SDE Street Games 2008!

I was the MC for the inaugural SDE Street Games 2008! It was really a last-min thing. I received a call from Ezann last Saturday asking whether I was free on Monday and that's it! I got "called up" for work. Spent the whole day standing under the sun and getting burnt all over. Trust me you don't wanna see me now. It ain't a pretty sight.

Street Games 2008 went well. Had so much fun chatting with friends and playing music through my handphone into the microphone cause the wiring screwed up. Plus I finally did some sports after years of bumming around! Played basketball with Ernest and gang a couple of times in between breaks and MC-ing. Too bad I didn't managed to take any pictures otherwise I could share them with you.

Anyway I did manage to grab hold of some pictures taken during the newspaper collection that we did on Saturday. Have at thee!

Thanks to everyone who came down to help! We managed to earn a total of about S$460! This will help FOC a great deal! Hope we can do this again sometime soon. =)

Collecting Newspapers and Poly Gatherings

I became a karang guni man on Saturday!

We had a fund-raising effort for FOC and went around the Ang Mo Kio estate collecting newspapers door-to-door. That was the first time I did it so it was a real eye opener for me. We didn't managed to hit the expected manpower turn-out of 50 people (only about 14 people turned up...) but hey we managed to pull the event off! Thanks to everyone for putting so much effort into the event! I know it was really tiring having to climb up and down stairs with the newspapers and clothes and electronic equipment and all but it will be well-worth the effort when the camp comes. The event ended at about 6pm and I went off to Kelly's place to grab a shower and change of clothes (no, I brought my own clothes) before heading over to Shimin's place for....

The annual poly gathering! Well it's not exactly annual but anyway... Saw everyone there again after soooo long. Kelly came along and I'm glad she managed to mingle around with my friends. We had dinner there as usual. I always end up too full whenever I head to Shimin's place. We did the usual catching up and gambling then went off to Cafe del Mar to chill. That place really sucks to the max. The music is totally off and the drink prices are ridiculous. It's no wonder that place is empty on a Saturday night. I don't know if that is the usual case but in my book, an empty place on a Saturday night is usually not good for business. I think it is only a matter of time before that place closes down. We ended up heading back only at 4 plus am. I was super tired by then. Physically and mentally exhausted by all the work in the afternoon and having to stay up till so late. Not to mention I only managed to grab 5 hours of sleep each night for the past 2 nights. Here are some pictures:

The guys...

...and the girls.

Speaking Up!

Recently I was pretty busy with many presentations. I've had 3 presentations since last Saturday (that's like 3 in 3 days!) and no, they're not all formal presentations for projects, thank God! 2 of them were actually informal presentations during tutorials. Anyway one thing I always notice during presentations is people's unwillingness to speak up. It's like they're afraid what they say might be wrong or might insult other people, etc. I also noticed that the presentation standards of local students is not as good as the foreign ones. Is it because of our culture? I certainly think not. It's just that many of us lack the essential practice needed. Now please let me clarify here that I do NOT profess to be a professional speaker or anything, it's just that I do have some experience in giving presentations and doing public speaking so I thought I'd share some tips here.

In order to overcome the fear of public speaking (we'll just call it public speaking ya), one thing I always do to start off would be to look at the audience before the presentation. When you're still behind the curtains, or waiting for your turn to speak, take a good look at the audience and get used to hundreds of people staring back at you. It's a whole lot easier to be in the crowd looking at a presenter than to be the presenter looking at the crowd. So you have to get used to seeing so many people looking at you.

Next, never never read from notes! You'll just ruin the entire presentation. You'll have already lost the audience because you do not establish rapport with them (you're looking at your notes) and half the time, you'll be trying to figure out where you last stopped on the script. What I do is to always have either one-word or short-sentence notes (best if can have a hard copy of the ppt to flip as I go along) put on the table and I'll just refer to them to elaborate the next point. Everything I have to say is basically already in my head. You don't have to memorise scripts for this. Just know your points, keep calm and present them with clarity. I also make sure I look at everyone in the crowd. I do not just stare at the lecturer during the presentation. Again, if you do that, you'll lose your audience.

Third, be confident! I've seen students presenting with their hands shivering. It's not a very pretty sight and everyone in the audience knows s/he is nervous. Now that is something that you do not want people to know/think about you during a presentation. Even if you do not have the correct answer, or you do not know your facts very well or simply have no clue what you're doing, by being confident, you can mask them all and give the impression that you know what you're talking about. In a crude way, this is called knowing how to talk cock. Don't laugh, it's an important skill. Anyway think what's the worse thing that can happen? It's not like you're gonna lose that major contract or anything. We're just students! And it's exactly why we're students that we're learning how to present!

Lastly (and this is the most important factor), PRACTICE!!! Yes, it does "makes perfect". I'm not saying it's going to be easy. There'll be definately be mistakes and you'll have to get out of your comfort zone and go the extra mile to deliver a good presentation. Hey, I had lots of troubles with the shivering hands and lips and voice and all when I first started. Now I look back at those days 9 years ago and I'm thankful that I was given the chance to practice. I went through many presentations after that during my days in NP, learning through each one and that's where I managed to learn the skills of public speaking..

And I'm still learning! Like they say, learning is a life-long experience. The tips that I've given out here is from personal experience. What I've learnt through the many presentations and public speaking sessions that I've had throughout the years. I sincerely hope that they can help you with your public speaking.

Let me know if you've any tips on public speaking as well and I'll be glad to post them to share with everyone! =)

PS. Check out Gary's blog! There's lots of public speaking tips there from the real experts! He's the President of NUS Toastmasters' Club so you can be sure it'll be good stuff!

... Flowers from the Heart... Thanks You!

What a hectic Valentine's Day it was for me! For those of you who don't already know, I was running a small Valentine's Day business this year selling bouquets. Let's start off with the 13th Feb. Reeee-wind!

13th Feb

Started the day going to HabourFront to have lunch and collect the Supplementary Licenses for the Off-Peak Car that we're using. Once home, Kelly and myself quickly counted the number of orders we had and exactly how many more we needed to get. Then we were off to grab our supplies! By this time, the orders were more or less confirmed already with a few still pending/coming in. We went down to the florist and realised that we grossly under-estimated the orders the last time so we bought another bunch of flowers, side flowers, ribbons, wrappers, the works. We rushed home after that and started preparing to wrap the bouquets up. I was de-thorning the roses MANUALLY! You know how hard it is to dethorn 200+ roses manually!? Anyway Kailin came around 4 plus and she joined in the fray. Kelly and Kailin were busy making and wrapping the bouquets. I have two fridges in my house and I had previously cleared one for the bouquets but we realised that one fridge was not enough... So we cleared the other one! Two fridges full of roses.. plus a lot of spoilt food after that. We worked all the way till 5+am in the morning and I dropped Kailin off at PGP. Kelly and myself came back and we went to sleep at 7am...

14th Feb

My parents were off delivering in the morning so we thought we could get some sleep but.... We kept getting calls and messages the whole morning so the sleep was pretty much very disrupted. One customer called to complain in the morning that the blue roses were rotten. Funny thing is, another customer that also ordered blue roses were very satisfied with his bouquet. The blue roses came from the same bunch so either the roses got spoiled along the way or his expectations were unrealistic. Anyway we woke up at 11am and continued to pack the bouquets to prep-up for the afternoon deliveries. My parents came back at 12pm and we changed shift. Dad stayed home to pack his bags while Mum, Kelly and me continued the deliveries. We spent the whole day in the car driving all over Singapore, getting lost, finding our way around, listening to the radio, laughing and generally having loads of fun even though we were super tired. I'm actually glad I did this. Hey, I got to spend Valentine's with the two (yeah, that's right TWO, not one!) most important ladies in my life! Anyway we reached home only at 630pm, picked up Dad and his bags and the bouquets for the evening rounds and we were off again! Deliveries only ended at 9+pm and by then we had to rush off to the airport to send Dad off to Beijing. Had dinner there and sent him off, then sent Kelly back and finally reached home! My day ended at 12+am. Tired but very satisfied.

To our dear customers,

Thank you once again for your support!! We sincerely hope you've had a great Valentine's Day and you liked the bouquets that we sent you. Please do support us again next year! And remember.. "Romance is not a luxury." =)

Lotsa Love,

Valentine's Day 2008

...Flowers from the Heart... is exactly what its' name says. It's flowers, given from the bottom of the sender's heart. Simple and pure.

We are a florist that specializes in Valentine's Day bouquets. We live by the motto - Romance is not a Luxury. We believe that romance is essential to a relationship and that it should not be too costly to be able shower your loved ones with romance and affection. Therefore, we're making hand bouquets for Valentine's Day affordable to you. Let us bring a smile to your loved ones this Valentine's as well as a smile to your pockets.

12 Stalk Rose Bouquet...

All bouquets come with a free hand-made card that you can personalise with your very own message to your loved ones!

The wrapping and packaging of the bouquets is done by Kelly and Kailin. Both of them used to work at a florist. I'm handling the management of the whole business including all the paper work. So if you need flowers, please contact me! We can work out the price and you can be sure I'll quote you a good one!

Your Greatest Asset: Your Mind

Happy CNY! It's now officially the Year of the Rat! How's everyone's CNY celebrations coming along? Hope all's great with the visiting and catching up with relatives.

In my previous post, I mentioned about the mindset of self-made millionaires. I strongly believe that a person's mind is one of his greatest asset. It is something that everyone is given at birth so there is no discrimination. Everyone is given the same mind at birth. It is through the different experiences, training and exposure that a person will shape his thought-process and it is exactly this thought-process that is so very important in the search for wealth. Think about it, no two persons will see the world in exactly the same way. Although they can be looking at the same thing, what they see in their minds are different.

In order to achieve financial success, you will need to adopt the mindset and habits of individuals who have achieved financial success. It makes sense, doesn't it? Like for you to be able to drive a car, you need to learn from someone who knows how to drive a car. There is so much to know about the millionaire mindset. The way they see the world is totally different from the ordinary person. The way they think and their entire thought-process is totally different from the guy next door.

Napolean Hill wrote at length about the power of the subconscious mind in his book, Think and Grow Rich. He mentioned that the subconscious mind is so powerful that, if properly conditioned, can be the source of immense wealth. It will begin to attract money to the person who has that mind. That is not to be literally of course. It simply means that the person will begin to see money-making opportunities that other people who not even notice. He wrote "All impulses of thought have a tendency to clothe themselves in their physical equivalent". So if you can condition your mind to see the money-making opportunities around you, money will naturally flow towards you. You can read more about the book here.

Adam Khoo also mentioned the millionaire mindset in his book The Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. In fact it is one of his 7 essential steps of financial success. You can learn more about his book and the 7 essential steps here.

Il Segreto 2008

The new school semester has been really busy for me. So much so I haven't had time to catch up on my books and it's already like the 4th week now. But then again, the year really only starts after CNY eh? It's like that every year, after the celebration and partying dies down from Christmas and New Year, the anticipation would start to build up for CNY. The holiday mood would still be hanging in the air and no one really feels like working.

Well what have I been busy with? Lemme see.. There's planning for the FOC Camp 2008, my own research work into Internet Marketing (gimme a holla if you're doing the same and maybe we can work something out together!), projects and assignments starting to pile up, some actual studying, spending time with Kelly, family, friends, etc. It's a pretty long list.

SDE Bash was a couple of weeks ago! Had so much fun during the bash. The pageant was good, Kelly was fantastic with the catwalk and dancing. But it was the partying after that rocked the house down. MOS gave us like a half-hour lead time before they opened the club to the public. That half hour block was really fun. Because everyone pretty much knew everyone else, we could really let our hair(s) down and party! Here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Introducing your prom king and queen!

Kelly in all her glory

She even has her own fan club!

Her biggest fan!

That's all for now! I'll update again soon. Happy Chinese New Year!

The Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Program!

During the last post, I mentioned about gaining more financial knowledge in order to better plan your personal finances and improve your financial intelligence. This time round, I'm going to introduce to you one of the ways in which you can do just that.

Recently, I've been reading Adam Khoo's Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. Why Adam Khoo, you ask me? Well I attended an incubation camp with him a couple of years back (2003, I think...) and I remember being very impressed with the things he taught us during the camp.

At first glance, Adam Khoo didn't look like he was a millionaire. He looked the opposite really. He was really young and didn't carry with him the aura that I expected from a self-made millionaire. But throughout the course, the things he spoke about struck a chord in me. He showed me how anybody (and I mean anybody) can be a millionaire just be acquiring basic financial skills and knowledge.

Things like leveraging on the power of compounding, creating multiple streams of income, the habits of self-made millionaires, the mindset of self-made millionaires (very important - I'll elaborate more on this in another post) were all revealed to me through the life-changing camp! The experience changed my whole perception of personal finance and gave a a much better understanding of the way money flows. My views were never the same after the camp!

Adam Khoo complied the materials into a CD course - the Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires program. I was very surprised that he did it. After all, the cost to attend the actual course is about $3,800. The price of the program CD program online is only S$147. You just download the materials all onto your hardisk. Simple and convenient all at the same time.

You can go take a look at the program by clicking on the image below. If you think it'll help you, go get it! I've personally been through the program and I highly recommend it. Otherwise you can check out the Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires book at all popular bookstores islandwide (it's going for S$30.00+). Take a look at the book and read through it first to get a better understanding of what it is all about.