The Novel Cure

By Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin

Why do I like this book? Very often in life we face new challenges and problems.

Of course, we attempt to tackle these; however, typically we get a bit anxious or concerned as we are worried about the future (outcome).

Interestingly, for every major challenge that one may face, somebody already wrote a novel about it. The neat thing is, that, by reading the novel (in summary), we can read about people who faced similar challenges to ours and how the future panned out for them; you may wish to know, mostly, well.

There is a good chance that this may provide you with a lot of insights or comfort, helping you with your own challenges. (You may think that novels are not real stories. Correct, but they a written by intelligent people and often could be true. No harm to get some additional inspirations.)

The book is organized like a dictionary and you can look up key words like (I take a random pick):
- Ageing parents
- Job, hating your
- Trust, loss of

There are around 1000 subjects in alphabetical order

How to Fail at Almost Everthing and Still Win Big

This book is written by Scott Adams, most famous for his ‘Dilbert Comics’, pretty sarcastic, with a pinch of truth, comics about the working environment. 

I like his approach to success. Firstly he acknowledges that luck, also circumstances and timing, plays a major role in success. Then he suggests what needs to be done:

1.  To develop energy. His point is that one can’t make it without a good level of energy.

2. To give luck a better chance to find you. Sounds initially funny, though he has good arguments what needs to be done in order to increase your chances of success.

Easy reading with many useful suggestions, combined with plenty of personal experiences.

Building People

Here is a ‘must read’ for any manager.

Building People & Building People 2 by Liew Mun Leong.

The books carry the subtitle ‘Sunday Emails from the CEO’. Any Singaporean would know that Mr Liew Mun Leong was the CEO (now retired) of CaptitaLand and the subtitle will tell you what he did on Sundays.

This is why I like the books:

Easy reading as each chapter (email) is just a few pages.

Very practical management knowledge, most of which you can apply to your own work environment instantly.

There are a few emails which are in a firm ‘telling mode’. These are the emails about values and being incorruptible. Most emails are in a softer mode encouraging the reader to do his / her own thinking.

This leads me to the point what you can learn from his management style. There are many, though, for me the most outstanding are:

1. There are a few things that cannot be discussed, e.g.  zero tolerance to corruption. The boss says so! For many other things everybody is empowered and requested to make their contributions to the business success.

2. Transparency – What a wonderful situation for the staff to receive information from their CEO on what is happening in the company, including explanations and reason etc.

3. Non blaming culture – Not being awarded the mega project of building an integrated resort in Singapore, after bidding twice, was certainly one of the biggest setbacks for CapitaLand. The emails referring to this subject indicate a ‘cool’ analysis of what went wrong, reflect mutual responsibility, not blaming individual parties.

4. Staff development – As a CEO, he certainly spent a lot of time and effort to develop staff by conducting regular feedback sessions, workshops etc.

Just copy these four points and you will have taken the next leap towards being a successful manager. And, not to forget, read the books. There is a lot of wisdom.

Five secrets you must discover before you die

I just finished this interesting little book by John Izzo. Don’t worry; it is not so much about dying. More about living a fulfilled life. These are the secrets and some snippets. These do not replace reading the book. There is much more illustrations about the same.

1. Be true to yourself.– REFLECT MORE
Keep on asking yourself:
A. Am I following my heart and being true to myself?
B. Is my life focused on the things that really matter to me?
C. Am I the person I want to be?
Good question to ask at the end of each day. Did I have a good day that tired me out?

2. Leave with no regrets – RISK MORE
The biggest regret that old people have are about all the things they wanted to do and didn’t. For fear of rejection, or failure, or because we are not sure if we can succeed, we may die with our dreams, our story inside us.

3. Become love – LOVE MORE
This is not about the emotion of love. It is the choice to become a loving person.
There is this beautiful little story. We have all two wolves fighting inside ourselves. The one with all the miserable feeling and thoughts and the other wolf with all the joyous feelings and thoughts. Question: “Who wins?” Answer: “The one that you decide to feed!”
And do good if you can, but always do no harm.

4. Live the moment – ENJOY MORE
Focusing on the past, especially regrets has the power only to rob the present moment of happiness.
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but it always robs today of its joy.
Live today – the present moment is the only moment in which we have any power

5. Give more than you take – GIVE MORE
The happiest people are those who focus least on themselves


Does the above help you to be better at work? I believe it does to a good degree. The attitudes described will earn you respect as a team member / manager. Once respected by the people around you things become much smoother. Also, if you yourself are happier you can enjoy work more.

The Decision Book

By Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler

This book introduces 50 models for strategic thinking.

The content is subdivided into:
1. How to improve myself
2. How to understand myself better
3. How to improve others
4. How to understand others better

It is very easy reading. And if you are like me, you feel immediately stimulated to apply these thinking models to your own situation.

It is a type of book that you may not want to read in one go. It is more like, if you have a few minutes, browse through it, and there is a good chance that you will discover something to be useful right away.

Your Brain at Work

By David Rock

This book puts some sense into what we know about brain research and how we can use it to our advantage. There is a lot of knowledge I 'somehow knew' and now I understand really why. And there is a lot of new information as well.

The book is nicely structured by

- Firstly, explaining what is known in brain research

- Secondly, writing about daily life and connect this to the brain research, illustrating what can go wrong and how things can be done better

- Concrete action items ready to use for improving our daily life

One thing that you will learn from the book is about multi-tasking. I find this very relevant because I observe that a lot of people try to multi task like attending a meeting and answering phone calls / emails at the same time.

Here is the answer. If you multi task and both tasks require involvement of your prefrontal cortex (that is the part of your brain that you use to make decision and solve problems) then your error rate increases quickly when you do two things (multi-task) at the same time. Discussing a problem at a meeting and making a decision while answering an email would fall into this category.

Apparently, we can multi task if two activities require different parts of the brain. A good example is driving a car. Once you are a seasoned driver, you will be able to drive and have a high level conversation at the same time. If you are driving and need to search for the way to a new location at the same time, that requires your prefrontal cortex again, then you would find it more difficult to hold a high level conversation.

Another mystery of my life is now solved as well. My wife and I are both good cooks. However, my wife can cook and hold a conversation at the same time. When I cook I don’t want anybody to talk to me as I want to concentrate. I have started cooking only recently as a hobby. So, I understand now that my skills are not yet seasoned enough to become an automatic skill controlled by another part of the brain and I am still using my prefrontal cortex when cooking.

There are many more useful insights. To me, a ‘must read’ book.

Hard Truth

By Lee Kuan Yew*

The book is partly written in an interviewing format which makes it light reading for such a serious subject.

A must read to enhance your understanding of:

1. Facts and issues to be considered for good government

2. Facts and issues important for future political decision-making in Singapore

3. This point is of particular interest to me. I always ask myself: ‘What can I personally learn from such an important person as MM Lee Kuan Yew?’

One trait, amongst many others, that really strikes me is the unbelievable pragmatism. That is, the ability to recognize quickly what is an unchangeable situation and there is no point in persistently trying to change the situation. Stop fighting to change the unchangeable, recognize the true condition, and then manage it.

I don’t know about you, however, I still find myself very often in a situation to which I don’t agree like ‘this is not fair’, ‘they are doing / seeing things wrong and they should listen to me’. Then I spend a lot of effort to change things, to no avail, often upsetting somebody, ending up with a total waste of energy and no results.

In my profession there is a typical example and that is to advise people who don’t want advice.

So, the ability to recognize early if a situation cannot me changed and then focus your energy in managing the situation is a great asset.

*interviewed by Han Fook Kwang, Zuraidah Ibrahim, Chua Mui Hoong, Lydia Lim, Ignatius Low, Rachel Lin, Robin Chan

Books I liked - Splendid Exchange

By William Bernstein

This book provides a most interesting overview of the development of trade and commerce starting from about 3000 BC till today.

I found it most fascinating to understand why certain products were in high demand at certain times and how they got from one place to another, why certain nations dominated at certain times and how and why their reign came to an end.

Great general knowledge and full of fascinating facts which I didn’t have a clue about before reading this book.

Did you know that the camel originated from North America?

Did you know that the Muslim world dominated world trade for around 1000 years and why this changed?

Book: Bounce by Matthew Syed

Of all places I bought this book in a hyper-store with a very small book section. I found it so interesting that I don’t understand why it is not a famous bestseller.

The author Matthew Syed was a successful table tennis player (at Commonwealth level). In this book he has analysed the reason for success.

The book presents a well evidenced argument that success is NOT based on talent. Success derives from ‘sustained practice’. What is ‘sustained practice’? A lot, increasingly demanding, with constant feedback from a coach.

Though there are many examples from the sports world, I wouldn’t classify it as a mere sports book. There is good solid information from the field of psychology and success in the business world.

If you are a working person and / or a manager, it is a ‘must read’. For three reasons:

1. It is fascinating information.

2. ‘Sustained practice’ is certainly applicable to the work environment; meaningful for increased success at work, and, if you are a manager, for developing your staff.

3. You will get a better understanding of the importance of ‘domain knowledge’, what it is and how crucial it is to performance and decision making.

Powerful, yet is easy reading.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I bought this book as it was advertised with a comment from Barack Obama, I think before he was elected president of the USA, saying ‘A remarkable study in leadership’.

The book is a bit of ‘heavy reading’, 750 pages of fairly small print, however, well worth the read.

Besides providing insight into a very important part of the US history, the civil war, it covers the life of Abraham Lincoln, one of the most famous US Presidents and his rivals vying for the presidency.

My main reason for buying this book was to get different inputs on leadership. Here are some of the Abraham Lincoln’s leadership traits the way I understood it.

- Persistence – Failed in various elections, stretching over decades, before being elected president.
- Always gracious, never revengeful, when political opponents outmanoeuvred him because of their political conviction.
- Always took responsibility when his staff was criticised.
- Close to the troops and common people
- Good public speaker and story teller.
- Always took it upon himself to explain the tough decisions.
- Recognized that certain important decision need to be shouldered by himself, the president, and he didn’t allow others to make those.
- Chooses the most competent people for the job, although they may be quarrelsome and keep on challenging him.
- Doesn’t make important decision without consulting a lot of people, but then makes the decision on his own.
- Has the strength to explain over-reactions and to apologize

Of course, there is much more interesting reading in this book. Enjoy it.

Confucius from the Heart - by Yu Dan

This book gives you a very nice insight into Confucius, the philosopher whose thinking has a profound impact on the Chinese society.

It has good depths and is easy reading, in my view certainly, applicable to the modern times in which we are living.

Let me share with you one of the stories which is used to illustrate a point.

“Once there was a bad-tempered little boy, who was dreadfully stubborn, flying constantly into rages, smashing and hitting things. One day his father took the child by the hand and led him to the fence at the back of their garden, saying: ‘Son, from now on, every time you lose your temper at home, knock a nail into the fence. Then after a while you can see how many times you have lost your temper, all right?’ The child thought, what’s to be afraid of? I’ll give it a try. After that, every time he threw a tantrum, he knocked a nail into the fence, and when he came later to look, he felt a bit embarrassed: ‘Oh! All those nails! Heaps of them!’

His father said: ‘Do you see? You have to control yourself. If you manage not to lose your temper for a whole day, you can pull out one of the nails from the fence.’ The boy thought, if I lose my temper once then I have to hammer in a nail, but I have to go for a whole day without losing my temper before I can pull one out – that’s really difficult! And yet, to get rid of the nails, he had to keep himself constantly under control.

At the start, the boy found it terribly difficult, but by the time he had pulled out all the nails out of the fence, he suddenly realized that he had learned how to control himself. He went happily to see his father, saying: “Daddy, quick, come and look, there are no more nails in the fence, and I don’t lose my temper any more.’

The father went with the boy to stand next to the fence, and said in a voice full of significance: ‘Look, son, the nails in the fence have all been pulled out, but the holes will stay there for ever. Every time you lose your temper with your family, it drives a hole into their hearts. When the nail has been pulled out, you can apologize, but you can never make the hole disappear.’

This story is a perfect explanation of what Confucius meant by ‘in your speech you make few mistakes and in your action you have few regrets’.

Of course there is much more in the book, great reading!

Books I Liked - Winning

by Jack Welch

Jack Welch came up through the ranks at General Electric and was the company’s CEO for many years. He led the company to year-after-year success around the globe in multiple markets and against brutal competition.

The book covers the key issues on leadership. Very practical, hands-on. It will be useful to you if you want to become a manager or are already a manager.

In my view, this book will become a management book ‘classic’.

One of his advices. BE CANDID. Bring up the facts as they are now. Don’t try to be too subtle. Don’t hold back. It will backfire, e.g. mis-communication, problems may escalate. Of course, there is much, much more.

There is a second book by him titled ‘Winning – The Answers’. In the opening of the book he explained he thought that his first book covered everything about leadership, however, noticed that during his public lectures, he is being asked a lot of additional questions. So, he put the 70+ toughest questions with his answers into that book. Interesting reading as well.

Books I liked - Psycho-Cybernetics

By Dr. med Maxwell Maltz

If you ask me for the top 5 books I read during my life so far, this would be one of them.

Dr. M Maltz practiced as a cosmetic surgeon during the ‘1950s’ and ‘1950s’. At that time, cosmetic surgery referred to more serious issues like e.g. disfigured face. He observed:

- Some of his patients had beauty enhancing surgery, looked better, and became more confident and successful.
- Some had beauty enhancing surgery, looked better, but it made no difference to their lives.
- Some, according to his view, looked fine before surgery and he advised against it. They insisted anyway, he conducted the surgery, and they became more confident and successful.

As he was puzzled about the different effects of surgery, he researched further and came to a profound result:

OUR SELF-CONFIDENCE AND SUCCESS DEPENDS ON OUR SELF-ESTEEM

In other words, if you are comfortable with yourself or think well of yourselves you move more confidently, hence success will come easier. If you are not comfortable with your inner self, or maybe too self-critical, it shows in your daily behaviour and more likely has a negative impact on your success.

The book then gives plenty of examples and advice on SELF-ESTEEM or DEALING WITH SCARS FROM THE PAST.

On the funny note. He was initially reluctant to write this book as he was concerned that people may accuse him of starting a cult, as his concepts work, but is difficult to proof with hard facts. Meanwhile, the book and successor books have sold over 30 million copies. You may not get the original as this was written by him around 1960. There are a few successor books. Look out for
- Title – Psycho-Cybernetics
- By Maxwell Maltz – Re-edited or updated by another writer
- Supported by Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation

Books I liked - Talent is Overrated

Written by Geoff Colvin

The book makes a compelling argument that true performance is based on deliberate practice and continuous feedback. It is the old argument 'Nature vs. Nurture' leaning heavily towards 'Nurture'.

Reading it with an open mind will almost certainly have an impact on your way of managing people.

I was also fascinated by the 10 000 hour rule - It takes 10 000 hours of deliberate practice combined with continuous feedback to be really good.

Books I liked - Influencer

Written by Kerry Patterson - Joseph Grenny - David Maxfield - Ron McMillan - Al Switzler

The authors investigated a number of campaigns, which turned out extremely successful, e.g.

- Thailand’s anti Aids campaign
- Eradication of the Guinea worm disease
- Delancey prisoner rehabilitation program

Why were these campaigns so successful? The authors found an underlying pattern on how to influence people. Understanding this pattern is extremely useful if you are in a position where you need to influence people or initiate change.