Very, very important questions that require the attention of people at our ages.
19.10.12
Integrity
Let's talk about integrity.
There is a reason why integrity is being held as single most important value in your career, among all kinds of skill sets. Because in the end of the day, people will view you in a multi-perspective picture, and they hope the picture stays the same as the perspective changes.
I have yet fully understood the significance of integrity until one day I get to see it from another perspective. In essence, I get to see how a person tried to hide facts from someone who was supposed to know them, in attempt to avoid some unfavorable consequences. While his act is understandable, it is not acceptable because he is hurting others in the benefit of himself. In such case, his integrity will be in danger, much worse than if he stated facts upfront in the first place.
It reminds me days back then, when someone promised me confidently on a task but failed to deliver. It is even worse than being incapable, because lying/boasting will not only devastate your integrity ("You are not doing what you said"), it will drag other's workflow in the team environment as well.
Now, I should stop accusing others and mention some of my bad deeds. Being an over-achiever, I once took over two responsibilities which schedules perfectly clashed on each other, one I accomplished with full passion, another as persuaded mission. While I put myself in the best light in former, I literally screwed up in the latter. I went on to abruptly quit the task with a resignation letter, and did not followed up ever since. Putting in my superior's angle, it is certainly heartbreaking and nerve-wrecking to see one of your men quitted away, rising red flags on team spirit.
Looking forward, I have been through both sides and now start to see how integrity interplays as leaving impression on others, building reputation and being a credible person. It may cause you some obstacles in climbing corporate ladder, but think deeper, is advancing by reaping others really a good idea?
Think about it.
There is a reason why integrity is being held as single most important value in your career, among all kinds of skill sets. Because in the end of the day, people will view you in a multi-perspective picture, and they hope the picture stays the same as the perspective changes.
I have yet fully understood the significance of integrity until one day I get to see it from another perspective. In essence, I get to see how a person tried to hide facts from someone who was supposed to know them, in attempt to avoid some unfavorable consequences. While his act is understandable, it is not acceptable because he is hurting others in the benefit of himself. In such case, his integrity will be in danger, much worse than if he stated facts upfront in the first place.
It reminds me days back then, when someone promised me confidently on a task but failed to deliver. It is even worse than being incapable, because lying/boasting will not only devastate your integrity ("You are not doing what you said"), it will drag other's workflow in the team environment as well.
Now, I should stop accusing others and mention some of my bad deeds. Being an over-achiever, I once took over two responsibilities which schedules perfectly clashed on each other, one I accomplished with full passion, another as persuaded mission. While I put myself in the best light in former, I literally screwed up in the latter. I went on to abruptly quit the task with a resignation letter, and did not followed up ever since. Putting in my superior's angle, it is certainly heartbreaking and nerve-wrecking to see one of your men quitted away, rising red flags on team spirit.
Looking forward, I have been through both sides and now start to see how integrity interplays as leaving impression on others, building reputation and being a credible person. It may cause you some obstacles in climbing corporate ladder, but think deeper, is advancing by reaping others really a good idea?
Think about it.
18.10.12
Recent.
There are too many stories to tell recently. Just a couple interesting ones:
The struggled decision
I was given a very attractive full-time offer to work in an investment bank. It's all great: overly high compensation, luxurious lifestyle, numerous benefits. I had stayed hesitant and unsettled along the way since then, and yet to firmly stand out and said that:
"Heck, I am not going back there!"
Yet a best friend of mine simply reminded me what's important for this situation. Considering the fact that I don't like the nature of the job, I need to have extra time after work to do what I like. The fact is the job will be increasingly demanding and gradually eating up evening hours as the tasks demand, and the employees tend to spend their nights there. Then it is all clear! If I accepted the offer, I will be forced to work long-hours without passion, and it will consume my live. I will not be happy with that.
I repeat, I will not be happy with that.
P/S: Being happy is all it matters, no?
So the decision has been made.
The appreciated mentorship
Shortly after I inform the delegates on the rejection of offer, I met up with my former line manager. Our encounter is just so happened to be so interesting, sharing much commonalities on education, yet walking on very different path and stage of life. His brain is wired in a unique way that few could mimic but I just happen to understand, his experience is unparalleled to my peers.
It was well appreciated that he shared his endeavors, his knowledge, his views on the current world to me even though I put upfront that I am not going to work under him in the future.
Just a few key topics:
A bad academia practice - merely circulating papers across different journals in hope to increase article count, but bringing no real value to research.
Views on current world - social unrest without clear direction, increasing demands on sustainable energy, in need of disruptive technology in energy sector, wealth inequality in countries regardless of economy development.
Personal advice - It does not matter which kind of companies that you join, but knowing which area you are heading to.
The struggled decision
I was given a very attractive full-time offer to work in an investment bank. It's all great: overly high compensation, luxurious lifestyle, numerous benefits. I had stayed hesitant and unsettled along the way since then, and yet to firmly stand out and said that:
"Heck, I am not going back there!"
Yet a best friend of mine simply reminded me what's important for this situation. Considering the fact that I don't like the nature of the job, I need to have extra time after work to do what I like. The fact is the job will be increasingly demanding and gradually eating up evening hours as the tasks demand, and the employees tend to spend their nights there. Then it is all clear! If I accepted the offer, I will be forced to work long-hours without passion, and it will consume my live. I will not be happy with that.
I repeat, I will not be happy with that.
P/S: Being happy is all it matters, no?
So the decision has been made.
The appreciated mentorship
Shortly after I inform the delegates on the rejection of offer, I met up with my former line manager. Our encounter is just so happened to be so interesting, sharing much commonalities on education, yet walking on very different path and stage of life. His brain is wired in a unique way that few could mimic but I just happen to understand, his experience is unparalleled to my peers.
It was well appreciated that he shared his endeavors, his knowledge, his views on the current world to me even though I put upfront that I am not going to work under him in the future.
Just a few key topics:
A bad academia practice - merely circulating papers across different journals in hope to increase article count, but bringing no real value to research.
Views on current world - social unrest without clear direction, increasing demands on sustainable energy, in need of disruptive technology in energy sector, wealth inequality in countries regardless of economy development.
Personal advice - It does not matter which kind of companies that you join, but knowing which area you are heading to.
24.8.12
The balance between resilience and individual competencies
In drifting through the tides of job hunting, is the person who stays most conscious wins the game. Yet this is such a convoluted world full with complexities and on top of everything, there is human factor that attributes to the dynamics of our world today.
Financial industry is even in line with this statement. The things we know for sure today might be disregarded tomorrow, and we are left with two choices. One is to foresee the upcoming trend by historical and present events. Although there is some studies like predictive analytics on their incubation stage, human in nature is not accustomed to visualizing the future. The sheer difficulty of first choice left us to the second and last choice: realize the changes from within and be even more resilient than you are now.
When resilience is being highly regarded yet individual competencies are still the deciding factors on one's success, young talents have to be more conscious on striking a balance between the two polars, namely over-generalist and over-specialist. It is in other words to correctly identify the few qualities to be specialized over time, depends on your personal strengths. The qualities have to be stay sound regardless of business cycles and in the same time easily transferrable. These qualities, combined with resilience could be the driving factors of one's performance under the increasingly unpredictable global world today. The reason being that one could continue to deliver with the alternative qualities if one day his foremost quality is being dismissed as unimportant for the business.
On a side note, there are warnings that a singularity point could emerge when everyone in the corporate world has been as resilient as others and is able to cooperate perfectly between each other, then individualism would be dethroned and replaced by the community-driven paradigm. This is when the social media brings very intricate value to business and this is when the idea of "global village" eventually become a reality.
However as far as the status quo is concerned, this fundamental change is still on early stage, as seen by the relative market share of grass root organizations and global for-profit organizations. The arrival of singularity point could be quite far ahead of where we are now, and it is more pragmatic for us to collectively look for the hard-sought balance between resilience and individual competency.
Financial industry is even in line with this statement. The things we know for sure today might be disregarded tomorrow, and we are left with two choices. One is to foresee the upcoming trend by historical and present events. Although there is some studies like predictive analytics on their incubation stage, human in nature is not accustomed to visualizing the future. The sheer difficulty of first choice left us to the second and last choice: realize the changes from within and be even more resilient than you are now.
When resilience is being highly regarded yet individual competencies are still the deciding factors on one's success, young talents have to be more conscious on striking a balance between the two polars, namely over-generalist and over-specialist. It is in other words to correctly identify the few qualities to be specialized over time, depends on your personal strengths. The qualities have to be stay sound regardless of business cycles and in the same time easily transferrable. These qualities, combined with resilience could be the driving factors of one's performance under the increasingly unpredictable global world today. The reason being that one could continue to deliver with the alternative qualities if one day his foremost quality is being dismissed as unimportant for the business.
On a side note, there are warnings that a singularity point could emerge when everyone in the corporate world has been as resilient as others and is able to cooperate perfectly between each other, then individualism would be dethroned and replaced by the community-driven paradigm. This is when the social media brings very intricate value to business and this is when the idea of "global village" eventually become a reality.
However as far as the status quo is concerned, this fundamental change is still on early stage, as seen by the relative market share of grass root organizations and global for-profit organizations. The arrival of singularity point could be quite far ahead of where we are now, and it is more pragmatic for us to collectively look for the hard-sought balance between resilience and individual competency.
22.6.12
Managing Emotions
In the midst of busy work life, busy event preparation period and stagnant social relationships, I was so occupied by things that I forgot to visit my personal emotional closet. Leaving the closet uncleaned has brought some drastic consequences....
Living in such a fast-moving society where meritocracy is held high to form a social hierarchy, it's easy to lose ourselves in the stiff competition. Inevitably, managing emotions and achieving a work-life balance have continually become more important to our performance.
There are three reasons behind the importance of self-management. We have the highest influence over our emotions, and our productivity is, surprisingly, largely driven by how do we feel. It had been clear that the ultimate way to look for long-term happiness is to adjust our emotional states.
Secondly, deep down we are just humans, who require support from friends and family no matter how independent we are. Seeking for help when in need is something we should all learn to do, regardless of how strong we are as a person. We are naturally inclined to social with people around us to get warmth. And this positive energy of being connected with others, is worth far more than merely material benefits.
Thirdly, the prerequisite of thrive in your workplace is to feel good about your work. To "feel good" is a vague term indeed, yet this is precisely how we should gauge our career. If we don't feel contented or thrilled on accomplishing in work, it becomes meaningless to continue accomplishing more tasks. This is much easier said than done, but nevertheless the direction that we should head on to truly enjoy it. We are going to spend at least a third of our 24 hours to work everyday anyway, why not making it more fun to deal with?
Living in such a fast-moving society where meritocracy is held high to form a social hierarchy, it's easy to lose ourselves in the stiff competition. Inevitably, managing emotions and achieving a work-life balance have continually become more important to our performance.
There are three reasons behind the importance of self-management. We have the highest influence over our emotions, and our productivity is, surprisingly, largely driven by how do we feel. It had been clear that the ultimate way to look for long-term happiness is to adjust our emotional states.
Secondly, deep down we are just humans, who require support from friends and family no matter how independent we are. Seeking for help when in need is something we should all learn to do, regardless of how strong we are as a person. We are naturally inclined to social with people around us to get warmth. And this positive energy of being connected with others, is worth far more than merely material benefits.
Thirdly, the prerequisite of thrive in your workplace is to feel good about your work. To "feel good" is a vague term indeed, yet this is precisely how we should gauge our career. If we don't feel contented or thrilled on accomplishing in work, it becomes meaningless to continue accomplishing more tasks. This is much easier said than done, but nevertheless the direction that we should head on to truly enjoy it. We are going to spend at least a third of our 24 hours to work everyday anyway, why not making it more fun to deal with?
- Our productivity is, largely driven by our feelings.
- We receive positive energy by connecting with others.
- The prerequisite of thrive in workplace is to feel good about your work.
20.5.12
Are we going to be alone together?
We are in the times where we are regularly, immensely and uncontrollably overwhelmed by the inflow of information. Nobody could ever imagine how our communication works, two years from now.
Say Facebook. Only established less than a decade, it had become so handful, so convenient in our daily lives that our social channel is never the same. It simply abuses the human psychology of needing other's attention to build a fastest growing social network in the human history. This accomplishment alone, could not be compared or measured by any existing methodology. In this regard, it's worth to realize how should we utilise Facebook as a social channel but not THE social channel in our lives.
You have access to your circle of friends 's thoughts and emotions by just glancing through the posts. You are always keep up with trends and casual news, as long as you diligently browse Facebook every single day. (Just count how many minutes you spent on Facebook per hour in average. Then multiply by 24. You will be amazed.)
Being alone together, is an emerging trend especially for my ages and younger.
http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html
This inspirational TED talk addresses this worrying topic very thoroughly. I got heart-moved watching this talk, because what the speaker says is so matched with the reality. The future she foresees, is not so thrilling to know.
Have a common sense on human psychology and a couple assumptions, you could see, people could be read like a book.
Say Facebook. Only established less than a decade, it had become so handful, so convenient in our daily lives that our social channel is never the same. It simply abuses the human psychology of needing other's attention to build a fastest growing social network in the human history. This accomplishment alone, could not be compared or measured by any existing methodology. In this regard, it's worth to realize how should we utilise Facebook as a social channel but not THE social channel in our lives.
You have access to your circle of friends 's thoughts and emotions by just glancing through the posts. You are always keep up with trends and casual news, as long as you diligently browse Facebook every single day. (Just count how many minutes you spent on Facebook per hour in average. Then multiply by 24. You will be amazed.)
Being alone together, is an emerging trend especially for my ages and younger.
http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html
This inspirational TED talk addresses this worrying topic very thoroughly. I got heart-moved watching this talk, because what the speaker says is so matched with the reality. The future she foresees, is not so thrilling to know.
In fact, Facebook is better for observation on people than for interaction.
Have a common sense on human psychology and a couple assumptions, you could see, people could be read like a book.
8.5.12
The day-2 anecdote
The foggy hill is in fact, a very bumpy one.
At least very bumpy and foreign to me at first sight. I mean first day. This job is very rewarding with a number of reasons; it might be the most stretching one out there, it values you to a level that you never expected, it, basically, throws stuffs to you, and you have to take them one by one.
I still see things at a very positive side although might not be as enthusiastic as on some other things, which is perfectly reasonable. Banking per se is just as described by all others: fast-paced, dynamic, exacting, meritocratic. No matter what people actually do, regardless of functions, they bear the same banker's attitude.
Certainly I like this kind of atmosphere, I like positive people, I like to perform. The hard fact, though, is the transition between campus life and professional life is inevitable, and I am not good at adapting in a new environment.
We will see, we will see.
At least very bumpy and foreign to me at first sight. I mean first day. This job is very rewarding with a number of reasons; it might be the most stretching one out there, it values you to a level that you never expected, it, basically, throws stuffs to you, and you have to take them one by one.
I still see things at a very positive side although might not be as enthusiastic as on some other things, which is perfectly reasonable. Banking per se is just as described by all others: fast-paced, dynamic, exacting, meritocratic. No matter what people actually do, regardless of functions, they bear the same banker's attitude.
Certainly I like this kind of atmosphere, I like positive people, I like to perform. The hard fact, though, is the transition between campus life and professional life is inevitable, and I am not good at adapting in a new environment.
We will see, we will see.
4.5.12
On the savepoint
Resting recklessly in between of busy semester and exciting internship, so many things crossed my mind in this yet another transition of life.
I walked down from a bumpy road, looking afar, a foggy hill.
Events, coursework, tutoring, competition, job-hunting, networking, socializing;
Coursemates, friends around me, friends at US, friends back home, event partners, seniors, juniors, graduated seniors, family and all the people living around me.
My life is so multifaceted and dynamic that I could spent each of my day here differently, learning something new everyday. To a certain extent, I have deliberately paved down my path in this way, and I have enjoyed everything like never before.
The next, is judgmental. Real world, here I come.
I walked down from a bumpy road, looking afar, a foggy hill.
Events, coursework, tutoring, competition, job-hunting, networking, socializing;
Coursemates, friends around me, friends at US, friends back home, event partners, seniors, juniors, graduated seniors, family and all the people living around me.
My life is so multifaceted and dynamic that I could spent each of my day here differently, learning something new everyday. To a certain extent, I have deliberately paved down my path in this way, and I have enjoyed everything like never before.
The next, is judgmental. Real world, here I come.
 |
| I like this place. |
30.4.12
Do it in style.
The (unexpected) exposure in Chinese Modern Art has taught me a valuable lesson. Perhaps the only thing I bring back for this course.
That doing anything is up to you to decide. In these days you have the total freedom to execute your rights and thrive for your dreams. The thing is that, you have to do it in style. Do it differently. Do it simple yet with unprecedented manner. If you get the response from others of "oh it seems obvious, why I never thought of that", you are a winner.
Because obvious things, like making a habit of waking up early, are never that easy to achieve.
That doing anything is up to you to decide. In these days you have the total freedom to execute your rights and thrive for your dreams. The thing is that, you have to do it in style. Do it differently. Do it simple yet with unprecedented manner. If you get the response from others of "oh it seems obvious, why I never thought of that", you are a winner.
Because obvious things, like making a habit of waking up early, are never that easy to achieve.
Personal favorite from this course.
27.4.12
失去
我还是无法直率地面对.......《失去》
失去陪伴走来的人，一起拥有的岁月。
失去不能重来的青春
失去单纯的年纪
真的工作了，就不快乐了吗？
...自己的正面能让身边的人更正面。我这么执着地相信着。
Some quotes
1
The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when
you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are
sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life
recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own
meaning, they generate their own motivation.
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today
about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others.
You'd be surprised how far that gets you.
Welcome failure into your lives. It's how we grow. What matters is not
that you failed, but that you recovered.
3
If you are willing to walk
that extra mile, you will see your effort being paid off.
26.3.12
Transition in between of March and April.
Wrote in March 26, 2012. Repost.
几句重要的话。
(1) 反正过后就是要打拼个几年/几十年，不如就干脆爱上工作，放多点心思，给多点想法。人生一大段在那里了，就不要让它变成束缚。
(2) 大学日子稍纵即逝，好快就week 11了，好快过了SFP了，好快MAD要到了，好快就final了。现在过得很忙可是不盲也不茫，是很充实很快乐的。
(3) SFP对于senior们的感谢我不善表达，干脆就表演让大家开心一下。大家开心就好，哈哈。
(4) 对人遇见了又道别，告别了又相会。与其说要习惯，不如说要乐在其中。对于教会你东西的人，记得要真诚的感谢。
(5) 多多自我增值。做个自己想看到的人。学习没有重点的。好，week 11我来了！
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)