Thinking Layers

Hi friends,

Today I want to talk about the classic mistake that I usually make, which is to assume that things will be okay without doing any preparations on my side.

There have been several occasions throughout this holiday that has made me a little frustrated with myself due to some turn of events that could easily be avoided if I've had put just a little more effort to ensure that things will be alright. Some example includes, glancing through the map of a building, taking into account the distance of one destination to the next, the peak period of the crowds depending on location and timing, the duration that I'll go on without food and etc. As a result of not going through that extra steps of preparation, I find myself in some slight inconveniences such as, getting lost in a building/place, walking when I should be taking the bus, burrowing through the scuffle crowds, getting a slight headache due to hunger and etc.

So the lesson for me here is to always take that extra step to ensure that things will indeed go well. However, when I take this lesson to the extreme spectrum, how much is too much when it comes to preparedness? I like to call this approach as the thinking layers. So the idea is that every questions that I think about in terms of preparing myself, that's a level of thinking layer that I've made. So the more question/solution/preparations that I'm taking from my initial condition, that's an additional layers I'm progressing. I've had a personal threshold that has been set by my physical self based on my own capability through experience and that threshold is only three layers. So here's an example from one of my most recent experience.

The situation is that I'm stranded on a train platform due to some technical issue. Only short bounds are permitted. Long bounds are still in the unknown in terms of when's the next available coach are available.

So in this particular situation, there are two things that I can do, either stay and wait for the next available train or to travel to nearest main station to see other means of transportation. Waiting in the current station has its benefits due to its relatively location that is nearer to the previous main station. So if any emergency train that's going to come, the current station provide convenience in terms of guaranteed seats available. However, the second option which is to travel to the next short bound main station has its benefits as well in terms of the variety of options available. So what options are there?

So here's where I've ventured into the second layer of getting myself prepared, taking that extra step to ensure that I have enough information to proceed with any decision making.

The next short bound main station has options for taxis, busses and hotels. Mind you that the distance between that main station to my Airbnb was about 50 km. So where do I go from here? At this point, everyone is already restless due to the uncertainty. Tired, hungry and a little cranky because of the hectic all around. Not to mention that I kinda have four choices to evaluate before making the best decision. Should I,

Wait for the next available train with no certainty of when?

Take a taxi from the train station to the nearest available train station near town? (So instead of travelling 50 km straight to Airbnb, it's only about 40 km to nearest city station to take the train there to Airbnb).

Take a bus to the city station? Cheapest but the most time consuming option with an additional two hours journey.

Crash at the cheapest hotel available and avoid all the pandemonium by starting fresh again first thing tomorrow?

Also bear in mind that I'm travelling in a group here where the age gap varies. So taking that into the equation, considerations must be made in terms of mobility and group expenses.

And now, having all this information in mind, for me to get the definitive answer, it all boils down to two factors, the cheapest most time effective solution.

At this point, I have to dive down to the third layer of thinking/preparations. Not gonna lie, I was at my wits end by this juncture. Each options need to satisfy the question of "How much would this cost me?" and "How much is the time-frame for me to allocate?". Here's the conclusion by the end of getting those questions answered.

Hotels are the most expensive considering there is a whole accommodation cost on top of what was initially just transportation cost. But it gives me the highest peace of mind in exchange for the steep price. At that breaking point, this option looks like the most tantalizing one.

Taxis are the next in line for the most expensive option. To give you and idea of how expensive it was, before I got stranded on the train station, I went to the outskirts of town which is approximately 100 km from my Airbnb. It was a round trip so in terms of distance traveled, it is 200 km. And the cost of the taxi is almost equal to the price of my trip to the outskirt. Just the thought of this could make me go bonkers! Oh and the price for the hotel? It is more than twice as much as my round trip to the outskirts. Which I could kinda half-heartedly agree because it was for accommodations afterall.

Next, most cheapest option is riding the bus to the central station in town. It's what you'd expect for a one-way bus trip but the journey takes approximately two hours. And that's only to the central station. It's going to take another one hour, considering the large crowds, to go to my Airbnb area. So it was highly unfavorable, time-wise.

The thing that went through my mind at this point was just to hope for the best. I decided to take the taxi option but to always be on the lookout for the emergency coach coming by. Every now and then, I would eavesdrop on the officers to listen if there's any emergency coach approaching because taking the longbound train is the best option still if there was no technical errors.

The only thing that kept me going was hope.

In this scenario, no matter how bleak things get, I have to always be on the move, searching for the next best thing, and hoping for the best.

As I was already on the long queue for the taxi, I decided to head to the tracks for one more time to listen to any incoming emergency longbound train.

Thankfully several were already on its way and we hit the ground running towards the line for the emergency train. At this point, I thought that, "If I have to go down one more thinking layer, I'll be done for it." So all in all, what was initially supposed to be two hours trip to home, turned into about a five hours trip.

The greatest lessons from this experience are hope and thinking layers.

Thanks for reading, friends. I've been pretty sinful in terms of proofreading my post lately because I'm just feeling a little lazy. But hopefully you'll get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

Cheers!

Cost Of Convenience

Hi friends,

Today has been pretty hectic because it is almost at the end of my travel and I just had a hit of realization that my time here will end. As such, loads of things that haven't been done yet must be compressed into whatever time that is left.

As a result of such hastefulness, it has created a daily journey that often involves ad hoc detours because eureka moments often comes at the eleventh hour. Having heavily reliant on public transportation, these ah hoc detours has caused a lot of unexpected cost. It has, to a point, that I have maxed out the daily quota which automatically turned my pass into a daily pass. I'm very thankful for this auto switch to daily pass because if I were to just continue with those detours, the cost would rack up to almost twice as the daily pass. 

This incident has got me thinking, the calculations I made for the transportation cost, with specific destinations, was definitely cheaper than the daily pass. Further calculations also shows that it is much cheaper than the weekly pass. However, it has left me with little room to wiggle with. The assumptions made was limited for one travel destinations daily only. With that as the base of my assumptions, any detours made would compromise the overall transportation cost. As a result, if I ever maxed out my transportation cost to a daily pass for more than three times, it would change the cost-benefit analysis to value the weekly pass instead. This would certainly defeat the purpose of choosing the pay-as-you go method. 

So this whole incident has got me thinking about the cost of convenience. If in the first place I opted for the weekly pass, I wouldn't have to get all worked up with those unexpected detours. Which route I take? At what time (peak hours or non peak hours)? How many stops and at which zones? Using which vehicle methods? All those questions would be something I wouldn't have to think about because I'll have unlimited access to all of them. Thus, to attain that state of mind where I'm worry free about transportation cost, I would have to pay extra for that. That extra cost is what I refer to as the convenient cost. At this stage of life, where my purchasing power is not at the level where I could afford that high level of convenience, I have to be a good planner to maximize the value of my money spent by strategising my routes. However, one day when I do have the purchasing power, I would not hesitate to spend a little extra for convenience because part of the factor that makes a great vacation is to worry less about small matters and enjoy the moment at hand.

This is a reminder to myself to work hard and smart so that I can afford the weekly pass for convenience.

Thanks for reading, friends.

Thoughts Over The Vacation

Hello friends,

Here are some of the thoughts that have been lingering on my mind throughout my vacation.

1. The most optimized solution isn't necessarily the best solution. Handling different currencies has given me some polarizing thoughts of which is the best action I should follow in terms of maximizing my monetary value. I just realized that money changers generally doesn't accept coins. Only paper money is accepted due to the ease of handling paper money. As such, my priorities in every expenditure would be to finish off the coins first before using a bank note, whenever possible. So I've been thinking of ways to solve this coins issue because to think of finishing off coins is more cumbersome than I expected due to some currencies has up to eight coin denominations. Very confusing to juggle all that denominations especially when you're at the cashier with a huge line behind you. So the solution I found is to use a credit card. Some online materials suggest that a credit card would be the go-to method for managing expenditure because it doesn't involve physical currency and each transaction would be recorded. So you'll know where your money goes. However, the downside of it is that the bank fees could be ridiculous so the total would be expensive. There is a solution for this one as well which involves using the BigPay card. It works like a debit card but the most intriguing aspect of using it is that it's from mastercard so pretty much it is accepted almost everywhere. So at this juncture, I've been thinking, which approach is the most optimized way? Should I spend more on the credit card bank fees and earn credit card points along the way OR should I try my best to reduce the cost in total and use BigPay/cash by hedging the bank fees and choosing the best exchange rate? In order to get the definite answer to this, I figured that I need to know the worth of the credit card points and the amount of money I saved in exchange rates and bank fees. However even then, the answer couldn't be definitive because there are certain cases where the shops/restaurant itself would make customers pay for the 2% transaction fees because they do not want to carry that cost on their side. Seeing the time I've spent deep diving into the hole of finding the most optimized solution has cost me unnecessary feeling of restlessness because I'm not optimizing the cost at its best. Thus, for the time being, the conclusion I have for myself is to carry currencies in cash or in BigPay debit. The reason being, cash in hands gives me more sense of solitude knowing that it is accepted without any stipulations being imposed on credit cards. I would say that it is only favorable for me to use credit cards is when the points per ringgit spend is several multiples so that the amount redeemable has a higher value.
2. The entertainment bubble. Yesterday evening, we went downtown to enjoy the ambiance of the Friday night. Observing variety of ways the locals carry themselves into the bubble of entertainment. Everything was very lively and I realized that this part of life, embracing the bubble of entertainment, may be one of the most important thing I need in life. Currently, I would say that I have several bubbles in my life that I denote as very important as pillars of the well-being of my life. I have my running bubble, aquponics/sustainable sytem bubble, blogging bubble and finance/investing bubble. All those bubble are crucial as the general traits that mold me into a better person. However, it lacks entertainment. A bubble that I truly reserve for my source of joy and indulge. I get that happiness is created and the source could be everything, but I seek the happiness that I know I can turn to whenever I feel like it. There's not many thing that I find great joy in doing but I guess the quest to identify that joy starts now. Shopping or arts? Maybe?
3. Compartmentalize my brain to focus on one thing at a time. I noticed that some people are able to channel their energy and focus into doing one thing. Regardless of the outcome, the process of focusing on doing one task makes the whole journey a more meaningful one. I've been thinking of reason why some are better at doing this while others, like me, are struggling a bit in doing so. The reason I conjured up so far is that they are able to block out other distractions, even though there are a lot to think about of the process, and just look at that one particular task at hand. There are always things to think about, to plan, to research before doing anything. So if I could just accept the fact that those things will come, why worry about its coming? It's better to stay composed and let it come and just be ready when the time has come. In other words, I'll put that future thing in the next compartment in my brain and focus only on the current compartment I'm looking.

That is all for today. More to come hopefully. Thanks for visiting, friends!

Value Of 1 Cent

Hi friends,

Back again with another observation I made during this holiday.

It's very interesting to see the set of skills that the locals acquired as a result of adapting to their surrounding. The skill that I'm most marveled at is talking in a noisy environment. Pretty much the places I've been around here are tourist attractions and naturally there are loads of noises going around. The chatter of the people, public performances, roadside sellers yelling to attract buyers and etc. It's pretty hard to to converse in that sort of environment but I see the locals here having no problems with it. Very interesting indeed.

Another interesting observation is the value of 1 cent in this country. The people here don't round up or round down their prices at store. So if a juice sells for 1.99, it is literally 1.99. In contrast, Malaysia will round up to the nearest 5 cents because they want to stop the circulation of 1 cent due to its low valuation. I certainly have no issue at all with this. It's just a mere observation that I think could evolve to another important worldly view of life.

In particular, the value that I attach to other currency is vastly different that the ringgit. Even for a number as low as 1 cent creates a huge difference in the value that it carries. When I take this to a bigger picture, a lot of questions that comes to mind. How do one place has a stronger currency than the other? How does the cost of living and minimum wage are related? And then some.

Today's post isn't my best one because my train of thoughts aren't as connected as I wanted to. But I'm just going to put my thoughts and observations here.

Thanks for visiting, friends!

Observations On Travel Planning

Hi friends,

It's the holiday season and I'm on vacation now. As an adult, I am more conscious of the flow of money and time committed on this vacation.

As such, I realized now that there is so many room for improvements that I should make. There were some errors that I made that costs me unnecessary expenditure that could easily be avoided if I were to plan properly. So far, here are the areas that I have to have a more thorough thought in the future.

• Public transportation cost - Period pass or pay-as-you-go? At first, the approach for this was easy. If I plan to use public transportation more frequently, period pass is the way to go. But things aren't exactly what it seems. To truly know the worth of a period pass, it is not enough to skim through the general fare price of going on the public transport. The destination matters a lot. So what may initially seem as I have to use a public transport more than 4 times to get a breakeven on the daily pass, it actually depends on destination and which transport I'm using. It's the little things like this that threw me off because I figured that daily pass is always the smarter choice but after doing some calculations, I actually overpaid for it.
• Meals - My initial plan with meal is to bring instant ingredients enough for my days of travel. However, I quickly realize that I didn't take into consideration many other factors such as small snacks during the journey and the challenges when buying groceries. Since I'm pretty much relying on public transport for groceries, especially the wet ones, I am limited to the amount of bags I can carry. This means, I have to take frequent trips to the supermarket which incurs more cost. The plan to combat this issue in the future is to probably buy a ready made food before reaching the vacation destination. That way, it is as easy as heating it up in the microwave and dig in. Initial glance at the cost analysis for this, it makes more sense to buy the ready made food because of the convenience.
• Powerbank - I have 12,000 mAh battery pack that I carry around to charge my phone. At that capacity, I roughly have 4 cycles of charge. However, colder place tends to reduce the charge of my phone  quicker than usual. Thus, if I could, I'll get a higher capacity powerbank next time.

So for now, those are a few things that I want to take note of. There's still much I can do to improve the situation I am in. 

On the bright side, I'm starting to wear a fanny pack during travel. As weird as it seems, it is actually very convenient. I have all the important stuff I need in one place and since it is wrapped around my front body, it will always be visible to me.

Anyway, the ultimate goal is to be a good planner to the point that there will be no ad-hoc expenses.

Thanks for reading, friends. Take care!

Running Progress - November 2019

Hi friends,

Here's a quick update on my running progress in the month of November 2019.

I forgot to save my stats from my Adidas Runtastic app so I just have to write them down manually.

Distance: 90 km
Activities: 13

Duration: 11 hours 48 minutes

Calories: 8320

Average km/activity: 6.92 km

Average min/km: 7.87 min

In essence, I'm quite upset with myself for not hitting the 100 km mark. Early this month my momentum was really good. Too good even that I think I got carried away with the abrupt increase in intensity on my runs. At the end, I got a little burnout and I got lazy. I could definitely do better but I guess this is a setback that I have to own and learn from it.

But on the bright side, my average pace, which is the minutes per kilometer stats, has broken the 8 minutes barrier. I haven't seen that pace since June so I'm glad that I managed to maintain a sub 8 minute pace this month. Will try to maintain this pace for the next month onward.

It's already December and it's the holiday month! That means vacation will definitely mess up with my running routines. As such, I'm planning to dial down on my goal for this month. Instead of hitting 100 km, I want to hit 50 km for the month of December. That's half of what I usually do and I think that that's very attainable. I'm just setting this low bar so that I'm not always in a rush to chase after such a high mileage. 

Also, another reason why I'm targeting 50 km is that I only need 50 km more to hit a total of 1000 km for the year 2019. That is way far than my initial goal of 1200 km for 2019 but I'm still content with this. Looking back at my life, this is the highest mileage I have ever run in a year ever in my life. That itself is a huge achievement for me so that's good news. Well, I'm not going to stop doing this because I want to make this part of my healthy lifestyle. In 2020, I hope to hit 1100 km in total.

Have you reached your 2019's resolutions? What's your plan on improving them in 2020? 

Cheers my friends!

Think About Others, Your Mind Widens

Hi friends,

I've been thinking a lot about Dalai Lama's quote that says, "The moment you think about others, your mind widens."

The more I think of it, the more it rings true to me. Just about this week, I noticed that by thinking about others, I am allocating myself some buffer time to prepare for other instances that might pass by. For example, finishing up my own tasks just a tad bit earlier than everyone else to use up that buffer time monitoring others for purpose of reminding them of certain things or be reminded myself based on what I see. By doing so, I do feel like my mind gets widen due to the inputs I get observing things during that buffer time.

Another thing that I noticed, the more I allocate myself of this buffer time, the more I tend to use them up for preparing myself for future scenarios. This also has helped me expand my mind as I think about possible events that could happen and how I could braze through them without any hiccups; Becoming my own planner for my life with these mini plans. The feeling of being well prepared gives me this soothing feeling and assures my mind that things will be alright because I already have this mental image of how it could/should go.

All this happen because I start to think of others. How they might feel preceding a certain event. How I could optimize the situation to the best of my abilities to make everything a little bit better.

How does thinking about others expands your mind? Hope things get more meaningful for you and others around you.

Thanks for reading my friends.

Connecting The Dots

Hi friends,

This past few days, I've been travelling to places. I realized that the part I enjoy the most is talking to Grab drivers. I have to say that it is very exciting to be able to talk to people with vastly different backgrounds. Different ways that we were brought up has shaped the mind that we have today. 

One interesting outcome from a conversation that I had was about connecting the dots. This person that I was talking to had a lot of odd jobs that he has been doing. From manufacturing jeans, welding advertisement sign boards, selling insurance and doing Grab. What's interesting is that all of his profession has no clear link to one another but he still managed to arrive there after all his effort of scouting the scattering opportunities he could find. I'm starting to think that maybe the approach that he took wasn't so bad after all; Coming in into the workforce without any clear plans instead he just followed the flow of opportunity. At the end of the day, he said that he is certain that good days will come if he just continue to search for it. 

I admire his attitude. I truly think that he will be at the top one day. Because that's the story of how most successful people became successful. They follow the flow of opportunity. One of the prominent figure that I admire is Andrew Carnegie. He himself had a kinda similar path that the Grab driver had. Working odd jobs and hopping from one thing to another. But that perseverance of moving forward is what truly define a success. This experience had reminded me on why I wrote this blog. It's to remind myself to hold on to that positive attitude and to keep moving forward no matter what happens. At the end of the day, I'll only have myself to arrive at where I want to be, giving a huge pat on my back. That is why I called this blog compliment success.

I hope that one day, I will be able to connect all the experience I have collected in life and turn in into something that I can live with forever as my passion, source of income and source of tranquility. Hope you find yours too, my friends.

Thank you!

Compare, Complain, Condemn

Hi friends,

Part of my journey of life optimization is to avoid the 3C's. They are:

1. Compare

Stop comparing yourself to others. The beauty of life optimization journey is finding your own path and setting your own milestones. Everything that you do, it should be only for yourself. This beauty will quickly vanish the moment you start to compare your journey with others. What benefit will that brings to you, right? So stop comparing to others and start charting your own journey. 

Here's a quote that I tell myself whenever I got caught in the void:

"To be good, you have to start. To start, you don't have to be good."

2. Complain

The moment you complain about something, your mind is already focusing on the negative side of things. The more you do this, the more negativity that your mind will perceive. Eventually, your mind will block all the positive and only focus on the negative. What is life optimization if you only see the negative and not doing anything about it? So instead of complaining, try to look for the good in everything. Maybe you'll be inspired to get more of the goods.

3. Condemn

This centers mainly on reacting to ideas. Essentially, I believe that all ideas are great ideas until proven otherwise. So the next time you hear an idea that you don't agree on, find a better solution to contest the idea. If not then, condemning others will never bring a better solution compared to the idea. The beauty of life optimization is discussing polarizing ideas, going back and forth about it, learning things along the way and finding what is the most optimized approach for you. 

If you manage to avoid the 3C's and focus on improving yourself one step at a time, you'll be well on your way to optimizing your life.

I got the inspiration for this post when someone asked me, "Do you have any better ideas?" when I expressed my disapproval to their suggestions and I didn't have any solution for them. That experience has taught me to always think of a solution to improve one's condition.

Thanks for reading my friends. Hope all of you are doing well to improve your life. 

Night Running Event Update

Hi friends,

Quick update about yesterday's 10K event. My official time was 1 hour 13 minutes 24 seconds. It wasn't a new personal best but I'm still proud of myself considering the hilly route. Anyway, I hope to be able to join 21K half marathon by August 2020.

Stay tuned on this journey! Thanks for reading, friends!

Taking A Break From Writing Lessons

Hi friends,

I have stopped jotting down the 1 day 1 lesson notes. I have no excuse for stopping them. The easiest way to explain this is that I'm just lazy to continue them. I could already predict this day would come so I've already lined up the things that I could do to improve my laziness, one step at a time. I plan to:

• Give some rest for myself.
• Take a peak at the book summaries without reading them in any order to get myself accustomed to opening the website.
• Read through the lessons I've jotted down again and again to see my progress and appreciate them.

I stopped updating the lessons here on my blog on October 11th. You can see it on this post. So I will write down all the updates I've done from then until when I stopped updating it completely.

14 Oct - Grateful is learning to want what you already have.

15 Oct - Don't overthink things. Be like a duck.

16 Oct - The universe was created in 3 minutes.

17 Oct - The biggest enablers of transcontinental trade is the invention of refrigerator.

18 Oct - Don't major in the minor.

21 Oct - Innovation is working with the things we got to create something better.

22 Oct - Freewriting is not about being perfect, it's about stimulating the thoughts.

23 Oct - Compassionate is caring for people and wanting them to strive.

24 Oct - Always bundle your energy and resources directly to one specific thing.

25 Oct - Moore's algorithm: Skip the longest task to have a shot of getting everything else done.

29 Oct - Don't create a goal that sets an artificial limit for you and always focus on the long run.

30 Oct - Successful marketeers tell stories that people want to believe in.

31 Oct - To improve mental ability and focus, stop multi-tasking and start meditating.

1 Nov - The medium is the message. For a TV, what being said is not as important as the visuals, tune and stories. Everything needs to be entertaining to capture our attention to the point it dilutes the original message.

5 Nov - To create something to the best of my ability for myself.

6 Nov - Put yourself in a position where the more shocks you receive, the better you become.

11 Nov - A good idea is an idea that grows on people by itself.

13 Nov - Happiness is not something you chase, it's something you create through living a meaningul life that is internally motivated.

I just want to highlight that some of my previous post were inspired by these lessons. Although the post isn't exactly about the lesson itself but I can kinda slide in some of the positive facts in my writings. I will continue to give myself some time before getting back up again with this 1 day 1 lesson activity. I hope that at least one of the lessons I've learned and shared here has helped you in any shape or form. I think that one of the easiest way to help others is to spread positivity. So I hope you guys benefit from this!

Also, today I will join my first ever 10K running event. I have completed 10K runs on my own countless times but I still feel a bit nervous knowing that this time, it will be with other participants. I can predict that the competitive side of me will get the better of me and somehow I feel afraid if I couldn't create a new personal best. 

My personal best for a 10K is 1 hour 13 minutes. Lets see if I can beat that time.

Wish me luck friends.

Don't Let Them Get Into Your Mind

Hi friends,

Recently I've been getting some sarcastic remarks from a person I've been conducting business with. In this business dynamic, it is generally perceived as his needs have higher priorities. As such, there is this unspoken leverage that he has over me.

This post is to remind myself that to never let those words get into my head. To be a better man in this interaction, I must stick to the plan that have been made. Despite some hurtful sarcastic remarks that have been spew out from the other party, I have to act according to plan. Never to deviate into a situation that plans to bring harm or any downside to the other side. Remember that your credibility from successful actions rise higher than momentary glory of overpowering others. No reason at all could be an excuse to plot against the people who you disapprove of.

Get the deeds done, look at the opposite way and move on.

Message for myself.

Securities Analysis

Hello friends,

Today, I want to share with you about my investment activities.

Lets start with my principles:

1. Wonderful business at a fair price is better than a fair business at a wonderful price.
2. You don't follow Mr. Market, Mr. Market follows you.
3. Dollar. Cost. Averaging!

These are the principles that I tell myself everyday to ensure that I have clear guidance in mind before proceeding with any investment opportunities. I derived these principles after following closely to what Warren Buffet has been preaching. I understand his approach to investing is known as value investing.

Value investing preaches a set of quantifiable indicators to measure if a certain security has a higher intrinsic value that what its price is listed. As such, here are some of the indicators that I take into consideration before determining if a security is indeed worth investing in.

1. Price to book ratio (PBR)
2. Dividend yield
3. Price to earnings ratio (PER)
4. Current ratio
5. Piotroski score
6. Graham number ratio (GNR)
7. Market capitalization
8. Payout ratio

The exact definition and mathematical expression for all of the listed indicators will not be explained here. To be honest, I don't fully understand the exact concept of it to be able to teach them to others. But I do know the key ideas that these indicators could function as.

Each of the indicators has a threshold value which I personally determined in order to define if a company is good enough. If the company's financial sheet shows a reading above the threshold value, I would reward a point. Thus, the best valued company would, at the end of the analysis, receive a score of 8/8.

Lets look at one of the stocks that I have analysed back in 2018 as an example.

Company Name: Malakoff Corporation

Share price: RM0.87

PBR: 0.66

Dividend Yield: 6.62%

PER: 15.51

Current ratio: 2.42

Piotroski score: 8/9

GNR: 0.71

Market cap: RM4.38 billion

Payout ratio: 35.78%

All the details above I got them online either from:

https://www.shareinvestor.com/my or https://www.isaham.my/

Sometimes the facts aren't the same but I would choose the worst-case scenario.

I'll try to explain the analysis behind this company.

PBR gives you the ratio between the current listed price and the book price of the company. If the ratio is less than 1, it means that the company is undervalued because the listed price is lower than the book value. The exact way how to get the book value is something I'm not certain of but I would guess that it has something to do with finding the difference between assets and liabilities and getting its prices relative to all the existing shares. 

Since 0.66 is less than 1, so I can give 1 point for meeting the threshold. Score count, 1/8.

Dividend yield is the percentage of return that investors receive. So if you invested RM1000 with a dividend yield of 6.62%, you will get RM66.2 by the end of the year. Essentially, the higher the the dividend yield the better. I set the threshold to be higher than 5% because as long as it is higher than putting in fixed deposit, it's good enough. Score count, 2/8.

PER tells you how fast it takes for a company to earn as much as its current evaluation. In this case, it takes about 15 years for Malakoff to accumulate money that is as much as to what it is evaluated now. In general, the faster the better. The threshold I set was 10 years and looking at its PER, this company didn't match the threshold. Thus, no point is awarded. Score count remains 2/8.

Current ratio tells you how much current asset the company have relative to its current liability. So in the case where the company goes under, we can know how much assets the company have to liquidate to cover back the liabilities. As long as the assets are worth twice as much as the liabilities, it's good enough for me. So score count, 3/8.

Piotroski score is my way of cheating to gather all the nitty gritty details of other financial strengths of a company. The Piotroski score itself is another set of score within my own score. You can Google the criteria of getting scores in this one. It is graded out of 9 so as long as it is higher than 5, it is good enough. Score count, 4/8.

GNR is a lot similar as PBR. The only difference is, it tells an exact fair value of a company. The calculations were introduced by Benjamin Graham. He is the father of value investing and the mentor for Warren Buffet. A GNR of less than 1 means that the current listed price is lower than its fair value. So that means it is cheap to buy. Score count, 5/8.

Market capitalization tells you the monopoly that this company has in its sector and relative to its peers. A larger market cap gives a good idea that the company can weather the storm if there's a downturn in the market. So for company in the energy sector that is worth more than a billion is good enough for me. Score count, 6/8.

Payout ratio is the ratio of dividend being payed out to investors relative to its earnings. It tells you if the dividend you're getting is sustainable in the long term or not. Here, you need to find the balance between high returns and long term returns. A payout ratio of 100% means high dividends for that year but it hinders growth for the company in the long run. A low payout ratio means great opportunity for expansion for the company but unsatisfactory returns for investors. Personally, payout ratio that is about 1/3 is a good balance for me. Thus, score count, 7/8.

So overall, the score I gave for this company is 7/8. An almost perfect score! However, I decided not to invest in this one. Why? Just because the score only gives a good guideline on which company is great to consider. The scoring system I made is also not a perfect system because my personal bias holds more weight on certain criteria over the others. So here's the bottom line, there is no perfect analysis for all out there. There's only analysis that's perfect for you. This is just one of many approaches available out there and you just have to find one that is personal and works for yourself.

Disclaimer: There's probably a lot of mistakes in terms of definition or understanding to what I described in this post. If there's anything I've understood wrongly, please turn me to the right direction and I will be eternally grateful. 

How does your analysis looks like?

Thanks for reading, friends!

Mitigating Wasted Time In The Future

Hi friends,

The right frame of mind when thinking about time management is to do anything necessary today to prevent overwhelming yourself in the future. If you could carry out all the necessary steps to anticipate, prepare and take actions for a better future, then your time will be managed well. 

So in the spirit of time management, I did some up keeping on my aquaponics system. After my first experience of harvesting my water spinach, I knew that I wouldn't be happy if I have to go through the same thing again in the future. This is because harvesting them took a long time to do so. Due to the poor planning of the position of my crops on the growbed, it gets very hard to cut them for harvesting because it was all over the place. They were also entangled with each other so that might risks wounding other plants that I don't intend to harvest.

So I decided to get rid of almost all of the water spinach and to make a more proper planting layout for the plants on my growbed. Here are the things that I know I had to do when approaching this activity.

• I know that I have to pluck the water spinach out from the roots to prevent any of them growing back again.
• I should only clean just the general upper layer of the beads so that the bottom layers where all the useful bacteria that converts the necessary nutrients remains.
• I also know to rearrange the plants according to the direction of sunlight. Smaller plants face towards the sunrise while bigger plant like my cherry tomato should face the sunset. This is because germinating plants doesn't require intense sunlight.
• Put a support net to help indeterminate type plants to crawl upwards.

Essentially, those are the things that I did and having firsthand experience doing so is so satisfying. Here some bullet points on the things that I've learned.

• I understand now why people put a septic tank in between the fish tank and growbed. There is A LOT of fish waste accumulated in the growbed since the water from the fish tank is directly introduced into it. As a result, when I dig deeper into the clay beads, I could see murky water at the bottom. Having a septic tank helps segregate the solid waste substance and nutrient rich water before they are introduced into the growbed.
• Just like planning to buy a real estate, the most important thing is location. The next important thing is location. And the third most important thing is location. To be specific, the location of sunlight and planting germinating seeds are important to ensure proper organization. Part of the reason why the overflow to the fish tank was very slow was because the roots from the water spinach was blocking the direct water flow to the overflow tube. After removing all the water spinach and its roots, the flow into the fish tank is better now.
• Ornaments is unnecessary. I put a burger ornament on the growbed just to add some personality to the system but it disintegrated after receiving lots of splashes of water. As a result, small bits and pieces of it might cause some inconvenience in the future as it might cut my fingers when cleaning the clay beads or it could also clog pipes.

After all this, the positive outcome from this activity is that I know I will save more time in the future. I will no longer spend a lot of time harvesting my plants because they are all separated into their own designated areas. Thanks for reading friends! Here's some photos of the latest update on my aquaponics.

What's left of the water spinach that I decided to keep.

Cherry tomato will have proper support leaning on the nets.

Chili plant isn't growing too well but at least there are some to be harvested.

Baby salad that in its youngling phase. 

Updated look of the system!

Aquaponics Update

Hi friends,

It has been about 20 days since the last post about my aquaponics mini project and a lot has happen since then. If you guys want to check out the previous post, you could do so here.

Lets go straight to the point. I want to update you on how I managed to solve the 3 challenges I had previously. As a recap, here are the 3 challenges:

1. Clogged water pump
2. Mosquito breeding ground
3. Low germination rate

So if you've read my previous post, my two concerns with a clogged water pump is that it causes a slow water turnover rate in the growbed and low oxygen content for the fish and plants. I solved this by buying an air pump to increase the oxygen content in the fish tank. Also, by having an air pump, it kinda creates an artificial water convection whereby the water in the fish tank continuously cycles around the tank and creates a current that disperse the food leftovers all over the tank. Though this may sound bad, but it actually helps reduce the clog that is happening in the water pump. Before the air pump was in the system, all the water and food leftovers in the tank are sucked towards the water pump and that has been the cause for the clog. But since the air pump has created this artificial current, that problem no longer arises. However, I still need to clean the water pump probably once a month now because it still gets clogged overtime. But at least it is better than having to clean it three times a month.

The mosquito breeding ground is easily overcome by sprinkling some anti-mosquito larvae dust. It's suppose to be a compound that hinders larvae growth. I think it's working because I'm not seeing any small wiggling thing in the growbed anymore. Best to continue sprinkling them at least once a week.

Unfortunately, the low germination rate is still an issue that I've yet to overcome. Things are looking to get worse mainly because the water spinach has taken over the whole growbed entirely. As they grow bigger, their soft stems could not support its own weight, causing them to creep on the growbed like vines before the lighter shoots could grow upwards. As a result, germinating seeds are suffocated by the water spinach, causing lower germination rate. In this case, even germinating the seeds on a wet kitchen towel won't help because the sprout won't survive in the dense growbed after the media transfer. The way to go about this is, is to harvest the water spinach from the roots on the next cycle to clear up some spaces in the growbed. However, by doing so it will cause me to no longer have a perpetual cycle of water spinach harvesting. I need to plant a new seed if I wish to grow them again. This is yet to be determined but this is the solution I see so far.

On that note, here is some photos of my plants.

Water spinach is taking most of the spaces in the growbed.

Harvested water spinach.

Some chilies

Stay tuned for more updates! Thanks for reading friends.

Illusion Of Free Will

Hi friends,

Today's post was inspired by open world games told by an enthusiast.

The game design for open world games are very interesting because of it's complexity. Usually it starts with a story where you're on a journey to achieve a certain goal. The ways you could go about achieving those goals could be a plethora of ways. Some of the more typical approaches are brute force, strategic stealth, secret passageways and any combination among those three. The reason why it is very addictive is because having more options make us feel like we have more power. As we dictate which approach we want to proceed with, it gives us a sense of control and satisfaction. The game was designed to give us the illusion of free will.

As I hear about this, it has got me thinking about the real open world adventure that we are living right now. If everything is already written for us, are we living in an illusion of free will as well? Is that a fair way of looking at it? Or a fairer way of looking at life is that everything is written but with the infinite possibility of realities that branch out indefinitely whereby they twist, cross, tangle and grow into any realities based on our free will?

Anyway, no matter how we want to look at it, I believe that the choices we make in life is the driving force behind the realitities we arrive at. Though everything is written, we could still choose which writings to be included in our book of life.

How would you design your life?

Thanks friends!

Discipline

Hi friends,

Today's motivational video that I watched was about discipline. They define discipline as having the ability to do things when you don't want to do them.

I definitely agree on this because having discipline will always keep your progress going, no matter how much you hate doing it. After that initial boost of motivation you have when starting on your routines, they were easy because your motivation is still at the peak. But as time goes on, that excitement of carrying out those routines start to fade. It is at this moment when your discipline is being tested. 

But no matter how repulsive you feel about carrying out the routines, you just have to go through them. What's important is to just keep moving and clock in those hours through your motions.

If things aren't getting easier, just remember that it's because you're getting better.

Stay disciplined my friends!

Running Burnout

Hi friends,

Time passes by very slowly today. Probably because I've been skipping all my usual routines and just decided to lay in bed all day. If I could describe one word for today, it would be burnout.

I've been falling off from my routines lately and today was the final straw. I skipped my usual morning run.

I have one rule that I tell to myself every morning: No matter what happens, never skip your runs. 

The morning run is important to get my daily dose of positive emotions. It gets me throughout the day feeling more alive and energetic. But today I didn't get those injection of D.O.S.E. (Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphin)

As I reflect on the reason for this, I know it's because of my new running schedule. I've been increasing my mileage and also increasing the intensity for my speed training by a significant amount. It's not even the middle of the month yet, but I've already progressed more than 55% of my monthly goal. To put into perspective, if I keep this up, by the end of the month I will run 165 km. That is 65 km more than my regular target of 100 km. According to the general rule of thumb, a steady mileage growth should only be about 10%. So that means it should only be 110 km by the end of the month instead of 165 km.

So this post serves as a reminder for my future self to always listen to your body and have a realistic plan. Focus on the long term instead of trying to chase that performance spike that only happens rarely. 

I'm only allowing myself for 1 more day of rest before continuing with my runs. According to my realistic schedule, I have a float of 2 days so I could start with some short and easy runs to gain some momentum again.

Wish me luck friends!

10,000 Hours To Greatness

Hi friends,

I remember in one of Malcolm Gladwell's books, he suggests that to become the grandmaster in one thing, you need to spend about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice on doing that one thing. Gladwell gave examples of a grandsmaster chess player and a pro hockey player. He follows the development of both of these professionals in order to chart their journey becoming the best in their field. It is concluded that in essence, the journey to greatness is a lifelong journey and not something to be attained in the short run.

So this has got me thinking, what greatness do I want to achieve? I have a finite amount of time and I have to allocate my time accordingly on my journey to attain greatness. If I choose to be great in many areas, it would incur a lot of my time to be great in all of them. But if I choose to be great in only a specific area, I'll feel like I'm cornering myself in something I'm not even sure I'll be interested in down the line. These are the things that have been lingering in my mind recently.

I don't have any answers for that at the moment. But whatever it is, I'm ready to spend my 10,000 hours to achieve greatness.

On what would you spend your 10,000 hours?

Cheers friends.

Image Of Success

Hi friends,

I've been imagining how I want my life to look in 10 years from now. Typically, this mental exercise would try to portray my ideal image of a successful life. Here's what has been playing in my thoughts so far.

In 10 years from now, I see myself going about my day without worrying about adjusting my time for others. In this image, people pay high respect for my time in which they come to me instead of the other way around. No more scheduling appointments, no more waiting for a bus to go places, no more being in line for groceries, no more lines for a haircut and etc. Essentially, I don't have to wait in line for any goods and services. 

Time is a concept that I'm starting to understand the importance of. It's invisible to all of our senses yet we can still feel it. We feel it the most only after we've lost it. Unlike other precious commodities, you can't get it back no matter how hard you work for it.

So I guess my idea of success is anything that has to do with me having more of time. If I could just automate the routine, delegate the work, finding better alternatives in everything to make life more efficient in order to have more time to do the things that I want to do, then that is the image of success that I aspire to be in.

The inspiration for today's post came from countless hours wasted waiting for people to reply my email inquiries.

End. Thanks for reading, friends.

The Little Things In Life

Hi friends,

I want to write about finding happiness.

When I came back to Malaysia during my second year break, I had no internships. So pretty much I had all the time in world. But since it was during the mid year, all of my friends were busy with their studies because it wasn't a holiday for them. At that time, I had no work to do, no friends to hang out with and all I had was myself.

I came to a realization back then that I can't rely on others when it comes to doing something. I had to find activities to do on my own, making sure I'm always on the move by having small goals to achieve every single day. That summer break turned into the start of my journey of understanding how to find my own purpose and happiness. 

Fast forward to now, a year and a half after graduation already, that situation still rings true. But this time, most of my friends are already building their own families, some are focusing on their career development, some are pursuing studies and others are venturing into business. I find that it is getting harder and harder to rely on others to fill-in my happiness.

So right now, as I'm taking a step back and re-evaluating my current circumstances, I know now that I have to create my own happiness. And so far, the thing that works for me is to enjoy the little things in life. Something as simple as watching my plants grow, looking at the shine on the rims of my car, dusting my books, hanging my clothes, drinking some tea, smelling the rain and etc. The thought that traverses in my mind is that small things like this are what make my day a little better. It doesn't hugely impact me in terms of happiness but it does make the moment a little worth while.

As I go through my days nowadays, I'll always look for something ordinary and cherish it while it lasts. Finding my own small happiness with every step. The best thing about this is, these little things are free.

What are your little things in life?

Cheers friends.

Rules For Life

Hello friends,

I have a dream that one day I'll publish my own book that outlines a set of life's principle. I got this inspiration from Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules For Life. I like the idea of a book that is able to give a general guidance through life.

I'd like to write down my ideas here so that at least I have a sense of concrete plan of what I want to do. I'm planning to make it into 3 parts/sections. I'm still not sure whether it's going to be 3 separate books or just one book with 3 sections. But I want it to be in 3 sections because I believe that these 3 sections cover most of the aspect of our life. These sections are: Career experience, personal finance and life optimization.

Also, breaking my writings into these 3 sections will kinda give me a sense of structure to the book. At least I know which section to look for when I'm looking for specific reminder for myself based on my current situation in life.

Roughly speaking, the contents for those sections could be,

1. Career experience
• I want to explore all four quadrants of Robert Kiyosaki's source of income: Employee, self-employed, business and investor.
• Specifically speaking, I want to understand how to thrive in: Corporate organizational environment, startups and being a investor/trader.
2. Personal finance
• In this section I want to explore the management of finance living on both side: Living below your means and leading an extravagant lifestyle.
• The part I'm keen in exploring is how my philosophy of attaching value to anything changes with the financial environment I'm in.
3. Life optimization
• In this section, I hope to explore the idea of living life efficiently given the constraints in life. With everything in life is understood to be finite, how can I make the best out of whatever I have in the current time and what could be changed or improved if I were in a different circumstances. 
• At this point that I wish to tie the career experience part and personal finance part to create an idea of life's bubble. Everyone needs to have their own life's bubble where they decide themselves on thriving in that bubble through life's optimization.
4. Future section
• I'm going to leave a blank on this extra section because I'm sure that there are a lot more life's bubble that we could extend on. Some other aspects of life that works on more granular level such as hobbies, relationships, autobiography and etc. 

After reading many categories of books, I believe that there's always interesting things worth talking about. If I find happiness talking about them, I will surely be more than happy to write about them.

I'm just putting down all the ideas I have for now with hopes that this will guide me and remind myself to stick to what I have in mind.

Wish me luck friends!

Looking Beyond The Marketers By Feeling Content

Hello again my compilation of inner thoughts,

I grew up understanding that contentment is correlated to the amount of stuff that I have. Having more stuff in life would make me feel more full.

I think social media has played a role deeply in shaping this view. Every time I scroll through them I see a lot of marketeers showcasing the next best thing to have in life. The story of their marketing emphasizes on solving our craving for wanting to feel more content by having more stuff.

I received a call from Astro yesterday about a free decoder upgrade that also comes with an optional new bundle of entertainment channels that is equipped with the latest and greatest TV shows and movies. As the marketer is promoting a plethora of TV channels, trying to make sense of the cost being offered for this limited time promo, I noticed that I no longer have this sense of urgency to follow closely with whatever he is offering. All I was thinking about was just one thing, how will this provide value for me?

I feel like everyone is looking for something to solve their craving of becoming satisfied. Often the solution of feeling satisfied comes from having some thing. And I could clearly see what the marketer is selling; He is selling a once in a lifetime opportunity to solve your craving for contentment by offering this decoder upgrade and bundled TV programs. By doing so, it would fill in your yearning for satisfaction by feeding you with the entertainment that you think you need.

I think, I'm in a position where I do not need help from anyone to fill in that need for contentment for me. I don't necessarily know what could fill my cravings for something but what I do know is that having more TV programs will not solve anything. As I see myself as someone who doesn't need to be saved, I can look at things more clearly because I won't be in a position of loss if I don't agree with the offer. If the offer doesn't add any value to my life, I could easily take a step back and say no. Because in my current situation, I'm already content with what I have.

I think that being able to see clearly at what is being offered is a cool perspective to have. It helps the mind to look into things a little bit better when it comes to the decision making process. This is definitely a strong trait for everyone to nurture.

PS. If Astro has retention plan like Fido, maybe I'll consider looking into things. If not then, I'll pass.

Have a good day friends.

Eliminate Excuses

Hi friends,

A wise man once told me that the #1 most easiest way to stop making excuses is to eliminate the word "but" in your vocabulary. The word "but" is the precursor to all excuses that you may have in life. 

"I want to go for a 5K run today but it's raining"

"The museum exhibition seems fun but it's too crowded"

"I want a cat but who will take care of it when I'm not around?"

And the list goes on. From the way I see it, the word "but" is always followed by a self-imposed limiting belief that stems from irrational fear of what could give us an inconvenience should we proceed with the activity. This limiting belief is what hinders our progress.

Instead of worrying about the inconvenience, why don't we think of alternate solutions should things not really go our way when we're about to do something. By eliminating "but" from our life, we will automatically look at problems as challenges that we have to overcome. This psychological shift will greatly churn our mind to think of solutions rather than to dwell on the problems at hand.

Try and go about your day today without saying the word "but" and also look at any problems as challenges that are craving for solutions. See if there's any positive change you're feeling in life.

Goodluck friend!

Nurturing Health And Relationships To No Regrets

Hi friends,

I've been imagining myself being in my late 50s lately. I imagined the things that I want to do at that point. Obviously by that age, I'm already retired and hopefully I've accumulated enough wealth for the rest of my life. So, what do I want to do? 

I think that everyone who are in their young adult phase of life desires to be independent and to obtain at least the bottom two Maslow's hierarchy of needs which are the physiological needs and safety needs. Those are the needs that are essential to sustain life. Anything above those two needs are the needs necessary to live life.

Having said that, as I reflect upon my situation right now, I already have those two bottom needs met. I don't worry about the basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter because I have enough of them. My safety needs are also met because I'm able to carry out my routines without any fear of danger or risk on my life.

With this realization of being at the boundary of Maslow's law between sustaining life and living life, I still struggle to find that deeper meaning to venture through the boundary towards the higher needs. Thus, going back to the mental exercise of putting myself when I'm 50 years old to help go about this struggle. The more I think of the things I want to do at that age, the more it convene to two main points. Health and relationship.

As the body grows older, it becomes more frail. Simple physical activities we are able to do today like walking and running will be slowly be pulled away to the point that probably one day we are unable to even wipe our butts. It gets to a point where I get very sad thinking about this. Which is why health always comes up whenever I think about the things I need to do. Taking care of my health to prolong the days when I can't clean myself.

As for relationship, I believe that as humans we are a social being. Having meaningful relationships not only foster strong support system in life, it also creates a harmonious community that contributes to the cycle of support system for others. Achieving something great with no one to share it with isn't a pretty situation to be in.

With all that said, I'm going to leverage the position that I am in, in this phase of my life, to nurture goodness of health and positive relationships with those around me so that when I look back at life when I'm 50, I have no regrets.

Cheers friends!

Handling Information

Hi friends,

Yesterday's post was about the office middleman where I explained my take on how the middleman is important in the chain of workflow. So today I want to write about handling information which I think is a good segue to further expand on the idea of a middleman.

I believe in any organizational workplace, the person who wield the most information wins. In my experience, the whole dynamic of my workplace is such that all the workers are essentially competing for the attention of their superiors. The victor in this competition dynamic will be the first person to pop in the superior's head when deciding who will be the next person to enjoy higher importance within the organization. 

To win the their attention is to give them an image of yourself where you appear to be full of merit. And among the way to do so is through handling information and packing them in a way that leans towards the superior's interest. What I mean by this is that you have to be prepared with the right answers to an expected questions, knowing when to disclose the answer and when to keep them in your pocket.

The whole persona of a middleman is to know what to say and when to say it. A middleman doesn't need to be an expert in doing a work. They just need to know the keywords in order to explain the job progress in layman's term to the superiors. Being the person who views the worker's job from the third perspective also gives the middleman a greater sight on what are the details to be passed through to the superiors and which details to omit due to its complexity and unnecessary jargon.

When the middleman already knows the question that the superior wants to ask and are already prepared with the answers with layers of scripted backup plans, they will ensure that the ball being played is never in their court. Instead, it's at the superior's side and make them play the ball your way.

Cheers friends.

The Office Middleman & Running Progress October 2019

Hi friends,

Today is the last day of October so here's my running progress for this month. I downloaded this running summary from the Runtastic app which I believe is now called Adidas Running.

Overall, I'm happy that I hit my monthly target of 100 km per month. Feels so good to be able to keep up with my target again after failing for two consecutive months on August and September.

Here are some other stats that I calculated myself based on the summary.

Average distance per session: 5.19 km

Average pace: 8.24 min/km

Though I could see my pace improving compared to last month, it is still slightly above the sub 8 minutes mark which is the cut-off time for an average 10K running event. But I think I could beat the cut-off time if I keep this routine up. 

I was thinking of increasing the intensity of my routine but still can't decided between clocking-in a higher mileage or doing more speed training. I guess I just have to try which one I like more.

Here's an overall progress of my running journey.

Alright, with my running summary out of the way, I would like to write about the office middleman.

As far as my working experience goes, I noticed that the people at the higher ups don't necessarily have more merits than the people who works under them. Sometimes it surprises me that something as minuscule as knowing the facts related to their job could be something that they have no knowledge about. Stuff that are widely agreed as common sense in the workspace of their field isn't so common to them at all.

When I'm seeing this infront of me, I would imprint this negative image of them being at their higher ranks just because they have their charms in the way they talk. The typical, "talking their way to the top" scenario.

Then after a few days of thinking about this, I think it's not necessarily a bad thing to have mediocre merits but sitting at the higher rank. While these people are mediocre at best at what they're suppose to do, they do have an added advantage of making their superiors feels reassured. Afterall, at the end of the day, everyone needs to feel reassured and want hear the things that they want to hear. In fact, I would go far as to say that the higher the rank of someone, the more reassurance that they want to hear from their workers. Hence, why the ones who knows how to communicate rises above the ranks even though having mediocre merits.

I believe that these people act as the middleman between the bosses and the workers. I've noticed that most workers prefer to only focus on the things that they are good at doing. Often, the work that they are good at doesn't involve establishing good communication with others. So here's the entry point for the middleman. Middleman would use their charm in providing reassurance to the boss about work while giving space to the actual workers to complete their work without any interruption of constant pressure in communication. These middleman establishes the important underlying coherence between command and action of work to be done.

Thus, this dawned on me. If you were to be a good leader, it would also make sense to focus on being the middleman. The goal is to find someone who is an expert in what they are doing. Get their expertise in delivering good results while "alleviating" their burden of having to make constant communication with bosses. By doing so, the image of hard work and importance will be embedded in you for appearing as the savior in the eyes of the superiors while managing the morale of the ones who actually do the work. Less merit people rises above the rank because they know what people around them wants. If you can identify and deliver that wants, you’ll be in good stance in the office dynamic in no time.

So be the person in the middle.

Cheers friends.