To Inspire Courage Confidence and Freedom

What is the vision? The vision is to reach as many people as possible.
The vision is so that people everywhere have access to this human technology that allows them to live their best life. Yes, it is our singular purpose in this life to be happy. Yes, that technology is available. And yes, we all can be happy as long as we choose to. Just as soon as we know how to access that state. Or gestalt of states that = happy ;-)

What is the mission? To inspire courage, confidence, freedom.
Courage as opposed to fear. Fear as opposed to lack of love.
Confidence as opposed to playing small, staying weak, apathetic. Confidence for stepping out as we are. Just the way we are.
Freedom from what? Freedom from our upbringing, our conditioning, our past, our limitations. Freedom to choose the life we want. Freedom to sing our song. Our song.

The goal, the objective, is to go among the masses. The work is to bring the message to everyone --- men, women, children and everyone in between. Just as fear does not discriminate, love must not discriminate. The challenge is to give love unconditionally. The job is to include and embrace and distribute.

When? As soon as possible. We are faced with unprecedented economic chaos. This has upset the family dynamic where men who have been breadwinners are now facing psychic, not just emotional and financial upset --- because their ability to provide and protect is challenged. So family systems are being overturned. Families are suffering loss, grief, separation --- from Self --- when needs are not sufficiently met.

Apart from financial struggle, emotional and psychic disturbance, relational upset, our world is under attack from the flagging ethical and moral fiber that threatens to break up social structure, law and order, and on a larger scale, the health of the human spirit. In this case, fear spreads. Fear is the opposite of love. Fear is the result of the separation from Self.

There is much work to do. For this work we need all hands on board. Women and children, pick up your tools. Even if this is the warmth of your embrace, the calmness in your voice, and the softness of your bosom.

What work exactly? Go out into the cities and towns and make every soul feel like they are important, make them feel like they belong.

This is the work. This is the calling. This is our purpose.
Beyond this, nothing matters.

Proud to be Malaysian

When S&P downgraded the US from AAA to AA, Moody’s defended the US’ triple-A status. Fascinating. I think this presents Malaysia with a unique opportunity to lead. I think it’s time for Asia and the emerging markets to combine forces and expertise to create our own neutral rating agency.

America didn’t confront their problems sooner and now the gap seems too wide for any single president to fix. Europe is stressed and in disarray. Do we want to wait for crisis levels before we act? Why not start now to increase domestic – led consumption and exports to Asia, the emerging, and frontier markets. Buy Malaysian. Promote Malaysian – made. Act now.

Let’s you and I stand up for our economy. Let’s champion Brand Malaysia.

Let’s collaborate with China, India, Africa, and our Latin American friends. Let’s form joint venture alliances to scour the planet for products and services that these huge consumer nations seek and desire. When companies see demand surging for Malaysian – made goods and services will they be inspired to produce more, and produce quality. Everybody wins.

Under the US Dodd – Frank law that was proposed on 2 Dec 2009, there’s the Volcker rule. By this rule, depository banks are prohibited from proprietary trading, meaning they can’t trade with their own funds, only with clients’ money.

Banks forced to curb trading means money looking for new places to go… This gives Malaysia a brilliant opportunity to attract global funds. It’s time for us to modernize our trading systems. We’re well – poised as one of the world’s foremost Islamic Banking centers.

“In the near future I envisage that the Yuan will become the safe haven currency of Asia. Later, the Yuan together with other emerging market currencies such as the Brazilian Rial, Russian Ruble, Indian Rupee, and South African Rand will be in one big gold – backed basket,” predicts Ashwin M Binwani Wealth Strategist at Peak Prosperity Consulting Hong Kong Ltd.

(That means Americans can’t simply print money; create Quantitative Easing 2 and 3 without backing it with a measure of gold!)

Malaysia is in a sweet spot as our Ringgit is the proxy currency for the Chinese Yuan. In fact when the Yuan appreciates, all Asian currencies follow suit.

The entire matrix of business and finance has shifted to the East. It’s time for Malaysians to develop more courage and confidence. Why not use this time to perfect our systems and take measures to decouple from the West. For this to happen our financial and political groundwork must be honed and refined.

Malaysia has a lot going for itself. At this point the stakes are high and primarily we’ve got 2 choices. We can work to do ourselves proud. Or we can let ourselves down. I say we stand for unity. Think National Pride.

I say peace will secure prosperity.

Asia in Full Throttle

China is currently holding more than US$ 800 billion of US treasuries. If a ratings downgrade takes place, China and other investors would be tempted to sell their USD bond holdings. Should the US dollar collapse, the market would probably hedge by buying metals such as gold and silver, and invest in Asian and emerging market currencies like Singapore dollar, Malaysian Ringgit, Korean Won, Thai Baht, Indonesian Rupiah, Chinese Yuan, Australian dollar, and Brazilian Rial.

Between 31 Jan – 8 July 2011 the Indonesian Rupiah climbed by about 6.15% against the USD. Between 15 Mar – 8 July 2011, the Singapore dollar climbed 5.3% against the USD. Since the Thai election on Jul 3, the Thai Baht has climbed about 2.5% against the USD. Between 2 Feb – 8 Jul 2011, our Ringgit climbed 3.1% against the USD.

On Fri 8 Jul the Bloomberg – JP Morgan Asia Dollar Index rose to a 14-year high. In the 5 days leading to July 8, global funds pumped more than USD 1.9 billion into South Korean, Thai and Indonesian equities, Exchange data has showed. The increase in demand for Asian and emerging market equities has increased the demand for its currencies.

Moral of the story: Any exporter wanting to succeed must redesign and realign its market strategy to suit Asia and the emerging markets.

Trust Yourself - We are perfect as we are

The Tao Te Ching: To achieve greatness we need do nothing. We are perfect as we are.
We are as God made us, and God doesn't make mistakes.
We are made perfectly for the tasks we are to perform on this Earth and that is to love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength. Not for God's sake, but for our own.

The Tao Te Ching: Think Small. Stay low.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Stay low --- like the ocean --- where all great rivers must flow into you.
Jesus spoke 500 years later. He said, "The meek shall inherit the Earth."

Lao Tzu, or "old man," regarded as the most learned man on the planet, wrote this 500 years B.C. His contemporaries were other self-realized beings like Buddha, Confusius in the East and Plato, Socrates, Euripedes in the West.

King Solomon of the Old Testament does not refute this. In fact, in his writings, King Solomon celebrates love of self and love of other. Pages are dedicated to this through his verse.

Jesus quotes Lao Tzu almost word for word in His sermons on the mount. The Tao Te Ching is the 2nd - most translated book in the world after the Bible.

"A Course in Miracles" --- another spiritual text says, "At the last judgment, God will tell us how He really feels about us, and finally... we will know how magnificent we are..."

Break Away Break Through Break Free

Being a leader is not easy.
Some people get to lead because they've lobbied over time for a title or a position. Some people get there because they have a skill, they've served many years, or they own the company. But this doesn't make them a good leader.

Many confuse managing with leading.
"If I follow a system or a process, I'm a leader. If things don't change, it things don't go wrong, I'll be okay. Just make sure people in my team don't give trouble. Keep everything safe and my position will be secure."

They think, "I'm the leader so you'd better listen to what I say. Or else!" They spare no time thinking --- What type of person must I be so that others will have confidence in me, respect me? What kind of behavior must I demonstrate so that I will inspire confidence, camaraderie, cohesion?

So off they go, banging around. They go about - unaware of how they leave a wake of confusion, often fear behind them.

How does a (real) leader handle conflict? Do they ignore it and hope it will go away? What's the job of a leader anyway? What's the ultimate desired outcome? How many actually think about what results they must produce (other than fame, popularity, further promotion and other "tribal" attractions)

One of the fundamental roles of a leader is to turn a group into a team... a collection of individuals, into a top - performing whole made up of one unit. Cohesion. What skill is required for this?

I'm guessing the 1st thing is to get off the fact that leadership is about the leader. It's got to be about the people one is leading.

Not a popular thing to do, but a leader must hold people accountable. A leader must hold the vision and keep the integrity up, giving just enough wiggle room for creativity but not enough that people go all "individual." After all, people need guidance. We need feedback. We need to be told, "Hey, you're doing great," or, "Listen, if you need to get that done quicker, how could you do it?" Leaving people alone to fix themselves is a no-no. Take that up a notch and you'll notice how great leaders confront what's not right. They don't allow disagreements or conflicts among team members to fester. They will never tolerate lowered productivity because of lack of courage to assert their values and principles about how things should be run --- for the good of everybody.

Good leaders do not practice favoritism or cronyism. Friendship is different and it does not get in the way.

If you recognize yourself in any of these situations, what will you do to bring improvement to them? How could you meta-state a negative emotion or concept or belief so that a more positive outcome could occur?

For example, disagreements could be meta-stated with respect, tolerance and understanding, patience etc. Meditate on peace and progress. The insights would be invaluable. Then share your thoughts with your team.

Women Grow Up - We need all hands on Board.

Woman... No I'm generalizing.
Housewife... Are you tired of being treated as if you were dumb and ditzy?
You feel people (even family) don't trust you with stuff --- like renewing insurance policies, proof-reading contracts (even though you have an MBA), redemption of frequent flyer miles, or credit card points.

Ever wonder why there's so much friction, disagreement, conflict, and confusion in your life, in your home, even over little things? Do you sense that even people close to you question your capability or resourcefulness? Do they believe you're a safe pair of hands?

They might see you as a great "cheerleader" --- good at shouting out "Woo Hoo!" or cleaning up the poop at home. But somehow that's where it ends. For "real" work, people always go (husband especially) to someone they perceive as more reliable, more dependable, more effective. And less emotional! Can you blame them?

I know I'm a woman and I should be sticking up for us girls. Actually I am. I'm asking us to cut the BS and grow up. I'm asking us to stop blaming others for what we don't have. I'm asking us to remember who we are, take our power back, and save ourselves. We're meant to be queens not slaves.

Harsh? Perhaps. But girls, we gotta get real. We must work to stay relevant. Especially us past 40. Often we're the ones who don't understand new technology - cyber rules, the new workplace. Our men need a new brand of woman.

I was signing up at the reception table of a big party last weekend and the ladies at the counter were whispering to each other. They were gossiping. You could tell. I handed in my ticket, gave them my money, signed my name in the book and walked into the ballroom. 5 minutes later one of the ushers summoned me back out to the reception table and asked me for my name and money. She did so in the most unfriendly manner possible.
Reception = Welcome. Happy you came. I'm here to help. To receive you.
Right? Apparently not.


Question: Why are women often perceived as "less than?" The weaker sex? Ouch, for someone working to support women's development, that incident hurt me deeply. Who's standing in the way of that lady's happiness? She, herself of course.

Not long ago I met a woman who proudly told me she knew nothing about her family's property and her husband's business. "I'm a lady of leisure," she announced.

Happy for you, I thought. So what you do and your husband talk about apart from the children and the maids? How well do you think you're supporting his needs? Sure you may be one of those "obedient wives" - a whore in bed, a whizz in the kitchen, and a self - sacrificing mother, but what about a partner and companion to a man who could be so pregnant with possibility that all he needs is the right woman to help him give birth to amazing, magnificent innovations that could change the world?

I met her husband. The man couldn't have looked more bored beside her.

Girls, wake up. We have work to do. Our purpose is to save the planet. We are here to raise a new generation of humans --- the kind that is more gentle more kind more loving. Women, wake up from being little girls. We need all hands on board.

Simply Genius

I skip off to the hospital to meet Prof Hock Lim Tan, Distinguished Professor MBBS MD FRACS FRCS. We were going to film him in the OT performing "keyhole" surgery to remove a child's ovaries and a kidney.

I'm excited! And slightly worried. OTs and I don't get on that well. All that bloody red stuff, you know. Here's hoping I behave.

The crew and I arrive. I can't help thinking I'm slightly overdressed for the part. Everyone else is wearing a frown and hunched either in pain or worry. We are taken upstairs and shown the changing rooms. "Get out of your togs and into scrubs. Here's a cap and face mask while you're at it."

Ok. My turn to wear the frown. It disappears the moment the Prof swings into the lobby. He pulls down his mask and says, "See you in the OT in a few minutes."

Lights. Camera. Action.
There are about a dozen people in there. The patient has a camera stuck down her belly button and the images come up on 3 screens. I can see the child's abdominal cavity ~ the Professor points out the reproductive organs ~ fallopian tubes, ovaries, womb. I can see blood vessels throbbing. Biology come to life. Amazing!

Suddenly the room goes green. My crew and I look at each other. I ask Prof and he says the green light supports vision and helps the medical team see better. Like a war zone, he explains.

The surgeons puncture several little holes for their equipment to be inserted.
Professor singles out the section of the ovary where the incision is to be made and clamps it with his left hand, while with his right, he uses a laser cutter to detach the ovary. 3 snips and it's done.
Hmmm. So these guys are ambidextrous.

All that while talking his team through the procedure. There's the 2nd surgeon on standby to do the other ovary, there's the anaesthetist, there are observers (student doctors I think) from Thailand and Indonesia and about 3-4 nurses. Prof's MO is there too. Pint high but deep voice. Wise. Authoritative. Immediately I warmed to her.

As he hands over to his assistant to take over, Prof says this is one of his easier cases. Laparoscopic surgery is now being done for many other complicated things like open heart surgery, duodenal atresia, and pancreatectomy.

Leaving the OT, I felt a combination of emotion. Firstly relieved for being fit and healthy, then immensely lucky for having been invited to witness innovation in medical science, and grateful for being able to tell my story.

I'll be posting my video of this amazing op on my website soon. So watch this space!