Another Milestone - 365 Posts!

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

Just before I exited my blog today, I noticed that the number of posts showed 365!

Screenshot

Well, I definitely did not plan for the milestone. But 365, that is the number of days in a year.

I thought maybe I should write something about it.

After going over my thoughts, the only thing I could come up with was "Thank you!!"

Thank you for staying with me for all this time!

Thank you for the comments/suggestions/emails!

Thank you for being kind!

I do not think I could keep updating the blog without you, my readers!

Thank you!

 

Till next time!

How to decide whether someone is trustworthy?

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I am troubled because I do not know whether I should trust someone.

He is my mentor. What he says makes sense. And he is not shy in telling me that he wants the best for me. 

But I always feel something is not quite right, almost like that he always has his own hidden agenda and he hides it really well from me.

I want to trust him and I try to convince myself to trust him. But I just could not get rid of the feeling.

I want to be completely open and honest with him, which I have been so far. But more and more, I fear that he will use that against me.

What he tells me makes senses and he always puts himself in my shoes (At least that is how I feel). But things have not been really working out for me.

…

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I am really troubled.

On one hand, I fear that I have been trusting the wrong person. On the other hand, I fear even more that I might wrong someone who actually cares about me.

My dear readers, how do you usually tell whether to trust someone? Can you please share with me? Any guidance is appreciated. 

Thank you!

My Market Transactions — Wk38 2022

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil

 

Again, I am warming up. But it seems that the warm up will continue. I am just not sure about the market now.

Have a great week!!!

“Iron Rice Bowl” is no more

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

US is considering removing tenure for Professors.

Tsinghua University just discontinued the contract of an Associate Professor.

Not to mention the many rescinded offers by Shopee.

…

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“Iron Rice Bowl” is no more.

The best safety and stability is our ability to switch platforms.

We may not switch, but we definitely need to keep the ability to switch.

That would require us to be aware of what is going on in the job market, keep improving our resume through work experiences, and accumulate the abilities that will be needed.

And we need to do this continuously.

 

Till next time!

Monthly Net-Worth Update — Sep 2022

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

So 3 quarters of 2022 is gone. 

I have to say that it has been a bumpy ride for me.

Except for my investment, which has been consistently going down…Haha

Here is the snapshot of our Total Net-Worth for Sep 2022.

Net-Worth increase from last month: 8K SGD, +0.79KG Gold

My stock portfolio had another big drop again, eating up almost all our salary income.

We had some dividends this month, which helped.

Gold price decreased a bit and we had some increase in terms of Gold as well. 

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Investment: -16.88% annualized return, incl. dividend

This is another new low, both in terms of absolute value and annualized return rate.

I will continue to work hard to make up for the loss.

 

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk37 2022

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil

 

Again, I am warming up. But it seems that the warm up will continue. I am just not sure about the market now.

Have a great week!!!

I am getting old

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

I watched movie till 2:30am last night. I woke up after 5.5 hours of sleep and I felt so tired.

So I decided to have an afternoon nap.

But I could sleep long…I still woke up tired, especially my eyes.

I think it will take another night of long sleep before I can recover.

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I used to sleep after 2:30am very often.

I used to be so energetic after 4 hours of sleep or even less.

I used to have such good sleep, in sofa, on desk or aboard flights.

…

Time does not flow backward.

We need to accept the decline of our physical power and be able to contribute with our intellectual power!

 

Till next time!

“Follow your heart” — How?

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I remember many years ago, when I started my consulting career, I had to do a MBTI test.

I had to do one initial test and a verification test some time later.

So the results from my verification test turned out to be exactly the opposite of my initial test. (If you are wondering, no! I do not have split personality. My scores were weak along all dimensions.)

I showed my results to the coach and asked how I should tell my type if asked. She said “Follow your hearts”.

I said Ok and went on drinking (If you are wondering, Yes! Drinking is pretty much the whole point of all consulting trainings, team buildings, offsites etc etc, as least from my experiences. I wont say I am a very good consultant though.)

That was my way of saying “Bullshit” to her in that specific situation.

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But trust me, I really want to follow my heart. But how?

If the matter is small, anyhow can. I do not need to ask my heart or anything.

If the matter is big, I do not seem to hear any voice from my heart. Or I hear one voice one day and a totally different one the next.

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I am faced with another decision now. Taking the risk could put me on top of the World or cause me to lose what I have now.

I can still live well with what I have now. Hell, it is actually much more than what I could hope for, say one year ago.

But this opportunity, if it works out, will definitely put me in a totally different league. 

What do I do?

What do I do? 

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk36 2022

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil

 

Again, I am warming up. But it seems that the warm up will continue. I am just not sure about the market now.

Have a great week!!!

Change also means losing something

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

As a consultant, both external and internal, I have seen too much resistance to changes, even on a burning platform (company on the edge of going bankrupt and people on the edge of losing their jobs).

It confused me like hell why people just did not want to change even when the benefits were so obvious, both to the organization (efficiency and profit jump) and to themselves (job security, better bonus, more valuable stocks).

A recent chat with someone with 30-year experiences in this field solved my confusion.

He said “Change also means losing something and it is hidden”.

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That is so true!

When we build business cases, we look at only the benefits and investment required. But there are so many other hidden factors we do not consider.

People may lose their power.

People may lose the value of their existing skills which they have lived on for so long.

Or most simply, people may lost their right to the current relaxing work pace.

…

When combined with these factors, the business case for each individual may not be positive at all.

Moreover, benefits are only estimated (people may or may not get it), but people need to make efforts/sacrifices now if they accept changes.

When thinking this way, many things are easily explainable. 

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It all comes down to people. 

It is easy to say we are people focused and we consider our people our most valuable asset. 

Maybe it is time to spend a little more time thinking about how to make the business case positive for your employees too. 

Of course, having the right people is also critical.

 

Till next time!

Moment of Breakthrough — “Cried like a baby”

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

In my chats with friends and colleagues, a term came up quite frequently — “I cried like a baby”.

And more often than not, a breakthrough followed.

Hence, the title of this post — “Moment of Breakthrough”.

Logically, when adults cry like a baby, something very bad must have happened, they must be really hurt and feel really sad/scared/…

Typically, significant learning's come from these painful experiences, which would enable them to finally get rid of the burden they have been struggling with but did not have the determination to cut the ties with, or to discover new ways to advance.

Thus, the breakthrough.

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So next time, when we cry like a baby, feel the sorrow, worry, despair and all those feelings we feel and let it out. 

But at the same time, know that a breakthrough is coming. All we need is a little time.

 

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk35 2022

 

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil

 

Again, I am warming up. But it seems that the warm up will continue. I am just not sure about the market now.

Have a great week!!!

Even bad guys work very hard

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I have been reading some history books and noticed a fact that I never paid attention to.

Even bad guys worked really hard.

My education and culture gave me below impressions about bad guys: 

• Bad guys are bad guys because they are“bad”.
• Because they are “bad”, it would be easy for them to be bad guys.

I now realize that this is only half correct.

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On one hand, the bad guys are definitely “bad”, in the sense that they believe in “bad” things.

For examples, corrupted officials believe that all man are selfish and it is justified to leverage the power for his own good. They might even believe that this is the only way they could stay as official.

Thanos believes that the only way to restore the Universe is by eliminating half of the lives randomly.

…

We need to take note that the things bad guys believe in are just “bad” to us. They themselves do not think for a bit that what they believe in is bad or wrong.

They never doubt themselves.

In this sense, bad guys have to be “bad”.

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On the other hand, it is not easy to be bad guys. 

Bad guys have to work for it too, just like the good guys.

They have to stand firmly with what they believe in, turning a blind eye to all the “good” in the world. From this angle, being a bad guy is much harder than being a good guy.

They have to think and work very hard too. Otherwise, the good guys will out-work and out-think them and ultimately out-power them.

I read about this famous bad guy in Chinese history. 

He was thinking and working all the time and he was so good at what he did. 

Many initiatives and plans were executed flawlessly under his mastermind. 

So many creative ways to satisfy everybody and secure their support were invented by him.

…

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If we want to leave our mark in the world, chances are we will need all three things below:

• Unshakable belief
• Continuous hard work
• Talent in what we do

It is not easy, even for the world to remember us as a bad buy.

 

Till next time!