Why Keen?

March 4, 2007

Raffles Institution

Just popped by my alma mata Raffles Institution today.

We were viewing a unit at a condominium nearby, and I thought I just walk in to take a look. Wow… a lot has changed. The school is well maintained, (Rich school lah…), looks ten times better than I remembered it. New additions were made, the canteen had the most changes made to it. Now there is a foyer area just above the canteen. I can’t really remember what used to be there.

Of course, now that RJC is sharing facilities with RI, the running track had been removed, and the field looks VERY well maintained. So did the tennis court.

But on the whole, everything I remembered was still more or less there. All the old photos (which I did not appear in), all the pictures of former headmasters (Mr. Wijeysingha will always be my favorite), all the classrooms. (some of them seemed air-conditioned, those lucky kids!)

I am thankful that I had a chance to study at RI. I am not sure I will enrol my kid to study there, however, but I do not regret studying at RI at all. I have learned confidence, and leadership at an early age. I was inspired by Mr. Wijeysingha. He managed to exude regality and calm, and yet remain fatherly and kind.

I don’t regret not going to RJC, however. I have learnt that RI and RJC attracted a certain group of kids that I nearly became. Thank goodness I came from Ai Tong before that, and YJC after that, so that I ended up pretty balanced. And of course, because I met Hwei Min in YJC, hee hee…

The condominium we visited on the other hand, gave us a very bad impression. Maintenance was poor, that whole place needed a repaint. There was one disgusting bald patch of grass next to the swimming pool. On the newspaper ad, it was stated that the showroom was open from 10 a.m., and when we were there at 12p.m, the guards told us no one came.

February 27, 2007

Multi Task

Had a huge aha today as a couple of things i’ve learnt over the past weeks seem to line up to give me the same insight. All of this is triggered because I observed my friend Hoe Swee when we were in office today. I was sharing with him the power of Tony Robbin’s Personal Power program and how I felt a change in me. I asked that he tried the first of the whole series of tapes, and see if it worked for him. “If it works for you, it could well change your life” was what I said.

Well, he did try listening. He switched it on quite softly (understandable, since we were in office), and he was doing his coding at the same time. After a while, I heard the track repeating from the very beginning again. He was multi-tasking.

Zig Ziglar mentioned in his tapes how some of us do not have goals for the things we are working on now. Some think about their families when working. They lament about missing out on spending time with our loved ones when they are in office. When they are at home, however, they wil start thinking of what they have to do when they get back to office! No wonder they always claim to have no time!

Well, this ties in nicely with what Rich Schefren shared in his preview about the tasks we are doing and how much they are really worth. Basically, if something can be done while ‘multi-tasking’, it is not worth your doing them in the first place.

How much are we guilty of this? I know I am. I’ll be staring at Hwei Min while she is talking, and my mind would wonder off. Otherwise, I’ll be staring at my computer screen while listening to something Hwei Min is saying, and not really concentrating on either. I can accomplish so much more if I gave my 100 percent to each task at one time, and ironically, multi-tasking accomplishes less.

So, reminder to self:-

Regardless of whether for work or for play, concentrate on what I am doing, until that thing is done.

February 27, 2007

Lion Dance

I have written this last Saturday, but took such a long time to prepare the video. But hey… I am getting better…

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Written on 24th February 2007
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Spent an afternoon at Hwei Min’s office today.

Ginza Plaza was hosting a lion dance performance today. Managed to do an hour of work on my introduction to the Internet. It’s coming on quite nicely now. Just trying to streamline the information further.

It was quite a disappointing turn out for the lion dance performance. Hwei Min said most of the guests went for their holidays over the weekend. Thankfully, there was a family with kids around. There were three girls who really enjoyed themselves.

Now that I have figured out YouTube. I’ve decided to piece a short video of the dance troupe together. Enjoy.

February 23, 2007

AHA – Allowance mentality = employee mindset

We had a great ‘aha’ today about financial education.

I was just thinking about my kid’s education. Hwei Min and I were discussing on when we should teach our kids to pick up academic skills.

I talked about making learning interesting. We thought about it and realized that maybe the reward system most parents practise (“You get 90 out of hundred for 3 subjects and you will get the latest Superman figurine”) is a way to create short term goals for kids to aim for. In a sick kind of way, it makes learning a little more ‘fun’.

Then I said that I wanted to train our children to like passive income, and we should make the reward passive instead of one off reward.

Suddenly, I realised, isn’t child’s allowance something like an adult’s paycheck? We go to school to get an allowance. Some kids are not given allowances during school holidays. We go to work to get a paycheck!

If in primary school, we get 5 dollars a week, in secondary school we will get 10 dollars a week. What has changed? Did we study harder? No. We just got older! Now what does that do to our mindset when we start working? We get “greedy”! (Go read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” for the Rich Dad’s definition of greedy)

So here lies a very important lesson which we have yet to grasp. We must really rethink the system in which we teach our kids about life, and about money! Maybe we pay allowance based on performance? Maybe the allowance comes in the form of passive income?

February 21, 2007

Cousins

This year, we had a couple of new additions to the family. My little cousin, Aaron, and my not so little cousin Terence. Aaron is the life of our party. Just having him around and the rest of us pampering him added a lot of fun and laughter to our gathering. I’ve noticed that Aaron is quiet, but very smart with his hands. He plays and picks up spatial skills pretty fast. He is shy when trying out new stuff, like new words he learnt for example, but you can see that he understands what you are saying.

I guess this is a problematic age for parents because he is just beginning to understand boundaries and also beginning to test those boundaries. How much discipline to apply? Spare the rod? Will it spoil the kid? Aaron is just at the brink of cuteness turning into naughtiness.

Meanwhile, Terence is a cousin we have not seen for at least 12 years now. The last time we met him, he was only slightly older than Aaron is now. Now at 17, he is a stranger, but still familiar, still family. He still has the same looks, for one. It’s as if he got stretched by Willy Wonka’s stretching machine because he looks the same except taller, and his face is longer. He’s quite handsome too, so it’s not as bad as how I am sure you are visualizing in your head now.