Slimming Program 2

Day 122 - 878 days to go

After trying the 90+ percent discount trial slimming program, I decided to sign up the actual program for a few reasons:

1. I found the program effective i.e. I lost 1kg within the 1.5 hours by doing nothing and merely sleeping on the therapy bed.

2. The therapist is very friendly and helpful.

3. I was offered a special package not only on the cost per visit but also the flexibility of the program.

4. The center is very convenient to me as I can always go there from my office after work as it is within 20 minutes driving distance.

5. Not many slimming centers offer facial service as well and for men too.

Happy Events:

1. Brought my mom to meet up my sister and her in-laws.
2. Had very delicious seafood dinner.
3. Read a very interesting book authored by a famous author from Hong Kong.

1. 
   

Slimming Program

Day 121 - 879 days to go

Today I went to try a slimming program purchased through Groupon with 80+ percent discount. Huge discount or even free trial is one of the most frequently used sales or business promotion strategies. Time to take good care of myself in terms of body shape and the facial look.

Happy Events:

1. Went back to office to work for 1.5 hours and achieved quite a bit. Always like to work during weekend and holiday as I can have 100% concentration in the office.
2. Went to Puchong Hill run with KC group and left early. As I was alone running out from the hill, I ran my best almost non stop and felt good with my fast pace and good level of fitness.
3. had a good lunch with family and my Muslim maid. Today is the first day of Hari Raya and Selamat Hari Raya to all my Muslims friends.

Day 120 - Farewell Lunch

Day 120 - 880 days to freedom

Lately attended a few farewell lunch with my colleagues and interns. Today is Mr. Lim Lean Beng who has been working in various Bursa Malaysia group of companies for the last 29 years. I really cannot imagine working in a company for such a long time. Well, I guess he enjoys what is experiencing until now.

If I were to stay in a company for such a long time, I will look for the followings:

1. Challenging job

2. Conducive work environment

3. Supportive team members

4. Good career potential

5. A dynamic company

6. Competitive salary package

7. Friendly co-workers

8. Able to rotate to other job functions.

Happy Events:

1. Happy to see my colleague is retiring soon.
2. Able to sort out all shoes ordered for my rat race teammates
3. Of course, Happy Hari Raya

Social Media Business

Day 119 - 881 days to freedom

Today made yet another good decision to attend Sen Ze's social media magic talk at Armada Hotel. He shared with us a very interesting business model that combined online and offline efforts. This is yet another level of understanding for me about business. 1st level is offline business and then moved to online business without any countries or market limits. The 3rd level is to combine the online and offline efforts to maximise the earning potential plus more actively look for customers rather than waiting for customers to come and buy your products.

Automation and outsourcing are the two critical component of a successful online business. In terms of target market or sales force, the best one is through social media as it is almost free after the set up costs. Well, minimum cost coupled with maximum earning is the best business model that one can ask for.

Happy Events:

1. Another great day that I do not have to wake up before 6am.
2. Attended an interesting and valuable social media briefing.
3. Had a good dinner with family at Kin Gary.
4. Forced to go to Alliance Bank HQ in KL to pay my credit card bill and learned that lots of people actually went to Jalan TAR for buka puasa and new year shopping. Many roads around that area are parked with lots of cars at both side of the road. Great to be forced to go to KL at night to learn that Jalan TAR is still the place for some fond memery and tradition.

One Shop Restaurant - RM10 million Annual Business

Day 118 - 882 days to go

Just realise that one-branch restaurant could make RM10 million or more sales in a year. If we take a very conservative of 20% net margin, which is considered low for restaurant, it can make net income of RM2.0 million per year. Many of the public listed companies may not have this type of net income at all.

The company is located at Starhill Kuala Lumpur. All in cost for one person is about RM100. The price is not cheap but at least they deliver value. Their success formula is to provide more value than other competitors by giving the most variety of foods. This is a very good strategy as everybody has a limited room for food regardless how may items are on display. Their sucess also due to continuous improvement such as providing free vine, Haagen-Dazs ice creme, more variety of food and so on. Price has not been changed and as such high price in 6 years back become reasonable price when everybody else has been increasing prices.

Happy Events:

1. Had a good time with my girl and family for a wonderful movie - overheard2 and a good dinner at the above restaurant.
2. Weigh in after one month and lost 5.1 kg for the one month body weight losing contest.
3. Hopefully can make it to the top 5.
4. Have a good rest as I have decided not to attend the commercial property workshop because I want to spend time with my girl for her belated birthday celebration on weekend.
5. 
   

Good Team Member vs Good Team Leader

Day 117 - 883 days to freedom

I am in charge of managing the rat race team runners and support. For shoes, I changed to New Balance this year. Every year I try to change to new brand so that runners will be able to try different brands. Furthermore, New Balance is a good brand for running shoes based on my personal and other people's experience.

I went to the shop to pick up my order and realised that she was still trying to sort out my order. I thought it would only take another half and hour to settle the whole thing but it lasted more than 3 hours. End up, I received two pairs short as well. Technically many people may just walk away or at least scolded her for such a messy or even lousy management but I did not do anything. I even felt pity for her as she is quite young, and just try to make a living, may be less than 25 years old.

I knew her last year from another branch and apparently she was promoted to take care of this existing branch after the previous branch manager resigned. She is a very hard working person and earned my support. She provide good customer service and has very good follow up. However, maybe she is just not really to assume a role as a manager or leader. I will not blame her as learning on the fly is not for everybody and also proper training provided by a company is a must no matter what. Hopefully I will have a chance to provide some guidance to her to be a better manager as it is not enough to work hard but work smart as well.

Happy events:

1. Finally got the running shoes for runners but due to the delay of the shopkeeper, I reach office late and hence decided to let them try the shoes on Monday.
2. Today is my good friend, Shirley's new born baby full moon and she delivered the full noon gift pack to me. However, I was not able to receive directly from her due to the shoes issue. Happy full moon celebration to the little angel. Must be very beautiful just like the parents.
3. Today day is the lst day of school before the one week regular school break and the Hari Raya celebration. My girl went shopping and have fun with her schoolmates and friends. During our journey to the shopping mall together with her schoolmates, they learned about our good parent-daughter relationship and also my way of educating and upbringing of my kids, one schoolmate made a comment that,"If you were my dad, I will be one of the most fortunate and happy daughter in the world." Glad that Iam on the right track as a father.

Double Happiness

Day 116 - 884 days to go

Today is a double happiness day. The concept paper submitted to the Securities Commission was approved. Next step is to complete the rule amendment for submission. Really thanks for the supports given by our colleagues from other department and also the SC.

Other papers submitted by other colleagues are not so lucky and hence not approved pending more information to be provided. In other words, the SC is not very comfortable or convinced on the proposal. I have not seen the papers and hence do not know why they were rejected.

Another one is the approval on the paper submitted to CEO. It was approved without any extra terms and conditions. These two are the best pre Hari Raya news to us.

Happy Events:

1. Had a delicious lunch with the team sponsored by my GM. It was kind of a celebration lunch for the paper approved by the SC.
2. Learned that we maybe going to meet potential market makers from India next week in Singapore. It is excited to get more potential players in the market. As I always tell my staff, it is always good and beneficial to talk and meet people as you will never know what will come out from the meeting. This Indian players are the results from a meeting with the CEO of a futures broker from Singapore. Bravo!

Team Work

Day 115 - 885 days to go

To me, in order to succeed as a team, team work is the most critical success factor. Just like the USA dream team for basketball consists of all super stars but did not win every time. Individually they are the top players in their own team but due to lack of teamwork, they lost from time to time.

No man is an island. In order to succeed as a team or an organisation, teamwork is utmost critical. Sad to say that some senior management staff always think that whatever they think or decide are correct and do not listen to other people's opinion. I would think that most likely an individual's opinion will not be as good as having a team to think through every possible scenarios.

Happy Events:

1. Attended two farewell meals i.e.lunch and dinner. All the best to my soon to be ex colleagues and interns.
2. Ran before and after work today and felt good despite a bit tired due to lack of rest.
3. Continue to get some good websites that contain good information for my work.

Annual Medical Checkup

Day 114 - 886 days to go

Today is a great and lucky day. Went to office to put down my stuff before going to Prince Court Hospital to do the annual medical check up. Not much traffic jam and reached there on time. Met my good friend who was there earlier and also doing medical check up there.

Everything went smoothly and had the least pain when blood was taken. Must be a lucky day. Went for treadmill stress test and managed to reach level 6/7 which was considered quite fit for my age. Sweat a lot despite only run for less than 17 minutes.

Asked for my cholesterol results on the way out and happy to know that my overall level improved. I will work harder to reduce the bad cholesterol level further.

Happy Events:

1. Happy to know that I am still fit and cholesterol level has also improved
2. Had a very delicious and wonderful lunch with my good friend
3. Happy to know that my good friends score flying colors for her blood test and she is both fit and healthy.
4. Did 3 times of exercise to continue my 2nd days of the slimming program.
5. Found some good website for options training materials which will be helpful for my training to be conducted later.
6. Very motivated and inspired to write more posting today.

Intensive Slimming Program

Day 113 - 887 days to go

This blog post is a bit unique as it labels include both personal success and failure factors. Technically, in any event and situation, success and failure coexist depends on the eventual outcomes. Today is the start of my five days intensive program and I plan to slim down at least 2 kg in this five days.

My breakfast and lunch were basically b'nergy energy bar by Omni company plus a little vegetable in the morning. I also had a cup of coffee for my lunch. I had quite a normal meal for my dinner after taking B'fit pill which is supposed to reduce the in take of fat into my body. I think I consumed less than 1000 calories today.

Besides lowering the intake of foods, I exercised twice. I went to the gym and did spike training for 25 minutes and did outdoor run cum gym exercise after work. I felt good despite not taking in regular meal.

Happy Events:

1. Started working on the first draft of currency derivatives paper with my new Management Associate. It is at least one year ahead of my original timeline.
2. Had two round of exercise and felt great about my current fitness condition.
3. Identified a few website with good materials that will be used by my job functions and papers later.

A Great Mentor - Patric Chan

Day 112 - 888 days to go

Today is a great day especially there are 888 days to go.....a very prosperous and auspicious number.

My internet marketing mentor and coach, Patric Chan is a very smart and hard working person, judging from my personal observation from attending his class for close to 8 times and the email I have been following so far. I am really glad to have such a wonderful coach and friend who really inspired me a lot. Well, I think I am lucky to have such a great mentor like what Robert Allen pointed out that we need to have different categories of mentor.

He is also a great business man who has lots of business initiatives and strategies, despite mainly evolve around internet marketing only. As his young age of 31, he is very mature in his thoughts and can be regarded as very successful as well especially he came from an ordinary background without little support from the family. I can see he will be much more successful in life and I wish him and his family all the best.

Happy Events:

1. Learned more skill and made more friends in the seminar.
2. Started my 6 days intensive slimming program
3. Enjoyed a tasty curry mee at Jalan Imbi.

Life is great and food is tasty.

Residual Formula

Day 111 - 889 days to go

Had a good start today. Went to Lake garden to join my ultra distance runners friends to bid farewell to Sofian who will be leaving the country for good. Got quite a number of good tips from him on triathlon. He is one of the most successful and experienced triathlon participants in the countries to had participated 3 world class events. Sad to know that he is leaving but happy for him to be able to have a choice to live at the place of his choice. All the best to him and his family.

Attending Patric Chan's Residual Formula at Ritz Carlton Hotel. It is a very nice hotel despite not located at the best part of Kuala Lumpur but still at a very strategic location which is at the edge of the prime area around KLCC. It is also convenient to go for shopping and meal from the hotel.

Went to Low Yat to get a adapter for my wifi router. The crowd is just fantastic and ai am very happy to see the huge volume of customers and business transaction. It made feel like in Hong Kong due to the not so big size of the mall and the huge volume of people there. I like the positive and vibrant business atmosphere created by the 'TRAFFIC JAM" in this mall.

Happy Events:

1. Happy to meet Sifian and a big group of runners in th eearly morning at the beautiful Lake garden site.
2. Happy to catch up with my ex colleague Azran, who is the CEO of AirAsia-X now. he is still very fit and active in sport or exercise despite his busy schedule. Missed the time we played futsal at the multi purpose hall in Bursa.
3. Watched Cowboy and Aliens, a very interesting movie. Happy to see Harrison Ford again despite the fact that he is no longer playing the main cast in Indian Jones anymore.

Day 110 - Bark Up the Wrong Tree

Day 110 - 890 days to go

I think many Malaysian and Malaysia companies should buck up if not will always bark up the wrong tree. A lot of times when we want to seek approval from the relevant authority, instead of asking or focusing on relevant issues, they split hair on the not so relevant issues. Worst still, they wear old hat from the previous job or experience and ask us to justified our proposal based on the standard or knowledge they learned from other industries. Please move on and unlearn what you know so that you can acquire new skills.

This is the problem to many senior management. They always think what they learned and applied previous to bring them to the current position is still applicable in other industries or now. Time passed and market developed. We should unlearn and relearn. Juts move on and should only used what we learned in the past to learn more new skill. Will will not reach a new destination if we always turn back to where we came from.

Happy Events:

1. Completed market consultation on Index Options contract with SC. No issue on the contract design.
2. Had lunch with my team at the Taman Desa fish head mihon restaurant. So many people and easily more than 50 tables were occupied.
3. More staff resigned from IT division but happy to learn that the launching date for the new clearing system is not affected based on the lastest findings.

U.S. Commodity Trading Commission (CFTC)

Day 109 - 891 days to go

Two CFTC senior staff, Senior Economist from the Division of Market Oversight, David Kass and Director from the Division of Clearing and Intermediary Oversight, Ananda Radhakrishnan provided briefing and dialogue to the local authority and our company. We are so grateful to have their sharing session as they are from one of the most developed organisation in the derivatives industry that have eventual influence to the development of the derivatives industries around the world.

Happy Events:

1. Felt good while doing exercise and prepared to face the music as I pushed myself a bit harder than normal.
2. Attended two dialogue sessions with two senior personnel from CFTC. So happy and grateful to be able to learn and make friend with world class derivatives expert and regulators. Not all have the same opportunity. I know I am lucky. Thanks God.
3. Further improvement and analysis was done for option contract. Will propose the change and I am confident that the change will contribute to the eventual success of the contract.

Inspiration and Creativity

Day 108 - 892 days to go

To me, creativity is a skill that can be developed over time. In other words, creativity is not a inborn trait rather it is a learned skill. There are a few factors that will make or break the level of creativity:

1. Inspiration is key to creativity. In other words, there must be some kinds of trigger or catalyst that will result in higher level of creativity
2. Learn, unlearn and relearn - keep on learning new thing is the most effective way to be creative
3. Learn a wide verity of knowledge. Strategy, methodology, principle, philosophy etc from one industry can be applicable to a new industry and hence lead to creativity
4. Luck. Yes, luck is part of any success formula. Nevertheless, a very practical definition for luck is "Preparation meet opportunity"

Happy Events:

1. Went for a hill trekking in the morning and went for a run in the rain after work. Felt great and fit.
2. Gain back my inspiration for writing.
3. Started a very interesting and challenging work relationship with my new MA who will be in my department for 6 months. He is a very dynamic, confident and smart young man. I am glad that he applied to my department after some "fact finding" about me?

Be Grateful Now or Regretful Later

Day 107 - 893 days to go

Today is supposed to be a great day as I am writing my 100th blog post in 107 days. The other 7 days when I did not write were due to not access to internet either I was working in overseas and I did not want to pay the stupid hotel charges for 30 minutes internet access only or there was a problem with blogger.com accessibility. However, I was very unhappy and annoyed.

I hate accused by people but the person know it very very well. However, due to her natural personality and habitual behavior, I was accused after doing something good and it was for her in the first place. My God! please be grateful, people......

Happy events:

1. Enjoyed the yoga class a lot
2. Had a good after yoga class with fruits
3. No worries about the BB charging

Gen-Y

Day 106 - 894 days to go

I have been coaching, managing and mentoring Gen-Y since a year ago. So far I do not see any problem or generation gap. I think it is mainly due to the fact that I am a very open-minded person and I accept differences. I try to understand why they do things the way they like, the way they talk, the way the think, the way they behave and so on. So far I think I am on the right track and even become friends to some of them who have since left the department or organisation.

Well, it can be very hard or very difficult to understand any Generation; not only Gen Y. For instance, I used to have problem to understand my late father who seemed to be unreasonable not only to me but to the family. However, I may be biased or I may not have put in enough time and efforts to understand his needs and wants. Merely giving him money to support his lifestyle may not be enough. However, it is too late for me to think and look back. To regret may not add any value to anybody. I will give more time to my mom who is a stroke patient and may not need anything from me except the basic necessity as her memory has been greatly affected by stroke. Technically she will be a more difficult case to me as I do not even know what she wants. Regardless what, she is always my idol and I always tell my friends that she has very good communication skills and much better than me. I think I owe her a lot whenever my friends said I can talk well as I can always recall many incidents I was speechless when talking to her.

Happy events:

1. I met up with my ex colleague who came to my office building to have meeting with another company and she is much more happy than before. Very happy to know she enjoys the work and also the work environment in the new company.
2. Went for a training run for Rat Race and felt good. Hopefully my fitness level improve by the day.
3. Finally fixed my second car and felt good for whoever drive the car. Should have done it earlier.

Maintain A Balanced Life

Day 105 - 895 days to go

Today I decided to skip the Chinese medicine preview class as I have not been spending weekend afternoon with my daughter lately. The reason is that I have been attending various types of classes lately during weekend and also when I was free, she was not free due to her preparation for exam for the past few weeks.

We went for movie with my wife and we had a good time. Sometimes, we should take a break and live in the present rather than always prepare ourselves to live for future. Take a break is for us to prepare ourselves for a longer distance. We need time to relearn and unlearn. We should spend time to reflect what we learn. Just like driving a car on the road towards a destination. we need to always check the read and side mirrors and also rest before we continue a long journey. even a machine cannot operate without stopping, let alone human being.

Besides taking a rest as I felt a bit tired both physically and mentally as a results of my office work as well, I have to spend time for a few tasks. First of all is to find out what happen to my wifi router as it does not work. Secondly I need to bring my mom out for haircut. Another one of course to spend time with my family. Well, I achieved all these by going to a nearby shopping mall.

Happy Events:

1. Able to let go i.e. to skip a preview class and spend time with family.
2. Spent a few hours to check some files for my work purpose and found some interesting and useful powerpoint and PDF files that i have been keeping all this while.
3. Watched a fun movie with family and had a good laugh.
4. Able to sleep till 9am as I always wake up at 6am or before for the last few months due to training for rat race and other commitment.
5. Well health is wealth and thus enjoy a bit more rest and happy moment is also part of wealth building strategy.
6. 
   

Option Training Session

Day 104 - 896 days to go

Today is a fruitful day. Woke up at 6am and went to company to train for rat race. After the run, freshened up myself and went to office to prepare myself for an option training later at 10am. We partner with an investment bank for the half day workshop.

I achieved a few things from one morning.

1. Train for my rat race.
2. Conducted an option training which is my own office function.
3. Know a few friends from the investment banking.
4. Learn from other speakers.

Happy Events:

1. Achieved the above few tasks in one morning
2. Made a few friends from the investment bank
3. Learn more from the acupuncture class.

Copycat Marketing

Day 103 - 897 days to go

Today, hundreds of people gathered at the Nirvana Memorial Park in Semenyih to offer prayers to their ancestors as part of the annual Enlightenment Ceremony which will last for 3 days from today. It is estimated that a few million revenue will be added into their annual income from the 3 days activities.

Bereavement care business is a big business in the region. It has evolved overtime from a very traditional business to a very modern type of business. They employ direct sales and multilevel marketing strategies to grow their business. They even include investment scheme with attractive projected investment returns to sell as investment products. Of course, not surprised that they also offer installment scheme. In other words, almost whatever sales strategies that you find in other types of businesses, you will find it in this industry too.

Happy Events:

1. Met a friend who is a savvy property investor in commercial property and learned some investment knowledge from him.
2. Able to reach the meeting place for less than an hour which is much better than I estimated given the expected massive traffic jam on a rainy Friday after work.
3. I learned to follow my heart to do thing that I want immediately instead of doing it later as I may regret for not able to do it later.
4. This week is 1/3 of the one month long slimming contest. I slimmed down about 3 kg withour much efforts except eat very little after afternoon yoga class and also consume bnergy power bar and b-fit pill before my meal. Both products help me to be slimmer.

Follow Your Heart

Day 102 - 898 days to go

Today is another great day to me. Went for a run near the office and benefited a lot. People who do not run on the road will never know the benefits such as watching the vibrant city life or traffic jam, listen to the lively sound of music or the noise pollution and smell the prosperity flow of city chi or pollution. we all live in the same environment but simply a mindset change will make or break your day.

I had a good run and appreciated the beautiful scenery and greenery around the neighborhood. The good thing is I am not alone as there were so many workers rushing back to home while I was running up and down. Despite the busy environment, I had good soul searching at the same time looking at the greens and also enjoying all the beautiful sight around me. Well, I wish I have more time to do running and soul searching at the same time...

Happy events:

1. Always follow your heart. If you feel like reading a book, making a call, having a cup of coffee or merely going for a walk, just do it and you may be surprised with the end results.
2. Persistence - never give up with what you like despite some major changes in life. Never give up will result in victory. Marathon runners do not win the race but their own enemy within them i.e. the little voice who keep on telling them to stop in order not to suffer from tiredness anymore.

Career Change

Day 101 - 899 days to go

Today is a unique day as I have farewell lunch and dinner with two colleagues by chance. I hardly have farewell meal with two two resigned or outgoing staff on the same day. Quite a number of staff left the company late with different reasons, some are voluntarily, some are due to reach retirement age and some are due to non confirmation and so on.

Well, regardless of the reasons, one thing is similar in common. They left with their experience acquired during their working period in the company and most often than not, big chunk of their experience is not captured, learned or retained within the organisation. Well, it may be a loss or may not be a loss to the company depends on how valuable or relevant is their experience as one wrong decision made can cost the company million.

I wish them all the best in their future undertaking. One thing for sure is that our friendship will not end with the termination of their employment with the company.

1. Despite farewell might be a sad occasion, the chance to have meal with some of the not-so-often-eat-together colleagues is a happy event.
2. Had a good briefing and meeting with our regulators and both had a much better understanding between both parties, the requirement expected for proposal submission and also the various product knowledge discussed.

Day 100 - A First Significant Milestone to Freedom

Day 100 - 900 days to go

100 days is a significant milestone and as such we always read about write-up on 100 days become a President of a country like Barack Obama or even a President of a political party, for instance. Today is my 100 days into my 1,000 days journey towards personal freedom which include financial freedom.

Just want to do a quick review of the last 100 days based on my memory as I do not plan to review all my blogs for this round:

1. Well, I would say I am quite discipline in writing my blog. I have been writing everyday except the 7 days that I either work in overseas and have not access to internet (as I do not want to pay for the ridiculous high cost for my less than one hour of internet access or I failed to log on blogger.com which happened a couple of times during the last 100 days.
2. My action plan is to create multiple streams of income learned from my mentor i.e. Robert G. Allen from USA. My multiple streams of income are infor-product like writing a book, investment in property and internet marketing. I may also want to do coaching and become a speaker after I acquire more knowledge in the fields that I want to venture into.
3. I bought a property during this 100 days.
4. I wrote 93 blog posts as the input for my future infor-product.
5. I attended numerous internet marketing sessions to prepare myself.
6. I attended numerous property investment, personal development, technical courses and other type of workshop to prepare myself for my current job and future undertakings.
7. I have been building my network both online and offline as Network = Networth (locally and overseas).
8. I took part in 3 marathon and 1 ultra-marathon from 2 April to 25 June this year to be part of my preparation for more running event and be fit and healthy.
9. I am still putting in my best efforts for my full time job but swap my leisure time at night, during weekend and on leave for my 1ooo days to freedom preparation.
10. I am still spending time with family and taking care of my mom who is a stoke patient for the last 3 years.
11. Financially I am more stable now due to better financial planning and less burden with the dismiss of my father last year. In average, I will give him RM2500 per month for his pocket money, living expenses for him, my mom and the maid. Furthermore also due to the fact that I have fully paid one of my cars' monthly installment.

Well, I believe that without this 1,000 DTF action plan, I would not have achieved so much. Therefore, think big and achieve big. Action plan rather than a plan only , is a must for success.

However, I think I can do more and better if I have better time management and more organised. I am facing the two minor problems due to the fact that I always want to find a balance in life i.e. I will try my best but try not to stretch myself until I feel extremely tired and bored. I think a happy life should be a balanced life between work, family and personal dimension.

I will give myself a 70% i.e. high pass but not good yet. Plan to achieve better results until I achieve at least 95% upon 1,000 days. I will do a checklist to define what is 90, 95 and 99%. I do not believe there is such level of 100% as it means thatthere is no room for improvement.

Options Training by CBOE and CFA

Day 99 - 901 days to go

Today is another wonderful day. Two speakers from CBOE and CFA delivered great presentation to our staff, SC, BNM an dmarket participants. Both speakers have their unique way of conducting the workshop and they are very experienced in their respective field.

Glad to meet up with my ex classmates in IMD and also got to know more market participants. One important achievement is to provide more training to SC and BNM staff in order for them to understand options market better. Some of the questions asked on the spot not only enlightened the audience but also allowed them to confirmed their understanding or cleared their doubt.

Happy events:

1. Jointly organised an Option strategies and risk management workshop conducted by CBOE and CFA. Many positives feedbacks are gathered.
2. Buka puasa with my colleagues and we had a good time at the canteen.
3. Started training for rat race again. Just realized that I am not as fit as I thought. Time to catch up.

Financial Freedom

Day 98 - 902 days to go

Today is another great learning day. I continued to learn from a few property investment gurus in the Wealth Mastery Academy workshop. By chance sit next to a personal finance author and expert. I attended his seminar 4 - 5 years ago and bought one of his books. He told me that he authored 6 books since then. He is also a regular speaker in various personal finance and investment seminar.

I am not sure if he is from Seremban or he just chose to stay in the small town which is about 1.5 hours drive from KL. What I learned from him and my another colleague who has been staying in the same town is that they paid only 20 to 30% of the price for a house with the similar land size in KL. Of course, the property is not expected to increase in price to the extend that is close to the KL counterpart. however, they really enjoy quality of a big house with much lower investment cost.

The speaker is better off compared to my colleague in a sense that he only needs to travel to KL whenever he conduct seminar in KL which is normally during weekend with less traffic. However, my colleague needs to travel two hours for one way every workday. Nevertheless, his whole family enjoy the bungalow with big piece of land with the hard work of the husband and father.

Met my ex colleague and learned that she sold a piece of property which appreciated by more than 200% within 5 years. Of course, in terms of capital outlay which is the down payment, her gains could be more than 2000%. It is only commercial property that will has such a high yield in so short a period. Therefore, it is quality and not quantity that counts.

My sifu Milan challenges participants to invest in at least a piece of commercial property for good gain. Base on his estimation, 3 to 5 million bank loan on good quality property is what it takes to have a good retirement. It takes 10 to 12 years to achieve financial freedom. I agree with his calculation and will work hard towards the goal.

One more common strategies used by speakers for promoting their course is that they will jointly promote their respective course i.e. if you sign up one, you will get the second one free of charge. another one is that internet is used more often for any type of investment even for property investment.

Happy events:

1. Met the speaker again after many years and learned some money savings tips from him.
2. Learned quite a bit for the property investment talk.
3. Met my ex colleague and happy for her for her success in property investment.

Passive Income Workshops

Day 97 - 903 days to go

Today is a great day. Attended two of my most important and favorite workshops in life i.e. property investment and internet marketing. It is always great to learn new information as it served as vitamin to my mind and soul. It enriched my mental and hence a healthier physical. A happy mind will result in healthy body.

Met two ex colleagues and chatted for a while and shared some fun historical information about office matters. Also shared some latest development in the market for mutual benefits.

Happy Events:

1. Very happy to meet many old friends at the Wealth Mastery Academy held in the Gardens Hotel at mid valley mega mall. Param and Alice were in the same workshop, Heng was with family, Gerald was with Angeline before heading back to France for a two weeks break, and ex participants from other property investment seminar.
2. Learned more property investment knowledge to be a smarter investor in future.
3. Made some new friends at the two seminars.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Day 96 - 904 days to go

Weta Digital, kudos to your team. Another excellent movie produced by your team after the Avatar. I really enjoy the computer effects as well as the story line. Computer is getting more and more high tech and make the movie more and more real. Eventually, we can hardly identify if a character is a real object or just a computer effect.

To some, computer effect is just a small part of the entire movie however for another group, it may be the most important part of the entire movie. To me personally, I think it is fun to watch all the computer effects as long as the underlying is a very interesting and touching story.

Happy Events:

1. Watched another great movie with excellent computer effect and story line.
2. Looking forward to attend two days property investment seminar start tomorrow.

Business Development and Innovation

Day 95 - 905 days to go

Today had a meeting with market participants and some observation:

1. Need more vision and mindset change for market development. Our participants need to be more sensitive to danger as if we are not able to expand our business pie from the local and overseas market, sooner or later some of the weaker ones will be forced out of the market.
2. Some of the proposal is extension of trading hours, investment in better technology, learn new skills to sell new products, take part in overseas and local roadshow and other marketing initiatives, etc.
3. Initiative. We have to take more initiative to innovate and expand business and do not subject ourselves to any local constraints such as number of products, pool of funds, technology, local market, skill-set and so on. Instead, we should have find ways to expand our business by looking out for new ways of doing things and looking for new opportunity.

Happy Events:

1. Had a meeting with a system vendor and was given some good advice for new Options contract design on strike price interval and how he will conduct Options training.
2. Mindset change. Instead of avoidance and not able to leave a normal life, one should just live normally and ignore any negative external factors in order to be stronger mentally and happy.
3. Always prepared. In order not to be caught or set up by anyone in the office, one should prepare themselves in their areas of work so that no matter face any difficult situation or question unexpectedly, your coworker will not be able to bring you down. Today's performance is yesterday's preparation.
4. Be sincere. If you want to invite your coworker to be in a project, discussion or lunch/dinner, please make sure you do it at the onset and not at the eleventh hour. This last minute action will actually make people angry and have more negative impact than not invited to be part of the activities. This will also let people confirm their thoughts about you if they have known about the activities and were not invited in the first place.

Bad Mouth

Day 94 - 906 days to go

My colleague told me that many people have nothing to do and always "bad mouth" about other people. She cited a few examples to me. I told her there is a Chinese saying that"If nobody jealous about you, then you are a nobody" In other words, you much worth something so that people will spend their or life to talk about you. After listening to my positive thinking comments, she said she wants to talk to me more often in future. I felt so good that I was able to add value to her life.

Heard that one of the senior management staff resigned. I have a mixed feeling for him as he is one of the few staff who can make things happen but due to his very "unique" personality, many staff either under him or not have no good impression about him. Regardless what, I wish him all the best in his future undertakings.

Happy Events:

1. Able to console my colleague about bad remarks about her that she heard from other people.
2. I am happy to identify another market maker for the products that I want to launch later this year.

Project Management

Day 93 - 907 days to go

Today I attended the 2nd half of the Project Management refresher talk by my colleague. We have very comprehensive PM framework in place and our IT and PMO have been doing a good job on PM. I think PM is used originally for big project for IT system which costs 10 of millions but now PM has been applied in virtually any major projects in the company.

The only difference between all projects is the scope of application of PM framework. For a very major project, almost the whole framework is applicable. However, for the smaller projects, only the more or most important modules are used such as project concept paper, project charter, timeline/gantt chart, issue log and so on.

I am glad to be involved in one of the major project in the company and realised that the most important part in PM is actually People Management. It is people rather than system that will make or break a project. Therefore, selection of team members is one of the most critical decision.

Happy Events:

1. I invited some of the participants who attended the 3 days IMD workshop to attend my Option and risk management conference jointly organised with CFA. It is nice to be keeping in touch with them who are Chairman, CEO, CFO and other senior management in some of the major companies in the capital market.
2. I am happy to have many colleagues who are supportive when I helped my daughter to seek donation from them for her school'a bacathon i.e. reading marathon.
3. I bought a tin of homemade biscuit from a colleague and shared with other colleagues. All are happy to be able to enjoy free and delicious biscuit.

Blue Ocean, Red Ocean

Day 92 - 908 days to go

While I was using gmail and planned to make a call using Skype, suddenly I saw a dialing pad in the gmail itself. Then only I realise that google also offers internet phone similar to Skype. I am not sure google launch the internet phone for how long but based on the number of users for gmail, I think this will be a success.

Nowadays, all businesses are facing more and more competition. A unique idea or business model will be copied and improved easily by other companies. In this competition, google use price war to attract users. First of all, all phone called within US and Canada is free of charge. Secondly, call to other countries are mostly, if not all, cheaper than Skype charges.

Look like two giants - Microsoft Skype and google will have more business competition in future. Of course consumer like me will be happy to enjoy better service and lower rates.

Happy events:

1. I have clarified my staff's frustration and we know each other better now. I pointed out a few things that he could have done better. He accepted it with open mind. With his intelligence, good attitude, hard working and a pleasant personality, I am sure he will be successful in future. However, I hope he will apply what I taught him and continue to be guided by me for the next few years in order to excel further.
2. I learned that to be patient is one of the best solutions for many difficult situations. Sometime, when you are patient and wait for a few days, issues will be solved naturally without much efforts.