Listen to his speech in the parliament on the Lee Family's Saga in Singapore - it's clear and objective, but galling ...
新加坡工人党的秘书长 - 劉程強的国会发言
Thursday, 6 July 2017
Speaking English with a Strong Accent in Chinese
Despite a rather imperfect English accent, Mr Low Thia Khiang (a senior Singapore MP - Member of Parliament) certainly knows how to be sarcastic.
Listen to his speech in the parliament on the Lee Family's Saga in Singapore - it's clear and objective, but galling ...
新加坡工人党的秘书长 - 劉程強的国会发言
Listen to his speech in the parliament on the Lee Family's Saga in Singapore - it's clear and objective, but galling ...
新加坡工人党的秘书长 - 劉程強的国会发言
Monday, 26 June 2017
Nice Quotes
“Once we accept our limits, we move beyond them.”
~ Albert Einstein
It takes confidence and courage to acknowledge there are areas where you could improve – but this is true for everyone. No one is perfect, and everyone struggles with something. It’s the people who are willing to take an honest look at their weaknesses who consistently grow stronger.
Only in identifying your limitations can you stretch yourself and redefine what’s possible.
When
you feel challenged professionally, socially, emotionally, or intellectually, remind yourself that you can always grow wiser, stronger, and smarter. Once you accept yourself for who you are without judgment or shame, you give yourself every opportunity to do that.
Knowing, accepting and loving who you are is the first step in becoming who you can be.
While I tried to search for more articles related to this quote,
I stumbled upon a French trader/mentor’s diary by Ramón Morell
with many more entries of nice quotes from day to day.
“Once we accept our limits, we move beyond them.” is not only a sentence pronounced by Albert Einstein but a crtieria he followed while revolutionizing our knowledge about physics and the universe.
He was a genius indeed, self learning Geometry at 11 and demonstrating Pithagoras theorem at 12 while learning integral and differential calculus. When he faced his limits, he explored new ways to go beyond them.
This is a strong and positive reference for us.
Some Randomly Selected Quotes from Ramón Morell’s Diary:
“A bird is safe in its nest – but that is not what its wings are made.” for.” (Amit Ray)
“My advice is to never follow any advice, starting with this one.”
(Teo León)
“Champions are made from something they have deep inside of them-a desire, a dream, a vision.” (Gandhi)
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by and that has made all the difference.” (Robert Frost)
“Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams.” (R.J. Palacio)
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” (Winston Churchill)
“Successful people don’t have fewer problems. They have determined that nothing will stop them from going forward.”
(Ben Carson)
“The moment you stop worrying about success is when success will happen.” (Glenn Beck)
“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
(John Wooden)
“You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.” (Deepak Chopra)
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
(Robert H. Schuller)
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius.” (Marilyn Monroe)
And here’s another one I stumbled upon...
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
~ Lao Tzu (A Philosopher in Ancient China )
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
Sometimes We Win, Sometimes We Lose
What you learn from your loss can bring
victory!
Dr. John C. Maxwell believes that the greatest lessons we learn in life are from our losses.
In his book "Sometimes You
Win, Sometimes You Learn", Dr. John C. Maxwell explores the most common lessons we learn
when we experience loss.
He then explains
how to turn a set-back into a step forward by examining
01. Humility - The
Spirit of Learning
02. Reality - The
Foundation of Learning
03. Responsibility - The First Step of Learning
04. Improvement -
The Focus of Learning
05. Hope - The
Motivation of Learning
06. Teachability -
The Pathway of Learning
07. Adversity - The
Catalyst of Learning
08. Problems - The
Opportunities of Learning
09. Bad Experiences - The Perspective for Learning
10. Change - The
Price of Learning
11. Maturity - The
Value of Learning
Learning is not
easy during down times; it takes discipline to do the right thing when
everything is wrong. This book provides a road map to doing just that.
As Dr. John C. Maxwell
often points out
– experience isn't the best teacher;
evaluated experience is.
Author John C. Maxwell’s
helps readers learn from—and even
embrace—losses.
Emily J. Mitchell | October 19, 2013
Out this month, Sometimes You
Win, Sometimes You Learn: Life's Greatest Lessons Are Gained from Our Losses by
John C. Maxwell helps readers “learn how to learn”—from losses, failures,
mistakes, challenges and bad experiences.
“I want you to become a continual
winner by being a habitual learner,” Maxwell says. He quotes political theorist
Benjamin Barber: “The question to ask is not whether you are a success or a
failure, but whether you are a learner or a non-learner.”
Maxwell finds that, in America
Maxwell gives the 11 traps that people tend to fall into
when losses happen in their lives:
01. The Mistake Trap: “I’m afraid of doing something
wrong.” — Losses hold us back!
02. The Fatigue Trap: “I’m tired today.” — Losses wear
us out.
03. The Comparison Trap: “Someone else is better
qualified than I am.” — Losses cause us to feel inferior to others.
04. The Timing Trap: “This isn’t the right time.” — Losses make us hesitate.
05. The Inspiration Trap: “I don’t feel like doing it
right now.” — Losses demotivate us.
06. The Rationalization Trap: “Maybe it’s really not
that important.” — Losses allow us to lose perspective.
07. The Perfection Trap: “There’s a best way to do it
and I have to find it before I start.” — Losses cause us to question ourselves.
08. The Expectation Trap: “I thought it would be easy,
but it isn’t.” — Losses highlight the difficulties.
09. The Fairness Trap: “I shouldn’t be the one to have
to do this.” — Losses cause us to ask, “Why me?”
10. The Public Opinion Trap: “If I fail, what will
others think?” — Losses paralyze us.
11. The Self-Image Trap: “If I fail at this, it means
I am a failure.” — Losses negatively affect how we see ourselves.
Maxwell describes solutions
to these traps, and encourages his readers to continue learning, from both wins
and losses. His book offers 13 chapters on how to learn in different
circumstances and adopt a learning perspective.
Extended Readings
1. https://www.slideshare.net/Shiv_Shivakumar/sometimes-you-win-sometimes-you-lose
1. https://www.slideshare.net/Shiv_Shivakumar/sometimes-you-win-sometimes-you-lose
Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Congratulations, Cassandra Hsiao.
Cassandra Hsiao, a
17-year-old Malaysia-born student in Orange
County , California
* The Ivy League universities are
among the most prestigious and highly-ranked universities worldwide, and are
often associated with academic excellence and high selectivity of admissions.
The Orange County
School
Cassandra,
who is a student journalist, is active in extracurricular activities. She is the editor-in-chief of the school’s
magazine and the president of one of two student bodies.
OCSA creative
writing director Josh Wood said: “Cassandra was multi-faceted. She’s such a go-getter and makes
opportunities for herself.”
Read the Essay that got a
Malaysian-Born Girl Accepted Into All 8 Ivy League universities. Source:
http://afterschool.my/news/72793-2/
A 17-year-old
girl by the name of Cassandra Hsiao, achieved the incredible feat of being
accepted into all eight Ivy League schools.
Hsiao, who
resides in Walnut, South California, has offers from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth , Brown, Columbia ,
Cornell and Pennsylvania
Hsiao
immigrated from Malaysia
Speaking of
her impressive resume, her GPA stands at 4.67, while she scored 1540 on her
SATs. But her impressive resume somehow gets even better the longer you go on.
She’s one of two student body presidents, an editor-in-chief of the school’s
magazine and active in her community.
Not
satisfied being just good with the books, Hsiao has conducted on-camera
interviews on red carpets at film festivals, media screenings and press
conferences. She’s even interviewed Captain America
In addition
to being accepted to all Ivy League schools, she was also accepted to Stanford University ,
John Hopkins
University , University
of Southern California , Northwestern University , New York
University, Amherst
College
Here is the essay that helped
Cassandra pull of this truly incredible feat:-
In our house, English is not English. Not in the phonetic sense,
like short a is for apple, but rather in the pronunciation – in our house,
snake is snack. Words do not roll off our tongues correctly – yet I, who was
pulled out of class to meet with language specialists, and my mother from Malaysia
In our house, there is no difference between cast and cash, which was
why at a church retreat, people made fun of me for “cashing out demons.” I did
not realize the glaring difference between the two Englishes until my teacher
corrected my pronunciations of hammock, ladle, and siphon. Classmates laughed
because I pronounce accept as except, success as sussess. I was in the Creative
Writing conservatory, and yet words failed me when I needed them most.
Suddenly, understanding flower is flour wasn’t enough. I rejected
the English that had never seemed broken before, a language that had raised me
and taught me everything I knew. Everybody else’s parents spoke with accents
smarting of Ph.D.s and university teaching positions. So why couldn’t mine?
My mother spread her sunbaked hands and said, “This is where I came
from,” spinning a tale with the English she had taught herself.
When my mother moved from her village to a town in Malaysia
“Be like that class president,” my mother said with tears in her
eyes. The class president took her under her wing and patiently mended my
mother’s strands of language. “She stood up for the weak and used her words to
fight back.”
We were both crying now. My mother asked me to teach her proper
English so old white ladies at Target wouldn’t laugh at her pronunciation. It
has not been easy. There is a measure of guilt when I sew her letters together.
Long vowels, double consonants — I am still learning myself. Sometimes I let
the brokenness slide to spare her pride but perhaps I have hurt her more to
spare mine.
As my mother’s vocabulary began to grow, I mended my own English.
Through performing poetry in front of 3000 at my school’s Season Finale event,
interviewing people from all walks of life, and writing stories for the stage,
I stand against ignorance and become a voice for the homeless, the refugees,
the ignored. With my words I fight against jeers pelted at an old Asian street New York
In our house, there is beauty in the way we speak to each other. In
our house, language is not broken but rather bursting with emotion. We have
built a house out of words. There are friendly snakes in the cupboard and
snacks in the tank. It is a crooked house. It is a little messy. But this is
where we have made our home.
Congratulations,
Cassandra Hsiao.
Thursday, 6 April 2017
Marc Goodman: Future Crimes
Future Crimes: A Vision of Crimes in the Future
Inside the Digital Underground and the Battle for Our Connect World
2. Everything Is Connected, so Everyone Is Vulnerable
and What We Can Do About It
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/books/review/future-crimes-by-marc-goodman.htmlTuesday, 21 March 2017
10 Tips for a Job Interview
Source: https://www.thenakedceo.com/articles/job-seeking/10-tips-recruiters-wont-share
From the moment your resume
lands in a recruiter’s inbox you’re being judged. From the way you craft your
sentences, to your spelling ability and punctuation skills – any cracks may
receive an automatic disqualification regardless of your talents.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Pushed for time:
Most recruiters don’t have
time to pick a diamond from the rough, they want the stone (that’s you) already
cut and polished. With so many eminently qualified professionals around,
recruiters have the luxury of picking and choosing from a smorgasbord of talent
– so bring your A-game.
2. First impressions on your interviewer count:
You may have heard this a
million times before, but most people don’t believe it actually applies to
them. Simple resume spelling and punctuation mistakes will immediately hurt your
job aspirations. As will a dishevelled and unprofessional appearance.
3. You need to look the part:
Need a haircut? Are your
shoes scuffed? It may sound like basic stuff, but a surprisingly large number
of people get it wrong and any of these things can see you struck from the list
without a word. Here’s how you can dress to impress.
4. Actions are important too:
The adage you can tell a lot
about a person from their handshake has never been truer, and a weak, overly
forceful or even a clammy one won’t do you any favours. Neither will fidgeting,
not paying attention, being aggressive, arrogant or a timid little mouse.
5. Eye contact with the HR manager:
If you can’t look someone in
the eye you’ll come across as untrustworthy and, if you stare them down, overly
aggressive. And you won’t get hired. Make sure you don’t annoy the HR Manager.
6. Timing is everything:
Time management skills are
essential in any job, so if you can’t get to an important meeting on time you
can kiss the job goodbye. If you do receive a communication from a recruiter,
it also is essential to apply as soon as you can to indicate interest.
7. Be eager, not pushy:
Do you like being nagged for
updates every day? Neither do recruiters, so don’t do it.
8. Retain boundaries:
No matter how well you feel
you know the recruiter, keep your communications professional at all times.
Find out about the secret life of recruiters on LinkedIn.
9. Be prepared for your interview:
There’s no excuse for not
having researched the company you plan to join. You need to be able to ask
intelligent and insightful questions about the company and its direction and
stand out from the crowd – or risk fading into obscurity. Read our job interview
preparation tips.
10. Communicate effectively:
Don’t forget to ditch the ums
and ahs, don’t speak too quickly or slowly, and don’t waffle.
Tips to make a good
impression on recruiters:
- Recruiters don’t want
fixer-uppers
- First impressions are crucial
- There’s no excuse for not
doing research
- Ditch the verbal fillers
Thursday, 16 February 2017
18 Behaviors of Emotionally Intelligent People
By Travis Bradberry / Inc. | Feb.
12, 2016
Source: http://motto.time.com/4117921/emotional-intelligence-signs/
Emotional intelligence is a huge driver of success
When emotional intelligence (EQ)
first appeared to the masses, it served as the missing link in a peculiar
finding: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70
percent of the time. This anomaly threw a massive wrench into the broadly held
assumption that IQ was the sole source of success.
Decades of research now point to
emotional intelligence as being the critical factor that sets star performers
apart from the rest of the pack. The connection is so strong that 90 percent of
top performers have high emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is the
“something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage
behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions to achieve
positive results.
Despite the significance of EQ, its
intangible nature makes it difficult to measure and to know what to do to
improve it if you’re lacking. You can always take a scientifically validated
test, such as the one that comes with the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 book, but
unfortunately, most such tests aren’t free. So, I’ve analyzed the data from the
million-plus people TalentSmart has tested in order to identify the behaviors
that are the hallmarks of a high EQ. What follows are sure signs that you have
a high EQ.
1. You have a robust emotional vocabulary
All people experience emotions, but
it is a select few who can accurately identify them as they occur. Our research
shows that only 36 percent of people can do this, which is problematic because
unlabeled emotions often go misunderstood, which leads to irrational choices
and counterproductive actions.
People with high EQs master their
emotions because they understand them, and they use an extensive vocabulary of
feelings to do so. While many people might describe themselves as simply
feeling “bad,” emotionally intelligent people can pinpoint whether they feel
“irritable,” “frustrated,” “downtrodden,” or “anxious.” The more specific your
word choice, the better insight you have into exactly how you are feeling, what
caused it, and what you should do about it.
2. You’re curious about people
It doesn’t matter if they’re
introverted or extroverted, emotionally intelligent people are curious about
everyone around them. This curiosity is the product of empathy, one of the most
significant gateways to a high EQ. The more you care about other people and
what they’re going through, the more curiosity you’re going to have about them.
3. You embrace change
Emotionally intelligent people are
flexible and are constantly adapting. They know that fear of change is
paralyzing and a major threat to their success and happiness. They look for
change that is lurking just around the corner, and they form a plan of action
should these changes occur.
4. You know your strengths and weaknesses
Emotionally intelligent people
don’t just understand emotions; they know what they’re good at and what they’re
terrible at. They also know who pushes their buttons and the environments (both
situations and people) that enable them to succeed. Having a high EQ means you
know your strengths and how to lean into and use them to your full advantage
while keeping your weaknesses from holding you back.
5. You’re a good judge of character
Much of emotional intelligence
comes down to social awareness; the ability to read other people, know what
they’re about, and understand what they’re going through. Over time, this skill
makes you an exceptional judge of character. People are no mystery to you. You
know what they’re all about and understand their motivations, even those that
lie hidden beneath the surface.
6. You are difficult to offend
If you have a firm grasp of who you
are, it’s difficult for someone to say or do something that gets your goat.
Emotionally intelligent people are self-confident and open-minded, which
creates a pretty thick skin. You may even poke fun at yourself or let other
people make jokes about you because you are able to mentally draw the line between
humor and degradation.
7. You know how to say no (to yourself and others)
Emotional intelligence means
knowing how to exert self-control. You delay gratification and avoid impulsive
action. Research conducted at the University of California, San Francisco,
shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are
to experience stress, burnout, and even depression. Saying no is a major
self-control challenge for many people, but “No” is a powerful word that you
should unafraid to wield. When it’s time to say no, emotionally intelligent
people avoid phrases such as “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying
no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the
opportunity to successfully fulfill them.
8. You let go of mistakes
Emotionally intelligent people
distance themselves from their mistakes, but do so without forgetting them. By
keeping their mistakes at a safe distance, yet still handy enough to refer to,
they are able to adapt and adjust for future success. It takes refined
self-awareness to walk this tightrope between dwelling and remembering.
Dwelling too long on your mistakes makes you anxious and gun shy, while
forgetting about them completely makes you bound to repeat them. The key to
balance lies in your ability to transform failures into nuggets of improvement.
This creates the tendency to get right back up every time you fall down.
9. You give and expect nothing in return
When someone gives you something
spontaneously, without expecting anything in return, this leaves a powerful
impression. For example, you might have an interesting conversation with
someone about a book, and when you see them again a month later, you show up
with the book in hand. Emotionally intelligent people build strong
relationships because they are constantly thinking about others.
10. You don’t hold grudges
The negative emotions that come
with holding onto a grudge are actually a stress response. Just thinking about
the event sends your body into fight-or-flight mode, a survival mechanism that
forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat.
When the threat is imminent, this reaction is essential to your survival, but
when the threat is ancient history, holding onto that stress wreaks havoc on
your body and can have devastating health consequences over time. In fact,
researchers at Emory
University
11. You neutralize toxic people
Dealing
with difficult people is frustrating and exhausting for most. But high-EQ
individuals control their interactions with toxic people by keeping their
feelings in check. When they need to confront a toxic person, they approach the
situation rationally. They identify their own emotions and don’t allow anger or
frustration to fuel the chaos. They also consider the difficult person’s
standpoint and are able to find solutions and common ground. Even when things
completely derail, emotionally intelligent people are able to take the toxic
person with a grain of salt to avoid letting him or her bring them down.
12. You don’t seek perfection
Emotionally
intelligent people won’t set perfection as their target because they know that
it doesn’t exist. Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When
perfection is your goal, you’re always left with a nagging sense of failure
that makes you want to give up or reduce your effort. You end up spending time
lamenting what you failed to accomplish and should have done differently
instead of moving forward, excited about what you’ve achieved and what you will
accomplish in the future.
13. You appreciate what you have
Taking
time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the right thing to
do; it also improves your mood by reducing the stress hormone cortisol (in some
cases by 23 percent). Research conducted at the University
of California , Davis
14. You disconnect
Taking
regular time off the grid is a sign of a high EQ because it helps you to keep
your stress under control and to live in the moment. When you make yourself
available to your work 24/7, you expose yourself to a constant barrage of
stressors. Forcing yourself offline and even–gulp!–turning off your phone gives
your body and mind a break. Studies have shown that something as simple as an
email break can lower stress levels. Technology enables constant communication
and the expectation that you should be available 24/7. It is extremely
difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work when an email with the
power to bring your thinking (read: stressing) back to work can drop onto your
phone at any moment.
15. You limit your caffeine
intake
Drinking
excessive amounts of caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline, which is the
primary source of a fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight mechanism
sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response to ensure survival.
This is great when a bear is chasing you, but not so great when you’re
responding to a curt email. When caffeine puts your brain and body into this
hyper-aroused state of stress, your emotions overrun your behavior. Caffeine’s
long half-life ensures you stay this way as it takes its sweet time working its
way out of your body. High-EQ individuals know that caffeine is trouble, and
they don’t let it get the better of them.
16. You get enough sleep
It’s difficult to overstate the
importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and managing your
stress levels. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling
through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams)
so that you wake up alert and clearheaded. High-EQ individuals know that their
self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when they don’t get
enough–or the right kind–of sleep. So, they make sleep a top priority.
17. You stop negative self-talk in its tracks
The more you ruminate on negative
thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just
that–thoughts, not facts. When it feels like something always or never happens,
this is just your brain’s natural tendency to perceive threats (inflating the
frequency or severity of an event). Emotionally intelligent people separate
their thoughts from the facts in order to escape the cycle of negativity and
move toward a positive, new outlook.
18. You won’t let anyone limit your joy
When your sense of pleasure and
satisfaction are derived from the opinions of other people, you are no longer
the master of your own happiness. When emotionally intelligent people feel good
about something they’ve done, they won’t let anyone’s opinions or snide remarks
take that away from them. While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to
what others think, you don’t have to compare yourself to others, and you can
always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what
other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within.
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