Sometimes being childish is important

" In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities,

in the expert's mind there are few" 

                                    
                                         - Shunryu Suzuki (鈴木 俊隆), a Zen Master-

Hi!

It's a long long time ago since the last time I wrote in here. Many things happened recently and I feel grateful for the good ones ^-~ Today I sneaked on my tables, grabbed my net book and fulfill my desire to write some ( hopefully it'll be useful :D), finally!

So I read a book three weeks ago, and got some inspiration from it. That new baby titled "Presentation Zen" by Garr Reynolds.  Check his blog here http://www.presentationzen.com/

Shortly this book discussed on the techniques of doing presentation with influence of Zen concept. I'm not a Buddhist myself, but Zen in my point of view, is like a cultural base, lets say, Japan. I also take the Ikebana, Flower Arrangement course in my college now for about 1,5 years and Zen became the basic of most styles.

The most interesting part of this book is the foreword! Hey how come??!! It's the 1st book which used PPt slides as its design for the foreword section. There`s no such thing like too long and complicated content inside this book, because simplifying is one of the goal. So don't have to worry to spend your weekend with it because it's quite interesting. 

It consists of three big parts : Preparation, Design and Delivery, excluding the Introduction and the "Next Step" part.

Ok, for this time, among many attractive sections inside, I wanna make "Childish thinking" as today's discussion. I try to pick up some interesting parts from this book. 

Childish, however, has won a bad image or reputation amongst us. But believe it or not, sometimes, we just have to think like a child for freeing ourself.

A child, approaches life with a beginner's mind, which is fresh, enthusiastic and open to the vast possibilities of ideas and solutions before them. 

Here's one of favorite parts  :

"A child does not know what is not possible and so is open to exploration, discovery, and experimentation. If we use beginners mind approach, we can see things more clearly as they are, unburdened by your fixed view, habits, or what conventional wisdom says it is (or should be). One who possesses a beginner's mind is not burdened by old habits or obsessed about "the way things could have or should have been done. A beginner is open and receptive and is more inclined to say "why not" or "let's give it a shot," rather than "it's never been done" or "that's not common."

When you approach a new challenge as a true beginner, you need not be saddled with fear or failure or of making mistakes. If you approach problems with the "expert's mind," you are often blind to the possibilities. Your experts mind is bound by the past and is not interested in the new and different and un-tried. Your expert's mind will say it can't be done (or shouldn't be done). Your beginner's mind will say, "I wonder if this can be done"

If you approach a task with the beginner's mind, you are not afraid of being wrong. The fear of making a mistake, of risking an error, or of being told you are wrong is constantly with us. And that's a shame. Making mistake is not the same thing as being creative, but if you're not willing to make mistakes, then it is impossible to be truly creative. If your state of mind is coming from a place of fear and risk avoidance, then you will always settle for the safe solutions - the solutions already applied many times before. Sometimes, the "path already taken" is the best solution. But you shouldn't follow the path automatically without first seeing it for what it really is. When you are open to possibilities, you may find that the common way is the best way for your particular case. However, this will be a choice you made not by habit, but by reflection and in the pirit of a fresh beginner with fresh eyes and a new perspective.

courtesy of click here

Children are naturally creative, playful, and experimental. We were the most human when we were young kids. We "worked" on our art, sometimes for hours at a time without a break, because it was in us, though we didn't intellectualize it. As we got older, fears crept in, and doubts, and self-censoring, and over-thinking. The creative spirit is in us now; it's who we are. We just need to look at the kids around us to be reminded of that. And whether you are 28 or 88 today, it's never too late, because the child is still in you."

After finishing above sentences, I can't agree more. Sometimes, the one who made our limitations is ourselves, based on our experiences and so on. If we try to see the world with children eyes, full of passion and enthusiast like we see everything as our first time, maybe the next chapter of our life stories would be ultimately different in many positive ways ^-^ So, wanna try? :)

See you on next post! Take care and have a nice day! ^.^

Business or Education? (Bisnis atau Pendidikan?)

Hello! This is me and my friend, Ayano chan (say hello to Ayano! :D) We went to the 52th Meidaisai (Meidai is the abbreviation for Nagoya Daigaku based on the Kanji reading, and sai means festival) on June 4th, 2011. Ayano's fave indie band, called rega would do the live performance in Toyoda Hall at 5 p.m. Beforehand, we ' visited one of my colleagues coffee shop, most of the reason cuz I have promised him to pay a visit.

Hi! Ini saya dan teman saya, Ayano^^ (Say Hi to Ayano! :D) Hari Minggu, 4 Juni 2011 yg lalu, kami mengunjungi Meidaisaiyang ke 52 (Meidaisai adalah istilah untuk Nagoya University Festival). Band indie favorit Ayano, rega bakal manggung di Toyoda Hall jam 5 sore hari itu. Sebelumnya kami mampir dulu di salah satu Coffee Shop milik teman kuliah.Sebagian besar alasannya adalah karena saya pernah berjanji untuk bertandang ke kedainya.

Seattle Espress Logo : His Figure

His coffee shop name is Craig's Coffee, as u can guess easily, the owner name is Craig. One of my colleagues,  Harris Craig, raised in California. After getting his MBA at one of University in there, he took a gut and flied to Japan, building his own business step by step since 12 years ago with initial investment just 80,000yen. His core line is Coffee, but as I observed in his cafe, there are also complementary product such as brownies (recommended! I & Ayano had one, and very satisfied with our so chocolate Brownie-Vanila Ice ^o^), another drinks, herbs tea and many more. As u can see in his website, his place is quite large and pleasant to have a chit chat or doing a task in a group with affordable price.

Nama kafe-nya: Craig's Coffee, seperti bisa ditebak, nama pemiliknya adalah Craig. Salah satu teman saya di kampus, dibesarkan di California, Craig Harris. Setelah mendapat gelar MBA di salah satu Universitas di California, dia memutuskan untuk memulai bisnis di Jepang, usaha yang bergerak di industri Food& Beverages (Kopi) yg dirintisnya sejak 12 tahun yang lalu dengan modal awal hanya 80,000 yen. Selain kopi, ia juga menyediakan berbagai produk komplementer seperti Brownies (Recommended! :D) Teh Herbal, serta masih banyak lagi. Seperti yang Anda dapat cek di websitenya, tempatnya cukup luas dan nyaman untuk ngobrol atau mengerjakan tugas kelompok dengan harga yang terjangkau.

Ok, Actually the point that I want to discuss is about the way of his thinking toward the importance of education. Believe it or not, despite of his tight schedule and the fact that he already got a Master Degree, he took another one at Nagoya University. Besides expanding his networking, he also said that he really wants to get knowledge update so he can learn how to add value into his business. Thing that made me surprised, is his plan to take further education, which is Doctoral Degree in Business after completing his Master. This is a rare way of thinking of an entrepreneur. He told me that learning is one way to have fun, college is the place where he can relax and express himself. His passion is stunned me.

Ok, Sebenarnya poin yang ingin saya diskusikan adalah mengenai pola pikir beliau mengenai pentingnya pendidikan. Percaya atau tidak, walaupun dia sangat sibuk (dan dia memang sibuk karena ikut turun tangan melayani konsumen ketika pengunjung benar - benar padat) dan faktanya bahwa dia sebenarnya sudah meraih gelar master, sekarang dia masih mengambil program master di Nagoya University. Selain memang memperluas jaringan, salah satu alasannya adalah dia ingin meng-update pengetahuannya dan belajar untuk menciptakan nilai tambah untuk bisnisnya. Hal yang membuat saya agak kaget adalah keinginannya untuk mengambil gelar Doktor setelah lulus program Master. Dia bilang, belajar adalah salah satu jalan bersenang - senang, kampus adalah tempat dimana dia bisa relaks dan mengekpresikan diri. Tekad dan kemauannya membuat saya kagum.

Some people think that if u can produce enough money, why should u go to school? U can't learn business at the school, it's a waste, and u better to invest your money in another profitable financial instrument. Even me, I still think that for building career outside academic area, doctoral degree isn't necessary, so u have to think thoroughly when u want to take further study cuz it will consume time and money. But his words is just knocking me, my narrow way of thinking and make it open. So for u an entrepreneur or entrepreneur-wanna be, there is nothing wrong to take further education for your own personal investment. Your human asset is much more important than your entire financial asset, you have to invest more in it. Why did I choose this kind of thing to be posted in this blog, because I think that Experience is the best teacher in the world. Everyone can be my teacher, including my friend surround me. So why should u choose between business or education? Just grab them both! ^o^

Sebagian orang berpikir, apabila mereka sudah bisa menghasilkan cukup uang, untuk apa sekolah lagi? Karena bisnis tidak akan dapat dipelajari di sekolah dan lebih baik untuk menginvestasikan uang pada instrumen keuangan lain yang lebih menguntungkan. Bahkan saya, masih berpikir bahwa gelar doktor terlalu jauh apabila ingin membangun karir di luar bidang akademik, sehingga harus dipikirkan dengan matang apabila ingin mengambil pendidikan lebih lanjut, karena akan memakan waktu dan biaya. Tetapi kata - kata beliau membuat saya sadar, bahwa tidak ada yang salah untuk mengambil pendidikan lebih lanjut untuk investasi pribadi. Nilai individual kita sebagai manusia jauh lebih berharga daripada semua harta yang kita miliki. Kenapa saya menyertakan postingan ini di blog, karena saya pikir, pengalaman adalah guru terbaik di dunia. Dan guru saya bisa siapa saja, termasuk teman - teman di sekeliling saya. Jadi apabila Anda bingung untuk memilih antara bisnis atau pendidikan, kenapa harus memilih, ambil saja keduanya!^o^

Finally we should over our little conversation cuz the live would perform immediately. I am sure, everybody has his own weakness, also Mr.Craig, but 4 thumbs up for his passion, courage and humbleness. Hopefully his business will stay run smoothly, therefore he can retire in 3 more years and spend the rest of his life in his dream house in Venice, Italia :D

Oops, I think we're a bit too close at the picture, it's because I forgot bringing my pocket camera, so we should gather close in order to be taken by my cell phone camera m_m

Akhirnya, percakapan sore itu harus diakhiri karena sebentar lagi pertunjukan band-nya akan dimulai. Saya yakin, semua orang punya kekurangannya masing - masing, begitu juga dengan Mr. Craig, tapi saya mengacungkan 4 jempol untuk tekad dan kegigihannya, keberaniannya serta kerendahan hatinya. Semoga bisnisnya akan berjalan lancar sehingga dia bisa pensiun dalam waktu 3 tahun mendatang dan tinggal di rumah impiannya di Venice, Italia. 

Saya rasa foto kami terlalu dekat...ini karena saya lupa membawa kamera saku saya, sehingga kami harus merapat sehingga bisa terambil oleh kamera hp saya m_m

One more thing, that"s very kind of him that we got a present from his shop! Thank you very much! His favorite toffee (flavored coffee) :D

Satu lagi, dengan murah hati, dia memberikan kami hadiah salah satu produknya. Terima kasih banyak! Ini adalah flavored coffee favoritnya, Toffee :D

Pardon me for our-not so neat-living room =p
(cheers! Me & Ayano^^)

Today`s words : Cross-Holding (今日の言葉：持合い）

 Actually I got this word yesterday when I attended one of the lectures taken. I got new word which is Cross - Holding. What in the world is that? Based on investopedia.com Cross - Holding means:

`When listed corporations own securities issued by other listed corporations.`

`In terms of indexes, cross holdings can create a form of double-counting. For example, if both companies are included in the same index, the value of the holding in one company is reflected in the share price of the other.`

 

Based on the the survey conducted by Prof. Hu Dan, it is being known that in Japan the trend of change in cross holding during 1991 - 2006 is declining both in value base or number base. The rate of cross - holding use is the rate of cross - holding of listed companies (including banks) stocks to the total market stocks. What does this phenomenon implies, actually I haven`t got full of understanding on it. Still try to figure it out >.<

持合いというのはm-wordsによると：

協力関係にある企業間で互いに株式を相互保有すること。短期的な企業の業績や株価ではなく、長期的に株を保有する安定株主としての機能を果たしてきた。さらに企業間の取引を安定させ、敵対的買収な どから企業を防衛することができるため、企業の安定的成長に役立つとされた。ドイツや日本で特有に見られるもので、日本では戦後の財閥解体後、1980年 代まで株式持合いの比率は高まり続けた。1990年代に入り、外部からの不透明性や非効率性を指摘され始め、いわゆる「持ち株解消」の動きが活発になっ た。特に、時価会計の導入や不良債権処理のため金融機関による持ち株比率の低下が顕著になり、大量に株が手放された。これは、2000年以降の株価低下の一因とされている。しかし、近年その買収防衛策効果から「株式持ち合い」が再度注目を集めており、持ち合い株の割合が増える傾向にある。以前は金融機関がその中心を担っていたが、現在の株式持ち合いでは事業会社同士で行われる場合が多い。ハイブリット車用の電池開発などで提携をしているトヨタと松下が2007年6月に株式持合いを強化することを発表したことはその一例である。
なお、複数の会社での株式持合いを「三角持ち合い」あるいは「循環的相互保有」と呼ぶ。

大学の先生によって、日本で持ち合いは1991から2006まで減少傾向であり、使われた持合いレートは全株価市場に対する上場企業(銀行も入っていた)レートである。そのさべーいの意味がまだ分かっていないんです、すみません！＞。＜

Simple Presentation Structure

My Gosh! Presentation is here and there, they are everywhere! Anyway, it`s common thing for anyone especially students. cuz we have an idea and in order to make it known by other, we have to present that. Believe it or not, 2 weeks ago Professor Weeks told me that Karaoke is a kind of Presentation too! He made a concept of Presentation Karaoke which aims how to enable people to do the presentation in relax and the more important thing is to enjoy it. Can you imagine, presentation karaoke! Such an interesting topic!

Actually I prefer to share different topic each time I post something here, but due to how presentation becomes a daily routine nowadays, I love to share what I learned in class. I need to refresh mine too :D So lets begin!

Picture is courtesy of click here

There are 4 keys of making presentation :
1. What
2. Who
3. Why
4. Where

Ok, lets check it one by one :

1. What
Think about these two things :
a. What do I want from them?
b. What do they want for me?

When we are preparing the content of our preparation, we have to make sure that we will give the right shot. Make sure the expectation from our presentation before doing that is not a bad idea.

2. Who
Think about our target audience, not just an audience but as a target audience is the people whom we hope will listen to our presentation. Things that being considered we should know is :
a. Where are they from?
b. What do they know?
c. What words they know?

We have to consider the condition of the audiences. Although our research is so sophisticated, but if the audiences do not come from the same field, it won`t work. The core of presentation is to communicate, use the words that will be understood by your target audiences.

3. Why
People are sleeping at the lecture or meeting room? The audience`s fault? Or maybe the presenter just don`t give the audience a reason to listen.
Why is the idea or the research is important? What is new? Considering these two things well and maybe we will need less coffee and reduce the caffeine usage ;p
Give the audience a hook, to make they stay listening to us. For example, a shocking phenomenon, surprising statistical number which make they want know more about it.


4. Where
Prof Weeks told me that basically human is a kind of creature that hate to wait or to guess in a blank. So give our audience a map such as an outline or the point of discussion, where we are going to as a predictor.

Such a simple keys ryte? That is the point of the presentation, KISS which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid! This is the favorite rule of my lecturer, just keep it simple bcuz people  can not receive many things in a short time, simpler is better and maybe give deeper impact.

Example of presentation script :
1. Introduction
2. Background
3. My main idea is X (Thesis Statement, check on it on my previous post here)
4. I am going to say A, B, C etc (predictor)
5. Body :
Lets talk about A
Lets talk about B
Lets talk about C
6. Conclusion
7. My main idea has been X (Repeat your thesis statement)
8. I have talked about A, B, C (Repeat your keywords)
9. So..... (Final Comment)

Of course you can modify it, but the example above is a good start esp. for beginner (like me :D)


Study Case :
In addition, when I was working in a company,  I often being asked to prepare presentation for my supervisor. From 20 slides I prepared for him, he deleted more than 10 of it. He told me something really important : ‘Never present　ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ　ｔｈａｔ　ａｌｌ　ｐｅｏｐｌｅ　ａｌｒｅａｄｙ　ｋｎｅｗ，　ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ｊｕｓｔ　ａ　ｗａｓｔｅ`

And it is proven in one of my class this week, when someone presented a topic by just copying from the textbook. One of my classmate told him that he wasted his time listening to him considering he has very tight schedule. It was a bit harsh to say it directly in front of other people but I think he is right, to give our best is one of the way to respect the audience for their willingness to listen for us.


Last but not least

Thanks God we have the dearest Ms. Power Point! But Prof. Weeks, told me that recently people depends on it too much. Many of us feel so hopeless when we have to present something without the aid of this century`s amazing invention. Our own voice, our gesture, our way of thinking is much much much more important than couple of powerpoint slides. Lets take our confidence and the show must go on!^^

Writing an Essay : Simple Basic Rules

Hello! Finally I finished my 1st edition! I should increase my eagerness cuz it took very long time to start writing, although I have promised myself to keep sharing all the-I-think-it'd be-useful-things. (>.<!) 

Ok, we're gonna talk about writing an essay. It's a very basic and common thing  but unfortunately I didn't aware of this simple basic rules. So, I'm joining a lecture called "Presentation A" , one of the lecturesin Mei-Writing Academic Writing Project. Click here for further information on it.

The lecturer (Prof.Weeks) conduct the class very very well. The participants are limited only to 20 graduate students. We're separated into pairs, and different pairs each time, so we'll have chance to know all of the participants in the end. The lecture is very interactive and I really enjoy the atmosphere itself. Always looking forward for the next meeting!

So, so, 1st  I'd like to share about the basic structure of an essay, at least it should have :

1. Introductory Paragraph

    This is where we put our Thesis Statement (The MOST IMPORTANT sentence and lighthouse for the entire of our essay)

2 Body Paragraphs 

   It's the further explanation of the introductory paragraphs. Watch the clear logical step and it must be linked up with our thesis statement in order to be easily understood. The format is like a small part of the essay itself : topic sentence, body, concluding sentence (deductive writing style)

3. Concluding Paragraphs 

This is our chance to restate the thesis and summarize the points of our essay. Keep it simple and clear.

Below is the example of a well-structured essay given by Prof.Weeks :

Alien Visitors (Expository Essay)

(Introductory Paragraphs)

Recently, extraterrestrial (ET) visitors are being seen on Earth, especially in Japan; they are aliens from the planet Qwertyiuop. Although these aliens seem quite harmless and are certainly not predators, some Earthlings are worried about their presence here. In order for us to live peacefully with them, we need to understand why they left their home planet and what made them choose Earth as a new habitat. ( the italic underlined  statement is the thesis statement, the most important! the body paragraphs below must support this sentence!)

(Body Paragraphs)

Research into Qwertopians is making it clear there are two main reasons why they decided to leave their beloved planet. Firstly, since it so close to the sun, Qwertyuiop is extremely hot all time; it is never cooler than 4800 degrees Centigrade. This heat makes the Qwertopians very sleepy. Secondly, because Qwertyuiop is a tiny planet very near the sun, the night is very short (about 40 minutes), and this makes it difficult for them to rest properly. In short, Qwertopians are tired from the heat but can't get a good night's sleep, so they have been looking for a new habitat.

The reason that Earth, in particular, has been chosen as a new home by some Qwertopians relates to their eating habits. It is well known that they eat only bananas and chocolate. We also know that the growing of both bananas and cacao to be grown almost anywhere and anytime. This will make our planet ideally suited to the Qwertopian diet. 

(Concluding Paragraph)

in conclusion, the arrival of Qwertopians on Earth is not suprising. The problems of too much heat and light on Qwertyuiop, along with the promise of a perfect climate for food production on Earth, are unmistakable factors. In other words, they have very good reasons for leaving their home planet and equally good reasons for taking up residence here with us on Earth.

For me, essay above is easy to be understood cuz it stays to be clear and in logical steps. Yeap, I agree that it's pretty interesting too :D I understand now, some years ago, I submit a research proposal to compete for scholarship or scientific award, but I failed ='< Maybe b'cuz I didn't aware of this simple basic rules. So, ready to write your essay? ^^

                                  (Picture is courtesy of recruit specialist)