“Whatever you think is, is. Whatever you think isn’t, isn’t. So what think you?” ~ © Esmond Ng 07/01/12

“You can’t change things; you make the next happen.”
~ © Esmond Ng 27/12/11

“Inherently, I believe everyone is capable of being truly happy. We probably just need to accept Life’s little bumps to appreciate the bigger hills we are climbing.” ~ © Esmond Ng 21/11/11

“‎Yellow be Red and Red be Yellow, depending. Perhaps then, both be Green.” ~ © Esmond Ng 11/11/11

“I would really like a glimpse of tomorrow, so I’d know exactly what to do today.” ~ © Esmond Ng 01/11/11

“Yes, you can fit a circle into a square. But never a square into a circle; sooner or later, the edges are bound to pop.”
~ © Esmond Ng 23/10/11

“You can say the same things in different ways.
How you say it however, makes all the difference.”
~ © Esmond Ng 26/08/11

“Your forever could end today. Make the best use of it.”
~ © Esmond Ng 26/03/11

“Get your bearings right before opening your sails.”
~ © Esmond Ng 03/03/11

“Whatever end you want, you need to begin from the start.”
~ © Esmond Ng 02/03/11

A State of Being Referenced

By Esmond Ng 05/06/10 © Copyright

Recently, there was an article suggesting that the strengthening of the Singapore dollar would not affect our exports. In the conventional school of thought, the appreciation of a country’s currency would naturally lead to its exports being comparatively more expensive for the importing country. However this article suggests that because of the stronger dollar, the inputs (which are mostly sourced internationally) into the export products become cheaper; thus not affecting our export costs and quantities.

We are not probating nor assailing the article’s point of view, but instead using it to bring up a relevant issue of relativity. When we try to make any sort of comparisons, the subject will always be relative to another matter. When we purchase our end-product inputs, what is our exchange rate to the source country? Is the other currency moving in the same direction too? Or is our appreciation really a true indication of more value?

If we are assessing exclusively, then whatever we are looking at will always be absolute for there is nothing else to benchmark against. Personally, a 1.0L automobile is a luxury to me. (Or any other affordable automobile for that matter of fact) However, once you put the subject next to a Mercedes or even a Bentley, the comparison immediately becomes obvious.

I boldly propose that Sun Tzu’s most renowned phrase has remained famous over the last 2,000 years precisely for the same reason. Without knowing who and what we are up against is surely tantamount to failure. How can we expect to compete with something that we are not aware of?

There are numerous tools and methodologies known for carrying out competitive analysis. Most of which almost always boil down to the same few principles with “Research” commonly being the first agenda as it sets the forward direction.

Who are our immediate competitors? What advantages do they have? Are there gaps that my business can thrive in? These are perhaps just the tip of the iceberg when accosted with the increasingly competitive arenas that our industries are in.

Then who do we reference ourselves against? If we are the top few market leaders, naturally our strategy would be to compare our strengths and weaknesses against the other top brands available. If we are closer to being a statistic in the sheer volume of companies doing the same replicable business, then we should seriously investigate into setting unique propositions and differentiating ourselves.

Only through thorough reflection and more reflection would we know how to capitalize on what we’ve got and where to improve ourselves where it most counts. The important thing here is knowing which other business(es) we are relative to. Talk to many people; experts and laymen. Talk to consultants if you have to. Finding out how you compare to the next better player will set you free.

Whether it be in love, career or daily choices, we all frequently make irrational rash decisions every now and then. All so repeatedly, we draw conclusions from ill-informed information based more on our foolhardy emotions. After which many we would deeply regret.

I’m guilty of falling into this emotive trap at times. I too have many contributions to this lamentable list of imbecilic mistakes. What’s worse is that we ofttimes hurt someone else in the process as well. Remember the Chinese phrase?

Direct translation would mean: “Spilled water can’t be retrieved.” What we do or say are simply irreversible. Once the damage is done, it’s done. I would like to take this chance to apologise to everyone that I have ever hurt directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly.

Maybe it’ll do us all some good if we remind ourselves to really look and think, deliberate if we have to before we start leaping away again.

“There are people buying things that they don’t need,
to impress people that they don’t know,
with money that they don’t have.” ~ Unknown

A dear told me some months back: “Do things without expectations, then you wouldn’t be disappointed when you don’t get reciprocal results.” Well, that seemed pretty amazing coming from her. Deliberated, mulled and surmised that it was true. You see, work = force x distance. So going the distance means one would have to work with force in variable extents. If you put in so much effort in something, you’d naturally expect certain returns. If not, you would not have otherwise humanly done it in the first place. As often as we would instead like it, these results can turn out rather dispiriting. Thus to avoid this dampening gloom, not expecting anything in exchange would be our safest bet!

Stuck with that for awhile but soon realized this objective way of doing things was just not mortally possible! The basic fallacy of this statement is it ignores the fact that we are mere flesh and blood; frail and fragile. Any other way to agree otherwise would devoid us of our creatural roots. We are all selfish to some degree or other. Don’t you agree?

How about unconditional Love? The Love of Jesus to His children? The Love of parents to their offsprings? Are we not capable of unconditional Love? Or does it just not really exist in our mundane and secular world? Are self-sacrifice and fairytales just meant for novels and movies? Yet again, some would beg to disagree. I for one would choose to believe. For even cubs to lions mean the world, what less our Loves to we?

Yes, we are self-seeking but also perishable. So why should the nice things we do for people be? Then you ask me: “Summation be, should we expect?”

Esmond’s Very Own Quote for May:

“Give as you would expect receive. And perchance, you’d be surprised with what you tenfold inherit.” ~ © Esmond Ng 09/05/06

With the exception of some rare shibboleth individuals, most of us will sparsely embrace the idea of taking tests. Whether in school or in Life, tests present themselves as a really arduous and onerous experience!

However truth be that Life very much resembles tests. It places us in situations where there are just too much uncertainties and variables. Recollect the last time you were sitting for a paper. No matter how prepared you were, there were bound to be questions where you just could not comprehend or answer. What would your strategy be then? Spend every last second on that problem? Perhaps, the more fitting one would be to carry on with the paper and return to this botheration later.

Life is exactly like this. Whenever we run into a predicament, we spend countless nights in deliberation and end up being totally vexed. What we fail to see is that like the test, Life is time constrained. We only have a limited number of earthly hours and we all have an expiry date on our bodies. Why do we persist in using up all our resources solving the baffling encounter?

When one has tried adequately yet fall short of results, it is really time to move on. In Life, it’s the same. Carry on with the rest of your lives! There are really more things to savor and enjoy beyond the current slump you are in. I’m serious. Wouldn’t you agree that it’s absolutely not worth it foregoing the scorings on the rest of the paper for that one question?

Esmond’s very own quote for April:

“Life is like a test. When u hit a patch, move on to the rest and come back later!” ~ Esmond Ng © 03/04/06

“March is essentially the same as moving forward, however with conviction!” ~ © Esmond Ng 02/03/06

“Sometimes the harder you try to move on, the easier it is for you to remain status quo.” ~ © Esmond Ng 10/12/05

Then, I realized an exception to this. What happens if you didn’t go through any storms? What happens if you just happen to walk past one after the storms had past? Does it mean it’s any less of a Rainbow?

It’s human to err. More so, it’s human to neglect and take for granted the lovely things and people around us each and every second. Often, we don’t appreciate them until they’re no longer there. Sometimes, we don’t even see them at all!

There are more Rainbows amongst us than we think. A lot of the time, we get so fixated on wanting to make something a Rainbow, we fail to see the apparent ones around us. We get so resolute on creating a miracle with someone or something that we just can’t see the other marvels occurring besides us. Hence, Esmond’s very own quote for November:

“Question: How do you find the prettiest Rainbows?
Answer: By looking past and around them instead.”
~ © Esmond Ng 04/11/05

“There isn’t anything stupid about this world, just people who choose to be.” ~ © Esmond Ng 02/09/05

“There’s nothing wrong with being stubborn. It only becomes a problem when you’re stubborn over the wrong things!” ~ © Esmond Ng 18/08/05

“Being a loner doesn’t have to mean that you’re lonely. Equivalently, vice versa. The worse of the two? Being both at the same time.” ~ © Esmond Ng 18/08/05