Tag: Tina Turner

Your chance

Elton John had a song out a while ago. Your Song.

Newsweek, when it was still in print, had a page called My Turn (that had been before the Internet with immediate comments and re-tweet).

Now, the Art of the Start‘s author, Guy Kawasaki, asked readers what they want included in his next revision of the book.

Your chance.

Your 15-minutes of fame.

Smile, take the diploma and get off campus.

We all know that feeling of emptying out the space made for incoming replacement.

An office, a house or even a car with too many mileage on it.

We know we have had our chance, or exhausted it.

Others will see and seize the opportunity differently, from their angle and maybe the timing is better.

Tina Turner  said that she had sung Proud Mary a thousand times, but the way it was delivered was different each time (largely because of different venue and audience).

So we have had our chance. Or making ways for new ones.

As long as we don’t waste our talent pursuing second-best options.

At work or in life, natural selection will nudge us along the time continuum.

No way around it.

Something in the DNA combo that send out signals to the world.

I am here.

I exist in the now.

Come and get me. Find me. I want to be found, to be validated and to be heard.

Some need stroking more than others. But all of us need and deserve a chance to make our marks.

With current almost-bounced back economy, here is our chance. Once again, to “see the good side of the city… on the riverboat Queen”.

The fact that we are still here is a testimony to everyone’s resilience. I might not write as smoothly as Tom Clancy, look as husky as Paul Walker, or think as different as Steve Jobs. But I am still here, blogging along. So are you. Go celebrate life. Explore and exhaust all your chances. Chances are, there are still plenty , unexploited and begging to dance (to quote Jackson Browne ” Opportunity likes to dance with those who are already on the dance floor”). “I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind, I wrote down…these lines”.

Albert Einstein once said ” the saddest tragedy in life is a wasted talent”. Along that line, I would say, the most disappointed thing in life is to miss your Andy Warhol’s 15-minutes of fame. So walk up there, take your diploma, and smile at the camera. And one more for your mom. It’s a digital age now. Don’t worry about those wasted shots way back then, when each of us was rationed with only 36 shots on a roll or  the weekly My Turn. In Marketing class, we used to dream of inventing deodorant to sell to the billions in China. Now, we got 14 Billions eye balls ready to peruse our pitch, 24/7. Turns out that it’s not the lack of opportunity on the dance floor (or the floor itself for that matter). It’s our feet which are reluctant and us recluse. Frogs-in-slow-boiled state. Don’t know where to start? Tell Guy Kawasaki. Your chance to have input and insecurity dissipated.

Man who whistles

While waiting for my next appointment, I heard a man whistle.

He carried a tune while being oblivious to outsiders. Maybe he just try to pass the time in between classes.

Maybe we should whistle too. We are all passing the time.

Some of us are doing time.

Stephen Hawking wishes he could hear his own voice.

The world-renown scientist himself needs help from technology.

We invented musical instruments: flute, drum, vuvuzela etc… to carry the sound, and use microphones to amplify it.

An I-Pad screen can now be used as a karaoke screen.

Music stand should now be reshaped to mount I-pads. It would then be called the I-stand.

I stand and sing from an I-stand.

Neil Young got inspired by looking at an old man on the farm “Old man looks at my life…”

The old farmer was just content going about his farming business (perspiration) while Young found inspiration.

Now, it’s Neil’s turn to grow old.

“I have been to Redwood, I have been to Hollywood…looking for a heart of gold and I am growing old” (at 66, he just released a new album).

So it is Christmas, what have you done?

We “use” artists when we need them: late at night, at year-end celebration and in-between classes.

Then we junk the 8-tracks, cassettes, CD‘s, or give them to Goodwill.

Then we move on to YouTube.

I will thank them on all of our behalf then.

Where would we be if not for the Abba who put “Happy New Year” on the musical map!

Music itself evolves with time. Just ask our faculty man who whistles the lonely tune.

By hearing his own tune, he perhaps feels less lonely, because the environment sends feedback with analog precision.

Man and music: both need each other to be complete. No wonder Tina Turner does it differently every time she sings her signature “Proud Mary“. Audience participation does make a difference: their feedback (while on their feet dancing) helps spin her interpretation of the song.

I know during that school break, with me there waiting for my appointment, the man who whistles was probably aware there were more than one person in that lounge. His energy certainly was boosted because his lonely sound impacted beyond the lonely walls of his own soul. Happy is he who wakes up to the sound of music.

All things equal, take attitude

IT engineers are back in demand. A few years ago, it was the opposite.

Labor surplus creates serious contest on “Who wants to be an employee”.

All things being equal, I take attitude ( one executive told me, all things equal, he takes the one with the best communication skill –  who could express him/herself on global conference calls).

After all, you spend more time with this new employee than you would your loved ones at home.

Will he/she be a team player e.g. hold the door, refill the coffee when emptying its last cup, show up at people’s birthday party.

In “the Orange Revolution“, the author noted that workers who spend time with co-workers outside of work make great teams.

(the V formation in bird migration as an analogy e.g. each bird takes turn to lead, thus bear the full forward impact so the rest can conserve energy).

I was fortunate to have worked with great teams (one of which bleeds orange). We were trained with trust games etc.. but most importantly, we survived lay-offs and rehired, dot.com boom and burst.

I recognize a team player miles away: the self-assured way he/she carries him/herself, the smile, social intelligence quotient and most importantly culture-fit.

Before Google, there was (academic) records, references and referrals to determine a candidate’s suitability.

Now with Google, employees can research a company and vice  versus for free (without subscribing to Hoover etc…).

The paradox of Artificial Intelligence is that robots can do difficult task (computation) very easily, and easy tasks (folding a towel) with difficulty.

And I venture to add that Social Intelligence will be the last frontier for AI, since that’s what makes us human, sociable and sacrificial (no greater than one man who gives his life for another) e.g. Purple Heart medal earners.

(Incidentally, PBS was showing an experiment to have robots carry heavy armory walking through rough terrains). We will learn how to work intelligent machines into our lives (from the ground up, first with I-robot to vacuum the floor, then to accompany astronauts into space). But one thing we cannot outsource to machine is sense of caring, and empathy (studies conducted with infants confirms that babies needed human touch besides just mechanical feeding).

Back to human resource. Teams are formed and dissolved. But besides outward factors such as product life cycle, market adoption etc…we shouldn’t neglect team cycle (artificial, conflict, compromise and collaboration – per Scott Peck‘s studies on stages of community). Think of it as an indispensable hyphen, between product (factory) and consumer (market). The change machine can spit out coins, but cannot look you in the eyes and say “We appreciate your business. Come and see us again”. A business book, titled “HOW”, written by a liberal arts major explores this soft-skill set.

Pick not the best candidate (skill-wise) but with an attitude. Pick the one who adds to the overall success of the team. Ask around, and use your power of observation.

We are built to recognize greatness as well as great attitude. That’s what schema is all about. The social and emotional context that helps us “read” a person. In sales, we call this buying signals. Frankl puts it best ” you can take away my body, but not what resides in it”. Attitude is everything, when all things are equal. It set the tone and makes a difference in each touchpoint and each task. Tina Turner once said that each time she sings Proud Mary, she sings it differently. Or, like the actress who portrays “girl with the dragon tatoo” said on Charlie Rose, ” I researched, researched until one day, I feel the character living in me” .

We recognize great acting. And we will also recognize exceptional service by employees who go over and beyond their jobs (Ritz Carlton empowers their employees – at whatever level – to deal with customer service incidents).

A team deserves great team players, who  in turn, put a positive spin on work place atmosphere and  performance.

For me, every day is a gift, and could very well be my last. Do not take for granted the normality of every day life. Each interaction and passing moment is an opportunity and a touchpoint to be cherished.

 

rollin, rollin on the (Saigon) river

Working for the man, every night and day… big wheel keeps on turnin,

River boat dining provides another view of Saigon Water front.

Hotel Majestic, Sheraton and Sun Wah guests look at you (dining on the river boat), while you look at them.

Tourists are still coming in drove and enjoying a night out.

From the gang-plank, I can see the unlit barge along side (and small speed boat, not Somalian though). Years ago, those barges carried human cargo. Mass of humanity, helplessly clung to the hope of a new tomorrow out there in the open seas. The “mini-mass” are trickling back. First as tourists, in cognito and blended in with Asian and Westerner counterparts.

Slowly, the feel of the place gets more at home: high-end hair salon and spa,

organized tours and menu in dollars.

District 7 now has  Lotte Mall, Parkson Mall and Crescent Mall. The view from those District 7  shopping centers and supermarkets in South Saigon could trick you into thinking you were somewhere else but Vietnam.

Construction crew heck away. English classes plow away. And of course supermarket registers chuck chink on. Reminds me of a childhood poem Au Marche, with glistening fish (reflecting the sun in open air market).

The Rock and rollers are getting older by the day, pony tail or not. But “you’re  still the one, I want” and of course, Proud Mary.

Rollin, rollin, rollin on the river. Tina Turner once said, despite her nth time performing that number, she has a way to deliver it differently each time.

I guess Saigon is like that song. You got to discover it anew, each time.

And who said you can’t swim in the same river twice. I just did, floating in the same river on two completely different vessels and traversing in opposite direction. Same river. that carries the process called Revietnamization.