Saturday, March 15, 2008

Working on a Saturday

Mr China had a terrible headache for days. He doesnt know the reason, perhaps stemming from his tooth pain or just plain stress? It is on the left side and it travels up and down, to the neck, strains it , sometimes he cant breath.

Things are ever still the same, it has moved, but not as much / fast as he wantd. Meeting with so much problems and obstacles that it seemed an almost impossible task at hand. He has been too invloved in the "kitchen", the machines and nonsense. Not because he likes it but no one cares about it. HQ rebutt and reprimanded me for not getting my priorities correct, but it is a situation that i am in a lose-lose, leave the machines alone, no pdts, no pdts , no sales? Of coursr Mr China's responsibilities are in the field to scout for biz and all, that is another big issue on its own.

It is weary and dragging him down, the headache is getting him down, the pain , the numbness, it is just like have a small prick in the brain. Rest isnt what it suppose to be... he doesnt know wat to write this moment, he needs inner peace from higher powers. Bless.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Self Reliance

Things are moving now, there are office equipments, tables, chairs , lights and electricity in Mr China's lab. After goods are checked and verified, it would be shifted and finally he will have his separated operations. Finally Mr China will have his say and rule over the sales and marketing aspects of the JV company. Finally he can command his own team with the same dream and vision to work. All throughout last year, this has been the simple thing that he sought after, but apparently the undercurrents are far too strong.

Summarising situation , SnM activities of Mr China's Sg pdts are done through the chinese partner. They are our distributors. They have a present sales force with rather gd network. However the biggest problem is that they are mainly selling high end frames. Put in lenses, it is a totally game plan and things had not move after 3 years.... it is getting stale.

Therefore Mr China felt that his fate and performance were not under his control, the sales figure had to be achieved under the chinese partner. Rather than be dependent on them , he fought for a separation. This is done so he can be entirely in charge and have control. Not control over people, but control over the situation , so in case it fails, Mr China will dare raise his hand to admit it. It is taking a gamble , but he is fighting for it and biting that chance.

Many times Mr China felt unsure and unclear, needing pple to reaffirm his ideas , goals and mission. Or many a times Mr China felt downhearted and needed much encouragements. In short, Mr China had over-whined. Despite all the feel good words and all, he knows win/lose, he can only be dependent on himself : Self Reliance. Humans are resistant to changes, they generally submit to familiarity and to a common way of life. But keep in mind that things had to be done by himself: I cant run for you, so you gain fitness, I cant mediate, so you gain inner peace....... The thing is to accept that uncomfortable feeling, know it is a common resultant, like first day of school, but by the end of a 4 year phase, you cry to leave that place.

Great leaders have visions and give directions. Mr China now is rather unsure, he has his own views on the 4Ps to do , what are the products he would do, what prices and where he would sell them. However, it is that uncertainity that has been stopping him. He has been looking around for answers, pple to reaffirm his position, but he found comfort in none, if the chinese partner that had 50% of their own money in their, doesnt seem at all concern abt the slow development, is it just the way they work? or is there a secret agenda?

Mr China is experimenting and coming to terms that he is ALONE, no point to whine and scream for help, there will be none. Better save that energy for himself. He has to build a vision and mission for his support crew to believe and work towards. At the moment, he is learning, but not fast enough. He needs to bash things through more often........................

From a temple: Confidence comes from practise and discipline, you are not born with it. As it is situational. Discipline means completing every task you set out to do, no matter how small. This is to build up a "can do , must do" mentality within, telling yourself that you are an achiever. There will be no excuses to delay or drop a task. Practice means doing the actual things/tasks. General plans are made up of small details, and vice versa. By practising, you enter the minute details and form a detailed understanding of all aspects, to become a master in that field. From there, you come out to see a bigger picture. The bigger picture is made up of minute details.......

Another gd verse: Peace comes from within , do not seek without it............
the 2nd line is interesting as it is condescending , it ask you to seek it, but you cant seek it as it is within urself. Mr China would interpet as seeking it within urself, peace is inner, you cannot find it from other places...... again ..... self reliance..........

Friday, February 29, 2008

Better

Mr China feels better. He knows that drive is very important, it is a driving force to get things done which is the difference of one another. Belief and Dedication is something that would come along with Drive. At a start, Mr China wakes up every morning blurred and totally reluctant to go to work. The moment he enjoys most is the moment he wakes up, the few seconds of peace that is experienced; prior to memories being loaded in, to remind him of the shit that he is in.

It was at a health examination that he finally have some moments of his own to reflect. He touched down on monday, tue n wed to finalize Exhibition details and off he zoom to Shang Hai on thurs morning and finally back again midnight on monday.

There he realise some way to find back the drive. It is through anger. Anger itself on the purest form is not good. However, controlled anger, an internal furnace maybe good to drive a person and things forward. What he realised that his flame had died in the early period, he had just allow things to run the way it had been, anywhere with walls , he stalled, where in the past, he would have scream and kick even the wall will not move. Now he needs to find back that anger and it is burning again. That clenched fist and teeth, that chair throw and door kicking Mr China is back. He needs to have anger to drive himself forward. Of course , it is not personnel targeted anger, that would be hatred. It is just a drive motivator.

Yesterday after around round of unreasonable discussion , he felt the urge to vent his frustrations, luckily he didnt do it in front of those china balls. But he felt that anger, he screamed and threw a chair across when he got back his office. That is good, he needs that.

he will fight on.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

lost-ed

What a time it had been for Mr China. It had been such a long while since he found time to update his source of mental release for himself.

Let him recount his events:
Dec: back to sg at the end of the month, met with unfortunate incident where his jv partner conveniently "borrow" a few million for their own usage out of the JV acct. They returned.

Jan: back to rush all the machine installations. Had mad fun rushing from station to station and have pple from france, hk, indo, korea to entertain him for 2 whole weeks.

Feb: back for CNY, now back in China.

Mr China hadnt been himself, for the 1st time, he just could not wish more to be back home. To be with things that are familiar, to be with things that matter. An urge to about-turn at the gates. A feeling of despair when waking up alone in China. He sits at his bed and stared in front. Not knowing what lies ahead, nor what does he want. He felt "pain", cant describe it. He could not trace the source of it

Mr China used to be very independent and garang , dare to chiong and not afraid, full of drive. Now he is just a shadow, losing focus and observation skills, losing confidence and pride. What is he to all? This is dangerous. Should he just come back? Would he be branded a failure if he did?

He needs to wake up , fast. This is no good.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Politics....... REAL high level ones

Finally Mr China is going back home soon. Finally.

Today on the way to work , he had a discussion with his Chinese counterpart, LL. They discussed abt the random and common corruption in state run companies or the government. Mr China asked LL if his wife is working, as LL mentioned that she gets up v early to make breakfast. Mr China rems that she is working at a local bank, and with the household chores, she would have been a superwoman.

LL's reply was superbly shocking, well, she is on MC for 2mths. She had bought the MC and is staying at home to look after the kids. The more shocking thing is the matter of fact way that he presented the issue. It seem all possible , all right and common. After Mr China probe more, LL said it is so common, even more so at govt agencies where some people do not even appear at all. His wife's colleague is on 6mths MC..... hahaha...

More discussion reveals that bribes , under table money have to be given during festive seasons to ensure biz proceeds smoothly. All the authorities, various depts that needs to "check" your company, they all have to be treated well. No wonder those govt pple are looking like pigs.

Reaching office, Mr China turns on the computer for some homeland news to discover that his PM and fearless leader had just received 20% pay rise, having annual income of millions!!!! I wonder who is his boss that is so generous, i wonder how is his performance being judged? Are the homelanders getting more happy? Is the general public approving this move to pay himself more , and by 20% !!!!!!!!!

Now Mr CHina finds an eerie similarity btw the 2 incidents, both cases, both involves govt officials, "the smart asses that is suppose to lead and serve the pple", and their means to increase personal wealth. In the China way, it is through unknown means, making life difficult for biz pple like Mr China. In homeland way, it is open declaration, public glorification that our leaders are the smartest around and command the high pay. That way, it drains national resources and makes life difficult for Mr China too.

What is the differences? it seems that all roads lead to Rome here... haha.. Let Mr China draw an analogy:

In a deprived and controlled village where no one is allowed to eat much meat. The controlling authorities go up to a poor villager and ask for favour in order to allow her to continue her biz. The authorities thus got away with a chicken.

In another similar village. The controlling authorities stands in the village centre and declares himself supreme leader and smartest ass of all, backing it up with impressive numbers and terms that confuses everyone. In the end, he mentions the need for him to eat more chickens to substain his smart ass, if not , a brain drain occurs and he cant serve pple as well.
The authorities thus, got away with a year's supply of chicken to prevent his smart ass drain and also "corruption", keeping him fed with chickens ensure that he will not resort to the above method to get his chicken.

In both cases, authorities got the chicken. Wat is the differences?

Mr China begins to ponder on things that are deemed legal and illegal, who determines them? personal determination, morale judgment, social norms or Government stated. Anything is legal or illegal had to be drawn by the government.

In the above comparison, Mr China do not see any difference, the impulse is the same, the end is the same, but the methods are different. " Open corruption prevents dark corruption?"

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Uncertainities

Haizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

In Sickness , Mr China reviewed his life and performance in China. Sadly he felt disappointed, he had fall short of the standards that he had set himself. In terms of personal developments or driving the Biz. On Sunday, Mr China spent a whole morning to review. Categorising his life and this period into different segments and set personal/biz goals to reach.

Luckily for this illness that Mr China had the opportunity to review and halt a personal rot. He was fast becoming comfortable and "hoping things to happen" rather than making things happen. Disappointing, Mr China had disappointed himself.

A big divide is drawn in Mr China's Life. Personal and Work. Mutually exclusive , crossing over only in character and methodologies. Mr China wants to adopt a methodical life, have goals as barriers and constraints to work within. Meaning to set destinations and goals , but path-wise will of course be one of freedoom and creativity.

Methodical .....
Sunday will be a day of review , to set work goals to be achieved and done for the week. Also to review all that has been done or COULD have been done. Then it will be organising his desktop and emails. TO have the information is one thing , to have them easily accessible is another.
He will also analyze and review sales numbers and all during this time. Pick up research and review things back in HQ.

Mr China will also review personal goals, to measure his drive in this period. Then utilise time to learn and achieve what he always wanted.....

Personal
Mr China understands knowledge is power. Knowledge is divided into general and specific. In his free time, he will puruse general knowledge, from Fortune, businessweek, economist magazine from HQ. For Specific knowledge, it will be learning and practising along the way. To understand the terms and review them. It will also be research base, to locate gems. Mr China has to be relevant in terms of worldwide development. He doesnt want to be Mr China forever.......

For work...... Mr China shall leave it for another day........

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Sick...... ..... .....

Over the weekend, Mr China thought his is superman and his body is akin to wolverine's ...... for he battered it so badly that the physcial decided to gave up and rebeled.... BIG TIME....

Let's recap the "Foolish-ity" of Mr China

Slpt less than 6 hours for the whole week
Stress up / burden over week, rest hasnt been there

Saturday - did 2.5hours of training. 90mins of running including some intervals. Ran in singlet and shorts in single digit temps... yes... Mr China felt invicible rounding the track in that cold...
Feeling superb, he decided to venture to some far place for dinner , in only his tracksuit. Nearly froze to death outside, after the heat and all from the body is lost. Got back home, turn on all the heater, drank plenty of hot water and "overheated" himself, such that he need to switch to drinking cold water to cool his body down. Not to mention the rubbish heaty stuff that he ate.
Superman, he felt... the worse is to come...

Sunday - did an easy 30-40mins run , spot his favourite noodle stall. ate his breakfast and walked back. F. Cold. Froze.

Went to colleage's home for lunch, had fun.

Evening - decided to do a double and Mr China went for a 2nd run. a Harder 1hr plus run. Felt very powerful........ came home , showered and dinnered. Everything felt ok. But body started to feel cold at 7pm. Decided to ignore it as he has always felt cold , who doesnt in this crazy winter?

8pm - things doesnt feel right , his colds and feet are icey cold , his body is aching all over and body is rebelling

decided to head to bed. dressed usually, but felt very very cold. then he decided to take the following measures: centralised heating system on, on the electrical heater, dressed in 2 layers, wrapped in wool jacket , wrapped with another thick blanket. But he still feels very cold, esp fingers and feet.

It was madness , Mr China , felt headache coming on, difficulty breathing, he felt terrible , on the other end compared to 2 hours ago , when he went for another run. He is truly regretting for battering his body.

It was a mad struggle for 2 hrs before Mr China fell aslp. It was so much pain, that he rolled and screamed in bed, truly a mad torture, to be ill , alone in this foreign land in winter. He felt like dying....

That is only the 1st part, he had "over heated" himself ....... awoke at 1am due to soaring body temperature of 39-40 deg cel. within the blankets, it felt like a sauna. He quickly turn off the heaters , even switch it to fan, cooling system. Took alot of measures to cool down the body. It was madness, Mr China felt burning, couldnt walk properly and tumble around the house to get water, towel , medicine, etc......

For the next 2 days, it was similar struggles as Mr China kept himself at home. Please remember that it is winter out there and Mr China struggles to get food out there. He struggles outside the streets in the cold , while his body burns to feed himself. it was all not so good.

Until wed night, he has a soaring temp of 40 and rising that he couldnt take it. called his colleague and rushed to the hospital......... the hospital here is amazing ... simply amazing. just a different healthcare system... shall talk about it in a next post.

Mr China here is now well and about. His experience: ill , alone , in winter , made him appreciate things back home much better. But this episode made him stronger too, but doesnt kill him , make him stronger.....