5 Major Bosses

The common chronologies in our life were:
- got born
- learn how to walk, talk & eat!
- go to school
- then go to bigger school
- if didn't drop out, then go to another bigger school called the college / uni
- graduated.....if can...
- find a job
- earn money
- if risk appetite is high, invest or do business or businesses....
- earn more money
- find a partner
- got married & have kids
- sigh......tired to talk about it, you know the rest of the stories.....finally, we are buried 6 feet under!

Besides targeting the highest Maslow's hierarchy of needs which is Self-Actualization & Significance, money is kind of orbiting our lives all the time.
And whatever we do, is like ....we are serving 5 major "bosses" in our life all the time!

Our 1st Boss: The Real Boss!
Of course the one who pay our salary.

Our 2nd Boss: The Government!
This is due to the existence of the 1st Boss. Of course in the name of nation-building, we pay tax.

Our 3rd Boss: The Bank!
Due to climbing the ladder of needs, we buy car or cars....then a house to put it in of course! Then a major portion of our money goes to the bank.

Our 4th Boss: Spouse / Family!
Our parents took good care of us, of course we will take good care of them as well. We buy them good food, nutrition ranging from birdnest, ginseng......all the way to super-multiple-variable-awesome-vitamins!
Then we spend time with them and if possible, bring them for a holiday! Hopefully, we serve them well.

Our 5th Boss: Children!
We feed them, bring them up, pay for schooling all the way until their life is sort of settle down & steadily earning a decent income.

At the end of the day, what's left?
A small-teeny-weeny portion of time & money left for us to do what we like....if there is anything that we like afterall. Sounds a bit sad huh?
No wonder people talks about setting Goals & Mission in life.
But most of the time, nobody plans to fail, just fail to plan.
I've once heard a prominent business person said, "Unhappiness is caused by Comparison."
Hmmm, quite true in a way. Some people compares negatively while some compares excitingly.

After knowing such a small portion of resources left for our ownself, we really have to cherish great moments with friends & family. Whatever we want to do, let's try to do it. Succeed or Failure is one thing but at least we don't regret trying it out.

For those who want to say "Thank You", say it.
For those who want to say "I'm sorry", say it.
For those who want to do things that's never done before, do it (I'm referring to the right thing!).

At the end of the day, we want to Live a Non-Regrettable Life.

Push & Pull Forces

Most of the times, when we wanted to Push ourself to do something, there is always another thing to Pull us back! Sometimes we just want to follow our Passion or Dream.
But due to our past experiences or failures, we tend step back and think .....
"what if...", "what happen next...", "is it worth doing...", "can I do it..."......etc.

It is like the Right-Brain fighting with the Left Brain....within our Brain!
I've heard someone said before, "The biggest prison in the whole world lies between our ears!" How true...

I've had moment like that before.
When I have a Direction of where I want to go, there is a Devil telling me otherwise.
When I try drafting those Details out, Mr. Distraction will divert my plan.
When I try to just Do It, it ended up as Damn It!!

In my opinion, the best treatment for such symptoms is JUST DO IT.
Sometimes the best time management method that I've ever use is just simply SAYING NO.
We need to do trading between exchanging good things with great things......or great things with greater things.

Once I break that decision barrier and was in the action mode, things become much easier. The initial inertia was the problem.

Remember these 2 forces, it is up to us to choose.

Direction ßà Devil

Details ßà Distractions

Do It ßà Damn It

Mr. Honda

Most of us drove or sit in a Honda car before, but do you know that Mr. Honda is one of the most persistent man ever.

In 1938, Mr. Honda had a little workshop and he developed a special piston ring concept and thought of selling it to Toyota Corporation. He is so passionate and dedicated in his work until he slept in his own workshop and pawned his wife's jewelleries to continue in his business research!

Finally, he completed the piston ring technology and presented it to Toyota. You know what.....he got rejected! It was due to the reason that certain standards were not met.

Then Mr. Honda continued to study for another 2 years to deepen his knowledge. After another 2 years, he eventually got a contract with Toyota.

We would thought Mr. Honda lived happily ever after.......

But at that time, Japanese government was gearing up for war and it was really hard to get concrete to build factory. Did Mr. Honda quit? No, he created his own concrete, then built his factory & get the job done!
What a true winner!

But....another bad episode happened!
During the war, the factory was bombed twice, destroying major portion of the factory.
Mr. Honda didn't dwell on it. Together with his team, he picked up gas cans that the US fighter had discarded and positively said, "This is a gift from President Truman!" Now he used that as the raw materials for the manufacturing process.
Talking about innovation, creativity & persistency, we can't beat Mr. Honda....!

What we didn't know was after the war, it followed by an earthquake!!
Most of us would have quit but not Mr. Honda.
Challenges after challenges, he persisted until he secured a long deal with Toyota.

But after the war, there was petrol shortage. Therefore, Mr. Honda couldn't drive his car to even buy food as he used to. Instead of putting himself in the corner facing dilemma, he thought of ways to go above it or under it or around it.....and finally he had a breakthrough!
He attached a motor to his bicycle to get around......
The neighbours saw it, like it and of course asked Mr. Honda to install it to their bicycles as well and they called it "MOTOR RIDE". The so-called "business" was so good until it ran out of motors!

Guess what? Mr. Honda set up a small factory producing motors. But, he has no capital....
Therefore, he appealed to almost 18,000 bicycle shops for his great invention and finally got 5000 of them to pay an upfront capital to fund his factory. Then he found out another problem.....the motor was too big & bulky!
He re-designed and created a scaled-down version of it and called it the Super Cub, exported it to baby boomers in US and ....... THE REST IS .....HISTORY....!!!

Anyone felt tired reading it? Not to mention the person experiencing it and solving endless problems & challenges that got in the way.

Now, when you see a Honda on the road......what do you really see? A CAR or a DREAM?

Life Labels

How do we live our life depends very much on the labels given by our ownself.
External labelling by peers, families, spouse & colleagues do affect our internal labelling if we are not strong enough.

Here are some thoughts about how some people viewed & labelled life...

LIFE IS ....
1) Hard - definitely this labelling is affecting one's mindset to continuously "struggle" in life.
2) A Game - this is a good one! When we lose a game, we can always re-start another game, discover new strategies & go through new levels. It is not Game Over yet.
3) About Winning or Losing - this is to remind us to be competitive and result oriented. But be careful not to practise it to the extreme of exploiting others to get what we want.
4) A Gift - this label is going to remind us to live with Gratitude, by focusing on what we have and be thankful.
5) A Discovery - this an Explorer's label; treating every situation and moment as an education and full of "mysteries"!
6) A Challenge - it is all about taking risk, being adventurous, keep going forward and not looking back.
7) A Journey - this is to understand life has its season; the ups & downs. Timing is everything. We are not going to reach and stop but keep moving.
8) A Dream - this is a good one, to remind us to Imagine and Visualize! Our daily job requires most of our Left-Brain hemisphere. It is good to exercise the Right hemisphere from time to time.
9) About Love - sacrifice, commitment and give; these are the 3 words that attached with this label. This is a reminder of money is not the only thing in life but families and friends are.
10) About Freedom - it is a good label to drive us to do what we want and what we passionate about.

Well, at different levels of life, we tend to "install" different labels to drive us forward or to bounce back from low-points or to remind us on life appreciation.
Keep this note, it might be useful along your journey of life.....

Enjoy Life...

Exploring life is a process of discovering Faith, Adventure, Direction & OwnSelf. Sometimes I'll know it when I start. I truly respect those who are experiencing a life of what is exactly being dreamt of years ago. When I watched one of Oprah's show where she helped a young girl achieving her dream of being a singer, getting an album done & singing with Celine Dion live, what a contribution! That's life! That is exciting. Making a difference in someone's life.

Time flies.
When I look back, only to realize not everything I have achieved is in concurrent with what I've planned or desired exactly.

Surprises & disappointments are around us. Indecisiveness are very frustrating and normally it is rooted from the lack of a compass!

I gotta align & focus!
But I won't just focus on the result while ignoring the process of enjoying some events and good people around me.

Money is important but after money, friends, family, respect & happiness is what we are after.

"Aiyah, why so Serious...... sometimes "sot-sot" like dat oso quite healthy!"