Life, Travel, GRACE

Read this book quite some time ago. It was one of the easy reading book I had read (another one was The Last Lecture). Somehow the book gained popularity many many years ago due to its truthfulness and great lesson sharing. Personally, I found the following idea worthy to emulate: Love is the only rational act. Put a daily limit on self-pity (if you always blame yourself). We all need teachers in our lives. Know you are going to die, and be prepared for it at any time. Love each other in a family. Learn to detach from emotion; but you first need to fully experience it. It's a book that you should read at least once in a lifetime.

After read Outliers, I picked up another old literature by the same author. This is another good book, according to some reviews. Well, in some points, yes. This is a book about unconscious decision making based on rapid observation (in a blink of an eye). In a nutshell, the author brings out two main theory: thin-slicing and snap decisions. Then the rest of the chapters are examples, evidences and what's  the weakness of such approach. To be continued...

[UPDATED] This book is indeed interesting and an eye-opener for me. The author presented us an alternative view why some people succeeded and some did not. Generally, a successful person is perceived to have achieved such status based on his down-to-earth attitude and relentlessly hard work. Hard work is, of course, part of the ingredient of success. The real reasons for success are opportunity and legacy - as presented in this book. The first part of the book deals with opportunities in successful people’s life. The author argued that those elite sport teams are selected based on unfair cut-off birth date. For example, Canadian junior hockey team selection is confined to children aged between 9-10 years old. Usually the cut-off date is on 1 Jan. Other countries may have different cut-off date, 1 Aug in US. So for the same batch of children who were born in the same year but in different months, that matters. The author has observed some interesting statistic of the players whi...

This book has less than 100 pages. So you can finish it within 2 hours. I've read twice - first reading was last year and reread this week just to refresh the idea. It's about some advices and guidelines given by the author (Jim Rogers) to his daughters. Among the "tips" for life and investing are: - You decide what you want to do and to be. Don't let others do the thinking for you. - Focus on what you like. The rest will come as you work. - Be a self-starter, pay attention to the details and live your life with a dream. - Think and analyze, as common sense is not so common. - Learn others' culture and history to get a better and unbiased perspective. - Learn languages (and make sure that Mandarin is one of them). - This is the century of China. Invest in China. - Know yourself by understanding your weakness and acknowledging any mistakes. - Recognize change and embrace it. Look to the future.

 This book is an account of a four year old boy who claimed to have gone to heaven and back. Well, the book was written by his father who gathered all the information from him. It happened when the boy had a surgery. During the surgery, he claimed to have flown out from his body and went to heaven. Well, the interesting piece was how he described heaven, Jesus, his great grandfather whom he never met, his other sister whom did not make it to the world (and his parent never told him about this) and other heaven stuff. His parent always him asks how does Jesus look like. Because he can't fully describe the feature of Jesus' face (he was only four, remember), he can only answer if the portrait resembled Jesus. Most of the portraits do not match to what he's seen. Until one day when his father came across a news about another kid had a vision of heaven and able to paint it out. And here how Jesus looks like, according to two sources from what I've read. How do you ...

Joseph had dreams - strange dreams (Gen 37:2-11). But the dream itself is a prophecy of Joseph's life. He told his dream to his brothers. Somehow they felt Joseph was being arrogant with the dream. The brothers made a plot to give him a lesson; even to the stage of killing him. Joseph was then left in a pit. The next event saw him being sold to a trader (Gen 37:23, 28). We acknowledge that people have dream or hope. Some are maybe God's plan (might not be through dream though). If we listen to God clear enough, we will follow his path. But in case our dream or hope being shattered, let's listen to God as well.

Which one is more important: a detailed road map or the ability to drive a car? Often time we don't really think, creatively and critically, for all issues. If this would happen, there won't be any argument or conflict. Some of the reasons why thinking is so poor: - no thinking classification (in education and library). - we left it to the philosophers. - ignorance. - perception ignored, because we thought logic is all. - the availability of computer and internet. - complacency.

Finding the right job takes time, some experimentation and patience. Consider the right job if you have the following signals: You like the people there a lot. You do not need to fake yourself. It has opportunity to grow as a person and a professional and having the feeling of learning that you didn't even know you needed to learn. It has option of giving you credential that you can take and has future. You are making the decision ( ownership ) of the job, not by fulfilling someone's wishes like parents whom wished their children to be a doctor and so on. And finally you love the work content , having fun and meaningful moment. From Winning

The random word tool for creativity: Get a focus theme for brainstorming. Choose a random word (can be from dictionary, random pointing in the newspaper etc). Then use this random word to generate ideas about the subject. Example, your focus is to have a new idea for an internet business. A random word is "scream". What would scream has anything to do with internet business? You can sell bottled scream, or post paid-video of scream etc. Ideas are not limited. It could be illogical but at the end you can make a sense out of it. From Think!: Before it's too late.

IMHO, these are some questions that you need to ponder if you are growing your wealth... (1) What do you want to accomplish with your life and your wealth? It could be one of these... - maximize your financial security in retirement . - channel your assets into additional wealth-building pursuits . - spend your money. - create a special place to bring family together (eg: a holiday island, villa etc). - become a collector (eg: art). - donate money and/or time to worthy cause . - give money and companionship to people you care about. (2) For how long do you want your values to shape your family's future? (3) When it comes to investing, would you rather "eat well" or "sleep well"? (This is regarding your investment risk appetite) (4) How should your family communicate about its wealth? (5) Do you plan to build family leadership to grow your wealth over multiple generations? Personally, he does envision to have a special place for family get together. Of cours...

Can't remember how long did i take to complete this whole book. On and off, finally completed this month. Generally, the content is resourceful and enlightening. Even though you are not in managerial position, you can benefit from the perspective and ideas given. Based on ex-GE CEO experience, it lists out the tips or strategies to navigate an organization to a winning team. Of course, these are just advices, not a comprehensive bible. When comes to hiring, what do you think the hirers are looking for? There will be "acid tests": integrity, intelligence and maturity. Next they will assess the framework of 4E and 1P, which are having a positive energy, the ability to energize others, the edge (the courage to make tough decisions), execute (ability to get the job done) and finally passion. Hiring for senior level, look for authenticity, foresight, the willingness to draw on others for advice, and resilience.

This 90-minute-book gives the idea of how to direct your attention to any information rather than being directed to it. After all, information will lead you to perception. So the way we perceive information is all-important. You begin to assess the piece of information by looking through each frame. The triangle frame: Purpose - what is the purpose of looking at the information? Are you just filling up time or researching for data? The circle frame: Accuracy - look directly into the fundamental accuracy of the information. Apply doubt and comparative accuracy. After all, not all information is accurate or fact based. The square frame: Point of view - is there a different way of looking at the data? By looking the information from different point of view, you get unbiased view of information. The heart frame: Interest - direct your attention to matters of interest, be it general or specific interest. The diamond frame: Value - what has been the value of the information? It's...

By far, this is the best novel from Dan Brown. Unlike his previous works, there's no big surprise on the plot. The villain is introduced right at the beginning. Again, the story touches about faith, which is good and quite refreshing. Little did I know that Moses sculpture actually has horns. This was due to some translation error. The revelation at the end is somehow sweet. The secret word of the Ancient Mysteries is Laus Deo . Managed to complete the whole book in 19 hours of audio listening, which spanned within 3 weeks.

In year 2006, a poll was conducted on Americans with kids under 18 living with them. This was what they found out: - the strictest parents attend church weekly (identified as conservative) - the least strict parents are younger - men are little stricter than women - 52% of parents think it's better to guide children with "discipline and structure" - more than half say it's important to make children a better citizens However, 90% say today parents are too easy on their kids. It all starts from infant: should babies be comforted whenever they cry? Or allow them to cry it out so they learn how to sleep? The former has 60% of agreement. Here's another poll question: Suppose you had a 9-year-old son/daughter who screamed a cursed word at you and said he/she hated you. What would be your likely response? (1) Sit down and ask why he/she feels that way? (2) Tell him/her that you're sorry he/she feels that way, but you love him/her anyway. (3) Smack him/her. Of course...

Watch this movie and you'll know what it's called acting. A very good acting by Sean Penn. Yes, he deserved the best actor award in numerous film awards. This is a movie about Milk who tried to get elected for city supervisor in order to get the rights of gay community sanctioned. You may disapprove gay behavior at some point or another. Again, all men are made in the image of God. So what went wrong here? Let's not be judgmental. At this period, there could be at least 2% of the population involved in same-sex relationship. Are same-sex partnerships a biblical option? There are three considerations to view: the distinction between sins and crimes, the distinction between preference and practice and the distinction between casual and committed. What seems as sins might not be illegal in law (in certain countries). What seems to be "being" might not be same as "doing". What seems to be casual act might not be a personal commitment. Key stories from the Sc...

It is so to called Hedgehog Concept whereby the hedgehog knows one thing only as compared with the fox (with lots of plan and cunning). It is a simple and clear understanding about what you can be the best in the world at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. All these three elements are needed for a good-to-great company. Miss one, you only attain a successful company. To ensure the company is aligned within these three elements, a group of council might help to see it's course. They debate, analyze and execute decision for the sake of company progress. The council is an informal body though and they exist as a device to gain understanding about important issues facing the organization.

At any time, leaders need to have faith to go through any difficulties while at the same accepting the fact that may not be favorable. The key point is how to articulate information that cannot be ignored which eventually used for driving success.

First who - get the right people on the bus (and kick out the wrong people from the bus also). Then build a superior team. Then what? - Once you have the right people on the bus, then plan out the path for greatness. By the way, employee is not the greatest asset for a company but a RIGHT employee is.

There are five levels of leadership hierarchy: Level 1: Highly capable individual Level 2: Contributing team member Level 3: Competent manager Level 4: Effective leader Level 5 - just call it Level 5 management Well, not all employees got the chance to achieve all the 5 levels. It is anyhow a guideline for each of us if we happen to be in that stage. At least in level 1, haha ... Lever 5 leadership trait: Ambitious, think first for the institution yet humble and humility.

Good is the enemy of great. So to say. We used to say good school, good teacher, good employee, good this and good that BUT not great school and so on. Why they don't go for great status? Probably people are more comfortable with the "good" status. Once you are in good condition, you don't feel like moving anywhere. Then you stuck there. Other people catching up and moving forward. So as a company. That's why you don't get many great companies. Jim Collins' research concluded only 11 companies made it from good to great. What's the criteria to classify those companies which have made it from good to great? A company simply outperforms the general stock few times and able to sustain it for 10 years and so. It will make even greater achievement if employee make the same quantum change.