Business and Money Tips

4th Element of Art of War: Jiang or Leadership Sun Tzu said that the leader must have 5 attributes: wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness.  Today I talk about Benevolence, which in leadership simply means being kind.  He said that if you treat your soldiers as your children they will fight till death for you.  This means you must love and care for them.  Being kind as a leader also means if you treat people like adults and give them an opportunity to excel, they will go all the way for you.  On the other hand, if you treat your people like children and supervise them over every minute detail , like what time they go to the pantry, they will, in turn, give you contributions like children bit by bit.   

Do a Good Job I remembered in 2001, my boss, a Japanese who is also the company's Chief Financial Officer cum Senior Managing Director, called me into his room. He said, "Andy-san, we need to look for one senior person". As the person responsible for HR, I asked "What post?" He said, "Senior Managing Director" I was speechless. "Boss, isn't this your post?". "Andy, yes. keep cool, Do your job well. The Chairman (also the founder in Japan) wants to interview 3 good candidates in 2 weeks' time". I told him, "No problem, I will get it done" In the end, we got a very experienced person and he became my new boss. While I was in Australia handling some issues, he called me and said that since I am so busy handling Finance, HR, and Admin portfolios, he wants to take away my HR function. I said yes, as I think he is now the boss he can decide everything. Soon, this new boss made things difficult for me. I decided...

Training People to Feel Good We know that people are not bad in themselves, they behave badly because they are not getting what they want, they are facing difficulties in their life, and most likely they have negative feelings and bad moods.  How many times have you come across an uncooperative colleague, unreasonable bosses, demanding customers and people that are impatient on the roads?  Obviously, people are not feeling good.  They don't feel good due to poor health and the above reasons.  When they don't feel good, they cannot be behaving gracefully, be courteous and helpful. They will likely be unreasonable, full of hatred and in a foul mood to do things that they may not normally do.  Therein lies the importance of feeling good.  One way to make people feel good, even when the situation or environment is bad (like caught in traffic jams and in the middle of a war), is to train people to feel good.  There are many ways that you too can train yours...

How to Communicate with Power We all communicate. But do we communicate with Power? Communicating with Power means that there are 5 things. Check to see if you are doing all these 5 things. First, are you using VOCAL VARIETY ? That means your using different tonality. Your tonality has to be up and down, it cannot be flat throughout. Next, are you giving people a PLEASANT TONE? "I hate you" , do you feel that I am hating you? On the other hand, when I pull my face down and say "I love you" do you feel there is love? The power of tonality. The 2nd thing about Communicating with Power is your VOICE . Do you have RESONANCE in your voice? That means speaking from your stomach. Do not speak from your throat, for you will be heard as shouting and your voice is not nice to hear. Speak from your stomach and your voice will have more resonance, it is like you have the speaker woofer. Third is, are you using this thing called APPRECIATIVE COMMUNICATION ? That mea...

Guys, When Your Good Friend is a Woman, Be Careful of These 5 Rules We all have friends of the opposite gender, and sometimes we are so closed to them that we forget that there are 5 rules to stick to when your good friend is of the opposite gender: (note: the opposite is true for girls: rules when your good friend is a guy).  1. Never have any body contact ,  Handshake is only when you guys are new to each other, so don't shake hands after that.  Also, no touching of shoulders or wrist when getting excited in your conversations.  Keep selfies to a minimum.  2. No sending of ambiguous  暧昧  messages or conversations, for these could lead to intimate messages or conversations 3. No two persons alone in one room or enclosed place.   The exception must the lifts or very short durations eg 5 minutes while waiting for something 4. No overcare and concern for each other, especially for their personal or family matters.   5. No talking about ...

20 Ways to Drive Training Consumption Gordon Johnson, author of “The Ultimate Guide to LMS Marketing", all rights with the author.  Training is arguably the most important part of every customer success program, but customers don’t have the time to master your product like you want them to. Sometimes they put off training until it’s too late, which results in expensive support and unhappy customers. The solution is to treat your training programs like your company’s products and insert a healthy dose of marketing to drive training consumption. Here are 20 marketing ideas that can turn uneducated customers into highly-trained advocates who would never think of replacing your product with anything else. 1. Market that next class The most important way to measure the success of your marketing is by how much training each individual consumes. An extraordinarily high percentage of your customers will take one class and never come back.They all need more to be successful, so how do you ...

Written by David Clapp What Mr Putin failed to consider A thoughtful analysis of Mr. Putin’s goals concludes that he intended to flood Ukraine with overwhelming firepower, seize critical cities, and remove the current Ukrainian government. Instead, what he envisioned as a quick Russian takedown of an inferior Ukrainian defending force has turned into an increasingly bloody slog with no guarantee of success. That the war has stagnated should be no surprise for those who have studied  The Art of War . Mr. Putin, and the commanders under him, ignored the basic principles of preparing an army and waging war. They did not understand the capabilities of Ukrainian forces, did not account for the conditions on the battlefield, and did not acknowledge and mitigate the vulnerabilities of their forces. These principles of war have been known for over two millennia and were compiled in  The Art of War , which Chinese General Sun Tzu wrote in the sixth century BCE.  The Art of War ...

Top 10 Quotes from The 3 Kingdoms 1. 天下大势．分久必合，合久必分  The empire,  long divided, must unite; long united must divide.  2. 说曹操，曹操就到  Mention Cao Cao and he appears 3. 不求同年同月同日生，但求 同年同月同日死  We don't ask to be born on the same year, same month and same day, but we ask to die on the same year same month same day 4. 万事具备，只欠东风  All is ready except the western wind 5. 赔了夫人又折兵   Losing a wife and the army. 6. 兄弟如手足，妻子如衣服。衣服破，尚可缝； 手足断，安可续？ W ives and children, like clothing, are replaceable if lost but the same does not hold true for one's brothers (or friends) 7.  刘备借荆州——有借无还  Liu Bei borrows Jingzhou with no intention of returning it 8. 三个臭皮匠，胜过一个诸葛亮 Three inferior people can overpower a superior person when they combine their strengths 9. 司马昭之心，路人皆知 Everyone knows the evil heart of Sima Zhao 10. 乐不思蜀 Too happy to think of my where I am from

Know this and You'll Not Be Upset Think of what makes you upset.  When somebody says something about you that is not good (like criticism), you feel upset.  Yet when we give negative comments about others in social media or WhatsApp group chats, we don't feel upset and instead feel 'great'.  It seems that it is all about me. Our minds get incredibly upset by anything that is not pleasant that happens to us or is related to us, including the slow train and lift. Yet we feel relieved when we managed to avoid a serious traffic jam.  Our self-centredness causes us much misery  What is the fastest way to have no misery? Never think just about yourself.  Mother Theresa thinks of how to help as many sick people as possible, she never thinks about what others think of her.   We know we can be happier and feel more successful without being so self-preoccupied.  Non-self is the way. 

3 Big Questions on Edoo and Mobile Numerology 1 How Long has your company Edoo 413 Pte Ltd been around? Since 2018, we have helped several thousands people from various countries including Singapore, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, UK, etc get a better life with the right numbers. We conduct 4 FREE seminars a week, two in English and two in Chinese.  Most people attend our seminars online at Zoom, but a small number attend it on-site at our shops at Fu Lu Shou Complex, Rochor Road (149 Rochor Rd, 02-25 & 35, Fu Lu Shou, S 188425) Our sister company CEO Strategic Alliance Pte Ltd has, since 2015, been organizing large scale training and focused group learnings on the subject of business, personal development, management, sales and inner self-growth 2. What is Mobile Number Numerology? Mobile number numerology is the study of mobile numbers and how they affect our lives in 6 areas: wealth, health, marriage, personality, career and benefactors Mobile Number Numerology is based on the ...

3 Things that Are Not Worth Your Time 1. Trying to Impress People or Maintain the 'Perfect' Image you have We are all humans, if you spend time trying to impress people or making sure that you maintain the perfect look, you are living not your life, but other peoples' lives.   We must be prim and proper, but not all the time, sometimes it is good to let people see the true side of you, not so pretty, etc.  Be authentic, not perfect 2. Forcing Things To Work Out There is a difference between being in a rut and being completely stonewalled. Being in a rut means you still have options, you can bounce back and you have some rational ground to continue pursuing something. Being stonewalled is when you’re in an environment that is causing you incredible pain — physically or mentally — and you’re still trying to make it work. A relationship that’s draining you or where you’re constantly arguing isn’t worth it. A career that is dragging you to the brink of depression or suicidal ...

My Teachers Said by Andy Ng My boss from The Chase Manhattan Bank, Mr Tan Chin Poh. said to me in 1990, “Andy, you have to do whatever it takes to use your skills and capabilities to not just get the job done, but do it well”.   I owe my little success today to him.  Thanks, Teacher Chin Poh . My mum has only a primary school education and does not speak or listen to English.  She told me, “A man should find a good girl to marry, have children, and your life will be complete”.  I did what she said.  When I encountered difficulties at my work, she told me whatever I do, I have to be responsible and don’t let people say bad things about me.  When it comes to money, she said one must not spend more than your earning, and invest the excess so that your wealth would increase and you will have a better life.  Thanks, Teacher Mum!   Indeed, we often were told many things by our teachers.  In the workplace, our bosses are often our teacher...

Complete Life Path Guide: How to Compute, 1 to 9 by Andy Ng Life Path Number Looking at your date of birth, we can derive your life path number.  How to do it? Very simple. Add up the digits in your day of birth, month of birth and year of birth.  You will arrive at a sum number.  Convert this sum number into a single digit (1 to 9). For example, you are born on 13 th of May 1993.  1.       Add up your day of birth 13, which is 1 +3 = 4 2.       Add up your month of birth 5, which is just 5 3.       Add up your year of birth 1993, which is 1 + 9 + 9 +3 = 22.  This will be converted to 2 + 2 = 4 Add up the above: 4 + 5 + 4 = 13. Convert 13 as 1 + 3 = 4 So the life path number of this person is 4. Let’s see what does the different life path numbers 1 to 9 mean: If you are a One: 1.       You are independent and don’t rely on others 2.     ...