Business and Money Tips

Many people know The 36 Stratagems as tactics to win in war and daily life. What exactly is winning?  Is it about winning over your opponent?  Or winning yourself? Or achieving your goals and aspirations? To me, winning is about one and only thing: Flexibility.  That's right, if you are flexible enough, eventually you will get what you want and want what you get.  The 36 Stratagems is not just a collection of Chinese Wisdom.  In fact, if you read the entire book you'll realize that this book appears to contradict itself and different people interpret the stratagems in different ways. Isn't this book just about one thing: Change? Change is the name of the game in The 36 Stratagems One can be flexible and change his tactics but there is one thing that one cannot change: his Dao or Moral. This stated very clearly in the preface of this book: 六六三十六， 数中有术， 术中有数 ，   The 36 stratagems have many different permutations.  阴阳燮理，机在其中，机不可设，设而不中 Because of n

As we know, times are hard now and everyone is looking for ways to increase sales with zero cost. Today I shall talk about using WeChat. As we know, WeChat is a free tool, not just for messaging, but for the following business functions: Mini-site. WeChat has an Official Account that any business can set up, free-of-charge.  You can get people to follow your Official Account, and they will receive your daily broadcast of up to 8 articles.  Your Official Account allows you to have 15 pages, and you can include pages like your contacts, your products, Q & A, videos and promotions Payment Gateway. Yes, you don't need to pay hefty fees to Paypal to accept payments from your customers and make payments to your vendors. Simply use WeChat Wallet, with just 0.6% as fees (vs PayPal 3%) and you can accept customers payments in seconds with anyone anywhere in this world Bulk Direct Messaging.  You can send direct messages, including marketing messages, to people using WeChat Broad

Watch this 1-minute video at here Mention "36 Stratagems" 三十六计 and most people will say one of the following: Is this another name for the Art of War military classic 孙子兵法 written by Sun Tzu, a 484 BCE military strategist from China? Isn't this a very old book? This must be one of the chapters inside the Art of War book, right? This is Sun Tzu's second book Of course none of the above is true.  The 36 Stratagems is another book, with origins unknown, and no known authors as it was written by many people over several centuries. The last chapter "Escape is the Best" was first mentioned more than 1,000 years ago, but the form we know today is quite recent.  The current format that we know was only officially published in China (under the government's direction) in 1961.  Thus in a way The 36 Stratagems is a relatively new book.  Today most scholars agree that the Thirty-Six Stratagems is likely a collection of idiomatic expressions ta

The following story is excerpted from TIME's special edition, The Science of Happiness. Whether you’re a web designer, teacher, firefighter or Army officer, you are encouraged to keep checking things off the to-do list, amassing accomplishments and focusing your efforts on the future. There’s always something more you can do to further yourself at work: an extra project or responsibility you can take on, more schooling you can complete to ensure a promotion, or an additional investment to wager on just in case. There’s always that co-worker who is putting in longer hours, showing you that you too can and should do more. And so you strive nonstop to exceed your goals, constantly playing catch-up with your ambitious to-do list. Why? Because you live by the faulty theory that if you want to succeed, you need to continually be getting things done and moving on to the next goal as quickly as possible. Your mind is always on the next task, the next accomplishment, the next person you n

In a recent interview the MD of Daimler Benz (Mercedes Benz) said their competitors are no longer other car companies but Tesla (obvious), Google, Apple, Amazon . Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.   Uber is just a software tool, they don't own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don't own any properties.   Artificial Intelligence: Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go player in the world,  10 years earlier than expected. In the US, young lawyers already don't get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. So if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% less lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain.  Watson already helps nur

When the market is tough, we turn to other markets.   Today's biggest market is of course China. To communicate with the people from China, we need to use WeChat. Not just use WeChat for messaging, but use WeChat to market ourselves through the following ways: Broadcast: you can send unlimited messages to your contacts with the cap of 200 people at any one time Moments: you can always post what you are good at in Moments to build up your brand Sending messages directly to people WeChat Official Account to do daily broadcast and marketing. In short, WeChat is the first and essential step if you too want to market to people from China.

Since 1798, the world has been talking about how to ride on the boom of China. In the 1840s, China had 400 million people, and this was the largest and richest country in Asia. Every nation from Germany to USA talk about leveraging on China. In 2017, China is no more rising. China has already risen. Today China is the world's largest market for luxury goods, fast cars, mobile phones, and now social media. WeChat has over 1.3 billion accounts in China. As at May 2017, there are 937.8 million daily active users on WeChat, of which over 90% are from China. You may wonder how you too can leverage on China's power? Start with social media. No, you don't have to open QQ account and start blogging. You can start using WeChat. WeChat has the following 22 functions that few people know:  Your mobile number is never revealed even if people add you on their contacts in WeChat  You can always use another name on WeChat  People cannot contact you directly on WeChat unless they ad

Premise: Today's manager is different from the past because the workforce is not the same anymore.  The old usual ways of people management like command, coercion, and control may not work. We need new ways. It pays to borrow wisdom from the ancient Chinese military book: The 36 Stratagems. Whether you are now self-employed or working for people, if you too want to get more things done with people, join our learning on People Management with The 36 Stratagems. Who is this for?  Professionals and working people that need to lead and manage people on a daily basis Learning level: Basic to intermediate Format: Classroom and virtual Methodology: Workshop Learner Profile: Manager, supervisor, leader and self-employed people that need to work with people Learning stakeholder: Coach, Facilitator, Learning Buddy and Social Co-Trainer DESCRIPTION Managing people is the most important skill in today's world as we become more global and work is being automated by co

Many people dream to become rich, and some dream to be their own boss. Unknown to many, you too can be a boss, even if you are an employee now and have no intention to set up your own business. The truth is, we are all bosses: bosses of our own company is called Me Pte Ltd.  We have one major customer: our employer, the one that pays us our salary on time every month.  Our employer has many customers, and you could be the one serving them now. How many times have you heard of your bosses saying that if only the team is more united, we can achieve more?  And how many times have you been reminded again that employees have to take the initiative and work towards achieving the company’s vision?  If you as an employee start to think and act like you’re running your own business, you would behave differently.  There will be no such thing as ‘need to be responsible or take initiative’, for you would be all out to achieve the goals of the company because you know that achieving