Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Here's wishing everyone joy, laughter, good times with your loved ones, and renewed energy for the new year! 

Featured character: Sun Wu Kong

The Power of the Summary

The Power of the Summary. 

When you read something, when you hear a person speak, when you watch a video clip, think and summarise the key points. Doing this helps you identify the most value part of the book / article / video / speech / conversation. You extract what is most useful that you can apply. 

When in conversation, this lets you understand what the other party is trying to convey or achieve. It also helps you to detect the ulterior motive, if any. Let's get straight to the point, and let's get moving.

Monopoly platforms

Monopoly and near-monopoly platforms like Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple are scarier than governments. Do you agree? 

If your business is dependent on them (and so many businesses are) it is sometimes their algorithm, or on overworked customer service agent, who decides whether to suspend your ad, disapprove your app or suspend your account. 

Link: 6 reasons smaller companies want to break up Big Tech

lottery ticket uncle

What is the old, disabled lottery ticket uncle actually selling? 

You know, those uncles who stagger from table to table at coffee shops. Do they sell lottery prizes or do they just sell hopes? Perhaps what they offer is an opportunity for us to help others less fortunate, while maintaining their dignity. My wife always approaches one particular uncle who sells lottery tickets at the pasar malam. When she wins a small prize, she gives the winning ticket to the uncle the next time she sees him. She has already received what she wanted to buy, and it isn't the winning ticket.

IYOSA - How to get your staff to do the job right

IYOSA - How to get your staff to do the job right

You have to tell him 5 times up front, to save yourself the time and resources which would be wasted if he comes back in two weeks only to have done it wrong and needing to redo. 

I - I Tell You. "Please do Task A"

Y - You Tell Me. "Can you explain it in your own words?"

O - Objective. "Do you know what we are trying to achieve?"

S - Scenarios. "What can go wrong and what will you do?"

A - Alternatives. "Is there a better way you'd do it?" 

This and other techniques in my book Every Employee an Entrepreneur, now available on Shopee and Lazada (Malaysia) and Amazon and Google (worldwide): 

• Shopee Malaysia 
• Lazada Malaysia
• Amazon
• Amazon Kindle e-book
• Google Playstore e-book

How CEO's spend time

CEO's spend 72% of their work time on meetings, having 37 meetings per week (Harvard Business School study, 2018). 

Takeaway 1: You if hate meetings, you can't become CEO. 🙂 

Takeaway 2: On a more serious note, meeting, engaging, negotiating with, discussing with, communicating to and motivating people are important roles CEO's must play.

What % of your time do you spend on meetings?

Don't offer suggestions

Don't offer suggestions. 

Most people won't appreciate it, unless they come and ask you for it. Everyone has ego. When you offer a suggestion, it is a challenge to your friend's ego, and he/she may not take it well. Just be there when your friend needs help.