Month: April 2009

Categories
Life Lessons Money Mindset

The Reluctant Dreamer

As I examine my life, I always seem to find some reluctance to the things I dream.  Either it is just an excuse for me to not do it, or a mental block that is hindering me from achieving my goals.

I am reluctant.  I am afraid of what people may say.  I’m not very comfortable with success.  Ironic to say, but sometimes, I feel more comfortable with silence, with soulful thinking, than on extreme emotions like an exhilirating surge of  adrenaline rush.  I have never been fond of roller coasters.  Perhaps I just want to slow down.  Take my time.  Have a nice cup of coffee.  And enjoy the day.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately on what to do with this blog.  It’s been a year since I registered akosiallan.com.   A few weeks ago, I had to renew the domain.  To be honest, I thought I might not want to renew it anymore.  Maybe I’ll just do something else.  Something more worthwhile.  Something I am fond of doing.

But maybe, I already am.  I just need to channel that energy.  Find an inspiration.  Start.

In all honesty, I really don’t know what to do with this site.  I began writing sports stories but found it very time consuming.  I have to watch the sporting event itself which can take around 2 or 3 hours of my time.  Although I did want to watch anyway.  But I wanted something more.  Then, I tried to post something related to music like American Idol because I thought I liked music.  And I do.  I even sang a couple or two and posted it.  Maybe I just want some part of me be heard and tell the world I exist.

But another part of me still long to be unknown, to be an observer, to be invisible.

Maybe that’s why I am reluctant to be successful.  Because then I’d have to give up my private life.  Maybe I don’t want that.  Maybe there’s something else in life more important than being popular.  Like doing the things I love.  But how do I know I love it?

I’ve been coasting along for a while, never really figuring out what I want to do with my life.  Yes, I want to build a business. Maybe something I can do that will express my gifts and talents…and perhaps contribute to the world. To make it a better place.

Maybe I’m just bored.  I don’t know. There are many things in this world I’d like to do.  But it’s easier to just let things be and not disturb the status quo.  Pretend everything is ok,  when it’s not.  Life is screaming for something more, a life filled with passion, a life full of purpose.  The more I reflect on things I don’t have, the more I feel depressed, the more I think that I want to quit, the more life feels like a burden.  It’s scary.  It’s challenging.  I’m craving for an exciting new adventure.

What’s next?  What can I offer?  What can I do to make life fulfilling for me and other people?

Categories
Books Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

How to ride a bike? Learning reflections on Robert Kiyosaki's 'If you want to be rich and happy, don't go to school'

Earlier, I was reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki, titled If You Want to Be Rich & Happy Don’t Go to School.  In the book, Robert mentions something about a quote from Dr. Buckminster Fuller,

Human beings were given a left foot and a right foot to make a mistake first to the left, then to the right, left again and repeat.

While reflecting on this quote, I remembered when I rode a bike for the first time.  At first, I my dad had to hold on to the seat, while I try to drive.  My heart was pumping with excitement.  Unfortunately, just when I hopped on the bike,  I realized it was going to the left.  I didn’t know what to do.   I panicked.  I fell.  That was the first time.  The second time I tried, the bike was again going haywire.  But now, it’s going to the right.  I panicked again.  And again, I fell.  On the third try, I noticed the bike was again going to the left.  In my panic, I immediately steered the bike to the left.  To my surprise, the bike went to the other direction.  So again, I had to steer it to the right.  And again it went to the left.  And so I repeated what I just did – to the left, then to the right.  Until, suddenly, I realized, my dad was no longer holding the bike.  I was driving the bike on my own! It’s one of the glorious moments of my life.  I knew then that no matter what happens,  I can do it.   I thought then that if I could ride a bike, I can do anything.  I can fail many times.  But I can also learn.  I can take what life gives me and find out what works.

When I was in College, me and my friends participated in a contest about creating the fastest line-following mobile robot.  We competed against students from other schools.   When I was studying the design, I was very amazed at the simplicity of the logic on how to make the robot follow the 2-inch wide black line they call “track” against the very clean white floor.   The robot, is basically a remote controlled car, with all its circuitry removed and replaced with a microcontroller which acts as its “brain”.  At the front of the car are two sensors.  Depending on what color each of the two sensor sees on the floor (white) or track (black), the “brain” would know whether it is going out of track or not.  When the car is going out of the track to the left, the brain tells the car to steer to the right.  If its going out the other way, it steers to the left.  It’s like riding the bicycle again.  If you fall to the right, you go to the left.  If you fall to the left, you go to the right.

Can life really be this simple?  How about you?  Have you experienced the same thing when you learned to ride a bike?

Categories
Books Business Life Lessons Personal Finance

The secret to becoming an outlier – 10,000 hours

It’s been quite a while since I posted something in my blog.  I’ve been busy for the past couple of weeks at work and had a lot of things in my mind, especially with the current financial crisis and how it impacts me and my wife’s life.

The one thing, though, that I am always fond of doing, is reading books.  I read from a blog about this new book of Malcolm Gladwell titled “Outliers – the story of success”.

The new book by Malcolm Gladwell aims to explain how successful people become successful, not by identifying their traits, or what they do, but by examining their past, their history, whether they got to be successful by their own talents or by chance.  I was fascinated to see the story of Bill Gates in that book.  According to Malcolm Gladwell, the number of hours it takes to become an “Outlier” (exceptionally successful) is 10,000 hours.  That number of hours is the magic number to become an expert in a chosen field.  Long before Bill Gates became the richest man in the world, he was just a kid, who loved to program day and night, who had the extraordinary opportunity to be exposed to this technology, in a time where a PC was still an idea and computer is synonymous to BIG mainframes occupying entire rooms.

10,000 hours.  That’s a lot.  No wonder, the very successful people start out very young.  It made me think, if I want to spend the 10,000 hours to become a master in what I do, I must REALLY LOVE what I’m doing.  Otherwise, it will be such a drag and it will seem to be a punishment instead of a blessing.  The more I think of it, the more I question myself whether I’ve already earned my 10,000 hours.  And whether I really love what I do for a living.  And if I find out I don’t really like what I do, whether I would want to finish earning the 10,000 hours.

How about you?  What would you do for 10,000 hours?