Working Appreciation is Earned, Not Given!

Being an empty glass is good, because we can absorb more. I’m a big believer in the sharing of ideas and challenging of one another that guest interaction can bring. One has to look no further than the month-long to what a group of innovative, forward-thinking people can do when they unite for a common goal.

Instead, life is just like a box of chocolates stays true to its name – you never know what you’re going to get. But, above all, it forces me to take a step back and think – in this case, about what I appreciate in life. Appreciation can be interpreted in many different formats, but one thing that comes to my mind, and that is relevant to my current life situation, is the appreciation relationship between manager and employee. Think about your own career – what are you doing with your life? Where are you working at this very moment? Do you feel valued, appreciated, and important to the overall team? Or, are you just another easily replaceable cog in the system?

I could easily tell you to go find a job where you’re seen as irreplaceable, but more often than not, especially early in our careers, that’s much easier said than done.

Then try to give people a reason to appreciate you...No one is going to appreciate you if you don’t give them a reason to do so. Presenting your value to a company starts with you. It involves going above and beyond the call of duty and saying, ‘This is why I’m an invaluable member of the team. This is why you need me here. This is why you SHOULD be appreciating me and what I bring to the table.’

But, it’s not all about you only – you have to be appreciative of what you’ve got. Far too often we say it’s “just a job,” but there are millions of unemployed people out there who would be thrilled to be in your full-time position. Be grateful for what you have, what you earned, and that appreciation will show in your overall work ethic.

Appreciation isn’t given, it’s earned. It’s easy to forget, but so important to remember. If you want people to see the value in you, you have to live that value in everything you do. The appreciation revolution starts with you!

Next question: My life appreciatiation?

Foolish Note - Indonesia

Just want to have 'quick mindset' - in a nutshell, this is what I want to share: Indonesia needs economic growth for development to occur; for economic growth, urbanization of the majority of the population currently living in more than 800,000 small villages is a necessity; the current urban centers cannot accommodate the present urban population adequately, leave alone taking on any additional burden. Hence the proposition has forced itself on us: we need new urban centers to accommodate the hundreds of millions who must get out of villages for Indonesia's economic growth.

The question before us: how do we do it - before we run out of time? Think it over!!

I Am Fooled by Randomness of Being Lucky or Smart

In a gloomy emotional feeling, somehow I am trying heart to focus and concentrate about what I can do better, well - I just want to share about life situation.Somehow, luck is a part of life, and everyone, at one point or another, gets lucky. Luck is also a big part of business life and perhaps the biggest part of entrepreneurial life. At the very least, entrepreneurs must believe in luck. Ideally, they can recognize it when they see it. And over time, the best entrepreneurs can actually learn to create luck.

But luck in the business is different from regular old luck, like when you find $20 on the sidewalk. First of all, being lucky in business has an intoxicating underbelly called believing you're smart. No one actually believes that he should take credit for finding $20 on the sidewalk. But when people get lucky in business, they are often convinced that it is not luck at all that brought them good fortune. They believe instead that their business venture succeeded thanks to their own blinding brilliance.

What I know, the big challenge is that everyone -- the press, your shareholders, your colleagues, your significant other, and your parents -- will work hard to convince you otherwise. They will tell you, over and over again, that you are in fact a genius and should take complete credit for all the great things happening to your company. Why? Because to them, you are one of the following:

1. A source of professional gain
2. A source of financial gain
3. A boss
4. A lover
5. Their pride and joy

Simply, none of these relationships provide incentive for any of these people to tell you the cold hard truth about your entrepreneurial success: You may have gotten just plain lucky *sigh*
From my perspective, the second difference between business luck and everyday luck is that luck in business can be created, whereas everyday luck cannot. You can't will yourself to find $20 on the sidewalk. But you can create a company that gets lucky more often than the average company. Indeed, there is a pseudo-scientific formula for creating business luck. The key element is this: Lucky things happen to entrepreneurs who start fundamentally innovative, morally compelling, and philosophically positive companies.

I guess this sums up how I feel: Was I lucky? You bet - I was lucky. But I was also smart: smart enough to realize that I was getting lucky... I have found someone that again breaking my life.

Next question: How about tomorrow - My Life and Views?

Internet and Beyond

My brain working so fast lately, dont know why? Anyway just in my head suddenly and I would like to sharing of information on YouTube and other Social Networking websites can be visualised and shared now.

The users can now upload the data they want to visualise at an experimental website manyeyes and check the technical information they need to know about their information on the web.
Reading a journal in the internet showing me that scientists at the Watson Research Centre of IBM in Cambridge, Massachusetts created the site to help people publish and discuss graphics in a group says the report. There is a good scope of analysis and the commenting on other's works by visualising the data through different tools and discover unexpected patterns in the data.
Now the users can embed images and links to their visualisations in websites or blogs, just as they can embed YouTube videos.

My friend told me a wise words " The gift of Internet is that everyone can participate, and the tools can be brought to a much wider audience." But somehow, "the great fun of information visualisation," and my comment is that it gives you answers to questions you didn't know you had!

Indonesia: Conspiracy Theories

Why did the market go up today after bomb? well, it was the PPT at work

Why you should not trust the employment figure or inflation figure?
well, the govt manipulates them

What causes bubbles in market?
politicians

Why are gold prices down?
Oh, the govt manipulates the gold prices.

If you look around in the market , you will see such conspiracy theories all over the place. We have become a nation of conspiracy theorists. Everything is a conspiracy according to some people.

Where do such conspiracy theories come from and why do they work? Understanding them can make you a better trader.

* There are leaders and followers
* There are good leaders and there are bad leaders
* Every leader has a agenda.
* Some leaders have positive agenda some have negative agenda.
* Leadership is about :
o ability to "attract" followers
o make followers "believe" in certain things
o prevent other leaders from "poaching" followers
o take followers from point A to B "willingly"
* Mental model manipulation is at the heart of successful leadership
* Autocratic leaders control,followers by use of force. But that is coercive leadership model where the followers are not "willingly" following "the great leader".
* Leaders manipulate followers mind using communication.
* Positive leaders change followers mind using rational and positive messages.
* Negative leaders change followers mind using conspiracies and irrational arguments.
* Behind every conspiracy theory are leaders who are trying to get "willing" followers.
* Most people are followers.
* There are very few leaders in the world, but there are vast number of followers.
* Big and consequential changes happen in the world, or in a company, or in your life if you come across good leaders.
* If you study history, you would see that every big change in the world was bought about by a good leader.
* There are many failed leaders in the world. In the absence of good leaders they attract followers using mental manipulation.
* Conspiracy theories are very good way to attract followers.
* Conspiracy theories can explain in simple terms things to followers.
* Powerless followers love conspiracy theory because it allows them to rationalise their failure and externalise the problem. They create a complex web of conspiracy theories to explain away everything. If you try and expose their logic with rational thinking and arguments, they will throw more nuanced conspiracy theories.
* The conspiracy theory proponents have their own rules of economics not proven by any existing economic theories. They are pseudo economists.
* Religions, cults, political parties, labor leaders, media commentators and so many other people with access to media use conspiracy theories very skillfully to "attract" and "retain " followers. Scratch deeper when you hear somebody propogating a conspiracy theory and you will find a leader trying to influence you. That person has some motive for it.
* If you want to understand how to manipulate minds study either religion or advertising.
* Both the disciplines use simple communication tricks to " influence" and "change" your mind. They do it with velvet gloves and leave no finger prints behind.
* If you do not control your mind, there are several outsiders waiting to influence it.


Why is understanding how conspiracy theories work is important to trading, because you trade what you believe. People trade their beliefs, not necessarily what will make them most money. Classic example of that are gold bugs and perma bears... Indonesia oh Indonesia...

Next question: do you think it will be another avalanche?

Outsourcing Your Life...

I was thinking the other day about how, in these awful economic times, outsourcing is affecting the economy.  I'm not referring to manufacturing because frankly if the defect rate & cost is lower and the time to market is not significantly impacted, that decision is a no brainer.

I'm referring to the companies who have chosen to outsource, for example, their call centers, network operation, etc.  The benefits of cost and 24/7 availability is clear.  However level of service and revenue generation are at most worse than the US economy. 

But the killer is that hundreds of thousands of jobs that would normally pay between $10-20 are gone.  I think those types of jobs are the ones that provide the foundation for our macro economy.  Those jobs are fuel for car purchases, mortgage payments, etc.

I worked at a company where our boss (who is trying to be an absolute superstar) had a wild proposition:

- Provide world class service looking out for the best interests of the customer first in a simple way (i.e., don't "jam" offers down their throats)

- The revenue will follow** (sensitive)

He was right.  He's done on a smaller scale and a huge scale.  It can be done but most companies don't do it or worse don't even believe it can be done.

In the meantime, our economy keeps sucking wind and when it comes back, we still won't have the valuable foundation that these types of jobs provide.

Next question: are we an asset or liability in the company?

VoIP Theory and Beyond

Following my early journal - recently, I just read an article again; theorizes that the stock market meltdown and slowing economy will actually spur faster VoIP growth.

It was mentioned that more and more people will be under the gun to cut costs. There are a number of ways to cut costs but one way to cut costs tends to jump out at you -- the PHONE BILL. This will force many companies to take the digital/VoIP plunge. As a result, VoIP sales will increase significantly over the next year or two.

Additionally, stock market crash has effectively pulled in the VoIP growth curve by 6-12 months or more! As identified in the Post-Melt Down chart, VoIP sales may increase by 200-300% over previous forecasts. Thus, next year's VoIP growth can be expected to jump from 4% to 8% or 12% or more next year... (let see!)

Of course theories, and pretty chart graphs can be made to make anything look good. Is the VoIP industry truly headed towards faster growth in this economic climate? I tend to agree, even with comment from my colleague. There are indications that not only enterprises, but also municipalities and public services are deploying VoIP to save on costs. 

Anyway... my simple comment that some example doesn't make it the rule, I do think companies, municipalities, etc. are looking to cut costs and VoIP is one sure-fire way to do just that... rest is about people behaviour