Nothing vs Everything

If you have nothing, you will cherish everything that you gain.
If you have everything, you will feel nothing for what you lose.

Attitude - Gary Kasporav

Work leads to knowledge and knowledge is never wasted. ~ Gary Kasporav

Attitude - Thomas Jefferson

I am a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~ Thomas Jefferson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_jefferson

The Strategist....

If you play without long term goals, your decision become purely reactive and you'll be playing your opponent's game, not your own.

The strategist starts with a goal in the distant future and works backwards to the present.

~ Gary Kasporav

Success - Thomas Edison

Success is one percent inspiration, ninety nine percent perspiration ~ Thomas Edison

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_edison

Boss

The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

Self-awareness

Questioning yourself must become a habit, one strong enough to surmont the obstacles of over-confidence and dejection. It is a muscle that can be developed only with constant practice.

Self-awareness is essential to being able to combine your knowledge, experience and talent to reach your peak performance.

~ Gary Kasporav

Attitude - Winston Churchill

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. ~ Winston Churchill

Strategy

A frequently changed strategy is the same as no strategy. Change can be essential, but it should only be made with careful consideration and just cause. Losing can persuade you to change what doesn't need to be changed and winning can convince you everything is fine even if you are on the brink of diseaster. If you are quick to blame faulty strategy and change it all the time, you really don't have any strategy at all. Only when the environment shifts radically should you consider a change in fundamentals. We must walk a fine line between flexibility and consistency. A strategist must have faith in his strategy and the courage to follow it through and still be open-minded enough to realize when a change of course is required. Changes must be considered carefully, and when they come they must be made decisively. Success is seldom analysed as closely as failure and we are always quick to attribute our victories to superiority, rather than circumstance. When things are going well it is even more important to question. Over-confidence leads to mistakes, a feeling that anything is good enough. ~ Gary Kasporav (How Life Imitates Chess)

How Life Imitates Chess - Insights into Life as a Game of Strategy (by Gary Kasparov)

Better decision-making cannot be taught, but it can be self-taught. Such decisive moments are turning points - every time we select a fork in these moments and in turn they define our lives. We learn who we are and what truly matters to us. The "secret" then is to pursue these challenges instead of avoiding them. This is the only way to discover and to exploit all our gifts. Developing our own personal blueprint allows us to make better decisions, to have the confidence to trust our instincts, and to know that no matter what the result, we will come out stronger. That, for each of us, is our unique secret of success. ~ Gary Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess (Insights into life as a game of strategy)

Strategy and Tactics

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." ~ Sun Tze

"Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do; strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do" ~ Savielly Grigoryevich Tartakower

"If strategy represents the ends, tactics are the means. Once we have a clear set of goals and intermediate objectives, we can measure potential tactics and combinations against them. The more we do this the easier it becomes; our strategic goals become incorporated into our tactical thinking. Our reactions will be faster and at the same time more accurate, and speed is always of the essence." ~ Gary Kasporav

Decade of spirituality?

	2000
Religion	Adherents	%
All Christians	1,999,563,838	33.00
All Muslims	1,188,242,789	19.60
All Hindus	811,336,265	13.40
All Buddhists	359,981,757	5.90
Other Religions	1,695,924,351	28.10
Global Population	6,055,049,000	100.00

Source: http://www.bible.ca/global-religion-statistics-world-christian-encyclopedia.htm

In 2000, 1 in every 3 people you meet is a Christian affiliated or there as many Christian in the world as there are Muslims and Hindus combined!

Buddhists accounts for a mere 6% of global population.

Freethinker + minor religion makes up the balance 7/25 of the population.

How will this look like in a decade’s time?

Quotable Quotes: "Businessmen, do more good by creating jobs and wealth through investment, 'not by being Santa Claus" - Carlos Slim on charity

Carlos Slim, the Mexican tycoon who in 2009 became the richest man in the world overtaking Bill Gates, US with USD53.5b fortune.

Interesting to hear this from somebody who through his 2 foundations, has invested some US$10 billion in health, education, justice and sports projects in Mexico and Latin America. This reminds of an old Chinese proverbs that says “Give a man a fish and you fee him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Quotatable Quotes: "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge" - Bertrand Russell

I can’t remember already how I was introduced to this great author whose words helped shaped my life over the course of the last 20 over years. This quote has somewhat became my motto in life.

Fengshui & Christianity

What is the link between Fengshui & Christianity?

Had a very interesting conversation with a Christian colleague the other day on the topic of Fengshui. So happen that our company, an international firm is to move our office to a location next month and our top management had engaged a fengshui master to ensure that we had the right seating arrangement to ensure “prosperity” for the firm!

This colleague friend of mine made a very interesting comment that “only people who have no confidence had to rely on the “unknown” for faith”. I would not fault her on this statement as the effectiveness of fengshui cannot be proven with our knowledge of science. However, I couldn’t help wondering why as a Christian she herself so willingly put her faith in a “belief” that also cannot be proven by science! In fact, my understanding has been that science has repeatedly contradicted some of the facts regarding their beliefs.

Haunted by Kindness!?

It was a terrible day for me yesterday. I received an unexpected call from my HR manager regarding the routine checks they do for new hires. They were alarmed because they found my name listed in an outstanding writ of summon (filed almost 2 years ago). It was something that I wasn’t aware of myself, neither do I know the person who had filed the lawsuit but after some investigation, I managed to trace it to my brother who is a small time businessman. Apparently, the person was his client who had some business dispute with him and he filed the writ summon on all directors and shareholders of my brother’s company, and I being a small shareholder is also being implicated.

The irony is that the reason I am a shareholder of my brother’s company is because our family supported him in his business venture, and out of gratitude, he has given some small shares to all in the family. It has been years and we have not bothered about the business, neither have we benefited from it monetary wise. So it was really unfortunate that his kindness has such an unexpected consequence.

Whatever the outcome it is, I will blame nobody…..my brother has given me the shares out of gratitude and harm is last thing he has in mind, the client cannot entirely be blamed because he is only fighting for his interest (will not judge on him since I do not know who is right and who is wrong in this business dispute) but in this case, because of his act, he has harmed somebody that he has never met before and has no feud with……and the thing is that he is not even aware of it.

Lost & Found

Today I found back an old friend whom I have lost touch for more than 10 years on face book. Isn’t that amazing!

However, my topic is not about losing and finding a friend……….but while updating her on my recent developments tonight, it strikes me that this is probably the most appropriate description for what I have been through the last one year.

In 2009, I lost my job due to the financial crisis but I found back a few pieces of my life. The 6 months of freedom from the rat race had brought me back to those days when I had a lot more curiosity and aspiration for the non-materialistic pursuits in life. I actually had time to venture out of my comfort zone to join a humanitarian group to travel to Thai borders and Myanmar to do some voluntary work. Even if it was just 2 weeks in total i.e. 3.846154% of a year, it was a good start and more than what I had done for over the last 30+ years! Hopefully, this is not the peak….should it be so…then it will be really regretful.

Another good friend that found the way back into my life is Mr. Reflection. Most urban dwellers in this city is so busy chasing the corporate ladder, that they have little time to reflect on their life and what is happening around the world. I started this blog especially for this good friend of mine, because I think this is one way to make him stay.

I am not sure whether I found the 3^rd and last piece yet…..because I am honestly abit reluctant to face this old friend. It must have more than 20 over years ago when I had this ambitious goal of finding some light in the world of religion. My plan was to study and understand some of major religion to eventually decide on which is the most worthwhile following. However, the search ended after a rather frustrating encounter with a particular religious group. I am somebody who believes that Faith can come only after Enlightenment (i.e. that my doubts can be clarified rationally), else it would just be Blind Faith. Therefore, since I was unable to complete my task (as a student, there were easily more pressing task to focus on…..such as your examinations!), I decided that the best religion for me is none. All these years, I have been avoiding this friend as much I can but various encounters in 2009 seem to draw me closer to him. Is it time to complete the unfinished task? It is a huge task……..