An Interesting Associations with Frog ...

I just had a chat with a close friend of mine in America. She told me that she had a dream and she dreamt of a frog. She asked if I believe in dreams. I said it depends. There is a Chinese saying, "what you think in the day, so you dream about it in the night".

I am certainly not a dream interpreter. But, I did share with her my thoughts relating to frog. First of all, FROG = Faithfully Relying On God. We may undergo many challenges and trials in life of various magnitude and duration. But, faith in God would see us through them all.

As a speaker and trainer, I have often times spoken about the two types of frogs. The first is one that is being put in a pot of cold water. When the pot is put over the fire and the water gets heated up one degree at a time. The water warms up gradually and boils eventually. What would happen to the frog in the pot of water? It would feel so comfortably warm and without realising the heat, it would eventually be boiled to death. This describes people who are very comfortable with their current situations and do not recognise the need for change.

The second type of frog is one that is being put into a similar pot of water and the pot is similarly put over the fire. But, as the water warms up, the frog feels the heat and immediately jumps out of the pot. This frog recognises the change in the environment and reacts and responds to it immediately.

So, which frog are you?

On a separate note, frogs tend to stretch out their tongue to reach for the insects. We should also stretch ourselves beyond our comfortable limits to reach for the goals we desire to achieve. Frogs leap. We should also consider a quantum leap in our success especially in the year 2006.

May the FROG help us stretch beyond our limits and comfort zones so that we could achieve a quantum leap in our success. God bless you and yours.

Be Thankful For 2005. Be Hopeful For 2006

Time flies! It has come to the last day of 2005. So, count our blessings and be thankful for 2005; look forward to more blessings and be hopeful for 2006. Be mindful that life is full of challenges and obstacles, but it can only get better. Therefore, be the best we can be for sky is the limit.

To move ahead in life, we have to forget the past and look forward towards our goals.

Our past might consist of a series of successes or failures. These would become our emotional baggage. We need to drop it. We need to forget about it. We need to move on in life. When we keep thinking about our past successes, we might become too impressed with ourselves that we get pressed down. When we are pressed down, we get stuck and we cannot move forward anymore.

On the other hand, if we keep thinking about our failures, we would be so discouraged that we have no more courage to stand up from where we have fallen. We could be so disappointed with ourselves that we see no point and purpose in our lives. We have no more positive energy and motivation to move on.

The best way to move forward is really to forget about all our achievements and failures in the past. Make today the first day of the rest of our lives.

May 2006 bring more blessings to you and your loved ones.

The above message was an extract from Chapter 1 of my book, "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student".

Is Teaching A Service or A Job?

This evening, I met a lady who was so courteous, pleasant and teacher-like that I guessed that she was a teacher. Of course, I was right! She told me that she is a teacher teaching in Beatty Secondary School. In fact, she is on her way to be a Head of Department as she humbly hinted. But, I forgot to ask for her name!

When I first introduced my book to her, she was listening attentively. I handed the book to her for browsing. When she saw the review written by Ms Elizabeth Chan, Principal of Rosyth School, I could see that her confidence in the quality of the contents in the book shot up. By the way, Ms Elizabeth Chan has contributed some 40 years of her life to education and she is reportedly retired now.

After browsing the book, she bought a copy of the book for her own reading. She mentioned that she would help to bring the book to her school and see how the book and my motivational talk could benefit the students. It was indeed spiritually-uplifting to know that someone really cares. I believe she must be a dedicated teacher.

Speaking about dedicated teacher, Ms Pearly Chai, a Senior Teacher in Punggol Primary School, is indisputably one who deserves a great mention. She was one of the first few educators who wrote a review for my book. I picked her to write the review because she is simply great! Why do I say she is great? As I was moving around my neighbourhood promoting my book, I was amazed that so many students and parents know her. Everyone speaks so highly and wonderfully of her for her dedication , commitment and love for the children. She deserves every letter of the praises. She certainly has done the school proud. I am keenly aware that in school, she has inspired many teachers especially the younger ones.

What makes these teachers so dedicated and committed to the teaching profession? I believe they take teaching as a professional service and a serving profession, rather than a job. Do you agree? Feel free to post your professional comments. Thank you.

May I take this opportunity to encourage all readers of my blog to be thankful for 2005, and look forward to a Happy and Fruitful New Year in 2006. God bless you so that many others may be blessed.

Delivering "I Don't Like MLM!" Seminar To A Group of 25 Participants Under A Special Invitation

Do You Have A Product That Is UNIQUE and CONSUMABLE?

As a member of The Popular Bookstore, my wife was given a 20%-discount voucher which expires on 31 December 2005. Today, we went to pick up some textbooks and assessment books for our children to get them ready for next year. While in the bookstore, I met a young lady who was hastily picking up a box of ink cartridge and rushing off to the cashier. I managed to strike a quick conversation with her, sharing my little experience with ink cartridges.

I have been using inkjet printers for years. I have tried various popular brands in the market and calculated the cost of the ink cartridges consumed. Usually, all the colours are combined into one single cartridge. Even if only one colour runs out, you have to replace the entire colour cartridge. It is wasteful and costly. After doing some simple survey, I am now using Epson Stylus R210. This printer uses one black and five individual colour cartridges. I only need to replace the one that is empty. It saves much. The saving was enhanced further when I accidently found another alternative brand at Sim Lim Square a few months ago, that costs only 1/3 of the price. It is as good as the original. I have been using them for months now. Recently, I managed to buy them at a holiday promotional price of 1/3 of the 1/3 price!!! Of course, without hesitation, I bought a few sets in one go. A business decision!

Talking about business, do the printer companies make more money selling printers or the ink cartridges? Obviously, it is the ink cartridges because they are consumable. It is such consumability that gives the companies repeat orders and hence repeat income.

One of the principles of business success is that we need to have a product or service that is both unique and consumable. If the product were unique, we don't have to compete on price and convenience. But, being unique alone is not good enough, it has to be consumable so that we could generate repeat income from repeat orders.

Be Motivated To Learn How To Learn ...

Recently, in the course of promoting my book, "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student", I had the opportunity to interact with many parents. In one instance, the mother was not interested to buy the book because she claimed that she had bought lots of books including encyclopedia, but the children just refuse to read them.

Hey! How can the mother expect the children to take the encyclopedia and read them like reading books? I knew where her problem was. So, I persistently encouraged her to take a good look at the book and I explained to her in Mandarin what the book is all about, what it is intended for and why school principals and teachers highly recommend the book to their students. Above all, I explained to her that my book is intended to motivate the students to learn how to learn. Eventually, she bought the book and was very pleased that the son was so happy to receive the book into his hands.

There was another incident similar to this one involving a grandfather and a grandson. The grandfather told me that it was not the money, but that the boy does not like to read books. I spoke to the boy for a few minutes. The grandpa asked him again if he wanted the book and he nodded his head. So, the grandpa bought the book for him. I could see the changed expression on the boy's face.

From my experience, this is a common problem many parents face nowadays. Parents buy for their children all sorts of books, just like most of us buying so many different types of vitamins and health supplements and popping them into our mouth without knowing if they really work. We just feel good doing it, but does it really serve the real purpose.

We need to be selective in buying books. First thing first. Prepare the ground first. Get the mental state right first. A student must be motivated to learn. Then, he will learn how to learn. He will learn to be an independent learner.

Challenge The Assumptions and Start Asking WHY!

I just had my haircut this afternoon. This is the second time I went to this hair salon, operated by two female hairstylists, just across the road from where I stay. It takes less than one minute to be there. I wonder why all these years, I have never thought of going to this hair salon that is so near my house. Instead, I have been going to another barber shop operated by about ten male barbers, in Hougang Mall located about 15-minute-walk away. Why?

I believe this is one of the classic examples of doing things without asking why! We are always very comfortable doing the same old thing over and over again. We are not comfortable to move beyond the comfort zone.

As I always share in my seminars, "If we continue to do what we have been doing, we would continue to get what we have been getting. If we want a change in life, we have to change what we are doing." Isn't this true?

We should start challenging assumptions, asking why certain things must be done in a certain way. Why can't it be done in another way? Having said this, it does not mean that we should start changing things for the sake of changing. Anything that is fundamental and works, do not change it. All that needs to be done is to improve on it, add on other features and enhance it so that it produces better results.

Think of the various situations in school, at home and at work and see how we can apply this principle to improve our performance and results.

Here is another original phrase using the acronym, "CHANGE". CHANGE = Comfortable Habits Always Never Generate Excellence.

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Working for INCOME or INTEREST?

Note: The following paragraphs were extracted from pages 17 and 18 of my book, "I Don't Like MLM!" for your leisure reading.

Would you still do what you are doing if you have $1,000,000 in your savings account right now? This question determines if you are working for INTEREST or for INCOME. If you answer “YES”, you work for INTEREST; if you answer “NO”, you work for INCOME.

Many of us like to say, “I like this job very much”, or “This is my passion”, or “This is my interest”. Conventional thinking has it that if we took an engineering course, we have to work as an engineer, and so our so-called interest is in engineering. The same applies to accountants, lawyers and doctors to name just a few.

I recall those days when I was a Factory Manager interviewing some candidates for the position of Production Engineer. Some of the candidates when asked why they applied for that position, would usually reply by saying, “Well, my interest is in production work”, “or “I am trained in Production Engineering, or “Production Engineering is my passion” etc. My immediate response to that would be, “We pay only $500 per month for a Production Engineer.” The candidate would almost fall off his chair and be very shocked at the low salary being paid. He would look at me in disbelief. Do you see my point here? If he were really working for passion, then he should not be concerned about the amount of salary. So, the truth is that he works for INCOME or money.

As long as we are alive, we have to make a living. To make a living, we need to earn an income. So, we work for income first.

I am sure we have seen many employees hop from one job to another because of better salary. Frankly, if we are paid too little that we could not make our ends meet, what interest or passion are we talking about? On the other hand, if the income is well taken care of, don’t you think we can develop even many more interests or passion.

A Better Way of Making CASH!

I'm sure occasionally, we have come across some sales people coming to us and trying all ways and means to get us to buy their products. Some of them probably come across to us as desperately and aggressively trying to make a sale may be because they need to meet their sales quota or whatsoever.

The ironically interesting thing in sales is, if you try to make a sale to make your commissions, you won't sell so well most of the time. So, how to sell well?

I realised that the best way to make a sale and to make your cash commissions in a way that is most socially acceptable, is to go out there to CAre and SHare. If you put CA and SH together, you will get CASH. Show people your care and concern, and then share with them the benefits of your products or services. People buy relationships and sincerity. Like we always say, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. When you care and share enough, the CASH would come to you as a result naturally.

Learn From The Terrorists and The Care-rorist™...

In life and in business, I find that there are far too many people who give up too soon. Many adopt the attitude of running away from problems and challenges. This happens in studies, in work and even in marriage. On the other hand, there are those who go all out to achieve their personal and selfish goals at the expense of others. They are ruthless, heartless and aggressive.

Life is a lifelong learning process. So, what can we learn from these two groups of people? Over the years, I have shared on many different platforms to encourage people to be successful by tuning our mind and our heart to the right frequency.

What we need to be successful is the MINDSET and DETERMINATION of Osama Bin Laden and the terrorists. They changed their minds. They have changed the world. They seem to have succeeded. I certainly do not condone terrorism and violence. But, we could borrow their strong mindset and apply it POSITIVELY to ensure our sweet and noble success.

What we need to be successful is also the LOVE of a care-rorist™ like the late Mother Teresa. She has also changed the world but with love. Love is a wonderful inner power and strength that guides us to do the right things. With love, there will be care and concern, with love there will be peace, with love there will be harmony, and with love there will be hope...

So, if we could have the strong mindset of the terrorists and the true love of the care-rorists™, we will achieve success in the most humane way that will be highly admired and widely emulated. Think about it!

I have another thought about money making - CASH, which is in my book entitled, "I Don't Like MLM!". But, I will share in the next article. Please come back and check it out.

Creating Original Phrases Using ACRONYMS....

I have created many phrases using Acronyms. Here are some examples for your reference...

• UGLY = Unusually Good-Looking and Young
• SMILE = Share More Infectious Laughter and Enthusiasm
• POLITE = Pleasantly Offering Lasting Impressions To Everyone
• SALES = Selling Accompanied with Lots of Extra Services
• GRATITUDE = Gladly Receive All Things. I Thank U Dearly and Earnestly
• FAILURE = Feeling Around In Life and Unexpectedly Receiving Experience
• NETWORK (as in Network Marketing) = Not Everybody That Works Outside Really Knows

Please do not reproduce the above acronyms and their phrases without prior written permission from the originator. Permission for commercial printing can be granted on a case-by-case basis subject to an agreed-upon fee. For enquiries, please email to jonaooi@pacific.net.sg

Another Coincidence? or Was It Planned by HIM?

Just after having our family dinner at the Food Court in Hougang Mall, I casually popped in to the Popular Bookstore to check on the sale of my two books.

What a pleasant surprise! A lady was taking a copy of my book from the shelf, glanced at the front cover and started showing it to her husband. I was just behind her and I asked if she knew the author of the book. She looked at the picture at the back cover of the book and without hesitation, she identified me to be the author. So, I explained to her and her husband about the intended purpose of the book and that the book would be adopted by a certain school next year as a supplementary reading material.

As we were talking and exchanging views, I found out that they were both teachers. Wow! How amazing! We stood there and had a smooth chat for about 15 minutes. They asked for my name card. They would like to go back to their respective school to suggest to their principal to engage me to conduct a motivational talk to the students based on the contents of my book, "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student".

Frankly, this is not the first time I discovered someone browsing my books at the bookstores. It is always very encouraging to see them doing so. But, are such encounters co-incidences or are they planned by Him?

My first two books published...

I have recently authored and published two books, namely "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student" and "I Don't Like MLM!". My third book, "The Psychology of Prospecting" is due to be published early next year.

The first book is very much welcomed by principals and teachers in schools; whereas the second book is always purchased in bulk by professionals and leaders in the network marketing industry.

Both books are distributed by Market Asia Distributors (S) Pte Ltd, and available in all the major bookstores in Singapore. By the way, Market Asia is the appointed distributor for the Government Directory in Singapore.

Information on these two books is available in the following weblink
http://www.idontlikemlm.com/

What The Chinese Traditionally Eat on Birthdays - "meesua"

Well, I just cooked this bowl of "meesua" for my wife. So, you know what occasion it is! "Meesua" signifies longevity. For example, when it has been raining for hours on end and it is still raining, the Chinese, more specifically the Hokkien, describes it as "meesua" rain! - literally means longevity rain.

When "Yes" could mean Yes, No, or I Don't Know...

I grew up in Malaysia, "migrated" to Singapore, worked in Indonesia and done business in the Philippines. I have a pretty good understanding and appreciation of the cultural behaviour of people in these countries. Deeply entrenched in the cultures of some of these countries is the "shyness" of saying "No" or "I Don't Know" and a great "sense of respect" for others in terms of seniority! As a result, they always say "Yes".

For businessmen who venture into the region without knowing this particular aspect of cultural and behavioural difference, a false "sense of hope" in securing a deal is what they would end up getting. In Singapore, "Yes" means yes, and "No" means no. Period. Obviously, a great deal of adjustment and management of expectations is necessary for Singaporeans who want to go regional.

The New Biology?

I read about The New Biology originated by Dr Robert O Young who is a Microbiologist, Biochemist, Contextual Research Scientist and a Pioneer in Colloidal Technology.

The New Biology simply states that there is only one sickness in our body, i.e. the over-acidification of our body. It makes sense to me. I am not sure if it does to you? Now, since there is only one sickness, there has to be only one treatment, i.e. to alkalise and energise the body to balance the body pH value at 7.365. This is as important as the need to maintain the body temperature at 36.9 degree Celcius.

As a result of reading about and understanding The New Biology, I had started taking the products called SuperGreens and Prime pH, that were researched and developed by Dr Robert O Young. I purchased the products from the following website:

http://www.innerlightinc.com/?ID=lifeplusinternational

The goods were delivered from USA to my doorsteps by courier service within 10 working days.

How I started blogging!

I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to my good friend, Larry Tan, a young and successful entrepreneur, for inspiring me to start this blog. He believes that my published thoughts would help many people in different ways. Larry, an author of two e-books, is one of those who had written a review for my first book entitled, "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student". You would certainly be inspired to get a copy of the book, after reading those reviews.

Larry, thank you very much. So, my story begins here...

I will be sharing and publishing more thoughts in the days ahead.... Please come back regularly for more ...