剩下几天,就要和2009年告别了。如果说2008年是峰回路转多姿多彩的,那2009年就是风云变色变幻莫测的。【2008年,我渡过最难熬的FYP、拿到最意外的First Class、顺利拿到第一份工作、在美国梦幻般地生活、面临意想不到的失业冲击和目睹别人的中年危机。】
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Welcome! 欢迎!@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Welcome to my virtual home. This is a little private space for me to put my thoughts and share my feelings since 2005. Due to my wide range of interests, there are perhaps too many tags. I would explain some of the less obvious tags:
"About Life" is really about how I have been pondering about life and what enlightenments and paradigm shifts I had experienced.
"About Psi" contains most topics about happiness, optimism vs pessimism,
confidence, comparison, pride and prejudice and other psychological aspects.
"About Logical Thinking" is about my own way of interpretating and explaining
certain issues, aiming to debunk (or create?) superficialness of them.
"About Ideology" is about my thoughts on big concepts like freedom, justice,
fairness in society and religion.
"About Society" is more about my observations about the society, often through interactions with different peoples.
"My Country" reveals my frustration, critics and hope
on my homeland - Malaysia.
"My Little Pieces" has more short posts though mostly are written in Mandarin.
While I do have some posts on book reviews and business, I am planning to
separate them into author-specific and content-specific blogs. Stay tuned.
Enjoy your reading!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
2009的回顾
Posted by clim at 6:09 PM 2 comments
Labels: My Memories | 往风淡忆
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Integrity
It has been about a month to work as a property agent. Life is certainly good without wasting too much time. Before I embarking on this journey, some were afraid that I am too nice to work in such environment that is full of possibilities of fraud.
Perhaps it's true to a certain extent, but I believe I am not naive though I am nice. However, the question of integrity does pose a serious challange to me. After two weeks of directionless efforts without results, I had one friend wanted to rent out his condominium for short-term lease. I was relieved that finally I got a more powerful side to serve, albeit a difficult one as short-term needs are rare and harder to match.
So one senior director who just so happened sat beside me that time told me not to advertise renting out for short-term, but to advertise 1-year lease to lure normal tenants, state a minimum period in the contract, and ask the owner to give one-month notice to tenants before taking back. He said:"Do this kind of thing, cannot be so straight one." Was it the right thing to do? I puzzled the whole night.
The next morning I went on to search listings online, and found out that another senior director were marketing a condo for short-term lease as well. I was so happy to have seen the light and decided not to follow the first director's advice. And in fact, I was rewarded by luck to close the deal with first client that I have shown the unit, and got my first deal.
I thought I would have forgotten this event. But somehow I came across similar story again, with different main actors and script writer. I brought a client to view a unit for short-term lease, he didn't really like it. I went back to the unit after sending the client off, to exchange card with the landlord's agent.
And that's when I came into the play, as an unexpected figure. The other group of PRC tenants, without the presence of their agent, were having communication breakdown with the landlord's agent who is a Malay, due to limited english conservation skills. So I went on to become the free translator, facilitated the communication in between, and helped both sides to agree on the deal.
However, in a flash of moment, I captured a message among the group to know that they weren't informed by their PRC agent, that this rent is for short-term. The contract is a one-year lease with minimum staying period of 5 months. But I know this rent is really meant for short-term because the landlord's agent has informed me that the landlord intends to sell his house asap. After 5 months, they will be kicked out, LEGALLY. So someone is obviously playing the trick of not disclosing the essential information, the PRC agent. Against his own countrymen, BRILLIANT!
So the ball was on my court. Should I act like moral hero, disclose the information, ruin the deal that has nothing to do with me? Or should I just neglect it as I am not supposed to be involved in it anyway? Eventually I chose to be silent because the ball was supposed to be invisible to me. If I weren't nice, I would have just walked away. If I weren't smart, I would not have spotted the insight.
All of the above sound like excuses to make myself feel better. And certainly I do. In this kind of scenario, I am not going to punish myself for not speaking out. That is by all means that agent's fault and wrong doing. And it is different than not helping when a robbery or other crimes happen.
Think about it, it is done legally. Think about it, any party which includes landlord, landlord's agent, tenant and tenant's agent could be utilizing this loophole by hiding their intentions. Think about it, a series of accidents (landlord changes his mind to sell his house midway, landlord don't like tenant and like to kick them out, tenant decides to go back home country midway, tenant don't like the place after a while etc) could have caused the same event (contract to be terminated by either side after minimum staying period). So in the contract, interest of both parties has already been protected by the one month notice.
But being legal doesn't mean being right. Not disclosing essential information that could have affetcting other's decisions is not right. On the same scenario, I have chosen to disclose while that agent have chosen not to disclose. Should I help him to disclose as well? I don't think so. I can only control what I do and affect other slightly but I cannot control how others do things. I can't be hero and save everyone, because even hero can't save everyone. You have to be smart yourself.
Well, everyone lives their own life. Which path you want to take, it's entirely up to you; but where the path will lead you to, it's not entirely up to you. You just pay the price of your decision. Some people have thrown away their sense of guilt and keep jeopardizing their integrity in exchange for short-term gains. I hope they don't wake up to the call of their conscience, because once they do, they will subject themselves to insurmountable sufferings.
There are many ways to success, but I always believe that integrity is vital for long-term success. I have seen examples that justfiy my belief. The only thing is that, of all the thing, integrity is the one that is immeasurable.
P/S: The above red paragraph is also dedicated to the fat landlord bitch that swallows our deposit of $2600.
Posted by clim at 2:18 AM 0 comments
Labels: About Work | 职场博弈
Monday, December 7, 2009
Nice quote from Eliot
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
~ T.S Eliot
Posted by clim at 10:07 AM 1 comments
Labels: About Life | 寻梦之路, My Quotes | 智言通箴
Onset of demise
Posted by clim at 1:03 AM 0 comments
Labels: About Psi | 精神世界
Friday, December 4, 2009
Recent reads
Have red two books recently, but would like to just do a quick summary but not thorough analysis here, as I shouldn't have put too much time on here. May re read them in the future.
1. Freakonomics by steven d.levitt and stephen j.dubner
- Peel off one layer or two of seemingly logical "common sense" by applying statistical tools of econonics to determine the direction of correlation and discover hidden links.
- Human works for incentive and that's what economist interested to figure out and model it, from micro to macro.
- Examples touched on:
a) school teachers - cheating?
b) sumo wrestlers - match rigging?
c) Ku Klux Klan - incoherence of roles exposed lead to its demise
d) real-estate agent - incentives work against you?
e) drug dealers - except the top mafias, most don't earn enough, but endure and hope to make it big one day
f) criminal rate fall - self-contradicting explains from so-called experts and hidden link with abortion legalization
g) parenting - does nurturing / parenting really matter?
2. The origin of brands by al & laura ries
- A fascinating book from marketing gurus that build its theme around the law of natural selection in business world - divergence. It argues that like natural selection, products and brands expand in such a way that split into more and more branches, instead of convergence. This book gives a lot of examples and it's definitely eye-opening even though you may not agree with the central theme 100%.
- Different technologies do not converge, but each technology split further into more sophisticated field to cater for niche market.
- Convergence may not always fail when value of convenience are created but convenience only has small roles to play in the overall business market.
Posted by clim at 4:46 PM 0 comments
Labels: About Books | 书阁繁星, About Business | 财经贸易
Pessimism of the will
I don't like the general notion of the exclusivitity of pessimism and optimism. For me both co-exist and fluctuate interchangebly, it's only as of this moment which end do you incline towards. But that's not the main theme here. Compare the motto with the following:
and you will know why I shouted eureka.
And hence, to me, first sentence is a powerful and motivating motto; while second sentence, is nothing more than lazy escapism. Let's face it, life is not always a bed of roses. Quality time does not always has to be lying on the bed, and rest is the reward for hardwork, but not an end by itself.
Pessimism of the intellect spots unavoidable problems and brings forward the necessary worries, for the optimism of the will to plan strategies and solutions.
Posted by clim at 3:47 PM 0 comments
Labels: About Psi | 精神世界, My Quotes | 智言通箴
Two useful sites for investment knowledge
These two local sites can help you to grasp solid knowledge and insights about investment ideas and tools.
http://www.moneytalk.sg/
http://www.wisewealthbook.com/
There is another book that I recommended to another friend who asked me on how to start studying investment. You can borrow it from any library.
"Financial services in singapore - Tan Chwee Huat"
Sometimes I feel like sharing out of what I have learnt but I think at this infant stage, I would be better off spending time to read and absorb instead of writing out to share. Without the vast knowledge and experience, my work may look like a rubbish as compared to those blog articles.
And hence, I recommend you to read both sites as the starting point of your endeavour, if you, too, would like to embark on the same quest.
Currently I am reading on ETF, while some friends are studying CFD and options on equities. Looking forward to leverage the knowledge gained across.
Posted by clim at 2:17 PM 0 comments
Labels: About Business | 财经贸易