This PESKY Pandemic !

 This PESKY Pandemic !

Blame everything to this pesky pandemic, almost everything in our lives have changed the past year.  Our worlds have not only turned topsy-turvy, some of our worlds even turned upside down.  Suddenly, a big number of the workforce are out of jobs now and while in the Third World, that impacts basic needs for food, in the western world, there are equal earth-shaking tremors with mortgaged houses are now on the line.

A year after the floodgates of this pandemic did break out, still, this is no time to cry on spilled milk.  This IMF piece @

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/12/rethinking-the-world-of-work-dewan.htm?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery highlights how this 'pandemic is accelerating a shift toward more informal and precarious work'.  And what woke me up in this IMF piece is that blunt statement that we need to 'seize this emergency as an opportunity to build a resilient, equitable and sustainable economies'.  This is no less akin to that analogy of looking at a half-glass of water as half-full [and NOT half-empty !].  We need to seize these moments regardless if all these seem to be emergencies in nature.  Let's turn garbage into gold, losses into wins.

One too many real life stories that keep our eyes wide open.  Pilots who are now plumbers.  Flight Attendants now offering home-cooked food in front her residence.  Businessmen whose businesses were hard hit shutting down business.  Billionaires who used to be awash with $$$ but are now scampering for 'rescue plans' to extricate them from enormously ballooning operating losses, think of the travel industry, the hotel industry, lots of them being really hard hit by this pandemic.

And this is NO longer an IF but rather a MUST-DO.  We MUST re-tool.  We MUST upskill.  We MUST scale-up.  Get out of your comfort zones.  Enough of your touted expertise from your past credentials.  If you need to re-invent yourself, please do.  if you need to ramp up with a 'skills makeover', go for it, and go for it PRONTO, now.  To share with my readership, during this pandemic, I completed online courses for FREE [e.g.  Harvard Business School, University of California-Berkeley, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore,  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wharton Business School]. 

Of course we've got to live with the realities of life now.  Those RT-PCR Tests, if they are part of health protocol compliance, let's not go around it because that protects us in the first place.  Indeed these are inconveniences but c'mon, let's face this, let's do embrace these realities.  Any recalcitrant out there, you don't deserve to be reprimanded with kid's gloves.

Despite this pandemic now being hardwired as part of our keyboards, go through Alice Boyes' piece at Harvard Business Review @ https://hbr.org/2021/01/be-kinder-to-yourself

as even espouses for 'compassionate self-talk' where she strongly underscores the four elements of self-compassion wherein it is theorized that sometimes,  this self-compassionate talk leads to 'reframing a trait or tendency' [akin to perfectionism].  Boyes goes 

further that this can lead you to a more balanced view of yourself and do see things 'when not everything is great'.  From Kristel Van der Elst from the MIT Technology Review @ https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/26/1008962/how-to-plan-your-life-during-pandemic-covid-strategic-foresight-opinion/, it's akin to a covid survival guide 101 that runs as follows:  'CLARITY YOUR GOALS, CONSIDER WHAT FUTURE YOU MIGHT FACE, IDENTIFY the IMPLICATIONS, MAKE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS and REVIEW your OPTIONS, PLANS and OPTIONS'.  Lastly, and this is humbling, Boyes says 'BE HUMBLE ABOUT YOUR ABILITY TO MANAGE IN THE MOMENT'.  Well said indeed.✂

We're on a Long-Haul Flight a Thousand times Longer than the 'normal' Long-Haul Flight

 We're on a Long-Haul Flight a Thousand times Longer than the Long-Haul Flight

⏳ Like it or not, we're all onboard this looooong haul flight a thousand times longer than the usual long-haul flight I personally dread [that non-stop SQ Flight from Singapore to NY easily takes 20 hours].  And I dreaded more that U.S. flight that will stopover either at Narita or at Kimpo [and later at Incheon] Airport because that's another 3-4 hours padded on your itinerary.  But for almost a year now, we're all STILL onboard this scary long-haul flight.  Until when, only God knows.

if there is one petty bright spot to be consoled, it's the harsh reality that in the past year, that 'Great Divide' has only exacerbated.  Don't miss that blog from SMU's Hunt Institute: @ https://blog.smu.edu/huntinstitute/2020/11/04/article-summary-conquering-the-great-divide/#.YBYxB-gza5g wherein Rachel Levitt highlights Columbia U's Professor Joseph Stoglitz' opinion piece in the IMF Journal 

@ https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/index.htm wherein he gives impetus to narrow that divide in society for us, the human race, to get over the hump of this 'long-haul' pandemic.  And at the crux of narrowing that 'Great Divide' now is the need for us all to co-exist regardless of where we stand in society's strata.  For those infections which have worsened where a home quarantine is no longer an option, rich or poor, the unfortunate ones need no less than hospital attention no less.

Surely, there were times the past year when we felt never touching the ground, that feeling of being neither here nor there, that feeling of being detached of the 'goings on'.  But take it from CNN's damper @

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/01/coronavirus-pandemic-likely-to-last-for-two-years-scientists-predict.html#:~:text=Coronavirus%20outbreak%20likely%20to%20go%20on%20for%20two%20years%2C%20scientists%20predict,-Published%20Fri%2C%20May&text=The%20coronavirus%20pandemic%20is%20likely,University%20of%20Minnesota%20have%20predicted.  This outbreak will be here with us for the next two years.  BBC's tone is more optimistic though but nevertheless telling us, this will be over in two years https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53870798.  If you dread one that would throw you off your chair, take it from Lawrence Wong during the Singapore Straits Times Perspective Conference https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/pandemic-could-last-4-or-5-years-lawrence-wong that this ordeal can last till four to five years ahead simply because there's one too many more bumps the coming years before we can ever reach that post pandemic normal.

What do we get from all the thousands of Pandemic Survival 101 Guides ?  First and foremost, please DON'T LOOK BACK, never.  DON'T waste time surmising WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. That has gone pffft up in thin air.  The Pine Rest Christian Mental Health News Room prepares us during & after @ https://www.pinerest.org/a-brave-new-world-life-during-and-after-the-pandemic-blog/.  Folks, please remain buckled to your seats UNTIL THE SEATBELT SIGN GOES OFF.  So, the Cabin PA goes.📌

BTW, What is "Right" ?

BTW, What is "Right" ?

💡Life has been tough.  Blame it on our mindset.  Oh, life has been good.  Credit it to our mindset.  That exactly is the real score.  Take your pick, which mindset you have.  If you're that conservative enough always going for the status quo, we commiserate that your journey in life may not bring you that far, and closer to your dreams and goals with that 'fixed' mindset.  Have that 'growth' mindset and you'll go far, that we can bet.  Take it from Caroline Castrillon in her Forbes piece 

@ https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2019/07/09/why-a-growth-mindset-is-essential-for-career-success/?sh=1be457828b5e wherein she tweets these very messages that should hit us quite hard and deep.

Once you have made up about the right mindset, go relook into your attitude in life, in your goals,  Take skydiving.  It's as simple as either or.  If you keep reminding yourself that 'NO WAY WOULD I JUMP', you're goddam right, there's no way you can jump coz you won't in the first place.  Where you put your focus into it, overcome your handicap and hone yourself up on the pre-requisite skills, one day you will be taking that plunge, and very very likely, your maiden jump will happen with aplomb.

When it comes to sourcing and recruitment, one of the cards I play so close to my chest is this:  I go for ATTITUDE more than aptitude.  You can sell yourself as the best and the brightest candidate from the market but once I get to discern your 'chink in your armor', i.e. that spotty attitude at best, I won't have the qualms to archive your documents in those dustbins because I'd rather throw all my bets for someone with the right attitude.  No amount of rebuttal can swing me around 180 degrees.

That attitude of looking at the ultimate goal, that attitude of being motivated to sweat it out like real dogs, that attitude that will never say die even when he stumbles flat on his face, that attitude which pushes you to gasp and catch more for that breath that you're barely having, that attitude who keeps moving the goal post up and upwards, that attitude who never stops till he reaches the peak, the zenith of his dreams, those are the hallmarks of success that is fed and ignited no less by the burning fuels coming from that high octane attitude.

We can rattle off all the success stories and we don't have to sneak into the big league.  Go back to your school batches and you would realize that indeed, that Red Sea Story really happens, when the boys get separated from the men and that's when the 'cream of the crop' surfaces.  And if you're out there in the rice fields, that's when you see the rice grains get separated from the rice chaffs.  While the grains  move on with their value out there in the market, guess where do those chaffs ended ? Hmmmm, they got dumped here and there at a value that is almost nil.  All it takes is cut off that 'T' from I can't as long as you can convince yourself that you can.  

The third leg of this triumvirate of success is FORTITUDE.  No need to window dress what FORTITUDE is because this poster says a mouthful.  But briefly, it's that 'kicker' within you, that catalyst that will push you to GO AHEAD and GO even if the cards may be stacked against you.  It's like going into no man's land, a tract of land tattered with mines scattered everyone and ready to blow up as soon as you trip it.  As this thread goes deeper, please flip into LNKEDIN's piece @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140520170225-30779309-build-resilience-mental-fortitude.  That is a 101 guide to build resilience and that mental FORTITUDE.  📌

Life Inside the NBA is No Different From the Outside

 Life Inside is No Different From the Outside

💣 We are all always enamored by the glitz, glamour and grime of every story about life inside the NBA.  The superstars are the A-Listers every fan literally adored down to the toe.  But more than just the glitz and glamour, the NBA is a microcosm of what life is really all about.  From the time a rookie steps in its doorsteps until those from the 'cream of the crop' reap enormous contracts

enough to secure the future of their families, what is less shared and spilled out of the NBA are the rigors and the rough patches this bunch of 'real dogs' really go through practically the whole year till they get a respite during their summer breaks.  And year-round, save for the superstars who have bagged enormous contracts, everyone else would grind and outgrind each other.  This 10-year old piece from https://www.nba.com/nuggets/features/junior_bridgeman_20100610.html is an eye-opener that

the NBA is not the only way to gobble up the hundreds of millions you can dream of.  By 2009, Junior Bridgeman was even wealthier than Jay-Z and Kobe Bryant.  But the most lapel-grasping story was that he reached up north by as much as $200M not via the NBA contracts but by the sheer determination he eked out in thr rough and tumble world of business.  Despite being touted as the most successful sixth-man in the NBA, he cooked burgers, mopped the floor 

and helped his Wendy's employees in filling up the orders.  To think that by then, he was owning more than 160 Wendy's stores and 100 Chili's restaurants. Swinging back to our lives, this is all about RESILIENCY and that's not just a buzzword.  Treasure the relationships you have built and nurtured because what reinforces your resiliency are your relationships at the very 

core, with your family, your work subordinates.  Even when you hit rock-bottom, that's really NOT the end of the road for you.  Figure out that silver lining despite the gloominess that prevails all over you.  People do get cut off at the knees for multifarious reasons.  An illness strikes us down.  An accident hits us.  And that's the random element to being that's for sure.  And if you need to go through a massive revision, it's like the person that comes out at the other end might hardly be the same person.  Just like someone who's combatting alcoholism which is really a wretched thing to do [probably because most of your friends are alcoholics [and worst, even within your family too]].  At the end of the day, it's not how addicted you are to the substance but rather, it's how you live with it [and if you gotta stop all your drunk friends, JUST DO IT

In the midst of the gloom, do ask yourself, how wretched, miserable and futile is your life.  You got to take a pulse check, a temp check.  How do you fare and where you stand during that pulse check will nudge you which way to go, if at all.  But if you keep yourself in the fog, then you would be unable to tell when you did screw up because you don't know your direction and that sets you to make conditions for failure clear to you. Gotta fix what needs fixing, dude.🔍

Matthew 7:6 - DON'T Cast Your Pearls Before Swine

 Matthew 7:6 - DON'T Cast Your Pearls Before Swine

💊Lest I get misconstrued, this is neither a theological piece nor a pitch from the pulpit.  Instead, please allow to take a leaf from the sixth verse of the seventh chapter of the New Testament which says: 'DON'T Cast Your Pearls Before Swine'.  Simply put, you may have something good or valuable for someone else but unfortunately, that person may not see the value in it regardless all the good faith you may be manifesting.  In earnest, you may keep stretching and reaching out but if all that good faith is hardly understood or appreciated, even the New Testament tells us to put a stop to it.  Enough of that stretched patience of not giving up when there is no reciprocity, no appreciation, no acknowledgment from the other end.

Simply put, if people are not listening, stop that loop.  Instead, PULL BACK, because you end up devaluing what you have been saying or offering and yet, you kept being ignored or at worst, rejected.  From your end, you need to chase any remaining doubts away that may inevitably accrue as you keep attempting to endeavor doing something that's shaping up to be difficult and challenging.  Bottom-line is you need to have that commitment and strength of character that enables you through those times that are becoming difficult to handle.

The worst thing that could impact is if nihilism is right within us.  Unless you dump that out of your system, you have a china man's chance of prevailing once you are in a predicament that can make or unmake you.  And contrary to the misconception that nihilism is all about pessimism, that's not really the case because nihilism exists in us if we are living a life that is not purposeful in the first place.  Turning to the SMEs and experts in Philosophy @ https://philosophyterms.com/nihilism/, it just makes sense to reference this piece because what philosophers fear most when nihilism prevails in us is that it may [likely] lead to 'hopelessness, immorality, weakness and worst, destruction'.  It goes further: 'Nihilism has probably been the most universally demonized philosophy in the Western World'.

It's no news anymore to see naysayers all over the place but what behooves is for us to swing them around, win them over to your side, to your thoughts, to all the good faith and goodwill you have been extending.  Have that sense, else you will fall apart on your own.  For you to have something to aim at, you need to come to grips with a purpose that will motive you because that's all about life.  We need a purpose in life.

From this masterful piece from https://www.inc.com/sam-mcroberts/7-cognitive-biases-that-are-holding-you-back.html, it tells us, we might 'believe that your conscious self is in control of your life  but the scientific reality is very much the opposite'.  And it will take gargantuan effort for us to overcome those biases in life that will impact our lives, among others, as per Inc.com:  Confirmation Bias, Loss Aversion, Gambler's Fallacy, Availability Cascade, Framing Effect, Bandwagon Effect and lastly, the Dunning-Kruger Effect [which revolves around arrogance and egotism.  And as per Inc.com, we can conquer [or at the very least, mitigate] these biases with that four-step approach from Inc.com.    

Oh, I like this simple poster.  Sometimes in our lives, we need to build walls or doors because it could lead us to opportunities in life.  From Pinterest @ https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/417286721706504392/, 'when opportunity knocks on your door, always be willing to take a chance, because you never know how perfect something could turn out to be.

Here's the catch though.  Most of us [me myself in the past] frequently manifest that 'recency bias'.  In this interesting piece @ https://www.verywellmind.com/the-recency-effect-4685058, it becomes crystal clear that this recency bias is dependent on our short-term memory.  And that's when the risk creeps because that 'active memory' gives us that 'ability to hold a relatively small amount of memory in the mind for a brief period of time'.  And what' becomes dreadful if that recency will influence you once you grapple with decisions critical enough in your life.  With a very limited sampling, there is a high probability that that decision may not even make sense at all.  Apologies for these in-depth insights but it's about time.📯

When Things Don't Go Our Way

 When Things Don't Go Our Way

📌We always know that only two things may happen in life.  Either it goes MY WAY or the OTHER WAY, which means, it doesn't go your way.  And that's fine.  We'll be fine.  The issue is that with our human nature, once we set our expectations and then we fall flat, it smacks right into our face, we're bruised, at worst defaced.  And when we fall flat, that necessity to eke out from that pit becomes a must-do.  And that necessity should drive us to be creative, inventive and innovative.  And could drive you to be creative, inventive and innovative ?  This is when the importance of what you learn [by failing] becomes proportionate to just how wretched it is to learn it, in the first place.  Conversely, if what you're doing is working, you get what you want but there's no learning opportunity for you in that.

When I came back to my native country more than ten years back, my favorite gadget was my own blackberry.  And when I received my business phone, it was another blackberry model.  Two years down the road, BlackBerry as a business was literally obliterated from the landscape.  Kodak was another business giant who monopolized the global market for the longest time and no amount of competition could cause a dent from its tight grip of the market until it lost sight of its innovation drive. Palm Inc was another giant who monopolized the PDA market until it went south, following the same tragic path of BlackBerry and Kodak.

And this leads us back to that pit hole where we fell.  And the ground rule tells us that if you're not getting anywhere, you're not doing the right things.  Instead, you tend to keep on doing the same thing over and over again even if you are not even able to extricate yourself out from that pit.  The thing is, when thing are not going your way, be focused on finding that light.  With no vision, you will drift away.  It all boils down as to how you conceive the limits of your being.  And it's only you yourself who would put up that ceiling, that limit that constrains you to go beyond.

Whether we swing from us individuals to business entities to governments, unless and until innovation is at the centerpiece of one's masterplan, nothing will progress, nil, zilch.  Twenty years ago, that Bus Rapid Transit [BRT] was already in full swing in Jakarta.  Twenty years after, the brightest minds of another Southeast Asian country have been grandstanding about their plans to implement their local version of Jakarta's Bus Rapid Transit [BRT] and government hearings to approve a gargantuan infrastructure budget whose number kept moving upward north till this Covid pandemic hit us all and voila, that local government shifted their focus for other multi-billion projects.

Bottomline is if things are not working out within the box, 'THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX'.  Don't just work but work hard.  Work hard with tenacity.  You gotta change your life.  Look back months back or a few years back.  How many times you were swearing to QUIT smoking, STOP drinking, ABANDON gambling and all those vices.  For the more mundane things, how many times you went on that weighing scale.  And before you know it, you are so equipped with excuses left and right as you keep looking for your way out.  Problem is, if you don't push yourself in a position to change, you would know well that you are capable to do it but you just wanna do it.  And to console yourself, you keep telling yourself you'll do it the next time.

To navigate in life, asked yourself these two basic questions:  WHERE ARE YOU and WHERE ARE YOU GOING.  By your own reckoning, you need to take stock of things, figure out what needs some work, what needs some fixing.  Once you get it, what's your 'damn plan' ?  And can you convince yourself that is not a plan of a 'babbling fool' because if you didn't figure that out, likely it is.  And you end up living that out, that wretched plan.

Ludwin von Mises, the noted Austrian economist and sociologist capped it all: 'INNOVATION is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public'.  Straight from the press, going through this very recent piece from C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago @ https://jungchicago.org/blog/author/cgjungchicago/ Carl Jung declared that you're always in a story regardless whether you know it or not.  The catch is that if it's someone else's story, you will end up with a 

bit part [and worst, it may not be what you want] whereas if it's a story you don't know, it might be one with a not so good ending.  At the end of the day, it's you who would know what's best for you.  And whatever you figure out, we need to be serious in making things less wretched than what they are and that's when you could pull that off.📌

C'est La Vie, C'est La Fin, C'est Le Debut

 C'est La Vie, C'est La Fin, C'est Le Debut

⏳ C'est La Vie, as the French expression goes, means 'SUCH IS LIFE'.  Problem was [or rather, the real problem at hand IS], many of us seem to have literally subscribed to this French expression for the longest time.  When this Covid-19 pandemic did hit us all, everyone sang C'est La Vie like an Hallelujah Chorus.  What happens after we ran the refrain of C'est La Vie, we accept things with folded arms, with a resigned demotivation, doing nothing, exerting no effort, Worst, in a resigned state, many of us become 'more French than the French' themselves when we scream C'est La Fin. which means THIS IS THE END, whew !  Such a pitiful state indeed if we condone this detestable way of facing this Covid.

Are we part of Sponge Bob's legions of blind fans !@#$? Unfortunately, much as we don't want to take you away from being part of Sponge Bob's 'legionaries', we loathe it if we will handle the stark realities of life in this manner.  Simply put, we are NOT done and done !  We got enough cards laid on the table.  We got one too many options our eyeballs can really stare at.  It's for our taking.  And we should NEVER give up just because Covid is literally all over the place now.  Instead, this is the time to regroup, to reconvene and harness our energies, singularly and even collectively as a community.  Unfortunately, you and I, we all can't be faint hearted in the face of this pandemic.

It's mind-boggling but who would have thought that this pandemic will literally click a hell lot of our vertical industries and business, from the travel industry down to leisure.  Pitiful and miserable, cinemas have closed down and it has caused beyond just a ripple effect because with cinemas shut off, movie productions were almost shut off as well and we commiserate the hundreds of thousands way laid from work as part of the entertainment industry's drastic downsizing.

Enough of this sermon from the pulpit, though.  Question is, what do we do next when everything goes SOUTH ??? A LOT, as in, A LOT.  I personally, I rediscovered a hell lot of opportunities.  I recouped one too many missed opportunities in the past, all due to my fault, my miss.  And what were those missed opportunities ?  It's reinforcing and strengthening relationships, both within your immediate families and your 'extended families' at your workplace.  

Yessirrreee, despite the fact that almost everyone is working from home for almost a year now, we are as guilty as someone accused of treason if we will [falsely] claim that our relationships at our workplace weakened and went down the drain, all because of this pandemic.  NOT AT ALL.  Instead, we should turn this pandemic upside them.  Let's turn the downsides into upsides, and I MEAN IT.

But before you get deluded with a hell lot of fiction, never miss out weaning things out, FACT versus FICTION.  Those peddlers of fake news, they suddenly sprouted out in full force the past 3-5 years.  Please DON'T easily and quickly succumb to the self-proclaimed experts who have sprouted like mushrooms during the rainy days.  Blindly subscribing to the tons and tons of FAKE NEWS is, unfortunately, happening all over, especially to the ill-informed, less educated populations whose ONLY ACCREDITED source of news is ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that is SHARED in Facebook. 

And before I get doubted to be one of the peddlers of FAKE NEWS, this poster comes from the World Health Organization @ https://www.who.int/southeastasia/outbreaks-and-emergencies/novel-coronavirus-2019/fact-or-fiction.  Having said this, what's there to lose if Mr Google is touting all the benefits of turmeric ? Going through one of my favorite daily morning browsing Malaysia's New Straits Times , this piece really caught my eye because this article was sharing the writer's experience while going over to the Chow Kit Market [i.e. 3 decades ago,

Chow Kit was notoriously 'famous' for something but that's in the past though because these days, I agree, it's really that typical market we wanna go to]. See  https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2021/01/659965/traditional-remedies-are-about-giving-comfort-hope.  And today's piece from the New Straits Times brings me to this FACT or FICTION, as to what 'from home' countermeasures can we bring on in the face of this pandemic.  So, please DON'T fall prey to those BAD BOTs because there's a lot of them [beware those Facebook Shares. BEWARE !]

Going through one of my favorite daily morning browsing Malaysia's New Straits Times , this piece really caught my eye because this article was sharing the writer's experience while going over to the Chow Kit Market [i.e. 3 decades ago, Chow Kit was notoriously 'famous' for something but that's in the past though because these days, I agree, it's really that typical market we wanna go to]. Visit this enlightening piece in today's 

NST:  https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2021/01/659965/traditional-remedies-are-about-giving-comfort-hope.  And going through dollars and cents, in the local [wet] market, ginger costs $4 per kilogram whereas Turmeric costs about $1 per kilogram.  What could explain this huge disparity ?  It's all that fundamental law of SUPPLY and DEMAND.  Where demand goes up, the supply gets gobbled up fast and obviously, prices end up going north.  With turmeric, seriously, myself and my family are benefiting both financially and 

health-wise.  What's $1 for a kilogram if that helps you shield from this scary pandemic.  So, who says C'EST LA FIN, another French expression which means IT'S THE END.  Let me shoot down the naysayers and the self-proclaimed experts of doomsday.  It's NOT C'EST LA FIN.  Instead,  i'll cling to another French expression, C'EST LE DEBUT, this is just the beginning.  

Bluntly, frankly, let me end this marathon piece by saying this all over.  Let us NOT sulk and indulge in self-pity and outright resignation all because of this pandemic.  We gotta realize the tons of realizations that have surfaced in the midst of this pandemic.  Here's my SHOUT OUT: C'EST LE DEBUT, THIS IS THE BEGINNING !!!😀😀😀