A man who has been through a lot of hardship

When a thirty-years-old man share with you part of his life stories with tears in his eyes, some part of you will just melt down together with him, touched by how some people really have a hard life compared to you.

An Indian Muslim, Naz is a bankruptcy with eleven mouths to feed, which includes a wife and 9 kids. A entrepreneur himself, he ventured into several business and failed, mostly due to working with the wrong people. Now, he is still in a business but struggling with limited capitals and resources.

As a newcomer to our business-sharing group, he was telling us his stories with great self-containment from the embarrassment and the fear of being laughed at or treated with disrespect. But in our group led by Jeff, laughing at people's plight and acting disrespectful are not condoned at all.

Naz told us the times where he had delivered excellent performance in most of his jobs. In one of his jobs, we managed to sell all the bricks which has been in the company inventories for more than 1 year and he had managed to sell it all in less than 3 months. From 3 lorries to transport the bricks, he made it into 16 lorries in that 3 months. Despite his outstanding performance, he realized he would not be given any chances to move up the corporate ladder. That is because the boss and majority of the people in the company are of different races, and having another race to head them with be unacceptable. Such is the world. Thus, he talked to his boss and decided to give up the job, taking with him, approximately RM 68,000 as the commission and pay for the short 3 months. With that money, he started his own business.

Unfortunately he did not make it. Soon, another acquantaince asked him to help him in his business as a partner. He worked day and night, clocking in at 7 am until 12 midnight almost everyday. Soon, he grew the company into a lucrative business in a relatively short term of times. Because he is a bankruptcy, during the start of his work, he was not able to formalize any documentation to declare his ownership on part of the company shares, a major mistake that would soon caused him to lose everything he had achieved in the company. When he approached his so-called business partner to request to put his wife name in the company share, he was terminated the very next day. Since then, he had been in a legal lawsuit with that company, seeking the help of the worker union. That was 3 years ago. But many were lost and he had not been able to recovered for years. However, by fate, it was that lawsuit that brought him to us after 3 years. Though a broken and tired man, he was ready to be 'mold' and transformed.

He said each day, he have to pretend to be happy even though he have a lot of things to worry about to keep his family afloat. Just imagine someone trying to kick and swim with water just under his nose for years, pulling 10 others with him. Naz's eldest son, a 15-year-old, have to work on the weekend despite a major PMR exam coming soon. His family eat happily at every meals even though that usually consisted of just rice and eggs.

Though facing tremendous hardship and on the verge of giving up, I feel Naz is desperate for a break in life now and he will put all his life to make it for the maybe one last time. Not only he is answerable to himself, he has to face 9 little faces and the woman he love, whose future are unknown, but who have never leave him despite the hardship.

By good chance, he met a good person in the worker union who is not only helpful to him, but who also believe in his capabilities and potential. That person in the worker union is a long buddy of Jeff and who is also in the business group. So, that is how we met Naz.

I want to share this story because I learn that most people who achieve great things in life, are the same people who at one times, are so broken and fail so many times that they may not even be able to go through life without the help from some good samaritans, who respect them despite their failures and willing to lift them up. But, of course, eventually, it also depends on abilities to work through the hardship and their persistences.

Previously, in my 29 years before I met Jeff, I rarely meet people has been through great hardship in life, except maybe my parents. But since one year ago, I found myself meeting and learning from a lot of people who have great misfortunes in their life. All of them would tell their stories with glimpses of tears in their eyes and some even broke down and really cry. Sadly, not all those people are able to change or break through from repeating their mistakes. But I learn the turning point is when a person is willing and ready for a 180 degree change. They may need to learn something that are so foreign to them that they may have a sense of feeling that they are learning from an alien. Of course, this is not easy and it is not something that can be achieved in months, but it is usually in years. All one needs is the opportunity to be trained, able to accept new things and persistently make changes or adjustment.

I ponder on this question:

If Naz is to know in 4 years ago that he will go through these 4 years of hardship when he starts to venture out in his own business, taking a big turn in his career, will he reconsider not to do that?

Maybe.

But, what if, in his next 1 or 2 years, he not only can recover from his lost, but he can have a chance to be a really successful business man and financially free?

That, we all do not know what his future will look like.

But I think he can make it because he has already shown a lot of courage and persistence for a man to first move into his own business and has not given up until now. And that is what I respect and admire in people, not the status or how rich he is, but this -
though sometimes weakened, but an undying spirit in a man (or woman) to excel in life.

TEAM - Are you a hare, owl, turtle or squirrel?

I just picked up The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen and found it to be very enlightening.

I like the "Multiple Streams of Income" and "Together Everyone Accomplishes Miracles - TEAM" concept.

For team concept, to create wealth - one must first build a diverse team as success is not a solo project. The diverse team consisted of four different categories of workers, known as the Hares, the Owls, the Tortoise, and the Squirrels. Each one has own strengths to leverage on to make the team successful.

Hare - Creative Types, but bad at follow-through.
Owls - Planners and go-getters.
Turtles - Cautious Types who point out issues.
Squirrels - Details oriented person who get the job done.

The one-minute millionaire site offer a survey to determine which type of worker you are. I found out to be a Hare, which I had guessed right. Here is the link to take the survey:

http://www.oneminutemillionaire.com/tools/hots.asp

Below are the explanations of the roles of Hare, Squirrel and Hare/Owl (a combination of role). If you have result of Owl or Tortoise or other combination, maybe you can post it here in the comment section. It is interesting to know more about the other types of people that we have to work with, and most importantly since we all have to deal with each differences and also improve ourselves. For e.g. I learn that I need to be more detailed like a Squirrel, plan more like an Owl and be able to anticipate problems like a Tortoise.

A Hare Role

APPROACH: Conceptual/Spontaneous

DESCRIPTION: The Hare generates the concepts and ideas. They like to reframe the problem and look for solutions that may be unusual, unique,and/or outside the boundaries of traditional thought. Hares are good at exploring alternatives and perceiving the "big picture".
Hares want freedom from constraint, and when a rule exists they may break it. They may act impulsively, letting their feelings guide them. They derive satisfaction from the process of creating,discussing concepts and ideas,and overcoming obstacles.
When everything is in its place,the Hare may become restless,get impatient,and have a tendency to move from one subject to another.

CONTRIBUTION: Fresh, original concepts that go beyond the obvious,and are not constrained by fear of failure.

WEAKNESESS: Because the Hare enjoys generating ideas, they may move from one idea to another without stopping to evaluate the consequences.
If left alone to refine concepts, they will solve the problem within the problem within the problem, and eventually lose sight of the objective.

INSTINCT: Reframing problems to achieve breakthrough solutions, moving in new directions, examining possibilities without regard to risk.

A Squirrel Role

APPROACH: Methodical/Practical

DESCRIPTION: The Squirrel, more interested in protecting the system than being in the meeting, follows-up on team objectives, and implements ideas and solutions. They focus on ensuring the implementation process runs in an orderly manner, and achieving high quality outcomes.
Squirrels prefer proven, familiar ideas over the novel and untried. They pay attention to details, and see that plans follow an orderly process.
The Squirrel is comfortable being methodical. They tend to be cautious in trying out a new approach, and prefer to think things over carefully before acting.

CONTRIBUTION: The details. Spotting easily overlooked problems before they occur, and minimizing inefficiencies and errors during implementation.

WEAKNESESS: If working without clear and focused objectives or guidelines, the Squirrel may lose sight of the goal and pursue irrelevant strategies.

INSTINCT: To finish what they start,and do things right.

A Hare/Owl Role

APPROACH: Conceptual/Spontaneous/Practical

DESCRIPTION: The Hare/Owl is an idea generator who is also a true entrepreneur. They are good at exploring alternatives and concepts, and they are also more comfortable with an insightful plan. The Hare/Owl is able to generate ideas and develop a plan, based on past experience, to promote those ideas successfully.
The Hare/Owl derives satisfaction from identifying good ideas and developing solutions and strategies to overcome obstacles to implementation. They enjoy working on multiple tasks and like to be involved with the creation and advancement of ideas.
When everything is in its place, the Hare/Owl may get impatient, ready for the next challenge.

CONTRIBUTION: Development of new concepts and ideas that can be advanced within a known process or structure.

WEAKNESESS: The Hare/Owl may become frustrated with the details of an orderly implementation plan, and may pay little attention to the danger signs and barriers associated with implementation.

INSTINCT: Creating new ideas and advancing them in pursuit of team objectives.

No Result for Tortoise and Owl. Please post it if you have.






There are other types of personality test if you are interested. One of them is Meyer-Briggs personality test.

Sense of urgency - a critical asset in career and life

On the fateful day of 25 January 1990, Avianca Flight 52 crashed into Long Island, New York after ran out of fuel, killing 73 of the 158 people on board. The plane was put on hold from landing by Air Traffic Control several times on its way to New York due to bad weather. After on hold for more than one and a half hour, the crew asked for "priority" landing, which at their critical level of fuel shortage, they should have declared an emergency. The delays, a failed landing attempt at the about 10 minutes from the crash, and communication failure between the crew and air traffic controllers; all these caused the disaster where we all have so much to learn from.

The Avianca Flight 52 is a story of catastrophic result due to poor sense of urgency. There are several things we would find ourselves asking:

Why the crew failed to use the word "fuel emergency" to declare the extreme seriousness of their situation instead of asking for "priority landing"?

Shouldn't the sound of fear and urgency in the pilot and co-pilot's voices have been enough to show to the air controllers they are facing an emergency despite the culture and language barriers, had it been there?

Shouldn't the crew be more forceful and insist on being given immediate landing when they were redirected elsewhere, such as using some forceful words like "NOW" and "We can NO LONGER WAIT"?

A true sense of urgency is an exceptionally important asset for one to become successful in career and life. A true sense of urgency is not about being impatient on everything; it is not about rushing around energetically, running from meeting to meeting and screaming at people to execute. No; that is a false sense of urgency.

True urgency, according to John Kotter, a famous author, focuses on critical issues, which is needed now, not eventually, not when it fits easily into a schedule. True urgency is driven by a deep determination to win, not anxiety about losing. Now means making real progress every single day, not leaving ourselves with a heart-attack-producing task of running one thousand miles in the last week of the race.

With an attitude of true urgency, you try to accomplish something important each day, never leaving yourself with a heart-attack-producing task of running one thousand miles in the last week of the race. Critically important means challenges that are central to success or survival, winning or losing. A sense of urgency is not an attitude that I must have the project team meeting today, but that the meeting must accomplish something important today.

I still have a lot to learn on having a real sense of urgency, because I have always been a procrastinator on a lot of things. But slowly, I am improving; starting by doing the right thing and planning ahead. (Actually, to be honest, it is largely driven by working with a bunch of people with super sense of urgency. Haha....Ahem....).

In my previous blog post, I also mentioned that the lack of urgency caused an innocent girl to die of abuse because no one responded to the situations before it got critical. In Avianca Flight 52, it caused the death of 73 people. Although, not all things are matters of life and death, but I am sure we have a lot of things to learn from the past disasters caused by simple lack of urgency.

A week ago, I was absent from a special occasion; a wedding dinner of a wonderful couple, whom I personally get to know both of them really well. Earlier in the week, I made plan to work with my co-worker (also my partner) on the same weekend as the wedding dinner. My co-worker was working with me on part-time basis so the only available full days for us to work together is only during weekends and holidays. I had casually suggested to her that we need to work on certain outstanding issues, which seems quite important but not so urgent. She said she was busy but she might be free on coming weekend. I thought to myself then "I have a wedding dinner to attend on the same weekend" , but I did not say anything about that to her. Few days later, she confirmed she can meet on the weekend.

I know it will be marvelous for us we work together full day on the weekend because we can really make good progress with one whole day without interruptions. Unfortunately, this also means I could not go to the wedding dinner. So, I made a choice; to work on something that are important to me but relatively not so urgent; not because I have to but because I want to make good better progress in my work and maybe have the rest of following week free to do other things.! In fact, on that day, we worked from 1 p.m. until 6 a.m. the next day, on something that was totally not urgent! But we really did achieve something important because we have completed what we set up to do, and we are satisfied to know that we might be able to use our new-found knowledge anytime in the future.

So, if anyone of my friends ask me now or in the future why I do not show up at certain occasions, my general answer will be:
There are always a lot of choices we can make in our life. It is up to individuals to evaluate the priority and urgency of any of their choices. Since I want to be a business owner, having a sense of urgency in my work is very critical now.

I believe a sense of urgency is more than making the right choices, it has to be synchronized with our thoughts, feelings and actions; our attitude altogether. It should not only be used in work, but also in our everyday life. It is not rushing through things like I used to do last time; it is doing important things NOW instead of LATER.

Five effective actions for solving a corporate conflict

In a corporate world, there are bound to be conflicts and miscommunication between different parties or organizations. When problems occur, finger pointing is not the logical response of solving the problems itself.

However, most resort to such behavior, often overwhelmed by emotions such as anger, frustration, distrust, prideful, and so on. This results in bad feeling in the air for both parties and keep people away from solving the issues at hand which are the objectives.

Recently, I am able to witness a corporate conflict involving a vendor and a dealer. Jeffrey’s help was engaged to solve this conflict. Thus, I have a valuable chance to see and learn how to solve this problem in an efficient manner. Since this is a real incident for corporate environment, I would use fictitious names to preserve the anonymity of the parties involved.

Johnny, the dealer, gets a project to supply products and services, consisting of software and hardware, as well as training and support services to a customer. The customer gives the project to Johnny because of his good experience and reputation in the industry. However, Johnny does not produces the products himself so he sources the products from a vendor company XXX whom he was previously working for. Johnny has some rough experiences with the vendor company before, especially with Eddie, the superior of the sales manager who is managing his deal. Eddie was also his ex superior in XXX.

He was dealing very well with the vendor so far in getting the products and services delivered to the customers. However, in the third purchase, the vendor not only raises the price of the products but also decides to not supply to Johnny anymore. Hence, Johnny faces the risk of not fulfilling his customer’s orders, breaking the customer trust and also ruining his reputation in the industry. In summary, he is in dire state.

When dealing with conflicts, it is important that we keep the following five actions in mind:

1. Stay focus on the subject. Do not deviate. Do not get clouded by emotion.

Since Johnny has some bad experiences with Eddie before, he is filled with frustration and anger. Instead of trying to understanding the other side of the stories and solving the problems, he keeps on thinking that Eddie is making things hard for him on purpose to get back at him.

When Jeffrey talks to Eddie, it is found that the reason why Eddie does not supply to Johnny is that Johnny has not settled the earlier two payments. Johnny argues that he cannot settle the payment yet because the customer does not want to pay him until the implementation is fully completed. The customer complains some features are not in the system and the last training cause their staffs to enter wrong data into the system. Thus to the customers, the implementation is not fully completed yet.

Eddie argues on his side, he has delivered fully and should get the payment. Due to his company policy, Eddie cannot continue to supply to Johnny if he cannot clear the payment. To Eddie, he is only dealing with Johnny and not Johnny’s customer, so Johnny needs to settle the payment regardless whether the customer has paid him or not. Eddie also admits his subordinate has previously given the wrong quotation and which cause him to re-adjust the pricing on the third purchase.

Thus, in staying focus on the subject, on business ground instead of personal matters, we now know the only way to solve the problem is to pay Eddie and quickly get him to fulfill the third orders. The other matters are histories.

2. Present things in a pleasant manner.

When Jeffrey presents the issues and prompts both parties to talk, he avoids having both parties finger-pointing at each other. Instead of focusing on “me” and “you”, he focus on the powerful word – “WE”. In many cases, he emphasizes that “WE” are doing business here and the deals are beneficial to both parties. So, “WE” should solve the problems together instead of harping on who is at fault or on the past issues like bad services, wrong pricing, etc. “WE” is A VERY POWERFUL WORD.

3. Keep a non-tempered and cool composure.

Confronting the problem on hand, Johnny is very frustrated and angry since the beginning. To him, Eddie and his teams have not delivered a very good service to him and his customers. And this is the cause that the customer is not paying him. Thus, he is unable to pay Eddie’s company. On the other hand, Jeffrey tries to keep the situation in a cool manner by not delving too much into these issues. He asks Johnny to calm down and remind him being angry does not serve any purpose. Several times, when Johnny gets into an angry tone when talking about his pain, Jeffrey asked him to pause and talk slowly to keep him in a cool composure.

4. Discuss on problem-solving and future co-operation issues and also channels of communication.

After understanding the issue, it is obvious that the most important issue to attend to is to continue to provide the customers with the products and then prompt the customer to make payment. Although Johnny has not get the payment from the customers, he must pay Eddie for his company to continue provide the products first. In the future, Johnny needs to be careful in managing the customer expectations and also service delivery by the vendors. Johnny may also take over the training and support services from Eddie’s team so that he can provides better support to the customer if he wants to.

Johnny, being the middle man and consultants in the deal has to bear the responsibilities in keeping both parties (vendors and customers) happy at all times.

(Up until now, I always think being a dealer is a simple job of getting the supplies and delivering to the customers. But the fact is a dealer has to take the double pains from both the vendors and the customers. He also has to bear any risks of any parties not doing their jobs well enough)

Since Eddie admits one of his sub-ordinates has made the mistake in the quotation and thus creates all the confusion, he agrees to remove him from the future correspondence. Eddie will assign another sales manager to handle this deal in the future.

5. Provide a compromising situation for both parties for future collaboration.

After getting each parties to understand what needs to be done immediately to solve the issue, Jeffrey goes on to discuss what it is like for future collaboration to prevent the same problems from happening again. There may be more deals between both parties in the future and they need to learn how to work closely.


What I know is Johnny certainly has a lot to learn from his mistakes in this conflict. He need to start by practicing the 3 principles in doing everything in life.

And you know what? Jeffrey bought some of Johnny’s share in his company and the deal was sealed. Eddie was very surprised that Jeffrey, who actually owned the company, was logical and not single sided in handling the matter.

Thus, what we have learned today? Ask yourself….

Corporate Games aka Office Politics (Part 2)

First of all, I would like to thank my mentor for writing this part for me. Additionally, he told me there is a total of 16 corporate games. I never thought it can be that specific and I definitely curious to know more. So, there will be a lot of articles coming on this topics.

I encourage you readers to direct any questions you have about corporate games in the comments of this post. I shall get my mentor to answer your questions. He warned me though, the corporate game players are going to hate him (and me, since this is my blog) for all these exposures. I guess the last thing I will be affected both emotionally and spiritually is to upset all these players. I, basically, may even be elated to do this.

Here it goes:

Why does corporate games exist and rising?

Statistically over 65% of Malaysians are unaware of what their future holds in their work life.

It is actually a phenomenon which have been observed for the past few years among the working class at the age of between 20-30 years old.

There are primarily 4 reasons to such phenomenon:

Firstly, it is noticed that after graduation, most people would (with the exceptions of rich sons and daughters of the upper class) simply apply for any jobs that are available due to the pressures of the unemployment. "What happens if I don't get a job? What are my peers going to think of me? What will my parents say? How am I going to get the things I want?" That would be some of the thoughts in their minds. This we call, "The Pressure Point".

Secondly, after working on a job which they have not thought through carefully, the people would be hunting again for another job which they thought would be a better job than the current one, thinking "Hey, now that I have some working experience, I can get a better job with my qualification". But in actual fact, they are again considering the pay package as a major factor rather than the job which suits them in the long term. This we call, "The Monetary Factor".

Thirdly, within the companies of which they are working in, they had noticed that some people actually did not work as hard as they ought to be. And some were not as smart and efficient as they should be. But they managed to get promoted, getting authority and also making the "big bucks". So, after the observation, they are now beginning to learn what we call "The Corporate Games". Play their cards right, stick with the herds, play along with the crowd, bully the weak, make use of others, ignore the feelings of others. The list goes on and on. Suddenly, they thought they had found the shortcut to success. "The Corporate Games", so we call it.

Lastly, after being a seasoned "player" for a few years and playing their games, some actually "lost out" due to being exposed of their inability to perform. It can also be the herds had broken up , or they have failed once too many times to cover up. But try as they may to maintain their positions for "survival", they would resort to the most vicious of all corporate games, i.e. they sabotage others. Playing the back stabbing trick, the traps they laid out to their targets, the false achievements which they claimed away from others. The bad things go on and you do not want me to delve into that right now. This we call "The Ultimate Games".

For every beginning, there will be an ending. So, someday, a true leader comes along, hired by the company to "clean up" everything. Thus the day shall be the end of the players.

So, if corporate games are way of life, why don't these people succeed in their life permanently? The answer lies in the most basic law of nature, that is, as the Chinese saying goes, "For every mountain, there is a higher mountain". No matter how good they are, there is always someone who is more skillful in playing games.

Corporate Games aka Office Politics (Part 1)

Why don't you blog about Corporate Games? I think it will be an interesting topic. My mentor said this to me one day.

Yeah, right. Interesting. But the problem is I am like a kindergarden student when it comes to Corporate Games (aka Political Games) . I did remember the first day I was in the kindergarden school. There are several scenes where some kids threw tantrums, thrashed things and screamed to go home. I am proud to announce I was not one of them as I sat quietly and waited for my first lesson. Ironically, for corporate games lesson, I feel like I want to be like the kids who wanted to go home.

One part of kindergarden days that is similar to the initial learning of corporate games is that you never can expect what will be taught, who are your schoolmates, how they behave and how they will treat you. Sure enough I remembered the big fat bully aka the Bitch (ironically, the bully in my secondary school was in the same proportion of size, albeit in 2 times of the size). She used her appalling body and oppresive behaviour to intimidate the normal-5-years-old-size like me into following her command and "sharing" my lunches with her. Those who did not abide, would be the outcast and that's where they sat at one corner and nobody would play with them.

And then, you would also notice those so-eager-to-please doggy who followed her everywhere she went and anything she did, wagging their tails to her while barking at everybody else. And you know what, those group of people usually scored last in the class, except maybe the fat bitch. She must have some brains, at the very least, to lead a bunch of stupid people.

I guess kindergarden taught me more about corporate games more than anything else. I have been through some real corporate games, if you must know, and although I am still living healthily, I have escaped with some bruises and repressed eagerness to work in corporate environment. Still at kindergarden-level of knowledge in corporate games, I do not want to pretend I know a lot about it to qualify me to write a post (and good and bad news is I intend to write several posts). However, I think it is not hard to do some research to start something on these. Let us all learn together (that is always the intention of my blog) . Besides, my mentor will also share his experience with me. He is, after all, the master of tactics and strategy and that definitely includes corporate games. And he has seen it all. All the good, the evil, the kind, the mean, the black and the white of all that we had shared and experienced in this world.

Ok, let's go to the basic first in this part 1.

What is corporate game?

Edward B. Toupin said this:
A corporate game is an illegitimate means of getting things done. It is a way that people twist and turn situations to reach a specific goal. However, those people that don't play, risk their careers.

Politics and political maneuvering is the interpersonal conflicts and power plays that exist in most organizations. Among the specific actions commonly associated with office politics are intimidation, indirect communications, covert tactics for advancement, manipulation for control, indirectly telling the truth, hiding vulnerability issues, and playing for favors.

Politics came about as a way of handling intense competition. Generally, business itself is a competitive game ranging from simple tests of skill to full-blown battles. The game is driven by survival conditions induced by an expanding world market in which companies must continue to change and grow. There's a constant challenge to overwhelm the opposition, reduce costs, and acquire additional resources. All of these attributes trickle down through the ranks to cause individual battles for promotions, rewards, and recognition at all costs.

Another reason for office politics has to do with the hierarchical structure of most organizations. The higher you advance, the less room there is at the top. As long as people battle for the "corner office," workplace maneuvers will reign. This is where the most intense battles occur and where most people find that they are stepped on or pushed aside.

Stephen Ryan said this:

Every business is comprised of a variety of different systems, including information systems, human management systems, corporate vision dissemenation systems, marketing systems, fianancial accounting systems, customer relation management systems, health & safety systems and legal and compliance management systems, to name but a few. Regardless of whatever size of business you run, your MD will most likely be responsible for maintaining all these complex structures and your own performance as a manager will be measured against how well each of these systems are developed. To achieve this you may well implement performance appraisal systems such as KPI (Key Performance Indicator) analysis systems, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) measures and transparent, open and authoratitive reporting to the shareholders of the company.

With so many systems to maintain and be responsible for, you'd have thought that there would be little room for introducing ever greater complexity. Especially where this complexity involves the establishment of systems that are not open, not transparent, not ethical and not based on good business practices, but rather rampant - self-interest. "Political Games Systems".

When managers feel pressured by the responsibility of maintaining existing business systems, many of them fall into playing the game of politics. For many, this is a subconcious reaction to being squeezed. For others, it is a game to be relished. A game for lazy people, a game for con-men. For procrastinators. For people who would rather play games - than do things that make a real difference to the business.

We call this the "politics - replaces responsibility" syndrome.

Why you need to learn corporate games?

Improperly managing power and politics can make or break your career, cause many sleepless nights, and often has very little to do with your actual job duties. Many people who fail in their jobs do so because of political problems, not skill deficiencies. Many intelligent and capable people aren't as successful as they might be because they haven't learned to cope with office politics. Understanding why you might be having difficulty at work involves understanding the basic elements of office politics and why it exists.

Whether you decide to play or not, don't get caught in the middle. If you become the individual that battles politics, then you become the scorned of the organization. If you decide to stay out of it completely, then do your job and stay out. Those on the other end of the spectrum that play will respect your decision because that alone gives them less competition in their own battles.

One thing you'll notice is that no one will admit to playing games; however, that is part of the secret of politics. You, on the other hand, cannot confront anyone for playing games; however, you can identify the games and learn how to manage them to suit your needs. Once you figure out how to do this, then your stress level will drop, and you'll be accepted in your environment.

The summary of the lessons are:
1. Understand and learn about corporate games. Do not be a fool to ignore it. Do not wait until you are played out or crushed in the game, then only you learn.

2. You do not need to play it to hurt people but DO NOT fight it. Learn how to manage it to suit your needs and to reduce your stress.

If you are a woman, there is no doubt you may be at a little more disadvantages compared to the other sex in the corporate world. You might want to look at the rules of the games for corporate women.

And for those who never really work in a corporate environment before, my advice to you will be - do try out to get a taste of the games while you are still young and fearless because the higher level you go in your career ladder, the more intense the corporate games will be. And you will definitely appreciate the lessons to tame your brashness.

4 prerequisites for being a Consultant

Every business has problems. Everyone has problems. Would it not be nice if we can pay someone to look into our problems and solve them for us? Would it not make our life much easier to live by everyday? That is provided if we can find such people who are willing and capable enough to do the jobs for us with a price tag of maybe our house or our latest Ferrari.

That is what consultants do. And, of course, the cost to do the job also. A consultant, in generic term, is a professional who provides advice in a particular area of expertise, for e.g. in business, management.


It maybe suffices for me to say, consultant is just providing advice and not really need to get their hands dirty by actually doing the job. But I have seen the most efficient consultant in the world (at least, in the world that I have seen) who really gets his hands dirty and able to execute every jobs perfectly. The load of his job are easily the jobs of 3 senior managers combined. And he is one crazy consultant, so let's call him C.C. for now.

C.C. inspired me to define consultants differently. They are those who knows what people needs and what they need to do, and they get it done, no matter what. No matter what. Period. There are simply no excuses for failure. After all, who will trust a consultant who can talk and advice, but who never really have done the job before.

C.C. is also the most efficient and knowledgable people I ever seen in my life. I mean the real efficient one. There are those who call themselves consultants but not living up to the title at all. I came across some business consultants, project consultants that just are NOT consultants.

For that, I treat C.C. as my role model and I long to become near as good as him someday.

Thanks to him, I start to understand the consultant style of doing things. In one of the sales training session conducted by C.C, he spoke of this:

Sell solutions, not sell the products.
Sell in a consultant way.
Do not have the salesman mentality , more like consultant mentality.

Let's put it this way, while normal salesman approach the customers and start to sell their company and products by telling about the good features and benefits, the consultant approach the customers and ask them what are their problems. Then they provide solutions to solve their problems. The solutions normally include their products and services. Otherwise, they can always work with other business associates.

While you might be tempted to become a consultant, here are the 4 prerequisites C.C. told me where one should look into:

1. Presales
A consultant should know the product inside out. A good understanding of the product and business is very important.

2. Public Relation
A consultant holds the role of a key account manager. Thus, he must have very good people-skill and very well-versed in sociology.

3. Analytically strong
A strong analytical mind is the key asset of a consultant. A consultant must analyze everything, the budgets, the values and potential of the business, assistance needed, potential hurdles,etc. These are done based on experience and situation.

4. Detailed
A consultant must have a keen sense of awareness of small things and situation and opportunities. He is also detailed in observing the reactions of people. He has to come out with a complete solution thinking, detailing every single steps from A-Z, coming out with the fail-safe or backup plan.

The Slight Edge Philosophy

This great article reminded me of what my mentor has been teaching me.

Hope this can be an enlightenment to those who are not taking actions in their life but choose to blame everything else except themselves.

Those who takes weeks to update their resume. Those who provide wrong advices to their friends thinking they have seen it all. Those who follow their friends advice but never think carefully themselves. Those who choose to mix with negative friends. Those who are unhappy in their work and life but they do not do anything about it. Those who choose to go out to friends' gathering instead of carrying a test that make one closer to understand what they want in life, which may potentially change their life.

I guess a lot of people have not been very wise and matured.

Enjoy this article from Jeff Olson and let's take actions NOW. NOT next year. It is NOW. It should have been YESTERDAY. Also, please do not put it in a New Year Resolution.

When you were a tiny, little child, you made your way around the world on your hands and knees crawling. Everyone around you was walking and one day you got it into your head to give that a try.

So, little by little, you worked on developing the skills you needed to walk. You grabbed on to something above you and pulled yourself upright. You stood up, holding on to a table or chair or big stuffed animal. Wobbly and unsure, you let go, fell down, and tried again and again, until you stood up all by yourself. Then, you took a step.

The older people you watched took one step after another: right foot, left foot, right foot, left ...but you managed only one step-and you crashed.

After days of side-stepping around the coffee table, awkwardly bringing one little foot out from behind the other while you held on to Mom's or Dad's fingers, you eventually took your first couple of steps... all alone...all by yourself...and (hopefully) to the cheers and applause of your family.

Baby steps. One at a time. And you were WALKING!

IN THE PROCESS OF LEARNING HOW TO WALK, you probably spent more time failing than you did succeeding. But did you ever have the thought of quitting? Did you ever tell yourself, "I'm not cut out for walking-guess I'll crawl for the rest of my life?" No, of course you didn't. So, why do you do that now?

What's different today with any goal you want and desire you have for accomplishing anything? When did you lose the ability to make a goal, go for it, and get it? How come you don't do what you did when you were one or two years old?

The answer is alarming, yet simple:

Somewhere along the way in your life, you became unwilling to take baby steps. You lost faith in the universal truth that the simple little disciplines done again and again over time would move the mightiest mountains.

Shakespeare said "to climb steep hills requires slow pace at first," but now you put your trust in achieving breakthroughs...making quantum leaps ...instant this, instant that...hitting the lottery.

You began a habit of settling for less, just because more was so far out of your reach. You forgot about the most proven, powerful success philosophy on Earth - "The Slight Edge."

WINNING IS ALWAYS A MATTER OF SLIGHT EDGE. Who can forget that moving moment of triumph in the '94 Olympics when American speed-skater Dan Jansen at last overcame years of discouragement, disappointment, and frustration to finally win the gold medal in the 1000 meters, setting a world record of one minute, 12.43 seconds?

Do you know by how much of a margin Jansen won? Do you know what the difference was between the winning world record gold medal and the virtual oblivion of second place?

Twenty-nine hundredths of a second! That's a very light Edge!

No matter where you look, no matter in what area of accomplishment, life, work, or play-the difference between winning and losing, between going down in the record books as first and best...or not at all-the gap that separates success and failure is always measured as ... THE SLIGHT EDGE.

And the best news of all is that it's not just the winning goal that's THE SLIGHT EDGE. The Slight Edge is the process itself that all winners use to achieve their goals.

A PENNY A DAY, DOUBLED FOR A MONTH... If you were offered $1,000,000 (one million dollars) right now, or a penny a day, doubled each day, for one month, which would you choose? Unless you've read this illustration before, like most people, you'll probably choose the right-now million. But you'd be making the wrong choice. One penny, doubled every day for a month adds up to $10,737,418...and 24cents. Compound interest. Leverage. Doubling. Geometric growth. It all adds up-and that's YOUR SLIGHT EDGE.

With THE SLIGHT EDGE, time is on your side. What if you gave yourself five years to become twice the person you are today: to earn twice the income, have twice the personal relationships and contacts, make twice the impact on the world, enjoy twice the quality of life? Could you do it? How would you do it?! Ask yourself honestly, "If I doubled my efforts... if I had twice as much time...if I became twice as smart. if I worked twice as hard as I do today ... could I really become twice as productive as I am right now? No, you couldn't, and you know it.

But wait! There is a way to become two, three, four, and more times as productive as you are today. THE SLIGHT EDGE.

IF YOU WERE TO IMPROVE just .003 each day - that's only 3/10 of one percent, a very Slight Edge-and you kept that up for the next five years, here's what would happen to you:

The first year, you would improve 100 percent (you would already be twice what you are today The second, you would improve 200 percent. The third year, 400 percent. And the fourth, 800 percent. And by the end of year five-by simply improving 3/10 of one percent each day-you will have magnified your value, your skills, and the results you accomplished 1,600 percent. That's
22 times more than you are today.

Just 3/10 of one percent per day-and that's NOT compounded. That's just adding on 3/10 of one percent each day. That's the awesome power of The Slight Edge. If all of this is so, then why isn't everybody using The Slight Edge? We are. All the time. Everyone. The Slight Edge is always operating. It never stops. It's either working FOR you or AGAINST you. And that's up to you. It's your choice.

THE SLIGHT EDGE IS EASY TO DO-and it is easy not to do. Now, I'm defining EASY here as simply "something you can do." The Slight Edge philosophy is based on doing things that are easy-little disciplines, which, done consistently over time, add up to the biggest accomplishments. The problem is that all those things that are easy to do are just as easy not to do. Why is something easy not to do? Because if you don't do it, it won't kill you today. But, that simple, seemingly insignificant error in judgment, compounded over time, will kill you, destroy you, ruin your chances for success, and demolish your dreams. You can count on it.

Take, for example, the health issue of fat and cholesterol in your diet. Would you say that it's a good idea to eat at least a pound and a half of butter each day? How about drinking a quart
of saturated oil? "Hey, my cholesterol's way down to 200-got to get it up above 300." Crazy, right? Sure it is-but millions and millions of people are doing it every day. Why? We know what's good for us: fresh fruit and vegetables, complex carbohydrates like whole grains, unsaturated fats and oils, fish and chicken instead of beef. So why do we keep digging our graves with our teeth? It's easy to eat well-right? It's easy not to-right? And when you eat that hamburger, you won't die, will you?

No, of course not. But that simple error in judgment compounded over time will ruin the quality of your life and eventually take you out of your life forever!

If you ate that hamburger and you had a heart attack-would you ever eat another one? No way! Eating a hamburger won't kill you today, but compound all those greasy, dead-animal patties over 10 or 20 years-as many as 5,000 of them!-and one day your clogged-up, stressed- out, overworked ol' heart just quits! It's not the one hamburger, it's the thousands! That one hamburger is just a simple, little error in judgment. But compounded over time, it can and will destroy you. It's easy to do! It's easy not to do! Either way, The Slight Edge is at work and at play. You've got to choose which way to go with The Slight Edge. And here is what makes doing the right thing such a hard choice for most people-

THE ODDS ARE NOT IN YOUR FAVOR!

DID YOU KNOW that only five percent of people succeed and 95 percent of the people fail, no matter what realm of life or work you're looking at. It's true. Just one out of 20 people will ever
achieve their goals in life. That's how the numbers crunch out; it's just the way it is. Back in the early 1950s, the Hartford Insurance Company did a survey of 100 brand new college graduates-all approximately 25 years old. They asked them this question:

"Will you achieve your financial goals within your working lives-within 40 years?" Every single one of them answered, "Yes!" Forty years later, in the early 1990s, the Hartford went back and checked out what had happened to all those now-65-years-old people. Here's what they found:

One was wealthy, Four were financially secure, Six were still working, 35 were dead, and 54 were "dead broke," having $200 or less left to spend each month after paying off their bills.

Five out of 100 had become successful. That's only one out of 20. Why? What was missing for those 95 others? The answer has to do with GRAVITY-and the downward pull of life. REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE in the fourth grade? It was expected that you'd graduate
and go on to fifth grade, wasn't it? Your teachers, your parents, and all your classmates expected you to graduate. The whole system was geared to you moving from fourth, to fifth, to sixth grade and so on.

But what if nobody cared whether or not you graduated?
What if the entire educational system, our society, and culture had absolutely no interest or expectation that kids would ever graduate to fifth grade? Would you have done it? If the structure were not in place for children to learn all the fourth grade stuff and pass the test, graduating and moving up to the new challenges of fifth grade, only five percent of us would ever do it! Ask yourself this question: Where is the expectation and the structure to support me in being a success in my life and work? The alarming fact is that outside of our formal system of education, which most experts believe to be fatally flawed anyway, there is no expectation and no structure for your success-none. We get what we expect-and only five percent of us ever expects to win and keep on expecting that. Plus, we have no structure, no system to support us succeeding in life. Isn't that heavy? Well, life is heavy. And it's heavy because the predominant force in life is gravity and it's always pulling us DOWN. It pulls 19 out of 20 people DOWN.

The Slight Edge is a success system ANYONE can use to break free of the downward pull of life and become the best you can be. Here's how you can make it work for you- FIRST, DON'T GO "WHERE THE ACTION IS!" Here's a chart you've probably seen before:

ACTIONS > RESULTS> QUALITY OF LIFE

Your ACTIONS create your RESULTS, which in turn create the QUALITY OF LIFE you live and enjoy. Simple, powerful, and true. The problem is, your actions are not the source of your problem. That's why diets don't work. You see, there's another side to the equation, and that's the place where your actions come from.


Take a look at this:

ATTITUDE > Actions > Results > Quality of Life

Your actions are created by your attitudes-but attitudes aren't the heart of the matter, either. There is one thing more fundamental and essential ...Your Philosophy. Your philosophy is your paradigm of the way life is, how life works (or doesn't), and what's the best way to live your life. Simply put, there's nothing more fundamental than your philosophy. Frank Lloyd Wright said this:

No stream rises higher than its source. Whatever man might build could never express or reflect more than he was... He could record neither more nor less than he had learned of life when the buildings were built...
His philosophy, true or false, is there.

Human beings are builders by nature. Your philosophy is the foundation upon which you build your life. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ spoke of The Two Foundations. The Master spoke of a wise man who built his house upon the rock:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.

And Christ told of another man-a "foolish man"-who built his house on sand:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house; and it fell and great was its fall.

Your philosophy is the source of your failure or success. And the philosophy I recommend you adopt is The Slight Edge.

PHILOSOPHY > Attitude > Actions > Results > Quality of Life

WHAT DO YOU THINK is the key that unlocks The Slight Edge?

When I ask this question in seminars and training, here's the answer I get back most often: "The key is knowledge." To a point, that's correct. But there's more. Educating yourself is the critical ingredient in The Slight Edge philosophy. You must acquire the knowledge you need to master any subject, and pursuit that will contribute to your personal and professional growth and development.

There are three ways for you to get this knowledge:

1) Studied Knowledge
2) Activity Knowledge
3) Modeled Knowledge

STUDIED KNOWLEDGE. Books, tapes, seminars, training; read, listen, and attend everything you can; then, read, listen, and attend some more...study. READ 20 PAGES OF AN INSPIRING, INFORMATION - RICH BOOK EVERY DAY. Pick books that make a contribution to your goals. You're either building someone else's dream or building your own. When you read romance, mystery, or detective novels, whose dream are you building-yours, or the author's and publisher's? When you read Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich-a book that took 20 years to write, that interviews the richest and most successful men and women in the world and reveals their 13 success secrets-whose dream are you building? Read 20 pages per day of an empowering book. Is that easy to do?
Sure. And that simple discipline compounded over time, like a penny doubled daily for a month, will send you to the top! Is it easy not to do? SURE. And if you don't do it, will you destroy your life and work today? No way. But that simple error in judgment, compounded over time, will pull you down and take you out of your life!

Listen to a self-improvement cassette tape for 15 minutes every day. You can listen to music on the radio in your car, building Michael Jackson's dream or Barbara Streisand's. Why not choose instead to build your own dreams? Listen to Jim Rohn's tapes. He's a master-and he'll help you build YOUR dreams. Is listening to a tape for 15 minutes a day easy to do? Of course. Is it easy not to do?... And if you don't do it, will that ruin your life right now?...

Do a self-improvement seminar or training every few months.

Better yet, do one every month. Take a course. Take two. If you don't have the time to do that, because you're playing softball every Tuesday and Thursday night, you just don't get it! If your bowling average is over 180-you're losing your Edge, right now! Skip the bowling league. Take a class instead. Is that easy to do?... Is it easy not to do?...And if you don't do it, what will happen today?... But that simple error in judgment, compounded over time WILL kill you! You'll end up a willing participant in the "conspiracy of mediocrity" that 's destroying 95 percent of the people in this country!

ACTIVITY KNOWLEDGE. Life is not a spectator sport-fish or cut bait. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. And life is not a result, either. Life is not the goal-it's the PROCESS. The road to success is always under construction. Marx was wrong: Life is both the ends and the means. Emerson said, "Do the thing and you'll have the power." You can't just go get the power and then do the thing. The only way to have the power is to do it, just do it. People constantly ask me for the key to success. "What's the one thing I can do to guarantee my success?" My answer is always the same: Be here-actively immersed in the process-one year from now. That's the right answer-don't you agree? It's The Slight Edge answer. Commit to the process. The process is THE SLIGHT EDGE. Is it easy to do?... Is it easy not to do?

MODELED KNOWLEDGE. Did you know that your income will tend to be the average of your ten best friends' incomes? (If having more income is a goal of yours, either get new friends or raise the income of the friends you have now!) If you want to raise the quality of your life, hang out with people who have been there and done that. If you want to be a great public speaker, hang out with great speakers. If you want to be a success in business, hang around successful business people. If you want to be a terrific parent, spend lots of time with men and women who have mastered parenting. Do you know why birds of a feather flock together? Because they're all going in the same direction. They share a common vision. If you're after a goal-any goal-go find the people who have achieved that goal, or who are well along the path to attaining that goal, and be with them, hang out with them, camp on their doorstep. It's called the Law of Association. It's a Law because it always works. The first commandment of The Slight Edge:

Thou shalt educate thyself.

Is it easy to do? Is it easy not to do? And if you don't do it, will you fail today? But that simple error in judgment compounded over time, will ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, GUARANTEE YOUR FAILURE! LEARNING TO LEARN is committing to the process. The Slight Edge is the process.

"The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn." -Carl Rogers Freedom

To make The Slight Edge work for you, you must learn how to learn.

Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, wrote:

"Learning is an approach, both to knowledge and to life, that emphasizes human initiative. It encompasses the acquisition and practice of new methodologies, new skills, new attitudes, and new values necessary to live in a world of change. Learning is a process of preparing to deal with new situations."

Clearly, we live in a world of change. Constant change. Rapid change. Today, we accomplish in five years what our grandparents and parents took 50 years to do. And everything's getting faster! Learning to learn is a mandatory for success today-and especially for tomorrow. Learning to learn is committing to the process. The Slight Edge is the process. Learning to learn is a choice. You make that choice moment to moment-not just once and then you're done with it for the rest of your life. Each new moment will present you with a new choice. Choose to read 20 pages a day-and you'll have to make that choice every day. Choose to model and associate with winners-and you'll have to make that choice every day as well. You have to choose to make The Slight Edge work for you-moment to moment.

IS IT EASY TO DO?

IS IT EASY NOT TO DO?

Fakin' It

Stanley Bing wrote in his latest column in Fortune - Look, all of us who enter a work location everyday pretend, to one degree or another, to be something that we are not. We act as if we are cheerful when we are down in the dumps. We make financial projections we do not believe. If we are in banking, we profess confidence even when we are soiling our shorts.

For me, there are times when I portray to have more confidence than I actually have.
To be brave even though I am cowering inside.
To be hardworking and aggresive, even though all I want is some lazy and sluggish days.

Is this considered lying to the outside world? Pretending to be great?

How about those who actually believe they are someone they pretend to be? For example of a person who wonders "I am warmth, kind and caring to people, why people still not like me?", the answer is he is not. Maybe he believes that, but the truth is, he is just pretending to be warmth, kind and caring. People may be able to sense that and might not be comfortable around him.

I guess, no matter what we pretend to be, sometimes, we just need to tell the truth. I did tell my boss recently that I am a bit stressed out and lost in the current project that I am helping out. There is a huge risk for delay of the project. In doing that, I am telling him indirectly to look out for me in case I really fail to deliver. From a manager point of view, it is always good to warn your bosses what is coming rather the common "I am OK" or "Everything's fine" when things can always go wrong! Too many bosses had complained about their subordinates who tell them everything is fine, but "suddenly" some problems just appear from nowhere after a short period of time.

I found out that my boss did notice this (my predicament) even without me telling him. However, I think both of us feel better after I admitted it openly to him. At least, I am being honest to myself and to him.

So, maybe it is ok not to pretend to be the cool or the great person that you think you need to be? Maybe, it is just ok to smile and laugh at your own mistakes ? This made me remember my blunder yesterday. During an introduction in a meeting, I asked a person his name when I was already introduced to him on last Friday and I just spoken to him through the phone minutes ago to ask him where the meeting would be held. Because of the person's funny reaction, everyone was laughing, including myself. It felt great also to be able to laugh at my own self at this.

(Ok, that almost end my rambling).......

If you want to read Stanley Bing's column in Fortune, monitor the following link. I always read his column first when I receive my latest copy of Fortune. It is entertaining at most of the time. The article which I am saying here will be available soon in the site. Take note of this latest article in the website aslo - Of human brandage . Funny story, yet there is a lot of truth in it.

(Sorry, I continue to ramble).................

I am very busy in this period of times. So, I will be posting less frequently and also will have shorter post. But do not worry, I will try to keep up with blogging no matter how busy I am .

Only today, Paul Young , author of Product Beautiful blog (do note his latest interesting posting on Product Management at Google) had made my day by dropping me an email and also linking to my blog. It is a huge encouragement for me to have a great blogger connecting to me in that way. Looking back, I realized that my blog had made me closer to a lot of great people that I have the priviledge to know and some of whom I have managed.

Thanks , guys. I will continue to share my experiences and knowledge with you. Have a nice week!

Why am I paying more for coffee?

I found that I am paying more and more for my coffee these day. In an innocent attempt to convince myself that coffee is healthy for me, I switched my daily cup of coffee to a new product line which include healthy ingredients like Ginseng and high-calcium milk in the coffee. How pathetic I am. I might as well bought a ginseng to chew on , rather than mix it in my coffee.

Actually, do you know that coffee is good for health? Coffee can actually cure cancer and good for sun protection. If you have known several crazy coffee lovers, who can drink more than 4 cups per day, and also whom I am happy to acquainted with (or am I? :) ) , you probably hear the previous statement a lot of times.

Maybe I did not find it to be very convincing. So, uncontrollably, I found myself drinking the latest combination, Ginseng and Tongkat Ali ; which cost almost double the prices of the normal coffee from the same brand.

Incidentally, my colleagues were telling me that Tongkat Ali is only meant for men. I read somewhere before it can be used for general health and also for women. But after doing more searches on Google, I found that my colleagues were right - it is more suitable for men and it can increase testosterone levels. Oh my God, no wonder I felt so "manly" these day. LOL .

Luckily (or not), I also read in a report that the herb extract used in coffee has very little health benefits. But I do not know why I am still buying it. Maybe I am not a smart consumer. Or maybe like what Tim Harford had observed, I am one of those who have fallen into the economist trap. Because I love coffee so blindly, I am willing to pay higher prices for it.


Tim Harford, a smart economist, mentioned more on this concept in his book (yes, I am reading this now) and articles on coffee and starbuck.

He said:
The cleverest and most common way to persuade turkeys to vote for Christmas is the “self-incrimination” strategy. To get customers to give themselves away, companies have to sell products that are at least slightly different from each other. So they offer products in different quantities (a large cappuccino instead of a small one, or an offer of three for the price of two) or with different features (with whipped cream or white chocolate or fair trade ingredients) or even in different locations, because a sandwich in a station kiosk is not the same product as a physically identical sandwich in an out-of-town superstore.

And the one who are choosing all these "fancy" products are willing to pay more and actually paying a lot more than what the product is worth. For e.g a white chocolate may cost around 30 cents more. But if you may be paying $3 extra for the coffee with white chocolate (let's say $7 instead of $4 for normal coffee) because you are willing to pay more for a cup of coffee.

What a trick!

Ok, so what type of coffee product I should buy next? Definitely this time, I will make sure I check out the price and think more in an economist way. Oh, and no more Tongkat Ali for me. :)

Sales is about liking and helping people first

I do not understand a lot about sales. I never really do sales before. But I know if I want to start my business one day, I need to at least know a little bit on how to do sales.

But I know that in order to do a good sales, you need to like people. And you need to be genuine when interacting with people, especially your customers. Let's say you hate your customers and you force yourself to deal with them in order to get the business, your expression and body language will show your hatred. Maybe you will wince, or you may look away from them. That is not hard for some smart people to find out through observation or they can just feel it.

Someone who has been doing sales asked me this - "Do you really want to be a sales person (doing business means sales)? Do you want to be forced to associate yourself with people you do not like and live your everyday doing things that you hate?"

This seems like a strange question to me. Or maybe I am just too ignorant of things. I never really feel like I will hate every people or customers I meet. In fact, I love people. And I know there are many good people out there. I have met a lot of successful and down-to-earth people who are willing to share their experiences or knowledges with you without asking anything in return. I met a lot of people who may not be successful in the larger term but are successful in their own way - people with great family, great friends, stable income, happy, relaxing life. I learn a lot from people who are younger from me also.

Of course, I know also there is a good dose of bad people out there , who may look at every opportunity to take advantages of you. I am not totally naive to acknowledge this.

But if I set my mindset that I will associate myself with people I do not like when I am doing sales, I might as well just go find a job that work with trees. (I posted this before - all the jobs working with trees or dogs are already taken. In every other jobs, you need to work with people). If I have to work with people whether I like it or not, I might as well like it. My thought will be , people who do not genuinely like other people, they are not going to be successful in sales or business, let alone in live. Well, again, I may be wrong. Some people may be able to fake it. :)

During the Mid Autumn Festival last month , I had chance to work on my first sales assignment. It was something impromptu. It started with my friends who said she was able to get a 30% discount on the moon cakes. I asked around and got a few orders. Then , my friend stopped buying (not her fault, :) ) and I found myself having to deal with the manager of the moon cake business directly. The manager also started to pull back on the discount , saying that if I cannot get like 30 boxes of order, he might only be able to give me 20% discount. At one hand, I have people ordering because they want the 30% discount , on the other hand, if I do not have a lot of orders, I will just be able to get 20% discount.

So, I somehow landed myself with a first sales assignment. No profit for myself, just the fun of it.
My quota is to be able to get more than 30 boxes order of moon cakes. If not, I cannot get 30% discount for the people ordering. So, I went ahead , giving people 30% discount to collect the orders. I was prepared to negotiate with the manager to get 30% even if I cannot hit the 30-boxes quota.

The result was I was able to get the manager to give 30% for 20+ boxes without any difficult negotiation. :) And , in the end, I actually got total orders of more than 30 boxes. It was fun trying to hit the quota and preparing to negotiate.

The no-fun part was actually taking the moon cakes from the shop (I need to engaged my boyfriend as my physical labor to load all the boxes to my car and endured his nagging :p. ), arranging and re-arranging all the boxes, calculating the prices, distributing to the people and collecting the money. All for experiences and just helping others but no single cents of profit.

But it was really a nice experience after all. And a good start to being in sales, although I had to say this assignment was really so easy because of the 30% discount.

Let's see when I will beg people for sales. :) But I do not think I will mind to associate myself with people. Much more with I do not intend to dislike them.

Google did not start with making profit. It started with trying to help people search the things they want- started with a great product. Thus, sales is also not only about getting the advantages or profit you want. It starts will liking and trying to help other people also as well as building a relationship with trust and confidence.

My Mooncake Order. :)

Blogging during lunch again.

Taking a step back to move forward

This beautiful castle seems like a dream to me

First find a dream, then find a plan to achieve the dream. And then, just go all out to execute the plan and persist. One day, the reward will come...........

Two weeks ago, I decided to quit my job to make a swift turn in my career. Yesterday, I was at the junction, deciding which path I wanted to take next. The pressure was overwhelming. After all, this is going to be a great turning point for my career track of 8 years. These days will have impact on my whole career life and even my life, so to speak.

So, I finally decided. Despite being so blurry today until I was dozing off several times during work due to only 3-hours sleep last night, the decision was not hard to make. In fact, I know the answer has been there all the while in my heart. And one great Director from a great company said in my recent interview, I need to "follow my heart". And that's important.

There are few things that this new job is actually a few steps backward for me. Well, thanks to my current boss (even though I seldom appreciate that) , I was given a lot of opportunities in my current company. Sometimes, more than I could handle. But this new job offers me more chance in other area like pre-sales and learning on how to start my own business - which is my ultimate goal.

A great person told me this. I should not be working for other people. I should be my own boss one day. So, do not just look at short-term gain. Do not work for the money. Let the money work for me. After all, another great Director from another great company told me this - I am not being offered just a job, but a career.

Well, for the past couples of weeks, I have met 3 very successful people who definitely know what to say at the right time. It is like the phrases are their trademark or something. And I have to admit, I was enticed entirely, like an ant to the pool of sweet.

However, I got a fair taste of bitterness also. I was said to be a bit wishy-washy for not being bold enough to take the new challenge and trying to play safe by having backup plans. Totally right! Also, I was also given enlightenment not to appear to be so ambitious as sometimes that will work against me. Again, true also.

Well, at the top of the chart of my discouraging list, my current boss make a bet that I would come crawling back to the company to beg for a job after 3 months. Of course, the begging and the crawling part maybe a bit overstating. But the rest is true.

And so, that is me on the verge of some nervous breakdown because everyone try to impart some influences on me. And my futile attempt to please everyone ended up with more burden on my shoulder. Maybe I need to heed the advice from a great mentor - think of myself and my family first. When I am great, I can do a lot more for other people.


Well, so now I am taking a step back to move forward. And I definitely have my eyes set on the future. There will be no backup plans for I will not go back to where I used to be. And definitely, I will get myself busy with my new job even though there are speculation that pre-sales job will be very free. Well, these are roughly going to be my new responsibilities:

1. To manage end to end development of R & D department for testing and improvements of solution.

2. To assist in presales activities for solution for both local and international clients.

3. To manage all project planning and implementation progress to ensure timely and smooth delivery to the clients.

4. responsible for the technical development and designing of solutions.

5. to manage the technical team for Research & Development, implementation and solution delivery for existing and new solutions.

6. To plan and manage visitations to client for a better understanding of the client's requirement for solutions.

7. Willing to learn and accept new skills and knowledge for the improvements of work requirement and imparting of skill-sets to subordinates.

Well , if these responsibilities are considered not time-demanding, I would have already been a very successful and efficient person. But I still had a long way to go.

And there are a lot of reading to catch up and a lot of things to learn and teach to others.