An artist, a doer
In the digital age we live in, it’s important to be emotionally intelligent, both in person and online.
Remember, if someone pushes your buttons, just stay calm, then gently and firmly push one of these buttons back – OFF or DELETE… Ted Tsai
Sniff sniff. I smell change on my way.
Change may be inevitable but complaint is not. Don’t forget: There’re plenty more fish in the sea… Ted Tsai
That night when Ang Lee won the best director of The Oscars 2013, for his work on “Life of Pi”, I was cheering loud in my living room! He really made me a proud Taiwanese.
Since his 1993 gay feature film “The Wedding Banquet” that scored a nomination in the best foreign film category of The Oscars, I’ve been so inspired by his journey to success in the movie industry, in the mainstream of Hollywood and beyond. So much so that I dreamed one day I’ll write a book or a screenplay that will be made into a film, directed by Ang Lee.
With two Academy Awards for best director under his belt: 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain” & 2013’s “Life of Pi”, no doubt he’s one of the most successful film makers in the world. Needless to say, he’s been my mentor – someone I’ve looked up to.
An unknown writer like me, I’ve finally reignited my passion for writing and rekindled my growing desire to write “that book” again – something that has been on the back of my mind for so long.
At one stage, I was considering doing some postgraduate course at uni but then as a writer I really don’t want to be bounded by or restricted to certain rules. It really needs to be organic and true to my original style. That is, when people read it, they know it’s me talking, not some academic guru lecturing.
Looking back, I actually met Ang Lee face to face in 1994 during The Asia-Pacific Film Festival in Sydney where his feature film “Eat Drink Man Woman” (another outstanding work of his) won best picture. It was a very rushed moment but I got to say hello and had his autograph signed on the back of the movie ticket I bought that day.
My first impression of Ang Lee? He came across as a humble, modest and quiet achiever. Today, even more successful and recognisable than ever, he is still the same person in that regard. He hasn’t let “success” go to his head or change who he is. He is really an inspiration and I just can not praise him highly enough.
You can be someone from a minority group or whatever. When you strive to achieve that top honour in any games or competitions, you may require to work twice as hard or even more, but you are still entitled to win. Success is still there for you to grab, to reach and to hold. Now, I don’t see my dreams as just dreams, they are my ambitions.
Writing has been a good escape for me, a healthy retreat indeed, a not-so-guilty pleasure now. It’s not a way of evading the reality, in fact, quite contrary to the myth, it really allows me to see the facts more clearly and sensibly. I should and I will continue this writing journey whenever I can.
Everyday’s a new start. Thanks for reading…
Chatswood Mall Market is a hectic place. There’s a good variety of market stalls to please all sorts of shoppers including food from around the world – Greek, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Taiwanese, you name it. It also features a live musical entertainment in a wide range of genre every week.
“Citizen of The World” was the band busking one Friday evening some time ago. In fact, it was the second time I saw them there. Even though I was much drawn by their tune the very first time, I didn’t stay to watch them play. It was all because I was in a mad rush to do my grocery shopping.
It took me the second time to stop and immerse myself in their music. I found myself gravitating towards the energy and the emotions flowing through the band members. It felt as if the lead singer was singing for me especially when he was interpreting a very powerful ballad or a sad song as he called it. I could tell he must’ve sung it from his heart. It was very moving.
Captivated by their musical style, I decided to own it on the spot. Counted to 3, I took a few quick steps towards the centre stage, put a ten dollar note inside an open guitar case that already had some loose coins and notes lying around, then grabbed a copy of their latest EPs “Memories In My Head” from a box. For some reason, I was a bit nervous to get so close to them but I felt like they needed my support, so I just went for it.
Later that night I found the band’s Facebook page and decided to write them a text message to say how much I loved their gig. To my surprise, a couple of hours later the band members responded with thanks and some really kind words. One said it makes his day. The truth is they made my day as much as I made theirs.
I guess any one of us can be just another face in the crowd, but the thing is we all the power to make a difference to someone’s day even in a smallest fashion. I’d love to see the band make a name for themselves one day and continue to touch people through their songs.
Next time, if you happen to see an artist or a band playing a gig you like, why not stop, look and listen to the music. It’ll mean a lot to them…
PS: It gave me a great pleasure when they shared this post on their Facebook page.
When are you due for another dentist visit? Do you dread the day till it’s over? If you do, I feel for you.
In my case, I was almost 6 months overdue for the next dental check-up. I let it slip my mind for a long time. But hey I had good excuses. I led a busy life. I didn’t have time blah blah blah.
One morning out of blue, I decided it’s time to get off my back side and act, so I called my dentist.
It took less than two minutes to make the appointment and as soon as it was booked, the anxious feeling went away.
What’s easier, the day I had it done, it wasn’t as painful as I’d anticipated. In fact, the whole experience was so relaxing that I almost dozed off on the dental chair!
Now looking back, I’ve come up with two questions.
Question One: Why did I put it off for months and months?
Not surprisingly, my procrastination was largely to do with fears:
The next question: What prompted me to make that phone call at last? The quick answer is: Pressure.
I was not self-motivated enough till the pressure started to mount. Where did the pressure come from? The deadline! As they say, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
This experience has left me wondering if there’re any useful tools that can help reduce the likelihood of inaction or even better increase the chances of action.
In the process, I’ve found one technique to be effective:
As the year draws to a close, most of us will probably think of making new year’s resolutions. The intention is good but sometimes our yearly goals can be too big, too overwhelming and too scary. The challenge for me has always been how to make them stick.
Knowing what I’m like, what I’m good at and not good at, I’ll be trialing something new this time, I call it my new day’s resolutions as opposed to new year’s resolutions. It means taking small steps towards small goals in relatively shorter time frames. It’s about creating many small wins. After all, a small win is still a win…
I’ve been on the path to self-improvement for some months. As a strong advocate for life-long learning, I’ve found the process to be an eye-opener.
Each time I went exploring a new frontier – whether it was a new concept, a new mindset or a new skill, I was amazed by a sheer amount of knowledge the world had in store for us.
In the process I also had the privilege of sharing my personal journey with one senior manager in the office. Why him? Well, in our day-to-day interactions, whether it’s a casual talk or a deep discussion about work issues, he’s someone who has lots of experience under his belt. He’s someone I look up to but most importantly, I’ve never felt judged when I voice my opinions in front of him.
One morning we were just chit-chatting about life in general. When I briefly touched on the subject of leadership skills, he jumped straight to the heart of the matter and said: cultivating leadership skills is all about having a sense of entitlement.
I smiled and nodded in agreement, but looked slightly puzzled in anticipation of what he was going to say next.
He started by telling me an interesting case occurred in his former workplace, a renowned global company. According to him, people in the leadership positions have this unique trait – a sense of entitlement that separates them from the rest. Interesting huh?!
Before I dive into it, first though, let me ask you one quick question: Have you heard of charity snack boxes? I’ll explain the concept to you if you haven’t. It’s something designed to raise funds for an intended charity organisation.
The “deal” is you take one piece of snack (a lolly/candy, a chocolate bar or something similar) and insert one dollar coin into a small box provided (or whatever dollars specified on the boxes).
In Australia, you can see charity snack boxes in many places like on the reception desks or check out counters of some retail shops or banks etc.
So, what happened to his last workplace was the charity snack box on the executive floor never balanced, whereas the charity snack boxes on the non-executive floors almost always balanced every time.
My reaction up to that point was somewhat cynical. Perhaps the example given was morally or politically incorrect or overly generalised. But with a bit observation, the idea of entitlement started to ring true.
The moral of the story?
I could see how leaders carry themselves. They walk into a room like they own the place, they make themselves comfortable around people, they say hi to everyone they meet on the way. They make their presence visible, they also make their presence count.
Leaders may “borrow” what’s available on the table without asking for permission. Those “small” things in their eyes are probably nothing. But let’s be fair, behind their fancy offices and shining glass windows, they are a bunch of C level executives who also take risks not everyone is willing to take…
When I first studied English as a 12-year-old school boy, I fell in love with the language straight away. Even to this day, the richness and the versatility of the language continue to fascinate me. The scope of what words can do really goes beyond imagination.
There’re many types of greetings in English, a typical textbook example often goes something like this:
Person A: How are you?
Person B: I’m good. Thanks, and you?
Person A: I’m good, too. Thanks.
Well, that’s pretty much the end of a conversation.
Of course, many real life conversations don’t always follow this pattern. They flow differently depending on the situations but more or less they all work along the same lines of “How are you?”.
In the very beginning, I was only a kid trying to figure out the massive grammar rules and all that. Relatively new to the English-speaking world (or the West as you may call it), I’d always thought “How are you?” was a meaningful question. But very soon I realized that no one seemed to take the question literally or seriously. Most of us were happy to take it and leave it – we gave a quick answer, then we moved on.
It’s not an overstatement to say that “How are you?” is the all-time most frequently used and abused cliché. There’s some everyday evidence to back it up. But I don’t want it to just end there.
Where do we go from here?
I truly believe “How are you?” needs a bit more personal attention or TLC. It’s a question not to be taken too lightly. After all, we are talking about our states of mind, aren’t we?
To delve into the world of “How are you?”, it’s a greeting that has power to change someone’s day, for better. If we mean it like we should, then it deserves a few more seconds of our time. A little bit patience goes a long way. It’s not hard to just stop, listen and wait for the answer before we end a conversation and go about our business.
Of course, not all human interactions warrant a high level of attention and that’s when more causal greetings come in like “hi” “good morning/afternoon/evening” etc. It’s simple, friendly, carefree, apt and to the point.
To a further extent, a great Australian charity organisation like R U OK? has been at the forefront of advocating a suicide prevention through life-changing conversations. With a question like Are you OK? as a starting point, it aims to re-write and re-define how we respond to this age-old question and help alleviate the stigma around not feeling OK or depression. This is a movement that gives much needed weight to this simple question.
While not everyone always wants to talk about their issues, it’s nice to know that people do care to listen… So, How are you?
Passion passion passion… What is your passion? What are you passionate about? This buzzword is just about everywhere.
If you’re a job seeker, chances are you’ll come across passion-related questions at job interviews. What are you going to say about it if you’re asked?
You might’ve already heard it a lot on some popular podcasts or read it from many social media post feeds etc. Topics about passion never stop to follow us around.
Should we declare that passion is now officially a cliché?
Passion, so overly used and abused that our brain literally has become desensitised. Don’t blame ourselves if we’ve already lost our way even before we set out to discover it.
Is it about time to take a step back and re-think about our obsession with passion?
It seems that the harder we try to chase our passion, the further we push it away. Time and time again we end up feeling frustrated and defeated even more.
When desperation comes into play, what does it leave us? Or maybe I should say where does it take us? Well, It moves us further away from our goals. It backfires.
For me, the last time I was in desperate need of finding my passion was when I was made redundant in October 2011 from a company that I had been with for 11 years.
Did I find my passion? No, but fortunately I did land a few jobs here and there. Whether I decided to stay, that’s another thing.
In hindsight, now I know the reason why I didn’t find my passion. The mistake I made was I tried to turn it into a money-making machine. By doing so, I lost track of what passion is all about – it is something you volunteer to do and enjoy doing, even without getting paid for it. Great if you have opportunities to monetize it down the road, but still OK if it doesn’t give you a short-term financial reward.
So, where is a good place to start if you aren’t there yet?
Try a bookstore! Remember the last time? Which aisle did you go to first when you walked in to a bookstore (either online or a retail store)?
In my case, I found myself hovering around the art/design, writing reference, business and health sections a lot. It’s a good indication, isn’t it?
I know I’ve grown and cultivated a newfound passion and I’m willing to do it for free. The trick is how to take the pressure off. The same answer I keep coming up with is: I don’t need to be good at it but I need to be good at doing it often…
Don’t read my lips. Follow my footsteps instead. To set a good example to others, be a doer who leads, not a talker who leaks… Ted Tsai
Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor by one person.
To achieve mastery, it doesn’t just take time, but also people – in the past, in the present and in the future, on the scene, behind the scenes… Ted Tsai
Ted Tsai 