On Faith

by Thomas Heng

Faith is the gift of believing in what one cannot yet see.

In all things, have faith, for alone we truly can do nothing. All we can do is commit to beome a better steward, not merely to do more stewardship tasks.

Use discernment to decide which tasks deserve our attention and commitment to see it through, for we should invest our time wisely for the good of God's kingdom.

The purpose of having talents is to channel God's power in bless and multiply them in abundance.

Such growth is exciting but as foreign as the process of growing a seed into a mighty tree: all of us are aware of this concept, yet not all of us are blessed to view each earthly work as such.

Genuine self-confidence stems from a deference of one's self-awareness to the knowledge that the Creator knows His creations best.

On Profits

"Profits Are Better Than Wages" -- Jim Rohn

To the uninitiated, there doesn't seem to be a difference between profits and wages. After all, don't they both come in more or less the same form, Cold Hard Cash?

Perhaps this little reflection of mine can help you make some distinctions between these two concepts. I wrote this in response to Jim Rohn's quote:

Wages make me a Living; 

Profits make me a Fortune.

It is sad when I speak with some executives. You know, those regular-hour types that seem to earn ever-increasing amounts as bonuses for doing the same thing day-in, day-out. They tend hardly not to seek out opportunities around them, and are content to drift along. Evidently they are either too young to be promoted, or too old to learn something new. Well, I completely empathise, because I was one of them! Believe it or not, working for a Living was something I used to do.

Being in an environment that is at best unsupportive, and at worst, outright hostile, doesn't help the aspiring executive either. It seems that there is just too much cynicism in the workplace. Invariably this results in people being too focussed on keeping their jobs rather than simply doing them, regardless of their pronoucements that they are indeed doing the latter!

So why am I seemingly fixated with Fortune? So that I can give it away! Seriously, can you give away your Living to someone else? Being thirty-something is not too early to consider leaving beind a legacy; Life is just too short not to think of such things! I have seen, heard and experienced enough to know that drifting along is no longer an option. In fact, it never was an option in the first place! 

Thus I commit to Working Hard on My Job, But Working (Much) Harder on Myself.

Choose Freedom

Have you ever felt unappreciated for the things you do, or worse, for being who you are? I have, and trust me, it's not the greatest of emotions! I mean, after working hard for something that I truly believe in for almost all my life, only to realise that the things I hold dear mean next to nothing to the organisations that we shall collectively call SpongeDry Inc. Sure you may say 'The company is not supposed to consider employees needs and wants, let alone feelings', which begs the question, just what on earth is a company for anyway? To satisfy the owner's ego, or siphon off shareholders' equity, or to create havens for money that is ill-gotten? Doesn't anyone create companies for something other than for their own shallow selves anymore? Or are we so blinded by the profit of the here-and-now that we forget that organisations have the potential to outlive their owners and their descendants?

Some time ago, I have had the last straw in my experience of being in full-time employment. Somehow, being in the position of employee entitles the employer to shuffle staff like a deck of cards, with little or no regard for prior results, preliminary consultation, nor the space to address potential disagreement or resentment from the person most affected by such a move.

So out of the realisation that I would never be able to reconcile my values with those of SpongeDry Inc, I wrote these as a postscript to my resignation letter:

• People Above Profits
  
• Family Above Career
  
• Truth Over Rules
  
• God Above All
  

Maybe my mind has indeed gone to cuckoo-land, but if organisations don't realise that there are limits to what they can do to their employees, then pardon me, but they must be Crazy...

On Leadership

by Thomas Heng

There is no success without a successor.

The quality of the leader is not in the leader himself, but in the people he leads.

A leader of leaders has fewer concerns than a leader of followers.

Leaders provide the climate that determines the growth of those who follow him.

The greatest joy of a leader is the successful thriving of his team in his absence.

Leadership requires continual improvement on the part of all members.

Leadership by example is by far the most effective leadership of all.

Leadership is enhanced by personal branding, but personal branding is no substitute for genuine leadership.

On Integrity

by Thomas Heng

Integrity is the singlemost important asset

Clarity with self flows from it

Trust from others is earned with it

Peace arrives easily with it

Energy is focussed with its aid

Life derives all its meaning from it.

All things fade into insignificance when they are put alongside Integrity. What could be more pure than one who does what one says? Leadership is built principally on Integrity.

Integrity aligns one's vision

Integrity is the fulcrum upon which the sail turns

Integrity crystalises one's resolve

Integrity challenges long-held conventions of mediocrity

Integrity respects the status quo, but is never cowed by it

Integrity provides purpose to possessions, and substance to ownership.