Aloysius Chan's Blog

Technology is anything that was invented before we were born. Children perceive Internet as part of everyday life, parents saw television and grandparents saw radio. We didn’t break out of it due to unfamiliarity and it will cause us to hinder our progress. 7 Characteristics of stakeholder webs (s-webs): The embodiment (visible form) of transparency Varying participant motives and roles Changing dynamics (rumors travel fast, but validation can be swift as well) Variable corporate engagement Big trouble: trust crisis A company’s response to a trust crisis: effects on its future and its viability A powerful force for corporate transformation Corporate values (honesty, accountability, other’s interest, transparency) > trust (shared norms and values, reciprocity, validation, transference) > relationships > value (sustainable foundations - access to capital, sustainable growth - brand reputation and customer loyalty, sustainable efficiency - minimising regulation And...

Develop a clear vision Know your leadership style Know you risk tolerance Choose a soul mate Break major objectives into smaller goals Conduct an annual planning process Define your corporate mission Commit only to attainable and measurable goals Commit only to specific actions with responsibilities and completion dates assigned Identify competence for goal achievement Complete annual performance evaluations Ensure corporate and employee goals are congruent Reward employees for goals achieved Encourage rehabilitation of poor performers Examine competence after significant business changes Appoint a leader for core competence Know your major competitors Study purchasing habits of target markets Beware of lust for unproven markets Allocate resources only to opportunities with potential for optimum goal achievement Implement account plans Continuously assess customer satisfaction Appoint a leader for customer satisfaction Analyse competitor advantages Eliminate c...

Have a business plan Declare your personality Naming names The color of success Logo logic It’s all in the business cards Stationery with staying power Themes and slogans The whole package Maintaining your edge Size matters The price should be right Internal customer attitude check Customer attitude check Time flies Ready when they are? Phoning it in Mail bonding Your window on the world Signs of life Outside the box Spreading the wealth More than lip service After-marketing Complaints are your best friend Hire eagles, not turkeys Sampling is simple Credit where it’s due High finance A word from our sponsor Communing with the community Coalitions of the willing Going public Join this Team efforts The word on word of mouth Fly with flyers Whar’s the book on you? Spread the good word Winning is everything Little house in hurry Be cooperative A classified act Putting on a display Looking slick Yellow’s not mellow On deck Wish you were here ...

Understanding yourself: what you love to do, what you’re good at doing, what people will pay you for 2 powerful force for the world to hook up: sex and trade Traipse: move wearily or reluctantly Good market: grumpies: graying rich upset male person Important lessons about business and investing: because people say the same thing over and over again doesn’t mean it isn’t true, never undervalue honest work that accomplishes something no matter how humble that something seems to be, be alert to mismatches between input and output like snapchat is a pile of chicken shit, don’t keep chicken Think about it: manual car > auto car > driverless car

Polynesian (build & pilot canoes), Mongol (ride & care horses), Aztec (avoid become human sacrifice), Russian (avoid become a serf) Epochal changes rooted in single idea that animates the emerging age of personalisation Law of Jante: in Nordic, not confirming, extraordinary, ambitious is unworthy & inappropriate Adroitly: in a clever or skilful way Inexorably: impossible to stop or prevent

There is no instruction manual for life, so create your own Negatives emotions justifications: identification, hypersensitivity, judgmentalism, rationalisation Sedona method: the pencil test: hold it tight and imagine holding it for years and then let it go Personal development: self-disclosure, self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-esteem revisited Seven-year itch: want and desire evolve and change People declare bankruptcy because failure to think ahead financially 6 P formula: proper prior planning prevents poor performance Stages of grief: denial > anger > bargaining > depression > acceptance > resurgence Humans only learn through suffering Key to success in human relationships: make others feel important, build self-esteem in others, acceptance, appreciation, admiration, approval, attention Effective listening: listening without interruptions, pause before replying, question for clarification, paraphrase what you heard

Sponsorship boost sponsor: having protege improves promotion and assignment chances

If you cannot handle risky decisions, the business shutting down for good is just around the corner Essential quality: being tenacious: not readily relinquishing a principle Entrepreneur should not being the business until all major business risks are addressed Don’t put the cart before the horse Raise capital when the economy is good, you will never know when you are going to need it Cannibalise own product: to encourage internal competition and gain market share Businesses are like sharks, if they aren’t swimming, they die Forbearance agreement: delay, reduce or suspend payment for a period of time Marketing: reach - number of people you can target, frequency - how many times they are exposed to the ad

Corporate lifecycle phases: innovation> geographic> expansion> product-line> expansion> efficiency & scale> consolidation Schein Culture: Artefacts (organisational structure, hard to decipher), espoused values (adopted justifications), basic underlying assumptions (ultimate source of values and actions, beliefs) Parochial: having a limited or narrow outlook or scope Sacrosanct: regard as too important or valuable to be interfered with Insularity: ignorance of or lack of interest in cultures, ideas, or people outside one’s own experience Mission and vision values: aspirational, fashionable, actual, corrective Expansion phase: disciplined/evolutionary innovation, process and discipline; mastering planning, budgeting and execution, balancing agility with a control and quality orientation, longer-term and more strategic orientation while still being agile Board and management need to pay attention when the company reaches a transformation point - new skills ...

Planck’s quanta: light is not continuous waves but as self-contained packets If electrons had fixed orbits, jumping between orbits would produce characteristic colours of light Particles could behave like waves just as waves could behave like particles Magnet: the direction of quantum spin of particles determines their magnetic orientation Schrodinger’s equation: locate Hydrogen electrons in different orbits can be predicted by its wavelength The closer we pin down the location of a quantum particle, the less we can know about its momentum Decoherence entangle quantum particles to ensure everyday items stay firm classical Superluminal can travel faster than light due to quantum tunneling Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox: physical reality provided by quantum mechanics was incomplete Qubit can be coaxed into a superposition with laser light; the spinning direction Quantum Zeno effect: if a quantum is observed frequently enough, it will never change state even if the syst...

Bullet loan: fixed loan neither issuer or investor can alter life of the loan Put option loan: investor has the right to shorten the life of the loan Call option loan: issuer has the right to shorten the loan Sinking boan: issuer periodically pay off a portion of the principal instead of paying it off all at once at maturity Subordinated debt: debentures: bonds without escrowed collateral Income bond: if not interest = no management rise or bonuses, no stock buybacks or dividends, no acquisitions Interest yield can be calculated between present value (PV) and future value (FV) Zero coupon curve, zero curve, non parallel yield curve, time-weighted cash flows, time-discount future cash flow Floating rate notes (FRN): interest periodically resets to the prevailing market rate Modified duration: measures the price sensitivity of a bond when there is a change in the yield to maturity Macaulay duration: calculates the weighted average time before a bondholder would receive the bond...

Fintech 1.0: financial services on the web; 1.5: AI, big data, IoT, robotics, blockchain; 2.0: blockchain as core

Major hedge fund strategies: equity, arbitrage, momentum or direction, event-driven Evaluate hedge fund: return (compound annual growth rate CAGR), return vs. benchmark, risk (sharpe ratio) Good gauge: capital asset pricing model CAPM and efficient market hypothesis (EMH) CAPM alpha: company’s performance but collectively stocks can’t beat the market as they are the market, counterbalance; beta: volatility relative to the overall market; correlation: negative, no visible or positive relationship

The law of vibration, the law of Three, the law of Seven Learning pattern: input of new information > initial reaction > absorption > application of learning Enneagram: teaching tool that provides profound insight into the fundamental forces that generate oscillations in a living system Self-organising system: interacting components, interactions triggered by differences, access to energy to drive the interactions, the use of feedback loops, immanent ability to be something greater than the sum of its parts Momentum appears in everywhere, including the trading market Prima facie: (law) based on the first impression; accepted as correct until proved otherwise Gestating: develop over a long period I hate poverty and I’ll not endure it vs. I enjoy riches and shall earn and receive them

Things drop within a moving object lands on the same spot because of initial velocity Straight line is not the fastest way to travel, time travel in vector, so to bend time in different dimension, the greater the bend, the faster you can travel Gravitational lensing bends light around massive objects and caused by electromagnetic force instead of gravitational When the sun dies, as it is massive, the pressure will counterbalance gravity’s pull; gravitational collapse halts Event Horizon Telescope in Chile: Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)

Faith encourages all that is right, fear encourages all that is wrong Faith attracts only that which is constructive and creative, fear attracts only that which is destructive Autosuggestion (or self-hypnosis) is the medium by which one may attune his ego to any desired rate of vibration. Every successful person makes constant use of this principle Enthusiasm: adopt a major definite purpose > obsessional desire > definite / combination plan > devote at least some time each day for the plan Man of greed do not last as competition soon eliminates them Organised individual endeavour: going extra miles

Accountability: a personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results; to see it, own it, solve it and do it Key results: meaningful, measurable, memorable See it principles: forgo ego, welcome difficult conversation, embrace feedback, link what you see to key results Total ownership: involve and agree Solve it principles: create space for others to fill; engage more brains at work; stay engaged, be persistent, think differently, create new connections; maintain a culture intent on achieving key results

Phychphysis: the branch of psychology that deals with the relationships between physical stimuli and mental phenomena Potential end of the world: end of food, climate plague, unbreathable air, perpetual war, permanent economic collapse, poisoned oceans Things are not as bad as we think and most are getting better, accept the emotions but challenge the thought, cultivate scepticism but not cynicism, other people are not as like as as we think, our focus on extreme examples also lead us astray, facts still count and fact-checking is important, we also need to tell the story, better and deeper engagement is possible

Don’t be where you are, be clear where you want to go, look back from the future, the strong why, 7 whys Create a list of things to: eliminate, automate, outsource, delegate, replace Try to solve: their pain, fear, stress, limiting/empowering beliefs, goals, why do they think that way, staying on track Happiness: define and feel how it is like, present is your friend, stop overthinking, focus on positive outcome, let go of specific outcome, don’t be afraid to fail, let go of grudges, be grateful for what you have, don’t settle for good enough, be part of something bigger Productivity: either climb or slide, are you in control, get real about time

Orbitofrontal cortex - known to perform nonconscious appraisals of threats Hell: pain from anterior cingulate cortex < suffering. Tylenol, a pain reliever. Non-ending sufferings cause depression Titillating: arousing sexual excitement; salacious: conveying appropriate interest in sexual manner Hunger: trapped with persistent feelings of restlessness and yearning; delusion to be happy when we got what we want Animality: food, sex, sleep, basic desire; obsessively seek pleasure and avoid pain Anger: to protect your ego; hate being viewed negatively Tranquility: suppress both emotion and desire; doesn’t know what they want Rapture (joy): hedonic happiness (emotion) & eudaimonic happiness (one’s purpose); attachment to temporary things hinder our happiness Learning: linked to eudaimonic happiness; crush a man by making him do work that devoid of usefulness and meaning Hypofrontality - decreased cerebral blood flow in the prefrontal cortex Realisation: to be freed from de...

In the box, self-betrayal, collude Ignaz Semmelweis - the germ that spread through organisation that kills teamwork and effectiveness Everyone is just thinking about themselves Thinking people as an object will just become a threat, a nuisance or a problem - a person or object? Self-betrayal: an act contrary to what I feel I should do for another is called an act of “self-betrayal”; when I betray myself, I begin to see the world in a way that justifies my self-betrayal; when I see the world in a self-justifying way, my view of reality becomes distorted; so-when I betray myself, I enter the box; over time, certain boxes become characteristic of me, and I carry them with me; by being in the box, I provoke others to be in the box; in the box, we invite mutual mistreatment and obtain mutual justification. We collude in giving each other reason to stay in the box How do I get out and stay out of the box What doesn’t work in the box: trying to change others, doing my best to “cope” w...

“In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic” -John Maynard Keynes Cornucopia: goat's horn overflowing with flowers, fruit, and corn Vietnam war: USA uses IOU from their gold to fund the war 2009 gold price surges because of China, their gold mine are limited Ostensibly: appears or is stated to be true, though not necessary so; apparently Superstition Friday: no one mine on Friday because the devil come and put back the gold

Gassiness: embarrassing, bothersome, smelly Indolent: wanting to avoid activity or exertion lazy Forces that drains: fear, settling & boredom, inundation (flooding), loss of control, dwindling self-belief, disconnectedness, Darth of creating, insignificant, lack of evocation Choice and prioritize: work on what matters most, 20/20 vision 20% adds most value & 20 for opportunity, weight & measure, lost of knowing, run your manager through the mill, to do & do don’t list, addition by subtraction, accordion (continually re-prioritize), & not trash compactor management Zeigarnik effect: we remember uncompleted tasks better than completed ones Empower yourself by giving away power Power grid: get on your own agenda, expansion zealot (mind, connection, experience), the real you, balanced power, role charity, decision maker, stop asking for permission, get feedback, embrace chance, proactive Confidence: kill nuclear reactor, kill inner-monologue, authenticity, be p...

Brain neurons: organelles (mitochondria), 3Fs: fear (fight, flight), feed, f**k (reproduce) Willpower come from ACC (Anterior Cingulate Cortex), to build up do the hard things first Zuckerburg and Jobs always wear the same clothes to save mental energy Effective reading: FAST: Forget, Active (intensity), State (clear your mind), Teach Don’t lead a horse to the water, make it thirsty Routine: SAVERS: Silence, Affirmations, Visualisations, Exercise, Reading, Scribing Throw a rock at the rabbit, don’t chase it Be like leaves: still too much, sitting too much - wither and die; move naturally and freely - flourish

First telescope: Galileo in 1609 Kuiper belt: star trail Heliosphere: region where solar wind is dominant Europa: Jupiter’s moon that contain water vapour RS Canum Venaticorum class star flips magnetic field from one hemisphere to the other Estimate the planet's temperature: Stephan-Boltzmann law Estimate the planet's mass: spectroscopic binaries or parallax measurements Estimate distance: Hertzs-Prung Russell diagram; Cepheid, regular cycle with frequency related to its luminosity Sun burn so long is due to fission and fusion, carbon–nitrogen–oxygen (CNO) cycle Starbirth theory: Eagle Nebula (Messier 16): towers of gas and dust; Nebula: dust, hydrogen, helium, ionized gas Exoplanet: planet outside our solar system; Pulsar: highly magnetised rotating neutron star or White Dwarf Goldilocks zone: habitable zone neither too hot or too cold Heaviest star: R136a1, 265 solar-mass at Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy Neutrinos: subatomic particles, by-product of nuclear rea...

PPP: public-private partnership On 2013 some high profile match-fixing and betting were exposed Information Technology + Indian Talent = India Tomorrow (IT + IT = IT2)

The wonders of money distribution Debasement: the practice of lowering the value of currency Seigniorage: profit made by government by issuing currency, e.g. coin face value vs. production cost Exacerbate: make something worse Benign: gentle and kind “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws” - Mayer Amschel Rothschild “I don’t care who writes a nation’s laws - or craft its advanced treaties - if I can write its economics textbooks” - Paul A. Samuelson Quantity of labour: if it costs twice the labour to kill a beaver than a deer, 1 beaver exchange for 2 deer Fisher identity: Money in circulation x Velocity = average transaction Price x volume of Transaction (GDP) Change in government policy will affect the economy: Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) / Arrow-Debreu Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP): transport energy and store food with cells

5 D’s: Disruption > Desire > Discipline > Determination > Development > Brain function: working memory, long-term memory, error detection, fear response Decision: 0.3s neurotransmission + 0.2s choice point = right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RULPFC) > sensory thalamus / amygdala Make conscious choices to choose the gain over the pain Resilience spiral: depression > distress > vulnerable > withdrawn > disengaged > confused > master stress > energise body > engage emotion > train mind > spin in action Johari Windows: helps people understand their relationship with themselves and with others Change through disruption: create guiding philosophy > make change strategic > integrate into the business > establish a change leadership council > create a cadre of change leaders > formulate a change strategy > model collaboration in everything > foster better thinking > initiate communication > ensure organisat...

4 geniuses: dynamo (what, ideas, intuitive, innovative), blaze (who, people, extroverted, magnify), tempo (when, sensory, timing), steel (how, details, introvert, multiply) Prism: [foundation] infrared viction (in debt) > red survivor (just enough) > orange worker (work hard) > [enterprise] yellow player (limited) > green performer (team performance) > blue conductor (mastered cash) > [alchemy] indigo trustee (billionaire playground) > violet composer (print money) > ultraviolet legend (symbol) Wealth creation is about job creation Marketing rate: registration > engagement > conversion > delivery > satisfaction > repurchase / referral Octopus effect: on the surface looks successful, beneath the surface everything is linked to the brain Measure your money > commit to conduct (relationship) > do your duty > pinpoint your passion > set your standards > follow the flow > identify your identity > master your market > mone...

Fearless people: greet fear at the door

Your legacy: accountants can’t create it, lawyers can’t litigate it, government can’t legislate it, professors can’t touch it. Only you can orchestrate it Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations Succession rate: 70% failure: 60% trust and communication issues, 25% unprepared heirs, 12% lack of mission, 3% failure of professionals Bequeath: pass down assets; beguiling: charming in a deceiving way Family bank: legal structure > governance strategies > human, intellectual, financial assets > shared vision > shared values

Acrimony: bitterness or ill feelings Most small businesses sell between 3 to 5 times their EBITDA Proposal needs: teaser and confidential information memorandum (CIM) Businesses without enduring profitability: technology-driven, cyclical, huge competitors (dance with a giant, and you will get crushed), specialised assets Quantitative filter: high EBITDA margin, recurring customers, fragmented customers & suppliers (no concentration), right revenue growth, steady (not cyclical) sales Fundamental buying assessment: seller’s character, accounts & finance, contracts & legal affairs, customers & employees’ perspectives, other specialised due diligence (machinery & equipment, software, environmental hazards, regulatory compliance & rule change)

Successful persistence doesn’t involve note repetitions of the same information No is a guidepost not a stop sign Why no? Lingering questions, inadequate explanation of benefits, additional discovery is required, misstep in qualification, unrevealed questions, timing, features, not you (being disliked) In selling, the person asking the questions controls and leads the sale Persuasion: establishing rapport > identifying needs > presenting solutions > closing questions Buyer’s mentality: starting points, personalities, questions, timing, money constraints Believe in what you sell: you can’t sell from an empty wagon Rapport: smile, small talk, be likable, verbal link, nonverbal-tonality, volume, speed, enunciation, physiology, posture (symmetrical / asymmetrical), proximity, touching, handshake, walking Ask reflective questions, e.g. have tight budget so uncertain how to plan to maximise it? Make the gatekeeper to become your salesperson Use humour, first name, heart ...

Innovation: invention + commercialisation + management process DIA model: Discovery (opportunity scoping, plant the business vision), Incubation (uncertainty reduction, pivot via experiment), Acceleration (business growth, propel to ramp up) Corporate entrepreneur model: Intrapreneurship (create business with business), arm’s-length approach (VC to external), internal venturing (spin-ins from core to business or spin-outs from non core to business), new business creation, open innovation, hybrid approach, innovation function (restructuring) Explore spin-offs as sometimes it is more sustainable and profitable Types of uncertainties: technical, market, resources, organisation Value pitch: clear and concise market value proposition, compelling business vision and strategy, validation of the business case, confidence in business viability and operation plans, identification of assumptions and risks, strength of market and competitive positioning Business model attributes: value pro...

People falsely assumed that it was very difficult to collect an old debt, but it all depends on the history of the portfolio

Improve susceptibility in deck: add “we care about _____” as philanthropic branding E.g. Deloitte / Scotia Capital: what benefits would you bundle them and what you would not Proposal: make the proposal about the sponsor and not about your organisation Always send fulfillment report to your sponsor after the event

4 stages of an exit: exploratory (investigation) > strategic (structure company as product) > execution > transition Sellability: financial performance, growth potential, overdepence, cash flow, recurring revenue, unique value proposition, customer satisfaction, management team Sellability of a company: financial performance, growth potential, overdependence, cash flow, recurring revenue, unique value proposition, customer satisfaction, management team ESOP: Employee Stock Ownership Plan Shorten the buying process to minimise damage: the owner can’t grow the business while preparing the proposal

Zombie can’t communicate - reckless, haphazard, stiff, indistinguishable, self-absorbed Identity will never change: identity > culture > brand; core value: what we do? (Behaviour), what we look like? (Visual communication), what we say? (Written & verbal communication) Sizing competitors: identity (core values), key messages, visuals, online presence, social media Avoid knee-jerk reaction (automated & unthinking) GRACEful communication - Genuine (honesty), Responsible (trust), Accommodating, Credible, Exciting GOST Conscious planning - Goals, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics Don’t be STIFF - Stubborn, Tired, Icky, Floundering, Forgotten Originality = creativity + identity; willing to take risks and stand out, uniqueness, fun and humorous communication, open-minded to  new ideas, embrace failure Let your audience see behind the curtain Stages of zombification: full embodied > dazed > fractured > Anesthetized > Totally Rotten

Mailchimp Ben Chestnut: “If I need more money - I just find more customers” Inc’s Tom Foster: “Bootstrapping means focusing on cash flow, minimizing expenses, and maximizing account receivables” Moelis & Co Ken Moelis: “IPO… you have to great the next quarter… and even greater… inherently motivating” Jack Ma: “Don’t hire the best people first, it’s like putting a Boeing 747 engine into a poor tractor” The rich keeps their money and live luxury life last while the poor does otherwise

Indicators preferred for stocks: Hindenburg Omen, Death cross, VIX, Fibonacci Price-to-sales ratio: a valuation ratio that compares a company’s stock price to its revenue Price-to-book ratio: to compare a firm’s market to book value by dividing the price per share by book value per share (BVPS) Enterprise Value (EV) to sales: valuation measure of a company to its annual sales Free Cash Flow (FCF): cash left over after a company pays for its OPEX & CAPEX CAPE: Cyclically-Adjusted P/E: for US market at a 10-year basis Epitomizes: be a perfect example of Bond convexity: bond price vs interest rates Shortage of workers > higher employment cost > nationalisation > communism; if only automation can replace fast enough Free lunch effect: managing a portfolio that is not yours always have an adverse effect Three Body Problem: triangulate and predict the object 100 years from now Fama and French Three Factor Model: an asset pricing model; Carhart four-factor model is i...

Investing is not entertainment - it’s a sober responsibility and not suppose to be fun

Rock ripple effect - Trace the source of the ripple, apply strategy, any time spent becomes part of the hourly salary Think like a guru - what’s next? Strategic selling - identify rock-ripple events, evaluate opportunities, innovate, deploy. Very important for entrepreneurs to identify opportunity Pertinent - relevant or applicable to a particular matter; apposite

Types of delegations: downward delegation (normal), upward delegation (to manager), sideways delegation (peers), silent delegation (assumption and volunteering, frequently from woman) Delegation cycle: Time > Trust/control > Money > Know-how > Promulgate - promote or make widely known; put a law into effect Team development model - starting > kicking > working > rocking

Turn off auto pilot by classifying tasks: necessary (productive, unattractive), unnecessary (unproductive, unattractive), purposeful (productive, attractive), distracting (unproductive, attractive) Our attention span can only fit so many tasks, over multi-tasking will only spoil one or more tasks Continually switch task will take longer and need rest after a complex task Hyper focus: rule of 3 (set 3 things to accomplish today), most consequential tasks (things that impact), hourly awareness chime (bring you back to focus) Classifying distraction: annoying + no control (office visitors), annoying + control (emails), fun + no control (team lunch), fun + control (social media) Einstein: It is not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer Zeigarnik effect: people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks

Not knowing when to quit polishing WAG (Wild-Assed Guess) vs. SWAG. (Scientific Wild-Assed Guess) Key Selling Point vs. Unique Selling Point Design for Manufacturability (DFM) vs. Design for Assembly (DFA)

Moon and Armstrong: group together to fulfill a sales and disband after Qualifying customers: why must the customer do this? Why must they do it now? Why must they do this with you? Why should you do this with them? Pressure can create diamonds or dust: thinking becomes rigid, people got defensive, performance pressure paradox (become generic, drive towards consensus, yield to those who hold authority) Sales under pressure: acknowledge the pressure, prioritise client knowledge, choose words carefully, choose an excellence mindset, practice together Sales process: identify prospect or opportunity > initiate contact with prospect > explore and qualify opportunity > propose and present > negotiate and close > monitor success and new developments Effective sales leader: focus on the goal, create a collaborative climate, build confidence, demonstrate sufficient technical know-how, set priorities, manage performance Qualify salesperson: interpersonal skills, complement...

Invest in the future, not the past Vacillating - wavering between different opinions or actions Portfolio building - don’t put your head in the freezer and legs in oven and expect your body temperature to regulate Economist joke - econ prof. and his student walked passed $10 but he didn’t pick up because if it is real, someone have already picked that up

Always ask for feedback especially after a rejection Pre-money valuation - company’s valuation before money is put in Effective ways to get fund - double-trigger acceleration, planned future management team, co-sale agreement (allow investors to sell together with founder), no-shop agreement (mutually don’t find any investors) Classic prisoner’s dilemma - A&B silent: each serves 8 months, A silent B betray: A 12 years B goes free, A betray B silent: A goes free B 12 years, A&B betray: each serves 5 years

4S method: State - define problem, empathise; Structure - build hypothesis pyramid, build issue tree, generate concept; Solve - perform analysis, prototype and test potential solutions; Sell - design storyline, produce and deliver recommendation report A problem well posed is half-solved TOSCA (problem-solving): Trouble, Owner, Success, Constraint, Actors Pyramid & decision tree - MECE - Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive Have multiple models as human psychology is such that you will torture reality to fit your model Always test your ideas: choose audience and get feedback Degrees of analysis: existing data, easy-to-find numbers, non-numerical facts, fact-based analysis, analysis based on assumptions, internal plan & forecast, expert input, judgement calls Sound assumptions: get physical to be realistic, check assumptions to be consistent, benchmark your assumption, test sensitivities SCAMPER - Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify, Put to other uses, El...

Competitive force: new entry, substitutes, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, existing customers Oligopoly - market of industry dominated by a small number of large sellers GM vs. Toyota - less servicing required McKinsey 7S framework (to analyse how well the organisation is positioned to achieve its objective): [soft] Shared values, skills, style, staff [hard] strategy, structure, systems Always need blue ocean and USPs Let competitors set the parameters and enter better, concentrate on commonalities among buyers instead of customisation, identify new tappable customers Mintzberg 5 P’s strategy: Plan, Pattern, Position, Perspective, Ploy P&G CEO Laffey: “Whether you’re a brand manager or in charge of a business unit, you should be doing your own strategy - buy also that strategy needs to be done in the context of what the company’s trying to do in the context of the corporate strategy. All the sub strategies should fit together seamlessly” Bad strategy: failure to...

You can only learn by doing; every startup has one CEO; if opportunity doesn’t knock, build your own door Engender (give rise to) stratospheric level of loyalty customers Heinz’s sauce: think and home-made until they develop a factory. Singer sewing machine give instalment plan when people cannot afford. Apple creates its own ecosystem with App Store and education, they also moved into B2G The best way to protect your idea is to grow it Promulgate: promote or make widely known an idea of cause - business must be able to duplicate

Intangible assets are giving steady and outpaced tangible asset in recent years: connect people quick, lower entry cost, globalisation Serendipity: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way Intangible assets: scalability, cost that will be sunk, generate spillovers and ability to exhibit synergies. Also contain uncertainty and contestedness Piketty’s r > g : increase in capital / income ratio, increase in the share of economic pie Build infrastructure in a spiral model, just like how government lease out land and slowly buyback. After all the next project you get to build alone and get to invest in others The development of social capital

All the small voices that make sense in a short period of time are from God When you are ready to meet Jesus, Jesus will be ready to meet you Examen prayer: gratitude, review, sorrow, repent, grace Relationship: knowing God is more important than knowing about God Honest prayer is very important Pennington's center prayer’s: quiet down a minute or two, simple words, prayers words Your neighbour’s intention is often honest and innocent, even though his act seems bad in outward appearance Intransigence - refusal to change one’s view or to argue about something Extract gold from the opportunity rather than waiting for the golden opportunity to be handed to you Decision prayer: put yourself in prayer of choice > identify ultimate objective > ask and to move to a better decision > make a list of positives and negatives > prayer for reason > ask for confirmation Ask yourself: what you want to do? Unfinished dreams? How do you want to live your life again? What ...

Platform is about value creation Metcalfe’s law - encapsulate how network effects create value for those who are in it or manage it Participants + value unit + filter → core interaction Successful platform creates efficiencies by matching the right users with one another and should have a modular approach in the long run Beating chicken-and-egg dilemma: follow-the-rabbit (create value and demonstrate), piggyback (Paypal ride on EBay), seeding (value unit that attract), marquee (incentives), single-side (create business around products - e.g. vendor distribute booking management software), producer evangelism (attracts producers), big-bang adoption (push marketing to attract high volume of interest), micromarket (target tiny market first) Pre-revolutionary industries: information intensive, non-scalable gatekeepers (Ebay), highly fragmented (Uber), extreme information asymmetries (data aggregating & sharing platform), high regulatory control, high failure cost, resource-inten...

Startup focus on finding customers than building products, people buy solutions to their problems. Entrepreneurs are detectives and not fortune teller, entrepreneurs are luck maker and not risk taker It is how well you lose, not how well you win that determines whether you get to keep playing Sell what people actually need and not vision If you are not solving a migraine problem, you need a lot of time and money to let people know you are out there Potential customers will be more open if you don’t try to sell them something Always ask a potential customer on someone else you can interview Don’t commit all-in until you prove that customers want your product and there is a business model to support it

Kindness, generosity, courage, humility, industrious, stewardship Track your progress DAILY! Set an alarm at 5pm to note on your achievement A goal without a plan is just a wish

Viatical - life settlement for policy (factoring) TaskRabbit, Upwork - labour gig economy Bower McKinsey - client is everything; think the unthinkable; and it is not all about money

Using emotions to reach your followers’ hearts than their brains - unconventionality (curiosity, excitement, desire, optimism, empowerment), noble cause (pride, belonging, willingness, passion, nobility, warmth, empathy, trust) Logos (vision alignment), Pathos (emotion, persuasion), Ethos (credibility association) Visionary leader able to see things early and connect the dots Seeing things early - scope for relevance and time, don’t make your own company part of your FutureFact, explore the area between the conventional and the absurd, describe event and not the trend Frame blindness - we are hardwired to see what we want to see Reflections - Main accomplishments in life? Greatest achievements? Who will miss you the most? Who have you helped? What has life been asking you? Powerful verbs - discover > see, explore > discuss, radiate > display, uncover > show, transform > change, engage > involve, mobilise > gather, stretch > develop, boost > increase, ...

How we sell is more important than what we sell Insurmountable - too great to overcome Rapid learning - chunking (break down) > sequencing > connecting (link skills & info) > dumping (important info only) > practising > prioritising (don’t multitask) Identify possible challenger and issues and align with your buyer’s journey The key to long term success is short term success Insightful questions build credibility and deepen relationships Do up a sales checklist, repeat the steps that orchestrated the successful sales

It is the age of evidence-based investing Calculating momentum - look back period of 12 months, convert profit/loss to % and +1, multiply together and -1 (higher the better)

Eigenstate - a quantum mechanical state corresponding to an eigenvalue of a wave equation Eigenvalue - each of a set of values of a parameter for which a differential equation has non-zero solution (an eigenfunction) under given conditions Harmonics oscillators - physics setup with periodic motion Schrodinger equation - changes over time of a physical system such as wave particle duality are significant Hamiltonian - total energy of the system Stern-Gerlach Experiment revealed the existence of postulating spin Fermions - half-integer spin like electrons, protons, neutrons Bosons - integer spin like photons, pi mesons Pauli matrices - angular momentum operator that corresponds to an observable describing the spin of a spin ½ particle Spherical Bessel - canonical solutions of Bessel’s differential equation, related to Neumann functions Photoelectric effect - emission of electrons or offer free carriers when light shines on a material Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle - you ca...

Feynman diagrams - interrelations between a photon and a single particle (quantum electrodynamics) Theory of everything - electricity + magnetism = electromagnetism + weak force = electroweak theory + strong force = standard model = electronuclear force / Grant Unified Theory (GUT) + newtonian gravity → general relativity = quantum gravity Calabi-Yau space - where 3rd dimension lies

1st degree - combine power between alliance, 2nd degree - access information and making use of connection, 3rd degree - result from industries alliance network Risk - how might each partner cheat and what would each partner gain from cheating? Build open ties - partner with complementors, substitutes, new industry entrants, partner’s competitors, direct competitors Build close ties - make referrals, neutralise a broker, seek referrals, form a union Advantages of network status - information, cooperation, power Improve your autonomy (independence) and attractiveness to achieve higher status

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear People want to work with ‘player’ and not ‘victim’: practice positive vibes Brain: Reticular Activating System (RAS) to seek and find things. Conscious-awareness, nonconscious-recorder, creative nonconscious driver or voice Apply affirmations to yourself until there is a little voice to motivate or remind you Value selling - solve problems and makes them feel good Ask questions - FORD - Family/Friends, Occupation, Recreation, Dream Value proposition - core services, differentiated services, custom services, convenience services Brand positioning - recognition, reputation, relevance, differentiation PIE time - Productive (with client), Indirectly productive (making calls), Everything else (hire to do) Personalities - power people (everything fast), party people (creative), peace people (dislike conflict), perfection people (avoid risk) - help them to be clear and confident

Emotional trigger by speaking in the customer's language and showing caringness within the company The more pitches, the more customers will dislike you Cognitive dissonance - ask customers about your competitor because people are more attuned to negativity Innate Intelligence (IQ), Acquired Intelligence (AQ), Technological Intelligence (TQ), Emotional Quotation (EQ) Win probability - prospecting > qualifying > BASIC mapping (Buyers, Amplifiers, Seekers, Influencers, Coaches) > Sales EQ & human framework Law of replacement - one prospect close, the other 9 automatically deemed as lose Self assessment - DISC or MBTI Increase sales rive with optimism, competitiveness and the need for achievement Qualifying client - BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline), ANUM (authority, need, urgency, money), PACT (pain, authority, consequence, target profile), MEDDIC (metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identifying pain, champion), TAS (Opportunity...

Coaching cycle - recognising issues > plan and determine learning style > explore the problem > strategies and implementation of new skills/behaviour > seek and provide feedback on performance or behaviour > knowledge transfer Leader centered: holds all authority. Team centered: authority shared among team members SIPOC - suppliers, input, process, output, customers

Muller-Lyer illusion - bias blind spot Pareidolia - a phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists Investment superstition - it will fail as soon as you really need them to work Super bowl effect - market movement based on totally irrelevant events Barnum effect - vague fact that can be applied to anything or anyone Do not create imaginary effect just to proof the market movement - market is uncertain Never believe people who can predict the stock market in short term Herding - monkey see monkey do Blind-spot bias - people believed they would find the inner strength to resist and stop bad things from happening Treat every golf shot with the same seriousness - every investment decision on its own merits Market is a zero sum game - if one win someone else lose People are around to exploit our confusion that we suffer between situation and disposition People will travel to save $5 for a small ticket item than same $5 ...

Angle of incidence - how fast the break even measured by total costs versus sales revenue Another AIDA - Unawareness > Awareness > Comprehension > Conviction > Action Organisation behaviour - environment, strategy, structure (organisation, teams), people (recruit, motivate, manage, lead), systems (reward, appraise, develop, change) Sports team vs sports club - objective and aim in unified vs different Stages of growth - growth through creativity > crisis of leadership > growth through direction > crisis of autonomy > growth through delegation > crisis of control > growth through coordination > crisis through red tape > growth through collaboration Economics cycle - Kondratieff’s long wave (hypothesized cycle-like phenomena in the modern world economy), Kuznets swing (medium-range economic wave with a period of 15–25 years), Juglar cycle (fixed investment cycle of 7 to 11 years), Kitchin cycle (short business cycle of about 40 months) Spending...

Golden rules of Kaizen Kaizen starts with the three “Actual” Rule. Go to the actual place where the process is performed. Talk to the actual people involved in the process and get the real facts. Observe and chart the actual process. (Improvement is not made from a conference room.) Ask why (5 times) to get to the root cause. Base decisions on data not opinions. Try-storming Don’t spend too much time talking about a solution, try it!! It’s okay to fail early on as long as you learn from your mistakes. Value of the team. Listen to the operators, your team, and your customers. Don’t seek perfection.  This will be obtained in one step at a time. Think of a new method that works. Throw out all your old fixed ideas on how to do things. Creativity before capital. Don’t substitute money for thinking. Think safety during the Kaizen, both for employee and process. Assure a quality product will be consistently produced through standardization and process controls.

Self awareness (how to show up in a room), nonverbal communications (emotions), others’ unconscious message, mysteries of human voice (deep voices), honest signals (influence, mimicry, activity, consistency), power of unconscious to make decisions, master storyteller (have details but not too much, as simple as possible) Increase your charisma by increasing passion Never go beyond 10 minutes without breaks

Data Scientists at Work - Sebastian Gutierrez Data Science at the Command Line - Jeroen Jassens What to do when machines do everything - Malcolm Frank, Paul Roehrig, Ben Pring Big Data, Data Mining and Machine Learning - Jared Dean Data Science - John D. Kelleher & Brendan Tierney Practical Statistics for Data Scientists - Peter Bruce & Andrew Bruce New Dark Age - James Bridle

Corporate lifecycle: start-up > young growth > high growth > mature growth > mature stable > decline Storytelling: exposition > complication > climax > reversal > denouement Founder stories: Horatio Alger (rag-to-rich), charimas, connections, celebrity, experience Type of business: large superior brand (bully), cheaper products (underdog), unmet need (eureka), more desirable and better suited (better mousetrap), change how business run (disruptor), reduce cost (low-cost player), noble clause (missionary) Precision: small grouping vs. accuracy: near target Growth vs. risk vs. reinvestment: is risk reflecting where you are growing, are you reinvesting enough, is your risk consistent with your reinvestment strategy Expected value of business = value as going concern (intrinsic or DCF value) x probability of going concern + value as failed concern (liquidation value) x probability of failure Total market x market share = revenues (sales) - operating expe...

Designers clothing creates mediocre and pirated stuff too Air miles are more than 10 trillion The law of large numbers

Data > information > knowledge Pareidolia: seeing an image of human that isn’t there

Human brain 100 trillion synapse connects to 100 billion neurons vs. computer which is 100 times faster Autonomous vehicle stages: no autonomous > some features (cruise control) > automated acceleration and require human oversight > car can monitor environment but need human intervention > drive independently and only need human during unknown circumstances > autonomous in all conditions 4 quadrant math: school math, applied math, pure math Lovelace test is beyond turing test Simon Colton AI painting on Dancing Salesman Problem Artificial General Intelligence can experience consciousness  AI cannot surpass human: fast-thinking dog argument, anthropocentric argument, the diminishing returns argument, the limits of intelligence argument, the computational complexity argument AI gold rush, google spent 500m to make AlphaGo

Grotesque - a very ugly or comically distorted figure or image Insouciance - casual lack of concern; indifference Profligate - recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources Prodigious - Remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree Subjugation - the action of bringing someone or something under domination or control Tepid - showing little enthusiasm

Equity: primary market is private funds, secondary market is exchange, 3rd and 4th market for investors Scalping: hold position for just a few seconds or minutes Counterparty risk: e.g. investment bank invest in other company that fails Multiplier effect: financial institute only hold 5% reserve and lend out 95% Recession: less spending from consumer = less goods produced = less workers = less investment opportunities Depression: sustained period of deep recession; everyone keep holding their money Quantitative easing: the introduction of new money into the money supply by a central bank Main economic indicators: inflation, growth, unemployment, wages Interest rate increase = less spending; interest rate decrease = more spending Negative interest rate policy: to encourage spending by having to pay to deposit money in the bank Pigouvian taxes: tax match the cost of harm done (e.g. sugar or tobacco) 18-year real-estate cycle: Phillip J. Anderson - 14 years and 4 years down ...

Introducing more choice made people not want to choose Displaying and presenting, explaining and storytelling, preserving and nurturing Mess -> sequencing, workflow, sorting, elimination Saving time, freeing cognitive resources, sparing us anxiety, maximising utility, cutting down complexity, finding quality, overcoming information overload, creating contrast, redefining creativity, channelling attention, providing context, beating overproduction Explicit curation: art and design; implicit curation: patterns of selection and arrangement Thick curation: human involvement; thin curation: lighter and machine driven Facebook news feed: interest in the poster x track record of the post x track record of the poster x type of post (status update, image) x when it was posted = likelihood of appearing on your feed

18 century shortage of bread in France but Queen Marie told people to eat cake instead - stupid example When luxuries first existed it is expensive until production grows and most people can afford Analytics law: material life, boundaries, physical science myopia, logic, mathematics, economics data, predicting the future, immutability, universality, corruption Sustainability law: unintended consequences Labour law: voluntary exchange, private ownership, diseconomies of scale, diminishing returns, comparative advantage, absolute advantage, deceptive trade practices, scale of participation Liebig’s Law - growth is dictated not by total resources available, but by the scarcest resource Price law: discovery and communication, order, honest price, supply, demand, supply and demand, one price, marginal utility, monopoly Economy is like a jigsaw puzzle with billion pieces that miraculously assembles itself Profit law: consumer control, patience, speculation, loss and bankruptcy, cha...

GIST - Great Ideas for Starting Things Culture: set and communicate goals, measure progress, establish a single point of accountability, be part of the solution, reward the archivers, follow through until the issue is solved or no longer relevant Reality check: what is our top priority, when will we ship, when will we run out of money if we don’t ship, how much does it cost to acquire a customer, what is our fully loaded cost of operations, whom do we compete with, what can our competition do that we can’t, who are our non performing employees, what can we beg or borrow or lease that we are buying, how good am I as a leader Roles to fill: someone understand your customers, a geek with all the knowledge, dad role to calm the board, morpheus who is totally legit and ethical, jerry maguire the connection guy Ten slides pitch deck: title, problem and opportunity, value proposition, underlying magic, business model, go-to-market plan, competitive analysis, management team, financial p...

Shadow banking- non-bank financial institutions that operate like banks Prolonged bear market - prices are sold aggressively > uncertainty and choppy activity > vulnerable and buyable Covered warrants - cannot turn into shares / traditional warrants - can turn into shares

Peter’s Law If anything can go wrong, fix it When given a choice - take both Multiple projects lead to multiple successes Start at the top, then work you way up Do it by the book, but be the author When forced to compromise, ask for more If you can’t win, change the rules If you can’t change the rules, then ignore them Perfection is not optional When faced without a challenge - make one No simply means begin one level higher Don’t walk when you can run When in doubt: THINK Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success if a blessing The squeaky wheel gets replaced The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself The ratio of something to nothing is infinite You get what you incentivise If you think it is impossible, then it is for you An expert is someone who can tell you exactly how something can’t be done The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea If ...

Satoshi Nakamoto could be Nick Szabo or Hal Finney

Successful project environment = leadership + project teams + project systems Project failure = unrecognised uncertainty + postponed prioritisation Stages of project leadership: responsive (interested and concerned), responsible (involved and committed), systematic (organisational consistency), adaptive (aware, agile and to grow) Project stage-gate system example: concept (task) > concept review (gate) > feasibility > feasibility assessment > technical / business integration > investigation assessment > testing & validation > testing assessment > implement production > production assessment > full production Risk response: mitigate risk, transfer risk, avoid risk, share risk, retrain risk Best defense is a good offence > tell me now > rally the team > appoint a champion > identify and verify the issue > truth is easier to remember > contain or isolate the problem > fix it > train all team members > congratulate the tea...

Ouchi’s theory Z - workers motivated by a sense of commitment, opportunity and advancement. The Delphi technique - anonymous method to query experts about foreseeable risks.

Characteristic of big data: volume (excerbytes of scale to process), velocity (real time streaming data), variety (many, many types of data), veracity (doubts about the data accuracy)

Analytics Methodology Aggregate analysis - describe population, segment or compare segments - descriptive analysis, profiling, campaign analysis, winner-loser analysis Correlation analysis - relationship between prospect - pre and post, test control, drivers, dashboard Trends analysis - over time and period - trends of sales, revenues, breaks in trends and segments Sizing/Estimation - near accurate guesstimate in absence of historical data - limited data or dependent on external data -Stratification - dice the problem into smaller pieces and identify segments that behave differently -Correlations and drivers - determine what metrics and factors could have any influence on the metric is that being sized -Assumptions - what do we know about the various factors that make up the equation -Computation - involves doing the math to get to the estimates for each segment -Triangulation/orthogonal method - approach same estimates with different drivers, matching Predictive Analytics...