Saturday, July 16, 2016

How to Take Charge of Your Life by Richard Bandler

One of the better books I have read over the last 10 years. One of the factors is that it is an easy read. 125 pages, messages clear and to the point, written in a story like manner with a fairytale ending.

Below are the main points i wrote.
  1. Personal freedom is the ability to feel what you want so that the chains of fear, sadness and hate are broken.
  2. We all have a past. The difference is some take our past and build a better future and some take their past and limited their future.
  3. Make unpleasant images black and white and make them small. You will feel better.
  4. Make images of what you feel good about as colourful as possible and big.
  5. The secret is to take the images in your mind that make you feel bad and make them small and black and white, move them farther away from you and get rid of them. And take the things that make you feel good and make them big, bright and vivid.
  6. Tragedy exists only in the mind as a terrible memory. A memory is just a representation of an experience. When you change the way you represent an experience, you change how you feel about the experience.
  7. Brilliance Square. Vision yourself as confident, together with the face expression, clothing wearing , body posture, way you breathe, light in eyes, grace and ease in all movement. Step onto the square which is of the colour of your favourite. Do this visioning 5 times. Builds confidence.
  8. Use cartoon/ridiculous tones to say negative words……to lessen the significance.
  9. If we build cheerful, happy and successful habits, we have happy, successful lives. If we are going to build grumpy, disappointed, depressing habits, we just get good at having bad feelings. Happiness is an activity; it’s a skill to master.
  10. Dalai Lama said that sometimes bad things happen. The key is that you just don’t dwell on them. If you throw a pebble into a pond, it makes ripples for a while, but eventually it smoothes out. When people dwell on things too much, they blow them out of proportion.
  11. The best thing about the past is that It’s over. The best thing about the present is that it’s a gift, and the best thing about the future is that its full of wonderful opportunities to feel good.
  12. The one thing in life that you can control is the inside of your head. If someone went into your house and painted horrible picture ion your walls, you wouldn’t leave them. Then why leave bad ideas inside your head? Unwanted negative images or horrible voices…there’s no point.
  13. If you take charge of your beliefs, you take charge of your life. How many ideas have I believed in that have prevented me from doing better in my life but might not be true? How many times have I given up on things just because I believed I wasn’t good enough to achieve them? How many things have I missed out on because I was convinced that I wouldn’t have them?
  14. If a person believes that they are successful, it will cause them to act in a successful way, which will make it more likely that they will become successful. Its what we call a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  15. What you believe determines how you act. How you act determines what results you get, and the results you get determine what your beliefs are. It’s a cycle; beliefs, actions, results, beliefs.
  16. Better to know what you want to have than what you want to lose. 
  17. 2 useful questions: What do you want? And how will you know you have achieved it?
  18. 2 basic ways to be motivated. One is the urge to move away from pain and the other is the compelling desire to move towards pleasure.
  19. Learn from your past. See your present as an opportunity for you to do some new things. Look forward to a future that you can create that’s full of possibilities.
  20. Questions to set goals:

  • What do I need to do more of to reach my goal?
  • What do I need to do less of to reach my goal?
  • What do I need to stop doing to reach my goal?
  • What do I need to begin to do to reach my goal?
  • How can I change?
  • Why do I want to change?
  • What will it be like when I have changed?
These 20 points which I have written are those which I can relate to and will try to focus on a few of them in the near term to get some positive results.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

This is the longest book I have read for the last 10 years. Its 624 pages and I have taken about 2 months to finish it. On the Kindle, I must say that it is good in the fact that the size and font type of the words are just good for reading. And that the fact that the kindle is lighter than the actual book and you do not need to hold onto the pages, it has been a good read. The not so good part is that for the 624 pages in the actual book, there are >1000 pages in the kindle to "flip". Overall, it has been a good gadget for reading. I will definitely continue reading my books on the kindle, though I wish there are cheaper ways of getting some books.

In this book, Richard Branson started by describing his life from his childhood. His mother trained him from young to be independent and resourceful. As a young man in the UK, he was daring and experimential. He started his 1st business in school with a student magazine. His profitable business was Virgin Music with hippier stores for customers to browse and chat. Then come Virgin Records where his signing of Mike Oldfield recorded the "Tubular Bells". From there onwards, Virgin Records has signed a number of higher flying music artists. During this period, Virgin group expanded into a network of Virgin businesses, such as Virgin Holidays, Virgin Cars etc.

Richard Branson is now known for his transport business. He sold his music businesses and focused mainly on his airline and rail businesses. He described his ups and downs, including battle with British Airways, and the American government. He has also been the adventurous type. He sailed a boat and flew over the Atlantic in a hot air balloon. The last parts of the book surrounds mainly around 2005-7 where Richard was steering more on space travel, going green and helping Africa in battling health issues.

There are many "never say die" attitude situations in this book. Good for motivation and maybe inspiring some to take some unusual paths to reach greater heights in career and life.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Kindle

I had thought of buying a kindle for quite a while but always forego that as my tablet should be able to read books right? I have always brought 2 books with me to my trips overseas. I try to read as much as I could during my trips. Usually, I will pick those books which are easier reads and shorter read(less than 200 pages) so that i can finish them during the trip and is light in my luggage.

Recently, i see the benefits of a kindle. I also saw another version, the Nook. Though I have not done any comparisons, i think they are similar.

I saw there was a discount website selling the paperwhite version and was interested. My wife saw me surfing the website and asked if i want one as my present.

Of course I said YES! and here i have a Kindle Paperwhite  :)

I have a list of books that I want to read. I immediately surfed the kindle website and purchased 2 books. The 1st one is Richard Branson's 1st biography, Losing my Virginity. I must say that with the Kindle, I am definitely reading more.

Ok. Will write my 1st Kindle book review....hopefully soon.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Leader, The Teacher & You by Lim Siong Guan

Firstly, I have to admit that I have not read this book. I have a few more books which I have promised myself to read. After that, I will surely read this 

The following points are what I gather from Mr Lim Siong Guan's speech, which I attended.So here goes.

1) Difference between teachers, managers and leaders. Teachers aims to bring out the potential of the children. Managers sees employees as tools to get things done. Leaders hope their employees supersede them. Can bring out their potential n contribute their upmost.

2) The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

3) There is always an alternative in any situation or problem.

4) Position leadership. Mission, vision, sustainability, excellence, future, change, culture

5) Are the jobs that we are doing good enough for the future?

6) People want bosses who Guide, Empathize, Energize, Synergize and Embolden(staff wanting to do something and improve stuff). GEESE

7) Failure to learn from the past, failure to adapt to present, failure to anticipate the future.

8) Barriers to change. People barriers - knowledge, beliefs, confidence, power. Resource barrier - Did not catch the rest.

9) How to earn trust.
- care about others
-ask ' how can I help you do your job better?"
- don't take their credit
- GEESE leadership
- the leader, the teacher

10) Pace of change should b determined by the people who will b the future leaders.

Overall, Mr Lim has a down to earth aura and he speaks with simple, concise English. Hope to be able to hear him speak again.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt

In my current workscope, I thought I really need to improve my strategy thinking. So i started to search for books which teaches about coming up with good strategies. I was unable to find one which I was looking for until i saw this book in MPH or Times in Changi Airport when I was going to Phuket for a short trip. That has been about 9 months ago.

I must say that after going through about 50 pages, I was kind of disappointed as the author seemed to just want to tell the readers that most companies do not have strategies and just have goals or plans. Anyway, I read on as I can't find another strategy book. Below are just statements from the book or some thing i figured out from reading the book.

1) A good strategy has coherence, coordinating actions, policies and resources so as to accomplish an important end.

2) Strategy is at least as much about what an organization does not do as it is about what it does.

3) Use your strengths to exploit opposition weakness.

4) Once you develop the ability to detect bad strategy, you will dramatically improve your effectiveness at judging, influencing and create strategy.

5) A strategy is a way through a difficulty, an approach to overcome an obstacle, a response to a challenge. If the challenge is not defined, it is difficult or impossible to assess the quality of the strategy. And if you cannot assess a strategy's quality, you cannot reject a bad strategy or improve a good one.

6) Bad strategy is the active for avoidance of the hardwork of crafting a good strategy.

7) The transformational leader a) develops or has a vision b) inspires people to sacrifice (change( for the good of the organization, and c) empowers people to accomplish the vision

8) Strategy is the craft if figuring out which purposes are both worth pursuing and capable of being accomplished.

9) Good strategy is coherent action backed up by an argument, an effective mixture of thought and action with a basic underlying structure. Structure contains:
A) A diagnosis that defines or explains the nature of the challenge
B) A guiding policy for dialing with the challenge
C) A reference of coherent actions that are designed to carry out the guiding policy

10) To concentrate on an objective - to make it a priority - necessarily assumes that many other important things will be taken care of.

11) One of a leader's most powerful tools is the creation of a good proximate objective - one that is close enough at hand to be feasible.

12) A series of chain linked activities are all maintained at a high level of quality, each benefiting from the quality of the other and the whole being resistant to each imitation.

13) A good strategy coordinates policies across activities to focus the competitive punch.

14) A more tightly integrated design is harder to create, narrower in focus, more fragile in use, and less flexible in responding to changes.

15) At the core, strategy is about focus, and most complex organization don't focus their resources. Instead, they pursue multiple goals at once, not concentrating enough resources to achieve a breakthrough in any of them.

16) If a business can produce at a lower cost than its competitors, or if it can deliver more perceived value than its competitors, or a mix of the 2, then you have a competitive advantage.

17)  Increasing value requires a strategy for progress on one of the 4 different fronts:
A) Deepening advantages
B)Broadening the extent of advantage
C) Creating higher demand for advantaged product or service
D) Strengthening the isolated mechanisms that block easy replication and imitation by competitors.

18) Deepening advantage
- either increasing value to buyers, reduce cost or both
- improvement come from re-examining the details of how work is done, not just from cost control or incentives.

19) Broadening extent of advantage
- build on strength

20) Creating higher demand
- Higher demand will increase long term profits only if a business already possesses scarce resources that create a stable competitive advantage.

21) Strengthening Isolating Mechanism
- Work on stronger patents, brand name protection and copyrights
- be a moving target for imitators (keep improving)

I quickly went thru the rest of the book as there are too many stories and too few principles to be learned. Of the above 21 points, I hope any reader is able to get something out of it.

Friday, September 5, 2014

The Leader's Checklist by Michael Useem

I bought this book because of 2 reasons:1) it has only about 100 pages. 2) Its published by Wharton. I find books published by Wharton mostly more credible and easier reads.

There are a few good statements. One which stands out is "Leaders connect, collaborate and coordinate".

There are 15 mission-critical principles:

1) Articulate a Vision. Formulate a clear and persuasive vision and communicate it to all members of the enterprise.

2) Think and Act Strategically. Set forth a pragmatic strategy for achieving that vision both short and long term, and ensure that it is widely understood; consider all players and anticipate reactions and resistance before they are manifest.

3) Honor the Room. Frequently express your confidence in and support for those who work with and for you.

4) Take Charge. Embrace a bias for action, of taking responsibility even if it is not formally delegated, particularly if you are well positioned to make a difference.

5) Act Decisively. Make good and timely decisions and ensure that they are executed.

6) Communicate Persuasively. Communicate in ways that people will not forget; simplicity and clarity of expression help.

7) Motivate the Troops. Appreciate the distinctive intentions that people bring, and then build on those diverse motives to draw the best from each.

8) Embrace the Front Lines. Delegate authority except for strategic decisions, and stay close to the most directly engaged with the work of the enterprise.

9) Build Leadership in Others. Develop leadership throughout the organization.

10) Manage Relations. Build enduring personal ties with those who look to you, and work to harness the feelings and passions of the workplace.

11) Identify Personal Implications. Help everybody appreciate the impact that the vision and strategy are likely to have on their own work and future with the firm.

12) Convey your Character. Through gesture, commentary and accounts, ensure that others appreciate that you are a person of integrity.

13) Dampen over Optimism. Counter the hubris of success, focus the attention on latent threats and unresolved problems, and protect against the tendency for managers to engage in unwarranted risk.

14) Build a Diverse Top Team. Leaders need to take final responsibility, but leaders is also a team sport best played with an able roster of those collectively capable of resolving all the key challenges.

15) Place Common Interest First. In setting strategy, communicating vision, and reaching decisions, common purpose comes first, personal self-interest last.

After reading the book, good thing is it is even shorter than 100 pages, if you do not count the interviews. What I do not like are the only few references which consists of the Chilean mine collapse, NY 911 twin tower collapse, near collapse of AIG and surrender of Confederation Army. Find it too narrow. But overall, it has been a good read.


Thursday, August 8, 2013

WellBeing - Tom Rath and Jim Harter

If we can find short term incentives that are consistent with our long term objectives, it is much easier to make the right decisions in the moment. When we can see an immediate payoff, we are more likely to change our behaviour in the moment.

Career Wellbeing
A)     Most essential of the 5 elements. If you don’t have the opportunity to regularly do something you enjoy, the odds of your having high wellbeing in other areas diminish rapidly.
B)      Study showed that our wellbeing actually recovers more rapidly from the death of a spouse than it does from a sustained period of unemployment(>1 yr)
C)      For those who are engaged in work, happiness and interest throughout the day were significantly higher. Conversely, stress levels were substantially higher for those who are disengaged. The disengaged workers’ stress levels decreased and their happiness increased towards the end of the workday. People with low engagement and low career wellbeing are simply waiting for the workday to end.
D)     Engaged workers have similar happiness levels on working and nonworking days, with only slight increase in stress and a positive boost in interest levels when they are at work. However, disengaged workers experienced dramatic drops in happiness and interest – as well as major increases in stress – during workdays.
E)      If your career wellbeing is striving, you are able to have good weekends and good weekdays, and the time you are at work is as enjoyable as the time you spend away from work.
F)      For people with thriving career wellbeing, they love their work so much that it is closely aligned with – and can’t help but spill into – their personal lives.
G)     As employees’’ levels of engagement at work increases, their total cholesterol and triglyceride levels significantly decreased. Boosting your career wellbeing might be one of the most impt priorities to consider for maintaining good health over the years.
H)     The person we least enjoy being around is our boss. More incompetent is the boss, the higher risk of a heart attack.
I)        If your manager is primarily focusing on your strengths, the chance of your being actively disengaged is just 1% or 1 in 100.
J)       Most people strive to minimize the no of hours they need to work in a day and they want to retire as early as possible. But when they are going to retire, most of them want to keep working.
K)      One of the essentials to having fun at work is getting opportunity to use your strengths every day. When we build our strengths and daily success – instead of focusing on failures – we simply learn more.
L)       People with high career wellbeing wake up every morning with something to look forward to doing that day. Those with thriving career wellbeing have a deep purpose in life and a plan to attain their goals. In most cases, they have a leader or manager who makes them enthusiastic about the future and friends who share their passion. While you might thing people with high career wellbeing spend too much time working, they actually take more time to enjoy life, have better relationships, and don’t take things for granted. And they love what they do each day.
M)   3 recommendations: i) Use your strengths every day. Ii) Identify someone with a shared mission who encourages your growth. Spend more time with this person. Iii) Opt into more social time with people and teams you enjoy being around at work.

Social Wellbeing
A)     When you reflect on the most memorable events, experiences and moments in your life, you’ll notice that they have something in common: the presence of another person.
B)      We tend to synchronise our moods with the people around us, our emotions influence one another throughout the day.
C)       Odds of being happy increase by 15% if a direct connection in your social network is happy.
D)     People with a best friend who has a very healthy diet are more than five times as likely to have a very healthy diet as well.
E)      Relationships serve as a buffer during tough times, which in turn improves our cardiovascular functioning and decreases stress levels.
F)      It took almost twice as long for wounds to heal for couples who reported having hostility in their relationship.
G)     When we get at least 6 hours of daily social time, it increases our wellbeing and minimizes stress and worry.
H)     Those who have a best friend at work are 7 times as likely to be engaged in their jobs, are better at engaging customers, produce higher quality work, have high wellbeing, and are less likely to get injured on the job.
I)        People who have at least 3 or 4 very close friendships are healthier, have higher wellbeing, and are more engaged in their jobs.
J)       Key to great relationships is to focus on what each friend does contribute, instead of expecting one person to do it all.
K)      People with thriving social wellbeing have several close relationships that help them achieve, enjoy life, and be healthy. They are surrounded by people who encourage their development and growth. Those with high social wellbeing deliberately spend time – on average about 6 hours a day – investing in their social networks. They make time for gatherings and trips that strengthen these relationships even more. As a result, people with thriving social wellbeing have great relationships, which gives them positive energy on a daily basis.
L)       3 recommendations: i) Spend 6 hours a day socializing with friends, family and colleagues (this time includes work, home, phone, email and other communications), ii) Strengthen the mutual connections in your network, iii) Mix social time with physical activities. For example, take a long walk with a friend so you can motivate each other to be healthy.

Financial Wellbeing
A)     Money matters only up to the point at which people have enough money to afford their basic needs.
B)      Money can increase short term happiness by giving us more control over how we spend our time, whether that means a shorter commute, more time at home with family, or additional social time with friends.
C)      Study showed that spending on oneself does not boost wellbeing. However, spending money on others does – and it appears to be as important to people’s happiness as the total amount of money they make.
D)     We spend the most when we feel the worse.
E)      Buying experiences such as going out to dinner or taking a vacation increases out own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others. Material items lose their novelty, but we can relive memories indefinitely.
F)      It hurts a lot more to lose $50 that we already have than it feels good to win $50. Set default accounts to save money and grow financially.
G)     Financial security (the perception that you have more than enough money to do what you want to do) has 3 times the impact of your income alone on overall wellbeing. Furthermore, a lack of worry about money has more than double the impact of income on overall wellbeing.
H)     Managing your finances well allows you to do what you want to do when you want to do it.
I)        People with thriving Financial Wellbeing are satisfied with their overall standard of living. They manage their personal finances well to create financial security. This eliminates day-to-day stress caused by debt and helps build finance reserves. People with high Financial Wellbeing spend their money wisely. They buy experiences that provide them with lasting memories. They give to others and don’t just spend on themselves. As a result of managing their money wisely, they have the financial freedom to spend even more time with the people whose company they enjoy most.
J)       3 recommendations: i) Buy experiences – such as vacations and outings with friends or loved ones. Ii) Spend on others instead of solely on material possessions. iii) Establish default systems (automated payments and savings) that lessen daily worry about money.

Physical Wellbeing
A)     Many critical signalling genes that promote inflammation, autoimmune, and allergic responses were markedly reduced in just 5 weeks due to dietary changes.
B)      When we eat meals high in carbohydrates and sugars, it essentially damages our appetite-control cells and sends a message to our brain to consume more, even if we don’t need more food at that time.
C)      Look for vegetables and fruits that have darker tones of red, green and blue.
D)     People who exercise at least twice a week are happier and have significantly less stress.
E)      Exercising is much more effectively at eliminating fatigue than prescription drugs.
F)      Having a good night’s sleep gives us a fresh start, and increases out chances of having energy and high wellbeing throughout the day.
G)     Study showed that we learn and make connections more effectively when we are asleep than we do when we are awake.
H)     Sleep 7-8 hrs. Too short or too long can cause problems. Short sleeps were 35% more likely to experience a substantial weight gains and long duration sleepers were 25% more likely to have a substantial weight gain.
I)        Making the right choices in advance can help us get ahead of our short term desires. Choose the place you want to eat correctly.
J)       People with thriving Physical Wellbeing effectively manage their health. They exercise regularly and feel better throughout the day as a result. They make good dietary choices, which keeps their energy high throughout the day and sharpens their thinking. They get enough sleep to wake up feeling well-rested and to process what they learned the day before – and to get a good start on the next day. People with thriving Physical Wellbeing look better, feel better and will live longer.
K)      3 recommendations: i) Get at least 20 minutes of physical activity each day – ideally in the morning to improve your mood throughout the day .ii) Sleep enough to feel well-rested (generally 7-8 hrs) but not too long (more than 9 hrs). iii) Set positive defaults when you shop for groceries. Load up on natural food that are red, green and blue.

Community Wellbeing
A)     Besides basic sense of security, aesthetics of the community (parks, playgrounds etc), social offerings (places where friends meet, nightlife etc) and general openness to all types of people are factors.
B)      Unless you make an effort to get involved in social groups, it is unlikely your community wellbeing will grow.
C)      Thriving community wellbeing is about what we do to give back to our community.
D)     At the highest end of the community wellbeing continuum is giving back to society.. This may be what differentiates an exceptional life from a good one.
E)      When we do things for others, we see how we can make a difference, and this gives us confidence in our own ability to create change.
F)      Creating sustainable change may be 2-3 times as likely to happen in the context of a group, company or community organization. Eg, if you enrol in an intensive weight loss program alone, there is a 24% chance that you will maintain your weight loss after 10 months. If you enrol in the same program and then join a social support group of 3 strangers, there is a nearly 50% chance you will maintain the weight loss 10 months later. But if you enrol in the program with 3 friends or colleagues, you already know, the odds of maintaining your weight loss of up to 66%.
G)     Workers who were the most engaged in their jobs donated 2.6 times more than those who were not engaged in their careers.
H)     People with high Community Wellbeing feel safe and secure where they live. They take pride in their community, and they believe it is headed in the right direction. This often results in their wanting to give back and make a lasting contribution to society. People with thriving Community Wellbeing have identified areas where they can contribute to their community based on their own strengths and passions. They tell others about their interests to connect with the right groups and causes. Their contribution may start small, but over time, it leads to more involvement and has a profound impact on their community. The efforts of people with thriving Community Wellbeing are what create communities we cannot imagine living without.
I)        3 recommendations: i) Identify how you can contribute to your community based on your personal mission. ii) Tell people about your passions and interests so they can connect you with the relevant groups and causes. iii) Opt in to a community group or event. Even if you start small, start now.