gotcha or huh?

Nowadays, there is an infinite amount of ways to do social media. Posting a picture, click like, writing a blog, posting a comment, sharing some stories, blah blah blah, you name it; and not to mention all the websites and apps out there.

I've learned over time, the opening sentence or tone is important.

For example, some authors are blunt by writing things like it is outrageous followed by examples of why it is outrageous. Some authors start with a metaphor by comparing to something else and draws you back to the subject. Some authors ask a question and tried to answer it. Some authors are straightforward, they write in a very logical way - subject verb subject, you don't see any adjectives or personal opinion in it.

The opening sets the stage, you can save yourself a lot of work later on by hitting the spot in the beginning; it is important. I've seen very lengthy comments and I've also seen very short blogs.

What is more important is that did your audience get it?

The general rule of thumb is quality instead of quantity. But how do you measure that quality, quality of what? Quality as attrativeness, or writing style, or clarity? I vote for clarity, doesn't matter what you write, how much or how little you write, the point has to get across and no subtleties. For whatever you share or write, there is a motive or reason behind it, it may be subtle, you may not realize it but there is always a cause. You don't have to explicitly state your cause but a good story with clear clarity will not make your audience guess. Sometimes quantity can help you get across that point you are trying to make.

As a reader, you may raise your eyebrow because you came across a shocking comment at first. Or you may question yourself because you saw a question. Or you just ease into the story because the author just tries to reel you in slowly. Anyhow, the point is doesn't matter how the story is written, and which cycle your author took you through, in the end, do you get it? Are you saying gotcha or huh?

Know what you are writing and choose what you are reading.

FIRST FLIGHT

31 OCTOBER 2013

NAVAL BASE VENTURA COUNTY PT. MUGU CALIFORNIA

WIND: 7 KNOTS - NORMAL

TEMPERATURE: 22 CELSIUS - NORMAL

LOCAL TIME - 1400

OPERATOR: AIRCRAFT PREP FOR TOWING

LOCAL TIME - 1415

MAINTAINER: AIRCRAFT ARRIVED LAUNCH SPOT, BLADES SPREAD, APPLY GROUND POWER FOR STATUS CHECK

LOCAL TIME - 1420

OPERATOR: REPORT AIRCRAFT STATUS

MAINTAINER: BATTERY CHECK, ENGINE CHECK, FUEL SYSTEM CHECK, COMM NEGATIVE, FLIGHT CONTROLS CHECK,  CHECK CHECK CHECK... TROUBLESHOOTING COMM RADIOS

OPERATOR: COMM RESTART AND CHECK STATUS

MAINTAINER: NEGATIVE

OPERATOR: REPLACE RADIOS AND CHECK STATUS

LOCAL TIME - 1445

MAINTAINER: COMM CHECK NORMAL

OPERATOR: HOLD ENGINE POWER, CHECK ALL PARAMETERS

LOCAL TIME - 1455

OPERATOR: ALL PARAMETERS NORMAL, APPLY FLIGHT POWER

LOCATL TIME - 1505

OPERATOR: ALL PARAMETERS CHECK, PREPARE FOR FLIGHT

LOCAL TIME - 1507

LAUNCH COMMAND APPLIED AND IT TOOK OFF

This moment is here, after 18 months of research and development, design and integration, testing and production. We are finally here, in the observation room, where there are a lot of computer screens providing live video of the aircraft and live information from the control room.

Up until 1455, everyone and every team is just gossiping, wondering if the aircraft will actually defy gravity or not or will it do something crazy that we didn't expect. To make the environment more humorous, some jokingly said it must be this or that problem. I said, oh it must be a software issue (a mechanical engineer always think problems come from software, we didn't need electricity and software back in the days).

As soon as 1505 hits and the operator announced prepare for flight, the room went silent. I can seriously hear everyone's heart beat, or maybe it is just my own beating so fast and hard. I couldn't wait for the landing skids to leave the earth, defy gravity and prove what Newton taught us.

It took off, it sure did as expected and there went a round of applause in the room. I didn't, I had a huge smile on my face and felt really warm inside. Some left the room not too long afterwards, but I stayed to make sure it actually lands. You want to make sure having a first flight should also have a first landing, or else you might make head news tomorrow on CNN.

Congratulations team, couldn't have done it without you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WW1s9Nqyd8

Passion vs. Interest

I usually have a pretty good idea of what I like to do, what I want to do and what is rewarding to me. Although I realize I have a dream that can never come true, but I certainly don't mind dreaming about it and wake up with a smile. I have dreams that I want to pursue but contingent upon opportunities like take a gap year and travel around the world, volunteer and help the poor and be an independent investor and do that for a living. I also have dreams that I am currently pursuing like learning new things, leading complex technology projects at work and developing myself a leader.

I don't want to be very technically correct about the terminology - dream. But inevitably, it has to be well defined and the following passage will help achieving my dream(s).

Jessica McGregor Johnson certainly put things into perspectives for me. She elegantly distinguished the difference between passion and interest, and explained how to integrate passion and interest to make something practical, useful and realistic out of it while maximizing the performance and quality of life.

A passion is something you can't live without. When it is missing from your life, you feel a hole and it nags way at you. You constantly wish that you were doing, living, being, or having it.

An interest rouses your curiosity. An interest is a more intellectual thing, something that you want to discover more about. It 'piques your interest'.

She provided a few examples of people merging their passion and interest and make careers out of it. Until I read her website, I know not how important things are for what I thought was important. I still can't believe what I read. It is a miracle and the opportunity of coming across it; this is incredible. I had a discussion with Jiayun earlier today about what to do, dream, passion, figuring things out and all that good stuff. Just as I thought of to search for something online to help her figure things out, I typed in the keywords "interest vs. career" on Google and Jessica's website is what popped up. I don't know why it is the second Google recommendation, it ought to be first! So trying to help someone ended up enlightening myself.

It will take some time to sort things out, writing down what are my passions and interests and figure out how to integrate them. Right now, here is a rough draft:

Soccer, music, being a leader, helping people and create things are my passions.

Investment, business ideas, tennis, table tennis and other sports, cooking, living in Shanghai and California are my interests.

I am not sure where I can place enginering and aviation, I need some time to think it through. Here is something I don't need to think through:

Jiayun is my passion because she is someone I can't live without, I want to part of, living with, being with and having her. She is also my interest because she has so much personality traits that interests me like intellectual, kind, warmhearted, smart, funny, silly and more things I want to explore about.

I love you, Jiayun and thank you for understanding me!

Think Outside the Box

Tom spent fifteen years as a flight test engineer and branch supervisor managing a team of thirty some people before he jumped the ladder and became a deputy director, he was a deputy director for ten years. It was a huge deal for him, and shocking news for his peers. He climbed the ladder the fastest he could've imagined, he became a senior pay grade engineer before age of 40. This is also a big deal in Government defense industry.

It seemed so perfect to him, his entire career is flight test or test and evaluation. He followed his passion enthusiastically, worked hard and got rewarded accordingly. Your dream job is never as perfect as you want it to be, there is always some of but this and but that. He reached his mid-late career at age of 47 and one day he told himself, I am stuck. He didn't want to do that same job for the rest of his career. He had his goal, he reached most of it but he is just a little shy from the final destination. More importantly, he wasn't as motivated and passionate about his job as before. He spent so much time in flight test, he planned out his career so perfectly structured and got stuck.

He told me he lived in three years of confusion, not knowing what to do with his career, not to mention he was also dealing with divorce issues at the same time. What kept him energized, motivated and optimistic is networking with other peers. When I meant other peers, its not just people who are ranked higher than him, I meant everyone and anyone. It could be people working for him, people working with him, people who he works for, people in Government and private industries; and countless technology and leadership conferences he attended.

I may have said this before, it is not about who you know, it is about who knows you. But your choice of people who you network is a science of itself. This is the first thing I learned from him, never belittle people who are more junior than you, or your peers. Desperate boss and leader want to be's just aim for big name people, don't blame them, they are hungry. But Tom told me firmly, these people will get stuck some day just I like did. I wasn't sure if he spoke from experience or just simply his natural wisdom. But that doesn't matter.

New graduates come every year for the most advanced technology, industry peers join every year looking to stabilize their retirement pension, and people who do internal transfer for career advancement. There is no accurate number to statistically quantity the average number of years for switching jobs. But I learned this general rule of thumb for large organizations, one month to get people to recognize you, six months to learn acronyms, one year to get an idea of what your job is, two years to stabilize your performance, three to four years to make a difference, and five to six years to become an expert. Why do I mention about the time frame, it is because technology changes faster than you can imagine, people's mindset, thinking and perspectives change as new generation shuffles back older generation. So it is not a bad idea to look around and keep options open.

So about every four to six years accounting for mid to large size organizations, it is highly recommended to diversify one's career. Now the magic question is how and what path to take. Everyone starts with a vague idea of what they want to. A five-year-old boy's biggest dream was to become superman. A twelve-year-old girl wanted to become a professional pianist. I wanted to become a professional soccer player. Teenagers who watched Top Gun tried to join the Navy and thought that they could become pilots but end up mopping floors. The point is we all have a dream and it is based on some past experience; but it will change with respect to time.

Tom's career in the first fifteen years is a great example of drawing a box around a career, paving inch-stones so structurally that when it hits the endpoint, opportunities are slim. Okay, fast forwarding to how Tom is doing now. Tom took two steps back in job rank and joined a totally different department. He used to direct his employees and making technical decisions and now he is making power point presentations briefing technical information. Within three years, he made two steps again back to his equivalent job rank. He didn't waste three years of his time, he made a very smart move opening up more options, it is very tough to do during mid-late career. We occasionally disagree on some subject matters on the professional level, but on a personal level, he is one of my mentor and he gives me very valuable suggestions. He also listens to my input as well.

There is no perfect way to get to the endpoint. Opportunities arise faster than you can figure things out. Tom's best advise for me is write down your interests, research about them, network and talk to related people about them, narrow things down and make a decision. But once you made a decision, never ever stop exploring, interviewing and networking - always keep your options open. When you do things you like and things that motivate you, very likely you will give your best and do a very good job, and hence the most beneficial learning curve. Climbing up the ladder to gain rank, moving horizontally to diversify, moving back down to appreciate the work, moving back up again to be a good leader, and this and that. Just keep your options open and do what is best for you.

Tom is who I find a true leader, he listens, he cares and he is very influential. I am sure he is onto some bigger objective, and he will get there.   

Moral Excellence

For a few days, I hesitated about calling Jiayun. I was disappointed at her and mad at her. Three days went by very slowly, it felt like three months or even longer. I miss her, I miss the happy moments that we shared, all I could think of during the three days is her quality personalities.

It was Thursday, a rainy and gloomy day with sever overcast and pouring rain. I stepped outside my workplace and dialed Jiayun's number. I punched in the numbers so naturally and fast, I wanted to call her and tell her I am sorry and ask for forgiveness.

I think this is the first time I asked Jiayun for forgiveness, at least that is what my memory holds. On the other side of the phone line was her sweet, gentle and loving voice. I don't know how she does it, it always melts me down. I apologized for the harsh words I used, and apologized for hurting her. I said I didn't mean it, and I apologized for my temper. I was uneasy about it for the past couple days for what I did. I was hoping she could forgive me and let me make it up to her. She tenderly responded "you are forgiven."

I make mistakes, but thank you for having faith in me. Thank you for understanding, respecting and supporting me. It is your moral excellence that touches my heart. On that note, I should have no reason not to cherish what we have currently. Our paths may be more difficult than others, but others may not be as eventful, loving and caring as ours. Let's continue to write our chapters, are you with me?   

Resume vs. Annual Assessment

It is this time of the year again, writing annual self assessment. It is due today before midnight. But from last week, everyone was using it as an excuse to claim themselves busy; it seemed like a big deal - our pay increase is dependent on it. How hard could it be right? I knew what I was going to write, it will probably take me a few hours, but I still started it last Monday to give myself ample time to finish. I finished it as planned, it took me an hour since I have more accomplishments this year to write about. I proof read it a few times to make sure it is all polished. Click, submit at US EST 1330 this afternoon :-)

I did very well last year, maybe it was because I wrote a fascinating assessment or just the fact that I accomplished so much. Also, I got rewarded fairly last year. I always had the intention to write more and more trying to claim more credits. I used to do that, and I fixed this bad habit last year, not to mention there is a 2000 character limit for assessment on each objective.

My evaluation system is composed of three objectives, it intends to cover different aspects of my work and attempts to evaluate me in a well-rounded manner. Leadership is my first objective trying to measure how well I managed my team and how effective the team's productivity is. Communication and horizontal integration is my second objective. You can ask five different people what that is and get eight different answers. In a nutshell, it tries to measure my ability to communicate with people and how well I manage technical issues and drive them to resolution. Third and last, the objective is personal development. I guess my organization wants to make sure I am not just doing a job, but at the same time, I am proactively enhancing my career through different means.

Kudos to me because I already built a template from last year. When I first wrote my assessment last year, I wrote it like a resume. I bulleted every single thing I worked on, things include a major project, a small project, talking to people, attending meetings, writing documents and etc. You usually realize how bad your stuff is after you write them, sounds familiar? After I was done, I barely read it through myself, it was so disorganized and sounded like I was ranting. I showed a friend of mine to get some feedback, his comment was "So what!" His comment shocked me, in a good way of course. He is right, who cares what I did, perhaps other people can do the same thing. Everyone can attend meetings, everyone can talk to people; but how well and what difference did I make?

After reading through countless self assessment examples and suggestions online, I came across this article that stated something that just hit the spot. Paraphrasing here, your boss wants to know what you did, curious about how you did it but really cares about its impact. This immediately led to my idea of the three-tier template.

Select all, and erase. I started from scratch again and I spent less than 10 minutes for each objective. I then went online and searched for some polishing words and tried to spice it up a little bit. I read it again, I asked my friend to read it again. It was smooth, well organized and made it sounds like I actually did something important.

Why can't we write a resume like that? I think resume serves a different purpose, it act as a quick "gotcha" for your readers just like a 15-second elevator speech. If you run into your director or vice president in the elevator and you only got 15 seconds, what would you say to impress them? A resume is supposed to send a few quick bullets of your accomplishments to the reader, and try to correlate as much as possible to the job itself. It is like a strobe light, a quick flash and catch someone's attention and save all the beautiful stories for later - interview.

But how? In my personal opinion, the choice of verbs and eliminate ambiguity of the subject (your work accomplished). Try to consider these four verbs: lead, developed, drafted and participated. If you were to rank them in terms of credibility, how would you rank them? I already ranked them in sequential order. I suggest to avoid ambiguous subjects which means do not allow your reader to think about what it is. "Developed a statement of work for investment plan." What kind of investment plan? Are you asking someone to invest a dollar or a million dollars? I think amplifying the scope of investment plan will earn you some positive points. For example, "developed a statement of work for a multi-million dollar advertisement investment plan and obtained excellent customer feedback."

Writing an annual assessment in my mind needs a different approach, it is suppose to capture a year worth of work, accomplishment and value. I find the three-tier template very useful - what I did, how I did it and its impact.

To summarize, resume is supposed to be concise, eye catching, simple and unambiguous where as annual assessment should be well structured, methodical, value based and should trace back to overarching organization goal.

My Understanding Evolution of God, Religion and Church

My uncle used to tell me, God created everything, God gives us knowledge and strength and God has a plan for us. This was many many moons ago, 16 years ago if I remember correctly. This was when I first came to the states, I was 12, everything was so hazy to me. As a naughty boy I was, I responded "Well, it sort of conflicts with what I saw at the National History Museum."

My family including my parents will bug me here and there from time to time about going to Church. I occasionally tried to be obedient so I can get my demands in return. Maybe it is my ADD syndrome, something else would catch my attention during the service or I would fall asleep like I do in classrooms. Maybe the message they were trying to convey is not something I can comprehend, or just yet. The statements usually start with God this, God that. If the sentence doesn't have the word God in it at least once, they probably think that they are not doing their job. I have to be frank, their messages were provocative to me. It caused moments of anger, moments of not wanting to reconcile, and moments of rejections.

As I went through my high school and college education, I am more exposed to the society, new people, diverse culture, and different sources of education. Everyday is a learning day, learning all sorts of things about knowledge that interests me, people, history, math and science, sports, and art etc.. I have good friends who believe in God and they practice different religions. We don't really talk about it, but when we do, it would remind you of a heated debate. I actually don't have much to offer to that conversation, I can't disapprove anything they say because I still have doubts, nor that they can convince me.

I was a proud and arrogant person in college. I was selective on what I want to hear and what I want to learn. I always feel like I have the power to do things, control the process and get the results I wanted. It isn't until a few years ago that I realize how do I know what I wanted is really what I want. I had a path laid out for myself after college, or I should say a path that other people took thatI should follow the same. Was it really my choice?

Having a life with a professional career changed my life. It changed how I view things, how I think and my value system. At times, I felt devastated that my powers are limited, I can't get the results I wanted and I have to try so hard to succeed - a lot harder than I used to try. There wasn't a specific click or turning point, I guess through time, my ego and pride had gone out the window and sailed. I concluded one thing, devastation and anxiety is because I don't know enough about anything and everything. I looked up into the sky, I know not what is out there. I read the book Apollo, how do I really believe the fact that we sent humans to the moon? I decided to remain humble, maybe God did create everything. Let's call him God for now so people don't think I made up another name for. This was probably 4 or 5 years ago, from then on, I do not exclude new information, I try to reconcile, and I challenge my comfort zone. The first 10 years or so I spent in the states was an evolution that nurtured my value system.

If you remember Jefferson Bethke's spoken words of "Why I hate religion but love Jesus", it shocked the entire social media in matter of hours - millions of hits on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. As religious as he is, he used such strong words to distinguish between God, religion and church. "Because if grace is water, then the church should be an ocean, it's not a museum for good people, it's a hospital for the broken." This is just one of the many meaningful notes that hit the spot. He really puts God, religion and church into perspective, at least it did for me.

I am really grateful of what I have today because I know if I am without any of them, my life will not be the same. But if I did lose what I have today, I would be content because I know things could be worse. I have overcome many challenges, and I am sure there are more to come. I do not see them as obstacles, I see them as milestones I need to go through to reach my goals. I remain positive and optimistic about my future, because life is a path that everyone has to walk, it just depends on how one walks it. There will be a lot of other paths joining in, and so will there be paths branching off. When I look down, I see the path that I am walking on, when I look up, I see my dreams. My value system is being nurtured and refined, and I am slowly establishing my faith.

So where did I get these perspectives about life? I have faith? Where did it come from? I would like to emphasize that the keyword here is life. I think a person's faith yields that person's life. Maybe faith doesn't just have to do with life, maybe it deals with something beyond life - I don't know. For me, it had been a collective and comprehensive evolution, I am not saying these will always be my perspectives, but my faith in life is a continuing evolution.

So going back to Bethke's words, what is God, religion and church? The subject that ties everything together, I think, is faith. Religion and church are created by human beings. Why? Religion is humans' understanding God's creation, at least we tried to; that is why we have so many different religions. I am sure if you put a Christian, a Catholic, a Jew all in one room and locked the door, it may not just be a heated debate. According to Bethke, church is just a broken hospital for clueless people seeking guidance in life. Everyone comes to church is at a different stage of their lives, thus their level of faith is different. I agree! Some people are assholes from Mondays through Saturdays and they act so holy on Sundays. Quit putting a fake mask on. Watch out!

I have not been baptized yet, it is insignificant to me, at least right now. I believe or don't believe in God, I don't know. There is no rush to know. When the time is right, it will turn itself out. I learn different things everyday and my faith is being refined, hopefully for the better.

Work to Live or Live to Work

Emails flying in, office phone ringing, cell phone ringing and some annoying coworker's voice quacking next to you. Does that sound familiar?

The display only shows temperature in Celsius, "we need Fahrenheit or we can't authorize this!" My boss shouted "Oh for god's sake, you are a freaking engineer, use your iPhone or do the math, multiple by 9/5 and plus 32."

The last thing you want to solve is how to convert temperatures and some dumbass demands a 'specialized tool'. And that's also the last thing you would want to tell your boss that you have an engineering degree but you can't do math.

Well that was Thursday, more problems arise and no one gets a day off today. I swear I woke up this morning expecting to have brunch at a local cafe.

What I learned is there are always problems, some belong to you and some belong to others and some don't even matter. Tip: never think all problems belong to you.

If you let work stress you out, I am sorry to tell you that you lost to your job, you didn't succeed. If you solve what you can and know how to set things aside, and know how to keep a positive attitude even during overtime and no matter how tedious the problem is, you have won the battle and you smile when you leave that door because you are about to enjoy life.

How tedious can what your boss ask you to do is? Stapling papers? Plan a meeting to talk about how to run another meeting more efficiently? Reviewing a document that you know an updated version is coming out tomorrow? Or someone can't do simple elementary school math and you have to figure out how to tell him he is so stupid in an educated way.

Whatever, it doesn't matter, what matters is weekend is here and my sports car is waiting for me outside!

Don't let your work rule over you, if you learned something today to help your career, congratulations, you succeeded, now take that paycheck and enjoy your life!

Two Years of Darkness

I crawled out of the field, couldn't even stand on one leg because there was so much pain. It reminds me of Beckham back in 2006 World Cup where he got subbed off during the game due to a knee injury, he teared and threw his boots at the floor with anger, despair and hopelessness. It seems like he knew his time is up. Not so long afterwards, he gave up his captain armband.

The doctor told me you can't play for six months, and recovery can take up to another six months. I didn't know how to take it, I feel handicapped. It feels like I can't walk anymore and I teared. Another year of injury followed, I almost gave up on it. But I keep training, pushing the limit and now I am back! I feel fine and the game is back.

I want to say goodbye to darkness that clouded me for two years.

Leaders

I've always wanted to be a leader. I am sure you have as well, like so spontaneously say "I want to lead, I want to be a leader!" But how?

For the longest time, I didn't know what it takes to be a leader. Well, I thought I knew. One thing I know is a leader makes a difference, regardless of its size, measure and influence. Big leaders make big influences that you will see on social media, small leaders make smaller influences but it doesn't mean they are subtle and should be neglected.

What about a good leader? In my opinion, that is when your subordinates believe in you! Also, they are able to create opportunities. They don't tell you what to do or how to do, they make you think about what to do and make you believe in it.

How to Save Yourself from Procrastination

Have you ever feel like you did nothing for days and the productivity was absolutely low? Don't lie, I am sure everyone has. I have as well.

I sat in front of a computer, browse YouTube for hours, ate junk food instead of cooking, can't go outside because my hair is puffy, too lazy to dress because I feel too comfortable being in boxers, can't tell what time it is because blinds are shut and I can't find my watch.

So day 1, day 2 and so on. After so long, I've done nothing, but I will ask myself what did I do because I did do something, just I feel like I did nothing.

If you get to that stage, please pick up a pen and a piece of paper and start writing. Write what you did and what went through your mind. You just saved yourself from procrastination, because first you did do something now, and I am sure if you read what you wrote later on, I bet you you won't do this again!

Me

People are created with who they are, what they like, how they feel, what they think and how they act.

If I take a note on that, then I am the composition of soccer, Chinese, English, guitar, blogs, procrastinator, airplanes, cars, Washington DC, engineer, table tennis, spicy food, writing, freedom of speech, dating girls, sports car, water, rivers, red leaves, fall, snow and blah blah blah...

If you notice these are all nouns. If you don't know me, can you tell who I am? If you know me already, can you throw some adjectives to describe me? And if you really know me, can you see what I am composed with?