Marking this April 14th 2019 I have been exactly 5 years for my professional tenure, today. It is awesome and awe inspiring.
Learning highlights I acquired so far:
- Compassionate: To be honest, I have never set any spectrum goals on career progression in a timely manner. For instance, there never comes to my concern that at 2016 I had to sit in a manager level or achieved a certain set of broader responsibilities. I have been just in place to do whatever my capability is able to (equals to prior knowledge & skills + acquired knowledge, skills, and how-to’s + logic). At the end of the day, I became the manager earlier than I already envisioned. What’s the core lesson here? Be compassionate of what you do, no matter what the fortune teller tells about your future. How do I know whether I become compassionate enough? Here is how it works: You do your own work; you don’t feel like the time running out while you are working on it; you do whatever it takes to accomplish, and pain or tiredness are never on your radar; you scale your mission and be in control of your expectation; you win.
- Detail-oriented: A lot of toxic I found in those multiple workforce said “I cannot be that detailed-oriented (like you)” or “I am too old for that detailed-oriented thing” or “Why would I bother with such a detail perspective?” I was just “oh.” My brain power would start to react belligerently and subliminally judge such toxic as “you are downgraded.” I hate discussing this. Bye.
- Resilience: I am skeptical on what Spiderman;’s film quote: with great power comes great responsibility. I am a true holder of the otherwise principle: More responsibilities come greater power.
- Never decide any causes (hereby becoming the decision) when you totally have no clue about. I mean, informed decision is a highlight I want to emphasize here. How do I get there? A/B test! That might seem hard for you to do but actually it is practically strategic and tactical. A/B test is looted from data science conducted during which you are designing a product (hereby called variant A) then clone that new lookalike with some changes to be obviously different. Remember, just one variable of difference you need to test and keep the rest of the variables exactly similar to the original (hereby called variant B). I do the experiment with it, I see it, and I figure out the result of which one perform better relative to the other. Flashing back to how such culture is cultivated, I establish this approach when I was composing my final undergraduate thesis (3 terms before graduation). You may find the abstract in my earlier post in this page. It was indeed challenging and explorative at first, but once I came across a point of settlement and grasped that out, A/B test is no longer a rocket science to me. I started to develop, improvise, and adjust to my professional tenure. The result from A/B test is the main catalyst to make my confidence level stronger and thus allow me to make a bold move and be progressive. I engage with such character in today’s version of me, and it was totally otherwise back when I started to steep afoot into my very first McKinsey and Company. That’s the key to my growth thus far.
- Personal budget management = another skill we need to have in this environment stage. I am aware that I come into a stage where I can make my own decision and manage my cashflow. I have been doing this since my junior high years, during which I had to be acquainted with bookkeeping, profit and loss statement (PnL), and balance sheet. In my family, it is a must for every family member to get this skill mastered no matter what field you are concentrating on. Here are how it works: I have a certain cash on a given month to spend (hereby called Waterfall Cash); you need to define the bigger clause of your spending or how are you going to structure your spending (I have that Spending Contribution (SC) 1, SC2, SC3, Operating Income, and finally Disposable Income); you need to break them down upon your average monthly spending calculation; I submit that to my mama for approval (if in the case your Waterfall Cash comes in full from your parents, but I still ask for my mama’s approval even if the majority of my Waterfall Cash is of my own); my mama will then give feedback of the healthiness of my spending projection (by healthiness I mean whether I am going to suffer if I am underspending for my daily needs or whether I am going too much for indulgence); the memo of cash issuance is then created then the money becomes liquid then issued to my respective banks; after, I collect all proofs and exhibits of my actual spending during that month to be calculated as my balance sheet by end of month; It is very wise to track every single cash that comes into and out of yours. I will put the breakdown here of how my Budget Planning looks like.
- I used to personify (political) countries as my model framework when it comes to relations with others, where power and influence put a greater mask. That was when I issued that mindset when I was a fresh graduate. Now it is expanding. While I still keep that personification frame, I am progressing myself as an enterprise: financial, operational, branding & marketing, research & development, customer relations, and even board of shareholders.
- An office farewell feels significantly intense when the leaver says goodbye in the office group chat, not oral.
- Getting enough sleep is way more important than getting outside my bedroom. I have tried and try to minimize any make-out appointment unless it is definitely necessary to go. As extreme case as of my example, getting out is defined by going to a mall for window shopping, trivia coffee talks, wasting time in Starbucks just to gossip or listen to somebody’s gossip or indulgence of their life, watching movies with those mall’s crowds, eating out for stuffed restaurants during which you have to be a prolonged waiting list, you name it. On the contrary, Sleep is kind of commodity that needs effort to allocate unless you do a high-quality set of outside activities that I can put sleep as a second priority. Those could be in the form of investable activities like hunting for books in a book fair (Big Bad Wolf, to be direct), education fair or skill-enhancing seminars (stock workshop, personal finance, any other kinds), hunting for favorite toys and models (trains, Hot Wheels), or anything that involves crowdedness (remember that I am 94% INTJ), intermingled-ness, or physically draining jobs. Now that I have clear criteria on what to dos and don’ts, I make priority on getting (enough) sleep. This is what adulthood definition comes into effect.
- In college, my arguments were un-rebuttable, here with investors, I learn to be patient.
- I really hate people, thus far, who do not commit to what s/he said. Why? I see that this person is not fair to me, to anyone, to whoever s/he ever interacts to while I tried and do try to do my own commitment as to how I respect people and maintain a healthy relationship. Internally I have my own constitution (see personification of countries).
- Most and foremost people learn how to achieve their goals, which is good. A very existence of how to manage the post-momentum i.e you have achieved the goals you set in, however, is really poor. Now that you have check-listed your mission (congratulation, by any way), so what’s next? I see that majority is fed up with it, feeling totally complacent of what has been done, yet I did not see them doing what to do next with that achieved goal, how they manage it, and, most importantly, how to make sustain the effect of that mission-accomplished. If you look at one of quora thread on “what is the greatest paradox of becoming wealthy?” you start to get the sense of my point here. What I have reflected, and I believe that makes me stand out, forms a question: “then what’s the point of you working hard to attain your goal for an ultimate nothingness?” Yes you might have been poor a decade ago, yes you are now working hard to be a wealthy, yes you then live and build your own family, and yes you feel contented of all the achievement you have. Unfortunately for you, you then get divorced and your downs are now harvested, cuz you don’t feel like you are now in a mission to achieve something and you don’t have to use any energy to live up your life. That means you have an ultimate nothingness (a.k.a ultimate failure). Simply say, the hard work you did in the past brings an ultimate failure, period. What I take note here is the poor management of post-momentum I aforementioned. I learned not only how I accomplish my missions but also how to manage the success I am and will be achieving.
- I am a true believer of the third law of Newton: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the law I had learned during my first year of high school in a quarantine room for the national science Olympiad. I did not take for granted this law, so I am more into curious about how Newton came up with this law. I am not trying to sound text-book here, but what my point is about to address is that for every action you do to me, I would always give back more. I add “more” here cuz I appreciate gratuity. If someone that I know do me a favor, which is supportive, my mind would perceive it as to how they have sacrificed their time, energy, or other resources. In this capitalistic facet, this is outstanding. As something in return, I would do whatever it takes to payback their kindness, even if I know sometimes a good deed is invaluable by material perspective. The same goes otherwise. If somebody is doing me unfavorable, which is destructive, my mind would perceive it as to how they have sacrificed their time, energy, or other resources. IOW, if you messed up with me, I am going to mess up you more. Sorry not sorry.
When it comes to interpersonal spectrum, I am currently developing People Science. You read that right. How we study them, how we give them an intervention and treatment in a diverse environment that could deliver you to validate your first impression (this can be useful when you have a super limited amount of chance to interact).
