Am.Not.So.Wise

What am I talking about? You either don’t understand or disagree, you are normal I’m probably not.

Doctors say that minor illness from time to time is good to your health; we do lots of things during the day trying to stay alive or doing things that are good for health. Stop and think about this, you’ll know in fact this isn’t completely true.

Some intelligent people, I mean those really intelligent people, they may think that they are ahead of everyone else around them most of the time. At least some of the smart people I know are thinking like that. There are of course smart intelligent people out there that are also very wise, they are mostly doing something good for the human kind or making a dent in the Universe.

To some of them intelligence, either acquired or gifted, is illness without symptoms in my opinion. Until the symptoms surfaced they wouldn’t know they have been carrying that illness all along. Because they don’t see symptoms (funny enough we dumb people see these symptoms clearly), and are not suffering from anything, they will not look for a cure. In some cases there are lots of so called friends, colleagues (those that pretend to be intelligent too) around these intelligent people dosing additional poisonous praises.

It’s a great pity for them, especially those intelligent and lucky ones, that words like defeat failure setback aren’t vocabulary in their dictionary.

I was talking to a young fellow recently who is working for a very intelligent boss (his word, not mine). I gave him a puzzle to solve, i.e. a magician gives him only one chance to open either one of 2 boxes, one containing his strengths another his weaknesses, which one he’ll pick to open and see inside?

I prefer to be dumb (healthy and wise) most of the time and get smart (illness) only once in a while.

I don’t mind to be unfortunate as well, misfortune is blessing in disguise anyway!

This is a must see if you like old photos. You don’t like old photos? Congratulations you are too young and you can skip this blog of mine!

This year I am lucky to have grabbed a desktop calendar with old photos donated by Hedda Morrison (1908 – 1991).

Let’s look at Hong Kong 70 years ago when even your dad/mom were young kids.

Friend of mine just forwarded me one of those circular emails, this one is meaningful requiring deep thoughts.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed..

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else—the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter.

Set your priorities.

The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.

The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’

The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

I do go out with friends once in a while but not for a couple of beers for me instead I take Coke or lemon water. I don’t play golf at all so I started to learn jogging due to the findings from routine medical checkups. The philosophy behind an analogy like the above can be easily understood but the trouble is that when it comes to choosing your golf balls for life most people have a misconception that his mayonnaise jar is infinitely large and couldn’t tell sand from golf ball.

There is however one dimension that the above analogy has omitted, i.e. time. The Jar doesn’t last forever don’t believe that you may have a second chance to replace the pebbles or sand with golf balls you like later on.

The ability to pick between golf balls, pebbles and sand depends largely on one’s value system and life experience. If the above was really taught in philosophy class (we don’t have this in our education system) students will still be putting the wrong stuff into their jar believing that they could always turn his/her jar upside down and start again.

How many times you could turn your life upside down and start again?

I attended HKQAA’s Symposium 2008 yesterday. It was about Corporate Social Responsibility and the forthcoming ISO 26000 for CSR. There was also an interesting topic about a survey on Work-life balance in Hong Kong by Ms Shalini Mahtani of Community Business.

One of the findings is that biggest WLB challenges for men is the well being of wealth and that for women is leader’s attitude. For me the finding for the women is very interesting.

This is quite the opposite to common sense. I know of many western bosses who are gentlemen and respect the needs of a women especially those working women with kids. I have not heard of a female boss who does the same on their female subordinates. Why, couldn’t the female boss see the needs of a female who works for her?

I’m not a professional to analyze this. I could only apply an analogy, i.e. mom-in-law relationship with the wife. A mom-in-law should understand what it’s like in managing the relationship with her husband’s mother because she has served her time. Why is she still be harsh on the young generation instead of being understanding. The mom-in-law said “…. I endured the hardship when situations were a lot worse than what it’s now, why couldn’t you do what I’m expecting of you …. you are simply just not good enough for my son who deserves someone better like me ….”.