The Truth Behind Your Self-Worth and Your Income

Recently I read an article on the taboo of comparing salaries.

Depending on your cultural background and beliefs, you may or may not compare your salaries with your family and friends openly. However, most of us are interested to know how much we earn relative to our peers.

Why is this so? The reason is simple – we are interested to know if we are valuable.

Before you start crying foul, hear me out. Obviously, you know that your self-worth is not dependent on your income. How much you earn has nothing to do with your value as a person. Read the Rest of This Article »

Starting a New Year with Death

Do you read the obituaries? I do. In fact, I do it very often.

I have a habit of reading the obituaries. It’s weird, I know – it’s not a common past time for most people. Before you strike me off as another nut case, please hear me out.

Each time I read the obituaries, I will look out for young faces, people in their twenties, thirties and even forties. With an average mortality rate of between 70 to 80 years, these folks had a really short life. It’s such a shame.

OBITUARIES ARE REMINDERS

Each time, I’ll ask myself what it feels like to be in prime of your life and have it ended prematurely. Did they feel shortchanged by life? Did they feel any regret about dreams still unfulfilled? I guess if given another chance, they would probably want to change something; maybe go and actually do something that they have been dreaming of, but never really got around to doing. Maybe they like to tell someone how much he/she mean to them.

Reading the obituaries is a constant reminder to me that our time is limited; a reminder for me to appreciate life, to love life. Read the Rest of This Article »

When to Quit and When to Stick

One recurring principle in personal development is perseverance — the ability to persist in an undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement.

This brings to mind Steve Job’s success story at Apple Inc:

At 30, Steve Jobs was fired from Apple in a very public falling out; he persevered and started two more companies, NeXT and Pixar. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now one of the world’s most successful animation studio. NeXT was bought by Apple, which saw Steve’s return to Apple, and the technology he developed at NeXT is now at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance.

As much as there are proponents of perseverance, there are as many which advocates “quit while you’re ahead.” One example would be Eugene O’Kelly, Ex-CEO of KPMG. Read the Rest of This Article »