Kaizen

Kaizen is continuous improvement through elimination of waste. 

Plans

Failing to plan is planning to fail. This sentence holds through for most people. So remember that is good to plan. For instance, someone who has a plan for the day at least can follow the plan for the day and not worry about planning or getting bored. Perhaps it is good to start planning if you are one who hasn't already started doing so. :)

Business idea : Education

How you ever wondered what the best way to perform a certain task is? I believe this happens to everyone ever so often. And the manuals that we are given are just information overload. 

So the way to resolve this issue is to learn off people who has figured out a way to simplify the process. And that is where an education-based business comes into play.

There is a few things that you would need to get it started :

1) A location to hold your classes

2) Material needed to teach the subject matter

3) Practice and industry application of the subject matter

An example would be a yoga class. Some yoga classes would go for $20 per class of 1.5 hours. With a booking of let's say $100, you would just need 5 people to cover your cost. You then implement a yoga type, for instance Bikram Yoga that has over 20 different poses to perform. When the classes get big enough to be about 20 people, you are making a profit of $300 for each class.

The hardest part of this is to build reputation/brand name for yourself but once it is established, the money starts flowing in.

Book review: Bringing Home The Birkin

This book is the biography of Michael Tonello, a Birkin reseller that made lots of money by beating Hermes at its own game. It is a really good read packed with humour and vivid descriptions of the experiences he went through.

It entails how Michael got bored of the usual stuff he was doing as a hair stylist and took the chance to relocate to Barcelona, a place he fell in love with till this day. With meticulous details of how the story unfold, this book is cleverly written.

Look out for his perspective to life, which I find interesting, and also the way he packed details such as pictures and sketches to make it a great read.

Success story : Jeremy Lin

It is interesting to watch the NY Knicks games now with Jeremy Lin playing in it. His calm composure paired with the great variation in shots makes it very interesting. In time, if all goes well, I believe he will make the hall of fame for his remarkable talent.

What makes him so successful is his perseverance and passion for the sport. He has met many setbacks but took it in stride. With such admirable mental strength and patience, it is a recipe for success.

Fun facts:
He is a Harvard graduate(making him one of the smartest players)
He was undrafted
He is born in the year of the dragon(this year being 24)

Point of view : China's ruling government

Recently I had the chance to catch an interview between a British interviewer and some chinese citizens in Beijing. The interviewer asked whether they wanted change to their government. The response was that the government has done a lot of good things for its citizens. I would agree with them as it is pretty evident that chinese people's quality of life is constantly improving since they open their doors to the world.

I believe the interviewer should look at his own country and notice that as long as any government has done more right than wrong, it means that the government is doing right by the people.

Facebook's IPO

The IPO for Facebook is expected to happen this year. It would be a very interesting event as it is set to make thousands of employees millionaires. Also, being in interesting times, it is hard to predict how the market will react to this offering.

There is a claim that it would offer at $100 billion, however, if it is based on the revenue, I believe it would be a figure much less than that. This is because it has a revenue of approximately $4 billion for 2011. Google, on the other hand, had $30 over billion in revenue for 2011 and has a market capitalization of approximately $180 billion. Either there were misreporting or Facebook has an over-inflated price per share.