Leadership...an ongoing search

Woah...got my off today! Slept till 11+, guess I am really burnt out. But have to go back to my stuffs soon. I need to quickly move my teams. Publication team, Forum Team, International Affiars and the HR team. Yup..the various department in ECO.

This brings me to a point on Leadership. I am still searching for it. Infact, I have been searching for it for awhile. My quest for this had made me learnt a handful of things that is required of a "Leader". SAF advocates Leadership as one of the requirements needed as an Officer. Going through the officer course, the thing i learnt from there is about leadership is that he/she need to be able to handle situations and do the "right" choice. Choices that benefits the bigger picture, no matter how unpopular it may be.

Back in school days, being involved in various clubs and activities taught leadership by saying "A good leader must first be a good follower". So what does it really mean? It was also told that not all follower can be a leader. Why not? So how do I know if I am a follower and not a leader? I still question that today.

After leaving school, out of SAF, in ECO, I have failed many times. I have ran away from problems before and have came back to fix things (However, Ihave to admit I still run away sometimes. But I come back faster each time). Also, I have gone through a handful of projects and handled a lot of volunteers. Slowly, in ECO, it came to me that leadership is about "Bringing the best out of your team". Well, people might beg to differ, but this is my opinion. It is about taking time to meet up your team members one by one, know them, understand them, position them to their strength and built their confidence and their profile. To bring them to the next level and help them built their strength so they can excel in that area.

I followed the later theory of my own and found joy in my role as the president and head of various things I do. And this has given me strength to keep taking up such role to develope the people around me.

My search or quest does not end here. There is more than just that in leadership i believe. But for now, my "Leadership" style that I have adopted are as follow:
1. Bring out the best in the team and individuals
2. Listen to them
3. To be respected and well liked are different thing. No point being well liked and not get things done to only loose respect and credibility.

That's for me...for now. What about you?

My short story on leadership for today.

Adios!

Dreams and Ideas....it's how bad you want it to be a reality.

waddya know! I got recall to work yesterday when it was my duty off. Oh well, no choice. I signed on the line and gave my life to the air force. Just doing my due i guess. Look on the bright side, someone thanked me, that's a good enough reward.

Today, I'm going to share the power of dreams and why some remains the way it is and some becomes a reality. Same for ideas too. I had a conversation with Ryal, another mentor I claimed to be, and a new friend he recommended me called Abby. Abby has a very interesting concept on "Reality Travel" that is exactly what my organisation's International Affairs would like to do but we term it as "ECO Tourism" and have it incorporated with our Sustainable town building. It just suddenly struck me that we are just talking but we already got ourselves very excited to make it happened. But this has happened one too many times, to one too many people. All talk but no action. All of us have to agree that this always happen to us. We have tons of wonderful ideas, million dollars worth and some very inspiring dreams. But how many of it really make it to reality? Ever happened to you that when something someone came up with was what you thought of earlier but just that you did not execute it. Yes, it happens to all of us. You and me.

Weng, my first mentor as stated in my first blog this year, thought me the same lesson and my second mentor, a successful financial advisor. One called it as the "Motive" while the other call it the "Desire" respectively. Basically, it is how bad you want it to make it happen. Willing to give what it takes and take the first step to get it into action. Most of us are endulged in our life or what is infront of us that we do not bring out Dreams or Ideas to the next step. My first mentor has called off our partnership for the third forum many times along the way because he felt that my interest have faded. He kept insisting on my motive. And how badly I want things to happen. It made me ponder. This was one of the few lessons Weng taught me that I will not forget. He kept cutting me off and spiked me into thinking and I kept pestering him and not willing to let the whole thing go. I wanted it bad but not bad enough to move further. But this little episode has made me thought through how important it is to want it so much that you can see, smell and feel it and you will not give up. It gives me the strength to barge through walls after walls and to continue moving on. Before barging through all these walls, I have learned to picture what I want to see at the end of it, no matter how many walls there are. I just keep moving. I guess this is the lesson he taught me that made the third forum a success that allowed me to earn my 5mins worth of speech infront of Sir David King, principal of Singapore Management University, their staffs, and all the participants. Thanks Weng.

Ryal have also reiriterate that it is called focus. To see the target, lock on and fire! I am the missile and the target is my designation. I will only go forward! Nothing can get in my way. My financial advisor mentor calls it "Desire to have it". Whatever it is, it is as said previously, how bad you want it to happen. And taking the calculated risk to go for it. Next would be getting the right people in the team and work together on it.

Another short story to bring up the point is my very first project I did back in school days. I sent my proposal to 1,200 people and companies, changing it time after time to improve on it to finally get a sum of SGD1,800 (about USD1,000). If I didn't want it bad enough, I would have given it up, maybe the 200th time? Or 10th time? Each time I failed, it was a lesson learnt. But I didn't take up this lseeon untill I hit about my 150th proposal that I sent out. I wanted to give up. I wanted to resign. I thought my perserverence has given me enough to do so much and that is all I can do. Theni thought through, by chance of miracle, the words "Failure is the mother of Success" struck me that I have let all these "Failure" go to waste. I relooked at them and take each rejection a challenge and eventually I got my reward. Little it may seem to most, but it is the first little step of confidence it has given me. Later in life, my financial mentor taught me that we need to fail faster in order to succeed faster. I couldn't agree more. If 9 out of 10 business fail, it means I only have to fail 9 times. So the faster I do it, the faster I hit the successful 1 out of 10.

Well, that's all for now...cycling off to power98 to get my radio interview that was aired over last year's Christmas eve.

TaZzzZzzzz....

Our potential...

Hmm...was having dinner at Cineleisure and went to the new mac shop to to take a look. It's like an "IKEA" shop for Mac. EVERYTHING IS THERE! I'm using a 15" G4 Powerbook and I have this temptation to buy all the protectin stuffs there is for my notebook. I wanna protect it because this little lappy has been serving me well.... I love me MAC! :P

Just had a conversation with a friend and he reminded me a story I'd like to tell about "Our potential".

It was back in my officer training days. We were in Brunei jungle survival and there was a part of the training where we had to live in the wild for a few days. Then, we'd be taken out of the site to somewhere and navigate ourselves back to base camp.When we were taken to the "somewhere", we were given some new food raion and fresh water supply and grouped into teams. Each of us carried our own food and some stuffs to support our navigation part of this training. Things like Signal set and battries, spare battries, map, compass, extra water supply, small signal sets, smoke grenade and stuff like that. I happened to be carrying the battries of the signal pack, the spare batteries. So we were walking up and down with our limited resources and strength. We had to find our way and we had to work in teams. There are fast one and slow ones, some good in map reading and some morale booster who will help to motivate the team. So in a team ,we trekked, walking up and down the hills, forestry. And we made lots of mistakes. But it was ok, we pressed, we trust our path finders. We had a few breaks and discussed and shared ideas. Then one of the team members look rather worn out. He was the signal pack carrier. The signal pack plus the batteries is heavy but it is a necessity to carry and keep constant communication with HQ to let them know we are safe. And if emergency strikes, we can contact them for help. I was holding on to the spare battries. I took over his pack and pour my battries into that pack and told him to take my pack with the food supply only. Then we started to travel. From the first few on the team, i fell behind to the last few in the team. But i went on. Suddenly, I fell on my knees. Then i told myself, "Gotta go. can't stop.", then i lifted myself off the groud. I realized that my mind had pushed me off my limits. Or at least I presumed it. So i continue walking, then to test it again, i told myself, "argh...tired..." THUD! I fell on my knees again. Then I told myself, "The faster we go, the earlier we can reach base camp and we can all rest." Then my legs somehow found strength to stand up again. Realizing how interesting this finding is, I tried it a few more times to confirm my presumption.

My point is this, one's potential can be easily unleashed when you set your mind to it. Trust in it, believe in it, and it will make things happen. How miracles happen is because in a critical situation, the person just focus so hard on getting something done, that things just happen. It is your mind power. It is unleashed! Go to thousand and one seminar and motivational talks and they will tell you the same thing. You are only who you think you are. You don't have to go into a crisis to unleash your stregth or potential, you can do it now. Just focus. BE it- Be like you have already achieved it. Tell your mind you ARE it. DO it- Then act like you are it. HAVE it- Then you will have it. And when you have it, it will enforce your thinking that you are it. It's just that simple. BE-DO-HAVE!

My little story to share today...taZzzzz.....

The recorded speech

Found a place to upload the speech. For those who are interested, feel free to download it. It's about 50mins and the file is 46MB in size.

WARNING: There are at least about 20 "OK"s used in the first 5mins. Your ear has no problem.

• SRJC Speech

Importing my previous blogs...

Have learnt slightly more about this blog today. We can actually set the dates. So instead of going to my previous blogs, I'm gonna cut and paste it here and using the same date and time as when I blog it. So you guys who bother to come here..thank you! You can scroll down more.

Haha....slping liaoZ. TaZzzzz.....

whew....done~

Yup yup....finally delivered my speech. Leg wobbled and tongue tied. Having the whole JC1 Cohort staring at me looking at what I can offer them. Thinking" Why is this guy gonna talk about?", "Who is he?", "It's gonna be boring!!!". I can't help but try to get everyone's attention. Then I took a deep breath, told myself that not everyone would be interested. So long as I can get as much people who are interested or some partially interested, and inspire them, that's good enough.

The script that I had prepared, I threw it away on the stage after 2 sentences. I slowly break up these stories into bits. Part by part I shared with them. And when we reach the Q&A portion, it was quite rewarding to get some very interesting questions that helped me to share more. And at the end of the whole session, a handful of 10~20 students come forth to ask more and how they can get involved. I have recorded my whole speech and I'm looking for somewhere to upload it so those who are interested can listen. Hope it doesn't bore you and kill ya...hahaha! And just note, the first 5 mins I was really tensed, I used the word "ok" for more than 20times. And I got the audience to close their eyes and imagine stuffs, that was also to buy me time to calm myself. For those who hate to close your eyes, lucky you weren't there! haha!

While sharing, it sent a great sensation down my spine. It made me feel good. Real good. If i can inspire them and they do great things or eventually find their purpose in life, I would be thrilled. I really wanna work on my presentation skills and be a great motivational speaker...

After the session, a young boy named Kai actually continued to have me talk to him. We went to the canteen and I shared more with him. The sparkle in his eyes was the best reward I can ask for. I can't believe I had actually inspired him so much that he wanted more. Just like a spoonge, he kept absorbing. It was cool, and he compared me with his elder brother.

I told him, "I can choose to be like most people on the street, living it day by day. Find a job and do what most people do. That's it. But that would be against my concious. I know that deep in me I want to do something big. Something that can make a difference to people's life. I cried at pri 3 almost everyday to ask myself what is my purpose in life. This thought kept haunting me. At that age, I told myself I just want to do good things. Create jobs for people and make people happy. And it wasn't until after I left poly that i finally found the sentence to state my purpose in life. I want to create a sustainable lifestyle and culture. "

The speech is about 50mins including the Q&A. To most, you guys may find it a pain and not listen to it and for some you will listen to it halfway and for some, you may complete it...whatever it is, listen at your own RISK!!!

That's all for now. This has been a very interesting and challenging day. I will improve and do better next time.

TaZzzz.....

SUPERMAN

supershield
Originally uploaded by wilson_ang81.

My Idol since young. The insignia of justice and truth. I guess that's why I always try to be one and don't stop working, sleeping only about 3 hours to maximum of 5 daily. Think it's catching up on me. Recently, I have to have more rest and my health has failed me. I need to live a more healthy and disciplined lifestyle.

Nonetheless, I will still work like one. To make a difference to this world and to save this planet by doing my little part to create a sustainable lifestyle and culture.

Superman Returns will hit the big screen on 31st June 2006. I can't wait! Thou the actor don't resemble Christopher Reeves, but well, he looks ok. Reeves has lived up to my image of Superman. He is one by himself and his dream and passionate is something I will never cease to remember and learn from.

Check out the show at http://www.supermanreturns.com


Tatazzzzz..

Journey to the West Bunch

On E MRT
Originally uploaded by wilson_ang81.

Okiez..during the event, we are the "MRT Bunch", always travel..westernly...haha. Bo bian, we are at the extreme east of Singapore, west is the only direction. From Left: Yifang, Elaine, ME, Victor, Shyarul. Infront: Wan.

Check out their blogs too...hahaha.

First time can upload foto..enjoying it lots! Ha! Only can use flickr coz mac cannot D/L the "Hello" software.

After the whole event entertainment

After the whole event entertainment
Originally uploaded by wilson_ang81.

After the event, Giving Tree @ North East, before the contractors tear down the site, we had our XBOX linked up to a projector and use a stage speaker for the sound. EXTREME!!!

Docent retreat and the 5 new strength i discover of myself...

Today I woke up late and got to my Docent retreat late. Oh, I am also a volunteer with the Singapore Zoological Gardens Docent (http://www.szgdocent.org) as the head of Recruitment and Training or RATS as what we commonly term it in the organisation.

The retreat is meant for the executive committee to plan out what to do next for the year and also a time to look at where we are and how to move on, how to motivate others forward as a volunteer. This retreat was unlike the previous years. We have a professional trainer and had tried to compress as much information as we can on leadership and team efforts. A compressed course which also teaches us a handful of stuffs on the technique used to trouble shoot problems in the organisation. To think of what we really want in life, the importance of mission and vision and how these things can help us reach what we want. How powerful dream is and how a clear vision can get us to work towards our goals. All of these through various interactive games and explanations.

Some of it mey not be new to be but it had certainly helped me to further fine tune what I want in life. As in my previous blog, my life rotates around this sentence, "To create a sustainable lifestyle and culture". Whatever I do will not deviate away from this general guide. Afterwhich, I had two of my ex-trainees whom have graduated successfully as a docent last year. I shared with them on my vision in life and also how the organisation operated and why I had started this up and how it drives me on. It was really a great sharing session. It sortof boosted my confidence on tomorrow's tasks.

oh, I've recently bought a book call "Now, discover your strength". It's a great book and it had an online accessment of about 180 questions and not allowing you to take more than 20 seconds for each question to judge what your strength is. It also brought out a very valid point, about our vocabulary. If we really sit back and think, we actually have a whole list of vocabulary words on negative attributes that we used to describe people of ourselves. But when it comes to naming of strength, it is so much lesser. We usually hear, "People skills", "sales skills" and stuff like that. But all of these description are so, vague. Hence, they have taken out 34 theme of strength that people have and used the survey to allow the candidate who sits through the surveys to be able to access their top 5 strength and work on it. I was surprised to find mine. They are in order of the strongest to the weakest;

Communication
You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information-whether an idea, an event, a product's features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson-to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.

Relator
Relator describes your attitude toward your relationships. In simple terms, the Relator theme pulls you toward people you already know. You do not necessarily shy away from meeting new people-in fact, you may have other themes that cause you to enjoy the thrill of turning strangers into friends-but you do derive a great deal of pleasure and strength from being around your close friends. You are comfortable with intimacy. Once the initial connection has been made, you deliberately encourage a deepening of the relationship. You want to understand their feelings, their goals, their fears, and their dreams; and you want them to understand yours. You know that this kind of closeness implies a certain amount of risk-you might be taken advantage of-but you are willing to accept that risk. For you a relationship has value only if it is genuine. And the only way to know that is to entrust yourself to the other person. The more you share with each other, the more you risk together. The more you risk together, the more each of you proves your caring is genuine. These are your steps toward real friendship, and you take them willingly.

Woo
Woo stands for winning others over. You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you. Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. You are drawn to them. You want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest so that you can strike up a conversation and build rapport. Some people shy away from starting up conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. You don't. Not only are you rarely at a loss for words; you actually enjoy initiating with strangers because you derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection. Once that connection is made, you are quite happy to wrap it up and move on. There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet-lots of them.

Self-Assurance
Self-Assurance is similar to self-confidence. In the deepest part of you, you have faith in your strengths. You know that you are able-able to take risks, able to meet new challenges, able to stake claims, and, most important, able to deliver. But Self-Assurance is more than just self-confidence. Blessed with the theme of Self-Assurance, you have confidence not only in your abilities but in your judgment. When you look at the world, you know that your perspective is unique and distinct. And because no one sees exactly what you see, you know that no one can make your decisions for you. No one can tell you what to think. They can guide. They can suggest. But you alone have the authority to form conclusions, make decisions, and act. This authority, this final accountability for the living of your life, does not intimidate you. On the contrary, it feels natural to you. No matter what the situation, you seem to know what the right decision is. This theme lends you an aura of certainty. Unlike many, you are not easily swayed by someone else's arguments, no matter how persuasive they may be. This Self-Assurance may be quiet or loud, depending on your other themes, but it is solid. It is strong. Like the keel of a ship, it withstands many different pressures and keeps you on your course.

Strategic
The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allowsyou to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, "What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?" This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path-your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: "What if?" Select. Strike.

Interesting findings I'd say. For those who know me, what do you think?

haha...signing off for today....taZzzzzzz

first MAJOR public speech

Yup...first MAJOR one. And I thought the last time I gave a presentation to foreign government representatives at an international forum and a speech on a local Climate Change Forum was a tough one. This time, I was given an opportunity to do so my my other mentor, Raymond. Oh, the first mentor which we previously had talked about half way gave me an opportunity to address the audience infront of the VVIP from UK on a speech of the organisation and the volunteer. It was a two mins speech but i had really practiced is very hard. It was given to me because, according to him, I've earned it for the efforts put into the third forum.

Oh well, this third one was because Raymond hope that what I do can inspire other youths to also do the same. I will be at SRJC on Monday afternoon 2pm giving this speech. No time limit, no theme. Just talk to inspire the youths.

After much thoughts, I guessed I finally think I will label this talk as, "What do you want in life?" Maybe I can write what I'm gonna talk about it here sorta to prepare myself.

XXXXXX START XXXXXXX

Good Afternoon Principal, head of departments, teachers and fellow youth stake holders of the future.

Today, I've been given this opportunity to talk to all of you about what I do, in hope to inspire as much of you as possible. When I was told about this, I was both excited and tensed. To be honest, this is my first time speaking to such a big crowd. To me it is a challenge and I am glad to have taken this up and be here now. My role here is to share my little experiences I had been through for the past 24 years of my life.

To start off, I'd like to ask everyone of you to take a moment to think through this question that I am going to ask you. What do you want in life? Some of you might have thought of it and for most, you might not have. But if the later which is the case, should you start thinking of it now? Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Say 20, 30 or even 40? What do you want to do? What do you want to achieve?

Just last friday, I asked an SAF Scholar this question. His was, to do the best in whatever he does. And when he asked me the same question, I told him, "Bro, you gotta be prepared for a loooong answer". And his reply sortof brought me into deep thoughts. He just said, "In one sentence. What you want in life should be put in one sentence." Looking back at what I am doing, what I am heading and the plans I have already laid out for myself, I told him, "I want to create a sustainable lifestyle." He replied, "the you will need to get people to understand what 'Sustainable' and 'lifestyle' means". I replied, "Sustainable=Using today's resources w/o jeopardizing tomorrow's or other's resources" and "Lifestyle=making an everyday decision".

So, what is yours?

Some or most of you will choose being "Rich". But think again, how rich is rich? What is meant by rich? Is it 1 million, 2 million or 1 billion? I have met a handful of very successful businessmen and woman who are in their 40s, well established and "RICH" they call themselves. But is that it? Is life about just being rich? At their age, they crave for something more important in life, they look for something to fill them up, they look for a worthy cause to champion or live for. I call them the lucky bunch. They were freed from the financial "burden" early and had a chance to live their dreams. If you know the 80/20 rule, they are the 20. What about the rest of the 80? The work hard for money only to end up complaining that it is not enough and yet time and again getting into more debts and end up being enslaved by their job. Their dreams? What they want in life? For those whom I have known, they just take the dream as a dream, they just want to get find a better job and get rich quick.

I remember engaging with a good old friend just before I wanted to tender my resignation from the Air Force. He told me that not everyone dared to go after their dreams. And I was lucky. For them, they are bounded their financial situation.

I have brought up some of these dreams related examples because I have realized how important it is to dream and go for it. Getting rich is only a mean to reach your dream. Or you don't even need to be rich to reach your dreams! You just have to live it. I've learnt from one of my mentors, quite a famous guy on finances that, "It's not how much you earn, it's how you manage it and how much of it goes to the bottom line every month." "How?" some of you may ask, my advice, simplify your lifestyle, it's that simple.

Another mentor I had in life taught me another important rule, "It's about giving." And if you study most of the rich people out there, they give. I've accepted that to get you must first give. So I cringe whenever I hear people saying, when I have enough money, then I'll give. So how much is enough? Giving doesn't come in term of monetery, it can be in terms of heart, times and even words. Words like "Don't worry, I'm here" means so much for those who are in the verge of life and death. Put it this way, if you don't give your time by working, how do you get paid?

Because of the dream I chose, a group of friends and myself setup a NPO,NGO called Environmental Challenge Organisation (Singapore) or ECO for short. It targets at youth like ourselves to be able to get us realized something called Global Citizenship. To have environmental issues looked at holistically and how we need to change our lifestyle to have a more sustainable future. Look around you, why is oil prices going up? Why does poverty prevail? Why is the climate changing? Are you the problem? Or do you want to be the solution? Your day to day decisions will make a differences. We don't need you to make a major change, we just you to make every change count. Small ones at a time. Bit by bit. That is enough. But how many of us really bother?

Our mission, To increase AWARENESS in environmental issues HOLISTICALLY in order for YOUTHS to choose sustainable LIFESTYLES. How we are going to do it? By getting youth to be more aware of global, regional and local issues through hip and innovative and interactive means.

Eventually, I will setup an empire to deal with all the research into sustainable development, a foundation to support such efforts and a system or degree that is called "Degree in Sustainable Development". I want to be able to create jobs to be able so that for those who need a job can bring home the dough and for those who inspire to do more research in this area can be in the R&D department. In all, I want to change the culture and create a sustainable lifestyle. Being clear on my dream allowed myself to be clear in the jobs I choose. Since i want to setup an empire or a coporation, I need skills like management skills, strategic planning, marketing, human management, leadership and so many others. And when I choose my job, I look at what I can learn about in there, I look at the job if they allowed me to learn skills I need to succeed in life. I sometimes even offer some of my mentor my time for free. "Crazy" some of you might term it. Infact, that's what my dad called me. But if you can see what I see, you will come to realize it is not. It's planning to be what you want to be. So what is your dream? What do you want in life?

I hope I what I have said could make you ponder a little more today, even for just that few seconds. It all starts from there. The rest is up to you, how you want to achieve it. In life, there are greater things than what money can buy, it is your dream.

Thank you for being such a wonderful audience and have a great holiday tomorrow.

XXXXXXX END XXXXXXX

Not sure if I will use it, but it sure helps...

that's all for now...taZzzzzz....

My cycling trip after...8 months?! Grrgh~

Ha...what do you know. I fell sick. Argh~

The last blog i had, i went for duty. Well, the next day when i returned home from my duty, i felt energetic. So happily brought my bicycle, which haven't been used for cycling for about 8 months, for servicing. Ha...went to service my bike and the uncle told me the bike is darn old and some of the parts are too tight to make any changes/modifications. So I paid about 120 bucks just to change the rear wheel along with a new gear. Well, he also told me if I were to really be keen into cycling, I can always visit his youner brother's shop somewhere at Bukit Timah, 2nd Avenue. There, is a wide range or variety of racer bike that I can choose from. But they are at least 1K in price. Oh, my bike IS a racer bike and it uses tubeless wheel. And tubeless are really expensive. The bike was given to me free by one of my colleague's husband who has at least 8 bikes in his store. He was an avid cyclist. The racer bike he gave me was the first bike he had configured himself. And based on the bike shop uncle who serviced my bike, he told me that this bike was worth at least 1K for the body. The fork, gear, breaks, peddle are worth about 5~6 hundred each. This bike was worth about 3K back then.

Happy after the bike has been serviced, i cycled it home. I packed up my stuff to made my way down to orchard, to ECO's office. Hence from Boon Lay, I followed the MRT track and cycled to Chinese gardern, then to Jurong East and when I hit Clementi, i heard my rear wheel going "cluck cluck cluck" or something like that. Woah...something is seriously wrong. Alighted from my bike and realized my bike had got itself puntured and the air is leaking out real fast. Oh well, asked around but no one seems to know if there is any bike shop nearby. So, hailed a cab and took it down to the uncle's younger brother bike shop. In the shop the bike variety was huge! It has 2 levels and all the racer biker was like..wow!

Oh well, he did a check on the bike, he recommende I change to a tube wheel, it would be cheaper if I ever need to change the tyre. On top of that, I'd need to change by rear wheel gear again! Argh! This time, it costs me a total of 420 bucks! OUCH! It hurts my pocket real bad...

As he was changing the bike parts, we chatted and came to know that they are a family of 4 brothers. This shop is run by the 3rd bro. The one in jurong east is run by the eldest brother and they have one more in Tampines which is run by their youngest siblings. the 2nd Bro works outside, he's not really into this family business.

As we were chatting, someone came into the shop, it was the youngest brother. Haha...and we all had a nicee chat. The mechanic for the shop also returned and they were all commenting about how old this bike was. And how in the 1980s this was a GREAT bike. The youngest bro told me the body is worth keeping as it is made of steel and it is really lasting. However, they all refuse to have me change all the mechanics of the bike such as the gear beside the pedals and the fork unless I am really hardcore into it. They told me if I'd gotten addicted into it, I'll see them in two month's time. I concured and went off with the newly configured bike. The wheel looks nicer and well..it just looks great. Even cycling on it feels different. Smoother and faster!

As I zoomed off, the scorching weather has suddenly started to drizzle. Then it started raining cats and dogs as I continue to cycle sown orchard. By the time I reached the bus, i was really wet. Went into the air conditioned office to dry myself. BAD MISTAKE. Shyaral visited me in the evening with a friend and sortof showed off my place to them. Oh well, then I went to sleep only to wake up next morning about 6AM to feel nothing less than TERRIBLE! Argh~ Quickly took a cab to see the doc and had an MC for the day... Well, that was Friday morning.

Felt better by Friday evening and had a revelation. An idea or another project how to educate the youth or people to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. And it has got to do with Cycling. Why not have cycling be a way of life. It is healthy, energy sustainable, less pollution and fun! But the problem is this, in Singapore, cyclist like myself have alot of problem. We are not suppose to cycle on the pedestain walk. And while cycling on the main road, it is pretty dangerous as most motorcyclist don't really notice us cyclist. I guess that's something we need to iron out and hopefully some policies can be made so that it would be safer for cyclist to cycle and hence ablee to enourage more people to cycle instead of driving to safe our environment and be a more healthy lifestyle...

Well, today we had the Docent retreat at Costa Sand function hall. It was an interesting 3.5Hrs of planning on where we are currently and where we will be heading. Tomorrow...it will be more interesting. It will touch on leadership stuffs and how to motivate the team...

Thatz all for now...taZzz

I am free now to continue..for awhile...

Ha...didn't blog yesterday eh... whatever....(oh ya, i wanted to blog yesterday but realized my work computer did not allow me to login to bogeer..sucks~)

Anyway, today I am on duty later at 5pm and I was suppose to meet my bridgade commander at 11AM but he is still at a meeting. I was suppose to have an interview by him regarding why I intend to leave service. Well, just 30 minutes ago, it has been cancelled because he was busy. (ha...how important can I get? Bah~)

Ok, back to Weng. We did embarked on the second climate change forum. Before that, he told me that he will be doing a follow up report of the forum by having an article on it. And we rallied interested volunteer and met up with the forum speakers one by one and eventually did up a publication on that. It was an interesting journey as he shared with me how the publication should work and how interviews are conducted.

Next was the july forum that we had agreed to work on. But he clearly stated to have me and my volunteers deal with getting sponsorship by writing emails to corporate partners and stuff like that. To be honest, I was hesitant. I really wanted to do MORE than just that. I wanted to be invovled in the planning and stuff like that. He was most of the time overseas and I was most of the time slow in responding because of my reluctance of the job I was allocated. I didn't know why and I didn't really like it. We communicated via email and I can feel that he was really pissed from it because I wasn't quite responsive. However, the forum did carry out but I did not get the money in. It was he who did it. The other contribution I had was just being down as a photographer.

oh ya, and it was because of him I had learnt how to use skype too...haha...cheapest way of communication. And he taught me a lesson from there, "Email cannot communicate properly sometimes. Should have a talk over the phone or in person in order to get the right message and tone across". And indeed I have been practising this till now.

We had a talk after that. Sort of sorted things out. He let me know where I went wrong and he had expected more from me. And I told him I had other expectation as well. This wasn't what I came to him for. Then he detailed out step by step why he did so and what's next. Only then did we manage to come to an understanding. Well, a lesson not gone unlearnt I'd say. So the next forum will be in October where Sir David King, Minister equivilant in a local context, of UK will be down. That will be an even bigger one. And this time I sware to myself I'd make things better. With ECO, I hunt for volunteer coordinator to do this forum, learn from it and to eventually have ECO's own forum on the Environment.

Oh well....think it's a little long now...I will continue about the third forum in the next blog when I have the time. Now it's back to communicating with some UN guys to get the organisation I am in recognized and the effort we do as well. Oh ya, if anyone who ever read my blog wants to know more about this organsiation, please go to http://www.eco-singapore.org.

Tha't all for now...till the next blog...taZ....

A new year...a new resolution?

It's been a awhile since I last blogged but it wasn't on this site. It was at http://blogs.richdad.com/wilson81.asp . So much for the promise I kept there about one year ago on my last blog. Started with lost of enthusias, but look at it now? It is so not updated until now. Since then, I have done many things in the environmental organisation I have started. This journey has changed, in many ways. As I parted this blog last year March, I have met many people that changed my life. I call them mentors. They may not know it, but I acknowldge it as such. So many lessons learnt on how to hold myself and how to manage people, how to set up a proper system, what is leadership and so much more! Perhaps I would take time to slowly talk about it in the next few days if I continue my disciplined lifestyle of blogging.

That initial blog name was "Journey to financial Freedom with RK". Now, it has turned into a life journey. The past year has been a real turning point. I met tons of people and they have played a part in me to slowly get me to realize life is more than just, being financially free. However, one should not deny that being financially free is important as well. Perhaps I am going to spend the next few blogs talking about what happened for the past year.

One of the few mentors I have met along the way is Mr Ng Weng Hoong. He is the founder and director of his own publication, Energy Asia (http://www.energyaisa.com). Many lessons he has taught me. And the uptmost important one is about promises. I met him at a forum he had organised in Ngee Ann Polytechnic (based in Singapore) and it was talking about climate change. Weng, what we all called him, is very passionate about this. He is happily married to a wife and has seen the world. He has been in the oil and energy industry for the past 30 years at least to see what is dramatically changing. From a journalist in the local leading newspaper, The Straits Times, to Wall Street Journal and to his current publication he have setup, he felt that Singapore government is not doing anything about it and felt very strongly that if we do not prepare ourselves well enough, crsis will hit and we would not even be prepared. he named 3 significant changes that will be coming and slowly, his words are coming true.

Ok, back to meeting him at the forum. Then, I wanted to start a publication within my organisation and I needed help. Hence, I just walked up to him and introduced myself. I told him what we, the organisation, is doing and stated my intentions. He was very welcoming and introduced me to the other speakers of the forum as well. After which, he promised to call me up to discuss further on how we could work on things.

Few days later, he called, as promised. We met up with his wife and has a little tea session by the Singapore River on a Sunday afternoon. It was indeed a nice relaxing day to talk over things. There, I further into details what I do and also to know him better. There, he shared why he was so passionate about Climate change and Energy. He shared his many years of experience and it was very enriching. There I was, downloading as much information as I could from his database. I grabbed as much as I could. And thru the conclusion of the little discussion was to engage in the next forum, 3months away, and from there, we'll see how thing goes.

will continue again on later...need to crash.