It's intriguing to witness the changes friends go through.
One of my friends grew older but none the wiser. He's always been a laid back sort of person. Got married with a very capable, career minded lady. When they had their first child, she made the decision to give up her career totally just to be a housewife and look after the kids.
But my friend grew more and more laid back, to the point of perhaps letting laziness creep in. His career went no where. He dabbled in business but that led nowhere as well. His wife who loved and adored this once young and ambitious man is obviously disappointed. But being Asian, she kept things to herself for she believed that once she marries the man she chose, she will have to abide by the unwritten family rules in Asians.
All of us around them can't help but sigh whenever we hear about them.
Then there's this other friend who called me the other day, after quite a long while. He had to undergo an operation recently and is literally broke now. Besides the odd freelance jobs here and there, he hasn't really had any serious work for the last year or so.
This is someone who's had his glory days running one of the most successful businesses in our line of business some years ago. Where did all those hard earned dollars of his heydays go?
I knew he had a large family to support, and is the sole earner of the family. But then, he wasn't earning nickels and dimes in his heydays either?
Planning, maybe that's what it is we all need to do.
Make realistic plans and keep reviewing where we stand and where we are with respect to those plans.
It's easy for human nature to take over, for our minds to wander off track and let circumstances dictate and lead us to believe that we're none other than puppets of circumstances playing out in our lives. We let ourselves be convinced that those circumstances must be allowed to play out their course.
These mind games hinder our ability to rationalise and we fall prey.
I myself have fallen prey many times. I myself have made unrealistic plans which ended up with dreadful results. There's a fine line between pushing oneself to one's limits and coaxing one's abilities and instincts to flourish optimally in the direction we choose.
Every day is a different chapter and evey new day brings with it circumstances, problems, obstacles, challenges etc. It's up to us to filter out the ones we need to deal with from the ones which distract, and the ones which can wait and the ones which can't. This ability to filter and discern is probably the difference between great men and women and the not so great ones.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Life - a Kaleidescope (sort of)
So much happened these last few weeks. Clients wasting money unnecessarily just because they can't put their own house in order. Greed engulfing people so much so that their prides disappear. Weaknesses of the less humans all evident from a mere test of wills.
I remember all laundry services charge a premium when we are in a hurry and needed clothes delivered in less than the time quoted by the service. But at least those clothes came back to us freshly ironed and clean. But I can't say the same for other works commissioned in the service industry I'm in.
There's this client who's fond of confirming matters only at the 11th hour and we have to put together the human and other resources to have the project completed within unreasonable timelines. It's like building a two storey house in one month, rather than the 10 months it would normally take. The foundations are shoddy, the roof will leak, additional coats of paint are splashed even before the last coat is dried etc.
And that is what this multi national corporation spanning a few countries and paying top dollars for their executives practises.
Through their own inefficiencies and bureaucracies, projects hibernate until the very last minute when they can hibernate no more. They will commission the project often leaving no time to do proper soil tests and laying foundations, no time to order the best bricks and best brick layers and so on. And with the short time given, one often has to pay more in wages to have people work overtime, double up on human resources in order to get the job done in time, and accept less than satisfactory results.
But that's what they are content on doing. This is not one project. This has been happening for as long as I've known this client. They want something done, they will get it, at all costs.
Wonder what their shareholders will say if they'd known that the company has been wasting their money in that manner?
If I were a shareholder, I would have asked why the company hire executives at those prices when they cannot put the priorities in their sights. I would have asked why Chief Financial Officer had not seen the wastages. I would have asked why they had not structured the organization in a way conducive to a proper decision making process. I would have asked a lot.
But do such companies disclose at Annual General Meetings how they make decisions? Nope. They just declare and disclose what's required of the law.
I remember all laundry services charge a premium when we are in a hurry and needed clothes delivered in less than the time quoted by the service. But at least those clothes came back to us freshly ironed and clean. But I can't say the same for other works commissioned in the service industry I'm in.
There's this client who's fond of confirming matters only at the 11th hour and we have to put together the human and other resources to have the project completed within unreasonable timelines. It's like building a two storey house in one month, rather than the 10 months it would normally take. The foundations are shoddy, the roof will leak, additional coats of paint are splashed even before the last coat is dried etc.
And that is what this multi national corporation spanning a few countries and paying top dollars for their executives practises.
Through their own inefficiencies and bureaucracies, projects hibernate until the very last minute when they can hibernate no more. They will commission the project often leaving no time to do proper soil tests and laying foundations, no time to order the best bricks and best brick layers and so on. And with the short time given, one often has to pay more in wages to have people work overtime, double up on human resources in order to get the job done in time, and accept less than satisfactory results.
But that's what they are content on doing. This is not one project. This has been happening for as long as I've known this client. They want something done, they will get it, at all costs.
Wonder what their shareholders will say if they'd known that the company has been wasting their money in that manner?
If I were a shareholder, I would have asked why the company hire executives at those prices when they cannot put the priorities in their sights. I would have asked why Chief Financial Officer had not seen the wastages. I would have asked why they had not structured the organization in a way conducive to a proper decision making process. I would have asked a lot.
But do such companies disclose at Annual General Meetings how they make decisions? Nope. They just declare and disclose what's required of the law.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Stealing your time
I'm sure all of us would have come across such thefts of our time.
They are the ones who walk into you office when you're engrossed in work. They send text messages to your handphone on the most trivial of matters. They call you just to interrupt and disrupt what you're doing on matters which could wait or could have been emailed.
Emails are good - compare to text messages to handphones - in that they can be read at your own leisure. Even people with Blackberry phones can opt to read emails at a time they choose to. They "push mail" you, but you don't have to read it instantaneously, that is the minute they are "pushes" to you.
In this world and age, it feels like we're having less and less control of our own time. Time to do things we want or need to do; time to be on our own; time to "just do nothing".
On the other hand, these time thefts are also victims to other time thefts to the extent that they're oblivious to this notion of "stealing time". They've simply "done onto us what others do to them".
What a pity. That's why I don't turn on or log on to any of the so called IM or "instant messaging" programs. Imagine you're deep into a proposal or quotation you have to complete in an hour's time and a busload of friend instant message you, or text message you on your handphone. You'll never get to complete what you've allocated time to do in that hour or so. Or worse still, a task requiring an hour to complete suddenly becomes something which can only be completed in 3 hours.
I feel that I'm just as guilty of stealing other people's time. Sometimes when I'm stuck in traffic and bored, I would invariably be tempted to SMS others on matters which come to mind. They come to mind, but they often won't need to be communicated instantly. But for some selfish reason, I chose to SMS so that it becomes one less matter to store in my brain for action.
A lot of people feel that once their email or SMS is out, their job is done. Mission accomplished. Many a times, I've had clients forward me emails from their clients or colleagues requiring attention just so that they feel they've done their jobs.
Often, these emails which they forward have not even been read or perused by them. And often too is that these emails relate to nothing I can do without their input on the contents of that email.
Blind forwarding, I call this; something I don't condone. All the staff under my control know this.
So, the next time you need to call someone, or text someone using SMS, think about how disruptive that will be to his/her routine; and most importantly, think about the effect all such disruptions and distractions on your own routine.
They are the ones who walk into you office when you're engrossed in work. They send text messages to your handphone on the most trivial of matters. They call you just to interrupt and disrupt what you're doing on matters which could wait or could have been emailed.
Emails are good - compare to text messages to handphones - in that they can be read at your own leisure. Even people with Blackberry phones can opt to read emails at a time they choose to. They "push mail" you, but you don't have to read it instantaneously, that is the minute they are "pushes" to you.
In this world and age, it feels like we're having less and less control of our own time. Time to do things we want or need to do; time to be on our own; time to "just do nothing".
On the other hand, these time thefts are also victims to other time thefts to the extent that they're oblivious to this notion of "stealing time". They've simply "done onto us what others do to them".
What a pity. That's why I don't turn on or log on to any of the so called IM or "instant messaging" programs. Imagine you're deep into a proposal or quotation you have to complete in an hour's time and a busload of friend instant message you, or text message you on your handphone. You'll never get to complete what you've allocated time to do in that hour or so. Or worse still, a task requiring an hour to complete suddenly becomes something which can only be completed in 3 hours.
I feel that I'm just as guilty of stealing other people's time. Sometimes when I'm stuck in traffic and bored, I would invariably be tempted to SMS others on matters which come to mind. They come to mind, but they often won't need to be communicated instantly. But for some selfish reason, I chose to SMS so that it becomes one less matter to store in my brain for action.
A lot of people feel that once their email or SMS is out, their job is done. Mission accomplished. Many a times, I've had clients forward me emails from their clients or colleagues requiring attention just so that they feel they've done their jobs.
Often, these emails which they forward have not even been read or perused by them. And often too is that these emails relate to nothing I can do without their input on the contents of that email.
Blind forwarding, I call this; something I don't condone. All the staff under my control know this.
So, the next time you need to call someone, or text someone using SMS, think about how disruptive that will be to his/her routine; and most importantly, think about the effect all such disruptions and distractions on your own routine.
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