There are many things that I’m going to say that may have seemed completely obvious to me five years ago. However, until certain scenarios allowed me the luxury of experience, I was completely unaware of their significance within an organization. Hopefully, this list of observations will help you no matter how big or small you or your organization is.

1. “Experience is what you get, when you don’t get what you want”. I think I have a stellar resume filled with interesting projects for someone my age, but if you ask me to write a ‘failure resume’ it would probably be 10 times longer. Am I afraid of failing? Yes, and sometimes the outcomes are irreversible, yet, the most rewarding lessons we learn often come from failure. I know no one who understands this better than Jacqueline Novogratz. She’s done an amazing job of collecting information from her failures. Listen carefully to her here:

2. If you do want to fail, the best way at it is either being a micro-manager or stripping everyone of decision making. I’ve once had a friend (let’s call her Anna) ask me why her organization was focused on services instead of equipment sales when the latter had much better margins. The answer was always well hidden, but here it is. Services were listed on her time-card as hours whereas equipment sales were not — management was more concerned about making their number of employees justified. (In other words, management tried harder to look busy than profitable.) Further, they stripped employees from a lot of the decision, probably unaware of the problem they were creating. If we’re diligently overseeing everything at once, mistakes are going to be made and we’ll lose sight of the bigger picture. In short, we can never lose by giving people the dignity of decision making.

3. That being said, it’s probably better to make your organization more transparent to the people within it. I believe that people want to do their best in general as long as they’re treated fairly and they’re given a chance to prove themselves. Because of that, it’s a great idea to open up some of the problems to the bottom line. After management was laid off at Anna’s company, the new management made it clear where their financial was weak — service and sales. She then developed a system of keeping track of her customers and items they may need in the near future which not only made the customers happy, but increased the company’s sales as well.

4. Someone has a problem — Rejoice! Problems are good. Solving them gives us opportunities. Because finding the problem is often half the battle, we should often embrace them. As one female CEO has said, “find problems your company needs help on, and move forward with it”.

5. Like Anna, you don’t need to be promoted to address a concern. Letting someone else empower you to tackle a problem is something they teach you in high school.

6. If you’re not having at least a bit of fun, stop doing it. The most important thing in life, is simply to be happy solving the problems you are solving. Most people you meet will convince you that their 40-hour-a-week job does not define them — that cannot be further from the truth. If you’re going to spend 40 hours a week for several years doing something, it’s probably going to define you to a great extent and is going to affect your day-to-day happiness. To that I’d say, ‘choose your work wisely, and dream big’.

7.  Lucky number 7. Sometimes I think I’m very lucky, but in retrospect, there has always been a significant action that precedes my rendezvous with Lady Luck.

8.  And yet, at the end of it all, the most important thing is to be happy and feel loved.  Without that, everything else is a moot point.

For my little sister, Crystal.

Don’t you just hate it when that happens? But while I’m not out and about, and raising all hell, here are a few things that are on my list of birds to kill:

• Business books
• Study for the GMATs (hey, it’s possible)
• Try to fit a third world visit into my busy schedule
• Learn Spanish

I guess this means I may still subconsciously be on my extended vacation.

But probably like you, all I want is to make sure the wheels spin again — I’ve been rusting for a month too long now and I can sense it by the diminishing speed of my once lightening-face sassy retorts. I can be beat, so long as I can claim my pride and sass.

Anyway, what I really want to say is, “It’s on”.

Between a full time job, some side work, and mandatory showers, I don’t get to see Chad very often. Heck, Chad even works half the weekend. But when we do make time to play, you can bet your pretty penny that we have a whole lot of fun. Grands of fun.

This is when $165 tickets per person for front row seats is worth every last penny.

Yes, that’s from a Cirque de Soleil show in Vegas. I came home raving about it for days, and every time I look at the previews, I’m reminded of the soul lifting music, the amazing engineering that went behind the rotating 75,000 pound stage, the 35,000 fucking hours it took to make the stage costumes, the dangerous acrobatics performed, and the incredibly creative kung-fu influenced dance moves. Even the preview of that show can make one feel incredibly unimpressive.

And ladies, just one tidbit before you decide to date a YC guy though: Any vacation the two of you have will be inclusive of at least 5 other YCombinator members.

Death is inevitable for all of us, but some of us perceive it as something beautiful, often sending us closer to God, while others believe we simply become a black void. There are variations of beliefs in between, but when it comes down to it, most of us would rather die later than sooner.

My views on death are simply this: I wake up overwhelming happy each day, spend my time with extraordinary people, go out into the world and do (maybe not so) extraordinary things, travel to places with people I love, and when death comes, not only will all connections with this world be broken forever, but any recollection I have of it will be gone. Done. I’m a black void that will lack thought and mass.

Is this frightening? Not really. For the small slight of chance that I have of being wary of these neurons in my brain firing, I’d like to take the most out of life. And why do I mention this? Because, sometimes, photojournalism has a way of getting these little messages across.. that sometimes, when you can grasp the significance of life, you finally start living again. And yes, I want to shake you up again.:

Gerda Strech, 68
First portrait:
January 5 2003
Gerda couldn’t believe that cancer was cheating her of her hard-earned retirement. “My whole life was nothing but work, work, work,” she told me. She had worked on the assembly line in a soap factory, and had brought up her children single-handedly. “Does it really have to happen now? Can’t death wait?” she sobbed.

Second portrait:
May 10 2004
When she called him and told him she was dying, he said he’d come straight over. It had been nearly 20 years since they’d exchanged a word, but he said he’d be there. “I shouldn’t have waited nearly so long to forgive and forget. I’m still fond of him despite everything.” For weeks, all she’d wanted to do was die. But, she said, “now I’d love to be able to participate in life one last time…”

Second portrait:
December 14 2003
Heiner’s friends clearly didn’t want him to be sad and were trying to take his mind off things. They watched football with him just like they used to do: they brought in beers, cigarettes, had a bit of a party in the room. “Some of them even say ‘get well soon’ as they’re leaving; ‘hope you’re soon back on track, mate!’” says Heiner, wryly. “But no one asks me how I feel. Don’t they get it? I’m going to die!”

– Find more @ Gaurdian.co.uk

1. It is often said that unhappy people are usually more successful and more creative than their happier counterparts — those who are not content are always in want of more — more money, more honeys, higher social status, etc… while “happy” people just stay as is. Personally, I think the correct term for those people are “blissfully ignorant” and “power hungry emotionless jerks”. I’ve met plenty of very happy and very successful people — The secret of their success? They all enjoy what they’re doing.

2. I travel on the corporate dime a lot, and when I do, I come into contact with a lot of older people who enjoy giving me financial advice. Really. That’s all they talk about. Maybe it’s because I look like a spoiled brat? I do look 18 sometimes. “Hi kid, nice to meet you. By the way, are you working? If you are, you must learn to save, save, save! How much are you saving? Is your 401k maxed?.. etc..” But take it from a person who grew up witnessing the self-destruction of the baby-boomer generation all my life … I’ve seen how much debt some of you can get into. Yet despite all this frantic plea for me to save money, I’ve never once heard anyone tell me important financial lesson #2: Invest — Invest directly and indirectly (in yourself and in others).

3. The younger generation is less likely to be religious, and we aren’t any “less” moral for being so. At the same time, we are not “agnostic” nor “atheist” because both those terms begin with a postulate of a God. Much like postulating that there isn’t a Santa Clause, one wouldn’t call themselves asantaclausist. It seems trivial and provincial to narrow down your life philosophy into something that was never meaningful to you in the first place. That being said though, it doesn’t mean religion is meaningless. The foundation of morality and the historical/cultural value of the Bible, Koran, Confucius, or any holy scripture is something that I strive to understand. This is not “religious tolerance” as some may believe. It’s called religious sampling, cultural appreciation; we are no longer just a Christian nation, but a Buddhist nation, a Muslim nation, a nation of believers and non-believers.

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Update: Holy cow, that was preachy.

Update 2: Stalk much?

I can hardly believe it’s already 10PM. Again.

Every day, little tasks become a battle against the clock as we slowly learn to surrender our sleep, diet, and exercise. And as technology makes us more readily available, the seemingly unimportant quiet time driving can be taken up by a phone call from a colleague or a customer.

There is hope though. Thanks to New Scientist, you can finally Teach Your Brain to Stretch Time. What lovely timing.

All sarcasm aside, if there’s anything you can take away from the article, it’s that many things come before a job — simple things such as soaking up sun and cozying up next to a fireplace with a cup of hot tea with a person you love dearly. Because I’m not so sure we’re supposed to watch 40 hours a week fly by and let the stress of it spill over to the other 40 you have left. Because maybe that’s why we get fat with age and not because aging causes us to get fat. Because, shit, I’m twenty-ish and each proceeding year seems to spin faster than the last.

I think Robert Levine was most accurate when he said this:

“Time is our most valuable possession. Until the biomedical people can make us live forever, the closest thing we have is to stretch the moment.”

Another thing to consider is the universal fact of how a shorter work week and frequent breaks can actually increase productivity. From an article in Zenhabits:

“This no-rush attitude doesn’t represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the “now”, present and concrete, versus the “global”, undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans’ essential values, the simplicity of living.”

With all this in mind, here are a few ways to help you slow down, increase productivity while simultaneously increasing enjoyment you can get out of our short little lives:

1. Can’t get out of bed in the morning? Purchase an alarm clock that gradually wakes you up via your favorite tunes or morning radio program. During my college years, I had mine tuned into NPR. It was a great way to jump start my brain while staying in touch w/headline news, and a great alternative to the standard obtrusive alarm clock beeping.

2. During business travel, I always request a free room upgrade with a jacuzzi. 4 out of 5 times, I get what I want because I’m one of their elite members and you can too if you’re a member of their hotel. When that’s not an option, simply soaking in a bathtub at home is a surefire way to relax.

3. Clean as you go. Every time my brother leaves our apartment, he takes trash bags with him and throw them along the way. There is never more than a couple dishes in our sink. We take a few minutes out of our every day to clean our clutter. Containers are your friend. Space is peace. And your mail (and email) should always be sorted. I learned this the hard way.

4. Take a tea break, and eat lunch outside and away from your desk if you can.

5. Cook in bulk. If your cooking is good enough, you’ll enjoy having it three consecutive nights a week. Hey, the boyfriend doesn’t seem to mind.

6. Listen to something stimulating when you’re stuck in traffic. Audio books, NPR, Forum, and itconversations rank pretty high on the list. At least for me, it makes sitting in traffic a pretty exciting time of day. (Sometimes, when i’m parked outside my apartment after sitting in traffic for the past 30 minutes, I’d continue to sit in my car in order to finish a program)

——-

Other fantastic links on living slow and simple:

Think Simple Now shows you the basics on how to live an uncluttered and simple life.

Zen Habits shows you how to take control of a crazy life.

Slow Down Now says multi-tasking is moral weakness. (Stay in bed! Get that extra hour of sleep!)

There are words in Cantonese that can be understood universally, and pictures which evoke the same emotions from every man and child. There are little things we can do every day to show that we care.

So, I’m letting this one spill over to my public blog. Thanks for taking care of me these past couple days, Chad… and pretending to enjoy my lecture about the mathematics behind music.

Here’s one I think you and readers will appreciate more.

After a substantial amount of time with friends on both ends of the spectrum — from multi-millionaires to couples with tens of thousands in credit card debt — I noticed two very distinct patterns. That one, being rich and having good credit almost always gets you a lower interest rate and access to free deals. And second, and perhaps the most alarming, is that the basic cost of living for someone who is in debt is generally higher.

Living poor has it’s many hidden costs. From Barbara Ehrenreich’s blog, she lists several interesting facts about the working poor:

• Poor people are less likely to have bank accounts, which can be expensive for those with low balances, and so they tend to cash their pay checks at check-cashing businesses, which in the cities surveyed, charged $5 to $50 for a $500 check.
• Nationwide, low-income car buyers, defined as people earning less than $30,000 a year, pay two percentage points more for a car loan than more affluent buyers.
• Low-income drivers pay more for car insurance. In New York, Baltimore and Hartford, they pay an average $400 more a year to insure the exact same car and driver risk than wealthier drivers.
• Poorer people pay an average of one percentage point more in mortgage interest.
• They are more likely to buy their furniture and appliances through pricey rent-to-own businesses. In Wisconsin, the study reports, a $200 rent-to-own TV set can cost $700 with the interest included.
• They are less likely to have access to large supermarkets and hence to rely on the far more expensive, and lower quality offerings, of small grocery and convenience stores.

There are several other points in the comments sections which I found interesting. (more…)