Networking is part of business and I think this is quite essential in any business. Networks can be to increase sales or to source cheaper suppliers. Either way, the impact of networking is vital. This is the traditional business sense. Others exploit the idea by turning the word of mouth business into a business model which is known as Multi Level Marketing or MLM. I see the idea of word of mouth marketing which is one of the best method to gain clients. However, many opportunist are using this great business model to scam people.
I, for one, did joined an MLM company years back, but I was not comfortable and is still not comfortable on how it works. Inviting people and all the works. Not that I am saying that it doesn't work, but I am more of a traditional business thinker than to rely heavily on MLM companies.
Just last Friday, I was supposed to meet a friend because I need her help in marketing. She was insisting that we meet in Madison near Greenhills around 930pm and since she was a good friend, I didn't hesitated. Upon arriving, I saw many people were staying on the parking lot which is a sign of a networking company nearby. I joined my friend as she was eating and started to catch up until she opened up about her involvement with a network marketing company. I quickly relayed my experience telling her that I am not open yet and I am busy with other matters as of the moment. She understood but her husband kept selling the business to me. No offense but as long as the business model is using Binary with whatever logic they use to defend it, I would never be interested in the business model. I did joined before and their system is better because they explained how it became like that. By the way, the MLM company that I joined way back is still strong while others closed down already.
Going back, I went there hoping to catch up on our lives and I was asking her professional help for somewhat business related but was very much disappointed on the setting. It would be very hard to be the negative molecule in a group hyped with a get rich quick mentality. I ended up asking her to meet again and this time away from their office.
I am trying to discipline myself to jog 3x a week and to make things more structured, I searched the net for a jogging program which end result could help me run a 5K marathon. Like what I posted days before, my first jog wasn't the best. It was not structured and I was quickly wasted. So far, when I tried the program, my first day wasn't as it should be because I prolong my walking. By the way, my program alternates my jog and walks for a minute or so. On my second jogging day, I was about 2 minutes off the program. I wasn't sure if this is because of my timer (I was using my iPod to estimate the time, not knowing that it does have a stop watch) or I was giving more time to my walking. However, last night, I made it a point to stick to the program and I was able to finish my whole 20 minutes. I used the stop watch and really pushed myself to jog. I know that I still have a long way to go, but I'm gonna do it little by little.
“We don’t underestimate people....Rather than making a far inferior product for a hundred dollars less, we gave the people the product that they want and that will serve them for years, even though it’s a little pricier. People are smart; they figure these things out.” - Steve Jobs
Unknown to most of my friends, I am a big fan of Steve Jobs. Yes Bill Gates is the richest man on Earth and he started the software industry by introducing D.O.S. and Windows. However, I find Steve Jobs more creative and diverse.
I used to know Steve Job as the founder of Apple, however, when I heard that he was fired from his own company I started to doubt his capabilities. Also, there was a time that Apple was losing the computer war and they would really need a miracle to turn everything around. For some unknown reason, I stumbled into a forwarded mail with Steve Jobs' great speech in Stanford. This made me realized a lot about him. I started to admire his vision and passion. His message was straight and inspiring. I would say that my mentality now is somehow inspired by Steve Jobs. Recently, I found a video in youtube. I will embed the video here and paste the transcript of his speech. Hope he can inspire you as he inspired me...
Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
During college, I was a gym addict and jogging was my primary cardio next was basketball. I love jogging because it helped me build my endurance. Unfortunately, after college, I never found a nice spot to run and never found a nice inexpensive gym.
just recently I made my mind up that I will be joining a marathon within the year. I will start with 5K first and hopefully by next year I can do 21K. Just last week I tried jogging in a stadium and I was wasted. I jogged for a total of two rounds and walked for 4 rounds and those two rounds were separated by 1 round, 1/2 round and 1/2 round. Talk about losing my touch. Though I was wasted but I feel great. When I got home, I started searching for jogging programs that could help me attain my 5K marathon goal. I started my program earlier this evening. Hope I can sustain this and if I lost enough weight, I will then hit the gym. Good Luck to me.
Just last week, I was talking to a good friend about stuff when we came across our goal on our fitness this year. My friend is very active in the gym and is doing a pretty good job. While for me, I planned to start hitting the gym again late last year but I had certain concerns. First was my search for a nice place to do cardio. I am never a treadmill kind of guy and I need to lose weigh. Second was that I got sick around end November where I was supposed to enroll on a gym near my place. I was coughing like a dog up until last week when I got an antibiotic prescription from a doctor (Yes I never went for a check up until my cough was waking me up in the middle of the night) . Now going back, while we were talking I blurt out my intention to jog in a near by stadium (just recently got access) but I was saying a lot of things. My friend said a line that made me realize a lot of thing. The line was "Maybe you are just making excuses not to do it". True enough, I think I was just making excuses. So I quickly decided to start jogging and I did manage to jog. Aside from jogging, those words were like wake up call and now I am trying to do everything and not make excuses. Now that is a bigger challenge.
Yesterday afternoon, I received an SMS from my brother telling me about a great song titled "Castaway". This was performed by Franco and other members of this band consist of different musicians from Urban Dub, Parokyani Edgar and others.
Last night, when I got home, I remembered his text so I checked out the music. Knowing my brother, he has a weird taste in music because of his "trying-to-be-unique" taste. I was amazed so WTF! The song fits my genre because it sounded like bands that I would listened to. Also, the vocalist looks a lot like the vocalist of System of a Down. I was amazed that I now found a new song that I could add to my "mp3 obsession" list.
Just this morning, it dawned to me that my brother never really like listening to OPM. Give him a backstage ticket to Eraserheads or Rivermaya, he will just sell them or give it away. This was the first song he mentioned that he actually liked. So the bigger WTF would be my brother slowly recognizing OPM bands and slowly liking their sounds. WTF again!!!
Personally, I can see the progression of OPM that they slowly sounded more like foreign songs. Not that I think it should be the case, but the mere fact that you people mistakes them from a foreign band makes these bands great.
Will be posting a new entry on how I perceive the progression of OPM into a better sound. To end this, here is the youtube video of Castaway by Franco. Chill, relax and succumb to the beauty of the song.
I am once in love... not with anyone. I am once again in love with Psychology. For those who do not have a clue, I graduated with Psychology and Business Management. Brief history on why Psychology...
During high school when we were asked by our guidance councilor to choose a degree which we think we wanted to pursue in the future. During those times, I was becoming more open with people. I can easily connect with people and conversations were not a problem. Behind those encounters, I slowly became more curious in the human mind. I asked questions a lot and I was seeking answers on why people think differently. CSI and Crime nights were the last straw that pushed me to get Psychology as a degree. My parents must have wondered why but fortunate enough I got in a University that offers double degree programs. Thus, I also took up Business Management knowing that a Psych Degree is not enough here in the country.
I did enjoy my Psych classes more than my Management classes and I practice my management side now more than my Psych side. However, what made things more interesting was that, I found a hobby that is focused on my Psychology. I slowly succumb to it that I would consider it a part of me. I was opened to new doors of this wonderful science. There are much to learn by I need to focus on my career first. Then my learning in my hobby slowed down.
Just recently, I started watching TV series and I took an old DVD in my collection and started watching it. I became hooked, I became obsessed. The title is "Criminal Minds". How they tackle the issues, how they uplift and use Psychology is a work of art. There were a number of TV series that I do enjoy watching but I would say that this show made an impact to me. My view in the use of Psychology is wide and this TV show rekindled my passion for Psychology. To add, the format of the show usually starts and ends with a quote from a famous person which I consider as guiding wisdom.
I do hope I could have the time to learn more on this field which answers a lot of question in my mind.
To start, I will be posting quotes from different authors as a guiding light.
The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it. - Carl Jung
My plans seem to be working. Not as perfect as I want it to be but the slight differences is still great. Currently, I am in Phase 2 of my master plan. Hoping that this will pull through and I am working my butt off for this to go smoothly. However, the there are still missing pieces of the puzzle. I do hope I can fill all the puzzles soon for this phase to be executed smoother. Think...think...
I used to follow the tradition of having some New Years Resolution on the start of each year, however, this year things were quite different. My belief on New Years Resolution is about changing for us to be a better person. Fortunately unfortunately, I started questioning myself a few months back which led me to my dark times. I was able to focus on a plan and what I wanted to do for the next few years. I decided to change what is not working hoping that things will change. Unlike others who waits for New Year to change, I think we should, on a regular basis, try to access our life and see where we are and where we wanted to go.
Do not wait for New Years to change. Time is not reversible.
Am I getting dumber? I was chatting with a stranger this morning and when I asked her "what do you do in your spare time?" She quickly answered "Sleeping." I was being polite and was trying to be interested, though I find people giving those answer stupid because there are a million and one things anyone can do that are production rather than sleeping, so I asked her "Why sleeping? Do you lack sleep?" Her answer was "Yes, cause I work for a call center and I was in night shift." This made me think... maybe she is a Team leader thus requiring her to work more hours but I highly doubt it by the way our conversation progressed. I politely asked her "How many hours is your shift? You seem to be working more than 8 hours." She answered saying "8 hours our normal work shift. Why are you asking my hours?" Now I wondered why would she lack sleep and on her spare time she would sleep... looking at it logically, 24 hours less her 8 hours shift would give her, 16 hours left. Of which, I could assume that 3 hours could be for travel time, 2 hours for lunch dinner and snacks. She would still have 11 hours left. If she sleeps 8 hours, then she would have 3 more hours to spare... now if on her spare time she sleeps, then meaning she would be sleeping for around 9-11 hours a day? I became curios on what other activities she does that would not be categorized as spare time... Her answers were, chatting, checking mails and cooking. Her definition of spare time is time you have before sleeping. So using her logic, if I chat for 2 hours then it is not considered leisure time? If I read a book mid day on a Saturday, then it is considered doing something on my spare time?
Yes I may attack this logically, but am I wrong with my logic? Then, what is considered as spare time?
I was hoping to have a last post before the new year but it seemed that I was busy replying to people texting me. Not that I was bothered by it, actually, I was quite flattered that these people did remember to greet me. The Christmas holiday has always been a much celebrated season here and it also does give me a chance to recalibrate myself. This is the season where I usually plan what I need to do next year, thus, the new years resolution. However, I entered my "dark era" earlier and I was able to create a plan that I will follow. Maybe because I made plans that I will stick to earlier on that I don't feel much the spirit of Christmas. Nothing new and nothing to expect. Funny thing was thatmy sister and I were trying to escape certain things that we do not want to face. We were planning when will we join our family in their vacation and when will we go back to manila. The whole scheme was fun and we were able to signal each other to help pull us out whenever we get stuck with our uncle's/aunt's crazy ideas. For some reason, spending time with my sister made me miss having her here at home. I connect more with my sister than my brother and those few days we spent together during this holidays gave me a peace of mind knowing what happened to her and what are her plans in the next few months. This holiday wasn't that crappy at all. Thanks to my sis for both the talk and the meds... oh yes we were both sick.
