A summary

Wow not bad at all, I have written 5 philosophies in a month! I am really glad that I have started blogging as I begin to record philosophies that build my personalities. The more I write the better entrenched I am in my guiding philosophies. This blog has also allowed me to be more active in the search for a more positive attitude in life, crossing challenges as they come!

However this post is a tribute to all the readers of my blog, some of which has read and written some comments and some of which has read and msn me to say that my philosophies are interesting and mind enriching. Thank you my readers for the encouragement and giving me the honor for being able to share my thoughts with all you nice people ^^.

But there are a few things that I hope that I could see more from this nice readers

1- Please feel free to object to what I had written as different perspectives actually challenge and improve these philosophies

2- If you like what you see and would like to add on, please feel free to comment and add on!

3- If you have any related topics and would like to discuss it with me, please feel free to msn me =D. I am more than happpy to discuss philosophies of life


Hence hope that we can make this blog a more interactive one!!!
Please stay tune to the next blog topic- Trust- is it given or received?


"Success is packaged with many failures that are turned into experiences "

Fire in the eyes

Actually this post is written on 15th September but was just completed today as the finishing touches was delayed. So here it is, my thoughts on 15th September!

One good day after another, today is another day of discovery as I went for a networking session and met the founder of NYDC and 77th Street. During the session, the director of NYDC, Sam, mentioned one key point that becomes the blog topic for today
- The Fire in the Eyes

Many great leaders have emerged in the history of man kind. Figures like George Washington, Mohd Gandhi and Franklin Roosevelt are great leaders that we will not forget. Looking at our own country, we have Mr Lee Kuan Yew, our senior minister and the great leader that rally Singaporean fighting spirit to make Singapore a thriving nation. All these leaders have charisma that convinces people of their philosophy and could influence thousands and even millions of people to believe in their cause. What is it in them that give them such charisma and influence? Is it the wonderful speech that they made? Or are they extraordinarily suave and handsome? Or is it their demeanor that allows them to capture the trust of the people? All these could be a factor but to me, it is the passion and conviction that they held that was exemplified through the eyes with strong determination and vision.

The eye is the window to the soul. The eyes that demonstrate such unwavering conviction as they gave their speech, the fiery passion that shows no doubt about the future they could bring and the piercing look that will kill all challenges. All in all, the fiery eyes that don’t lack passion but are charged with determination and a strong will to fight the challenges posed by life.

What has all these got to do with business? Sam mentioned that venture capitalist (VC) will only invest in a business project if they see the following things
1- High returns
2- Good business plan
3- All else being equal, which person has the fire in the eye

In order to obtain the trust of these VCs, the person pitching for his business idea must have the strong conviction in what they are going to do. All these can be shown through the look in their eyes that reveal the amount of passion that each individual hold. The passion in turn translate into a will to make sure that the business plan, that have been decided and planned for, will be completed.

Apart from VCs, the fire in the eye is crucial in business as anyone without the fire in the eye will not be able to prosper in business. A big and successful business model does not exist with just the power of a single person. It is a team work fostered by many capable individuals that will strengthen the foundation of a business model and gradually pushes the business to higher ground. However the business is not possible if there isn’t a person that has the charisma that could win the trust of these capable people and gather them to work under a common cause. The fire in the eye, that carries conviction, could win the trust of the people. It will gradually build the business as the person with such passion will start winning more business partners, associates and clients that will further his cause to build a business empire.

All in all, fire in the eye is a passion from the heart. A deep passion will be able to led you to the deepest valley and climb the highest mountain with sheer determination, fortitude and not forgetting the fire in the eye.

A burning passion melts all failures!

The split second that determines success

Have someone ever told you that action is determined by a split second thought? Just recently, I saw an interview on a successful person and he mentioned that he will try to exercise when he has the time but there will always be this split second thought that will persuade his mind to just relax and laze instead of going for the exercise.

This is actually just a small incident in his life that actually carries a lot of philosophy in my perspective. Most of the people in the world actually face the same kind of challenge day in and day out of their life. The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t just lies in these small little decisions that they take in their life. For those who usually choose the easy way out and decided just to laze away their time rather than choosing to do something that is positive and meaningful, these people will usually take a downward spiral into making more and more decisions that will not enhance their learning curve. For the successful, they will battle the lazy thought and decide to engage in the more enriching activities rather than lazing around and never improving themselves.

A simple decision on whether to jog when you are feeling a little tired is concluded within seconds. The split second thought that always sprung up in anyone’s mind which acts as the devil advocate to dissuade one from engaging in meaningful acts and slumber into unproductive activities. The successful will dismiss the thought with more positive reasons to jog and the unsuccessful will find more reasons not to jog. Frequent exercise like this actually condition the brain of an individual into a set of action that will segregate the successful from the unsuccessful. As you say more “Yes!” to positive activities, your mind start to be more trained and your determination to complete meaningful tasks is strengthen. You improve everyday as you enrich your life and with everyday, you are moving ahead of others further and further apart. Finally, you are away from the pack and will accomplish your success. For those who frequent “No…” they will be the same person everyday and will not improve much as time progresses.

Split second thought like these are actually challenges with the intention of phasing out the weak minded from the strong and great mind. Just like any test in life, success has its ways of filtering its candidate that deserves it and this is just one of the crucial minor tests that make the big difference. Most of the people seem to know it but fail to practice it. My usual practice is to engage in more positive thoughts that encourage my mind to accomplish something meaningful rather than laze around. As I say more “Yes” to positive acts, my conditioning will strengthen and a positive spiral will ensue that will exponentially increase my will to improve myself.

In addition, I have found the second way to overcome this split second negative thoughts. The second way is also the finishing touches that I was seeking for this blog topic. It is the journey to Changi prison that strengthens my philosophy to tackle the split second negativity that will lead to laziness. Today is no other days, it is another meaningful day that has improved my philosophy and shift my learning curve. To summarize the day, my business partners and I visited Changi prison today to look at the multimedia design that the prisoners there are capable of. The whole event is an eye opener as we see that prison life isn’t what we see in television. The prisoners who did the design have impressive design knowledge and work. They are well-articulated, cultured and I felt that I was talking to businessman instead of prisoners. A disclaimer though is that I am not saying that all of them are talented like the prisoners we have seen but these prisoners that I have seen actually bring out a important point- those who have done mistakes before can redeem themselves if they are willing to.

So what has this got to do with the topic nature? Allow me to elaborate further. As we go through the rooms seeing these prisoners work, we engage in conversation with them and found out that most of them has no prior knowledge on design. They have acquired all their knowledge through volunteers who taught them how to design and also through books that they have read in prison. Looking back at ourselves, are we wasting our time lazing around rather than doing something meaningful during our free time? Do we live in a more conducive environment than them to pursue knowledge? Psychologically speaking, are we under social scrutiny that stereotypes us as failures in life which demoralizes us from improving? If your answer is none or some of the above, your life is definitely better than these prisoners and if they are trying to accept their mistakes and stand up to make a difference in their life through self-improvement, what kind of excuses do we have to dissuade ourselves from improving?

If you are in your comfort zone and does not seek to improve, look at these people who wish for a chance for people to recognize their will to improve but was not given a chance. With our advantage in life, shouldn’t we be more motivated to improve rather than give in to laziness? Negative split second thought seems to pale under such compelling philosophy.

Well I shall leave the thoughts to you but I have found my answer today. Hope that you could find some answers to kill the split second thoughts that dissuade your personal improvement after reading my philosophy or maybe in due time to come.

“Success goes to those that seeks to make the difference everyday of their life”
James Tan

Business philosophy- The power of networking

Today is BNI awards night and I am honored to be there as a member of Abundance chapter. This night is a meaningful night as 1 year into business, I start to understand why networking is so crucial in business.

The day begins late as I catch up with my sleep after a 5 day of battle in business. I thought it will be a good resting day where I could rest my mind and laze around until I realize that it is awards night today!!! In my mind came these thoughts "Oh it is another day where I have to meet business people and go around networking... again. It is a weekend for goodness sake... cant I have a rest after 5 days of business... " That was the immediate thought that came to my mind seconds after I realize that I have to go for yet another BNI meeting. Negative thoughts that will soon change by the end of the day!

The time comes and I head on down with my most relax attire in any BNi event. Dressed in a semi-formal collar short sleeve shirt and pants, I arrive at Le Meridien hotel, then came the night of philosophical realization. After entering the lift to the function room, the lift stop at mid-level and a lady came in. I immediately realize that this lady is from Infinity chapter and told her "Hi you are going to BNI awards night right?" She was in a semi stunt state as she didn't expect me to know her. Then we began chatting on our way to the function room. As I reach the function room, I was greeted by my chapter member and a mentoring director that I have spoken to long time ago. The mentoring director immediately recognize me and said "Hi James, how are you?" Now it is my turn to be stunt as I didn't expect her to remember me and further more remember my name! Then came a series of stunning events.

After the registration I began the normal business routine of networking. As I walk into the crowd, I start seeing many familiar faces and many people that I talked to before began saying hi to me. Some of which I had only vague impression and conversation with them but most of them remember me and my name =). I start to realize that I actually do know quite a number of people, and most of the mentoring director in BNI as they came and said "Hi James, how's business?" Throughout the event, I am seeing and chatting with new people, some heard of, some talked over the phone and some that I was shock that they still remembered me.

After the event is over, numerous thoughts start pouring into my mind. What a day this is! I start to finally see the result of my networking 1 year into my business. All along I thought that networking is a tedious chore and sometimes I felt really tired to start knowing different people anew many times over. But today at the Awards Night, I see the seed of networking sprouting from my 1 year anniversary of networking. The amount of people that I know during my 1 year of networking finally give me the result in physical form. That is recognition, exposure, friendship and definitely satisfaction as you realize the number of business people that you actually know in the world of business

If you are not networking then you are not working. This is more apparent to me after tonight. As my business grow and referrals came from numerous sources, I was asking myself why is that so? Today one of the major reason appears, that is, the number of business man you know dictates the amount of money you can earn. This is true as your contact sphere grows, the amount of business opportunities grow with it. As more business people say "hi, how's business?" to you in a networking session, the more your business will grow. I know that I am not an outstanding networker and in the Awards night itself, I seen these outstanding networker shine brightly among the crowd. These are the business man that will be noticed and have the numerous opportunities waiting for them!

25 years into my life and I get to see so much of the business world and know so many business people is really an experience I truely treasure. There are some who are of the same age and perhaps younger than me that have achieved much more than I do. But I know that I am already very fortunate to be able to sail through the business world to see the ups and downs, strategies and techniques, salesmanship and networking and many many more valuable learning experiences in business. I value all these business experience and after this particular night, I felt that my road to business success is once again clear as I have a new paradigm of thought on business that makes me take a new step nearer to success!

Having recruited the essence of networking, I have figured out a few things.
1- Go for more networking session and know more people. Be a better networker!
2- Know new networking venues
3- Felt more entrenched into the world of networking and business.
4- Faith is stronger and preserverence is paying off
5- The road to success will come!

Signing off as the night ends but a new day of surprises and opportunities begin another day. Ending with my personal quote,

"One could live 10 years and still be in the same learning curve in life 10 years ago, but all it takes is just one meaningful day or moment to make you mature 10 years in life experience"