To be extremely successful, get out of your comfort zone, NOW

Mum the Girl Guide Leader with K. Byrne

This post is not my own, but I read this blog article which I found to be extremely insightful to me, and  I have implemented some of it currently with my life. I respectfully cite Steve Wohlenhaus, CEO of Weatherology who is both an author, a podcast host, as well as an entrepreneur for the main points, and I will put in my own personal efforts to achieve these ends :

"Do one thing everyday that scares you.These small things that make us uncomfortable help us to build the courage to do the work we need to do" 

Elanor Roosevelt.

Here are 10 things we can practice NOW to push outside of your / my comfort zone :

Rise and Shine (1)

Get up as early as you can (I know the nightbirds will disagree till the end of time), and do the most important thing that needs to be done for the day, week, month or longer. Working out business and life goals, bill payments, cashflow, critical decisions are all best done first thing in the morning. 

I also force myself to change my 'state of mind' especially during those dreary mornings. I will take a cold shower, rain or shine. Luckily Singapore's weather doesn't dip below 23 deg C, but even then I thank all my lucky stars I am alive, cognitively sharp, have my health, family,friends and where I am. Be grateful. Everyday.

Be on Time (2)

Fix appointments with people who mean the most to you at any time of your life.Your doctor, your lawyer, your parents, your spouse, good friends, children, business associates, casual acquaintences,most importantly your customers. Manage the time to be on time. Always say 'No' early if for some reason, you cannot make the appointment, or there are too many already pressing appointments on the day of the meeting. You can always reschedule. 

Walk the Talk (3)

Mean what you say and say what you mean. Be clear and direct in thought, word and deed.

Focus (4)

I have set clear and measurable goals for my business and life. Staying the course, not being distracted by some 'new fads' such as yoyo diets, new 'toys'  (handphones, electronic gadgets etc) takes a lot of self discipline.

Assess and take stock, realistically of life every 6 months. 

Check your physical and mental health. 

Assess your financial status

Go for classes - even after 55 years on ; grow both in mind, spirit as we know the body is slowly declining. 

I plan on learning way till my twilight years. 

Give (5)

I try to help within my means. The bible states 10% of your earned income goes to help the needy. Give in terms of time, talent, and earned income. You will be richer in spirit for it. 

Communicate (6)

Reach out and link up with people. You and I do not know everything there is to know in the world. What is one brain compared to the collective know how of 5 or 10 or more ? 

Everyone contributes and the more you meet, the more you grow from their shared experiences.

Make New Friends.(7)

It tough, but there must be a will to meet and understand more about the world we live in. Through meeting more and more people, we can experience and learn new things. We learn also through the senses of sight, smell, listening and intuition amongst others. If we can use all the 5 senses of our lives, we will find life so much more stimulating !

Listen  (8)

When the eyes grow weary, we listen. Always look first, then listen. Sometimes its best to just shut your eyes and the message is even more clear because the mode of transmission is best received through various means.

No (9)

Say No effectively, and often. At this time and age, we move to the beat of our own rythym, not anybody else's and it feels so empowering.

Act - Tremendous Discipline (10)

There is good reason why many people don't exercise regularly.Why most new businesses fail. Why people struggle to save and gain financial freedom. Its hard and requires tremendous discipline. There are classes which teach people to be at the top 1% in both physical and financial worlds. 

To be extraordinary, we need to ACT decisively on our dreams.

"I like people who shake other people up and make them feel uncomfortable" Jim Morrison.

The late Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew was one such individual. He had a tremendous vision for Singapore. He shook up the entire system, and put the country on the global map. We need that type of discipline in our lives. 

Being comfortable is not the path toward personal excellence.Being comfortable leads to regret and mediocrity, and ultimately your view of the world will be tainted by realising that you have led a 'blah' life.

Do you really want that ?

Challenge yourself. Rise Up and get Uncomfortable. Set Goals and take them NOW ! 

CARPE DIEM ! 

 

What do you give a person who has nothing, or everything ?

Happy Carefree Days

This is a rhetorical question which some of us, (well me for one). When we have enough, (by very modest standards), what do we want then or strive for ?  Or what do we give to someone who is struggling financially, with massive worries, with day to day issues, health and relationships for example ? 

Say it is Mr. or Ms X's birthday... What do you get for him  or her ? Lets say he is middle aged, relatively well off and although COVID has hit many countries hard, his job is stable, and he is feeling blessed.

Money ? Alcohol ? a good time? Massive parties with cakes and candles ?

A new ring ? Car ? Latest Hermes Bag ? 

The answer is : Peace of Mind.

Jesus of Nazareth some 2020 years ago told his flock : "Peace I give unto you, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand".

Can you have peace of mind while we are in this world ? Yes you can. And you can help yourself achieve it.  

> Set simple goals for yourself ; once there, just maintain them. 

> Monetary

- Never borrow more than you need to finance your lifestyle or your business.Bankers are never your friends from the word go. You have been warned. Aim to be debt free or have at least debt to equity ratio as low as possible

> Health

- Take care of your health, eat wiselt, and less as we grow older (70%), exercise like there is no tomorrow, and sleep a good 8 hours each night. Cut the alcohol, parties only for festive occasions and cut the excessive binge eating. I am doing it. 

> Family

- Most important to have good relations with your nearest and your dearest.

> Relationships with relatives and friends

- Make time for them ; and they should also make time for you. Drop the losers and whiners.

It takes massive discipline, a lot of letting go of the ego (personal identification), taking criticisms and reflecting on them, to make myself a better person.

> Be Humble

- Listen to advice . As I continue on this path, the more I travel, the less I seem to know. 

> Help Others 

- Obvious. But the act of giving patronage to the less lucky is a must do. 

> Ignore what others think (listen to the 'others' that matter).

> Serve a higher purpose ; Religion or do good. 

I had written many posts before whereby the pursuit of material wellbeing only brings temporary happiness but not satisfaction.The desire for higher status and even high posts in life or career will one day all come to an abrupt end. It will come crashing down with the next health crisis and you realise that you only have 6 months to live.

Satisfaction comes when one has balanced his life well. It takes a lot of effort, but it can be achieved.

 

Leveraging on the Business Ecosystem to achieve the results for my business

 

All of us live in an ecosystem, with nature, amongst people in our society and in business. This was so eloquently elaborated by Dr Lim Chor Peng during his lecture on Business Ecosystems and levereging on Platforms to reach out to customers. The key takeaway from this lecture was and is to network aggressively and with a purpose to get to the 'industry captains' or people who will ultimately help me steer my little ship into the right oceans and manage the upcoming storms with confidence.

To not do so, would be to imperil and through sheer ignorance, lead the little ship into seas of unrecoverable and the threat of sinking would be a real risk going forward.

To link up with the ecosystem, I need to make sure that my little business not only thrives in uncertainty, but lets people khow who we are, where we are from, what we stand for and how may we help them in doing their jobs better. That is the very crux of creating a platform to leverage on all of the players knowing and unknowingly thrust in this ecosystem and profit from it, with the profits delivered to all the stakeholders after a certain time. 

So, I have identified the Blue Ocean, have engaged a pathfinder or lead vessel and now I am charting the course ahead for a journey - hopefully a profitable one for me and my crew. 

Hermann's Whole Brain Thinking - Design Thinking

 As my course for Business and Digital Transformation is in full swing, here are some key takeaways from this amazing course with some world renowned lecturers who have been there done that :

There are 4 queadrants or  equal segments of the human brain ; How much of the time my brain is spent at each quadrant, I need to be cognizant, and not be goverened by the circumstances around me, or based on the job function which I perform most of the week or the year. This way, my decisions will be based on whole brained thinking rather than emotional or feelings based which many of us are wont to do. "To go with the flow" is simply a non thinking decision which is to the detriment and will pull down many people's aspirations.

Left Top                            Right Top 

Logical                                Holistic 

Analytical                            Intuitive

Fact Based                         Integrating

Quantitative                        Synthesizing

Left Bottom                        Right Bottom 

Organized                            Interpersonal

Sequential                            Feelings Based

Planned                                Kinasthesic                

Detailed                                Emotional 

As a small business leader, I must perform and do the following :

a) Ask catalytic questions

b) Collect data

c) Experiment

d) Embed innovation skills

e) WALK the TALK

f) Expect others to do the same ; and push them in that direction

To that ends, for Innovative Design Thinking, I need to do the following :

1. Learn from other people's mistakes and successes

2. Find patterns in the events unfolding before me

3. Design principle future proofed products

4. Make tangible these products into sales and revenue

5. Iterate relentlessless.

DEFINE -->    DISCOVER  -->   DEVELOP  -->   DESIGN

ASK BOLD     USER NEEDS    CONCEPT         PROTOTYPE  -->  DELIVER

QS                  & TRENDS         BENEFITS      < SECURE SPONSORS>

                                                                           < LAUNCH PLAN>

                                                                        <COMMERCIALISE> 

My Goal before 2022 ; return to do 1 more marathon below 5 hours !

 

The 2007 SC Marathon was the year I ran the fastest marathon of my life, or 4 hours 48 minutes ot so. 

I have set myself a Big and Audacious Goal (BAG) by aiming to return to that form some 15 years later !

If I succeed, I will have immense satisafaction of attaining the unattainable. If I fail, I will have rotten eggs on my face.

Do take a look at those days of a younger, and slimmer me above. My BIB No. is 4304 and I weighed almost 10 kg less ! 

COVID - 19 ; the great equalizer of our time.

We are into the final stretch of an unprecendented year. The whole world has been caught in the wake of the COVID 19, originating from Wuhan China. As the world enters the winter months, many of us are left without a job, many have lost loved ones, students cannot pursue or continue with their overseas educations, and livlihoods are destroyed all by a microorganism virus. It is a shattering blow and the world has yet to recover from its effects, from the first wave, to the second wave, from lockdowns to partial reopenings to life changes in our daily appearences (all have to wear a mask before going out). From the number of people we meet (5) to the preoccupation with washing our hands ever so often.

The world had only seen something where everyone was so similarly adversely affected was during the World War 2. And many of us have never experienced the horrors or the inconveniences it wrought, me included. 

Many households will be adversely affected and millions will be pushed down the economic stratum brought about by this perfect storm of weak Government will, and strong pushback for individual freedoms. The way to keep things under control is to do the following interchangebly which Singapore had done so (and several other countries such as New Zealand,Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong) are listed below :

a) Test the front line personnel quickly (we use Polymerase Chain Reaction - with results within a day)

b) Test all the high risk people (we had a horrible run from the foreign workers all living closely together in dormitories)

c) Contact trace everyone (we now have the Trace Together App and use QR codes for everyone entering a public building)

d) Quarantine everyone for 14 days coming in from overseas. Test them upon arrival and  after 7 days.

e) Give all retrenched workers work opportunities and grants to stave off the worst of their economic malaise.

f) Keep up the good fight by coaxing the general population to seek help from depression, lost jobs, failed relationships and business failures. There must and will be an end to this. 

g) New Normal expectations for social events, work (work from home) and meetings via Zoom or Whatsapp will be the norm.

h) Finally, reward and acknowledge that the Health Care professionals who once again have saved many people's lives are indeed the true Heros and should be rewarded monetarily (bonuses) as well as given due recognition (such as discounted meals and free travel on MRT)

The death rate stands today at over 2 million, with many more expected to succumb to this horrible pandemic before the vaccine kicks in (expected early next year). Countless people needlessly have to die, so it is my singular wish that the Governments that be stop all that politicking and just work together for the common good of humanity - to save lives and end all the pain and suffering wrought on by this awful pandemic.

Holding countries accountable should not be the priority. There is enough time down the road for that. Opening up economies when there are literally thousands dying daily is the most risky yet painfully necessary thing to do. Either the quick death from the virus or the slow death from the knock on effects caused by the decimation of the  leisure and travel industry.

A Hobson's choice of which is the path to proceed.

There are plentiful opportunities, if one is careful and cognizant, there are plentiful opportunities awaiting enterpreneurs just around the corner. Risks will be high, and stakes will be higher. 

Look out and seize them, for they are aplenty as far as I can see from my little bumboat of a company floating in this small segment of the vast ocean which for many are experiencing vast storms, battering rains and sinking fast.

Courage to stand up and go forth. 

Bring on 2021. 

Marathoners are natural entrepreneurs.

This post is written more than 3 weeks since the last one. The reason for the long lay off is because I have been very busy with other projects at this point in time. But I am a scribe at heart, so here is my thought for the hot and balmy Sunday. 

Marathon runners make natural entrepreneurs. Some are successful ones at that (I am still struggling). Why ?  Here are some reasons which the rite of passage of marathoners (I have 10 under my belt) and entrepreneurs go through which are SO SIMILAR :

1. They set big goals (42.194km or longer) 

2. They have to strategise to break down the goals into smaller goals ; so for the marathoner, he will have to break down the goal into smaller bite size distances starting from 5 km and slowly 'raising the bar' to almost 40 km before he is confident to tackle the distance. It took me a whole of one and a half years (from 2002) for my actual dedication to the sport to feel confident of running the entire 42.194 km distance - that was the Penang Marathon in 2003.

The runs started with 2.4km, gradually I increased the distances (and set aside longer times) to 5km, 8km, 10km, 12km, 15km, 18km, 20km, 25km, 30km and so on. I kept myself motivated by referring to the Runners World (Print Edition) and then trying through this initial period of waking up early in the mornings, at 5 am to clock in 10km for weeks and months on end. Later on, through the guidance of the schedules set out in Runners World (this was in the early 2000s mind you), I managed to review the best kinds of shoes for my foot strike type - I am a natural pronator (meaning I land on the ball on my feet and not flat footed or a supinator where my feet lands and then rolls off to one side). 

There are numerous shoes types for various types of runners, and mine was regular biomechanically efficient - so I chose the Cushioned Shoes. After a few tryouts, I decided the best shoe for me was the ASICs Kayanos.

I have been a fan of this shoe for the last 18 years and have easily over 20 pairs (kept in the basement of my house !).

3.They are patient ; well I took 1 and a half years to get my body (and mind) conditioned to run a full marathon !

4. They are persistent. Who in their right mind would day in day out go and run in the early morning to greet the sun while their other halves (or partners) are still sound asleep ?  

5. They accept a) loneliness b) pain and c) injury (setbacks) as part of the process. This is so crucial to all marathoners and entrepreneurs. 

6. They accept failure as part of the process. This is the most painful part. There will be numerous critics, naysayers, people who talk bad about you behind your back and so called 'friends' who drink with you but add no value to you or your goals. Minimise the time with them. 

7. There is grit in their mental and physical attitude.

8. Loneliness is tough but the focus is on the goal and nothing else. 

9. Entrepreneurs and Marathoners are solitary creatures. Like Eagles. They do things quietly but with razer sharp vision on getting what they want out of that meeting or discussion.

10. Marathoners and Entrepreneurs know their goals are lofty. They share a camaderie of knowing that they are, like Eagles' are born and not made. So they savor every meeting to cast and thrash ideas and running plans to get to their goal in better shape. 

There are no short cuts. 

11. When the Goal is Reached the Satisfaction is Temporary, but Real. Then it is time to Exit Graciously.

CARPE DIEM