Had a rare opportunity to watch a movie in the cinema last week, I have strangely (or rather expectedly coming from me) chosen a documentary called the “Inconvenient Truth” starring none other than Mr Al(bert), “I used to be the next President of America”, Gore, from all other blockbusters.
It turned out to be quite inspirational personally. Setting on the recent disastrous Katrina’s attack on New Orleans as the background in the backyard of the most powerful nation in the world (as they like to claim), the message on global warming is laud and clean. Al being the first of the baby boomer generation, has used his own highs and lows in his life to give a more human touch to this issue, his son’s life threatening accident, the farm land that he used to grew up, the sister that took care of him but died of lung cancers as a result smoking since young age, the giving up of tobacco farming by his father and his fate of almost the President of USA.
The fact remained that in the capitalist society, politicians that run the government are heavily influenced by the conglomerates that contribute to their campaign fund. As a result, Kyoto convention, fuel efficiency vehicles are all irrelevant to USA. It is therefore an inconvenient truth that is being conveniently overlooked.
The fact remains that human population has grown to its historical height by many folds with life span being prolonged and stretched by modern medicine and equipment. Unlike the past historical pattern of wars and diseases, there is no major war since the World War II in the 1940s; and both new diseases and recent epidemics are containable.
Mother Earth has never housed some many human beings before, the question is therefore on sustainability, regardless whether it is Global Warming or Global Cooling as predicted before the 1970s as pointed by John Naisbitt in “Mindset”. It is time to act, let’s start throwing the starfishes on shore one by one, back to the sea. Believe me, it counts and let’s start now!
Applying the same analogy from this issue of mankind to a much smaller scale of my business, there are plenty of inconvenient truths. While we know there are plenty important concerns of the business that require attentions, but we always end up fire-fighting for the issues of survival.
In another word, while we try to look far, reality always force us to look at what is before us. Slowly, we would have the same fate like the frog in the slowly boiling water that eventually died in the hot soup. Dealing with such inconvenient truth, the method is the same – Get Started; do no procrastinate!
These thoughts above are in-line with some of my realizations recently:
- That I am not getting younger thus health is important. I have started a regular weekly badminton session after the Chinese New Year for more than a month now. This is a sport that I have not touched in almost ten (10) years, I am starting to get the hang of it again, like the good old days.
- Advise No. 1: you must do it with an empty mind otherwise you will do badly like I did today with half my mind thinking about this edition of CA Newsletter.
- Advise No. 2 : Once you have started, do not stop! It’s hard to get back to the rhythm. This is a program that I look forward to every week now.
- That opportunities are for those who are preparing, not for the prepared (as you will never be prepared) and definitely not for those who are not prepared at all. This is the afterthought from my last Management Journal. The method s the same again, let get started or you will never be!
- That less is more! Never be deterred by scarcity of resources, use the best available resources that you have and make the most out of it. Subtract those that are beyond you and consolidate what you have that is within your reach. You are not set to win the world in this age that celebrates individualism more than anything; you shall win fans by doing what you enjoyed doing best. Remember, you have two (2) hands, one (1) brain and twenty-four (24) hours a day. It is always a level playing ground in that sense.
- That you shall always create value first! People will pay if they see the value.
There is a group of volunteers that have taken the initiative to clean up the tomb and the surrounding areas and came during our visit to collect some nominal fees. Most of the people gladly paid for it because we see the value!
To end this edition of the Management Journal, here is a quote from one of the richest man in the world for you to ponder:
"If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it." ~~ John D. Rockefeller.
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