Business and Money Tips

I remember when I was young in the 1970s, Capitol Theatre was one of the top few cinemas in Singapore showing 'first-rate' movies, or movies that were the earliest to be screened. My father used to buy 'kacheng puteh' (peanuts) for us to share. But we also shared seats.  As we were poor, our family of 8 have to share 5 seats. Being the second youngest, I shared seat with my 2nd sister, who was 7 years older than me. My youngest brother had to sit on the lap of my mum. My elder brother would share with my third sister, and until today, both of them are still quite close. Only my eldest sister and my dad would sit alone. Our favourite movies at that time were the Shaw Brothers Chinese sword fighting movies.  In the 1980s, I started to watch Hollywood movies at Capitol, and my favourite movie was "Ghostbusters'.  But this time round I didn't share seats with anyone. I shared the stories and joy with my friends.  I continued to patronize Capital cinema unti...

"Don't let anyone tell you, including me your father, that you cannot achieve your dreams"  Chris Gardener said this to his son in the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness".  Indeed dreams are what keep us alive. But many people think that achieving dreams is for leaders and people who have made it. Some think that it is far better to be on the ground and stop dreaming and start working. The following 9 truths of dreams may jolt you: 9 Truths About Achieving Your Dreams Your dream is your aspiration, nothing more, nothing less. It is something that you wanted to achieve or become when you were young, and when you are in the here and now We are always achieving our dreams, not someone else dreams. Even if you decide to help your child achieve his dreams, that is also your dream, not your child's dreams When you are not achieving your dreams, you are not a failure, you are just slow in your path. You need to examine if you are on the right path. Do you hav...

Too often leadership happens by accident. This is especially true in volunteer organizations where leadership is on 'arrowed' or sabotaged basis. Often there are so few or even no people that want to come forward, so the leader is 'appointed' by no choice. If this has happened to you before, congratulations. Because leadership by accident is one of the best forms of leadership available. You see, when you become the leader by accident, there is simply no one to compete with you for that coveted leadership position. This cuts down your opponents to zero. Even if you have no foes, you have no opponents and thus you are on a more even ground than people who have opponents. A leader that comes into a position by accident also has more opportunities to try out new things. Because nobody wants to step forward as a leader, he is free to do new things or things differently and no one will oppose him. Leadership by accident also offers us the true meaning of leadership: the w...

Teamwork issues all arise from the individual placing his own self higher than the selves of others. The word 'team' has no 'i', yet people often feel that in a team they should be recognized. Because of the focus on self, people do silly things like sabotaging others, stealing credit, pushing blame and seeking attention. So the first lesson we should teach people is to be nobody. Nobody refers to our deepest nature, our true self, which is what represents deep inside us. We know that deep inside, even for the most bad person, there are goodness in that person. Our true self is always good, ever-present and in no need of improvement. We just need to let the goodness in ourselves come out.  Our greatest joy in life comes when we are so deeply engrossed in doing something that we vacate ourselves and give ourselves over to something or someone else. It is when we stand outside of ourselves.   So being nobody means that we are willing to let go of our own self, our ...

As we know, power is the ability to act. When you behave in a powerful way, people will respect you and do what you say. There are 8 ways that we too can speak in a powerful manner: 1. When You Introduce Yourself , say, "Hi, my name is Andy Ng".  Include your surname will make you sound professional and important 2. When you're asked a question that you don't know how to answer, never say, "I'm sorry I cannot answer your question". Say, "That's exactly the question I'm working to answer".  3. When people criticises you, instead of acting defensively, thank people sincerely for sharing their opinion with you, whether you agree with them or not 4. When you're asked to do something that you think is difficult , say, "Wow! That sounds challenging" 5. Learn to say no, but say it with gratitude and people will respect you more. For example, when you're asked to sponsor something, say, "Thanks for asking me....

Happy employees make things happen and most importantly they do these things at work: 1. See Work as an Extension to their life experience Happy employees see work relationships as the awesome extension of their lives. They are generally happy in life, and they extend such happiness to the workplace in their daily cheerfulness 2. Celebrate rather than compare themselves to the accomplishments of others Jealousy is a killer. At work we are all capable of doing more, so when we find other employees doing better than us, our first reaction is to be jealous. Rather than compare to those who have accomplished, happy employees celebrate other peoples' success and use it as a motivation for themselves to accomplish the same or more successes 3. Work in the Present Instead of reminiscing about the past or fantaziaing about the future, happy employees work on step-by-step to work success. In addition to being present, they are also capable of not disturbed by future concerns ...

How do you lead people that know more than you?  Welcome to the real world: you are now a leader without knowing more, and that's the good news.  This is because the key to doing well today is not to know more but to  be more .  There are 5 things that you can do if you are leading with less knowledge than your team members: 1. Resist the Temptation to Know More . Know that if you go into the road of knowing more, you are getting caught in this cycle of knowing more but doing less.  Instead of wanting to know more,  ask more .  Asking allows you to listen, and when you truly listen, you will know the difference between who are willing to help and those that just want to put you down.  2.  Focus on Bonding . When you bond with people, people will feed you with more knowledge, and you will become more knowledgeble overnight.  Like we as trainers (at www.asiatrainers.com) often bond with our students at the beginning of a talk or cours...

The number one, which is the smallest whole number, can have enormous power. One more product sold every day, one more percentage point added to your profits or revenues every week, or one more day gained from lesser work can yield astonishing amounts of improved profits for your business. Here's how we apply the power of one to our clients: 1. Just Take One Idea from our Course and Apply It Today and you'll see immediate improvements to your profits.  2. One More Try, before you give up , is often the one step that turn failures into successes 3. The smallest change that produces the biggest impact in bottom-line, which is none other than your way of thinking 4. One compay concept, where there is no fighting among departments 5. One by one, or step by step , is surely the way to do big things in a sustainable way 6. One learning a day, unabated for 21 days, will make you an expert in any subject matter 7 . One sharing , of this article, to just one person, wil...

If you are like my clients, you don't don't like to reflect upon your past. This is because most people find it painful to reflect upon their past unsuccessful stories. But we know that you can only live well if you reflect well. There are 5 things to reflect upon when you look at the rear view mirror: 1. How close you have been to success and what make you miss your success. This will give you guidance on how to take advantage of future opportunities 2. The friends and family people that went through thick and thin with you, this gives you instant motivation that support is always there. 3. What you did exceptionally well , even though there may be little successes. This reflection gives you confidence that you are already good 4. The difficult decisions that you have to make , but you make them anyway, and now you are enjoying the success of that decision 5. The joy and laughter that sound like yesterday. Such happiness reflection gives you instant smiles now Remember, you ...

1. It's Not Fair Everyone knows that life is not fair. Say 'it's not fair' simply suggests that you think work-life is supposed to be fair, and you are unhappy with the way things are.  Instead of saying "that's not fair", you should stick to the facts, stay constructive, and leave your interpretation out of it. For instance you can say, "I noticed that you gave bigger budget to Alan. Would you mind telling me what goes into that decision? I like to know why you my budget is smaller, so that I can work on improving my work in future." 2. No Problem When your boss asks you to do something and you say  no problem , you're implying that his request is a problem by itself. This makes your boss feels that he has been imposing on you. Instead, say "I'll be happy to take care of that".  It's a sublte acknowledgement that you have positive attitude and you take your work seriously. 3. I'll Try This must be the worst, ...

Whether you are leading a group of companies or a team of people, you know that you the manager and leader play a big role in your organization's success.  Unfortunately most managers and leaders are promoted based on their technical skills and they seldom attend any training on leadership and management.     We know that when the manager does not do the right things the following things happen: Staff are not working at the level as they should be.  Targets get missed  and the  manager has to end up doing all the work  to ensure that targets are hit Staff turnover is low, but the people that resigned are usually the high performers and it is almost impossible to replace such talented employees.   New people hired are often performing way below the staff that left Working environment becomes more control centric and everyone becomes risk averse. They  make no mistake but also no progress Customers are complaining that the  leve...

Yes, managing a sales team is not the same as managing the operations team. Salespeople that got promoted into sales managers may not know how to manage salespeople effectively. This is because  salespeople are not normal employees . They cannot be controlled, coerced or managed like anyone. There are 5 things to know to manage sales people: 1.  It is NOT all about Hitting Targets Many people think that if we hit targets, we are doing well.  Unknown to many, hitting targets is easy.   It is  how  they hit the targets that makes the difference.  Do they hit targets in ways that enhance future business, or do they hit targets in ways that create bad debts?  Do they hit targets with good teamwork, or are they just lone wolves? 2. Is Your High Performer Earning More than the Boss? When you have a high performing salesperson earning more than his boss, you know your company will go far.  The opposite is true 3. Are L...

Sun Tzu said in The Art of War that in the practical art of war, the best things of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to capture an entire army than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company in its entirety is far better than to destroy them. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battels is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to break up the enemy's alliances. The next in order is to attack the enemy directly in the field. But the worst policy is to beseige walled cities. The skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying seige to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthly operations in the field. With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery...

1. Give up your need to be always right Would I rather be right, or would I rather be rich and happy? From Wane Dyer 2. Give up your need for control By letting it go, it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. When you try and try, the world is beyond winning. Lao Tzu 3. Give up your need to impress others Don't try to impress others. Let them have the fun of impressing you - James Fisher 4. Give up labels The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about - Wayne Dyer 5. Give up attachment The wise individual doesn't get too attached to any of life's pleasures, knowing that wonderful science is hard at work proving it's bad for him - Bill Vaughan 6. Give up the past Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Christian Larsen 7. Give up living your life to other people's expectations The world is a mirror and reflects back on your expectations. What you get is wh...

Salespeople have to recognize that resistance many customers show is not resistance to what you are selling but resistance to You the salesperson.  Prospects often create objections to cover up for their resistance to you the salesperson. Recognize the following 6 facts and you will be able to sell better: 1. Do You Have High Conviction in What You Are Selling? A salesperson must believe 110% in what he is selling is GOOD FOR THE CUSTOMER.  He cannot have an waver in his conviction.  Note that having conviction is not necessarily having supreme product knowledge 2. Do They See Eye to Eye With You? If two people want to do business together, the details will not stand in the way. On the other hand, if two people do not get along well and do not see eye to eye, no detail will pull it together and make the sale happen 3. Is there a Foundation of Trust and Mutual Agreement? The sales process must be built on a foundation of trust and mutual agreement.  Relat...