About Me
- Joni Gail A. Morales
- Warrior of Light Online When he learns to handle his sword, he discovers that his equipment has to be complete – and that includes armor. He goes out to look for armor and hears what some vendors propose to him. "Wear the breast-plate of solitude," says one. "Wear the shield of cynicism," answers another. "The best armor is not to get involved in anything," suggests a third. The warrior, however, does not listen to them. He goes serenely to his sacred place and dons the indestructible cloak of faith. Faith softens all blows. Faith changes poison into crystal-clear water. His angel whispers to him: "Yield everything." The warrior kneels down and offers his victories to God.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Being Moved...Moving on...Moving in Community
At the start of this year, I prayed to keep the flame in my heart burning unceasingly. I know only the Spirit can do this.
Dec 2010 - Being moved
I've just resigned from my job, bound to go back to the Philippines for good after a 3-year stint in Singapore. I decided it was time to rekindle that fire of nationalism in me, of being Filipino --> be in the Philippines and work for the transformation I want to see. Then I see a Gawad Kalinga signage that says "Gawad Kalinga Hope Village this way". I felt a very strong tug in my heart that this was my answered prayer.
Feb 2011 - Moving on
It's my last day of work in Singapore, but my day was still lined up with meetings, one after another with a few more reports to review. My first email comes in and it reads "Joni, maybe you would like to explore a post with Gawad Kalinga on its newest program, the Center for Social Innovation, focusing on social entrepreneurship for our Gawad Kalinga communities." The corporate doors have decided to close, opening a window of opportunity, allowing me to explore that desire in my heart to see transformation in my Philippines.
October 2011 - Moving in community
The Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farms is a social enterprise where a Gawad Kalinga community sits at its heart. I was going around the farm appreciating the amount of development done with the place and the people. Gawad Kalinga has indeed triggered the community’s transformation. It has transformed empty farmlands from a year ago to a sight to behold. It has transformed a Gawad Kalinga community who had no job opportunities to a social destination with high potential productivity. Most of all, it has transformed hearts and minds not only of the community, but also of its workers, entrepreneurs, and visitors.
Something caught my eye in the farm, the bonfire area, shaped into a heart -- the burning heart. I just smiled. Ito ang ALAB NG PUSO. Transformation starts here and the Spirit is definitely here.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
my article got published last month...did not know till I saw my first year HS teacher who read the article
New set of eyes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Also published in an Khmer-dedicated website:
And liked by 60 peeps in the Habitat facebook page:
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
in the phils though, diversity has not worked well for us, because probably we have too much of it...i'm reminded of a philo teacher's lesson before on morals...he said the operative word should always be balance (and that is virtue) that is it should not be too rightist or too leftist but "just right in the middle" is the formula
"I suspect we have started to believe our own propaganda."
by theonlinecitizen on Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 2:12am
"I suspect we have started to believe our own propaganda. There is also a particular brand of Singapore elite arrogance creeping in. Some civil servants behave like they have a mandate from the emperor. We think we are little Lee Kuan Yews."
Interview with Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, former head of the civil service, in 2003.
Q. With all this pessimism surrounding Singapore's prospects today, what's your personal prognosis? Will Singapore survive Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew?
A. Unequivocally yes, Singapore will survive SM Lee but provided he leaves the right legacy. What sort of legacy he wants to leave is for him to say, but I, a blooming upstart, dare to suggest to him that we should open up politically and allow talent to be spread throughout our society so that an alternative leadership can emerge.So far, the People's Action Party's tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service because it believes the way to retain political power forever is to have a monopoly on talent. But in my view, that's a very short term view. It is the law of nature that all things must atrophy. Unless SM allows serious political challenges to emerge from the alternative elite out there, the incumbent elite will just coast along. At the first sign of a grassroots revolt, they will probably collapse just like the incumbent Progressive Party to the left-wing PAP onslaught in the late 1950s. I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP.
Q. What would be a useful first step in opening up?
A. For Singapore to survive, we should release half our talent - our President and Overseas Merit scholars - to the private sector. When ten scholars come home, five should turn to the right and join the public sector or the civil service; the other five should turn to the left and join the private sector. These scholars should serve their bond to Singapore - not to the Government - by working in or for Singapore overseas. As matters stand, those who wish to strike out have to break their bonds, pay a financial penalty and worse, be condemned as quitters. But it takes a certain temperament and mindset to be a civil servant. The former head of the civil service,Sim Kee Boon, once said that joining the administrative service is like entering a royal priesthood. Not all of us have the temperament to be priests. However upright a person is, the mandarin will in time begin to live a gilded life in a gilded cage. As a Permanent Secretary, I never had to worry whether I could pay my staff their wages. It was all provided for in the Budget. As chairman of DBS Bank, I worried about wages only 20 per cent of the time. I now face my greatest business challenge as chairman of HDB Corp, a new start-up spun off from HDB. I spend 90 per cent of my time worrying whether I have enough to pay my staff at the end of the month. It's a mental switch.
Q. What is your biggest worry about the civil service?
A. The greatest danger is we are flying on auto-pilot. What was once a great policy, we just carry on with more of the same, until reality intervenes. Take our industrial policy. At the beginning, it was the right thing for us to attract multinationals to Singapore. For some years now, I've been trying to tell everybody: 'Look, for God's sake, grow our own timber.' If we really want knowledge to be rooted in Singaporeans and based in Singapore, we have to support our SMEs. I'm not a supporter of SMEs just for the sake of more SMEs, but we must grow our own roots. Creative Technology's Sim Wong Hoo is one and Hyflux's Olivia Lum is another but that's too few. We have been flying on auto-pilot for too long. The MNCs have contributed a lot to Singapore but they are totally unsentimental people. The moment you're uncompetitive, they just relocate.
Q. Why has this come about?
A. I suspect we have started to believe our own propaganda. There is also a particular brand of Singapore elite arrogance creeping in. Some civil servants behave like they have a mandate from the emperor. We think we are little Lee Kuan Yews. SM Lee has earned his spurs, with his fine intellect and international standing. But even Lee Kuan Yew sometimes doesn't behave like Lee Kuan Yew. There is also a trend of intellectualisation for its own sake, which loses a sense of the pragmatic concerns of the larger world. The Chinese, for example, keep good archives of the Imperial examinations which used to be held at the Temple of Heaven. At the beginning, the scholars were tested on very practical subjects, such as how to control floods in their province. But over time, they were examined on the Confucian Analects and Chinese poetry composition. Hence, they became emasculated by the system, a worrying fate which could befall Singapore.
Q. But aren't you an exception to the norm of the gilded mandarin with zero bottomline consciousness?
A. That's because I started out with Economic Development Board in the 1959. Investment promotion then was all about hard foot slogging and personal persuasion, which teaches you to be very humble and patient. I learnt to be a supplicant and a professional beggar, instead of a dispenser of favours. These days, most civil servants start out administering the law. If I had my way, every administrative officer would start his or her career in the EDB. Hard foot slogging.
Q. YOUR idea of creating an alternate elite is not new. What do you think of the oft-mooted suggestion of achieving that splitting ranks within the People's Action Party?
A. Quite honestly, if you ask me, Team A-and-Team B is a synthetic and infantile idea. If you want to challenge the Government, it must be spontaneous. You have to allow some of your best and brightest to remain outside your reach and let them grow spontaneously. How do you know their leadership will not be as good as yours? But if you monopolise all the talent, there will never be an alternative leadership. And alternatives are good for Singapore.
Q. In your calculation, what are the odds of this alternative replacing the incumbent?
A. Of course there's a political risk. Some of these chaps may turn out to be your real opposition, but that is the risk the PAP has to take if it really wants Singapore to endure. A model we should work towards is the French model of the elite administration. The very brightest of France all go to university or college. Some emerge Socialists, others Conservative, some work in industries, some work in government. Yet, at the end of the day, when the chips are down, they are all Frenchmen. No member of the French elite will ever think of betraying his country, never. That is the sort of Singapore elite we want. It doesn't mean that all of us must belong to the PAP. That is very important.
Q. What do bad times mean for the PAP, which has based its legitimacy on providing the economic goods and asset enhancement? Is its social compact with the people in need of an update?A
Oh yes. And my advice is: Go back to Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's old credo, where nobody owes us a living. After I had just taken over as the Housing Board's chairman in 2000, an astute academic asked me: 'Tong Dow, what's your greatest problem at HDB?' Then he diagnosed it himself: 'Initially, you gave peanuts to monkeys so they would dance to your tune. Now you've given them so much by way of peanuts that the monkey has become a gorilla and you have to dance to its tune. That's your greatest problem.' Our people have become over-fed and today's economic realities mean we have to put them on a crash diet. We cannot starve them because there will be a political explosion. So the art of government today is to wean everyone off the dispensable items. We should just concentrate on helping the poorest 5 to 10 per cent of the population, instead of handing out a general largesse. Forget about asset enhancement, Singapore shares and utility rebates. You're dancing to the tune of the gorilla. I don't understand the urgency of raising the Goods and Services Tax. Why tax the lower-income, then return it to them in an aid package? It demeans human dignity and creates a growing supplicant class who habitually hold out their palms. Despite the fact that we say we are not a welfare state, we act like one of the most 'welfarish' states in the world. We should appeal instead to people's sense of pride and self-reliance. I think political courage is needed here. And my instinct is that the Singaporean will respect you for that.
Q. So what should this new compact consist of?
A. It should go back to what was originally promised: 'That you shall be given the best education, whether it be academic or vocational, according to your maximum potential.' And there will be no judgment whether an engineer is better than a doctor or a chef. My late mother was a great woman. Although illiterate, she single-handedly brought up four boys and a girl. She used to say in Hainanese: 'If you have one talent which you excel in, you will never starve.' I think the best legacy to leave is education and equal opportunity for all. When the Hainanese community came to Singapore, they were the latest arrivals and the smallest in number. So they had no choice but to become humble houseboys, waiters and cooks. But they always wanted their sons to have a better life than themselves. The great thing about Singapore was that we could get an education, which gave us mobility, despite coming from the poorest families. Today, the Hainanese, as a dialect group, form proportionately the highest number of professionals in Singapore.
Q. You say focus on education. What is top of your wishlist for re-making Singapore's education system?
A. Each year, the PSLE creams off all the top boys and girls and dispatches them to only two schools, Raffles Institution and Raffles Girls' School. However good these schools are, the problem is you are educating your elite in only two institutions, with only two sets of mentors, and casting them in more or less the same mould. It worries me that Singapore is only about 'one brand' because you never know what challenges lie ahead and where they will come from. I think we should spread out our best and brightest to at least a dozen schools.
Q. You advocate a more inclusive mindset all around?
A. Yes, intellectually, everyone has to accept that the country of Singapore is larger than the PAP. But even larger than the country of Singapore, which is limited by size and population, is the nation of Singapore, which includes a diaspora. My view is that we should have a more inclusive approach to nation-building. We have started the Majulah Connection, an international network where every Singaporean - whether he is a citizen or not, so long as he feels for Singapore - is included as part of our diaspora. Similarly, we should include foreigners who have worked and thrived here as friends of Singapore. That's the only way to survive. Otherwise, its just four million people on a little red dot of 600 sq km. If you exclude people, you become smaller and smaller, and in the end, you'll disappear.
Q. What is the kind of Singapore you hope your grandchildren will inherit?
A. Let's look at Sparta and Athens, two city states in Greek history. Singapore is like Sparta, where the top students are taken away from their parents as children and educated. Cohort by cohort, they each select their own leadership, ultimately electing their own Philosopher King. When I first read Plato's Republic, I was totally dazzled by the great logic of this organisational model where the best selects the best. But when I reached the end of the book, it dawned on me that though the starting point was meritocracy, the end result was dictatorship and elitism. In the end, that was how Sparta crumbled. Yet, Athens, a city of philosophers known for its different schools of thought, survived. What does this tell us about out-of-bounds markers? So SM Lee has to think very hard what legacy he wants to leave for Singapore and the type of society he wants to leave behind. Is it to be a Sparta, a well-organised martial society, but in the end, very brittle; or an untidy Athens which survived because of its diversity of thinking? Personally, I believe that Singaporeans are not so kuai (Hokkien for obedient) as to become a Sparta. This is our saving grace. As a young senior citizen, I very much hope that Singapore will survive for a long time, but as an Athens. It is more interesting and worth living and dying for.
Interview with Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, former head of the civil service, in 2003.
Q. With all this pessimism surrounding Singapore's prospects today, what's your personal prognosis? Will Singapore survive Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew?
A. Unequivocally yes, Singapore will survive SM Lee but provided he leaves the right legacy. What sort of legacy he wants to leave is for him to say, but I, a blooming upstart, dare to suggest to him that we should open up politically and allow talent to be spread throughout our society so that an alternative leadership can emerge.So far, the People's Action Party's tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service because it believes the way to retain political power forever is to have a monopoly on talent. But in my view, that's a very short term view. It is the law of nature that all things must atrophy. Unless SM allows serious political challenges to emerge from the alternative elite out there, the incumbent elite will just coast along. At the first sign of a grassroots revolt, they will probably collapse just like the incumbent Progressive Party to the left-wing PAP onslaught in the late 1950s. I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP.
Q. What would be a useful first step in opening up?
A. For Singapore to survive, we should release half our talent - our President and Overseas Merit scholars - to the private sector. When ten scholars come home, five should turn to the right and join the public sector or the civil service; the other five should turn to the left and join the private sector. These scholars should serve their bond to Singapore - not to the Government - by working in or for Singapore overseas. As matters stand, those who wish to strike out have to break their bonds, pay a financial penalty and worse, be condemned as quitters. But it takes a certain temperament and mindset to be a civil servant. The former head of the civil service,Sim Kee Boon, once said that joining the administrative service is like entering a royal priesthood. Not all of us have the temperament to be priests. However upright a person is, the mandarin will in time begin to live a gilded life in a gilded cage. As a Permanent Secretary, I never had to worry whether I could pay my staff their wages. It was all provided for in the Budget. As chairman of DBS Bank, I worried about wages only 20 per cent of the time. I now face my greatest business challenge as chairman of HDB Corp, a new start-up spun off from HDB. I spend 90 per cent of my time worrying whether I have enough to pay my staff at the end of the month. It's a mental switch.
Q. What is your biggest worry about the civil service?
A. The greatest danger is we are flying on auto-pilot. What was once a great policy, we just carry on with more of the same, until reality intervenes. Take our industrial policy. At the beginning, it was the right thing for us to attract multinationals to Singapore. For some years now, I've been trying to tell everybody: 'Look, for God's sake, grow our own timber.' If we really want knowledge to be rooted in Singaporeans and based in Singapore, we have to support our SMEs. I'm not a supporter of SMEs just for the sake of more SMEs, but we must grow our own roots. Creative Technology's Sim Wong Hoo is one and Hyflux's Olivia Lum is another but that's too few. We have been flying on auto-pilot for too long. The MNCs have contributed a lot to Singapore but they are totally unsentimental people. The moment you're uncompetitive, they just relocate.
Q. Why has this come about?
A. I suspect we have started to believe our own propaganda. There is also a particular brand of Singapore elite arrogance creeping in. Some civil servants behave like they have a mandate from the emperor. We think we are little Lee Kuan Yews. SM Lee has earned his spurs, with his fine intellect and international standing. But even Lee Kuan Yew sometimes doesn't behave like Lee Kuan Yew. There is also a trend of intellectualisation for its own sake, which loses a sense of the pragmatic concerns of the larger world. The Chinese, for example, keep good archives of the Imperial examinations which used to be held at the Temple of Heaven. At the beginning, the scholars were tested on very practical subjects, such as how to control floods in their province. But over time, they were examined on the Confucian Analects and Chinese poetry composition. Hence, they became emasculated by the system, a worrying fate which could befall Singapore.
Q. But aren't you an exception to the norm of the gilded mandarin with zero bottomline consciousness?
A. That's because I started out with Economic Development Board in the 1959. Investment promotion then was all about hard foot slogging and personal persuasion, which teaches you to be very humble and patient. I learnt to be a supplicant and a professional beggar, instead of a dispenser of favours. These days, most civil servants start out administering the law. If I had my way, every administrative officer would start his or her career in the EDB. Hard foot slogging.
Q. YOUR idea of creating an alternate elite is not new. What do you think of the oft-mooted suggestion of achieving that splitting ranks within the People's Action Party?
A. Quite honestly, if you ask me, Team A-and-Team B is a synthetic and infantile idea. If you want to challenge the Government, it must be spontaneous. You have to allow some of your best and brightest to remain outside your reach and let them grow spontaneously. How do you know their leadership will not be as good as yours? But if you monopolise all the talent, there will never be an alternative leadership. And alternatives are good for Singapore.
Q. In your calculation, what are the odds of this alternative replacing the incumbent?
A. Of course there's a political risk. Some of these chaps may turn out to be your real opposition, but that is the risk the PAP has to take if it really wants Singapore to endure. A model we should work towards is the French model of the elite administration. The very brightest of France all go to university or college. Some emerge Socialists, others Conservative, some work in industries, some work in government. Yet, at the end of the day, when the chips are down, they are all Frenchmen. No member of the French elite will ever think of betraying his country, never. That is the sort of Singapore elite we want. It doesn't mean that all of us must belong to the PAP. That is very important.
Q. What do bad times mean for the PAP, which has based its legitimacy on providing the economic goods and asset enhancement? Is its social compact with the people in need of an update?A
Oh yes. And my advice is: Go back to Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's old credo, where nobody owes us a living. After I had just taken over as the Housing Board's chairman in 2000, an astute academic asked me: 'Tong Dow, what's your greatest problem at HDB?' Then he diagnosed it himself: 'Initially, you gave peanuts to monkeys so they would dance to your tune. Now you've given them so much by way of peanuts that the monkey has become a gorilla and you have to dance to its tune. That's your greatest problem.' Our people have become over-fed and today's economic realities mean we have to put them on a crash diet. We cannot starve them because there will be a political explosion. So the art of government today is to wean everyone off the dispensable items. We should just concentrate on helping the poorest 5 to 10 per cent of the population, instead of handing out a general largesse. Forget about asset enhancement, Singapore shares and utility rebates. You're dancing to the tune of the gorilla. I don't understand the urgency of raising the Goods and Services Tax. Why tax the lower-income, then return it to them in an aid package? It demeans human dignity and creates a growing supplicant class who habitually hold out their palms. Despite the fact that we say we are not a welfare state, we act like one of the most 'welfarish' states in the world. We should appeal instead to people's sense of pride and self-reliance. I think political courage is needed here. And my instinct is that the Singaporean will respect you for that.
Q. So what should this new compact consist of?
A. It should go back to what was originally promised: 'That you shall be given the best education, whether it be academic or vocational, according to your maximum potential.' And there will be no judgment whether an engineer is better than a doctor or a chef. My late mother was a great woman. Although illiterate, she single-handedly brought up four boys and a girl. She used to say in Hainanese: 'If you have one talent which you excel in, you will never starve.' I think the best legacy to leave is education and equal opportunity for all. When the Hainanese community came to Singapore, they were the latest arrivals and the smallest in number. So they had no choice but to become humble houseboys, waiters and cooks. But they always wanted their sons to have a better life than themselves. The great thing about Singapore was that we could get an education, which gave us mobility, despite coming from the poorest families. Today, the Hainanese, as a dialect group, form proportionately the highest number of professionals in Singapore.
Q. You say focus on education. What is top of your wishlist for re-making Singapore's education system?
A. Each year, the PSLE creams off all the top boys and girls and dispatches them to only two schools, Raffles Institution and Raffles Girls' School. However good these schools are, the problem is you are educating your elite in only two institutions, with only two sets of mentors, and casting them in more or less the same mould. It worries me that Singapore is only about 'one brand' because you never know what challenges lie ahead and where they will come from. I think we should spread out our best and brightest to at least a dozen schools.
Q. You advocate a more inclusive mindset all around?
A. Yes, intellectually, everyone has to accept that the country of Singapore is larger than the PAP. But even larger than the country of Singapore, which is limited by size and population, is the nation of Singapore, which includes a diaspora. My view is that we should have a more inclusive approach to nation-building. We have started the Majulah Connection, an international network where every Singaporean - whether he is a citizen or not, so long as he feels for Singapore - is included as part of our diaspora. Similarly, we should include foreigners who have worked and thrived here as friends of Singapore. That's the only way to survive. Otherwise, its just four million people on a little red dot of 600 sq km. If you exclude people, you become smaller and smaller, and in the end, you'll disappear.
Q. What is the kind of Singapore you hope your grandchildren will inherit?
A. Let's look at Sparta and Athens, two city states in Greek history. Singapore is like Sparta, where the top students are taken away from their parents as children and educated. Cohort by cohort, they each select their own leadership, ultimately electing their own Philosopher King. When I first read Plato's Republic, I was totally dazzled by the great logic of this organisational model where the best selects the best. But when I reached the end of the book, it dawned on me that though the starting point was meritocracy, the end result was dictatorship and elitism. In the end, that was how Sparta crumbled. Yet, Athens, a city of philosophers known for its different schools of thought, survived. What does this tell us about out-of-bounds markers? So SM Lee has to think very hard what legacy he wants to leave for Singapore and the type of society he wants to leave behind. Is it to be a Sparta, a well-organised martial society, but in the end, very brittle; or an untidy Athens which survived because of its diversity of thinking? Personally, I believe that Singaporeans are not so kuai (Hokkien for obedient) as to become a Sparta. This is our saving grace. As a young senior citizen, I very much hope that Singapore will survive for a long time, but as an Athens. It is more interesting and worth living and dying for.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
This Lent, I feel I haven't done enough reflections and decisions to sacrifice...but God assures me that there is potential and I will soon be moving
Blue Bike
“The bike sitting alone, not cast off but incomplete. The rider is not evident, only implied. Incomplete, stationary, motionless, the bike sits abandoned, seemingly, for something more important. An appointment? A meal? A romantic interlude? The bike’s purpose is found in its motion, in the turning of its wheels and pedals. Sometimes our relationship with God is like this. Ours is a God of motion and change and sometimes we are distracted and separated from that. Sometimes it is important that we become aware of God by his seeming absence—the dark night of the soul. But the bike waits. The movement and adventure wait. There is no lost time. Statius is potential. Movement is actualization. All are part of God.”
Submitted by Edward H.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Adams (creator of Dilbert) says to be an entrepreneur we need to combine skills to create our own value. "I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That's how value is created."
By SCOTT ADAMS (Creator of Dilbert Comics)
I understand why the top students in America study physics, chemistry, calculus and classic literature. The kids in this brainy group are the future professors, scientists, thinkers and engineers who will propel civilization forward. But why do we make B students sit through these same classes? That's like trying to train your cat to do your taxes—a waste of time and money. Wouldn't it make more sense to teach B students something useful, like entrepreneurship?
![[COVER]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/RV-AC331_COVER_DV_20110407234646.jpg)
Scott AdamsI speak from experience because I majored in entrepreneurship at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. Technically, my major was economics. But the unsung advantage of attending a small college is that you can mold your experience any way you want.
There was a small business on our campus called The Coffee House. It served beer and snacks, and featured live entertainment. It was managed by students, and it was a money-losing mess, subsidized by the college. I thought I could make a difference, so I applied for an opening as the so-called Minister of Finance. I landed the job, thanks to my impressive interviewing skills, my can-do attitude and the fact that everyone else in the solar system had more interesting plans.
The drinking age in those days was 18, and the entire compensation package for the managers of The Coffee House was free beer. That goes a long way toward explaining why the accounting system consisted of seven students trying to remember where all the money went. I thought we could do better. So I proposed to my accounting professor that for three course credits I would build and operate a proper accounting system for the business. And so I did. It was a great experience. Meanwhile, some of my peers were taking courses in art history so they'd be prepared to remember what art looked like just in case anyone asked.
One day the managers of The Coffee House had a meeting to discuss two topics. First, our Minister of Employment was recommending that we fire a bartender, who happened to be one of my best friends. Second, we needed to choose a leader for our group. On the first question, there was a general consensus that my friend lacked both the will and the potential to master the bartending arts. I reluctantly voted with the majority to fire him.
But when it came to discussing who should be our new leader, I pointed out that my friend—the soon-to-be-fired bartender—was tall, good-looking and so gifted at b.s. that he'd be the perfect leader. By the end of the meeting I had persuaded the group to fire the worst bartender that any of us had ever seen…and ask him if he would consider being our leader. My friend nailed the interview and became our Commissioner. He went on to do a terrific job. That was the year I learned everything I know about management.
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At about the same time, this same friend, along with my roommate and me, hatched a plan to become the student managers of our dormitory and to get paid to do it. The idea involved replacing all of the professional staff, including the resident assistant, security guard and even the cleaning crew, with students who would be paid to do the work. We imagined forming a dorm government to manage elections for various jobs, set out penalties for misbehavior and generally take care of business. And we imagined that the three of us, being the visionaries for this scheme, would run the show.
We pitched our entrepreneurial idea to the dean and his staff. To our surprise, the dean said that if we could get a majority of next year's dorm residents to agree to our scheme, the college would back it.
It was a high hurdle, but a loophole made it easier to clear. We only needed a majority of students who said they planned to live in the dorm next year. And we had plenty of friends who were happy to plan just about anything so long as they could later change their minds. That's the year I learned that if there's a loophole, someone's going to drive a truck through it, and the people in the truck will get paid better than the people under it.
The dean required that our first order of business in the fall would be creating a dorm constitution and getting it ratified. That sounded like a nightmare to organize. To save time, I wrote the constitution over the summer and didn't mention it when classes resumed. We held a constitutional convention to collect everyone's input, and I listened to two hours of diverse opinions. At the end of the meeting I volunteered to take on the daunting task of crafting a document that reflected all of the varied and sometimes conflicting opinions that had been aired. I waited a week, made copies of the document that I had written over the summer, presented it to the dorm as their own ideas and watched it get approved in a landslide vote. That was the year I learned everything I know about getting buy-in.
“Why do we make B students sit through the same classes as their brainy peers? That's like trying to train your cat to do your taxes—a waste of time and money. Wouldn't it make sense to teach them something useful instead?”
For the next two years my friends and I each had a private room at no cost, a base salary and the experience of managing the dorm. On some nights I also got paid to do overnight security, while also getting paid to clean the laundry room. At the end of my security shift I would go to The Coffee House and balance the books.
My college days were full of entrepreneurial stories of this sort. When my friends and I couldn't get the gym to give us space for our informal games of indoor soccer, we considered our options. The gym's rule was that only organized groups could reserve time. A few days later we took another run at it, but this time we were an organized soccer club, and I was the president. My executive duties included filling out a form to register the club and remembering to bring the ball.
By the time I graduated, I had mastered the strange art of transforming nothing into something. Every good thing that has happened to me as an adult can be traced back to that training. Several years later, I finished my MBA at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. That was the fine-tuning I needed to see the world through an entrepreneur's eyes.
If you're having a hard time imagining what an education in entrepreneurship should include, allow me to prime the pump with some lessons I've learned along the way.
Combine Skills. The first thing you should learn in a course on entrepreneurship is how to make yourself valuable. It's unlikely that any average student can develop a world-class skill in one particular area. But it's easy to learn how to do several different things fairly well. I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The "Dilbert" comic is a combination of all four skills. The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That's how value is created.
Fail Forward. If you're taking risks, and you probably should, you can find yourself failing 90% of the time. The trick is to get paid while you're doing the failing and to use the experience to gain skills that will be useful later. I failed at my first career in banking. I failed at my second career with the phone company. But you'd be surprised at how many of the skills I learned in those careers can be applied to almost any field, including cartooning. Students should be taught that failure is a process, not an obstacle.
Find the Action. In my senior year of college I asked my adviser how I should pursue my goal of being a banker. He told me to figure out where the most innovation in banking was happening and to move there. And so I did. Banking didn't work out for me, but the advice still holds: Move to where the action is. Distance is your enemy.
![[JUMP]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/RV-AC332_JUMP_DV_20110407234752.jpg)
Scott AdamsAttract Luck. You can't manage luck directly, but you can manage your career in a way that makes it easier for luck to find you. To succeed, first you must do something. And if that doesn't work, which can be 90% of the time, do something else. Luck finds the doers. Readers of the Journal will find this point obvious. It's not obvious to a teenager.
Conquer Fear. I took classes in public speaking in college and a few more during my corporate days. That training was marginally useful for learning how to mask nervousness in public. Then I took the Dale Carnegie course. It was life-changing. The Dale Carnegie method ignores speaking technique entirely and trains you instead to enjoy the experience of speaking to a crowd. Once you become relaxed in front of people, technique comes automatically. Over the years, I've given speeches to hundreds of audiences and enjoyed every minute on stage. But this isn't a plug for Dale Carnegie. The point is that people can be trained to replace fear and shyness with enthusiasm. Every entrepreneur can use that skill.
Write Simply. I took a two-day class in business writing that taught me how to write direct sentences and to avoid extra words. Simplicity makes ideas powerful. Want examples? Read anything by Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett.
Learn Persuasion. Students of entrepreneurship should learn the art of persuasion in all its forms, including psychology, sales, marketing, negotiating, statistics and even design. Usually those skills are sprinkled across several disciplines. For entrepreneurs, it makes sense to teach them as a package.
That's my starter list for the sort of classes that would serve B students well. The list is not meant to be complete. Obviously an entrepreneur would benefit from classes in finance, management and more.
Remember, children are our future, and the majority of them are B students. If that doesn't scare you, it probably should.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
When we were sent to Cambodia last year for our company's CSR activity, we met some very inspiring people and one of them was Beth.
Had the chance to meet Beth (one of the organizers of Daughters) in the hotel where we stayed in.
The store is right smack in the middle of Phnom Penh.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Let the grace of the Lord be the measure of your sufficiency; let the peace of the Lord be the measure of your quietness; let the power of the Lord be the measure of your strength; let the goodness of the Lord be the measure of your contentment; let the love of the Lord be the measure of your service; let the faithfulness of the Lord be the measure of your trust...
let the beauty of the Lord be the measure of your worship; let the fullness of the Lord be the measure of your joy; let the sovereignty of the Lord be the measure of your confidence; let the promises of the Lord be the measure of your expectations; let the coming of the Lord be the measure of your hope
let the beauty of the Lord be the measure of your worship; let the fullness of the Lord be the measure of your joy; let the sovereignty of the Lord be the measure of your confidence; let the promises of the Lord be the measure of your expectations; let the coming of the Lord be the measure of your hope
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Healing Begins (Tenth Avenue North)
Today, I’m reminded of very old sharing I wrote close to 5 years ago. I feel God is reminding me of how much He took care of me back then and a promise that He will always look after me, that if hiccups come, His grace will be my water, it will be enough for me. When I shared this back then, it started a healing of young teenager’s old wounds...
I was on a retreat last weekend with the Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon Music Ministry and I shared a part of myself to them. Gusto ko din sanang ibahagi ang na-i-share ko sa kanila.
Maganda ang lugar, very conducive for a retreat. It was overlooking the Taal lake. The hangin is uber cold. Insight: Mahirap pa lang kumanta na nanginginig ang tiyan sa lamig. Pero hindi yun ang sharing ko sa kanila ha. ;p
Not a lot of people know I’m a bit aversive to singing. Everyone just knows I sing, that's it. Everytime my name would pop out in a conversation, I'd almost always be identified as someone who sings..."ah, si joni...yung kumakanta" or in other occasions... "ah, si joni...yung kulot?" Kidding aside, I had a significant period in my life when I did not like to be tagged as someone who sings. You can say I was at conflict with myself.
Siyempre, kung may problema, may pinagmulan. I was in the Ateneo college Glee Club 7 years ago as a trainee. I was with the group for a full year. That was ecstatic for me! It meant I can sing a lot of times during the week. It meant I can sing after class. It meant I can be part of beautiful music.
What luck! But I was in for one of my biggest struggles in my (young) life. Being in the Glee Club meant rigid training. Knowing the songs, knowing the notes, knowing the pitch, knowing when to come in or not, when to crescendo. So, it was a lot. For someone who did not have any musical background, vocal or instrument training, like myself, it was tough getting into it. All I knew was I can sing, that was it. I sounded good. I felt good being able to express myself in singing. So this was the level up for me.
I heard a lot of good feedback from my conductor and members in the group. "Joni, you sound good, you just have to watch your pitch." This went on for sometime. Then it became frequent. I was a loud singer and I was a sharpist (always a half note above the right one). This was not a good combination in a choir. I tried my best to learn all the pieces. I had a difficult time doing it. On top of it all, I had to maintain my scholarship.
Maganda ang lugar, very conducive for a retreat. It was overlooking the Taal lake. The hangin is uber cold. Insight: Mahirap pa lang kumanta na nanginginig ang tiyan sa lamig. Pero hindi yun ang sharing ko sa kanila ha. ;p
Not a lot of people know I’m a bit aversive to singing. Everyone just knows I sing, that's it. Everytime my name would pop out in a conversation, I'd almost always be identified as someone who sings..."ah, si joni...yung kumakanta" or in other occasions... "ah, si joni...yung kulot?" Kidding aside, I had a significant period in my life when I did not like to be tagged as someone who sings. You can say I was at conflict with myself.
Siyempre, kung may problema, may pinagmulan. I was in the Ateneo college Glee Club 7 years ago as a trainee. I was with the group for a full year. That was ecstatic for me! It meant I can sing a lot of times during the week. It meant I can sing after class. It meant I can be part of beautiful music.
What luck! But I was in for one of my biggest struggles in my (young) life. Being in the Glee Club meant rigid training. Knowing the songs, knowing the notes, knowing the pitch, knowing when to come in or not, when to crescendo. So, it was a lot. For someone who did not have any musical background, vocal or instrument training, like myself, it was tough getting into it. All I knew was I can sing, that was it. I sounded good. I felt good being able to express myself in singing. So this was the level up for me.
I heard a lot of good feedback from my conductor and members in the group. "Joni, you sound good, you just have to watch your pitch." This went on for sometime. Then it became frequent. I was a loud singer and I was a sharpist (always a half note above the right one). This was not a good combination in a choir. I tried my best to learn all the pieces. I had a difficult time doing it. On top of it all, I had to maintain my scholarship.
This was my weekly schedule: 9-15 hours of Glee Club rehearsals, 18-21 hours of classes, 5-10 hours of group meetings, and 9-10 hours worth of papers, which left me a few hours to study the pieces and my subjects, not to mention I had to sleep. My parents discouraged me as well because of my scholarship. To sing became very taxing.
Then I came to a very dark realization: "Bakit kase hindi ako mabilis makapag-aral ng piyesa? May talent nga ako, hindi ko naman alam paano gamitin." I was hard on myself. I just thought I was superwoman, I expected a lot from myself so when I realized I was not what I expected "me" to be, I came crumbling down. At the back of my head probably, I wanted all the glory to be mine. Singing was my vanity.
To add to the pressure of adjusting my singing styles, something really bothered me even more. Everytime the group had a singing engagement to sing at mass, I did not feel myself there. We sounded really good, yeah. The song line-up was very spirit-uplifting but my spirit remained where it was-inside, not uplifted at all. It did not even take-off.
To add to the pressure of adjusting my singing styles, something really bothered me even more. Everytime the group had a singing engagement to sing at mass, I did not feel myself there. We sounded really good, yeah. The song line-up was very spirit-uplifting but my spirit remained where it was-inside, not uplifted at all. It did not even take-off.
My spirit was not in the mass because much of my focus was shifted from the mass to my notes, to my pitch, to my sharps because I knew I had to put a lot of effort into it. I envied the other members because I really see them singing but still able to pay attention to the mass at the same time. The only time I felt the mass and the music at the same time was when I was not singing at all, just listening. The moment I sing, my presence, my focus for the mass disappears.
One of the major reasons I joined the Glee Club was I knew I can do more with my gift. As St. Augustine would put it, "when you sing, you pray twice." I wanted to pray twice as much so this bothered me significantly. So I decided to go to mass twice...to compensate. First mass-with the Glee Club, second mass-actually attending it with no singing for me. If only I sang as perfectly, I will not find it hard to pay attention also at mass.
A point came when I grew tired of it. Sure I wanted to sound really good with the choir, but it meant battering my physical, emotional, and spiritual self. I loved to sing but I had to make a choice-- to let go of it.
A point came when I grew tired of it. Sure I wanted to sound really good with the choir, but it meant battering my physical, emotional, and spiritual self. I loved to sing but I had to make a choice-- to let go of it.
Then everything went empty. I gave up the one thing I loved to do most. Then I got confused--I did not know if I loved singing as much anymore. If I sing, it will only exhaust me - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Well, there were other opportunities to sing and I tried a whole lot of them but I continued to not sing at masses. What I guess scarred me was that I knew I was not good enough to use it...most especially for God.
Sure, I did still sing a lot after that--while working, while walking, while watching tv. But the scar was still there-"I was not good enough". "I love to sing"--I still said that a lot of times to myself, but the scar was there.
When I was invited to attend a Catholic charismatic community, Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon, and started to become a regular, some members asked me why I was not singing with the Music Ministry then. Actually, I made it a conscious effort not to be part of the musicmin. Now that I was finally getting my relationship with God back through Ligaya, I did not want singing to be my vanity again. My priority was to be able to pray. Being in a charismatic community, worship meant singing a lot though so I tried my best to focus on praying to God first, and singing was just a support. And I felt really relieved because I was praying again and singing did not bother me as much anymore.
Then an opportunity came for me to be part of the Music Ministry. When I was asked by some members of the musicmin, I felt very tentative about it. I prayed about it and I felt God wanted me to be invited. The idea of joining the music ministry offered a chance to heal me. I took the risk. If it meant I'll have to go to mass twice again, then I shall do it for God-if this was His way of calling me to serve. The very first time I attended practices, I prepared myself for the possible consequences- -for the scar to wound me again.
The Ligaya Music Min members start practices with worship. That very first night, the only thing I can remember myself saying was "God, I so miss this sound. I never knew how much I missed being right smack in the middle of this sound until today." The music soothed my heart because I knew these people loved God so much and they have chosen to sing for Him rather than for themselves so I told myself "I'll set my concerns aside and choose to serve God just as they did". Each meeting was a blessing to me after that because I knew I will be singing with my brothers and sisters in Ligaya to God. God became my starting point and it started to heal me. All the GLORY be to God.
Sometimes I still don't want to be tagged as someone who sings but God gave me a choice to heal-to sing for Him above everythingelse. God showed me humility. He taught me to pray again, and then He made me sing again. Thank you for my gift Lord. I am singing. I am praying. What more can I ask for?
St. Augustine was right. You do pray twice when you sing. Finally, I'm praying twice!
p.s.
one of my best friends still sings with the Glee Club...now called the Ateneo Chamber singers (alumni group)...i'm glad we can both do and live doing the thing we love to do most.Ü
Sure, I did still sing a lot after that--while working, while walking, while watching tv. But the scar was still there-"I was not good enough". "I love to sing"--I still said that a lot of times to myself, but the scar was there.
When I was invited to attend a Catholic charismatic community, Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon, and started to become a regular, some members asked me why I was not singing with the Music Ministry then. Actually, I made it a conscious effort not to be part of the musicmin. Now that I was finally getting my relationship with God back through Ligaya, I did not want singing to be my vanity again. My priority was to be able to pray. Being in a charismatic community, worship meant singing a lot though so I tried my best to focus on praying to God first, and singing was just a support. And I felt really relieved because I was praying again and singing did not bother me as much anymore.
Then an opportunity came for me to be part of the Music Ministry. When I was asked by some members of the musicmin, I felt very tentative about it. I prayed about it and I felt God wanted me to be invited. The idea of joining the music ministry offered a chance to heal me. I took the risk. If it meant I'll have to go to mass twice again, then I shall do it for God-if this was His way of calling me to serve. The very first time I attended practices, I prepared myself for the possible consequences- -for the scar to wound me again.
The Ligaya Music Min members start practices with worship. That very first night, the only thing I can remember myself saying was "God, I so miss this sound. I never knew how much I missed being right smack in the middle of this sound until today." The music soothed my heart because I knew these people loved God so much and they have chosen to sing for Him rather than for themselves so I told myself "I'll set my concerns aside and choose to serve God just as they did". Each meeting was a blessing to me after that because I knew I will be singing with my brothers and sisters in Ligaya to God. God became my starting point and it started to heal me. All the GLORY be to God.
Sometimes I still don't want to be tagged as someone who sings but God gave me a choice to heal-to sing for Him above everythingelse. God showed me humility. He taught me to pray again, and then He made me sing again. Thank you for my gift Lord. I am singing. I am praying. What more can I ask for?
St. Augustine was right. You do pray twice when you sing. Finally, I'm praying twice!
p.s.
one of my best friends still sings with the Glee Club...now called the Ateneo Chamber singers (alumni group)...i'm glad we can both do and live doing the thing we love to do most.Ü
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