Mandela's 8 Leadership Lessons

1. Courage is not the absence of fear - it's inspiring others to move beyond it

2. Lead from the front but don't leave your base behind

3. Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front

4. Know your enemy and learn about his favorite sport

5. Keep your friends close - and your rivals even closer

6. Appearances matter - and remember to smile

7. Nothing is black or white

8. Quitting is leading too

4 things not to be broken

The old man said, "There are 4 things that should not be broken ... trust, promise, relationship and heart".

No. There's no white board

Another quip from kaiyi ...

We were watching the Olympic swimming event the other day.

"Kaiyi, is that how you swim in your swimming class?"

"No. See, there's no white board."

In her world view, everyone swims with a board.

Nothing is perfect

I remembered reading about in Japanese flower arranging, it is common to have one of the branches bent or broken. This is an attempt to present the arrangement is a "natural" state. It is this imperfection that makes it perfect.

It is always easy to see that we are not perfect. But we tend to be more critical on others' imperfection. At the workplace, it is not uncommon to find someone who sets such a high expectation on others, but expect so little from himself.

You are old, I am new!

It still brings me a smile everytime I recall this conversation with Kaiyi. It goes something like that ...

"Kaiyi, daddy old already ..."

"Ya. You are old, I am new!"

Huh! Fell asleep! In class?!

We put KY at CMA class tonight. As usual, KY complaint a little about not wanting to go for the class. But not too difficult to settle her down in class.

About half an hour later, while having dinner I received a surprise call from KY teacher.

"KY daddy? There is something wrong with KY today. Did she skip her afternoon nap?"

"What's wrong with her now?", I was getting anxious and concerned.

"She fell asleep in class. I woke her up and asked if she was tired. She said no, but fell asleep again 5 minutes later."

"Ok. We will come over in 10 minutes time."

I told HX and she thought I was pulling her leg. We rushed through dinner and hurried to the school. We peeped into the class and saw her curling up nicely with her head against the back of her chair and SLEEPING. The teachers and us were all amused.

Whose birthday is it?

We attended my niece's 21st birthday few weeks ago. Her celebration was held at the function hall, the open concept type amongst some HDB blocks and much like the HDB void deck.

Just the other day, HX was walking home with KY from my in-laws place. They passed by a funeral wake held at the HDB void deck. Guess what KY blurted out?!

"Mummy, whose birthday is it?

Apart from being amused, HX attempted to explain, "Silly girl, it is not a birthday party. Someone has passed away. Someone died."

"Died? Just like snow white? Sleeping, can't wake up?"

I can imagine the expression on HX face.

柏杨。徐悲鸿

柏杨
昨天从台湾的电视频道看到关于柏杨老先生过世的消息。印象中柏老是个敢怒敢言，满腹墨水的作家。认识柏老
是在中学时代，从老师口中得知他写了一本名叫“丑陋的中国人”的书，是一本骂中国人的书。书里的中国人泛指的是华人。很偶然的，我父亲同时也从他工作附近的印刷厂拿回了这本书。这本书我至今还收着。对于一个中学生，书的内容应该是沉重了些。但我对书中一段形容中国人的普遍癖病仍印象深刻，那就是“脏，乱，吵”。这中间应该有整二十年了。或许我也该找个机会重翻此书，就当作是悼念柏老。

徐悲鸿
昨天乘着假日，便到SAM参观“徐悲鸿在南洋”的画览。同样的也是在中学时代认识徐悲鸿。那时只知道他善长画骏马。这次到来参观的目地，其实是想一睹创下7200万港元拍卖纪录的抗日画作“放下你的鞭子”。对于画作欣赏，我是门外汉。不过整体上，总觉得他画人像比画马好。后来我有听闻，徐悲鸿画的马并不重于那马画得逼不逼真，重要的是那马的神韵以及它的意义。要知道那是抗战的年代。

植物园。清明扫墓。唐诗

植物园
礼拜天，带着恺忆与爸妈去扫墓。因为大伯母与三叔尚在途中，时间还早，我们便兜到植物园。爸妈已经整二十多年未到植物园。他们平时说不到三句话就吵嘴，今天却不约而同地缅怀当年带着我和大妹到植物园的情景。其中一幕便是妈妈因喂食小猴差点就被猴妈妈。爸妈感叹一切都变了。我想那当然。

清明扫墓
到了曾祖父母的墓地，一切都似乎没改变。这么多年来，唯一不同便是杂草的多或少，还有似乎来的人也渐渐少了。这一两年，四叔也因为闹意见不和，又因四婶发生车祸后，也不来了。

唐诗
我尝试跟恺译解释清明扫墓的意义以及谁睡在坟墓里。她似懂非懂，唯一懂得就是她最喜欢的唐诗-清明。她念着“清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂...”，突然问我，"but daddy why it is not raining?” 我对着她无语傻笑。

猫扒

"这是牛扒。那这是？"妈妈问恺忆。
"羊扒，鸡扒，猫扒。"恺忆得意地说。
恺忆把猪当猫，妈妈笑弯腰。

Investing in property

A friend asked, 'When is it a good time to go into property investment? Is it too late and risky now?'

I told him about what Kwek Leng Beng said, 'Buy property only if you can service the loan installments. If you can't, you are just speculating. And the right time to buy is when the interest rate is at its lowest.'

My friend then asked, 'So is the interest rate at its lowest now?'.

I replied, 'How would I know!'.

---

My friend later bought an freehold apartment at Race Course Road at $1100 psf.

I asked him, 'Why you buy property at Little India? You sure people want to stay there?!'.

My friend replied, 'For investment and rent out lah. MRT right at the doorstep. Why not? Agent said renting out sure no problem. Some more good rental yield.'

I said, 'Is it? So good meh'.

---

My friend called me, 'Oi. Agent called me. Ask whether want to sell or not.'.

I exclaimed, 'Huh, you pay option money for less than 2 weeks, already got people want to buy from you. How much? Can make how much?'

My friend tried to act humble, 'Not much lah. Can sell at $1200 psf. May be make $50k only.'

I exclaimed again, 'What! 2 weeks can make $50k! So how, you want to sell?'.

My friend tried to act cool, 'No lah. Wait and see. Agent say will go up some more. Can rent out first.'

I asked, 'But the economy quite gloomy leh. You not scared meh.'

My friend reminded my words, 'Kwek Leng Beng said can buy if can pay installment what.'

I keep quite and wish him luck.

Talk Less Do More

Yes, I agreed. The smallest of actions is so much better, braver, smarter than the biggest of intentions. Is time to walk the talk, gentlemen!

Fixing the System

I decided that I might as well take the opportunity this 2 weeks (while MT is away)to better understand the support scope and process, and see how we can improve it. At least, now it appear to be more fruitful rather than dreadful. Impressive?! :)

I recall a cliche that goes like this, "When there is a problem, don't fix the problem, but fix the system". All too often, we deal with urgent problems and fight fires. It is not difficult to conclude that, in order to be the best, we should think better than just fixing the problem.

That's exactly what needs to be done, to establish a system that allows us to carry out the support efficiently and effectively. For a start, the simple ones first, how do we better organise and track support emails. Let's see how we can apply GTDF techniques here. I will share on this experience later.

It may be timely to introduce a new person to a team. I believe this will help test the system and in turn drive it further.

Recipe for effective proposal

I came across this interesting idea at AYE. It is designed to help focus on articulating the benefit when proposing an idea.

The recipe for effective proposal

If you do X, you will get Y.
Otherwise (if you do nothing) it will cost you Z.
Do I have your approval to do X?

where X is the idea, Y is the benefit, and Z is the cost for doing nothing.

I guess this is nothing new or fantastic to experienced worker. In one way or another, we learnt through the hard way. But it should be simple and concise enough for newbies that I work with.

Courtesy of Steven Smith at AYE http://www.stevenmsmith.com/my-blogs/

Horrible week that is not ending yet

This week has been horrible so far, and it is not ending yet. Can't believe they actually suggest restarting the system 6 times daily. The problem is, the system may not come up at each restart due to the curse of "java.lang.ClassCircularityError". I am keeping my finger crossed, hoping that I don't have to return to restart the system manually over the weekend.

The only consolation is to know that I have the privilege to work with committed co-workers that are always showing up. Leo, as usual is always there. And this time round, we have MT lugging the notebook with him to Greece, and responding to emails at the wee hours and whenever possible. Great help, which I didn't ask for.

Where is my penguin?

Kaiyi was lying on the sofa drinking from her milk bottle.

"Daddy, where is my penguin?"

I looked around, went into her room and rummaged through her piles of stuffies, went into my room and came out.

"Kaiyi, I can't find your penguin. Where did you put it?"

I looked around again.

"Daddy, there." Kaiyi gave me a cheeky smile and pointed to the penguin she hid behind the curtain.

Don't say lah!

One day in my car ...

"Daddy, I want to pass urine."

"Kaiyi, you sit down first, daddy very first one."

"Daddy, don't say one."

"Ok lah, ok lah."

"Daddy, don't say lah."

I just smile to myself.