A Moment Of Senility

Went to the ATM at the bank this morning to withdraw some cash. Or at least that was the intention. But as I was in a frantic rush, I didn't bother reading everything on the screen until I realised that my withdrawal has exceeded my balance.

Under normal circumstances, the ATM card is spat out first before the money. In this case, the ATM card did come out, but no money came. I was too caught up with the "exceeded my balance" issue that I completely shut out other thoughts and action.

The screen then read, "Please remove your ATM card" before it turned back to the introduction screen. I stood there still waiting for my ATM card (because in actual fact I was waiting for my money that would never come at that point), and waited and waited. I thought it must be stuck. I randomly pushed whatever buttons my fingers could find. Still to no avail.

Then I rushed in in an annoyed mood, and told them the ATM swallowed my card. The girl behind the counter asked if my card was "captured" - denoting that my card was faulty, which the machine would usually withhold the card. But I smugly  told her that the machine asked me to "remove my card". So she went to the back.

Four minutes later, two guys lazily strolled out and I scolded them in my head that they looked so demotivated and were even looking at the television as they listlessly walked over. They opened up the machine and couldn't find my card.

Then my heart skipped a beat. I reached in to my pocket and pulled out my wallet. Lo and behold, the blasted ATM card was sitting there comfortably in the sleeve. I pretended an exclamation, made some sincere apologies and quickly went back into my car.

The Middle Seat In The Plane

I've never liked crowded places. I've always avoided them.

So to be stuck in a confined and tiny place with rows and rows of people, I guess sometimes something's got to give.

I remembered travelling to San Francisco with my parents in the first half of last year, the plane from Singapore to San Francisco was completely filled. Every row and every seat was taken, business for Singapore Airlines was definitely good.

Upon entering I already felt the stuffy and stifled. I never thought about it until I sat down in the middle seat between both my parents. Immediately, I felt like I was going to suffocate. I must have lost some colour in my face because when I told my parents it was hard to breathe, my dad quickly stood up and gave me his aisle seat.

Almost instantly that felt better. And I reached for the bag just in case, and breathed into it.

No, it didn't work. Unlike the movies, but not unlike the comedic ones because that instant felt like I was the punchline.

One Of Those Days Again

Once again I walked out of the house, went to the bank and all the way to the office with my cage unzipped. #oneofthosedays

In The People Business

Those of you who know me know that I work in a big franchise corporation, an international brand that is recognisable throughout most of the world.

Many of you would consider that I am in the food business. But lately, I have begun to see myself in the people business. Because lately, it has become clear to me. The success of our business heavily depends on our people to deliver the best service possible. So in that sense, if our people don’t deliver, then our business will not.

Being an international franchise, I have had the luxury to visit different countries and know different people. But what I didn’t count on was to hear some amazingly inspirational stories. Stories that made me realise that I cannot just be in the food business, but I have to be in the people business. Not the usual sense of the term but I'll explain later. This came to me because the success of our business heavily depends on our people to deliver the best service possible. So in that sense, if our people do not deliver, then our business will not.

Let me share with you one of those stories that I have just heard recently.

Our restaurants around the world are in constant scrutiny from the regional headquarters. Every month, they would hire a third party company to send mystery shoppers who will visit the restaurants and act as a normal customer. But in actual fact, these mystery shoppers have a list and a set of criteria that each restaurant and staff must adhere to. And thus, it is not easy to achieve a 100% scorecard.

But there is this one branch in Hong Kong that a few years ago, has been getting 100% for 16 months straight. In other words, throughout that 16 months, it has never scored anything less than 100%.

Naturally, the regional headquarters in Singapore heard about this and the training officer, a friend of mine by the name Stephan, got curious as to how this branch was able to achieve such a feat. So he decided that he has to make a trip to Hong Kong to find out.

He contacted the Hong Kong office and said he’s coming in and wanted to meet the Branch Manager. So the Hong Kong office arranged everything and that morning, he got dropped off at that branch and was asked to wait there for the Branch Manager. It was still early so not many customers were there. He found a table in the corner, sat down and waited. He waited for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, but still nobody came to say hi.

So finally he got up and went to the counter and asked for the Branch Manager. The staff immediately pointed to one young man sitting alone at the other corner of the restaurant. So Stephen said, alamak – he’s Singaporean so he knew how to use alamak. So he said, alamak, I’ve been waiting at this corner for half an hour and he was there waiting for me at the other corner.

So he went over to introduce himself. But before all these, Stephan has already built this person up in his mind. He imagined this person would be someone who is authoritative, demanding and perhaps even scary. Because to achieve 100% for 16 months straight, he must at least be someone who was intimidating enough that all his staff would follow his every instruction.

But instead, this Branch Manager was physically small, timid and quiet. When he spoke, his voice was barely over a whisper. Not only that, this Branch Manager was actually very shy, that’s why he was sitting in the corner minding his own business.

So they began to chit chat and after a while Stephan drilled down to the real question. He asked what special things did the Branch Manager implement in his restaurant. All the Branch Manager said was, I just picked a few weak points of the restaurant, focus on them everyday with every single staff.

So for example, when the restaurant was weak in cleanliness, he would lead his team to do cleaning and teach his staff personally how to clean properly. And when his staff was weak in smiling, he would check each staff when they came before they started their shift, looked at them from head to toe, make sure they look good, gave them confidence, and reminded them to smile.

So this Branch Manager knew that in order to make a big difference, you have to start with the little things.

They went on to chat for a while and after their meeting, before they parted ways, Stephan asked the Branch Manager one final question. He asked, if you were to be transferred to another branch, can you still do it? Guess what the Branch Manager said. He said, Stephen, it is not where I am, it is who I am.

Ladies and gentlemen, how many of us actually realise the truth behind that statement? Every individual, if they are not aware of what they are doing or how they are affecting others around them, then they will not be able to perform to the best of their ability.

This is why John F Kennedy’s quote is still well-known to this day. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. If we are more worried with the benefits and entitlements, then this selfishness will be our downfall.

So how can I not be in the people business? And it is not just through my role in the company, but I take it as a responsibility to my community, that I spread this awareness to everyone. So that is what I mean by being in the people business.

My Whole World Spins

Never have I really experienced the effects of dizziness. The closest I've come to it was during meditation sitting on the floor. Even with eyes closed and darkness all around me, I could feel the world outside spinning in a clockwise direction. Sometimes I tell myself it's because my meditation skill is so powerful that I was able to get so close to the earth and can feel the revolution!

But my first real experience was when I visited Shangri-La, China, just last week. Well known for its high altitude and what that may entail, I got myself prepared as much as possible... mentally. After the plane touched down and taxied, everything still felt fine. But once inside the jet bridge, suddenly I felt like I was moving in slow motion - like in one of the Matrix movies.

One of the friends I was holidaying with is a chiropractor. One of those days there, he helped me readjust my neck. He got me to lie down on the floor with my legs pointing away from him, and cracked my neck while positioned at the top of my head.

Immediately after that, I couldn't stand up. Best I could manage was to kneel on the floor because at that point, my vicinity was going really fast round and round right in front of my eyes. It took me a good ten minutes of "resting" before I could stand up and walk straight.

However, the most serious case came the morning after. Now, I'm not saying that these two incidents were related but maybe they might have been. I performed my usual routine: after opening my eyes and groggily checked the time I reluctantly separated myself from the very comfortable duvet provided by MGallery Songtsam Retreat; and proceeded to the toilet.

The first stop of course was the toilet bowl. As I stood there and prepared myself for some much needed release, suddenly the toilet began to move. The first few microseconds were slow but gradually picked up speed. Next thing I knew, my right hand came up to stop the wall of the shower cubicle coming straight at my forehead.

Once everything stopped, I realised how dangerous that was. If my hand had been a second slower, I might have inadvertently slammed my head against the glass partition of the shower cubicle and who knows what kind of damage that might have caused.

Before this, I've only heard from my mom's description of her dizziness episodes and how once she found herself lying on the floor on top of the stairs. Fortunately for us both, nothing serious came out of this phenomenon.

But I do hope that I did not just begin another one of those old-age syndromes so early in the game.

Hand-Eye-Non-Conformation

See that red scratch on my freakishly fair thigh? It doesn't look much, and it sure didn't feel much; until I went into the shower and it stung.

Now, two thoughts have formed while I succumbed to the mind-blowing sting, followed by crouching at the corner of the shower and asking, "Why me?!".

1) The intensity of the sting surprised me. I didn't realise it was such a bad scratch (keeping in mind the word "bad" is relative to the situation here because, yes, I know, that's a minor issue but I didn't expect it to be an "issue" in the first place).

But is it really a bad scratch? Or is it because I'm in my thirties?! Has my "healing factor" finally slowed down now that I'm in my thirties because the scratch was from more than 6 hours ago? Or is it because my tolerance for pain has decreased? Or both?

2) And let me start off number 2 by telling the story of how I got this scratch.

I haven't been sleeping well for the past month. I'm waking up a few times in the middle of the night, sometimes to sneeze and sometimes to pee. Of course, sometimes it's both. So naturally, when this happened, the quality of slumber was compromised. And with that, throughout the day I wouldn't be functioning anywhere close to my best.

But, this particular day, which was two days ago, the lethargy hit me bad. I was yawning the whole morning and my eye lids felt like how Tom in "Tom & Jerry" had those 50kg weights attached to them.

And sometime in that morning, I had to go to the toilet for a number 2 (how ironic this is also number 2). I usually like to read during this type of transaction but this was at the office and my book was at home (I'm currently reading Left Hand Of God - very interesting but I digress). So I took out my ever-reliable, entertainment-filled Nexus One and started on Angry Bird.

Just as I was done, somehow, my left thumb with average-length finger nail (what's average? Err, few days without trimming?) lost its coordination. The distance with which I thought it was apart from my freakishly fair thigh was miss-judged. Somehow, I scratched myself while trying to put my Nexus One back into my pants' pocket that's wrapping around my ankles.

I don't recall ever having this kind of "accident" when I was in my twenties, but then again my mind isn't what it used to be too - but that's another can of worms that I don't want to open now.

Suffice to say, I better be more aware now or I'll be more accident-prone. Accidents occurring outside of my control, that's understandable and forgivable; but accidents inflicted on myself unnecessarily, that's just silly and sad.

My Ode To Steve Jobs

Artwork by @Frank Lv Guo Hui

I wrote this on Facebook Notes yesterday, the day Steve Jobs passed, and thought I'd post it here as well:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Until now my Facebook Wall and Twitter still have some commemorative messages of Steve Jobs. A pure testament of how much lives he has touched and changed throughout this earth.

It's not just the legacy that he has left behind, nor just how great an inventive mind he has; but it was the way he lived.

He has been battling pancreatic cancer for more than a decade now, he knows what it's like to be facing death everyday. But instead of calling it quits, he lived everyday like it was his last. And he only did things that he had passion for.

Those who know me know that I'm somewhat against Apple products (OK fine, I'm totally against). I don't own a single Apple item, and I refuse to instal i-Tunes even if I would need it to purchase songs off the internet or listen to pod casts. So naturally, I don't bother with any news of him or Apple. But seeing today how much the world loves him, it's clear that he's more than just an inventor, more than just a trend changer, more than just the Superman of Silicon Valley.

I found many of his quotes and his life stories all over the internet that showed why he is who he is. And I watched a fifteen-minute video of a speech he gave during a graduation ceremony in Stamford back in 2005, titled How To Live Before You Die.

His wisdom shone and he inspires because he walked the talk. He set his mind early on to do what he loved because he knew life is short. His vision is clear and he changed the world through and through because he was the embodiment of both courage and foolishness. Above all else, he had heart.

Even though Steve Jobs is not my hero in the world of technology (though I have to admit I am affected through the secondhand smoker syndrome), but he is my new hero in the way of life.

I know not all of us are lucky enough to be able to do what we love or what we have passion for. But perhaps this could be a wake-up call for you to reflect on your own life. Steve looked at himself everyday in the mirror and asked if he was doing what he wanted to do. If the answer was a "no" a few days in a row, he knew it was time for a change.

Don't be afraid if you need to change. Change, in this whole world, is the only constant. Be more afraid of stagnation. Be more afraid of your comfort zone. Be more afraid if you have stopped learning. For we are all moving to the same final destination - take it from Steve for he knew this intimately - we are all moving towards death.

But question is, how will you get there? That's most important. For Steve, he changed the movie industry, the music industry and the computer industry. He changed the lives of millions by adding colours into our world and made sure we had the best. What about you, what have you done today? Wake up!