Tag: Business

This is The Spit Bridge in Mosman, one of the most beautiful suburbs in Sydney Australia. No joke. It’s got a split personality. Every now and then it splits into half and half, one end opens in an upright position to allow boats taller than its height to go from one side to the other.

Of course, when it’s open, the traffic on the bridge has to stop and stand still until the bridge closes again which can take a while.

If you don’t mind waiting, you can simply enjoy the wonderful water view around. But if you are in hurry, you’d better pray that you don’t come across the red traffic light there as the wait can be painfully long. Once you get stuck in there, you can’t turn back. The only option is wait.

What about in life or in business, what would you do if you’re sick and tired of waiting? They say patience is a virtue, unfortunately it’s just not one of my strongest points.

2 weeks? What?! I reacted in disbelief. Well, that’s what the bookstore staff told me when I asked her how long it’ll take for this particular book to arrive. Slightly disappointed, I still went ahead and placed an order.

Once again, my patience was put to the test. Clearly I was being too overly optimistic about my capability to wait.

Well into the fifth day, I started to show a sign of impatience. No longer could I hold it, so out of desperation I rang the bookstore to find out the status of my order. You can imagine how eager I must’ve been. It was driving me wild. Not getting a satisfying answer, I thought perhaps I should try on-line.

I did. Within minutes I found a reputable on-line book retailer selling the same book. Best of all, it was “in stock”, available for shipping next day, even at a cheaper price. No time to waste, I went straight to make an order. What’s next? The book and other 2 titles arrived in just 3 days.

I know it’s still a long way away before I become a patient person. However, I can certainly do something to keep a balance.

While I’m a keen supporter of bricks and mortar stores and really want to see them survive and thrive in the ever changing market, I’ll continue turning to on-line retailers to buy items that aren’t readily available in store. With this mind, I have the best of both worlds.

Wait no more. Since patience isn’t my department, I might as well use impatience to my advantage…

Lately I’ve heard the phrase business as usual a lot. Is it trending right now?

Think uncertainty. It’s become the norm for many of us. In a business sense, the job we have today can be gone tomorrow, in a flash. We’ve seen time and time again people lose their jobs at a short notice or a shop on your street close down without a warning. While some may have that “not in my back yard” mentality, none of us is immune to change. We’re all in the same boat.

What’s around the corner? We may never know beforehand. What hasn’t changed is change itself. Many say expect the unexpected. Nice try! Psychologically, it gives us some “normality” to look forward to. At least we can still expect something – even though it’s unpredictability we’re talking about. Who’s got that crystal ball? Give it to me!

If someone says to you: Business as usual. Before you hurry to buy into it, wait a second and ask yourself: Is it what it seems to be or have they got something to hide? I guess it depends on the context but if it’s something that may affect you, you have a good reason to doubt their word.

The message is: You shouldn’t be worried, but you should be wary.

Just a couple of weeks ago, my company held a 3-day conference in Sydney. Fun fun fun. When you have everyone sitting around the table in the same room, you can be sure your word will be under scrutiny and under the watchful eye of many.

In the opening and introduction, no surprise, what took centre stage was the business outlook in the next 12 months. There were words of wisdom and words of encouragement coming out of my CEO. Overall, he was very blunt and much direct to the point about our situation, foreseeable.

What situation? The talk of merger had been going on for a while. Finally, we were given a green light by ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) right on the open day of our conference. The timing couldn’t have been more suitable.

No sugar-coating that kind of stuff we wanted from our CEO, just facts we were interested in. No disappointments. He delivered just that. One thing that’s stuck in my head since and left me with something to chew on was – Beware, uncertainty ahead. Speaking of uncertainty, coincidentally, the night before I went publishing a post on my blog entitled Next Stop, The Unknown (https://tsaited.com/2019/08/22/next-stop-the-unknown/). Could I have seen the sign already? Go check it out if you’ve got 3 to 5 minutes.

To be told business as usual is just cold comfort. It’s a quick tactic to buy time and perhaps some stability in the current climate. People don’t need to hear happy talk or sweet talk, they prefer facts. Truth will out. If there’ll be challenges coming their way, be honest, tell them so. People would appreciate it more. The last thing they want to deal with is anything that may later turn out as a big surprise. No one likes to be misled.

Ironically, there’s nothing usual about business as usual. It’s a dog eat dog world. In any competition, there’ll be winners and losers. Our best bet is to increase our chances for success. Even though we have little control over the future, we love clinging to the outcome that’s human nature. The undeniable yet uncomfortable truth is only time will tell, not a fortunate teller. No need to be overly optimistic or pessimistic about the unknown. As pointed out by the guest speaker who came to talk to us about resilience on the last day of the conference, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a glass half full person or half empty person, the more important thing is make sure the glass is refillable…

What does it take to utter those words, to say what you want? What gets in your way? Do you sometimes expect others to read your mind or reciprocate your feelings? Are you playing a waiting game or just sitting there to see what happens? Are you hoping that one day someone will discover that special gift in you and take your career or business to the next level? And? If none of your old tricks has worked, are you open to new tricks even though they may make you uncomfortable at first?

Back in the March 2014 conference, when our MD was presenting, he was talking about what he’s learnt during his time with the company which he created 2 decades ago. Out of 10 points he raised, one struck me like an electricity shock. He said it point-blank: “You will not get the business unless you ask for it”. This message was so profound that has stuck with me since. To find truth in it, I didn’t have to look too far. My sister is a classic example. The steps she took to get a promotion to the position of Financial Controller in a well-known recruitment firm, Japan, were astonishing. It wasn’t just one-shot thing but multiple attempts for 2 years to get where she is today. The hurdles she overcame, the office politics she endured, at the end she got it. Undeniably it was an amazing achievement for a foreigner, a woman and a minority living in such a homogeneous society. I can visualise the glass ceiling being smashed, leaving shards of glass all over the floor! The notion of the sky is the limit no longer applies to today’s world. It is a cliché but the only limit we have is the limits we set for ourselves.

Contrary to my sister, I’ve been this old-school guy. I prefer to work hard, earn my credit, get noticed and wait for people to promote me, one day. Yes, one day… It sounds like a good virtue but deep down it’s driven by fears. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of losing face. That said, in a do-or-die situation, we often become bigger than fears for the sake of survival.

During my job seeking days, those rules I had about getting ahead were thrown out the window. Why? Because I knew when stakes are high, when competition is fierce, there’s no place for humbleness. Best save all the humanity for the winner speech later. Through trial and error, I learned to adopt a self-promotion approach to get myself shortlisted way before I could even get a foot in the door.

Now back to basics. If I want people to read my mind, I need to be an open-book myself. If I want people to reciprocate my feelings, I need to let my guard down, articulate and express my feelings clearly. If I want more readership, I need to give readers ideas they can relate to or useful to them. If I want more business, I need to show up and tell them what I can offer first. Self-promotion is not about bragging about yourself or promoting your own self-interest, it’s about bringing out the best in you. It’s not a big ask, is it?