The elusive nature of business.
Why are there so many failures in businesses? Because there are more ways to lose money than to make money. Even if you are aware of the ways to make and to lose money, you may still lose money. Why? Owing to human factors, you will make mistakes.
Is there any way we can solve this problem? The best solution is to have the courage to make many small mistakes, at the same time protecting yourself from making big mistakes.
Some examples of big mistakes are:
1. you end up in jail
2. the court find you more than you can afford
3. you are made a bankrupt
4. you encounter serious bodily injuries
5 you lose too large sum of money in one single mistake
Therefore, procedures to protect you against these setbacks are of paramount importance. Examples are: safety first, budgeting against loses, exit strategy, do only legal business, etc.
Take action versus quit. Which is more important?
In my opinion, quit or exit strategy is more important than taking action. This applies to all scenarios with zero sum effect plus win-lose outcome.
Stock market analysts very often said that most retail investors lost because they do not have an exit strategy.
The toughest part is balancing time as your most important asset and protecting or preserving your capital. If you over leverage you risk losing your capital. If you over protect your money you risk losing out on time.
What is money?.
This discussion is about the game of money. One key characteristic of money is that it is a zero sum game. Because of the zero sum effect the players would naturally hold tight to their money to protect them. But then the rules force them to play with this game of earning, spending and distribution. So, everyone has to play this game whether you like it or not.
The result is that money is as sophisticated as the society. It permeates all boundaries including social cultural and political boundaries. As such, it means different things to different people.
I call this the philosophy of money. We will take a look at some of the issues of money to appreciate this philosophy.
What is the biggest game?
The smallest stuff known to man is particle physics and the largest is cosmology. Using the same analogy, you can see that I will consider the biggest game as civilization of mankind. This is an astronomical concept. There is a formula for it in astronomy.
Between the smallest game and the biggest game are the complexities of human society and sophistication of mankind.
If you can identify where you are, you would be able to manoeuvre your way to winning.
The universal game
Why do I call it universal game? How do I define it?
Let's assume that the smallest and simplest game is the toss of the coin. Then, there are only two outcomes. Is this simple? The answer is both yes and no. Two outcomes. That's the beginning of binary principle, binary distribution....the law of opposite...male and female...black and white....win versus lose.
So, a very simple concept can become extremely complicated.
Tomorrow I will talk about the biggest game.
Pro-activity
Here, I am not talking about pro-active management.
I am talking about emotional pro-activity. This means we can choose our emotional state of the moment. Victor Frankl was the first person to point out this and he pioneered this methodology which he called logotherapy.
We should only choose resourceful emotional states. We should be conscious of our unresourceful emotional states and pro-activitely take steps to eliminate these states from us. When that happens, we will find ourselves happier and wiser.
Positive emotional states are usually resourceful. Examples are love, joy, trust, courage, integrity.
Negative emotions are usually unresourceful. Examples are anger, hatred, sadness, fear.
Thinking is hard work
Thinking is hard work. That's why so few people engage in it. What then is 'thought'.
'Thought' is a philosophy. A journey through this philosiphy is extrmely rewarding. There are many practical applications. A few examples are as follows:
1. Think and Grow Rich. ( Not work hard and/or work smart and grow rich).
2. Hynosis is an interesting application of thoughts
3. How to control your thought by Rolling Thunder
4. Mortal thoughts.
I will be elaborating on these topics in my future postings. Meanwhile, keep in touch.
Sophistication versus simplicity
Sophistication is a burden. Simplicity is your key to understanding and success.
Simplicity should always be your goal. Scripts are my way to ensure simplicity.
So, learn a script a day.
However, under certain circumstances when the outcome is win-lose, it is better to create a sophisticated environment for your competitors so that they are confused, while your own strategy remain as simple as possible.
This is the script for today.
Welcome back tomorrow.
My Third Favorite Book
I had mentioned earlier that my most favorite book is "why smart people do dumb thing" by Mortein Feinberg.
My second favorite educational material is Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP Unplugged) by Ian Halshall. The power of this material is that author can take such a great subject and make it so simple. If an expert is unable to present his stuff in a very simple way, chances are the expert may not yet fully mastered what he claims to master. The test is 'simplicity'.
If you ask me what is my third favorite book, I would say it is, "Lexus and the Olive Tree" by Thomas Friedman. This is a great book with lots of words of wisdom.
Merger of brick-mortar and digital interface
Just as Adam Smith is the Father of Economics, John Nasbitt is the Father of Megatrends. This is my opinion. It is possible to predict megatrends fairly accurately. This is also an essential skill for leaders:- politicians, entrepreneurs, economists, social avtivists, educationalists, etc.
After the dot bomb of 1998, the digital economy consolidates. Now, we are seeing the digital innovators leaving their comfort zone to interface with the brick and mortar business. This is a reliable clue and an indication of the upward trend of the merger of brick-mortar and digital interface. Such changes create both threats and opportunities.
Leaders will have to adapt and strategise to seize these opportunities as they arises.
Think about this. Relate this with my earlier articles. These are scripts of wisdom.
Welcome back tommorow.
Coaching millionnaires
There is a lot of difference between coaching someone to become a millionnaire and coaching someone who is already a millionnaire.
If you want to become a millionnaire, my answer lies in your environment. You have to find the environment, create the environment or even re-create the environment. Only conducive environment can make you a millionnaire.
In contrast, if you are already a millionnaire, the answer lies in my two favorite books or educational materials. These are "why smart people do dumb thing" by Mortein Feinberg, and "Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP Unplugged)" by Ian Halshall.
It is all right if you do not understand this at the moment because I will be elaborating on these great topics in my future articles.
Sure winners
There are very few sure winners. Even sure winners can with time end up as losers. Why?
One of the sure winners is flexibility, adaptation, recipe, modelling. Whatever you call it or whichever way you call it, they mean the same thing. They all circumvent one obstacle. This obstacle is: the only constant is change. Environment keep changing. There are too many ways to lose and too few ways to win.
Think about it. Thinking is the foundation of winning. Sometimes, work hard wins, sometimes work smart wins, sometimes a mix of both wins. So, this is the same as flexibility, adatation, recipe, modelling.
One of the richest man says, "i adapt like a chamelon. Tall tree attract strong wind (not strong win).
Time management
It takes me only 15 minutes to write my blog daily. This is the principle of time management. The variables in time management are urgency versus importance. You should use your time doing tasks which are important. Important tasks may or may not be urgent.
The worse is when we are caught up doing tasks which are urgent but not important. Usually these are due to failure in prevention.
In fact, to manage your time wisely, you should allocate most of your time for prevention. Yet, too many people were caught in the rat race. Do you know why?
I'll continue from here tomorrow.
Elusive estimation
Why do we need to learn a script a day? Because this method become very powerfull over long period of time.
Most people overestimate what they can do in one year but underestimate what they can do in five years. Think about it. You can do very little in one year, but there is a quantum change in five, ten or even twenty years.
Therefore it is very important that you value your time, be selective in what you do, and stay away from the garbage of life.
So, these scripts will be your foundation for planning and goal setting.
Learn a script a day
Yesterday's lesson was As Nike Says "Just Do It". In other words "just take action".
So, you have learnt two scripts:
1. A journey of a thousand miles start with a single step.
2. Take action
The most important thing about learning scripts is how you relate the script to yourself. Hence, self awareness is the program that run the script. Self awareness is applied psychology. It is also ancient wisdom. Thus, I will use words like 'thyself' instead of 'yourself' and 'thy'scripts instead of 'your' scripts.
This is your lesson for today. Welcome back tomorrow.
Welcome. Visit my blog everyday.
Hi Fellow Bloggers,
Yesterday's lesson was "a journey of a thousand miles start with a single step." I prefer to use the word 'script' instead of lesson. If you know a lesson you will only keep it to yourself. You will not implement it. But I want you to implement the lesson you learn, hence I call it a script. "Script" will force you to run or implement your program. It is a natural thing.
If you have difficulty implementing what you learn, then you can always rely on the second method. That is, as Nike says, "just do it". Remember, procrastination is the thief of time. Time is always your most valuable asset. Action always beat inaction.
Welcome to visit my blog everyday. Post your comment if you feel you have something to say. A surprise gift may be waiting for you.
My Experience with Setting Up My First Website
Hi Fellow Bloggers,
This is to share with you the daunting experience I went through to set up my first website. So many things are so new to me. So much research has to be done. So many decisions have to be made. And, so many mistakes were made. That's how I learn, and I enjoy that. Each time I troubleshoot my own mistake, I celebrate and take this opportunity to learn more about myself
I keep reminding myself that a journey of a thousand miles start with a single step. This philosophy enable me to set up my first website.
Blog is a good way to drive traffic to my website and to attract advertisements. This is the reason why I am posting here. Unless I am on vacation, I will be posting everyday so as to share with my fellow bloggers. You are welcome to visit my blog everyday. Please enlighten me by posting your comments. If you have one question to ask me what would it be? Just ask this question. It doesn't matter if it appear silly.
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