The Rabbit and the Turtle - New Version

The Rabbit and the Turtle - New Version

Once upon a time a tortoise and a rabbit had an argument about who was faster? They decided to settle the argument with a race.They agreed on a route and started off the race.The rabbit dashed almost out of sight at once.But soon stopped.To show his contempt for tortoise, He lay down to have a nap.The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race. Emerging as the undisputed champ.
The rabbit woke up and realized that he’d lost the race.The moral of the story is:Slow and steady wins the race.

This is the version of the story that we’ve all grown up with.But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version ofthis story.It continues...

The Rabbit was disappointed at losing the race.And he did some Defect Prevention.He realized that he’d lost the race only because: He had been overconfident,careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the tortoise could have beaten him.So he challenged the tortoise to another race.The tortoise agreed.
This time the Rabbit went all out and ran without stoppingfrom start to finish. He won by several miles.The moral of the story:Fast and consistent will always BeatThe slow and steady.

But the story doesn’t end here:The tortoise thought for a while and then challenged the Rabbit to another race,but on a slightly different route.The rabbit agreed, They startedoff.In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistentlyfast.The rabbit took off and ran attop speed.Until he came to a broad river.The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.The rabbit sat there wondering what to do? In the meantime the tortoise traveled along.Get into the river.Swam to the opposite back,continued walking and finishing the race.The moral of the story:First identify your corecompetency And then Change the playing field to suit your core competency.

The story still hasn’t ended.The rabbit and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends.And they did something together.They decided to do the last raceagain.But to run as TEAM this time.They started off, and this timethe rabbit carried the tortoise till the river bank.Then the tortoise took over and swam across with the rabbit on his back.They reached the finishing line together.They felt a greater sense of satisfaction then they’d felt earlier. The moral of the story is:“When we stop competing against a rival and instead competing against the situation we perform far better.”

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." --Henry Ford

The Scientist Lyrics - Cold Play

This song exactly narrates what I'm feeling right now.

Nobody said it was easy
It’s such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh, take me back to the start.

I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress
Don’t speak as loud as my heart
And tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing our tails
Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy
Oh it’s such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I’m going back to the start

>COLDPLAY

If You Love, Be Ready to Get Hurt.

Discernment is the ability to see and understand people, things, or situations clearly and intelligently. It is also the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure. It is commonly known as an act of perceiving. I have a friend who has this kind of gift from childhood. He was able to discern the threats, danger, untrustworthy people and the feelings of others. It enables him to connect well to a lot of people. Though he has this gift, he’s weak in exercising sound judgement, especially in dealing with people who are special and close to his heart. The compassionate “him” is always there to give the other person the benefit of the doubt. With this, he became vulnerable to heartaches. Just like yesterday. There is this person who is so dear to his. He supporting her with all his might and all the resources that he have. He promised that he’ll do everything just for her to be okay. Out of nowhere, he had decided to take a peek on her yahoo account. After couple of trial for her password, he was able to open her account. Then, he remembers that it is link on her Facebook account that’s why he decided to open it as well. He reset the password without logging out the Facebook account to other devices (clever him). To his surprise, this f*ck*ng lady is sh*tting on him. His girlfriend has boyfriend in the Philippines as well. (They are in LDR relationship after the lady decided to finish her studies. It’s the plan to establish their future anyway.) It’s not the first time that the lady lied and cheated on him. It happened before. Apologies accepted. She has been forgiven with a condition that she will not do it again. He was able to take screenshots of his girlfriend and the new boyfriend’s conversation. He takes a smart move of sending it to her. This is how it goes “Hi babe, *screenshots* I guess you already know what’s next. Take care. I had enough”. Exchanging of words happened, with no intention of hurting her back though he is raging in anger. He wants her to feel that she lose a lot. He sacrificed a lot here in overseas. He is sending her 70-90% of his salary just for her to feel a bit of comfort while studying. He is walking every day from home to office and office to home just to save taxi fare. He is not eating breakfast and dinner, smoking cheap cigarette, shifted from room to bedspace and barely buying clothes just to save money. He disconnected his other mobile plan to save 100dirhams every month. All of this, just for her. Last month, his girlfriend ask her about the tour (mandatory for her course) amounting to 30,000 pesos. He’s generous enough or maybe stupid enough to send her the whole money for the tour plus the monthly allowance, only to find out that the tour got cancelled but missed or intended not to inform him. Him slapped with the truth; found out that the tour which she is talking about was a private tour with her and her boyfriend. Good job! Two thumbs-up! She cheated on him big time! She not only broke his heart but crushed it into pieces. I admire his courage though. He said that he already forgave her. He told me that those who carry hatred are prisoner of hatred. He said that he suffered enough and he’s not planning to punish himself more. He told me that if he releases forgiveness, it will not mean you are weak, it’s the contrary. If you were able to release forgiveness, you are freeing yourself from pain. Not instantly but surely. Time heals all wounds, he mentioned. As I look at him today, I can see that he’s still not ok. Judging from the looks on his eyes, he is deeply hurting. But I know he will be fine. He only needs time to heal and time to forget.

For all that is hurting right now, don’t think that you are alone. Every trial is enough for us to bear and it will give us lesson that will make us stronger and better person.

Life is Beautiful!

It's a very beautiful day. Took a cab from my home to Al Fallah Street to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks but decided not to take one as it's a pain in the ass to carry for 30 minutes walk. While walking, I've decided to play my favorite song, "Like I'm Gonna Lose You". This is how it goes:

Apologies for the video and audio quality. Bit windy on that day.

While walking, I noticed a lot of things. I saw the sky, it was full of clouds, which is a rare occasion in UAE.

I noticed the No. 56 bus which I guess was delay on his schedule.

The Life Line Hospital's Golden Building never fails to amaze me. I always wonder how they make it gold.

And Oh, before I forget, the Mawaqif guy who's an early bird in catching who did not place their parking tickets. 

The Pakistani man who is crossing the street. He is old and he is having a hard time walking.

Few blocks away and I saw this guy who is down the gutter at the pedestrian. He came from the Hospital and like the old Pakistani guy, he as well has a difficulty in walking.

I'm at the Hamdan Center, and I took a photo of my Kickers shoes. Of course, how I would miss that? Caught this while walking.

Arrived at the office exactly 9:17:53am. Haha. Still have time to prepare a cup of coffee. :) Awesome.

Life is beautiful. There's a lot of things that we can be thankful of. For me, I can sing, talk, some of them can't. I can walk, run, some of them can't. I have job, some of them, don't have. If we would only appreciate what we have and what we can do, then, we will appreciate life itself.

How my Day Went

It's Friday here in UAE. It's my favorite day of the week. I was able to rest, relax, watch movie, read books, procrastinate and a lot more. So here's how my day goes, I woke up 8:30am. Went to the kitchen to prepare a cup of coffee. My flatmate joined me and we talked a lot. I came to know that she's a martyr to her ex-husband. It was not an issue of a third party at first. A typical problem of Filipino who got hooked into vices "gambling of any forms and drugs". She told me that she gave a lot of chances to her husband and keep on accepting him over and over again. But he keeps on doing it. Until it reaches to a point that they cannot pay their debts no more. They finally decided to go overseas to pay off all their debts. But every time the husband is going back to Philippines, he's leaving them with tons of debts again. It became a normal cycle of apologies and forgiveness. Until her heart started to get tired. Her turning point is the third party which she come to know 3 months ago. The Woman is pregnant and she knows that it's the end of it. We finished talking at 10:30am. Cooked breakfast, ate and I decided to watch movie at 1pm. I watched mocking jay. It's not that bad but not that good as well. Slept again, took shower at 4pm and decided to go to my assistant's home to get my planner. Took a photo while on our way home.

Walked for a bit and hang out at The Bagel Bar Coffee Shop. Don't be mislead though, it's 100% coffee shop and never a bar of some sort. We stayed there for few hours. Ordered irish coffee, called my friend "Royen" to come over. When he arrived we talked about ways on how we will earn extra money. As you know, life here in abroad is never easy. Room rent is very expensive. It's equivalent to 3 bedroom house in Manila. After I finished my coffee, I ordered another cup of tea. Left at the coffee shop 2 minutes before 10pm. We're lucky enough to find taxi easily. The driver started the meter 9:59pm. Just for everybody's information, taxi fare's minimum rate after 10pm is 10aed. Arrived home at 10:15pm. Started to do the agenda for tomorrow's meeting *crap* and process flow for hiring, pre-employment, termination and resignation. Finished the whole thing at 1:00am.

Hiring Process/Workflow:

Pre-employment Process/Workflow:

Termination and Resignation Process/Workflow:

Are you a certified Outdoor Sales Executive?

You're a certified outdoor sales executive if you did or experienced atleast three of the following:

1. Walking miles per day just to submit an order.
2. Bear the heat of the scorching sun and never bother to get wet when it rains.
3. The Miss and Mr. Congeniality. A lot of people knows you.
4. You know very well the meaning of weekly and monthly target, difference of commission, bonus and incentive.
5. You know how critical end of the month is.
6. You know what KPI is.
7. You know what pipeline is.
8. Once in your life you did not come back to work with an excuse that you are in the meeting with customer.
9. Once in your life you did not report to office in the morning with an excuse that you have a very early appointment with the customer.
10. You are not submitting all your orders so that on the next day you will surely have an order.
11. Once in your life you tried to submit the order that was rejected or processed on previous month to escape the rage of the manager.
12. Once in your life you tried to meet a friend or a relative within the office hours.
13. There is no such thing as overtime pay.
14. Once in your life you forge the signature of the customer or you falsify a document.
15. There is no such thing as off. You have to answer a lot of telephone calls and respond to tons of email.
16. You're buying atleast 3 shoes (work shoes) in a year.
17. You understand the meaning of weekly, monthly, quarterly, semiannually and annual plan.
18. You understand B2B and B2C very well.
19. You have flexible lunch break.
20. Most of all, you never work for basic salary but for the incentive and commission.

Congratulations, you are blood of the company. Thank you for efforts in bringing business to the company.

UAE hit by the Storm 9 March 2016

It was last Wednesday (9 March 2016), UAE was hit by the storm. I was conducting the interview at that time. I saw my colleagues looking so anxious. Then my boss entered my room. CJ, you better see this. I’m puzzled why he looks so worried. Then when I looked at the window, it was total darkness. I can barely see the buildings outside. The wind is hovering like crazy, you can feel the wind shaking our building. It was a combination of strong wind and heavy rain. The people started praying. Some of them even throw a joke, “let’s all repent for today might be the second coming”. It is 10 in the morning, but it looks like 7 in the evening. T’was total darkness on a mid-day. It lasted for nearly an hour. The wind is gone, rain’s gone, but the damage is very evident.

 Later in the afternoon my sister sent me a photo. I can't believe it myself!!! She said that not only strong wind and heavy rain, they also experience this:

Until now some of the areas in Dubai are still flooded. This according to my friends who have been here for more than a decade, said that this was never happened before. Climate change is real. Wake up people! We are here in one of the hottest part of the world and yet, we experience this.

Kwentong May Kwenta

Gusto ko talagang magsulat tungkol sa mga bitter na tao sa paligid ko na wala ng ginawa kundi ang iparamdam na napakaliit mo, pero, wala akong panahon. Hehe. It’s not worth the effort and time sabi nga ni Princess. At dahil diyan, bigyan na lang natin ng panahon ang mga taong nagbibigay kulay sa aking mundo.

Sa aking makulit na pamangkin na wala ng ginawa kung hindi ang magpalibre at magpabili ng kung anu-ano. Ikaw ang isa sa mga inspirasyon ko. Ang dahilan ng kasungitan minsan ngunit madalas ay pagngiti ko. Ikaw ang nagturo sa akin na hindi nauubos ang pangarap. Na sa bawat pisong malilikom mo sa isang kaibigan ay makabubuo ka ng isang milyon kung may isang milyon kang kaibigan. The best ang idea na yan. Biruin mo, pwede ka pala talagang yumaman basta marami kang kaibigan. Hehe.

Sa nanay ko na bagamat di ako nakitang lumaki ay napakarami namang naituro sa akin. Katulad ng wag aakyat sa bubong ng kulungan ng baboy dahil siguradong palo ako. Wag magsisiga sa tapat ng kable ng kuryente dahil baka magkasunog na minsang ginawa ko. Na ang pagyoyosi ay masama sa katawan kahit patago niya namang ginagawa. Baka stress lang kasi siyang maigi. :D Higit sa lahat, unahin ang pamilya bago ang iba.

Sa ate ko na medyo matalas ang dila na siyang nagsakripisyo, makatapos lang ako ng pag-aaral. Hindi alintana ang hirap. Tinitipid ang sarili. Nagtiis na di makakain sa mamahaling restaurant makatapos lang kami. Salamat! Napakabuti at busilak ang iyong puso.

Sa bestfriend ko na bagamat may di kami pagkakaunawaan ngayon ay napakaraming naituro sa akin. Magtipid ang pangunahin. Maging mapagbigay. Wag mag-alala kung may sulusyon, kung walang sulusyon, anong pakinabang ng pag-aalala? Hindi nagkukulang ang Diyos. Hindi ka masasaktan ng mga tao malibang hayaan mo sila. Eto ang pamatay, kung ang tao ay galing sa unggoy, bakit may mukhang kabayo?

Sa’yong aalayan ko ng mundo. Kilala mo na kung sino ka. Pinaunawa mo sa akin na kung gusto maraming paraan, kung ayaw, maraming dahilan. Tinuruan mo akong maghintay ng matagal kasabay ang pagpapasensya. Tinuturuan mo pa rin ako hanggang ngayon kung paano pahabain ang pisi sa tuwing nahuhuli ka sa usapan, gayon din sa mga taong mapanghusga. Pinaramdam mo sa akin kung gaano kasarap ang magmahal at ang mahalin. Pinaunawa mo sa akin na ang piso ay may dalawang mukha, tao at bangko sentral, meaning, pwede kang mamili kung saan ka titingin, sa tao ba o sa bangko sentral, sa mabuti ba o sa masama, sa ugali ba o sa mukha. Tinuruan mo akong magbigay ng hindi naghahangad ng kapalit, na walang kaso kung mas malaki ang binibigay mo kesa sa natatanggap mo. Pinaramdam mo sa akin na kahit maraming kulang, kayang punan iyon ng simpleng ngiti ng iyong minamahal, na sapat na ang salitang mahal kita para sa mga bagay na hinahanap at hindi nakikita ng mata. Pinakita mo sa aking malawak ang mundo, na ang mundo ay hindi lang umiikot sa iyo at sa akin kaya matuto tayong umunawa sa iba. Tama ka nung sinabi mo na ang tanging kalaban lang ng tao ay ang sarili niya dahil hindi ito lang ang hindi niya kayang gapiin.

Ilan lang ito sa aking natutunan sa buhay na lulan ng isang pangarap. Pangalagaan natin ang bawat pirasong karunungan na ating tinatamasa dahil ito lang ang siyang sa ati’y hindi mananakaw. Buksan ang mga mata, palawakin ang isip, salain ang impormasyong dulot ng buhay na sa iba’y pasakit ngunit sa karamiha’y isang malawak na kapatagang kapupulutan ng lubhang daming kaalaman. Maging matalino, mapanuri dahil walang ibang gagawa nito para sa’yo kung hindi ang taong nakikita mo sa harap ng salamin.