Life is precious

Coming back from the client's place, I saw a cat lying on the road. It was struggling and I thought for a moment that it was just lying in the middle of the road trying to catch something in the air. Not until when I was nearer did I feel that there is something wrong with the cat as it was lying there for far too long…

I don’t really wish to go into the details of what injuries the cat has as it is really quite a heart wrenching sight. Anyway I went back to the office and asked my business partners to bring down some newspaper. We went to the road where the cat was, Chris and I went and wrap up the cat and put it to the side walk. This is just to make sure that it will not be run over again by another vehicle…. at least it should die with an intact body….

It was really heartrending and I start to ponder the importance of life. When the cat was struggling, there was another cat watching it as it makes its last struggle. I felt that it was lamenting the fatal injuries that the other cat was inflicted with and it is so powerless to help. Thinking of that, I thought of the issue of life and death. What kind of pain is it if you are in the situation of the cat…. it must really be a pain worse then death… But what kind of pain would it be if you have to watch your close friends, relatives and love ones struggling and dying in front of you and you are so powerless to help….

It was such bothering thought as if I have to watch the people I love die in front of me, I think the pain will be really unbearable as you can’t do anything to change the situation. Then something struck me. Why should we lament if fate has it that a life should end? Death is inevitable for all life and it is something that no life can escape. Instead what we must think of is whether did we treasure and appreciate the time we had with the people we love.

We can’t stop death but we can stop ourselves from not appreciating people around us. I understand that death of the love one will bring pain but it should not bring regret. So to stop ourselves from regretting, please start loving and appreciating all the people that matters around you. Don’t regret when you can’t appreciate and love them anymore

“Appreciate before it is too late”
James Tan

A new horizon

Last Saturday 4th November, I was looking for a small notebook preferably with blank pages instead of those with lines in it as I don’t like the idea of being confined by boundaries. Went to a few bookstores and found some notebook that are too big and some are the correct size but with lines in the sub-pages. No notebook seems to be able to fit my requirement until finally I found the note book with the perfect size and a perfect sentence on it- Seek new horizons.

To me, this searching event seems to have a story to tell.


=> THE notebook






The other notebook didn’t fit my requirement for a reason as the one that will match has a message to tell. I am at the point of my life that needs to seek for new horizons in every aspect of my life. Old ways and things are not working well anymore and I have to seek new horizon in my life so as to keep my life going to a new level. Being in a comfort zone submits an individual to his fate and making him powerless against his surroundings as he is reluctant to move away from his comfort zone. Well, the comfort zone is not named for no reason as leaving it means hell a lot of discomfort but not leaving it means you will gradually degrade in the comfort zone.

Some people are not prepared to face the discomfort and lose their dreams, passion and self as they cocoon themselves in the comfort zone. The good thing about the comfort zone is that they are guaranteed zero discomfort in the short term. However, after being addicted to the comfort zone, they will not have any strength to leave it once the comfort zone starts to gradually implement discomfort in it in the long term.

Seeking new horizon means pain and discomfort and most people are not prepared to go through it as they are afraid of the momentary discomfort and the risk of not being able to find the new horizon. The strong will however move on continuously to find their new horizon so that they can advance to the next learning curve in their life. They do not let life push them around but rather determine the environment they want by actively seeking for it. They are always ready to move on to a better environment and are not afraid to suffer temporal discomfort.

This is the part of my life where I need to equip myself with the strength to seek my new horizon as the comfort zone had made me weak. Temporal discomfort shall not daunt me as I do not wish to suffer under a comfort zone that weakens my soul. This notebook will thus mark my new journey to the new horizon and had marked the first week of my journey as I penned my feelings wherever I go. More positive things to come as I seek my new horizon and discomforts along the way are just challenges that strengthen the soul!

“Seek new horizons, never succumb to the transient comfort zone”

Healing

Someone once asks Socrates to be his teacher in philosophy and Socrates put him to a test. Socrates brought him to the sea and submerges his head into the water. After a while, Socrates was still pressing the guys head under the salty water. The guy begins to struggle thinking that Socrates was trying to kill him. As he emerges from the water gasping for breadth, Socrates asks

(S) “What were you thinking when I press your head in the water?”

The guy replied “I thought you are trying to kill me!”

(S) “Then you are not a good philosopher as a philosopher will only think about philosophy in any situation, even in life and death situation”

Guess not many people are able to be a true philosopher then, as the psychologist will at this point of time think of the famous “Fight or flight”, the statistician will think of his probability of survival, the investors on his stocks and shares that aren’t sold so on and so forth.

Well, at least I am not a so bad philosopher to begin with as when I was having a leg cramp during my blading, I was thinking about philosophy too! (although I do not know if I will be able to think of philosophy in a life and death situation) Having some interest in biology, I was also thinking of my lack of salt and as a businessman, I was also thinking about the business opportunity of being able to create a comfi-blade too! Ha ha since this blog is about philosophy, I shall not share the bio and biz aspect but rather focus on the philosophy I got from the leg cramp.

As mentioned, I was having leg cramp and I sat myself on a bench to recover from the pain. The pain was excruciating while it lasted and as I was trying to minimize the pain by diverting my attention to watching and listening to the waves. When the pain subsides, my philosophical fermentation presides. I found out 3 methods to heal any kind of pain, be it physical, mental or emotional.

1- Find diversions to ignore the pain and keep yourself busy
2- Do things that you like to indulge in happiness
3- Time is always the best medicine to any pain

Through this momentary pain, I found that these 3 methods are the ways that I have used to heal the leg cramp and upon reflection, I realized that these are the 3 methods that I have always applied to heal my physical, mental and emotional pain. In the short term, method 1 will ensure that you do not fall into depression by focusing on the pain, do something else to keep yourself busy to build immunity to the pain. Keeping yourself busy is however not sufficient, you need to find the things you love to do and go for those activities to keep yourself happy and positive. In the long term, time will always reign as the best healing medicine. Time can and will diminish any pain, finally immunized and healed the pain.

Time with its almighty power does not only heal pain, it also builds a positive person up to be a stronger person. It makes the positive a better person after every occurrence of pain and be more prepared for the same nature of pain. Not avoiding the same event but rather learning from it and if pain once again occur, one will be prepared to face it. Life is not a bed of roses but everyone should seek their bed of roses and should not be discouraged by any amount of momentary pain while seeking for it.

“Time heals anything and builds a positive soul”

Music heals the soul

The hustle and bustle of life seems never ending. Everyday when you wake up come exciting challenges and new obstacles to triumph over. Challenges make you stronger but it also tires the soul. Then comes the need to rest the soul and calms the mind. What can be a better calming instrument other than music itself?


Pic Left- My blading accessories (socks, blades, writing materials and MP3)



Last Sunday was my usual blading routine and I arrived at East Coast equipped with my MP3 player. As I blade with the music accompanying me, I felt so relax as I surf the wind and bath myself in music. After an hour of blading, I sat under a tree listening to the sea wave and enjoying the sea breeze. Now I know why I like blading at East Coast while listening to my mp3. I always like the sun, the sand and the sea (sounds like navy eh =P). Every time I need to calm and relax myself, I would choose to go to the sea side. The waves always produce such soothing melody and the sea breeze never ceases to blow my troubles away. Blading beside the shore with music allows me to achieve the same effect and I finally comprehend my inherent love for blading. Well that isn’t all, it comes with the added benefit of keeping healthy as part of the blading package!

Pic Left- the music community






I realize that heaven does have a good sense of humor, when it wants you to realize some things, it will send many recurrent messages to you. Music and the soul continues as I blade back to McDonalds. A performance is going on at the stage area or should I say it is a mass participation? As I went to take a look to see which band is playing the music, I realize that it is the spectators themselves. The musician is giving instruments to all the spectators at the stage area and pulling them to join in the music. It is just simple recurrent rhythm but with so many different instruments playing, the music sure has lots of depth to it. People who doesn’t know each other start to integrate as one under the influence of the music and in an instance, everyone was friends and happy faces filled the stage.


Pic left- Youthful dance (background, cant see clearly though)





I mentioned that heaven has a good sense of humor but did I tell you that heaven is also very persistent in conveying this humor? Yes heaven definitely is persistent as when night falls, I witness another power of music- Music and the youthful energy it gives! At night as I was having my dinner, I saw a group of teenagers gathering at the shore area and they started dancing and singing. I suspect that they are in a dance society or something in that natures as their dance moves are synchronize and well rehearsed. However that is not the thing that fascinates me, it is their vibrancy and spontaneity they manifest when they indulge in their dance and music. Such energy charges the soul of those people around them making them feel like being young again! I for one felt young from their enthusiasm. Not that I am very old to begin with, but it is just a new surge of youthfulness that swept through me as I watched these positive energy emitted from these teenagers.

In summary, music is really magnificent as it not only calms the soul, it unites people and bring out the joy, togetherness and youthfulness in people.

“Music to the soul is like water to the body, it is an essential thing that nourish the soul!”

Fire in the eye (2)- Passion

This morning will be a day that will determine my company's future as my business partners and I went for a business presentation. If this business presentation is successful, AvantGarden will be able to grow its wing and soar to the sky. Why did I put this post under the title "Fire in the eye"? This is due to a re-current theme and that is the passion in business.

We arrived early for the presentation and were the 2nd and last group of the day to present. We waited 40 mins for the first group to finish their presentation and when they have finished their presentation, we were signaled into the room. After which I heard one of the panel who will be "grading" us said to the other group "Keep the passion for business burning in you"

After which came our turn to present. We handed out our business proposal and on the first look from one of the three panels, he immediately exclaimed "You are designers? But your business proposal looks so business savvy!" We were happy to start off the presentation on the right foot. At the end of the presentation and after the Q & A, we were given 2 comments.

1- We like your professionalism and feel that your business plan is excellent
2- We can see your passion in business and hope you can maintain the passion for your business

YES! Yap we are nearing the finishing line to the 1st stage of expanding our business as we received feed back that the panels are all satisfied with our proposal but there is only 1 minor issue that we need to address and we are there!(trade secret, cant tell what it is to you =P)

After a day's work, I am reading a book and unconsciously start to drift off into evaluating the presentation we had. I knew that we had shown our professionalism and knowledge in the presentation but what is it about us that have made this presentation a success? A word starts to pop up- PASSION! Yes the burning passion shown through the fire in the eye! My business partners and I am business people who have never given up our passion in business no matter what obstacles we had faced.

Each of us had gone through the challenges in business separately in our life and it is this passion for business that has gathered 3 like minded people who has fiery burning passion in business. The business savvy proposal didn't come by chance as we had used our experiences that have been earned through tears and sweat. The professionalism is not part of us, they are learnt from the clients who had reprimanded us for lack of professionalism and the emotional roller coaster we had gone when we didn't perform optimally. We could not have survived and become stronger from all these challenges if not for the passion we have for business that clears off all shadows of doubt we have for business.

The statement from the panel “Keep the passion burning” is something that he feels that is important in any business. For the panel judge himself, he has tried many businesses and has failed most of them but his burning passion is the driving force that has enabled his success in business now. His advice is something that comes from his experience and something that is his core philosophy in business. I think that this does not only applies to business, it applies to anything that we are doing. If we do something with a passion, no challenges could stop us and no temptation can lure us away from our dreams.
SO live a life with passion in everything you do and you will have a determination that is so strong that nothing will discourage you.

"A person with ideas will be inspired and a person with passion will fulfill the ideas"

Learning to Learn

At the age of 17 when I was in Saint Andrew Junior College, our teacher brought the class to Bishan Park for a class gathering. My classmates and I started to engage in various activities and I was part of the blading group. This is the first time I am blading and apparently, standing up is already a big problem. My teacher Mr Samuel started to teach me the basics for blading and before long I was already balancing and manage to move slowly. “Wow you learn really fast James, you are already balancing and moving!” was the compliment I received from Mr Samuel. That was the first time that I realized, although not having a deep understanding, one of my core strength- Learning to Learn.

At the Innovationation seminar, the director of Oracle said “In life, the most important thing is to learn how to learn” She was saying this as she was an Engineer and never knew how to manage a business. However the most important thing she learnt during the course of her Engineering lessons is to learn how to solve problem. From that, she realizes how important it is for someone to learn how to learn in their life, being receptive and learning new things everyday which equip her for her job as a director in Oracle.

Toyota’s practice is to improve by 1% everyday and you will be more than 1000% better by the end of the year. And now Toyota is the company with the highest revenue in the auto mobile industry just because of this single simple practice. This is a good example of learning how to learn everyday as Toyota seeks to improve themselves by learning new things everyday. The ability to seek out new things to learn and never be complacent with what you already knew is one of the key to success.

Qn: What kind of people are the most frightening?
Ans: Those that improve everyday

No doubt are those that seeks to learn and improve everyday the most frightening people as they will never be the same person every year. They become better and better, becoming a learning machine that is so hard to keep up with.

I used to think that my schooling time is a waste of time as I learn no practical skills in the course of my education. I fail to realize that I was actually acquiring an important skill and honing it every year. With new knowledge that needs to be learnt, comes training on how to remember, understand, decipher and formatting new ways of analyzing the information that is given. Learning new knowledge and seeking new ways to enhance the knowledge given has become a skill that I really treasured as I find that there is nothing that can impair you if you learn the skill on how to learn. Mastering a single skill on learning how to learn will open the doors to all other skills!

“Make a difference in life by learning to learn everyday”