The Art of Thinking

It is 11AM and I am at work going through the list of caseloads that my supervisor gave me and luckily, I have one hour to spare before lunch begins since I completed going through the work list.  The thought of furthering my career lurked out and then I found myself debating the pros and cons of pursuing a professional degree once again.  This thought has been on my mind since my undergraduate years in college but I have never taken it seriously due to the fact I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life.  I thought about maybe pursuing a Physician Assistant or PharmD degree but the problem that arises is I do not want to own thousands of dollars for the loans without making any money while I am in the training process. If I were a 21-year-old, I would have given them a second thought, but as I am older now and I have more experiences under my belt to know those paths won’t give me the time to take care of other priorities.  So here I found myself  “thinking.”  

What is thinking? Thinking is a mental activity that comes before a physical action.  It requires focus and experiences; and the focus part is simple but the experiences are hard to attain as the only way to get them is to get out in the real world. And let’s say many college students and even some adults lack them in order to make good and informed decisions.  Here I was thinking of the pros and cons of pursuing a professional degree before I take any action. 

In order to think clearly and logically, there are many ways for us to cultivate the skill.  For one thing, traveling can help us learn how to think. While we are in an area we don’t know, we have no choice but to think what is the best way to do certain tasks.  For instance, we have to find the fastest and the most cost effective ways to get from one location to another and we have to think on our feet as well. Yes, there are help from the natives and other tourists but generally speaking, we have to do the planning and the thinking on our own. Secondly, talking to other fellow human beings helps form the thinking mind.  We cannot talk to just anyone, it is always better to talk to someone who has more experiences and is smarter than us. When we interact with other people, we are sharing ideas and open our brains to different perspectives that might not have crossed our minds. MeetUp meetings and church events, for instance, can provide us with copious number of people to teach us how to think. Lastly, the best method to learn how to think is through experiences. Good decision comes from experiences and experiences come from bad decisions. It holds true in our professional and personal life, whether we are dating or are looking for the career that suits our personalities.  And the only way to gain experiences is to go out and be a part of the world.  

To sum up, thinking comes from experiences and it is a learned skill. It is the fundamental skill that we all must master in order to survive in the real world and to do well in many parts of our lives. No school or books can teach us how to think for ourselves. In fact, school might be a hindrance to our thinking skill as we have to follow instructions and rules and no one can learn how to think for themselves when they are always being told of what to do by a teacher. We have to go out there and get our hands dirty and learn what it takes to think on our own. Sure we will make mistakes here and there but what matters is we learn from them.  When we finally grasp what it takes to think on our own, we are free and even more joyful and best of all more self-sufficient in the real world.

 

After a While, You Learn

Some thoughts of the day:

After a while 

After a while you learn the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul.

And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning,
and company doesn’t always mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses are not contracts,
and present's aren’t promises.

And you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead...

With the grace of a woman,
not the grief of a child.

And you learn
To build all your roads on today,

Because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans,
and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn that even sunshine burns
if you get too much…

So, you plant your own garden,
and decorate your own soul...
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure…
you really are strong,
you really do have worth.

And you learn, and you learn…
with every goodbye,

You Learn…

The Different Doors

I was at my sister's apartment two days ago to get all my belongings and as usual my attention always draw me to the stack of books and magazines she has under her coffee table; my sister does not read tabloids or fashion magazines only, she subscribed to academic magazines such as The New Yorker, The National, home magazines, and other science magazines and now and then I would sneak through her goods and read them.

My sister is passionate about business and many of her books and magazines are business-oriented. For instance, she has the book GirlBoss written by the CEO of the company Nasty Gal and the book The Glitter Plan written by the two founders of the company Juicy Couture and I followed her lead to have a taste of those two books and many other great books.  One of the common themes in the CEO's experiences in business is they have had experienced what it is like to fail. Of course they get discouraged but the action that lead them to success was they kept looking for other opportunities.  Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Thomas Edison, and Walt Disney had failed in business or were criticized by someone before they went on being successful and make millions of dollars.  One common action is they kept going and looked pass their failures.  Mark Cuban once said, "I've learned that it doesn't matter how many times you failed.  You only have to be right once. I tried to sell powdered milk. I was an idiot lots of times, and I learned from them all." It's true, we only need to get it right once, that's it. Because that one time will lead to other success in life. If we have not found that one right path, we have to keep looking for opportunities. Opportunities are like doors, if one door closes, open another door.  And remember each door is different and you never know what you will find in each one.

This is a picture of doors in Venice, Italy.

The Glitter Plan Summary

The Right Partnership from the book The Glitter Plan by Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor

"As an entrepreneur, finding the right partner gives you the opportunity to experience crazy things, and you've got someone to hug and cry and scream and laugh and love.  It's the same thing as any great relationship.  You have a partner in crime through everything--good, bad, or ugly, here we are.  Everything is better with two, whether you are moving in unison or one is pulling the other along.

Before you go into business with somebody, you have to be an archeologist.  Dig in there and investigate if it's the right person or not.  For us, it was intuition.  We knew we were birds of a feather.  So many partnerships fall apart because you get started and then realize you don't see eye to eye.  You have to find a like-minded person, somebody who you like to play in the sandbox with.  You spend more time with a business partner than almost anyone.  You don't need to have the same creative vision all the time, but you do need the same values and ethics.  It's like a marriage.  It's through sickness and health.  When things go well and you're happy, of course you love each other.  But when things don't turn out how you expect, can you weather the storm together?"

Chapter Summary

Tips on How to start a business:
2. Do what moves you and find your partner in crime

3. Learn from a starter experience (learn from your past experiences)
-Anything you need to know in a bigger pond we learned in a smaller pond
-Not every business is going to be a success, but that doesn't mean you don't learn from it.  Pick up and move onto the next one with even more focus on what you want.
-You have to be you own customer.  If you won't buy it, who will?

4.  The KFC Theory is NOt Just for chicken: Do One Thing and Do it Well

5. Competition Can Be healthy.  
-Bring it on! It means you're on to something. And it drives you to be better.  But it also means it's time to sound the rebel yell and up your game.

Build Your staff like a family
-Build a team based on your gut feeling about people.

6.  Taking it to the next level
-Brainstorm other categories that you could go into while still staying true to your brand DNA

7. Coping with growth, the problem you want to have.
- When something hits, up your game to meet the volume, or someone bigger and stronger will come in and steal your thunder.
-As you get bigger, don't forget where you started.  You are still the customer, and your product should still have your personal touch.

8.  Growing pains: what to expect
- If you are successful, you will hit a wall where you can no longer just trust your gut.  That's when corporate management comes in.
-How to Prepare your Business to Sell



8

Thankful

Wise words of the day:

"I am thankful to all those who said no to me. It's because of them I did it myself."

-Albert Einstein

We Build When We Break

We build when we break. It's true we do build when we break.  Everyday, our body is constantly degrading due to environmental and other factors and we cannot blame one factor, because the whole world system is involved in the act. But at the same time, our body is building itself. Our body is constantly healing itself and mending itself in any area that is damage. And our brain is constantly making neuron connection to help us thinking quicker. All this happens in us while other body parts are falling apart as we age.  So breaking and building are in our DNA and we cannot deny their existence.

I find recently that I find myself when I am at the lowest point in life. Whether that relationship did not work out, or that friendship comes to an end all of the sudden, or that one career did not work out, they are all experiences that we need to make us grow. We all have been there at some point and I find those lowest point are the time where we truly understand who we are and we can thrive in those situations if we take appropriate actions.

We build when we break. So falling apart is not a bad thing, it can be a way for us to see reality for what it is and to work toward being a better person. The important thing is to keep going, keep moving.

Hurting Someone

Recently I learned there will be times in our life where we hurt someone without having any intention to. It especially hurts the most to know we hurt someone who we care a lot about.  Sometimes it is hard to mend the friendship but if we try hard enough there are ways to work it out.  There is a chance we just have to let the friendship goes into oblivion for now and then come back later; that's what they teach in school right? If you are stuck with a problem on a test, move to the next one and eventually your brain will find the answer and we can apply the same rule to our daily problems.  More importantly, we cannot change people's mind about us, whether that is negative or positive. The important thing is we have to keep going and keep working on our goals because in the end that is all that matters.

Feelings come and go and we have to remember people change base on how they feel. One day they might be angry at you and the next day they might decide to forgive you. If we hurt someone, apologize and if the person accepts it then continue the friendship but if the person refuses the apology, maybe we should move on especially if we try everything we would to save the relationship and it still does not work out.

Whatever happens, we have to learn to take control of our lives and work on ourselves. Even if we have to jump from one failed relationship and friendship to another, we have to keep going, keep speeding to the goals. Because you never know, something great might land in front of our door one day without us ever expecting it.