Merry Christmas 2008

 Wishing You A Joyful Christmas!

Inge Santoso

In his 80s, my grandpa is still very healthy, mentally sharp and full of spirit. He is a role model for a fit and healthy body.

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday I watched in Oprah about a family in a brink of bankruptcy because the wife is a shopaholic. The husband didn’t know that they were in so much debt because she hid the transactions from her husband. All the credit cards were maxed out, the total debt was around USD 640,000.

Suze Orman advised the family to move from California to Seattle, Washington to start a new life. She told the wife to work at Starbucks because after three months, she’d get a health insurance for her whole family and she could drink latte too (she usually spends USD300-400 per month for latte). The husband could also get higher take-home pay because there was no income tax in Seattle, Washington.

Suze Orman said “We spend money that we don’t have, to impress people that we do not know or people that we do not like”

It is so true how nowadays we try so hard to look rich, to impress people with what we have. We define ourselves from what others see instead of how we truly see ourselves. By giving other people the power to define who we are, we have lost the power to be who we are destined to be.

Suze Orman also gave an advice about three questions that we have to ask before spending any money:

1. Is it kind?
2. Is it necessary?
3. Is it true?

We only spend money if the answers to these three questions are all YES. Otherwise we do not spend the money.

We really need to learn and increase our financial IQ so that we can make better decision when it comes to money.

Learn and Grow!

Yesterday my friends and I went to i-Tutor.net to check out their franchise opportunity. We went there with lots of enthusiasm and spirit. As accounting & finance people, we are very serious about the business aspect of the franchise, yet we can have fun with the evaluation process.

We were so full of enthusiasm during the presentation that we joked a lot, laughed out loud and just had lots of fun. We definitely made lots of noises because many of their staff commented, “So these are the prospects who were so loud and enthusiastic?” They have never had a prospect like us before. HAHAHA

Enthusiasm attracts attention!

We could see and feel how our enthusiasm affected others. The marketing executive who did the presentation became enthusiastic, as well as a few others who came into contact with us.

Enthusiasm attracts more enthusiasm! Enthusiasm is contagious!

Learn and grow!

Inge Santoso

Yesterday I found one of my favorite series – She Tiao Ying Xiong (Sia Tiau Eng Hiong) in DVD format. I was so happy to finally found it because I’ve been looking for it for years. Although it is a bit expensive, but it is definitely worth it.

Although there are many re-make of this series, with better sound effect, younger stars, but I simply love the original. I don’t know how to describe the feeling but I am sure that classic movie lover out there will understand the feeling. I think it is because the images and sounds just bring me back the treasured memories of my younger days. 

I remember the first time I watched it was when I was in primary school, about 20 years ago. My friends and I usually watched together after renting it from our local video store. The format back then was still Betamax video tape (ancient…ancient…HAHAHA). We would sit in front the TV watching it with full concentration. Sometimes we didn’t hear our parents’ calling us because we were so engrossed in it. After watching, we usually played and acted out the characters…it was our favorite game.  

When I think about it, playing pretend-to-be is really beneficial. It exercises our imagination and it develops the skill of modeling. Nowadays, mostly during NLP training, we are taught about modeling success, act as-if…the same skills as what we have naturally when we were young, just more directed and focused. It’s like re-learning what we used to do naturally when we were young, and I wonder why we are willing to pay so much money for the training HAHAHAHA

Advice for parents, let your children play pretend-to-be as long as they want, just direct them to play more positive characters.

Learn and Grow!

A special lunch for a special day

The Solemnization Celebration of Adi and Imelda.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Last Friday night was PMK Rhema 12th Anniversary celebration. I was in charge of giving out the door prize. I decided to put "winning door prize" sticker underneath some chairs. I put three stickers in front to encourage people to sit and fill the front seats, then I put some more stickers underneath random seats.

I purposely sat on the chair that I knew that there was no winning sticker underneath because it wouldn’t be fair if I also won a door prize. Somehow while I was busy going around taking photos of the event, someone decided to move my belonging to another chair on the table…the chair that won a door prize. It’s really amazing to see how lucky I am. Even when I purposely did not want a door prize, I could still win. I gave the door prize to the person sitting next to me though.

I also had another game for winning a door prize. It was to see whether you had a money in your wallet that its serial number ended with number 12 (PMK’s anniversary). There were only four people who won. When I went home, I checked my wallet whether I had that kind of money too. You know what? I actually had one that ended with number 12. Wow! I could’ve won two door prizes that night if I wasn’t the person handling the door prize event HAHAHA

Perhaps I should buy a lotto number this week

Learn and Grow!

Last week I saw an advertisement of a two-day training "Become A Great Teacher". I was interested because I saw that the fee was quite cheap, Rp.140,000 including lunch and coffee break.

When I went there to apply on Saturday, I was quite taken back because it was not what I had expected. Some of the teachers that went for the training actually came only to get a certificate. They were not interested in learning how to become a great teacher, they just wanted to get a certificate at the end of the training.

The first time I was aware of this phenomenon was when I attended Adi W Gunawan’s seminar in Jogja last week. When the speaker asked the audience about their intention to attend, there was one teacher who stood up and answered that he came to get a certificate.

I also observed the same thing with Prof. Yohanes Surya’s seminar in Jogja last week. There was a fee of Rp. 5,000 to attend the seminar, and it seemed to be the cost of printing the certificate. I came to this conclusion because when I told them that I did not need a certificate, they gave me the ticket for free.

I think it is good that teachers are encouraged to develop and improve their skills and knowledge by giving them points when they can prove that they have attended a training or seminar. I am glad that the government has a noble intention to start  giving incentives for professional development. In practice however, the reality can be so different from what is intended. Instead of learning and upgrading their skills, some just take shortcut to get incentives. In my opinion, it is the same as cheating to get high marks or even buying a grade.

How can these teachers expect their students to study hard and earn their grade when they give a bad example of taking shortcut and cheating to get higher grade? Teachers, please remember that the apple does not fall far from the tree.

I certainly don’t generalize that all teachers are like this. I am grateful that there are still so many teachers out there that are really great and wonderful. These awesome teachers teach from their heart and they truly make a difference in the lives of their students. I am fortunate that I have had my share of truly amazing teachers that not only taught me but inspired me.

My hope is that through this program, there will be more teachers in Indonesia that become a learning teacher who continually strive to develop their knowledge and skills.

If  you are a teacher and you want to learn, please do not hesitate to contact me (santoso_inge(at)yahoo(dot)com). I’d love to share and learn from each other.

Learn and Grow!