I want you in a meeting by 8 hours(SAF mobilisation)

I have been pushing myself really hard. Although, my final income output is not really any much higher, I tend to see it as a desperate attempt to better improve myself. To some extent, I have gained new insights into the other side of our fellow citizens from Singapore.

Though it might be generalizing, I personally find most Malays to be more carefree and not so bothered about work. They tend to take things easily and handle issues when they occur. Since that style of working method isn't really what I adopt, we more than often tend to clash.

A team leader of mine may have been thinking of something else, but imagine my chagrin when he informed me "politely" that there would be a team meeting the next exact day on 8am, at 12am, exactly 8 hours away. He claimed to have announced it during the earlier meeting which I could not attend due to work. I did try my best to question information from my fellow teammates and him, of which nothing came out.

I was in the midst of celebrating my dad's birthday party when some bits of anger slipped through my gatekeeper. They soon realized what was happening and advised me accordingly.

"Just tell him no, how can he inform you this way and at this hour?"

I wasn't myself sure to go or not. On one hand, I wanted, since the team has a rather awful way of handling the absentee, which most of the time would be me, which is to seal any information from the absentee himself. Any method of prying information would be futile and a waste of human resources. Yet, on the other hand, I was pissed. Why are they always doing things this way?

I decided I would not go. In fact, it changed the way I look at things to some small extent. I am always helpful, to some extent, short-changing myself to help others. This Thursday would be one. I have decided against it. I will no longer help for the sake of helping but stop to think, what's in it for me? By helping, is it worthwhile in terms of money? Will I be helping someone who would repay that effort? Would that person respect me for that? Would it be balanced in terms of monetary and human favors and to myself and my GIRLFRIEND?

I will fulfill my Thursday task which will be cleaning up of my store after 2 shifts of work. directly without rest without break. I've promised and that will be something I will keep. For the rest of them, I'm not really sure if they'd really keep their promises with that holy righteousness.

From now on, I will evaluate and think, and start defending for myself, and my rights. I've always wanted to convenience someone, my boss, my colleagues, my friends. I've always left out myself, my family and my girlfriend. We shall see about the current schedule. For the next next week, I shall plan my break for my girlfriend first, my boss and others can wait. I'm not lacking the money to this extent that I will short-change myself.

And oh, by the way, I kept my message reply short and sweet, no sugar-coating since it doesn't work.

"I'm sorry. I have planned a meeting with another friend. Please inform me earlier next time."

His reply was this: "ohh its okay. We'll get you involved. Sorry"

I am sure he did not meant a single bit of sorry that of which he had said.

Although they say, to respect someone before they can respect you, I'm sure I don't really care if I earn his respect, not when he keeps telling me the fact he can't recall something I said, cause "he doesn't remember unimportant things". I see how respected I am for saying unimportant things. I'm sorry.

The Dream

I had a dream yesterday and it brought me attention to something. Although I remembered that it felt really intense at that time, and now it feels absolutely normal, I still wish to say something about it.

In the dream, I was in a dangerous position, and would be about to die. As I was about to die, I thought of all the things I wouldn't be able to do, haven't acomplished and how life would just suck if I just die like that having achieved nothing worth commenting about. And yes, I did die.

In the dream, the death wasn't painful even as it involved me getting involved in a falling building and being crushed to death. I remember trying my best to cling for my life for I wanted to survive. I thought I made it and when I next saw the papers, I was one of the casualty. I remember being how sad to die.

At that point of time, I wondered. If I knew I was going to die, would I ignore every constraint I have and just go forward to achieve what I wanted to? Would I care about failures? Amusingly, the pain of death wasn't death itself for me then. It was the inability to achieve the achievement goals I have set for myself.

I remember how hard I weeped and how strong my emotions. I recall my pain and I vowed to do all I can when I get a chance to be alive again, which I never did. I got my chance already when I awoke from my dream only to find out that, I never really took and gratefully accept the second chance. I still am doing what I am doing without much headway and hardly motivated to do something big now.

I recall how painful it was to see my family members being depressed for me, and even as I saw them, they couldn't see me. I felt depressed beyond words.

Dreams are so powerful and the emotion stirred me from the sleep way too many times. But as when I finally awoke, things resume their course and I set about doing the things I do before with no change with no difference in direction. The dream was great but wasted.

Starbucks' culture

I love working for Starbucks, even though I hate the pay. There's one thing that makes working in Starbucks a very pleasant one and that is how they do not contradict the culture they are trying to cultivate. In a few companies, salespeople are told to collaborate only to have the company rate their promotions chances based on their sales, which literally tears them apart. Such kind of contradiction is not one I can find in SB.

SB is about putting partners above customers, and just saying yes to all customer needs as much as we can. We are probably talking about service to customers more than profit.

The first part is easily exemplified by this example. What would you think a wine company would do if the promoter breaks a bottle of wine? Would he be forced to pay? Would he be black listed? Just the other day, I was handling food and due to my carelessness, I dropped a tray of muffins. There were a total of 9 in there with a total cost of $27 to be. I wasted company funds of that amount. I was definitely regretful and it was done in front of my fellow partners and managers. They probably knew that it wasn't on purpose and they did not make a fuss of it nor ask me to pay for it though the wastage was all due to my one person's carelessness. To me, they understood how by making me feel degraded, I would have less performance and be unable to deliver the Starbucks experience.

At POS areas, where cash comes in and out, shortages are not a uncommon things. I still remember from a friend that at NTUC, if the cashier cashes in the wrong sum, she would pay the shortfall. Not at SB. Once I had a shortfall of $4, due to some slight confusion and they accepted it, and never did once bring it up to me. Imagine if they would argue penny for penny and I would have worked almost and hour free labour. You would think I will never do POS ever again.

SB emphasis is on providing legendary customer service. Just today, a single customer argued that both her drink would be a grande size and we were rather confused since the order was called out differently. When I asked to see her receipt, I noticed that she was wrong and that a grande size would cost her more. I immediately asked to change her drink for her to her requested size and I made her happy and she smiled before leaving even though I could argue that she place the wrong order. Was I punished for giving the wrong drink? Did I have to pay for the wrong drink? No. SB puts its responsibility on its partners and being empowered, we can do good to fulfil SB's aims.

I wouldn't have noticed this if not from a news about $1 coffees in selected stores in Seattle. Note that in all other SB's there would not be this promotion, and definitely not in Singapore. What hit me was that if a customer insist on that cup, we would "just say yes" and give that cup free to the customer. That really brought me thinking and I realised how the whole culture of SB is suitable for itself and doesn't back stab its self. I feel fortunate working in SB.

Lessons from The Apprentice

I have been watching The Apprentice quite abit after the introduction to it by a friend a while back. I'm starting to like it as I get to see people and people's interaction and the possible conflicts and then when they get interviewed, the parties normally let out all they can. It's probably identical to how we all function when we get projects.

We may get uncomfortable with how the person says or does something but we keep it under control thinking that it's no use letting out all steam and pretty soon it becomes difficult working with one another.

When troubles come, I've always thought that thrashing things out would be a good way to solve it, but from the way the show depicts it, it doesn't seem to help. One party will be less outspoken and will be shadowed and he or she will not feel that she had been thoroughly understood. Problems will still continue to ensue.

When we have conflicts with a single person who is the source of all negativity, normally, the team leader has a role to do something about it. He will pull the person aside and try to get things clear so that conflicts will happen in less occurrences. Apparently one less outspoken person did just that. He was the project manager and he pulled out one negativity king and tried to set things clear. I realised that for him, that didn't seem to work. He however, never sought to understand the other party's viewpoint.

I do realised that in a team setting, delicate balance is needed. Talk too much or contribute consistently to no good ideas, and you're out. Be too quiet and contribute not enough, and you're out. Be uneasy around and unnatural around people you work with, and you're not going to last. One setback may lead the team to always set you aside, and you will be made to feel unwanted. At least, that's what one team did to a non-stop blabbering and non-producing guy.

Sometimes people have hidden agendas in doing something. For example, Marshawn had not wanted to put on the costume and she thought that failing to present well might lead her to be fired, and that's a valid point. That however was not known to the team. The team thought she gave up on them, and she quickly got fired. When asked to justify all that, and why she refused her duty, all she said was crap. The real meaning of all that calculated acts was never revealed, pretty similar to how some people seem difficult but they would never seriously and truthfully tell you why. They definitely have something to do in them, but they would never tell you.

Steve Jobs

I've been reading a book named iCON which is about Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs is a founder of Apple which started Ipod, Itunes, etc and I find the way he works amazing, irritating and immoral.

According to the book, Steve had an uncanning ability to inspire and he is a master of impossible goals. In one incident, he came into the room, threw down a telephone book and insisted that the technicians came up with one design similar size to the phone book and he set a deadline of a year, when no hardware or software for that computer was already available. Although impossible, they eventually made the timing.

Steve was immoral. He severely overworked his employees. He declared under cheers of his fellow employees this: Working 90 hour weeks and loving it! You'd expect that employees under him would have high pay and benefits to keep them going in this manner. You'd be wrong if you thought that Steve was fair. Apparently some of the supervisors had lower pay than those new-comers who came in later. He denied stock options, which gave ownership to the employees to people who helped to make Apple a success, and alot of totally selfish decisions. How did he then manage to keep them working when they weren't getting paid? He had a definite charisma. He could seduce them into his way of thinking and be so involved in it that they for a period of time wouldn't take so much notice about their paid and other results. Nevertheless, you can imagine the roar they created when they found out the truth.

Steve had a unsatisfiable need to be important. Although the founding people were Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, and an array of smaller people, when Apple became successful, he took almost all the credit even as he created many problems through his stubbornness and solving few. His personal Macintosh team was so disgusted by the way they were not even recognised that in years to come, only a handful stayed under him.

Yet, if you read how Donald Trump depicted his way of dealing, and qualified himself as a master dealer even to write, The Art Of Deal, you'd realised that Steve Jobs unruly methodologies made Donald pale in sheer comparison. When Apple was still new, they couldn't afford their own storage and had to store it on an external company's storage. One day, the data crashed and all was gone. They had to choose between an old backup or starting afresh. They chose the latter. They requested the company to replace with the old backup to which the company refused. The rationale was that they had been late in payments. Steve being the way he was promised to pay on one condition; which was if the head came over and collected the payment himself. The head didn't want to, but it was the only way to recover payment. Steve managed to convince the head to put up the old backup before coming over.

The team hurried to download the file, and when the head came, Steve refused to pay. He was now no longer dependent on the head. The head had no choice but to return empty handed and fuming.

I know more from what I've read from the book, but the methods Steve employed are simply beyond what I can do. Yet, I look at Steve, on the side of his determination, his charisma and even his gut feelings of doing things. You'd need to be an absolute cushion to be able to work with him.

Jolt

It has been quite a hectic week for me. I've been working back to back almost everyday starting from Tuesday until today where I finally got to rest and splurged all my time on merely sleeping alone. Work has never been that tiring for me while I'm on it and reality that I actually get tired catches up with me when I end work.

As I was walking back home today morning from that shift from yesterday till today morning, totally tired and desperately wanting to collapse on a bed, I thought to myself, what am I doing all these for? What is the real meaning behind it? Despite wanting more financial aid, that probably isn't the determining factor for me working this way I am.

I am myself sincerely fearful of going with the flow and start treating it as a routine, which if I do, probably will lead to my demise. My demise refers to the fact that I'd stop growing as a person and stop learning, and anything that stops that basically is a zombie.

I have always stood my ground. I wouldn't forget why I joined Starbucks for. I could have chosen a better company or a higher paid one, but I chose Starbucks. I came there to learn, and for the first part, I did really try my best to learn. As I now approach proficiency with whatever I've learnt, I wonder, if the routine of my daily work has caught up with me, such that I now forget to start learning and continue growing.

Nevertheless, that brief moment of self-consciousness has jolted me back and I now know why I'm trying to be nice, winning people who dislike me to my side, why I'm willing to be so poorly paid, why I am reading all the books, why I am willing to travel so far and all. I do need to control my thinking and so I can steer myself into the hands of my destination.

acknowledgement

Reading the fantastic book by Norman Vincent Peale made me conceive this idea, of what I'm gonna start practicing soon.

The author had said of worrying and holding grudges and how they harm you, and I totally agree with it. We all know that if we get angry our blood boils and our blood pressure increases. That's no good to our body. In addition to that, chemicals get released into our body and our body takes damage. In addition to weakening your immunity system, you live a tiring life. I know how the drag of every day's life bores us, and as we get on with the monotony of life, we repeat our actions without thinking and get less and less personalized, without any sense of human undertones.

Every phone call to the service center to the agent is just statistics to complete his base call, there's no personalized part of it and you don't feel any better calling them for help. Many a day we don't recognize other efforts people do for us and we hold grudges for whatever little petty issues that happen to us, no wonder that the whole world seems against us!

I'm gonna try, to thank everyone for something they've done for me every shift. I know that they definitely will do something nice for me and I'm gonna acknowledge it. I'm going to let people know they feel appreciated and that I love them for who they are. I'm going to show love to everyone, so that in turn they will show love to me. And of this in work, I will not forget to show love to my everyday family members friends and girlfriend. I will seek to be the person others thirst to be beside since I am so encouraging and positive.

I believe I will find joy in doing so rather than holding grudges inside of me which I cannot release.

My Train Rides.

The book recommended by Donald Trump written by Vincent Norman Peale is absolutely amazing. The book name is The power of positive influence. The book is totally amazing. Despite the fact that I can barely recall the contents in it, I felt totally amazing while reading the book. It kept me feeling so high.

I often tell fellow partners that I live in Boon Keng area to which they inquire.. why? why so far still come Changi Airport? I don't know how to answer them the real reason behind that but I just tell them that it's because SB-A2 is fun.

I won't refute that I came primary because I wanted to get experience in coffee service and I wanted to learn and experience the stress of fucked-up customer which I just did and it made me feel really drained. I in fact treat the journey as a good thing. During this time, I get to catch up on lost sleep, just before reaching SB-A2 occasionally, and more importantly, do my reading and listening to my MP3. My music collection is only around 45 songs but they contain some of the best songs I appreciate.

Songs like ALONEZ, sen no yoru wo koete, You raise me up, and some other songs really boost my morale and make me feel wonderful. My songs are really meaningful to me. Some of them actually describe the ways to success, and sorts. When I sing the 2 japan songs I have it never fails to raise my morale. I guess I've it pretty anchored to good feeling.

I enjoy my journey there, and I enjoy listening to music while reading the books. Though sometimes I can't last through the long journey, I set timers so I won't miss train transfers. And SB-A2 has some wonderful people. People who really make me feel good are people like Ian, Fikri, Jackson, Danial, Charlene, Ariff. Seriously, sometimes I feel so glad I have them. The rest of the partners are just fantastic, always willing to help and even to include me into their groups. I'm new but I'm definitely welcomed there.

My journey to work definitely is worth it.

Momentum

Momentum to win.

I just finished reading a book by Donal Trump titled Trump 101. In one of the chapters, there was this anecdote that happened to him:

William Levitt was a master builder of Levittown and was literally the king of 1950s. He would literally come up with new projects and made a lot of money on them. Finally he decided that he would sell his company and he did, to ITT for 100 millions. Then he made some terrible mistakes.

He retired.
He married the wrong woman.

Then ITT called. The executives of the company couldn't handle the company. They had bought some new land and didn't know some details like zoning so they sold it back to Levitt who thought he got a good deal. He went back to business and proceeded to go bankrupt.

Donald saw him at a cocktail party in 1994. He was alone in a corner looking defeated. Even though Donald didn't know him well, he went forward and greeted him,"Mr Levitt, how are you doing?"

"Not good, Donald, not good." Then he said,"I lost my momentum. I was out of the world for 20 years, I came back and I wasn't the same."

I have little business experience hands on, but from what I've read, running a business is same as anything else in life. To begin a business, it take courage to overcome the inertia, and it proceeds slowly in terms of turnover, before exponential results return. I think that exercise would be a good comparison.

When you first start running, your legs are barely warmed up. You feel like quitting even before you've started. You feel like giving up. This is the inertia we experience. We can't procrastinate and stop running, so we go on. Few minutes into the run, our legs start to warm up and we're able to maintain the run without much difficulty. Then adrenaline comes into our body and we feel the power and our exponential results come where we can increase our speed easily without feeling very tired. Then as our stamina drops, we feel tired and we slow down. If we can't take it anymore, and we start walking, our momentum is broken. If we start again, it'll be the hardest thing possible in life, and we will stop again soon even we've just started.

Momentum is that important. I believe that is also the reason why we're often told to have only one goal in our life at any one time. Have too many targets on the list and you'll waste time deciding which to shoot. Besides, you'll lose the momentum you might otherwise have as an ally if you persist and complete one before embarking on another.

At one point of time, where I was in a networking company called NTI, I couldn't produce results. The basis was simple. I'd just need to call and close the sale. But I couldn't. I was fearful of rejections and I push aside everything related to it. My reason for being there was to make money, but I decided to pursue everything else. I made sure I practiced public speaking, eliminating fillers, make new friends, read new books, all but forgetting purposely to make those calls. I could never get a single sale, and the reason was pretty obvious. Out of fear I threw aside what was most important to do, and did everything else not so important. There was no focus, and I never really accomplished much.

But I now understand the importance of focus, and when I attempt something, I try to make it my priority. I make sure I follow through one thing before another. Once I'm done with it, then do I go down the list and do the next solely, complete it and then move on.

A barista's thoughts

Today was my first day with Starbucks and I did my in store training. As much as I tried to fulfil my 8 hours with much energy, I ended the last module rather lethargic. It was however obviously that I was paying much attention to it.

When it came to the role of busing, it was really easy task. I was quite competent in fulfilling the role and even managed to speed up some of the processes with much productivity. Then came the timing where Samsuri wanted to talk to us, and we gathered. After a brief AAR, he came to note the name on my green apron: Rani.

So I came to realise who Rani was. She was basically a Undergraduate who was with Starbucks before me. She resigned slightly before I did. She was only 3 weeks into the programme before she left. Her claim was that it was not befitting of her to do what O levels and Poly students could do. I rather much disagree. It's not the job you do that is speaking of that. To me, she'll never be of much greatness if she sees things that way. She decided to join Starbucks but couldn't follow through. What does this say of her character? Not too good I guess.

It's not the job that matters, It's not whether it's degrading or what. It's what you make out of the job that makes you a person of fine character or not. It's how you see yourself in the job. This applies to all jobs. All jobs at this level are basically similar. They are basically task that anyone can do. Being an assistant in a tour agency probably leaves you being the office helper, to buy drinks, photocopy, and meanwhile commanding a higher pay, does not have a higher status than being a barista or digging a hole. They require no thinking on your part. Until you reach a high enough position in the corporate ladder, all jobs are typically similar as in that they are rather repetitive. It's ultimately what you think of the job that describes its role and how you see it. For me, I see a deep opportunity to learn. Being in a barista position means that I have to be outspoken. This is good as my outgoing side is rather buried. This means I get to bring it out, to fulfil my role in the course of my job.

I am happy with my performance today. I have 3 goals in my career with Starbucks:

1. To do my best and become a better person and to learn and adopt a positive mindset.
   
2. To obtain a Black apron and be titled a coffee master within my 8 months with Starbucks.
3. To do my best and prove to Samsuri that I can qualify as a full-time barista before his promise of 2 months window period.
   

Being a Black Apron is by no means a easy task. Yet, ever since I have obtained knowledge of its existence, I have always wanted to get it. I thus will have to put in an extra effort into working for it. I have to find out more about how I can do so from people who have already done so.

Starbucks

It's my fourth day with Starbucks, and I love every moment of it.

Starbucks definitely is the best choice I've made. The pay no doubt is challenging, for it's only 3.50 now as I'm training, but I have no qualms as how much the company wants me to be successful. I simply love the culture and the training they have.

I'm exposed to 2 days of training of foundation groundwork, mostly about Starbucks culture and the work ethnic, and it is definitely worth every moment. Although somewhat boring, Starbucks is providing definitely quality training.

Issues like 5's be's, star skills of communication, Latte method, CDR, are all but some of the powerful methods taught to me. They focus on interpersonal relationships, and these are powerful examples, which can even be used in other areas outside of my work life. I seriously doubt that the training is as intense as any other coffee companies, or even renounced McDonald's.

I love how friendly everyone is on the floor, I love how I'm respected. I love how I'm treasured. I know I'm definitely given a chance, and should I screw up, I will be taught patiently and carefully, and not be left alone.

Their 3 star skills for example are these:

Maintain and enhance integrity
Ask for help
Listen and acknowledge

The one I wish to state with pride is the second on the list: Ask for help.

I won't forget, for my interview how Mr Samsuri asked me: " How able are you to learn from people younger than you, as some of the fellow partners are 2-3 years younger than you, but more experienced than you."

I gave a good answer, but I never knew why that question was important. In fact, the whole Starbucks culture is like this. We ask for help. There is not a manager or partner separation. We help one another. I could address Mr Samsuri as simply Samsuri if I wanted. But I respect him.

Starbucks is really a company I'm starting to love. Definitely, I'd want to be like Starbucks in whichever endeavours I finally end up in.

on my mind

There has been quite a few issues on my mind recently.

I've been confronted by my parents about sunshine empire, the imminent pending of the sale of our coffeeshop and sorts.

He came to me and told me he had 2 issues to settle with me. The first was regarding the recent article about CAD with sunshine empire. He wanted to know about my involvement into it. He wanted to know how much I've put into it, how much I've gotten it back. To me, it felt like an utter put-down by him. I felt like I was told by him, that I've made the worst choice of my life, any idiot could do better, and as a result, I need him to manage it for me. I told him: I don't want to tell you it. Let me settle it myself.

The next was a consultation about whether he should sell his coffeeshop. Normally we would have a good discussion, but, I couldn't talk to him about it. I felt put-off, I felt that, It's not like my decision would be considered anyway. So fuck it. I told him: I think you can settle it yourself, I don't have any opinions. What he said made me think alot. He said: I feel that I'm sure I won't leave it for you, you won't be taking over am I right?

Deep in me, I know, I'll open a cafe, but, I guess, I won't do it on their plot. I guess, I'll do it the way others do. By renting.

Other People's Money

If you look around the personal finance blog world, you will probably notice that most people fall in one of the two categories – those that always save up for purchases ahead of time or those that almost always leverage available credit. People in the first category are careful about their spending habits, have at least three months of living expenses stashed away in emergency savings and are in general prepared for what life throws at them (or at least working towards that goal). People in the second category usually try to gain the most possible leverage out of available credit by obtaining low interest debt and investing it in endeavors that offer better returns. If you ask the question “Should you pre-pay your mortgage?” people in the first category will likely answer “Yes, it’s a huge debt, so get rid of it as soon as possible” and people in the second category will likely answer “No way, stretch it as much as possible since the interest is low and has so many tax benefits”.

http://gradmoneymatters.com/2007/11/spending-habits-that-defy-logic.html

If you can make sense of what is said above, that's perfect, if not, the quote is just talking about the 2 kinds of people who use credit card. One of which uses it to splurge, the credit-card company's best friends, the other uses it to get loans without interest, the credit-card company's worst customers.

It leads me to what Robert Kiyosaki said. He said, "Money isn't dangerous, the investor is." He also said, "There are good debts and there are bad debts."
What is good debts and what are bad debts? Bad debts are debts that take money out from you while good debts does the opposite. Now, you may say, but don't all debts take money out from you? I beg to differ. If your debt is meant to pay for a commodity that does not repay you any monetary value, it would be considered bad debt. Let's say, what if you took a loan to purchase a house and rented it out? Or maybe relevant to this post, take a loan from the credit card, put it in a bank account to earn that small interest and return it before the interest start charging?

By charging to credit cards, you've already incurred a debt. By putting it in bank to earn some money, you've converted it to become a good debt.

If you purely insist on not having debts, be it good or bad and think all of which are bad, you would be losing out on opportunity to deal with other people's money (OPM). If you haven't already realised, the more money you have, the faster your money comes in. If you wish to start a business and you need capital, you take a loan, you've already started to use OPM. The money in the loan does not belong to you. It's the bankers'. If you insist on not using OPM, then how long would it be before you can start a business if you have to save up every cent of it?

In other words, OPM gives us leverage. Never in this world has money been so easily available. Now, we get the 5 mins loan from POSB bank. Before that was 2 hour loan approval. Year before, weeks would have to be taken before approval could be given for a loan. There thus, has never been an easier time to make use of the leverage present, OPM.

imagination

After reading an article from this website,

http://www.firstmillionchallenge.com/the-dreams-young-people-have/

,I realized, and asked myself, how long have I not let my imagination run wild? For just how long have I always done the norm? For how long when I travel, I limit myself to merely taking buses; I could have walked or considered alternatives. For how long when I wanted to do something, I did it based on what came to my mind first without any deeper consideration of other methods?

Recently I went over to Sim Lim Square. I could have taken public bus there, but Since SLQ was neither close nor far, I decided to save my fare. I could have chosen to walk; but I had to carry my whole computer there and it was too heavy. I could ask my parents to fetch me there, but I didn't. I borrowed a bicycle from my friend, and rode there. It wasn't exactly like I expected, but I was glad I did the unexpected. It was quite an experience riding a bike. I managed to combine having fun with settling my spoilt PC. Not a bad experience.

What I'm trying to say is that we should do the unexpected. Think about what you can obtain if you did it in another way. The result may not align perfectly with your expectation, but I'm sure the ride will be fun.

So, on the page it wrote,

If you have just 2 hours a day and $500 in savings, what will you do to accumulate $10k in the shortest possible time?

And I started to think. I didn't think it was impossible. I came up with blogging as one method. I thought that affiliate programs might be another. Perhaps even, with that amount, money can be made through network marketing. I could even write a book to make up that amount. I could make small gifts, Sell them on a festival day for a higher amount, reinvest that amount, and make more gifts for sale.

Which reminded me of this company, which sold rocks. It basically got garden rocks, allowed people to personalize message on it and sold it to them. Not a bad way to make $10000 with just $500

Blue Ocean

In a book recommended by one of my friends Paul, I found some key to how I should change my life. The book is called Blue Ocean Strategy and what does it mean, you may ask me. A blue ocean is a direct opposite of a red ocean. In a typical red ocean, companies compete bloody, slashing prices and offering roughly the same services to attract more market value. In a blue ocean, there is no competition, as it is unchartered water. It's essentially the same as the quote, "Take the road less taken, as it will lead you to new discoveries."

Red oceans are typical. Companies fight amongst each other like no other way. If today the in thing is donuts, I can assure you, in a single lane of shophouses, at least 3 competitors will be together and the whole singapore will have more than 10 unique companies trying to sell the same proven donuts at roughly the same price. Additional companies joining the fray will only cause the saturation of the market and as oversupply occurs, the whole idea about donuts will fall apart, taking along it, the newly established companies. A history of which can be seen in Singapore alone, as with Bubble Tea, Portuguese egg tarts, Apple strudels, Coffee buns, and cake shops. These low entry entities present no barrier to anyone willing to step in and thus, overcompetition occurs.

It is therefore clear that we should all look for blue oceans. The question would now be how to find the blue oceans. If you differentiate from let's say the donuts business and make more varieties, you are still not creating a blue ocean. You are still fighting in the Red ocean, trying to gain more market share. Such a battle is tiresome and meaningless. You might win, but the battle will be a long and worrisome one. So how may I create a blue ocean? A few companies have effectively done it. Think about a hotel business and big names like Hilton or Fullerton will come to your mind. They have effectively competed based on their luxurious suites and each seek to gain more market share by providing a better experience. The market is saturated.

One company I feel that has explored and found a blue ocean would be La Quinta Inns. What is so different about this hotel? The big hotels compete based on price and they attract big customers like businessmen and tycoon, who are able to pay for the luxurious rooms. They have full suites with full restaurants and wedding rooms and recreational machines and purposes. For La Quinta, It did not model itself after them. It took out wedding rooms and other entities that did not earn money for it and made it into a budget hotel away from the market of the big hotel. As a result, La Quinta rose fast to become a million dollar enterprise.

An additional issue I picked up from the book was about competition between alternatives and substitutes. Firstly I have to define substitutes and alternatives. Substitutes are products or services similar to one another. You could choose to watch the movie Spiderman or Superman, or even The Devil Wears Prada. They are all substitutes for one another. Alternatives are of higher level. People watch movies for entertainment so people could effectively watch a movie because of boredom or sing in KTV or go into a lan shop to play some games to relieve some boredom. These are alternatives.

Commonly it is regarded that if I own a coffeeshop and the other guy opens one across the street, he would be regarded as my competitor. If the other guy opens a supermarket selling litre fruit juice in packets, I wouldn't see him as my competitor directly. That is but a narrow side of the view. There can exist competition between alternatives. The reason the customer drinks is due to his thirst. He could give his business to the supermarket over you even if the supermarket is not directly competing with you. With such knowledge, competition is really complex. Instead of thinking, how can I gain more market share from commonplace competitors, We can start to think, how now can we gain more market share that we commonly leave out due to perceived market barriers.

It is better to be alone than in the wrong compan

It is better to be alone than in the wrong company

In a desperation for company to fulfill the need for social good-feelings, we often don't make good choices. A guy desperate for a girlfriend will in no doubt grab any girl that appears before him, and without regard if she is compatible with him. He will appreciate the misery between them as they try to force each other to be together and understand the meaning of the quote.

In my terms, I understand it as a journey. Friends would in these case be the vehicle. If you have a route to go, your friends may want to go in the opposite direction. In these case, it would be the wiser if you went on feet and not for the speed. Friends who are like-minded have the powerful ability to accelerate your attainment of the goal.

I find myself often in deep confusion. I ask how to improve my usage of time, and the answers are displayed clearly. and then it comes; how to persist in doing these mostly boring things.

I've yet to find plentiful of friends who can communicate with me that well and understand my direction the plans are heading. Of my army group, perhaps only one could be said to slightly understand where I'm going and yet, I'm not totally convinced if he'll persist.

I do identify a few friends out of army who are goal-orientated, sadly none from where it is supposed to be. People who are goal oriented are normally disliked. They forsake others which does not lead them to the goals and pursue that is necessary. One of them is such.

Know him through his previous work and you'll develop a hate for him; how can anyone be so irresponsible? But know the true side of him when he takes up his business work, and you'll see another face, a far so much dedication to be shown. I respect him, but I can't work on projects with him together.

At the end, when it comes to projects, It'll be me alone. I won't have a big group of "Master Minds", It'll be me as the CEO and the rest of my family. I guess my friends will not really get a chance to help me despite knowing them very well, I cannot assume I am able to work them all just as well when they have to meet my demanding demands.

Adding Additional Income Streams

Why is it important to add additional income streams?

First, understand the 3 incomes available.

1. Earned income
2. Passive income
3. Paper income
   

If your only income comes from work alone, then your salary after taxes and CPF is your only income.

Earned income comes from putting in time and then getting money as salary. This is the most difficult to earn sector but is widely accepted.

Earned income :

• A doctor with his own clinic who receives a paycheck.
  
• A labourer working in a construction yard depending on monthly payments.
• A self-employed boss selling shoes in his own shop.

The essential basis is, If you have to put in a linear amount of time for a linear amount of repayment, that is a earned income. If a doctor falls sick and is unable to work, he receives no income, that is, put in time and you'll have money. The problems associated with this is that, as we get older, our productivity slows, and we take more time to do the same things. Working for earned income at 20 years old does not pay the same rate as working when you're 60 years old. Earned income is not forever.

Passive income is income that comes to you without you doing anything related. This is the desired form of income.

Passive income:

• Owning a house and renting it out.
• Owning a self-operating business.
• Owning network marketing with networks big enough to sustain itself
• Owning a royalty in terms of books and patented products
• Bonds with dividends
• Stocks that pay dividends
  

I'll talk more about passive income when I come to it in this post. This is also the area where I'm developing. When you achieve Passive income larger than your monthly expenses, you achieve financial independence.

Paper Income refers to stocks, bonds and derivatives like mutual funds. These include options, warrants. This is an area where money becomes volatile, but they may earn a lot. They may require time as research about companies should be done pior to buying a stock.

Talking about passive income, Ive been trying to build it, and this recently, I've joined 2 programmes, One is by EmailCashPro and another is a pilot programme named MySMSads. Why? It's because once I get it on track, It becomes totally passive income.

Why join them? Firstly they're free. True, maybe that amount of money they do compensate is low, maybe a few cents a week, but they're still free to join. There is that potential to be tapped, free money exists there.

But why still join them? They're firstly not difficult to get started on, and all they require is you read their emails and sms, things you would do anyway. In fact, it was through EmailCashPro that I got to learn about MySMSads.

Both require a minimum sum to withdraw, meaning once you do withdraw, It's basically $10 or $20 bucks in your hands. They add on 2 additional streams of income into my pocket and that's cool, I mean, even if I make $1 a day, it's still money and it's good to have.

These are the links.

MySMSads

EmailCashPro

For one dollar a day, I get $365 a year, doing what? Just reading mails. Compare this with people who work $5 per hour at McDonald doing actually something. Reading Mails and SMS while I'm on the go, is actually not penalizing myself from time i have, but to utilize time otherwise left out AND at the same time make a small bit of money, What's wrong with that? It's in fact so good, where you don't even have to come out a single cent for this opportunity!

If you are thinking that it may not work for you, I'll be so sad to say you might really be missing one good stuff, that's why you should also experience it, since it's free!

For your convenience, these are the links to both of them.

MySMSads

EmailCashPro

Sharing

Just met with Paul. Had a rather long talk for a round 3 hours. Talked about stuff, and lots of stuff, stuff like my personal fears, goals, experiences and difficulties.

Now I know, that my personal fears are more clearly put, can actually be tackled. I just need to focus on them, Since I also know the reason I'm trying my best if for whatever reason that it's not appropriate to illustrate on a public blog.

We have goals, not too common but all that are far far above what we know we can achieve now. We are all working for them, working towards them, and we both don't want to give up on them.

He shared a lot with me, his personal experiences, experiences of his teacher, business experiences, difficulty with difficult people, and how open his mind was.

I also come to realise, how actually, I could just re-read books to gain the knowledge in them, since I missed out quite a lot from the first read.

Mostly importantly, I was re-orientated. I know what I want, not so how to achieve, but revitalised to work towards them, and to do what I know is right, though not really what is most easy at that point of time.

I would be looking forward towards talking with him again, since there's so much to learn from sharing experiences.

Good Debt

Who took my money? By Robert T.Kiyosaki.

One of the ways Robert had taught in that book was about how to make money through Real estate.

First you have to understand that not all debts are bad.

There are good debts, which helps you to leverage by creating more temporary wealth and bad debts which like everyone knows; credit card bills, loans for doodads(things that take money out of your pocket.). For this purpose I will be talking about debts and namely good debts.

Reasons for real estate versus Mutual Funds or Stock market.

Real Estate	Mutual Fund	Stock Market
Leverage possible. $9 loan for every $1 you put in.	No type of loans available	No types of loan available
Cashflow; meaning moneys comes to your pocket every month	Nothing comes to you until you sell.	Nothing comes to you until you sell.
Ultimately when you finish paying your loan, it becomes yours to keep	When you buy it, you don't own it.	When you buy it, you don't own it.

There are more to that but I just can't remember them.

Leverage.

Not in Stocks or Mutual Funds do you get to invest more than what you have.

For a Stock or Mutual Fund you choose to buy, If you have $10,000 You can only invest that amount. No bank is willing to loan you any amount for the purpose of stock exchange.

For a piece of real estate, With a $10,000 Down payment, You get to have a $90,000 Mortgage, Meaning the real invest value becomes $100,000 whilst you'd only have put in $10,000.

What is good debt?

IF the debt enables you to make money by having it, it is a good debt.

Assuming a property of $788,000

with a monthly rental of $4200

Value	788000
Down payment (~10%)	88000
Mortgage	700000
DBS's Managed Mortgage is at 6.25%
Yr1	700000*106.25/100=743750
Amount after Rental amount	743750-(4200*12)=693350(gain of $6350)
Yr2	693350*1.0625-(4200*12)=686284.375(gain of $7065.625)
Yr3	686284*1.0625-(4200*12)=678776.75(gain of $7507.625)
Yr4	678776.75*1.0625-(4200*12)=670800.296875 (gain of $7976.453125)

Please note that this is a real advertisement taken from the CAT classified.

Note that I've not added in property tax, and revonation and sorts. But you can get the idea of a Good debt from this example.

Not pumping in extra money from my own self, I've actually gained value from Money ($88000)

Which I wouldn't be able to get without a good debt. Comparing with this quote putting money into a CD,

HSBC S$ Time Deposit rates

	1 Week	1 Mths	3 Mths	6 Mths	9 Mths	12 Mths
S$50,000 to S$99,999	0.67%	0.74%	0.85%	0.91%	1.02%	1.09%

Assuming a generous rate of 3% for 3 yrs of CD,

End of 3 yrs,$88000*0.03=$2640

a 1/3 gain compared to the method I stated above.

keeping a balance in my social life

One of my friends, whom I feel I'm rather close with had just made his decision, even though, it's not really the best decision for me, it could be the best for him. I support how his decision. But, I'm left to wonder, how he arrived at the decision. Not wanting to sound pressurizing, I didn't ask.. Hence no learning value for me.

But, previously, he taught me some good stuff. I kind of understand why it feels so awkward. It's like trying to mix business with social relationships... It's almost a kind of taboo for me personally. But if i do think of it, I'm just introducing them something that worked for me, I'm actually helping them.

Regardless, they have a choice in their decision. Therefore, I would NEVER push my opinion on them should they refuse. I myself know how it feels to be to be push into a corner alone.

Less about this issue, Recently, the book I was reading had some good stuff. It's “Who Took My Money?” by Robert T. Kiyosaki. I'll put it on once I get more insight on the topic.