Less Is More, Simple Is Best

Couple of days back, I put a group of young leaders to a teamwork challenge I made up with a few young adult leaders. This was to prepare them for the upcoming youth camp leadership challenges. They were given forty minutes and a sum of money to buy materials to build a vessel which should float, balance and hold as many pebbles as possible. Till today I'm still suprised by the results. As usual, I learnt something extra myself which I didn't expect from that teamwork exercise.

The night before the challenge, I tested just a couple of significant materials without fancy stuffs (took me less than a minute!), and my vessel could hold at least five pebbles before sinking. With forty minutes and a whole lotsa stuffs and adhesive tapes, only one group (out of four) during the workshop outperformed my test vessel with six pebbles! One of them could hold only two!

Only one team spent part of its resources on offensive and the other three spent everything on defenses. I told my co-facilitators after the workshop that it was a wrong strategy. Only very few resources were actually needed for building, and the rest should've been spent on offensive pebbles to sink other competing vessels.


I made a mental note to myself yesterday: LESS is always MORE. A simple, streamlined vessel will always do better than a fancy, complicated vessel. Just because there are many members in a team, does not mean you need to do a lot and spend excessively, especially on defenses. Many times, you've to look outward, and the old saying "Attack is the best defense" is still true.

One of My Role Models and Inspirations

Recently, we celebrated my mom's graduation from her Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) course she took. She got first place in her college, what an excellent achievement! And most of her coursemates are half her age. Throughout the duration of the course, half of the class dropped out while she's been scoring an average of 90+ percent everytime! She showed that at 63, age is no barrier to learning and success.

When my mom was a young student at school, she received awards for being the top scorer in subjects like Maths. Her school Principal encouraged her to pursue higher achievements in education. But born in a family where her dad discouraged daughters to study, her progress was restricted severely. Her formal education ended too soon, to her Principal's disappointment.

As an adult my mom would self-learn and pick up many useful tips from practitioners in TCM. As a young boy I didn't understand (many times embarassed) why my mom would ask question after question and bug the chinese physicians endlessly (and shamelessly!). Later I understood the value of persistence. Throughout the years, she had treated us and many others where western's wisdom of health seems so much more inferior (and expensive!) in comparison. Now she has formalized her education, with a valuable certificate for being No. 1. She can choose to make big bucks out of it, but no. She studied it for the joy and love of knowledge and helping people. She's been giving free treatments to family members and even outside strangers at a charity center.

What can I say about my mom? She showed there's really no end to learning, not for knowledge sake alone, but for saving and improving lives. My whole family is so proud of my mom. My inspiration!

"Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune" Jim Rohn

Horse Whisperers

As I was re-reading one of my e-books by Josh Waitzkin (I may write about this guy someday!), I was re-impressed (but much stronger this time) by some truths. I'm sure everyone can identify and learn something from them.

There are two basic ways of taming a wild stallion.

First, is the traditional way of breaking down the horse. You tie it up and freak it out. Shake paper bags, rattle cans, drive it crazy until it submits to any noise. Make it endure the humiliation of being held bondage by a rope. Once it's partly submissive, you tack the horse, get on top of it and show who's the boss. The horse resists, twists and fights, but there is no escape. Then, it drops to its knees in pain, frustration and exhaustion. Finally, nearing the point of death and having its spirit broken, it yields. This method is what many called Shock and Awe.

Second, is the way of the horse whisperers. You can click here to wiki on the first few known horse whisperers. Josh's mom was a horse trainer. She trains them from young by handling them gently. Here's an excerpt:

"My mother explains, "When the horse is very young, a foal, we gentle it. The horse is always handled. You pet it, feed it, groom it, stroke it, it gets used to you, likes you. You get on it and there is no fight, nothing to fight." So you guide the horse toward doing what you want to do because he wants to do it. You synchronize desires, speak the same language. You don't break the horse's spirit. My mom goes on: "If you walk straight toward a horse, it will look at you and probably run away. You don't have to oppose the horse in that way. Approach indirectly, without confrontation. Even an adult horse can be gentled. Handle him nicely, make your intention the horse's intention."

"Then, when riding, both you and the horse want to maintain the harmony you have established. If you want to move to the right, you move to the right and so the horse naturally moves right to balance your weight." Rider and animal feel like one. They have established a bond that neither wants to disrupt. And most critically, in this relationship between man and beast, the horse has not been whitewashed. When trained, he will bring his unique character to the table. The gorgeous, vibrant spirit is still flowing in an animal that used to run the plains."

Are you a teacher? Or an employer? Or a parent? Do you run groups or organizations? Do you lead people?

Which of the two is your primary method?

Are the people under you discontented? Do they leave? Do your students shut you out in their minds? Does your child appears to be rebellious? Is there any connection at all? Do you recognize and encourage their natural voice and talents? Or do you shock them into submission? I know, it's much subtler normally, but I think you get the idea.

Single Passion

Lord, show me what it means by displaying Your supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.

I'm dying to know. There is no one else like You. So don't let me waste it.

Goodbye PASB, Hello Hurricane

Yeah, Switchfoot is releasing a new (hotly-anticipated) album 'Hello Hurricane' in November. They've been performing some of the new songs in their tours. And in the many short video clips that they uploaded, they always say Goodbye to the town they were in, and Hello to Hurricane, their next destination eg. "Goodbye Texas, Hello Hurricane".

I'm writing this while preparing for late night trainings for tonight and tomorrow as this is my last week at work in my current job. For some things in life, you've to be brave enough to be put an end to them.

"What's next?" some asked me. I don't know how to answer them. Here in this blog, all I can say for now is that a great storm is up ahead.

This year is probably the most stormy one for me in recent years. I even help planned a "Storm Surfers" Retreat for the Young Adults. But everything I've gone through this year is just a foretaste of what's coming, I believe.

So what's next? Few months back, an elder prophesied over me, and I counted ten parts (ten images) to it. In one of them, he saw me riding a speedboat accelerating straight into a raging storm. That is just one of the many parts...

I'll just leave here with the Switchfoot's upcoming new song (which I've listened and I'm loving it already!) which pretty much summed up my year so far.

I've been watching the skies
They've been turning blood red
Not a doubt in my mind
There's a storm up ahead

Hello Hurricane
You're not enough
Hello Hurricane
You can't silence my love
I've got doors and windows boarded up
All your dead end fury is not enough
You can't silence my love

Everything I have I count as loss
Everything I have is stripped away
But before it started building
I counted up these costs
Ain't nothing left for you to take away

Hello Hurricane
You're not enough...

Goodbye PASB, Hello Hurricane! :)

Thoughts on Learning

I'm utterly convinced that if babies react to falls, pains and failures like adults do, they'll never walk or learn to find their balance, let alone make sense of the world around them.

So at what age did we all really fall? I wonder.

Ironically, we wonderful adults are the ones teaching the babies to "get up, it's ok...."

I'm also fully convinced and persuaded that every normal child has the potential to be a genius, or is one, until the day they enter formal education. Almost all of them anyway.

Who is there to take the blame? I really wonder.

"Not many of you should presume to be teachers..." James 3:1

Blue Tune

Is there nothing left now
Nothing left to sing?
Are there any left
Who haven't kiss the enemy?
Is this the New Year
Or just another desperation?

Does justice never find you?
Do the wicked never lose?
Is there any honest song to sing beside these blues?

And nothing is okay
Till the world caves in
Till the world caves in
Till the world caves in...

-Switchfoot's The Blues