I’ve been pissed mad at my new phone. OK, I finally UNINTENTIONALLY destroyed my PDA phone. Truth be told, I got A LOT fed-up with the whole PDA concept…mine was an iPaq which required the use of a stylus which I almost always inadvertently lose and then I find it the moment I buy a new one. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to buy a new phone for the longest time but a voice inside my head told me that I have to be a little thriftier these days – and I always end up listening to that voice. So, I waited for myself to spoil the thing.
And then it happened and the first thing I did was run out to the mobile phone shop and told the guy, “I want a phone. Cheap-cheap, simple-simple, nothing fancy, can play mp3, comes with simple camera …that’s it”.
So, this nothing-fancy phone came with a radio and I miss listening to the radio when I work. But the signal isn’t very strong on the phone so I have to find a location on my desk where I can plonk the phone. Ironically, the radio is crystal clear in the bathroom (I know)….but I can’t very well work in the bathroom.
The annoying scratchy fingernails-over-blackboard sound that the phone was making irked me. I was determined to find the perfect location on the left side of my desk because that’s where all my stuff is. The right side of my desk is occupied with my aromatherapy stuff, lotion, modem, business cards, etc. I just couldn’t find the right place – on top of my pencil holders, in the fluffy mobile phone holder, beside my coffee cup, inside the vase containing fake purple flowers, on my printer, beside my books, on the shelves.
Nothing! I couldn't believe it....no, I refused to believe that there was not a single spot on the left side of my desk that could receive perfect radio signal. For a couple of days, I swore at the desk, the radio station and the mobile phone. ‘Just what will it take to have radio signal in this house, anyway?’ I screeched madly at the phone.
Absentmindedly, I placed the phone on the right side of my table and….VIOLA! Perfect signal!
I must say that I had a sheepish smile on my face by then. I have radio! But then after much afterthought, it occurred to me that I should learn something from this. The moral of the story is this – sometimes we’re so determined to make something work in a certain way that we forget to explore ‘the other side’ because we’re just too adamant about making things work over here! Once you’ve stopped trying to force it, you’ll see that there are many ways one thing can work.
The lesson can be applied to both us as people and us as business owners. If a marketing tactic that you’ve been applying is not working, tell you what….look to the right side. There could be something there worth checking out.
I was kind of a little sad when I read the news about this - there will be no live-in Indonesian maids in Malaysia anymore . There are pros and cons to having a live-in maid, as with everything else, but for us, we enjoyed more pros than cons. Back then, when my kids were little, we brought in a family of maids to help with...well, just about everything, and we were like two families merged into one. They ate what we ate, we sleep, they sleep, we shop, they shop, they joke, we laugh, we joke, they laugh...for me, the maid I hired was more like a sister and side-kick to me. For that few years, I was dependent on her to mind-read my schedule and when I need or don't need help. She picked things up quickly and we ended up having lots of moments whereby we were in sync. Today, two of them are on my Facebook and we were gleefully chatting over Facebook Messenger since they've just discovered the wonders of the Internet and Social Media. Since we were more like partners in crim...
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