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Last night, after publishing my recent blog on Branding, I had a skype call from Toronto and my caller discussed on the theme. I recalled an article that I had stored and which sold the importance of branding.

“The circle of innovation” and was written by Tom Peters way back in 1997. The points raised then are still very pertinent today and perhaps more so in Mauritius which lags behind in market innovation. You will find for quick reading a one page summary of the book. I am a great fan of Tom and have been watching videos of him and reading his numerous books. Wow! A very energetic speaker he is and very convincing in both content as well as style.

By the way, Tom Peters maintains a blog which I read regularly. He is very generous and offers for free his latest speeches and lectures. I enjoy reading them.

Tom Peters preview of Innovation

I became obsessed with innovation because my clients, in effect, begged me to.

With global competition heating up, company after company–banks, insurers, Big Six accountancies, brokerages, office-furniture makers, packaged-goods firms, software and pharmaceutical houses, engineering services firms–tell me: “My service or product is becoming commoditized.”

If the other guy’s getting better, you’d better be getting better faster–or you’re getting worse.

Translation: It’s innovation, stupid.

And “It” applies to my career, your career, the six-person training department, and the 60,000-body behemoth.

My new book, Innovation, is about one BIG idea: innovation–a “top-line” obsession. And it’s about 15 discrete, biggish ideas. The Circle of Innovation is the overarching idea. Here’s a quick preview.

1. Distance is dead. We’re all next-door neighbors. Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy. Mid- to long-term: Business is about augmenting the top line, not cost minimization.

2. Destruction is cool! CDO: Chief Destruction Officer. Easier to kill an organization–and repot it–than change it substantially. Learn to swallow it: destruction is job 1 (before the competition does it to you).

3. You can’t live without an eraser. Forgetting–not learning–is the highest art. Think: organized forgetting, strategic forgetfulness. How? Cherish waste, silliness, failure. Ready. FIRE! Aim.

4. We are all Michelangelos. Convert every “jobholder” into a business person. Convert every job into a business. “Business” is a very different–and more encompassing–word than “empowerment.” Keys: trust and respect; Michelangelos of Housekeeping; Michelangelos of Telemarketing. Boss as relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings.

5. Welcome to the white collar revolution. If you can’t say (specifically) why you make your company a better place, you’re out! As of Now: Me, Inc.! Take me immediate responsibility for change! You (me) are a brand. (Perform a personal brand equity evaluation now!) There are no guarantees, and that can be liberating. Stomp out indentured servitude to BigCorp.

6. All value comes from the professional services. Make staff units the vital centers of intellectual capital accumulation, rather than the prime sources of bureaucratic drag. Tool: Turn purchasing (HR, IS, Finance) into Purchasing, Inc.–a full-fledged professional service firm–devoted to transformational projects and awesome client service!

7. The intermediary is doomed. (Big) organizations without employees. Every task your organization performs is performed better (higher quality, faster, more imaginatively) by some hyper-fast specialist (somewhere) who lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes the narrow task. Flat is too modest a term. (By far.) We are gutting the “center” of vertical enterprises. The intermediary is dying or dead! Hail the disintermediated network “organization”–transparent to its customers (and all members of the value-creation chain).

8. The system is the solution. Systems are the glue in ephemeral, network “orgs.” Great systems are not about “nuts and bolts.” They can be beautiful. Systems Engineering Dept.? No! Dept. of Beauty? Yes! It’s way beyond reengineering.

9. Create waves of lust. (Almost) everything works. Quality per se is not the advantage it once (recently) was. So: Just shout “No!” to commoditization (of anything) /me-too/look-alikes. Embrace: WOW!!!! lusted-after products and services. Ultimate sin: When we do it “Right,” It’s still pretty ordinary.

10. Tommy Hilfiger knows. In a (very) crowded marketplace . . . branding is (far) more important than ever before. It is . . . the age of the brand! Anything can be branded (e.g., chicken, milk). Branding is as much for very wee outfits as for Levis or Nike or starbucks or Intel (Inside).

11. Become a connoisseur of talent. Recruit diversity! Hire crazies! Make revolutionary renewal everyone’s (literal) Job 1. We are all RDAs: Rapidly Depreciating Assets. Therefore: (Continuing) Vitality=(Continuing) Commitment to (Bold/Formal) Renewal Programs by everyone.

12. It’s a woman’s world. Women purchase. They are purchasing agents for well over half the U.S. GDP (commercial and consumer goods). Almost no Big Co.–financial services, healthcare, autos, business services–“gets” catering-to-women-as-premier-purchasers. Why? It takes total transformation–not a “women’s initiative”–to take advantage of this bizarrely neglected commercial opportunity No. 1.

13. Little things are the only things. As markets get more and more crowded, design is often the best “tool” in services and manufacturing for sustainable differentiation. Sad fact: Most companies do anything but OBSESS (e.g., Braun-like, Sony-like) on design. Personal design sensitization is Set No. 1: Home in on (open your eyes to) the pervasive role that design plays in damn near everything–signage, forms, typeface, color (a big deal), etc.

14. Love all, Serve all. Even today a ridiculously small number of sizable firms seek a sustainable edge through incredible service–Disney–or caterpillar–style. To get from (tawdry) here to (Olympian) there takes a wholesale commitment to nothing less than reconceiving the way business is done in your market or niche.

15. We’re here to live life out loud. Transformational leaders will eschew “hands off.” They will be bizarrely focused, tell the truth, and live life on the LUNATIC FRINGE. Revolutionary times call for revolutionary zeal and leaders. Those 15 ideas equal one big idea: Innovation should be your top-line obsession

I cannot insist enough with our entrepreneurs who will take hopefully our economy to a new height, of the importance of Purpose and Innovation. Nikos Mourkogiannis, in his book, “Purpose and Innovation”, cites generously Microsoft and Toyota in their quests in focusing relentlessly and consistently on their Purpose to bring Innovation in their ventures.

“Innovate or Evaporate”, you will recall, was a campaign brought some 2 years ago by NPCC. Since what has happened? Have we experienced an evaporation of our innovative spirit? I understood that NPCC is following up with an Incubator program. Well done!

Micheal Porter, who I admire and regularly search for his great thinking puts: “Innovation has become perhaps the most important source of competitive advantage in advanced economies.”

Are we nurturing a culture of Innovation in Mauritius? Wrong question, my friend Watson would dare say! We cannot afford not to create and not to nourish such a culture. It is a necessity full stop. The question would rather be: “How to we create a culture of innovation?”

I do not know if we have a department of “creativity and innovation” at our University of Mauritius or any of our tertiary institution. I feel that we could start off with one. Mauritian, like any human being, is endowed with a creative mind and ingenuity; what is lacking, is the awakening of the creative mind. Creativity, according to E. De Bono, world renowned “Creativity” author, now based in Australia, states that is a process which can be taught and learned.

Creavitity should be taught at all stages of schooling. The development of the habit of “lateral thinking” will enhance the creative spirit of the individuals. Could we introduce creativity in our school curriculum at all levels?

I had the chance of meeting some Malaysians who are interested in the subject of Creativity and Innovation. We could well learn from Prof. Augustine Ong, who has been recognized by his country, bestowing him wih the title of “Tan Sri Datuk”, for his forward- looking mind and for his great innovative work in the field of Palm oil cultivation and industry.I was honoured to have met him and to have had a glimpse of his wonderful achievement first hand.

Prof. Augustine Ong, to maintain the spirit of creativity in Malaysia, has created and is now driving an organization called “Minds”. Why can’t we do likewise?

Last night, for some reasons or other the word “Mastery” kept popping up in my mind. Was it the vibrations from the book Modeling on Jesus our Master of Fr. Luis Gonzalez which I keep on my bedside from which I read a couple of pages daily to let his thoughts seep in me or was it, the reminisences of the last article titled “The mystery of Mastery unveiled” I read from Geoorge Torok or was it,  from the older lessons learnt from the Kevin Cashman ‘s writing on “Mastery from the inside out.”

All told, this has become the subject of my blog today.Some of you may know the wonderful story which I have often use to illustrate how our mind and thoughtful purpose bring “mastery” to our action.Someone came near a stone quarry and found three craftsmen working with their chisels and hammer cutting the hard breaking basalt stones under the harsh and hot sun.The person asked the same questions to each hard working craftsman in turn.

What are you doing now and why?

In turn each one replied. The first one said: “Don’t you see what I am doing? With the chisel I am cutting the stone and chipping off the unwanted part”.

The second fellow replied: “In this hot sun, I am sweating, working hard to earn a living to raise my family thus providing for the needs of my children”.

The third guy replied: “I am carving in the stone with the greatest care to erect a Cathedral”.

According to you, which one of the three has a “Mastery” mind set?

Kevin Cashman attempts to answer the question:”What does mastery means to you?” In an under quoted article I would like to share with you  Kevin Cashman’s 7 pathways to Mastery which  applications have been most helpful to me

Mastery from the Inside Out

 

Our ideas about mastery tend to be externalized. Our educational heritage is focused on learning about things. We learn what to think, not how to think. We learn what to do, not how to be. We learn what to achieve, not how to achieve. We tend to fill the container of knowledge but rarely expand it.

In organizations, the external pattern continues. As leaders, we are recognized for our external mastery. Our success tends to be measured by the degree to which we have mastered our external environment. Revenue, profit, new product breakthroughs, cost savings, and market share are just some measures of our external competencies. Few question the value of achieving and measuring external results. That isn’t the issue. The core questions are: Where do the external results come from? Is focusing on external achievement the source of greater accomplishment? Could it be our single-minded focus on external results is missing the underlying dynamics supporting peak performance?

I’ve often met with a CEO, business owner, or corporate executive who has lost touch with the inner dynamics supporting his or her achievements.

Many leaders today are like naturally gifted “athletes” who have mastered their external performance capabilities, but the inner dynamics supporting their success and fulfillment are a mystery to them. What happens to natural athletes who become coaches? They usually have a very difficult time because they have not comprehended from the inside out how they became great. And so it’s difficult to mentor others to greatness.

When our lives are defined only in terms of the fruits of action, the circumstances of our lives define us. In this externally-driven state of identity, life is fragile, vulnerable, and at-risk. Our core identity and passionate purpose are overshadowed by the events of our lives. Success may even be present, but mastery has escaped us. Unintentionally we have chosen to “major” in the minor things in life.

Many of us are in a slumber. We go about our business and relationships much the same way day after day. Most of us rarely question where we are going and why. Unfortunately, it often takes a traumatic external event–a death, a termination, a divorce, a disease or a crisis–to bring us out of our slumber. But why wait to get shocked awake? Why not choose to wake up now?

Effective leadership begins with self-leadership, mastery of oneself.

Seven Pathways

Over the years we have identified seven pathways to awaken mastery from the inside out.

• Personal Mastery. If knowledge is power, then self-knowledge must be the source of real power. To do more, we first need to be more; to be more, we need to comprehend our being, our personhood. Understanding who we are and what we have to offer is the prerequisite for leveraging our capabilities. Sadly, many people are barreling down the freeway of life without comprehending the owner’s manual. Can we really achieve optimal performance if we’re not sure of our performance potential and performance limitations? Take time to study your owner’s manual: Where’s your horsepower? What areas need some fine-tuning? What areas need an overhaul? Solicit the input of others to more objectively evaluate yourself. It may not be easy at first, but beginning the process of reconciling and integrating your strengths, weaknesses and development needs is a great start toward personal mastery.

• Purpose Mastery. If we lack purpose, our immediate circumstances dominate our awareness and overshadow our reason for being. And, our life tends to lose connection to its true nature. As Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Purpose is spirit seeking expression; it transforms everything it touches. It converts average organizations into exceptional ones; it transforms employees into co-partners; it creates leaders out of managers. Purpose is our inner home within where our spirit and principles reside. It’s always there waiting for us, but we are often too busy “living outside” to notice. To get in touch with purpose, identify the three most fulfilling experiences of your life. Then ask: What unique, meaningful contributions was I making during these experiences?

• Change Mastery. Our personal evolution can be directly measured by our ability to adapt and to change. As Lao Tzu wrote, “Whatever is flexible and flowing will tend to grow; whatever is rigid and blocked will wither and die.” While it’s not possible to master change, we can master ourselves through change. Since all significant change begins with self-change, we may need to shift some personal paradigms. Our focus may need to move to opportunity; our perspectives may need to shift to the longer term; our tendency to be absorbed in immediate circumstances may need to move to a more purpose-filled context; our need to be in control may need to become more flexible and adaptable; our doubt may need to be transformed to a more trusting, more open attitude.

Begin your mastery of change by thinking about the times when you faced major crises or challenges. What qualities arose during those times? What qualities would you like to develop during those times? What did you learn during these times? Change Mastery begins by embracing the purposeful learning in the creative flow of life.

• Career Mastery. As Studs Terkel put it, “Most of us have jobs too small for our spirits.” Are our current jobs big enough for our spirits? If they are, each task, responsibility, and challenge can be a new opportunity to engage our purpose. If not, we may be successfully earning a living but losing a life. Unfortunately many people sacrifice their career fulfillment on the altar of security and practicality. To get on the path to Career Mastery, explore the most enjoyable, fulfilling “peaks” in your career. What were you doing? What skills were you using? Who were you working with? Why were these experiences so fulfilling? How can you connect with these career experiences consistently? Career Mastery is not merely about achieving things, it is about how to be fulfilled in everything we do.

• Balance Mastery. Regardless of our external success, our life is precarious in the absence of balance. Without balance, every new opportunity or change could upset our gyroscope. When high-performance people are combined with high-performance organizations, the chance for imbalance is particularly great. Exceptional people want to achieve more; exceptional organizations have an insatiable desire to accomplish more. But what are the human limits to ensure consistent, long-term achievement? There’s no pre-set, mechanistic formula. It’s always an individual inside-out equation. Each of us must find our own way to the dynamic balance supporting enhanced effectiveness and fulfillment.

What are some ways to sort out our own unique balancing act? Ask yourself: Are your personal and professional lives congruent with your principles and values? There’s no greater imbalance than to be disconnected from what is really important to you. Be purposeful but be careful; purpose and passion are great balancers, but too much of them and you’ll fall off the high wire. Take a real vacation; go to a health spa or a retreat to recharge. Listen to the wisdom of the mind-body connection; your body will give you immediate feedback to “Do more of this” or “Do less of that.” Find physical activities you enjoy; if your current form of exercise requires discipline, you are probably mastering rigidity versus balance. Since all of nature achieves balance through cycles of rest and activity, consider adding more rest and reflection to your lifestyle.

• Interpersonal Mastery. Our relationships always begin with our self-relationship. It’s an inside-out process. We can only give what we have. If we have a lot, we can give a lot. Interpersonal Mastery begins by building our internal balance sheet. Once we have increased our inner value through self-mastery, we can further build our emotional equity with others by focusing on the needs of others, becoming more adept at questioning and listening to sort out people’s real needs and motivations. We can then ask: What can I draw from within myself to meet these needs? Help people to uncover purpose: Instead of giving people advice focused on your needs or opinions, assist people to discover what is meaningful and important to them. Instead of judging others, appreciate the unique differences in people. Could it be that your discomfort in accepting something unusual about someone is really an expression of your own lack of self-mastery? Solicit feedback from others. Understanding the gap between your intentions and the perceptions of others is at the core of Interpersonal Mastery. Other people may hold some keys to your self-knowledge. Build trust in relationships by genuinely revealing your hopes, dreams, fears and limitations — you may be surprised to discover how much Interpersonal Mastery is really about personal authenticity.

• Being Mastery. Descartes wrote, “I think, therefore, I am.” Being Mastery has a different view: I am, therefore, I think. To be more effective, to be more successful, to be more fulfilled, to be more alive, all require first a state of Being. Sadly,our fast-moving, never-catch-your-breath, externally-focused culture is “perfectly” designed to avoid the silence of Inner Being. The background and foreground “noise” of our lives is so dominant, we rarely get a chance to connect with the silence deep within us. We have become human doers who have lost connection to our heritage as human beings. Connection with Inner Being provides us with the inner restfulness and peace to more effectively live in the eye of the hurricane of life. As Blaise Pascal wrote, “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.” How well have you mastered the art of turning within to connect with the silence of Being? Culturing our ability to do so is the foundation for more effective performance and living. Consider learning how to meditate; connecting with the vastness of nature; relaxing to beautiful music–there are as many ways to reconnect with Being as there are human beings.

By beginning the masterful journey, we can advance from a single-dimensional focus on external achievement to the multi-dimensional effectiveness and fulfillment of Mastery from the Inside Out.

Kevin Cashman is president and CEO of Market Share Inc. and the Executive to Leader Institute, a leadership coaching consultancy based in Minneapolis, MN (612) 375-9277.

On the other hand, if you can afford the time I would encourage you to go to George Torok website to capture some of his insights on the subject.

An extract from one of his numerous articles:

What is mastery?

“The first thing that comes to mind is technical skill in the job. And taking that skill to the next level where it becomes intuitive and natural as opposed to preconceived.”
Jeff Mowatt, CSP

“Mastery is reaching the top of one’s craft. Masters really know how to do what they are doing, having truly integrated all the components. Others look to the master for counsel, help or guidance.”
Linda Tarrant, CSP, HoF

“We get to a stage of mastery when all of the basics and most of the refinements are second nature, at the level of unconscious competence. Only the minute refinements require conscious effort.”
Warren Evans, CSP, HoF

“Mastery in life and business is reasonably simple to understand but difficult to apply. People resist following the simple principles of mastery because they look too simple.”
Peter Legge, CSP, HoF, CPAE

How does one become a master?

“No one becomes a master, although we might strive toward that. In a Zen way, we never arrive at the goal. The feeling that we have arrived leads to complacency. If we are consistently working toward the goals that line up with our values despite any frustrations, then we are definitely working toward mastery. But we don’t become masters. Rather, we are trying to improve in mastery, striving for the next level.”
Jeff Mowatt

“Build on your passion or strength; understand your own innate strengths. That is a good start. Study books or watch others in the field. Practise. Include good feedback loops in the forms of mentors, coaches, self-observation, audiences and/or customers.”
Jim Clemmer

“Be in the presence of masters. Watch others. Practise, practise, practise.”
Linda Tarrant

“You have to recognize what mastery is for you. Next, research those that you believe have reached mastery and then use them as your mentors. Have a real passion for continuous improvement. Attitude is the fuel and the motor. If there is light in your eyes and a bit of coal in the furnace, there is nothing you cannot accomplish.”
Larry Pearson

“Every time we speak, we need to believe, mentally and emotionally, that we will change the world with that speech. Maybe we won’t, but if we believe we can, imagine the energy we will bring to the platform.”
Peter Legge

“Work hard, take risks and be open to people. Masters want to learn more. The game is to really connect with people. Search your soul. Be congruent with what you were born to do. When your true purpose lines up with what you are doing, the universe will acknowledge that you are doing what you were destined for and reward you. However, I worry that some might think there is a formula. There are pieces, but you can’t scheme to do it. It has to be part of who you are.”
Ian Percy

What was common among these masters?

They wanted their answers to benefit others. They were all committed to continuous self-improvement. They were working toward their next challenge to elevate their level of mastery. They fully understood the relationship between mastery of the craft and that of the business, although they approached that in different ways. Each conveyed the simple conviction that they are doing what they were meant to do.

Enjoy reading the blog and Have a nice weekend….

You will recall that I did mention in my previous blog The Three legs of Persuasion the wonderful works and writings of Chris Widener. Today I just finished reading his e-book “Up to speed Leadership. 52 Lessons and Actions to Get You Up to Speed and Make You an Extraordinary Leader”. Easy reading as many e books can be, of only 100 pages; this book focuses on the essence of the subject and gives very practical, hands on advices and action points. I would consider the book more as a work book. It took me hardly more than one hour to read through the book. I love these types of books: to the point and a minimum of blablabla and fillers. Then it is then up to you to note, reflect and action on the points raised.One of my teachers, my physics teacher, a jesuit seminarist, Bro. Thomas, with a wierd indian accent, from my days in Form I (1958) use to sound in my ear drums: Hindsight reflexion is the (v)Way to (v)Wisdom.

More over it is possible to obtain a copy of the e-book free of charge!

An extract of 2 chapters might well excite and motivate you to get your copy:

1. Establish Your Goals

The key to any achievement is goal setting. You have to know what it

is that you want and how soon you want to have it. Whether you want to

save a certain amount of money, lose a certain amount of weight, or yes,

even become a certain kind of leader.

Let’s face it, “I want to become a better leader,” is relatively

ambiguous, isn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to become a better leader? If you

were to ask almost anyone whether or not they would like to become a better

leader and have more influence on those around them, they would almost all

say, “Yes!”

The question is: What does that mean in actuality? What does a

“better leader” look like?

Action Point: Spend some time answering for yourself the following

questions, then setting goals according to your answers:

Q. What does becoming a better leader look like to me?

Q. In what specific ways do I want to grow as a leader?

Q. What specific areas do I need to grow in?

Q. How much time am I willing to put in each day or week to grow in

my leadership?

Q. What resources do I need to take advantage of in order to increase

my leadership skills?

Q. What specific things can I do today and this week to begin my

leadership growth process?

Q. What time frames am I looking at when I think of becoming a

better leader?

Q. What people would I like to spend more time with who would

challenge me to grow as a leader?

10. Skills – Part IV – Communication: Writing

If you are going to lead you are going to have to write. Only when you

get to be the CEO of a huge company can you even begin to think about

pushing that off onto someone else and even then you would be wise to keep

writing yourself!

So how can you use writing to increase your influence? Here are some

tips:

Become a good writer. There are lots of ways to do this, but the top ways

are to write often, get feedback through a class or writers club, and to write

in various venues.

Write often. Write often so that the law of repetition takes over and people

begin to get the message. This doesn’t mean the same thing every time. You

have to change it up a bit or people will just stop reading.

Let your writing support what you are saying. If you are communicating

effectively through speaking, then your writing becomes something that

supports what you are saying. It says it in a different way, it says it at a

different time, and it says it through a different venue. All of this will help

you get the message across and support your vision.

Write through different venues. Write a book. Write a newsletter. Write an

article. Write a memo. Write an email. Write a PowerPoint presentation.

Send them at various times.

Write the same message using different words. Try writing a sentence out

and then rewriting it in three different ways changing the words and

structure. You have to change it up or they will stop listening.

Write using stories and examples. This was one of the best lessons I

learned as a leader and as a professional speaker. People like stories and

examples. I am more of a facts and figures guy, but stories and examples

move people!

Action Point: Sit down and write as soon as you can. Try to write the same

thing in three different ways. Try to write it for three different venues. Try to

use a story or example for each one.

Enjoy!The content which is not mine but Chris Widener’s!to whom I am very grateful.

Now you understand the reason of my blog writing. The more, I write, the better I shall become! Wishful thinking may be! Feedbacks from others could possibly enhance my writing skills,provided I use the feedbacks and comments to hone my writing. Dear readers, I thus invite you to comment on my blogs not only on the content but also on the style. Hopefully I shall improve:Thank you.

Proud I am to be a Mauritian bashing in the “bouillon de cultures”. At an early start of my working career, I was blessed to have been able to visit India in the years of Mrs. Indira Gandhi Prime minister ship, the late 1960’s. The Air India B707 aircraft linked Bombay Santa Cruz airport to Plaisance in 1967 and there I was promoting travel from our Indian ocean islands, South Africa region to India. For years, I made a score of trips to India, accompanying travel writers and travel agents to show them the tourist, religious and cultural facets of this huge continent country. I would like to share with you today the life of a great Christian Sadhu.

One hundred and seventeen years ago on September 1889, Sundar Singh was born to Sher Singh of Rampur, Punjab in northern India. His mother, a deeply religious woman, nurtured him in the noble traditions of the Sikhs. Sundar often spoke of his mother with much love and respect because of the good foundation she laid for his life to come. Little did anyone know what God was about to do with this keenly intelligent and disciplined young man.

He was raised in the luxury of his family’s wealth. As a Sikh, Sundar was taught about Hinduism and came along with his parents to Hindu and Sikh temples. By the age of seven he had already memorized Bhagavadgita, the intricate Hindu dialogue containing spiritual life lessons. At sixteen, not only had he mastered the Vedas, the ancient sacred books of Hinduism, but he had also read Qur’an, the sacred book of Islam. He then got acquainted with some sadhus who taught him Yoga. A sadhu is a Hindu who devotes his entire life to his religion and forsakes all the worldly pleasures. Sundar remained single and jobless. He traveled all over India wearing a yellow robe without any food and without having any permanent residence. He lived only on the charity of others.

The life of Sadhu Sundar Singh was most remarkable in its Christ-likeness. Being born amidst the depths of Indian culture and religion, and into a Sikh family, during the early part of his life Sundar’s mother would take him week by week to sit at the feet of a sadhu, an ascetic holy man, who lived some distance away in the rainforest. It was his mother who first encouraged him to become a sadhu. She once told him, “Do not be selfish and materialistic like your brothers, but seek for your peace of mind and hold steadily onto your faith. Be a sadhu.” However, he never achieved peacefulness in his meditations. Owing to his mother’s connections with some women from a British mission in Rajpur, Sundar was able to enter the school run by the missionaries. It was there that Sundar was first exposed to the Bible. He wasn’t interested in the Bible at that time. Instead, he ardently buried himself in Hinduism and yogic practices.

Later on Sadhu Sundar Singh met with Christ and his teachings. His life mission changed.

Being unwilling to denounce his Master in the face of his family’s rejection, Sundar took the saffron robes of the sadhu and began a life of spreading the simple message of love and peace and rebirth through Jesus. He carried no money or other possessions, only a New Testament.

“I am not worthy to follow in the steps of my Lord,” he said, “but like Him, I want no home, no possessions. Like Him I will belong to the road, sharing the suffering of my people, eating with those who will give me shelter, and telling all people of the love of God.”

He traveled India and Tibet, as well as the rest of the world, with the message that the modern interpretation of Jesus was sadly watered down. Sundar visited Tibet every summer. In 1929, he visited that country again and was never seen since. Sundar manifested into his life the verse written in Mark 8:35 which says, “For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it.”

I was surprised to read the Toiletgate story. It is this saga of a famous, now infamous Chinese telecaster, Meng Guang mei, who was sacked from her job as a result of blogs and pressure from the internet public.

The incident that has happened this past week in China, demonstrates the power of the blogs. Mind you, the blog readership of Sina in China counts in Millions. Thus the pressure exerted is extremely strong and concern the elite of the societe. You will realize that only the elite would be able to afford access to the internet.

As suggested by Joel de Rosnay in his recent book, which by the way is free and available on his web, blogging has the potential to rival mass media we know today. For sure mass media & mass communication are being transformed at a very fast speed by the technology and the widespread of the internet.

As a simple illustration, before you had a wait for a specific hour to have News on either your TV station or radio. With the proliferation of radio stations & TV stations, News is available more often with specific news casting stations. Today with my BlogBridge and the RSS feed, I am now able to be fed non stop with news on the specific topics selected and chosen.

The Advertising & Publicity industry is on the front line of the assault of the blog revolution. Billons of dollars are being diverted from the traditional mass media vehicles, such as Press, TV, billboards to more incisive forms to reach the targeted customer on a one to one which would be more effective. Marketers have to review and adjust their strategies fast.

I am looking forward to this exciting time where innovation, technology and perspirations will again take the trophy of success.

In summary: * Technorati is now tracking over 50 Million Blogs. * The Blogosphere is over 100 times bigger than it was just 3 years ago. * Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size every 200 days, or about once every 6 and a half months. * From January 2004 until July 2006, the number of blogs that Technorati tracks has continued to double every 5-7 months. * About 175,000 new weblogs were created each day, which means that on average, there are more than 2 blogs created each second of each day. * About 8% of new blogs get past Technorati’s filters, even if it is only for a few hours or days. * About 70% of the pings Technorati receives are from known spam sources, but we drop them before we have to send out a spider to go and index the splog. * Total posting volume of the blogosphere continues to rise, showing about 1.6 Million postings per day, or about 18.6 posts per second. * This is about double the volume of about a year ago. * The most prevalent times for English-language posting is between the hours of 10AM and 2PM Pacific time, with an additional spike at around 5PM Pacific time

I am amazed with the speed of growth. What will be the impact of blogs on our being and life?

I invite you to Sifry’s for a detailed view.

“Me” Generation morphing to “We” Generation

On reading 2^nd August editorial of Daniel J. Kadlec of USA TODAY, I picked up the title and some ideas.

Quote

As boomers, turning 60, enter the traditional retirement years we are witnessing a grand transformation in this period of life, which has long been marked by withdrawal, entitlement and the pursuit of leisure. The emerging model embraces personal growth, giving back and continued employment. These hallmarks of the new retirement have the potential to reshape the economy and society to everyone’s benefit.

Do boomers really want to work longer? In a Merrill Lynch survey, 83% of boomers said they intended to work for pay full- or part-time after leaving their primary career. Certainly, some of them figure they’ll need the money. But most who work in their later years do so for other reasons. In a MetLife survey, nearly three of four working folks ages 66 to 70 said they chose to keep working to remain active and engaged. Needing income was a distant concern, ranking behind doing something meaningful and cultivating friendships with colleagues.

Un Quote

Indeed, this is my case. I am part of the baby boomer generation. I need to do something meaningful and keep on cultivating friendships. I for one, have found solace in blogging.

In Malaysia, the retirement age for government civil servants is 55. What they do thereafter? Many start a new life career. They start a new business and become entrepreneurs. Quite a number of highly skilled professionals joined together to form a corps of consultants. Tan Sri Dato’Soong Siew Hoong, secretary general of the Associated Chinese chamber of commerce of Malaysia, who I met some years ago, is one of the head of the corps of retirees acting as consultants called ERA( Expertise Ressource Association). He will be visiting the Chinese Business Chamber from the 7^th to the 11^th August. Let us pick on his brain to show us how to organize our own corps of consultants and network with the Malaysian ERA.

In my last blog I promised my Rotarians friends, average age population of the Rotary club: 53.222, that I shall share with them the small budding knowledge I have about Blogging. By the way, I have well passed the average age.I have decided to start blogging to understand the E-volution of today’s world.

How I got hooked?

Indeed I was kicked off by my son who shared with me his experiences coming from a WEB 2.0 symposium some time ago. He was talking to me in a vocabulary which was beyond my understanding. I had to choose to die stupid or carry on living on today’s world and be part of the E-volution to stay wired & connected. I have chosen.

I found existance in the virtual world. My son gave birth to me in this newfound world by setting me up as a blogger. Through “FTP” (sorry for the jargon) he took over control of my computer whilst sitting in his apartment Toronto, Canada. Like magic, I watched my mouse and computer cursor zapping all over my screen. In a few minutes, his voice came back to me over SKYPE to tell me that I am done, ready to be in the Blogosphere. I am now enjoying my new existence. Everyday is now filled with new discoveries and new thrills; I have acquired a new mobility in spite of my recent physical handicap.

My latest thrill is Naked Conversation. Robert Scoble & Shel Israel who prophetize an E-volution of communication through blogging.

“Today’s consumer craves human contact. We’re sick to death of voicemail.

Menus of options that never offer the option we need. A deluge of

carefully spun “information” designed not to answer our concerns, but to

influence our decisions. Mechanical voices telling us our call is important

to them even as they refuse to answer it.

We’re frustrated in our attempts to reach a live human being, and when

we finally do, all too often it’s someone who barely speaks our language

and only reads from a script.

Is it so surprising that the consumer distrusts the corporation?

Into this charged atmosphere comes a phenomenon called blogging. It’s

interactive. It’s informal. It’s peppered with misspellings, grammatical

errors and an occasional forbidden word.

It comes from a real person. And it allows the consumer to talk back. The experts believe blogging is

already changing the face of business.

The experts show readers of their book, how employee

bloggers altered the public’s perception of Microsoft, how company leaders

use blogs to connect with customers, how small businesses and Fortune 500

companies alike can benefit from blogging and how failing to use it properly

can be disastrous.

The Six Pillars of Blogging

1. Publishable. Anyone can publish a blog. You

can do it cheaply and post often. Each posting is

instantly available worldwide.

2. Findable. Through search engines, people will

find blogs by subject, by author or both. The more

you post, the more findable you become.

3. Social. The blogosphere is one big conversation.

Interesting topical conversations move from

site to site, linking to each other.

4. Viral. Information often spreads faster through

blogs than via a news service. No form of viral marketing

matches the speed and efficiency of a blog.

5. Syndicatable. By clicking on an icon, you can get

free “home delivery” of RSS-enabled blogs. RSS lets

you know when a blog you subscribe to is updated.

6. Linkable. Because each blog can link to all others,

every blogger has access to millions of other bloggers.

Everything Never Changes

The birth of the blog was a little-noted incident. A brilliant,

curmudgeonly technology pioneer — Dave Winer —

was fiddling with a project and organized a series of entries

in a new way. He looked at it, thought “Wow, that’s cool,”

and circled back to expand on it later. He added a variation

on an emerging technology and created a syndication feature

that would eventually emerge into Really Simple

Syndication (RSS). Other people — such as Ben and Mena

Trott, who founded Six Apart Inc., and Evan Williams, who

co-founded Blogger — would make blogging tools easier

so a great number of people could use them. The number of

users has gone through the roof ever since.

Do you want to live or die stupid? It is your choice!