1. People remember you if you leave a legacy. I was so surprised to find that the UCLA MUN freshmen already knew my name when I visited them during the Berkeley conference. It’s a great feeling to know that I made contributions important enough that members who’ve been impacted by them (Jen Zhu, etc.) pass down my legacy to the next generation. What legacy or long-term impact are you leaving in your organizations?
2. Simple cheers go a long way when people are down. When I didn’t have a great day, I got support on Facebook from Bryan, Tana, and Azzy… Azzy even rhetorically asked “what’s with this nonsense?” Those helped a lot and snapped me out of it.
3. Be grateful for opportunities that you’ve had. I once made a speech saying how lucky I was to have my high school MUN advisor before he left for another school. Now that I hear my high school district is going to cut the music director, I can’t feel but sad for those who may not get the best opportunity to learn music and perform. Don’t take things for granted!
4. Making a difference by helping is a great feeling. It happened twice this month: once when Jessica won a scholarship that I had suggested her to apply for, and again when one of my sales reps hit a very difficult sales target. You can really make a difference by helping someone accomplish their goals… and take pride in it. By the way, congrats Jessica!!
5. Promote others’ successes. A colleague of mine in another office told my program manager about my sales rep hitting the difficult sales target before I was able to… and so I got a pleasant surprise phone call from my program manager congratulating me. People like to be recognized for their successes. On that note…congrats to Karla, Anthony, and Jude for getting into top notch grad schools this month!!
6. Being wealthy and living a fancy lifestyle might not be what you really wanted. My friend Row and I walked into a French restaurant in SF that was WAY too classy for us (i.e. people wearing designer clothes, service that we’re unaccustomed to, etc.). It felt really awkward. So I question… why do some people want to be rich if it just might them feel awkward? Instead, think of the lifestyle that you really want, and make the financial pursuits necessary to reach that lifestyle.
7. People need to be reminded to be more positive. I got great feedback on my presentation last week, but the one area I got the most appreciation on was how I encouraged the sales reps to think more positively… how are you planning to win in this economy? 10% unemployment just means 90% of people are still employed!! Try to put a positive spin on negativity.
8. There is always room to share global cultures! I actually talked about proscuitto & melon, cevapi, sting ray, rojak, Valencia-style paella, and some more other foods in the same presentation as a lead in to my statement of “trying something new.” See, I made good use of your introduction to these foods and of the pictures I took of them haha. I miss my summer travels!
9. I’m learning to be more tolerant of incompetency. I went through a leadership training class that taught us that some people who are incompetent may not actually know they are! It may be less frustrating if you help them out and take them through the steps to grow from incompetency to competency.
10. Focus on your strengths instead of your weaknesses. I am currently reading a book titled “Strengths Based Leadership” and it makes a lot of sense why developing strengths pays better dividends! Do you know your strengths and how you’re improving them?
11. Speaking of strengths, realize that you have a competitive advantage in social media. Many adults really want to learn about or have no idea how to leverage Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, smartphones, and all sorts of technology and social media that you use every day! I now include my proficiency in this on my resume and am putting together a technology day at work.
12. The iPhone is amazing!! I just got one and I love the device. And I think it will finally make Twitter applicable to my life. If you have any iPhone app recommendations, please send them my way!
13. It’s always interesting to know what your reputation is. I’ve been trying to build my reputation at work, but at least I figured out my reputation among friends; I can be considered as “the ladies man” and “the smart one” according to Facebook tags by Amy and by Debbie. Sometimes, these Facebook tag chain phenomena can be informative haha.
14. Don’t tout a positive at the expense of something else. Someone told me about this restaurant in SF that was better and cheaper than a restaurant that I had taken them to. You can talk about how good your restaurant is on its own merits without comparing it to the restaurant that I took them to. It hurts when you make a point at someone else’s expense.
15. Try to appreciate the simple things in life. The sky has been beautiful in the evenings these past few weeks, and I made sure to take it in on my drive home.
Bonus entertainment: Check out the winners of America’s Best Dance Crew season 3, Quest Crew! West Coast Asians are the best at dancing!
My “15 Personal Lessons in February” post seemed to be popular. If I get a good response with this month’s post, then it can only motivate to get my blog up faster since all of these lessons could’ve been individual blog posts. Enjoy! :)
P.S. My birthday is coming up! I don’t expect gifts, but if anyone was already planning on it, I’d be happy to get gift cards for iTunes/App Store or for Amazon.com ;)
