Together as One

Day 188 - 812 days to go

I attended a choir performance today and I was surprised that it is not what most people think a choir is. The choir is very interesting, entertaining and lively. Many people think that choir is very boring, monotonous and the like. I am very grateful that my friend invited me to watch and support such a great performance.

After watching the performance, I spent almost 100 minutes to walk home due to certain reason. I did not feel very tired maybe the performance also provided some energy for my late night walk.

Happy events:

1. Attended a very good choir performance.

2. Finally know that I need to walk about 100 minutes to reach home from KL.

Creativity: creativity can be found and applicable in any events which include performing a choir.

Office Politics

Day 187 - 813 days to go

Really do not want to write about this but it overwhelmed me as the most critical and relevant event of the day. My whole department was not around last Friday and my staff attended a meeting with one internal department and one group level department staffs.

My staff was bullied by another staff who is much more senior in the market and company rank. The silly thing was that he said he was helping our department to carry out one activity which was actually his department activity in the first place. Maybe he is old enough to forget about what he put into his business plan or he thought my staff is innocent enough not knowing that it is the other department's activity. Really sad for the company for having staff who always busy doing all these activities instead of working towards achieving company's goals.

Happy events:

1. Finally my immediate supervisor showed that he was also annoyed by all the office politics instead of ignoring it and let the subordinate face it only.
2. We manage to sell more than 14,000 Terry Fox Run t shirts to raise fund for charity and may be able to sell more than 15,000 when the event is over this Sunday. Bravo.

Creativity: People who play office politics are very creative. One way is to turn black into white.

Creative does not mean that black can really turn into white. It is only a wishful thinking and may not last long as people will not be fooled for long. So black is still black.

Not so happy event: Office politics must coexist with office business activities?

Everyone Is A teacher

Day 186 - 814 days to go

Today I met up with a friend from Kluang and we had a great time catching up. He is a very nice and helpful guy plus knowledgeable in many aspects. He will be helping me to fix my PC. Every time I met up with him, I will sure learn something. Technically we can learn something from everybody but the question is whether you want to learn certain thing from certain people. For example, you have not interest in cooking, you may not want to learn cooking skill from a Chef. However, you enrajoy eating and hence you may want to learn from the Chef which is the good restaurants in certain areas.

Learning from people is the most convenient and fastest way if you know who may have certain knowledge. Compare to online search, you need not login and your results rependent on what keywords that you key in. In other words, it is passive and not interactive. However, human is much more interactive and active in the sense that they will feed you information before you ask, based on what they think you have interest in.

Happy Events:

1. Happy to meet up with my friend from Kluang.
2. Happy to learn quite a bit of computer knowledge from him.
3. Happy to make some new friends in PC's workshop.

Creativity: Creativity include applying existing techniques from other product into new innovation like the giant touch screen white board.

Developed countries have been using giant white board which is like a giant touch screen monitor in their class rooom for teaching purpose.

Virtual Real Estates

Day 185 - 815 days to go

Today I attended the 2nd day workshop for virtual real estates. Online real estates is very similar to offline real estates in many aspects in terms of need to put in lots of efforts to make a good investment decisions. Even the types of skills and strategies applied are somewhat similar in terms of principles and philosophy.

Nevertheless, there are at least a few aspects which are very differences:

1. Online is focusing on business or commercial but offline are residential and commercial etc.
2. Online is affordable to all people but offline is only accessible to those who afford or rich.
3. Online is worldwide market but offline is by respective country.
4. and the like.

Creativity: Online activities required lots of creativity strategies and ideas in order to produce innovative and best selling products.

Offline business need creativity as well but it is less obvious and hence no that easy to be copied due to lots of barrier to entry to a particular niche.

Tower Heist

Day 184 - 816 days to go

I watched the movie and really enjoyed it. It is not a movie that used a lot of computer effect and as such it is very real relative to many blockbuster movie. The thing I enjoyed the most is how people help each other to the extend that risk their job and freedom to set thing right.

Another thing I enjoyed is the power or synergy of a team shown in the movie. However, it also showed the risk of having a few team members as any of the team members may betray or sabotage the group for personal interest. Therefore, getting the right team members is very critical in a team project.

Happy Events:

1. Enjoyed a good movie with my daughter and her schoolmate too.
2. Learned quite a bit on virtual real estate.

Creativity: Creativity is one of the most critical success factor for online business.

Online business can be more or less competitive than offline business dependent on the niche of the business and also dependent on how you leverage on what you have.

Bursa Family Day

Day 183 - 817 days to go

We had a another or may be the final meeting before the family day next Sunday. It is getting more excited by the day and I am sure we will have a good time... so long did not have a chance to take part in company-wide event as I missed the annual dinner last year.

This year we will have fun at Sunway Lagoon with lots of lucky draw prizes and goodies bags. The only item some may comment is the SPM exam on the following day and hence some may not be taking part due to the exam. We feel sorry but due to availability of the venue and our senior management staff, it is the best date we can work on.

Happy events:

1. Finished the draft reply to SC, thanks my staff Logan for the team work.

Creativity: Team work not only can contribute to results but also creativity.

Sometimes, with the help and contribution by another person, creativity will be enhanced.

Passion - Terry Fox Run

Day 182 - 818 days to go

Most people think that it is hard work, commitment, determination, perseverance and the like are the most important factors. I will not deny that they are very important but to me they are secondary. I think passion is the single most important factor for us to succeed in pursuing anything in life.

Without passion, we will not be able to work hard, to be committed, to be determined and so on. It is the building block of all other secondary factors. There are many ways to name passion and the most common and popular one is LOVE. Only if we fall in love with someone or something, then only we won't feel tired and everything else is secondary to us. For instance, I dont mind walking one KM under the hot sun to deliver two Terry Fox Run T shirts to my friend for charity, after that walk in the heavy rain with a small umbrella until my whole body was wet. This was coupled with the fact that I missed the fun time with 6 colleagues for a farewell lunch too.

To me, another t shirt sold will contribute to possible saving of life. What is more important than saving life? Of course, what I did was just nothing worth mentioning if compared to what Terry Fox did 31 years ago. However, if everyone care and can contribute a little bit, we will have a much better world.

Happy Events:

1. Finally, I got my Iphone despite not a white color and not the Iphone 4s.
2. Started doing renovation for the condo.
3. Had a good farewell lunch with a bunch of wonderful colleagues.

AirAsia Business Strategies

Day 181 - 819 days to go

After taking AirAsia to 6 countries, I have learned quite a great deal of their business expansion plan and strategies. They apply at least two approaches for their airline business expansion. First of all, they add more routes. Secondly, they add more services or charges to their airline services. For adding more routes, it is a straight forward strategy. For adding more services and more charges to increase their revenues, they have done the following based on my personal observation:

1. The all in charges can be as many as 10 different charges including airport tax etc.
2. They offer in flight meal and also many other items.
3. They offer different seat and choice of seating selection.
4. They offer online free of charge check in service or pay at the counter.
5. They offer discount for ordering of food online and also cheaper rate for check in baggage.

Of course, the not airline business including hotel, insurance, prepaid mobile airtime and so on.

Creativity: Airasia is quite creative and innovative in their business expansion.

I am not sure how much AirAsia copied other airline or other businesses but their success is basically understand the needs of customers well and position themselves well to capture the niche market of low cost airline business.

Day 180 - Taxi Driver 2

Day 180 - 820 days to go

I had a very good experience today with a taxi driver. Based on my few times experiences with other taxi drivers, I found that the taxi driver sent us back to hotel is OK. Hence after sending us to the hotel, I offered him to send us to airport.

I think he must be very happy to receive such an offer which is out of his expectation. He sent us back to hotel and earned HKD23 but he earned HKD250 when he sent us to the airport. Therefore, for those taxi drivers and other sales staff who think that they do not need to provide good customer services to customers and tourists especially, they may be losing repeat sales.

Happy Events:

1. I am happy to offer to the taxi driver another business deal that will make him happy.
2. Happy to contribute to Hong Kong economy by spending almost 6 full days there.
3. I had 6 days of happy family trip especially the moment I spent with my girl alone when my wife was doing her shopping with her mum. It was very good for father-daughter bonding.

Creativity: I think Hong Kong is a more open society than many SEA or Asian countries and as such promotes creativity.

Creativity is limited by what one can do and as such limited by what one cannot do. As such, how open is a country and society will have a direct correlation with the level of creativity, in turn, innovation. As such, it is not surprised that USA is one of the, if not the, most creative and innovative country in the world as they are perceived to be the most open, in many aspects, country in the world.

Taxi Drivers – The Frontline Service Providers To Tourists

Day 179 – 821 days to go

I traveled to more than 10 countries in the world from the very developed countries such as USA and Australia to the less developed countries such as Southeast Asian countries. The first service experienced was with taxi driver essentially. Therefore, to a tourist, the service provided by taxi drivers will affect a tourist’s perception of a country.

For this trip I took a few times of taxi in Hong Kong and I had mixed feeling about the service provided. In general, the older generation is more friendly and polite but may not be true if they are younger i.e. below 40 years old. Some of the younger ones do not give me good impression in terms of the way they treat their customers. Some are very impatient and do not provide much help to us when we are not sure about certain places or when the name given is slightly different from the actual ones. Instead of helping us, they asked us to refer to our hotel staff who is very helpful and patient. What a big contrast to the taxi driver. Another one teased us as we do not speak Hong Kong style Cantonese. He even argued that resident and citizen means the same thing. I do not know why he brought up the issue but one thing for sure is that I will not simply argue with my customers especially if the issue has nothing to do with my company or my work function.

A lot of tourists do not have very good impression about the services provided by sales and service support staff in Hong Kong. This round I experienced some very nice ones especially the hotel staff and also one old taxi drivers. So are some sales staff in shopping malls. Of course the same type of mixed experiences applicable to any countries. However, service providers should know that their service will have perpetual impact to the reputation of a country in the service industry. Therefore, they should provide their best service to tourists so that they will recommend their friends and family members to visit the countries that they enjoy the most. They will become repeat customers if they are happy.

I still love to visit to Hong Kong but I may avoid taking taxi if possible due to some bad experiences as I do not want my holiday to be spoiled by a rude taxi driver by chance.

Happy events:

1. Visited the Avenue of Stars and tried the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.
2. Went to Temple Street and other shopping areas for more shopping.
3. Had a very nice dimsum lunch at a very popular Chinese restaurant that has many branches.

Creativity: Flexibility to change or even do not proceed with initial plans is a must for results.

I have been talking about eating the stinky tofu at Temple Street but I finally do not proceed with it today so that we can go back to our hotel earlier.

Not so happy event:

Had two bad experiences with two taxi drives today.

Charity Walk With Andy Hui

Day 178 – 822 days to go

The first activity this morning was to take part in the charity walk organized by the Redford company’s Redford Charitable Foundation. The walk was held at The Peak which is the home for very rich people and also a tourist attraction. The famous Madame Tussauds Hong Kong is also situated at the same venue.

It is estimated about 1000 people took part in the event with Andy Hui who is the popular Hong Kong singer to be the VIP. His charitable foundation also donated HKD250,000.00. Hopefully one day I can also set up my own charitable foundation to help the needy. At present, I can only contribute within my means for various type of charity events. Therefore, to be able to take part in my first overseas charity event is one of the best things I achieved in this 3^rd Hong Kong trip.

After that, we went to Lan Kwai Fong and witness how Hong Kong people celebrate Halloween. Not only that many local and foreign participants celebrated the fun event but also Hong Kong authorities. It is interesting to see how supportive is the police department supported the event by blocking/closing a few roads plus sending many police men there to ensure the safety of the participants there. No wonder so many foreign people like Hong Kong very much as it is a very foreigner and tourist friendly country. My girl already fall in love with this place after spending two days here.

Happy Events:

1. Able to contribute to the charity event in Hong Kong.
2. Had my first ever fun-filled experience at Lan Kwai Fong which is a must visit place for drinkers or people who like night life.
3. Planned and rushed for the hotel shutter and made it one minute before the arrival of the bus despite many obstacles happened at the train station. It was really worth my runs at the IFC train station.

Creativity: Plan or have a few option in order to achieve certain result is a must in life. To others, it is back up plan but to the one who prepare for the back up plans, it is innovation.

From The Peak, I analyse a few options to leave the place and also proceed to the next destination. However, I did not carry out all plan as we just went with the flow and end up in Lan Kwai Fong which was also one of our options.

In Time - I Got A Day

Day 177 - 823 days to go

In Time is one of the best ever movie I have ever watched because of the very futuristic and creative story line. I was stressed when I watched the movie as I related to it very much. To live life to the fullest was what the movie projected. I used to think besides any accidents which could be saved by even a millisecond, the next one that can change the results and hence the life of a person is in sport. A millisecond can create a winner and many losers and hence the life of the winner. My personal experience is that by far In Time is the best movie to show the value of a second to human lives.

I went to Wong Tai SIn temple with my family. Maybe is due to a normal weekend and hence not very crowded. I am sure during holidays and special holidays for the temple or festive season in Chinese calender, the temple will be packed with people as it is one of the most popular and famous temple in Hong Kong.

Happy Events:

1. Able to plan and work towards taking the hotel shutter back to hotel despite it was only minutes to spare after our movie.
2. Registered for the Charity Walk tomorrow at The Peak. Andy Hui who is the popular single is the partner in this walk with his Andy Hui charity foundation.
3. Had a delicious but good price supper near the hotel. Thanks the staff for showing us the way.

Creativity: Not sure how story writer of In Time movie got his idea but it was one of the best ever movies I have ever watched.

Watching, reading, listening to an creative speakers, author etc can actually motivate and inspire another person want to do the same fate.

Tourism Industry

Day 176 – 824 days to go

I think tourism industry is one of the best industries to be promoted and developed by any country. It does not involve any factory and hence not production that may cause pollution. Furthermore, it is a happy industry that focused in bringing happiness to people. In general, consumers of this industry spend money happily to buy more happiness.

Hong Kong is one of the most successful countries in developing tourism. One of the success factor is food. Hong Kong is famous and popular as a food heaven as well as cheap goods imported from China. Of course, it is like the Milan in Asia that is leading the trend in fashion.

Finally found out the reason why my phone line and BB is not connected as the line has been transferred to a new service provider despite my instruction not to activate it first. Happy to know that once again I can predict problem but sad to know that people still made mistake despite clear instruction.

Happy Events:

1. Planed well and maximize the usage of time for traveling time.

2. Bought a pair of K-Swiss running shoes from Citygate factory outlet to prepare myself to erase all my PB (personal bad).

Creativity: Analyse different options to choose the best one for decision making may help oneself to be more creative as brainstorming itself will lead to more creative ideas through research.

Happy to know there are so many options to move around HK namely taxi, bus, hotel shutter, train, travel package, rent a car, and walk.

Amazing Hong Kong

Day 175 - 825 days to go

Today is the first day in Hong Kong and I learned quite a bit about the personal and business success in HK. First of all, they do a lot of promotion for their business and they do it aggressively even with manual publicity i.e. hand out flyer at various busy MTR station. Secondly, they can get very cheap products from China. I really cannot believe what I saw at the Ladies Street i.e. they sell shirt for HKD5 each and if buy 5, get another one free. It is beyond my imagination to produce a shirt and make at least two levels of profit for a HKD 5 product which can be sold for 10x higher.

HK people's pace in walk, work, speak and almost everything is faster than us. They are every competitive due to they have the higher number of citizen to choose from for th ebest quality.

Happy events:

1. Had a good nite on the first day in HK
2. Able to use internet access when I am back to hotel.
3. Learned quite a bit on why HK and the people are more competitive and successful

Not so happy event:

Out of the blue, I cannot access my phone and hence I am not able to receive mail from company.

Creativity: Creativity and innovation also dependent on whether one is able to foresee the future and also plan and take action on the expected the change.

Two-In-One

Day 174 - 826 days to go

Today I worked two-day hours in one day time as start before 9am to worked till 11pm plus. It is amazing that human is so flexible or rather stretchable when the situation requirement him to do so. We got a phone call from the authorities for a meeting yesterday and there is only 24 hours for me to prepare myself. Hence, I was working with full concentration for the entire morning till afternoon. However, I make sure I attend yoga class during lunch as it is a must-not-miss to me.

We had a fruitful discussion and we understand better what is in the mind of our authorities. We will work together to develop the capital market further. Personally, I think that if our market do not open up and develop, we will be removed form the investment horizon of the global competitors.

Happy Events:

1. Able to complete tasks that may require 2 days of work if I worked at a normal pace.
2. Had a very fruitful discussion with the authority.

Creativity: A lot of time we are creative when we face problem and issue. Therefore, I always like issues to be address.

Problems or needs are the building block of creativity

Luck - Preparation Meets Opportunity

Day 173 - 827 days to go

I like the above definition of luck i.e. preparation meets opportunity. Most people always see the success of other people but they do not see the preparation done by the lucky people. We can only be as lucky as we prepare. Every single day, there is always opportunity for us to gain something but whether we will be able to seize the opportunity or not dependent on if we are ready there and then.

Receive a meeting invitation from an authority to discuss on our possible new product launching. Feel blessed that we are so lucky to have met the right person with the commitment to develop the capital market together. We will do our best to work towards developing the market for the benefits of many investors.

Happy Events:

1. Received a call for one of the most important meeting in my life for new product launching.
2. Very lucky to get many good materials from the internet for my meeting tomorrow.

Creativity: As I mentioned, luck equal preparation meets opportunity. We have to always be creative even for looking for information from internet. If we only use the conventional ways to search for information, we will surely miss lots of information.

Terry Fox Run - T-shirts Sales

Day 172 - 828 days to go

I always believe things happen for a reason. As a result of cancelling my trip to KK climbathon, I got two free tickets to watch the David Foster and Friends Asia Tour 2011. The ticket price is RM389 each. It was a fantastic concert and I have never watched a concert with so many good singers and good songs.

In addition, I have another weekend to sell Terry Fox Run T-shirts at Bukit Aman car park. Within 2 hours, we managed to sell close to 60 pieces. It was selling like hot cakes. My experience about 70% of the people or runners who we met will buy. Of course, part of the reason was that my friend, PK Chan helped me to promote on the spot. He has been running for the past 25 years and hence know a lots of runners. Therefore, friendship and networking is very important even for charity events. Really appreciate his help. Without his help, I think 40 to 50% of the runners we promote will buy. Many of them took part in the charity run before and other heard about it. It was also a good chance to meet up with some runners who are in my facebook and the yahoo group for the first time. I even learned how to promote a running, swimming and cycling event online through a newly met runner.

At night, I had a good family dinner with mum and my family members. It was great to bring mum out as she hardly step out of the house after she got a stroke. Of course, I had a good afternoon nap too after so many weeks without a break from weekend activities.

Therefore, I gained more from wasting the 3 air tickets to KK. The only thing I missed was the opportunity to meet up with other runners in KK.

Happy Events:

1. Achieved quite a bit of things after letting go the trip to KK.
2. Had a good afternoon nap on weekend after so many weeks without break from busy weekend schedule.
3. Had more time with family and my mum from missing the trip.

Creativity: Blessing in disguise or luck is a very important factor in creativity.

Sometimes by chance we meet with certain people at certain event and hence sparks our creative ideas in certain way. Therefore, God's will is very important in creativity and hence we should always follow the flow in life.

David Foster & Friends Asia Tour 2011

Day 171 - 829 days to go

Attended an enthralling night of entertainment featuring David Foster and his superstar friends such as Michael Bolton, Charice -dubbed by Oprah Winfrey as the Most Talented Girl in the World - Russell Watson, Ashanti and Philip Bailey at Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil.

Met an ex colleague and discussed about some business plan and idea. Bravo to him who is a successful business man now.

Happy events:

1. Attended the above concert and met some long lost friends too.
2. Have some good discussion with my ex colleague.

Creativity: team support is very critival to convert creative ideas to innovation.

Without team support, ideas may only stay as ideas forever.

Day 170 - Things Happen For A Reason - 2

Day 170 - 830 days to go

I am supposed to be in KK getting ready for th eKK climbathon but I chose to stay back as my wife cannot make it to the trip. Well, do I regret or feel sad that after training for a few months, I cannot go for this run. Well, it is almost 100% that I do not feel any pain for not able to go. Instead I focus on what I can achieve in lieu of the KK trip.

Well, I am able to work on my projects, get to sell some T shirt, have a good talk with a for friend who is heading the communication department and so on. Therefore, we should always accept what happens to our plans after we plan and work towards a certain plans.

Happy Events:

1. Despite not able to go to KK, I achieve quite a bit on other things.
2. Had a good chat with a colleague and learnt about a good website that she always log into and I am sure will be beneficial to me too.

Creativity: Don't always assume or may be don't assume at all.

Today I am able to borrow and use a jacket from a colleague who is a few inches shorter than me and I can fit nicely into his jacket just because I think there is no harm to try first.

Terry Fox Run - Support

Day 169 - 831 day to go

I am so happy to know that many colleagues still support the TFR despite the fact that they will only buy and cannot take part in the run. The reason is that we will be having our family day on the same day. From the support, we know exactly who will buy t shirt for charity and who will not for various reasons.

I have been involving in charity events for many years and learned quite a bit on human behaviour. Most people are genuine but some are for ulterior motive. Regardless of thier motive, as long as they contribute to charity, somebody will benefit. Therefore, it really does not matter why they contribute.

Happy Events:

1. So happy to see so many supports from my colleagues for the Terry Fox Run. I am especially happy this year they they are supporting 100% without any benefits of running with the T as we will be having our family day on the same day.

2. Attended the appreciation lunch for all staff involved in the 2011 The Edge Bursa Malaysia Rat Race. So happy to see all these nice people who contribute their time beyong their official duty.

Creativity: Think beyond the ordinary scope will contribute to creativity.

We should always question ourselves how to make thing bigger, better and the like. We should also question why not.