Focus, focus, focus!

In one of the recent interviews with F1 legend Michael Schumacher, a journalist asked him “Michael, what would you have done if you had not become an F1 driver?”

Michael's reply... “I can’t imagine being anything else, I have always been a race car driver, it’s who I am, it’s what I do. I can’t imagine it any other way, it’s not productive.”

Later, when asked if his mental focus had helped his F1 success. “Absolutely,” says Schumacher. “Driving is all about what you put your mind to. You need to focus, but not let that focus distract you from the driving.”

Simple words but yet providing lots of insight to the mentality of a Champion...

We all live in a world where we have way too much distractions. We may have gone so far as to set a goal for ourselves to achieve but instead of focusing on that goal, we find ourselves endlessly getting caught up in our daily distractions. Whether it's to finish up some mundane task, engaging in hours of mindless drinking and chattering with mere acquaintances, surfing the Internet for pointless information, meaninglessly chatting online, watching all the top rated Youtube clips, playing that xbox360 or faithfully catching that television drama series every evening... it all adds up.

Here's a little exercise you can take... on an average week (average meaning nothing major is scheduled for that week and you are going to live that week like you normally do), record down in a little book every activity you engage in, which is not in line with your goals, as well as the estimated time spent on that activity. At the end of the week do a tally of the amount of time that you spent on these activities.

Example of normal daily activity:


By the end of the week, you are going to realise how much time you have wasted if you aren't focused. Imagine spending all that time on activities that would have brought you closer to your goals!

I'm a huge fan of Micheal Schumucher, if you have seen him race in F1, you will either love him or hate him. Hate him because he can be quite "dirty" and will do whatever it takes to win. Love him because of his ability to do the impossible in a race car. But the one essence of Schumucher's success is his uncompromising focus. To be a champion, he focuses every waking min doing whatever it takes to succeed... whether it's physical training, mastering the physics and technology of racing, diet, etc... he ensures that everything is done to provide the one end result that will bring him closer to his goals. He has even been known to do blood tests before a race, during a race and after a race just to determine his physical condition and how he can improve that condition through analysis of his blood. Now that is what i call focus!

If you already have a goal, whether it's to be a successful businessman or a successful manager, a successful sportsman or even a successful parent, always always focus on the activities that will bring you closer to your goals. Whenever you plan an activity or agree to an appointment, always ask yourself if it is something that will bring you closer to your goal. If not, avoid it and plan on something that will. By the way, in case you are thinking that this is way too calculated and cold and life should not be lived in this way, do note that goals do not just come in the form of material, ego achievements. I have personally set myself goals to achieve in the areas of management and business success... and i also have goals to be the best husband to my wife as well as fitness goals i want to achieve. It's my personal opinion that one cannot be truly happy if one does not have a well balanced life and hence goals are needed to ensure all areas of your life and well being are covered for.

Stay focused, have both eyes on the path you have set for yourself and you will find yourself reaching your destination a lot quicker.

Formula for Success

If you, like me, have been searching for the formula for success, you would have by now known that there isn't a one standard template that everyone can use to attain success. Hard work, discipline, integrity, passion, intelligence, attention to details, opportunities..... all contribute to how successful you can be.

Some of these traits can be controlled, some cannot. Some are nature, some are nutured. So what should one do? For traits that cannot be controlled (ie. having good luck), ignore... you simply do not have power over these. For those traits that are part of your nature, know your strengths and weaknesses... concentrate on making use of your strengths and manage your weaknesses. For those traits that can be nutured, improve on these to a stage where you become a master of these traits.

For me, i have narrowed it down to a formula which i think best applies to me. It takes into account my strengths as well as my weaknesses and the traits that i feel will help me in my pursuit of success if i were to pay close attention to them. Formula is as follows:

(Vision + Goal Setting) + Learnt Ability + Discipline + Risk Taking = Achievement

VISION and GOAL SETTING are in brackets because i classify them as a combined item. Firstly, i need to have a vision, to know where i wanna go and what i wanna achieve. Then comes the Goal Settings which is to lay out a path on how i plan to achieve that vision. Goal Setting may be in the form of multiple goals, one goal leading to the achievement of the next goal eventually achieving that vision.

LEARNT ABILITY is what you can and need to learn to achieve your vision and your goals. If you want to run a successful Internet Startup, you need to be a master in the areas of the business that you are in, be it mastering that new programming technology or mastering how to market business on the Internet successfully. You can be a lazy manager or business owner and say "Well, i'll hire the best to do it"... you can but then you will need to master the art of managing the best personnels. That is not going to be easy either. We are living in an age where information and knowledge is so widely available on the Internet. These information are not just available to you but to your competitors as well. You want to beat your competitor? You need to be better than them... period.

DISCIPLINE.... self explantory. Find me one athelete that is the best at what he or she does who claims that they are not disciplined and i will show you a liar. I'm sure there are lots of successful business men and executives out there who achieved their success without discipline. These people had the right connections or the good fortune of having luck on their side. If you have neither, you better start instilling discipline on yourself.

RISK TAKING... i'm not a risk taker by nature. I like to think i am but statistically, i'm just not. I love to gamble but i hate losing money. When i go on holidays, every single day's itinerary is planned, every hotel has been pre-booked. If i come up with a business idea that has it's fair share of risk, i run back to the comfort of my day job. But as the saying goes "No Risk, no Gain" I will just have to remind myself that in the absence of the risk taking trait, i should rely and trust on calculated risk taking...

The path to success has never been easy... the road is filled with potholes and dangerous predators out to prey on you. Know where you want to go, learn how to get there in the best way possible, stick to the game plan and of course, make that journey and never give up no matter what. Even if you don't get there, you'll be happy knowing you died trying :)

"There's nothing better than an attainable dream"

I found this quotation from an online article i was reading about the swanky performance car - Lotus Elise S. The Elise has always been priced a little too high for the normal working folks but with the introduction of the entry level Elise S, the price, while still very substantial, is at a level where you know you work a little harder, save a little bit more and you can quite possibly own one. The quote is a simple one and completely summarises my attitude to my dreams.

It's so easy to tell yourself you want to be a millionaire by 30 or to one day own a Ferrari F430 or to stay in a mansion built completely from your very own design. Very few of us can make such claims and go on to live the dream. It takes a lot to reach those supposed unimaginable goals for the underachievers.... yes, that would be the normal folks like you and me.

Looking back, i've begun to realise that it's always the attainable dreams that i work towards (be it sub-consciously or consciously) which I eventually acquire. Whether it's to get into the next income bracket or that Silvia S15 that i craved when i was 25 or the dream home i am living in right now. These were all dreams that once seemed very far away but yet somewhat attainable.

I'm not saying we should all stop being dreamers and stop wasting time on trying to acquire our dreams. In fact, i believe in dreaming because that's what i do best and i feel happiest when i am dreaming about the life i would like to have. But when a dream is too grand, too extreme, too unbelievable, it remains a dream.... the sub-conscious mind admits defeat and will never work towards it, believing it to be an impossible dream.

I do believe that we should all continue dreaming about that eventual end goal, that extreme dream... but that should be accompanied by dreaming about the not so extremes that will eventually lead you to the eventual end goal dream. Dreaming about that dream mansion costing 5 million with that sports car that can do 0 to 100 in 3.5 seconds? Why not dream about that next business idea that will get you your first quarter of a million. Dream about that sports car that will do 0 to 100 in 5 seconds. Dream about the life you will have with that first... and don't just dream... Believe! Believe that those sub goals are attainable and dream hard about them. Your sub-conscious mind will think it to be possible and you will work towards that goal. You reach that goal and then you dream about the next sub goal... slowly moving towards that final dream.

Reality check.... most of us will still never reach that final dream. But in dreaming about the small incrementals... you get to a level in which you would otherwise never have attained.

Right now, i dream about that entry level Lotus Elise S in yellow.... it's a far cry from that Red Ferrari F430 i so desire.... heck, it's even a far cry from the normal Lotus Elise R in terms of track performance. But it's an attainable dream and i know and believe that i will get it soon. Funny thing is that i suspect it will be sooner than i think...