Posted by Bobby Ong on Jul 9, 2007 in
Diary,
Reviews 
This book is my current reading material - Good to Great by Jim Collins. I bought it from a second-hand bookstore at Bras Basah for S$18.
I’m less than halfway through the book but I find it exceptionally insightful reading it. Anyway, if you are wondering what kind of book this is, it’s a business-management-leadership book. Basically it speaks about the qualities that cause the companies to transform from being good to great.
“Good is the enemy of Great”
That’s the first sentence of the book; a statement with maximum impact.
So far by reading the book I learned a few things that make me question myself.
1 – Good is never enough. I look back at myself and I’d realised that for a very long time I’ve settled for just being good. What must I do to transform myself to be great? Have I settled for the mediocrity notion?
2 – Disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action. Am I a person with discipline in my thoughts and actions?
3 – Humility + Will = Level 5 Leadership – Humility. My parents always advised me to be humble, but up till this point I find it extremely hard to practise that. How?
4 – Good-to-great leaders don’t talk about themselves and are not I-centric - How? What is my real purpose in life? What am I really gunning for? I’m a big talker and one secret desire that I always have is to desire to brag. This correlates with number 3.
5 – “Good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes” – These Level 5 leaders don’t chase stardom. What am I up to? I always tell people do something for the right reasons. But am I practising what I preach?
I’d just realised, I’m very far away from being a Level 5 leader. What constitutes a Level 5 Leader? Level 5 leaders “build enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.”
Not being self-centred and being humble. Perhaps I gotta learn more through AJ’s servant leadership programme. And put into practise for real. Coz it won’t hurt being humble.
Posted by Bobby Ong on Jun 28, 2007 in
Diary,
Exams Tanggal seluar dan baju,
Mari kita menyambut Merdeka
MERDEKA, MERDEKA!
Sudahlah [tag]Merdeka[/tag]!
Saya happy exam sudah habis…..
I’m done with the bloody exam….Bloody exam-oriented education system….Is there a better way of evaluating students? I really believe there’s a better way….Let me crack my brain to devise some way in the next few days….
As I have said a few times before, living in a hostel during the exam week and the week before is scary….Everyone is studying….I’m okay with people studying, but I get scared when people study 15 hours per day…From 8 to 9 in the morning all the way till 11 at night….Some study till the wee hours in the morning, around 2 am….
Honestly, I’m stressed out not because of my own exams but because everyone is studying like crazy….I’m stressed out because of the rest…So weird….
To me, exams is not a competition with the rest. It’s a challenge with your own self….It’s a measure of your own ability….You are fighting against yourself to score the grade, not with the others….
I talked to some China guys from [tag]Raffles Junior College[/tag] (Singapore’s top JC) who were studying like crazy
“Yo bro, chill la….No need study already….You’ll surely get the A”
“Cannot….”
“Why? What for? The A is already in your hand….Enjoy life”
“No….Need to score 100”
“For what?”
“For position”
“Who cares about positions?”
“I care” - WTH??!?!?!?
“But you’re A-level result slip won’t state that you have scored 80 or 100”
“Well, if I score 100 in all my exams, my teacher will write that in my school graduation certificate”
“………”
Suck man….People are studying like crazy…..Not to score the A but to score 100!?!?! WTH?!?!
What has happened to this world? Have we taken perfection to a whole new level?
And does getting 100% help us in our future?
Scoring well in exams = Doing well in life?
Is that equation true???? Is it?
Posted by Bobby Ong on Jun 27, 2007 in
Diary,
Ramblings Someone has to do it, but we never ask how it’s done. Cleaning the [tag]urinal[/tag]….How?
Use MOP la…..
Look at the pix closely; u can see the leftover strands of mop (hair? What d’ya call that?) at the urinal…..
Ewww…..they use mop to clean the urinal and then the same mop to clean the floor? Yucks….the more I think about it, the yuckier it becomes…..
Btw, for those friends who tried to access my site in the morning/afternoon, I’m sorry that it’s down. The server that my site is hosted was experiencing [tag]downtime[/tag] and it took the webhosting company one whole day to get it fixed…They said it’s a serious hardware failure, but then…..Hmmmm….I guess the service you get = the price you pay……
Posted by Bobby Ong on Jun 25, 2007 in
Diary Any of you realised I changed my tagline like a few days back? It used to be only .::{LIFE UNDEFINED}::.
Now I’ve added another short sentence after the tagline so it now looks
.::{LIFE UNDEFINED}::. - [tag]Chasing ‘A’s, Money, Girls[/tag]
I believe the new sentence summarises my life at its current state more accurately than anything. Isn’t life a race? And if it’s a race what are you chasing?
For me, the most important thing now is chasing the ‘A’s….It’s a race that I do not which to partake with, but being in my situation, that is not an option, cause it’s either I get the grades or else I’m outta Singapore…
And this tagline is unique in a sense because to be successful, I must first complete chasing the first target before moving on to the next….If the sequence of order is not followed, it’s deep shit….
Only once I’m confident with my studies will I have the extra time to find ways to start my own business, to find my own $$$….And only when I’ve got the $$$, can I chase the girl…
And of course people always want pride and respect in life right? Why not chasing pride and respect too? You can’t simply chase pride and respect. It comes together with the things you do….You can’t demand to be respected, but you have to earn that respect yourself….Jose Mourinho, I hope you have learnt your lesson….
Posted by Bobby Ong on Jun 22, 2007 in
Diary,
Exams,
Transportation Ok this post is 2 days overdue. Well, I had my safe journey back to Singapore on Wednesday afternoon with a [tag]First Coach[/tag] bus. It was 5 hours long with some slight traffic jam around Ayer Keroh area if I’m not mistaken due to construction work to widen the road.
Just some random shot of [tag]Muzium Negara[/tag] I’d took during the bus journey out of KL…It reminds me, it’s been a while since I’d been there….Read my trip to KL to know why I suddenly wanna go explore KL…
Why bus instead of train? Well, bus is way faster than train. And it is very comfy…
Price? First Coach is not too expensive. RM40 from KL to Singapore or S$30 from Singapore to KL…
Well, it’s half the price of so-called luxury buses plying the [tag]Singapore-KL[/tag] route….[tag]Airebus[/tag] and [tag]Aeroline[/tag] are the luxury bus companies that brand themselves as flying in a bus…..I shall write a review between the 3 bus companies someday in the future….
Anyway, I can’t help but to write this. Life in hostel at this moment of time is SCARY!!!!!!! FREAKINGLY SCARY!
You know why? Coz everyone is studying like CRAZY!
Exams are right after the holidays (this coming Monday), and it’s scary seeing everyone studying…..
People clock in double digit hours studying per day. They sleep late at night, and wake up early in the morning.
I CAN’T FREAKING DO THAT! I have a short attention span. All I wanna do is chill and enjoy. But peer pressure brother…..PEER PRESSURE….
I feel damn guilty for not studying….I spent less than half the amount of time that these people spend studying these last few days….
While they had been studying I had been playing my computer, blogging, going out….gosh….scary….I sleep late, waking up early and hence wasting my whole morning off, but as I wake up, I see people studying already….WHAT THE HECK!?
My philosophy – There’s no use studying so much more if you have already reach the maximum capacity because further effort won’t do much good….
Anyway, I’ve spent some time into creating a graph and writing some explanation for it….It’s in the next post. Read it and understand it…It looks a lil econs-ly…but heck…it’s the fact what….
Posted by Bobby Ong on Jun 19, 2007 in
Diary Tomorrow I’m heading down south to Singapore. It’s the end of my holidays back at home in Malaysia. And that means, I have 4 more days in hostel before beginning exams. And after that, another 4 more days and it’s time to shout Merdeka! End of exam….
This 2 ½ week back home surely brought a lot of thinking to my mind. Although it’s just a short 2 weeks plus, I felt that I’ve matured a lot more. I guess it’s the people you hang out with. Many friends over here are done with school; they are all in college and are all behaving like adults. But in Singapore, it’s back to school (though they call it junior college) and you know how people behave in school…..
Like it or not, that’s my road….1 ½ years more before graduating from junior college (aka Form 6)….
Anyway, I’d really enjoyed my time down here in Malaysia. To all my friends, thank you for making it fun by hanging out with me. Sorry to those I didn’t have the chance to catch up with. Was busy so we shall catch up some other time, k.
On other matters, I’m finally done with my [tag]Eat and Sleep[/tag] business plan. It looks very nice on paper….It’s high time now to implement the plan….Will blog a whole post dedicated to this matter soon in the next few days once everything is ready…..
Posted by Bobby Ong on Jun 17, 2007 in
Diary Yup I practically have Monday and Tuesday left in Puchong before heading back to Singapore on Wednesday morning. There are still some stuff that I wish I have more time to complete before heading down south…
Among them:
1) Studies – Gotta finalise and understand more stuff for my mid-year common test…I need to score good grades….
2) Biz plan – ‘[tag]Eat and Sleep[/tag]’ business plan is still hanging in the air up till now. I told myself to complete it asap to show my biz partner – Bryan, but up till now still nothing…
3) Friends – I was supposed to meet up wit a few other Subang/Sunway friends, but somehow the plan did not materialise and I don’t think I have the time to meet up since point 1 is of more importance….Perhaps I will just go play a game of basketball with some secondary school friends on Monday evening and have some chat with Pravana – my good friend since primary school….Haven’t had the chance to meet him since he came back from NS…
4) Others – I need to get myself some basic necessities over here before heading down Singapore coz put it this way, things here are much cheaper….and I need to get a haircut…
Anyway, I was reading Bryan’s blog and he wrote some nice post about our previous failed venture, in his own words - [tag]69Tribe[/tag] is down the toilet…and he did write some stuff bout the new Eat and Sleep venture…..Read it here and here…
Also, I was chatting with Darren yesterday, an ex-colleague at Xfresh (I’d interned there as a webjournalist some years back when Xfresh was still English based)….He’s an IT guy who’s now his own boss. He’s an entrepreneur and had a few online business ventures and is doing quite well….
Well, he asked me bout my latest venture…I told him I have real problem with Internet biz, coz got no technical expertise, even though I have the idea….And I told him some stuff that I have in mind with the Eat and Sleep brand….More idea out soon….
And he said something very useful to me…..You know, to start your own business, start it young, cause as you grow older, you get less motivated….
I believe that’s so true…He started his own business with his friends when he was around 19 or 20 years old. I’m already 18, at a ripe age to start doing well with my life….
He also said - And for young people, getting into Internet business is good, because most of the successful kids out there are people of my age….
Hmmm….my technical aspect (read: programming knowledge) is close to none….Apa macam?
Go finish up ‘Eat and Sleep’ business plan…..Go..go..go…..That’s my best hope now…..
Posted by Bobby Ong on Jun 15, 2007 in
Diary I got up today telling myself that I don’t have much time to study before heading down to Singapore and I’ve got to start reading my books today, especially Econs since I have not touched a page of it yet.
But I got up not in ‘the mood’ to study. And sure enough, after eating my breakfast, I turned on my laptop and had been surfing around reading blogs ever since.
As I read blogs after blogs, I realised that many (or most) of them are monetizing their blogs. Among the Malaysian blogs, most of them are running Nuffnang or [tag]Advertlets[/tag] ads…
And then I hopped on to [tag]Nuffnang[/tag]’s website. They are growing so fast that they are hiring new staff…I liked the pixs advertising for new staff…I went on to read Nuffnang’s history and somehow found their founder’s blog - Timothy’s.
Reading success stories just makes me feel like I haven’t achieved anything in life yet. I wanna write my own big success story but so far there’s still nothing to write.
I wanna earn my own money. Honestly, I’m sick of studying. Feel like working, but then people say working life is much harder, stressful and not fun at all as compared with studying. Well, who won’t blame them? Fresh graduates earn only like RM2000 per month? Feels like very little. I’d been thinking of ways of earning much more cash than that. And if any of my ideas ever worked, I don’t even need to start hunting for jobs once I’m done with university.
‘[tag]Eat and Sleep[/tag]’ brand? Damn it….I still haven’t finish writing the business plan that I started out to do a few days back…
