Carrots, Eggs & Coffee

I just read this which I found it thought provoking...here's sharing it with everyone...

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee... You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again. A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled 3 pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.' 'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean , mother?' Her mother explained that! each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. 'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain & adversity do I wilt & become soft & lose my strength Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened & stiff ? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter & tough with a stiff spirit & hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean?

The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

MAYBE WE CAN ALL BE COFFEE.... :D

The Story of a Wedding Dinner

I always like to attend wedding dinners, not because of the food served there, (hotel food are normally so-so only), but because of the company you would see. As you grow older and get married, you tend to go for less outings with friends. So wedding dinners are a good way to catch up with people, especially those friends you have not seen in a long time. But of course, as you get older, you would also attend less weddings, since more of your friends get married and those who are not married, ………….would most probably stay that way :P.

I attended one of friend’s wedding a few weeks back. One of my good friends – who was one of my “brothers” for my wedding. We were school mates in JC and also university course mates. We join the same ECA in JC – Chinese martial arts. So there we were, all the “武林高手” in the same table and some of our spouses.

There was one particular person we did not see in quite a while because she was overseas all this while as her husband had an overseas posting and was only recently back. Of course, she was not idling all this while but had three kids while she was overseas. So I am not the only one who is “productive”. She married earlier than me, so her elder kid is older than mine. Her kid is 5 years old this year and would be going into a primary school in 2 years time and the topic of the day revolves around primary schools for our kids, which is the theme of the story for this post. (Even the financial crisis took a backseat that day).

Because she lives in Buona Vista, she said she is going to enrol her kid in Henry Park Primary School, supposedly one of the better primary schools in that area. She was saying her flat is within 2km of the primary school. Actually I never believe in so call “good” and “average” primary schools. Whether a person would be successful in life really depend on a lot of factors, going into a “good” primary school would really play an insignificant role in his/her success, in my opinion. So I don’t really understand why some parents go to great lengths to do volunteer work or to move house so that their kids would go into a “good” school.

After the birth of my children, I already make up my mind that there is no way I am going to do volunteer work to get my children into a primary school. (I am just too “lazy” and “bochap” to do volunteer work, and my time is too precious for such “mundane” chores.) Moving house is also out of the question (until that night), because my place is in a such a convenient location and many people would “die” to come to live here. The only issue we have is that there are very few primary schools in my vicinity (the price for living at the city fringe). The one primary school within 1km of my place is a all girls school, which is not what I want for my daughter. So the next choice are schools out of 2km, which is an issue I am going to face in time to come.

It just happens that one of the friend works in MOE, so he becomes the “SME” (subject matter expert) on enrollment in primary schools. And though some of us don’t have any kids yet, this is a perennial and popular Singapore topic, so all of us were pretty engaged. Though the wife shares my view of not doing any volunteer work, she still wanted the kids to go to a “good” school. (She wanted to best of both worlds). So how do you get your kids to a “good” school with minimal efforts? Since there was a MOE SME, we know phase 1A is for sibings, phase 1B is for alumnus of schools or people with “connections” to schools like board of directors, member of clan associations etc, and phase 1C, 2 and so on.

Luckily or unluckily, I happen to be an alumni of a “good” primary school, one of the SAP primary school. So if I join the school’s alumni association, chances are that my kid would definitely get into the school, which a lot of parents want their kids to go. The only problem is that school is not near my place, so if I want the kid to go there, I can

1) Drive her back and fro everyday (so I need to buy a car which is not a very wise decision, considering the age of rising petrol prices and ERP rates, anyway, I eschew car ownership because I hate to find carpark lots and cars are depreciating assets)
2) Move house so that I don’t need to subject the kid to long traveling time and hopefully avoid buying a car (also not very wise, if I need to sell my prime location and move to the “suburbs”)

Anyway, the wife was so excited, she had difficulty sleeping that night. To settle this once and for all, we actually went to the school to take a look. And to be frank, we actually like what we see, the surroundings and also the website of the school.

The only “negative” point is that there is no worthwhile house to buy near the school. I didn’t really want to buy a resale flat because it is quite expensive. Yes, there is a condo within 300m of the school, but it is a 99 leasehold property and 15 years old already, which would not make a very good property investment. But then again, is there any basis for comparison between a property investment and investment’s in your child’s education?

For me, one of the consideration is that the kids in this school would get a good grounding in the Chinese language because it is a SAP school, plus I like the motto of my alumni which I still remember to this day.（忠孝仁爱，礼义廉耻）

For those who don’t understand Chinese, it means, in the same order

- Loyalty
- Filial Piety
- Humanity
- Love
- Courtesy
- Righteousness
- Integrity
- Sense of Shame

Compare this against the motto of the neighbourhood primary school which is “Work hard, play hard and make a mark” (doesn’t the first few words sounds eerily familiar??).

The wife called the alma mater to get an application form for me to join the alumni association. It is still on my table collecting dust. Do I really need to孟母三迁 and follow the crowd? Anyway, I still have more than 2 years before my kid enroll in the school?

So it’s between "Work hard, play hard" against "忠孝仁爱，礼义廉耻" , where would you enrol your child if you are the parent?

weeyong

Langkawi

With i.luminate finally over, I took a long-awaited holiday to Langkawi with my husband & 2 young kids. It was a really fun & enjoyable one! One of the highlights for me was watching 30+ eagles flying nearby & scooping for meat in the waters while we were on a boat. I had never seen so many free-roaming eagles before, and it was fascinating watching them repeatedly grab the meat in the waters with their feet, then bringing it to their beaks while still in flight.

Another highlight was having close encounters with about 10 black-tip reef sharks! We were feeding other fishes with bread while standing in the waist-deep waters on Coral Island (a protected marine park, off Langkawi), when these black-tip reef sharks started swimming near us! Most were about 1m long, while 1 or 2 were about double that size. I knew they were harmless, but it was still quite an experience having sharks swim around you! Later, I realised that they swam close to shore because they knew it was nearing feeding time! Apparently, the dive operators that brought us there would feed them at 1pm whenever they are there! The guide would stand just 2~3m from the shoreline, and hold pieces of fish to feed the sharks. They would try to lure the sharks to as shollow waters as possible so that we could have a splashing, close encounter with these sharks! Can you imaging having a shark just 1 meter away from your feet?! Check out the video...

For my son, the highlight was probably the fishing trip we took when we rented a boat out. Even the local boatman was fasinated by this little 4yr old boy who keeps catching fish! At the end of a 4hr fishing trip, we caught almost a bucket full of fishes! :)

Anya

LOVE

Love embraces and enrich one's life, be it spiritual, personal and work life.

Spirtually and in my personal life, the greatest thing that I have know is to have God in my life. Life is not a bed of roses..when things do not go the way you have expected, I have learnt to count on my blessings and know that God has given me much more that I can ever be grateful more - my supportive parents, my wonderful siblings, an opportunity to be a wife and a mother, the love of a husband, being able to work and the steadfast friendship of friends.

Where work life is concerned, I am thankful for the opportunity to be where I am now. The initial period was tough but I have managed to go through it by the grace of God. The journey in preparing for i.luminate was indeed tough but is certainly a fruitful and enjoyable experience. I have gained so much more during these 7 months of preparation especially forging deeper friendship with colleagues working alongside with me.

I am also grateful that I have wonderful bosses who understand when I have to be away from office or needed to rush back home to take care of my son who is at a tender age where colds and flu bugs can strike on them so easily. During the difficult period that I have to go through when my father-in-law passed on, I have grateful that my bosses and colleagues showered me with their concern and love despite the fact that everyone is busily preparing for i.luminate. Thank you to all.

Although the world seem to be in a gloomy and messy stage now, we can indeed make life more positive with small acts of caring and by spreading love around.

Below is a short story which has touches me. Hope it touches you as well....

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six pack of root beer and he started his journey. When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons.

The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Again, she smiled at him. The boy was delighted. They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.

As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman, and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"

Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God." However, before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Embrace all equally! ...Author Unknown

Settling In

My first post!

Just want to thank all my colleagues and boss who've made me feel very welcomed in this team. I'm still easing into the company in general and my role specifically. But looking forward to wats ahead!

Anyways, doing a little advertising for my film ^^

It's gonna be screened this 20th Oct! Anyone interested to come let me know ya.

Cheers,

Mei Yi

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

I think one of the greatest blessings in life is the love for your job; Love is a great virtue because it propels you to your dream, exceed your own limitations and fulfill your true potential.

"you've got to find what you love", so said Steve Job in his commencement address to Standford in 2005. This is one of my fav articles - whenever i feel down & out, i would pick it out and read to get inspiration. One part that i like about the article is connecting the dots - it talked about Steve Job and how things that happened in the past connected up to make him who he is today. For myself, i had 4 portfolia in my 10-year career in SingTel; in Operation, i learnt how to organize myself and in Planning, i learnt about resource planning and biz cases. In Bid, which i learnt the most thus far, the many checkpoints mtgs helped me managed stakeholders' expectation, negotiating on OLLC with partners helped me on partners engagement, escalations helped me managed bosses better and Bid as a whole helped me on stress management. During those times when i was on those jobs, i didnt forsee how the learnings would help me, but then they come in very handy when i was doing i.luminate, they just connected up. In the same way, i also couldnt really decipher what i.luminate would bring to me, but i believe the learning from it would connect up in the future also. So the key for loving your job is about maximizing your learning (that's for me) because the lessons stay with you, enrich you and have bearing on what you will ultimately want to do in your life, i believe it will just connect up. Steve Job ended his speech with "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish", i could not agree more, we must keep learning, learning and learning. If you are interested, you can find the article here: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Though the meaning behind the double-boiled soup is good, i do not like to think of myself as the chicken :) i prefer another illustration - we all know that stars are always there, whether in the day or in the night. But you can only see them in the nights, especially in the darkest night. i like this illustration because i believe the treasures of life (just like stars) are seen during difficult times (the dark night) of life. i.luminate is not exactly the dark hours of my life, but it was made difficult because i just become a father and my team was very new. But the treasures i found through i.luminate are rewarding - i got love from my family, know myself better (in both good & bad sense) and friendship & trust from the colleagues. So i am thankful and humbled through the experience itself.

Amos

Is it Worth it?

after reading boss GC's latest blog on BC's leadership, my 1st tot is either you agree (like it) or disagree (hate it). Since we are using this platform as the 'speaker's corner', I will be direct in my opinions...

Why agree?
BC is definitely the most visionary leader whom I came across in my entire career lifespan so far.
He is inspirational and his leadership skills is unquestionable. I'm always motivated after his speeches and hunger for more. I can also see most of his 'generals' and 'lieutanents' have been influenced and changed by his style which is good news for the company.
However, some of the veins and arteries in the 'giant' are long and get cloaked because of the accumulated bad cholestrol after more than 100 years... Hence, oxygenated blood cannot get thru to the cells in the legs to walk at the speed that the brain says so. The 'giant' somehow need to eat more garlic pills to clear the bad cholestrol so that it stays healthy and strong...
Not too sure if double-boiled soup helps here as my chinese herbal knowledge is super 'lan'.

Why disagree?
While the giant walks faster, the heart needs to work harder to replenish fresh blood to all the cells. If the giant is not fit and well-conditioned to run the marathon, then the heart will get cramped and stop working... This requires a well thought thru training program to start conditioning your body and heart for the run.

at this point in time, i dun realli noe what am I writing...sounds like nonsense...so pls ignore this blog...

just share with all my Sat event: Conquering the Southern ridges...

Our group of buddies decided to have some clean fun and healthy lifestyle last weekend and decided to walk the 9km route within 2 hrs! There were no proper trainings done before hand and warm ups. We thought that our muscles and heart were strong enough after all the training done in army (we forgotten that those muscles have turned to fats after leaving the army.)

So, we happily started when the sun has about to retire. at the 1km mark, we were all sweating like pigs and finished all the water...(no proper planning). Underwears were drenched and we all stink like rubbish dumps... at the 2km mark, we gave up and made a u turn back... (see bay seah sway!)

What a day! We tell ourselves that we will conquer this 9km somehow, sometime again...
The day ended at gillman village with lots of food and alcohol...no wonder we cannot make it!

James

Navigating the high seas!

As interest from customers leads and partners queries start coming in post iLLUMINATE, I see exciting times ahead where we chase for our next big idea in the respective verticals. As we bring together our partners behind our brand, the next big competitive wave is not abt companies competing against each other but eco-systems/value chains coming together and pitting against other collaborative groups. Each group has banded together to offer a distinct value proposition that seeks to unlock value that customers will see as what they want. (u heard this in ILLUMINATE and see this in action be it SPP, FSS and Proximity Hosting). It's abt collaboration and how we engineer biz/tech models that spreads risks and lower risks barriers for customers. Let's work together to unlock value and processes to steer into BLUE OCEANS!

Wilson

Confucius Said...

Sharing with you a quote from Confucius that I like a lot, as seen on the caligraphy on the right. What this means is, to learn from those that you respect, as well as those that you don't. There is always learnings that we can get and grow ourselves if we were to really look and not just see, listen and not just hear. I remember in my MBA days, my professor mandate us to keep a log book which would form part of the project where we are supposed to record things that happen in our every day life, reflect upon the learnings and put down our execution plans. It was a chore then, but now, looking back, that is a good way of action learning. I remembering recording positive things that my boss did and commented that I would do like wish to my own team members. I also recorded events where I see negative demonstrations like my boss scolding my colleague in front of his peers and subordinates which I reminded myself never to do that. So, there is always things that we can learn from each other as we interact and work together.

Bill was sharing with Amos, Nicole, Eliza and a few others yesterday at our i.luminate appreciation lunch how we should be like Chinese "double boiled soup" where under intense pressure like a pressure cooker, the best "essence" can be formed. That was a very good analogy. A lot of time, you look back and it is really those tough moments that you remember and helped us grew. I am always amazed at Bill's energy and his passion in driving SingTel Business Group, shaping the market landscape. Another Confucius saying is that, if one do not have any immediate worries, the danger is in fact looming ahead (Ren Wo Jing Yu, Bi You Yuan Lu). With such a leader that is constantly looking far ahead and moving the team in the right direction, we should be grateful. It is indeed exciting working with such a dynamic leader...(No..not saying to score point).

So, team, let's continue to share our learnings among us and continue to i.luminate our way ahead!

Regards,

Geok Chwee