Asian Tiger

Trust me, if you have a large team and make a lot of concensus decision while remaining confidential on the votes, get a tool called Audience Response System.  In a large team, many participants experience peer pressure if asked to raised their hands to vote.  Call it a inferiority complex or call it peer pressure, but for you, you get the wrong/inaccurate response when team members vote by raising their hands.

Making a wrong decision can be a costly affair — but with a discrete voting system, you get frank/real answers to the questions you pose; especially when a system is affordable and well within your reach.  Another simpler way is a ballot box.  Easy to implement and very mobile but takes a bit of effort and time to conduct and compile the results.

Reality shows are known to implement these systems to encourage their viewers participations in the program; shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is one of them.  Large training companies do adopt this to get participations from their “trainees” and a quick quiz from time to time keeps them on their toes — making the training much more productive.

Imagine coming home from work after a grueling 12 to 18 hours. The only consolation you had was that there was no traffic jam when you drove home. After a hot shower, you plonk yourself on the sofa and closing your eyes after turning on some soft music to soothe your brain.

All your sensory are recuperating from exhaustion except that of your smell. For some, they use aromatherapy, some use volcano vaporizer and some use the age old incense. Aromatherapy uses a combination of candle, water and essential oils. Certain types of oil are said to have certain healing and relaxation functions.

Volcano vaporizers are special devices used to vaporize herbs so that active ingredients and flavouring are released without any kind of combustion. Since combustion or burning of organic materials are said to be carcinogenic in nature, using a volcano vaporizer eliminates that possibility.

The ancient practice of burning incense is another popular method of relaxation.  Today, you will find many kinds of scented incense ranging from the traditional joss stick to incense cone. Some even burn raw incense over charcoal fire.

If you have not tried any of these, you should.  You will find that you relax and rest better.

I look around me and there are many eligible bachelors and bachelorettes who have passed their thirties and have yet to settled into a relationship, let alone marriage.  Many of these are my personal and childhood friends whom I have grown up with.  Somehow, they seem very happy and contented to remain status quo as far as their bachelorhood are concerned.

This trend of “enjoy first, marriage second” seems to be a national issue as well; not surprisingly, giving rise to matchmaking service businesses. Perhaps it is perceived that these group of individuals fail to get into a relationship because of of their inability to get dates but frankly, the friends that I have are all well to do, handsome, beautiful and professionals.

Assuming that this circle of friends that I have all have the attitude of “enjoy first, marriage/family later”, then please allow me to forewarn that the older we get, the longer we have to work to support our young children.  Let’s just take an example of say, John.  Let’s assume that John gets married when he is 35 and Mrs John conceives a child and the following series of events:

• John Jr is born - John is 36.
• John Jr goes to primary school at age 7 - John is 43
• John Jr goes to secondary school at age 13 - John is 49
• John Jr completes secondary school at age 17 - John is 53
• John Jr enters higher secondary school and completes at age 19 - John is 55 (retirement age in Malaysia)
• John Jr completed university at age 24 - John is 60

John will have to work beyond his retirement age just to support his child to complete the necessary education and by that time, John is already 60.  That is only the first child.  What if John has 3 children? How long does he have to work to support his kids?  Worrying, isn’t it?