Tough things first

When you start with the tougher (and still important) tasks at hand, things become easier. And you are more likely to accomplish them rather than delaying them till forever.

That will be my new guideline for year 2012. Pretty fast how one year flies after another, isn't it?

Having korean BBQ at Seoul Garden with Wifey tonight. Believe it or not, I actually forgot it's my birthday today.

Have a great day ahead, friends! ^_^

Valuing the Customers, Shareholders and Employees

There are 3 main groups of people associated with any business, namely the customers, shareholders and employees.

However, the order of importance in most companies are
Shareholders > Customers > Employees
And rightfully so.

Shareholders are the owners of the business, and why do they start a business? To make INSANE amount of money, of course. So they naturally want (and need) to take their own interest in the first place.

And what better way to make the shareholders happier by being customer oriented? Companies come up with tailored solutions and products for the customers, regardless of how much effort it takes.

And that's where the problem lies. Employees are treated as the bottom of the company hierachy (never mind how much companies keep emphasizing that employees matter). And they are forced in most cases, to do the stuffs to satisfy the customers' needs, even if they don't sound logical.

Flexibility is offered is keep the customers, but often not offered to employees, despite all the work-life balance that the Human Resource Department will preach.

In contrast, Richard Branson (my idol), owner of the Virgin Group reverses the cycle.
Employees > Customers > Shareholders

Employees's needs are addressed first. After all, these are the guys who are giving up a huge portion of their lives (no doubt in exchange for the company's salary) to help the company grow. Happier employees are more likely to be better workers, stay around longer, and be able to treat the organisation like a family, than just purely a workplace.

As employees are empowered to make decisions, they become smarter and more adaptable with addressing the customer's needs. They don't have to consult their superior for every single thing - they may make mistakes, but they become better with each mistake made.

With happy, empowered and smart employees, the customers are better served. Satisfied customers lead to better sales and thus reaping more value to the company, and thus shareholders, the "least important" people in the company, are laughing all the way to the bank!

About the Author: Shingo T never fails to get amazed at how the Virgin Group pays lesser salary than its competitors, and yet so many people want to work for it.

You are your own brand

I have never been a charitable guy. It doesn't mean I'm not compassionate, I just rather overpay to good people who make an effort to sell, rather than some slacker who sits there doing nothing expecting cash for sympathy.

So the story goes, I was on my way back home from the MRT station when this girl walks up to me. She wasn't pretty, but she was calm and reassuring. Before I had the chance to give her the "talk to my hand" signal, she reassured me that she wasn't selling anything (ya, right) and started hypnotising me with a genuine smile.

She asked me to give her 5 minutes to let her explain what she does, and I ended up giving her 15 minutes unknowingly. By the end of the talk, I'm now a monthly donor of the Singapore Cancer Society. I must admit I wasn't exactly giving because "I'm feeling charitable", but rather, I donated because I was buying into her story of why the charity needs to be supported.

We are our own brands. If you are pleased with the service that your real estate agent offers you, chances are good that you will still patronise him after he switched to an insurance agent or salesman.

When a salesman approach you with a product, there are 2 things that he is selling - the product, and himself. Don't believe it? Imagine a grumpy old salesman selling you the best stuff ever. Will you buy it? Conversely, imagine a charismatic auntie-killer salesman try to sell you something mediocre, will you buy it? =p

Say you want to start a business, and you are looking for partners with no particular skillset, who do you look for? Yes, people that you trust. So if you have established yourself as a reliable brand, it is more likely you will chance upon better lobangs in life.

For me, I like to associate my brand with my values - the knowledgable and optimistic problem-solver. It doesn't matter what you get me to do, you can ALWAYS expect me to get quality, and save time with what I have to offer.

So when I introduce a friend of mine to join a friend's company recently, they can jolly well trust my recommendation - I'm putting my entire reputation on it. And when you get me to introduce you a housing agent, you know that I'll either recommend you a GREAT agent, or none at all.

Building your brand has the following cause-and-effect. As you build up a stronger brand for yourself, people buy into you and give you more lobangs, and you just have to reciprocate - by working harder to justify it.

Think Tony Fernandes from AirAsia. Or my favourite Richard Branson. These guys have the word "no frills" and "smart businessman" written all over their face.

So what are some of the words that your friends associate you with? That is your brand, my friends.

Try?

I quote this from my sifu (teacher).

In life, there is no trying.
Either you do it, or you don't.

So stop procrastinating, and stop trying.
Do it. Or don't.

A Newbie Guide to Search Engine Optimisation

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on this topic.

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO is the process of improving the ranking of your webpage on the Search Engine.

SEO is generally quite intuitive, if what you are writing is relevant to a subject, there is a higher chance that it will be ranked higher on the search engine results of the subject. It's logical, because a search engine that returns the most relevant results is deemed as a "Good search engine", so Google and other search engines will want to tweak their search engine algorithms to find the "best" results.

Having said this, please don't go about extensively spamming the same few words in your blog (you know what I mean if you stumble upon porn sites - they abuse all sorts of variation of the same word). Search engines generally blacklist these sites and prevent them from appearing in search listings.

For casual bloggers like us who wants to increase traffic via search engine, here's a small thing you can begin with.

Your blog has 2 unique IDs, your name and your blog's name. Should past visitors want to visit your site but forget the name, they might type the any of them in the search engine. In my case, typing "Shingo T" and "Cup of Ice" currently brings my webpage as the first entry in Google's search page. If you are using names like "John" and "John's homepage", chances are that it will be tough for people to find your website.

But of course, most people out there do not know who the hell "Shingo T" and "Cup of Ice" is, so they won't even bother searching using these key words. That's why if your blogging revolves around something specific (eg. fashion or dog grooming), have that word used as a title on your blog.

For instance, someone may name her site "Globetrotter - Addiction of a Travelholic". One look at the title and you know what the blog is about. So chances are that this will attract someone looking for travel blogs, rather than someone looking to recover from nicotine addiction.

For those who are more technically savvy on webpages, you can read this free document from Google on SEO - Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide!

And finally, never let traffic take the fun out of your blogging! ^_^

The Kite flies

I love dining with my friends and colleagues, but sometimes when I think about it, the topic we talk about tends to be more entertaining, rather than informative. Bitching about the boss and colleagues could be fun, but it doesn't change my future for the better, and definitely doesn't value add much.

The past few weeks have been amazing - I got the chance to network with a bunch of enthusiastic entrepenuers, and now my email has been flooded with inspirational info sharing and discussion with my newfound friends. It isn't easy starting a business, so it's always good to be exchanging ideas with like-minded people.

And nope, I have not started any business, I just want to equip myself with the skills early - don't wait till you are thirsty before you start digging a well.

Anyway, I have started meeting some of them over the past 2 weeks to further exchange ideas, and planning to meet a few more people over the next 3 weeks. It's very much like dating, meeting someone you barely know, and get to know a person better over a cup of cuppa. Just that I'm dating guys and married women this time round. =p

I woke up early today at 6am and couldn't get back to sleep. I laid on the bed with my eyes wide open, speculate about my future plans, and it got me really excited. I turned and saw Wifey sleep so soundly, that I have reaffirmed myself on why I cannot rest on my laurels - I want Wifey to sleep for as long as she likes EVERYDAY, and not having to wake up early just to get to office work on time.

Before I left for work, I reassured Wifey that whatever I do, I do it for her in mind. But should I spend too much time pursuing things at the expense of my time with her, I want her to let me know.

Money is a good-to-have, but my Wifey will always be a must-have.

For I am like a kite.
I just want to fly high.
But I know my strings are tied.
To my Wifey who's within sight.
Should there be thunders of light.
She will give me a tug.
That's where I know it's time.
For me to stop the flight.
And come down once again.
Back to the owner of the kite.

The art of cold calling

Maybe I'm not THAT thick-skin after all.

I just did some "crazy" challenges over the weekends with some of my newfound friends.

First, we randomly called people and tried to hold a conversation for 2 minutes. I failed the challenge miserably, the typical Singaporean probably thought I was trying to scam. The longest I can hold? 1 minute. And my friends could stay 3 minutes or more, and was talking to the same sex some more.

After which, we started making calls to "rival" companies, pass off as customers, and tried to fish more information about the company. At least this time round I know I won't get rejected, because those customer service people have to mind their manners. =p

It's crazy embarrassing doing all these. But after the first few times, subsequent tries got much easier.

Have you guys ever tried cold calling? Did you get a better response?

About the Author: Shingo T knows of a guy who cold calls random people and ended up making a girlfriend out of one of them. Kewl!

The Twin Engines to success

Despite being an egoistic guy, I always believe in the importance of being humble when learning from a teacher. No matter how much you know, you should always learn from zero. Unlearn everything you know, because you may be having beliefs, mindsets and strategies that have been "wrong all these years".

Recently, I have been doing alot of unlearning and re-learning, and even gotten myself a sifu (mentor).

And the key to his success? He calls it the Twin Engines.
(1) generate cash from your business
(2) invest what you get from (1).

This is actually "common sense", but the truth is,
Common sense is never too common.

Close your eyes, open your 3rd eye, and start "seeing" things now.

The Fun Theory

Anyone read the book called Fish! ?



This fishy book talk about the real-life Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, made famous for having FUN workers who throw fish around (and even invite the customers into the fun). Because the staff give so much attention to the customers, it was big business for the market and fun for everyone. And also a fictional story about how the Fish! philosophy was applied to a manager's company to improve both productivity and morale.

It is interesting to note that the people working at the Pike Place fish market actually felt disgusted with the book, but hey, it is nonetheless an interesting book.

If only all our companies can be just as fun, we can achieve great results.

To prove my point, take the look at the social experiment below, on how fun can actually make people take the stairs instead of the escalator.

(Please turn on the volume)



Now, how do you convince your boss that having fun is good for the company?

Great customer service starts at the top

Everybody needs an idol, someone we can look up to, someone who can inspire us to make a move in the correct direction.

And my Idol? Well, I have a few, and Sir Richard Branson, the flamboyant founder of Virgin Group is one of my favourite.


Mr Branson was a self-made millionaire with a chain of mutually exclusive businesses, ranging from airlines, mobile phones, trains to soft drinks and space travel. He was never shy about making a joke out of himself (like being fully naked with a Virgin card placed strategically to protect his modesty), or to put tongue-in-cheek advertisements on national newspapers to challenge rival companies.

Having been through tons of failures in his search for success, he has written books and articles, which I am a great fan of.

Today, I shall copy and paste an extract from one of his article entitled “Great customer service starts at the top”.

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Let's look at another story that clearly demonstrates the importance of every link in the service chain - this time involving Virgin Atlantic.

An Upper Class customer's free limo failed to connect with him at his New York City hotel. (It turned out the customer had been waiting at the wrong door.) He jumped into a cab to Newark Liberty International Airport, a fair distance from the city. Rush-hour traffic was bad; by the time he got to the airport he was very angry, running late and panicking that he'd miss his flight.

The first Virgin agent he located immediately seized control of the situation. She calmed the fuming customer, apologising profusely and assuring him that he would not miss his flight. From her own pocket, she refunded the taxi fare he had paid, then she rushed the passenger through a staff lane and got him to the gate with 10 minutes to spare.

Truly a job well done. Like the leather jacket incident, it demonstrates how great customer service can convert a negative into a positive.

WHEN THE CHAIN BREAKS

Now we come to the part of the story where the chain breaks. During the post-flight debriefing, the agent told her supervisor what had happened and asked to be repaid for the US$70 ($96) cab fare. Rather than congratulating the agent on saving the day, the supervisor asked whether she'd gotten a receipt for the fare.

When her answer was, "There was no time for that," he actually chastised her. He said, "No receipt, no reimbursement. You'd better take more care next time."

Clearly, the supervisor was more concerned about rigid adherence to accounting practices than about employee initiative. While fiscal accountability is important, especially when an outlay of cash is involved, there will always be occasions when an asterisk needs to be marked on the balance sheet.

One thing was certain: Any Virgin employees witnessing their supervisor's scornful reaction to their colleague's exemplary deed would be unlikely to display the same resourcefulness. Which means that the customer loses - and so does the entire company.

Happily, the story came to the airport manager's attention and he quickly took steps to redress the imbalance between company procedures and customer service. He advised the finance team that he'd approved the cash shortfall, while the supervisor got a quick refresher on how important we at Virgin think it is to "catch people doing something right".

Eventually I heard this story, and it truly impressed me. The next time I flew through Newark, I made a point of seeking out the agent who had made us proud. I remarked: "I don't have a taxi receipt, so you probably can't help me."

Her astonished smile said it all.

No company can train its front-end people to handle every situation, but you can strive to create an environment in which they feel at ease "doing as they would be done by".

Good customer service on the shop floor begins at the very top. If your senior people don't get it, even the strongest links further down the line can become compromised, as the story shows.

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Pardon this copy and paste job, because I will love to have paraphrase this story, but no one tells it better than Sir Richard Branson himself!

To end this post, I will love to hear about who your idol is. It doesn't have to be business or work related, just anyone whose words carry some weight and bring some positivity to your life. Now tell me. ^_^

About the Author: Shingo T once wanted to write a letter to the Virgin Group on why they should hire him.

A gamer's future

I am very close to a friend, someone in his 50s, who is constantly worried about his children, even though they have all finished schooling and stepping into the workforce.

One of his son was an avid gamer since young, and my friend used to disapprove how much time the son was wasted on gaming. It didn't helped that this kid subsequently picked up a course in gaming progamming in polytechnic, and also dabble with learning magic tricks, and street basking in his free time.

From my friend's point of view, this kid was not picking up USEFUL life skills.

Well, I just received a call from my friend, who told me that this son was just headhunted by an iPhone game applications company, who offered him a pretty good starting pay (S$2500), and he's not even a university graduate.

Nice!

Once again, 80% of worries in life is unfounded. Just because someone appeared to have a so-so past doesn't mean he won't have a bright future!

Analysts are overrated

Meteorologists have the best job in the world - they can predict heavy rains tomorrow, but when tomorrow passes by with nothing but great sunshine, the meteorologist keeps his job and try again.

For those of you who are into the theory of forecasting, Rule #1 of forecasting states this.

Forecast are never accurate.

Nothing is 100%. Predicting weather is based on what is likely to happen. Similarly, choosing a boyfriend that seems nice enough doesn't guarantee that he doesn't stray, he's just less likely to do so.

Analyst predicts the future outcome based on past events (Markov Rule). Methods like moving averages, stochastic processes, regression, extrapolation, neural networks, weird simulation models and all the fancy forecasting methods are used to create a black box model, which the layman doesn't understand.

And presto, an analyst report is produced.

In almost every analyst report released to the market, they are normally accompanied by lots of footnotes stating assumptions. Like for example, an insurance brochure saying how fast you can grow your money in the best likely situation of 15% annual growth (and a year later after you buy the policy, the recession sets in).

Facts do not lie. Biased opinions and the way that selected data is used however do try to skew the reader's judgement towards signing up for a financial plan.

Though analysts are supposedly objective, there is normally a motive for the report. Even a reporter who wants to report objectively may tone down his criticism because of his editor, or intervention from government-related agencies.

My first job upon graduation was an analyst at some government-linked company. I had complex mathematical models to do some forecast, but the numbers that I came up with were often deal with sceptism by the experienced people. Eventually I realised this.

The correct answers are what the client wants to listen.

And also to all aspiring analysts, here's a tip from Uncle Shingo.

It's better to have a simple forecasting model that the client understands, than a more accurate model that acts like an unknown black box.

Moving on, investment reports have always been accompanied with words like caveat emptor, which means buyers beware. Always take an analyst report with a pinch of salt, digest the facts, but don't take their recommendation blindly. No one is responsible for your own losses (and wins) but yourself.

A stock market newbie often make this mistake by following friend's advices or overweight calls from reports. I know, because I have been through that phase, and lost money because of it. And I have got no one to blame but my own laziness to spend time reading up.

Some time back, a research team pit a bunch of experienced traders against a bunch of kids in picking stocks. And as you might have guessed correctly, the noobs won the experienced traders. Sometimes you are better off making a wild guess than to take the advice of an "expert".

On an interesting note, JP Morgan, a leading financial service firm, recently published a paper on the World Cup. It predicted the winners of each round, and interetingly, if you followed them, you would have lost money.

What JP Morgan predicted
Netherland beat Denmark
Cameroon beat Japan
Italy beat Paraguay

And the result were as follows
Netherland beat Denmark (2-0)
Japan beat Cameroon (1-0)
Italy drew Paraguay (1-1)

Any football savvy guy could have easily make bets that will give JP Morgan a run for its money.

To the guys at JP Morgan, just stick to what you do "best".

Shingo T the Poacher

I interact alot with people, and I'm always constantly on the lookout for good people.

It could be a cleaner, the security guard, the coffee lady, the bus driver, the guy who sold me jewellery or anyone. Whenever I get impressed with a person's work attitude, I will tell myself that "This is the guy I will poach to work for my own company". And in cases when i'm extremely impressed, I get their namecard, just in case I might call them with a little proposition years down the road.

And nope, I have not yet set up any company. I preach alot about why we should step out of the comfort zone, but in the end, I'm this scary cat who talks alot but have no concrete action. I could come up with 101 reasons why I am still stuck helping people make money, but deep down, I know these are not reasons, these are my self-made excuses.

Anyway, pardon the digress.

Richard Branson is one who hires based on a person's aptitude, and I think that's so smart. Paper qualifications are over-rated. Unless you are getting IT guys, laboratory scientists or accountants, where paper qualifications correlates with how often the guy will produce results, it's better to get someone who has that aptitude, the X-factor.

A top-earning salesman related to me his story about a potential customer, a study mama from China, who would not buy a single product from him, not because his products aren't good, but because she's not buying into him. How do you trust the words of a person you only knew for a few minutes? So this top-earning salesman went the extra step out for her, teaching her how to secure her kids into her choice school over the next few days. It's something out of his jobscope, but it got her to buy into him as a friend. Soon, she started becoming his regular customer, and gave lots of referrals. Woot! $_$

Soft skills like charisma, interaction, EQ, mindset and motivation are skills I lookout for in my potential employees. It's important not to produce disgruntled employees, because low morale is infectious, and happy workers produce better results. I need to ensure that my own company doesn't fall apart when I go on a vacation with Wifey to Milan on a shopping spree.

Recently, Wifey got the chance to know most of my colleagues. And I singled out two particular colleagues who have that "it" factor that I'm looking for. Not everyone may agree with my choice, because one of my choice has some "personality problem". But I see why she has that "problem", and I am confident of turning turning it round to make her a great asset.

Be on your best behavior, kids, especially if you are dealing with clients or strangers.

The stranger who you impressed today, might be the guy who will poach you tomorrow.

And I might just be that poacher.
*winks*

And been poached will certainly give you a better deal than aimlessly hunting for your own job.

About the Author: Shingo T gives extra poaching points to people in miniskirts compare to those in business trousers.

Complexifying simple stuffs

I always believe The Man Above made everything simple. But humans, being brainy creatures, just had to inject information and emotions to make simple things difficult.

Why have war when you can just have peace?
Why lose your temper when you can settle things amicably?
Why commit suicide when you can live?
Why not just move on to the next available girl if your current one rejects you?
Why smoke when if it gives you more harm than good?
Why pick up a fight if it's going to hurt both of you?
Why do you even provoke people in the first place?

The solution to many questions is sometimes so simple, and right before your eyes. If only we learn to be less emotional, and be more rational.

There's a time to think, but there's also a time to stop thinking too much and just take the most obvious "correct" solution.

Brownie points

There is this "Focus on the family" section that I follow everyday on the Today newspapers. It is written by the Acadaemy of certified Counsellors, and the articles are short and meaningful.

One of the writers, a psychologist by training, related his experience with a waitress, who seeked his advice on handling a quarrel with her 15-year old daughter.

The little girl wanted to have her legs shaved, but the waitress mum was against it. As a result, they frequently quarreled over this.

The psychologist gave the waitress mum a simple solution "Buy her a shaver". His rationale was simple - there are too bigger things in life that we should be concerned about.

How true. In all aspects of life, we can't always expect to take complete control of everything. By letting the daughter have some "wins", parents earn some goodwill. I call them brownie points, and they serve as a bargaining chip to facilitate them to influence a bigger decision of their child's future.

Do you want to influence small things like your daughter shaving the legs, or bigger things like ensuring she does not stay overnight at the place of her new boyfriend?

Same goes for work. A boss who wants to have the final say and micromanages everything will only get resentment for his workers. Maybe he should get feedback from the men and let them have it their way sometimes (even if deep down inside, the boss may not agree with the suggestions).

And if you know of someone who look for you time and time again only when they need your help, how will you react when they need your help once again, and this time to borrow a few thousand dollars? Well, I will say "No" without hesitation, I have already helped you way too much.

Start accumulating some brownie points with your loved ones, your friends and your colleagues.

You will never know when they will come in handy.

Earning a million dollars (Part 2)

This is a continuation from Part 1.

Part A: How to making millions from $1
Here is a TRUE story of a Singaporean who made more than a million dollar using 1 dollar. The story was shared to me during one of the motivational talks I have attended, and I shall try to recap and post it here.

A Singaporean, let's just call him Alex, wanted to build a shopping mall in Australia, but didn't have much capital. So he came up with a carefully thought plan and executed it as follows.

So Alex approached an Australian local who wanted to sell his plot of land for a certain huge amount. Alex said he is willing to pay double that amount, but the local will first have to sell the land to him for $1. With someone willing to pay twice the amount of money for the land, the local was more than happy to part with it for $1 first.

And so Alex now has the land for $1. The next thing he had to do was to have money to build a shopping mall. There's no way to get this huge amount of money other than to borrow from the bank. But why would any bank be crazy enough to loan Alex, a nobody, a huge amount of money? Alex had no guarantee except his piece of land, and he has no track record to show his shopping mall plans will be a success.

So Alex executed the next part of his plan, to secure an anchor tenant for the shopping mall that has not being built. He approached the founder of Australia's largest (or one of the largest) retailer of electrical, computer and furniture company called Harvey Norman and struck a deal with him.

Alex offered the founder a chance to be the anchor tenant of the not yet built shopping mall for HALF the market rental price. The catch? Harvey Norman has to sign a contract to rent the place for 25 years. With such a great deal, the founder couldn't say no.

With the contract stating that Harvey Norman will be the anchor tenant for the next 25 years, Alex went to the bank to secure the funds needed to build his shopping mall. Alex was a nobody, but Harvey Norman is a BIG somebody in Australia. And the bank agreed.

With the land and the money needed to build his mall, Alex started getting the construction up in the next few years. And after it was done, it's time to reap in the moolah, renting the shops out.

And Alex gave 2 of the stalls to the Australian local who sold the land to him for $1, and that equates to twice the price of the land the local initially asked for.

Everyone's happy. And Alex began to have bigger plans of his own after his first venture.

The end.

But before you get too happy... here is
Part B: Why you (and me) will never get rich this way

(1) If you ever want to try this, our mum/girlfriend/mistress/buddies will say you are crazy. And they will give you all kinds of negative comments to bring you back from lalaland to Earth. They don't want you to fail, that's all. And so you give up.

(2) Alex managed to convince someone to sell his land for $1. And you don't think you can do it. It's a CRAZY idea, and you don't want to appear stupid trying to convince someone to do the same. So you will just conveniently say that you suck at sales.

(3) You don't know how you can get to talk to the boss of a BIG corporation. How do you get his email or contact number? How do you even draft a good letter? You don't think you are a somebody, so there's no way he will talk to you. Even if you can, you just get cold feet at the thought of marketing the idea to the big boss.

(4) You probably don't know how to go about building a shopping mall too. And so you won't give it a try. Never mind that Richard Branson wasn't trained at the technicalities of the companies he built - train, airlines, mobile, space travel. You probably will say Richard is different. Haha.

Simply put, we raise the white flag without trying. We are wimps when it comes to setting our own business. So we just sit on the sidelines and bitch about others (we just love to pick on the rich, don't we?)

Here's something I learnt at a separate class - this time a social entrepenuership talk. If you ever want to build a business, don't worry too much about the "How to". Will write a separate article on this another day.

Setting new year resolutions

Picture stolen from here.

Some time back, there was a survey done on a graduating batch of students from a particular prestigious university (Harvard? Oxford?) In it, the students were asked whether they set goals for themselves. And it was statistically proven that those who set goals for themselves ended up being better achievers in their careers.

Somehow, the Law of Attraction comes to mind. When you remember your goal for the year, your actions will change subconsciously in a way you will move yourself towards it.

No one wants to remain stagnant, and that's why we have new year resolutions. If there's a problem that bothers you 5 years ago, and it still bothers you, then you should jolly well work on it.

Putting it bluntly, should any of us die tomorrow, we die with no regrets.

For those who have a discipline issue working on your resolutions, here's 5 suggestions.

(1) Write it down and paste it in a conspicuous corner of your bedroom, so that you are reminded of your resolution should u happen to see it.

(2) Share your resolution with someone you know. It could be your best friend, your mum or post it on your blog. This way, there's someone who will give you ad hoc reminders when you appear to be on the wrong direction.

(3) Set the last day of every quarter to periodically review your progress. Don't make it an annual appraisal exercise.

(4) Don't over-set the number of targets. It's not the quantity, but the quality. Better to set 2-3 targets and fulfill them, then to set 20 targets and fail them all. Remember, targets are not meant to stress you out, they are to meant to motivate you.

(5) Dangle carrots or give yourself the stick should you fail to hit the target. I made myself abstain from meat for 1 month as a punishment. It might be easy for some, but it ain't easy for me.

Cheers to a great year 2010.
And may we all be better people 1 year from now.

Note: This post is specially dedicated to Roxy. Set goals and upgrade yourself when you are still young. When you reach Uncle Shingo T's age, you will have better memories to look back to. ^_^

About the Author: Shingo T wants to be a Malaysian who knows how to speak basic conversational Malay. And that will happen in end 2010.

Being cool

I brought Wifey to a investment scheme recently. Was briefed by a guy who also works part-time as an actor. He was a nice guy, and a smooth talker, and while the investment was very tempting, he reasoned that it will be valid ONLY if we signed up on the day. That's the first warning sign that something was not going right. Having written articles on ponzi schemes, the last thing I wanted was to end up being a victim of one.

As the part-time actor tried to shoot down every reason that was holding me back from signing the deal, his patience started to wear thin. In fact, he started looking impatient as I (purposely) long-windedly reasoned with him. I was having fun playing with him! ^_^

I kept my cool, while remaining firm on my perspectives, and watched how he finally gave up and sent us to the door. It's amazing how salespeople can be angels at one moment, yet sucuumb to pressure and lose their composure at the most critical moment.

What he may not have realised that his impatience was producing cracks in his otherwise flawless presentation.

If you want to be a conman, at least be one who is cool.

Which brings me to today's topic, the importance of being cool. When it comes to work, job descriptions often have this line called "Ability to work under tight deadlines and pressure". People who can perform under pressure are seen in a very positive light, and are potential candidates to be groomed for bigger positions.

In Singapore's cheap, fast and good society, pressure is the ability to do something with GOOD quality, subjected to a FAST deadline, regardless whether or not you are paid CHEAP.

And having the right MINDSET is key to ensuring the best outcome in the midst of performing under pressure. It is not something that can be brainwashed overnight, but it doesn't mean we put off correcting the mindset.

When you can manage pressure in all areas of your life, you realise that life is very much a breeze.

An article once suggested that when it comes to choosing a life partner, before you turn a girl of your dreams into YOUR WIFE, it is important to see how she performs under pressure.

Say, you and a girl of your dreams are on a backpacking holiday, and the hotel which you have booked for, insisted that due to a clerical error, there are no more rooms for you. The two of you continue looking for a few more backpacking hotels and found that there are no more rooms anywhere as the rooms are mostly booked for a major local event. For a moment, it seems that the 2 of you may even have to sleep on the streets in this dangerous city! See how she reacts to this. If she starts blaming you, throw tantrums, or start to give you the cold shoulder, imagine what is in stalled for you when you finally marry her. How is she going to handle the BIGGER things in married life?

When you perform under pressure in all aspects of your life, you gain this aura of security, and people are magnetically attracted to you.

Life becomes easier, and you will realise that life is beautiful!