Believe in yourself!

Many a time, when you believe in something and you wish to pursue it. You will face challenges. Not many people realise that challenges may come in the form of cold water or icy cold water (discouragement) from one's spouse, family, friends. This is where many people will falter and think to themselves why are they doing such a thing. These people soon lose sight of their dreams and hopes. They resign to fate that they are meant to do what they do and live the current life that they live.

THIS IS NOT TRUE! If you are persistent enough and strong willed enough. you will OVERCOME this form of challenges and have a personal breakthrough! you will find yourself a much stronger person then before. So what if your loved ones and friends laughed and belittled you. Be strong! Show them! I guarantee you that at the end of the day, you will be the one standing tall!

Many a time, most people do not know that they are in fact one way or another discouraging a person, or to be crude...DESTROYING other's dreams. Just because they dare not dream. doesn't mean that others must follow their lead.

DREAM ON! BUILD YOUR DREAM! Never give in, Never ever ever ever ever give up! the moment you give up on yourself. That is the end of everything. Always stay positive! feed your mental mind positive thoughts and in turn you will get positive results!

The top 3% of the world's smartest and powerful men did become what they are overnight. It is through a process of constant reading of self development books and upgrading their knowledge + also they DARED TO DREAM!

A Flower which is full of good pollen will attract bees. A bad one simply will not.

Build and develop yourself so that YOU may become that flower, and bees will naturally be attracted to you!

The household gold concept

In my last post. I have covered what is a prosumer mindset.

Today, I will be telling you about how it applies to this concept called the household gold concept.

Did you know, that the house you live in contains equity? example. if your house is valued at $300, 000 and you took a bank loan of $250,000. your house has an equity of $50,000?

You are literally sitting and living on a gold mine. the average household expenditures run up to about $510 every month. meaning that's about $510 a month to be mined from your house hold. based on almost 6 billion population in the US. Taking that amount X $510. that's almost like a trillion plus dollars! and that is only 6% of the world's population. amazing isn't it!

So this is example of a pro-sumer mindset is brought forth into the home environment.

Buying from your own hyper market and consuming it. as such. you will not only enjoy a discount but also enjoy your own rebates because at the end of the day, you are reaping the profits.. not the retailers!

so what are you waiting for? start mining your household gold today!

For more information. you can read up this book called "household gold"

The prosumer mindset

Hi all!

today I will be trying to illustrate or rather to bring about a new point. The prosumer mentality.

See...all of us are consumers...and it is our nature. we buy things to consume. however what we do not know or understand is that while we are consuming. we are not earning profit from it. For example.. say you've been using a brand of toothpaste for all eternity. does this particular brand congratulate u (" well done! thanks for recommending this brand to others!") and pay u a some of referal fee every month? The plain fact of the truth answer is NO. they don't. They just sit back and enjoy the trickling of cash flow from all consumers all around the world.

Now, on the other hand. The prosumer mindset is all about producing and consuming at the SAME TIME. producing from your own market and consuming it.

An example that bests tells brings this point across is.. (* names for examples has been changed for privacy purposes but you will get my point)

For example: if you own a car today and you own your own shelly gas station. would you be pumping gas from other stations such as Essoy or caltexer? No. more truth to the fact is that many who own their own gas station will pump their gas at their own station.

Not many people understand such a theory exists. but it does. and it is an upcoming trend which is taking the world by storm.

So therefore understand what this means and how it can benefit you in what you do. earning and saving money at the same time!

For more information. you can read it all up in this book called "the prosumer"

Missing in action

Hey all!

so sorry for the lack of updates. I have been abit pre occupied. It has been reflected to me that I've not been updating for ages. so this is my attempt at it.

Been really busy with school and all. life is good and is getting better

Cheers!

Good suggestions

Time today flew like a breeze. Earlier on thursday night, I went for an NYP alumni meeting. It was my first time in an alumni meeting which was rather interesting and insightful.

The main purpose of the night was to have a focus group on how actions can be taken to draw more people to use alumni services or at least be aware that they have an alumni to turn to when in need.

Some of the answers which came out from some questions were like, maybe we can have a club house? with a state of the art entertainment centre or resturant. something along that line.

I had suggested another direction. How about deciding to lease some of NYP's premises out to young start up's so that they can have a venue to conduct business or perhaps leasing out the venues to some nyp graduates to host events. which is beneficial to the student body as they came see what kind of graduates NYP has been putting out to the industry.

well I do hope they take our suggestions into consideration, partly I think its a great idea to contribute back to the community but also it can be a launching platform for some young entrepreneurs! I reckon it will be an exciting time by then.

Positive energy!

Today's post for me is rather exciting in a way. I feel very positively charged! Even though that its 3am in the morning, but I feel good today.

I was just having a nice conversation with a friend of mine and she was telling me about how problematic and negative life is. My reply to her was. "if you have negative thoughts, you will attract negative energy and you will feel that your life is running in a negative way"

so...therefore..in light of this...you must have and feel positive thoughts!

but how do we do so?

Well..first thing..

1) when waking up in the morning, look yourself in the mirror!

2) tell yourself...you can do it! five times at least..

3) find yourself a positive thought and keep repeating it over and over in your head for at least three times throughout the day.

You'll find yourself feeling much better after awhile of practice.

so I shall end of abit here with this quote..dedicated to my friend in need.. I hope that you will benefit from this.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is a sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

--Mother Teresa

Goal setting

In my previous post, I mentioned that I will be writing a quick post on how to do goal setting. So here it is

First off!

You must have an idea of who and what you are going to be in 5 years time. I can safely say that "YOU! are where you are today because of the decisions and actions that you have taken in the past 5 years!"

So there fore...think about that for a few moments.

After that,

break down your goals into the parts. Basically we are looking at 3 parts:

Short term (3 months - 6 months)

Mid term (1 year)

Long term (2- 5 years)

So having broken down your ideas and what you want to achieve in these parts

Break it down further into headers. I may be abit off in terms of overall coverage, but feel free to add on to my list of what I find useful.

The list of headers are:

• Personal growth
• Financial
• Personal relationships
• Travel
• Family
• Work
• Religion
  
• Friends

more often that naught, we often neglect certain areas of our lives. so by actually stating what you want to achieve in these areas within those allotted time frames of short, mid and long term.

We get a much clearer picture of our goals and thus we can decide what daily actions are we taking to actually move closer to these goals.

so if you do have any further questions, feel free to leave some comments! I will get back to you as soon as possible!

that's all for now!

Updates!

This past 2 weeks since the last insane week has been much of a reprieve for me, suddenly before I realise it. I had a break of 2 weeks or so. which kinda gave me time to think and reflect on certain issues as well as giving me time to do some much needed errands which I am supposed to do.

Well..first thing off the lists that I had needed to redo.

Task 1

1) Rebuild the design of my website. www.chrisjaren.com. (It has been almost 2 years since i last updated it and now i figure the time is right to give it a fresh new look).

1.1) however before rebuilding my website, there were certain things i had to do first. hence task 1.1: recreate the logo. After much pondering, I decided that it was time for a more corporate look on the logo front. so after keeping that logo which I have used since my poly days, i tweaked it out. It looks better now and this will be the new face and front of Chris Jaren design.. the new logo itself will spread over into the name cards and other stuff which requires the Chris Jaren Brand.

1.2) also before the website is up, I have to figure out the basic layout and concept of the webpage. reflecting back on the past website, I figure a new color scheme would be good. You'll get a preview when the site is up and running again.

1.3) Looking pretty much at the past content of the site. I think its time to freshen it up abit. The renderings there were ok last time, but I think now as time passes, rendering methods should be better. So before the site is up, I have to take the time to re- render all the items in the contents.

By the way, incase you don't know what rendering = having a 3D model on the computer which then you have to add texture, lights, colors and shadows. for example

Here we have very simple 3D model of some cups.

Upon test rendering, it will look like this. ( plain and simple)



This is what happens when we add light into the scene



After much tweaking, light + color + shadows and so on.



We arrive at this stage where we add reflection and refractions.

So basically as you can see, this is the rough idea of what rendering is all about. Based on the number of content I have for the new site. this is going to take awhile.

so hence those are considered task no.1

Task 2

2) Do some self reflection on my own personal goals and what I really want to achieve with my life. Many a time, I have set myself a goal and a direction to where I want to be but sometimes in the midst of everything, one tends to lose his focus.

so its time to gain back their focus. I will be making a list of my own goals and maybe...I might put it up as some of these goals are personal. But maybe I will include a post of how to do goal setting for people who have no idea how to do it.


Task 3

3) Catch up on my reading and audio. I usually read about 25 mins a day and listen to motivating audio cds when I am travelling. all this stuff really helps infulence a positive mindset. Probably that's why I'm usually so cheerful all the time. :)

Task 4

4) Catch up with people. Its been awhile since I have not met some of my friends for awhile. Its time to do some catching up.

Well, so far that's about it. actually there's more but I don't want to bore everyone on such a long post. Till next time!

Be positive!

Insane week

Sorry for the lack of posts.. Last week has been an insane week, infact one of the more insanely frantic weeks i've had so far.

Lets see...starting from the week before.

Friday evening.

I got a call from a new would be client that was referred by my army buddy. I must say that I'm happy through networking sessions that people do remember me and what I do. So anyhoo.

I got a call from this company asking me to do up some 3d visualisation so that they can tender for a job. Given the insanely time line of 4 days, I knew that this would be an uphill challenge. seeing as the contractor for the job didn't want to meet me over the weekend to pass me the samples. In the end, I just said yes. My principle is to say yes first and worry about how its being done later. Funny but true. I learnt this phrase from singapore's youngest millionaire.

So later on monday. Met up with the contractor, got the samples. got a kinda shocked at his request to have 2 alternative samples for each toilet...but figured might as well get it done anyway.. started doing up the 3d models. Got it all set up by end of the night at 5am. Deadline. 2 days away.

Sent the models over for confirmation to the contractor but cannot wait for his reply until morning otherwise I won't make the deadline. Decided to proceed to render. In doing so. I got another shock of my life. My most powerful computer. decided to give out on me. everytime i started doing some work. It would hang. I have it happen before but it has gotten from bad to worse and at a time like this. It was not helping at all.

had to decide to find ways and means to get it done. In the end of it all. I had to count on several other computers to get it done. literally about 5 computers.. managed to get it done by deadline time. but after that discovered that the some of the color combinations were wrong. hence I had to redo 90% of them. deadline...10 hrs away. Decided then that current software was not doing any good. decided to swap to a faster one but lesser quality.

spent the entire night redoing it. and later on submitted it to the client. Later on in that night, I had to prepare for another client presentation which I have put off for the past couple of weeks. Spend the night doing that and did a fantastic presentation the next day. I'm glad that over the past week, I've had the support from my gf to always be there, pick me up, buy food and all. Thank you very much! I appreaciate it.

Sat & sun was spend relaxing, catch up with some friends. having a chalet and pigging out at the bbq pit. It was good. Just looking forward to the days when all days can be like this weekend.

Note to self: Work hard. It can happen! 5 years!

Knowledge

Successful people has always mentioned wherever they are and in whatever they do that " Knowledge is power". Without any knowledge, it is hard to steer any conversation in the direction that you want. But of course, steering any conversation in a certain direction, requires people's skills but in essential fact...it is just a tool in the many levels of knowledge.

So how do we gain such knowledge? First, we must always note that whatever we put in our
sub conscious is important. "Garbage in & garbage out" is what happens to most people in modern society. We must be able to filter away all these bad influences which contributes to how we think.

therefore. Put in positive thoughts and you'll get positive results!

They always say: " who you are in 5 years time, depends on the books that you read, the audio cds that you hear and the type of people you associate with".

To gain knowledge, it is the books we read and the cds which we hear. they must be filled with positiveness and energy! It will reflect how we think.

To learn the mindset of a millionaire, we must first associate ourselves with millionaires. only then can we understand how they think and how they react.

Knowledge is power.

Help each other attain their goals and in turn you will gain and earn your goal. :)

Choices

In life, we have to make certain choices. The decisions we make today, will affect our lives in a much different way than we could have ever imagined.

Did anybody ever tell you that the reason you are where you are today because of the decisions you have made 5 years ago? Didn't seem to believe it but after much reflection in my quiet time. I realised that it is rather true.

Back then, my decision to work for myself and own not just one but several business was attributed to this person. Adam Khoo. He has a very average background but he ended up being singapore's youngest millionaire at the age of 27. How? some may say. He's lucky, he has good connections...etc.

My understanding is: CHOICE. He choose to break away from his average life, make the best of himself, associate with like minded others and had the guts to take his own dreams into his hands and just do it!

Because of him and his talk which he gave during my school days. I had decided long ago that

1) I will work for myself.
2) I must own several businesses.
3) I will adopt the multiple streams of income approach.

Another person I must say that did contribute to my decision making was my secondary school teacher. Ms Priscilla Song.(sorry I don't think I have any pics of her) Upon graduation from secondary school. I had enrolled in the Industrial design course at Nanyang Polytechnic. When I went back to my secondary school for a visit. I met her and told her where I was and all.

She said this sentence to me that I still hold dear to my heart up to this day. " I knew it, I realised that when I was teaching you. You were special." This sentence really made a big impact on my life and had always reminded me that "I must not follow the average crowd". To follow the average crowd. You will get an average life, which is not what I wanted for myself and for my family.

So there it is! "Choice!" Make your choice and stand by it. Never regret it because you will never know where it will take you someday!

Cheers!

Monday is here again!

Welcome to Monday! its the start of another week. Its always a super busy week for me. however things will be getting a lot more busy sometime in Oct. So for now, I can afford to take a quick breather.

Generally, Its always good to wake up naturally and not be awoken by an alarm clock. How many people agree with this...say Aye! You tend to be so much more fresher, your eyes bags and dark eye rings are reduced and you look great!

A quick introduction: I'm a industrial designer by nature and training, business man by choice. I believe that if you ever want to make it big! work for yourself! Never work for others. Have the guts to believe in your dream as its the most powerful motivation tool that you have.

lots of people I know tell me they love their jobs and they are extremely comfortable with it. Ever thought about it in this perspective? If you love your job so much, would you still go to work everyday if your boss didn't pay you a single cent? Not many will do so in fact none will actually do it! See what I mean?

Anyhoo, Monday is here! so lets make the start of this week a good one!

"This day can only be better than the previous day"

Cheers!