Archive for the 'Stories' Category

North Korea, The Little Prince, raising children, soundtracks for your life

Published on 14 September, 2008 in Stories. 0 Comments Tags: books, raising a genius, soundtrack for your life, TED.

This morning, while watching a TED clip on a visit to North Korea, I happened to read the mostly derisory comments below, one of which referred to The Little Prince. While I had heard of that book before, it occurred to me that I had never read it. A quick search revealed that this book, translated into 180 languages and dialects and having sold 80 million copies really needed to be on my reading list…

But in the meantime, I wanted to share a few quotes that seemed poignant:

One cannot see well except with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes.
You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important.

All this after awaking this morning with a dream of figuring out how I would educate a child… especially on this occasion reminding me that we teach most when we teach through stories.

For some time, I have noticed how the songs that dominate my playlist tend to be reflected in my life. When I was listening to Lips of an Angel, I found myself surrounded by romantic distractions; in the past I have listened to Lose Yourself or Life or Cats in the Cradle, each time with noticable shifts in my thinking. More recently, I have tended more towards Everything, Thank You, Hey Beautiful and Eyes Wide Open… with totally different results. My lesson comes down to a simple question:

What is the soundtrack for your life?

Choose your soundtrack carefully…

Communication is not that difficult… REALLY!!!

Published on 28 January, 2008 in Business, Creativity and genius, High performance, Overcoming, Self-awareness and Stories. 4 Comments

When I was in primary school I knew that I was going to enjoy public speaking. Debating was my first love though my attention shifted towards public speaking and training. Right now I’m involved with three Toastmasters Clubs here in Shanghai – to me, it still offers the best value speaking training in the world today. Yet I am still staggered at how people who call themselves leaders can possess such embarrassing communication skills. Continue reading ‘Communication is not that difficult… REALLY!!!’

I love great service

Published on 9 January, 2008 in Business, Stories and relationships. 2 Comments

Great service in China doesn’t come often, but when it does it really feels great. After a saga of mixups, I just received a box of goodies today – my new bluetooth stereo headset and a cable to connect my phone to my stereo speakers. I love them – and they sound great – but the biggest buzz that I got out of it was the great service that I received from Shirley Pun and Wendy Wu from Expansys.

While they’re part of one of the biggest electronics companies around, they took the time to make sure that everything went wonderfully smoothly for my precise requirements amid returns, order changes and changes in destination. It’s a great thing to run a company that is mostly online – and they’re great at delivering top quality for a great price – but this experience has brought home to me that those rare occasions that you can interface with your customers make a disproportionate impact on the customer experience.

It’s like family. Most of the time you don’t see each other. Maybe an email or a card from time to time… which makes those rare occasions that you do get together all the more memorable and important. And makes it even more important to make sure you get it right when you do get the chance to make contact.

Being a great customer

Published on 25 September, 2007 in Lifestyle and Stories. 1 Comment

Sometimes you get great service. This morning I grabbed breakfast from my usual local cafe – the BaBaiBan Waga’s. It’s seven minutes walk (yes, I timed it) from my front door and on the route that I take for my usual morning walk. I always get great service there – I know greeted Lisa (the barrista) by name this morning and was pleasantly surprised that she even remembered mine! I guess I really am a regular…

My dear friend and great mentor, John, taught me by example how to get along with service staff. He showed me how to chit-chat, greet them as people (rather than ’servants’ or machines as they often get treated), and how to show sincere appreciation for their work. It’s become very much part of how I live and think, though this morning this HBS article helped make my understanding that much more explicit.

If we want to get great service – like I do there and at my local restaurant in particular – we can try being demanding, respectful, reliable, surprising and engaging. Just five things that make all the difference…

Oh – and my cappucino was absolutely the best that I’ve tasted anywhere in the world – Lisa really worked a miracle with firm froth and a rich yet smooth flavour

It’s a damn small world

Published on 23 September, 2007 in Self-awareness, Stories and Travel. 0 Comments

I was in an outlying suburb of Shanghai on Friday afternoon, and of all the people that would walk up to me was my best friend’s brother-in-law! We met once – at his sister’s wedding – back in May, and we headed out last night

In London two years ago, I walked into Sarah, one of my dearest friends from law school, as we walked down the street in opposite directions – but a lot more of my friends or associates have ended up in London than here in Shanghai.

There are two things that this really made clear to me:

The world is really really really really small, and
Shanghai is an increasingly cool place to be.Â

Ideas that change the world

Published on 30 September, 2006 in Business, Creativity and genius, Science and technology and Stories. 2 Comments

Einstein’s famous E = mc² was expressed in a mere three pages, yet the concept that mass is merely concentrated energy has changed the world. Illnesses being caused by bacteria and viruses is a very recent concept, yet again it is now taken as a given. University, in my experience, is more about learning a relatively small number of key concepts that are able to apply across contexts than it is about learning piles of useless and quickly forgotten formulae and rules.

What are the ideas that have changed your mind?

The Financial Times has identified a number of significant books in their shortlist:

The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson
Mass market economics gives advantage to those products and services that are in high demand, but as borders come down and the global village shrinks, we are seeing parts of the market able to be serviced that were previously too small. Exemplar: Amazon can stock millions of books that an ordinary bookstore – even one the size of Borders – cannot stock because the proportion of the market is too small in a geographically limited market.
Small Giants, by Bo Burlingham
Profitability for a company will be maximised when that firm focuses upon being excellent at what it does best, rather than trying to grow until the diseconomies of scale are unavoidable.
The Wal-Mart Effect, by Charles Fishman
Some companies create market forces as much as being subject to them and other insights available by speaking directly with former executives.
China Shakes the World, by James Kynge
The growth of China is directly impacting the lives of much of the world. As it grows, we are seeing strengths and weaknesses evolve. One thing is certain: There is even more to come!
The Box, by Marc Levinson
Container ships criss-cross the world with the products of globalisation. Entrepreneur Malcom McLean (1914-2001) created the container concept, and made possible the global goods trade system as we know it today. This guy bought a truck for $120 in 1934 but the company ended up with 1770 trucks; he sold his interest for $25,000,000 in 1955. But it was his next venture where he really revolutionised things: Containerisation allowed him to cut the stevedoring charges from $5.83/ton down to just 16c/ton!!! The increasing move towards mechanisation made his innovation even more successful. His containers won patent protection, but then he kept a step ahead of Apple’s mistakes by granting the International Standards Organisation a royalty free lease because he realised that industry grown was more powerful than patent protection. By 1969 – just 14 years after he had exited the trucking business – he sold his interest for $160,000,000. The company is now part of MÃ¦rsk.

There are many amazing concepts available today. One of the most important in my mind is that structuring access to information is as important or more important today than the information itself; that the immense quantity of information available to us simultaneously democratises information and increases the value of brands as a way of streamlining our information filtering system. But that’s why I usually read the TP Wire Service…

Climbing trees?

Published on 18 September, 2006 in High performance, Overcoming and Stories. 1 Comment

There is a lot of pressure on to succeed.

Sadly, for most of us working is something that we ‘have to do’ rather than something that lights us up. While I believe strongly that you should Design Your Life, a bit of strategy is important. Whether we stick with that strategy or not, and whether it is conscious does not matter. Ultimately, we want to climb up the right ‘tree’.

Perhaps, in that case, we should look around until we find that right tree, then climb it. But what if there is no ‘right’ tree? In that case, perhaps we should learn how to swing as we walk along to the peaceful clearing, scenic lookout and spectacular waterfall, yet all the while remaining focused on the moment before us.

Eagles and chickens

Published on 18 September, 2006 in Creativity and genius, High performance, Overcoming and Stories. 3 Comments

I was always afraid of abseiling. When I was in school, many of my friends would do hard-core climbing and canyoning etc, but I was so terrified that I’d freeze up as I went over the edge.

A few years ago I was indoor rockclimbing. It was awesome fun! But on the last climb of the day I was just out of reach of the top. It didn’t matter how I stretched, I was still about six inches from the ‘top.

So I jumped.
And I touched the bar.
And then I enjoyed the bouncing on the dynamic safety rope.
In that moment, I knew that the safety eqipment ‘worked’, and I was never afraid again.

If you never let go of the need for approval, suspend your fear of disapproval and live your own life rather than the life that others want you to live, you’ll always be trapped. And if that’s your path, that’s fine… But you can do anything.

Sometimes it seems like you’re like an eagle who has grown up surrounded by chickens… And when you’ve looked up and seen the eagles flying overhead, you’ve sensed that you could be like them, until you’ve listened to the chickens around you telling you that you can’t so much that you almost believe them. You may not yet know to where you are flying or how high you can fly, but you are an eagle.

You always were an eagle, and you always will be.
Of course, maybe we’re all eagles and just acting like chickens… forgetting our true nature.

I was recently given the metaphor of the carrot, the egg and the coffee bean. They’re all very common foods that start out hard. When put in hot water, look at the difference. The carrot becomes soft. The egg becomes hard. And the coffee bean releases itself and changes the environment in which it is placed. When faced with adversity, do I go soft, do I grow hardened, or do I release my true essence and in doing so change the world… transform the challenge into purpose?

Secrets and Laws and Manifestation

Published on 21 August, 2006 in Self-awareness and Stories. 0 Comments

So often we have the lessons that we most need right in front of us… One of my family profited out of buying a Tony Robbins CD set by selling it on eBay for more than she’d paid for it on late night TV, not ever having listened past the first day… Yet she still resents having bought it!

The Secret is a cool movie… it’s all about the law of attraction and spiritual wealth and abundance, like so many others have spoken about in the past. I attracted a copy of the DVD last week – really, a friend just gave it to me as I sat in a cafe in the early morning – and I have enjoyed watching this documentary-statement of faith (or infomercial) that is calling itself a movie.

When you have the opportunity, and you feel so called, do have a look… it’s interesting and could be valuable for you. Their website could also have some interesting material.

I felt it also opportune to reflect upon Deepak’s 7 Laws of Spiritual Success:

Pure potentiality
Giving
Cause and effect
Least effort
Intention and desire
Detachment
Dharma/ purpose in life