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Travel to Vietnam- Prelude

Posted by You Teck - 25/12/08 at 10:12:29 pm

It’s being quite some time since I last traveled aboard and I thought that it was about time to make some traveling plan. It all started with some random discussion about doing backpacking in one of the South East Asia countries and when we started to zero down on the list of countries Vietnam turns out to be an obvious option.

I must admit that I’ve not heard a lot of the country and I had zero knowledge on what to expect. Being the adventurers that we always wanted to be, my buddy Byran and I decided that we book the air tickets before deciding on what to do in Vietnam.

With the tickets in hand, we spent around 3 weekends doing all the necessary planning and I got to say that at the end of the 3 weeks, we don’t really have a plan (Sounds like some reality TV show).  All we knew was that there was an Island named Phu Quoc and we wanted to get there.

The initial plan was to travel from Ho Chi Min City and head northward to Hanoi but after some discussion with a local tour guide, we decided that one week was too short for us to really see Vietnam and that’s why we decided that we’ll probably head to Ho Chi Min City and Phu Quoc.

Further research shows that our efforts are futile as the local agency in Singapore were quoting quite a high price for a domestic air ticket to get to Phu Quoc from Ho Chi Min City.

Attempts to book the hotel Byran’s friend recommended was also futile as there was no response through email. With only a name card of the hotel and no concrete plans, we headed to Ho Chi Min City. Before moving on further, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Cassius for transporting us to the airport in the wee hours of 5 A.M in the morning. You rock buddy!

And so, the travel to Vietnam begins…

Update of Life in General

Posted by You Teck - 25/12/08 at 12:12:15 pm

I think the last quarter of 2008 has been excellent for me. The start of my school’s first trimester, joining Yahoo! South East Asia and making a lot of precious friends along the way.

Time really flies when you are in the thick of the action and it always seems like I was caught in the middle of doing something everytime. Busy as I might had but I thought that I enjoyed every single moment of it.

On school front, I’ve made some really great and interesting friends through my two different majors. My group mates from the Commerce module are whacky as a whole and I thought that they are kinda of interesting and funny in a good way. 3 different girls with 3 different personalities (Hello, just in case you girls check. I’ve updated my entries). I’ve came up with some interesting codename to identify them but I’m not about to reveal them here.  The friends I’ve made on my Science modules are completely different on a whole but I really enjoyed the time we spent discussing on projects and school work.

On work front, it has been a blast and I really appreciate the opportunities handed down by my bosses to allow me to explore the possibilities. Driving new projects into momentum has always being my thing and its the only thing that was driving me forward within the company.

On my personal relations part, I’ve being making up a lot of lost time with my ex school mates and close buddies. Dinners and meet ups has been ongoing at a regular basis and I really appreciate the time we spent together.

All in all, although it seems like the last quarter of the year had past like a whirlwind, I enjoyed every single moment of it. To end it off, I wish everyone a merry Christmas.

Seizing the Opportunity

Posted by You Teck - 31/08/08 at 12:08:30 pm

Opportunity doesn’t come twice.

The difference between winning and losing a battle resides purely on the general who seizes the opportunity when the moment comes. It’s a fine line that separates a resounding victory or a crushing defeat. I believe that opportunities will always drop into our lives on a daily basis and it’s just a matter of do we take it or not.

In work life there are advancement opportunities and in business world there are growth opportunities. I’m constantly surprise by the fact of the number of people and organization who will always choose not to take opportunities just so they could stay in their comfort zone.

Take an example in the business world, I wonder how on earth are most companies going to break into the blue ocean zone where so many of them are employing the sit and wait approach. It seems as if most of them are just content to be a mediocre organization so that they won’t fail or succeed dramatically.

Imagine the scenario where company A business solutions works perfectly for your company but because of increased competition your cost is increasing on a monthly basis. Now, company B comes up with close to the same business solution but with a completely new market share for you to reach out to.

Are you going to stick to company A because of blind faith and procrastination or are you going to be the first to seize the opportunity?

What’s Risky Investment?

Posted by You Teck - 14/07/08 at 11:07:54 pm

Investment is one of the topic that I discuss with my buddy frequently and most often than not, it’s about securities. It’s interesting though to note that when I mention this topic to my other social circles, their responses are mostly “But that’s very risky!”

I must first declare that I’m not an investment guru (yet) but one thing I know for sure is that whatever that you want to do that requires first-hand experience which you do not have is risky.

Take the example of a very experienced pilot giving you a brief talk on the mechanics of flying and then expects you to fly the plane after that. Is that risky? You bet! Consider this analogy in securities investment, do you think it is risky to trade in something that you have no clear first hand experience and solid knowledge on?

The point I want to emphasize on is that if you do not have a very clear knowledge of the task you are undertaking then there will definitely be in risk in it. Merely hearing from someone that these stocks pick are good is never enough because at the end of the day it’s your own money that you are putting in.

Getting precise knowledge before making your investments choices and then using it to gain first-hand experience will definitely decrease your change suffering a major financial catastrophe. To end this post, here’s a very useful phase I’ve come across from the book The Entrepreneur Investor, “Eyes believe what they see; Ears believe others”.

Do you live by “Social Expectations”?

Posted by You Teck - 20/06/08 at 02:06:16 pm

I’ve always believed that our childhood period is the time where we are most innocent and free. It’s the period where we have great dreams and goals we want to fulfill. It’s the time where we don’t give a hoot to what other people think.

Isn’t funny that all this “freedom of thoughts” and dreams come to pass as we grow older? From the time where you’ll say I can be a “bla bla bla” to “it’s never going to happen”. Suddenly, it doesn’t really matter what you really want because you realize that it’s perfectly comfortable to agree with social expectations.

So, when did all this social expectation ideology come creeping into our lives? For me, I believed it all started when we began our primary education. It’s the time where adults will start comparing us with the other kids in the class. Comparison will range from behavior, results and even ambitions. Suddenly it’s not ok to be yourself anymore because you have to start pleasing the people who matters to you.

It’s really sad when this shift of mindset occurs because of the lost of real talent. Imagine a kid’s dream is to become the bravest fireman within his city but because of social expectation that he should follow his dad footstep on becoming the next CEO of their company, he has to forsake his true intentions.

Once the coating of social expectation becomes very thick a false sense of identity will devour us and a lot of actions or conversations created by us will have a fake aura around it. The most condemning thing about social expectations is that it makes us response to other people’s reaction rather than portray our own views at all times.

Take the simple example of a group discussion, have you ever encountered a situation where you had a different opinion from the rest of your group members but for some reason you decided it was better to follow the crowd instead? Well, that’s social expectation working at its best.

Another solid example of social expectation can be displayed through our career or education choices. Most of the time our heart will tell us to go for the choice we really want but because of comments such as “Oh come on, are you sure?” or “Haha, I can’t imagine seeing you do that”, we tend to back out on our earlier decision.

Other factor where social conditioning comes into action is in our romance life. One clear example of it is the real decision on when we should settle down and start a family. There seems to be this invisible rule where you got to somehow settle down by the age of 28-30 or people around you will start ringing the alarm bells. Thus, it doesn’t become your decision of wanting to get married at that age but it’s the social expectation decision.

For me, I don’t care about the expectation of others and whatever decision I choose to make, I make it because I want it to be that way. What I want to conclude here is that if you’ve always be living your life according to other people’s expectation, maybe it’s about time to ask yourself what you really want because I firmly believe that’s where your real freedom lies.

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