Business and Money Tips

One day, the Buddha sat down in the shade of a tree and noticed how beautiful the countryside was. Flowers were blooming and trees were putting on bright new leaves, but among all this beauty, he saw much unhappiness. A farmer beat his ox in the field. A bird pecked at an earthworm, and then an eagle swooped down on the bird. Deeply troubled, he asked, "Why does the farmer beat his ox? Why must one creature eat another to live?" During his enlightenment, the Buddha found the answer to these questions. He discovered three great truths. He explained these truths in a simple way so that everyone could understand them. 1.  Nothing is lost in the universe The first truth is that nothing is lost in the universe. Matter turns into energy, energy turns into matter. A dead leaf turns into soil. A seed sprouts and becomes a new plant. Old solar systems disintegrate and turn into cosmic rays. We are born of our parents, our children are born of us. We are the same as plants, as

The Business Times on 18 Sep 2015 reported that because of falling August domestic exports, Singapore could be entering into a technical recession soon. Many people asked me what they should do.  We have already seen a large swing towards the ruling party in the just concluded 2015 General Elections. Singaporeans sent a strong mandate to the ruling party as they want the government to be strong in handling the recession that may come. So it seems that a recession is imminent. Instead of panicking when the recession comes, why not we ‘prevent’ the recession from happening to us?  In other words, can we ‘recession proof’ our career?  The proven way to recession proof your career is to go for upgrading courses, for when you know more, the easier your job will be. Some will tell you to stick to your current employer, for at least you may get some retrenchment benefits in case your employer gives you the pink letter. Recruitment firms advise employees to look out for other job

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 course. Such bonding gives us instant feedback, an

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