"Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks." - Warren Buffett

Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing - Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett advises you not to invest in shares if you do not know how to analyse companies. If you want to go into investment, do think of learning from the best. Its important not to go in blindly into any kind of investment.

Stay young, stay foolish

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful - Warren Buffett

A video to remind me of the principles I need to live by...

This is a really good inspirational video. Great for times when everything seems lost...

Success

When you learn that money is a product of success, you would strive in achieving that of what you want to achieve instead of strive to make more money....

Govt a bunch of morons??

If Saiful wasn't charged because it was consensual sodomy, then why is Anwar being charged ? When a person comes forward to report a matter, he is protected. If Saiful has no evidence of sodomy, why did he make such a big fuss over it like he could prove that he had? Its kind of obvious it was all fabricated and the government certainly looks like the culprits who did it because they are do not seem to even bother to find out if Saiful was telling the truth but instead treating Anwar like he was the enemy. C'mon Malaysia, the world are not filled with idiots to not realise that the government seem to be involved!! Wake up, do something or you will all go way down. Dr M was lucky before but you guys may not be so lucky this time...

Subconsciously...

Have you ever headed for your goal and at the same time, have some backup plan if things go wrong ? Lets say you plan to leave the workforce in a couple of years. And to get more money, you do some freelance work to get more cash. Then the people you work with offer to give you some training which would benefit you in the future if you continue to work instead of leave the employment world.

Then, out of nowhere, you get this other offer which pays you better but doesn't look promising for your future. Which would you choose? For me, my mind tells me to go for the 'safer' one which would provide me with a backup in case my plan to branch out on my own does not work.

But think about it. You have a plan and the plan is to move away from employment. Why do you work towards your backup instead of towards the actual plan ? Getting more money ensures your plan to leave the employment world better than working hard so that you could fail and work on the backup. Think about it. We should always put all our efforts to make our plans work instead of thinking of what to do if we fail...Subconsciously, we plan our own failure without knowing it!

Master your mind

Peak Potentials Training has this seminar called master your mind. I believe this is a very powerful course to go for as if you can master your mind, there won't be anymore boundaries for you. I started working on T. Harv Eker's "act in spite of..." since I went for the Millionaire Mind Intensive and I realised I have become a bigger person.

One good way our mind always tricks us is by telling us "oh, it probably won't turn out that good after all". Yes, it might be true, but what do you lose by doing it ? Maybe a little pain(feelings) but by doing it, we become bigger selves and yes, it might not seem to make a huge difference initially, but as we practise this, you would not realise how big you've become until one day, you look back at yourself at the start and realise how small you were. That is what a millionaire mind is about. Its about daring to do things poor minds never dare to do. Its about not worrying if you fail because, what is the big deal about failing? If you dare not fail, you prevent yourself from growing fast. So, give yourself the chance to grow!!

Fooled by the looks!!

Its amazing how people are surprised how my Viva drives...I was at the tyre shop doing balancing and alignment and the guy who did it took my car for a test after completing his task. He came back with a smiling face and gave a comment that the car feels good to drive. Yeah, most people see the small car and don't really think much of it. I myself was surprised when I first tested it and that is why I got attracted to buying it. I was looking for a smaller car but I didn't expect it that good. So, when I realised that it wasn't what it seemed on the outside, I decided to get it.

Subconscious mind

I learnt something new today which I never had any idea about. Or at least, I refused to know...I have been reading this book Dr Joseph Murphy titled 'The Power of your Subconscious Mind'. There's this part that says 'Your mind is a creative medium; what you think and feel about the other, you are bringing to pass in your own experience.' It explains that if you think bad thoughts of others, your mind will make it come true. And at the same time, you will have the poison (of the bad thought) in you. Bad thoughts never help you in anyway but instead eat you up. I used to resent a few people and it seemed true that they are not very nice or happy people, but I never realised that thinking of them as 'negative people' in a way made me negative when around them...and just thinking of them as negative made me negative. So, from now on, I will try to never have bad thoughts about people. Everyone has their issues. I will try to love them and to help them instead. If I can help them, it would make them better and at the same time, make me a better person.

Live passionately!

Many successful people are people who follow their passion, whatever they may be. If you do whatever you're passionate about, there's a certainty that you would excel in that area. How do you expect to be the best doing something you do not have any passion in ?

I really love the part of the show 'Pursuit of Happyness' where Chris tells his son to never let anyone tell him what he cannot do. A lot of great successful people became great because they never listened to negative things told to them. Michael Jordan was told he could never make it big in basketball because he was too short. He used that negative motivation to become the greatest basketball player of all time...

Regret of my life...

I have never had such huge regret as this. I bought Visa 80 call options on the 29th of April when the stock took a plunge after reporting worse than expected(hoped) earnings the previous day after the market close. As the stock went down, the options were going for dirt cheap at 0.65. I bought 3 of them and I still had one which I had bought at 3 the previous night. They were May options and I thought that Visa wasn't going anywhere after it settled down around 74+. So, I sold all of them at 0.90.

How wrong was I!!! As I write this, the options are having a bid ask of 9.50 and 9.70. Imagine how much I would have made instead of the $165 that I lost. Could have made me 638% or $3285. Well, I guess even the best have to learn before they become the best.

Paintings in my mind

Picture this, You and me
Walking down a white sand Beach
We're holding hands
The warm winds blow
we're all alone

All these dreams are fantasies
They're not real, not reality

Chorus:
and now I cry over you, nearly die over you
And all these bits and pieces of us that I try to find,
Are only paintings in my mind
faded memories of another place and time
we were happy as can be you were loving me and
now it's just an image that I find like the paintings in my mind

When you left I fell apart,
I was torn, you broke my heart
(Chorus)

Impressions of the way it was long ago
somewhere back in time.
(Chorus)

I am putting this down to close an episode of my life...

I met this girl(or would I say I saw her at KLCC when I used to work there). Somehow, I'm the type of person who believes in love at first sight(yeah, you might say its really stupid to love someone you don't even know but I guess no one is 100% rational all the time).

Ok, one thing led to another and I decided that I had to get to know her...... As I now want to forget everything that ever happened, I really can't think back of all the details how it all happened.

To me, these paintings in my mind weren't even real but what this artist in me painted because I so wanted to believe they were real. The were all only paintings in my mind...Really hurts, but I always allow myself to feel pain when it comes to love...in this matter, I certainly do not have a millionaire mind.

Whenever you close your eyes - Tommy Page

(Written by Michael Bolton & Diane Warren)

I need to know
That I am in your world, that I am in your world, baby
And I've gotta know
That I am in your heart, no matter where you are
Wherever you go, oh baby

I hear you saying that you love me
I feel you touch me in the night
But that don't mean that I mean something
In your life, baby

Chorus

Whenever you close your eyes
I want it to be my face that you see
When you go to sleep at night
Whenever you dream I want to know
That you're dreaming of me

So, hard to know
Wish I could read your mind, wish I could read your mind
And see in your heart
Am I there, the way you're there with me
You're everywhere with me
Wherever I go, oh baby

Before I give my world completely
And lay my heart down on the line
I need to know it's me you're needing
In your life, baby

Don't you know I'm so in love with you baby
But I need to know how deep your love is for me

Burn your ships!!

Julius Caesar had long wished to capture the British. He sailed to the British Isles, quietly unloaded his troops and supplies, and gave the order to burn the ships.

He then called all of his men together and said, "Now it is win or perish. We have no choice."

With that single order, he guaranteed the success of his campaign. He knew that people who have no other alternative-or will accept no other-always win.

If you find yourself in a situation where victory seems impossible, you may benefit your cause by developing an alternate course of action. If your objective won't yield to a full frontal assault, try an oblique approach.

There are very few problems in life that are impossible to solve, and few obstacles that will not eventually give way to a determined, motivated person with a plan that is flexible enough to cope with changing condition.


When you give yourself no option to fail, you would do everything to ensure your success. A lot people think otherwise and that is why they remain with the rest. Some even stop themselves before they start after listening to the view of others. Why do people listen to people who haven't succeeded in that matter ? Are they fools ?

Breathless - Shayne Ward

If our love was a fairy tale
I would charge in and rescue you
On a yacht baby we would sail
To an island where we'd say I do

And if we had babies they would look like you
It'd be so beautiful if that came true
You don't even know how very special you are

Chorus

You leave me breathless
You're everything good in my life
You leave me breathless
I still can't believe that you're mine
You just walked out of one of my dreams
So beautiful you're leaving me
Breathless

And if our love was a story book
We would meet on the very first page
The last chapter would be about
How I'm thankful for the life we've made

And if we had babies they would have your eyes
I would fall deeper watching you give life
You don't even know how very special you are

Chorus

You leave me breathless
You're everything good in my life
You leave me breathless
I still can't believe that you're mine
You just walked out of one of my dreams
So beautiful you're leaving me
Breathless

You must have been sent from heaven to earth to change me
You're like an angel
The thing that I feel is stronger than love believe me
You're something special
I only hope that I'll one day deserve what you've given me
But all I can do is try
Every day of my life

Chorus

You leave me breathless
You're everything good in my life
You leave me breathless
I still can't believe that you're mine
You just walked out of one of my dreams
So beautiful you're leaving me
Breathless

You leave me breathless
You're everything good in my life
You leave me breathless
I still can't believe that you're mine
You just walked out of one of my dreams
So beautiful you're leaving me
Breathless

This song reminds me of Lew En Lee ^_^

Testing yourself

This is a simple test. Take a look and opportunities around you and see how you look at it. If you see opportunities as possible but not worth taking the risk, then you'd probably won't achieve great success for the rest of your life. In most great achievement, successful people stomach risk that others won't to achieve them. They are just people who believe what others don't. Successful people are those who aren't afraid of taking risks.

Actually, there is still hope if you're one of those who won't take risk....You just need to change the way you see the world. A good way to start is by going for the Millionaire Mind Intensive by T. Harv Eker.

My trusty Perodua Viva

I have had my Viva for about 5 months plus now and it has clocked more than 10,000km. After driving for this long, I have kind of gotten used to it and I think its a great car....Definitely great for city driving and also fine for the highway.

Although the handling cannot compare to my previous Waja, but its still fairly good for a car of its size. Absorbers are pretty comfy(Just like the Myvi) and so are the seats. Legroom is alright, too. But I guess after getting used to the Waja's handling, that's the only major complain I have of this car. I miss the handling of the Waja which takes me to 180km/h without feeling the car's not so safe. But anyway, the other day, there was this Myvi which was driving terribly fast behind me and I had to drive faster to cut in front of the other cars...I floored the pedal and was driving at 150. Yes, now I realise that this car can do 150km/h. Not bad for a 1000cc car. And believe me, the car feels stable and so is the steering at 140. 150 is a bit scary as I was rushing to cut in to let the lady overtake...Overall, I think this is one great car and that is why the price is considered high by people who don't see that the car has and its quality but just look at the size to compare.

Financial freedom

How many of us really aim to achieve financial freedom ? Wanting and making it a priority is two different things. I don't claim to be anywhere near it but I have started a small financial freedom account where I put a small amount of money I can afford into it everyday. Money in there is never to be spent(not even for a rainy day). I learnt this at the Millionaire Mind Intensive held in Singapore last year. By doing this, eventhough the amount may be too little to achieve financial freedom, I have started a habit which I promise myself never to stop. I will continue this for the rest of my life and as time grows, I will try and put in more money.

One day, this money would be the money that generates me enough passive income(together with other sources of passive income) to be financially free. A huge percentage of people never gain financial freedom the way they want because their priority is on feeling comfortable now and enjoying life. The more they earn, the more they spend. I have been in the majority for as long as I can remember but now, I will make sure I achieve financial freedom. Warren Buffett is the richest man in the world and yet he doesn't have the luxury he could afford. With his USD 62 billion, he could afford all the luxury in the world yet he has hardly any.

"I was born poor but I will not die poor" - George Soros.

Greenspan

I just bought Alan Greenspan's The age of turbulance(in cd format so I can listen on my way to work. I have learnt that I can fully utilize my time to develop my mind by listening to cds which help me grow while on the way to work and back). I don't know why but I always admire these people who are such great economist. I wish I had started learning more about all these when I was younger. Greenspan's dad was a stock broker and maybe that is how he got interested in the financial markets. Also, it seems that a lot of intelligent men are Jews. Wish I was one :P Then maybe I could be like Soros or Greenspan. Anyway, I'm going to start reading up on economics again. My CFA level one pass seems like ages away and I don't really recall much of it :(

Believe

When doing something difficult or seeming impossible, all we need is faith. This is terribly important because when we encounter obstacles which seem impossible to go pass, that is when faith can pull us through. Sometimes, I feel like giving up and living a normal life but when I get that way, I try to pull myself together and get myself to believe in what seems to be impossible. Yes, when we are down and out, we look at the task and it just seems impossible. That is when we need faith...This faith is something like belief in religion. There are no explainations on how we should believe but like religion, we just belief without any logic. That can carry us through ANY obstacles if we just BELIEVE.

Missing you....

My last day of work at ING was kind of sad....I never like leaving people. I remember when I left my friend's place in KK, I almost cried but I held back my tears. This evening(30/01/2008), as I was getting ready to leave the office for the last time, I felt kind of sad. At one time, I felt so stressed up with work that I felt I hated working there but at the moment I was leaving, I really didn't feel like going.

I left the office with this colleague of mine who often followed me back. As usual, we talked a lot in the car on the way home...I normally dropped him at the LRT station and as we approached the Taman Bahagia station where I normally drop him, I really felt sad cos I felt I was losing a good friend who was often there when I was down. I liked talking to him in the car after work and I am certainly going to miss that a lot. As I saw him walk into the station, I felt very sad as this was going to be the last time I send him to the station.

After leaving the station, I went to pack some dinner home. As I was buying dinner, tears started rolling down my eyes and I just couldn't control it...I really feel the missing feeling and it really made me want to cry. Anyway, I cried on the way home. When I reached home, my tears had dried but just now as I lay down to sleep, I started thinking about it again. I didn't really feel like thinking about it but as I lay there thinking, I started crying terribly again...

I understand the feeling of fear which is to protect us from harm but I really don't understand why we need to miss people.....Do we miss others because we find it difficult moving on ? I know I missed my mum terribly when I first left my hometown to further my studies..

Its the size of me and not the size of my problems.

I learnt from T. Harv Eker's cd that it is really the size of me that matters. If I am big enough to take on the problem, the problem can be solved. On the other hand, if I felt the problem was too large for me to handle, the actual problem was in me and not the problem for someone else who looked at it from a different point of view might find that it is no problem at all...



I recall an ex-colleague of mine who always said that the work was easy...There I was being small and feeling it was a tough challenge. I made my life difficult feeling that the problem was tough as that became my reality. Whatever I got, I perceived it as a problem and it made life more difficult for me....I guess a lot of us go through life that way and that is why we stay mediocre.



From putting into practise what I've learnt, I am beginning to see life differently...Whenever I find myself thinking of a problem as too difficult, I remind myself of the tiny me who looked at problems as overwhelming. I'm sure if we all continued challenging ourselves this way, we would overcome many great problems in life and look back from where we came from with a smile.

How much do you love yourself ??

I've learnt something important from listening to the cds I got from the Millionaire Mind Intensive seminar. This is one thing each and everyone should learn because most people kind of learn the opposite growing in this 'negative' world we live in, today.

What we never learnt is for one to not 'beat' himself/herself up for making mistakes. We normally feel terrible when we make mistakes and start to hate ourselves or punish ourselves. And due to doing all these, we do not make the situation better but instead make things worse. So, what we should do when we make mistakes is actually keep loving ourselves and try not to go too low. This is so that in feeling that we are 'ok', we tend to be able to think more clearly and with this, we can correct the situation more easily than if we were feeling down and out. Although these things seem trivial and may be something we already know, it is most useful to be able to practise this when we are hit with failure. Only at that time, we can move forward by putting into practise this principle...

2007 - Learning to inspire myself

2007 came and went rather quickly. Before I knew it, I was already in the first day of January 2008. Let me recall some of the memorable events of 2007...

I went for Strategies for Financial Freedom on the 13-15 July by Dr Clemen Chiang. Looking back, what he taught was pretty basic but I guess this is because he was catering to people from different backgrounds. Some of which have never traded stocks in their life. Anyway, what he taught was enough for one to get started with trading options and he even included how to manage your money which is the most important element in investing.

From this point on, a friend of mine started introducing me books and cds on how to improve myself through acquiring more knowledge. He let me copy Lead the field by Earl Nightingale, The Secret by Rhonda Bryne(this was the video). Later, he introduced me The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R. Covey. I have been listening to all these and I would not say that it doesn't help but somehow, if you don't really put into practise what you learn, you would not benefit much from it.

One day, this friend of mine lent me a book titled Secrets of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker. From reading this book, I went on to attending the 3 day Millionaire Mind Intensive seminar in Singapore and have since been practising improving my mindset so that I manage it to not beat me up :)

Anyway, other things that happened during the year include me cutting my hair short in December as I had resigned from the company which allowed guys having long hair...I also changed my car from a mid sized one(Proton Waja) to a Perodua Viva(an A segment car). I did this after reading T. Harv's book. Not that the book preaches this but I wanted to simplify my life to achieve financial freedom in a shorter period. Well, I'd probably get a larger car later when my finances improve. Would be great to be able to achieve putting away for good(yes, you can never use this money to buy anything) 10% of my income to my Financial Freedom Account.

I plan to achieve much more in 2008 so here I come :)