All Entries in the "Miscellaneous" Category

Circus Social is a Singapore-based Ogilvy partner company that specializes in building Social Software for Marketers across the world. We have a unique blend of Creativity, Business and Technical skills, and our troupe is multi-talented, international and great fun to work with – just like a world-class circus!

As a result of working weekends and nights for a few months, I now have a awesome iPad and iPhone application (Live on the app store) that takes the art of story telling up a level. (maybe not the best ever, but I have not seen any better yet!)

I see a lot of award bashing all around. Some people are calling them retarded and some have listed down logical reasons why they don’t work well or are unfair. I love advertising awards, having won 2 recently. Here is a list of reasons that would convert the most determined of naysayers.

Marketers have an obsession with the number of ‘fans’ (Likes – as FB now so decreed) their brand has on Facebook. In most cases it is simply because they want to ‘measure’ and ‘fans’ happens to be an easy way to get the job done and to appear ‘performance driven’. Here are just a few [...]

My son is 8 and carries a 12 kilo bag everyday to school. The bag is full of text books and notebooks – all of which are important and cannot be left out. I did the same when I was small and so did my dad.

I have just published my first post on Asia Digital Map. This is a group blog where a bunch of people from Ogilvy post their thoughts on Social Media! Check it out here and leave a comment or two!

I am even more excited about what i am doing now! As Associate Director 360 Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, my mandate is to help companies across Asia make sense of and use Social Media to run their businesses better! I look forward to the adventure. Here is a quick update on things [...]

As an immigrant to the United States, I am not what one would consider part of the fabric of mainstream culture.  Of Asian descent, I belong to a group that makes up just 4.4 percent of the population.  I have dark hair, big eyes, a Singapore smile and a unique accent influenced by my British [...]

Who does not like the idea of being one’s own boss, calling the shots, managing assets (and may be people), and making money as unlimited as your talents and enterprise? Yet loving the idea of business ownership is one thing, and making the business a success is another.

We all know that when a speaker gives an address on stage, his or her choice of clothing is not whatever that was pulled out instantly from the wardrobe. In today’s business arena, image is everything and what a speaker wears is crucial to that image.

Some of you may be trainers already, or simply evangelists for success like I am. The rest of you are probably in a totally different profession – lawyers, doctors, engineers, fresh graduates, it really doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you have decided to read this article because a germ of an idea has entered your mind: Can I be a trainer?

I have never agreed with any research finding that says that every individual has a split personality. But watching crowds with smiles instead of frowns on their faces at eating joints has forced me to change my view.

Analysis. The human mind is very simple. It zeros in on the obvious. The guy whose drawer is in a mess is seen as having a disorganized pattern of thinking too. This is as crude as it can get.

If everyone wanted to move on after the fun and games, who would be around for each other in moments of agony and pain? Is that why so many youngsters were lost and depressed in the downturn? And many even contemplated taking their lives?

Years of conditioning and training can lead to a freezing of frames. These frames help us to simplify the world but the danger lies in oversimplification and holding on to frames after they are no longer relevant. Albert Einstein admonished his colleagues, “Make it as simple as possible but no simpler.”

How fast do you need to lose weight? Most experts would suggest to diet; but everyone hates dieting. Why? Because dieting is temporary and doesn’t work. You need to CHANGE the way you eat.

An oft repeated fault in many organisations, is to automatically attribute success to the brilliance of the manager concerned or the team. Failure conversely is attributed rather automatically to incompetence. This is a serious flaw. In the above instance the CEO could have requested the ‘star’ performer to make a presentation to all the sales staff and share his insights into the strategy and tactics that in fact led to his grand ‘success’.

Now marriage as an institution is an attempt by the human mind to bring some order in the chaos that sexuality brings. The average humanity goes through this mill and it is the only kind of evolutionary sadhana an average person goes through.

Marriage is team-work and this is an acquired trait which has to be learnt and practised with serious intent. Of course, we complement each other but most of us would be equally happy living alone, content in our own selfish balloons.

As I reach my middle age, I realize and look back with amusement and amazement at the sad designs we drew for ourselves and those we professed to love.

This style of belittling others is a quaint little habit. You will notice it is a regular habit in some people. Their persona is wrapped around it. It is impossible to make a statement or ask these people anything and it becomes an opening for them to show their wit rather than answer the question in a down-to-earth way or give a plain unadorned answer.

Spirituality means many things to many people. Answering the question of “what is spirituality” for yourself is an important step in your lifelong process of discovery. To be honest, you don’t need to become an expert in terminology to enjoy a life of meaning and fulfillment. The words are just pointers and tools you can [...]

How many people do you know that are on emotional roller coasters? They experience every high and every low imaginable about every situation. True fitness is having control and discipline over our emotional lives.

We have a persistent feeling of events receding into a past of non-existence. The future is a nebulous void. The present moment is all that we experience and therefore grant it a higher level of existence.

Most people think, work and live their life generally with the prejudices that they tend to pick up in their short lives. A good professional education gives them the wherewithal to make something of their lives. Most are really capable and in their chosen field do rise to the top but soon get stuck in their own success.

Fall is one of my favorite times of year‚Äîthe temp starts dropping, the air gets crisp, the trees put on a glorious display of color‚ÄîI love it! I also think it’s a great time to drop what’s not working for you. If trees can let go of every leaf, why can’t we let go of what no longer serves us?

Ouch – we all hate it when we’re rejected. Fear of rejection stops salespeople from asking for the sale. It stops us from reaching out to new friends and associates. It stops families from coming together. It even stops us from pursuing our dreams. Rejection is a given – no matter how fabulous you are, [...]

Some people won’t even make New Year’s resolutions anymore. Not because they don’t want to improve their lives, but because they’ve tried and failed so many times, they’ve given up. It’s not the resolution maker who’s the failure, it’s the methodology we’ve been using to try and bring about radical change in our lives.

There are three kinds of people. One, who are so deeply satisfied with themselves and sing glories of the virtue of contentment that they stop growing; two, who are so discontented that they see no point doing anything and three, who are so obsessed with speedy results that their impatience consumes them.

Research has found a connection between the power of the mind and what happens in our life and the results are speaking for themselves. The process to create what we want in our lives is called “manifesting” – the bringing of ideas and desires into physical form. Manifesting becomes a self empowerment tool when it is applied to realizing our desires. This is done through the law of attraction.

Once upon a time, many years ago, in prehistoric times, at a time when there were no cities, no buildings and perhaps even no villages, there was a hunter. He had had a successful day and was walking through a forest back to his tribe. He had slung a deer across his shoulder with some homemade [...]

There are several concepts and approaches that aim to improve your time management skills. However, most of them seem to rest on unrealistic concepts that actually achieve nothing. Effective time management entails the maximum use of whatever time that is available each day to enable you to accomplish designated tasks.

Most people accept anger as a part of life. We all feel justified when we get angry and we can point to all the people and reasons for it. Certainly no one in their right mind could disagree. We all shake our heads as we hear of yet another “idiot driver who almost killed me”, the boss “who set me up to take the fall”, the spouse “who knows just the right buttons to push to send me over the edge”.

As eternal beings, we carry all our thoughts, impressions, emotions, and feelings from time immemorial into our present being. Hence, most of our so-called ills have their roots in some of these thoughts, impressions, feelings, and emotions.

It has been rightly said that this world is a mirror. It reflects back our inner/true reality to us. As within, so without. Everything in our life; our job, our economic condition, our dwellings, and the people in our life reflect one or the other aspect of our reality.

For most of us, childhood is when life is most enjoyable. Bereft of responsibility, we are taken care of, sheltered, fed, clothed, educated and kept in good health. All we have to do is savour every wonderful moment to the fullest.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming your employees are good communicators. Just because you trained them on what to say doesn’t mean they know how to say it. There’s a mighty fine line between efficient and rude. Caring is what people want.

There are several reasons why people procrastinate. Oftentimes, it is innate to an individual or it could be lack of self discipline. However, it is important to point out the reason for this unhealthy habit so as to know how to deal with it.

Two¬† critical skills which the highest performing managers have in spades are the ability to influence and persuade. The most obvious targets for your powers of persuasion are your team, and sometimes your peers in different departments; but just as you need to manage down or sideways , it’s also critical you know how to [...]

What do you do when everything goes wrong?

“I just wanted to help.” How often have we heard this sentence in our lives? There is an old saying: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. This truth came to me in a roundabout but very emphatic way the other day.

2010 is here! There are three powerful tips I’d like to share with you that’ll not only make 2010 your best year ever, but will lay the essential groundwork for abundance and prosperity beyond your wildest dreams for you and your loved ones in the years to come.

Choice of career, choice of spouse, choice of investment, the list goes on. Is it by instinct or “gut feeling” or do we actually analyse the important decisions we make in life?

There is much talk of progress and success nowadays. Motivational programs are everywhere. In what sense of the word are we talking? For argument’s sake, let’s confine ourselves to the sense of advancement in career and money-making prospects. This then presupposes that everyone would always be striving to improve one’s earning capabilities and keep on [...]

I’m not that great at keeping New Year’s resolutions, but this one is going to stick – I promise. I resolve to wipe the F word “fair” from my vocabulary, from my thinking, from my emotions.

You know that the bond between a mother and a daughter is indeed very unique, and nothing can ever break it. But once your daughter grows up and becomes her own person, this bond is often tested to its limits. Yes, it remains the most complex of all relationships. Despite mothers and daughters sharing a special bond, there are some complex emotions that play a role in this sacred bond.

I have observed people from all fields across cultures, genders and education levels. The lag does exist, only the degree varies. It can be wide or narrow but I have not been fortunate enough to meet people whose talk and walk are without a lag.

There’s an old German saying that goes, “You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it.” Are you planning to just let life “happen” to you or do you plan to play an active part in designing the life you want?

One of the key differences between managers who manage up close and those that let go is how they react when their staff run into difficulties, whether over a piece of work that they can’t get right, a relationship in the team that isn’t quite working, or indeed something outside work that is affecting them.

It’s easy to be creative. Think out of the box! But have you imagined how difficult it must be to be UNcreative?