Loneliness at Work

I guess the nature of the job is really starting to take jabs at me. At 10am in the morning I feel sleepy already. The loneliness of the job really sucks away the motivation to drive on. I hope that after writing this, the sleepiness will just go away, so that I can concentrate on doing what I ought to be doing.

At times, I wonder why God put me into this position. Yes, I do learn to be more disciplined, which I never had; learnt to make cold calls, which I use to fear. Have time to sit down and slowly progress at work. But, ain’t I trained to work in teams, manage people, and build on improvements? That’s who I am. I’ll continue to do my best in this field. After that, we’ll see.

Life as a Conference Producer, so far…

Monday is a relaxing day for producers. We can’t get to call our sources because of their routine Mon meetings. Presently, I’m waiting for two reply calls in approximately an hour’s time. So, here I am writing my little experiences of being a conference producer.

I’ve been in the job for a little more than a month. Adapted well to the job. I was in the financial sector prior to this job. In this job, you can see people from very different backgrounds. We have people like investors, computer consultants, bio-chemists, lecturers, administrators, etc. It’s like “mized-rice”, with all kinds of ingredients from all places around the globe. Lunch time is an exciting time where I learn new things from these people.

This is quite a relaxing job overall, depending on how you define relaxing. We get to go home 6pm sharp. There’s seldom need for OT, except when I call some of the speakers overseas, at a different time zone. So, if you’re looking for a good working lifestyle, this is one that you should be looking at.

If you’re thinking what we do, basically, we research for a hot topic that the market needs but can’t find. We cater for that need. Research on what angle to cut in that will better benefit our clients. The toughest part here is the phone researches that we call the potential delegates to gather information as well as to see what are their response to such a conference. We then shape the angle of the conference accordingly. As you can see, it’s very much an academic job: study, research, fine-tune.

I have rested for about a year before this job. This job provides me the luxury to slowly attune to the work force. Not too stressful, yet challenging enough. There is the pressure side too. Every conference that we produce, affects the sales and marketing team. They are the ones that market our products. And if we don’t do a good job and be sure that it sells, we’re putting them into deep trouble financially. So, the weight is there. Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility. There is no one else to blame except the producers.

Overall, this is a good job in terms of working hours. The challenge is sufficient to keep one going. The pay is usually good. The downside is the loneliness in this job. 90% of the time, we work alone, doing research on the topics or talking to people in the market. Colleagues don’t interact much, if any. I’m lucky to be an out-going person whom people enjoys having lunch with. Otherwise there REALLY isn’t much interaction. Waiting for third party replies can also be frustrating. The speakers for example, may promise and yet not deliver. Let it be their replies to our invitation, our request to fine tune the syllabus, their delay in answering our queries. You know, it’s a waiting game. It's a very reactive job trying to be as proactive as possible. Having said these, I like this job. It’s a good job if you enjoy learning new things everyday, I do.

The Children of Huang Shi

I saw this good movie yesterday and thought that it's good to share. It's been a while since I last saw a movie production that puts more emphasis on the movie itself than the profit takings. For the synopsis of the movie, please visit http://www.childrenofhuangshi.com/

It talks about a journalist who enters the battle zone of the Nan Jing war. Who selflessly cared for a bunch of orphans who didn't show the least appreciation. As time passes, the children get to learn from this journalist, to love, to care and to hope. The long lost smiles found their way back to the children, where it belongs. Then the story begins... I'm not going to spoil the story here. Go catch the movie and feel it for yourself.

Having been to China myself, I can understand why the children wanted to kill the journalist when he first came. Looking at history, people of China have developed this cage that protects them from getting hurt. But at the same time, it envelopes them from love. The natural right to love and be loved. It's very sad. It's the price for war.

You can see the contrast of this journalist to the orphans. One tries to love while the other tries to keep their emotions hidden. The Chinese philosophy goes so deep, it's sad: "Know yourself and your enemy, and you will win every battle". So, by enveloping emotions, it's harder to get hurt. It triggers by default, a self-learned self-protecting system.

Looking at myself, I realized how similar I am with the orphans. I fight my own wars. I fight to get more money, power, and recognition. I fight to get more personal time to compensate for the time spent working, at my family's cost. Since when have I learned to be so selfish? I lost sight of the purpose as I fight a meaningless battle.

It's good to write now and then. It keeps my thoughts clear. Pulls me back to see overall purpose of doing what I am doing. Releases me from the bondage of worldly traps.

Stretch Your Comfort Zone To The Limit

I realized that no matter what we do, we have to be who we are. This encompasses all things, big and small, whether it comes to sleep, exercise, diet, work, and all. Allow me to elaborate.

It's important for us to understand who we are. For example, sleep. If we under-sleep, we get tired. If we under-sleep a lot, we get eye bags. If we under-sleep too much, we burnout. We will never get away scot-free from stealing sleep. We'll payback someday, either by sleeping more (if we're lucky), or with our health. Either way, we payback. It's the same with all things: You exercise too much, you get muscle ache; You eat too much, you get bloated; You work too hard, you get lethargic. The list goes on.

"Do what you are"

We have to keep within our comfort zone, in the long run:

After understanding who we are, understand our comfort zone, and stick within it. Of course there will be some exceptions where we give allowances: A major exam, a rushed project, urgent matters that we have to settle. But we can't go out of our comfort zone for long periods of time. As I said, we'll burnout. So, stick within your comfort zone.


Stretch your comfort zone to the limit:

I'm not promoting complacency, which brings me to this point. Everything that we do, we should give it our best. Believe me, if you try hard enough, you'll be amazed of how much you have packed in yourself.


These two points can be best illustrated in jogging. Jogging is a very humble sport. It requires one to first understand yourself, the pace that you are most comfortable with. Once you get that, you can start to stretch that comfort zone, either by running faster, or by running longer. You will then understand that running a marathon of 42 kilometers is very possible when one trains hard enough.

If you try hard enough, there are thousands of things you can accomplish. All you have to do is, understand yourself, and stretch the possibilities. It's not easy to understand yourself though. The key is to look at what God has planned for you to be best at.

Tottenham Sees Future in Ramos Era

After so many years of being a Spurs fan, I am so excited of what Ramos has done at Spurs. Yesterday's game against giants Chelsea showed a glimpse of what to expect from Spurs in the coming months. Spurs basically made Chelsea look like a mediocre team. The blues just couldn't play. Their passes were all cut off by Spurs in midfield. They just couldn't do anything. Thumbs up for Ramos. And with Spurs in the last 16 in UEFA Cup against PSV, Ramos may just get his third Europe success in Spurs!

Finally, Spurs have made me proud, very proud.

Facial Treatment

Today, I did the impossible. I had a facial treatment, finished with a mask on top of my face. I didn't go through the pore squeezing process though...

I'd always thought that facial treatment is girlie stuff. Men just don't go through with these kind of things. But it wasn't too bad, not bad at all. The whole process was very relaxing. It felt good to be touched. Of course, I have to give credit to the gentle hands of my "treatment girl". First, the cleaning up, with I don't know how many products (It felt too good to notice these things), then I thought she was going to put mud on my face (look at left photo). She told me that was old school. The wet paper stuff is what people use nowadays.

So much for my fear of mud...

Happy New Year

New year's just around the corner. Wish you all a very blessed year. May you find what you seek.

Time passes so fast. Every time I go to Church, that's a week; Every time I get a paycheck, that's a month; Every time I get Ang Pows, that's a year. I'm 26 this year. Not too old, not young enough. 26 is a year to "feel" old. At 25, I still can say that I'm in my mid-20s, not at 26... It's time to grow up, time to take up more responsibilities, time to take it to the next level.

I'm looking for a job right now. Sent a few job applications, will send more later. I don't know what I can do, not as clearly as eight months ago, when I left my job. I guess eight months is enough to make one rusty, long enough to make me lose my direction. I know I'm capable. I need a job to prove it.

Boy, I'm lost.