Just for Laughs

This is Rebecca. She has been with the company for many years. She is in the sales department and has won the best sales award several time. I do not recall Rebecca sending me any email before. That is why I was surprised when I got an email from her this morning. The subject of the email was “Just for a laugh” but I think it is a lesson for all of us especially the leaders in the office.

This is her email to me.

"How to Kill Creativity"

1. Always pretend to know more than everybody around you.
   
2. Get employees to fill in time sheets.
   
3. Run daily checks on progress of everyone's work.
   
4. Ensure that highly qualified people do mundane work for long periods.
   
5. Put barriers up between departments.
   
6. Don't speak personally to employees, except when announcing increased targets, shortened deadlines and tightened cost restraints.
   
7. Ask for a 200-page document to justify every new idea.
   
8. Call lots of meetings..
   
9. Place the biggest emphasis on the budget.
   
10. Kill any idea that is not your own
    

We need to remember that creativity is what keeps things growing, keeps the mind sharp and keeps people enthusiastic in all their endeavors, from home to work to personal life. So next time you have the opportunity to stifle creativity – Don’t – whether it is in the workplace, the kitchen, or from a smiling 3 year old. Thinking out of the box is what brings society its leaders. Restricting creativity only hurts oneself.

Thank you Rebecca.

Anthony Robbins' "Date with Destiny" Seminar

"Date With Destiny" at Australia's Gold Coast is Anthony Robbins’s most passionate seminar. It is held at the Conrad Jupiters from 6 – 11 April 2008. This year we have 1200 participants from 30 countries.

Last night we had a welcome party for the Japanese delegate on the 21^st floor penthouse.Thanks to Learning Edge, our Japanese partner, for making this happen. Also thanks to Cris, Erico, Fredrick (Taiwan) and Catal for their continuous support. I have enclose some photos of last night's welcome party. If you have not attended "Date With Destiny", make sure you watch out for the next one in 2009. It will change your life.

Venue: Conrad Jupiters Hotel, Gold Coast Australia

Evelyn Tan and Lynn, all ready for the DWD program

Lynn stocking food for the 6 days DWD.
She is worried price of rice will go up!

Satoshi is welcoming the Japanese participants.

Lynn and Tegan. Where is Tegan's Husband?

Here he is ! With Lena : )

powerpoint for "no Money Down"

Hello everyone, here is the powerpoint for my "buying properties and business with no money down" go to www.srpl.net and click on the Financial Mastery picture as shown on the next space.

All the best.

Richard

Don’t get fooled today

Do you realize that today is April fool’s Day? So be on guard, lest you be taken in by an April Fools’ joke. Haha, it would be wise to remember that not everyone has a sense of humor. I must confess that I have played harmless jokes on my friends, college and family on this day. After being serious for more than 300 plus days a year, it is nice to have a day off for jokes. You should be prepared to be fooled on April 1 and not take it to heart.

This morning, I played one joke on Veronica. She was taken in for a few minutes before she realized that it might be an April Fools’ joke. Others were not so fortunate.

The big one was played in front of 200 participants in the seminar we held at the Crown Plaza Riverside Hotel today. I went up to the stage and spoke with a serious tone. “Today is a very unfortunate day. One of you here thinks that you are a smart Alec. During the break, you went to the staff room and tried to be fresh with one of our female staff. You tried to get onto her and tried to kiss her... Even though she told you that she has absolutely no interest, you still persisted on. During the struggle, she took a sharp pencil and struck you and injured your palm. We know who you are. We have informed the police. After this announcement. I'd like to see you behind.” The whole room was in dead silence. Then I took out my hand from my pocket and it was bandaged in red ink. They all started to laugh.

We played a joke on Phoebe. First, I asked Shirlynn to text her and pretend to be Ben, a good looking Chinese guy from Australia whom Phoebe just met. We tricked her to believe that Ben was trying to date her. From the way she responsed, we could feel her heart pounding. She almost freaked out. Kekeke, she will be more careful next year.

We played a joke on Yang Po too. As she is still recovering from her illness, we only planned a mild joke. Hope she laughed at the joke and recovers sooner.

We played a joke on June Yuen. Shirlynn texted June and told her that the seminar was badly organized and that Jessie has broke down, cried and now cannot be found. We were all worried for her. We just managed to stop June as she was booking her air ticket to fly to Kuching to help.

The seminar ended at about 7 pm and we went for dinner behind the hotel. Along the way, we bumped into Kelvin and Michael from Hong Kong. We went back to the same place that Simon took us last night. The seafood is very good there. The only thing lacking is a good dessert. After the dinner, Fabian suggested we go to the Starbuck's nearby.

As we were waiting for the coffee, Douglas whispered in my ear that one of the speakers, Sam has requested that he does not want another speaker, Francis to be in the room when he speaks tomorrow. The reason is that, he does not want Francis to copy his speech. It is a serious matter and can be a potential time bomb if we do not address the issue immediately. I suggested to Douglas that we should call both Sam and Francis to sit together and iron out the differences. Douglas said he will meet them and handle it. We went back to our room. I was worried.

It was 11.50 pm when my phone rang. Alice, Sam’s lovely wife called. “Richard, Douglas and Sam met and Sam was very upset. He has gone to Francis’s room. I am afraid. He might punch him”. My heart dropped to my toe. Sam is a big rough American. Francis will be no match for him. “Where is Douglas?” I asked. The last thing I wanted is to have 2 professional men pounding on one another. “He is going after Sam” Alice replied. “What do you think is the best thing to do?” I asked, at a loss for words. “I don’t know. I thought I'd just let you know”, Alice replied. “Is there anything that Francis did today that upset Sam?” I asked, trying to think hard about my next move. I wanted to go stop the fight but I don’t know in which room Francis is staying. He is on the 17 floor. I am sure there will be a commotion and it will be easy to spot.

“What is the day today?” Alice added. “1 April?, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh .. Alice you fooled me”. I could hear roaring laugher in the background. Only then, I realized that the last joke of the day was played on me.

It is now 11.58pm. 2 minutes to midnite. I don’t have time to get back at them. Alice/Sam/Douglas, I will remember you next year.

PS: I am trying to upload photos of Phoebe, YangPo, Veronica, Ben, Douglas, Jessie and Shirlynn but for some reason I encountered an error. Maybe I will upload later.

"Just give him this money and come back.” I told Melvin

I felt terrible today. Almost like another wake up call. I will share with you more another time.

I am staying at the Marriott hotel in Kuala Lumpur. I need to go to my office in Dataram Prima about 30 minutes away. The taxi stand is quite empty. I don’t want to bother my staff to come pick me up so I decided to take a cab to the office. In front of me was a Caucasian man with his girlfriend. The first cab came and they took it.

Another cab was queuing behind. I told the bell man that I'd like to go to Dataram Prima. The bell man opened the cab door for me and I hopped in. I repeated to the cab driver “Dataram Prima please”.

The driver is an Indian man. He started to drive off without acknowledging me. I said again “Dataram Prima, do you know the place?” I could sense that he is uncertain but he keeps driving. “It is somewhere in PJ, do you know the place?” I asked.

"The fare is RM 30” He said. “That is ok.” I replied.

Usually I can take a cab from Marriott Hotel to my office for only RM 25. I am not in the mood for bargaining because I have to call into a conference call from my mobile phone and I am opening my computer to read the notes first.

Tom Hua, Brett, Phoebe and Veronica are already on the conference call. I called in but I could not hear them clearly. The phone reception on the highway is not clear. Halfway there, the cab driver asked if I'd like him to wait to take me back. I told him there is no need to wait for me.

Then he commented, “The place is very far, should be RM35, not RM30.” I just ignored him. He drove past the Motorola factory, then Yamaha School. “Further down please, turn right after you pass the Catholic Church. My office is around the corner.” I directed him.

“Wow... so far, should be RM 40” he grumbled. He raised the fare from RM30 to RM35 and now to RM40. We passed the main gate and entered block D where my office is located. “Please stop in front of the silver Volvo” I said. That is Jennifer’s, our senior manager, Volvo. He stopped. I took out a RM 50 bill and handled it to him.

“It is RM 40.” He held on to the RM50 bill and wanted to give me just RM 10 change. “No, it is RM 30 as you have quoted in the beginning,” I said calmly. “Very far lah, must be RM 40, still holding on to the RM 50 bill. “Hey”, I raised my voice. “You are trying to cheat.” I raised my voice louder.

On that, I snapped back the RM 50 bill from his hand, opened the cab door and just walked away. “ok, ok ok” I could hear him agreeing from behind me. I ignored him, walk into the building and took a lift to my office.

Cab drivers like this one give the tourist industries a bad name and damages even a nation’s reputation. In this case, it is Malaysia. I want to teach him a lesson. I am not going to pay him.
Not everyone is so easily taken advantage of.

15 minutes must have passed. I looked at the money I snapped back; there was another RM10 bill with the RM 50 bill. The RM10 does not belong to me. Aiyah, I not only did not pay him but I must have also snapped his money by accident.

I felt better now. Instead of making some money, now the Indian Cab driver loses money. He must be down there in a shock.

“Melvin”, I called. Melvin is the project executive in the office. “Can you take RM 35, and go down and look for an Indian cab driver. Just give him this money and come back.”

You have to "stand up for what you believe" and yet also "do the right thing."

Intellectual Property - almost stolen but all is well now

It was 9.15pm and I was in the Hyatt Hotel about 30 min, when Andy (my project leader for Clemen’s option trading) called me. He said Dr Clemen had stopped his seminar abruptly.

The reason was that there were 2 “competitors” in the room. These people also teach option trading and charge at very small fee. He did not want to carry on because he did not want them to “steal” his materials.

I knew Dr Clemen Chiang several years ago when he attended the Anthony Robbins seminar which was organised by Success Resources. He then went on to develop his interest in option trading and he became the leading authority in share and option trading in this part of the world, and regularly featured in newspaper, TV, radio and leading magazines. His passion went on to earn him a doctorate degree in financial strategy.

Last year he organized the world's first option trading championship and it was supported by the Chicago Exchange, New York exchange etc. What impresses me about Clemen is his drive, enthusiasm, energy and his passion. When you see him speak on the stage, you will feel the energy electrify the room. He is very disciplined and focused which is the key success factor for all financial traders.

"Stealing" of Intellectual Property is very common in Indonesia and China. It is also common in other developed countries as well whereby someone goes to attend a seminar by a world class speaker and then goes back to start teaching the material without acknowledgment or permission. They charge a much discounted fee and teach diluted content usually missing the key essence. What the world class speakers took years to develop was stolen and sold cheap. Many of the public will be cheated.

The current situation affected Clemen so much that he was emotionally not able to give his best. That is why he dismissed the class 2 hours early. He felt that he has the inclination to withhold his knowledge from the real participants with these “stealers” in the room. I could understand how he felt. I called the two “competitors” aside and requested that they take their money back and not turn up any more. There was no drama. One of them in fact is willing to sign a non disclosure and undertaking letter. The other is begging me to let him in the class too. They were really nice but I declined.

Clemen was happy. I am sure he will give his best tomorrow. My day ended at 1 am in the morning. I got to get up early the next day for a conference call with Jay Abraham.

Oh, before I go to bed, let me check the SkyQuestCom sales report from the PreEnroller system.

Wow .. a 300% increase in sales. Fantastic. Awesome .. You should check out the SkyQuestCom Product and the Preenroller. Now I go ZzzzZzzzz.

http://www.SkyQuestCom.com
http://www.PreEnroller.com

Running at the Kallang River

Arrghhh, pain all over my body. I am tempted not to get up and just lay on the bed for the pain to wear off. Kekekee, I went jogging yesterday with some of my staff at the Kallang River after office hours. I have not had time to exercise with all the travel and work schedule. I already felt a bit guilty. When Phoebe, our youngest staff asked if I wanted to join the jogging, my big mouth agreed. Out of all the staff, 5 of us will do the unusual. Others prefer drinking coffee and chatting online after office hours.

We changed at 6 pm. I was pleasantly surprised that Lily and Lena are also game for it. Lily is our account and she is very hard working but usually keeps to herself and does not join the staff in extra activities unless it is pure office work. Lena is the type that will go sing Karaoke and dancing .. jogging, ohh no way. We took a short walk from the office to the Kallang river. We begin by warming up and stretching. I told them that they don't have to run or jog fast, just walking briskly will do. Hahaha, I was actually preempting them for myself. The weather is real nice and there are already many office people there in their tee shirts and running shoes and of course iPods too. From the Kallang River to Esplanade Concert Hall is 2.4 Km. We will have a chance to run pass the ferris wheel, and SkyQuestCom office too.

Here we go. Taking an easy pace. Cyrus and Phoebe both look very fit and they lead the way. Along the way, there are also senior older men, just sitting on the bench, just talking and drinking tea. There are also a couple of people with their long rods, fishing away. I don't think they care much about catching any fishes more then spending their time relaxing and chatting with friends. I spotted a couple kissing away, sitting by the edge of the river. Hope they don't fall off. That would be fun to watch. I already began to sweat. Suddenly, I heard Lena and Lily talking behind. The sole of her running shoe came off. She has not used this shoe for so long that the glue became so dry. She torn off the other sole too and started running. She is very game, I thought she might just give up already. It ended well with healthy soya bean milk. It was almost 8 pm when we finished. I know some of them will take medical leave the next day .

I hope Phoebe will continue to organise the jogging regularly. Please do come and join us.