Even More Super Fit CEOs

Wa! Many CEOs actually find time to work out!!! What a paradox! They are the most busiest (interpret as have the least amount of free time daily) but yet still can find time...

Another Super Fit CEO Henrik Kjellberg

Henrik Kjellberg bikes (25km) and runs (14km) to and fro his workplace daily, does Ironmans and ultra-marathons. He shares on the benefits of exercise, particular, on how exercise improves the softer aspects of him.

Super Fit CEO Strauss Zelnick

Strauss Zelnick is the CEO of a couple of companies. He should be very busy but yet can find time to exercise. What excuse do I have?

Swimming Legend

He is the winner of the most number of individual Olympic gold medals. He is the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history. He has ADHD. He is Michael Phelps.

Open Our Hearts More

This FB video reminds me to empathise with those around us more, don't judge, open our hearts more.

Reminds me of these other videos. Do we always need supernatural powers to achieve this?

Chen Looks after Parents

9-year-old Chen's parents are mentally unsound. Chen does dirty linen, cooks, bathes her mum, ensures that her mum takes her medication on time and also ensures that mum doesn't run around. She is strong. Can sense that all she wants is to be a normal child in a normal family. But she doesn't complain. Her humble wish is to eat a meal cooked by her mum. Sensible kid.

Yang Lives in the Mountains by Himself

12-year-old Yang has lived on his own for over 5 years. He tries out different vegetables (looks more like leaves/grass to me) in the mountain to see which are edible, invents his own trap to catch fish, cooks his own meals, His survival instincts and street smartness are truly remarkable!

Iron Nun

Started at 48 years old and at 86 years old, completed more than 40 Ironmans! Age is not a barrier! 

The only barrier is not to try.

- Sister Madonna Buder

创意

创意就是跟没有借东西。

我们人类喜欢规律。东西做久了就变成习惯。这样比较安全嘛。因为这样，我们也局限自己。看同样的电视节目，跟同样的朋友吃饭。想法绕来绕去也在同样的框框。“跟没有借东西”是最容易记和实行的方法。让自己天马行空多一点吧。

Book Notes: The Paradox of Choice Why Less is More by Barry Schwartz

Peak-end rule: "what we remember about the pleasurable quality of our past experiences is almost entirely determined by two things: how the experiences felt when they were at their peak (best or worst), and how they felt when they ended."

No doubt we have more access to information, especially from the Internet, to make decisions from. But because of clever advertising and marketing, we may be blinded. Humans also have certain psychological quirks that prevent us from making sense of information objectively eg, aversion to loss.

Maximisers vs Satisficers - Maximisers are less satisfied.

The main portion of the book discusses why we suffer when making decisions. They are interesting for us to understand ourselves better. The last chapter of the book sums up with actionable steps that we could take to make our lives easier:

What to Do About Choice

1. Choose When to Choose. “Two options is my limit” rule - visit no more than two stores when shopping for clothing or to consider no more than two locations when planning a vacation.
2. Be a Chooser, Not a Picker. Choosers have the time to modify their goals; pickers do not. Choosers have the time to avoid following the herd; pickers do not. Good decisions take time and attention, and the only way we can find the needed time and attention is by choosing our spots.
3. Satisfice More and Maximize Less. Knowing what is "good enough".
4. Think About the Opportunity Costs of Opportunity Costs. Strategies to avoid the disappointment that comes from thinking about opportunity costs:
1. Unless you’re truly dissatisfied, stick with what you always buy.
2. Don’t be tempted by “new and improved.”
3. Don’t “scratch” unless there’s an “itch.”
4. And don’t worry that if you do this, you’ll miss out on all the new things the world has to offer.
5. Make Your Decisions Nonreversible
6. Practice an “Attitude of Gratitude”
7. Regret Less. Mitigate regret by
1. Adopting the standards of a satisficer rather than a maximizer.
2. Reducing the number of options we consider before
3. making a decision.
4. Practicing gratitude for what is good in a decision rather than focusing on our disappointments with what is bad.
8. Anticipate Adaptation. To be better prepared for, and less disappointed by adaptation:
1. As you buy your new car, acknowledge that the thrill won’t be quite the same two months after you own it.
2. Spend less time looking for the perfect thing (maximizing), so that you won’t have huge search costs to be “amortized” against the satisfaction you derive from what you actually choose.
3. Remind yourself of how good things actually are instead of focusing on how they’re less good than they were at first.
9. Control Expectation. To make the task of lowering expectations easier:
1. Reduce the number of options you consider.
2. Be a satisficer rather than a maximizer.
3. Allow for serendipity.
10. Curtail Social Comparison:
1. Remember that “He who dies with the most toys wins” is a bumper sticker, not wisdom.
2. Focus on what makes you happy, and what gives meaning to your life.
11. Learn to Love Constraints

偶然与赌博

事事真的无绝对。那天女儿跟我讨论起到底这世上有没有完美这回事。真没想到她这个年龄会更我讨论这么philosophical的话题。

我认为，只有两样东西是绝对的-serendipity和gamble.

Serendipity

从古至今，成功都是偶然的。Steve Jobs和Steve Wozniak起初只想着帮朋友做电脑。怎么知道发起了后来全世界最有价值的公司。马云只想着帮中小企业把东西放上网卖。怎么知道会发起了网购王国。从来没有成功的企业一心只想赚最多的钱。因为一有这样的理念他们必定会没落。他们会偷工减料。他们会有歪念。他们会变奸商。

Gamble

人生何尝不是一场大赌局？我可以吃的健康，多运动, 我还是不知道我几时会挂。一些抽了一辈子烟的人能活到80-90岁。一些注重保健的人却英年早逝。难怪抽烟的人还是继续抽。我可以竭尽所能，鞠躬尽瘁，今年升值加薪的还不包是我。我的球可以练得出神入化。没错，我赢球的几率是提高了。最后的结局还是得靠点运气。

photo credit: Amusement City Casino via photopin (license)

Video Notes: 生死的智慧 - 柯文哲

怎样才是算是活着？

人生的目的不是死亡。死亡是全部人的终点。人生的目的是寻找人生的目的。

荣华富贵只不过是一陀大便。

嘿，“没有”！我要跟你借。。。

许荣宏在TEDx Taipei非常精彩的演讲。很简单的讯息。不但不要注意我们的没有，还要向“没有”借idea. 脑经转一转，用另一个角度看，试着想想怎么把没有的东西变有。这就是创新，这就是乐观。不只是叫自己乐观面对，而是扭转局势。像Nick Vujicic一样。

听华语激励演讲刺到心里去了。是看到黄皮肤比较亲切吗？

我要先向哪一个没有借东西？

Happiness Comes Before Success

There you go. May not be the most foolproof experiment. Happiness leads to success.

Have a Little More Empathy

Heard this story about a man on subway from one of Tony Robbins' audio. Found the story on Youtube told by Stephen Covey himself:

Made me recall this video that I watched sometime back and left a deep impression on me:

While scouring for the above videos, also saw this video that is equally meaningful.

Before lashing out on someone or think that you are the unluckiest one in the world, think again.

Book Notes: Money, Master the Game, 7 Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins

Interesting: Singapore holds record for spending $4000 per household per year on lottery. 

Compound interest as a powerful tool 

William 

• Start retirement account at 20
• invest $4000 annually until 40 (20 years in all)
• Stop funding the account at 40, left money to grow at 10% return
• 2.5 mil

James

• Start retirement account at 40
• Invest $4000 annually until 65 (25 years in all)
• 10% return
• $400,000

Benjamin Franklin

• left $1000 for Boston and Philadelphia
• after 100 years, withdraw $500,000 for public work projects
• rest invested for another 100 years.
• 8% annually
• in 1990 = $6.5 mil (3000%)

Our earned income will never bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to be. 

Sir John Templeton 

• find bargains at the point of maximum pessimism
• Secret to wealth - gratitude
• When you’re grateful, there is no fear;
• when you’re grateful, there is no anger.

The secret to living is giving. 

Life is about creating meaning. Meaning comes from what you give. 

The ultimate significance in life comes from a sense of self esteem for ourselves, which is something we can never get from someone else. What matters is what you think about yourself. Whether or not you believe that deep inside you are continuing to grow and push yourself, to do more and give more than was comfortable or you even thought was possible. 

The fastest way to feel connection, a sense of how significant your life is, a deep sense of certainty and variety, and put yourself in a state where you can give to others, is to find a way each day to appreciate more and expect less. 

9 Financial Myths

Myth 1: Mutual funds work

96% of actively managed mutual funds fail to beat the market over any sustained period of time

Myth 2: Mutual funds fees are insignificant

Invest $100,000 at 35 to 65 at 7% annually

At 65,

less 3% annual annual fees = $324,340

less 2% annual annual fees = $432,194

less 1% annual annual fees = $574,349

Myth 3: Average return

Beware of how returns are being marketed

Myth 4: Brokers help you - They don’t

Myth 5 is on 401(k), Myth 6 is on Target-Date Funds, Myth 7 is on annuities - not really relevant to Singapore context

Myth 8: Huge risks, huge rewards - talks about structured notes, market-linked CDs and fixed indexed annuities as safer forms of investments

Myth 9: The lies we tell ourselves - is about motivation, the stories we tell ourselves, changing our states and our stories.

Knowing How Much Do You Need to Retire

Www.tonyrobbins.com/masterthegame - for app to determine how much is needed to retire

Change your story, change your life

Speed It Up

1. Save more

Save on mortgage, save on car etc.

2. Earn more 

All you have to do to earn more money in the same amount of time is to become more valuable- Jim Rohn

3. Reduce fees and taxes

4. Explore living in foreign city

How to Invest?

Do asset allocation - diversification to mitigate risk

• Security/Peace of Mind Bucket
• Risk/Growth Bucket
• David Swensen thinks ETF are for trading and not holding for the long run.
• Jack Bogle says if you are 40 years old, 60% should go to equities in your risk/growth bucket, 40% in bonds in Security Bucket.
• Dream Bucket

Do dollar cost averaging and rebalancing

Lifetime Income Plan 

Ray Dalios shared All Seasons Portfolio Allocation

Use of annuities 

Invest Like the .001%: The Billionaire’s Playbook

Warren Buffett says put 10% in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low cost S&P500 index fund.

3 Decisions that determine the quality of your life

1. What are you going to focus on?
2. What does this mean?
3. What am I going to do?

How to spend money to increase happiness

1. investing in experiences - travel, learn new skill
2. buying time for yourself - outsource mundane tasks
3. investing in others - give money away

Video Notes: Sugar, The Bitter Truth by Robert Lustig, MD

Ranked by sweetness:

Fructose (lab) - 170

HFCS - 120

Sucrose - 100

Glucose - 74

Lactose (milk sugar) - 15

HFCS = sucrose (table sugar)

HFCS and sucrose are poison. Both contain fructose. 

• Fructose 7x more likely to cause browning of blood vessels than glucose. 
• Fructose does not suppress hunger hormones - we eat more even when full. 
• Eating too much fructose cause:
• Type 2 Diabetes
• Heart attack
• Hypertension
• Obesity

Juice contains sucrose. 

Low fat food usually contain more HFCS to improve taste. 

LDL can be broken down into 2 types - one good one bad. Low triglyceride (1+) and high HDL (1.5+) suggest more of good LDL. 

Fast food = fibre less food, to cook faster and last longer. 

Compare:

120 kcal glucose (2 pcs of bread)

• 96 kcal use by body.
• 24 kcal reach the liver.
• glucose turn into glycogen in liver, but is harmless.
• tells brain that you are full.
• ~1/2 kcal turn into VLDL (cause heart disease, obesity), but not so bad.

120 kcal ethanol

• 24 kcal absorbed by body and brain
• 96 kcal reach the liver - damages liver
• a lot more VLDL created

120 kcal sucrose (a glass of orange juice, sucrose = 1/2 fructose + 1/2 glucose)

• 60 kcal fructose (not used by other cells in body, all go to the liver) + 12 kcal glucose reach liver
• a lot more VLDL created
• produces chemicals that stops telling brain to stop eating => vicious cycle

fructose => uric acid up => gout, hypertension, high blood pressure

Chronic fructose exposure cause same problems as chronic ethanol exposure

Exercise is good, not for burning calories. For reducing stress, appetite goes down. 

Fiber is good. Wherever there is fructose in nature, there is fibre. That’s why fruits are ok. Fiber tells brains that we are full earlier.

Drinking chocolate milk is like drinking a cup of milk + 1/2 a cup of orange juice.

 Coke is 10.5% sucrose.

The earlier kids are exposed to sweet, the more they are going to crave for it later.

The doc's recommendation:

Audio Notes: 23 Tips to Uncover What to do With Your Life (When You have no Clue)

I listened to this episode and also went through the notes over and over again today. It is one of those times when I feel that what they were discussing about totally resonates with me. The hosts filled in the missing pieces of my jigsaw puzzle. Focus on solving problems for someone and learn skills along the way keep resounding in my head. And I created my own notes:

What to do:

1. Solve problem for someone. Find a problem you think you could solve for someone - Focus on a very specific crew with a very specific problem and make a very specific thing for them. 
   1. Why: Because learning is much more interesting when you apply it to a real problem.
   2. Tip #1: Reading, traveling, talking to people in other careers and even doing different kinds of work.
   3. Tip #2: Do something that’s hot and new where few people are experts. Eg, Bitcoin, intermittent fasting. 
2. Build a small, focused thing. Clear, targeted, focused, it’s built to do one thing well. Give it a timeline.
3. Do it with someone.
4. Keep the following mentality:
   1. What’s obvious to you is amazing to others.    
   2. Give it time. give yourself time and space to explore and develop.
   3. You don’t know what that thing you think you want is actually like. 
   4. Entrepreneurship is a long journey of many short cycles.
   5. Think of expertise not as an absolute thing, but as a continuum.
   6. Live your life. The point isn’t to find the thing you’re an expert at, it’s to enjoy yourself and your world. You will always be so much more than your niche.
   7. EVERYTHING is a gamble and there are NO right answers. Get Comfortable with the discomfort of no guarantees.

Video Notes: Make Me A German (BBC Documentary)

This video was telecast back in 2013. My video notes:

Economy

• Small, medium enterprises, known as Mittelstands, like Faber Castell employs 2/3 of German’s workforce. It may be a SME, but Faber Castell produces 1/6 of the world’s pencils. It is the leading exporter after China and USA. 
• Mittelstands stay with traditional products, stay away from computers, stay as SMEs and try to do whatever they are doing really well.

Company

• Company built loyalty employee through subsidising meals etc. 
• Communal responsibility rewarded by shared team bonus. 
• CEO-level representation of women in Germany is two per cent.

People

• Germans work the shortest hours in Europe.  
• German work attitude – start work at 7.49am on the average. 8 hour day include an hour for lunch. More productive. Don’t use mobile phones, Facebook, no gossip, no private email during work. 
• Highly regard manufacturing skills. Go for apprenticeship at around 15 years old. Work at Mittelstand often for life. 
• Cautious with spending. 
• Value job security.
• Good tax break if wife is not working. 2/3 of mums with children under 3 are stay-at-home mums. Tradition – don’t want children to be in nursery for whole day. Stigma for mums that go out to work: Rabenmutter - a raven mother – one who doesn’t care about her children.
• They join clubs being part of a community. 
• Get horns when make mistakes on road.
• Against the law to be noisy on Sundays.

Education

• Forest kindergarten. Children create own games, interact with nature. German kids in school only by 6. 

Book Notes: A Gift to My Children by Jim Rogers

A nice easy read written by Jim Rogers to his 2 children. Much of the wisdom is what we wish for our own children.

My key takeaways from this book:

• Think for yourself and don't be affect by others' opinion. It is ok to be different. Think different. Do not seek to follow the crowd. The news may not be true, even history books may not be all true. Do your own homework. Be hardworking. Be confident.
• Jim got me interested in studying how economic events affect stock market cycles. Perhaps I will look at Singapore's market for a start. He thinks that nothing is new. Everything that is going to happen has happened before.
• Learn to speak Mandarin and English. China will rise to be a superpower. Jim thinks in the 21st century, 
• Invest. Save and invest. Let time work in your favour.

Just reading the level 2 outline of the book can give you a rough idea of what the book is about:

1. Swim your own races: do not let others do your thinking for you
• Decide for yourself 
• Donna de Varona: "I always used to watch the other swimmers, but then I learned to ignore them and swim my own races"
• If anyone laughs at your ideas, view it as a sign of potential success!
• Be who you are. Be original! Be bold! 
• Be ethical
• Save
2. Focus on what you like
• Age is irrelevant when you are passionate about a goal
• Dedicate yourself to what you are passionate about 
• Try as many things as you can, then pursue one/two/three you are passionate about 
• Even if you don't become wealthy pursuing your passion, you will be rich in satisfaction
3. Good habit for life and investing
• Be a self starter
• Under promise, over deliver
• Attention to details is what separates success from failure 
• I put in 5 hours for studying an exam. I never stopped studying
• Live your life with a dream
4. Common sense? Not so common 
• Most perceived wisdom is a misconception. 
• Don't blindly accept what you hear or read. 
• The media often propagate s conventional wisdom
• Cross check info from media
5. Your education part I: let the world be a part of your perspective
• Don't rely on books;go and see the world!
• Understand the significance of BRICS
• Bullish about Brazil and China, bearish about Russia, skeptical about India 
• Brazil produce sugar, raw material of alternative energy ethanol. 
• Russia will break up into many countries. 
• Russia will not increase supply of commodities -> bullish on commodities. 
• India stifling bureaucracy and lack of infrastructure 
• Be open to people who are different, at home or abroad
• Keep an open mind and be a world citizen 
6. Your education part II: learn philosophy; learn to "think"
• Philosophy will teach you to think for yourself. 
• Think outside established framework 
• Examine things independently 
• Do current writings on philosophy help us to think?
• Reflect on situations where conventional wisdom and customs turned out to be wrong 
• The two ways of thinking. 
• Draw conclusion from observations 
• Based on logic 
• Don't neglect the bear
7. Your education part III: learn history!!! 
• A macroscopic view of the world is what you need
• Which history book tells us the truth?
• Connect your knowledge of history with your travel
• History will show you which forces drive markets
• Nothing is really new
8. Your education part IV: learn languages (and make sure mandarin is one of them)
• Mandarin will be the next global language
9. It is the century of China 
• Pay attention to the major changes taking place in the world now
• Spain dominated 16th century
• France most prosperous 200 years later
• Great Britain dominated 19th century
• America dominated 20th century
• China will dominate 21st century
• buy chinese stocks and buy the future of the country!
• A hard landing cannot be avoided!
• Hard landing like those in 1989 and 1994 -> good time to buy shares
• China equals commodities
10. Know thyself by understanding your weaknesses and acknowledging your mistakes
• Know who you are
• People are easily carried away by mob psychology
• Do not panic; learn the psychology
• Selling hysteria
11. Recognise change ad embrace it
• Everything changes. Everything
• No one has defied the principle of supply and demand and survived
• Change can be a catalyst
• Dealing with change
12. Look to the future!
• Everyone would be a millionaire if he could read a newspaper from the future
• Many countries will come apart
• Do not place your bets on that which is dying out
• The women's era is approaching
• Pay attention to what everybody else neglects 
• To most certain something is, the less likely it is to be profitable
• Do not think in times of what you wish
• Know when not to do anything
13. Lady Luck smiles on those who continue in their efforts
• Do your homework or you will end up with a glass bead (instead of a diamond)
• The arrogant are blind to the truth
• Do not stop when you are working toward your dream
• Pass this message onto your child