Marry the right person

Watched Buffet and Gates meeting with Students. One single take away from Buffet:

"Marry the right person, it will make more difference in your life. It your aspiration for all sorts of things. Its very important"

I couldn't agree more.

Thanks to Loh Wei for putting up the video at his blog.

There's no Magic bullet

Was talking to a friend yesterday over lunch. He asked me what were the learning lessons that i took away from SMU.

1. There is no magic bullet: You can be well prepared. But life is really a black swan. Not everything goes your way
   
2. Since there is no magic bullet, should you giving trying all together? No, because not trying will definite eliminate your chances totally. Instead just take note of the following:

• Know who you are
  
• Know what you stand for
• Know where your hope lies, which is in eternity, and not in this world.
  

Joel

Trust - a complicated story in a 5 letter word

Its been about 3 weeks since my last entry. I apologise for dropping off the radar. Have been busy with job apps, interviews, birthday celebrations, SMU end of term projects.

This post will central around my interviews and my learning lessons from it. I applied for an advisory and a bank job separately. I heard the competition wouldn't be easy, so i prepared whatever i could for the day itself.

Both interviews finally arrived, the banking interview first and followed by the advisory interview, which was done in groups. Competition for the latter was fierce, with lots of participation during the case study. Nonetheless, taking the advice of my senior, i put in alot to participate and network with the senior partners. Having done my best, i left with the peace of mind. Unlike previous times, i claimed everything in His name and prayed that His will be done. I didn't feel over-confident, but i did feel assured by His Grace.

But end of the day, the tension really comes when things don't work out as planned, or rather hoped for. The call/email inviting me for the subsequent round never came by the appointed time, and my feelings went on a roller coaster ride. People told me to move on, and while i agreed with them, i couldn't help but to feel that it was so unfair. Amidst all this, i was wondering: "Lord what are you trying to tell me in all this ? What are you planning for my life?"

I looked up two church elders from mel's church and spoke to them. Thank God for them, both were full of wisdom. Even though they don't specialise in the same field as me, but they could relate to my situation and gave me lots of spiritual guidance. Some of the learnings lessons from Pastor T.

1. Put God at the forefront of your life
2. Find out as much info as you can
3. Make a decision not based on one opinion but pick and choose the information you think is relevant.

Learnings Lessons from Uncle F.

1. How so many Christians are struggling with life because they let themselves be consumed by the world's rules: Matthew 13 talks about the parable of the sower and how many Christians are like seeds who fall among the thorns, believers who hear the word but the worries of this life and deceitfulness of wealth choke them.
2. Whose power is it really?: (John 15:1-17) "I am the true vine ... Remain in me, and i will remain in you."At the end of the day, we are merely the branches and no matter what human effort we put in, if we don not remain in him, then we are on our own. Claiming His name while not truly remaining in Him is.... futile.
3. Believing that i remain in good hands and will not fall (Romans 8:28): The story used here is not unfamiliar to me, but its a good reminder. When you watch a movie, you feel anxious when the main character is going to be injured/killed. But if you knew the end of the movie and that the hero will survive, will you still feel the same way? In life, if we knew the outcome of our circumstances, will we still feel angry against God when things don't go our way? And we do know God's promise in Romans 8:28. It shouts loud and clear that God's ending for us is always a positive one. If only we had a crystal ball to pin point this postiveness! But we don't, and in the meanwhile, we need to trust and be clear (jobs and financial freedom aside) where our true hope lies.
4. Live according to God's rules: Too many Christians get so disillusioned after repeat failures that they let go of their convictions and morals, and follow the world's standards. Then what is the point of a 'living sacrifice?' (Rom 12:1-3) How true (and challenging) it is, not to conform to the ways of this world, but be transformed by the RENEWAL of your mind.
5. Trust God!: Seems like the first 4 points have been pointing to this. All this while i've always thought that the burden of being the main provider for Mel & my future is mine and mine alone. But Uncle F. told me:" God is your main provider! You are only the receiver for yourself and Mel. Thus, trust him and obey his Word, along with the faith that he will provide adequately for your needs". I cannot understate the 'obeying'part. And this includes the daily reading of His word, prayer, self control over sin, and living life as a Christian. Its kind of easy to just remember the hope part and treat the whole advice session like a motivation talk, but let's be honest here, that kind of mindset does NOT set you apart from Non-Christians. its only the walking with Him, keeping in step that makes the true difference.

So that's what i learnt, and i believe that God has purposely put me in this situation because he wanted to tell me this, that trusting is more than claiming His Name or giving credit to Him. Its about the full journey. Putting Him as the forefront, having a real relationship with him. The rest leave it to him. Extremely meaningful.

Don't get me wrong here, i still have to keep applying and preparing for other interviews ya.. Its just that the G Factor should not be limited to job hunting/achieving something, but rather it is the cornerstone even before i embark on any initiative.

Joel

Angsty over Barclays 08 Annual report - Barcap Performance Metrics

I'm like reading Barclays 08 annual report and i'm feeling irritated. This is why. Pg59 reports on the performance of barcap (Barclays capital investment bank). Apart from a principal transaction gain of 2bn (due to their heavily discounted Lehman acquisition), they would have made a lost of 960m GBP. Now look down at Performance ratios- Return on average economic capital. Why did they include the transaction gain? Isn't it a one off?

Dissidents might argue that economic capital include the risks of the investments, including that of Lehman, therefore validating the inclusion of the transaction gain. But from the New York Times, its seems that the purchases included a mere 207m GBP residential real-estate mortgage securities. In which case the economic capital should have increase from the previous year. But it didn't. In fact it fell by 626m GBP (owner est.) from 2007. It is unfair to reflect the gain in a discounted asset as economic reality when it has no part of your operations till recently. Barcap should be honest and say they (like the rest of the banks) didn't do well.

There must be a certain justification management used, probably some accounting methodology which we will never know of, but nonetheless, the observation is a interesting one. To a large extent, the principles of accounting are used to justify the economic behavior ( perceived by managers) of the firm.

Bloomberg snipes & the implications for Government intervention

Sick, didn't go for AT class today. Woke up at noon and watched a some Bloomberg news

1) Scares of Deflation result in creeping inflation: Governments, scared that their economies will face deflation, rapidly try to combat it by investing into infrastructure. There are questions and implications here:

a) Is the country ready for infrastructure? Will more infrastructure result in a stronger demand for goods and services ? see ' The IMF warns about surplus countries and global imbalances' @ http://mpettis.com/

b) Stock markets have been booming, property markets in asian countries. A huge flow of capital unable to work conventionally as deposit rates remain depressed, this moves into 'less bad' assets (note the new mid term mantra is invest in ' less bad' , no need to be 'good')

c) Inventories kept artificially low to maintain pricing power. Yup, that's right, apart from saving on storage costs, companies control supply, allowing them to maintain their prices at a high level ( or at least as high as possible)

In addition, George Soros is investing into clean energy. Bloomberg's tagline --> Political responsibility funded by private capital. Reminds me of what i learnt in accounting theory. See Ross L. Watts and Jerold L. Zimmerman ' The Demand for and Supply of Accounting Theories: The Market for Excuses' . The paper argues that alot of the accounting concepts such as depreciation, accrual accounting, economic income come about by government intervention, and most of the time, the decision is the product of lobbyists, corporates, all arguing under " public interest" justification to serve their own interests. Its not conspiracy theory, but rather its an unconscious result of how the private sector influences the government in decision making and agendas over a long period of time. Of course, in the short run, governments do have the say. But in the long run, if they do not follow the market (ie private), then they are left behind. More on the government and how they influence their own economies in my next post.

Joeyhops.

Initiation - Resurrection

Hello all, joeyhops is BACK!

For those who have been wondering where has my virtual self gone too, i'm ashamed to admit that it was quite dead for some time. But who cares about the past, lets kick off with some new insight which i uncovered today:

It all started with just being a little down coz of challenges at job applications. Felt frustrated because i had put in so much effort into my work and internships the last two years and i felt nothing was coming out of it. At the same time, my spiritual life has been dry. My dad was advising me, to just come back and speak to Him, trust Him and the rest will fall in place.

Ironically, no one but me knows why i keep drying up. Its because i simply can't see/feel God physically even though he has been working in my life. His Word, try hard as i may, does not come alive to me.

But somehow, God is a very faithful God, as i read a sermon on ' Be Constant in Prayer for the Joy of Hope' by John Piper, a section struck me:

(Read Eph 1:18 first) ---- Before we look at them take note here of this phrase “eyes of the heart.” That is what we need to have enlightened. The glory of God in his wisdom and revelation is not seen by the physical eye. You can read and hear God’s revelation till you are blue in the face, and if the eyes of your heart are not enlightened, you will not see and savor the beauty and sweetness of God’s wisdom and revelation. You will not know God. Something must happen to us. We must have a heart that sees spiritual reality. This is a gift from God. That is why Paul is praying for it. The things we need most, we cannot get on our own. That is why prayer is utterly crucial in the Christian life. When someone says, “I get along just fine without prayer,” they don’t know what they are missing. They are missing it now. They will miss it forever. If you can get something now on your own, you will lose it at death. It’s not worth much. But if you pray for what you cannot get on your own now, and God gives it to you—a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that is, the enlightenment of the eyes of your heart to know him—you will not lose that at death. And it will give you sweetness of pleasures now and inexhaustible joys for eternity. That is what we should pray for.

Very eloquent. This is the first time someone ever wrote spiritual advice so simply and succinctly. My mum has attempted to explain this to me, but somehow it never caught on. But the truth is, for Christians who fall away; they fall away due to a lack of spiritual reality. How easy it is to blindsided or be discouraged by the ' harsh reality' of this world, and never come to know that the power of God lies in spiritual reality, a realm that exists but we cannot see, make no attempt to trust and ultimately fall away before believing.

I guess its a great learning lesson for me, to believe in the power of the spiritual realm. Of course there remain much physical work and effort to be put in (for the job search). But somehow, i think, the orientation.... is being to become one of faith, not just perseverance.