Ponder This....You Will Quit Before I Quit, You will Give Up Before I Give Up

ET the Hip Hop Preacher is an amazingly motivational man! He does weekly Videos on his YouTube Channel every Monday.
Visit ET at his official website http://etthehiphoppreacher.com/ Also connect with Eric on his official Facebook fanpage at http://www.facebook.com/ETTHEHIPHOPPREACHER Follow Eric on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/Ericthomasbtc


In this video, ET talks about not giving up and seeing things through. Fighting to the end, even if the end is overtime or extra innings. DO NOT QUIT!



Success might not come when you want or expect it, but don't give up and it will come!

Make the Rest of Your Life, the Best of Your Life!

Guest Post: How to Live According to Your Needs?

Sanni Kruger, of Holistic Money Manager, is a finance coach helping people to become competent and confident money managers who live within their means without stressful money concerns. She assists her clients in reducing their debts whilst building up savings, as well as clarifying their desired long term vision and learning how to expand their resources to reach it. Her self-help book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich” is available from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/ Sanni is also a motivational speaker with over 30 years experience of speaking to groups of any size on a variety of subjects.


In my last blog I quoted Imran Khan saying that he lives according to his needs, which he believes to be the secret of contentment. But how do you actually identify what your real needs are?

Oddly enough seeing what we actually spend our money on can give us the most important clues. Here are a couple of examples from my finance coaching work:

The first is a young student, who I’ll call Karen. We worked together during the summer before she went to university. Karen was in the habit of buying cans of soft drinks here and there when she was out and about. Like all my clients she was encouraged to start keeping a record of all the money coming in and going out. Instead of adding the amounts she paid for the soft drinks to her “grocery” category she created a separate one, because she was curious to find out how much she actually spent that way.

After 4 weeks we sat down together and added up the small amounts, varying between 40 and 60 pence. She called out the amounts and I added them up. When we were finished I said something like: “£46.80”. She burst out spontaneously: “WHAT?!?! – I’m not paying that!” In that instant Karen realized that she didn’t need those drinks to quench her thirst. Instead she started refilling a small plastic bottle with tap water and carried that around with her.

The other example involves a young couple, which I’ll call Jim and Natalie. At the time they had a 2-year-old and a new baby. Because of some health issues Natalie needed Jim’s support and they would do the weekly shop together as a family. Once they had loaded up their trolley after going through the checkout, they would stop in the café for a cup of tea and a scone before heading home.

Just as Karen did, Jim and Natalie recorded the money they spent in the café separately from their grocery shopping, and we added it up at the end of a month. This time it amounted to something just under £30. On hearing that, they both said: “Our sanity is worth it! We’ll find that money.” They had identified that they needed that time to recharge their batteries before bundling the kids back into the car, load the shopping, go home, unload the kids and shopping, and then stow everything away.

In the process they also discovered that our real needs are much more than a roof over our heads, food in our bellies and clothes on our back. That there are emotional and spiritual ones, too. And that almost all of them involve money at some point. That’s why I always encourage my clients not to change their spending habits when they start keeping a record of their money. That it is a fact finding mission, and that nobody, but themselves, will make any judgments on their spending habits.

You can find detailed instructions about creating and keeping records in my self-help book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich”, which is available from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/



Thanks Sanni!

Errors on Your Credit Report?

One of the most important steps in starting your journey towards Financial Independence is to check your credit report. There are many places out there that claim to be free, but there is always a catch. The best and safest way to get a copy of your credit reports is to visit annualcreditreport.com. You can get a copy of your reports from the 3 agencies.



Once you have your reports, look them over for mistakes. Mistakes can be as damaging as negative marks on your credit. There are so many ways that incorrect information could be on your credit report such as identity theft, incorrect names and addresses, and debts incurred by others can sometimes show up on your reports. If you never check your report, you will never notice these mistakes and suffer the consequences.

After you view your reports and notice a mistake, there are steps you can take to dispute the information…



-- Put your dispute in writing and send it via snail mail to all the credit bureaus reporting the error (make sure to send COPIES; not originals of anything you send). Keep the original letters for your personal records and issue copies to the bureaus.

Here is a sample dispute letter from the Federal Trade Commission:

Sample Dispute Letter

Date
Your Name
Your Address, City, State, Zip Code
Complaint Department
Name of Company
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to dispute the following information in my file. I have circled the items I dispute on the attached copy of the report I received.
This item (identify item(s) disputed by name of source, such as creditors or tax court, and identify type of item, such as credit account, judgment, etc.) is (inaccurate or incomplete) because (describe what is inaccurate or incomplete and why). I am requesting that the item be removed (or request another specific change) to correct the information.

Enclosed are copies of (use this sentence if applicable and describe any enclosed documentation, such as payment records and court documents) supporting my position. Please reinvestigate this (these) matter(s) and (delete or correct) the disputed item(s) as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Your name
Enclosures: (List what you are enclosing.)

-- The credit bureaus won't necessarily inform your creditor that you're disputing something it reported, like a claim that you didn't pay your bill. Send a return-receipt-requested letter to the company that reported the error to the credit bureaus.

-- You're entitled to the results of the investigation in writing and a free copy of your report if changes have been made, and it won't count toward your total of free annual reports. Know your rights: you can ask the credit bureau to send correction notices to anyone who received your report in the last six months, and the corrected copy can be sent to an employer who received a copy of your report over the past two years.

-- Make sure to request and keep a copy of a letter from the collection agencies incase record of your debt payments have been satisfied. Sometimes debts get sold and resold and without this proof, you will have problems proving you satisfied the debt.

It’s a good idea to either check all 3 bureaus once a year, or to spread them out and view one every 4 months.



When is the last time you checked your credit report?

It's Not just Financial, It's Personal Too: 6 Tip to Become More Productive

Most of us really don't know how to be our most productive selves. We think we do, but really we start a lot of stuff and never finish or don't use the time we do have correctly. I am very guilty of this!

I work and work and work and feel like nothing ever gets accomplished. I don't use my time effectively. I thought I had time management on lock because growing up I played sports, was in the band, and was in honors classes. Ha! Boy have I been proven wrong lately!

Here are some tips to help US ALL be more productive...



1. Embrace simplicity

Simplicity drives true productivity. Think about the small, relatively inconsequential tasks that compete for your attention every day. What can be eliminated, automated, delegated or relegated to the back-burner? Productive individuals ruthlessly root out those tasks that compete for their time and sap their resources.

2. Manage distractions

The forces of our hyper-connected, 24/7 world offers us amazing opportunities to engage—and even more opportunities to become distracted. The truly productive understand the threat of distraction in all its forms and create clear boundaries between the task-at-hand and the host of diversions that vie for their attention. Whether the distractions are work or play, establishing a “sacred space” for what you’re doing is key in becoming more productive.



3. Bend activities around inspiration

No strategy can match the motivation that comes from being inspired. Productive individuals understand this and leave their schedules flexible enough to identify and respond to inspiration. Though inspiration doesn’t always come and we often have to force ourselves to complete some tasks, knowing how to leverage those motivated moments can transform our work experience, cut the time investment and improve the quality of what’s produced.

4. Seize small blocks of time

What would get done if you waited until you had enough time? Productive people understand that small blocks of time used wisely can whittle away at projects large and small. Whether it’s 15 minutes before work or an hour during a commute, being ready (read: organized) to seize the moment can make all the difference.

5. Make lists and set goal paths

Highly productive individuals understand that every goal, no matter how small is driven by smaller supporting goals. Dissecting this dependency and flow is essential to creating sound goal paths.



If you want to change careers, that goal may be driven by several smaller goals like going back to school, improving your networking skills, updating your resume or getting a new certification. And each of these smaller goals is supported by even more granular sub-goals. Creating daily “to-do” lists is perhaps the most common way we identify each of these mini goals and understand how they fit into the bigger picture. Productive people tend to be ardent list-makers and are motivated by accomplishing the small daily tasks that, over time, drive larger achievement.

6. Multitask…sometimes

Multitasking gets a lot of good press in modern corporate culture. The willingness and ability to juggle five or 10 tasks simultaneously is almost assumed, and most employees are trained to be circus performers early on. But what subtleties of concentration, recall and quality are lost as we indiscriminately multitask?

The truly productive realize that multitasking can be useful at times and utterly ineffective at others. Choose your occasion carefully. For those jobs that don’t require creative problem solving, interpersonal communication, attention to detail, or quick response times, multitasking works great (but what exactly are those jobs?). The rest of the time, embrace the long-forgotten “mono-tasking”—it’ll boost the quality of your work, reduce your stress, help your communication skills and ultimately, make you more productive.

In the end, productivity is one part old-fashioned discipline and one part smart strategy. Organizing our lives so that we optimize our chances of being productive is half the battle. Once we see results and start to build traction, the strategies become habit and we open ourselves up to a life that’s powered by smarter time management, more focused work, and greater personal and professional achievement.

Now, go be productive!

Back To School: Doing It Right!

By Nur Mirrah Amit, Year 1, Diploma in Mass Media Management

A whole semester has finally passed then comes along a few good weeks to just let yourself take a break and let it all in. I’m a freshman, and having to spend four years in secondary school and a few months in junior college, living the life as a polytechnic student is different from what I had in mind. I was thinking maybe I could slack around, make tons of new friends and finally have it the easy way by not doing so much school work. Boy, I was wrong! Semester two is about to start and surely, you do not want history to repeat itself. So how about a few tips to get swing yourself for a good semester ahead?

#10.

Spend and Eat Wisely

We have three canteens in NYP plus a Cheers store which means endless food choices. Watch what you eat, the price tag set to it and how many times you eat in a day! You don’t want to burn a hole in your wallet and go up one size, do you?

#9.

Keeping Up With Time Management

Deadline is tomorrow and you’re still up at 1am in the morning trying to complete it? That’s not the way. Always keep track of your deadlines and check for your progress from time to time. Take note, everyday, of what is now your top most priority. With one done and down, the world seems a lot a better. Obviously, you face less stress! Don’t enrol yourself into the ‘Burn Out Club’!

#8.

Give Yourself a Reality Check

Be real. Being fake gets you nowhere. If your friends like you for not being who you are, you are deceiving them and yourself. If they’re your real friends, they’ll love and accept you for who you are and just the way you are without needing you to change. It’s much more comfortable being in your very own skin anyway.

#7.

Be Considerate

One of the things I hate most about my journey to school is inconsiderate students who walk in big groups, hogging the entire walking space while walking in the shelter to campus. I have to dodge them here and there and seriously speaking, it’s not easy. Then again, it comes to having to witness leftover plates left behind in campus’ canteens. I thought all of us were taught to clear your plates and rubbish after you’re done, right? I’m sure you don’t wish to be treated the same way. Reflect!

#6.

Always Pay Attention In Lectures

Heads up, this is so important that I can’t stress it enough. I have a module that I really don’t like and I tend not to really pay attention, thinking “Hey, I’ve got my notes!”. Exams crept up to me and most of the questions in it were the ones explained during lecture when I wasn’t paying attention. So learn and pay lots of attention. It will help. It might be a little tough for some of you. So bring a sweet or two just to keep your eyes wide open and yourself attentive!

#5.

Don’t Be Late For Class

Punctuality is key. I just bet your discipline master must have said this a thousand times back in secondary school. Sleep early the night before, have a good rest and wake up early the next day. You don’t want to end up being locked outside of your classroom for the whole module period. Besides, the first few minutes of class are always interesting, right? ;)

#4.

Dress Appropriately

I know, I know that it’s a polytechnic so you can almost dress in any way you want. In the span of simply one semester, I am truly shocked to see girls decked in original Prada and Guess apparels and guys proudly dressed in Zara Men. It’s an education institution, people, so dress comfortably – relaxed tees, comfortable jeans and shorts, sneakers. It’s not a fashion runway. Well, at least that’s in my opinion, of course.

#3.

Be Confident

You’re in such a small class and it’s so much easier for you to build close bonds with your classmates. You can’t do that if you’re always keeping quiet. So, speak up. Smile and radiate confidence. The love will come naturally ;)

#2.

Be Prepared For Anything and Everything

Anything can happen, honestly. Be prepared for your projects to go wrong, for your talents to bail out, for your lecturers to present you with a surprise pop quiz on the past weeks’ topics. Get yourself a notebook, a handy-dandy pen and make yourself a list of your deadlines and backup. Plus, don’t forget to revise. It’s always good to revise and be ahead of your classmates. Perhaps, your name on the Director’s list, how ‘bout that?

#1.

Enjoy Yourself

We’re all so, so, so young and we still have so much to give in life. But in between impending deadlines and studying for your end of semester examinations, take a step back and learn to enjoy yourself. Take caution though, don’t enjoy yourself too much or you could find yourself repeating your modules and never graduate in time.

Hitting the Right Notes

By Ho Khin Wai, Yr 1, Diploma in Banking and Finance

Second-year Diploma in Information Security student Frederick Choo is no ordinary IT kid. Not only can he design security programs, but he can also play the piano, the guitar, and has an acute passion for entrepreneurship.

Besides being a NYP-CSIT scholar, he is also the brainchild of Sgcube (local) and Cubecity (international), which are businesses specializing in selling customized, hand-made puzzles. Through his strong network and marketing, he had sold an average of 250 puzzles per month, and was featured in The Straits Times and an online news portal, asiaone.com in 2008.

We spoke to Frederick to find out more about his businesses and his strong enterprising spirit.

Tell me more about Sgcube and Cubecity, as well as any other business you are currently embarking on.
Sgcube (local) and Cubecity (international) were companies I started with a good friend in 2008, where we created my own variations of puzzles and sold them for cash. We basically catered to the demands of what was trendy among young people back then, and sold sixteen different types of puzzles, including the Rubik’s Cube. We acted as suppliers to our customers who were puzzle distributors in and out of Singapore.


After the trend had died down and due to my O’ levels, I only provided freelance services, such as website design and marketing strategies to companies.

Frederick was even featured in the papers during the Rubik craze in 2008

I am currently registering a new company, together with my partner, Nathanael Jerome Tan (Diploma in Information Security, Year 2), called ‘AudioTech and IT Solutions’, LLP (Limited Liabilities Partnership) and am working on its website http://AudioTechIT.weebly.com to target the IT, Music, Sound and Recording industries by providing customized products and services to these companies to meet their needs.

Some of the services we provide include: website design, logo design, computer repair and security, computer programming, sound engineering (for concerts and performances), music compositions and arrangements, and outsourcing for stage performers.

Wow. Managing these businesses must have taken up a lot of your time. How do you manage to juggle your studies and your businesses?

For me, my businesses always revolve around my passion, skills and interests. My course in Information Security has helped me greatly in being able to readily apply whatever I have learn to customize solutions and suit the needs of my clients in my business. So, I don’t see it as “juggling my studies and businesses”.

Need a stage performer? Frederick can help.

Furthermore, in running my own business, I feel that I have the power to impact the world around me with my products, services and ideas. This is so much better than watching a movie, and to me, that is my greatest satisfaction.

Finally, money, though not a big factor, is still an incentive. I can use it to bless others through gifts, and as an ignition to fuel my other passions.


What motivates you in your business?

It’s mainly my passion and the constant need for adventure. 

What are some of your personal achievements in managing your businesses?

I have learned to change my attitude from one that is "All-about-me" to one of "What-I-can-do-for-others", and this has empowered me to do what I can and what I should for people.

Any future goals or plans for yourself or your businesses that you would like to share?

For now, I hope to see AudioTech and IT Solutions grow, so that I can support my family, help the needy and also have some money to pay for my studies in a university in the near future.

What advice would you offer to student entrepreneurs who are thinking of starting out/have just started out?

Dare to dream and take risks. Failure means learning and being a step closer to success.
Pursue your passion and keep learning to impact the world.
Entrepreneurship cannot be about the money but passion and adventure.

That’s not all. Frederick intends to take his passion to the next level by helping young, aspiring entrepreneurs gain more insight into entrepreneurship and commerce – right here in NYP.

He was recently elected as President of the NYP Student Entrepreneurship Association (NYP-SEA), which was an interest group when he first joined at the start of this year. Frederick intends to introduce NYP-SEA an official CCA, if conditions allow so.

“Our aims are to promote entrepreneurship, help start-ups, improve our business skills, network with like-minded people who have an interest in business, and use business ideas to benefit the world through social entrepreneurship,” said Frederick. “We have collaborations with large companies such as SIFE (Student in Free Enterprise) and Penn Olsen, who will be assisting us on our journey.”

Interested? Like the NYP-SEA Facebook page now at https://www.facebook.com/pages/NYP-Student-Entrepreneur-Association-NYP-SEA/124488817644025 and stay tuned for updates.

Where’s the ‘Abduction’?

By Nur Mirrah Amit, Year 1, Diploma in Mass Media Management

Nathan grew up thinking he was really Nathan Harper, the only son of Kevin and Mara Harper. But Nathan isn’t who he thinks he really is when he stumbled upon a picture of himself on a missing person’s website. While on the run from the one man who wants him dead and trying to stay alive, Nathan will need to find out one very important part of himself – his identity.

Judging from the trailer, I thought that this movie would be another one just like the Mission Impossible series – a movie that would get me hooked and rooted to my seat till the very end.

I was right, it did leave me rooted to my seat till the very end… but it also left my mouth gaping. The moment the credits rolled in, a whirlwind of emotions came pouring in and they’re mostly negative.

No doubt it had pretty good looking actors to play the parts. The art direction was rather well done too. The stunts definitely kept your heart beating so fast that you’re scared it might just pop out. Yet, I felt something lacking in the sense of movie direction – it was terribly messy. As cliché and ironic as it seems, Taylor Lautner who played Nathan Price in the movie managed to even sneak in a few signature Edward/Bella moments with his co-star Lily Collins.

By the time the movie ended, I still had questions left unanswered. Why call it ‘Abduction’ when there was no abduction in the movie? Why was Nathan put in the US missing person’s list if he was not supposed to be found? Why didn’t Nathan insist on meeting his biological father at least one time? Most importantly the question that got me pissed and frustrated until now, who was his biological father after all? 


However, despite the many questions left unanswered at the end of the story, Abduction will leave you compelled enough to watch it again and again.

‘Abduction’ is out now in theatres everywhere in Singapore.

                                                

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars