Father Forgets

Too often we are quick to criticize others. It is always easier to find fault in others than to admit we ourselves have blundered.

I once hissed and spat venom towards a close friend, to defend and to protect myself. It was impulsive. But it was wrong. I then apologized and we were back on good terms (luckily). Was the initial outburst necessary? No.


"Father forgets" was written by W. Livingston Larned. It is such a wonderful piece that it should act as a constant reminder for all of us to think twice, if not thrice before criticizing or scolding someone, especially our children:

Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, “Goodbye, Daddy!” and I frowned, and said in reply, “Hold your shoulders back!”

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive - and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. “What is it you want?” I snapped.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightended with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding-this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: “He is nothing but a boy - a little boy!”

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

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Swine Flu raised to Level 6

One week ago on June 11, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization raised the level of swine flu alert level from phase 5 to phase 6. Strangely enough, it didn't hog media headlines as it did when the alert level was raised to level 4 in April. The news simply failed to garner as much media attention, with hardly any response from the various capital markets.

I think mass media did it right by playing the news down. As governments are busy devising precautionary measures to fight against swine flu, additional issues arising from a panic-stricken crowd is the last thing we want to see. If you carefully read the WHO descriptions of the different phases, we should be at phase 6 much earlier, like one month ago. WHO might have postponed the decision after requests and pressures from countries' officials.

Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.

Do we not have flu outbreak in many countries in different continents one month ago?

Frankly, there is no reason to be afraid. Swine flu mortality rate is very low at present. Be prepared. Wear a mask if you need to. Be vigilant. Take the precautionary steps to protect yourself. And don't panic! You don't have to cancel your holiday trip to Perth, or Alaska. You can proceed with your business trip to Dubai and come back in one piece.



PS. I prefer the name swine flu than H1N1 because flying pigs are cute :)

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Malaysia tops Power Distance Index

I was reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success with great interest when I stumbled upon a term called Power Distance Index. In his book, Gladwell correlated plane crashes with the pilots and first officers' power distance rating of their culture. I was so intrigued with what he said that I did a bit of extra research on the internet to find out more about PDI.


Power distance is one of the five dimensions of culture coined by Dutch writer, Gerard Hendrik Hofstede. He studied the interactions between national cultures and organizational cultures, and his study has demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groupings that affect the behaviour of societies and organizations, and that are very persistent across time.

Power distance, in particular, is concerned with attitudes towards hierarchy, specifically with how much a particular culture values and respects authority (click here to see Hofstede's global PDI map and table). It measures the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. To measure it, Hofstede asked questions like "How frequently, in your experience, does the following problem occur: employees being afraid to express disagreement with their managers?" "How much are older people respected and feared?" "Are power holders entitled to special privileges?" etc.

To put it simply, people from low power distance countries are more comfortable with demanding the right to contribute and criticizing the decision making of those higher in power. In an organization with multiple hierarchies, subordinates may treat someone few ranks above them as an equal, regardless of formal positions. Contrary, in high power distance countries, subordinates acknowledge the power of others simply based on where they are situated in certain formal, hierarchical positions. They would be intimidated by those in power, and treat their superiors like, well, superiors.

The United States is a lower power distance country. It is, after all, one of the most democratic countries in the world. US ranks at the bottom of the PDI and this can be easily observed by the way the Americans perceive power differences. Companies like Intel encourage their employees to communicate openly, by implementing open door policy. Issues could be escalated to the top management to get their attentions. Unlike their high power distance counterparts who most of the time use subtle language and mitigated speech in order not to offend their bosses/clients, the Americans usually speak bluntly. This explains why sometimes they are regarded as “rude” and “uncivilized” by others from high power distance countries.

While using subtle language/mitigated speech or speaking tactfully might not appear harmful and are welcomed in certain societies, doing this in the cockpit will certainly yield deadly consequences. A bad decision by the CEO might result in reduced operating income, or worst, bankruptcy. However, a bad decision by the pilot might cause a plane to crash. And what is more valuable than human lives?

The linguists Ute Fischer and Judith Orasanu once gave the following hypothetical scenario to a group of captains and first officers and asked them how they would respond:

You notice on the weather radar an area of heavy precipitation 25 miles ahead. [The pilot] is maintaining his present course at Mach .73, even though embedded thunderstorms have been reported in your area and you encounter moderate turbulence. You want to ensure that your aircraft will not penetrate this area.
Question: what do you say to the pilot?

In Fischer's and Orasanu's minds, there were at least six ways to try to persuade the pilots to change course and avoid the bad weather, each with different level of mitigation.

1. Command: "Turn thirty degrees right." That's the most direct and explicit way of making a point imaginable. It's zero mitigation.
2. Crew Obligation Statement: "I think we need to deviate right about now." Notice the use of "we" and the fact that the request if now much less specific. That's a little softer.
3. Crew suggestion: "Let's go around the weather." Implicit in that statement is "we're in this together."
4. Query: "Which direction would you like to deviate?" That's even softer than a crew suggestion, because the speaker is conceding that he's not in charge.
5. Preference: "I think it would be wise to turn left or right."
6. Hint:" That return at 25 miles look mean." This is the most mitigated statement of all.

Fisher and Orasanu found that captains overwhelmingly said they would issue a command in that situation: "Turn thirty degrees right." They were talking to a subordinate and they had no fear of being blunt. The first officers, on the other hand, were talking to their superior, and so they overwhelmingly chose the most mitigated alternative. They hinted.

In the 1982 Air Florida crash outside Washington DC, the first officer tried three times to tell the captain that the plane had a dangerous amount of ice on its wings. But listen to how he said it. It was all hints.

"Look how the ice is just hanging on his, ah, back, back there, see that?"

"See all those icicles on the back there and everything?"

"Boy, this is a, this is a losing battle here on trying to de-ice those things, it [gives] you a false feeling of security, that's all that does."

The plane ended up plunging into the Potomac River.

Now, the interesting part. If you have already clicked on the link to Hofstede's global PDI map, you should see that Malaysia ranks highest in the Power Distance Index. How could Malaysia, a peaceful democratic country ranks higher than so many other autocratic countries? Is the high population of Muslims (more than 60%) a factor in this? Or has the draconian Internal Security Act(ISA) made its countrymen afraid to speak out and confront the authority?

I wonder.

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Swine Flu: What happens next

As new cases of swine flu emerge around the world, World Health Organization(WHO) has on Monday raised its global pandemic alert level to level four, indicating the influenza virus is capable of sustained human-to-human transmission.

Unlike severe acute respiratory syndrome, or better known as SARS, that hit Hong Kong in 2003, the AH1N1 strain of swine flu has a higher potential to develop into pandemic levels, as the virus has already been confirmed to transmit between humans. It also triggers mostly mild symptoms and has a lower mortality rate compared to SARS. "Although SARS jumped the animal-to-human barrier, it didn't mutate enough to enable sustained human-to-human infection, said Dr. K.Y. Yuen, head of microbiology at Hong Kong University.

"Strictly speaking, Avian Influenza and SARS did not become pandemics because they were too good at killing their hosts. For a sustained pandemic, it needs to be able to maintain human-to-human contact without killing its host off," he said.

While it's too early to predict how widespread the swine flu epidemic will become, it's important to assess its threat and implications to the world, so that we are better prepared when the worst happens.

If there is any lesson that we can learn from the 2003 SARS, it is the economy will come to a halt. As governments impose travel restrictions and close its borders to contain the outbreak, schools will close, and airports will be empty. Tourism and transportation industries will be crippled. In 2003, airline travel to Hong Kong fell by 77 percent and retail sales by 15 percent amid the SARS outbreak.

Financial market knows the consequences of a full-blown flu pandemic. Stock exchanges around the globe tumbled yesterday, with airlines and tourism companies among the hardest hit. On the other hand, shares of pharmaceutical companies that manufacture antiviral drug for influenza shot up in anticipation of greater demand for their drugs. If the flu outbreak gets worse, this trend will surely extend. So, it is best to keep a close watch on those stocks to make a prudent investment as the situation develops.

Although swine flu cannot be transmitted through eating properly cooked pork or any pork product, consumers will normally avoid pork products. Hog industry will too come to a standstill. People will stay at home and avoid as much social contact as possible, causing retail business to dwindle to almost nothing. As a result, internet business will prosper when people turn to the wired world at home to gather information and obtain services.

After a roller-coaster ride last year, the world economy is finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. The swine flu outbreak could not have come at a worse time for the world already reeling from a banking and financial crisis. It seems now, the light at the end of the tunnel, could turn out to be the headlight of an incoming train rather than the sunshine we all hope for. Continue reading...

From Living Paycheck to Paycheck to Financial Freedom

If you are a balloon, do you want to roam the sky freely, or would you prefer being tied to a pole?

With the world economy falling off a cliff last year, millions of employees had lost their jobs. According to the U.S. Labor Department, the nation's unemployment rate rose to 8.5% in March, a level not seen since 1983. Elsewhere, from China, to Philippines, to Malaysia, multi-national conglomerates are cutting back expenses, shutting down factories and as a result, millions more workers will be joining the jobless ranks.


Since the recession began in December 2007, jobs were slashed at an unprecedented pace. Until today, the economic recession still occupies the minds of many. The fear of losing jobs haunts those who live paycheck to paycheck as they can't afford to get laid off.

If you read Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant, Robert Kiyosaki outlines 4 quadrants based on our source of income.

• E for employee
• S for self-employed
• B for business owner
• I for investor

Most of us are from the E quadrant. We rely on paychecks to clear our credit cards, and to pay at pumps. The problem with this is when we stop working, our income stops too. And depending on the safety net that we have built, our tap may soon run dry.

In the E quadrant, we are trading time for money. The equation here is time = money. We receive money directly in proportion to the time we put in our jobs.

"What's wrong with that?" You may ask.

Since we were kids, we were told by our parents to go to school, study hard, get good grades and then find a safe high paid job after graduation. They put emphasis on steady paychecks and job security. They recommended a life's path that resides in the E quadrant.

However, there is one problem with being in the E quadrant - You only have so much time a day. You can't bargain from God another extra 12 hours a day to work on that project your boss assigned, for example. With 24 hours a day, you only have a certain amount of time to work and as a result, you only make a certain amount of money. Not only is there a cap on the time we can work, we only get paid while we are working. The day we stop working is the day our income stream stops.

Now, do you still think it is a good way to generate income?

Many employees look at employment as the safest and most secure way to support themselves. This is wishful thinking. If there is one lesson that we can learn from this recession, it is - the idea of a safe, secure job with a steady paycheck is all but an illusion. With jobs being axed across the board from private to public sectors, no one is safe. How safe can a job be when you can be sent packing with only three words (you are fired)? Although by owning a business, you will have to take the ambiguity and responsibility of being in charge, at least you are in control of your own fate. You are not at the mercy of your boss.

Before you go and write that resignation letter, I think you should be aware of a few things. There are successes and failures in each of the 4 quadrants. Those in senior positions of a company are making big bucks (whether they have financial freedom is entirely another story), and many entrepreneurs have not been able to keep their companies afloat for 3 years. Operating in the B quadrant requires a different skill set and knowledge from the E quadrant, and vice versa. Not everyone who changes quadrant can do as well in the new quadrant.

Each and everyone of us has different interests in our lives. As we grow older and gain experiences, our goals change. For someone, it is absolutely alright for him to work in the E quadrant at his stage of life. College graduates are often happy to get a job. They may treat it as a learning platform or a stepping stone to get where they want to. No matter what their intentions are, they must plan an exit strategy from the indentured servitude.

Two years ago, while I was working for Intel, I had two colleagues. They would complain and whine about the long working hours and also the relatively low benefits. The first of the two colleagues, Ed, didn't take long to come out with a plan. In search of new financial reward and personal happiness, he ventured out to UK, amid all the uncertainties working in a foreign land. The second colleague, Sam, did not take any actions, nor make any changes. He just wanted to vent out his frustrations.

Although I wouldn't know how these two colleagues of mine will fare in the future, I believe Ed will be a happier person. Even if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.

Many of us are unwilling to leave our comfort zone. We fear to take up new challenges and leave our safe harbour. During brain storming session, we are always asked to think outside the box, without fail. This is, in fact, another type of social conditioning. Our boss wants to constrain our physical self in a cage. Have you ever seen a caged Orang Utan looking nostalgically to a distance in the horizon? That's thinking out of the box! Rather than thinking out of the box, we should be outside of the box.

Starting a business is no easy feat, the stake involved is high. However, the rewards are substantial too, because not many people dare to take up the challenge. Hence, you must summon all your courage to take the first baby step. Step by step, soon enough you will find a whole new horizon beyond your safety box.

Now, you can either choose the blue pill and retreat to your blissful ignorance, or take the red pill, embracing the truth that true freedom can't be attained without financial freedom.

The choice is yours.

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