My Babies

This is an artistic picture, I taken of my 20-month old girl. Lovely isn't she? :)

And my 5-mth old boy. Ain't he fat and chubby?

There seems to have no instant formula for balancing work and family life. I enjoy spending quality family time with my family.

Time is always not enough. For rich or poor, we all have the same 24 hours in a day, 7 days a week. Is there really enough time to do everything we want in a lifetime? Probably we can set priorities right to have enough time to do the most important things. The key here is to taking out a little bit of time to work out what the most important things really are. (Hmmm, talking about project management for your own life?)

Despite the longer working hours and greater income levels, 80% of our population in Singapore are less happy than the previous generations. Why? Is it by working harder and longer hours, the only way to live the standard of life we desired? There are just too much bureaucracy and office politics, too much friction in large enterprises. That is one of the good reasons I stepped off the cliff and become self-employed to start up my own business.

I am earning hand-to-mouth now, struggling to cope with the daily ups and downs of my newly incorporated company. But I have no regrets, I think it is my destiny that I can control. Only problem is traveling overseas on business trips when my children are still so young, is probably the most difficult decision, because of the emotional attachment. My gal makes me tuck her to sleep every night.

风正帆悬日千里

客路青山外，行舟绿水前。潮平两岸阔，风正一帆悬。

海日生残夜，江春入旧年。乡书何处达，归雁洛阳边。

-王湾【次北固山下】

诗中的名句 “潮平两岸阔，风正一帆悬”呈现出了一派“潮平而无浪，风顺而不猛，近看可见江水碧绿，远望可见两岸空阔”的大好景象。

连日来我忙着巩固及拓展业务，但是从事科技领域，国内市场竞争日益加剧，利润空间愈来愈小。要持续增长，我采取了 “以人为本，科技为先”的经营理念。中小企业要如何留住优秀人才？要如何善用自己灵活弹性的优势？伤脑筋兮！

Business is War

I am taking up a new job posting as a trainer for OOP with MatLab in collaboration with a local company to provide consultancy for Singapore and probably Malaysia and Thailand too.

With the temporary loss of one key member of my team, business plans have been thrown off track and will need to be realigned. The company probably need some time to recuperate before moving forward again. Sometimes, I fear for the worst.

We have been working together in the same team for years, as both a collegue and a friend. I have always admired and valued our camaraderie. I believed that it is in his best interest, to follow his heart and decide on the eventuality

Making the business successful takes more than my individual effort - I need a more committed team. As engineers, we usually work on site-based decision making. As part of the team, individual members need to have clear, shared goals, a sense of commitment, the ability to work together, mutual understanding and accountability. But effective teams do not develop by accident, the team need time to develop and mature, as well as acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge to be successful.

I have been reading some excerpts from a newsletter, published by a Singapore-listed company. It says that "... an army is typically vast, complex and bureaucratic and often get the job done through sheer weight of numbers. By comparison, the special forces are light, nimble and able to respond rapidly with pinpoint accuracy. Every member of the special forces team must completely understand his roles, and be able to depend entirely on every other member. A well-drilled team with every member totally focused and in tip-top condition make the crucial difference in the heat of battle that leads to winning or losing."

We are a small business entity, to win we must be hungrier and prepared to work harder, have the stamina and commitment to sustain through rough patches. We also need to be flexible, keep an open mind and respond to changes and challenges faster.

Though we are now a man down, I believed we can pull through. It will need a concerted effort, not lukewarm enthusiam.