On leadership and dreams

Now, I would like to share some highlights of Dr Sanjiv Chopra's lecture during our annual PCP convention held May 6-8, 2012. Dr.Sanjiv Chopra is a Professor of Medicine and Faculty Dean for Continuing Medical Education at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Consultant in Hepatology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts. He has several publications and five books to his credit and we were lucky enough to have him personally speak to us.

Based on a talk that he has given to more than 60,000 people in at least seven countries, Dr. Chopra explains in depth what leadership by example is about.

It is based on this mnemonic:
L - listen well
E - empathy
A - attitude
D - dreams and decisiveness
E - effectiveness
R - resilience
S - a sense of purpose
H - humility and humor
I - integrity and imagination
P - principles, and willingness to pack other people’s parachutes ( willingness to help)

He had spiced up the talk on the lives of the great leaders of history as he goes along each letter. There were short excerpts from Mahatma Gandhi and his salt march, Mother Teresa, and many other personalities. I would strongly recommend his latest book which had just been released for publication this May 2012 and which is where his talk is elaborated on.

But one thing that made its mark was on his story about a boy's dreams and decisiveness (D). There was a classroom teacher who gave out an assignment to his grade school students. They were told to make a short essay on "What I would be doing in 15 years".

There was this boy born from hired laborers in a farm who made his piece, the composition was so illustrated and well thought of.....I would own and be managing a 30 hectare farm, I would fill it with about 100 apple and mango fruit bearing trees, in my farm is a ranch with a huge stable where about 50 horses are taken cared of, in the farm is a huge picnic and playground where kids from nearby schools could visit for a trip and frolic around, there would also be a huge mansion and it went on and on complete with colors and even the scent of the grass etc.

The next day, he submitted it to his teacher. The teacher stared at the home work for about 30 minutes frowned and shook his head. When the paper went back to the student, he saw a glaring red F mark on it. Determined, the kid went back to his teacher and asked why. The teacher reminded him to take his assignment seriously and not "play" with it.

The kid gave the paper back to his teacher and said, "You can keep the F sir, but I will keep my dream..."

Many years had passed and the teacher who was still working in the same school was now handling a group of children excursionists in this famed 50 hectare farm. The day was almost about to end but they still barely reached 1/4 of the lot area in their tour. But they would be lucky enough to get to meet and talk the owner before they leave. The teacher was dumbfounded to discover that it was the boy he mocked 15 years ago. He was now in his early 30s. The boy who immediately recognized his teacher gave him a tight hug and said, "I hope sir you enjoyed your stay here". The teacher was in tears and he just could say, " I am so sorry for what I said to you many years ago, I would never again become a dream stealer"...


Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.   -  Les Brown
  

Committing to wealth building

Missed last night blogging session due to my hectic MD schedule but nevertheless, got the chance to sit and type again. It's really hard too to start a new habit especially when all your previous activities are like clockwork. But giving in once and especially twice in a row would be the precedent of the lackadaisical mode of failure.

A good chapter I read from Jack Canfield's book, the Success Principles ( Success Principle 35 ) says “99% is a bitch; 100% is a breeze.” When you make a 100% commitment to something, you eliminate exceptions. Unfortunately, many people think that they are fully committed to their dreams, when in truth, they allow exceptions that slow their momentum and derail their success.

If you had committed yourself to do something, by all means do it (NO EXCUSES). A man who walks the talk ( does what he says) is a man of integrity. He brings forth an image of respect that people will look up to and also develops a high regard to himself. And it starts by committing to what you told yourself you would do.

I've been trying my best to apply this too with my wealth management. Here in the Philippines, the norm of most people when it comes to savings would just be to pur your money in a time deposit. From a high rate during the 70s (as much as double your money in 5 years), the interest rates in the banks nowadays had flunked to a LOW low 3 to 5% per annum! Inflation beats you so you actually lose your money gradually when you just leave it there.

I learned about 3 years ago the concept of investing safely in the Philippines stock market and doing online brokerage to do so. Way back, I thought investing there is for the big boys and you should know your terminologies and contacts when you talk with a stockbroker, now you can do it online.  Thanks to Bo Sanchez' Truly Rich Seminar, I learned about peso cost averaging ( citiseconline's peso cost averaging).

In a nutshell, it's investing as little as P5000 ( $120) monthly in a choice company (one that had been and will always be there in the long run and will certainly be growing in profits) irregardless of the stock price. In about 5 to 10 years of doing so, the performance and earnings/interest go on the average as high as 58% . I started with Jollibee, SM, and BDO  about 3 years ago though honestly had missed some months putting in. Nevertheless, had already earned about 33% interest with the money I had put in. Of course, you have to know your companies really well (in my case, I had been given a review of fund performance by the company).

Now I had to commit to this new discipline of building my wealth thru this monthly without fail. More on this on the next posts.

PS: Will be out of town tomorrow till Saturday so the posts would be shorter as I'll be doing this thru my mobile and email.