Even a rotten apple can make your day fruitful. I encountered a couple of teenagers yesterday on a bus with 3/4 filled with people. Noises made by these bunch of guys woke me up. They were making hell lot of noises with vulgarities and music. Once in a while they will shout at each other. I tried to endure their nonsense but gave up on it. I turned around and gave a hard stare at them for the first time in my life. Some of them saw me and dare not look into my eyes. Approaching my bus stop, I stood up and moved towards the door of the bus. I heard some of them cursing on me but I didn't want to care. After alighting, one of them pointed middle finger at me. It urged me to do something in the spur of a moment. I walked back to base and remained hot-tempered for the next one hour. I was thinking how can I make these guys learnt? Maybe I should take up Muay Thai and start punching some guys.
Looking at my personal growth over the years, I give the credits to CCI for developing me into who I am today. The development does not consist of the rise in appointment, but in terms of soft skills and character. I set myself a role model for many others to develop themselves into a better person. Then again, the word "better" here doesn't mean literally a better person, but in terms of upgrading themselves, a better leader, a better trainer, a better teacher etc. Wherever the base is, so long as there's Cheerios, it's a learning culture. When Martin and I carried on to develop CCI into what it is today, we had an end in mind, and that is to touch more lives. "Lives" here doesn't mean just our students, but also means our Cheerios. In fact, by spreading the goodness of this learning culture to our Cheerios will automatically spread to our students accordingly. There's a few things that we did to facilitate this learning culture: 1) No vulgarities 2) No smoking (At least not seen in CCI attire) 3) A mini library in CCI 4) Proper tables and chairs for study and meetings purposes 5) An open concept in base (w/o any cover up partition) 6) Formation of T&C team by the Cheerios as compared to the one man committee previously 7) Formation of Product Development Team 8) Establishment of leadership learning journey for students to apprehend leadership in a much more structured fashion 9) More to come... Cheers, Justin
Something close to my heart, touching lives. This time I'm being touched. Due to my busy working schedule, or rather, I choose to be busy, I set other priorities aside. I've made a decision to train with the special athletics last week and attended the first training yesterday. You never know how these people manage to come this far and impress you. I was asked by Miaozhen to run with one of the athletic from the some sort of Special Olympics (Still can't get the name right) Organisation. I'm attached to a 20 year old guy to race the 21km Standard Chartered Marathon this year end. I thought this will be even more interesting to do something like this than running alone for a 42km, which I did for the past 6 years. The training was fun. For the first time I didn't really feel the pressure and I thought it was fun training with them. The same way I run, the same way I motivate, and the same way I cheer for them as if I'm running with other normal people. This time I can feel their determination and passion about running. If you are not a frequent runner, I guarantee that they can run faster than you, anytime. I'm looking forward to meet them for training soon. I hope I can meet up to expectations of what is required of me. I will do my best to bring out the best in them, and in me too. Cheers, Justin
I'm truly excited at the 3rd base CCI is having. This is its 4th year and we are gonna be at new base for the next 2 years. Somehow all the 3 bases have similar facts. They are all at level 2, they housed us for 2 years, and ya, they are a home for me and the Cheerios. Let me review on my first week in base to show you how forward looking I am towards it... I wake up 7.00am everyday and get out of my house around 7.30am. I took 1hr to reach base at 8.30am and I started to run a 2.4km short distance until 9 plus. I headed for breakfast and bath at the RC itself before I officially start work at 10.00am. I can effectively work from 10.00am to 6.00pm without really feel tired. I will normally put my laptop in base so that I forced myself not to work at home. Now, this is LIFE without laptop!!! I can choose to settle my dinner anywhere, but I'm already sick of having dinner alone. Some stuffs that I will be doing at home is watching TV, reading of books, disturb my brother... haha, and ya, concentrate on family time with my mom too. I don't really go anywhere after work b'coz I'm currently on a "savings plan". So if you wanna ask me out for KTV and such, I will think twice and maybe recommend you something cheaper. I practiced to go to bed at 12.00am so that I can wake up at 7.00am the following day FRESH. This plan of mine seems like no life, still, to some of you typical Singaporeans. I have to do that for the fact that I see CCI as a point of make or break this time. Most SMEs cease operation at their 3rd to 5th year of operation. Now that CCI is at it's 3rd year and even though the growth is exponential, the more we need to be caution. Life is too good for me with the presence of my family, Rovers, friends and of coz, CCI. I find that life is sufficiently good for me at the moment. At least I can concentrate what I'm doing without much worry about things. At least I now receive encouragement from those who discourage me in the past. At least I take care of my family well. At least I can sense that I'm growing fast intellectually. At least my English is improving. Truly remarkable. I blog about what happen today without knowing what will happen tomorrow. No more profound words la. I will still wake up early to base and run and work and eat and do what a normal human will be doing tomorrow. So stay tune for this wonderful life of mine! Cheers,
My last entry for leadership laws. Finally finishing reading my 21 laws. 16) Law of The Big Mo – Momentum is a Leader’s Best Friend Even a sail needs to catch the wind to carry on the sailing. I remembered my recruit days. From the beginning, I told myself that either I be the best, or be the worst. Therefore, I pushed myself to be the best. Weekends are the most precious moments, even though I sometimes have less than 24hours book out time. When book in on Sunday, you can see trainers tekaning recruits already. Well, my unit gives us hell. I must admit that I have thought of giving up because I have thoughts of being the worst. Everything that you do constitutes a performance factor towards being an officer. I feel good after each week and eventually I ride on a momentum to becoming a leader. I was the Song IC, I volunteered myself to do shit work, I do a lot of jobs behind the scenes which gain a high score for peer appraisal. It may be hard when your sail is not moving. But it gets easy after that. Get on the ride! 17) Law of Priorities – Leaders Understand that Activity is Not Necessary Accomplishment Stephen Covey says “A leader is one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation and yells, “Wrong jungle!”” If you are at the wrong track, then it’s time to re-look at your priority. Evaluation is always my priority. Almost everyday I will ask myself “What have I achieve today?” If I have not taken a step towards my goal, I will work harder the next day. If I have not spent time with my family, I will do it the following day. If I overspend, I will make sure I spend lesser the following day. If I didn’t exercise, I will make sure I compensate back somehow. My example here is of course life balance. I’m still short of social life though. But it’s ok because it is not one of my main priorities. Do not keep doing things that are not towards your objectives. 18) Law of Sacrifice – A Leader must Give Up to Go Up This is one of my hated laws because it takes so much of one person to develop himself. One of the classic examples is Lee Iacocca when he was employed to salvage a company facing liquidation. He drew a little over half of what he earns at his previous company. He spend most of his time at work, despite he has a family. He fired 33 VP out of 35 VP within the 3years period. He swallowed his pride and approached the government for help. After that he reduced his salary to a dollar a year to cut cost. He also asked his executives to take a pay cut. Years later he doubled the market share of what the company used to earn. So when others say NEVER GIVE UP, tell them that you have to GIVE UP in order to GO UP. J 19) Law of Timing – When to Lead is as Important as What to Do and Where to Go A classic example is during war time. How many times have you heard of stories when signallers call for an arty fire to be bombed at a wrong spot just because they reported on a wrong location? I’m sure the guys must have heard this numerous times. John says timing is everything. Wrong action at the wrong time leads to disaster. Right action at the wrong time brings resistance. Wrong action at the right time is a mistake. Right action at the right time results in success. It applies at critical moments in life. Conclusion – do the right thing at the right time. 20) Law of Explosive Growth – To add Growth, Lead Followers. To Multiply, Lead Leaders From my perception is, to lead followers is to be in a team. To lead leaders is to mentor and bring followers up to become a leader. I, as a scout, must admit that they fail to grow because they lack the ability to train leaders. Scouts Association differentiates us as boy scouts and leaders. My question is, “Why are boy scouts boy scouts and why are leaders leaders?” Those people at the top are not developing leaders. Still many leaders are behaving like boy scouts. I bet those scouts reading this must have mixed feelings about this. In my opinion, if scouting in Singapore wants to take off, it must develop more leaders. If not, no matter how many Jamboree Singapore organizes will still be a flop. 21) Law of Legacy – A Leader’s lasting value is Measured by Succession This batch of SP Rovers is living by the law of legacy as what I have painted for them. I’ve once asked one of them does she know why I’m doing so much for SP Rovers. She replied that it’s because I have love for SP Rovers. Well, that is just one of it because this reason is not strong enough for me. My reason is simple yet powerful. I want to leave behind a legacy as well. Every batch come and goes. What stays is the culture and systems. I want to make SP Rovers a better place so that before I go, everything is autopilot. It’s the same for SP Rovers, as well as CCI. I want to make sure that things happened because of me, and these things makes a difference for others even though I’m not present in the future. I have ended my 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. This book has not ended and I may be posting the 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork. I'm sure it's gonna be powerful and hope you will benefit from it. Cheers, Justin
I'm into my part III of my laws. All thanks to John who keep his analogy interesting and relevant. If not, I don't know how am I going to carry on these laws for so long. Here, presenting you the next 5 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell 11) Law of the Inner Circle - A Leader's Potential is determined by those closest to him Challenging as it is, we need to admit that we all work better with people who we know. As the saying goes, "It's lonely at the top, so you better take someone with you." And it's true. Therefore people within the circle will be brought, or you can call it dragged, along. A person can stretch to his full potential when he has best people around him. Success doesn't come from what you know, but from who you know how you present yourself to each of those people. 12) Law of Empowerment - Only secure leaders give power to others I recalled my poly days when I assumed command as a Chief Instructor when I have a team of 9 instructors. I did nothing to empowers them and did most of the chores myself. John says that people's capacity to achieve is determine by their leader's ability to empower. I'm sure that my team of instructors were capable to achieve greater things but i did almost nothing to empower them. This episode has taught me to empower others in my working life, even though i still fall back onto working things out myself. The greatest things happen only when you give others the credit 13) Law of Reproduction - It takes a leader to raise up a leader John says 85% of leaders are influenced by another leader. I agree to this statistics because you need someone who has been there to bring you there. But what if there's no leader to influence another? Well, we have to wait for a natural leader to start something because the rest of the people will be waiting for something to happen. I'm convinced by this law because I'm one of those who were raised by another leader. I mean a few of them, not just one. 14) Law of Buy-In - People buy into the Leaders, then the Vision If you separate a CEO of the company and the Vision of the company into 2, which one will convince you to work for the company? For me, both are just as important. In terms of priority, John says that the people find the leader first and then the dream. Gandhi gets his people to buy into him so well that they refused to fight back as soldiers mowed them down. He went that low to be with his people so much so that people buy into him. So whatever he said or do his people will follow, even till the death. In retrospect, if you manage to buy into someone else, they will do anything you set to do. Hitler is a classic example, too, when so many of them listen to what he says 15) Law of Victory - Leaders find a Way for the Team to Win Leaders don't win alone. He would want his team to win even if he is not in the picture. Should the latter experience any setback, he would stand up and not give up. A true leader always want to win. John says that when the pressure is on, great leaders are at their best. I like to put my students in tough times so that the best among them will emerge. These people will not see failures as failures because they will improve themselves after that and bring his team forward. If you happened to watch soccer, even though I hate Man Utd, Sir Alex Ferguson, always make a comeback after his side fails to win. There were a match whereby his team were down by 1 goal and his side scored 2 goals at 89 and 91min respectively to win the game. Part IV will have 6 laws, which is also my last blog for the laws of leadership. Hope it benefits you so far. Cheers, Justin
This is a wet and sunny Monday morning. I'm still reading John C. Maxwell book I have some articles to share with you once again. 6) Law of Solid Ground - Trust is the foundation of leadership When it comes to leadership, you just can't take shortcuts, no matter how long you've been leading your people. There's no way you can break trust, not even once. You have to keep on working on it and people expect you to keep influencing them. John says that you can fool your boss, but you can never fool your subordinates. Programs that spread over 3 long days are effectively the best examples to talk about trust. I remembered a St. John's Island camp where we took charge of 60 student leaders. These students were put through rough and tough situation. We created opportunities for them to suffer together as a team. They had troubles among themselves back at school. They have an inspirational leader among themselves. Everyone of them trust him. His words are more powerful then us all. Having said that, he didn't like it b'coz no one wants to take on leadership role when everyone is supposed to be a leader. Therefore, we managed to tea-up some other potential leaders and they took lead. The others began to trust them. It was through real time that true leaders are emerged. Be it for your families or friends, build that solid ground with them and they will stay with you forever. Remember - Once broken consider sold! 7) Law of Respect - People naturally follow Leaders Stronger than themselves This is an interesting law whereby John quantify leadership. John says in a team, leaders go their own way when a group first comes together. Soon people change directions to follow the strongest leader. People naturally align themselves and follow leaders stronger than themselves. Therefore, a leader with a 1-2 will follow leaders who are 3-4, 7-8 will follow 9-10 etc. People who are 9-10 don't follow a 7. This sounds pretty true for me in my situation. In army context, those warrant officers don't really pay respect to those newly commissioned officers as they believe that they have more experienced in army due to the long services they have. But after these officers proved their worth that they can command and lead, they begin to gain respect from these warrant officers. Soon these warrant officers begin to follow them not b'coz they don't have a choice, but they begin to respect them. On the contrary for those officers who are weaker in leadership, you will see warrant officers don't really give a damn about them. These officers have to improve themselves. If not, they will be actually following what the warrant officers do or say. By the way, have you seen how warrant officers scold officers on the parade square? 8) Law of Intuition - Leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias This is probably of one the few laws I love. A leader lead with an instinct b'coz you don't depend only just the facts. Cite you an example - a basketball coach reads the game well enough to deploy the best tactics to play against opponents. When the side is losing, this coach is able to turn the table around and not the players b'coz he can read the game well based on his intuition. When the team wins the game, the audiences congratulate the players while the players thank their coach. This is leading with intuition.John says that leaders are readers of their situation, trends, resources, people and themselves. There are people who naturally see it and people who needs to nurtured to see it. There are also people who will never see it and we call them followers. It's important that we improve on this intuition of ours b'coz somehow, everyone of us has it. Those who never be able to see it are people who choose not to. 9) Law of Magnetism - Who you are is who are attract During interviews, the company will set certain criteria as to what kind of person they for the company for the interviewees. But even these kind of person gets the job, they may not stay long b'coz of who you are. People love to stick around with people who can give them values. After some time when they realise that they cannot gain anything from you, they will automatically fall out. If your people are negative, then you better check your attitude. There are some common grounds that matches who kind of person attracts what kind of people - attitude, generation, background, values, life experiences and of coz, leadership ability. If you think the people you attract could be better, then it's time for you to improve yourself. 10) Law of Connection - Leaders touch a Heart before they ask for a Hand The best communicators focus emotionally compared to any other thing when they first met a person. John says you can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion. The heart comes before the head. I remember my handover ceremony in my poly days when the previous batch of exco members have to give way for the new batch. No words can express the gratitude of my juniors when they wanted to convey their thanks to us, they sang a Chinese song "Zhu Ni E Lu Soon Feng" to us. We all started to cry after only a few lines into the song. To me, they are the greatest in my life at that moment. It may sound corny, but it's really true: People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. How to achieve this? John says, "One at a time." Cheers, Justin
My directions towards personal development is a boring one. Now that my leg is injured, I may not be able to do strenuous run for the next few months. I have to force myself to improve on my other aspects eg. reading a book. I just bought a super thick book by John C. Maxwell. Can you imagine Justin reading a normal book which takes him 1 month to finish it and when will he finish a book that consists of 720 pages? This book drew my attention when I was walking in Popular alone. Some of you may have heard of 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by him. I'm going to share this anyway. The first 5 laws... 1) Law of the lid - Leadership Ability Determines a Person's Level of Effectiveness Effectiveness is never greater than leadership. In order to increase your effectiveness, you have to increase your leadership. It's like a lid that seals a bottle. Just like a can of coke. Your effectiveness is only 330ml in that can of coke. But if you choose to increase the lid to become a 1.5l water bottle, you will be more effective. To be an effective leader, raise your own lid level. 2) Law of Influence - The True Measure of Leadership Is Influence. Nothing More, Nothing Less Arguments about how to measure leadership when it is subjective seems impossible. But John Maxwell said it is measured by influence. If you don't have influence power, you will NEVER be able to leader others.We cannot measure by how high one climb, how smart one is, how rich one is, how successful one is, but how influential one is. A proverb by John Maxwell, "He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk." 3) Law Of Process - Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day One cannot jump step in order to be there. This is a simple logic that everyone should have known by now, but not many people apply it daily because we want easy way out. The route towards leadership development is so difficult. Ask 100 people in a room who is willing to sign up for a leadership courses and you will only expect a handful of people is enthusiastic about it because majority of the people out want to be a follower. I remember when i was a PC in my active days when i asked my men how many want to opt for officers. And guess what? Less than 5 recruits raise their hand. What about you then? Are you willing to develop yourself? 4) Law of Navigation - Anyone Can Steer the Ship, But It Takes a Leader to Chart the Course I like the way John Maxwell describe this law. To do an average job is easy, but to prepare a successful plan is not so easy. If you remember the show "Titanic" how the captain hit onto an unanticipated iceberg, he got more than a thousand people killed on his ship, including his own. "A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others do" I guess this explains it all. 5) Law of E.F. Hutton - When the Real Leader Speaks, People Listen E.F. Hutton used to be a financial service company and their motto was, "When E.F. hutton speaks, people listen." The real leader holds the power, not just the position. Imagine in a meeting when a member of the committee dominates the meeting while the chairman is facilitating the topic. When there's an issue raised, they all listen to the latter. So who is the leader of the meeting? People listen not necessarily because of the truth being communicated in the message, but because of their respect for the speaker. Mother Teresa had ever talked about something offensive for the government then but because of the respect that she had from the people, they all listen to her. And whatever she changed she made seems easier because people listens to her then the government. Ok, that's all for now folks. Hopefully you learn something on this pleasant Sunday! Cheers, Justin
Not b'coz my birthday was yesterday, but this month was really busy, with the dissolution of the core team. When Angie and Evelyn started school, they seldom come back to base. Sometimes they don't come back for a week plus.Both "Longs" helped me a lot with programs and manpower. I feel like I'm back to my helpless self again after so long. This month is nothing less than busy. I flooded myself with work and hardly find time for leisure. Along with my savings plan, I have to work harder. CCI is always at its breaking point. Whenever I felt helpless, there's always something to push me forward. I think my motivation for this month is my brother, surprisingly. I didn't really meet up with friends that frequently, so I communicated more with him. Life seems better after talking to him. We did a lot of stupid things together. Something that both of us will know and it's just among the 2 of us. God bless my mom to give birth to this young chap.
Standing in the badminton hall and getting scolded 9 years ago was where I began my life as a Rover. Today the same mode of conduct remains unchanged. Truly speaking, I'm not a person who goes for corporate ladder. However, there's this instinct that builds in me, telling me to keep moving on in whatever I'm doing. Other than playing warcraft, I made good use of my time reflecting many things at BTC. If you are from SP Rovers, please read on... Time has indeed changed. As a full-grown Rover, I went through every single bit of Rovering during my poly days. It was sweet experience when I looked back. When we grow older, we always complain that the current Rovers has dropped its standard as compared to the past. And what have I learnt from this? We always look at the past and seldom people focus on the present. Standards are set by human beings. Others' expectations are as such b'cos they have been there done that. So if we set our own standards and call it RSS standard, no one will ever say that SP Rovers has no standard. It IS RSS standard. Moving on, recruitment is always as issue nowadays. It is an issue not just in SP Rovers but the scouting world in Singapore. We ended off with 6 newly invested Rovers. Practices in the past was that there's only one investiture every year, and that has to be done at the beginning of the academic term during BTC. We set BTC as the "must attend" event and invest people without even giving them a chance to look back and consider. This system may work in the past b'cos people in the past can endure more hardships than now. If we carry on this similar "copy and paste" methodology, People nowadays, who cannot take so much from BTC, will naturally quit after that. Either they value the scarf so much that they will frame it up after that, or they will take it and clean their kitchen table as rag. Seeking advises from many people who are more experience than me, they told me that it's time to step in even more and if necessary, takeover certain key appointments and govern it the proper way until it's ready to hand it down. It's a thin line in between mentoring and teaching. In my understanding, mentoring means to guide and advise someone to do the right and proper thing. Teaching means imparting knowledge. I still finds that teaching and mentoring are the way to go. These two words have its own meaning. Both are equally important. Taking over is not an option at all. The consequences is too great. I've been involved in the RSLC for more than a year. No change can be seen yet but we are making changes everyday. We are blessed with having the privilege of 7 loyal Rovers who keep the club moving on fantastically well so far. We don't expect them to meet our standards as they have limited manpower to do tons of things. They will pioneer this change alongside with me and my team of rovers. Mentoring has been a great experience for me in this appointment. Holding an important role in my career link directly to my contribution in Rovers. Keeping the club alive is my mission since the first day I accept this appointment. The only thing that we have currently that will spur everyone's interest in the club is to work towards a common goal. We don't have politics like some other clubs do. We focuses on team effort everytime and working along this line will be the key towards success. BTC has also served as a great teacher to me in my personal life. It takes away my daily routine and work, which I missed most. It gives me assurance on what I love to do most. I reflected a lot of things during the 3 days camp. Being able to serve people around me gives me a reason to live. I believe I can change things around me for the better. Lately I have been bothered by having the thought of death every now and then. I think I know the reason why is that so. If I were to die tomorrow, I will live on well today and treasure what I have yesterday. Do what you inspire to do most now and don't wait until tomorrow b'cos sometimes tomorrow never come. Ever learning, ever changing...
Interestingly, I work as a trainer and for the very first time, I came to know a person deep enough for me to call friend. His name is James and I knew him by being an EFI, external freelance instructor. There were many common interest we have and we managed to hit off quite well. This guy is 6 years older than me. He is a commando sgt and due to injures and academic qualifications, he cannot go to OCS. However, his passion in outdoor adventure really inspire me in pursuing my dreams. He started off as a group instructor. He also took the role of camp chief in his earlier days. As compared to him in terms of experiences, I have much more to learn. He is now a kayaking instructor and an EFI. He survived by training participants in these 2 areas.As the same time, he is doing full-time psyhcology degree. He is a weird guy. Probably commandos people tend to be serious at work. He told me he has split personality when serving programs. He used to scold his people b'cos he had high expectations for them. He don't do that nowadays. One thing I find lacking in him is that he do not know what to achieve in his life. I asked about his studies and he told me that he don't know why is he studying for. He said probably he is going to specialise in certain areas in his course but see how it goes. Well, most of us need some guidance and advises to seek for direction. I was taken aback when he told me he do not know what he wants to do in the future. Definitely a freelance job will not get you anywhere. He contacted me today and said that there may be a lobang for me and my company. I was excited and told him to let me know if he needs my help. I wasn't really excited about the lobang. But I'm really happy that he told me about the lobang straight after a day of "knowing each other more" session. At least I became his confide. Life is unpredictable. You never know when is up and when is down. And sometimes it's when you decide to do something different and things will change for the better without you knowing. Yesterday night I took a turn to join him to the new stand alone MacDonald's to work while he study his materials until 1 plus. It was something different I did. Tonight, I also want to do something different by bringing my father for a durian dinner. I've forgotten when was the last time I brought my father out. Probably never b'cos the last time I was very young. I hope to find another new friend tonight. This friend, who I knew for 26 years, has been lost for a very long time. I hope things will change after tonight. Happy Father's Day!
This is a special note to all my Cheerios for contributing their efforts in the success of Ops MAYhem. So for you people who don't understand what I meant, just read and know what was I busying with in the month of May la... With people working through the night and until the sun rises, we Cheerios are doing the right thing. Ops MAYhem is the most awesome battle we've fought so far in CCI. A few stunning things we've done and happened during the battle. Let's review...
- an incident report submitted to a school for a girl who banged her head on a tree brunch
- a morning with 7 cheerios seated in a school canteen, only to find out that the program has been cancelled due to thunderstorm
- chaotic morning during the P6 camp at CRC
- cheerios complaining about the professionalism of EFIs and yet getting so much money
- teacher singing praises about Clemence's facilitation
- the lady who was crushed by a tree at Bukit Batok Nature Park affected 2 of our programs
- aaron koh vomitted at woodlands stadium during Junhe's physical training.. hahaha
- base flooded with people and stuffed with humans' perspiration during most of the final prep session
- overnight cycling had to be postponed due to the tension of the war
- a team of cheerios doing monkey biz with 60 students at st john's island
- Lynnette left a toy dinosaur in our safety vehicle after the bukit batok P3 camp
- a school principal talked to Philander and Chenglong for a long time after a program
- students got themselves leg cramp after a 10km cci amazing race challenge
- 2 student leaders scolding each other with vulgarities in front of Timothy
- Cheerios sleeping inside Esplanade concert hall while students watched JuzB's performance
- teachers anxious to bring program's timing half an hour earlier, compromising some of our plans
- Yanlong's stress moment when he bang himself on the window after a phone call
- Benwei's lame jokes is stil as lame as ever
- a team of cheerios sitting at The Prata House eating and chatting away
- Jason organised the CFA XI outing to a restaurant and KTV session until late midnight
- a couple of friend's called me to say that they saw people in yellow running around orchard road and esplanade, wondering is it our cheerios
- a cheerio brought his team to the wrong end point, 2 mrt stops away apart from the correct one
- CCI mobilised more than 70 Cheerios and non-Cheerios on 29 May 2007
- a team of Cheerios sitting in front of Tan Kah Kee's statue calling 45 teams, checking attendence, for more than 1hour
- a campfire without real fire had probably left some memories for ourselves with Chenglong fronting it as campfire host
- a boy suffered from high fever of 40.5 degree after a fast march out from Jelutong tower
- teacher commented that this is probably the toughest program his students will encounter in their entire NCC days
All things will come to an end. Ops MAYhem must have left images like students, yellow, cheering, command and control, walking and running etc in your mind. Whether these images are good or bad, they are everyone's effort to make Ops MAYhem a success. I'm sure there's much more stories that is not mentioned above.
A note before I end, a million thanks to all cheerios and non-cheerios who participated in facilitating and introducing friends here. I hope to see more of you.
Cheers,
Justin
God has given what I should have and I shouldn't have asked for more b'cos I lead a journey of happiness today. You probably wun understand what do I meant when I say I'm happy until you see Thomas...
My aunt is in a counselling course and she introduced a course mate of hers to me. This lady, Shau Ching, has a client named Thomas. She wanted to extend her help to his family by plotting him a more stable career path. That's why I'm rope into the picture. Last week she arranged me to meet Thomas. Before I met him, I was painted the scenario that he was a wheelchair-bound personnel, with only chest level and above mobility. I didn't really come this close to someone like him until that day I went up to his house and saw him laying on his wheelchair.
Thomas was a typical Singaporean guy like us. He likes to watch soccer, tease girls in his younger days, went through the MOE educational system until he reached his poly life, Temasek Poly. He was 18 that year when he went for his friend's party. He played Chor Tai Di and loser had to drink a glass of Volka. Does this kind of life sound familiar to you? He was drunk that night, so drunk that his friends brought him to the 3rd storey room in that bungalow to rest. He fell asleep and no one knew what happened after that. The next time when he opened his eyes was 10 days later in a hospital.
Thomas is 26 this year, just like me. He lived in a 4-room HDB flat with a maid and his mother taking care of him. The only difference between him and me is that I can move around happily while he is wheelchair-bound for life. I can't imagine his struggles in life when he cannot feel for his own body, not even trying to move his last finger. He wrote a book after that called "Beyond The Fall". According to him, his mom was the most affected. God knows when a son who is supposed to take care of their parents but after an accident like this, his parents got to take care of him for life. The pain for his mom's struggle was felt more than his own struggle for a better health. That episode really gave me a hard knock on my head, telling me to do more good things. I can't resist and will not resist when I was approached by Shau Ching to purchase a book from Thomas.
He is inspiring. He wanted to do more to inspire and touch lives. And guess what? He has the same goals as mine! He wanted to give more talks, focusing on Character Development for youths. I can't find a reason to say no and I'm going to propose to the core team and hopefully we can do more for Thomas. He understand that by sharing his own experience will teach most of us, the fortunate ones, a valuable lesson. At least this is his journey of happiness. What about you?
As a passionate person I am, I'm reflecting myself whether have I lived my day to the fullest. And I'm glad to say that I have. Every single day I'm doing something for myself, for my family, for my colleagues, for my friends, for the society and for god, whoever you are. As I lived on striving towards excellence, I became very tired at the end of the day. I reflected my day by penning down all my To Do List at the end of the day to remind myself not to miss out anything important. My purpose in life is very simple, and that is to touch lives. Yes, it's that simple. Sometimes it is that simple that this complicated part of the whole wide world makes it hard for us to achieve simple things. Honestly speaking, how many of us really help people around you everyday?
One day as I was climbing up the stairway near my block, I saw 2 kids playing with stones throwing at each other near a walkway. One uncle and aunty walked pass and they began to reprimand them. As I walked pass a performer along the passage way to Ang Mo Kio Hub, my dear Cheerio, Letitia, went over and dropped some coins into the performer's coin box. As I was calling my god sister, Carolyn, one day to check on some sales matters, I heard her busying saving someone else's life over the phone. As I was talking to a client, I can hear her passion in educating good values to our next generations. Have you done anything to help people around you?
My goal in life is a simple one but yet, difficult to achieve. Because we focus what we need to do in our daily routine, we tend forgot that we have a purpose in life. I'm doing Cheers because it's in line with my personal goals. If I can urge 50% of you who are reading this blog entry to help others, I have chip in my 150%. If you have urged others to help others, the numbers will multiple. How many of you are willing to lend me a helping hand?
Recently I have been inclined to reading. I admit that I'm a slow reader but I'm at my 4th book this year. Do you know of Johnson Spencer who wrote the book "Who Moved My Cheese?" Yes, I'm reading his book called "The Present"
Present can be meant as a gift or now, depend on how you look at it. But when you put them together, there's another meaning to it.
"If you take today as a gift and enjoy your day now, right now, you will find more happiness in life"
Most people don't enjoy their life b'cos they don't focus on The Present. Many people live in The Past, still pondering things that they might have regretted, or live in The Future always striving so hard in wanting to achieve this and that. In the nutshell, living in the past and future will not give you the ultimate happiness.
Some will argue, "Isn't it true that we have to set goals so that there's more meaning and motivation in life?" Forget about motivation to achieve your goals. Try this. "If you fail to achieve your goals, which is The Future, what will you do?" The answer is very simple "Work towards your goal everyday and focus on The Present will help you to achieve it easier" Stress or no stress? It's easier when you have less stress.
Some will say, "What about The Past when my mentor told us to take them as a learning experience?" I will say "Take them as a learning experience and move on in life la, why are you still staring at me?" :p
Morale of the story - Learn from The Past and focus on The Present. What about The Future? We can talk about it in The Future so why ponder now? haha
Humorous way of sharing meaningful lessons... hope it works well for everyone
I've learnt not to be emotional over trivial matters that occur in my life but it's just my nature. A couple of bad news, good news and updates to share...
- back from a short holiday trip to Genting but somehow don't really feel relax at all. I missed my Cheers. I think I'm really a fanatic workaholic idiot.
- ate a lot recently and was forcing myself to run. Now that I'm clocking good timing, but the doctor told me to rest for months. My chest muscles and my kneecap is haunting onto me. I wasn't running a lot and yet my doctor told me not to run?? Someone please kill me
- Met people of similar interest and found out a lot more things which I do not know.
- Reaping fruits from a client. Closed a deal without much persuasion and was even offer to have an office space in the school, and sub-out all their programs to us.
- Been disappointed with my HR girl for not accomplishing up to expectations.
- A couple of teachers like us to open new cases on their own will. Repeat biz are coming in.
- I brought my mom Pepper Lunch for dinner, and she was overjoyed.
- Need to fund a cash amount of $500 for my house HDB loan.
- Someone commented, "Cheers Connect International looking bright ahead. Why? B'cos of my driving force that keeps everything moving." Wow...
- Junwei, one of my sales guy, intend to fight the war with us once again after his exams.
I am reading a book that shares about biz after she failed her biz. She is the owner of $1.99 Shop, Nanz Chong-Komo. I was truly inspired by the way she carried herself, be it good times or bad times. I learnt to smile even during bad times. Irregardless of career or other aspects of life, one should strive to be successful in every aspects of it. Some will say, "Wah liao, wanna be a filial son, a caring brother, a responsible housekeeper, a respectful leader, a dedicated manager, a friendly colleague, a loyal friend, and maybe a good father and husband in the future, how to achieve man??" I would say, "Wah liao eh, at least you try la. Somewhat you gonna be someone else's someone in the future. So might as well be a good one. Give it some thoughts and be a man of valour. Try!"
I'm acting like a tortoise, It's been a while that I've been in my own shell. I need to come out and see more things. Recently has been an eye opener while talking to people and attending courses.Basically I'm only a small fry out there, but I DO HAVE the power to develop and expand my biz further. Surprisingly, these people are my energy. Something that I thought I will never find out there. Actually all I need is people who has the same frequency as me. Opportunities are out there. It's up to individual how one can seize it and develop it into a profit making system.
Recently when I was doing EFI, I was analysing how did these facilitators serving the company become muddled to do this as a living when they are paid only 160 for a 3D2N camp. And guess what? Not as if they have camps everyday. My qn is "What is their future prospect?"
As I reflect myself on CCI, I somehow had this sense of responsibility over every single Cheerios whom served with us before. As much as I want to convert them all to full time staff in CCI so as to maintain talents, but $$ is a big concern out there. Some companies are paying a diploma rate for a perm staff when I was expecting each perm staff should be getting at least 2k plus.
Also, I talked to people who flopped in biz, and people who are successful. Frankly speaking, I gathered that one cannot be too ethical about biz of one wants to make it big. But all of them have one thing in common, aspirations! Salute to all entrepreneurs!
Aspirer,
Justin
The worst is over. Along with the company, I have moved on to another phase of life. It is inevitable that challenges are everywhere. I believe I can take up more challenges and live life to the fullest. At least I have swing away from working as an office lad to a biz owner. I've never imagine myself into entrepreneuring.I'm still struggling to meet sales quota everyday but I'm always motivated to do more. This is nothing as compared to those lonely days. All thanks to Neil and Martin for giving me such an opportunity. I'm fortunate to have known both of you.
What lies ahead will be an exciting journey. My job scope begins to evolve from a ground person to a managerial position. Having said that, my value as a facilitator has not been undermined. I'm happy about it but I will not want to be a facilitator for the rest of my life. What I need to do now is to maintain an excellent team of core members, motivated team of sales personnel and a pool of passionate Cheerios who are our reasons for being successful. There's one more group of people which we tend to overlook is our clients. It's my duty to take good care of them all. Without any one of the element, there wouldn't be me now.
Things are moving on slowly but exponentially. I will stress myself to produce results. At the same time I will find time to do my own things. Most importantly, people around me must benefit from my doings. Be it my family, friends, Cheers or Rovers, every circles are important to me. Give me more time, so long as you keep your faith in me, I'm sure I can create miracles in your life.
To those reading my blog, thanks for spending this short frame of your life looking at my life!
A self-believer,
Justin
Career
The worst is finally over. My cashflow in January and February was the worst. Now I finally understand how difficult it is to be an entrepreneur. I've never took out a single cent for CCI even though everybody thought that it's my biz. Now that the company has turned PL. I now announced that this company is now MY company b'cos I chip in money for it. More sense of ownership, more pain in personal financial at the same time. Really thank those who borrowed money to me and returned to me. Now that I'm fully responsible for the company's sales. I need to work doubly hard to meet the mark.
Physical
Have been training with an extremely motivated person. Doing at least a biathlon training once a week for me, but 4 for her. Her run has definitely improved a lot. I really learnt a lot on self-discipline from her. Today I just went to support her for the NUS Biathlon 2007. I think I'm more and more interested to take part in these races. I guess I've found my internal self from this experience. I'm an outdoor avid. Sports and adventure should be my interest and yet I'm not doing a lot since my ORD days. Marathon? Yes I took part and this year is my 7th year but other activities are more interesting.
So far well done!
Day 1 of cny
This year is unusually different in atmosphere. Our first stop was grandma's place. With mom around this time, we took another family photo with grandma. My malay aunt showed up this time. My mom was engrossed chatting away with her. The last time we saw her first years ago when we visited her at her house at marina. Everything was good at grandma's house.
Next stop was my godmother's house. We were the first to arrive even though this is our second stop. Straight after my 3rd brother and 1st brother arrived with their cute little ones. My 3rd brother's sons were wearing orange. They looked as if 2 oranges were walking around and it was really cute. My godma had her cheek swollen when she had a fall few weeks ago. i think I need to go to her house and see her often.
Last stop was my mom's family. This place supposed to be the most atmospheric but guess what? most of them are out of town for holidays. So this year's new year at my mom's family's house was quiet. We watched a drama series the whole day at the house. We had a steamboat dinner, ended with a "lo hai". We headed home for mj session as Khai and caroyln is going to come for it. We had mj until 2plus that day. I dunno why but I'm really tired. I slept until 12 the next day but my body was aching. I guess after sleeping for an avg of 5 hours a day, sleeping for 10 hours is a torture now.
Day 2
Now day 2 of cny is really a torture. I used to spend my cny going to friend's house but this year I don't feel like going anywhere. I brought aaron for a late lunch when Zengrong contacted me to go Wee Kiat's house. I guess working at home has been a norm that whether holiday or working day, it's the same for me. Or maybe I'm older now. That's why don't really like to move around too much... haha. Well, I ended up at Ester's office with Shuyen, Zengrong and herself to watch trailers. They are watching them now well I'm blogging away. Later wanna go for prata and Bencoolen street? If yes gimme a ring... haha...
Looking forward for Day 3 of cny. Will be going to Lionel's house, Bugis to settle handphone matters and maybe some exciting stuffs at night. Best part is no work for once in the past 365 days
:)
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