Ryan Ho's Entrepreneurship Blog

Identity is the sense of self, providing sameness and or likeness. It is the individuality, personality, distinctness, uniqueness of oneself which makes everyone of us different.

Within a country, there should be a unique country identity, but thanks to globalizing, this identity of a country has being infused with other countries identity and is no longer unique to own country with the exception of some countries.

China, Korea, Russia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, United States of America, European countries each have their own unique identity as a country and it is shared by all of the citizens.

They embrace and honor their respective nation identity, culture, values and beliefs in the form of religion and have faith in what their nation belief in.

Singapore on the other hand, is on the verge of losing our own unique Singapore identity. Gone are the days of the kampong spirit, friendliness. The present us, are all confine and closed up thanks to the lack of privacy in home designs thus neighbours close doors and contribute largely to what we have today, employees who do and not talk thus it is more like a mundane life as compared to the past.

Being a garden city in the past, with such large investments from overseas companies, are we losing our identity? Where is the garden city? It is becoming more and more like a city of another developed nation with nothing more than commercial buildings, earning profits etc.
Not much focus has to thrown on religion, culture, which is our strength but all this is under valued in terms of commercial profits. We are losing our multi-racial identity which to globalization and losing it to just commercial purpose.

What does Singapore has to offer to tourist? There’s nothing unique of Singapore if it doesn’t focus on your multi religion identity and the ability to work, trust each other regardless of race, language, religion or culture. We allow cooperation and helping one another, but obviously this is what is lacking.

Tourist are paying money just to see what they can find in other countries, Formula One race track, casinos, buildings, all these are just solely for commercial and tax benefits only with no unique identity for Singaporeans. Are we duplicating other countries success at the expense of losing our own unique Singaporean identity which cannot be duplicated in any other countries for obvious reasons?

It is an expensive identity that we are losing and it is heavily neglected and thus giving tourist more reasons to by-pass Singapore if we were to continue with whatever the decisions the tourism industry is thinking.

Even cultural identity is losing, why the local religion and culture are losing to religions thanks colonization during war times. The focus should be local religion and there we have so many locally born Singaporeans embracing religion from overseas. It should be the Singapore Experience and not something which can be seen, duplicated in any part of the world. Fatal mistake!!

Investments should be pumped into showcasing Singapore’s rich
bio-diversity of various religions and cultures staying to our roots.

It is the relationship which we are bonded to by birth which we should stick to and not to embrace other countries identity like what majority of people are converting to other religions from our own roots.

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Discrimination is to show hostile signs towards an individual belonging to a group of religion, country and preface. It is the treatment taken towards or against a person of a certain group in consideration based solely on class or category. It is distinct in favor of or against a person.

The world most serious and damaging discrimination type will be racial discrimination. Since the age of time, it is born inside us to show favoritism towards an individual, a group whom we like regardless of whether there is any benefits laid out on the table for discussion to help one another.

It is a world that all countries and politicians want to avoid most and will try any cost to not discuss it. In the global nations, this problem still exist but nobody wants to face the music thus they are who they are right now having to face the same problem which they give to the blacks and yellow.

Now that the whites are trying to capture a market share of the rising dragon, than only did they realize the difficulty of racial discrimination, something which they are now complaining and making a big deal out of something which is so minor and can be ignore in fact.

Even fellow yellow skin people from local nations are suffering high business casualty rates of ninety percent, with only one success for every ten ventures, than what give the white the rights to even say that the rising dragons are making it difficult for them to do business in that country?

The way Singapore and China works differently, Singapore being a flexible and adaptable to multiple chances thanks to the multi-racial religion which makes it easy thus no racial discrimination and biasness doing business here in Singapore nor do we apply any culture from any religion.

But it is a whole new different story in China, even Singaporeans find it difficult to understand their culture let alone be successful in China, what rights to the Whites in particular USA can complain of China that they are making it difficult for them to do business?

Look at the most recent China Premier Wen JiaBao press release interview and he explained about what had actually happened during the Copenhagen Event and why he send a low rank minister to attend the meeting as broadcast in Channel News Asia LIVE. The next day, USA has nothing to say and there came up a news article with ‘arrogant’ in one of the headlines.

Look at that, so who is the devil? What goes around comes around, if you don’t want this to happen to you, than don’t even make life difficult for the others in the first place.

The key to doing bilateral business globally is not to walk the talk using office politics which will not work in global stage, but rather understanding the culture differences which no businessmen has yet to succeed in doing that to date.

To succeed in China means to be a foreigner making billions thus to be considered as successful, but to date there is none, because only locals understand the culture.

Stop finger-pointing and start reflecting. Look at the mirror and ask yourself what are you doing that is wrong.

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Eliminate is to get rid, omit or remove from further consideration or competition. It is to be void or expel and when it becomes serious such as to eradicate and kill the enemy.

Elimination is what keeps the Asian nations running and function perfectly like a well oiled engine with a system that never breaks down not even once.

In the game of elimination, where it is embraced and practiced by Asian countries, it is a similar to the game show “Survivor” from the USA or “Ninja Warrior” from Japan. The strongest contender wins the game and is crowned the champion at least for that very moment and during the process.

Failure is not an option nor do we Asians encourage one another, it may look bad on the surface, but in fact this elimination culture in Asians is what keeps us going and striving for the better and to surpass the previous champions and winners previously.

Once you fail in any segment of the game show, you are eliminated instantly either by the rules or via votes. For you to come back again, you need to wait for the next show to win back your honor, something which the Japanese perfected in their quest for supremacy thus it climb back up from the fall of the WWII to be the leader in technology.

China is another highly and extremely competitive country, where the strongest and fittest survives. On the surface it may look cruel to abandon our peers and move forward, but this trait and style of practice is essential in the quest for supremacy. Why so, because in order to be the supreme leader in whatever you do, there is no room for weaklings, thus elimination is the way business is conducted thus the difference in business ethics between China and USA.

Singapore on the other hand is a cosmopolitan country with such a rich mixture of nationalities from all over the country that it is no longer works on neither encouragement nor elimination. Instead Singapore is purely and solely based on Black and White, everything has to be spelled out for on the paper in the law. With neither sides near us, the weak minded people will naturally open themselves to lots of problems like being over dependant on the country which is what most of the Asians are doing and is not restricted to only Singapore but also to our neighboring countries.

Being an island with no common share identities with other nations, we need to identify ourselves, like our forefathers in history which we learn, we should take up entrepreneurship, look at the Chinatown back than, it was buzzing with activities and businesses, so much so that it causing problems but that is a positive problem. Look at the current Singapore and ask yourself what is the difference, and if you bright enough with see what I see, you are somewhere there already.

I may not be somebody now, but with time, you will see what I am made off. Either you join me now and we work together and build trust, or in future I select candidates and partners to work with. You decide for yourselves. Look at Bill Gates and his investors, those who invested in them when they were back than a nobody is already benefiting lots from their first investment to date. Vision and foresight is what keeps an entrepreneur moving despite all odds moving against the tide emerging as the champion, the supreme leader.

Success is not a process, it is war, and in war, you need to eliminate your enemies and step on their corpses, with the killing intent and aura to scare off any potential competitors. Constantly improve and work with like minded people to succeed together. Refer to Chinese Three Kingdoms if you need more information.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

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Reflect is to reproduce, rebound, mirrored and to give back or show an image. When we look at the mirror, it gives us a reflection of ourselves with an image of how we look.

It also serves as a form of mediation to reflect on one’s virtues and faults. Whatever we do reflects what we learn from our own family upbringing and education we learn. It is an aspect or impression of how well or poor we do in anything, for an example, the project’s success reflects well on your abilities.

Reflections are what we see around us everyday but how many times do we actually slow down our pace and take a look at our past actions and reflect on how we can improve ourselves for the better?

No many people do self reflection in fact, instead of doing so, they blame others, taking their own faults and claiming it to be others by implicating and pulling others into the picture via expanding and fault finding like a amplifier or loudspeaker to make everybody know what is happening.

Blame is like the junior of reflection, whereby from reflection than will we gain wisdom and improve while the former will only increase our problems.

By mediating, which the monks does regularly, they attain a higher level of wisdom and intelligence thus they are free from corruption, greed and money despite the major influence on capitalism throughout the world and yet Buddhism or the Shao Lin Shi in China is still going strong and has greatly influence many other nations and individuals to join if not to learn about it and even Americans are learning marital arts from China which is the spark to USA’s interest in China whereby white skin start to change their views about the yellow skin. I am not being racist or anything but it is just facts which we all have to accept, with Shao Lin Shi’s acceptance and willingness to share etc, it is what open the window to sharing, mutual beneficial win-win situation etc. It is only when we ignore all those skin colour, religion practice and accept one another that allow us to gain wisdom and intelligence beyond what schools teach.

Mediation is a art, it is something that can be taught, self-learned and picked up easily as long as the person is interested in learning it, with mediation, seeking the inner peace, thus reflecting on their past actions and coming to a truce with whatever they are doing to walk on a path of improving themselves regardless of the sins they did in the past.

It is to admit and agree totally that it is their own fault for the whatever situation they are in presently based on their past actions. Than with mediation, do soul searching and look back in their mind and see themselves on what exactly did they do, how they do it etc. It is like piecing up all your past memories together and watching the memories unfold themselves in your mind like watching a movie of yourself as a lead and learning from your own mistakes.

Everybody will surely be able to do soul searching at the one critical point in our own lives and that is when we are at the brink of death, either when we are about to die peacefully, or from accident and being rushed to hospitals (touchwood) etc.

It is something which we all can do everyday, every second as long as we want to do it. The catalyst to success starts from reflecting on yourself and martial arts is one way which we can cultivate both mind body and soul.

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Tension is a strained relationship between both parties between individuals, groups or nations. It is the disagreements which both parties fail to come up with a mutually beneficial terms causing the relationship to be stretched and the bonding goes from thick to thin with each escalating issues surfacing.

It creates emotional strain, intense anxiety among everyone among those affected by the disagreements.

Tensions are everywhere, from average person walking on the streets to businesses, and even nations. All the way from the smallest average people like you and I to the biggest most powerful nations, all of us are living in a tensed up society these days with lots hidden unhappiness stored inside each nation waiting for eruption like a volcano. Each new failed or sour business relationship between two countries is like the sill of the volcano, the unhappiness among both countries is like the large magma chamber.

When a failed sour business caused relationships to take a slight turn for the worse, causing job losses in businesses affecting large scale especially among different countries, a parasitic cone is formed with lava flowing out from the parasitic cone slowly increasing the damage as it waits for the magma chamber to erupt with time.

There are so many examples to look at among different nations.

First up most frequently appeared in news media is China US bilateral ties issue which goes a long way, and is made worse with white house support Google from getting bullied by Baidu who is protecting the China identity at home and online.

Next up is US versus Iran, the quest to sweep the root of the terrorist clean and flush them out but it still has a long way to go. USA once missed the chance to plug out Osama Bin Laden as reported in one of the news reports last time, wanting to silence the ring leader, father of the terrorist who was personally trained by the US themselves.

Up next will be Thailand politics chaos situation, with the red shirt versus the yellow shirt. Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who made billions upon using his politics influence to increase his wealth, avoided paying tax and accused by current prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who is constantly digging for new evidence to upset and reduce his influence in Thailand wanting to silence the opposition the red shirt but has yet to see any improvement, in fact he made the Thailand economy worse following the recent demonstration just in front of the Thailand airport causing it to be closed for a day, out of business suffering huge losses.

Up next closely is Korea, North and South Korea always appear in the news yearly due to tensions between cross-border with communist and democratic country respectively with the display of their military might and protection from strong nations from Russia and US respectively as backing.

The rest that follows are just minor national tensions purely for profits and tourism competition that not as important as those above.

Tensions arise for many reasons, without early antidote, it will escalate bigger and bigger over time like a volcano, once erupted, serious damage will be felt and casualties and business losses of people who live around the volcano area suffers.

Tensions are just identical to our health. A cold may be a minor issue which can heal and thus often overlooked, but it is leaves any after-effects, it will lead to serious complications, as cold, flu and cough are the minor symptoms.

Health is the core problem for individuals. Business tensions is the core problems for countries while politics and military related concerns affects the whole world if not at least the surrounding countries when there’s a surge in military might with purchase of weapons.

The next time you get into any disagreement, solve it instantly if not as soon as possible, else it will escalate into another business war whereby companies lose, profits reduced and only the consumers benefit from business battle. If it’s individual, sooner or later there will be more stares, arguments before turning to catfights or business sabotage depending on the genders.

So handle any arguments addressing right to the root of the problem, look at what caused the problem, don’t solve it only from the surface which will not help.

If you need examples: Look at hospitals around the whole world, the patients get sicker and more illness especially terminal and expensive illness find their way onto the patients increasing their burden. Have you ever heard of patients suffering from TCM, not even once at all since history?

Look at the difference, which medical practice should you seek help from, answer is obvious, if you want to save more money, choose TCM, but start early, and it will save you mountains of money bit by bit starting from young as TCM is all about healing all weakness of the body that cause a illness to surface, while western drugs only help heal the illness which has surface and not the root of the problem.

Understand the cause and effect, and entrepreneurship will be a breeze for those who understand it, building a strong mind with the right foundation as basics.

Good habits start from young.

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Balance is about equilibrium with equal distribution of weight distributor to achieve balance.

Everything must be balanced, and there must not be biasness on any side but in reality, it isn’t possible to strike a balance unless we control our own source of income, wealth and time by working for ourselves and not for our boss.

At work, government across and all over the globe always talk about having a balance working life, which is nonsense, if they want to get paid via tax thus they have money, they have to think of ways to allow business to have more employees thus more tax will be received from everybody making them richer but not wealthier since government are not experts at wealth and financial management.

The true experts of wealth and financial management are the billionaires and multi-millionaires. Millionaires are not included in my theory because millionaires can be done alone with hard work while multi-millionaires cannot.

News reports of financial crisis, great depression, stock crisis, commodity shortage thus causing sky rocketed cost of food and basic ingredients such as sugar, salt, and oil at times are the solid proof that government leaders are just ordinary people like you and me in the streets. They know nothing about real wealth management. They can make mistakes and push the blame to somebody else by military or keep it within the walls of each respective country as top secrets etc, and the best part, they don’t get fired because they need to retain ‘talents’ who are just sadly ill-trained professionals who knows only theory but not practical experience whatsoever.

Such people in the government do not and will not know how to balance the equilibrium and will continue to make mistakes than push it to others, got let somebody be the scapegoat taking the blame while opening a back-door to the person who help them take the rap.

The Lehman Brothers is a typical example of ill trained professionals who cause the world economy to share the rap and consequences of their actions, sparking a crisis with more problems in western countries than Asian countries.

With US government using tax-payers money to bail out the companies that didn’t do a proper job to save employments, when this happens, it is debt sharing, and passing the debt to the majority of the people. Take the total sum of money USA used and divide among the US population, and you know on average how much a US citizen helps the government to pay off the debts, which is why the US presidential election is all about, getting the consent of every citizen for approval by votes.

In Asian countries, it is run with a slightly different practice, because of the lack of politicians, and leaders, whatever mistakes they made, it will be compromised because there are no successors to take over thus they can continue making mistakes and nobody can do anything because they lack the higher appointment to veto the politician out immediately. Business and politics will never be able to work together due to a conflict of interest and why Warren Buffett initially decline President Obama request to lead the US in terms of investment options.

At work, health and family, it is all about striking a balance but it is not possible to do it because not possible to do so as business is all about profits and family work balance must be compromised in order to meet quota set by the company and the management else face the risk of being fired.

The only possible way to attain work life and family plus health balance is to work for ourselves, and find alternative income source to have flexible work time, have a business system to have it running on automatic basis so to allow equal balance.

The alternative is via internet marketing, and multi-level marketing (MLM) which requires no boss, no fixed timing, efforts and pay are justified by the amount of commitment they put in which is why news articles in Singapore have mention successes in blogging stay home young mothers who are IT savvy. MLM however has created tremendous success that can’t be overlooked but it is treated with negativity thus people are not receptive to it.

Education is all about helping ourselves to earn more money, but why and how did people think that it’s only right to help boss earn money and not help themselves? Are you slapping yourself in the face? Wake up to the reality and face it. If you at any one time want to deny facts, you will be a loser and loser will only suffer in misery and nothing else.

Do you want to seek balance in live which will encourage good health or do you want to continue to work your guts out risking your health helping your boss get rich, and not helping yourself?

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Help is the act of either giving or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or a need, to render assistance to people who need it.

It also make life less difficult and reliving them off their illness, pain and sufferings.

Help is everywhere and anywhere. Are you the person who likes to help and advise people or are you one who only likes to receive help and assistance from others and never give back any?

Help is a two way thing. The more people you help, the more people will help you succeed. The more reluctance you show in refusing to help others, the same others will show to you.

Look at businessmen. They are setting up businesses, helping many people in different areas. By employing employees, they are helping the majority of the people to get paid if they are willing to work hard for the company, and in return they get money to bring bread and butter back home to the family.

By doing business, providing service and solutions to help solve business partners’ problems, they are helping others again, and in return they get money (profits) back in return.

By lending a hand in charity with money, they help people in extreme poverty get fed with food and basic supplies, they didn’t expect anything in return, but than others see it, than again they are helping themselves.

The return favor of helping comes back to the business in the form of recognition, branding and position which is goodwill, building a reputable brand for the country, individual or business, the more low-profile you are, the more happiness you will get and more rewards will come back to you.

Not everything comes back from helping in the form of money, but the values and reward to helpful people and businesses will end up with much more than what they offered.

When individuals and business do charity, they can reduce their tax for that year too from the government and more support from the leaders governing the countries with more benefits in future. There’s nothing to lose in helping but a lot more to gain.

Exercise caution when you offer and extend a helping hand. Never ever help any individual that refuse to accept your help and stretching out their hand. If they reject you, so be it, there are others who will gladly accept and appreciate your help.

Practice selectively helping, else you will be abused too. Example: You don’t go around helping people in the brink of bankruptcy when they didn’t learn their mistakes or lessons. The more you offer help, the more you’re digging your own grave to perish together with the people facing bankruptcy at the expense of your financial help.

You will not help people who don’ t share the same vision, goals as you (only applicable to businesses only). If you’re into philanthropy, than just do it as long as it is within your means and financial ability allows. Spending and spreading wealth wisely to those deserving of a chance to succeed and grow.

Do not help people who will turn their backs on you, a real life betrayal of unconditional help will be USA. They who believe in their religion believe in helping anyone and everyone, and the help they offered get abused in this case example.

USA trained Osama Bin Laden, who in turn became a real ring leader in terrorist who betrayed USA’s kind intentions, war breaking out among Iran, Iraq, and neighbouring countries suffer in some ways.

So select carefully and help, don’t help people who act like they need help but with hidden agenda that go against your vision, principles and directions which again leads me to entrepreneurship.

Choosing the right business partners, help people who accept your help and not people who only want to make use of your help, be selective and test their intentions if needed.  Choose the right business partner and your life plus wealth will be made much easier, choose and make the wrong choice or decision, and you have hell of a time like USA still trying to capture Osama Bin Laden who may still be hiding inside the mountains underground and in the caves etc.

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