Category: Life Lessons

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Life Lessons Personal Finance

Multiple Stream of Income

Are you currently earning from multiple streams of income? How many income streams do you currently have?  How many ways does money come to you? 

Some people rely only on their job to earn money.  That’s their only stream of income.  The danger of having only one income source is that once you get fired the money stops and you are forced to find another way to earn money.  This is even more risky during a recession because it is harder to find another job.

Other people earn very high income using their specialized skills.  Doctors, lawyers, dentists, architects, consultants, small business owners earn a lot of money – which is good, but for some, it stops there. 

Most professionals have only one income stream – working using their specialized skill.  If they stop working, the money also stops.  When their skill becomes obsolete, they are forced to accept a reduction in pay to make money.  Or worse, to shift to another profession.

The few who are really rich in both money and time, have a different strategy. They build multiple streams of income.  They earn money through various ways.

For example, really big businesses like the SM malls of Henry Sy not only earn from you when you buy groceries from its SM supermarket, but it also earns income from the stores who are renting their mall space.  That’s creating multiple streams of income.

So what streams of income are available?  In what ways are other people earning residual income today?  Here’s a list of the many types of passive income streams from the book Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen.

  • Savers earn interest
  • Songwriters earn royalties on their songs
  • Authors earn royalties from their books and tapes
  • Insurance agents get residual business
  • Securities agents get residual sales
  • Network marketers get residual commissions
  • Actors get a piece of the action
  • Entrepreneurs get business profits
  • Franchisors get franchising fees
  • Investors get dividends, interest and appreciation
  • Visual artists get royalties from their creations
  • Software creators get royalties
  • Game designers get royalties
  • Inventors get royalties
  • Partners can get profits
  • Mailing-list owners get rental fees
  • Real estate owners can get cash flow profits
  • Retired persons can get pensions
  • Celebrity endorsers get a percentage of gross profits
  • Marketing consultants get a percentage of profit or gross revenue

Since the list was written about 10 years ago, it obviously doesn’t include how some people are now earning money online through the internet.  If I may add to the list,

  • Some bloggers earn money from every Google Adsense ad clicks on their sites
  • Popular bloggers earn money from paid advertisement on their sites
  • Online retailers earn money selling their stuffs online
  • Giant online retailers earn profits by selling other people’s stuffs online

How about you?  What can you add to the list? What additional income stream are you earning money from today?

Categories
Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

7 Ways to Celebrate Christmas Without Breaking Your Piggy Bank

Christmas is just around the corner.  Many of us are already planning how to spend our vacation.  Some are even singing a tune or two of their favorite Christmas carols.  Christmas in the Philippines is really special.  In fact, the season spans at least 3 months, starting in the early “ber” months of September until the misty dawns of December and even extends until the first few days of January.  What’s with the three kings and all?  🙂

With all the 13th and 14th month pays being given just before the month of December, everyone enjoys his own “extra” jolt of cash.  Suddenly, people have money to spend.  So they spend their money left and right, partying, buying gifts, busily getting into debt through the “easy monthly payments” for the brand new “ultra cool” mobile phone or flat screen TV. These expenses, if not controlled, can cause a strain on your budget even with the sudden influx of cash. Worse, after spending more money than you have, you end up needing to break your piggy bank.

 

Here are 7 ways to Celebrate Christmas Without Breaking Your Piggy Bank

1) Give your time.

Time is indeed gold.  In the world of business, it is an undeniable fact that your time is worth money.  As a contractor or employee, you get paid per hour of you time.  Your business generally earns money as long as it is open, which is also restricted by the time of your employees.  As the world becomes busier by the minute, your ability to give time is becoming more valuable more than ever.  In my opinion, your time is even more valuable than money.

So give your time.  Spend it with your family.  Take a walk.  Play outside the house.  Enjoy some time gardening.  Smell the fresh air.  Your precious time is more valuable than any gift you can ever give them this Christmas season.

2) Decorate your Christmas Tree Together

When I was growing up, we’d always decorate our Christmas tree together.  Most of the time, we’d use indigenous materials as decoration.  We would use white soap for a snow.  We would pick up stones and wrap them up as candies and hung them under the Christmas tree.  One time, we even made a “parol” (star) out of banana stalks.  It was a lot of fun and we didn’t even have to pay a dime. 🙂

3) Sing Christmas carols with your friends

There was a time when me and my friends would go out at night, knock from door to door to sing a Christmas carol or two.  Our neighbors being so kind and gentle would give us coins and gifts.  We enjoyed it so much we even brought our musical instruments along. We had a lyre, a trumpet, drums, and my favorite – a home-made tambourine made out of flattened aluminum caps.  And at the end of it all, we even earned some money from the whole thing.

4) Share stories with old friends

The yuletide season is one of those days where everyone is going to their home town.  It is a great blessing to be able to catch up with your old friends and enjoy the season together.  Long lost high school friends ask who is  already married and who is next in line.  They might even ask you to be the godfather of their own kids. There is something refreshing in meeting up old friends.  With all the stress we endure at work throughout the year, it is a very welcome opportunity to spend some time with those you’ve spent most of your childhood with.

5) Sing and dance to your heart’s content

We Filipinos are a happy people.  We love to sing! We are all singers, even if we cannot carry a single decent tune!  Everyone knows the hottest song on the radio is the Korean hit sensation “Nobody, nobody but you?!” 

We also love to dance.  Why do you think noon time shows are full of dancing from hip-hop, to modern to ethnic dance?…They even have dance contests all year round!

During Christmas, you have an excuse to celebrate.  So sing your favorite song on your videoke!  Dance like crazy! Live life and have fun!

6) Watch the stars

During the whole month of December, the cool winds clear out the clouds so the stars can come out at night!  Watching the glittering stars on a clear night sky is both relaxing and peaceful.  The stars are saying…”settle down…be calm…rest for a while”.

It is one of those rare opportunities to really reflect and reconnect with nature and the universe.  So grab the chance to watch the stars and marvel at the wonders of the world!

7) Give love!

Just like what the popular Christmas carol says…

Give love on Christmas day (Christmas day!)

No greater gift…is there than love.

What the world needs is love!

Yes the world needs your love…

Why don’t you…give love (Repeat Chorus)

Love is priceless. Love is “cheesy”. 

Love other people.  Love your neighbor.  Love your dog.  Love your son.  Love your daughter.  Love your parents.  Love yourself. 

Love is the only thing that grows and comes back to you a million fold when you give it away. 

 

Christmas is a season of celebrating joy and happiness.  Be happy! Smile!  There’s nothing that can take that away from you.  Not working on a night shift on the eve of Christmas day.  Not enduring the very long ride home just to catch your family’s Noche Buena.  Not even your problems on work, money or family. 

You dictate how to celebrate Christmas.  You alone can make it the best day of the year!  You have the power to give, to sing, to dance, to share, to love, to be happy and smile!  You can do all these things…even without breaking your piggy bank.

Categories
Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

How to save money on drinking water

When my wife and I moved to a new condo a couple of months back, we were having
a hard time looking for a place to buy drinking water.  On the first week, we had to buy a gallon or two of distilled drinking water from the nearby mall.  As some of you might know, distilled water does NOT come cheap. But we had no choice, we HAD to buy the distilled water because we badly needed something to drink! 🙂

After getting fed up of carrying the heavy gallon of distilled water from the mall to our condo, I asked our condo’s receptionist if they know of any water refilling stations nearby who deliver water to the condo.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), they did!

I thought, finally, here’s the solution to my problem.   Much to my dismay, the delivery service from the water refilling station was far from satisfactory.  First, they required us to buy at least 2 “new” water containers.  Second, they could NOT deliver the water on that day…they could only delivery the next day at 7:30 pm.  And lastly, they stopped delivering to us after only refilling the water containers once, saying we should order drinking water from someone else going forward.

So we’re back to square one. 🙁

Then just last week, we finally solved our problem.  We bought a drinking water filter at a nearby Handyman store.  It’s easy to use and install.  It is safe (so far). And, more importantly, we won’t need to buy drinking water, ever again. 🙂

The cost of the water filter is PhP 2,500 – flat.  No extra charges. No recurring monthly/weekly payments. No headaches.

The filter can be cleaned just by wiping it out with a damp cloth or a scrub and washing it on a running tap water.  No need to buy a replacement filter worth PhP 1,000 unless it is broken.

I made some quick calculations at the top of my head to see if the deal makes sense.

Here’s what I figured. My wife and I consume an average of PhP 30 of refilled drinking water every week.  At this rate, we would reach PhP 2,500 pesos after 1 year and 8 months.  That means we would only get our money’s worth after more than one and a half years of using the water filter.  Hardly exciting. 🙂

But what if

  • you are ordering drinking water for your company of 500 people
  • you own a restaurant serving drinking water to your customers
  • you live with your extended family: parents, grandparents, nephews, nieces and other relatives

Imagine the savings you’ll get just by replacing the delivered/purified drinking water by a water filter directly tapped from your faucet.  What if you only get 10% off of what you currently pay for on your drinking water?  That may mean a monthly savings of PhP 30,000 for your company of 500 people.  What if you managed to save 30% instead?  Or 50%?

The possibilities are endless.

How about you?  How do you save money on your drinking water?

Categories
Business Life Lessons

5 Powerful Business Secrets Revealed from Playing the Facebook App Restaurant City

Have you ever played Restaurant City in Facebook? If yes, you might have been staring at powerful business secrets all this time! If not, then this is your chance to discover the 5 powerful business secrets hidden in this popular online social game as they are finally revealed to you!

What is Restaurant City?

Restaurant City is a popular online social game in Facebook.  Your goal as a player is to build your own restaurant.   It is both fun and addicting.  While playing the game, I discovered 5 powerful business secrets that when applied and done right, you not only win in Restaurant City, you also win in real-life!

Here are 5 powerful business secrets revealed from playing the Facebook App Restaurant City!

Secret #1:  Start small…dream BIG!
When you start playing Restaurant City, you are given a small space, enough to setup a few tables and hire a cook and a waiter.  Everyone playing the game starts at the same place – small.  When you think about it, this is actually closer to real life than it seems.  Billionaire tycoons we look up to today started from small beginnings.  Henry Sy, the richest man in the Philippines according to Forbes’ list, started with a small footwear store decades ago.  Now, he owns the biggest and most frequented malls in the Philippines.  Jollibee, the proud Filipino burger icon, started as a small ice cream parlor. Everyone starts at the same place.  It is up to you to dream and make it BIG!

Secret #2:  Delight your customers!
In the online game Restaurant City, when your customer is delighted, he will give up a thumbs up sign and your customer satisfaction level goes up.  If the customer is dissatisfied due to late service, no available chair, or no comfort room, he will give a thumbs down sign.

The more thumbs up signs you get, the higher your customer satisfaction level will be, and the more people will come to your restaurant.  The same applies to real-life.  The more people you delight with great product and service, the more people will come to you and pay you to delight them again and again.  Because they are so delighted, they will share their experience with their friends and invite them along the next time they want you to delight them one more time.  The key is to delight your customers each and every time they come to you.

Secret #3:  Take care of your people!
In the online game Restaurant City, each of your employees has its own energy level.  When your employee cooks a meal, waits tables, or cleans up the restaurant, he consumes energy and his energy level goes down.  Once your employee’s energy level is depleted, your business goes down as well.

To resolve this, you have to restore the energy of your employees by doing any of the following: 1) buy a sandwich so your employee can have a quick bite, 2) buy drinks for your employee, 3) buy a full meal for your employee to eat or 4) have your employee rest or sleep.

In real-life, you can also do the same things.  Aside from these four ideas, you can also pay them well, care for their well-being, train them and let them grow with you.  The key is to really care for your people.  As Abraham Lincoln, aptly described,

“If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what you will, is the great high-road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause.”

Secret #4:  Grow and expand!
Maximize the arrangement of your tables to serve more customers better and faster! Offer more appetizing food to level up and earn more money!  Hire more employees! These are some of the strategies in playing Restaurant City to grow and expand your restaurant faster!  This is the exciting part because you learn to optimize everything you have.  You learn to waste nothing.

As you become more efficient with your operations, your money will also grow exponentially. In real-life, some people utilize the concept of franchising to expand their business.  Others offer the same excellent service to a different location.  While the rest just simply build a larger grocery store, or a mall with annex, or a wider selection of goods.  These strategies will take you to the next level and take your small business into something BIG.

Secret #5:  Celebrate your own style!
In the online game Restaurant City, you earn money every time you serve a meal to your customers.  Once your restaurant is big enough, more money is coming to you than you can ever expect to spend.  At first, it is both exciting and a cause for celebration!  But after a while, it starts to become boring. When this happens, your focus changes from “growing your business” to “showcasing your own style”.  Buy a new set of furniture! Decorate and re-arrange your restaurant! Put your name on it.  Paint it with your favorite colors!  Have fun!  Enjoy!

In real-life, some people buy “new cars” or a “new house” to celebrate and enjoy!  Others, just continue to grow but look for other exciting opportunities to keep their hunger alive!  While the really blessed ones gain satisfaction in utilizing their growing business to serve and bless more people.  They donate to charities.  They create a foundation to help bring opportunities to less fortunate people.  They share their success secrets to inspire other people to achieve even more. As Bo Sanchez aptly puts it, “the ultimate purpose of money is to serve other people.”

You’ve just learned 5 powerful business secrets you can readily apply to grow and expand your business! Go out and play the game of life!

Categories
Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

Building Rich Money Habits 101: My personal finance story

I have always thought there’s only one formula in making money.  That is work hard and at the end of each month, you get your paycheck.  Growing up in a family of farmers, I have seen what working hard really means.  I’ve experienced waking up early in the morning, go to the farm, plant or harvest rice until the sun sets in.  When you go home after a long day of working, the aching muscles says it all.  It is HARD work.  I’ve learned from my parents that if you want to have some money, you have to work  for it.  Often times, I’d go along with my mom to harvest tobacco leaves from a nearby town, and afterwards, she’d pay me for how much I was able to harvest.  That’s always been my training in terms of making money.  That was my first money habit – work to earn.

When I was in College, I wanted very much to help my parents pay for my education.  I was fortunate to have been granted a full scholarship, so that took care of the tuition.  Even then, making money from a far away province, and spending it in the most expensive city in the country is no easy task.  It is an uphill battle similar to walking up to a going down escalator.  So in my own little way, I also tried to make money by applying as student assistant to one of the university’s projects.  It doesn’t pay much since it is a government project but enough to pay some of my daily expenses and grow my confidence.

After graduating, I immediately started work as a mainframe programmer for a multinational IT company.  The offer I got then was around 16,000 pesos which was BIG money then for someone who’s fresh out of college and don’t have much working experience.  I worked very hard and was fortunate enough to be promoted almost every year.

As my paycheck increased, my appetite for consumption also increased.  I bought a refrigerator, a washing machine, gas stove, shoes, etc, ALL at the same time, EVEN when I didn’t have the money to pay for it.  I just used my new credit card!  That’s when my debt started to pile up.  The “easy” monthly payments never lived up to its promise.  No monthly payment was easy, especially when you only have your paycheck to rely on.  As my debt seemingly increased every month, I also had to worry about paying my monthly house rental, buying groceries, eating out with friends, and more.  There were times I was so out of money I even had to do “cash advance” on my credit card.  As some of you might know, you get to pay a hefty “fee” for doing a cash advance.  This is on top of the amount of money you actually “advanced”.  My already big debt, ballooned even more!  I was so ashamed of having to do cash advance, I promised right there and then, I had to pay for my debt no matter what.  It was like a having compound interest working against me.  I had to learn how money works.  I had to figure it out no matter what.  I had no choice.

While pondering my huge debt, I tried to look for ways to earn more money.  I tried doing some programming projects for friends.  I even entered the world of network marketing, tried selling wellness products and failed miserably.  I remember that my only “downlines” (a term indicating those you’ve recruited into the business) was my mother, my aunt, and a few of my friends.  It was a learning experience.  The thing that struck me most, was that my “need” for money, was being transferred to my “clients”, without me being conscious of it.  It was hard “selling” something you don’t 100% believe in and it’s even harder when your motivation is “making” more money without necessarily helping other people.  I think this mindset barrier is one of the reasons why I was not able to make it work.  Everyday, I had to battle with myself.  Am I here to really help other people?  Or is it just because of the money?

One time, while me and my friends were hanging out at a bookstore, I saw the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.  I heard my friend say it’s a great book, so I bought it, took it home and devoured the stories and financial lessons in the book.   The book opened my eyes to the world of money I never knew existed before.  That’s when I realized that the rich have different sets of money habits from the poor and the middle class.  For the first time, it finally made sense why I can’t seem to be making a dent on my credit card debt; why I can’t seem to sell anything at all.  Because I had the wrong money habits.  I had to learn rich money habits to achieve financial freedom.

After that, it got me excited to learn more about money. First, I signed-up for our company’s savings plan.  I started really small. At first, only about 2% of my paycheck is automatically deducted and kept under my savings account.  I don’t even get to hold the money.  After a month, I increased it to 5%, then to 10%. After a year of saving, I was able to set aside 20% of my paycheck without necessarily scrimping myself too much.  That was rich money habit #1 – pay yourself first.

With the savings, I had, I was able to pay my debt slowly buy surely.  More than that, it gave me confidence to know that I can do it, with the proper discipline and rich money habit.  When the opportunity came for me to be assigned to the US for a 6-month stint in my company, I was able to save even more and pay-off the rest of my credit card debt. That was rich money habit #2 – get out of bad debt as soon as possible!

I also started to take serious notice of the numerous calls I got from insurance agents offering life insurance.  Before, I would always make up numerous excuses just to avoid talking to them.  But now, I wanted to know more how I can use the different insurance products to protect myself and my family.  I also started reading more on business, money, investing and personal finance.  After a few years, I managed to save up for an emergency fund.  That’s rich money habit #3 – Get some protection!

I’m still a long way to go from financial freedom.  That is my goal.  I am in the process of learning how to build passive and semi-passive income, and I am loving every minute of it.  In this website, I will share whatever I learned so that you too can build your own rich money habits and ensure your financial success and freedom!

Categories
Life Lessons Money Mindset

Finding the song in me

It’s been a while since I tried to listen to music on my ipod.  I miss it.
It’s very refreshing to hear the music play.  The rhythm makes my heart
soar!

Sometimes, there are so many things that concern me.  My head is spinning
and it is going nowhere. It’s hard to relax.  It’s hard to make sense with
anything that’s going on.  In moments like these that I want to raise my
hand and say “God, take charge”.

I am a man of a few words.  I am more comfortable with silence.

How does it feel to sing a song you can relate to…finding the spirit that’s
been buried a long time ago.  To revive the fire that’s within.  To bring
passion and excitement everyday.

Oftentimes, I remember having a great time when I was a child planting
vegetables, dreaming for a bountiful harvest.  I am a farmer by heart.  That’s what my
parents taught me.  The value of hard work and earning your way, they taught
it to me everyday.  You have to work for it, they’d always say.  I saw how
hard they worked.  And that’s what I also did, hoping that it will give a different
results from what I already saw. They had enough. But so little time.

Having more money, meant less time.  Why can’t I have both?

Both money and time.  That’s the goal.  To pursue those things that excite me.
What excites me?  What are the things that make my heart beat faster?  What
are the activities I enjoy doing?  What seems to be playing for me?  What is
it that gives me joy even without the money?

What it is that  I want to be, that I want to do, and things I want to have.
Be – do – have.

The key is in being.  Being the best that I can be in everything that I do.
Being the owner, not the boss.  The goal is to focus on efficiency, minimum
effort with maximum result.  Work on tools to make things
easier.  That’s what I want to do.  To be able to make sense of this world,
I need to be free.

Free to do WHAT I want to do, WHEN I want to do it, WHERE I want to do it.
That is the goal.  The goal is to be FREE! Free to do the things  that excite
me and minimize those things that don’t excite me.  This is my goal.

Is the pursuit of happiness supposed to be lived without the enjoyment of
the moment?  Life is an illusion.  I need to watch out what I believe in.
What I think.   What I speak.  Watching the words coming out from my mouth,
there I will see what it is in my heart.

Looking at my life now, I know that one day I will be free.  And that
moment is coming.  There is freedom.  And it is possible.
I don’t have to do things that I don’t want to do, that don’t make sense to
me.  The goal is to be free.

Categories
Life Lessons Money Mindset

Fighting the heavy rain

Yesterday night, there was a heavy rain.  Being in the middle of Mandaluyong City, this meant only one thing – flood.  When I woke up at 5 in the morning, the rain was still pouring.  Since I had to be at the office by 6:30 am, I hurriedly took a bath with my eyes still wanting to go to sleep.

I had to wear boots just so I can walk through the flood.  I was very fortunate, because the water was only about knee-deep.  I reached the gate and prepared myself for a long wait for a jeepney.  After minutes of waiting, a jeep finally appeared.  It was moving very slowly mainly due to the heavy flood.

For some of us, this is just an ordinary day.  For some, it is a day for fighting.  Fighting the forces of nature.  Fighting for survival.

I wonder whether we’ve grown so accustomed to floods that we practically never thought there might be other places where flood is unheard of.  Where rain is a sign for celebration.  Where life grows by the drop.

Rain on a very hot summer day.  That would be nice.

Categories
Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

5 tips on how to fish effectively – things I learned while fishing at Taman Jaya Park

Recently, my wife and I went fishing with our friends at a nearby park walking distance from Taman Jaya LRT station.   It was  Saturday morning and the sun has just risen.   When we got there, there were already many people jogging around the area.   We hurriedly went to look for a place to put the food our friends prepared and start eating.  Didn’t I say we love to eat?  We had lots of fun eating, laughing and enjoying the experience.

Our friends brought along some fishing equipments they bought from Pudu.    So after we finished eating, we went to look for a place to cast out the nets and start fishing.

tamanjayapark

Use a bait the fish loves to eat

While we were preparing, I was surprised to know that the fishing rod we were using only has a net.  It did not have any hook or anything similar to that.  At first I had some doubts whether it could really catch some fish.  But I was soon proved otherwise.  My friend just catched a big fish with that same net without any bait!  I guess the fish was that hungry.

But that was the only fish we catched that day.  In comparison, the other guy beside us had a bountiful catch.  Every other minute or so, his fishing rod would go up and another fish would jump out of the water.   When we saw the basket he had, we were amazed to see it overflowing with maybe more than a dozen fish.  It made me think, what was he doing that we were not?  Then I noticed, he was putting something which looked like a bait on his fishing equipment’s hook.   I could not exactly tell what it was at the time what but when I saw him scraping something green at a nearby stream, I realized it’s moss.  Aha!  Maybe that is the secret!

Use a bait the fish loves to eat.  It seems obvious now just talking about it.

When I was a a child.  I had a fond memory with my Dad as we went fishing at a nearby fish pond in our school.  At the time, we used earthworms as bait in a hook to catch some fish.  In no time at all, the fish were devouring the bait we put into our fishing equipments.   Starting then, I knew fish loves earthworms.

At another time, me and my college friends went fishing at one of my friend’s fish pond.  As I was looking for an earthworm to use as bait, I came to realize that we were suppose to use leftover bread instead.  Initially, I didn’t think fish would like to eat the bread.  I thought they liked only earthworms.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the fish were as eager to eat the bread as if it were an earthworm.  They were attacking the bread ferociously and in no time at all we’ve managed to catch a lot of fish for a sumptuous lunch.  I guess in that part of the world, fish loves to eat bread!

Go where the hungry fish are

At one point, we cast the fishing nets near where we were having a picnic even though it didn’t look like any fish was nearby.  We waited for quite some time while were were busy eating hoping that maybe some fish might accidentally bump into one of the nets.   We had finished eating but the nets were as empty as before.   There were no fish in the area.  And there was no catch.

So after we finished eating, we went beside one of the fisherman, near a stream of water.  It didn’t take long for us to see that in that part of the pond, there were a lot of fish.   There was a school of fish swimming, catching some breathe on the surface every now and then.  More importantly, we saw the other fisherman was catching a lot of them.  We wanted a piece of the action too!

After a settling down and casting our nets, we were rewarded with our first and only catch for the day.  It really pays to be where the hungry fish are!

Learn from someone successful at what you intend to do

I guess we wouldn’t have caught that fish if we didn’t see the other guy was catching a lot.  In this respect, he was the successful fisherman.  My wife even thought he was a “professional” fisherman.  It seemed to me, here was a guy who knew what he was doing and he is pretty good at it.  Maybe someday, I too will.

Be Patient

It was a bit frustrating seeing the other guy next to us catching a lot of fish, while our net seemed to be lost in oblivion, never making any movement at all.  We went to the left of the guy who was catching fish.  No luck.  We went to his left.  No luck.  Then we went further left.  As we were joking around laughing, suddenly my friend noticed the movement in his fishing net.  He pulled it up and there it was!  The biggest (and the only) fish we had that day!

tamanjayaparkcatchoftheday

Have fun

It is no fun fishing alone.   It is exciting to enjoy fishing with friends and loved ones.  It’s a nice experience to just talk about things while waiting for the net to catch some fish.  I had a lot fun that Saturday morning.  It was a nice experience learning a thing or two about fishing and life itself.

Categories
Life Lessons Money Mindset

The Reluctant Dreamer

As I examine my life, I always seem to find some reluctance to the things I dream.  Either it is just an excuse for me to not do it, or a mental block that is hindering me from achieving my goals.

I am reluctant.  I am afraid of what people may say.  I’m not very comfortable with success.  Ironic to say, but sometimes, I feel more comfortable with silence, with soulful thinking, than on extreme emotions like an exhilirating surge of  adrenaline rush.  I have never been fond of roller coasters.  Perhaps I just want to slow down.  Take my time.  Have a nice cup of coffee.  And enjoy the day.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately on what to do with this blog.  It’s been a year since I registered akosiallan.com.   A few weeks ago, I had to renew the domain.  To be honest, I thought I might not want to renew it anymore.  Maybe I’ll just do something else.  Something more worthwhile.  Something I am fond of doing.

But maybe, I already am.  I just need to channel that energy.  Find an inspiration.  Start.

In all honesty, I really don’t know what to do with this site.  I began writing sports stories but found it very time consuming.  I have to watch the sporting event itself which can take around 2 or 3 hours of my time.  Although I did want to watch anyway.  But I wanted something more.  Then, I tried to post something related to music like American Idol because I thought I liked music.  And I do.  I even sang a couple or two and posted it.  Maybe I just want some part of me be heard and tell the world I exist.

But another part of me still long to be unknown, to be an observer, to be invisible.

Maybe that’s why I am reluctant to be successful.  Because then I’d have to give up my private life.  Maybe I don’t want that.  Maybe there’s something else in life more important than being popular.  Like doing the things I love.  But how do I know I love it?

I’ve been coasting along for a while, never really figuring out what I want to do with my life.  Yes, I want to build a business. Maybe something I can do that will express my gifts and talents…and perhaps contribute to the world. To make it a better place.

Maybe I’m just bored.  I don’t know. There are many things in this world I’d like to do.  But it’s easier to just let things be and not disturb the status quo.  Pretend everything is ok,  when it’s not.  Life is screaming for something more, a life filled with passion, a life full of purpose.  The more I reflect on things I don’t have, the more I feel depressed, the more I think that I want to quit, the more life feels like a burden.  It’s scary.  It’s challenging.  I’m craving for an exciting new adventure.

What’s next?  What can I offer?  What can I do to make life fulfilling for me and other people?

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Books Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

How to ride a bike? Learning reflections on Robert Kiyosaki's 'If you want to be rich and happy, don't go to school'

Earlier, I was reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki, titled If You Want to Be Rich & Happy Don’t Go to School.  In the book, Robert mentions something about a quote from Dr. Buckminster Fuller,

Human beings were given a left foot and a right foot to make a mistake first to the left, then to the right, left again and repeat.

While reflecting on this quote, I remembered when I rode a bike for the first time.  At first, I my dad had to hold on to the seat, while I try to drive.  My heart was pumping with excitement.  Unfortunately, just when I hopped on the bike,  I realized it was going to the left.  I didn’t know what to do.   I panicked.  I fell.  That was the first time.  The second time I tried, the bike was again going haywire.  But now, it’s going to the right.  I panicked again.  And again, I fell.  On the third try, I noticed the bike was again going to the left.  In my panic, I immediately steered the bike to the left.  To my surprise, the bike went to the other direction.  So again, I had to steer it to the right.  And again it went to the left.  And so I repeated what I just did – to the left, then to the right.  Until, suddenly, I realized, my dad was no longer holding the bike.  I was driving the bike on my own! It’s one of the glorious moments of my life.  I knew then that no matter what happens,  I can do it.   I thought then that if I could ride a bike, I can do anything.  I can fail many times.  But I can also learn.  I can take what life gives me and find out what works.

When I was in College, me and my friends participated in a contest about creating the fastest line-following mobile robot.  We competed against students from other schools.   When I was studying the design, I was very amazed at the simplicity of the logic on how to make the robot follow the 2-inch wide black line they call “track” against the very clean white floor.   The robot, is basically a remote controlled car, with all its circuitry removed and replaced with a microcontroller which acts as its “brain”.  At the front of the car are two sensors.  Depending on what color each of the two sensor sees on the floor (white) or track (black), the “brain” would know whether it is going out of track or not.  When the car is going out of the track to the left, the brain tells the car to steer to the right.  If its going out the other way, it steers to the left.  It’s like riding the bicycle again.  If you fall to the right, you go to the left.  If you fall to the left, you go to the right.

Can life really be this simple?  How about you?  Have you experienced the same thing when you learned to ride a bike?