AP Director visits LC NTU!

Indeed, the Wed that just pass was definitely an enriching day when the Ryan Director for Asia Pacific from AIESEC International dropped by LC NTU to share with us his experience and journey in AIESEC. Through the conversation with him, we somehow had a better idea what goes on in AI - some trivial,

• they had a rotation cooking team for each day
• there are 22 people in the team from 17 countries; can't beat that for diversity,
• working hours are usually 9am - 6pm or 10am - 7pm but our dear AP Director was there from 8am - 7pm since he needs to communicate with people in AP but the time difference made it difficult

Ryan's journey in AIESEC has been far from smooth sailing from day 1, he had lost in many elections as well as encountered many challenges along the way.

One of the most dramatic that I could recall is when he finally became MCP for NZ (btw, he lost his first - see, the virtue of persistence) , the NZ MC was at the brink of bankruptcy due to some financial issues. despite that, he managed to get the NZ MC to be one of the richest MC of all time during his term. Hmm, I'm not really sure what are the strategies that he used in the MC, think its time to send him an e-mail.

Another drama like situation was when he transfer over to another LC - literally by requesting to transfer to another University, look at that level of commitment - to help the LC in its management. That LC had about 25 members but it had been quite inactive, raising minimal number of TNs and SNs and was on the verge of losing its membership. Ryan ran for the LCP position. During the election speech he mentioned about being very tough on the members if he was to get elected, which he did and first thing he did was to shook up members, issuing an ultimatum - start working for the LC or quit from it. He explained to us that it is harsh, but he wants to waste nobody's time, which I fully agree, why stay if you aren't committed to the cause. Three members remained, but they fought hard bringing the LC to one of its highest time and revived the people's interest in the Uni to join the LC.

During the interactive sessions, one most valuable lesson that I had learn is value of persistence; to work hard for your dream, to know that the journey towards that end will be tough but to carry on anyway. The path that Ryan had took to reach where he is now, isn't a simple flat road with nice scenery along the way, but it really is a roller-coaster journey. And will continue to be as long as he working towards his goal. Through the journey where the ups is like the thrill of viewing the joys of your labour and the downs is like each passing day is like a lifetime - it has definitely imbue a strong character and leadership abilities in Ryan; just like a fulfillment of AIESEC's motto, the fulfillment of human potential.

To sum up, definitely, all Ryan had achieved made me felt jealous as well as inspired, he was 3 years younger than me yet he had achieved so much more. However, I believe that I too can make an impact like him by making each day an improvement over the previous - after all the road to excellence ends when you stop taking action. ;)

Are you inspired by Ryan as well? Well then, make a commitment and join us in the journey to pursue excellence ;)


Want to know more? Read Wan Xin's blog post that I extracted below

Extracted from Wan Xin's blog

Meeting with my AP director. It was awesome!

If action causes less regret than inaction, I see what it means today. Deciding to go meet Ryan Sheppard (the Asia Pacific Director for AIESEC) was a decision that I will be grateful about. It came as one of the most inspiring talks I have had so far. He shared with us so much that I wish my memory could be better so that I can remember everything he said.
Things I have learnt:

• When you are riding on a bicycle and you see a stone on the road, you look at it and keep telling yourself 'Don't hit the stone, don't hit the stone!' You will hit it eventually. Why? Your focus on the ston was directing you there. But if you choose to focus in the path you wish to take, you will get there eventually. So when things go wrong, don't JUST look at what is wrong. Focus on what you have done right. I don't mean you just ignore the wrong, but just, never lose sight of what you have done right. The focus on doing things right will help the wrongs to fade. To take it the personal level, don't just look at how to diminish your weaknesses. Focus on how to develop your strength. Your strengths will put off your weaknesses eventually. And why should you focus on your strengths? Because it is so much easier to be yourself than be who you are not!
• What comes out at the end of the discussion is the best that you can have. Don't hold on to your expectation. It will cause you to lose sight of the other possibilities, which are great too!
• Keep your eventual goal in mind. There may be a lot of ways to get there, but you should reach there eventually. Not lose track.
• As you get older, the high time will get higher, the low time lower. Understand that, come to terms with that, so that you won't get too emotionally affected by the low times. And whatever you do, the low times will always come. But if you quit at the toughest time, you may never be able to see the higher time which is oh-so-rewarding! Remember, the low time is there only to complement your high time.
• It'll start when it'll start. Don't force things happen, don't force people to speak.
• Disagreement is always there. Understand this as the normal phenomenon. Talk things out, smooth things the peaceful way.
• Finally, as part of the EB (executive board), you may have a lot of things you wanna do. But given your time and energy, if you set too many goals, eventually you can only do a bit of everything. Set few goals, and stick to it, and do a lot to them.

I felt that these are not all! I know I heard many many more. But sadly, I couldn't recall. *Urgh* Memory decay due to ineffective encoding. I must learn better information encoding technique to enhance my learning.

But, I must feel grateful to my eventual decision, more grateful that Ryan came down to NTU to shine some light to prepare me better before I embark on my EB life. During the session, there were moments of silence, but that's only because we were busy digesting his words! It was a really good talk. I'm lovin' it. EB path doesn't seem easier now, but I am more prepared.

Come what may.

Are you procrastinating?

Another inspiring article by Mr Jim Rohn for sharing and making our lives a better one...

Ending Procrastination by Jim Rohn

Perseverance is about as important to achievement as gasoline is to driving a car. Sure, there will be times when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, but you'll always get out of the rut with genuine perseverance. Without it, you won't even be able to start your engine.

The opposite of perseverance is procrastination. Perseverance means you never quit. Procrastination usually means you never get started, although the inability to finish something is also a form of procrastination.

Ask people why they procrastinate and you'll often hear something like this: "I'm a perfectionist. Everything has to be just right before I can get down to work. No distractions, not too much noise, no telephone calls interrupting me, and of course I have to be feeling well physically, too. I can't work when I have a headache." The other end of procrastination - being unable to finish - also has a perfectionist explanation: "I'm just never satisfied. I'm my own harshest critic. If all the it's aren't dotted and all the t's aren't crossed, I just can't consider that I'm done. That's just the way I am, and I'll probably never change."

Do you see what's going on here? A fault is being turned into a virtue. The perfectionist is saying that his standards are just too high for this world. This fault-into-virtue syndrome is a common defense when people are called upon to discuss their weaknesses, but in the end it's just a very pious kind of excuse making. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with what's really behind procrastination.

Remember, the basis of procrastination could be fear of failure. That's what perfectionism really is, once you take a hard look at it. What's the difference whether you're afraid of being less than perfect or afraid of anything else? You're still paralyzed by fear. What's the difference whether you never start or never finish? You're still stuck. You're still going nowhere. You're still overwhelmed by whatever task is before you. You’re still allowing yourself to be dominated by a negative vision of the future in which you see yourself being criticized, laughed at, punished, or ridden out of town on a rail. Of course, this negative vision of the future is really a mechanism that allows you to do nothing. It's a very convenient mental tool.

I'm going to tell you how to overcome procrastination. I'm going to show you how to turn procrastination into perseverance, and if you do what I suggest, the process will be virtually painless. It involves using two very powerful principles that foster productivity and perseverance instead of passivity and procrastination.

The first principle is: Break it Down.

No matter what you're trying to accomplish, whether it's writing a book, climbing a mountain, or painting a house the key to achievement is your ability to break down the task into manageable pieces and knock them off one at one time. Focus on accomplishing what's right in front of you at this moment. Ignore what's off in the distance someplace. Substitute real-time positive thinking for negative future visualization. That's the first all- important technique for bringing an end to procrastination.

Suppose I were to ask you if you could write a four hundred-page novel. If you're like most people, that would sound like an impossible task. But suppose I ask you a different question. Suppose I ask if you can write a page and a quarter a day for one year. Do you think you could do it? Now the task is starting to seem more manageable. We're breaking down the four-hundred-page book into bite-size pieces. Even so, I suspect many people would still find the prospect intimidating. Do you know why? Writing a page and a quarter may not seem so bad, but you're being asked to look ahead one whole year. When people start to do look that far ahead, many of them automatically go into a negative mode. So let me formulate the idea of writing a book in yet another way. Let me break it down even more.

Suppose I was to ask you: can you fill up a page and a quarter with words-not for a year, not for a month, not even for a week, but just today? Don't look any further ahead than that. I believe most people would confidently declare that they could accomplish that. Of course, these would be the same people who feel totally incapable of writing a whole book.

If I said the same thing to those people tomorrow - if I told them, I don't want you to look back, and I don't want you to look ahead, I just want you to fill up a page and a quarter this very day - do you think they could do it?

One day at a time. We've all heard that phrase. That's what we're doing here. We're breaking down the time required for a major task into one-day segments, and we're breaking down the work involved in writing a four hundred-page book into page-and-a-quarter increments.

Keep this up for one year, and you'll write the book. Discipline yourself to look neither forward nor backward, and you can accomplish things you never thought you could possibly do. And it all begins with those three words: break it down.

My second technique for defeating procrastination is also only three words long. The three words are: Write it Down. We know how important writing is to goal setting. The writing you'll do for beating procrastination is very similar. Instead of focusing on the future, however, you're now going to be writing about the present just as you experience it every day. Instead of describing the things you want to do or the places you want to go, you're going to describe what you actually do with your time, and you're going to keep a written record of the places you actually go.

In other words, you're going to keep a diary of your activities. And you're going to be amazed by the distractions, detours, and downright wastes of time you engage in during the course of a day. All of these get in the way of achieving your goals. For many people, it's almost like they planned it that way, and maybe at some unconscious level they did. The great thing about keeping a time diary is that it brings all this out in the open. It forces you to see what you're actually doing... and what you're not doing.

The time diary doesn't have to be anything elaborate. Just buy a little spiral notebook that you can easily carry in your pocket. When you go to lunch, when you drive across town, when you go to the dry cleaners, when you spend some time shooting the breeze at the copying machine, make a quick note of the time you began the activity and the time it ends. Try to make this notation as soon as possible; if it's inconvenient to do it immediately, you can do it later. But you should make an entry in your time diary at least once every thirty minutes, and you should keep this up for at least a week.

Break it down. Write it down. These two techniques are very straightforward. But don't let that fool you: these are powerful and effective productivity techniques that allow you put an end to procrastination and help you get started to achieving your goals.

I'm hardly a nerd....

Time has fly since I was really enthusiastic about coding hard day and night, think Uni life has helped me to learn about my interest better. Now I know coding is not for me, neither is engineering. Hmm, I do still love engineering, the changes that it has brought to make lives better, I do see myself doing the front-end work, helping to get the technology to the people.

You Are 28% Nerdy

You're a little nerdy, but no one would ever call you a nerd. You sometimes get into nerdy things, but only after they've become a part of mainstream culture.

How Nerdy Are You?

You Communicate Like a Woman

You empathize, talk things out, and express your emotions freely. You're a good listener, and you're non-judgmental with your advice. Communication is how you connect with people. You're always up for a long talk, no matter how difficult the subject matter is.

Do You Communicate Like a Man or a Woman?

The power of focus...

Focus on what you want to do and maintain the focus. No second thoughts.

People said this a lot of the times, but have you ever wondered why?

Simply explained, if you are not focusing on what you want done, it means that you are doing what you do not want done...

e.g. You are aiming to do well in exams, halfway through your studies, you decide to do something else, by doing something else, you are diverting your focus away from your goal.

You got to catch this on the screen...

Was reading Alvin's blog, when I saw this review about him watching The pursuit of happyness It seemed like a great inspiration movie that one shouldn't miss, and even if you were to miss it, grab the DVD. I always like this kind of movie, cause that's what man should be like - holding firm on your beliefs and persist on no matter what happens.

Here's a movie special...

Crapping time away with a blogthing....

Doesn't sounds very good... but oh well...

Okay, enough time wasted... Back to work...

Your Dating Purity Score: 96%

You are an innocent dater. You're either lacking in dating experience or have had a long serious relationship. Either way, there's still plenty of fish in the sea out there for you to sample!

Dating Purity Test

Time take a deep breath.... And carry on...

Well, after some marathon week, finally submitted in my FYP report. However, I do not really feel that good about the report - meaning, I think there's still more work to be done on that.

Meanwhile, I think I need to focus on 2 more upcoming reports that due to be submitted in as well as preparing for the final exams, with the first paper just a month away.

It sure is a hectic period although I have been taking exams for the past 16+ years of education. Well, after this I am definitely going to go slow and enjoy the process of learning. To be frank, I have completely no idea what I had learnt over the past four years, it doesn't really seemed to be a good way for my growth. =/

PhD on PhD....

I attended a talk given by Prof Fred Higgs III, from Carnegie Mellon University last Fri. The title of his talk is "The PhD, the Whole PhD, and Nothing but the PhD" - not that I want to get a PhD, but this prof background was quite intriguing prompting me to at least listen to him.

Some background on him, extracted from phamplet :
After his second undergrad year, Dr C Fred Higgs started a company www.goCarpeDiem.com with some friends to motivate and train students and young professionals to become high achievers. He now actually does a lecture circuit in the U.S.A to encourage students to pursue advanced degrees. The U.S. National Science Foundation and other government agencies such as NASA have engaged him to speak to young scholars about the many good reasons why they should pursue a PhD degree. Dr Higgs hopes to try to get the top NTU EEE, MAE and SCE students get excited about pursuing a PhD degree.

* Still on fight to way up there *

Anyway, he laid out some interesting points about PhD in a very engaging manner - talking about why a PhD is essential, he raised that point saying that many decision makers at the top of big companies has got a Ph.D, due to their problem solving skills. He also said that with a PhD, you basically have a VIP pass to anywhere you want to go - (I'm not really that sure about that though, though, it'd be relatively true in a good job market) He also raised the theory of delayed gratification - saying that PhD tend to earn much more than the others. Most importantly, education is free for those top brains (which unfortunately, I ain't under at this moment in time)

From the talk, you could tell that Prof Higgs is really different. He's a prof but he talks like a motivational speaker, making the topic really engaging. I wish there are some Prof.s like him here in NTU.

Anyway, I had considered the points that he raised up during the talk and in fact do agree with most of them. It sort of made me to reflect on path of growth - I intended to through the industry route getting CCNP, CCIE, etc. I did ask his view on this and his reply was - "Would it be relevant in the changing times"

Which I though, hmm, yeah, Cisco is here for now, but how about 10 years or even 20 years down the road. That doesn't mean I'm gonna give up going for my CCIE, but it does make me reflect on what sort of skills should I gain to remain relevant to society and to be able to contribute back to society. Something definitely worth to ponder about every now and then.

Just a quick test....

Funny, blue meaning lack of oxygen? Think too much already...

Your Brain is Blue

Of all the brain types, yours is the most mellow. You tend to be in a meditative state most of the time. You don't try to think away your troubles. Your thoughts are realistic, fresh, and honest. You truly see things as how they are. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about your friends, your surroundings, and your life.

What Color Is Your Brain?

Crap... Can't sleep...

Sigh... Irregular sleeping time is hitting back at me...
Well, perhaps blogging might help me relax a bit before going back to the bed.

Well, I'd received good news about my friends last week. 2 of them are gonna wear the wedding gowns within the next year. So that makes like 3 weddings I'll be attending in the next 12 months. Sure feel happy for them. You might ask "How are you feeling"... As to that, take a guess... LOL.

Just 2 more months left before the end of the Uni path, I will will myself to make sure that I clear all obstacles in front of me. As to what's after that? Hmm, currently, I want to attend 1 or 2 more overseas AIESEC conferences (hopefully there are interesting conferences up for the month of June/July) Also not to forget, my CCDA exams that I need to clear, that's likely gonna be 2 weeks of hard work, but I'm capable for it. Also, I'm intending to get LASIK done, it's not only for cosmetic purpose, I'm considered visually impaired by medical terms - try imagine having eyesight as bad as 1,000 degrees per side.

What else is there... Hmm, I also need to keep fit so that I could at least manage a pass when I get back to dear old army, long term wise, it'd also be beneficial to my health as a whole. Financially, really need to revise my portfolio and review future financial planning with Lena.

Well, attempting to go to dreamland again, wish me luck.

Wild open house by the AIESECers

It sure is a wild event for AIESECers yesterday haha~
Enjoy.

AIESEC Dance - (Bonde do Tigrão) Cerol Na Mão




AIESEC SIPO NLDS 2006 Faci Dance

Freaking busy week....

Freaking busy week as I'm rushing to finish FYP stuff...

Had fun on Wed night though doing some cool AIESEC dances, I mastered the NLDS Faci dance liao (finally) + the tiger... Must constantly mentally revise for Sat's show... lol...

I need a new phone fast, my Motorola L7 mic has got some issue, either that or it has got poor transmission, people can't hear me clearly... Any recommendations? Preferably a good and simple phone cause I'm going back to army coming hmm... no idea yet... maybe Aug.

Well, more stuff to be done. Time is precious.

End of preperation seminars (Day 2)

Well, day 2 is quite fun for me as I'm attending the conference all day long.

An overview of what we had.
A little revision of InSight XP
How we should represent Singapore Culture
Inter-cultural Communication
Learning Circles
AIESEC Values
World Idol
The Story of Abigail
AIESEC CultureShock
Reflections of day event: What do you want out of the Internship opportunity

The talk on how we should represent Singapore Culture made me think hard, do I really know Singapore at the back of the hand, the political system, the education systems, the story of the local delights and so on... When we go aboard, we'll be ambassadors to Singapore and might be asked questions that we have accepted but didn't understand the rational behind, something as simple as Merlion, what's the origin of it, I think it appeared in the Primary Text but that was like years ago...

In the session where we experience difficulty inter-cultural communication, each of our group are supposed to pose as people from a particular culture; giving us a first hand experience of the possible difficulties.

In the learning circles, we talked about the maid policies in Singapore, the discussion led to new insight - such as possible reasons why there are no maids from China (they can be a highly probable disruption to the family fabrics in Singapore)...

Hmm, rushing for time will continue at a later time.

End of preperation seminars (Day 1)

The 2 days of AIESEC Preparation Seminar went on smoothly with minimal glitch. Perhaps an overview of what happened.

Dr Hooi's presentation - the most important thing that i picked up during his presentation is for a business to prosper, continuous innovation is required. ie if you innovate something, that something can be easily copied (and you should hope that people will want to copy it; that means you have something successful, in that sense)

Mr Harmawan presentation is basically about the concept of 3i Marketing Triangle which is about brand integrity, brand identity and brand image. The whole emphasis of his presentation is that a company should have their company culture/values based on the end goal of contributing to society such that the company's band will be a lovemark (meaning that it's well loved and respected by people), a concept by Kevin Roberts CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi - "the future beyond brands - lovemarks". Towards the end of the presentation, he shared with us quotes from Mother Theresa which I think embraces the attitude of how a man should act.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accused you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight.
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, people may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
But give the world the best you have anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is all between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

There are also talks by some other speakers, of contents I have yet to recall, will update later about them

It's another of that sort of week....

It's kind of irritating that whenever I have just a bit more time at hand, my internal thoughts sort of get wired the wrong way... Basically, I didn't managed to complete a thing this week, although there's a lot of things that should be done especially this week. Perhaps I felt overwhelmed by what supposed to be done that it sort of paralyzed me for the past few days... Got to think of some ways to get over this situation; maybe a small part to begin each day, never mind if I don't finish it, I just have to start many small bits to complete the big part.... Okie, okie, 1 bit at a time, 1 bit at a time... I think I'll start with a short prayer...