Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Train Breakdown
Over the last week or so, I fell sick, sick over the repeated bashing of the service providers of our MRT system for the breakdowns. First, the Red line, then the delay over the other line.  People calling for the CEO to resign, the Minister holding the board responsible.  This actually created more adverse reactions rather than helped.

Perhaps, we have grown into a society where everything has to be perfect, clockwork.  We might have grown too pampered and soft. We cannot walk out of the station, we need to wait for transport to be arranged and so on, and if there is a delay in the back -up action temper flares up. Are we really that soft now?  Will our next generation become a strawberry generation, easily bruised?  In some countries, when the train moves or arrive, it is a cause for celebration. 

Why can't we give our service providers some space and back off ? Do we really need to be so hard on them and so hard on ourselves by being perfect?  Look, mechanical parts will breakdown due to wear and tear, however having said that, I will be ballistic if there were serious collision in the tunnels attributed to the organization. We need to take things into perspective and understand that in Singapore not all things need to be perfect although we pride ourselves to be.

Then the question is, If we want all things to be perfect, we need to strive to be perfect ourselves, which will never happen!!!  Things are not perfect, and never will be. I believe the incidents happened for a reason.  Perhaps, it is a gentle warning for us to maintain parts that were deemed not critical more regularly, a prevention of a more serious accident.

I leave you with this thought, "Look at things in its context not the contents "


Jerry

 
 

Friday, December 16, 2011

Letting Go

As I write, a friend is dying of the dreaded "C", when I visit him, he will raise his eyebrow, twitch or do some other actions to acknowledge my presence..... he can no longer speak and drift in and out, it is depressing, but , I take pride that he is a fighter, having been fighting for 2 years....

He has 2 kids, same age as mine.  The wife is a super woman and she is keeping everybody intact although she know the end could be near. She cries but she know she needs to be strong for the kids, and make them understand that daddy would not be there when they grow up.  I know she is refusing to accept defeat and is praying for a miracle.

When I see his father, filled with grief, stroke my friend's legs, it brings tears to my eyes.

Nobody will ever be able to feel the grief of a father sending his son off before him, a saying in Chinese, " A white-haired person sending off a black-haired person."

Throughout all these, I see the human character shinnning through, the resolve, and the willingness to do whatever it takes.

I know when it is time to part and let go, tears will fall, as the feeling of losing somebody is indescribable pain regardless how well prepared you are, perhaps, the only comforting thought is that, he will no longer be in pain.

We can only support those that are carrying on the journey and pray that the fallen, is in a place that is pain-free and happy..........till we meet.

Life is tough, we have no choice but to be tougher than life......

I leave you with this,

"Death is perhaps mother nature's way of telling us to be kind to ourself, don't beat up ourself and at the same time, appreciate what we have and people around us...."

Jerry





Monday, October 31, 2011

Finding the Warrior in us

I attended a Warrior training camp in the jungles of Ipoh Malaysia sometimes in October 2011. At the camp, you are put through physical and mental tests to discover yourself.

Well, personally, it is enjoyable, but it make you think, these days are we so engrossed in the rat race that we totally lost ourselves?  we need to go to such a camp to rediscover yourself ?

What it tells me is this, each day, we should set time to be with oneself, to remind yourself that you are driving, eating, talking, breathing...... the list goes on.  In short, we need to be appreciative of the environment, people and ourself. 

Take it easy on yourself, life is already too tough. Don't bash yourself when things goes wrong? Accept that things had happened, learn from it and move on.

The most important lesson I took away from the warrior camp is this, there is a warrior in all of us, you will find it.

Being a warrior in your own life  means standing up for yourself;  fight for those that cannot fight for themselves....

My warrior name is Black Wolf

AH HOLD!!!!!!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Little Big Person

My daughter ask me " Which mind is cleaner, a man or a woman"s". The answer, a woman, because she changes her mind every now and then about things.
Strange for a girl of 9 to ask theses questions. No, these days, they are like that, 9 going 16. My son likes to read cook book and would tell me all the ingredients needed to that meal and he also like gardening, he is 6.
In case, we forget, our children are growing faster then we were and they are learning more. But, will they be as strong as us when they are grown up?
Some of us grown up supporting ourselves through school and so on, we are tumble and learnt the hard way. We know we are strong when we eat adversity for breakfast; like a boxer we get up, and carry on punching until we drop.
Now the challenge, how do we translate our skills to them so that they are tough mentally, we need to shore shore up our precious strawberry generation..........
I leave you with a saying, "when the going gets tough, the tough gets going......"

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A New Journey Begins

I am now into a new business, business consulting, I see myself as a matchmaker for my clients and their networks to find solutions. These solutions will make the business more efficient and improve their bottom line through cost savings....


Well, I am not here to brag about how well I will do and so on rather to touch on the start of a new journey.


I have expanded my comfort zone rather than to say moving out. I worked for a couple of MNCs for around 13 years, and during this time efforts gone unrecognized, and promotion given to people, but me. I struggled to internalize why I was not given the top post? Well, after much disscussion and explanations, it was, " this has nothing to do with your ability, it is a personal preference."


I am sure I am not the only one who has endured this, and will never be the last. I have decided that I will not let this event control my life and I can do better than before. So, I came out to build a my own future, challenge myself to build the consulting business to be the biggest in Singapore and then in Asia Pacific. I am not out of this world to have a such a lofty ambition, as they say aim for the moon, and if you can get the stars, it is not too bad either.


I will leave you with this thought, " After the rain, comes the rainbow"........


Let the journey Begin