Dinosaurs are old, Robots are New (Godzilla wins and so will you)

I already made a lot of wrong decisions in life. I thought that quick success was possible. And that it could be done by riding on those attractive, new and fast-paced ways marketed by the so-called ‘experts’. These experts would tell you to just follow what they do. No need to ask. Just copy their formula and technique and you’re in for a zooming ride to success. It could be true as it happened to some. Maybe with sheer luck. But not everyone is lucky. Not me. But I’m blessed. And one blessing I have is an open mind to learn from the mistakes that I committed. And it makes all the wrong decisions I made bearable and meaningful.

Young energetic pseudo-experts who proclaim the modern and the new as the best, quickest and most exciting way to reach the top are the usual scenes we see in almost every field today.  And push further by bringing down and trashing the old ways.  Many ignorant and unsuspecting victims are easily mesmerized and enchanted by the “wit and charisma” of these messengers of the new age. Dinosaurs are out and the cyber-age is in, they say.

Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla  (Image:Wikipedia.org)

And the choice looks so easy. It’s cool to be a fan of the “rockstars” of their trades. Who likes to be left out sitting on a corner listening to the lectures of a boring old conservative folk?

But taking it from those who already reached the top of their game, they tell us otherwise. It’s the expertise of the old tricks, the basics and the fundamentals which brought them up to the peak and to excellence. Understanding the thing that they do and why they were doing it is what catapulted their careers to great heights. There were no shortcuts for most of them.

“I don’t care what you’re doing or what you’re trying to accomplish; you can’t skip fundamentals if you want to be the best.”- Michael Jordan

(Image: hoopthoughts.blogspot.com)

Modern is not at all bad. Being knowledgeable about new techniques is also great. But by doing it without tad recognition of its foundation, basics and history is a blind walk away from what is true and proper.

Reversing the Cycle of Appreciation

I always wanted to be recognized.  This could be one of the most basic emotional needs of every person.  To be acknowledged. To be appreciated. Like in this blog, I wanted to be read. 

Most of us spend a lot of time chasing some people's attention. But only a few succeeds and most end up feeling empty and unappreciated. It is not that we don’t deserve it. But like most of us, these people are just too busy to notice us. Too busy in trying to please other people so they will be appreciated in return. This makes a very vicious cycle. 

U-turn is allowed

So why not try to go on the reverse? By simply turning around, we'll meet those who have always been behind us. These are the people who believe and care for us all this time.  For they may also be just like us who's waiting for someone’s appreciation.   And that someone could be us.  And by reciprocating, we'll both end up happy, thankful and contented.

We are all interconnected in this small world. As we continue this reversed cycle, all lives on earth will possibly be touched. And it probably won't take that long until that person whose appreciation we had been longing for will finally turn around to notice and appreciate us.

So for you who’s reading this, thank you.  Without you I would just be talking to myself.  I value your spent moments visiting this page. And I hope that I’m able to provide value in return of your time. 

You vs Zombies (Don't let 'em eat your brains)

Not sure if it's out of boredom but my generation seemed to be too accustomed in looking for the secrets, the hidden and the mysteries even on the most trivial of things. From  nursery rhymes, Disney shows to mainstream songs, nothing is safe from them.

Human's addiction on over-analyzing is quite fascinating. The effort and eagerness to find subliminal messages and hidden meanings on generally wholesome stuff like backmasking popular songs, mapping out adult images on cartoons and finding secret meanings on product advertisements is amusing. Always searching for too deep of a thinking among these meant to be innocent things.

May parang ano daw

Yet, this addiction seemed to automatically turn off during news breaks.  Or while watching documentaries and other "informative/educational" tv shows. Supposedly, these shows would lead us into thinking. But the opposite happens. Most people just take them as they are. Accepting all those fed data and info as facts, flawless and unbiased. And then react quickly like programmed creations. Like zombies. It's like we're in the world of The Walking Dead.

They are everywhere.

Or maybe we are just like that. We're now in the Walking Dead world where we must fight the zombies and not let them eat our brains up.  And like in the show, there's only a few people who are left thinking independently. Or simply thinking. O wait, I might be over-analyzing already. Maybe I just need some more sleep.

Stop losing MONEY by making TRUST expensive

Years ago, I got into two networking businesses. Unfortunately, I didn’t succeed on both. I even think I lost the trust of some people whom I invited and joined. Though my intention then was sincere. It was to get them into business so we can earn money together. I was too positive and believing that we would make it. And probably that was my fault. I might have gave them false hopes that we could do it easily. And thinking that failure was not possible. And that I was too good not to succeed. But I lacked the knowledge then. So I failed. But we earned some from selling products. And of course by having recruits. But we didn’t earn that much. Not as much as those businesses promised. So I lost their trust. The business was not easy anyway but I think I sent them the wrong signal. And it was my fault. I was too good in telling them we could do it. Too good that I so much believed myself knowing that I still didn't know that much about investments.

Most of us must have heard about the big scam that victimized thousands of people mostly from Visayas and Mindanao just recently. The Aman Group owners just duped them for billions of pesos. The promise of getting rich quick was utilized, and lots of people fell into the bait. This had happened before. And sadly, it still happens now. As you read this, chances are that some people out there are currently dealing with their innocent victims of the same scheme.

Is it?

Because of these scammers, a lot of people becomes too skeptic about anything involving money. From being too trusting to totally unbelieving. And most of them end up avoiding risk and investing as a whole. And it makes the ending more sad for them.

It's not difficult to avoid becoming victims of scams. But it's also not always easy to identify them. It was said that if something is too good to be true, it usually is. But sometimes there are things which are good but really is good. And being good doesn't mean it is easy. And what is good for me may not be good for you. It still depends on expectations. And it is a good expectation if it is backed up by knowledge. A knowledgeable person will always have more realistic and attainable expectations.

Grandfather of 'em all, Charles Ponzi

Patience is a virtue. It's truer in moneymaking. As what the “Great Bear of Wall Street” Jessie Livermore once said that he earned his moolahs from the sitting, not on the thinking. Get-rich-quick is not really impossible though. If you check the stock market chart, doubled and tripled price in a day happens more than you think it does. But how often you can hit those is a different story. It's actually like gambling if you don’t know what you’re doing there. But still, stock market is a risky thing even with much knowledge a person has. But at least, you can always give an intelligent bet than an 'ala-tsamba' style of an ignorant one. With knowledge, chances of "winning" is therefore bigger. You can choose to pick on the fundamentally sound businesses and hold them for long. Do the sitting. And there are also ways like 'cost-averaging' which furthermore lessens the risks. These all sounds good, but again, good doesn't always mean it's easy. And time is always a friend when you invest. But it can also be your worst enemy if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Due diligence is also important. There are a lot of choices of investment available for you. From all the traditional business options, to paper investments like buying stocks, bonds, special deposits, mutual funds, UITFs, VUL funds, etc, the choices are endless. And even if you got offered by one, don’t stop there. Look at all the other options. At first glance, an offer may look salivating, with all the hype and the promise. But always remember that it is not the only vendor that offers the same service. You might get a better deal with another. As a help, some sites are even giving lists of comparison like this site which gives lists of mutual fund performances. Though past performance will not assure anything in the future, it will still give you a glimpse on how they manage their funds. Then it will help you decide.  

Bricks. Oh, wait?

Lastly, never put the seller’s sweet words in consideration. Just get the numbers, calculations, processes and the computations. Understand all technicalities. Leave out the honey-coated words which are all for the hype. Be more intelligent. Not all that speaks of good things have the best intentions. Or maybe they have it but definitely not for you, but for their own pockets. So invest wisely. Choose wisely.….Meanwhile, the next local elections in the Philippines is coming.....

RH Bill: War, Substitute and then Peace

Blood stains are scattered. I can hear cries of help, despair and anger.  In case you did not notice the war that happened in our own soil the past year, the battle lines were drawn between the supporters and opponents of one of the most divisive proposed bill in the country’s history.  It's the RH bill.  Truth is it had been going on for years. It just got more intense with more active players on both sides.  Now, another chapter of this saga seemed to be on its twilight as the year ends and congressional break looms. The battle seemed to end now, but the war is still far from over.

Kaboom!

The past few weeks, people were already talking about changes, alternatives, revisions, compromised versions and substitutions to the bill. But as of now, what’s being tackled on the halls of congress is the same version that we have discussed on this blog post. No changes yet. Maybe on the next congress.

Now that we already mentioned the “alternatives” and “substitutes”, I have a list here which we can suggest to our lawmakers especially to the RH Bill proponents. This could be a good revision they can use for a bill that is supposed to address maternal health issues, population and poverty.  

1.   A provision ensuring the whole of the Philippine archipelago will be provided with electricity. - At this age where most kids and even mature people think that Internet is a basic right, a lot of Filipinos indifferent provinces and towns in the country have yet to experience electricity at home.  Aside from the known benefit of having electricity at home to human lives, with the power sources, lots of other activities can be done. Sleeping time will not be that early. People will be busy. More productive. And most probably, less reproductive. We all know some of the consequences of early darkness and silence in homes, right?

2.   A law that will help create jobs and encourage more investors in the country -   When I was young, it was a common knowledge which I always heard from my elders that those people who are idle, jobless, or those who we call “tambays” obviously have nothing much to do. They always end up full of energy. And they somehow need to exert those. Some on their vices. Some on non-productive things. And some, on “reproductive” stuffs. If we give them jobs, then they’ll get tired. The energy and urge to reproduce will be lessened. And then it will improve their lives.

3.   A law controlling the entry of illegal aliens - This is not yet an obvious threat but if we look around especially in Manila, foreigners are slowly occupying our lands. There's no need to go to the West Philippine Sea to see this happening. There's an exaggeration of course. But if it’s true that we are already overpopulated as what the proponents of the RH bill are telling us, then why don’t they start with the illegal non-Filipino people entering our lands? Stop the illegals as we even have the legal “retirement program” already being offered by DFA to foreigners who want to live here. And don't be fooled by the "retirement" word there as this is available even to those under retirement age. This is the reason why we already have around 100,000 documented South Koreans in the country. We're talking about families and not just individuals. Families that grow and occupy lands. So are we really overpopulated?  Well, the government’s action seemed to tell the opposite.

Get ready for ALIEN INVASION!

4.  A law that will empower different government agencies - These are the agencies who are tasked to handle the list of existing laws that we already have which were made to take care of our people’s reproductive health care, women and children’s rights, family planning, AIDS/HIV prevention,  and other laws that they only repeated on this bill. If you want to see what these specific laws are, I mentioned them in this blog post.

5.  A law that will improve the quality of education especially for the public system -  They should start turning away from the spoon-feeding ways.  There should be more researches and more social interaction.  More learning outside the classrooms. By doing these, the students will learn and remember the lessons more. This will make them busier.  This will make them more exposed of the true needs and problems of the society. They will be more aware of the consequences if they will not prioritize their studies. And if they will get married early. Or if they will get pregnant at a young age. I find this a more effective way than any “sex education” that they propose because these targets a total learning in life.

By focusing on the real problems, adjusting our aim to the real target is not that complicated. Issues should be addressed from their roots, not on the surface. Solutions must be for the long-term and not the band-aid type. As both sides agree that our resources are limited, then we must be wise to use them properly. No time and money should be wasted. We must know our priorities. We can't afford to pass a bill where the proponents themselves cannot agree what it is aiming for (i.e. population control, alleviating poverty, maternal health care). We must strive to be sharpshooters.

Now that the end of this RH chapter is nearing and Christmas season is coming, I hope that the division this issue created among Filipinos subsides. Well, not all of us believes in Christmas. But in the country's history, it never created any major rift among our people. Not in my knowledge. If it had one, at least there's none at the present. It just shows that differences of belief should not be a problem as long as there's tolerance and respect.  So as early as now, I wish you a very merry Christmas and a peaceful prosperous New Year. And happy holidays to the others.

Humbled by confidence

The usually mistaken notion is that confidence is the complete opposite of humility. But in reality, one can be both at the same time. Truth is you can't truly be humble without being confident. For it is by knowing yourself that you'll get to learn your skills and abilities. You'll know what you can do and what you can't. You will realize which things you are good at and which you are not. And thus you'll become confident of doing things you know you are capable of. And by being aware of your capability, you accept the possibility of others doing things better than you. That you can still fail on something which you are good at. Thus, you will be humbled by being aware of your own limitation. And such awareness of limitation is a part of being confident.

On the other hand, lack of self-esteem and arrogance are the two contrasting characteristics of being confident and humble respectively. Though I was able to identify the co-relation between humility and confidence, I'm not so sure how the lack of self-esteem and arrogance can be mixed up. Can you?