The Starving Baker

A common mistake in life.
The baker spends so much time baking bread for others, and he forgets to eat and starves himself.

Imagine that you visit a new bakery shop not far from your home. You love going there because the baker had created a new recipe for his breads and pastries that are better than any of those that you had ever tasted.

Soon, crowds started to form, queuing ouside the bakery shop each and everday, waiting for the freshly bake to come from this baker's fabulous kitchen. The baker didn't have enough help, and ends up trying to serve all the customers himself. He was rushing to and fro, busy with all the requested from his customers. Eventually he got exhausted, and soon you became to realize this man was getting thinner and thinner as days passer by. So thin that he seems like shrivelling.

You were curious about what had happened to the poor baker, therefore you decided to sit down and observed him for a few hours. Ah har! The problem emerged. You realized that the baker never stops to rest and eat. He was busy serving bread to the others, but never stopped long enough to feed himself. With food all around him, he is starving.

Let's pause and think.... (is this happening to us?)
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Work, Over-time, Stress, Money, Families, Worries, Depressed...
We have so many things that bother us everyday. We work so hard that we do not have enough time to spend with our love ones. Why is that so?
- without work I'll have no income to support myself and my family
- without work I'll not be able to survive
- works just pile up on my desk! is killing me!

WHY??

Remember this, "It is important to work hard and yet be able to play hard."

The rule to this is simple, have a reward system within your financial road map will make the long journey a little easier and a lot more fun. Let say we allocate 50% of our income on personal expenses, 30% to savings, and 20% to home mortage. So the reward will falls into the 50% category, but be alert that we mustn't spend more than that. If we violate this rule, we are distorting our own financial future and well-being.

The Iceberg

The Iceberg represents our leadership. The top 10% that's above the water level represents our skill. The remaining 90% below the water represents our character. It's what's below the surface that sank the Titanic.

Titanic, the largest passenger ship in the world. Whereby many believe it to be the "unsinkable", on the night of 14 April 1912 hit an Iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later. Results in the dealth of 1,500 people.

According to the author, there were 6 iceberg warnings given out before the hit. But due to the ignorance of the crew the Titanic sank, dragging along the lifes of hundreds of passengers.

The crew tended to forget the truth about icebergs. What they saw above the sea level may not have sunk the great ship, however most of an iceberg submerged in the water. We should not underestimate the power of an iceberg, and overestimate our strength.
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The iceberg is a good reflection of our characters. Characters are the 90% of the iceberg that is hidden below the "water", we are unable to identify it by a glance. Dr Tim Elmore suggested that our character is the total sum of our: Self disciplne, Core Values, Sense of identity, and Emotional Security.

Self discipline: the ability to do what's right even if you don't feel like it.

This affects your behaviour & lifestyle, for instance like saving habits. I believe most of us understand the importance of savings, it is the right thing to do, even though some times we feel like spending all of our money on luxury, holiday vacations, housing, cars, etc. Which is why income allocation is important in our part and parcel of life.

Core Values: principles you live by that enable you to take a moral stand.

It is very much depends on individual, everyone has different opinions on the same issue. But the most important note is that we must have the right attitude. The principles that help us to determine right & wrong, helping us to create values in our life not only morally but also financially.

Sense of identity: a realistic self-image

What do you potray youself as in ten years time? A realistic self-image that we want to look forward to. Being a millionaire is a dream to everyone, actually in fact it's not that difficult. Take the initiative to draw up a financial plan, why wait?! If it is really that hard than engage a qualified financial adviser, instead of taking advise from product peddlers or product pushers, ask them the right questions and be intelligent whe you dealing with them.

Remember there's once a saying "Success is not for the chosen few. Success is chosen by few."

Emotional security: the capacity to be emotionally stable and consistent

In the twenty-first century, what makes many of us feel uncomfortable are: recession, economic down turn, and raising inflation rates. Emotional security will come only when we have financial security.

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The bad news about an iceberg is that it's what's below the surface that sinks a ship. Without proper planning in life, the weak character will eventually damage our ability. To be optimistic, another point of view is that what's below the surface supports the tip of the iceberg. Similarly having a strong 'character', a good financial plan, will hold us up long enough to use our 'skills'.

Thermostat Vs Thermometer

"People Are Either Thermometers Or Thermostats. They Will Merely Reflect The Climate Around Them, Or They Will Set It. Leaders Develop Values And Principles To Live By And Set The Tone For Others." by Dr Tim Elmore.

How do we differentiate ourselves being a Thermometer or Thermostats?

How is it possible for us to set values for others, instead of following the crowd?

Why do most of us mirror back ourselves into the climate around us?

Most people around us are like "Thermometers", they tend to reflect the culture around them. They simply follow other people's footstep; buying things that others buy without seeing if they have the needs, saying things that others say and amazingly they maynot even aware of it. Following the fashion or trends neither did they think that if it suits them, and value things that others value which eventually they tend to lost their own identity.

Minority of us will decide to take life to the next level, according to the author, this group of people are known as the "Thermostats". They are the pacesetters, unlike the former, "Thermostats" will try to influence rather than allowing others to control them.

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Not long ago there are new memebers joining the "Thermometers" group. When the Lehman Brothers file for bankruptcy on Sept 15 2008, people were protesting outside the banks and on the street, demanding for compensation. The reason for these is because people are following the trends; no sense of own identity, zero knowledge of the financial institute and their products. Investment is all about risk & return, if you are not prepared please don't let yourself to be the "Thermometer". It may sound easy, but with all the temptation out there in the market, few of us could control ourselves. Maybe we should begin with our inner self.

The challenge here is how to move from being a "Thermometer" to a "Thermostat"

We have to be 'authentic' . We need to developed our own set of values & principles, directing us to the way of dos & don'ts.

Found in Dr Tim Elmore's Habitudes: A young girl and her dad visiting an amusement park one Saturday. They walked up to a booth where a man was guessing people's weight. A large, heavy-set man steeped up, and the employee attempted to guess his weight. Then, the hefty man steeped up on the scales only to find they had broken. The needle moved only slightly and the scale reported the man weight just twenty-five pounds. At that point, the little girl said to her dad: "Look dad! A hollow man." May this will never happen to us, when people examine our reliabilities and values.