I talked to one of my colleague this morning. To make things easier, let’s call him Peter. Peter is an acting manager to an estate here but he’s going to retire next year. I actually asked him whether he will apply for extension and maybe then he will be confirmed as a manager. He simply answered “No, I don’t need the “Manager” title to become successful. I am already successful by my own definition.”

That simple sentence had left me speechless (For a few seconds of course).

I then continued to ask him what he meant by that. He spent the next 30 minutes telling me how he had managed to send his son and daughter to do medicine. He told me how hard it was for him to find almost $100K to ensure his children get the best from him.

Truly inspiring.

However this entry is not about the sacrifice made by parents for their children.

It is about how the word “Success” is defined differently from one person to another. Some may consider becoming a manager is a success. Another will consider bringing up successful children as their success.

Personally, I think Peter’s ultimate success is when he had figured out his personal definition of success. He defined the word success for him to strive. He knows that money and ranks are not success (at least not to him). That is why he didn’t bother to ask for extension and strive for that “Manager” title.

I find this very interesting. Don’t you?

If I can ask you one question, what’s your definition of success?

Peter did give me one tip to help me answer that question. If you answer “Becoming a millionaire” as your definition of success, and you have made it as a millionaire, can you still smile and say “my life is complete” knowing that today is your last day of your life.

———— Personal Note ————-
Let say the world has a king. He is so powerful that nobody can disagree with him. Everybody is so afraid of him, the world is at peace.

The king’s barber.

Photo Credit – Nattu

Close your eyes

This is an imagination exercise. Of course in order for you to read this you will have to open your eyes. My mistake.. Imagine you are a bank robber and you are planning to rob a bank this afternoon.

The bank has the most sophisticated security in the world. The vault is about a meter thick, the security guards are experienced marines, Safe to say that if there is one bank in the world which is the most secured, this would be it.

How do you plan to empty the vault?

(I’m going to assume you are taking 5 minutes of your time thinking about a plan)

This is what I will do. I will attack the weakest link of the security defense, which is the manager of the bank. Easy, just kidnap his family and demand him to clear the vault for you. He will be able to bypass any security and even come up with a solution to how you can escape. Why? Because he is the weakest link. He will do anything to keep his family safe. Mission accomplished.

Now whether or not you will successfully enjoy the money is a different thing. I just want you to empty the vault. And that’s the best and easiest way to do it. I must put a disclaimer that this article is never intended to promote bank robbery.

The Actual Message of the Article

In everything you do, always address the weakest link. You fortify this link, you are actually fortifying the whole system.

The Application in Security

1) Car
The easiest method to steal a car is to grab the key from the driver while he is trying to open the door.

• When you are walking towards your parked car, look around for suspicious people walking.
• Only use your key when you are very near to the car and are sure nobody else is around.

2) Pin number or password
Your computer maybe password protected, but it will be of no use if your password is actually written on the monitor.

• Use three passwords your entire life. One super password for anything related to money, another is for your other important matters (email on the business card etc), and another for everything else.
• Don’t use password that is related to you (your name, DOB etc), or in the dictionary. This should already be the one universal advice when it comes to choice of password.

3) Online banking
Believe it or not, your bank actually has geniuses on their payroll to ensure the bank’s online security is top notch. This will all be useless if you have no idea what is phishing and believe an email that looks like they are sent from your bank is from your bank.

• Never click on links in an email. It is always better to type in your bank url on your browser.
• If you are unsure of the email, just call your bank’s call center and ask. That’s why they are there.

Conclusion – Any system is usually solidly secured. However, there will always be the weakest link in the system. Determine this first and act accordingly, you may have avoided becoming another victim in the local newspaper.

p.s. This doesn’t only apply to security. You can also use the same concept to fortify your human resources, your business etc.

– I wonder –
Any other security tips you might want to share?

———— Personal Note ————
I remember the night my mother was robbed back in 2002. She was waiting for the bus alone when two guys on a motorcycle approached her asking for direction. She knew something was wrong and tried to avoid them. Suddenly one of the guys snatched her handbag and when she didn’t let go, he hit her with his helmet. She was bleeding and was sent to the hospital by a passerby.

Everytime I think of this incident, only one thing comes to mind – “How grateful I am that she is safe.” Remember guys.. when you are robbed and all they want is the wallet, give it to them. Nothing worth risking your life.

Photo Credit – Richt

Summary – Lesson learnt from a dream about being a ninja

I’m going to share you a dream I had the other day. Be warned, that it is a dream. And dreams are known to be very ridiculous. This one’s too. But I discovered one thing about myself in this dream, and that is what I want to share with you. Don’t worry, the dream is only 3 paragraphs long.

I had a colleague in the dream. I don’t know who he is in real life but in the dream we were very close friend. He and I were supposed to do one very important presentation to the CEO of my company. I was totally convinced that if I didn’t make it to the presentation, I will be fired.

We are doing our work in our office, and all of a sudden there are ninjas everywhere appearing and they seemed to want to catch us. Just like the movie Matrix, I suddenly possessed all the skills of a ninja, the agility, the ability to hide in the corner of the ceiling. It was amazing and I was actually having fun.

We were running and hiding from the ninjas until suddenly I realized that the ninjas had had plenty of chance to catch us but they didn’t. It’s as if they were humoring us. Giving us a chance to enjoy being a ninja. And then I remember my presentation and how all this hiding and running had deter me from going to the presentation. I then told my colleague that I’ve had enough of this, and even though there were ninjas surrounding us, we just walked out the front door to go to the presentation. My assumption was correct. The ninjas had no intention of catching us. They were also not trying to delay us from the presentation. They just did what they were supposed to do.

/end dream

I thought it was such a cool dream, I was having second thought about waking up. I learnt a few lesson though from the dream.

• Distraction is like a ninja. Television is created to be watched, internet to be surfed etc. Whether or not they are a distraction will entirely be up to you. If you watch television while you are working, obviously it will be a distraction.

• Stop blaming distraction. They were not created solely for the purpose of distracting me. They were just doing their job. Just like I am supposed to do my job.

• No weight is impossibly heavy. Certain things felt like they are a matter of life and death. However, if you really stop thinking about it, take a step back and observe, these problems are really not that difficult to deal with.

• Other things are usually more fun. Doing other things which is not related to your goals is always more fun than working on your goals. It is very difficult to differentiate the two. And it will be hundreds times more difficult to choose between the two.

– I wonder –
Any interesting dreams you would like to share? I’m in the mood of intrepreting dreams 🙂

————- Personal Note ————
I once read that life is supposed to be hard. When you are feeling very relaxed all year long, that is a sign that something is not right somewhere. I have a mixed reaction (between agreeing and disagreing) to this, what do you think?

Photo Credit – Lachlan Hardy

It has been about a year and a half since I started blogging. At first I was merely trying what this blogging is about. After about 20 articles later, I started to enjoy sharing ideas on self improvement. Why? Because the more I share, the more ideas seemed to pour in. It’s still a mystery but I think the best explanation for it is that if you really want something, just work on it and enjoy. The mind will automatically do the rest of the job for you.

Compiled below are some of the most basic blogging tips I learnt. The best thing about the tips is that if you take the time to look at them, you will notice that they can also be applied to real life. I’m sure you will find the blog tips really basic. But the idea of this article is really on how to apply it to both your blog and your life. To make this slightly more fun, I will let you figure out how to apply them in real life.

1) When People Comment, Reply

This has always been my policy. There are now about 1500 comments altogether since I started, and I have replied to each and every one of them. It takes quite an effort for any readers to write their opinion on an article. They are taking some time of their life to do this. The least you can do is to reply to the comment. Personally, comments are the best motivation for me to keep on writing. So if you do comment on this blog, rest assured I will reply them however busy I am as a token of appreciation.

I have also been commenting in others’ blogs. And nothing’s more demotivating than to see that my comments remained unanswered. It’s as if I am commenting to a wall. I know for a site that has hundreds of comments, it’s going to be hard to reply to all of them. I guess in the end, it will be all up to you to define your number.

Appreciate readers, they are the ones we actually write to.

2) Do Not Be Afraid To Change

If you have been following the blog, you will know how many times I have overhauled the whole blog with new themes, articles formatting etc. There was even a time when the blog is gloomy looking with a child-like theme (Yes, you guessed it right. It’s the image above). The articles were also different back then. I even wrote a piece on forcasting weather and ghost theories. It’s really an experiment that continues until today to see what work and what doesn’t work.

There is no such thing as perfection. Everything will have a flaw to it. If you started off something with the idea that it’s perfect, you will soon be disappointed. The best way is always to just start with an idea and perfect it along the way.

If I were too arrogant or lazy to make the change, I don’t think I will still be here writing.

3) Blogging is all about networking

If you want to blog about something but you don’t want anybody to read them, there is always an option to make it private. Or just write in a diary.

Blogging will be useless if you are all alone. Go out there, find new friends and network. That is the most basic foundation of blogging. Without it, a blog will be nothing more than just a paper with some noun and verb written on it.

4) Find the 200 from the 1000 visitors.

Now that you are out there networking. You should know that there are millions of blog readers everyday. There is absolutely nothing you can write that will appeal to all of them. Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to find the readers that will be interested to read what you wrote.

If you write about cars, don’t join a forum about relationship and promote your blog there. That will be a waste of time and energy. Strategize where is the best place to introduce your blog.

5) Be prepared for disagreement

People rejecting each other’s idea all the time. Of course there will be some group of readers who will hate what you write or at least disagree with it. Don’t be alarmed if suddenly there’s a comment which gives you 100 reasons why you should quit blogging.

Reacting to this positively is very hard to do. I know, I’ve been there. And as a human, it is very normal to feel down after a bash like that. What you have to do is to shake it off and take a step up. Try to find any positive side of the comment and work on that. At least, you should feel appreciated that there is one person who care enough about you and write an article with 100 points. 🙂

/end

Very basic, don’t you think? But as basic as they are, these are five of the most important lessons I learnt in blogging. Can you see the message hidden in them? Apply them in your life and you will be good to go.

– I wonder –
Do you have any other tips on blogging based on your personal experience?

————– Personal Note —————
BloggingTips.com is currently running a post asking their readers to give critiques on Lesson In Life. I invite you all to join the discussion there. If you have any comment on this blog in term of design, contents or anything under the sun. Post them there. You will stand a chance to win USD10 for the most helpful and constructive comment.

You can also post the comments here. 🙂