Winning

Winning offers an insight of the management philosophy of Jack Welch – ex CEO for GE. The book attempts to provide perspective on how to manage your company, your competitors and your career to create a winning outcome.

Jack Welch also talks about some of the contemporary practices in strategic management – such as building company’s mission and values, six sigma and meritocracy. He highlights some of the rationale as well as the pitfalls associated with the implementation of all management practices. For instance, he reiterated that mission and values should be reinforcing for them to be effective. Moreover, to integrate them into the corporate culture, behaviours aligned to the value system should be publicly acknowledged and rewarded.

On the section of managing your company, Jack Welch emphasized that management of the people is essential to the success of the company. People management starts from hiring phase. Sometimes, the management recruits based on the technical expertise of the employee so that the employee can quickly contribute in the position. However, when the growth potential of the individual is not considered, there is a risk that when the company grows, the employee will fall behind and replacement has to be recruited. Other than people management, handling change and crisis are also essential skills which management should possess.

For salaried employees, we constantly wonder how we can better manage our career to progress both professionally and personally. The first issue to consider is whether we are in the right job. Once we affirm that we are in the job we desire, then we need to look at how we can get ourselves promoted or how to deal with a difficult boss. A successful career often requires certain sacrifices and compromises especially in work-life balance. Jack Welch believes that attaining work-life balance should be the responsibility of the employee and not that of the employer.

It is an insightful summary of the management philosophies of one of the world’s well-known corporate leaders. After reading the ‘Bitch at Work’, ‘Winning’ will be the next appropriate choice.

The Bitch at Work

Perhaps the title already raised some expectation on what to come next or you already recoiled at such a blatant title. Given that I am currently on the roll to becoming a better professional, especially in the cultivation of my soft skills, I am curious at what Elizabeth Hilts has to offer to the ladies at work. Strangely, most of the well-known leaders and consultants are largely male, so I wonder if some of the advices can be adopted by females at work. This is especially a tactic deployed by a male leader and female leader often can generate different reception.

Some of the more interesting concepts introduced in this book include ‘Toxic Niceness’ and ‘Toxic Success’. Being female, most of the time, we seek to please and be in the good books of everyone. We find it hard to say no when a colleague ask us to help out. To succeed, we must get rid of toxic niceness. Toxic success refers to an all-consuming desire to be successful that it starts to mar our vision.

It also lists our some tactics that we can employ when we are met with some embarrassing or stressful situations. For eg, we can use ‘I’ll think about it” to buy time when outright rejection is not an option. It also teaches you some of the things to look out for when negotiating when you are offer a new job. Being a boss is also not a popularity contest. By being nice to everyone can be detrimental to yourself and can even be detrimental to the team. Be ready to go for vacation as we will need breaks to recharge.

This book is a concise, interesting starting point to learn about ladies at work. After this, you are ready to take more the heavier stuff.

Songs

Sometimes a song may already be very captivating but if you watch the drama or the movie for which the song is the themed song, the story will enhance the melancholy, the romance or the mischief of the song. The song will seem even more vivid when now it seems to be telling a story.

The recent 7 pm drama on Channel U “Love aound the Corner” is a good example. I used to like the themed song by Show Luo Zhixiang but I like it more when I think of the story associated with the song. The one song and drama which seem to really complement each other is “Romance at Dolphin Bay”.

One can really feel your feet tapping when you hear Le-Ann Rimes’ Can’t Fight the Moonlight. However, you really want to move with the music after you watch Coyote Ugly. It has even started the trend of bar-top dancing. What about the J-pop? Utada Hikaru’s First Love was endearing but the song has a sense of melancholy with the backdrop of unaccepted love between the teacher and the student.

So which is the song you like? Do you love it more after seeing the movie or the drama?

Angels & Demons

For a long while I was curious about the international attention that Dan Brown garnered over his acclaimed bestseller – Da Vinci Code. When I read the book (courtesy of Ah Peng), I understood why. There are very few fiction writers who have made me gone through so much thinking while following the plot. Dan Brown is clearly one of them. The others are
1) Jostein Gaarder – author of Sophie’s World and A Solitaire Mystery,
2) Mitch Albom – author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet In Heaven, and
3) Paulo Coelho – author of The Alchemist and Eleven Minutes.

Angels and Demons is themed similarly to Da Vinci Code. When you enter the prologue, it is almost as if one has started on the sequel of Da Vinci Code.

The opening was a death scene which was gruesome and merciless. Shortly after the murder, the hero of the story was once again stirred from his deep slumber. The protagonist – Robert Langdon was a lecturer on religious symbols. There was again a heroine who would assist or in some situations led the hero in solving the murder and the more sinister plot associated with the murder. Vittoria Ventra was an up-and-coming physicist whose father – a famous physicist, was brutally murdered.

By now, I am sure for the readers who are familiar with Da Vinci Code will be wondering if I have been getting confused. From the similarities, you may be lured into thinking that I am describing Da Vinci Code here instead of Angels and Demons.

Instead of being in the grandeur of the Lourve Museum in Paris, the venue is the the St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The Pope has just passed on and the cardinals from all over the world gathered at Sistine Chapel to elect the next Pope.

A day before this, a famous physicist who was also a devout Christian – Leonardo Ventra was brutually murdered in CERN – one of the most renowned scientific institutes in Europe. At the same time, one of the greatest break-through in science who could be used to explain the Big Bang, was also stolen. This new discovery, known as the antimatter (opposite to matter), could be the world’s newest source of safe energy as it could produce more cheap energy than nuclear energy and with no side effects of radiation. Similarly, it could also be the world’s deadliest weapon.

Antimatter was stored in a magnetized canister to prevent it from interacting with matter to produce an explosion. However, the canister has to be constantly charged to retain its magnetic field. With it being stolen, the back-up battery in the canister could only kept it magnetized for 24 hours before explosion would occur. As Leonardo was branded with “Illuminati” before he died, Maximilian Kohler recruited Robert Langdon to help solve the mystery. Together Robert and Vittoria went through the toughest 24 hours of their lives.

“Illuminati” referred to a group of scientists who had gathered illegally during the times when Religion ruled the world and the scientists were viewed as threats to the reign of Religion. The head of “Illuminati” was Galileo Galilei. The secret hiding place was within the Vatican City and could only be found by certain marks. These marks were all sculptures created by Bernini – the famous sculptor who was touted to be second only to Michelangelo.

There was an assassin being hired to murder the 4 cardinals who were the chosen ones and one of them was likely to be chosen as the next Pope. Unfortunately, before Robert could stop the assassin, all 4 cardinals were brutally and publicly murdered at the altars of science. These altars of science were believed to contain the directional guide to the Church of Illuminati – their secret lair.

It was again a captivating book with the unexpected developments. A reader would certainly need to hold your breath until the last page as every time when Robert and Vittoria seemed to close in, the assassin was able to escape and lengthen the gap between them again.

The book I was reading was a collector’s edition (this time courtesy of the National Library Board) with pictures and illustrations. They certainly helped especially when famous sculptures, buildings and churches were referred extensively in the book and were crucial for the plot development. It would certainly be hard for a reader who was unfamiliar with the Greek history and sculptures to fully appreciate the intricacies of the mystery. When one looked at the pictures of the insides of famous landmarks, such as St Peter’s Basilica, Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon and sculptures of Bernini, such as Habakkuk and the Angel, West Ponente and the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Without the pictures, one can really get lost in the words. The significance of these ‘signposts’ to the mystery will not be as impactful.

Being simplistically reading the book as pure fiction and for leisure, I have thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and the plot.

Spring Cleaning 2008

I was clearing three days of leave at home and decided to engage in my annual tradition of spring cleaning. The upcoming Chinese New Year is earlier than other years. It is timely than I start my cleaning now.

I cannot believe how much of a hoarder I have turned into. I realized that I still had notes from JC, textbooks from secondary school and toys from primary school. Despite undergoing a yearly spring cleaning exercise, these things have survived the past few exercises (including the most major ones when I moved about 3 years ago).

I also keep this ‘clearing philosophy’ – if you have touched the thing for 3 years, it shows that you probably do not need it anymore, it is time for the thing to go. The same applies for clothes. I often feel that it is a pity to throw things away especially when they are still in working conditions. However, these just continue to occupy space and disintegrate as I have no use for them anymore. For clothes and shoes, even though I do not change my size (for at least the last 6 years), some I have rarely touched because they have simply gone out of fashion.

Although it is really a heartache to throw them away, I guess I have to in order to prevent myself from turning into a hoarder, even for sentimental and environmental reasons.

Hui's House

I visited Hui's house as I had not had a good chance to talk to her and see her baby the previous 2 rounds. I am surprised at how much Kayla (Hui's princess) has grown. She looked more and more adorable and strong as the days go by.

Hopefully, I can get to see Kayla soon and that she will be able to smile at me more soon. :-)

Lessons Learnt from Learning Fiesta

As the theme for Learning Fiesta centred on growth and development, it was inevitable that many successful stories on some of the world’s most inspirational leaders were quoted. Never before had I felt so strongly about my inadequacy.

Not only did I felt small with the anecdotes of the hard work, determination, passion and positive attitude of the successful leaders. I was also acutely aware of my lack of knowledge of them and their management philosophies. No one is born with the talent to manage successfully. Most of them times, people learn from trials and errors (ie experience) and from emulating the best practices (benchmarking).

When the pictures of the worlds’ most famous managers were flashed, I could not recognize most of them, except for Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump – both I had seen on TV. Apple’s Steve Jobs, ex GE’s CEO – Jack Welch, Dell’s Michael Dell or even Alan Greenspan (though he is currently in the line of fire for his financial policies which could have contributed to the current turmoil) were lost on me. I might have heard their names somewhere, but I could not identify them from the pictures and worse, I knew next to nothing about what their management philosophies were which made them well-known corporate leaders.

From then, I told myself. I should really buck up on my general knowledge and start reading more about management. This is not only to improve myself professionally but also to ensure that I do not embarrass myself further with such a low proficiency in general knowledge.

Shame on me.

Learning Fiesta

Learning Fiesta is a new initiative and program where over the span of 3 days, different talks are carried out free to all members of the staff. All employees can attend the talks by registering prior to the talks. Each 2-hour talk will touch on different soft skills to promote growth and development of the employees. Some of these talks include ‘What’s my Personal Brand”, “How to Manage My Boss”, “How to Think out of the Box”, “I have Arrived Here, What’s Next”.

I have also signed up for a couple of talks. Some of these talks are given by external consultants. For example, “How to Think out of the Box” was a talk by the founder of Beachworks – a set of tools for building sandcastle which was one of the best selling toys when it was first launched. The speaker chronicled his idea, passion and his success. It helped that he was also very humorous and managed to drive a message in a light-hearted manner.

“I have Arrived Here, What’s Next” briefly introduced to us the importance of managing one’s career and what one needed to do to more proactively manage one’s career development. The guidance was more general in nature and which might be easy in theories but required more discipline to put them in action.

“How to Manage My Boss” drew an overwhelming response. Apparently, the ability to better manage our bosses was one of the most important life-skills and traits necessary for success. The Australian speaker characterized management styles and pointed out some questions that we could pose to our bosses to create the distinction.

The talk is certainly a good start to start us thinking on how to grow and improve professionally as well as to make working a happier experience. It will be great if this learning fiesta becomes an annual event.

Polar Bear Pirates and Their Quest to Reach Fat City

Recently, I fell in love with books on Management and Self-Improvement. I used to stereotype these books as academic, boring, heavy and even edging towards being pompous. Such books, often written by academics or management consultants, load many vague theories. This causes my head to spin while I try to decipher the essence. Hence, I have denounced such books for a long while.

This was until I have started reading ‘How to Get Rich’ by Donald Trump piqued by curiosity and looking out for some celebrity gossip. This was certain contrary to my usual perception. It was concise, simple (even for a management-idiot like me) and was written more in a glossy-magazine than university-textbook style. Not only does it offer new insights, it also reinforces some of the guiding principles which we already are embracing.

On the ‘Polar Bear Pirates and Their Quest to Reach Fat City’, the author – Adrian Webster described this as a ‘grown-up’s book for kids at work’. This book is laid out in a very similar manner to ‘Who Moved My Cheese’. Some of the management approach is spelt out in the description of Fat City and the various residents.

Fat City was the analogy for our dream world – a place reached only by the polar bears who worked hard and brave challenges. These polar bears mostly originated from the City of Rock Bottom. There were also cities of Complacency where the residents were mainly Norm and of Quitter where the Nobodies lived.

Polar Bears had some of the most unique characteristics for success. They were easily one of the most efficient predators of the world. Yet, they often appeared harmless. Moreover, they were also a fun-loving group of creatures.

To set off to Fat City, we needed to know where it was in our heart and whether there was a need for us to get there. Sometimes, people had a certain want in their lives but they did not necessarily need it. Without a burning need, they would not be motivated enough to keep going. Once, we identified the Fat City, we had to be able to get out of our comfort zone and start moving.

En-route to Fat City, we would meet with enemies and viruses. Enemies included the Neg Ferrets, Sinkers, Bloaters, Molasses Men and Head Treads. Neg Ferrets often held a very negative perspective and would be a wet blanket on our fighting spirits. Sinkers were losers who also made sure that no one else had success. Bloaters were characterized by laziness, egotism and full of opinions. Molasses Man was a sweet and slow person. Head Treads took advantage of their positions to hold others back and keep standards down.

Other than avoiding enemies, we should try to also build our own personality to help us reach Fat City. We have to
- Believe in ourselves
- Be a Do-er
- Have the balls to overcome all hardships and challenges
- Be enthusiastic
- Embrace humour
- Ask when in doubt

As the route would be a long and tiring one, we needed to keep focus by remembering where the Fat City we were heading towards. We should line the journey with many milestones and pampered ourselves as we achieve each milestone. Tiny Noticeable Things (TNTs) could have huge impacts as they could be used to motivate or demotivate people. Although we had to be focused, we also had to be mindful that the location of Fat city might change along the way and we should be flexible enough to change our route and even direction.

As Fat City would be located at the highest of the mountains, we had to keep trudging on before we could find it. If we give up half-way through, we would only remain in the City of Complacency.

Feel inspired by what I describe so far, take out a map and start plotting out your Fat City route. Remember, to get there, you must be first willing to get out of your comfort zone.

PassionFruit

I like the smell of passionfruit. It always adds a distinct and nice flavour to any drink or ice-cream. I never see the fresh fruit at all. This is my first time seeing the inside of a fresh fruit and tasting it.

What is the taste like?

Sourish and sweet and with its strong aroma.

First Glimpse of Christmas Lightings

The Christmas lightings along Orchard Road has been put up. Part of it has been lighted. Here is a first glimpse.

Levi's Promotion

Levi's is having a promotion where if you trade in your old jeans (any brand), you get $50 off any regular priced jeans which must be at least above $100. My mum and sister were pretty excited about this. My sister traded in two pairs of her old jeans while my mum traded in my old pair to buy her new one.

You must be asking then why I did not buy any?

Well, to me, a pair of jeans, even after the promotion, of about $80, is slightly too pricey for me. My most expensive jeans so far costs about $50 and I already think it is quite expensive. :-(

Teambuilding 2008

For this year’s teambuilding, we are back at Sentosa for some sun, sand, sea and sweat.

The first part of the teambuilding themed on working together, including across teams so that we could deliver to our customers. This entailed building pipes on the beach to roll tennis-sized balls to the catcher at one end of the pipes. The second activity was on the construction of a race car using pipes. The cars were test-driven before we lined ourselves up for the real race.

The second part of the teambuilding was more of an amazing race where it was kicked off at the beach once again. We had to try to get ping pong balls out of a long pipe which was punctured with holes. As we poured water into the pipe, the holes started leaking water and we needed to cover up the holes as effectively as possible. Next on, we travelled to the Dolphin Bay, the southern-most part of Asian Continent, the Siloso Beach and to the Luge for our challenges.

Unfortunately, before we could complete the entire challenge, rain started to pour. While we waited for the rain to subside, the rain just grew heavier. As it was soon time to go back to the meeting point, we put on the plastic poncho which we were given, braved the rain and started a 15 minute walk from Siloso Beach back to Palawan Beach. This was the first time I had walked in the rain and for a good whole 15 minutes or more - another first experience in teambuilding events.

I seemed to encounter my many ‘firsts’ in the teambuilding events. In the 2008 teambuilding event, there were other firsts such as the first time I walked the hanging bridge to reach the Southern most of Asian Continent. As I was on the bridge, I seemed to be floating on water. It was a beautiful way to look at Sentosa from the bridge. It was a first for me to approach strangers to help us in the games. I was certainly glad by the spontaneity of some of the tourists.
Sometimes, I approached Teambuilding with certain trepidation as I was wary of some of the challenges I would be put through. Yet, I knew I would emerge from these teambuilding events as a stronger person as I would overcome some mental hurdles of performing certain tasks when everyone could certain achieve as long as you try. Hmm, however, I think I may need to continue to work harder on my creativity as I am often at a loss of what to do when I have to think creatively to complete certain tasks.

First Offsite Meeting

This is my first off-site meeting since I join the company.

I used to travel to many places (within Singapore) for meetings in my last job. However, my current job is pretty desk-bound. Actually, I do not stay in my workstation alot. I wonder around the office to meetings and to my line managers' workstations more. Sometimes, you can only find me in my workstation only after office hours or during lunch hours.

As usual with poor direction sense and very general idea of where the subsidiary is located, I have to rely on the cab driver. Alamak, the cab driver has no idea where the place is. In the end, the cab takes a larger detour than the norma route. Needless to say, I am late for my meetings.

I am slightly nervous. Well, when it is in my turf, I am certainly more confident (maybe even more arrogant). Now that it is in others' territory, I better watch my words. *Worried* Fortunately, the meeting goes smoothly and with everyone seems to agree with the general requirements.

Phew.

Given my new portfolio, I can expect myself to travel to here for more meetings in future.

In Her Sister's Shoes

In Her Sister's Shoes is about a pair of sisters who have to confront some of their fears and exchange their roles.

The younger sister was an upcoming TV presenter who had finally made it big after many years of slogging in London. For years, she had hardly stepped home feeling out of place and claustrophobic in her hometown of Dublin. The elder sister had always been a pillar of strength in the family and assumed the mother's role since her mother passed away when she was a teenager. When the elder sister was diagnosed with a similar cancer, the brother-in-law beseeched the younger sister to come home and took care of the elder sister and her nieces and nephews.

Both sisters had to conquer their worst fears. The elder sister had to battle with the illness and the prospect of leaving her children motherless. The younger sister had to learn how to be more domesticated and learning not to tie her self-worth to her career, her fame and her other material success.

One of the scenes highlighted was perhaps also an underlying fear of many of us. There were class reunions held almost every year. For years, the younger sister had been able to swagger into the gathering, held her head high and boost about her successful career. When she was invited to her class reunion while she was taking care of her sister and her nieces and nephews, she feared of attending the reunion. Without the halo of a successful career, she seemed to be bereft of her identity and self-esteem.

Indeed, class reunions became the most dangerous places to be in as she came under attack from exclassmates whom she used to 'triumph' over for her 'lack of everything'. How often we heard of class reunions becoming an arena for exclassmates to size one another up and compete on their successes, wealths, fames and achievements. The younger sister was belittled when she decided to come clean and confess about her loss of job when she had to come back to care for her ailing sister.

I shuddered to think about this. I believe it is the safest to avoid class reunions at all costs, especially for a nobody like me...

James Bond

“The name is Bond. James Bond.”

- A signature line from the world’s most well-known spy.

While many may have watched the action of James Bond on the movie screen, few would have read the book. Is the James Bond in the hit series by Sir Ian Fleming the same as that portrayed in the movie? Has the movie done justice to one of the most charismatic and sexiest fictitious spy? You guess is as good as mine until we pick up the book.

The one that I have picked up is Thunderball. This has been adapted for a 1965 movie - the fourth James Bond movie, starring Sean Connery as the famous spy.

The antagonist is a group made of famous scientists and military experts known as SPECTRE – mainly from the East European countries. The loot? A plane carrying two atomic bombs. The location? Cayman Islands in Bahamas. As usual, James Bond uses his wit, his charm, his guts to investigate and to recover the bombs. With many lives and money at stake and a short turn around time of 48 hours, it is a test against courage and strength. Fortunately, he has once again not let his fans down by putting up a strong victory against the enemies and prevent yet another world’s catastrophe.

The book is equally captivating with vivid descriptions of the people, the setting and the plot. Yet, human imagination is boundless where the excitement of each scene can be played in one’s mind. This is unlike in movies where the scenes are already depicted by the movie director and deliver straight into your face without any room for your imagination.

There are also some differences between the books and the movies. In the books, M is a male and not a female (Judi Dench). In the books, James Bond is supposed to be tall and dark (unlike the current Daniel Craig who is not exactly dark – I believe Pierce Brosnan is a closer depiction of James Bond). In the books, James Bond, having gone through numerous assignments, has many scars all over his body from his past injuries while the skin of the James Bond in the movie seems to be flawless – if the top-bare body of Daniel Craig walking out of the waters on the beach is anything to go by.

Validate these for yourself. Pick up one of the books yourself. *Grin*

Teppanyaki

Eating teppanyaki is almost an art as the chef seasons, cuts and cooks in front of you with a blazing passion and a blazing fire as well.

The set meal offers by Sakae Teppanyaki includes a main dish (which includes chicken, turkey, beef, duck and seafood), 5 sides – salad, stir-fried vegetables or assorted mushrooms, tofu steak or radish chawanmushi, scallops, miso soup and rice, and dessert. The waft of aroma from the food slowly sizzling in the heat is an answer to my growling stomach. As the cooked food is served onto our plates, we tender meat almost melts in our mouth. The strong garlic, pepper and teriyaki sauce seasoning are truly not for the faint-hearted. The rich taste exploded on our palates.

The strong grease suction by the side of the hot plates prevent the diners from reeking of grease smell as we walk out of the restaurant. The leather seats provided comfortable seating. The black crockeries with cherry blossom engravings are exquisite even on display. However, the semi-circle table is slightly crowded to accomodate 8 diners and to have space for our food.

Overall, it is still an enjoyable culinary experience.

(The salad and the nice crockeries)

(The young chef cooking the various meats)

(A set with rice, main course, scallops)

(The stir-fried vegetables)

First Flash Report

Our flash report is a summary of the preceding month's financial performance on the 5th working day.

This is the first month I am doing the report. It is nerve-wrecking because of the short turnaround time. The financial results are out only at 4 pm while the report has to be issued within the same day. For the past few months, my predecessor has been working till about mid-night to roll out the report. Many things can happen to delay the reporting - numbers don't tie, last minute changes to numbers etc.

I am also excited because to me, this is a more important role than just focusing on my own products. At least, I will have a view of the total corporate products and earlier than most people because I will be the one summarising and reporting to management.

For the past few months, I have been knocking off at around 6 plus. My boss was surprised to see me still at my desk at 8 plus, forgetting momentarily that I was doing consolidation for the first month. When I reminded him that I was doing flash report, he suddenly recalled. He encouraged me by saying that since it was my maiden flash report, he would definitely read it.

Fortunately, the report was rolled out on time. The next target? To issue the main report, ie the more detailed analysis of the numbers within 3 working days from the flash report. Let's hope I can make it. <Apprehension>

Botak Jones

He is not a man but he is a western food chains which are well-known names to many Singaporeans. Its huge servings (American style) have often attracted the attention of many Singaporeans. Of course, I have to pop down to savour the food when its latest outlet opened just a street away from my office.

The latest outlet located beside the Youth Park (opposite Cineplex) draws the lunch-time crowd to queue relentlessly under the scorching afternoon sun for our burgers and sausages. I choose the Cajun chicken burger which is rather spicy. The buns are soft. The chicken breast is tender but rather dry for my preference. The portion is not as large as what it is well-known for. According to my colleague, this is part of an exercise to prevent food wastage but cutting down serving portion (but without a drop in price).

The sitting place is on the stage of the Youth Park without any fan fitted. Needless to say, the place is almost like an over under the white tent top. This can make the eating experience slightly uncomfortable. The serving time is also quite long where the preparation of the food takes at least 15 minutes.

When you hold too high an expectation, we often find that reality seems to fall short.

More Work

Just two weeks after I was informed that I will be doing consolidated management report permanently, my boss dropped another bombshell. I would be handling the total product's expense budget in the coming budget exercise. Oh no, more late nights await me for the next 3 months.

Good bye to the knocking off at 6 plus for the past few months.

Good bye to the regular dinners.

How to Get Rich

How to Get Rich is a book penned by The Apprentice's Donald Trump. The book is divided into several sections:
1) The Donald J. Trump School of Business and Management
2) Your Personal Apprenticeship (Career Advice from the Donald)
3) Money, Money, Money, Money
4) The Secrets of Negotiation
5) The Trump Lifestyle
6) Inside The Apprentice

For those of you who have little time and patience for ploughing through thick academic book on management and success, this will be an ideal choice where Donald Trump summarises some of his experiences in a succinct and entertaining way.

Few will know about Trump's failure in the early nineties with a mountain of debts and his determination to ride through life's challenges. For employees and employers alike, this book will cater to your quest for success and offer you insights on how to do well in your role.

Some of the more beneficial insights which I feel I have certainly benefited from his sharing include:

1) Don't equivocate
How often do we fall into the trap of listing out the pros and cons of a situation or proposal and ending with a recommendation that whether the proposal is good or bad depends on the circumstances? At least, I am very guilty of this error. You will see my sitting on the fence in many entries in this blog. <Ashamed>

Donald's advice: If you equivocate, it shows you are unsure of yourself and what you are doing.

2) Manage the person and not the job
Some people respond to fear. There was a guy who confessed that he only started working when he was threatened to be fire. Different people have different ways of achieving results, eg fear or understanding. However, being a leader, one needs to exercise both restraint and power as well, instead of simply ordering people around.

Donald's advice: Being able to learn about your employees and to manage them is essential to a good manager. According to Abraham Lincoln, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

3) Ask for the raise at the right time
Many of us always think we are underpaid for the work we need to do. Yet, it is often difficult to ask for a raise or we simply do not ask and use job hop as a platform for upping our pays.

Donald's advice: The best way to ask for a raise is to wait for the right time because money, like comedy, is all about timing.

4) Know what you want and keep it to yourself
By keeping certain facts, we will have a better chance of negotiation. Moreover, sometimes what we think we want at the onset of the negotiation may evolve and what we actually want is different.

Donald's advice: Know what you want, bottom line, but keep it to yourself until a strategically necessary moment.

5) Pay attention to the details
How often as leaders or managers, many have overlooked the need for details. By thinking that that have already made it, many have dropped the details and gone only for the big picture. Donald shared a story of a well-known brain surgeon who would go over the components of an upcoming surgery in his head as he jogged each morning.

Donald's advice: If you do not know every aspect of what you are doing, you are setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.

There was also a section devoted to describing a typical week of Donald's life. The amount of activities that he packed into a typical day will make a reader exhausted by just reading about it. He tries to contain his meeting to about 15 to 30 minutes which make me wonder if I waste too much time in meetings sometimes. I should really learn to control more of my phone conversations and meetings with colleagues so that I can get more done in a shorter span of time.

Try pick up this book the next time you are in a library or a book store, you may learn other insights from Donald Trump's experiences.

Happy Meal

A meal that will make you happy?

It is served with a burger, fries, milk and a toy.

It is meant for kid but there is no stopping adults for enjoying the same meal.