What have I Leant today?

1) people you think are uninterested may infacf have great ideas and be very willing to contribute should they be given the right opportunity and the feeling of inclusion

2) something special has begun as a result of today.

3) people are succeptible to violent mood swing which u cannot control. You can however control your reaction to it and ensure the negativity is not aggravated

4) providing autonomy and influence leads to creative and productive work

Ok. The shozu blogger thing provides too list text space. Having to re blog has made me lose my train of thought. More on that later.

Ive recently been swept by the entrepreneurship bug. I would like to be a serial entrepreneur. All I need is a series of high potential ideas.

At present I have one and it's surrounds developing spb into a fully functioning business with us greatly expanding our services out of the traditional performing aspect. My only concern is how labour intensive this business is. At most, these added services should take 3 physical hours and two electronic hours per person. More on that later.

Many hands make light work, so the saying goes. Let's throw in the unspoken nuances. Many efficient hands on the same wavelenght makes light work.

More than the very first idea, The most important aspect of starting a business is the human capital. It's like picking a football team.

You need the no nonsence workhorses marshalling the backline. Those are the players that will earnestly do as their told. Research this, create that.

Then up in the front we have the creative ones, creating opportunies

Miss Summer 2009

So kids, back in the summer of 2007, your uncle Ish and I were on a rampage. It was all about killer movies, ground shaking bhangra performances, parties, pretty girls, wild car rides and road trips with bhangra blasting across the highway.

The summer of 2007 will forever remain in our memories. Sadly, the summer of 2008 was different. Ish was busy with Regional Bhangra Competition practice and I was busy training for Alaska. I left at the start of July and Ish was left without a wing man.

But we are here again, that special time where uni takes a back seat and we suddenly have all the time in the world. Somethings missing though. There is the two of us, but, going by the 07 formula, we need a girl. Aditi was there to provide the added excitement. Who's gonna be our summer girl this year?

Applications are open people. This is the criteria:

• Single
• Attractive
• Can stay out late
• Lives in the east (for fun carpools to blasting bhangra)

Apply soon to avoid disappointment.

Test

This is a test blog post from the iPhone

Investing in Excellence

As my friends would know, I would like to be a sports psychologist when i grow up (yes i'm still very young). Not the research kinda of psychologist. No way. I wanna be the inspirational guru, the one that gives the players the self belief of a lion fighting a deer!

I want to work with the players, preferably in secondary school and junior college, so as to help them harness the mental strength in them to compete against the best. Not only that, my skills will enable me to help them deal with the other challenges facing them, social pressures, recovery from injury and even planing their overall training program.

So yes, a sports psychologist is what i want to be.

I'm starting now.

I've enrolled myself in this course, Investment in Excellence, developed by The Pacific Institute. The former President of the Canadian Psychological Association calls their curriculum the best and most applicable use of psychology for the betterment of the human race. They collaborated with leading social and cognitive psychologist, Bandura and Seligman in for a program designed to raise your self image through positive self talk, affirmations and visualization.

I must say that the course is made of some very good stuff. The difficulty lies in assimilating all the great information into ones everyday life. Fortunately, there is lots of great take home matierial, including an audio CD with 5-10 minute tracks to keep you aware of the the way you think.

Think optimally, be a champion.

Anyway, today was the 3rd day of the course. Here's the gang. I'm the youngest amongst a group of very esteemed individuals. Listening to the introductions of these super successful individuals makes me very honored to be in their company, learning and sharing together. 

The tall guy on the right is one of the two people who brought the program to Singapore. Ray Jefferson, he lost his fingers while serving for the US commando forces a few years ago. As of 5 days ago, he got confirmed as an Assistant Minister for Barrack Obama. He's heading Obama's support for war veterans (who are the social group with the highest unemployment rate apparently), getting them retrained, off the streets and into good jobs. 

Amongst the others are Mckinsey Consultants, one of the head auditors of the Indonesian anti corruption division, the founder of Wand Inspiration yada yada yada. Coolness! 

So anyway, this course is the first in a series of 3 courses for me this summer. The second course ill be taking is PX2, basically something similar, designed for youth and sportsmen. Finally, ill be going for the PX2 facilitators course. Then ill be all legit to give talks and help improve the mental skills of youth! Pure awesomeness!

Whats the price im paying for all this? 6 weeks of my time serving Sara (the lady standing second from the right) as her free intern in her consulting/training company, Callahan Associates.

Doing things i've never done before

Ok so i have to say it.

Mac Rocks!

I'm doing things i've never done before, just cos its easy. 

In the first week i got my mac, I started editing my own small videos using iMovie. It took me all of 5 minutes. Last wednesday, i designed my first poster (see two post down) using Pages. Now i'm 1/2 way through building my own website. 

I remember always having to solicit the help of others for these things. But now i don't feel afraid of these task anymore. A lot more productive now!

Yeah! Go get a mac! 

Too bad there have been reports recently released off a new virus designed to hit the once impenetrable mac. I'm hoping its just some anti virus company trying to scare the growing population of mac users into buying their product.

The Lemon Law

Have you watched 'How I met your mother?'

I just watched episode 7 of season 1 today and Barney brought up something very interesting: The Lemon Law.

In some US states car users have apolicy when buying a used car. If the car they bought can be proven faulty they are entitled to return it for a refund. In short, it helps reduce the buying of 'Lemons', (makes me wonder if the Lemon mp3 players i saw in sim lim square years back still exist).

Barney, suggested applying Lemon Laws for dating. According to him, in the first five minutes of a date, one should have the right to 'apply the lemon law' to the other party and just walk off if he or she feels the date won't go as one hopes. It's all about first impressions.

As ridiculous as Barney really is, that policy actually makes some sense. One might call such a 'dating system' shallow but if you look at Malcom Gladwell's, 'Blink' (2000), we form impressions of someone within the first seconds of meeting the person. The study of social cognition places  a lot of effort explaining that very phenomenon. 

I think in most cases, the Lemon Law would lead to an accurate rejection of poorly matched dates. Unfortunately, the few potentially good matches that fail to make a first impression will simply go undiscovered.

SPB

Vesakhi passed a couple of days ago. I decided to bring my Macbook to good use by designing a SPB Vesakhi Greeting poster for all our friends, family, supporters and clients. I have to say it was really easy.  

The hard part was actually getting it to be part of the rich text in the email. I had to ask samantha to figure that one out for me. 

Anyone who knows me would attest that SPB has been one of the biggest parts of my life the last few years. Last year i was really tired from everything though and i would only go, not for the bhangra, but for the friends. But that has since changed after my 5 month 'rest' in the States. 

Apart from the needed break, i think we've been doing alot of things different this year. Practices are about fun now. We've made it simple and invited a host of random people to join us in our open sessions. The SPB Open sessions have made bhangra fun again. 

The only reason we could be so relaxed is because we've just been accepting less performances, doing mainly shows that truly excite us. The recent Punjabi Folk Music was fun and we simply cannot wait for this Sunday.

SPB will be performing at the Vesakhi Mela. The crowd there is just insane. Singapore is currently being build by an army of foreign workers. A huge portion of those foreign workers are Punjabis. They are all going to be at the mela and they are gonna be screaming and dancing when our music plays. It's gonna be truly electric. 

Once that is over, we'll be concentrating on some new developments. More details soon when things finalize. All i can say now is that there are going to be a lot of interesting changes. Exciting times ahead. 

Punjabi Music Revival

This guy is my new idol. What a wonderful fusion of east and west.

Click below to view: 

Challa by Rabbi Singh