Category: Ashes of Time

Couple of years ago, in the first MBA class I ever attended. The first complete sentence from the cool-looking professor was “Create Value !!”. It puzzled everybody in the class but then he raised a question …. Let’s say If every month we have HK$ 3000 spare, will we:

• buy something we like ?
• save it in the bank to earn 2% interest a year (no risk) ?
• buy some stocks to earn ? % of interest (at a risk, but high risk high return) ?
• loan it to a friend to earn ? % of interest (at a risk, you know, it depends on your definition of “friend”) ?
• hire someone (say a student) to make money for us, with an aim to have more than 2% of profit (at a risk, and how we can make money for sure ?) ?

I think most of us will pick the first three methods. However, our shareholders picked the last method. Reason ? Because they believed we can create value a lot more than saving the money in the bank or even loan it to other organizations …

So … are we creating value for ourselves, our customers and our shareholders ? Think thru it … if your answer is YES, good and keep up the good works – and create more value. If your answer is NO or “I’m not sure”, then we have to discuss …

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Recently there is a lot of news about the so-called Web 2.0 – i.e. the Gmail, Google map, Flickr, Del.icio.us, Technorati, Wikipedia etc. etc.. They all use technology like wiki, blog, tagging, AJAX, RIA, SOA etc. etc. and I’ve introduced them to you all for months. Anyhow …

Did you come across any cool sites / internet-services that you think that will change the world (at least your own) ? If yes, let us know … we welcome any new ideas (whether they can be implemented or not).

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Liverpool is our boss’ favorite soccer team and it did many many wonders in the past. One thing that you may or may not know is the “Liverpool Club Song” was written 60 years ago and sung by many many singers and classes (it is the standard song for graduation classes in USA). The name is “You’ll never walk alone” and here is the lyric …

http://family.maltanet.net/hawk/html/Songs

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone…

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” – Bill Gates

I learnt the above quote yesterday from my favorite Coffee shop. So True !!

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I was wandering around a bookstore the other day and you know, I could never leave a bookstore empty-handed (it is a OCD – obsessive compulsive disorder 8-). So I picked-up and bought a book close to the cashier counter. It turned out that the book is not about IT, business, travel, music or photography.

It is a book written by a creative director, for creative directors … and I bought the book simply because I like the book title:

“It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be“

Oh yes, how good YOU want to be ? What we did before was difficult, what we are now doing is not easy, and what we are going to do is not simple either. But we want to do it, because we know we want to be a great eCommerce company, not a marginally good eCommerce company.

In the book there are several lines I like a lot, which I like to share with you.

• You can achieve the unachievable. If you think you’re unable to be on the cover of Time Magazine, make it your business to be there. Make your vision of where you want to be a reality.
• When it can’t be done, do it. If you don’t do it, it doesn’t exist.
• You may have to beg, steal and borrow to get it done. But that’s for you to work out how you do it. It’s exciting. It’s difficult and it’s fun. If it was easy anyone could do it.
• Don’t be afraid to work with the best.

Easy declaration, aren’t they ? But see how we can do the above … see how good WE want to be.

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You don’t always say “yes” to your customer, but you must know what s/he thinks before you say “no”.

In essence, think like your customers when delivering your products and services.

“很多人一輩子 無法完成的事
我們都做到了 … 我們一起做到了 …”

I read the above two lines couple of weeks ago in the latest album of F.I.R. (probably one of the best Asian “pop” bands in recent two years) and I thought “What a crap and how arrogant ??!!”.

But then last week I was in a SOA conference in Singapore and one of the speakers asked an open question – “Who among your companies are using XML message for messaging ?” … Out of all the attendees, I am the only one raised my hand. And you know, we did it 5 years ago.

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What is a community ? A forum, a photo gallery, or a web site ?

Couple of months ago I mentioned about the www.flickr.com, a web site that make use of tags and photos to connect tens of thousands Internet users together. Now look at how “tagging” technology expand … I particularly like the following two sites – both developed by a team of 7 people in a couple of months:

“What do you want to do with your life ?” – www.43things.com

“Where do you want to go ?” – www.43places.com

Simple idea, simple implementation, and the communities grow on its own.

Surf around the two sites, and see how they can gather thousands of users (around the world) in a couple of months. And then rethink the question – what is a community ? And … how can we build one ?

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Tough Time Never Last, Tough People Do.

After almost a month’s heavy raining, we finally see some white cloud, blue sky again … it reminds me the lyrics of the famous song “Raindrops keep falling on my head” :

But there’s one thing I know
The blues they send to meet me won’t defeat me
It won’t be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Indeed, let’s be optimistic in everything we do, as “ain’t no mountain high enough” for us (another famous song …).

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I am not talking about our eShop, but really a shop selling “Accessories of Success”. No kidding, you can buy something for success. And the site is:

http://www.successories.com/

I am a frequent browser (not customer) of this web site, as I simply like their products a lot. Every product is inspiring … good photography and good quotation. Here is one of these, about Essence of life:

http://www.successories.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/dir_product.brand_title/product_group_id/e429709c-250d-488d-a7bb-90f537107324/brand_id/bf2c41c3-27ee-40e7-833a-589a6e9dddfc/product_theme_id/aa04f423-2aae-41cd-bebb-c9c3162b02db/ProductsForEssenceof.cfm

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Many of you love music-on-the-go, and are proud owners of Apple iPOD … so you will probably encounter one problem that needs to be solved swiftly – that is, how to carry the music player, mobile phone, Digital Camera etc. etc. with you easily. And in technical term, it is about setting up your own “Personal Area Network” – PAN.

Check out the video and you know what I mean … http://www.scottevest.com/ipod/index.shtml

And that’s why I think my next geek purchase shall be … http://www.scottevest.com/v3_product_info/features.shtml

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The three P’s of success: Passion, Persistence, and Patience. – Doug Bronson

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.

It is one of my friends’ life motto. She says it every single time when we ask her why she has to spend so much effort in every single little thing. She has said it so many times that she became the evangelist of continuous improvement among our peers.

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I believe some of you have already watched Star Wars III … being a fan of Star Wars for twenty something years (I was a member of the fan club ….) – I don’t think the story line is very good, but I think we all have to admit the computer graphic effects are really stunning. But if you like this kind of story and in a more humorous side, you have to watch the movie tomorrow – “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

The story is based on the book by Douglas Adams and in fact you shall read all the books by the same writer in the Hitchhiker Series … they are all really hilarious. (Warning … the books are not that easy to read though.)

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Last month I introduced some astonishing travel photos … now what about some equally good Wedding photos ? Check this out and compare this with your friends’ (or your own) HK style wedding album … which one will you prefer ?

http://www.blsphoto.com/Pages/0200galleries.html

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Learn to pause or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you. – Pablo Picasso