Reflections of a Business-Driven Life
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Monday, February 28, 2005 |
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Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Small Business ( on business)
It is with great excitement to inform that I won the Philippines Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004 for Small Business last Feb 24, 2005. In the picture are the 5 other winners including the lady, Ma. Socorro Ramos who at 81 years old won the Entrepreneur of the Year as founder of National Book Store chain, which she is still actively involved in managing. She got a standing ovation because she is known for her great simplicity and humility. How I wish I can continue to work and be active at 81 ! To live a long and productive life, to accomplish great tasks and touch lives, and to be remembered most for our affability and humility, isn't that something to aspire for?
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Saturday, February 26, 2005 |
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If only... ( on life) I try to spend a lot of time with my kids, and in as much as possible, try to play together with them. One of the things we frequently play and enjoy are some educational games and puzzles that tests logic, and many word games. I will write more about these in the future as I am convinced that many of these games positively develop certain mental and logical aspects of the growing kid. Of course, as a parent, I would stress that playing together with your kids often also develop stronger bonds with them, and allows them to trust you with their issues as they are growing up, so that they would look at you not only as a parent, but also as their mentor and friend. One of the success criteria I would gauge myself is how much my children would look up to me even when they reach the puberty and adult age, and this is a job that I believe I should start to work on even when they are still toddler age. One of the venerable games , of course, is the word game SCRABBLE. Usually there are four of us in the game, my wife, my 11 year old, my 9 year old, and myself. Of course, my 9 year old is disadvantaged, but luckily, he is not one to be daunted. However, he does try to show that he knows a thing or two. And this is through an exercise called "if only". He would say that even if he was the youngest, he could even beat us if only he has the letter "g", so that he could form the word 'forget', which would land on the triple word score, and get him the highest point for the round. Next round, he would smilingly ask his mom if he could exchange his letter 'v' with his mom's 'b' so that he could form 'bugle' which would get him a higher score. I would smilingly tell my wife that our son was trying to play the game, IF ONLY.... But many people play the game IF ONLY even long after they have grown up. If only I worked for a better company , if only I had a more understanding boss, if only I was born to a richer family .... ad nauseam. Many people mistake good execution with good intentions, and label daydreaming as ambitions. I for one do not believe that constantly looking back is any good ( drive through life looking forward rather than constantly looking at the rear view mirror), and blaming our stars will not get us anywhere. If only I had a better education, if only I had a better job, if only I had spend more time with my family .... There is not much we can do for what already happened, but there is SOMETHING we can do to make what we want to happen a reality. Indeed, instead of merely wishing, why not do something about it? 7:36:10 AM comment [] trackback []
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Saturday, February 19, 2005 |
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Leaving Money on the Table ( on life) I would like to paint a profile of somebody I know. He is a young urban professional, and have made tremendous strides in going up the corporate ladder. Compared to other people his age, he has a better income, and a nicer car. You may not know him but his way of doing business may be something that will strike a familiar chord, and you may be able to relate him to somebody you know. He is a strict believer in optimizing his advantage, and never leaving money on the table. He is a person who thinks you are a loser if you could charge the customer 100 dollars, but you allow him to pay you only 95. He delights in his ability where other sales people got the deal after giving discounts, but he walked away selling at full price. On the other hand, he is one who is aggressive to take advantage of every sales promo, and have no qualms of asking for any additional upgrade everytime he checks into a plane or hotel, or any discount in every purchase. He is a person who tries not only to win in every deal he makes, but optimizing the win, and does not care if the other party feels aggrieved. If he does you a favor, he takes pains to make sure you know about it, and you can almost be sure he will be there to collect it back sometime. You are always apprehensive because you know that if he holds the aces and can squeeze you, he will. He delights in having his pound of flesh, as if it was his trophy. Luckily, we don't do business with him anymore after his last job change. He has changed numerous jobs the last few years because he is always on the lookout for opportunities that can pay him a little bit more. He delights when people attribute to his material success, but I am not sure if deep down he is really happy, and I am not sure whether he really has a lot of true friends. I have no doubt that he will be successful as a businessman, but will he be successful as a person, or a friend, or a family man? I have always believed that we work hard so that we can afford to be a little bit more generous and a little bit more hospitable. I have always thought that business success is managing your business so that you can afford to be generous to your partners and customers, and make yourself and themselves winners. Maybe in the future, he will be richer than me ( or maybe not!) . But fortunately, I have other criteria on which I want to base the evaluation of my life -- and while he is working to be richer, I will be there working to learn more, to make more friends, to smell more flowers, and to live life more happily. Leave Money on the Table. Create win-wins! If you do, people will like to do business and make friends with you, and you may not be able to optimize each opportunity, but there will be many many more to choose from! 4:14:13 PM comment [] trackback []
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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 |
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Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist ( on news) Hi, I am honored to be one of the finalist of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for my country. This is in recognition of my ability to start and grow companies in the ICT arena. Here is the Link. This link is not perma link, so probably you can access it only today. 11:12:30 AM comment [] trackback []
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Monday, February 14, 2005 |
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Love your Spouse, Love your Job, Love your Boss, Love Life! ( on life) It is Valentine’s Day. This is the day when people celebrate love, and at least for one day, their lives ( or at least their emotions and their pockets) spiral out of control. It is estimated that on this day, hundreds of millions of cards, over a hundred million roses, and over a billion dollars of chocolate will be given away. One out of every three Americans are also expected to dine out on the night of Feb 14. For many, it is a vain attempt to catch love, even for a fleeting moment. For many, it is a day to celebrate not only love, but romantic love. But let us remember, it is also a day to celebrate affection for those close to us, to show people how important they are to our lives. In my writings, you will read a lot of what I talk about the principles of life and business, but at the heart of it, what will bring you success, or happiness ( if you define success as such) is still our ability to love. In fact, Benjamin Disraeli said it right when he said that, “We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.” I have been very blessed , not necessarily because of material success, but I marry the woman I love ( but that also after the initial fire and romance, there is enduring love and trust that continue in our marriage) , and have a family that enjoys together ( my wife and I just helped my eleven year old son make a valentine card for his puppy crush in school). I also have been blessed that other than the time that I have to put in to earn a living, I also have the time to indulge in my love for learning, and also time to write, teach and participate in community activities. I don’t usually get to do the things I love to do, but overall I enjoy my job, having learned that “ Instead of doing what you love to do, it is easier to love what you need to do. “ I also have been blessed that I can claim something that many people could not say -- I love my boss! Of course, it helps that my boss is my wife. You see, while I am president of the company, I have two bosses in my life -- God and my wife. It is not enough to say you love them, but it is important that such love is manifested in your complete trust to them, and giving them a say on how you live your life. My wife has been my partner in making the major decisions in my life --and she knows that I trust her. And because she knows I trust her, she also works hard to continue to earn that trust and return the respect -- which I feel have been the reason for our twelve years of happy marriage. Who is your boss? Many will say they are their own boss, or they have several bosses already in the workplace. But I feel that we should all choose somebody other than ourselves to be boss -- somebody bigger than us that we can work together to pattern our lives. Somebody you can put your trust and who will return your trust and be your guide and mentor. So love is important, but love with trust and mutual respect endures. And loving and respecting your boss or mentor( of course, in other ways than romantic love) will not be there in many business books, but for me, it is a necessary requisite not only for you to do well in your job, but also to be happy with your life. There will be exceptions, but a majority of people will work hard not to betray a fellow human’s trust and faith. Today, there are no special gifts for the wife ( there is no practical reason to dine out and crowd with everybody, or buy roses when they are five to ten times more expensive than normal) , but she knows and she understands that I will be there on Love Day, but also the whole 365 and ¼ days of the year. Love God, love learning, love your spouse and your family, love what you do, love your boss, love life! For me, that is the essence and meaning of love and the not-so-secret and obvious formula of a happy and successful life ( which we too often forget). 11:18:33 AM comment [] trackback []
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Thursday, February 10, 2005 |
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HAVE A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!
It is now the Chinese year of the Rooster! This I finally thought of something that encapsulates the wisdom of everything I say, and it is this: LAUGH LOUD and OFTEN !!! 10:36:31 AM comment [] trackback []
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greeting was actually delayed because I was challenged that after 5 months of blogging about how to win in business and in life, what is the best advice I can give. |
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005 |
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What Makes an IPOD successful? ( techdrivenlife) I got an Apple ipod mini music player last Christmas. It was by far the most popular electronic gift worldwide. What made it become popular in a field where much cheaper mp3 players were a dime a dozen in the market? Even with the vaunted Apple name, the ipod took some time to take off. When it was introduced in November of 2001, it took 18 months before it sold 1 million units. Since then it has skyrocketed. It reportedly hit 10 million units sold by end of 2004, with over 2 million sold in the third quarter 2004, and 4.5 million sold in the fourth quarter 2004, which was more than a fivefold increase from less than a million sold in the fourth quarter of 2003. There are many reasons put forward why it is so successful. It is simple to use, it is stylish, 1.) Style and the cool factor is very important, and Apple has always had lots of it. After all, that is also the reason why people would fork out more money to buy a Levi’s jean or a Nike sneaker. Branding has become so strong that people were not looking to buy an mp3 player, but an ipod. It had become almost like a cultural icon, much akin to saying that you don’t want just a watch, but a Rolex, or not just a car, but a BMW. Nokia became the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer in the 90s because they realize that what people want was not just a functional cell phone, but a fashion accessory. They came out with cell phone that allows you to change casing to match your clothes, and came out with phones that you could show off. Much the same as the Ipod -- you wouldn’t want to be seen with anything else! Understanding this phenomena is becoming important to success. A successful business should understand why somebody would willingly pay 15,000 dollars for a Cartier watch ( when there are many nice watches for less than 100 dollars) yet choose to drive 2 extra kilometers to buy shampoo at the local price discount club rather than in the supermarket so that she can save 40 cents. 2.) But I always believe that a product succeeds not just on hype but on clear business fundamentals. And one of the things I know that did make Apple successful was their understanding that people would also willingly pay more than what they actually need. After all, what is the point of selling an Ipod that could store 10,000 songs? That could take months or even years to listen to it even just one time! So many manufacturers were selling mp3 players that could just store 1 or 2 hours of songs, instead of 600 hours worth. But then, the technology landscape is really full of examples that shows people behave illogically, and really want to get what they think they MIGHT need, rather than what they actually need. We take pride in getting a camera that can do 8 megapixels resolution even if all we can distinguish or need is just 2 megapixels. We eagerly dump our email system because we find their allowance of 2 megabyte is too tight ( but really adequate), and go for providers that offer 1 gigabyte. Every year, we see millions of people put in money to buy Microsoft Office, when all the features they know how to use can be satisfied with the less expensive Microsoft Works. Virtually every customer we have that uses our accounting or payroll system use only less than half of the features. Every street corner we see cars that can deliver twice or thrice the speed than the owner is really legally allowed to go, or will ever go. How many of us get Ipods that can store 600 hours of music, when all we have in our collection is just less than 100 hours? Do we really need that much? No, but we would like to believe we do or fear we potentially will. We all like to think big, dream big, and believe that our needs are far more than ordinary. And I guess to providers who know how to utilize this penchant, and who does not provide only what we need, but delight us by providing more, will always have a niche in our pockets. 6:31:14 PM comment [] trackback []
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it is solid, it works, it is backed by huge marketing, and it is backed by Apple which has a very strong brand. Obviously, all these factors are important, but I would like to advance 2 main reasons.|
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Saturday, February 05, 2005 |
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Would You Like to be Bill Gates? ( on life) Bill Gates is probably one of the most recognized names in the world. He topped the Forbes' list of the world's richest man for years in a row. He also topped PriceWaterHouse Cooper's 2004 List of World's most Respected Business Leaders. * He also owns the world's largest charitable foundation. He is of course the chairman of the world's largest software company. He is of course, acknowledge as one of the smartest technical and business minds in the business. There is everything to envy in him. Would you like to be him? However, in every success, there is always a price to pay, and I am sure after years of managing probably one of the world's most complex corporation in the world's most competitive industry, it must be taking a toll. I am sure also that he would be tops if there was a survey as one of the world's most criticized CEOs as well. Here is an eye opening article at CNET: Apparently, a piece of paper was left at UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's desk, and handwriting experts analyzed it. After examining the tangle of boxes, circles, loops and notes on debt and trade, the experts described the writer as "struggling to concentrate" or "not a natural leader" or "frustrated and tense." Apparently the paper turned out to be belonging to Bill Gates who was seated beside Blair. Guess being Gates is not that nice a walk in the park after all.... In everything, there is always more than what meets the eye. It is important to study this carefully before we make our choices. -------- * For those that are interested, click on the PWC list, but the world's top 5 most respected businessmen are Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jack Welch, formerly of GE, Carlos Ghosn of Nissan, Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, and Michael Dell of Dell. 5:39:08 PM comment [] trackback []
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Thursday, February 03, 2005 |
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10 Google Mail Invites to Give: (tidbits) I currently have 10 google mail invites to give out. Google mail can have upto 1 gigabyte of storage free. Please click on the comment button, and leave a note. First 10 to list here gets it. ( please make sure you leave your email address! )
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005 |
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Search Engines and Links ( techdrivenlife) My visits have passed the 25,000 mark ( after five months of blogging) , and I would like to thank you all for visiting my blog. I hope for some of you, I have been able to share something positive. I have tried as much as possible only to be uplifting ( if you cannot say something nice, don't write it! ) even though as they say, good news does not always sell. I have learned a great deal on blogging, and the very first thing, if you are a blogger and want to get read, is to get listed at various blog directories, link exchanges, and also reciprocal blog exchanges like BlogExplosion ( I put in one link only of each, though there are many good ones). Another great resource is Technorati. One good way to build up traffic from your site is simply to visit other people's blogs and leave comments. Technorati has an excellent watchlist feature that allows you to tag who is putting up links pointing to your site. The best way to insure that you get linked a lot is of course to be polite and link back to these sites too, or at least acknowledge and thank them. One of the great ways to do that automatically is a resource at fresco.org. I got this tip from my friend Edwin in his blog. The principle is simple, you copy a 2 line javascript code which is free to your blog and if somebody links to you, and somebody clicks at that link, you will be able to know about it, and it will automatically show at your site. It informs you who links to you,and better still return the favor by publicizing his blog as well. It is in my lower right corner of my blog, though as you may have note, it still does not work very well, and many clicks from various sites do not show very well. It does inform me how many links are coming from google, or yahoo, etc. Speaking of search engines, one way to get traffic is as I said to visit other people's blogs, and leave comments. I learned this from a bestselling book 20 years ago, and I still remember it today -- The best way to get others interested in you is to be interested in others. If you want to know how much you are getting posted or mentioned, you can always check it out. For me, I know where I made posts, and it is always helpful to know whether the search engines know about it. When I started blogging, I coined a word bizdrivenlife which is almost a new word. This is great because all I need to know how popular my blog has become is how many different sites is carrying that word. I made a test this morning, and the following results were given back. This is my rough test on how well the search engines do their job, although I would admit it is very unscientific and subjective test. Search for Bizdrivenlife. Google returned 471, MSN Search 868, Yahoo 372. Search for "www.bizdrivenlife.net" Google returned 277, MSN Search 318, Yahoo 159. Happy blogging!
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005 |
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Internet Explorer and Firefox ( on news) I use both Internet Explorer and Firefox for browing. Firefox is small, fast, and has tabbed browsing which makes browsing easier ( though not in all). But firefox still cannot run ActiveX natively and some sites still can't run them. I am sure this will spur Microsoft to improve internet explorer. Here is an article "Why Businesses needs to be cautious on Firefox" that eloquently gives you a better idea why you should continue to use both. 7:47:01 AM comment [] trackback []
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Windows XP Reduced Media Edition ( on tech) The European Commission says that it is unfair for Microsoft to bundle Windows Media Player for free because it gives them an unfair advantage. ( another news link in NY Times) . So Microsoft comes up with a version of Windows XP WITHOUT media player, and proposes to name it Windows XP Reduced Media Edition, but will sell it at the same price as Windows XP. The commission disallowed the name, and says Microsoft should not do anything that will make this version of Windows unattractive to consumers. Huh? Major European PC manufacturers says they don't plan to sell the Windows XP without the media player. Interesting. Am I missing anything here?
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Last update: 7/5/2005; 5:24:05 PM .
