Way Out of the Box

 Way Out of the Box

Good Sunday morning.  May I ask, how often do go WAY OUT OF THE BOX?  If you throw back that question to me, let me give you a brutally honest answer.  NOT OFTEN.  And if you will chase me with WHY?  I'll not pass the buck to anyone else but myself.  WHY?  Simple.  It's ON ME, all my fault.  Maybe because it is human nature to be complacent when life is not that bad.

 As the old cliche goes, IT TAKES A VILLAGE.  My simple put back is this.  Generally, we are triggered by what we see around, hence IT TAKES A VILLAGE. And during those time when we have a brilliant idea, it can take some convincing to have others onboarded.  Whether it is a group project or a business process reengineering at the workplace,  IT TAKES A VILLAGE.

So, how do we really start THINKING Out of the Box?  Here's where I want to quote American actor Dwayne 'THE ROCK' Johnson who states that 'MY WORK, MY GOAL, MY LIFE, IT'S LIKE A TREADMILL.  AND THERE'S NO STOP BUTTON ON MY TREADMILL.  ONCE i GET ON. I KEEP GOING'.

In life, it is one thing to be hungry, it's another thing when you're starving for greatness and you're starving for success.  Often times in my life, a DOOR CLOSED and a WINDOW DIDN'T OPEN.  The only thing I can attest to was CRACKS and through sheer determination, I'd do everything to get through those CRACKS. 

What sets apart great athletes like Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Tiger Woods, among others?  Well, for most athletes who get injured, they'd say "I'm going to wait it out for the next 3-4 months.  But for the great athletes, they will find they have an eighth and ninth gear.  a gear which probably they've never gone before.  And what pushes you further to the precipice is yourself, your mindset to go Way Out of the Box✅✅✅

Goodbye PHISHING, Welcome VISHING

Goodbye PHISHING, Welcome VISHING

Yes, we need to bid adieu to PHISHING. Goodbye PHISHING, Welcome VISHING to borrow these pictures extracted from my banker's ALERTS today.  Indeed, while I may have heard of all the tons of tricks these fraudsters have up in their sleeves.  T'was the first time today I ever heard of the coined 'VISHING'.  Sounds scary, indeed.

For novices with all these jargons, let me enjoin you to, at the very least, understand what each of these jargons really mean.  WARDIALING sounds scary enough because the fraudulent automated messages could be emanating from even within the bank's infrastructure or from within the confines of a legitimate business. Remember Bangladesh when its central bank got hit with almost $1bn in that cyber heist?  And who were the brains and instigators?  Forensic investigators were led to 'digital footprints' and malware.

And how about fraudulent calls via VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol]?  This is as scary as it can be because when it happens, it is cloaked by the legitimate calling number, and that could be any of the federal or state government numbers. Or, it could be the legitimate number of your financial services company.  Isn't that much scarier?  How can that happen?  Here it goes.  The network infrastructure of that legitimate organization was breached  so an external calling number will "PASS-THROUGH" the legitimate voice switch infrastructure of that organization, whew!

And how about CALLER ID SPOOFING?  It is that fraudulent practice of causing the telephone network to indicate to the receiver of the call the originator of the fraudulent call is a legitimate one.  What happens when you receive a call purportedly from IRS?  Of course you'll pick it up because that's the TAX MAN, right?  Not until, in the post-mortem, you'll realize that you got caught by CALLER ID SPOOFING !  Frankly, I have been receiving CALLER ID SPOOFING calls, probably averaging once a month.  How do I handle it?  I simply ignore and refused to pick up the call.  In short, NOT IN YOUR PHONE BOOK means I got to be registered in your phone book first.

Now, how about DUMPSTER DIVING?  Sounds funny but this is happening everywhere.  Fraudster will literally scour the trash and garbage, scouring for documents like credit card SOA's, bank SOA's and to the wantonly careless, they even dump a damaged ATM or credit card, oblivious that those card numbers [and your full name] is all what they need to replicate and clone such cards.  Hey dude, to be FOREWARNED is to be FOREARMED✅✅✅

Making A Difference

Making A Difference

Making A Difference, is it feasible in olur daily life?  The old school of thought tells us that to Making A Difference, you got to be from the moneyed, Tier 1 class ofa society.  But that is a thought riddled with one too many holes because in the very first place, while MONEY TALKS, it is NOT the only option for us to be Making A Difference.  Too bad many of us got waylaid and off-tracked, believing that Making A Difference is all about $$$$.

One segment of society whose heads remain unbowed are our unsung heroes from the academe.  Especially if we talk about the teachers in the Third World, we need to realize how these tireless teachers are the undisputed lot who would literally toil and spend long hours preparing us as we progress towards higher education, readying us up for adulthood, ready enough to stand on our feeble feet to face the endless string of challenges in our life.  Besides the teachers, it is a wide open field for us all to claim the mantle of having made a difference in life, if at all.

So, how can we be Making A Difference?  At the workplace, it is sharing your wisdom to the newbies, to the rookies so to speak.  Guiding them as they try to earn their spurs early on in their career will go a long way for them to shape up into becoming their respective success stories and those 'opportunities' to be Making A Difference does NOT end there.  If you come across situations of a 'square peg in a round hole', then roll up your sleeves and guide them.

At the very least, it may not even cost you at all, not even a penny to be Making A Difference if you can stand out and be an INSPIRATION, a role model to the newbies at the workplace.  And how can you end up to be an INSPIRATION?  Besides 'walking the talk', sharing your storied career and even your many 'down' moments, all your fumbling acts and failures in the various pit stops and how you ended up overcoming and rising up on your feet will be enough triggers for you to be an INSPIRATION.

And the most misconstrued stance is to STAND OUT for you to be Making A Difference.  It's NOT even about gloating and swanking your successes because the most inspiring because life is all about getting out of our own respective shells, STAND OUT and NOT just to be counted but to be Making A Difference✅✅✅

When Things Get DICEY

 When Things Get DICEY

Good day, folks.  Today's piece should NOT come out as alarming given this barbed wires.  It's more to accentuate where we stand when things get DICEY.  Not often but surely, we all went through that wringer, that DICEY situation of being neither here nor there, those moments when you want to move forward but you're locked from doing it

Oh, I did had those 'DOWN' moments when literally you're DOWN and you want to rise up from the ashes but just CAN'T.  CAN'T not because you refuse but maybe the circumstances around you inhibit you from doing so.  Indeed, those DICEY moments suddenly freezes everything.

If you're still in school, you could have succumbed to your parents' marching orders that you should take this course and not that course.  But you wanted that but at the same time, you just CAN'T afford to displease your parents.  Or probably at the workplace where your job role is the least you like but you happen to be the family breadwinner.  And that's tough performing tasks you least like [or worst, tasks you abhor and detest].  Or if you're an entrepreneur whose business was so seriously impacted by this 2-year pandemic such that your P&L has been in the RED and yet you just do not have that intestinal fortitude to issue pink slips to your workers as you can't endure their financial hardships.

Of course, even when things get DICEY, as this poster says, you can still TEST YOUR LUCK but will you?  To TEST YOUR LUCK is akin to tossing the coin and that gives you a 50% probability to either PASS or FAIL.  Obviously, if your back is against the wall and there is everything to gain and nothing to lose, then go for it.  But do we really want to get into those DICEY moments? We could avert those DICEY moments, right?  How?  When things are getting awry, when you go off-track, those are the handwritings on the wall that should dictate on you to arrest the skid because that is your LAST CALL❗❗❗

How Do You Manage Expectations?

How Do You Manage Expectations?

Is this a topic worth our time today?  Yes, absolutely I swear.  Why?  Simple.  Lots of misses [and sometimes mishaps] are happening all over the place all because of we tend to overlook the need for us to really manage expectations.  Oh, the devil's advocate might confront me with 'OH WE CAN LIVE WITH THAT', NO ISSUES'.  Not until you realized that you fumbled BIGTIME.

Seriously, when is the earliest time we would fall off expectations?  Could be as early as our parents unleashed us because finally we would be going to school.  DON'T get me wrong though.  Shortfall from expectations are NOT that prevalent and pervasive during our childhood.  It is when we start creeping towards adulthood when gaps and disconnects with regard expectations start to surface.  Oh, God knows how many times we fell short of expectations.

Let's rattle off of having raised expectations sometimes way beyond the roof.  When you were out in the job market, you brought out the best YOU in all those interviews.  Lo and behold you got hired for a coveted job but once you got onboarded, you had those delivery shortfalls. And who's dejected?  DON'T look farther than that hiring manager who you 'knocked off' with that A-performance in the interviews.  And do you remember when you were wooing your 'dream partner-spouse', when you were promising the moon, the stars and all ?

OR, look at yourself.  When you were so driven, so overly ambitious, you wanted to accomplish one too many too soon then only to falter because you fell short of expectations?  Or if you were a budding entrepreneur, your pre-launch was just so electric and so perfectly executed by your marketing experts but when your operations started to grind, your initial customers hardly became repeat customers.  Would you know WHY

Frankly, in life, if our performance meets expectations, that runs alongside $$$$$ and try faltering and fumbling, the $$$$$ will go on a skid.  So what's the FIX for this?  Be TRUE, Be REALISTIC, Be PRAGMATIC, Be GROUNDED, Be RATIONAL, Be LEVEL-HEADED.  In that manner, we can avert DISMAY, DEJECTION, DISAPPOINTMENT.  This is no rocket science so you'll be fine. dude ✅✅✅

Either You Have It Or You DON'T

Either You Have It Or You DON'T

Oh, I relish and cherish those times in the past when things were more like an EITHER/OR kind of thing.  But that was from the not so distant past.  Today, we all grapple with the harsh realisties in life that it's Either You Have It Or You DON'T.  Gone are the days when you can fiddle with your fingers then pronto, you got aces up in your sleeves to play.

It's true that a lot can be learned and honed in life but what is there to hone if you DON'T have it in the first place?  How can you ever dream receiving an INVITE to the NBA Summer League or at least the G League if you DON'T hoop in the first place.  How can you be a techie when you faltered and fumbled in your I.T. courses.  How can you be a dependable lifetime partner if by yourself, you can't even take care of yourself.  How can you be a budding entrepreneur if you can't even put in a semblance of order with your cash flows even as a laymen.  So, this poster says it all:  YOU CAN'T PUT A CROWN ON A CLOWN AND EXPECT A KING.

Let's take a budding student who wants to pursue a medical career which obviously requires tons and tons of readings and memorization.  But what if he's been perennially struggling with his reading and memory capabilities?  Will you just push him towards that career track if he is just utterly decrepit and helpless with those innate capabilities? Either You Have It Or You DON'T

Now, let's go down to basics.  If you want something sharp enough at your home, obviously you got to have a knife.  No matter if it's so rusty and sharp-less, you got to have it in the first place.  Back to our domestic lives, if you ever dreamt for a stable and life-long partnership with your spouse, you got to have the embedded traits of that partner/spouse you envision. 

So you think you're worth it?  Perfect, then, as this poster says, IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT SO WORK IT YOU'RE WORTH IT. That was quite a mouthful but we just need to call a spade a spade Which reminds me of cases in the workplace where someone has been angling for a promotion but hey, that dude is better known for his flops and fumbling acts that breach contractual SLA's.  So, this is non-negotiable really.  If you want to progress and get out of that stagnation, you got to ask yourself if either you have it or you DON'T❗❗❗

Do You Have the 'LUSTER of a GEM'?

Do You Have the 'LUSTER of a GEM'?

Oh, everyone does love gems.  And what pulls them to gems are its luster.  BTW, do you have the 'LUSTER of a GEM'?  You may be a student now or an up and coming member in the workplace or someone eyeing to woo a partner for the longterm or a budding entrepreneur.  Regardless, for you to take the right first step, do you have that 'LUSTER of a GEM'?  

Unless you yourself can see that 'LUSTER of a GEM' in you, then, forget all your grandiose plans, just give up all your ambitions to be a top tier whether in school, at work, in your relationship or even in a commercial initiative.  Why?  Because that means, your ceiling may not be that high enough.  And if you are the hiring manager looking to groom someone straight from the university, why will he put all the marbles on someone who seems middle-of-the-road, someone who may not have that 'LUSTER of a GEM'?   

If you have set the bar high enough, that is most laudable but that means you got that coveted 'LUSTER of a GEM'.  Otherwise, how high is your ceiling for growth?  Obviously, that is dictated by your potentials more than anything else.  While it is NOT God-given, it is something where you need to earn your spurs.  If you DON'T look like the best partner in life, how optimistic are you to successfully woo the ideal long-term partner in your life?  If you DON'T look a 'high-flyer', why will the hiring manager gamble on you?

Truth of the matter.  You must not only be 'hungry' and thirsting for success but much much more important is that you will be perceived and compared to that hungry lion, ready to pounce on an opportunity to devour his prey but do you have that coveted 'LUSTER of a GEM'?  DON'T get me wrong.  While that is NOT a must in life, think about it with a wider view of life itself.

So, what do you really need to do?  UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL no less.  And while this is much easier said than done, how do you REALLY UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL? DON'T look very far.  Do a self pulse check.  What excites you most?  What is it that makes your heart beat faster?  What is it that makes you more gratified once it's done?  What endeavor gives you that SELF of FULFILLMENT?  In the simplest words, figure out as to WHAT IS YOUR PASSION?  Trust me, that will lead you to the very door that will let you UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL which gives you that LUSTER of a GEM.  Go for it, dude✅✅✅

When You Think You're NOT GOOD ENOUGH

When You Think You're NOT GOOD ENOUGH

Think about it, when we poured everything out, when we gave all what we had, when we exerted all efforts, when we even exhausted all our resources albeit limited and yet we seem to pause and question ourselves when we think that we're NOT GOOD ENOUGH?  Is that just fair and reasonable?  Or are you doing yourself a grave injustice for questioning yourself after you went through?

Yet it is damn true that when you start comparing yourself to every Tom, Dick and Harry, you will never cease to question your performance to date. NOT GOOD ENOUGH  may sometimes be a valid question as long as it is tossed in the correct perspective.  You just DON'T peep and sneak and when you see someone achieving something, you start to worm back and indulge in self-pity.

Instead, why can't you scream and shout that indeed you are GOOD ENOUGH? Despite your lapses and infirmities, you are where you stand right now, and while you may yet be a SUCCESS STORY now, you are on track to achieve that, barring hitting snags.  At that point, DON'T forget to SELF- MOTIVATE yourself.  Your family and BFF's can be your rah-rah team cheering you but you got to motivate yourself more than anyone else.

How to this off?  Bolster your SELF-ESTEEM no less.  That is the 'shot in the arm' you would need.  DON'T let things recede.  DON'T skid.  DON'T retrogress.  DON'T feel inferior.  DON'T undervalue what you have accomplished till to date.  Instead, look at at that half-glass as HALF-FULL instead of being HALF-EMPTY.  Call for a timeout, a ceasefire, so you can reassess things with a balanced fulcrum.

DON'T be like this kitten as well, NOT being appreciative of the food serving.  Imagine if you didn't have any food?  And as you trudge in your life journey, DON'T miss out on having those MILESTONE SUCCESSES.  They may look so small and petty 'FEEL GOOD' stories but you need that to be part of your catalyst.  As you know yourself inside out like the palm of your hands, be creative to KEEP MOTIVATING yourself❗❗❗

Are You Running On Fumes?

Are You Running On Fumes?

Who says life is all about everything shining and dandy.  Without batting an an eyeless, I'll bet that several times in ou rlife, everyone of us was like Running On Fumes.  Imagine if you are driving along the inter-state highways in the United States and you suddenly received that LOW FUEL alert when your next nearest exit is no less than fifty miles?  Will you just throw the towel and raise the white flag.  What a spine tingling scenario indeed.

OR, we might be in a LOW ENERGY scenario.  Imagine yourself just halfway through on something you're doing but at that point, you are running on LOW ENERGY, so what is your best option by then?  Would you withdraw from the race when you have endured more than halfway?  Will you just walk away from the tracks and call it a day?

If one day, there is a heightened situation at your workplace, an urgency that will require you almost round-the-clock save for meals and some power naps.  How will you handle things when you are running on fumes?  Think about it.  At some point in your journey, you may feel so zapped, so drained, so spent after investing so much time and effort.

So how do we handle extreme contingencies we all abhor to experience, if at all?  First off, reassess how much your consumption, whether it is about the fuel or your very own energy.  Turn off the aircon.  Minimize unstable throttling of the car and where possible stabilize its speed and where possible, minimize frequent deceleration and acceleration.  And avoid sudden brakes.

Simply put, running on fumes means to keep doing things even though you DON'T have much energy or resources [left in your tank].  In financial terms, it means you need to keep going even with less funds, less capital, less cashflow.  Instead, you got to remain VIGILANT despite the fatigue or to continue working despite the low energy.  JUST DO IT and you'll be fine❗❗❗

You Can Be Anything But DELUSIONAL

You Can Be Anything But DELUSIONAL

Let's face it, we are at various levers, varying layers. And with our individual peculiarities, everyone is just unique so, no one can be at fault for one's lapses and fumbling acts.  So,  you can be anything but DELUSIONAL.  You might wonder why do we need to pin down on being just DELUSIONAL?  Yes, because, we could live life on X's and O's and end up in our respective tracks but there is pitfall we got to avoid.

Yes, and that's avoiding being DELUSIONAL. Why?  Because that's a fact of life.  We have seen and witnessed numerous debacles that all ended fatally just akin to a train wreck. Then questions would pop-up.  Why could that happen?  In the grand scheme of things, it's unavoidable if someone will ask if there was a sabotage to the plan, if at all, when executed.

VTW, being DELUSIONAL is not just all about medical and health issues.  Many plans went awry even before it even started primarily because the DELUSIONAL aspect was then manifesting, albeit in a subtle way.  If you're still in school, you might have been angling to graduate with First Honors [when everything shows that you're struggling in most of your elective subjects.

At the workplace, were you angling for a CxO-level role when as a team member, you were already struggling.  Wasn't that DELUSIONAL and in a relationship, were you dreaming that your partnership with your spouse/partner will last a lifetime when tiffs evolved into fights more often than not.  Isn't that DELUSIONAL and if your commercial forays always had your P&L's in the red, yet, you constantly expected a turnaround.  Isn't that being DELUSIONAL?

So how can you be back in-track once you go off-course?  Take a deep dive and eke out your insights to right the wrongs, to remediate the misses.  Take a genuine and honest soul-searching.  DON'T protect your fat ego.  DON'T keep your misplaced pride.  DON'T maintain your baseless and  false hopes.  That way, you can be anything but DELUSIONAL❗❗❗