every once in a while some rule breaking genius would create a turmoil in this system, we would marvel for 3 seconds then move on like nothing has happened. It's like, "what are we to doubt the rules & standards? they were created by those experts...they've been around for centuries..."

Maybe it's exactly the reason we should question the system.

On Specialization

It seems to me people take specialization really seriously. Yeah specialize, it's where the money is. Generally it's how you can efficiently make it as a participant in economic activity nowadays. And if your personal identity hinges heavily on your economic role, specialization can mean a lot more than making a living.

But is it really a must for you to make a life?

Specialization is just a rule (or rather, a popular & less risky strategy) of the game. If you are creative and imaginative and innovative, or lucky, enough to bypass this rule and get to the hilltop that you're aiming, why not? Fix your sight on the hilltop, always, look for different paths, and be careful not to be blinded or cajoled or intimidated by what people think you should agree on.

another reason to be really opionated (or not)

Being really stubborn and opinionated can either make you or break you. We can never easily come to a conclusive agreement as there're too many other variables at play.

One thing you might be interested to know, though, is that strongly opinionated people like you (yeah i make lots of wild guesses & assumptions in this blog) are less likely to be the targeted candidates of terrorists' recruiters. It'd take them way too much resources to convert you.

Which means you get a bit less distraction when building your career with an extremist's fervor.

sheepishly, innocently, or gracefully (should I include proudly)?

Wrong statements or wrong timing or wrong action that make you feel and look stupid? We all experienced that, it happens. Inevitably.

But wait, were you really "wrong"? Perhaps it's just some stupid customs that shouldn't have existed at all? Or maybe those folks were just too 19th century to grasp your ideas? Or too scared to embrace your bold vision? Or too narrow-minded to appreciate your perception of beauty?

Well there's also a good chance that you did screw up. In fact, it doesn't really matter at all.

The question is, how do you deal with it?

Very often people just smile. Depending on how seriously they take the "mistake", they give you a smile sheepishly or innocently or gracefully.

Which category are you in (I hope it's Proudly)? Are you responding like you are "supposed to"? Are you showing the world your invincible confidence? When these stupid moments inevitably come, how exactly do you deal with it?

I hope you dance to celebrate like no one else's looking.

price, little wishes, casually

It's easy and harmless to casually talk about what we want or what we wish to be. Without commitment or accountability, there's no risk. In fact it's so easy it almost becomes a conversational habit for some people. They casually think and talk and sigh about their little wishes, without considering the price and taking 'em seriously.

That's why they never got there.

The first thing to do is realize that there's a price, an opportunity cost, for any goal or dream or wish, small or big. Be realistic about it.

Be conscious of the price you need to pay.
Take time to think it through, make a decision.

Be conscious of the price you decided to pay.
Don't regret.

price, little wishes, scarcity

There's a price for everything. Not always in coins-and-notes sense though.

Just think about little wishes like being elegant in your words and behaviour, or having a respectable character. (not to mention those visible goals like being better public speakers or dancers, etc.) There's a price to pay for all these.

Let's just take a closer look at those little wishes.

Typically they require more of your physical and mental energy. They want you to go an extra mile on daily basis but never prize you with a candy on the way. They make you exhausted for something that no one seems to care...

That means you need to create the motivation yourself.

Sometimes the desired outcome is like reputation. It takes a long long time to build but can easily be ruined. It's as invisible as oxygen but as fragile as crystal. It's frustrating. That's why most people don't bother to take these little goals seriously...

...so when you do, you are special; when you take time and efforts to get there, you create scarcity. This doesn't pay right away, it doesn't always pay in notes-and-coins sense, but it pays.

the stage ethics (or is it?)

A speaker is more relevant if she had first-hand experience of her topic. She's more likely to know what she's talking about.

A mere theory disseminator risks jokes or mean responses. Or the sin of misleading her audience.

This creates a little bit of problem for unproven speakers. Does it mean you have to keep what's in your mind until you got the experience or age or title to qualify for people's attention? So that you will be more credible and your chance of making mistakes lower?

You know the answer. Go for it.

But be humble.

No matter how convinced you are about your theories/ideas, no matter many stories supported them, no matter how many people (other than yourself) already proved that you are right, no matter how much credit you've got...you never really know.

Remember you never really did it. Be humble.

And for the audience, don't look down on these theory people. Try to get whatever morsels of value from what they say. The most dramatic inspirations come from the least expected place. Like your cousin's five-year-old, for example.

It's not the answers. It's possibilities.

It's about exploring & testing & cocreating with people you are lucky (or unlucky) enough to meet in your life. Outside the professional seminar hall, there's always a whole lot more to learn, from life itself. You create your own story, after all.

If you think you already got, or some guru already granted you, the final answer, you almost always find yourself wrong afterwards.

Or am I?

We never know till we try.

hang out with the best people...?

There's one saying:

"Put yourself into the most competitive environment, work with the best people, then you will see yourself improve fastest..."

Pretty much truth, I guess, only that you should also bear in mind this: this tip works best for skills, and skills only. Not life.

Many people are so obsessed in the race to the top environment they forgot why they're in the race at all. Or they're made to believe it's the only thing that matters.

They missed so much beautiful things in life.

Try your best to get into the best environment, be relentless if necessary, but always remember why. No matter what you boss or your coach tells you, it's just the trade/skills that you are striving to perfect, not your life. You've got to decide how much price you are willing to pay for it.

If you decide it's worth your life, fine.

However if living a meaningful life happens to matter to you, it can be achieved more easily than most people choose to believe. A bit more mindfulness can go a long way in saving you unnecessary price and sacrifice.

And maybe, less people unnecessarily hurt.

Factor in the price & benefits

Budget your time like you budget your money.

Really, count the cents and pennies. Be realistic. Then you see the roadmap in hi-fidelity. The reason to believe and the sacrifice to make.

A frequently neglected factor in goal-setting practices is the real Price you're ready to pay.

The opportunity cost. The things you really really love but come second in importance.

A frequently ignored element in change exercises is the benefits you've been enjoying for staying where you are.

Things you always want and enjoy and take for granted. The satellite TV that you want to bring along when climbing the Everest.

Dream vs reality. They'll look so alike if you choose to be honest when you begin.

2 things we should stop saying and start doing

Ideas are always easier said than done. Among millions of ideas in this universe, two stand out because they are more and more widely acknowledged and communicated now.

1. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Go make more of them, it leads you to success.
2. You can learn somethig from everyone you meet. Anyone, everyone.

They also stand out because they are so enthusiastically believed in words, yet so casually ignored in action.

-- Go make mistakes, you get laughters (if not sth worse). More mistakes, more laughters (if not sth horrible).

Doesn't look like what you get when people know you are on the path to success. That's why the youth orchestra that literally celebrates every mistake makes a terrific story. Idea and action align.

-- We are all snobs/prejudiced in one way or another. Some utterly ugly (your position? your income?), some more implicit (your taste? your education?). Alain de Botton had a good take on this. Instead of striving to live up to idea 2 here, seems like we prefer making use of such snobbery for our own benefits. Dress up, gear up, speed up the race...

We need everybody.

Be the only one to live up to these ideas while others don't, you look either stupid or naive. Or rebellious or idealistic. It's a dangerous thing to do, esp. when it's hard making a living.

The good news is, you are already making a life. Many people have the guts to do it only after becoming millionaires. Be Proud.

Plus: The games is changing fast nowadays, your remarkable bravery may be rewarded at the least expected moment...

Follow Your Heart?

Follow Your Heart.

A significant remark, some time somewhere, brought to life by battered souls, distilled by dogged quest and struggle, through confusion and sleepless nights, and a long long journey within. It carries much more weight and meaning than we usually realize.

So don't abuse it. Don't make it a cliche. Don't manipulate it for any worldly purpose. Don't pollute it. Please.

Think about the famous quote. I think, therefore I am. Then go read Descartes' biography, study his thoughts. When you're done, you will know what I mean.

Follow Your Heart.

just "Do What You Love?"

There's much noise out there, appealing to our dreams and fears and boredom and hopes. Yesterday is tumbling, we kind of feel it, and tomorrow is too vague and chaotic we don't even bother to give a damn guess. Today, the only thing we know, we are still stuck in the comfort zone with our dreams squeezed.

There's much noise out there, telling us who feel stuck to go ahead and do what we love. And they offer tips. See, these people made it, why not you? Go do it, here's the way, do what you love, and you can be one of them...all you need is courage and action...

Some of them are right, some not quite.

Do what you love, with all your passion and creativity and bravery and hard work, then you too will make it big. Simple, attractive logic. Too bad our lives, the universe, and the unknown space in between, is much more complex than this...

Fortunately it means there are a hell lot more of hidden possibilities too.

To make long story short, let's just say this life-turning adventure, this all-out pursuit of your passion that people talk about, is not for people who are stuck. If you're stuck, get yourself unstuck before you go.

The best time to leave is when you're flying high and doing great.

(The second best time to leave? When you're still learning everyday from whatever nastiness you're facing and be grateful of your daily growth...)

You are not trying to escape; you are not blinded by complacency; you keep learning everyday and be appreciative. And you're going because you see how your calling fit in to our future. Never mind the footprints, never mind the wind. You dig deeper, you look further.

It takes vision, insights, and guts, when you're the king at your turf, served with fine wine and fresh fruit and all the chant and glory, to leave it all behind and go conquer the Himalaya.

That's how your destination becomes our future.

Professional Layman and Public Intellectuals

Professional Layman used to be a nick/definition I gave myself when first tried blogging a few years back (the blog failed, by the way). One who learns a bit about everything out of curiousity and to deal with life, one who suffers in the mechanic categorization of trades, who has a view on everything as an outsider, a layman, yet the urge to express and share his non-expert views.

Thus spoke the Professional Layman: I specialize in generalization.

What a good story! what a cool self-positioning! Even if it doesn't win you a high-pay job or the mortals' respect for experts, I thought, at least I was being creative & original...

I wasn't (just discovered in this article on Public Intellectuals).

"What do you specialize in?, Daniel Bell was once asked. Generalizations, he replied."

Ha! Somebody already beautifully summed it up long long time ago, you ignorant...

Good try though, a lesson learnt. And some joy to share...

Why tell the world you are not original? Why so happy about it?

Cast aside the vanity & self-branding gimmick of being the uniquely first, you realized something more important...

You are not alone.


also: a bit more about public intellectuals in the article

...New York Intellectuals... Broadly, they viewed the public intellectual as someone deeply committed to the life of the mind and to its impact on the society at large.

...public intellectuals were free-floating and unattached generalists speaking out on every topic that came their way...

The Idea Evangelist

The Idea Evangelist believes there is no "right" idea.

Ideas don't really matter, anyway (except for the moments of euphoria when they blow your mind). It's what you Do.

Great & breath-taking ideas crushed and bankrupt young entrepreneurs; stupid and naive ideas made millionaires. It's what you Do.

The Idea Evangelist, however, commits to spread brilliant, mind-blowing ideas & stories to the world. Not that these ideas can change the world...

It's the Possibilities.

There is no right idea, there's no idea that surely works. But there are ideas that open up horizon and possibilities. Ideas that expand your reference frame. You make your judgment, develop your own ideas, enrich your own philosophy, and create a different story.

The Idea Evangelist knows very clear that the ideas he chooses to spend his life spreading don't really matter at all. He never thinks he's really got the answers. Plus in the end, the first and the last key to a meaningful life is what you Do.

Somehow the Idea Evengelist has no intention to quit, even if the demand or need don't seem to be there. Even though he himself realized how small a role he picked. It's important.

Just trust your guts, roll up your sleeves, persist.

When it comes to life mission, or calling, it's what you Do.

... ...

This post is so very much overdue, we are so far away from mid-june, and there's no excuse for this. Even if the local government blocked this site, even if the monthly traffic is like two and a half clicks...

...there's been ongoing soul searching for this blog...maybe it's also the best time to just dive in and continue working?

After all there are so many brilliant ideas and worthy stories out there, waiting for us to share and spread and develop and act on...

Special Notice

There will be no (or very very few) post until mid-June. Thanks for visiting.

last week's musings...

* talent (or efforts?) arbitrage? ...we all know some people (many) are overpaid for what they do...and we all know often talents are underutilized...so what can we do about it?

* how to measure the immeasurable? (when the immeasurables are actually the most critical factors for huge success)? maybe it's justifiable to make big bets? ...anyway it's a life of randomness...

* it's for people who are constantly energized & inspired by thinker-bloggers I love (like Tom Peters & Seth Godin)...

...instead of giving up everything you got to go on a pilgrimage or adventure in pursuit of the craziest dreams & goals...how about this: consider how to leverage on your past experience (e.g. the college major "imposed" by your parents or the job you are in but hate now) while pursuing your true values & passion?

Maybe you don't have to give up everything? Maybe you don't have to choose between being a modern gypsy (& making your family suffer) and being a walking zombie (& burying your dreams)?

Maybe you don't have to leave the corporate jungle,erase business from your brain for good and go into the wild in Alaska to be a true artist? Maybe all you need to do is make your experience tangible and paint them with water color?

Again, it's a life of endless possibilities, there's no sure path or formula for success...some people stuck to their 'damned jobs' and eventually realized their calling in the least-expected,innovative way...some people gave up everything, went on a totally different journey, re-inventing their life into an equally meaningful success...

Bottom line: you don't have to copy any of these people just because you happened to hear their stories (magz, tv, blogs, etc)...you design your own path, you live your own story, you decide your own legacy...and it doesn't have to be like anyone else's...

Just make sure you do something for your calling,values, and people you care everyday.

* it's about giving, a bit of sacrifice maybe, but certainly not taking. And certainly not blaming. It's love.

HI = Honorably Invincible

It's not about "be yourself";
It's about Be the Best You Can Be...

Be Your Honorable Self.

we all heard the stories,about good people being punished financially or socially for doing the right thing, and the "trade-off" between material interests/peer recognition and values/moral principles...we saw people we know & love (even ourselves) stuck & struggling in those choices...

Bite the bullet. Be Your Honorable Self.

...it's always easier said than done...it always seems like nothing more than idealistic stupidity...but it's exactly what we have to do: forget that windfall, that promotion, that acknowledgment, even that ticket to a dream job/career simply for what we believe is right...

Because we will come out Stronger.

...DO the right thing..we'll see how big we can be and how far we can go...we'll realize nothing and no one can stop us and we deserve every right to dream on, and carry on the revolution...

It's not about "confidence", given by anybody or any incident, or what we wear;
it's the Hard-earned sense of Honor, Pride & Self-Respect, that enable us to Stand up Proud & Tough to any adversity, threat & intimidation.

Be Your Honorable Self, that way you become Invincible.

include or exclude, don't be indifferent III - party stranger

Say you're talking with your friend Jake in a party, someone approached & showed interest to join, what'd you do if it doesn't please you to have a third person in the conversation? You may include her/him reluctantly, or you may politely tell her/him that you wish to keep the conversation between you & Jake. Interestingly I notice quite some people who tend to do neither of these.

To many people it isn't easy to say to a well-intentioned stranger "sorry but we would like to keep the conversation between ourselves now, could we catch up with you later?"; while they aren't interested in talking to that person either.

So they choose to do nothing. They'd continue their talk, giving little heed to that person, pretending that person doesn't exist, and hoping that person will go away herself/himself...not knowing it isn't cool and it's rude.

Try put yourself into that person's shoes. What do you feel?

Be honest & polite, don't be a rude coward.

Never ever pretend that person doesn't exist. You know she/he's there.

Bottom line: Include, or Exclude, don't be an insensitive & indifferent jerk playing hero solo.

include or exclude, don't be indifferent II - Heroes & Outsiders

There are only 2 kinds of people in a team: Heroes, or Outsiders.
(There's no "average team members")

Heroes care, heroes think & take action & take risks all the time.
Outsiders don't care, outsiders do the minimum & play it safe.

Sometimes we become heroes because we are made to do so: people give us their trust and count on us; sometimes we become heroes because We enjoy the action, we enjoy feeling important, we enjoy being on the front line putting out the fire...

We just enjoy playing the hero. Just another kind of vanity.

Sometimes we become outsiders because we don't believe in the team's mission/values (we are in only for the paycheck or the title); sometimes we become outsiders simply because we feel like outsiders ...so we stop giving a damn...

We just don't see why the heck should we put the team's interests before ours.

......

If you're the team leader, and you spot outsiders in your team, what'd you do?

The answer, I guess, lies in another question: who in your team is(are) playing the hero(es)?

Those who are not heroes are all outsiders (Hopefully you are not the only hero in your team).

Great things are done by a team of dedicated heroES, not a single hero (despite what the movies show)...if your team is not made up completely of heroes busy attacking or building...somewhere in someone an outsider is in the making...

Avoid one-man show (or two-men, for that matter).

If your project is too small to accommodate too many heroes, assign them to another project, give 'em day off, send 'em to training or volunteer work for charity, let them start their own projects...Or better yet, let them go, help them shine elsewhere.

Don't make them sit there watch you playing hero.

It's not leadership, but a selfish display of vanity.

****

side note: if you (or your team/org) got a mission, Live it, or dump it.

include or exclude, don't be indifferent - (don't believe this title)

At work, what's worse than a day full of emergencies, fire to put off here and there, one thing comes up after another in hectic pace, pushing you to navigate through meetings & negotiations with departments and suppliers and customers...Murphy's Law comes into play (yes everything just goes wrong) while people tactfully shunning responsibiities...you alone shoulder all the downside risks...what can be worse?

Having no place in it (or, being an outsider inside a team).

When you end the day exhausted, battered (or even fired)...licking your wound in hard-won victory (or total fiasco)...you know you tried your best, you know you learnt something. You gave your heart, you tasted (the sweetness and) the pain. you lived.

The outsider didn't. The outsider feels numb & empty. And safe, probably.

You lived. Isn't it something to be proud of, soldier?

[if you think this post is irrelevant to the title, you are right...sometimes things just flow beyond our plan & control...check our the more relevant content in next post...]

what'd we do to a modern-day Martin Luther?

"You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know."
George Eliot

...all these great figures in history...somehow...we tend to have them suffered, tortured, estranged and executed...then time passes...we at some point realize these are exactly the people we need and should look up to...finally we give them due credit long after their lives ruined & sacrificed...the respect & love we give they no longer can feel & see...is this the best we can do to the great souls in fellow human beings?

Simply look at what often happens to whistle blowers and you know history repeats itself.

Are we not going to do something about it?

When we see a modern-day Martin Luther in the news, or at work, what'd we do?

Martin Luther

Originally from one of Chris Guillebeau's blog entry, it's worth your most precious 1 minute of the day...

...Remember Martin Luther, the original one, when he was on trial for his life in the year 1520. Luther was asked if he would recant his unconventional writing. He took the question seriously and asked for a day to think about it. The next day he returned to the stand. His famous response, before being sentenced to death, made it clear that he wouldn’t back down:

"I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.”

a couple of definitions on Entrepreneur/Entrepreneurship

By Peter Drucker...

“Entrepreneurs innovate,” --> “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship.”
...the entrepreneur as somebody who “upsets and disorganises”

By William Baumol

...the entrepreneur as “the bold and imaginative deviator from established business patterns and practices”

By Howard Stevenson

...entrepreneurship as “the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control”

Think Macro

Some areas to consider when considering "macro" problems:
- renewable energy...electricity...
- water...irrigation...sewerage...
- telecommunications...fiber & wireless network...
- transportation...urban transit systems...
- nature...biodiversity...habitats...
- food...crop...
- education...culture...

From Jeffrey Sachs' article:

"American and European economic advisers generally believe that a short sharp stimulus will be enough to restore economic growth. This is wrong. What will be needed is an overhaul of the world economy towards sustainability. "

"Developed countries also fail to recognize that without much greater financing of sustainable infrastructure in the developing world – especially sustainable power generation and transmission – a global agreement on climate change later this year (or any time soon) will be impossible. The rich world somehow expects poor countries to restrict their use of fossil fuels without any significant help in financing new and sustainable sources of energy. In almost all of the rich-country proposals about targets, limits, commitments, and permits for greenhouse gases, there is hardly a word about helping poor countries to finance the transition to sustainable technologies."

2 Respectable Companies

1. PSS World Medical

from an interview with its CEO David Smith...

...when you dance with elephants you're either quick or you're dead...
...you can't just be a regular company, or you won't survive. You'll get out-resourced, out-priced, out-maneuvered and squashed...
...you really must have something unique that you bring to the table...
...You have to be able to do things differently from everyone else and do them in a way that really brings value to the customer...

...We...looked at the individual customer and his business and clinical issues...
...we looked at our core competencies--what we were really good at...
...We started rebuilding our business to be back to focusing on our customers...

...I set principles with my management team and team leaders, but I don't have preferences on how things are done....
...I ask a lot of questions. I give ideas. But I'm not wedded to any one of my ideas...I let them figure it out, because they're closer to the customer and to their people...

...give everybody a simple, understandable matrix to make decisions with...
...when I'm not there and people want to know how to make a decision, they don't have to call me. They know that I'm going to ask them how it fits into that matrix...
...We are all about not being comfortable with the way things are...


2. e-text editor

It recently decided to push beyond open source code...to become an Open Company...it's experimental, it's adventurous, it's curiosity with a spark of idealism...it's Huge. Check out the story here.

Something meaningful from what I read recently...

"Your customers don't care about your story. The care about their own stories.....focus on a way to make it easy for your customers to bring your brand story into their lives." -- Tom Peters

"What do you want your customers to think about you?" -- Tom Peters

"Citizens should experience anxiety about their own businesses (which they control), not their investments (which they do not control)" -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb

"I don't like you all the same...I love you all the same, and I'll give you the treatment that you earn and deserve..." -- Coach John Wooden to his players


Plus: fill in the blank...

"Our business is the only ______ that ______"

"We are the best _____ in the world"

"Dramatic Leadership" to "mobilize the board..."

Summarized below useful points by an interesting McKinsey Qtrly article "The crisis: Mobilizing Boards for Change"

* Expect major change. Conduct fundamental review of strategy. [John: Reinvent]

* Disrupt the rhythm

* Force New Conversations/ Create Confidence to Express "Stupid" Opinions

* Follow-through: where's the plan & budget?

* First-hand Frontline (Visceral) Experience

* Dramatic Leadership to Shake Things Up


Well for those of you who read Tom Peters'(and the like), these are nothing new...

..."the hottest U.S. investor" (covered by Fortune some months ago) once said "I don't wait for Morgan Stanley to tell me where the market is moving..." (or something like this, just recall from memory)

Yes I'm simultaneously quoting a valuable McK Qtrly's article and telling you we can't count on big guys like McK for truly inspirational world-changing ideas...

The Wrestler II

About the movie, again. The backstage scenes reminded me of a Fortune article on Meredith Whitney (the Wall Street Analyst who made her name for correctly predicting the banks' losses & writedowns early in the crisis and wife of a professional wrestler) said...

Her insider's view has given her great respect for pro wrestlers' work ethic and their willingness to lay everything on the line as performers, athletes, and stuntmen...

Another eye opener for Whitney has been how gracious most wrestlers are - at least when the cameras aren't rolling - in comparison with the viper-pit culture on Wall Street. It sounds absurd - the world of high finance being less collegial than an industry in which employees belt each other in the face. But based on the time I spent backstage before the Great American Bash, Whitney has a point.

The Wrestler

Watched a movie called The Wrestler. Felt sad. Being the so-called most intelligent creature on earth, somehow, we keep creating within The System/Civilization things that destroy ourselves & our fellows...

I have been talking about "you never know who's going to change your life; & you never know whose life you are going to change"...same thing...we never know how the ocassional disrespect & mean attitude we show (out of bad mood or our mean self) may impact others' lives...

"Treat all people with dignity and respect" thus spoke Coach Wooden.

He said this for a reason.

ViSuAl & ASSociAtion & Journey: lessons from world memory champs

(Read the story "How a memory champ's brain works" here)

Background: World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore...10 minutes to memorise seven packs of playing cards and then recite them in orderan hour...an hour for 27 packs - 1,404 cards...Other records...memorising a single pack of cards in 26.28 seconds; memorising in 15 minutes an 819-digit number; memorising in 30 minutes a binary number of 4,140 digits; Dominic O'Brien, eight-time world champion.

so what did they say?

"Think in pictures, because the brain remembers images better than it does anything else,"

Mr Pridmore's suggested strategy for remembering people's names involves picturing them in a scene made up of associations to their names.

“In effect, you are tricking your brain into believing it is experiencing something ”

"Memory is made up of associations...strawberry might prompt thoughts of tennis at Wimbledon, pick-your-own farms and everything but the dictionary definition of a strawberry"

"Think visually....Fill in as many little details as you can..."

"...method of loci...journey technique...imagining a familiar journey, and placing along that route the pictures associated to the information being memorised - a person should then only have to replay the journey to recall the information."

last but not least...

Loci systems, peg systems and number / image systems were taught in schools and academies up until the time the Christians took over Europe and decided that such practices were akin to black magic...

It's no big deal if someone tells you we human beings are not on a one-way progressive path, there are plenty of supporting evidence out there...

David Kelley

This guy really is an inspiration, even if you are only reading a 3rd-party written article about him...

...we moved from thinking of ourselves as designers to thinking of ourselves as design thinkers...

...creative confidence that, when given a difficult problem, we have a methodology that enables us to come up with a solution that nobody has before.

on how thinking about his daughter helped him pull through his fight against cancer...

"At first, you think, 'I don't want to miss her growing up.' That's motivating, but not that motivating," ... ... When you think, I don't want her not to have a father -- then you want to stay alive."

"I really do believe I was put on the planet to help people have creative confidence,"

"I don't have 27 agendas. I'm not the sustainability guy, or the developing-world guy. My contribution is to teach as many people as I can to use both sides of their brain..."

"If the goal is to change the world, the business part changes the world faster."

"Our dent in the universe doesn't mean we have to do all the digging," ... "We empower our clients. We teach them to fish."

Ideo's largesse is in sync with Kelley's mission -- and with his confidence in his own company's ability to reinvent itself.

"I can give our methodology away," he says at a staff meeting on Ideo's future, "because I know we can come up with a better idea tomorrow."

What'd you do in a ****ed-up day?

A ****ed-up day. No illustration needed, you know what it's like.

I just had two.

As a kind of outlet (somehow), I consumed more than needed, it made things worse.
I danced, it didn't really make things better.
I reluctantly turned to things that I should do (from reading/study to house chores to disciplined diet & schedule), it made things better. Somehow.

In retrospect, if you had a ****ed-up day, there's something else I suggest you do...

Tell your spouse/parent/kid/dog, your loved one, you love him/her.
Plus a hug of at least one full minute.

Do it twice.

Then you realize you didn't waste the day, then there's something memory-worthy, something you can be proud of,something your loved one appreciates...

All in a ****ed-up day.

Paola Antonelli on Design: a scrapbook post

“design”...the process of making things for other people...

...it maximizes the available means to achieve the most satisfying outcome, and produces culture in the process.

Designers stand between revolutions and everyday life.

They’re able to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and society and convert those changes into objects and ideas that people can understand.

Design is looking for a unified theory — or maybe just for a theory tout court — for, in spite of its permanence and inevitability, it is still a rather unexplored region of human creativity.

The act of making things has forever existed, but it was not always called design...

...design has been paired with more established disciplines, from fine arts and architecture to engineering, or cabinetmaking, even illustration, in order to align it with more traditional categories...

...But design’s field of action, whose breadth is wonderfully articulated by the Italian motto dal cucchiaio alla città (from the spoon to the city)…

...focus on innovation and consider objects as gateways to information and services; as means rather than mere commodities.

A new pack of designers, entrepreneurs, anthropologists, and consultants are working worldwide to bring beauty and common sense not only to the design practice, but also to policymaking, management, and, very simply, to life.

Designers find themselves today at the center of an extraordinary wave of cross-pollination.

...their role as intermediaries between research and production, they often act as the primary interpreters in interdisciplinary teams, called upon not only to conceive objects, but also to devise scenarios and strategies...

To cope with this responsibility, designers need to set the foundations for a theory of design and become astute generalists.

...they will be in a unique position to become the repositories of contemporary culture’s need for analysis and synthesis, society’s new pragmatic intellectuals...

***

the secret to Italian design was that there were no Italian design schools

Design really sucks in all the blood from the other disciplines, so you cannot think that you can learn about design just by learning about art... You have to learn about business, you have to learn about chemistry, about engineering...

...artists can choose whether to work for other human beings and be responsible towards other human beings or not...designers...Even when they’re mean...they still have the progress of mankind in their hearts...

It is truly about making sure that when you put something else on earth, it adds something to the world.

"Design and the Elastic Mind." It’s about the changes in scale, in rhythm, in pace, in resolution that we go through every single day, and the objects of design that help us cope with them...

...help us cope and move from adaptability....to elasticity, which is "adaptability plus acceleration"...about being able to bounce back very fast and not get stressed out, not get stretch marks...

...These two levels - the children and the design community...Which means you have to create an exhibition that is multi-layered, the same product but it has two levels of messages.

...the designer as the intellectual of the future, the ones that teach people how to live fully.

...be able to look at things from far enough to really get perspective

...design is about curiousity, philosophy, synthesis, observation, and perspective. So, truly it’s about rethinking what they do as opposed to just starting to make things.

My idea of fun is to be in a city I don’t know and to be on a bus with a window seat and look out.

It’s really about it being something that comes easy.

I don’t undestand why they feel they need to churn out more money in order to have good design. I don’t understand why they don’t trust their own American design, and feel that they need to get an European name of some sort...

Efficiency = Leverage?

An interesting view I'm still trying to grasp...anyway...an excerpt below for your consideration:
(from Mr. Taleb goes to Washington)

We cannot have both debt leverage and a hyper-efficient system—the volatility is just too great. What Taleb explains—which no one else does—is that efficiency is already a form of leverage. A highly efficient system removes slack and magnifies small changes. Think of the efficient system as a high-performance aircraft. Each minute of steering input creates a rapid and violent shift of course, speed, or altitude. The system itself is souped up even before you add the debt. Once you do, the pilot is equally jacked up and twitchy, creating an explosive combination. Now imagine that fighter jet trying to fly in a 1,000-plane formation, and you get an idea of the world financial system in the 21st century

lessons: the power of grassroots...

1.
Into its 3rd year, we just witnessed the influence of Earth Hour spread far & wide...this year it was sponsored by WWF...my understanding: it grew big enough to gain the interest of mainstream org. like WWF...

2.
There is a high-school-student-founded NPO in Guangzhou City (southern China) that I respect a lot...initiated by no ex-director/manager of any mainstream NGO or large companies with network of powerful contacts...just a bunch of enthusiastic students who want to make changes happen with their own hands...(allow me to skip the details, i just remember they had a site 'privatebbs'...)...to me these young kids dwarfed many other NGOs that I knew about...those founded by experienced people & with lots of corporate sponsors & sophisticated marketing influence but essentially, very few individuals who are ready to contribute their efforts on the front line...

By the way, they grew influential enough that Asian Animal Fund teamed up with them...

3.
Pass on this blog article, spread the message, help the fight against pneumonia gain momentum...to get the mainstream's attention...like the fight against malaria did in the past few years...

interesting readings about how we think

1. Why we can't count on the experts & experienced in forecasting (read the full article here)?

...the only consistent predictor was fame — and it was an inverse relationship. The more famous experts did worse than unknown ones. That had to do with a fault in the media. Talent bookers for television shows and reporters tended to call up experts who provided strong, coherent points of view, who saw things in blacks and whites. People who shouted — like, yes, Jim Cramer!

...Hedgehogs tend to have a focused worldview, an ideological leaning, strong convictions; foxes are more cautious, more centrist, more likely to adjust their views, more pragmatic, more prone to self-doubt, more inclined to see complexity and nuance. And it turns out that while foxes don’t give great sound-bites, they are far more likely to get things right.

This was the distinction that mattered most among the forecasters, not whether they had expertise. Over all, the foxes did significantly better, both in areas they knew well and in areas they didn’t.

The conclusion: make a forecaster think like a fox & hold him/her accountable

2. how to make toddlers listen? (read the full article here)

Just remember their little brains react, not plan.

"For example, let's say it's cold outside and you tell your 3-year-old to go get his jacket out of his bedroom and get ready to go outside," Chatham explained. "You might expect the child to plan for the future, think 'OK it's cold outside so the jacket will keep me warm.' But what we suggest is that this isn't what goes on in a 3-year-old's brain. Rather, they run outside, discover that it is cold, and then retrieve the memory of where their jacket is, and then they go get it."

"If you just repeat something again and again that requires your young child to prepare for something in advance, that is not likely to be effective," Munakata said. "What would be more effective would be to somehow try to trigger this reactive function. So don't do something that requires them to plan ahead in their mind, but rather try to highlight the conflict that they are going to face. Perhaps you could say something like 'I know you don't want to take your coat now, but when you're standing in the yard shivering later, remember that you can get your coat from your bedroom."

..."between ReVolutions & eVeryday Life"...AIS's new M/V->ision.

"Designers stand between revolutions and everyday life"
-- Paola Antonelli

(Check out her column in Seed Magazine here)

Inspired by Ms. Antonelli & Ideo, this post is a re-Statement of AIS's M/V->ision:

Inspired Moments -> {ideas & guesses} -> DESIGN -> {Practical Everyday Action} -> Lasting Changes

Design makes ideas understandable & serviceable. Design helps realize the value of revolutionary ideas. Design bridges ideas & action.

Cheers to all those unProven & Passionate designERs of our time!

defined identity: what kind of music you like?

Your favourite genre? Your favourite type? Often I see people trying to figure out the answers; often I see other people who say "no favourite, I listen to everything" or "too many".

As much as we would like to give a clear-cut answer to define our taste and our identity, the fact is most of us connect to totally different music genres in different context/mood...

We need different kind of music to suit different mood/experience in life...even self-proclaimed "techno-haters" like me may fall in love with techno music after meeting some new people & sharing a with them a new story...

Yes you may deny what I just said, you may continue to tell people you only listen to Jazz or Rock or New-age or Classical (just to be in line with your defined identity)...but if I'm allowed to give any advice, Go Try Something Else...be open to every possibility...listen to different people's stories...

Simple categorization is for music stores, not an individual with an unique personality like you...

...high school acquaintance...boyz II men...history teacher...

Years after graduation, without any kind of contact, a high school acquaintance suddenly appeared in my dream several weeks ago...

...when contemplating the meaning & practice of prayers on the way to work...My Father's Eyes...a song by Boyz II Men...suddenly rang in my head...the last time I listened to this song was nearly 10 years ago (and it never entered my top 20 favourite list)...

...somehow recalled what a history teacher in junior high (a guy who went back to teach high school students because he couldn't stand the hypocrasy in business...) once said, there are many things & many people in life, that you met and you forgot...you can't recall & list them down...or even be sure if they existed...until something somehow trigger some hidden corner of your memory...

What triggered my memory in these strange days? I have no idea.

All I know, I believe in this more than ever: At any given moment, you may just leave a trace and make a change in another person's life...and you may never be aware of it...so just be the best you can be...put your heart into everything you do...and no matter how people & the environment changes...you can always be proud of yourself...

Yes, you can. You should.

A Few Words from Coach Wooden

a few words from Coach John Wooden

John Wooden

Happiness begins where selfishness ends.

Discipline yourself and others won't need to.

Surround yourself with strong opinionated people.

Tell the truth. That way you don't need to remember a story.

Don't let making a living prevent you from having a life.

Do not permit what you cannot do to interfere with what you can do.

Be slow to criticize and quick to commend.

Give credit to others, but accept blame yourself.

The time to make friends is before you need them.

Treat all people with dignity and respect.

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

I'd rather have a player that makes the team great, than a great player.

Make every day your masterpiece.

John Robert Wooden is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player (Class of 1961) and a coach (Class of 1973). He was the first person ever enshrined in both categories; only Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman have since been so honored. He is widely regarded as the greatest college coach in history and his 10 NCAA National Championships while at UCLA are unmatched.

Empower & Trust - Jacqueline Novogratz's example

In this TED talk she told a story of, instead of just having charities shipping and distributing mosquito nets to regions inflicted by malaria in Africa, Empowering local African entrepreneurs to produce the nets more cheaply...

Then again, Empower local entrepreneurs to take care of the distribution.

How do you sell mosquito nets to the local?

They found a young local entrepreneur and it's how she did it: she marketed the nets by telling her local fellows the nets make their house beautiful & comfortable...and the nets show they care about their children...and then, came last the rationale we care so much: malaria. It worked.

You've got to Trust them.

Empower & Trust - local ideas conference

Attended a local TED-like conference. Met people who were there for business opportunities as well as people who really are utilizing their passion & talents to make the world better. To be fair, they both made this conference possible.

The most enjoyable parts were those Q&A sessions. Thought-provoking questions & ideas & discussion. After all, Who the hell around you will have the mood to explore or debate these big ideas (or things beyond self interest) in everyday's hustle?

In one way or another during the conference, the key to sustainable changes emerge, Empower & Trust. It's no longer about us helping them, being super-smart heroes or super-generous organizations. Empower people, Trust them, they'll show you they can make the changes for themselves and for our earth.

afterthought:

With the launch of TEDx, it'll be easier and cheaper to organize similar gatherings (of 10 or 10 thousand people) around the world...world changers meet to share & explore & co-create ideas...to inspire and motivate each other...to set foundations for world-changing movements...

It'll be a lot of fun, if we take action to make them happen.

Improvising Tango Argentino

Argentine Tango is all about improvisation. Well, at least traditionally so.

Improvisation means no fixed rules & no fixed steps; on the other hand, you can't simply move your body on the dance floor and say you're improvising Tango...You've got to get the right "feel".

So how do we "learn" improvisation?

1) pick up existing steps;
2) watch people dance;
3) try & experiment & practice.

You can't miss any of the above. And the reason we do all these, is to (through different dimensions) capture the "feel" of Argentine Tango...so we can play it out when improvising...

Just another example of intangibles captured in tangible form.


Update:

May it also serve as a reminder: don't get too obsessed with the tangible form itself.

What we are after, after all, is the intangibles.

What I see in Michael Lewis & Japanese Dramas...

They are examples of successful story telling.

Michael Lewis tells "inside stories". Michael Lewis makes things simple. Michael Lewis shows us the least expected reality.

Japanese Dramas? They make you laugh, they make you cry, or they make you laugh and cry at the same time.

Our Leadership (or Heroes) Complex...

We grew up being taught to idolize heroes and demonize villains...and to admire great leaders...

What's common among heroes, villains, & leaders?

They are individuals that we choose to perceive as "another breed of creature"...

When time changes, our minds haven't. We choose to use the same concept to understand a brand new world.
When we realize the influence from individual heroes/villains/leaders is just one of the reasons we take collective action (When New Yorkers became kind & nice to strangers on the street after 9/11, was it because of the then Mayor or President?);
when co-creation revolutionizes our era;
when we finally realize the power of these idolized individuals is overrated...

We broaden the definition of "heroes/leaders" to include everybody. We just don't want to admit, sometimes the heroes, the leaders, these "different type of" individuals are not the main reasons we can create a different tomorrow...

It's us, the creative & innovative nobody's, the "average followers", that make their dreams reality. And we don't need to, just because of this, crown ourselves with those historically glorious words like "heroes" or "leaders"...

Time has changed. It's no longer about leading or following. It's about people with the same passion getting together to make changes happen. Nobody leads, nobody follows. Towards the same direction, we push, we hang on to, take care of, watch out for each other...

I don't mean to be arrogant, but if you're waiting for another individual hero or leader to make a real difference; if you still think it's the villains on the press that created the largest mess in our world...I'm sorry, but your view belongs to last century.