Big Challenges ahead...

The world economy is at its peak now. What makes me say that? My observation is based on how the major stock markets are performing. With major stock exchanges indices at it peak now, I am little concern that in the next few months, things will start to change direction.

So, what so you be doing? If you are not into the stock market, you have nothing to worry about. However, if you are heavily invested in stock market, you need to be more alert. The reason being these are very fragile times of stock market. With some economic indicators showing weak signs, the market players are most sensitive now. Any small event may trigger major panic.

My advice is to try to cash out of the market now. Build up more cash and wait for the right time to move in. With interest rate getting higher, it may be more prudent to have a better cash position.

It Is All About Common Sense!

What I had been talking about are mostly common sense, some people said. Well, sometimes, common sense can be quite uncommon.

If you think that these are common sense, then, ask yourself how "common" you apply your "common sense"? If you don't constantly applying those tactics in your life, you can qualify to call them common sense. The key is to implement. The Key is Taking Action. In life, everything is about taking action. Not taking any action itself is also taking an action. What am I talking about? What I mean is that you are making a decision by taking an action call WAIT! Waiting itself is an action. Sometimes in life, we need to be patient. That is different from Procrastination. Procrastination is bad taking quick action is good. But again, it is not always the case.

We all need to learn to make mistake. Learn to act fast and change fast and move fast. Knowing what we are doing and what we really want to do helps us to chart our course and stay in control of our own life.

Are You Concentrating Enough?

Here is the top secret of success. What makes people success is concentration power. Majority of us, including myself, lack concentration power. Most of us are easily distracted by any slightest noice. Ever heard of the story of a greedy tiger who caught a rabbit. Then he saw a deer which is bigger, he put down his rabbit and chase after the deer. In the end he ended up nothing. This is precisely what happens to most of us.

Most of us are Greedy. Short-sighted. We can't focus on something for too long. These are all killer bad habbits. We must change it in order to achieve something. Most successful people are able to keep their focus on the goal for a long time until they hit their goal. Nothing comes with luck.

Try this new strategy:
Choose a target. Keep focusing and staring on the Target. Keep hiting at the target until you finally reach it.

This is a simple strategy that was mentioned here can bring you life long benefits.

Survival Skill #16 : Concentration

Are You Near The End of The Road?

When you are really down, have you ever thought that you are nearing the end of the road? Sometimes, you think that the perfect solution for you is to just jump down (assuming you are staying in a high apartment).

Hold it. It cannot be that bad. Maybe, the opportunity is just round the corner. Have you heard of a story about a man who was searching for gold? He got money from his relatives and friends to purchase equipments etc exploring gold. After digging and digging, at the end, he has no more funding to carry on. He sold all his equipment to another person at very cheap price. This other person is no fool. He actually engaged a geologist to do some investigation before he bought over from the first man. Guess what, he hit gold after digging another 3 feet!

The moral of the story is: when you are about to give up, the real opportunity maybe just 3 feet away!

While we should constantly take a step back and look at the big picture. We should also evaluate our opportunities more objectively. Sometimes, we should even get expert's view of certain subject. It may be worthwhile to consult someone else. By simply giving up without carefully examining the opportunity maybe mssing the gold 3 feet away!

Moral of the Story: Don't Miss Your Pot of Gold 3 Feet Away!

Is Franchising For You?

One of my favourite topic is franchising. I read about and heard about many people who got retrenched in their 40s or 50s went into franchising business and ended up losing their life savings. Frachising is like any other businesses. The difference is that in franchising, you are buying a "working system". However, you also must remember that you are paying for it (usually at a very high cost.)

I had spent about 6 months exploring various franchising opportunities. I spend 6 months talking to 5 franchisors and surveyed no less than 30 sites in Singapore. What I found was that to find a good location is very difficult. I was exploring F&B retail business. This kind of business is heavily dependent on location. There three key words to success: Location, Location & Location. Nothing else.

In Singapore context, typical F&B franchise cost about $200K to $250K. Because of large capital outlay for ordinary people, I never encourage people to take up franchise. I have visited many franchisees and I calculated their earnings etc. I belive only top 10% of franchisees are making good profit. Another 30% are making some profit. Yet another 40% are just above the water. The rest of them, 20% are under the water.

One of the biggest problem of franchising is that you lose the freedom to shape your business. You are not different from working for people. The difference is that you have to pay to work for people. You really need to choose very carefully in franchising. Make sure that the franchisor is of good reputation and the system really works. Go for proven systems like Subway, 7-Eleven, you will have better chance to succeed. Other good franchise maybe Kumon (children education) but all these needs good location. I can emphasise more, Location, Location & Location.

Sometimes, you'd be better off to start a small store run it on your own. In that way you can have your freedom to shape your business.

Develop Good Habbits

We pick up different habbits along the way as we grow. There are good ones and
bads. Each of them shapes our daily life. They shape our personality and
character. If you need to bring up your children, observe their habbits and
make sure they have mroe goods ones and less bad ones. Slowly change their bad
ones into good ones. In that way, your children will be able to live happier
life in future.

What about us, grown ups? Can we also shape our own habbits? I believe we can
if we will. If we can constantly reflect upon ourselves what are our good
habbits and what are our bad ones, we can act on them one-by-one. There is no
need to be too ambitious. If we can tackle one of them each week or even each
month. Starting from the worst. Imagine if you change 10-12 bad habbits into
good ones every year, how powerful would that be? This is what I learn from a
recent book that I read. I am reading that book again. There are too many
useful tips in there and I want to implement them one by one.

This One Tip Can Change Your Life Forever!

Just this tip alone, I believe will give me tremendous improvement to my life.
I am sure it is going to shape my future if I can implement it successfully.
Firstly, I need to be focus. Act on one at at time and change the bad one into
good one. For example, being late for appointment by 5 minutes. That is a bad
habbit. I must make sure I add attional 10 minutes before I head for my next
appointment. In that way, I will always be 5 minutes early. That is an easy one
to do, isn't it?

Next, instead of bursting into answering questions people ask, I should try to
listen more carefully. So, I should be breathing in and counting 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
before I answer any questions instead of shooting off immediately.

Start now, look out for your bad habbits. Listen to your spouse, friends,
children etc. Take note and start to make corrections. I am sure you will
achieve wonderful results.

Survival Skill #15: Develop Good Habbits

Are You Working Yourself to Misery?

In the recent study done my a New York TV program, it was found that people today are just too crazy about the material needs that they would rather struggle with multiple jobs just to buy things that they don't really need.

I saw on a TV program that there was this couple with only one child. They lived in the suburban of New York area. The husband is a technician and the wife juggles two jobs and taking care of a young child of about 4-5 years old. The husband leaves home quite early and travels quite far to work and reach home rather late. The wife wakes up early to deliver newspaper before she goes to a company to work as administration assistance.

The couple basically has not time to rest. They started their day at about 5.00am and end their day at about 12.00am. So basically, they have about 4-5 hours of sleep each day. Weekends are the only time for rest. When the interviewer probed further they realised that they are chasing for something that they don't really need. For example, they have 3 cars. One Ford Focus for the wife. One SUV for the husband and another family car which is 7 seater. Why do they need a 7-seater when they only have one child? Because they have 3 dogs which will follow them when they go outing. Why do you need 3 cars when you only have 2 drivers?

We really have to think carefully what is it that we really want in our life instead of blindly following whatever the media and the peer expectations impose on us. We really need to be realistic and keep those extra money for our retirement. Stop getting crazy pursuing things that we don't really need.

Survival Skill #15: Know What We Want!