Life is about always learning and growing

My 3rd Dan Certificate with my sensei Hanshi Chia Kwek Fah 

Dec 2018 ; aged 50 + something. 

As I age, I am very conscious about what I know and more often than not, I am most aware of what I don't know. There are the 3 phases of consciousness, so elegantly put by the Secretary of Defence (during George Bush Jr's time in office), Donald Rumsfeld.

There are : 1. Known knowns. What we know through learning, reading, speaking with 
                       experts and teachers/  Hence  the information is 'out there'. Knowing the 
                       information is one thing, understanding its implications or how to use it 
                       is something else. 

                   2. Known Unknowns.  An example is we know we are in this space  
                       called the Universe. How expansive, is it growing or shrinking, is still
                       debated  by the scientists. There are other worlds out there with life, 
                       intelligent or not we are still curiously finding out.
       
                   3. Unknown unknowns. This is the complete ignorance of information. 
                       We don't know or don't bother to know what we don't know. This is 
                       the mentality of the 'follower'.

Learn new things in life, make each day a learning experience from the people you come across, old, young , rich, poor and you will be wiser, and more humble about the great wonderful world we have. 

Being satisfied with one's life is far better than the transient joys, sorrows, happiness, sadness, anger, disappointments that come with life. 

Carpe Diem !!!   

Business Success - Key Factors

The road less travelled, Antibes along the Cote Azur (Blue Coast) 

I am by no means the entrepreneur who has 'made it'. I am still making a living by every day by 'scrapping  in the schoolyard'. By that I mean that I am very much going to work day in day out and doing what I do best, creating opportunities for my company by means of quotations, customer visits, meeting with overseas principals and manufacturers and a whole host of other coordination works from invoicing, delivery orders, making deliveries for parts and coordinating project works. Its facing daily challenges and trying to find solutions ever so often. 

It is what I do best and I have been in this small niche of the giant global technology industry which is still 'bricks and mortar' providing quality assurance solutions to products to enhance their reliability. By that we provide test equipment such as chambers, ovens and vibration simulation equipment to diverse industries such as automotive, aerospace, defence, sports,electronics and their subset semiconductors and now the internet of things.

The title of this post is Business Success  - Key Factors. After almost 16 years of ups and downs and ups again, I think it is a combination of 5 key factors with the percentage weighting factors added in  as shown below :

a) Luck  20%
b) Resilience 20%
c) Diligence 20%
d) Domain Knowledge 20%
e) Intellect (incorporating Vision) 20%

Although I give equal importance to each of the 5, in practice it is rarely so, and the factors will be coming in and out in varying degrees due to varying circumstances. To manage it, the boss literally needs to be 'on the ground' determining the course of the battle (I call it battle) - every single day.  

Hence, if a new entrepreneur tries his hand at, say, a restaurant, if he has luck and intellect (vision) but after surviving the first tough year without going bankrupt but is not resilient when his back of kitchen staff (eg chef) leaves and he can't find a replacement, then he is likely to close up the business.

Its a very tough world, and with the geek economy turning everybody irrelevant if we don't invest in learning new skills, trying new strategies, and moving to new markets we may all end up facing a very uncertain future.

So with world economy facing an uncertain 2019, I have decided to buckle up, push harder for more customers and lower costs to the barest minimum.   

    

   

Beautiful Song for 2019

Maroon 5's Girls Like You ; the Ultimate Power Woman Song. 

2019 Resolutions

This is the time for positive reflection of my stage in life and the situation of where I am right now.

Firstly I am thankful for the safe and clean environment of my home country, the stability of its Government and its relations with its neighbours and the standing in the World Order. 

Singapore indeed has come a long way these last 53 years and as I watch the turmoil and upheaval of the turbulent 2018 in the stock market, the global trade wars playing out between USA and its traditional allies, I am concerned that as a very small company playing in the waters of far bigger ones, we have to be very mindful of many risks known and unknown going into 2019.

My personal reflections are all about my behavior so I will humbly list these in order of importance :

1. Punctuality - this has always been my weak point, trying to please too many people or squeezing to many appointments so much so that I mess up the atmoshere of the meeting when I am late. So I resolve to brush up my time management and always ensure I give more than enough time to meet ; if it is too rushed, then, I will postpone the business or cancel the social meeting outright.

2. Decisive - again, I tend to flounder back and forth, so I need to be very hard on myself and the people I decide what to do.

3. U Turn quickly - If I have made a wrong decision, I need to U Turn and backtrack, this throws mud in my face but sometimes there is no choice in this matter if it relates to financial decisions. 

4. Saying ' No ' - I need to be more decisive in this. No Excuses. Just Do It.

5. Cutting back on Social Media - I resolve not to see Facebook or any other social network and only restricting it to maximum a couple of hours in the evening. Not even in the day over lunch. Definately not during driving or commuting. 

6. I need to be hard nosed. 



Thats it ! Happy New 2019 !  

They have beaten and drawn with the top 6 clubs ; We will be ready 2019-2020 !

The underachiever club in the last 40 years. Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Having being promoted to the Premier League in the last 7 years, Wolves now sit in 9th spot. Their performance is very much akin to a Jeckell and Hyde character, showing flashes of brilliance when they are least fancied and then drawing or losing to the supposedly bottom 3 in the league.

Parc Guell atop Barcelona, Dec 2016. 

Wolves, you need to get your act together, move to plan B, tighten up the squad, and get Neve playing to his best. And, oh, find a couple of  hunter blue goalscorers like all the top clubs have, Hazard from Chelsea, Firminio Mane and Salah from 'Pool are some fine examples.

Its mid terms, get cracking guys !!!   

Crystal Palace 0 Wolves 1 

What Brexit will mean exactly ?

Outside Tower Bridge 2 years ago 

In about 4 months or less, we will have a UK which is outside of the EU, doing its own thing and what does that actually mean for its citizens, the many hundreds of thousands of working people inside the UK, the thousands of overseas companies who have set up operations in the UK ?

I am still trying to figure this one out. Watch this post.  

Excellent Meal - 20th Nov 2018

                                                                   Lobster Salad 

This is the fifth time I have dined at Kan Sushi, on the second floor of International Plaza. Thanks to an app called Eatigo, I am able to afford high quality Japanese food at slightly above Club prices for a top quality meal, as there are generous discounts off the meal if you book to eat at non-peak times or off shoulder peak times (that is, 11.30 am, 1.30pm to 3.00 pm). 

Discounts vary from eatery to eatery but I must say, that to enjoy the real discounts, the discounts normally are 10 to as much as 50% off the menu price, but does not include drinks and there will be Service and GST tax on top. 

As a result, my time management has improved quite a bit, on the whole as the establishments do take the timing very seriously, and if I am 10 minutes late, will not enjoy the deep discounts.

Hence, I have to firstly be on time, so this helps me in my time management very much and secondly, I have to plan my menu and possibly manage my hunger cravings till it is lunch time. 

Today's meal consisted of the following :

a) Ebi Tempura  (Prawn)
b) Lobster Salad
c) Spider Maki
d) Miso Soup.


Helmed by several Japanese chefs, I am very delighted to be having (in my opinion) Michelin starred quality meal at down to earth prices, especially with up to 50% discounts (on food before 10% service and 7% GST tax)

Hats off to Kan Sushi and Eatigo, for making my dining experience so much more varied and enjoyable !!  

                                                           KAN SUSHI
                                                         10 Anson Road,
                                                #02 - 54 International Plaza
                                                       Singapore 079953