More Than Words Can Say........

2012 A New Lean & Agile Year

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:05:42 PST

Every new year I sort of take stock what happened last year, what were the achievements and what I could have done better. Overall, we see a trending towards a leaner and more efficient way of doing things. Agile concepts and Scrum methodology flourished. A few years back, we were looking for that perfect foundation or framework to be the overarching framework of how things to be done, sort of like a unified theory of the perfect testing framework. Only for the recent trend of Agile tells us that, the only best way to get something done is to do it in small repeatable yet emphasize on transparency and openness. This is the way to go...

I personally have seen the successes in Scrum and Agile methodology in organizations. To this I would like to add, how is the software testing world adapting or taking part in Scrum or Agile. Some Scrum still leaves testing out of the sprint, some adopt testing into the sprint but seems isolated in the way testing work is done and most have no ideas. A have seen a book or 2 on how agile testing is supposed to be but to bluntly put it, it is still not very commonly practiced, at least, not in Asia Pacific.

The ever changing software industry required us to move with the pace, and I believe that software testers have to keep up with the methodology and concept and learn how to work with the agile developers now. This is the best way I know of how to provide good value to our organizations.

I wish all of you a great New Year and happy 2012: the New Lean And Agile Year.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Board of Computing Professionals Malaysia Bill 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:58:31 PST

I cannot fully comprehend, why the IT industry that is thriving so well, need a body to regulate them. So here is my point on why the bill is not necessary, in fact, redundant.
1. Why do we need to be registered to have something to do with IT? Does users of IT system need to go through the registration as well?
2. What if we get an expert from overseas to come to Malaysia to solve some critical IT issues? Is it illegal for them to touch the keyboard since they are not registered? Can he check in his code or fixes, OR, he will be locked up by the police?
3. What if the registration board finds someone they don't like and fail to register the person? Would it be that this person would better start to look for a job that has nothing to do with IT?
4. So, there would be Certified Professional Software Developer, who has all the certificates or connections to get him or her registered, but he or she does not know how to code at all. AND, there is this young genius student who is still studying and has no cert. So the poor student would have to give or sell all the codes/solution to this registered person? Starts to sound like accounting industry.
5. And how about fees? Would I be subjected to pay like I am a professional accountant or something?

All this crazy scenarios sounds so crazy. And I guess it definitely turn people off, not that they are not already turned off right now. I think the group of people pushing for this bill is trying to make themselves more useful, unfortunately, they got the opposite effect. I'd say, if you stop thinking about how to make money out of it and really do more in educating the wider Malaysia (especially the rural) on IT, it would have been much more practical. I don't buy this crap, really...

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Book Sales like Never Before

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:37:16 PDT

I heard about the crazy book sales, but I have not seen it until the other day, I went and people don't carry plastic bags, but they carry boxes and luggage bags.
I was totally unprepared, I felt ashamed, haha.

Check out the photos....

Look... the kid is carrying a BOX!!

They bring books by pallet via a forklift I think

Not to be outdone by the kid, I have a box (hehe) and 4 shopping bags :)

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

ISO 26000 Corporate Social Responsibility

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Wed, 25 May 2011 22:33:45 PDT

Recently I went for a course organized by Asian Productivity Organization (APO) that is, e-learning, on ISO 26000 Corporate Social Responsibility.

It is interesting to understand that increasingly people are looking at how a company conduct itself rather than only on the quality of the goods produced exclusively. Organizations now aware of the needs to look into their social responsibility image to the public. As well the points in SR also ensure sustainable development.

So company have to look into areas like to have a balance healthy ecosystems, social equity and good organizational governance. At the end of the day, the organization have to exist in a healthy ecosystems and organizational governance is important because there are various stakeholders that will surely scrutinize every discrepancies and gaps that the organization has.

It also takes into consideration a wide area in terms of societal, environmental, legal, cultural, political and organization diversity (small to conglomerate), as well as differences in economic conditions and keeping in tab consistency with international norms.

This of course is not for certification and only meant to be guideline. The area coverage would be too big as well as different industry has different governing rules. So, it is not meant to be all coverage, but it is overarching of corporate social responsibility. It is something important and not that difficult, but we definitely have to spend some time to look into it and start implementing within our organization.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Of Video Cam and Camera

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:04:44 PDT

I was in a dilemma a couple of days back on which video cam I should go for.

Canon Vixis HF M300
HF M31
Panasonic HDC-H560
JVC GZ HD620
Canon FS200/21/22
JVC GZ HD670
Canon Legria HF R16 RM1499
Sony PJ10E RM2299

The below was some of those considered. Guess which one I went for :)

Wanted to go for a small camera, with limited functionality. Quick and small for family use... Shortlisted 2
A2200IS - seems suitable for mom
IXUS 115 - good for YL

Any comments?

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Ethan - Walking Freely

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Thu, 05 May 2011 02:46:57 PDT

Ethan grows by the day and everyday, he seems to give me and my wife a surprise. Just until 3 days ago, he was walking but was terribly unstable. He could fall front, which he could soften by slamming his hand on the floor first, and then he could also tilt and fall sideways, which he could fall on his buttock first (like sitting down), and sometimes after sitting down still not stable and knock his head on the floor. Not too hard, but I do feel his pain...

Now, just barely 3 days later, he is walking around so relaxed, as if he has been walking all this time and steady at that. Boy, is he growing up quickly. I better spend more time with him and keep on snapping away with my camera. I think I would also need a new hard disk to store those photos. One Terra-byte? Two? hmmm...

And my wife and I caught on to a new interesting book about teaching baby how to read. We are all set for the little project and already bought the stationary. Glenn Doman, I recommend his books to you too.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Purpose of my Life

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:58:08 PDT

It is the point in time every year that I take a step back and see what is happening in my life. Every year I make a little bit of adjustment here and there, like less of sinful food, more of exercise, strategy to reduce my body fats, strategy to contact some long lost friends and etc. This year though, I take a more profound approach by asking the question, what is the purpose of my life here? Well it has been 2 weeks since I asked that question and really it is not one that I readily have any answers to, even though I have 2 weeks to think about it.

I do know that everyone has a different purpose. Not everyone look at it objectively, and build a plan to achieve it, most people drift by it or get into the thick of action without giving too much of a thought about it. When they do give a thought about it, it is too complex, takes too much time, so, revert to something easier or forget about it.

So after 2 weeks, here is what I have, the most important thing for me is to trust and walk with Jesus and to build that relationship, next is to be the best that I can be with all the given talents and physical health, to give my best to my family and friends and to do my best in every initiative that I embark on.

I suppose time management, wealth, happiness need not be mentioned here because if I am able to do the above and prioritize accordingly, the rest will be added on into my life. Am I missing anything? Well, my friends, do say something if you have anything constructive :p

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Ethan - 1 year old

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:51:10 PDT

Ethan just had his 1 year old birthday party earlier this month. He is a happy boy, giving a wide big smile whenever he is happy and cheeky. Most important of all, he gives me a wide big smile every time I come back from work.

He makes a lot of noise when we put him down in the play pant. He will shout and cry like we have bullied him. Well he definitely knows the tips and tricks to get out of the play pant. When he is not in the play pant, he'll try to walk around (totally unstable) and he will circle around the table and throw about toys and whatever he could grab on. Occasionally, he will grab hold of any two things in his hand and not let go, even when he is climbing and crawling.

He is growing up and definitely growing smarter. He is a handful but I have a very merry great time spending time with him. This Easter weekend reminds me again how important he is in my life and the life of my family.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Hanoi

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:42:43 PDT

Day 1
Arrived early in the morning and when we got out of the plane, the temperature gave us a shock and the winter chill went down my spine. I am imagining the time that I will be away from my son, and the time that I am going to miss him, but a break for myself is really much needed. I was looking for a break away from work, as well as giving myself an opportunity to make some important decisions coming my way.

Done with the formalities in airport, five of us make our way to the hotel on a normal sedan car though we asked for a seven-seater like Toyota Innova. Anyway, the few of us squeezed into the sedan and went on our 30 minutes trip to Hanoi City (Old Quarters). Funny, I have always thought that Hanoi = Saigon, apparently not. From the journey, we started to notice the condition of the road and the way driver communicates with one another. The honking never stops and it just seems that cars are talking to each other with it. The number of vehicles on the road is unbelievable and there are scooters everywhere going in every directions and it seems impossible at times to imagine how get to our destination. Like one of my friends say, controlled chaos. The other word that I cannot get out of my mind is 'population explosion'. This 2 phrases describes exactly how the city is, to us from Malaysia.

Well we reach our destination with the driver unable to find the hotel, which when he finally did, had to reverse back to the hotel because he couldn't figure out how to get there. It was quite a ride! We settled in to www.luckystarhotel.com and it is pretty good. We put down our stuff and embarked by foot to conquer Hanoi. First stop is to search for food.

The first attempt to look for food did not go too smooth, though, we finally landed ourselves on the sixth or seventh eating place we came across. It was for 'pork' rice noodle soup. It was the nicest food I have tasted this year and with the cold weather (around 10 degree Celsius), it was too good. The only down side is that the soup was cooled too fast for our liking. When we were done with food, we then next explored around and went back towards a cafe we saw earlier. And yes this cafe offers 'Kopi Luwak'. Priced at 250k Dong. A bit pricey, I think, so we settled for something less, Vietnamese coffee. The thing with Vietnamese coffee is that it is really strong, and the cup is really too small. I prefer a big cup of coffee, and couldn't find something like it there. We relaxed at the cafe for about an hour before we embarked by foot to Standard Chartered office.

Our friend managed to locate his Vietnamese friend who brought us out for a good dinner. Of all the delicacies we had that day, the "Fried Needle Fish" was probably one of the highlight. It was good. I'll probably have more photos coming up with this in my Facebook, but for now, it is just one great dinner. And, our neighboring tables, when they are about done, they sing to the tune of guitar for like an hour or so. We all had free Vietnamese music :) We got back to the hotel for an early rest at about 1030pm. Day 2... coming up...

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:41:34 PDT

I have now make a shift in work life. Doing about the same work but with different people and different environment. I am still trying to feel comfortable in the new place. It is not easy if I have been working in the same place for the past 7 years. I have build a bond with the friends and colleagues that I have known for years.

On the 2nd day in my new place I am looking at the Word of God to help me adjust to my new place. I am comforted with the following:

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

As his children, one of the many things that he let us feel is the emotion and that is one big thing that separates us from animals. Emotion is part of God and that is now part of us all. We know how to feel love, happiness, sadness, loneliness etc. which all forms and shape us. With this change, I know that God taught me that, yes, I have made great friends, but I have to let go, as nothing in this earth is eternal. I must burden myself to share the Word to them so that we can save them and ourselves. We are all made to be disciple and I cannot shy away from it. So when I decided to move out from the comfort zone I am in, I know that God is preparing me for something better, somewhere better, that I can impact more people. I have to think eternity then.

God bless all and have a nice day! Please pray for Japan as well.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Easy Handmade Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 01:11:42 PDT

Handmade gifts are gifts that can be made by people who are talented or by grade school children before they get appreciation. Actually, there are easy items that can be transformed into great gifts for loved ones, whether it is the holiday season or special occasions.

During special times of the year, we always think of how to make our relatives happy, that it gets so tempting to spend all your carefully saved money. Making personal gifts for your friends and family not only shows how you appreciate them but also saves you from overspending and budget deficit.

Things that we usually do, that we find uninteresting, can be transformed into great gift ideas. Here are some great handmade gifts that you can try:

• Food gifts

Giving foods as gifts is a great way of sharing your great palate with family and friends. You can bake cookies or bread and wrap it creatively, and those would receive it would be touched with the gesture. You can wrap then with fabric and ribbon or just pick -out a very creative-looking container for the goodies. You can even add the recipe with wrapping.

Another food gift would be preserved or home-canned fruits and vegetables. If you are somebody with produce of your own, then there are things that you can do with your harvest to make them suitable for gift-giving. Or your can just buy organic produce in the market and home can them.

• Crafts gifts

There are many crafted items that you can give. You can make ornaments, if it is during the holidays, then decorative gift baskets would be great. This would showcase your creativity and skill.

It could even be bath salts and oils. They may sound very luxurious but actually there are very easy to make. You just need to buy some important ingredients. There are easy steps to follow that you can find in craft books, over the internet, and other sources. When making bath salts, you just need Epsom salts and sea salts.

You can add the oils that would give your bath salts the scent that you want. Bath oils are also very easy to make. You just need carrier oil and the essential oil of the scent that you want. Gradually mix the two oils together until the desired scent in reached. You can transfer the oils to the bottles or jars that you have picked out.

Same as food gifts, decoration is the key to make your gift attractive and pleasant. You can get decorating bottles and jars to put the items inside and you can even decorate it with ribbons.

• Plants

If you have a lot of plants at home, then these would be great gift ideas. You can arrange fresh or died flowers and plants as gifts. Furthermore, there are some people who would get one of their most beautiful plants in the garden and transfer it into pot and giving it as a gift.

The idea that a precious plant given to somebody to care for and enjoy it, is something very touching and very special.

• Letter writing

How does it feel when you receive a letter on your birthday saying how important you are to them? It can be very touching. You can write the letter in Italic or even learn calligraphy to make it more creative and beautiful. It would not just make the gift appreciated but the giver as well.

There could be hundreds of handmade gift ideas, you just to translate these ideas into creative outputs. Handmade gifts not only allow you to save your bucks, it also makes the receiver feel the effort, time and warmth conveyed in the personal and handmade gifts. How great it is to receive something born out of your loved one’s hands?

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Annoying

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:29:15 PDT

I can't help it but sometimes find myself annoyed when someone come up and say, hey, we are keeping tab, looking into, planning to do some censorship on the Internet. Why so concern about something that you cannot fully control, and then have some half measure of censoring selectively. All this while, the MSC bill guaranteed that no censorship of any kind seems to take the back seat now.

Well anyway, I am not against the view of improvement, but I am against the view that something that is more important that need to be done that was not taken into consideration. Take for example, green house effect. Did you just take a look at the video 'Inconvenience Truth' with Al Gore narrating and presenting almost the entire documentary. Well that is how bad the environment have been and if they want to do something 'big' like censoring and keeping tab on the Internet, why not
1. Have everyone in Malaysia (or at least college student), to watch Inconvenience Truth, understand it and take an exam. Easier than censoring Internet but much much more important.
2. Invite Al Gore to Malaysia to speak to our leaders and business leaders - repeatedly if it is necessary. Easier than censoring Internet but much much much more important.
3. Impose an even tough environmental control against depleting our natural rain forest and carbon emission by car, factories and machinery. Have regular checks and audits to ensure and enforce of such implementation. Easier than censoring Internet but much much much much more important.

I am not sure, but this is our only earth and we have to take care of it. God has given us only this earth to dwelve in and if we do not take responsibility, than who else? If earth is gone, everyone will be as well. Censor Internet, give me a break...

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Guerrilla Business Intensive

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:53:19 PDT

Studying the online information that I can find and also having attended MMI myself, I find that this is an interesting training worth exploring.

Through high-impact processes, exercises, games, and case studies participants will learn:
    * How to earn a million dollars a year in any business you choose!
    * How to generate million-dollar ideas every 60 seconds.
    * How to make or save a fortune using guerrilla negotiation tactics.
    * How to start any business or division with little or no money down.
    * How to raise $10,000 to 1/2 a million dollars without asking anyone to finance anything.
    * How to set up your business for massive passive income or (sell it for millions if you choose to!)

The Guerrilla Business Intensive with T Harv Eker is not for everybody because you will have to work incredibly hard during the five day program and many people will not be up to it or don't want to succeed enough. I think the intensity and the activity through out will be pushing the participants to the limit and making it worth every penny.

Harv Eker shares eight wealth tactics in Guerilla Business Intensive Seminar

1. Results Lead To Strategy
The lesson here: don’t think conventionally. Think outside the box. For example, if you are a cab driver, and you earn 1000 per month on an 8-hour shift, if you want to double your salary, you could work 16-hour shifts everyday to achieve your goal. If you wanted to triple your salary, you could– by working 24 hours a day. But if you wanted to quadruple your income, it would be almost impossible.

Don’t limit your capacity by thinking in terms of using your resources, but set a goal and then find ways to achieve it.

2. Business Is As Simple As To ‘K.I.S.S.’
Business, according to Harv Eker, is as easy as KISS.
In other words, Keep It Short & Simple. You can break it down into 3 components:
- produce/buy/create (content/product) Piggy Backing
- sell
- operations/admin

How much time do you spend on each of these things – how much time do you spend on what brings results? The ideal breakdown of your resource and time allocation should be:
- create - 20%
- sell - 60%
- admin - 20%

If you are not selling, you won't make money. If this means that you have to reduce your operations, or outsource, then you should because you only get paid when you sell, not before.

3. The Rich Are Experts
Like Chet Holmes and Joel Roberts have said, find one area of specialty and focus on it. Find one thing and become really good at it. For example, not every project manager should have to spend time figuring out the site structure, setting up an email auto responder, and writing copy. You should professionals for each area of expertise. This way, your company can get more done, in a shorter time, with better quality.

Many of the richest and most successful people started out by making it big in one industry or by becoming an expert in one area, and after their success, they branch out.

4. Create High Price Ticket Items
Let me give an example. Take John and Peter, who are in the same industry. John has 100 customers per day, he makes 30 sales per day, and he has a 30% conversion rate. Peter, on the other hand, has 10 customers per day; Peter makes 2 sales per day, and his conversion rate is 20%.

Yet, Peter is richer and happier than John. Why? Because Peter has chosen to supply good to a market with low competition and more money. If John is selling a standard iPod, and Peter is selling a diamond-plated iPod shuffle, then Peter has a far better deal because even if he sells very little to a few people, he still makes enough to

What expensive products are you selling? You can give an exclusive seminar or a personal coaching program, and use these as your high price ticket items.

5. Piggy Backing Concept
Find someone in your field (or in a similar field) who is willing to buy a large volume of your product at one time, minimizing your marketing efforts and maximizing your income in a short time. They can sell your product in large volumes, for example, if they sell yours complementary with theirs. You can ask them to give away your free samples, and when these customers visit your site, you can up-sell them on the back end.

6. Sell Them Before They Buy
By building a list of interested people, you have higher negotiation power when looking for partners/affiliates. It also means that you can move faster because you can go straight into creating a squeeze page for your already existent and interested list. This is similar to Bob Serling’s Tollgate Method and uses similar advanced JV tactics. By connecting your list to the products they are interested in, you act as a broker.

Harv Eker, for example, offers and charges for seminars a year in advance – a form of ‘selling’ without products, and using the revenue to create/fund products.

7. Focus vs. Scatter
Focus on completing one task at a time. This is not rocket science, but you’ll find that successful and rich people focus on completing one task at a time, then expanding and moving on to the next project. Idea evaluation is very important because without it, opportunities can become obstacles. Every morning, choose to accomplish 3 main goals that will contribute most to your revenue.

8. Processes and Automation
Systematize things and emphasize on processes and automation. Find all the repetitive tasks that take up your time and find a way to automate or outsource them. The definition of a successful business is one that can run without you.

The only drawback is that this opportunity is not for everyone as it costs a lot of money and it is an extremely intensive experience, but life changing some say.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

How to Register a company online (for Malaysia only)

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:12:36 PDT

Apparently it is possible. As I am trying it out, just to share it with you guys as well. Go to www.ssm.com.my, choose e-lodgement. If this is your first time, you would have to do step 2 and 4 under "umum". You would also have to pay RM5 to SSM as subscriber fee. In your choice make sure you choose ROB and not ROC. ROB is for individually owned company as for ROC it is for Sdn Bhd type of company.

Once both of the above done, under business or perniagaan (ROB), do step 1 for name search & step 2 for registration of business. SSM will send the certificate (Borang D) to your email that you have registered with them. If you use own name (MyKad name) then no need do name search & its RM30/yr. However, if you use a trade name then do name search & its total is RM60/yr.

For business info (used to open bank a/c), it can be done, but the information will have to be disclosed later. This information is accurate at the time of posting and from my own personal experience. Have a nice time trying it out.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Systematic Innovation - Darrell Mann

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:45:14 PST

I am honored to have the opportunity to meet with Darrell Mann, one of the many technical or engineering background man who is looking into technical and organizational issues and even improvement capability using a method known as Triz or better known as a systematic way of studying and applying innovation. Darrell has a lot of researcher helping him to continuously study how to innovate things with a method originated from a Russian guy.

Some of the key points during his presentation includes
- successful theory and method of successful innovation
- asking the right question is important in order to solve or even find a way to innovate.
- some tools that is going to help us do the job of innovation
- many application examples to help us see the light

Also we explored areas such as
-Why do so many software companies do the innovation job so badly?
-And essential to that, the area of business, technology and software, and in fact in many organization, opportunities missed because everyone has a silo view. For example, technical problem is perceived as a problem for the technical team only. Business unit is seldom put in to see if they can make any good of the situation..

Some ideas here may be in contrast with improvement, as Darrell mentioned that, moving forward, improvement projects may be saturated. It is time to move in with innovation, systematically.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Tony Robbin's Unleash The Power Within (UPW) - An Interpretation of a Participant

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:25:36 PST

The Top 10 Secrets of Success from Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within. I have the great honor to have someone share it with me. In any case, it does sound interesting, so I am going to post it up here to share with everyone.

1. YOUR POTENTIAL IS DETERMINED (OR LIMITED) BY YOUR SELF-BELIEF.

As the promotional material says the event was 'about creating breakthroughs, moving beyond fears and limiting beliefs, accomplishing goals and realizing true desires, turning dreams into reality, creating fulfilling relationships, and modeling the strategies of peak performers to produce a quantum difference in your life.'

If you cut out the hype, the simple message is if you believe in yourself enough you can achieve anything. A memorable one-liner was "the only thing that's keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself".

2. MOST PEOPLE HAVE SELF-DOUBT AROUND UNIVERSAL THEMES.

Ask anyone and most people will admit they lack confidence in some areas of their life. The interesting thing I learn from this seminar is that this self-doubt is around universal themes. These themes cross age, gender, religious, cultural and language barriers.

Common doubts include 'I am not good enough', 'I am lazy' and 'No-one loves me'.

3. YOU CAN LEARN MECHANISMS TO ELIMINATE SELF-DOUBT.

Robbins calls it 'immersion' where you break old patterns and build new ones by repetition. He uses a lot of Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques to achieve this with his audiences.

He says "progress is not automatic". A memorable moment in the seminar was when we had to visualize ourselves inside a bubble and inside that bubble was a series of videotapes neatly arranged in a time-line that represented all our memories in our lives so far. We had to pull out the negative videotapes and destroy them. This was followed by time spent visualizing the future and how your life will look 10 and 20 years from now.

4. BELIEF IMPACTS ON MANY LEVELS.

The Robbins message was that 3 things shape our self-belief. He calls them the Triad. These are our patterns of physiology, focus and language or meaning.

He highlighted this with the quote: "where focus goes energy flows".

5. OUR VALUES AND BELIEFS SHAPE OUR ACTIONS.

Robbins believes you can "vanquish whatever is holding you back from taking action".

Walking barefoot across a bed of glowing coals is the physical metaphor he uses in his seminars to prove this point to the skeptics. Eliminate negative self-belief and take massive action are his keys to success.

6. TO CREATE POSITIVE OUTCOMES YOU MUST TAKE MASSIVE ACTION.

"Where focus goes energy flows" is a quote used by Robbins in his presentation to highlight why you need to know your outcome and why achieving this is a must.

But many people fail to take the next step. They delay, put off and find many reasons or excuses not to act. Robbins believes "progress is not automatic" and "action is power". Take action, even if it is the wrong action. He says it is "never a failure if you learn something".

7. MATCHING & MIRRORING CREATES CONNECTION, TRUST & EMPATHY.

Robbins spent a fair amount of time in the seminar talking about and demonstrating interpersonal communication skills.

He used people from the audience to show how the process of "matching and mirroring" the non-verbal communication and body language of others can be a very powerful way to connect with people. In essence, you create rapport by adopting the body language of the person you are communicating with.

He believes "rapport is power" and "total responsiveness is created by a feeling of commonality". If you have learn these techniques before and haven't used them for a while, I suggest it is time to dust them off and put them into action next time you are communicating with someone on a one-to-one basis.

8. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IF YOU FOCUS ON PASSION AND PURPOSE.

Robbins believes that "to have an extraordinary quality of life you need two skills: the science of achievement (the ability to take anything you envision and make it real) and the art of fulfillment (this allows you to enjoy every moment of it)."

He says "success without fulfillment is failure". Find your passion and purpose in life. My purpose is to make a difference in people's lives and use my gift as a speaker.

9. MODEL YOURSELF ON OTHER ACHIEVERS.

To gain improvements quickly and step up to a new level of achievement, Robbins believes learning from others who are the best in their field is the fastest way to achieve success.

He told the story of how he wanted to improve his tennis game and so employed Andre Agassi, the then number one ranked player to help him achieve this. Who could you model yourself on? "People's lives are a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group," according to Robbins.

10. SUCCESS IS BUILT ON A HEALTHY, HIGH ENERGY BODY, HEART AND MIND

If you are not healthy - all of the above points are a waste of time.

Your health is determined and influenced by your lifestyle. One major change I've made since the seminar is to eat a healthier diet and exercise more regularly.

As a speaker, my whole business depends on my ability to perform at a peak state. Like any professional athlete, the success of business is directly linked to my diet and health. Take care of yourself, your body is ultimately your most important asset.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

SCRUM

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:49:31 PST

Recently, I attended a workshop discussing about an interesting framework of software development. It injects a rather new taste into traditional waterfall software development that I know of. It is called Scrum. Scrum is one of the many Agile methodology founded upon or built up from the Agile Manifesto. The manifesto concentrates on areas that my generation of IT professionals tried to move away from.
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan

The catch is items listed on the right is important, Agile adopters 'value' more, the items on the left.

Interestingly enough, a very loosely defined Agile Manifesto now has several framework that is designed based on this manifesto. Some of the more famous ones are: Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Lean, Crystal, Feature Driven Development (FDD) and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM).

Scrum in a nutshell is quick shot of software development, that attempts to produce working software within a period of about every 2 - 4 weeks. One period of 2 - 4 weeks is known as a sprint and every sprint produces a working product. Team works things out among themselves and they produce what Product Owner wants with the facilitation of a Scrum Master. The team is independent and the core of how this works is that, the team has to be protected and trusted to get the work done.

The traditional Gantt Chart that serves us so well with a lot of other tracking tools are thrown out if you decide to use Agile. In place of that, we have burndown chart and product/sprint backlog. Though a lot of tracking tools are thrown out, we have to follow a few Scrum rules closely, meaning, it should not be skipped to ensure success.

Of course there is a lot of debate on whether it works, it is not difficult to understand, but it may be difficult to implement and blended into our traditional environment. It may seem that a lot more issues will crop out as it is implemented, but then again, nothing good comes easy. Anyone who has implemented Scrum, do share your experience with me. I am all ready in reading your experience :)

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Farewell Fa Fa at Ribs @ Oasis Bandar Utama

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:31:12 PST

Late last year, to send off our dear friend, we had dinner at Ribs@Oasis Bandar Utama. This is the first time and the awesome part is that the portion is quite big. I used to be a meat lover, but now, I really should have less. However, meat lover will find this place quite interesting.

It feels like home, eating there, probably because it is so close and surrounded in a housing area. The crowd isn't too big, probably only those who stayed around there would know. However over the past few months, I think it has gained popularity.

Enough about the food and restaurant, I will let you food lover go find out and tell me how it goes. Well the reason I was there is because one of my friend is flying back to England, where she works. And I just got sentimental and started to think of my friends, how little time we have to catch up, how superficial at times because we have very little time to talk, not to mention time to eat and then have to quickly rush off. There just isn't enough quality in those time it feels. How come, generally, most people I know tell me that, time was slower when we were younger. Well, if I can just program my mind to think like that, wouldn't it be good?

Well I realize that, time will not slow down relative to my sensation to it, but it will only move faster and faster. I have to really make full use of it, every moment of it. As I clean up my computer files and photos that I never had time earlier to clear them up. Found some photos and I really took some time, looked at them and think of how fast time flies, and years that has gone by seems to happen in a blink of an eye. And it is Chinese New Year now, I would have some time to re-connect with some of them. I like to look at them, each one of them, in the eye and tell them how much I appreciate them as friends.

Time will only move forward, but good memories will last, and I intend to keep each and every one of them :)

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

T. Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:00:36 PST

I have been invited once again by a good friend of mine to a seminar that features Kieron Sweeney, a Canadian guy and Adam from New York. Both of them leads the entire event and Harv wasn't here though :(

Anyway, all was not gloomy or bad. In fact, both of them did a good job I think. It happen early February 2010 in PWTC. Getting food was a bit difficult, to an otherwise OK event. Of course the place was jam packed with about 800 to 900 people.

Learning:
Harv's Millionaire Mind Intensive (MMI), is trying to make simple the get rich process by first focusing on our mindset. The thing is that having the mindset right is crucial in being rich and stay rich. Several methods used on providing a solution of money spending, known as the JAR system, which helps different types of personality to plan their saving. This alone is already good stuff and of course there is a lot of other teaching which when put together, really make me thing that I can do a lot more.

MMI also set the record straight once and for all about being rich, if you want to be rich, go do your OWN business. Or something sales related that, does not limit your income ability.

Interesting:
In the midst of teaching, we witness how they SELL and I am not kidding, some of their courses worth a fortune, ranging from 4 digits to 5 digits. But with their skill and experience, they seem to be able to make the sale pretty easily. I am not going to say more, but, you should see it for yourself to be fair :)

Networking:
Plenty of opportunity to mix and mingle with a wide variety of people. Most of them comes from sales background, network marketing and business owner. If you plan to come to one of this MMI, bring plenty of name cards.

Energy:
Another thing that is interesting is that, Kieron talks a lot about energy and that everything is energy and also a lot about the Law of Attraction. I don't buy the law of attraction thing, but, the energy in the room is kept high all day. They are very good in using the volume of their voice, like suddenly loud, to asking you to do something (like, giving a High 5), to getting the audience attention.

Train the Trainer Course:
This is something I really wanted, but for the price, I figured I could get a better deal somewhere. Well however they sell it, they are right, I used another principle that they taught me. I am in control of money and I can find my way, one way or another.

Challenges:
You ought to try every challenge they put you through. All I can say is that you wouldn't regret it. You will reap more than you sow. And you have to listen to them at least once, why, because they really achieve success in life. They do not only speak about money only, but also on happiness and the ability to give back and the satisfaction they gain out of it.

Conclusion:
If you have not gone for an MMI, go for it. If you have read his book or you have not, still, go for it :) At least once, I am already planning to go for the next one for a recharge :)

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Maintaining Motivation to stay in Healthy Good Shape

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:22:49 PST

Exercise is always a do-it-yourself (DIY) venture. No other person and no machine can do it for you. Hence, it is important to have those motivating factors so that a person who is into exercise in order to lose weight will hang about. This is what people who are overweight should learn to understand. However, even if it so easy to set for instructions and easy to follow, this is not the same case for almost 35% of Americans who are unable to prevent being overweight. And elsewhere all over the world, the number is increasing because of the type of food and lifestyle that we are in. Of course, once we are overweight, we usually want to trim down for a whole lot of reasons, some related to physical condition and fitness, while others would want to enhance their physique and appearance. And it is never too late to be fit.

In the past 50 to 75 years, physical activity has become the exception rather than the rule, both at home and on the job. People tend to drive where others once walked. People tend to flick a switch and machines do the hauling, lifting, pushing, and pulling for them. However, people who try to lose weight tend to believe that weight gain is likely to happen if they will not take forward-looking steps to stop it. The point here is that health experts believe that people lose their way, especially when it comes to dieting. They tend to go back to their old eating habits even after they learn to enjoy low-fat eating. They tend to return to sedentary ways even though they enjoy exercising.

Despite the momentum toward weight gain, you can stop it from happening, experts say. And there are plenty of good reasons to avoid excess pounds, reasons that go beyond vanity or social appearance. There are many reasons in order to keep you motivated to exercise and stay healthy for the rest of your life.

Ways to Lose Weight and Maintaining Motivation to Exercise

1. Have an explicit goal

A simple statement like, “I want to lose some weight,” is an ambiguous and an indefinite statement. It will not the least motivate you to start doing exercises right away. What is important is to be precise on your goals. It would be better if you will set some detailed amount of pounds that you really want to lose. Envisage yourself what you will look like after reaching your desired weight. Doing this will inspire you to lose weight. In fact, maybe even more than what you have planned in mind. The idea is to use that figure to assist you to remain resilient and dedicated.

2. Develop a strategy

Strength of will does not work alone! To lose weight and stay with it, your strategy must comprise of both exercise and diet, and not either of the two. Try to start motivating yourself by throwing away your clothes that have bigger sizes. This will put you in a situation where you only have your sexy clothes and that you have to make a choice by staying motivated to exercise or not wear any clothes at all. Which do you prefer?

3. Make out little, calculable measures

Put into practice actions that will suit your lifestyle. This means you have to implement moves that you and you alone will benefit from it and not somebody else. The idea here is to opt for a more positive and attainable goal and not just to shun away from being plump and chubby.

4. Produce monitoring that has an important effect

It would be better to have somebody willing to take note of your progress or development. This will inspire you to keep on doing what you have started. Having somebody to listen to your achievements is definitely a better prize than just achieving your goal alone. Besides, having an extra hand to support you and cheer for you when things start to fall short. It is that simple way of hearing somebody believing on what you do is one of the greatest motivations to keep you exercising for more.

5. Construct a vigorous, sensible time-line

What do you plan to achieve in a year? Try to suit your objectives to your calendar, and do not look forward to see the results in just a snap. The bottom line is that in order to stay motivated to exercise entails a lot of hard work, which is contrary to what most people tend to think. The main idea is to let people change their lifestyle because it is only through this way that they will absolutely change their weight for the better.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Shopping Around

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:42:22 PST

Wow.. it is not that easy shopping online. There's plenty of stuff to choose from.

Come to think of it, it is not that easy to find a good story book for kids, one that teaches good value as well as durable hard covered book. I'll try to find out more.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:08:29 PST

3 things we need to know to progress, where we are, where we want to be, how to get there. We need to know all 3, think about that.

Thank you 2009, Welcome 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:50:18 PST

My believe is that every year we have to look back and see what progress we have made, do a minor tweak or adjustment and see where we are headed to next. In all reality, 2009 has not been an easy year, as do most years anyway. It will be a waste not to look back and take away learning points. The reality is that the world seems to have gone on a twisted economic cycle. Just to recap some of it the financial meltdown in US, the laying off of workforce all over the world, cutting back of spending from consumer to corporate, the almost always worsening weather and its getting really hot here, political disappointment (the usual picking and biting of each other but as a nation, no real progress), H1N1 another name for another strain of something as common as flu (but it has name because it kills us easily) and inflation on daily items.

So it does look crappy 2009, isn't it? well there was a feel scare but we all survived. And well, for all the stuff mentioned above, it is really beyond my control anyway. What I could do was what I can influence both from my personal action and personal thinking. In spite of all above, it was quite a fruitful year to complement a sad list above :) It is a year that I achieve my PMP, got an award in Software Testing for the organization I service, made a few friends, felt closer to God (yes, we pray more during the tough times), attended Wealth Mastery and preparation for fatherhood. Not that bad at all, I think.

So, come 2010, first of all is making real progress in planning and execution, as well as getting excited and fill my enthusiasm for life itself. I have to be more detailed now, and more precise in execution as this is one of the area I feel lacking the concentration. You know, we can be so distracted sometimes over things we have to do. I am really thinking of a year plan and then breaking them into quarterly plans so that the tracking is much better. From past experience, yearly plans are seldom looked at. Though with quarterly targets, I must live everyday by itself that is, everyday I must make progress and live it to the fullest, in passion, enthusiasm, love and joyfulness. We know we have today, but we do not know whether we really have tomorrow. And all of the daily activity jumbled up really packs it up and well hopefully still giving myself 7 or at least 6 hours of good sleep, plenty of water and pack in a couple of hours of good exercise and sun light every week.

A lot of cutbacks as well for 2010, I must reduce wastage time. Plenty of it, I suppose I should start with less TV, less games (yes, I still do games), less unhealthy food, less negativism, less pessimism and definitely less anger. I find that we live in a world full of pressure and pain. As yet technology has provided us with ample amount of convenience, I do find that with so much convenience, sometimes we do not appreciate life enough as it is. One thing I remembered that Keith Cunningham taught me, is that we have to set aside time to THINK. Have you really sit down and think today? Have we sit down and appreciate each and every present that God has give me and thank God and thank the people around me? Nope, have not done much of that. Come 2010, I definitely will.

One theme I want to make 2010 for me personally, is that 'To make this world a better place, with compelling future and exciting tomorrows for people around me, more so my family, so that the energy and enthusiasm around me will bring me to greater heights with God and understanding him better. To utilize my time so fully that I translate all my plans into outcomes that I wanted through perfect execution, as well as being generous with time for family and friends.

Yes Yes Yes, I can't wait for 2010!!

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:11:02 PST

It is time to reflect and give thanks, to love ones, friends and re-connect with others we have lost touch with. Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Winson) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:17:44 PST

Do or do not, there is no try - Yoda