Business and Money Tips

The Anatomy of Boredom: The Missing Chemical Under the Bed When we were clearing my late father’s room, the space beneath his bed yielded more than just a paper trail of unwinning 4D slips. Tucked away in the dark, we found something else: heaps of unopened Yeo Hiap Seng packet drinks. For years, we had wondered why his body succumbed to  diabetes. Seeing those crushed, sugary cartons, the medical puzzle was solved. It was a consequence of high sugar consumption. But back then, we didn’t look at the root cause. We only looked at the symptoms with a sense of distant resignation. We noticed that he didn't eat much anymore, pushing his food around because he found most meals "boring." We watched him, as I described in my second article, gripping his remote controls and fiercely switching between Channel 8 and Channel U. We watched all of this and dismissed it under a sweeping, generic label: "Typical old people behavior." We thought it was just what happens when p...

"Busy for Nothing": The Day My Father’s Greatest Strengths Became Worthless Uncovering the hidden grace we spent decades omitting. In the busy stalls of Chinatown, my father was a man who loved the sound of human connection. He would talk non-stop to customers, his conversations quickly drifting far beyond the clothes, socks and underwears we sold, steering into the realms of current politics and philosophy. The result was always the same: very happy customers, but very small sales, and sometimes, no sales at all. Because we were focused on profits, his genuine warmth was magnified into a flaw. We labeled it as "busy for nothing." At the same time, the crushing physical labor he endured was completely minimized. The hours spent under the hot sun setting up the stall, sorting out the goods, and hauling heavy equipment, all of this hard, meticulous work, were dismissed. We looked at his grueling sacrifices and decided they were just what he was supposed to do as a m...

The King of Socks Who Bent Low to Serve Long before the modern corporate world started talking about "customer centricity," my father was practicing it at the stalls of Trengannu Street. He ran our family’s socks stall, a place famous for having a wide selection for every imaginable occasion, from rugged work socks to delicate women’s stockings.  But it wasn't the inventory that kept them coming; it was the man. He was known in Chinatown as the ' King of Socks ', because people from all over Singapore and Malaysia would come to buy from him.  To ensure a customer went home with the perfect fit, my father, without a moment's hesitation, would bend low, kneeling on the dirty ground, to inspect their feet. He would patiently advise them on the right material for their specific situation. And his pricing? Always transparent, always affordable, with absolutely no gimmicks. He treated every single customer with the exact same level of devotion, completely indifferen...

The Quiet Pillar: Labels and Legacies The Man They Called "Irresponsible" In the busy stalls of Chinatown 1960s to 1983, the image of my father was often painted with the brush of frustration. I can still see him sitting there, using a torn scrap of cardboard from a shoe box to scribble down a customer’s items, totaling them up with a steady hand.  Later would we realize that he made a mistake: he undercharged the customer! To the casual observer, and even to us, his family, he didn't seem to fit the mold of a "successful" businessman. He would often do the unthinkable: he would tell a customer not to buy from us, directing them to a competitor instead if they could find exactly what they wanted there. He never pushed for a sale; he only served and served.  Then there were the business "blunders." During the oil crisis of 1973-74, his lack of aggressive negotiation led to a warehouse full of excess plastic sandals we couldn't sell. He didn't s...

I increasingly feel that most human interaction in the past was actually “mind versus mind.” The mind is powerful, but also complicated. It operates like a machine-gun bunker — constantly analyzing, defending, calculating, reacting. You say something, I respond. On the surface, it looks like communication. But underneath, it is often a subtle battle. Everyone is thinking: What should I say? What will happen if I say this? How will this affect me? What will others think of me? And so, relationships become a web of mental crossfire. Busy. Fast. Intelligent. But the heart remains closed. Then one day, I experienced something very different. In that moment, I spoke the truth. Not a designed response. Not a strategic statement. Not something calculated for a certain outcome. What I felt inside and what I expressed outside became completely aligned. There was no manipulation. No agenda. No hidden intention. I wasn’t even thinking: “What result will this create?” And in that moment, I felt a ...

过去很多人与人的互动， 其实都是“头脑对头脑”。 头脑很厉害， 但也很复杂。 它像一个机关枪阵地， 不断分析、判断、防御、计算。 你一句，我一句， 表面在沟通， 其实很多时候是在交锋。 每个人都在想： 我该怎么讲？ 讲了会怎样？ 对我有没有影响？ 别人会怎么看我？ 于是，人与人之间形成一种“火网交织”。 看起来很热闹， 但心，其实是关着的。 但有一次，我突然感受到一种完全不一样的状态。 那一刻，我讲的是真话。 不是设计好的话， 不是策略性的表达， 不是为了达到什么效果。 我的感受、我的语言、我的内在， 全部一致。 没有机心， 没有算计， 甚至没有去想： “我这样讲，结果会怎样？” 就在那一刻， 我发现一种很特别的能量出现了。 那不是头脑的碰撞， 而是“心”的敞开。 而当一个人的心真正敞开时， 别人也会慢慢敞开。 因为心跟心之间， 其实会产生一种频率共振。 很多公司很喜欢讲“共识”。 但我越来越觉得： 真正的共识， 不是靠头脑讨论出来的。 因为头脑会各想各的， 每个人都有自己的立场、逻辑和利益。 所以很多会议越开越累， 越谈越分裂。 真正的共识， 来自心的共振。 当大家彼此真实、没有过度防备、没有太多机心时， 团队会开始出现一种很奇妙的状态： 大家未必完全一样， 但方向会越来越一致。 这也是为什么， 爱的智慧（LQ）不只是沟通技巧。 它更深层的力量是： 让人从“头脑对抗”， 回到“内外一致”。 因为真正有力量的连接， 从来不是说服出来的， 而是共振出来的。

The Quiet Pillar: Shadows and Sacrifices The Man Who Slept with Rats In 1976, after our family's shoe shop was robbed, my father quietly stepped into the role of a shadow . To protect our livelihood, he chose to spend his nights as the shop’s watchman . For three long years, the tiny, cramped shop became his bedroom . There was no air conditioning, only a small fan that hummed fruitlessly against the thick Singapore humidity . His "bed" was nothing more than a few rough wooden planks exactly the size of his body . He wasn't alone in the dark; he shared that space with cockroaches and rats that scurried across the floor, while the outside air was filled with the sounds of stray dogs and cats fighting through the night . Plus, our German Shepherd Boeing, who was his constant companion.  This was his reality for over a thousand nights . Every morning, as we opened the shop for business, he would emerge, weary and hollow-eyed, to head to our shophouse's bedroom acro...

The Illusion of High Valuation for Empty Malls They say an empty (or mostly empty) mall fetches a higher value than a fully-occupied mall.  From a pure property finance perspective, a mall is often valued based on projected rental income and capitalization rates. If rents are lowered significantly, even the mall is fully occupied, the mall’s paper valuation may indeed decline. In that sense, an “emptier but higher-rent” mall can sometimes appear more valuable on paper than a fully occupied mall with weak rents. This explains why malls raised their rentals and chased away long-standing tenants but the landlords are happy.  The statement is financially intelligent but only partially wise. It correctly explains  valuation mechanics and  leverage implications and  why landlords sometimes tolerate vacancy,  But it underestimates  human psychology,  ecosystem effects,  emotional energy and  long-term vitality.  A mall is not merely valued...

Meaning Is Not Information We are entering a world overflowing with information but starving for meaning. AI can tell you: what happened what people said what trends exist But meaning answers: Why does this matter? What is worth doing? What kind of person do I want to become? What is the right thing under uncertainty? Meaning is deeply human because it involves: values suffering purpose relationships sacrifice lived experience Example: AI Can Write a Sympathy Message AI can generate: “Sorry for your loss. Stay strong.” Perfect grammar. Instant response. But when a close friend sits quietly beside you at a funeral, says little, and genuinely feels your pain… That creates meaning. Because meaning is not just content. It is: presence sincerity emotional reality In the AI Era, Meaning Comes From What Is Real When fake content becomes easy, people start craving: authenticity honesty humanity emotional truth Ironically, ...

The Weight of Silence: What Were We Really Arguing About? My earliest memories are punctuated by the sound of shouting. In 1970, when I was barely 6 years old, I stood as a small witness to the fierce quarrels between my father and my late eldest brother Kah Yang (he passed away in 1971 at the age of 17). As I grew up, these contradictions became the soundtrack of our lives, usually centered around our family's shoe shop and clothing stalls in Chinatown. In the court of family opinion, the verdict was almost always the same: my father was "wrong." He was judged as a man who didn't fulfill his role, who wasn't "burdening" enough for the family’s success. But as I look back from the vantage point of 2026, I have to ask: Was that actually true? Let me finally put to rest what my father did right: the truths that were buried under decades of criticism: Unseen Labor: He worked grueling, long hours. I remember him hauling boxes of goods and equipment to set u...

For a long time, people believed intelligence meant logic, memory, and reasoning. Who could calculate faster. Who could analyze better. Who could solve problems more efficiently. But AI is now doing all of that, faster than most humans ever could. So the real question becomes: If machines can reason, what exactly makes human intelligence unique? The uncomfortable truth is this: Much of what we call “intelligence” in human society is actually the ability to navigate, influence, predict, and sometimes outsmart other minds. A large part of human intelligence is not pure truth. It is strategy. That is why deception sits so close to intelligence. The smarter someone is, the more capable they are of manipulating perception. People can use intelligence to: persuade without sincerity perform without authenticity signal virtue without living it gain trust without deserving it And now AI is beginning to do the same. AI can mimic empathy. Simulate confidence. Generate...