Ultimate Career
Career Worth Living For!
Monday Blues
Feb 8th
Is it Monday already? How did the weekend fly by so quickly?
Well, they say that “time flies when you are having fun” and this, according to nuclear scientists, is actually a literal phenomenon.
Whether you are a working professional or studying student, you would have felt that a typical weekday can be such a drag while the weekend, especially when you are enjoying yourself, just zips past in a blink.
And you would have heard of the term “Monday blues” which is commonly used amongst working adults to describe their lousy mood on Mondays. It is a kind of sadness, lethargy, and even slight depression. In fact, “Monday blues” often starts building on Sunday afternoons when the thought of the next day being a workday after a good weekend creeps into one’s consciousness. In fact, there are people who start to feel a sickness coming on on Sundays and by Monday morning, they’ll feel a strong urge to see a doctor. Ask any doctor who runs a clinic and they’ll tell you that Mondays are their busiest day of each week.
And ask any retail business and they’ll tell you that Mondays (and Tuesdays, for some) are the days of the week with the lowest sales. People are simply not in the mood.
How about this: Across the globe, more people die on Mondays than any other days of the week!
So, what’s the problem with Mondays?
Or does the problem really lie with our interpretation of what Monday means?
I think the answer is obvious. You see, if the problem is with Mondays, than animals and other living things would be affected in a similar way.
In other words, time does not exist except in our minds. And our minds play tricks on us if we are not conscious of them.
Here’s further evidence: Research has shown that there exists a strong link between heart disease (one of the major killers in modern society) with, get this, JOB SATISFACTION and SELF HAPPINESS (i.e they rate themselves as happy people).
More specifically, the most interesting finding from this research is that:
1. People with who displays all the risk factors of heart disease such as being over-weight, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels AND low job satisfaction and low happiness will usually develop a heart attack sooner and later.
However…
2. People with the same risk factors and HIGH job satisfaction and HIGH happiness will usually NOT have any heart attack nor other forms of heart disease.
Of course, this is understandable. A full-time job takes up at least 1/3 of our lives and if you spend 40 hours every week in a job that you dislike and see no future in, then that translate into mood issues (read “Monday blues”), low productivity, poor health and falling ill often, poor relationships, slow income growth, and eventually, premature death.
It’s time to make an informed choice on what an ideal career and life should be for you. Don’t wait till it’s too late.
Why Did They Teach That In School?
Jan 28th
Did you ever have this thought in mind while going through school:
WHY ARE THEY TEACHING THIS?
Well, perhaps at that moment, you didn’t think of this question since school is *supposed to be* a place where you do what you are told. Well, at least in primary school. Then, in high school, you were taught more complex and advanced stuff that it made your head spin. From this point on, you would have started to realize that much of the stuff taught in school will never ever be used in your entire life.
For me, those “stuff” will be calculus (yes, simultaneous equations, differentiation, integration, and the like), technical work (as in, metal work, wood work, handling tools, etc.), and chemistry.
Schools want to be sure that they covered all grounds (but according to who?). This type of education is “just-in-case” education.
What a grand waste of youth!
Now, on hindsight, I’d have preferred lessons on:
- Relationships (how to find my life partner, how to deal with people)
- Finance (i.e. how to earn, manage, and grow my money)
- Making good decisions and choices (i.e. how to think)
- Health and Fitness (living with energy and free from illnesses)
- Career and jobs (finding them and doing well in them)
- Emotions (how to manage them)
- How to care for and bring up children (yes, most people do want to be parents eventually)
- Sex (what to do and how to do them)
Aren’t these what we need on a daily basis as human beings?
Aren’t these more important than mathematics, history and chemistry?
Yet, why is it that school don’t teach such things at all?? And they simply leave us to figure them out ourselves by trial and error. They assume that because you have completed secondary education or tertiary education, you’d have no problems with these areas in life. Why is it that such vital life issues are treated as trivial matters by our society?
How’s Your GPA?
Jan 18th
Most university students I know are very concerned with their GPA. In fact, ultra concerned. To the motivated student, and especially for those who plan to further their education, the Grade Point Average is the holy grail which needs to be upheld at all costs.
However, does the GPA really say anything about a student’s academic abilities?
Let’s take a look.
In the tertiary education world, there are general 2 types of universities. One type grades students based on their academic performance according to a well defined set of performance criteria. For example, “a student will be granted an ‘A’ if the student demonstrates outstanding understanding and application of the concepts within this course. The student’s score should typically fall within the range of 85 and above.”
In simple terms, here are the standards for this course, and your grades depends on your achieving the standards. Your grades are criterion-referenced, so to speak.
The other type of university grades students based on their relative performance within the cohort. This means that there are no standards drawn out for the grading but an arbitrary bell-curve (i.e. statistical normal distribution) percentage is used.
In simple terms, a certain percentage of the cohort of students taking a course is allocated for each grade. Example, the top 10% will be given an “A”, the next 40% a “B”, the next 20% a “C”, the next 20% a “D”, and the remaining will be given an “F”.
With such a relative grading scheme, you may still get an “A” even if you scored 60/100 overall as long as your score is within the top 10% of your class. This means that your grade is given to you IN COMPARISON to your classmates. It effectively does not care about what you are really capable of since there is no independent standard drawn out. In other words, your grades are curve-referenced.
In the current tertiary education world, there are VERY FEW universities progressive enough to be criterion-referenced. Most universities are curve-referenced.
What does this mean, then?
It means that the GPA you scored in a curve-referenced university has no bearing whatsoever on your actual performance as it indicates only how you performed compared to your classmates. Simply put, you may score an “A” (i.e. GPA 4.0) but all that means is that you scored better than 90% of your class. It does not say, at all, how well you have achieved the learning objectives of the course.
Curve-reference exhibits the big-fish-in-small-pond phenomenon. It’s just like me owning a motorbike in a village where most others are using bicycles and that makes me rich.
So, my point is this: GPA in a curve-reference university doesn’t really mean much. This is why although the same term (i.e. GPA) is used throughout the world, they are not equal.
The next time you apply for university, make sure you check whether their grading system is criterion-referenced or curve-referenced.
10K in 5 minutes
Jan 4th
If you know the story of Fedex, they operate on a hub-and-spoke operations and their hub is located at Memphis. What this means is that all Fedex packages, large or small, in the US are shipped to this centre in Memphis first before going on to their destination location.
You can imagine the amount of packages that are handled on a daily basis at this distribution centre. And to handle such an amount, the technologies involved are also mind-boggling.
One morning, EVERYTHING stopped working.
There was electricity at the centre because the lights and computers in the office still worked. However, all the machinery that processed the packages simply refused to function.
The pressure is on and every minute that passed by implied ten of thousands of dollars lost.
The centre manager was almost in a state of panic and called the repairman again.
“I’m just 5 minutes away,” the repairman said.
Once the repairman arrived at the centre, he surveyed the conveyor belts and machinery.
Within a few moments, he walked over an electrical junction box in the middle of the centre, opened it, took out a screw driver from his toolbox, and turned a screw in the electrical junction box a quarter of an inch.
Immediately, everything started working again.
“Wow, you saved my life!” the centre manager said. “How much do I owe you?”
The repairman said, “Ten thousand dollars.” (US$, mind you)
“What??! You were barely here for 5 minutes and it costs US$10,000??”, the centre manager exclaimed.
“OK, please give me an itemized bill so that I know the breakdown of the US$10,000,” he continued.
“Sure,” the repairman said, took out a pen and a piece of paper, wrote on it and gave it to the centre manager.
The centre manager looked at the note, smiled, walked into his office and brought back US$10,000 in cash and paid the repairman.
In the note, it says:
“Turning screw: US$1″
“Knowing which screw to turn: US$9,999.”
A lot of times, we look at successful people and high achievers and think that they are just lucky. Sometimes, we even think that their jobs are so simple and easy that we can do them for just half their pay.
Just like the US$10,000 that the repairman charged, turning the screw is the act that most people see and, indeed, it is a simple thing to do and you don’t need a degree to do it.
However, to know which screw to turn within a short period of time that will solve the problem, the repairman would have taken years of discipline, training, practice, mistakes, errors and more importantly, learning and improving.These are the effort and experience that people cannot see. Yet, without them, the problem cannot never be solved.
We will be successful only if we learn all the time – when we do things well AND when we make mistakes.
In this new year, make a fresh start by always daring to try new things and learn from them. Never be afraid to make mistakes or be concerned with what other people may say or think.
They are not living your life. You are.
Are You Dying?
Aug 17th
This is not a health question but I hear some of you saying, “Of
course not!”
Really?
Actually, we are all dying. It is only a matter of time. The
question is “when will we be dead” and not “whether we will die.”
In fact, everyday we are getting closer to our graves…not
something we like to think about much.
So, if we are all going to die one day, the next question I will
ask is this: What am I here for?
In the greater scheme of things, my life is just a parenthesis ()
in eternity. Was I born just so I will die one day? If so, it
doesn’t make any sense at all and certainly makes life meaningless.
If life is meaningless, then what does it matter whether we live or
die, successful or not, rich or not, promoted or not, healthy or
not…?
My own conclusion, after all these time of searching, is this: Life
is meaningful. It is meaningful because I have a purpose on Earth
and I am here with a mission. So are you.
What’s your life purpose? Mission?
Allow me to encourage you to seek your own unique life purpose.
When you are serving your life purpose, it’ll be like how your hand
fits into a glove perfectly.And you would have found the
motivation, life force and source of energy for the work that you
do.
There are many ways to find your life purpose. Here’s one:
1. Which two of your qualities which, when you are expressing them,
uniquely make you feel that you are most being yourself? E.g. love,
joy, justice, freedom, power, strength, peace, serenity, courage,
etc.
2. List two ways (verbs) you most enjoy expressing your unique
qualities above.
E.g. inspiring people, empowering people, playing basketball,
dancing, parenting, singing, dancing, painting, etc.
3. Assume the world is perfect now (according to the way you see it
as perfect), how would it be? E.g. The world is perfect if everyone
was pursuing their goals; if everyone will get along peacefully; if
the ecology is not being damaged; if everyone is living their
vision, if everyone is happy, etc.
4. Combine all the above into one statement and see what unfolds
from it.
E.g. If my two unique qualities are: love and joy; The two ways I
most enjoy expressing the two qualities are: inspiring and
empowering people; If the world is perfect to me, everyone will be
living their highest vision;
Then, my purpose statement is: Inspiring and empowering people to
live their highest vision in the context of love and joy.
Get it? So, what’s yours?
Then What?
Aug 14th
A businessman was at a pier in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow-fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.”
The businessman then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked the Mexican how he spent the rest of his time.
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor.”
The businessman scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and I can help you. You should spend more time fishing and, with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution.
“You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will this all take?”
The businessman replied, “15-20 years.”
“But what then, senor?” asked the Mexican.
The businessman laughed, and said, “That’s the best part! When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public. You’ll become very rich, you would make millions!”
“Millions, senor?” replied the Mexican. “Then what?”
The businessman said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
Are You Sure?
Aug 12th
I just got back to hot, hot Singapore for several days now and am
now writing this week’s Jobscope entry in the middle of the night.
I’m doing this because I have just ended a rather long day (days
seem so much longer when you are in the heat most of the time
sweating a way…) but wanted to capture and share with you two
conversations I had today.
I was catching up with two friends separately today and
interestingly, our conversations followed a very similar thread. To
give you a little background, both these two friends are
high-flying executives in large organizations and both have the
word “Director” in their job title. One of them is in her early 30s
and the other in her early 40s.
Over breakfast, the friend in her early 30s spoke about needing to
take time off to enjoy her life and do the things she loves,
emphasizing the importance of a balanced life and not to take her
work too seriously and risk her health doing so. She talked how she
is managing to reschedule her life so that she doesn’t work so hard
and long any longer but instead, she is spending time to pursue
hobbies and interests. She has also found herself healthier since
making the changes.
Over dinner, my other friend in her early 40s spoke of how life is
different now since changing her job a month ago. She is no longer
stressed-out and, in fact, finds life and work at a good pace now.
Her high-blood pressure has miraculously “disappeared” and she no
longer needs to take any medication. She now has time for her love
life and reckoned that even though she took a big pay-cut with the
job switch, it was well worth it.
Did you get the thread of the two conversations?
They were about the need to slow down and balance life; and that
life is meant to be lived and enjoyed and not to be “worked away.”
I must say that such conversations are rather common amongst
mid-career professionals. It is a phase that city executives go
through and some may even call in “mid-life crisis.”
For those of you who are still studying or are young professionals,
this is something that you might have heard or read about. But I
would think that it is something that is rather hard to really
understand at this point in your life.
Most of us are taught to study hard, earn a good degree, find a
good job, work hard, earn lots of money and that is when you are
successful and fulfilled. The problem is that when we finally get
to the level when we are working very hard and earning lots of
money, we actually do not have the time (and life, for some) to
enjoy our lives.
At the time, we begin to associate with our work and achievements.
Our work becomes us and we become our work. The pressure to
continue to hang on to the work, work harder and earn more gets
even greater at that time that stopping, or slowing down, is not an
option. We start to think that without the work, we are nobody and
so, we are afraid of losing that identity.
Is it necessary to go through all that trouble and years just to
realize that there is a big difference between success and
fulfillment? That life can be enjoyed NOW? That life needs to be
balanced? That it is possible to achieve without striving?
Let me say this straight: There are only two things we know for
sure in life - Death and Taxes. The rest of life is up to you to
choose.
In the long run, we are all going to be dead.
Question is “What are you going to do with your life between now
and then?”
He made me angry!
Jul 2nd
A few months ago, I gave a class presentation assignment in which
student teams were to give a 10-minute presentation before the
class followed by an open question-and-answer session.
During one presentation, the presenter finished her 10 minutes well
and opened the floor to questions. After several straight forward
questions (which was handled with ease), one student raised his
hand and asked a series of challenging questions in a rather
agressive manner.
It was obvious to me that the questions were asked for the sake of
asking (and showing off) instead of with the intention of helping
the presenting team realize their shortcomings. There was no
intention on the part of the questioner to listen to the answer.
All he wanted to do was to throw out questions to challenge the
presenter.
Or so it seemed. At least to the presenter.
Her emotions started to boil as she responded angrily to the
provoking classmate. Her eyes then welled up with tears and at this
juncture, I decided to step in to stop the awkward situation. (If I
remember correctly, this was the first time I had a student crying
in my class!)
I spoke with her after class and told her that presentation was
actually quite well done but the way she handled the questions was
totally unprofessional. That gave her a failing score and warranted
a redo.
Her response was this, “But HE made me angry by the way he asked
his questions!”
Isn’t this how most of us respond to life?
We tend to REACT to situations rather than choose to RESPOND to
them. We think that it is other people and circumstances that are
causing us to be angry, depressed, frustrated and sad. Not just
that, we are happy only when people give us good news, or a comedy
makes us laugh, or when things go our way.
But is this true? Not so. It is so only because we chose to allow
it.
The fact is that we can CHOOSE. How we feel at the moment is a
choice.
We can CHOOSE to be happy. We can choose to focus on what we want
instead of what we don’t want. We can choose to respond in a
professional manner. We can choose not to blame others or
circumstances.We can choose to take positive and constructive
action.
Remember this: Nobody can make you upset without your permission.
So, guess what? It is up to you.
The Science of Cheating
Jun 2nd
I invigilated in an examination at a college in mainland China over
the past weekend and thought that invigilation is probably one of
the most boring jobs in the world for me.: )
But what turned out to be interesting was that, after the 3-hour
bored-to-tears work, I was told of cheating cases that ran rampant
throughout every exam every semester. And some perpetrators were
caught red-handed just the day before. Still, there are many others
who were not caught in the act and continue to cheat their way
through examinations.
Even the taxi driver who drove me to the ferry terminal en route
back to Hong Kong told me that cheating in China is a national
“sickness” and that the only lesson the cheats will learn is how
not to be caught next time.
The phenomenon is much like organized crime as the cheats band
together in groups with efficient division-of-labour. I’m sure many
of their teachers will wish they could put such resources to better
and more proper use in class.
Question is: Why do these students resort to cheating?
Is it the need to get ahead? Or is it simply that they want
something for nothing? As in, get on the fast track without any
effort…
While doing my doctoral studies, I came across one intriguing
theory that can perhaps explain the need to cheat and that is:
People who resort to cheating usual have very low self-esteem.
They do not think highly of themselves and yet, want others to
think highly of them. They want to APPEAR that they have achieved
something yet actually have achieved nothing.
Outwardly, some of them may appear to be very confident but
inwardly, they carry a deep fear of failure and deep fear of how
others around them will look down at them should they not do well
in their studies.
They think that intelligence is fixed and that they are either born
with it or they are not born with it. Yet, whichever the case, they
possess a pressing need to protect the image of “intelligence” that
others have of them that they’ll cheat just to continue to look good.
They think that smart people do not need to exert effort and if
they needed to exert effort, they’ll not appear to be smart. Hence,
they’ll choose to do tasks that appear to be difficult to others
but are easy to them. This is such that they’ll win praise.
They’ll choose to sabotage themselves and tend to procrastinate and
do things at the very last minute so that in the event they didn’t
do well with the tasks, they have the excuse of saying, “I didn’t
have much time anyway…”
Interestingly, these are the same people who will more likely slip
into depression and even kill themselves when things do not go well
or when they think that others do not think highly of them.
The sad fact is that these people live their lives like puppets -
constantly controlled by how other people look at them – hence,
devoid of meaning.
As they resort to cheating, they have trashed their integrity and
chosen the path of poor character. How can they be ever trusted
with anything?
Packaging or Content?
May 27th
Imagine this for a moment:
I go to the supermarket and buy a box of fish fingers. Upon
getting home and, being hungry, I quickly stuff the fish fingers
together with the box into the oven. I turn up the heat and wait 20
minutes.
Once that’s done, I take the fish fingers (still in the box) out
from the oven, open the box, throw away the fish fingers and eat
the … box!
I hear you shouting,”No, No, Ethan, eat the fish fingers. Not the
box!”
Oops! If I really ate the box instead of the fish fingers, you’d
think that I’m crazy.
But guess what? That’s what most of us do on a daily basis! We
value our packaging more than what the packaging is carrying.
You see, we spent incredible amounts of time and effort looking
after our packaging, i.e. our bodies. We dress it up and get very
concerned with how it looks. We groom it. We take supplements and
medication to keep it young. Some of us even use surgery to change
the parts we don’t like.
Everyday we are concerned whether our body and outer appearance,
i.e. our packaging, looks good or not, young or old, handsome or
not, pretty or not, fat or thin, tall or short, tidy or not,
muscular or trim, with hair or bald, long hair or short hair, big
hips or small hips, large breasts or small breasts…just take a
minute to observe what a person does when he/she walks pass a mirror.
We far too often put too much emphasis on how other people will see
us.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we should not look after
our bodies and appearances. Our “packaging” does serve a purpose
and we should maintain it well such that our “contents” are well
contained.
What I’m saying is that our “packaging” is fading away day by day
and it should not be something that is more important than the
“contents” that our body holds.
What, then, are the contents?
Our mind and spirit made up by our personality, character,
emotions, beliefs, and values. These are the”things” that make up
who we really are.
How well our body operates and how “good” we look on the outside is
often a reflection of how well we are faring inside emotionally.
Our body will remain young if our mind remains young. We will look
happy if our spirit is at peace with ourselves and the world around
us.
I am saying that we should be giving priority to our real self
(i.e. who we really are) instead of what we appear to be on the
outside.
When our mind is at peace, healthy and strong, our lives will
follow suit.