The small Red Coral Hotel, with spartan but clean facilities, while located in the back alley, off the Tran Phu Boulevard, was our temporary residence for 4 days/3 nights in Nha Trang. It was only five minutes' walk away from the popular Tran Phu Beach.
How do I continue to augment & enhance my knowledge & skills, & deepen my ability or agility to anticipate & deal with tumultuous change?
How do I support & cultivate my personal development from novice to master, & continue from master to wizard?
The following inspiring note comes from world-renowned peak performance coach Dr Denis Waitley:
"There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
“One of these days is Yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone.
“The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow, with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise, and poor performance. Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control. Tomorrow's sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds; but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is as yet unborn. This leaves only one day: Today.
“Anyone can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities - Yesterday and Tomorrow - that we break down. It is not the experience of Today that drives us mad, it is remorse and bitterness for something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring. Let us, therefore, live this one full Today."
[Source: Your Achievement Ezine, Issue 423 - July 8, 2009. By the way, you can have your own Free subscription to this ezine by sending an email to subscribe@yoursuccessstore.com just with the heading 'Join'.]
"I have found the most important thing to do is decide what you're about, decide who you are, what you hold as important, & what you value. Make sure that whatever you're doing about becoming more of what you really are & not about plans & strategies that have financial gain as the starting point."
~ Scott Livengood, Chairman & CEO, Krispy Kreme;
"Language shapes perception. Perception drives actions. Actions evolve to destinies. Destiny recapitulate ontology. Ontology articulates morphology. The morphology of language configures the morphology of beings. Symbols synthesises sentience. We are what we think (bemes) & we think what we are (bemes)."
~ from a long scholarly but fascinating article in the Journal of Evolution & Technology, entitled 'Are we Transbemans yet?', by Martine Rothblatt, United Therapeutics Corporation; by the way, here's the link to that original article;
[If you are still curious, just like me, please proceed to this link to explore. Have an open mind.]
What exists that I want to improve?
What would be ideal for me?
What are the steps I can take?
I have been writing under my primary weblog, 'Optimum Performance Technologies', for the last two solid years.
[In actuality, I have three other relatively inactive weblogs at the moment, namely, 'Kieu Dung Designs' (a show case of my wife's hand-crafted clay flower arrangements), 'The Study Smart Smorgabord' (a collection of study skills) & 'The Brain Resource' (in dedication to & fond memory of my late wife, Catherine).]
During 2007, I had deliberately started my weblogs as part of my disciplined daily habitual routines for intellectual stimulation. My original purpose has not changed since then.
As a matter of fact, a couple of months ago, I had even started a new weblog, 'The Braindancing Smorgasbord', to showcase the published thoughtwares of my good friend, Dilip Mukerjea.
As far as the 'Optimum Performance Technologies' & 'The Braindancing Smorgasbord' weblogs are concerned, I am always on the ball, i.e. I post practically every day without fail, except when I am out of town, on holidays.
I find that the act of writing a blogpost has a way of crystallizing my thinking or contemplative processes on a topic.
I have also come to appreciate how crystal-clear my thinking - to be honest, I can really feel my brain cells working in chaordic harmony - has become as I venture to put down my random musings & disparate ramblings into written blogposts.
Oftentimes, prior to writing, I need to do a lot of reading as well as research, in addition to thinking or contemplation. These activities sort of keep me intellectually alive, so to speak, besides keeping me physically engaged in a productive manner.
In writing some of the blogposts, I generally have a handful of "fixed routines" for me to get the ball rolling imediately:
- Today's VIP (my favourite quotes of the day);
- Today's Q2P (questions that keep me awake at night);
- Pragmatic Insights from the Experts (my favourite take-aways from great authors);>
- Spotlight (my digital snapshots of the world around me, just to satisfy my own curiosity & wonder);
- Rapid Recap (back track on some of the stuff I have written earlier, just as a reminder to myself);
- Notes from My Scratchpad (extracts from my copious notes over the years);
- Memorable Quote from the Movie (my favourite quotes from movies I have enjoyed watching);
- Rack Your Brains (brain teasers & mind flexors from my personal collection);
- From My Toolbox (some of my favourite techniques, which I have picked up from others);
plus, my periodic book as well as movie reviews.
Occasionally, I like to capture some seemingly irrelevant aspects of my social outings with buddies, or anything I often encounter along my daily observation &/or deliberate exploration of the physical world.
That's to say, whatever that piques my personal interest. Spur of the moment, in some way.
Topical ideas that come into my head are generally raw & unformed. They need a little bit of polishing work, so to speak. I often use my daily gym practices as opportunities to mull them over in my head.
Amusingly & coincidentally, the gym on the 4th floor of the Jurong East Sports Centre, where I hangout with my wife in the mornings, overlooks a large swimming pool, which is shaped in the image of a light bulb.
Metaphorically, it always ignites my creative sparks, whenever I look at it from above!
Sometimes, the raw ideas need a little bit of embellishment to make them look good on paper. That naturally calls for more sparks in my thinking cap.
Sometimes, I need to know a little bit more about the ideas myself. That's where additional reading &/or research on the net help. With the latter, Copernic Agent Pro is often my constant assistant & companion.
Invariably, the foregoing activity often becomes a springboard for new explorations, because I will never know what may come up along the way.
Cyberspace is obviously a gargantuan learning lab. To me, it's a great fun place for learning new things & acquiring new knowledge in that way.
In other words, I allow serendipity to be my personal guide. For me, life can be mundane, if we just stick to logical routines all the time. Novelty is the name of the game, & it's good for the mind!
In conjunction, I also have Google Alerts to help me to keep track of cyberspace. I must say Google Alert is really a godsend.
Besides writing my own blogposts, I also take the opportunity to "reprint" newspaper or magazine articles, which I find interesting or worthwhile to share with my readers. Sometimes, depending on my mood, I may throw in some of my personal comments to give them a spin.
Besides authoring, I naturally like to read other people's blogs, partly to learn from other people's blogging experiences, & partly to "borrow brilliance", so to speak.
For me, reading other people's blogs is a powerful learning experience.
Although I may be familiar with a written topic, I often like to know other people's perspectives, which I have not or never even thought of in the first place.
It is often very interesting to see how other bloggers make fine distinctions (that's differentiation!) especially about the way they see the world. To me, that's very eye opening, which I really enjoy.
Very often, because of the diversity as bloggers are spreaded all over the world, & also, probably due to the nature of their respective professions or preoccupations, they often may know something first I don't know about.
So, reading their blogs help me to stay abreast or in tune with what's ticking out there.
I have already listed all of them - my personal favourites - in the blogroll of my weblog.
Now, back to authoring.
From time to time, some readers also react to my blogposts. They take the trouble to write to me - either to ask for more information about a topic, which I always oblige in return, or just to tell me how my blogposts have impacted them, while others also write in to share their many different perspectives, which in turn open up new learning on my part.
Best of all, I also get, from time to time, surprisingly refreshing feedback from established consultants or recognised experts, who certainly make me feel good about what I have written.
In other words, they made my day!
For me, in the end analysis, authoring & reading weblogs, have become a labour of passion & love.
As an avid reader, it is not surprising for me to note that books about how to create ideas are a dime a dozen. Just pop into any physical book store in the city or browse the Amazon catalog - you will be astonished!
Also, books about how to sell your ideas are relatively overwhelming in available numbers.
In this genre of books, I would also include those books touching on contemplation (or choice making) as well as creative problem solving.
We all know most ideas often come to us as fuzzy, weak & half-baked; sometimes - with a little bit of intervention - as sketchy concepts on paper or nifty scribblings on the back of a napkin.
So, we come to a harsh reality: how to turn a raw idea into a blockbuster product or service, or how to convert a vague, unpolished thought into a powerful idea that can change the world?
Frankly, books about fine-tuning an idea, developing it, testing it, sustaining it, & more importantly, making it into a marketable intellectual property, are hard to find.
I dare to venture one, which comes close to my personal expectations, at least in some respects.
That's the classic 'The Innovation Formula: How Organizations Turn Change into Opportunity' by strategist Michel Robert (who founded the Decision Processes International consultancy outfit in 1980), targetted primarily at businesspeople.
The competent author had shared a proprietary & disciplined process methodology for finding, assessing, developing, & pursuing an opportunity.
Even world-renowned creativity guru, Edward de bono, with his huge repertoire of printed books & published writings on lateral thinking, has yet to come up with a disciplined idea development methodology, even though his classic, 'Opportunities: A Handbook for Business Opportunity Search', has great stuff, which a reader unfortunately needs to sort out diligently for application.
Naturally, in fairness to the brilliant author, I must add that, when come to techniques on "provoking insight", not many authors/consultants in the marketplace can really touch him.
So, we are back to square one. Not exactly so.
I have recently read a new book, entitled 'The Genius Machine: The Eleven Steps that Turn Raw Ideas into Brilliance', by Gerald Sindell, a former book publishing executive & former Hollywood film producer.
Today, the author runs his own thoughtware consultancy known as Thought Leaders International, whose mission is "to transform original thinkers into authoritative leaders, & organisations into innovation powerhouses". 
A little bit of brief history before I move on.
Almost a year ago, I had stumbled upon the weblog of the author, where he had shared some preliminary ideas about his unique, systematic creative thought process, known as 'The Endleofon Process'.
He was actually surprised & excited that I had found him on the net "by accident" (or was it a stroke of synchronicity?). [He wrote about it in his weblog.]
Since then, I had waited patiently for his new book, which I had acquired only a few months ago.
I have only read it recently, amidst my huge backlog of new books to read/review.
The author's Endleofon Process is encapsulated in the book - there are eleven stages; hence, the name 'Endleofon', which is an old English word for the odd number - with each stage of the elegant process covered specifically by each c
hapter.
Given a choice, I would not have used the current title of 'The Genius Machine'.
To me, it's a misnomer. Machines don't think. We humans do.
As I see it, 'The Endleofon Process' as embodied in the book is a disciplined, systematic thinking-through methodology.
With it, I am convinced that any one, through diligent application, can get to enhance his or her thinking by deliberating purposefully - via a meaningful series of provocative questions at each stage - on an issue or a project, all the way to its productive outcome.
Here's a quick bullet summary of the process stages:
1) DISTINCTIONS;
2) IDENTITY;
3) IMPLICATIONS;
4) TESTING;
5) PRECEDENT;
6) NEED;
7) FOUNDATION;
8) COMPLETION;
9) CONNECTING;
10) IMPACT;
11) ADVOCACY;
[Readers can go to this link to download a relatively detailed document about 'The Endleofon Process'.]
From a tactical perspective, the eleven process stages are great for anyone to use them for exploring his or her creative assets, &/or mining his or her inventive mind.
The author writes with warmth, candour & succinctness. His many personal anecdotes as well as crisp examples of real-world application are easy to understand. Best of all, his easy-going writing style also makes reading - by the way, less than 150 pages - a breeze!
Particularly for reader's benefit, I like to single out a number of refreshing strategic insights from the book - for me, they really stand out:
1) Thinking is a matter of making (fine) distinctions;
2) Seeing, as opposed to looking, is the beginning of discovery;
3) When we have refined our thinking to the point that our hard work has become invisible, then we will have achieved elegance;
4) Our definition of success needs to be revisited from time to time. . . (so that) we can better calibrate our thinking. . .;
5) Our identity is the fingerprint of our soul, that part of us that is unchanging & immutable; Knowing. . . this will give us the necessary alignment throughout the creative process;
6) We need to see the moral, societal, & technological implications, & play them out in every way imaginable to truly understand the full context of what we're doing;
7) Testing means asking, "what am I blind to?;
8) Testing, including modeling, is the only reliable way we have of finding how robust our ideas are;
9) Once we have absorbed our major influences (from others), everything we think & do will tend to be original, because only we can synthesise them in the unique way that we do;
[Interestingly, this was also the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee's philosophy, when he developed the stealthy hybrid jeet-kune-do fighting system.];
10) I like to think of big breakthroughs as "shuffling the deck". . . we need to develop our own personal array of filters that will bring us the information we need as soon as it happens;
11) Understanding the flow of the zeitgeist (spirit of the time), being sensitive to it, will help calibrate our own innovations & developments;
12) Having a good understanding of who needs us most will also help us in crafting our developments. . .;
13) Almost everything we say or so has significance & carries implications. . . & consequences, whether we want them or not. . . Looking for (them). . . will always enrich our work & may lead us to alter the direction of what we're doing;
14) I believe that until we find an answer for ourselves to the big 'WHY? that we can live with for a while, we will not be able to think through the moral implications of our personal universe;
15) Structural integrity requires that something that can stand on its own i.e. be complete. . . look at (the) 3 steps for the user that will take place in time: beginning point (opening the package), end point (using it as intended), & third point: we need to do whatever is necessary for a great user experience!
16) No matter how brilliant our creation is, we need to complete it by becoming our intended user for a time (reality check);
17) By creating, we are defining a self that acts in the world, & if we desire, magnifying our contribution;
18) To make a difference in the world ultimately requires understanding how to be an advocate for our ideas or causes;
To conclude my review, I reckon the real gem in the book lies, in addition to the methodology, in the thoughtfully-crafted 'The Endleofon Questions' which the author has dutifully assembled at the end of the book, as well as also those probing ones already interspersed within all the chapters.
Many thanks, Gerald, for a great masterpiece!
I reckon 'Genius by Design' - which implies hard work, as thinking is essentially hard work (I fully concur with Henry Ford) - would have been a much more appropriate title for your book!
Nevertheless, your wonderful book has made my day!
[More information about the author, his consulting work, & his book is available at his corporate website as well as his personal weblog.]
How can I know what I think until I see what I say?
– Edward M. Forster (1879–1970), English novelist;
"Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who's forging a bullet with your company's name on it.
You've got one option now – to shoot first. You've got to out-innovate the innovators."
– Gary Hamel;
