V's Inspiration (悟)

Fulfillment in the Present Moment

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:59:00 +0000

👉 Click to Watch🎞️

In a world obsessed with metrics, this is a reminder:

Your creativity is valid even in obscurity.

Your effort is not wasted—even if no one sees it.

You are becoming who you’re meant to be… in the doing.

My 2 cents on stocks investment

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 08:01:00 +0000

1) Expectation for windfall is unreal.

2) There is no more science to stock-picking than the wisdom of crowd.

3) Even verifiable insider-information may only be reliable to just a limited extent. In reality, unfounded rumours, fake news and even hoax are what catch attention.

4) Timing is everything. Missing it either way - too long or too short - leads only to the same end: pain, which usually results from naivety, ignorance and greed.

5) More often than not, hindsight judgment is misleading. As such, it is easy to err on the wrong side of risk taking going forward.

6) If in doubt, exercise vigorous counter-intuition, to the extent of imposing justification for counter-arguments.

7) Don't ever start without clear markers of control on either sides - downside loss and upside gain. Self-discipline, if sensibility is not yet lost, is the only and last lifeline.

8) Don't ever get involved if you can help it.

Why we cannot get enough of Tiger Woods

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 04:32:00 +0000

Like many fans around the world I guess, into the second day after Tiger Woods has won his 15th Major championship in one most dramatic fashion imaginable - or unimaginable - I still cannot get enough headlines and stories about this super-champion and find myself keep searching for more.

I started following the scores eagerly but quietly since last Thursday when the 83rd Masters championship tournament was kicked off. I deliberately refrained from telling my family about what was drawing my attention (as I am the only one interested in golf so they wouldn't know what was going on unless I told them), lest this time turning out to be another disappointment. I also deliberately stopped watching any commentators' talks, particularly Mr. Chamblee's, allowing myself to witness the making of history from the most neutral light.

Two nights ago, in my part of the world, I stayed up all night just to wait for the results on the Masters' leader board despite being just hours away from needing to get to work, wondering at every click and peep at my phone whether this could be the coveted moment of triumph or just another destiny of lost hope. I tried to sleep and leave to the morning the answer of whether the red shirt would prevail and conquer the rest of the field or be vanquished, but just couldn't help it and had to wait for the answer of how the story would go down in history.

Ecstasy, surrealism, and funny enough, like the world would miraculously become all the better with the fairy-tale-like outcome at Augusta, tranquility set in, putting me to sleep.

I have been feeling so happy for Tiger Woods and what has happened and transpired in the golf world, and I am still feeling happy now. My wife called me a fanatic since I have been sharing the headlines with her, trying to make her understand the significance of what has been happening in the golf world and the reverberations beyond it.

But I am wondering why. Yes, he is no doubt a hero and idol of populations of people, but why his every win, not to mention this round of hard-earned glory, would elicit such an intense feeling of joy in me and so many others.

1. Greatness
However one chooses to define it, Tiger Woods' stories form a world-class legend of immense historical significance. He is a super-talent of one out of millions and eons. We are lucky to be witnessing a live legend in the making in our own life time, with the live stories crossing over generations of champion.

2. Vindication
Story lines of vindication were being played out on and off the golf course in dramatically captivating fashions, against all doomsayers, all young suitors and competitors, from life's lows and, as recent as the previous two Major championships, the failures to close the deal. This time, he beat those two Major champions fair and square, with perseverance, wisdom and panache. We all love stories of exoneration.

3. Inspiration
There are rich sources of inspiration for the world, about the power of ambition, commitment, determination, learning, patience, focus, grit, and how boundless and timeless greatness could be.

4. Affection
From bear-hugging his dad to bear-hugging his kids in sharing his triumph and joy with decades in between, from being arrogant to being friendly over the years, from congratulating other younger champions recently to being congratulated by the coterie of past champions young and old, those who were inspired by him and those who were vanquished by him, we can all appreciate the bright side of humanity.

5. Meaning
In our contemporary world of ambiguities and misgivings, Tiger Woods' strong feats present the world with clear meanings to digest and learn from. There are stories of both failures and successes on the golf course, as in life itself, but with causes and effects in clarity, with no room for excuses. Every stroke and putt counts in the game of true integrity. There is no space for double meanings to a single result. A loss is a loss, which what could have been could not turn back. A win is a win, be it out of sheer skills or luck, or both.

I, for one, never doubt the possibility of "Tiger's back" over the years. My faith is that he is like a comet, having shone brightly for a couple of long stretches in the past two decades, will be shining the most glamorous for one last streak, hopefully for much longer, before dimming off in good grace.

Does modern science lend support to Buddhist ideas about the human mind?

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 04:05:00 +0000

In the Buddha’s discourse on the not-self, his teaching about the human mind suggests that the five aggregates of “form, consciousness, perception, feeling, and mental formation” are all that there are about a person. But there is no ground for the person to identify with any part of these as a self being in control of himself. Besides, like everything else, these aggregates are impermanent such that, in reality, there is no consistent self throughout the person’s life which is discernable.

Indeed Buddha advised his disciplines to regard each of the 5 aggregates with proper wisdom, according to reality, thus: “this is not mine; this I am not; this is not my Self.” Though Buddha might not have proclaimed the non-existence of self per se, the essence of his doctrine on the not-self seems to be pointing to a person’s conscious self as being in total control of his thinking and behaviour as being delusional. This also supports the core idea behind the second of the four Noble Truths that the urges of clinging and craving arising out of delusions of the mind – as all things are impermanent in reality – form the true cause of human sufferings.

After 2,500 years since the original Buddha’s teaching, there are parallels to be drawn from theories and experiments in modern psychology which question the significance of the conscious self in influencing behaviour. In the 19^th century, the renowned Sigmund Freud suggested that behaviour is influenced by subconscious thoughts to a large extent (hence “the Freudian slip” which has for long evolved into a common phrase in day-to-day language).

There are contemporary psychologists, not least Rob Kurzban and Jerome Barlow, who suggest that the conscious self as we commonly perceive as being in charge is, in reality, simply operating in the business of public relations, projecting impressions to the outside world as the kinds of person we want to be – usually conforming to the coherent norms of social value. As such it also functions to justify a person’s motivations for doing certain things.

Quoting Jerome Barlow, “the primary evolutionary function of the self is more an organ of impression management than one of decision-making.”

Indeed there is a natural tendency for people to attribute successes to things they consciously do or because of who they are, and failures to things outside their control or plain bad luck.

An emerging theory, namely the modular view of the mind, which attempts to unravel the mystery of the workings of the human mind, also seems to be in line with the Buddhist idea about the not-self. In this theory, there is no place for a conscious Self acting like a CEO being in charge of a person’s thinking and behaviour which, instead, are being influenced, governed or even dictated by modules of intuition and cognitive responses to the environmental stimulus. In day-to-day language, therefore, a person can be in different “frames of mind”.

The key point about the modular view of mind is that there is not a supreme self which the different modules of mind report to and which dictates which particular module is to be in charge at any one time. Instead they are all part of a self-organizing system. Which particular module exerts more influence over behaviour depends to a large extent on the situation the person finds himself in and the surrounding environment factors that may be at play. It is also possible that different modules may be interacting among themselves and operating at the same time in influencing behaviour. Related modern psychological experiments indeed point to the evidence of how people’s traits which are generally considered as inherent may change according to the frames of mind they are in.

In conclusion, various sources of modern science do concur with the Buddhist ideas about the human mind, in particular, the two main themes of skepticism about the self:

1) There is no coherent self which persists through time.

2) There is generally no conscious control of what goes on in a person’s mind, which usually operates with various complexes of thoughts, perceptions, feelings and senses arising in responses to surrounding stimuli competing for "conscious attention" and control .

Of course, no person convicted of wrongdoing can simply apply Buddha's no-self doctrine or the modular view of mind of modern behavioural psychology and expect to be readily exonerated.

So what is the practical lesson for us mere mortals?

The power of meditation for being mindful of what exactly is going on in the mind.

Buddha's Discourse on the Not-self

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 06:50:00 +0000

It is Buddha’s teaching that the 5 aggregates of “bodily form, perception, feeling, mental formation and consciousness” which exhaustively make up all that there is about a person. This is convincing enough, as there seems no 6^th aggregate mutually exclusive with any of the 5 aggregates which is readily conceivable. Even “sub-consciousness and dream”, though seemingly contributing to another category, could be logically grouped somewhere within the area of mental formation.

More importantly, the qualifications of “control” and “permanence” are alluded to as the essential conditions of being a self. As none of the 5 aggregates exerts total control over a person’s behaviour – including his biological transformation, growth and decline – and each element of the aggregates changes over time, indeed all the time, the existence of a self is in question. But this begs another immediate question:

Why can’t a self be non-controlling and impermanent?

As a butterfly transforms through its 4-stage life cycle – egg, caterpillar larva, pupa and imago – at no point does it do so voluntarily (does it really not?); and it usually lives no more than a year. Yet, it is identifiably the same insect since birth. Is it fair to deny the butterfly of its self because of its lack of voluntary control over its bodily transformation and the impermanence of its life?

Besides, it is hard to reconcile Buddha’s discourse on the not-self with 2 other of his propositions elsewhere in his teachings.

Firstly, in the discourse on the not-self, Buddha advises his disciples to regard each of the 5 aggregates with proper wisdom, according to reality, thus: “This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.” This is implying that the self lies elsewhere, which, however, is immediately contradictory to the idea that the 5 aggregates exhaustively make up all that there is about a person. While it is comprehensible to interpret his advice as simply not to claim ownership of any state or output of the 5 aggregates, it is difficult to conjecture where else can the self be.

Secondly, the idea of the not-self is also contradictory to the fundamental principle of cause and effect, which is apparently inherent in the concept of karma in Buddhism. If karma refers to actions driven by intention, deeds done deliberately through body, speech and mind, which leads to further consequences, is it not in Buddha’s teaching that a person is entirely responsible for his own karma? But how can he be responsible if there is no self in the person?

The concept of the not-self is indeed very difficult to fathom.

Perhaps the true proposition is about “the insignificance of self” instead of the “not-self”, particularly in the bigger scheme of the timeless universe. Given the impermanence and fickleness of life, and the fact that there are many circumstantial factors other than a person’s own deeds which determine the consequences, there is indeed no lasting reason to be too passionate about any form, feeling, perception, mental formation or any state of consciousness about anything – as being elusively owned by the self.

What’s the relevance of Buddha’s teaching to our occupation, business or even life in general?

1. Beware of delusions. Take time to learn the facts – if there are facts to be found.

2. Though we need confidence, do not be too sure of any views. Be open-minded for continuous learning and improvement.

3. Everything passes, though we have to take responsibility of our own behaviour.

Perfect Goal !!!

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 08:40:00 +0000

The transient nature of all things

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 05:19:00 +0000

The old man wrote impeccably on the street with nothing but water. The beautiful calligraphic characters are there for anyone who cares to freely admire. Yet, he felt completely at ease with people heartlessly trampling on them.

This selfless act is undoubtedly rooted in Buddhism, and is indeed one good way to remind us of the transient nature of all things in life: do something wholeheartedly to excel and let go of it completely.

Joy to the world : the Inner Light

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 10:19:00 +0000

How can we proclaim joy to the world at Christmas when our world is clearly full of suffering? The followers of Jesus believe that the birth of the son of God is the answer to our troubles, and should be celebrated – though the exact date of his birth is unknown.

In 623 B.C., Prince Siddhartha Gautama was born. When he grew up, inspired by similar lines of questioning, he abandoned his beloved family and his heritage of wealth, status and power, to pursue the path of spiritual cultivation which led to him becoming Buddha.

Religions are generally founded on a belief in the power of human faith to put an end to suffering. But ironically, and somewhat sadly, much human suffering throughout history is the result of vicious deeds performed in the name of a god.

Even if we ignore the dark side of religion, it’s hard to imagine a world in which everyone chooses to follow a faith and practice it in a sacred place like a church or monastery. It’s difficult to envision an environment in which everyone dedicates all their time to entering heaven or nirvana, or any similar realm of utopia, after death, instead of trying to satisfy their human needs, wants, and lusts while they are alive.

Of course, atheists aren’t that much better at avoiding human failings. Economic recessions, financial crises, unemployment, poverty, global warming, treachery, theft, robbery, rape, killing, massacre, war, and all the rest of these man-made troubles still fill our world. Even the wrongdoers, who may be deceived with temporary gains, can’t find any real joy.

Mankind is also helpless against deadly diseases and natural disasters. So are we kidding ourselves that a Christmas carol can really bring joy to the world? If you have a sense of compassion, is it possible to be truly happy when you know for sure that there are so many people suffering at the same time?

Let’s be realistic. Most of us are just ordinary people, we’re not saviours or saints. But although we can’t change the world easily, we can look inside ourselves and take control of our own mind. It is where joy can indeed be found, and it’s a place where we can start to build a better world – whether you believe in a god or not.

Here’s a good place to start: purge the mind of all traces of disappointment, frustration, envy, fear, anger, and all the rest of the emotions which consume our energy to the detriment of our mental health. This is a conscious choice, and is readily doable. Here are some tips to get you started.

1. Acknowledge imperfection

It’s important to set goals and targets for everything we do in order to drive success. But even in the business world, we have to accept that there are many things outside our control which may affect the outcome of what we do.

Without finding excuses for every failure, we need to accrue the wisdom to distinguish between what we can really change and what we simply have to accept. This is preferable to tormenting ourselves with disappointments and regrets, and beating ourselves to death with what should, or could, have been.

2. Don’t make assumptions

Unless you are developing a business plan, or setting a budget, do not form a pre-conceived idea about anyone or anything. Rather than making assumptions about people and things, it’s wiser to be truly open-minded. Accept things and people for what they are. Once you start making assumptions, you will readily confuse them with the truth. Realising the difference between perception and reality can be a cause of frustration.

3. Don’t take things personally

I have written another article about this. Making assumptions and taking things personally are usually at the root of most of the negative thoughts we have. Once you stop making assumptions about people and things, and refuse to take things personally, no one can really fault or hurt you.

4. Speak and act in good faith

Everything man-made starts from the mind, and what goes around comes around. Whether we are living in the best of times or the worst of times depends on how we want the world to be. The more people who are willing to make a better world, the higher the chance we shall actually have a better tomorrow.

In times of happiness, speak and act in ways that share joy. Show gratitude and congratulate the success of others. In times of trouble, act in ways to heal wounds. Show empathy, and offer condolences to others.

5. Always do your best

To start with, you should not do anything illegal, or do anything which betrays your conscience. The only way to live every moment with no regret is to put everything you have, within your affordable resources of time and energy, into excelling in whatever you do. This doesn’t just apply to your job, but everything you do, including your hobbies. Always doing your best and accepting the results no matter what is the only reliable way to live your life purposefully, intensely and productively – but not stressfully. It also allows you to avoid depressing thoughts about what could have been. Always do your best, accept and forgive yourself for all your imperfections, and then move on.

6. Don’t stop learning

People tend to take knowledge for granted, and develop illusions of competence, particularly in today’s information age. But the ability to turn knowledge into wisdom and solve real-life problems requires proactive learning and constant critical thinking. This means learning in and beyond school, and on and beyond the job. Learn from your own mistakes as well as those of others. Most importantly, learn to excel in whatever you do.

True learning also humbles the mind, and makes you realise that, no matter how much you have learned, or think you have learned, how little you really know in the boundless universe. After all, along with breathing, learning is probably the only thing you can continue doing at will until your very end.

7. Be compassionate

It is unquestionable that the compassionate hearts of Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and similarly rare figures, have influenced humanity for the better over the course of history. Even Adam Smith, widely recognised as the father of economics, who famously advocated that the market is best left alone to the working of individuals exercising their conscious choices to maximize their selfish needs, showed compassion:

"How selfish-so-ever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it."

Indeed, prior to writing the classic The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote the Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Perhaps our brain is indeed wired for us to be as compassionate as we are egoistic. While the former is certainly harmless, the latter can cause us trouble. More often than not, a person’s ego – as manifested in his urge to prove himself and be recognised – is his main source of mental pain. Too many people with too strong egos can cause all sorts of trouble – particularly in terms of rivalry, antagonism, and war.

Perhaps we should think of compassion as the candlelight and ego as the fire itself: It’s good to get enough candles to light up the darkness, but we don’t want to make a big fire that will burn the house down.

Joy to the world does not have to – and cannot possibly – only come from an ideal political system, economic prosperity, technological advances, the curing of all diseases, world peace, or any conceivable state of utopia. It can be found in each and every individual who makes an effort to search for it within.

As soon as the clouds are clear, the bright blue sky is there to be seen. It is in our very nature to find joy once all our negative sentiments are purged – just look at the innocent and beautiful smiles of babies.

To quote Vivian Greene, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass… it is about learning to dance in the rain.”

上海滩

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 05:55:00 +0000

百看不厌的滨江夜景！

Enchanting Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 10:14:00 +0000

Seize the moment, or it's just gone!

BUSINESS TODAY - A Person's True Vocation: Finding your way

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 01:03:00 +0000

BUSINESS TODAY - A Person's True Vocation: Finding your way

Thanks to Krishani Peiris and Udeshi Amarasinghe, this is a pleasant outcome from a phone interview over a rather unstable connection!

Beautiful Penang

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:15:00 +0000

...particularly at festive CNY,

...simply enchanting!

Cosmos Books Ltd.

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:12:00 +0000

Mindfulness

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 14:10:00 +0000

For the bright young students of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of the CUHK:

Value

Value is a very important concept in business, in fact, life in general. You have to get this right. It affects everything you do in life.
Value is neither cost nor price. It is not technically measurable. It is subjective, for the simple fact that the same thing may mean different values to different people.
"Price is what you pay, value is what you get in return," once said Warren Buffett.
When you pay a price for a product or service, it is only human nature that you expect the product or service to deliver a value to you which is worth at least equal to or more than the price which you have paid.
When you sell a product or service, it is also human nature that you ask for a price which is at least equal to or higher than what you think the product or service is worth to the buyer.
On salary expectation, it is natural for anyone to expect himself to be remunerated with no less than from any other comparable jobs he may get from the relevant job market.
But people usually look for values other than plain financial returns from the job. What they value in their jobs are very personal matters. They may value the organization's reputation, the prospect for upward mobility, the job satisfaction itself, the people they work with, etc.
Value is happiness, more precisely, the degree of happiness as how you perceive it to be.
The higher up the corporate ladder you climb, given all the various interests at stake, the more stakeholders you have to deal with--shareholders, bosses, staff, customers, peers, regulators, etc.--and the more people other than yourself you have to keep happy.
But the more people you can make happy in your life, the more valuable you will become.
Helping people with your good intent is the best way to make people happy, meaning well not just for yourself but other people for anything you do.
增值先增缘: Goodwill earned will lead to value added. This is indeed the contemporary e-business model of many online enterprises nowadays--the likes of Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Spotify, etc.--who all try to build up critical mass of membership before getting serious with business models for monetization.
In evaluating the expected returns for whatever you choose to do in life, think in terms of value, not just money. Think about value in the broadest and furthest sense possible.
Steve Job's famous commencement speech at the graduation ceremony of Stanford University in 2005 is enlightening.
Think carefully about what you really enjoy doing, what you can do to bring happiness to most people while making yourself truly happy.

Leadership

"A leader is someone with a follower," once said Peter Drucker, the father of management.
You are more likely to be in a position of leadership than you may be aware of, at home, in school, among your social circles, and at work. There are always people who are generally more opinionated than the others and naturally become opinion leaders.
The first thing to learn to be a good leader is to learn to self-reflect and understand yourself.
A person's behaviour is usually influenced by a lot of things which go on in his mind--intentions, perceptions, assumptions, beliefs, preferences, fears & blocks, values--with or without him being consciously aware of them. You need to get in touch with your inner self to understand these influences.
For example, a certain past failure may subconsciously become your mental block, hindering you from trying the same thing again. So you need to exercise some conscious effort of mental intervention in order to clear the mental hurdle.
Learning to be aware of your inner self and understand how your mind works will go a long way to make you becoming a calmer person, even in face of difficult situations. You will be able to make more sensible decisions rather than simply react spontaneously.
But you should not just pay attention to your own mind without trying to understand other people, otherwise, you become self-centred.
Human interactions are all mind games. Whether you are talking with your boss, coaching your staff, dealing with your client or negotiating with your supplier, you will do well if you are always mindful of what is going on in the heads--your own head and the next person's.
Of course how well you can deal with people has to come with experience. But learning to understand how your mind works is the very first step, because it will prevent you from judging too quickly.
We easily form judgment about people and things--good or bad, beautiful or ugly, etc.--which directly influences our behaviour. We need to learn to suppress instinctive perceptions from influencing our behaviour prematurely and go deeper in our mind to understand what exactly are responsible for different kinds of good or bad feelings.
We are now living in an age where people may easily confuse loud noises and large crowds with the truth. This is a funny time when someone's value is measured by the number of likes, a person's worth by the number of followers and the mass is supposed to be unquestionably representing the truth. The louder the people are, the more authentic seem to be their claims. But this is a very dangerous phenomenon.
For example, millions of people innocently died for the crazy campaigns of "Great Leap Forward" and "Cultural Revolution". While we all know how mad and wrong they were in hindsight, these campaigns had millions of willing and enthusiastic believers and followers at the times.
To avoid tragedies, we need to develop and keep our ability for critical thinking. We need to understand how our mind works.
Buddhism's teaching of cultivation can be very useful for training to control our mind.
Leadership is about the ability to move people into certain actions to get certain things done according to the will and direction of the leader. So leadership is also about the understanding and exercising of power.
Don't confuse power with authority. Authority, as derived from an official position within a company's hierarchy, is but one source of power. Authority alone is not always enough to get things done, not even for the CEO.
Five sources of power: Other than authority, the leader may draw power from the people who are backing him, from his conviction or ideology, from his expertise and also from his respectable status as recognized by others.
But the leader needs to be clear-headed about whose interests he should represent. The higher up you go in the corporate hierarchy, the more stakeholders you need to keep happy. But more often than not, these stakeholders' interests are conflicting among each other.
That's why before understanding and exercising power, the leader needs to understand people's mind. He also needs to understand and control his own mind first, because only then can he think calmly and critically in face of challenging situations.
The leader needs to be able to judge what is good or bad for people after all, and needs to keep his integrity intact and be absolutely honest with himself while exercising his judgment.
Power is corruptive by nature. History is full of leaders falling from grace because of the bad things they did by abusing their positions of power. See what's happening in China since Xi Jinping came to power over 2 years ago, count the number of once powerful Party and government officials having fallen from grace.
Never take power for granted.
修行先修念: Cultivate good thoughts for good deeds.

Paradoxes

Life is full of paradoxes. Don't fool yourself to believe otherwise. Don't get fixated on the abstract idea of good, bad, beautiful or ugly. There are always two sides to the same coin. Every physical law is subject to Einstein's theory of relativity.
The conventional Tai-Ji icon is an image of perfect harmony because it encompasses the contrasting elements of black and white in perfectly symmetrical proportions to each other.
China is a place which provides ample examples of life paradox. Even the constitution of the People's Republic of China is fundamentally paradoxical. It states that China is a "democratically autocratic" socialist country with workers and farmers as its base.
In coping with life paradoxes, Bruce Lee's "be water" philosophy can be very useful.
But adaptability should not be confused with duplicity or being lack of principles. Regardless of its shape and form, the elementary substance of water, i.e., H2O, remains unchanged.
But even being water as a useful people skill is not enough to solve problems sometimes. We need to build trust with people, particularly when starting in unfamiliar environments. Trust is the one thing, more so than any agreements, ideologies or management skills which will help you through difficult situations.
To build trust, start with your good intent, show your sincerity, keep your good faith and earn goodwill for everything you do.

A Person's True Vocation

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 05:17:00 +0000

Now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and my book site !

The Joy of Giving

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 14:07:00 +0000

New Year Resolutions!

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 15:00:00 +0000

I am honestly quite content with how I have been keeping up with my major resolutions for the past few years, despite setbacks. At least one goal set for the past five years has been now reached.

I have cordially invited people with whom I feel well connected over the years in different ways to come and share with me the joy of giving, which hopefully will go some way in reaching out for helping the underprivileged; and I sincerely welcome anyone else who is interested or who just happens to show up.

My list of resolution for 2015 is short but intensive:

Excel and break new ground in my work.
Market and sell all 3000 copies of my first book and, by the way, find and benefit meaningful charitable cause(s).
Start my second book (or first play).
Find and start the first revenue-generating project for InspirElite, the company formed with our EMBA cohort.
Again, break 90 on the green.
Inspire and coach my children to start making and abiding by new year resolutions.
Keep myself and family healthy.

As life goes on, let's live ours fully and happily.

滨江图画

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 08:08:00 +0000

每天能看见沪江美景,令人心旷神怡!

一瞬的光辉

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:01:00 +0000

今年国庆在香港看不见的，在上海尽入眼里。

How writing makes you happy

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 04:34:00 +0000

I could not agree more to these practical advices. I just need to keep up with the discipline of writing. Now I feel encouraged that I have the theme of my next book taking shape, and motivated with making up my mind to seriously build its content.

In fact I have it started 3 years ago, though without a clear theme in mind. Besides being inspired, I am also amused with even making peace with living ghosts from the past, that I can find uses out of blunders and all associated agonies from earlier times in my life. I am going to boast of my past failures in life, with a view of turning weaknesses into strengths, how exciting!

Well, at least it means I am adding one meaningful purpose to my next few years of adventure.

Mind-boggling!

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Wed, 28 May 2014 14:57:00 +0000

A self-service library on a street in Pudong, Shanghai.

偷得浮生半日闲: Enjoying Half a Loose-ended Day

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Sun, 25 May 2014 02:10:00 +0000

This is a hotel:
the Waterhouse at South Bund!

Coming soon: "A Person's True Vocation"

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:42:00 +0000

Every now and then, particularly in the absence of any responses, I ask myself: why blog?

Although the blog statistics indicate that there are readers out there reading my posts, as reactions and comments are rare, sometimes it feels like I am simply talking to myself or the thin air.

Perhaps what I wrote were of no particular significance to anyone or simply just boring, or there may be other reasons why blog comments are dead and over. It doesn't matter.

Blogging is indeed just a self-serving exercise. Since I was convicted of my own reasons for why I blog, I have never doubted them--though I am not necessarily being overwhelmingly enthusiastic about it all the time.

I have also never seriously aspired to make money out of it, indeed never really believe that anyone could possibly make serious money from simply blogging as a lone blogger himself or herself, as some bloggers claimed they did. Even there may be occasional winners, I doubt its sustainability.

But I am glad that I have been clocking up enough hours of writing to claim the status as a published author soon, for "A Person's True Vocation".

By the way, I have not lost faith in the likelihood of sincere feedback from readers. If you happen to be reading my blog occasionally, please kindly show me a sign or two.

The Fallacy of Work-Life Balance

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 05:19:00 +0000

I believe the contemporary term of "work-life balance" must be first coined from somewhere with a backdrop of mature economic development and liberal socialism, where most people have strong enough consumption power that they become particular with the quality of their leisure time.

In our contemporary era where the developed economies are increasingly steered towards knowledge and technology-based businesses for value creation, where creativity and innovation are the key drivers for new growth, the line between work and leisure—particularly for the so-called knowledge workers—is also increasingly blurred: for one simple reason, every leisure moment could also be a potential source of inspiration for the next big thing.

Incidentally, a recent article from the Economist: "why the rich now have less leisure time than the poor", also follows a more or less similar vein of reasoning.

"Work in advanced economies has become more knowledge-intensive and intellectual. There are fewer really dull jobs, like lift-operating, and more glamorous ones, like fashion design. That means more people than ever can enjoy “exploit” at the office. Work has come to offer the sort of pleasures that rich people used to seek in their time off. On the flip side, leisure is no longer a sign of social power. Instead it symbolises uselessness and unemployment."

Coping with Paradoxes: be water, my friend

noreply@blogger.com (V) — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 01:25:00 +0000

This is just my 2 cents' worth of sharing: coping with paradoxes.

Actually working in mainland China can be a very useful learning experience.