In memory of Steve Jobs (1955-2011) and because this speech resonates so much with the way I choose to live life… death makes you appreciate life.. below is his Stanford commencement address. Aside from the speech being amazing and definitely full of truths, I did find it kind of ironic that he talks about dropping out of college at a commencement address.

Steve Jobs on Life

Steve Jobs, who stepped down as CEO of Apple after having been on medical leave, reflected on his life, career and mortality in a well-known commencement address at Stanford University in 2005.

Below is the text of of that address:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

–

Speech text courtesy of: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576520690515394766.html#ixzz1bTPZJa1S

My run in with life happened a few months ago. I keep falling behind on posts because too many things are happening and they are all worth posting about, but I’m too busy running with these things that I’ve hardly had a minute to just write and reflect.

Sometime though we are too busy with our fast paced lives that we don’t look at the big picture and remember to enjoy the journey. This was another reminder for me. So about 2 or 3 months ago I had an operation. I had this benign cyst that I had for a long time. It was no big deal actually as people will get cysts from plugged pores or irritation or whatever. I had this one for many years but recently it seemed to be getting larger so I wanted to remove it. Work kept me so busy with travel and all these “urgent” things that I never had the appropriate space of time to get a surgical procedure done. I knew it was important to monitor my health but I thought it could wait. Every day I delayed checking it out, I psychologically created more and more anxiety in the back of my mind.. like “what if it was something worse?”

A year later than I had wanted to drag it on, I finally had the right opportunity to get it checked out. Fearing the general health practice in China, I decided to go to Taiwan – which is known to have quite exceptional medical practice. Sure enough the doctor in Taiwan said it was most likely but not for certain a benign cyst that got inflamed but should be removed. He wouldn’t know what it was until he could remove it and sample it. All of this happened within a medical break I requested when we had no events going on.. but I would have to be back in Beijing as soon as possible. The day of the procedure, I was pretty antsy for sure. Sure enough all went smoothly and I was down to my last day before my flight to Beijing. It wasn’t over yet though. I got a call from the doctor who said I should stay a few more days in Taipei because there was a possibility the removed tissue was cancerous. He sent the tissue to the lab to be checked because the material seemed pretty hardened which could be an indication of cancerous tissue. Upon hearing that news my heart skipped a beat. I tried to stay positive because nothing was confirmed yet.. and since I had booked my flight to Beijing I was pretty set on keeping that date.

I would have to wait 3-5 days to get the results back. Those few days were hard to describe. I carried on as usual but just with a much more open mindset… I looked at everything with an added hint of “life is short”. I think I normally view life that way already but it gave my mindset an added jolt of that. Those few days my outlook grew more vast and I think it stamped in my mind that we must do something worthwhile and that we enjoy. Fortunately a few days later I got a call saying the results came in and it was in fact benign so I would not need to go back to the hospital.

New Beginnings: The Plunge Back into the Darkness

Back to Training

After my surgery I was pretty much not supposed to be active until the opening healed up. This was pretty tough for me and I started getting restless. Especially with my boosted outlook that I had to be active and push myself, I really wanted to start training again and focus on making the most of life. Plus all my time working with Jet we were so busy I barely had time to train. 2 things happened – not directly due to the cancer scare, but of course I’m sure it had some influence.

I decided I wanted to get back to focusing on personal travel, development, training, and health. I also decided that the timing was right for me to move on from my full-time job.

So there it was.. the plunge back into uncertainty. No regular paycheck. No guided set of tasks and direction. No place to live again. Another leap towards my goals, but at the same time not being able to see the ground where I would hopefully land.

When the decision was made, I knew I would have to fight. I guess it’s both physical and metaphorical… but it so happened that I found an awesome Muay Thai / Boxing gym in Beijing.

Hero Gym

So I checked myself and realized I was getting a little flabby from being surgery incapacitated, lack of training, too many long nights, and not eating carefully. My friend in Taiwan also commented that I was getting a beer belly. I was also motivated by my buddy Andy who did a very intense 6 month diet and exercise regiment where he transformed himself from average Joe to 3.75% body fat diesel. I didn’t go as hardcore on the strict eating, but I decided to go light on carbs, high on protein, fish, chicken, no sugar, and many meals throughout the day as opposed to 2 big meals. I also stayed consistent with muay thai training, wushu, jogging, and lifting pretty much 4-5 days a week for about 6 weeks.

sparring

bag work, getting in shape

I need to find some before pictures, but I finally felt back in shape after 6 weeks of intense training. It really felt good to move again especially after I healed up.

A lot of other intense things were happening during this time as I was transitioning work, preparing to move, and also going on a trip due to visa reasons. I think keeping busy keeps me motivated because at least I feel a direction to improve in my fight training.. and with that progress it pushes me forward in my other endeavors. I think this is definitely a new stage in life and it’s not my first time taking this leap. I am rather excited about the opportunities and looking forward to having more time to train muay thai, boxing, tai chi, sanda, weapons, etc.

Next post – Vietnam Adventures!

Photography by Alfred Hsing via iPhone4

Before you read the rest of this post I want to stress a crucial element – personal pursuit of happiness does not mean a license to do whatever one pleases, guided by whims but rather means the exacting discipline of defining and pursuing one’s rational self-interest. In other words, know what you really want and pursue that.. this takes thinking and time and does not advocate any action decided on a whim. Also, I believe as with anything one should maintain a healthy balance.. a blinded single focus would detract from your overall goal. Without further ado.. take a look at the following insight. (Thanks to http://deoxy.org/ct/whatyouwant.htm)

What do you want most in all the world? More money, a new car stereo, a vacation? To lose ten pounds, to get home from work in time to see your favorite sitcom? Or is it something more than that, something harder to define?

Maybe you’ve given up on ever realizing your true dreams, and you settle for smaller things because they, at least, seem possible. Maybe it never occured to you to ask yourself if the goals you’ve been pursuing really are what you want most. Perhaps, like many people, you feel as if you are being compelled to do things, as if your life is not your own. How often do you feel like that?

Here’s a wild idea: everything you do in your life, you should do because you want to do it, more than anything else in the world. And when you make plans, you should aim for the most exciting, glorious life you could imagine, not just for conventional “success” or “security,” the consolation prizes of the tired and hopeless. What could be more radical than choosing your actions according to how enjoyable they are, rather than how moral, how responsible, how socially acceptable they seem? And yet, what else really makes sense? Haven’t we tried serving every master but our own wishes, fighting for every cause except ourselves? Where has that gotten us?

Pursuing your desires doesn’t just mean blindly following your impulses wherever they lead. It means, first, discovering what you really want: weeding through your desires and deciding which are real and which are illusory, which are stronger and which are weaker, which will bring you the most happiness in the end. It means reconstructing yourself and your life so that you can pursue as many of your desires as possible (since there is no guarantee that all of them can be simultaneously achieved–most of us find ourselves always pulled in different directions by competing impulses and longings); it means prioritizing and analyzing your desires themselves. Maybe what you want is to feel better about yourself: is getting your nails done the answer, or could that impulse be a part of your insecurities? Perhaps you love the countryside; is it enough for you to buy a few acres of it and enjoy that, while the rest of the world is slowly wrapped in concrete?

Pursuing your desires also means reconstructing our society. Each of us is the product of the world we live in; and yet, this world is itself the product of our own efforts. To reconstruct yourself and your life, you must reconstruct the world that constructs and affects you, and for this you will need everyone else’s help. If we want to pursue happiness, we should take responsibility for the world we are creating, and together make sure that it will be one that creates happiness in us. But won’t doing whatever we want pit us against each other? No–it will force us to work together. For the greatest, most ambitious endeavors cannot be carried through alone; they require the participation of other people, even of whole societies. Most of us want community, friendship, to feel safe and free with others more than almost anything else; we need each other to achieve all these things. To create a community in which each of us can live life to the fullest, we must make it possible for all of us to pursue our dreams and be free and creative. Otherwise we’re cheating ourselves of each other’s potential, as well as our own. That’s the secret that the very unambitious “me generation” missed: past a certain point, greed and generosity intersect.

And yes, this will be hard, especially at first. Nothing is more difficult than pushing yourself to always be honest with yourself, demanding the most from yourself and from every day of your life. It will put us at odds with the existing order, that’s for sure. But it’s a struggle worth fighting if any is! A contest of the vast potential that each of us has, and the vaster potential that we all could have together, against everything in this world that is pointless, petty, ugly…

The alternative, of course, is to settle for what we have today, and never question whether there could be more to life.

Ultimately, happiness doesn’t come from just getting what you want and having it, but rather from the process of seeking it–from the free pursuit of your desires and ambitions. It’s that feeling of excitement and weightlessness you experience when you feel free to do and be whatever you want, when life becomes a joyous, ever-changing dance. After centuries of dull servitude to responsibility, propriety, and necessity, we’re not used to expressing and following our dreams–the time has come to learn how.

Think back to the most important day of your life, the day you first discovered love or music or adventure… when a thousand new doors opened, and the world seemed bigger than it ever had before, and suddenly everything was possible.

Why can’t every day feel like that?

Well, for one thing, we don’t exactly live in a society that is designed to help us discern and pursue our hearts’ desires, do we? Whatever the rhetoric about “freedom and the pursuit of happiness” may suggest, our society is filled to the point of absurdity with distractions and restrictions. We’re all so busy struggling to keep up that it’s hard to even remember our dreams, let alone chase after them. And each of us feels so powerless that it’s equally hard to keep in mind that this world we live in is entirely the result of our own efforts: it is our work that has made it this way. Our species has completely transformed the planet. Is this the best of all possible worlds we have built?

If it’s not, why don’t we stop building it, and invent new ways of living and working together–so we can construct another, better world, that will be more pleasurable for all of us! For what should we work towards, if not pleasure and joy?

Life Lessons

I got a list of life lessons from www.marcandangel.com which covered 26 life lessons by age 26. Well… I am going to add one to that list. I am sure that there are a few other life lessons I could add in, but this list resonated with me so I wanted to share it with everyone.

1. Being an adult can be fun when you are acting like a child.
2. Love has nothing to do with looks, but everything to do with time, trust, and interest.
3. Laughing, crying, joy and anger… All are a vital.  All make us human.
4. The greatest truths in life are uncovered with simple, steady awareness.
5. Greed will bury even the lucky eventually.
6. Bad things do happen to good people.
7. Paving your own road is intelligent only if nobody has gone exactly where you are going.
8. Uncertainty is caused by a lack of knowledge.  Hesitation is the product of fear.
9. Time heals all wounds… regardless of how you feel right now.
10. Most of the time what you are looking for is right in front of you.
11. Your health is your life.
12. Chance is a gift, so act on chance when given the opportunity.
13. Kindness and hard work will take you further than intelligence.
14. People deserve a second chance, but not a third.
15. Marry your best friend.
16. Take lots of pictures.  Someday you’ll be really glad you did.
17. Money makes life easier only when the money is yours free and clear.
18. Carelessness is the root of failure
19. Your actions now create memories you will reminisce and talk about in your elder years.
20. Stepping outside of your comfort zone will put things into perspective from an angle you can’t grasp now.
21. Motivation comes in short bursts.  Act while it’s hot.
22. Purposely ignoring the obvious is like walking backwards toward the enemy.
23. Taking ownership of failure builds the foundation for success.
24. First impressions are completely worthless 50% of the time.
25. Personal glory lasts forever.
26. If you never act, you will never know for sure.
27. In life, you always have more than one choice.

————

…and as a BONUS.. from the SAME blog I found this guest post. Now, since I am not 50 yet I can’t say that I know or feel all of these things, but I already think it sounds like great advice and I would love to look back at my post 20-30 years from now and re-read these following tips.

This is a guest post by Barrie Davenport of Live Bold and Bloom posted on Marc and Angel Hack Life.

For anyone under 50 reading this, I have some good news for you.  50 is pretty darned good!

I even surprise myself by writing this, because believe me, I never thought the day would come when I would embrace being half a century.  But it has arrived, and it doesn’t stink.

Yes, yes — there are the inevitable physical changes that are quite unsettling.  Things do start to droop, wrinkle and expand.  Sometimes you will catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and wonder who that middle-aged person is.  On the outside, you may look like a grown-up, but on the inside it’s crazy how you still feel like you are 30.  Or younger.  (Ask my teenagers.  They hate that about me.)

When I was in my 30’s and 40’s, I took life much more seriously.

In fact, I think I was mysteriously older then than I am now.  Is that possible?  When you are busy building a career, raising children, accumulating stuff, and creating a lifestyle, you are defined by that busyness.  It’s serious work.  You have to make money to pay for the lifestyle.  Your kids need to be raised right lest they become a scourge on society and embarrass you by living in a trailer and eating bugs.

Those years are fulfilling and wonderful, but they also are fraught with upheaval and angst.  Things that once didn’t matter when you were younger, like having the right cocktail napkins or winning yard of the month, somehow matter so very much.  We struggle toward some kind of perfection and achievement that is ‘out there’ somewhere.

I don’t know about you, but I have spent a lot of time trying to create the self I thought I should be.  I cobbled together the perfect me made from pieces of this and that.  The clothes I wear, the neighborhood we live in, the car I drive, the friends I have.  It looks pretty nice from the outside.  And much of it is nice on the inside too.

But I spent way, way too much time in the work of crafting myself, and far too little time just being myself.

When you are spinning your wheels to maintain this beautifully crafted life, you miss out on a whole lot of real living.

If I were able to time travel and visit my twenty or thirty-year-old self, there are some things I would really like to teach me.  Since I can’t do that, hopefully you will benefit from some of the lessons I’ve learned over the last 50 years.

1. 50 doesn’t feel like 50. It doesn’t feel like the age you imagined when you are in your 20’s or 30’s.  For the most part, it feels the way you feel right now.  But smarter and more confident.  You also have more time and resources to enjoy life.  So don’t fear it.  Look forward to it.
2. Experience life before you settle down. Whatever it is you want to do or experience, do as much of it as you can before you have children.  Especially travel.  Live in a hovel and drive a beat-up Dodge Dart if you have to.  But go have some really great, amazing, mind-blowing experiences.
3. Money and stuff are not all that important. Yes, you want enough to be comfortable and do the things you want to do.  But accumulating for the sake of accumulating is so boring and empty.  Feed the soul, not the ego.
4. Don’t try to impress people. That’s an act that brings nothing but a momentary ego boost.  Be real with people instead.  Connect with fewer people on a level that is deeper and more profound.
5. Let your kids fail. Your kids will be okay, even if you think they are headed for the juvie right now.  Don’t come to their rescue all the time.  Don’t manage every detail of their lives or over-schedule them with tao quan dao or viola lessons.  Give them some boundaries, and then relax about them.
6. Bad things will happen. Part of living and getting older is experiencing upheavals in life.  People lose jobs, get divorced, die.  When you are younger, and things have gone pretty well, this can be shocking.  The bad things won’t kill you.  You will learn from them if you allow it.
7. Not much is worth fighting about. If you can avoid it, don’t fight.  Step back from arguments with your spouse or family member or neighbor.  When you feel anger surging up and you want to say that snarky thing on the tip of your tongue, just close your mouth and walk away.  Let yourself calm down.  You don’t have to be right or win the argument.  It just doesn’t matter that much.
8. Little things stick with you. So pay attention to them.  Like watching your child sleep.  Preparing a meal with your family.  Sharing a great laugh with an old friend.  That is the real stuff life is made of.
9. Keep having fun. Fun is way underrated.  With all of our responsibilities, fun seems like an indulgence.  It shouldn’t be.  It should be a requirement.  Remember what you did to have fun when you were younger, and go do it again.  Leave the house messy and the yard un-mowed for the weekend.  You will remember the fun, not the clean house or yard.  Make time for fun.
10. Make things simpler. Pick the five most important things in your life now, and focus on those things.  Let the other stuff go.  Let go of the activities, the events, the commitments, the shopping, the to-do lists.  Stop the busyness and really enjoy the important things you have right now.
11. Keep your brain active. Don’t get into a mental rut.  Do new things, learn new things, explore new ideas in all areas of your life.  Keep challenging yourself and your mind.  Be curious and interested in the world around you.
12. Hang out with younger people. Stay connected with what the generation behind you is doing and thinking.  Establish friendships with them.  You will benefit and learn from each other.  Don’t act superior, because younger people may know a whole lot more than you do!
13. Keep exercising and eating healthy. You know this, but I’ll remind you anyway.  The older you get, the more important a healthy lifestyle is.  In my 20’s, I could shovel down a Wendy’s hamburger and fries every day and never see the difference.  Now I just look at a hamburger and my butt gets bigger.
14. Manage aging, but why fight it? You can spend a fortune on face creams, plastic surgery, hair growth formulas, and botox, but eventually you realize you are fighting an uphill battle.  Groom yourself nicely.  Stay fit.  Have unsightly things removed.  But accept the beauty of aging.  A striking mature man or woman is much more attractive than someone who looks overly taunt, tanned or top-heavy.
15. Everyone doesn’t have to like you and vice versa. One of my friends likes to say, “She’s not in my cluster.”  Sometimes there are people in your life who are just not the right fit or who drain you dry.  It is fine to back off from them or even let them go.
16. Marriages evolve and change. The feelings you had for the man or woman you married will mutate and evolve several times over the life of a marriage.  Hopefully you will evolve in the same direction or at least embrace and accept the changes in the other person.  It takes work, and sometimes it takes counseling.  Don’t gloss over those changes or you may wake up next to a stranger one day.
17. Yes, you can still have great sex. When I was in my 20’s, I thought you stopped doing it when you were in your early 40’s.  I assumed middle aged people would no longer want to disrobe in front of each other.  I’m happy to inform you that this is not the case.
18. Tend to your friendships. Especially your oldest friendships.  These are the people who know and love you best, in spite of your flaws.  Treat them like the precious gems they are.
19. Stop worrying. Worry does absolutely nothing productive.  In fact, it is counterproductive.  The more you worry, the more you reinforce the problem or concern in your brain.
20. Everything is not always black or white. Life is often very ambiguous.  Sometimes there isn’t a right or wrong decision or choice.  Things are not always completely clear.  You may not get THE answer, so you just have to wing it.
21. Take action on your dreams. If you’ve been putting things off — a new career, more education, the big trip — start taking action right now to make it happen.  Don’t dream about it anymore.  Start doing it.
22. Don’t dwell on your wounds. Everyone has something that has caused pain and has been limiting them in some way.  If you need help to deal with it, then get it right away.  Don’t let the past limit your future.
23. Embrace change. As uncomfortable as it is sometimes, change allows us to stretch and grow.  New things feel awkward and scary at first, but those feelings go away, and you are left with something bigger and bolder in your life.
24. Be vulnerable. Allow yourself to feel, to be open and authentic.  Tear down any emotional brick walls you have built around yourself and feel every exquisite emotion, both good and bad.  This is real life.  This is how you welcome new opportunities.
25. Count your blessings every day.  I know, this is a refrigerator magnet line, but practice it daily anyway.  There is so much good, so much beauty, so much love in your life.  What more do you really need?  You have so much right now, you just need to pause long enough to appreciate it.

Alrighty! I went to Taiwan to spend my New Years Eve and every time I go to Taiwan you know I have some funnnn adventures! ..and of course this time was nooo different!

and so begins my third adventures in…. Taiwan!!

Taiwan Adventures III - (Sarah, Ngan, Alfred)

Immediately after 2 conferences and finishing up our last day of filming in Beijing I jetted off to Taiwan for some “fun in the sun” per..say. I was like a hitman out to have fun with precision accuracy.. haha… I say this because I had a pretty planned out and packed schedule. Upon arriving in Taiwan, my good homeboy E and I met up at the airport. He was stopping over for about 6 hours on his way over to Malaysia. I hadnt hung out with him for close to 8 months.. I havent really seen a lot of people in the states since I left for China… so we had a good couple hours to chat, get food, and catch up.

A and E

We took a picture “outside” of the airport just so E could say he technically visited Taiwan. haha.. also we thought taking a picture in the mirror at the same time would be cool.. but it wasnt that cool. lol

After the airport I immediately went to meet up my two US Wushu teammates! Ngan and Sarah. I had lunch with Ngan while Sarah was at work.

Pork Chop Noodles with Ngan

Here we are getting some delicious Taiwanese food. Ngan and I caught up and I was talkin to her about life, some recent religious concepts, my businesses, and other goals and such. She really got what I was saying and we chatted for quite a while. When Sarah got off work, she met us up at this little old style coffee shop.

Coffee Shop Time

Sarah just got lasik so she’s wearing crazy sunglasses at all times of the day! So by the time she arrived it was time for dinner! D and Sarah decided to take us to this Beer Factory for dinner.

Taiwan Beer Factory

Food at the Beer Factory

It’s not a beer factory without beer on the table! The place is simply a Taiwan beer factory with tons of beer bottles everywhere. Then you can order some “re chao” and chomp down with your beer.

After beer time we went to a Jazz bar via invitation from my friend Mei!

Mei Yi Ho it up at the Jazz Bar

Last time I saw Mei was in 2009 so it was exactly a full year since kickin it in Taiwan. We had some good chats about her work and her thoughts on the current situation of the film industry in Taiwan. After this I called it a night.. after all it was essentially my FIRST day in Taiwan.

The next day I met up with another friend.. and for the first time too! I think this trip I really squeezed in a lot because I knew I only had about 10 days to hang out with all my good friends in Taiwan.

So yeah, the next day I met up Nadia and we went for dinner. We were going to cook some food with her FT crew I think.. but then plans changed so we ended up going to chill at her friends studio. It was a totally pimptastic spot with a great view. Some pretty awesome beats gettin made there! There was simply too much goin on this trip.. I couldn’t document it all! After a while, we got hungry again and went for a snacky snack. See below!

Oil Treats in a Bun

I’m thinking about how unflattering the name of this sounds if it’s directly translated into English… it’s called “oil sticks” hahaha.. cuz this is a completely vegetarian snack.. and its basically dough dipped in oil… haha.. but it tastes so good.. AND I was introduced to the crack of all sauces. If you look in the background of the pic you see this awesome sauce. I don’t know what it’s made of or what it’s called but it made the oil stick taste pretty ridiculously delicious. haha

Oil Stick Chomp Down

After eating on some oil sticks, I was pretty much ready to call it a day.. the next day was New Years Eve and I needed to charge up. Plus, I was going to wake up early to work out!! Rah!! Also, I think all my exhaustion from work and then flying in to Taiwan and getting settled into my hotelmotel was catchin up.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this adventure… New Years Blast Off!

andy clinton jet alfred

This is just too exciting for me to not post. Last week in HK I had the honor of meeting former president of the United States – Mr. Bill Clinton. It was a very cozy event with limited invitees for the Clinton Global Initiative.

When we first got there people mingled for a bit. As the event formally started Pres Clinton came out and gave a brief speech. I had a chance to hear him speak about 6 years ago at Royce Hall at UCLA, but this time I was literally arms distance away. He warmed the crowd with his usual very personal and exceptional speaking ability. Following his brief speech people continued to mingle. He made his way through talking to all his guests. When he got to Jet they gave each other a big hug and discussed the future of philanthropy in the world. The atmosphere was that they were both interested in getting work done and were both very action oriented. Thus Pres Clinton agreed to Jet that next time he was around in Beijing if it was convenient schedule-wise he would speak at a One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute forum.

As a college student who had taken speech, our professor pointed Pres Clinton’s speaking skill, which is just another reason for why I went out of my way to hear him speak when he came by UCLA. I had always wanted to meet him up close and shake hands with him.. so this well definitely be another great memory for me. That’s also why I’m blogging about it.. so I can record all the fast paced things going on.. I feel like lately it’s kinda easy to overlook everything that is going on and just get caught up in the details of setting up the events and helping with planning that I might forget to take a step back and realize that I am accomplishing things that I have always dreamed of.

Speaking of dreams.. I finally also watched Inception the other day. I’ve been so busy but that’s been a movie I really knew I would like.. and I did! The movie brings up interesting points about reality and what we can and should accept. I think a good message is to always enjoy the journey and not to get too caught up on the destination only. What do you guys think about the ending?

Today I decided after working for the One Foundation for a few months that it wouldn’t make sense for me to work for a charity and not make my own contribution. I didn’t have much on me, but the One Foundation motto and belief of Founder Jet Li is to donate $1 every month or contribute a little every month to make a big difference as a global family. I think this message is the most important. It’s not about donating thousands only when you have finally “made it”, it’s about always remembering to give back.. and pretty much everyone I know can afford $1 a month. The number “1″ makes sense because it’s symbolic of taking action to do your part.. moreover a $1 contribution by everyone in the world every month would be more than enough to make a huge impact.

My top 3 areas of interest currently are medical research, impoverished youth, or environment / natural disaster.

Here is a link where you can donate to the One Foundation – http://www.onefoundation.cn/html/en/beneficence_01.htm

One Foundation is a direct partner with the Red Cross. For more information feel free to check out the one foundation site.

One Foundation – One Family

Bruce Lee Inspiration

I just read the above motivational quote and I’m glad I read it. Things are fast changing for me as I prepare for another adventure. Life and my lifestyle will change very soon! All for the best I hope. Anyways, I am very pressed at the moment and this quote is awesome because it tells me that I am acting in a way that is inline with Bruce’s philosophy on living a fulfilling life.

Here is the quote:

“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” –and we’re still running-”if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

A man must constantly exceed his level! Time to be a man!

Now to a huge list of things that I have to do within 2 weeks:

transfer business email forwarding
UPS shipper account company testing trial period
update FAQ
find customer support staff
book flight up north
book flight to china
sell car
find new roommate
clean house
buy new laptop
buy new luggage case (maybe also buy one of those traveler backpacks)
optometrist appointments
acting classes
get visas
martial arts training
teaching lessons
buy new camera lens
buy new phone (thinking unlocked iphone)

Start with yourself

I want to make an impact on the world. I want to do things I’m proud of and I want to enjoy life too. During this process as I’ve worked to improve myself, meet more people, and put myself out there in various different fields and circles, I’ve also encountered haters – people who will judge you for your imperfections, people who use you as an outlet for their own insecurities, and people who misunderstand your intentions and take things personally.

The saying “there’s always haters at the top” is true. It means that you are in the spot light and more eyes are on you. So of course there will be a percentage of people who want to judge you, are jealous of you, or feel threatened by you.

I think my thoughts are best summarized in these 7 points by one of my favorite entrepreneurs Tim Ferris!

1. It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it. What matters is how many people do.

“It’s critical in social media, as in life, to have a clear objective and not to lose sight of that,” Ferriss says. He argues that if your objective is to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people or to change the world in some small way (be it through a product or service), you only need to pick your first 1,000 fans — and carefully. “As long as you’re accomplishing your objectives, that 1,000 will lead to a cascading effect,” Ferriss explains. “The 10 million that don’t get it don’t matter.”

2. 10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it.

“People are least productive in reactive mode,” Ferriss states, before explaining that if you are expecting resistance and attackers, you can choose your response in advance, as opposed to reacting inappropriately. This, Ferriss says, will only multiply the problem. “Online I see people committing ’social media suicide’ all the time by one of two ways. Firstly by responding to all criticism, meaning you’re never going to find time to complete important milestones of your own, and by responding to things that don’t warrant a response.” This, says Ferriss, lends more credibility by driving traffic.

3. “Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.” (Colin Powell)

“If you treat everyone the same and respond to everyone by apologizing or agreeing, you’re not going to be recognizing the best performers, and you’re not going to be improving the worst performers,” Ferriss says. “That guarantees you’ll get more behavior you don’t want and less you do.” That doesn’t mean never respond, Ferriss goes on to say, but be “tactical and strategic” when you do.

4. “If you are really effective at what you do, 95% of the things said about you will be negative.” (Scott Boras)

“This principle goes hand-in-hand with number two,” Ferriss says. “I actually keep this quote in my wallet because it is a reminder that the best people in almost any field are almost always the people who get the most criticism.” The bigger your impact, explains Ferriss (whose book is a New York Times, WSJ and BusinessWeek bestseller), and the larger the ambition and scale of your project, the more negativity you’ll encounter. Ferriss jokes he has haters “in about 35 languages.”

5. “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” (Epictetus)

“Another way to phrase this is through a more recent quote from Elbert Hubbard,” Ferriss says. “‘To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” Ferriss, who holds a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive tango spins, says he has learned to enjoy criticism over the years. Ferriss, using Roman philosophy to expand on his point, says: “Cato, who Seneca believed to be the perfect stoic, practiced this by wearing darker robes than was customary and by wearing no tunic. He expected to be ridiculed and he was, he did this to train himself to only be ashamed of those things that are truly worth being ashamed of. To do anything remotely interesting you need to train yourself to be effective at dealing with, responding to, even enjoying criticism… In fact, I would take the quote a step further and encourage people to actively pursue being thought foolish and stupid.”

6. “Living well is the best revenge.” (George Herbert)

“The best way to counter-attack a hater is to make it blatantly obvious that their attack has had no impact on you,” Ferriss advises. “That, and [show] how much fun you’re having!” Ferriss goes on to say that the best revenge is letting haters continue to live with their own resentment and anger, which most of the time has nothing to do with you in particular. “If a vessel contains acid and you pour some on an object, it’s still the vessel that sustains the most damage,” Ferriss says. “Don’t get angry, don’t get even — focus on living well and that will eat at them more than anything you can do.”

7. Keep calm and carry on.

The slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” was originally produced by the British government during the Second World War as a propaganda message to comfort people in the face of Nazi invasion. Ferriss takes the message and applies it to today’s world. “Focus on impact, not approval. If you believe you can change the world, which I hope you do, do what you believe is right and expect resistance and expect attackers,” Ferriss concludes. “Keep calm and carry on!”

and now for a relaxing song by Michael Jackson:

R6 and Ducati 999

Met up with Steve, my kpmg/city national bank co-worker’s husband who rides a Ducati 999 and R1. We went to Azusa for some canyon riding! Woot! Had a blast and learned a lot. Ever since I’ve been traveling and getting my hustle on with filming and martial arts competitions, I’ve really neglected my baby (my R6) and today it was good getting my feet wet with riding the canyons. Hopefully, in a few months I will hit up the track. I’ll also have to save up to get one piece suit and some nice riding boots. I think boots are a must have.

Anyways, today was awesome and I came home exhausted. We rode for about 3-4 hours.. well including my travel time too. I gotta remember to look through my turns, shift my body over the line to the direction I want to turn, put my foot on the pegs and dont worry about the rear break so much, push down on left peg and right handle bar to make a tighter right turn (vice versa for other side), relax my arms, follow a smooth line, speed up through the turn, and accelerate out at the peak of the turn. I know some of this stuff is basic sounding, but it’s good to remind myself.

Afterward we went to a cool cafe for some coffee/food. I had a salad with chicken, apple, and mandarin oranges. Delicious! And since.. we lived to ride another day.. I treated myself to a root beer float! Steve is a fireman so he sees a lot of mortality and so we had a good discussion about perspective on life and death. I also commented that in cultures where your “job” does NOT define you.. and you wake up every day knowing the answer to “what do I wake up for every day?” as opposed to thinking that your being is tied to your job.. you will live a happier and healthier life… because ultimately we retire or no longer can work our jobs.. then those people sort of lose a sense of self and without a purpose we lose a part of our will to live.

Anyways, I think it’s healthy to be put in perspective with our mortality once in a while so I enjoyed that root beer float heartily!

Here’s me saying.. remember to keep the rubber side down! See you next time!

azusa canyon ride day