The Lessons From Three Kingdoms

I'm watching Three Kingdoms new series drama recently. If you haven't know, Three Kingdoms is a well-known period in the history of China. In short, it talks about the loss of Han Dynasty emperor power with the rising and ending of the three empires in China.

This drama recorded is Mandarin and most of the casts are from China. It has 95 episodes in total, which is consider a long China history drama. So far I've watched 45% of them. 

In fact, I love to watch war movies, like Lord Of The Ring series. I'm a Three Kingdoms' fan since my early 20's. I'm very much attracted to it's story line and casts. I won't miss any drama or movie related to Three Kingdoms. Most importantly, we can learn many lessons from this history, which I would like to share some of them with you today.

1) Communication Skills

Most of the leaders in Three Kingdom are pro in their communication skills. The way they speak to their troops and commandos are professional, prestigious and well respected. They make use of their communication skills to motivate, convince, compliment and negotiate with others, especially with their enemy.

Thus, to be a leader, we have no choice but to sharpen our communication and public speaking skills, just like them.

2) Trust

In 3 Kingdoms, the wise people can make you trust what he said, and the fool people can make you loss trust of what he said even it is truth. We can learn from this story that why we cannot easily trust what others told us. We have think and analyze the information first, before making any decision.

3) Understanding

Why the top advisors in Three Kingdoms can lead the troop to win the battle easily? This is because they understand what is required in a battle, like enemy behavior, terrain condition, weather effect, psychology and so on. The more you understand in detail, the more advantage you'll have. Like what Sun Tzu said, you can win the battle only when you know your enemy and yourself, which is very true.

4) Speed

Chow Cao had one definite advantage over others, FAST. His decision and action are like thunder. The enemy has almost no chance to prepare every time before his attack. And that's why his winning record is the best among all other emperors. The old men used to say, 'Once we talk about Chow Cao, here's Chow Cao comes'. It means Chow Cao act too fast that when you mention about his name, he will appear in front of you.

It reflects to the business world today. Business is facing huge competition from every aspect. The number of competitors are increasing every day and they want to make you down. Whoever wants to stand out from the crowd, he/she has to be the first one to act. Early bird gets the worm.

5) Wisdom

No doubt, wisdom is the most important skill in a battle. Chow Cao managed to obtain many castles for free, just because he applied the right wisdom from himself and his advisors. Most of the time, he did not even need to sacrifice one soldier to get the castle. It's total an unfair game for others.

On the other hand, Kong Ming utilized his wisdom to defeat Chow Cao million's troop with his 100,000 small troop. That's why the Chinese always said, 'Don't fight for it but use wisdom to take it'. It's a lot easier and more efficient. However, wisdom doesn't grow and gain in one day, but to accumulate over many years. 

There are many other lessons from this story, you can discover yourself, like the meaning of faith and generosity. Again, Three Kingdoms is a long drama which is worth for me to spend my precious time with.

Now, are you interested to watch Three Kingdoms? If you are Mandarin literate, perhaps you can watch it via ppstream web site for free. If you know any English translated or subtitle ppstream URL, perhaps you can share it here.

Hey, it's time to continue my Three Kingdoms drama. Have a nice weekend, folks.

How Difficult it is to Know a Person?

Last few days ago, I read a book and discovered one of the stories drew my immediate attention. As usual, I would like to share with you here. 

The story is from Confucius on how difficult to know a person. 

I'm not the fans of Confucius, but this story led me to agree of what He found out. Most of the times, we trust with what we hear and see and make decision immediately. In fact, that's not always the 'real' fact. Let's begin  with the story...

During Confucius travel, He was delayed in the States of Chen. He was without food for a week. 

One day, one of his disciples, Yan Hui found some rice and cooked it. When the rice was almost done, Confucius accidentally walked into the kitchen and noticed that Yan took a small bit of rice and ate it. Even though Confucius saw this, he did not say anything. 

When Yan Hui invited Confucius to eat, Confucius said: “I’ve just dreamed of my father, Yan Hui. The clean rice should be offered to him as sacrifice.” Yan Hui immediately replied: “Some soot feel into the rice moments ago. It would be a pity to throw the whole pot away, so I picked out the contaminated rice and ate it. Since I’ve eaten some of them, the rest is not clean anymore, and therefore it cannot be offered as sacrifice.” 

Confucius regretted questioning Yan Hui’s honesty, and signed, “That which is most believable is what one sees, but one cannot always trust his eyes. That which is most reliable is what one thinks, but one cannot always trust his brain. Disciples, you should remember how difficult it is to know a person.”

I hope you get the moral of the story. 

Well, I understand that we might feel very uncomfortable if we see or hear something but we take no action. We all agreed that the world has changed and people are becoming more selfish nowadays. Sometimes, I feel it's better to find a smart way to question indirectly first rather than trust entirely or act on it.

Like Confucius said, we should understand how difficult it is to know a person. Perhaps we should learn more wisdom from Confucius.

Have fun, folks. 

My Stomach Gains Weight?

After celebrating Chinese New Year (CNY), I realized that I have gained weight for almost 2 kg. The entire body is still remain steady, except my tummy. It is inflated.

Yes, this is not only my problem, it's most of the men's problem, especially middle age men. Our stomachs are big like we are pregnant. As a man, we are not shy of having big tummy, because it is very common out there.

Many of my friends are as skinny as me, but they have a bigger stomach. This is not a trend, but somehow related to our habits and what we used to do. I bet most of them are just like me, not exercise regularly and sitting in front of computer most of the time. And this is how this little tummy is born.

Sad to tell, my tummy started to grow since more than 6 months ago where I stopped my regular exercise. I only playing one or two badminton games perhaps once or twice a week, which cannot help much. 

I used to laugh at my friends who look skinny but having a big stomach. Ouch, and now it's my turn. How awful am I!

My colleagues and friends always tell me that I look skinny, or getting skinner. Well, in fact I'm almost 5 ft 8 and weight at 69kg. By doing a simple calculation, I'm suppose to fall in the healthy range. In fact, my tummy is not that seriously big but it is obviously comes out with fitting cloth.

To deter it to grow further, I forced myself to go to jog and do abs exercise these few evenings. As you know, I'm having a hard time, because I did not do it for a long period and it seems so strange for me to work out. 

Abs training is just like waking up on time every morning. It requires great perseverance and self-discipline. But fortunately, it is a no-brainer. For mid to long term solution, perhaps I've to force myself to do sit-up as my daily habit. 

For the time being, I think I better don't make any promise first. Haha!

My Chinese New Year Celebration

It's comes to the end of my Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration in my hometown. It's time to get back to work. I've just got back to my workplace this evening and going to start work on tomorrow. 

For the past few days, I'm having a great time with my family and friends. In fact, apart from being together with family and relatives, CNY also the moment we gather together with old friends and get to know new friends. We have plenty of friends and people to gather around because most of them came back from overseas to hometown due to this important festival for Chinese. 

Well, it's also a good time to get to know potential target for those who is still single, like me.

It's kind of good feeling when you talk to the friends that you have loss contact with. The CNY environment should be the best time to talk a lot more, because everyone is in the relax and holiday mood. Get to know new friends also one of the good things to do. 

Many Chinese misunderstood that they must gamble and grab money during CNY. In fact, CNY can be utilize in a better way rather than just sitting around the table the entire day and gambling with relatives and friends. To me, it is a waste of time. Eventually, you have to win your friends' money in the same table.

Since it's a gamble, it's all about luck. I used to loss money and wasting my time every year since I'm secondary school. So I chose to avoid it if possible. I've been practicing it for a couple of years and it's so far so good. A little bit of gambling to kill some free times with friends is totally okay, but not too much until we spend the entire day or a few just in hope to win some big bucks.

Besides, I also utilized my free time to look for a few friends that 'above my level' for casual drink. All of them are very successful in their careers and businesses, and some of them are multi-millionaires. I felt pleasure to talk to them, and what they've shared with me inspiring me a lot. I've a lot to learn from them.

Until today, I've accumulated around RM200+ 'ang pow' (red packet), including a RM100 note from my uncle (father's brother) and a RM50 note from my parent. I don't know why, friends and their parents are quite generous this year. I just visited a couple of friends house, and most of them have upgraded their ang pow from RM5 last year to RM10 this year. It's double! Inflation or they are getting richer? Whatever it is, thanks to their generosity. Will it be RM20 for next year?

Due to the tight schedule, ex-classmates and I did not manage to organize any reunion for my ex-secondary classmates. I felt bad about it. I hope we can make it for the coming CNY next year.

Oh yes, next Monday is Valentine day, are you ready for it?  

Happy Chinese New Year!

Okay, tomorrow is Chinese New Year (CNY) for 2011, which is the time to say good bye to Tiger and welcome Rabbit.

CNY, also called Chinese Lunar New Year, is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Perhaps you know that I'm a Chinese, a Malaysian Chinese. 

It's a cheerful festival and positive for the local economy. This is because people will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck.

On the Eve of CNY, supper is a feast with families. Almost the best food will be served and normally people enjoy it at home. I've back to my hometown on yesterday and I had my great dinner with my family just now, despite I'm not in the mood of celebrating CNY due to an crucial career issue that bothering me too much. My mum was not with us for dinner today, as she went back to her hometown on yesterday evening to attend my grandma's sudden funeral today. I would like to accompany her but the flight is full due to CNY festival.

There are too many bad news surrounding me and I've no choice but to bring them to 'celebrate' 2011's CNY. This should be the worst CNY to me so far, as of 31 years old. Well, sometimes, it's depend on how we see and think about the bad things happen around us. If we see them as an opportunities and lessons for us, we can move forward and grow better easily. Yes, I would like to do so.

The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile, forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone. So I think I'll be doing good and overcome all the grudges. 

I also want to borrow this opportunity to wish all Chinese readers a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year. May you and your loved one enjoy good health and happiness always.