Lesson Learnt from Dragon Boat

It is SHOW-OFF time... Despite my weak appearance, I have survived Dragon Boat training every Saturday morning. It is two hours non-stop water training... and It is very exaggerating... I meant VERY VERY EXHAUSTING...



Wait! I haven't finished boosting my self-pride. I was recently chosen as the "pacer" of the boat. To be a "pacer" in a team, one has to have a solid rowing technique and ability to persevere to the finishing line. And... Yesss... I did it...



Cool Huh??? but it is not what I want to share in this blog... The previous introduction is just some kind of adrenalin enhancing story...

Last Saturday I felt very blessed to learn new things from this sport. That morning, my team was rowing under the bright and hot sun as usual. It was a long distance training, where we got to row to go back to our start point. During that tiring moment, I realized we are excited to row to the finishing line as we start to see the finishing point, yet I started to realize if I am to excited and pushing the very max of my capability (increased speed and power), we might not be able to row to the end. Instead we have to maintain consistency and persevere to the end line.

I believe this mentality is also important in my life. As I have been a very ambitious person at the past, I would grab every opportunity that came to my way. At that time I will push to the max, without considering the distance that lay in front of me. What I need is a proper plan with consistent action. Such mentality with a clear vision of the end will keep ones going.

Survival / Success Formula

I am not 100% sure on the effective of this formula for one's success. However I find this quite useful when I am doing my Final Year Project. It consists of three stage which consist of different attitude, namely:

1. Believe

Prior to the start of a project, one has to ensure that the project that he is doing is gonna be a breakthrough or to the least, he has to find whatever he has planned is achievable. It is good if one can convince himself and believe that what he is going to implement is nothing but success.

Believe that you can achieve the objective, and achieve it successfully!!!

2. Perseverance

During the implementation of the plan, there will be a lot of hindrance, such as: lack of motivation, time or even resources. There will be a time when one feels as if he is doing something wrong or useless. Question may arise in someone's mind that asks if the sacrifice is worth the objective. At this time, it is critical to stand firm and persevere in doing the planned agenda.

A successful person is able to arrive at the decision fast yet slow in changing his decided plan.

3. Compromise

Though perseverance is a must, human is not perfect. Some decision may be wrong. This is a time where deadline might not be sufficient or resource is really limited. This is what should be done when everything else has been done to achieved the previously decided decision.

Compromising the objective or the perfectness of the objective is the last thing that should be persued!

Wednesday with Peter

My wednesday was ended with an insightful conversation with the founder of Wellsprings, Peter, a formally trained engineer that decided to pursue his passion in religious books. He was in the religious book ministry for decades. He was also the pioneer batch of NTU (formerly known as NTI).

Followings are his advice to us:
1. Start a business with product that you are passionate about. Without interest and personal passion in the product, the fire will not last long

2. Focus! Think of one product and push it through. Take the niche and expand the network.

3. Be personal. Based on his experience in selling religious books in Singapore, personal assistance is preferred by most customer.

The first two advices are what I have been hearing from most of the motivational speaker but I do not really believe in it. However it seems that God want me to believe in those points.

As I opened my daily reading, I found this phrase:

And he said to them "Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" - Lk 24:25

And today conversation flashed out in my mind, as if the higher power tried to communicate to me.

Conversation with a Financial Planner

Yesterday I met an insurance agent a financial planner. That was my second meeting with him. Again he explained almost everything that he had ever communicated to me in the previous meeting. It refreshed my brain on the concepts that he would like to imposed onto my belief system. He spoke fluently and delivered insightful lesson worth considering.

However I would like to highlight two points that I could not agree with:

1. Life without loan is possible.
Chinese man in my hometown (those that left China decades ago) believes that life with loan is bad. I personally thing such belief has brought those Chinese people in my hometown wealthy and being able to afford comfortable life. "Human tend to seek instant gratification"

2. Don't depend on insurance claim for your retirement
I belief from the case of "Lehman Bro", our generation has undergone a painful lesson that proved nothing is too big to fail. NO THING IS ABSOLUTE IN OUR MATERIAL WORLD