“Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.” ~Elmer G. Letterman
“The best job goes to the person who can get the job done without coming up with excuses or passing the buck” ~Napolean Hill. What About Politics? Political Astuteness is something that you may not learn in school; however, it plays a significant role in success in business. “Man is by nature a political animal.” ~Aristotle
Take Control: It’s important to keep in mind that you are responsible for your own career. Don’t Expect the Human Resources Department to plan your career. In fact, don’t expect anyone else to be concerned about it either. If there have been times in your career when someone has taken an interest in your promotion, it would have been in their own best interest to do so. Remember, companies are in business primarily to make money. Continue reading →
Wishing you a Happy New Year 2012.
Hope you give your best shots this year.
Here’s Titanium by David Guetta to bring on the New Year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb6mS6Yj_UA
This is an ongoing post to study what exactly happened to Lehman Brothers.
Sep 15, 2008: Lehman Brothers was the 4th largest investment bank in the world. Why was Hank Paulson smiling the day Lehman Brothers was declared bankrupt? Did he play a role in the denial of US Govt support for Lehman Brothers at a critical juncture? Nobody knows that. But what one surely knows is that Hank Paulson is ex-Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs is a long term beneficiary of Lehman Brothers fall. Agreed that Lehman had much higher leverage (about 40x) than its peers (20x), so their balance sheet was much higher in risk. But if US Govt could support other large financial organizations like AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Max, maybe they should have offered some “short term support” to Lehman Brothers too. In credit crunch situation, time is all that one needs, and with a bit of time, Lehman could have got a chance to get sell some of its assets to raise capital or raise fresh capital from its long term investors globally. The US Govt’s/ Fed’s attitude of “not a single dollar to support you” towards Lehman Brothers was not logical and it harmed the global financial markets, including US economy. Continue reading →
One of the most fascinating aspects of life is meeting others and learning about what they’ve been through in life. I met a man from Nepal by the name of Raju, who lives and works in Bangkok. Over the past few years we’ve seen each other in passing and eventually I became a customer of his. He runs a tailor shop on Sukhumvit Road in the heart of Bangkok and he now makes my clothes, both casual and dress. He has an eye for detail, a pleasant personality, and he’s a good guy. One day I suggested that we go to dinner, away from the hustle of business life, have a few cocktails and get to know each other.
Nepal is landlocked, which means that it is surrounded by other countries on all sides and must keep friendly relations with its neighbors in order to have access to the shoreline (shipping). Essentially, Nepal is squeezed between China and India. Nepal is a difficult country to make money in and survival is a daily chore, so Bangkok is a paradise by comparison. Continue reading →
