My 2009 Look Back

After listening to the December episode of 20/30 vision & their recommendation, so I decided to do my own “a year in review”.

Honestly, this was a simple year with simple goal to focus on health, keeping up with the blog.

This is my look back on my accomplishment:
– Health (Nutrition & Exercising)
– Regularly Blog
– Lead in a team
– Taking over role/responsibilities
– Experiencing large project with management of constant changes
– Finally completing the PM continue education Certificate
– Taking my first real vacation in my years of working (for the sake of relaxing)  =)

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Lessons learned:
We have a choice in our decision
It’s not what you think, we have have unconscious choice during life such as: deciding to listen, pay attention, taking action …

Teaching/Mentoring well can make all the difference
I found using my teaching skill, I was able to help coworker on learning a new system in 1-2 days & keep on seeing productivity improving. Then I compare with people (me included) whom had to learn by themselves & the impact in productivity & confidence.

If you don’t ask … you don’t get
During november, my boss stated there will be no vacations for the first half of 2010 due to the big push for the project go-live (unless it was already approved); at least that was everyone’s interpretations. Although I really wanted a week for SXSW in March … so I asked … and I got approved. Sometimes our assumption/interpretation can be just wrong, that’s why we need to ask.

The difference commitments can make
Going to the gym regular can be tricky … and sometimes down right hard; Not Committing vs Committing to health makes a real difference.

Teaching gains respect, especially when you leading them in the future
After training the people I lead in my area, I found more respect & commitment to the task I requested to accomplish from people that are younger & older than me.

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My biggest surprise was the power of teaching & mentoring. I always enjoy it & I do it to help others to waste less time on things than I did. The surprise came when I saw benefits on the teacher side in the business world. I was also surprised at there is such a un-relatedness between teaching & training. (after going in so many training sessions)

This exercise was fun! This post is definitely one that I’m going to revisit.

I am definitely recommending people doing a year-in-review for themselves, it quite refreshing!

Wow! A Decade has Already Passed in the Millennium?

In 10 days, we will be entering a new decade; It felt like a blink since the new millennium began & here we are 10 years later. To be honest, personally I thought nothing much happened … then I took a look at how the world changed.

In the last decade, we have seen:

• the first black US President in the White house
• how the world unite to help the Tsunami in one end of the world
• the empower of public voice through multiple web innovation
• every other business model being changed through the web (Newspaper, advertising, book publishing, globalization of business)
• the improvement in standard of living in many countries through globalization
• power of 1 individual bringing Apple back to life & became the most respected company
• no more film for cameras
• the ability to reconnect with people I met 10, 20 years ago through facebook
• …

Wow! That’s pretty impressive for the world within a decade.

Now when I look back at my last 10 years, it was interesting but I was hoping for more 10 years ago back in my college days. While writing this, it really feels time is running much much faster then I am. (I know, I know, it’s not what you did, but it’s about what you going to do)

As we get older, we find out:

“It’s not about how much time you have, it’s how you do with it.”

To take my first to achieve more in the next decade, here I will declare my 10 year look-forward:
– Being in a leadership role in a business organization
– Travel to a few countries in Europe and asia, plus at least 1 place per year
– Experience a full-time MBA program
– Mentor at least 3 person & being mentored by 3 persons
– Own a house/apartment with my own family

– Making my memoirs worth reading

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So … What’s your life projection in the next decade?

P.S.: I still can’t believe I can access any info any second in the palm of my hand

Vision, Mission … Mantra

In a previous post about the power of vision & mission … After writing the post, I realize some people has a bad feelings toward such things as vision & mission. For anyone that could careless about mission/vision, here a simple alternative from Guy Kawasaki:

Create a Mantra

Guy recommends instead of writing vision & mission where no one remember it; a much better alternative would be 3-5 word mantra. A few keywords that describe your purpose.

Here are some example from Guy’s post:
  Nike: “Authentic athletic performance”
  Target: “Democratize design”
  Wendy’s: “Healthy Fast Food”

In my opinion, the process of creating vision & mission is still really beneficial to the writers, because you get clear what you should be focusing on. After that creating a mantra would be a good idea. When strategizing in the future, I would:

1. Create a mission & vision: For the executives/self to reflect on
2. Create the mantra: To share & inspire others & self

After reviewing my mission & vision, I realized already got mine, which is: 
Teach, Lead, Careering.

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This mantra suggestion came from this keynote from Guy Kawasaki about startup; it’s super funny & lots to learn from. For people who want to know more, you should check the podcast mentioned & Guy also details this in his book, Reality Check.