We produce articles and newsletters on a range of topics related to Taiwan, business, learning, creativity and other stuff. Some of them are posted here, but the best way to get them is to register as a member and then sign up to receive the newsletters you want via your profile.
Some questions occured to me the other day while driving across town during the rush hour. In Taiwan, rush hour traffic is directed by taxi drivers who park up their cabs and stand in the middle of busy intersections, risking their lives and sanity for the greater good.
On this occasion I was coming from a conversation about motivation and commitment, and how they are often lacking in employees in 'normal' jobs. But watching these guys made me realise that the problem is not universal. There are people in Taiwan who make extraordinary efforts to do a good job, but we often don't notice them. So here are a few observations about taxi drivers directing traffic:
I've been talking a lot recently with Elias about how we use technology in our professional lives: diaries, contact lists, mails, SMS, networking, etc.
It's especially relevant to me because I use the Enspyre virtual office service to increase my efficiency and maintain the highest level of customer service possible. I have a secretary in an office and I'm constantly on the move, just like many other small business people. All of the data we both need has to be organised, accessible, and used to best advantage - but I constantly find myself screaming because I can't do things that I know I should be able to.
It's a question of making technologies work together in a way that can be replicated by anyone even without the resources of a major company behind them - and without signing up to a service that ties you to one particular company. So we've decided to commit to achieving a few goals before my birthday in September:
Last month I created a mailing list of absolutely everyone I know, have ever met, or even just happened to exchange emails or business cards with. The goal was to start the process of bringing my "relationship management" under control.
You can think of it as updating my Christmas card list, or as internet marketing, it's the same thing. We keep in contact with people in order to maintain relationships that are rewarding to us in some way. The rewards can be friendship, business, favours, anything. If you don't talk to people then you don't maintain the relationship. By using technology we should be better able to manage these relationships - at least that's what they tell us then they sell us this stuff - so I decided to give it a go. The result was a semi-disaster that I'm still trying to fix, but let me briefly mention some of the good that came of it.
The first issue of the "Learning English" newsletter was delayed because we all got very excited while discussing what to include, and the list of topics just kept on growing. We've decided to limit it to just "Myths About Learning English" - there are plenty of them in Taiwan and we have lots to say on this topic. For starters, read the statement below and decide what you think:
"The education system in Taiwan is not very good and local teachers don't speak good English. Taiwanese people can usually write good English, but don't speak well and are afraid to try because we don't have much chance to practise. And we do badly in international tests because they always talk about subjects we don't study. The tests are created for people from a European background. I need to find a foreign teacher who will correct my mistakes and teach me more vocabulary so that I can produce better English sentences. Good English sentences are long and use lots of idioms. If I know lots of slang my English will be more like a native-speaker."
Most Taiwanese people agree with most of what is written above, but in fact it's all untrue. In the next few weeks we will be sending you short articles that will PROVE this. It will be interesting to see what you think, and what your friends think, so please tell everyone you know to sign up for the newsletters!
One of my students told me something wonderful last night, and I want to share it with the world.
It
has to do with the power of positive thinking, improvised comedy,
success in our endeavours, an advertising slogan used by a famous
sportswear company, and the ritual humiliation of English teachers in
high schools. It may also be relevant to students of Leonardo Da Vinci
and Sun Tzu, but it begins with a question I really didn't want to
answer a few weeks ago:
I've committed to going from "couch potato" to being able to run 5km in six weeks. I've copied this training schedule from Runner's World , and will be reporting on how I'm doing regularly. Check back often to encourage me!
It's the end of August and I'm too busy with real life to add much to the site, which is a pity because there's a lot going on and I really need to find time to write everything up.
I'm finally commiting to another PassionQuest month , over a month late, which means I should be adding at least a page a day to the site. And as my "development" goal for the month is to add one new idea a day at my ingeniousity site that's going to be a tall order!
I've had a bit of a depressing week, largely because a few projects didn't work out as planned and I lost enthusiasm for a while. But I've picked myself up with the help of my new friend Conrad, who can be heard running around my house at night. He's obviously having a great time, and - although the situation is very different - it reminded me of the famous story about Robert Bruce of Scotland.
Many people are scared of spiders, and there's no way I'm going to touch him, but in reality he's harmless. Having him in the house also reminds me that our ideas are usually our biggest problems. So, I'm focusing on one particular problem and making it the theme of PassionQuest month - I keep delaying starting because I'm not "inspired" enough, but really it's up to me to inspire myself. And I had a big reminder of this recently due to an event near to my house.
This temple is close to my home, and one night recently I was disturbed by fire engines screaming towards it. As you can see, it appeared to be on fire - although in fact the smoke came from a smaller building behind it. But whichever building was burning, it's an important reminder: things can change at ay time, you never know what's going to happen to you.
Whenever we get stuck or depressed we need to remember that we could be living our last few minutes. A fire, earthquake, war, typhoon, road accident, disease, or any one of a thousand other events could happen at any moment and totally destroy the lives we are leading. Of course, everyone says "it won't happen to me" but these things happen every day - and they have to happen to someone. That someone could be you! I've been reading about this a lot recently, and it seems that most people really have no understanding of what risks they face, and what is imaginary.
I was thinking about this a while ago, and again this morning in a restaurant. The story is kind of sad, and the end conclusion is that I'm a loser! The only way to change this is to force myself to face reality instead of worrying about the wrong things.
Here's the story: I was in a restaurant, and I saw a beautiful girl with a group of other people. She was obviously interesting and funny, as well as very sexy, because all the other girls were listening and laughing with her - she was the leader of the group and incredibly desirable. But I didn't have the balls to walk over and say hello - fear of what might happen is always stronger than the certainty of what we know - even if we know that doing nothing will achieve nothing. When I left the restaurant, I hated myself because I couldn't take the opportunity that was in front of me - even though I knew I might never have another chance.
This was the original inspiration behind PassionQuest, and today I was reminded of this by seeing yet another lovely lady that I didn't dare talk to. So now I'm all fired up to begin my next PassionQuest month.... but I'm doing it a bit differently from the last time!
This time, I have to carry my camera with me at all times. Every day, instead of simply looking for thngs that make me happy, I will add one photograph every day to a new section of the site called "Who's Hot?" - I have to seek out and photograph the most attractive girls I see in Taipei. I also have to introduce myself and invite them to take a look at the site.
Hopefully, after a month of doing this I won't be so useless. And I'll also have a nice collection of photographs to look at with Conrad.
Well, the new site is up and I finally managed to send a mail to everyone I've ever met. Ten hours later and I've already received a lot of replies, some of it offering advice and criticisms. (The new me welcomes criticism, just be polite as it's not easy.)
The big question is "what is this site for?" and I don't really have a good answer. So if you can think of a use for it then give it a try. One person wants to use it to host a group of people who work in the same profession as she does. Great! Go ahead. Just register and then click the button marked "groups".
Another person wants to publish articles here. Again, great! If you write something and want to publish it then send it to me. The theme should be anything to do with education or business in Taiwan: study tips, marketing advice, interview skills, how to negotiate with foreigners, how to negotiate with Taiwanese, etc. We're trying to build better businesses by building better employees, so anything that helps people be better at what they do is always welcome. Or if you're doing something cool and interesting then share that too. Cool and interesting is always good.
You can use this site to run a hobby club, find people to help you with a project, ask and answer questions, and lots lots more. If required I can add forums, project management tools, event calendars, all sorts of stuff. It really depends on what creative uses you have for a full-feature Web 2.0 facility
Let me have your suggestions for ways to improve or make better use of this site, and all the people that use it, and I'll do my best to help. Helping my friends is the best way to stay friends.
(The pictures are not relevant at all, but I kind of like them. The
first one is from the annual 'ghost parade' in Jilong, and features an
authentic Chinese dragon, for my friends overseas. The other, well, I
can't think of an excuse to post it so I'll just post it without an
excuse.)
Only 24 hours to go and I've done about 1/3 of what I set out to do on Monday. Disaster!
I have been trying to get this site finished for months, so that I can send a mail to everyone I know and tell them about it. But there always seems to be something preventing me from finishing.... so if you find something wrong or missing then it's because I decided to follow some good advice given to me by a friend a few years ago: "You don't have to get it perfect. You have to get it going!"
In other words, I can continue to try and do the impossible, or I can work with what I have and get started. If you're one of my students then there's a lesson in that for you. Instead of studying more vocabulary, you should focus on making better use of what you know now. The biggest barrier to success in Taiwan is that people always have reasons why they can't do anything yet, but they're just excuses.
Do it now! Use the feedback you get to improve your performance in future, don't wait until it's perfect, because it never will be.
It's a beautiful day today, so here's a pic of a Taiwan flag fluttering in the wind.
A great day today, with the latest in a series of development meetings at Enspyre.
We met with Gus, who has just started a business angels network . Business angels are people who invest in small companies to help them grow or just to get started. He's keen to work with Enspyre to help increase the range of services that we can offer to companies in Taiwan.
We can now provide customer service, training, finance, and we've also just added translation. From tomorrow we will be managing the Taiwan office of Star Translation, a global company with 47 offices worldwide. This gives us access to thousands of translators worldwide who are used to providing technical documentation and marketing material for exporting companies. Obviously, there is a big need for that in Taiwan, so it's a great additional service to have.
Perhaps equally importantly, it changes the way we do business. We will be merging two offices together and that means we need to move to somewhere a lot bigger. (Enspyre's old office has become too small anyway, due to the continued growth of the company.) So we have an opportunity to improve not only our image, but also the working environment. The importance of this was something we discussed a lot at the hiring seminar last week and I'm hoping to involve Jeremy in setting up the new place as a first step towards building The Lab.
