My dad a naughty kid and 4 advices
My dad used to be a naughty kid. He disliked studies, always loves to play marbles and has fun. In fact, he is not bad in his studies in the later part of his life. He realizes that he needs to upgrade on his knowledge as well as to brush up on his English Language, he went back to school attending evening classes for 20 years with 5 years in British Council to improve on his English. Someone said you need 10,000 hours to master on a skill. I think my dad passes all the marks as he does not need a MBA, but he has a PhD mindset for Passion, hungry and Discipline. Lady Luck has always been on my dad’s side.
It is an amazing achievement for someone who quits formal studies at age 14. My dad told me that his mother passed away at that time. Being the youngest and very close to his mother, he is demoralised with life then quit schooling totally. Hanging in the streets made my dad to become a street smart boy. He acquired his skills the old-fashioned way, starting from the bottom rung of the ladder slogging tirelessly and grabbing any opportunities that comes his way.
He is very happy with his life right now. A wonderful & supportive wife with 3 lovely kids living in a House Done Bloodly expensive but comparing with other countries, it is okay to have a small nest in the mid air on the 13th floor. He has been working very hard to be where he is and retired from the Corporate Jungle to has his own teaching business in a quiet place in JB to do a little teaching here and there to keep his brain working. He advise that we need to nudge the box above our neck a little bit. It is the only tool that if not in use will go rusty eventually.
My dad is a FSY – a Facilitator, Story teller & Younqiuely fun person who has many Inspiring, Influencing and Interesting (3Is) stories to share although he repeated many of his stories again and again, we never feel bore because of the 3Is.
I would like to share 4 advices he gave us.
First advice is when in doubt, always ask. By asking you will have 5 answers but he only wants to share 3 – that is Yes, No or Maybe keeping the other 2 for us to guess and learn from ourselves because he believes learning must come from within. Today, many people live in a short-fuse life. Their food are fast, frozen dried and microwavable. They google and read 140 text instead of books or hands-on experiences and want answers NOW. He said adults attending his workshop want the how-to, easy-to-use steps, they want no pain but only gain.
The 2nd advice is don’t waste people money. When you work for people don’t waste people/company money. A dollar saved is a dollar earned for the company. Do things right the 2nd time every time. He explains people never do things right the first time that is why many companies get high scraps and reworks in both offices and manufacturing environment. If you measure in term of sales, it is going to be about 15-25% or about $1 million dollars going to be wasted. That is a lot of money that can be saved and use for FUN budgets. Dad said, if company willing to give him 5% to 10% of the savings when they engage him to halves their Scraps and Reworks in their organization then my dad will be a millionaire again!
The 3rd advice - on the personal side, my dad loves to use acronyms of “CPF“. Since Singapore Central Provident Fund (CPF) is doing such a good job for Singaporeans, why not use the same framework of C-P-F on ourselves?
Commit fund – This fund he gives to my mom and cannot be touched even on raining day.
Progressive Fund – Money in the bank is dead money, so invest a bit to let it grows.
Fuck-it Fund – Sounds naughty? Don’t kid yourself, if you live and breathe in the Corporate jungle beside OMG (Oh My God!) this F**K word is a common language. Remember, life is never going to be always good on your side. When you hit the cross-road of heading nowhere, this Fuck-it fund might not be big but at least my dad can “fuck-it and retire and doing less with less”. He told us many people yet to get on the wave of his new teaching methods. Many “sotong” managers and leaders still want to do more with less. Do you know getting the burn-outs in the working environment of doing more with less? My take is on the “sotong” managers and leaders. There are studies on burn-out of leaders. Just Google.
The 4th advice my dad wants to share is that of the 4 legged stool. Most people always want to have more Power and more Money but forgetting the other 2 legs that stabilize the stool. The other 2 legs are Love and Fun. To learn more about the other 2 legs that enable you and your organization to achieve Quality Work, Quality Life is to buy his 3rd workshop book @ Sin$39.90. Drop him a line at daniel@qualipreneur.com. He is half-way through his 3rd workshop book.
The DYSF-unctions - Drive Your Self Forward. If you saved 50 cents a day starting today, you can purchase it in November @Sin$39.90. It is not a self-help book but more of a workbook, that is why dad called it a Workshop Book as our lives are always in the workshop and in progress. The day when they assembled us, it is the day we return to the source where we came from.
By the way if you need to Ignite Fun @Work, my dad charges only Sin$5,665 for a 2 days workshop for 20 pax. Do you know how my dad get this pricing of $5,665? He learnt it from Starbucks. Just imagine by selling coffee and their revenues are bigger than the 3 biggest oil and gas equipment manufacturers combined revenues. So sad if you are an Engineer in the oil and gas industries, right? You should be inventing coffee and make ton of money. That is why I prefer to be a Nurse. My dad always teaches sharing is caring, that is why I am following my dad’s footsteps of caring which is a calling from God.
If you like my dad’s stories and care for your colleagues, friends and families, feel free to forward to them or engage my dad for his storytelling workshops.
From his elder daughter: Cheryl Foo
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