Joneses, Sleepyheads and Killers

I am busy lately.

With chores of works and responsibility here and there.

But this does not stop me from reading at times.

I like this article. It reminds me on how things work differently. It reminds me that the rich and the successful have a different wavelength from the rest of us. The joneses that makes 99.9% are just the sleepyheads and the zombies. What the 0.1% people are? They are the killers. The are different and they think differently. They are the special ones.

Try to imagine this. Due to this freaking recession globally, everyone across the board, the old and young ones, the commoner and the dreamer, the employees and workers around the globe, will be cursing and swearing about the lost of their job, the increase in price and the inflation, the lack of bonus, the money they have to save and etc blah blah blah.

But but, those killers. You know what they do? They are different. They will not be penalized.... You think huge organizations and business owners will kill these killers? At most they will be let off with a huge compensation but will be re-hired at another organization. They are the killers. They make things work and they have guts. They are not afraid of the norm nor killing the weak ones. They make right decisions at unpleasant times. They can watch you bleed while they are having their steak.

To think about it, it makes perfect sense. You think these predators will give any damn to you and about you, if you are to lose your job and complains about your lack of bonus? Dream on my friend. Dream on. Compassion is best left away from the world outside. They will eat you alive.

Now, do you want to be the joneses, sleepyheads or the killers?

Updated: To further demonstrate the differences between where this will happens, we takes 2 examples of 2 different countries, America and China.

You see, in America, you will be paid millions of dollars in bonus and compensation for experiences, results and wisdoms. In short you will be paid millions of dollars for your intelligence as compensation for your results to transform your employer to perform in Wall Street.

In China, i believe it is slightly different. You are mentally programmed since young to do it for the sake of country and the honor of your country. You are hired for your experience and intelligence. But you will not be compensated hugely in multimillions but your name will honored and remembered for your contribution to the country. You are supposed to do it for the sake of your country. Just look at the medals for athletes in China during Olympics in 2008. They fight for their country.

In America, you fight for your individual success, medals and money.

This is just a piece of my humble opinion.

In Malaysia, no 1 fights for anything anymore, for the exception of their birth rights, bumiputra or non-bumi. Or maybe they fight for their deserved salary or lands behind their house in their kampung, perhaps. Hahaha.

Managerial Incompetence

What is managerial incompetence?

Doing the right things or doing things right? How about doing wrong things right and doing wrong things wrong?

WTF??!?!?!?

I was reading this post. It makes me think. Check it out here.

It is a commonplace assumption, for instance, that they were undone by overly generous union contracts. But, when dependency ratios start getting up into the 3-to-1 to 7-to-1 range, the issue is not so much what you are paying each dependent as how many dependents you are paying. “There is this notion that there is a Cadillac being provided to all these retirees,” Ron Bloom, a senior official at the United Steelworkers, says. “It’s not true. The truth is seventy-five-year-old widows living on less than three hundred dollars to four hundred dollars a month. It’s just that there’s a lot of them.”

A second common assumption is that fading industrial giants like G.M. and Bethlehem are victims of their own managerial incompetence. In various ways, they undoubtedly are. But, with respect to the staggering burden of benefit obligations, what got them in trouble isn’t what they did wrong; it is what they did right. They got in trouble in the nineteen-nineties because they were around in the nineteen-fifties—and survived to pay for the retirement of the workers they hired forty years ago. They got in trouble because they innovated, and became more efficient in their use of labor.

So tell me again. I was pretty shocked. Is innovation and improvements good? Is paying for retirees bad? How do they solve this problems? History of problems. Have the past management really screw up? Or perhaps they did not think into the future at all? Or perhaps they wanted to guard against their own interests?

And continued here about the problems faced by the current scenarios, current situation by the current batch of CEOs.

Here, surely, is the absurdity of a system in which individual employers are responsible for providing their own employee benefits. It penalizes companies for doing what they ought to do. General Motors, by American standards, has an old workforce: its average worker is much older than, say, the average worker at Google. That has an immediate effect: health-care costs are a linear function of age. The average cost of health insurance for an employee between the ages of thirty-five and thirty-nine is $3,759 a year, and for someone between the ages of sixty and sixty-four it is $7,622. This goes a long way toward explaining why G.M. has an estimated sixty-two billion dollars in health-care liabilities. The current arrangement discourages employers from hiring or retaining older workers. But don’t we want companies to retain older workers—to hire on the basis of ability and not age? In fact, a system in which companies shoulder their own benefits is ultimately a system that penalizes companies for offering any benefits at all. Many employers have simply decided to let their workers fend for themselves. Given what has so publicly and disastrously happened to companies like General Motors, can you blame them?

Or consider the continuous round of discounts and rebates that General Motors—a company that lost $8.6 billion last year—has been offering to customers. If you bought a Chevy Tahoe this summer, G.M. would give you zero-per-cent financing, or six thousand dollars cash back. Surely, if you are losing money on every car you sell, as G.M. is, cutting car prices still further in order to boost sales doesn’t make any sense. It’s like the old Borsht-belt joke about the haberdasher who lost money on every hat he made but figured he’d make up the difference on volume. The economically rational thing for G.M. to do would be to restructure, and sell fewer cars at a higher profit margin—and that’s what G.M. tried to do this summer, announcing plans to shutter plants and buy out the contracts of thirty-five thousand workers. But buyouts, which turn active workers into pensioners, only worsen the company’s dependency ratio. Last year, G.M. covered the costs of its four hundred and fifty-three thousand retirees and their dependents with the revenue from 4.5 million cars and trucks. How is G.M. better off covering the costs of four hundred and eighty-eighty thousand dependents with the revenue from, say, 4.2 million cars and trucks? This is the impossible predicament facing the company’s C.E.O., Rick Wagoner. Demographic logic requires him to sell more cars and hire more workers; financial logic requires him to sell fewer cars and hire fewer workers.

WTF?!?!?!?

Is there anyway out of this hole?

Successful and Advice

Continued from the previous post.

I believe these advise will help too.

1. Focus Focus Focus. Keep on focus on the main objective. The target and the goal that you have set. Persevere, grit determination or simply "wouldn't let go of what you want" while remain focus on the goals that you have set, sets you apart from other joneses. Its not what we think, its not what we do, its what you have done (or the results) that counts.

A lot of people have tried and failed. A lot of people have thought about it. But only a selected few ever succeeded. Why do you think that happens? Accident, coincidence or simply never give up.

Remain focus to at your target and never let go despite of negativity, problems and everything that comes in the way. Never lose your sight of the target!

2. Think 3T. 1st T = Think Big. Everyone from anywhere around the globe will tell you these. If you want to succeed, in regardless of corporate ladder, entrepreneurship or business-wise, one of the main criteria is to think big. Small sailor on a small boat will never make it through the wild sea.

Be big! Think big and live large, said by Donald Trump. Its just a matter of perception and thinking between 100 dollars and 1000000 dollars. If you want to succeed in corporate world and climb the ladder, think big.

3. 2nd T = Think long term. Its very simple to think in front of you. Anyone with a pair of eyes can do that. But, by thinking long term and planning for the future that defines a visionary and successful person.

Think long term and plan for it, but focus on your everyday task and the things that you need to do to achieve it. Thats why we have short term goal, medium term goals and your long term goals.

4. 3rd T = Think positive. The world, the media everyday portraits the world full of negativity. How do you achieve positivity by reading more news? There is a saying, no news is good news! Hahaha. I agree to that.

Successful people stay positive at all times. Its like a super large you. Negative news just sort of zap at you, to makes you stay on the right path. Negative news should not be in your mind. It should not influence your thinking. Positivity should.

To stay positive, you need to start by changing you thinking a little bit each day. Start by telling yourself, especially when you feel down and felt negative, "ZAP IT!". Slap yourself. Cut the thinking. Your brain is sabotaging yourself. ZAP IT! Stay positive. Think positive. Think the happy times. Stay constructive. Tell yourself that you can. Even Mr Lee, your next door neighbour can make it, why not me?

These are some advise bits and parts that i carry with me within all the time. Its a learning experience and wisdom that i gathered. From my failures, from my readings, from my listenings, from my observations and from everything that i learned.

Why not take 5 minutes of your time to really think about what i have said and decide whether i make any sense?

Insecurity, Emotions and Fear

This post is personal. Its from within. Its actually the result of the Law of Newton, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And this post is the opposite reaction for mel's post, complicated emotion.

1st-ly, i wanted to dissect the whole subject logically. Where did she get the feelings from? Why did she felt that way? What happen that makes her feels this way? Thousands of questions. Millions of answers. Billions of probabilities. One single truth. Insecurity + Fear.

I think that almost all females have these. It is built-in and within their genes. The un-defined chromosome that makes them feel insecure and needed re-assurance + guarantee to make them feel better. It is something that exists in woman, and of course, in some boys too. Its how woman do and react, have their 6th sense and their motherly instinct. It their survival skill.

That is where the part male species comes in. Males species homosapien has the lack of the understanding of how these things works. It is sort of empathy + sympathy. The feeling and the care that a man shows to provide care and understanding to woman. To make them feel better. Reassured. Makes them feels secure. To give them what they need, the feeling of re-assurance and security. Its in their genes.

Back to the story. Why does that Mel feels so emotionally challenged? I believe it comes from lack of directions and the constant changes evolves around her life and daily routine. Its the chaos and the stress level that comes from work and everyday life.

Generally, i believe when it comes to this scenario, where deep down inside your heart, when you feel insecured and lack of something to hold on to, you mis-react. They wanted to be busy. They believes that, if only, that they have more work and busier, things will be better. They believes that they have some-sort-of-karma-and-control that things will be eventually better. It is also dues to that when you feel you are busy with new challenges and new works, naturally you will feel "better" due to that you overcome new challenges and getting the praise that you deserved! You believe it works that way.

I think all of these are only fractionally true. It is not that i mean that you should laid back like an asshole doing nothing. It is also not that i mean you should not work like a horse to achieve what you wanted.

It is just that i believe that if you feel insecure and have a sort of fear, you have to look inside. Stop running. Stop thinking and believing that if you are to be in control more of any situation, things will get better. They don't!

The more you are trying to control. The more LIFE screw you up. The more you are trying to control things around you. The more YOU will screw things up. The more you are trying to control the people around you. The more HE/SHE will riot and screw up.

Then, not only you will micro-managed it, you are also expecting the results to be exact of what you wanted. You will wish to control 1001 things in your mind, things around you and people you love and care. You wanted to "believe" that by getting busy, be in control and by doing things fast and everything will makes things better. It won't. You will only make it worst.

Have you seen those scenario and real life cases before? I bet you would. Mothers who expects their children to perform up to their expectation, micro-managing it to the things they do and how they expect their child to behave. What happens next?

We created a monster or a poor soul. Either this monster will grow up to be a heartless person who do bad and nasty things to others or this little soul will have no courage and full of fear to meet the world and society outside. And all of these happens, is because the parents is fearful and insecure about their children's life.

Life sucks. Get over it. People die everyday. Be grateful that you still have this breath right now. Theres nothing you can do to make it better. The world is complex nor it is fair. Don't make it even more complicated that it has been.

What you need right now is:

1. Cool down. Try to cool down and slow down once a while. Do nothing in fact and read a book. Go to gym or do some exercise. Make your brain slow down. You will only then start to feel that you have a life. Feel your life. Afterall, you only live once. Why the hell you wanted to be so busy until you forgotten about your own life?

2. Look within thyself. Stop and do nothing. Think of nothing. City life is like that. Metropolitan lifestyle is faster than bullet train. Look within yourself and ask yourself. Is this what makes me feel this way? Am i who i am? Is this what i wanted? And the only you can ask yourself that, is when you cool down and be in peace with yourself.

3. Go yoga or go workout. I think by doing yoga and working out has its way to de-stress you. I have done that and i can feel it. Blast some techno and rock songs. Pump that muscle. Stretch your fatigued muscles after. Go to yoga. Try out the pilates. I tell you. The more you do, the more you will get addicted to the pain feeling of your muscles aching. Its like you muscles are telling you, that you are looking better, getting healthier and most importantly, you are INDEED ALIVE.

4. Have a broader understanding and a wider perspective of the world. That not EVERYTHING is within your control. That sometimes LIFE do workout to be different from what you expect it to be. That sometimes LIFE really sucks. That the fucker in front of you just cut your lane when you have the worst jam in your entire life. That the fucker just took your car park space when you are rushing for your urgent meeting. Bla bla bla.


Hey! Didn't i told you, LIFE sucks? But, be of no sad nor down. Sometimes it work out to be better. Just ask those fellas who went to work late in the New York Twin Tower during 9/11. Just ask those fella who are late to board the 4 flights in States on 9/11. Just ask those fellas who has life experiences encountering the worst, life taking experiences. This i can guarantee you, nothing else matters anymore.

Quote from Steve Jobs at here:

".. 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.”

"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 other's 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."


You can say that i am a eternally optimist or just vain. But hey, thats me! And it work out pretty fine. At least, i am feeling happier than most of those out there. At least i have made my achievements that i am pretty proud of. At least, i still optimist of the future in front of me. At least, i have done something proud in my life.

Last but not least, i am still happy, excited, proud, optimistic and feeling full of life! To capped this, i say Stay Hungry Stay Foolish!

Victoria Beckham Hairstyles

I am not making any suggestions. I just think the evolutionary of hair is really fantastic. Victoria Beckham hairstyle, IMHO, has been sort of an inspiration and guidelines for some modern edge cool sexy looking female.

I saw this hair and instantly, makes me wanna go and blog about it. From long curly hair to the current short style hair. I think it looks good on her. Hahaha. I think i will be labeled as "he-feminism", but what the heck? I just wanted to say that her hair looks great with her style. What do you think?

Her latest hairstyle at the opening ceremony of Armani Store in States

And some of her other hairstyles in the past, which IMHO, looks modern and stylish as well!

Shanghai: Bonito Tapas and Wine

Bonito Tapas and Wine Restaurant is definitely a place to be. End of discussion. *said with an definite tone*

We went there during the Xmas in 2008, which was a long time ago. Hahaha! The place is nice, ambience wise, its cool and classy. Food wise, its original, nice, tasty and definitely good. The service is good, english speaking staff. Wine list is long of more than 20 types of wines at least? Ranging from Chilean, French, Spanish, Australian and Californian wine from a very decent price starting from RMB19x ++, as i remembered. Sangria is tasty and good. Price wise, its decent given this range of price restaurant in Shanghai.


Bonito Tapas and Wine restaurant, the 1 we went is located in Luwan district. It is located in The Loft at 508 Jiashan Lu near Jianguo Xi Lu. Details at here here here and here.

Back to the story. We went there with a crowd of 7 individuals. 1 group of friends and 1 crazy gang. We ordered several dishes.

Lamb tapas is definitely nice and cook tenderly with original mint sauce. Meatball with potatoes is superbly nicely cook. Lamb skewer is nice. Ordered some duck dish as well, forgotten the name though. Tomatoes with mozzarella cheese. Beef fillet sort of steak. Breaded chicken with cheese, button mushrooms. The bread is home-cooked and is very nice. The seafood paella is nicely superbly delicious.

Sangria as an appetizer during food selection. A bottle of red merlot wine to satisfy our taste bud for red wine. French merlot. Damn nice. Less than RMB200! *eyes rolled up*

Our course, how can we not to enjoy? The crowd is fun, crazy and enjoyable. Look at the pictures. There is one saying, 1's an individual, 2 is company, 3 is fun and 7 would be, craziness!




I rate Bonito as 4.5/5 rating. The only fall back, food menu is still small, IMHO. But but but, the quality of the food is at the best! Go on and try for i will be going back there again, soon!


Bon Appetit!

Crazy, Delight, Fun and Enjoyable Moment

You know craziness when you see it. It is a very fine line differences between stupidity and craziness. I think sometimes i fall in between. Or maybe 1% to craziness. All the time!

Hahahahaha.






On a completely different note, when i was browsing the pictures and photos taken for the last couple of months, i choked when i saw this picture (please scroll down below). Hahahahaha!

There has been an appearance of an "assassin" here in ZJG during the winter. Fortunately, with my fast hands and good skills with the camera, i am able to capture the snapshot of "the lethal assassin".

Craziness moments! Hahahahaha!