Re-living Passion

Time flies.
Things happened.
People come & go.
And life goes on....

As we are an emotional being, we get motivated & de-motivated at times. The roller-coaster of life will fill us up with passion in a moment but disappointments will empty our energy tank in another moment. Unless we do something about it to minimize our energy fluctuations and re-focus on significance, or else life is controlling us.

The key driver of life is always and always will be Passion. Passion helps us do our work without additional pull. Gaining passion is one thing, keeping it up is another. Re-gaining it back once we lose it need a little extra push from the inertia downturn.

I was in a cafe the other day, reading my book. When I was on the way to the washroom, I saw the outlet manager was having a meeting with the service crews and I overheard some scoldings and correction statements being voiced out by the manager. I guess the whole meeting can be sum up with the word "Re-living Passion".

In any work that we do, if it is done repeatedly in a mundane and monotonous way, the energy will eventually die off. It is about generating new rhythms and new waves which could re-live our passion.

I can think of 3 simple ways to do it;

1. Learning new knowledge.
2. Solving new problems / challenges.
3. Keep thinking of a better way to do it.

If there is a choice, people would like to be busy & productive than to be led to nowhere! Because of a simple reason; We want to feel being useful. I could never think of a better word than this.
Useless = Less use!
Useful = Full use!
So, let's use some of our existing talents and discover some of our potential talents to re-live our passion.

A Small Decision With A Big Impact

Sometimes only time will tell in order to know whether we've made the right choice in life. A small diversion of a good decision coupled with a timeframe will lead to the real result that we eventually realized. Unfortunately, the timeframe can be as long as 2 or 5 or even 10 years before the realization comes to past. Be it emotional or logical decision.

Good decisions sometimes are from the experience of making some bad choices. Sometimes it is too far away that it is hard to reverse back the cycle. But sometimes it is still within our circle of control.

Hence, the best decision is a combination use of logic, emotion and gut-feel.
When we want something, analyze a little bit, check our pulse of emotions and then go all out with our guts. It can be a YES or a NO but move forward with a futuristic mindset.

What happen if we make a wrong decision and we can't do anything about it?
The only way is to embrace and change our perspective. That's why some people experienced blessings in disguise.

Of course talk is cheap and easy, practising it takes creativity and thinking out of the box. We surely needs some level of creativity to see the negative into positive, to see the doughnut and not the hole.

Our Inner Ear - Subconscious

Psychologists talk about expressing our problems and stress out. Some people channel it out through yelling, doing exercise, going through some form of therapies or sharing it with friends. Most commonly, we'll choose to share it with a buddy or someone older than us, perhaps lending us a pair of listening ear or some advice.

But I've tried before sharing some burden or stress with friends and the more I shared, the more negative I became! Because when we share, we are the first person to listen to it through our inner ear again & again until it is impregnated into our subconscious. As opposed to what psychologists talk about, the more I think about it and speak about it, the more I magnify the situations. The worst thing is the negative wind is now blowing to our friend who listen to us. Suppose he or she is having a great time and suddenly being striked by "Down-Syndrome" because of us, sharing unnecessary gossips or  negative stuff!

In conclusion, what shall we do? To share or not to share?
To share, we might experience a short sense of relief.
Not to share, we might explode one day!

In my opinion, we should talk it out and share it with 2 conditions;

1. Share with someone positive that we can trust.
2. Share with the mindset of solving it.

The first condition is to enable us to have a sense of relief and acknowledgement of someone knowing what we have gone through. The second condition is to help us to block the on-going flow of negative "chi" to ourself and to others. Eventually, if we let the negative air floats around, it will be cancerous! Until the extreme of someone committing suicide or doing something extreme and harmful without any conscious effort of curing it.

Life is only once.
Let's try our very best to minimize mental pollutions and contaminants in order to live with abundance.

Sales ---> Marketing ---> Branding

Most of the business started off with the focus of Sales.
That is where we gather "bullets" to support in the long run. The basic resources to sustain a long term business are Cashflows & Profits.

Most of the time, Sales & Marketing goes hand-in-hand. Of course Marketing involves Product, Promotion, Place (the right location), & Price structure. But I think another 2 more P's are more important.....PEOPLE & PASSION!

From Marketing, it moves to Branding where it involves Promises, Meanings, Commitments & Emotional Attachments.

Well, I can see some businesses making a transition from Product Differentiation to Emotional Association. I guess both are as important.

But sometimes I like product differentiation and got confused on emotional association, trying to figure out what kinds of emotion that an ad trying to portray.
Example:

• Nissan's tagline of SHIFT.....hmm.....Shift on what? Thinking? Trend? Technology?...etc
• Seiko: EXTEND OUR LIMITS....hmm...Putting Daniel Wu doesn't really portray that...
• McD: I'M LOVIN IT.....after their concept change on the exterior....I've got it!
• Milo: From MINUM MILO ANDA JADI SIHAT & KUAT....to PLAY HARD, LEARN HARD.....telling us to enjoy life to the max?
• Nike: JUST DO IT.....of course the Swoosh does make us feel confident & instill sort of a sportmanship spirit into us! But I guess the most important factor for Nike is most of the well-known sport players wear it! That is a great exposure...
• Nokia: CONNECTING PEOPLE.....hmmm...of course that's the purpose of a handphone.....perhaps CREATING COMMUNITIES instead? But I think iPhone already successfully doing it!

Of course there are some who have personally branded themselves: Lillian Too, Joey Yap, Donald Trump, AirAsia --> Tony Fernandes, Virgin --> Richard Branson, Apple --> Steve Jobs ....etc.
But I got a little confused when I see the same brand ambassador carrying multiple brands such as Amber Chia or Eric Leong. I do respect their entrepreneurship & passion in helping certain brands to be more outstanding but eventually I'm a confused-kid looking at those ads!

Anyway, consumer's purchase is always boiling down into a simple formula of:
Emotion + Reason = Purchase!

Most of the time, we buy things EMOTIONALLY & then justified it LOGICALLY!!

I've had ex-colleagues who bought a LV bag, working as an executive in a company.....so, tell me bout it!! Don't tell me they need a new handbag because the old one has broken & accidentally bought a LV!

Well, branding is a very interesting field afterall. It enlivens a name created from nothing to something.
I have to admit that I do love certain brands......
As the saying goes....

Factories manufacture PRODUCTS, Consumers buy BRANDS.

Facebook vs. Facetime

It's amazing for a 26 year old becoming a billionaire!
Yes, I'm referring to Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook.

Becoming a billionaire is one thing but changing the world is a big thing!

No doubt he is changing how the world interacts, communicates and operates in terms of bringing the whole world to a few steps closer.

As I can recalled, it all started with IRC (Do the Gen-Y knows that?). It was really hot back then.
Then we have the MSN messenger, ICQ, Skype, Friendster....etc.

All of these were created for the concept of bringing the whole world closer.

At times, I were thinking that all of these applications were so successful in bringing the whole world closer but failed to bring the neighbourhood closer....even for an inch more! Sometimes in the context of family as well.
It is like, "The world is so far and yet so close. The world is so close and yet so far!"
It means a person might be closer to a new friend developed through facebook in another country and yet not that close with their neigbors or family members.

Facebook is pretty powerful in a way and also pretty crippling in another. Of course everything created must have its pros & cons. It depends on how we leverage it.
To me, Internet communication is a bit "cold" where phone or video communication is "warmer". Of course nothing beats face-to-face communication, which is Facetime!
But becareful not to dwell & got obsessed with internet communication until we imprison ourself in the Virtual-Reality than to engage the Reality itself.

The Virtual-Reality is a great place to "hide". We can hide our weaknesses, our bad behaviors, our bad attitudes or even bad looks! While the Reality (or the Facetime) portrays the real "who" in us as we communicate our Body Language, Tonality and Facial Expression in which that is the main communication touch-points!

Thumbs up for those "mamak", "kopitiam" and cafe for providing a Reality place for Facetime!

I can't imagine what if in 10 years time, Oldtown set up a ...
"Virtual-Kopitiam" where members order through a ...
"Virtual-Myanmar-Worker", then drink ...
"Virtual-White-Coffee", with ...
"Virtual-Kaya-Toast", engaging in ...
"Virtual-Get-Together" & "Virtual-Gossips"!!

Even that is still very far from the TRON's era, but I think at that time, human-touch would be pointless and if you check the body temperature of a human being, it is far below 37°C because we are all Cold-Blooded!!

In summary, do engage in Facebook, Twitter or whatsoever to keep up with the latest technology but don't forget the conventional Facetime with Friends & Family!

Remember to celebrate the HAPPY upcoming NEW YEAR in the Reality zone!