Frankly speaking, by looking at the title of the movie, it doesn’t motivate me to watch it, until my friend insisted that I should. Of course, I am going share some reviews and inspirations I have got from the movie itself. If you have not watched it, please go and get a legal copy or rent it. If you have watched it, and yet haven’t get any inspirations out of it, please go and watch it again.

Long story short, the main character, Lewis grew up in an orphanage, awaiting to get adopted. He is a brilliant kid that always likes to work on  his invention projects. Unfortunately, all his adoption interviews did not went well. He starts to get worried, as once he turns 13, it would even be harder for people willing to adopt him. The sad thought makes him want to look for his mother, to see what his mother looked like, and maybe she would want him. So, he works on inventing a machine that scans through the brain and replay memories, and goes to participate in the invention fair.

A mysterious kid from the future, Wilbur warns him about a bowler hat guy. Lewis doesn’t take it too seriously and eventually the bowler hat guy and his accomplice robotic hat – Doris manage to ruin his presentation to the judges. Beaten by the failure, the upset Lewis gives up.

What follows is that Wilbur takes Lewis to the future, and that’s where he meets the wacky Robinson family, where he gets to feel the warmth and how closely connected the family members are, and found the courage of keep moving forward. This is something that he never gets to experience before. While amazed with the hip-hopping frogs, bubble and tube transportation, pizza delivering saucer, octopus butler, Lewis has never given much  thought that a conspiracy of ruining Lewis and the Robinsons’ future is secretly being carried out by the bowler guy and his accomplice. And only Lewis could save himself and the Robinsons….As to how Lewis done it, what is his relationship with the Robinsons, what’s the conspiracy about, and who exactly is the bowler guy, I’ll leave the details for now.

Moving on, the movie inspires me on the fact to … Keep Moving Forward. Yes, life is never perfect. You failed, you keep moving forward. Failed again, continue moving forward again. Eventually, you will learn something, like what the movie says “From failing you learn, from success…not so much.”

There is a scene where Lewis found out who the bowler guy is and why does he have to do all that harms, and Lewis tells him that “Don’t blame me, you messed it up yourself, you just focused on the bad stuff, when all you have to do is let all that pass and keep moving forward.”

Like what I have always been saying in the blog, you have the choice. You can choose to blame anyone and everyone. You can choose to be despaired and drown yourself in pools of failures, and let negatively bad stuff congest your brain and thoughts. Or, you can choose to let go and move on.

Hatred and vengeance blinds and drives a person to the extreme. But it is a cause and effect. You have the power to consider an alternative solution to a problem, and things can turnout differently. Don’t always think that you are sacrificing, but learn to balance your passion driving against your consideration for others, especially your loved ones.

Hope that you can get more inspirations out of the movie itself, and here’s a teaser of the movie, that I liked pretty much.

We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

– Walt Disney

A toast to your brilliant failure, may lead to success in the future.

• Why am I just not making enough?
• Why am I still so poor regardless of how hard do I work?
• Why am I not as successful as my friends or relatives, etc.

I used to embrace myself with that thought too. But not anymore, as I came across the following story that drew my attention to realize how wealthy and fortunate I actually am.

Being poor is not as scary as, if a person were to secure and lock himself/herself up with the thought of being poor. In fact, that’s a pathetic thought when one were to acknowledge the fate and destiny that one was born poor, and die poor. Poor man, poor life. The difference of a filthy rich and poor person,  is not the actual amount of money he/she is holding on to; but the thought – to stay poor or move yourself to the greener side of the meadow.

There was a young man always grumbling, blaming, and complaining about the fact that why was he not born rich, why was he unable to get rich. It was until one day, an old  man came along, saw this unhappy young man, and asked for the reason of his unhappiness, when he should have been a cheerful, passionate, and motivated young lad at this young age.

The young man answered, “I do not understand why do I have be born poor, grew up in a poor family, and most probably I’ll continue living in this way till my last breathe in life. I have so many things I wanted to do, so many wishes that I hope to fulfill. I want to learn to play music so that I can attract a good and pretty lady. I want to get married. I want to roam the world and see how beautiful the world is out there with my beloved. But I can’t do all these, all simply because I am POOR!”

The old man took a good at this young lad said, “You, poor? I can see how rich you are! “

The young man was puzzled, “Why do you say so, mister?”

The old man ignored his question and instead asked him, “I can make you rich, but there’s a condition in exchange. Here’s my proposal, if I were to chop off one of your fingers, and pay you $1,000, are you willing to accept?”

The young man thought for a second, answered him, “No. Without a finger, how can I fulfill my desire to play nice music?”

The old man continued, “How about giving you $10,000 in exchange for one of your hands? Would you accept?” The young man again answered firmly, “Of course not! How would I be able to hold my beloved with warmth, and protect her well?”

The old man carried on, “How about giving you $100,000 in exchange for your youth, once you agree, you will be turned into an 80-year-old old man?”The young man insisted, “No way! If I were to become a sickly 80-year-old old man, I can’t even go for a tour around the world.”

The old man then offered, “Here’s my last offer, I am giving you a million dollars for the condition that you will die immediately. Are you willing to accept?” Without a second thought, the young man responded, “Definitely not! What would be the use of a million when I can’t even get to spend?!”

The old man smiled and said, “That’s it! You are a millionaire. Why are still poor when you already have got over a million dollars worth of assets.”

So, you can see, it is not sinful to be poor, neither is it the end of the world. If you think of it as an accumulation to experience, a test in life, the thought of training one to become a successfully useful person, then you would be more appreciative towards it. If one has never tastes the bitterness in life, one has never really lived; if one has been been banished to the poor state, one would never appreciate the true meaning of life and wealth.

It is when you hold the thought of appreciative and thankfulness towards this tough challenge, then you can truly and honestly experience and going beyond the state. Being poor, is just a test for you to comprehend,  experience, and demystify one of the smallest defect in your inner self and life. But, you have the choice to magnify and enlarge it enough to negatively pollute your thoughts, or it could also be able to let you understand the meaning of being contented, and being able to fight against ordeals. Like always, there’s an angel and a devil living within you.

So, am I right to say that you are definitely WEALTH!

Date: 7th Nov 2008 – 9th Nov 2008
Time: 9am – 11pm (7th – 8th Nov), 9am – 8pm (9th Nov)
Venue: Singapore Expo (Hall 2)

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore 2008, a seminar that would be held in Singapore by the author T. Harv Eker, whom  unlocked the “Secrets of The Millionaire Mindset”.  With regards to the book, it is one of the top handpicked book from the  shelves of major bookstores and one of the best selling book that discloses the Secret Psychology of Wealth. If you liked this book, then you are not going to miss this upcoming Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore 2008 seminar this November 2008!

Now here is what is installed for the Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar:

• Wealth Creation and Maintenance strategies of the rich – Discover how the riches put their strategies to work for them
• How to quadruple your speed to financial freedom – Find out how you can break free from the ‘donkey-carrot’ race for money
• Understand the 5 key financial habits of the wealthy – Pick up these financial habits and start to draw nearer to your financial freedom destination
• Find out what is the underlying cause of almost all financial problems – Understanding the cause to prevent you from falling into the same trap!
• 12 Ways to earn Passive Income – Make money while you sleep!
• and more…

Checkmark! Note it! Highlight! Emboss 7th – 9th Nov 2008! This most important date that will ever start to make a change in your financial life. Did I mentioned what you are getting? No I didn’t?

And here’s what you will be getting…The Key to make a change your FINANCIAL BLUEPRINT:

• Do you know that your childhood conditioning is a reason that is affecting your finances today?
• Would you like to make a change to your money and success blueprint for a LIFETIME?
• Do you want to know how to go about building and enhancing your STRENGTHS and overcoming your WEAKNESSES?
• Would you like to find out how to create success from spiritual law?
• Would you want to drill into the minds of rich and wealth, and adopt the same blueprint for yourself?
• Do you want to unlock the secret to reprogramming your mind for automatic success?

And on top of this, you are given Free Course Workbook, DVD and Audio CDs that worth a total of SGD 500!! This is already how many times off the price of your ticket, I am sure you won’t want to miss this super bundle, would you?

I am seriously urging you DO NOT MISS this Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore 2008 seminar. Only Miss this at your loss! Why?

Don’t wait till the last minute! The price is going up, and the tickets are running out. The seats have been sold out the last time and they filled the hall with full house occupancy. Book your seat right now, before the tickets start counting low again. Catch up with you in the event!

If I have to the choice to be rich and wealthy….Well in my humble opinion, you had already made YOUR CHOICE when you said this. Didn’t you? You made the choice of being the OPPOSITE of rich and wealthy!

Rich and wealthy don’t just sit there to dream and grumble about things. They worked for it. Though more often than not, many perceived that rich and wealthy don’t work hard at it. Well, these people who presumed so, are definitely right! That is because these riches work smart. That is the forumla where many are seeking for, where in fact most are not able to find as long as they are trapped in what Robert Kiyosaki liked to call, the Rat Race.

The Game Rule In Today’s Context: History Repeats Itself

This rule is as true and as real as it is for now, as the olden days. I would say that it had been there for centuries and centuries. How many military leaders have you seen going personally to the military warfare, standing right at the frontline of the battleground? It has been said that olden days military wisdom depicts what is in today’s business world. That is why we have the Art of War by Sun Tze.

The Hard Work Indicator: Are you working too hard?

Give yourself a break, and get away from your usual view and perception. Replay your daily routine as if you are watching drama series. Is the content of each and every episode mostly the same? And are you happy that? If your answer is a NO, then you are working way too hard.

Work for a Meaningful Objective: What is your purpose or objective?

What exactly is your point of working so hard? For your retirement? Well then if it is so, then based on Tim Ferriss’s The 4 Hour Work Week is that you are working without an objective, you are only setting yourself a destination. Based on his pratical tested theory, new rich loved what they do, and never intend to quit for retirement. And in fact they are pretty happy with it as they work less and enjoy more than others.

In Summary: What is my point?

Don’t just get yourself trapped, and more importantly here is a critical word to add to the sentence, “unknowingly”. Don’t get yourself trapped UNKNOWINGLY. It will be as if you are living without a direction, and your only means of living is to work and work.

Doesn’t it seems as if it is like a donkey and a carot? The only thing that the donkey can see is neither the nice scenery, nor the people,  or anything, because they only have one ultimate focus. The carot! Who knows the donkey might not even be getting the carot at all even after all the hard work?

In my humble opinion, successful does not determined how wealthy you are, how reputable you are, how much power you get to live with. These are just the results. Most importantly is the process of getting there.

Personally, I think that successful is how well a person handles adversities, issues, problems, that he or she encounters in life, business, work, etc. Putting it simply, it is how well one devotes fully in overriding any obstacles he or she encounters.If you have not been successfully picking up yourself from the falls you previously stumbled upon, do yourself just this favour…

1. Go to the library, go to the bookstore, surf the net, do whatever you can…
2. Reach out for the information for how those rich and famous, look for NOT their success story, but their story of failures
3. Take the time to read through them
4. Note how that applies to you

Why would I recommend that you want to do yourself this favour?

That is simply because I would want you to acknowledge the fact that, you are not the only one in the whole wide world to face with problems. Everyone does. So do the rich and famous.

It is the persistence that you need, and be motivated to realize the fact that you are not a loser, you are not a failure. You just happened to be out of your track, pick yourself up and get adjusted to be back on the right track.

Date: 6 March 2008
Time: 1930 HR – 2200 HR (7.30 pm – 10.00 pm)
Venue: Sheraton Towers Hotel

Life ain’t a bed of roses. And it is definitely normal that we encounter problems in life. The perception and attitude towards facing the problems would enable to either reach for the next stage in life, or to get oneself stuck and blinded by the problem itself.

This is an free introductory session that you are definitely not going to miss out. And more importantly it is strictly limited and by invitation only. All guests must be pre-registered.

Date With Destiny 2008 Preview Exclusive Bonus

Attend the Date With Destiny 2008 Preview and receive this seminar video download that worth $350 in value especially for you FREE.

1. New Life, New Decisions e-Seminar
2. Inner Strength Series Vol 1~3
Negotiating Conflicts，Reclaiming Your True Identity，Overcoming Overwhelming Loss

Here’s what you are going to learn from the introductory preview session, the key answers to:

How to create dynamic transformation in every aspect of your life, from your business, relationship, health, emotions, etc?

• How to go about identifying and mastering the core values and beliefs that revolve around the decision path?
• What is the compelling force behind all relationships and how to bond deeper?
• How to path your beliefs, values and experience that drives towards the direction of your ultimate vision, destiny and achieve your desired life?

Don’t miss the preview, just by not going to the preview alone is losing your $350 worth of Anthony Robbins’ video, and the key answers to your desirable lifestyle.

Simply fill up he form below, and click on the “I Want To Be Invited” to grab a seat.

Seth talked about two incidents of waste that he encountered in the hotel. And in one of the incident:

when I got home, the $125 watch I had ordered from Amazon was waiting for me. The box for the watch contained four pamphlets, a small velvet bag, a cleaning cloth and was more than 10 inches by 3 inches by 3 inches in size. It weighed well over a pound–just the presentation box, not the watch.

Years back then, I would suppose functionality of an item would be the most important factor that comes into consideration when making a purchase. But now, the whole idea is drifting away, moving towards the presentation than the item itself.

More companies looked into the areas of selling the benefits than selling features, and in fact using them as a factor in competition. Think about it, when you buy a car, are you looking just for the convenience or the luxury of having one?

We have lately been exposed to emotionally marketing. Japan is well known for its packaging. And the fact is that, I have ever tasted such a cookie that looks extremely great on the outside, but probably not up to my expectation for the taste.

And I remembered that I saw somewhere on the internet a photo featuring one of the credit card that was sent to their premium credit card holder, within a big metallic business case and the card stays within. I believed that if I were the one receiving such a card, no doubt, I may come to think of it as a bit of waste later on. But then, the moment that I received the card, I would have the emotional feeling of class and pride of owning such a card.

Do all these consider to be a luxury or just a wilful waste?

But Google Docs made a breakthrough and set in to create this within their spreadsheet. However though, how useful could it be, is really up to individual, and their purposes.

Most business people talk about surveying or polling, with this feature it will simply give the business or organization a great pilot testing ground targeted to their specific target audience.

Other than that, Seth Godin triggered the idea of a simple event auction system with limited seating. As always innovation is not just creative, but fun as well. Like what Seth talked about, instead of having to charge a fixed price to ticket, what about changing the whole idea into categorized based signup, where it is based on the number, e.g. first 5 tickets at $1, the next five at $2, and $500 for the last ten, etc. In such a sense, it rewards early bird signup.

In fact, such has been seen on some online selling websites. However though, likewise to the various pricing models, this idea does also have its own pros and cons. It is greatly based on the demand and supply of the product or services. If the demand does not meet the supply, it would be hard for the pricing model to work well.

As for a geography-based pricing system, a tracker or locater, or some sort of tracking mechanisms, that could perfectly make this idea works. However, this could be a great idea to implement for services sold towards internet based audience.Another wild idea for airlines, flights for passengers instead of passengers for flights. Personally, I like this idea, simply because I always believed in the sense of demand before supply.

These may be crazy and wild ideas, but then with the revolution of innovation and interaction. And probably one of these days, there maybe someone who may be able to realize them, with fine tuning and perfection.

Be it for reference or for an idea, Mappi keeps a whole library of mindmaps created by others. That will aid in making a great reference when you need more ideas about mindmap creation.

As for the second part regarding this post, will be of course, my test drive for the online web 2.0 mindmapping tool called, Mindmeister, as introduced by one of my commenter in the previous post.

Free Mind – the downloadable open source mind mapping software, well known for its quick, clickable fold/unfold function.

MindMeister – online web 2.0 styled collaborative mind mapping with 3 plans, free basic, premium, and team.

bubbl.us – a free and simple application triggers brainstorming and ideas sharing online.

In additional, here are some mindmapping articles not to miss:

Articles from iMindMap :

Creating Your First Mind Map

Ultimate Thinking Tool

Problem Solving with Tony Buzan

Innovation Tools :

10 Mistakes To Avoid With Mind Mapping Software

However though, this isn’t exactly true. Anyone and everyone could use it, not pratically just for businesses, but for personal life as well.

Don’t believe me?

Here’s an online sample of a mindmap that was created for a shopping list.

Image Credit: Mappio Library

Besides having to create shopping list mindmap, here are other ideas for the use of mindmaps, such as:

• Wedding Planning
• Career Planning
• Health Goals Planning
• Travel Trip Planning
• Daily Planning, etc

Here’s a small video that will show you more about mindmapping with tools, instead of having to manually draw it out. I suppose Tony Buzan, the mindmap inventor will do a better introduction right over in this video.

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Here’s the link regarding the iMindmap that was shown in the video, and a product by Tony Buzan, the mindmap master. Check out the iMindmap Download.