Monday, July 13th

I have not done it for a while - a reflection on my life in Hong Kong. Every day like another day so similar in its own different way. The lifestyle has evolved from WES (Work-Eat-Sleep) to a bit more balanced one - add Toastmasters, JCI and dinners with new friends. Every single day I meet new people. Recently started to confuse people, their names and their strories. Is that too much? Shall I just pause and take some rest from this netowrking rally? What's the purpose?

Peter Thiel suggests you may see the future in four different ways. Consider this two on two matrix:

In Hong Kong most of the people see its future definitely pessimistic, where more China Mainland is coming, hosing prices rasing up and number of people rises. If you would like to get a better understanding of this model - check out here or read his book "From Zero to One" ("the first book aspiring or working entrepreneur must read"). Myself is more in present of the US - indefnite and optimistic with waving towards optimisti and definite square from time to time. If you ask young Hong Kong people how do they see the city in 20 years from now - most of them replies:

1) everyone speaks Mandarin

2) HK loses its advantage compare to other mega-cities on Mainland (Shangain, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou)

Speaking Mandarin means something more than just another Chinese universally accepted dialect. It also means cultural traits people who speak Mandarin are carring. In most of the cases it associates with selfishness and hunger for money. Partly it is a result of one child policy - generation of "spoiled" children, who do not know what word "NO" means..

Let me sum up what I did today:

1) work (nine-to-five): identified Venezuelian and Japanese to hire projects as freelancers

2) toastmasters (seven-to-nine): delivered sixth speech and got Best Speaker award, met new people

3) dinner with friend Katherine and John (nine-to-ten) 

Clayton Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor, writes in his book "How will you measure your life?" about importance to have a goal and measurement system - how will you actually measure years you have lived on Earth. For me the measurement tool is the value. What value did I bring to people I have met today? What value did I bring to the company I work for? Sometimes I can not clearly answer on these questions.

There are things I have been thought to do for a while. And I do know clearly that I am not the man who procrastinates. Some of my friends think I am actually boring. I don't do much party and don't go out for fun. However, I fill in my life by different people. Many different people. It creates illusion of "busyness". And I do clearly know and understand why I set up my priorities in such way, which are reflected in undertaken actions. Large part of it has to deal with the way I am seeing the future. Perhaps this is a time to change glasses.

truth