I StumbledUpon this image of a man unicycling across two cliffs at Wellingtongrey.net and it reminded me of my insurance exams. As some of you may know, I've been taking insurance exams conducted by the SCI (Singapore College of Insurance) in order to hold the qualifications to be a licensed financial adviser representative; and, as... Continue Reading →
Reading The Power of Story (by Jim Loehr) has made me think long and hard about the true purpose(s) by which I live my life, especially the chapter on finding my life's "ultimate mission". The premise of the book is that we all have some story about ourselves, and this story shapes our beliefs and... Continue Reading →
Just as I clicked on the "Submit" button, a thought ran through my mind: does altruism really exist? I was transferring funds from my bank to the Community Chest, my preferred charitable organisation (a preference years of playing Monopoly developed). Why am I donating? was all I could think. But I did so anyway. I... Continue Reading →
A passage I thought especially enlightening from the book The Art of Happiness, authored by Howard C. Cutler with the Dalai Lama: [H]appiness is determined more by one's state of mind than by external events. Success may result in a temporary feeling of elation, or tragedy may send us into a period of depression, but... Continue Reading →
There was one time I was feeling envious of a peer. I knew it was a problem, for I felt that most other things in my life were in order -- save for this rather uncontrollable emotion. I decided to turn to the internet for help. I searched the phrase "overcoming envy", hoping for a... Continue Reading →
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the bestselling book Flow, writes in his follow-up book Finding Flow that being happy alone does not mean we have a good quality of life; rather, he says that it is what we do -- not how happy we are -- that determines the quality. I do not agree --... Continue Reading →
I recently finished Milan Kundera's book The Eternal Lightness of Being. This has been the first novel I've read in years, and I must say it doesn't disappointment. Although I'm not a fan of authors breaking the fourth wall, it was relatively infrequent and not excessive. The stories (the book revolves around a few protagonists)... Continue Reading →
It is quite a well-known fact that the state of the economy has helped Obama with his U.S. presidential campaign considerably, not least because his focus from the get-go has always been on the economy, whereas McCain's has not. But is there anyone out there besides me who thinks that the election may have played... Continue Reading →
There is a movie called "The Secret", and it's about the secret of getting the things you want. A book of the same name, based on the movie, was once featured on Oprah, and overall this idea, "the secret", is probably one of the most marketed ideas in recent history. As much as I liked... Continue Reading →
Taken from the book Good to Great, by Jim Collins: David Maxwell, like Darwin Smith (ex-CEO Kimberly-Clark) and Colman Mockler (ex-CEO Gillette), exemplified a key trait of Level 5 leaders: ambition first and foremost for the company and concern for its success rather than for one's own riches and personal renown. Level 5 leaders want... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 