Hmmmm …. how many Wonders of the World have you visited ? Of course, the first question we need to answer is what are the Seven Wonders of the World in our generation.
So, what about vote your own Wonders … Here.
Archive for 2004I actually thought that may be it is time to wrap this things up as it really occupies a lot of my time; until I saw the following line the other day in Pacific Coffee’s black board … then I thought … hmmm … may be there are more things to write … and the line is: It’s not a matter of how good you are, it’s a matter of how good you want to be. Yes, how good we want to be ? And how good / bad we are today ? In fact, it is the perfect time to answer these questions - i.e. no matter how bad or how good we are this year, it is time to plan and do something, to achieve “how good we want to be” next year … +++ Then I came across another line when one of my friends asked me to critic her speech … The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. - Vince Lombardi Oh how true it is … do you have the “will” to achieve the above ? And your personal goals ? Frankly not all of us have a strong will as most of us have some very good excuses on not doing the best thing, and some of us may simply want to have an easy life. If you have this sort of thinking then let me tell you, you really need to do your best, deliver the greatest and exceed any standards; then one day you will have an easy life. Life is not easy. +++ In any case, December is a festive month and I wish you all have some good fun later this month. But bear in mind, spend some time to think about how we all shall improve next year (and let me know if I can help, in any way), as the old saying goes … War ship is safe in a harbour, but war ship is not build for that. Who invented light bulb ? I think most of you will promptly provide the wrong answer: Thomas Alva Edison. Truth is, the famous inventor’s 1879 debut of his incandescent light trailed others by decades. Check out here :
So why does he get all the glory? Mostly because of what he did next - get his creation to the mass … Edison and his team of engineers spent years building the entire electric system, from light sockets and safety fuses to generating facilities and the wiring network. Only then did the electric light flare into the innovation that lit the world. Same for inventing a light bulb, we need to get our services to the mass public, build the whole system and perfect the whole system … You, me, the colleague sit next to you and all other colleagues in the company, are working hard to create the next eCommerce magic … Then, try another quiz … +++ But, what is our competitive advantage ? One possible answer is in the book “The five dysfunctions of a team” by Patrick Lencioni “Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.“ In the same book, it says … “If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.“ I suppose everyone of you have your own answers on your own competitive advantage and whether you are a team player … and of course I have an answer for myself and for each one of you as well … what I can say is our competitive advantage, in this regard, is still not strong enough. Let’s work harder, and together, to become a stronger team. What a strong team can do and will do ? Somehow I found most answers in this gangster movie (one of my favorites) : +++ There were three articles written by a Chinese chap 4 years ago, but still treated as bible on how to build an eShop. Kinda simple stuff, but still suggest you to read it (especially if you are the web developer) on the technology and ….. his writing skill.
And of course, the book I mentioned in previous section. +++ I am not fan of Superman, but when Mr. Reeve left the world couple of weeks ago, I searched his quotes / books / movie soundtracks on the web like crazy … “As the old saying goes, you better know what you want because you might get it and you’ve got to accept it. Whether you succeed or whether you encounter adversity you always have to believe in your worth as a person. That’s what counts.” Remarks at a success seminar in Portland, Oregon, February 6, 2001 - Christopher Reeve “Great meal. What pots did you use?“ Imagine you ask the above question to your mom and I am sure you will probably get some serious lessons from your mom straight-away. It is rather simple - the most important factor behind a great meal is the chef (i.e. your mom) but not the tool she use. And what about you ask the following question to a photographer ? “Great photo. What camera did you use?“ And this ? “Great web site. What database / web server / programming language / design tool did you use?“ You know, we have to remember our role - it is not the tool that develops the web site and web application, but it is us. We can develop / operate / monitor a good web site no matter what tools we use, we can also develop / operate / monitor a poor web site with the same set of tools. So if next time you were asked that question, answer the asking person that you and your colleagues did the great web site, not the tools. But if I asked you “Poor web site / application, what tool did you use?”, I would expect answer like “I will check and resolve the problem, as soon as possible?”. You know, it makes no sense to pass the ball around and waste our time in passing the ball. We have to own the skill, knowledge and problems. We have to solve the problems by finding out the root cause, as soon as possible, but not leaving it to another person in another day. Mind you, as in my previous newsletter, if we did not cure our Achilles’ Heels, some one in the market will replace us - you and me - in no time. So, if you found a problem, solve it. If you have a good idea, share it. If you have a colleague need your help, extend your hand to help. If you have to work late to do all that, work late to deliver that - it is your job. +++ In the old days, if something was dented or had a gash in it, or even if it had a hole in it, they used to fill the damaged area with wax, and then they would cover the wax over with a coat of paint and sell the item as though it were undamaged. In Latin, “Without Wax” is “Sin - Cere”. Oh now you see, next time you end your letter / email with the word “sincerely”, it means “without wax” and it means “there is no cover-up and from the bottom of my heart”. So … my sincere thanks (i.e. without wax) to those who worked very hard. +++ “Be a professional in all that you do.“ August is a month of Olympic and you probably heard / watched enough stories about this already, so I will not bother you with a long email of the Olympic game details - but what about an ancient Greek myth about Achilles ? According to Greek mythology (and the story of Troy), Achilles was the son of Thetis and Peleus, the bravest hero in the Trojan war. However, even for such a hero, he got a weak point and it’s called the Achilles’ Heel. (For the brief story of “Achilles’ Heel”, check out here … http://www.wordexplorations.info/Achilles-heel-story.html) The point I want to make in this month’s blog is - what are the team’s Achilles’ Heels ? And what are your Achilles’ Heels ? +++ I am sure most of you enjoy traveling around the world and most of you (including me) don’t know why our city is a travel hotspot in the world (I think it is the top travel destination other than Bangkok). May be we all tired of everything around us, or may be we just don’t care. But do you know there are really many fans in the world that loves our city and our movies, to death ? They even organized tours to here just to visit the movie filming locations …
+++ Talk about travel, I spent a week in Hokkaido couple of weeks ago and of course, one of the destinations was the Music Box Factory. If you’ve been there before, you have to admire the Japanese that they can make such small stuff to such a big business. However, couple of non-Japanese Asian (Chinese and Korean) did a great computer music box offline and on the Internet … it is really a great piece of art.
In the trip, I also finished a book by Dan Brown (who wrote the famous book Da Vinci Code) - Digital Fortress. It is a book about Murders, Spies, Killers, Internet and Public Key Encryption. So if you want to know more about how the ESD technology was used behind a thrilling fiction, check it out. In addition, if you like to improve your presentation skill, try Speak like Churchill, Stand like Lincoln - it is a superb book. +++ Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right. - Henry Ford In case you want to take a break to do some personal projects, here are my favorite ones - http://www.mini-itx.com/projects.asp. In that web site, you can find how other people turn something unimaginable to a personal computer. After all, logic will get you from A to B - imagination will take you anywhere. +++ Or if you are planning to travel around … but don’t have time to do it. What about do it visually … http://ww4.tiki.ne.jp/~mmurakami/setoy/map.html +++ It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction. - Pablo Picasso “Which piano should I buy if I want to play like Mozart? “ The above is one of the quotes I heard in one music instrument shop. Kinda funny, I thought. You know, even if you bought the best and most expensive piano in the market, you still could not play like Mozart. You need some talents but of course, the truth is you need a lot of hard work. +++ Everybody is talking about Mainland China is our future, so what can you do about it ? Learning Putonghua or at least learn some Mainland China phrases, I suppose. So one of the best (and biggest) sites to visit is http://www.fane.cn/ (Fan E is “translation”). Within this site you will find a lot of translation of various English terms as well as a huge Translation market portal in China. Very useful and impressive. +++ “There are three things that are important at Starbucks. Customer Relationships is the first and the other two don’t matter.” Linda Thompson, Director - Starbuck resource center Webby Award (the only award that matters, from my p.o.v. …) announced their results this month. Again, check out the winners, they are really brilliant web sites - http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html. +++ Not sure you know about this site or not. I visit this site once in a while to have some good ideas (in design and Photoshop) or just a laugh … +++ “I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious” - Albert Einstein According to the net, 35th anniversary is “Coral” anniversary. So I suppose to celebrate the publishing of this 35th weblog, I shall go back to the Great Barrier Reef again. +++ We are no longer designing a new banner, a new web page, a new program, or a new process. We are designing a BUSINESS. It’s our focus and our goal. Couple of months ago, I talked about Apple brought us Macintosh 20 years ago in 1984. So, do you know what IBM brought us 40 years ago (to be exact, 7th April 1964) ? It was the IBM System 360 - the first commercial mainframe in the world (you still can download the original System 360 Architecture paper in http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/441/amdahl.pdf). You may think it was just a huge, useless system (from today’s POV), but in fact it was the first computer brought us the idea of “Time Sharing Computing”. The idea that later on evolved to multi-tasking and now the trendy term - utility computing … You see, something we use everyday was actually done 40 years ago and such an old idea is still influencing our future. In fact, one of the best ways to tell how computer changed in the past two decades or so, is to check out the “Icon history” of the most popular Operating Systems ever built for mankind …. http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/icons/components You have to call me a geek as I reeeeeeeeally love this web page. +++ If you were a fan of the movie Star War Episode V : The Empire Strikes Back (1980), you would probably remember this famous line from the master - Yoda: Do or Do Not, There Is No Try. May be I am too old now, as I simply cannot give a positive response to the current generation teenagers’ attitude. Seems to me that they believe the world is too tough to them and they deserve everything on earth, without devoting any effort to earn it. No, no, no, everyone of us shall embrace the Can Do attitude, not I Will Try …. No doubt we will fail sometimes, but you know, To Appreciate a Rainbow, You Need Some Rain. OK … enough grumbling … +++ I am sure most of you are too busy and have no time to visit museum or gallery to appreciate some artwork, but since we’re Internet geeks, so let’s do it online - the collections from the best street-painter on earth. Enjoy… http://www.kurtwenner.com/gallery.htm And what about some photos from the best photographers ? http://www.msnbc.com//modules/yip03/slideshow.asp http://www.fifth-essence.com/archive/bestpix2003/index.htm Ok, if you still have the time, think about what we shall do next … to me, I think it is time to provide a great brand experience to our customers. And here is one book that tells some tasty stories from the experts. Uncommon Practice: People who deliver a great brand experience +++ But if you don’t like this kind of book, may I suggest you to read the Five People You Meet in Heaven (from the author of Tuesdays with Morrie), in your relaxing Easter Holiday ? As usual, you can borrow those recommended books from me (after I finish it first 8-). +++ Condition Changes. Results Shouldn’t. (Accenture) |
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