Season’s Greetings! Time flies and this month will be the end of 2011, maybe you have got insurance agents before, but you thought they are either a salesman or a better-than-salesman professional consultant, so you might be a little bit surprise to receive a personal letter from me.
In truth, I wrote to my clients and friends annually, these letters are not any kind of financial product promotion, nor requesting for referral, but a summary of a year from multiple perspective range from business, world events, health care, children education, relationship, and family to personal opinion.
With the newly joined company – Orange Sky Golden Harvest, my clients number have greatly increased to roughly 300 (the number of Sparta if you have seen the movie, I can almost shout: THIS IS MADNESS! haha), they (you) ranged from business owners, CEO, GM, financial controller of your company, general staffs, housewives, single mother, young ladies, family man, relative, friends, old friends, classmates from Hong Kong, classmates from England, even a woman not capable to read this letter due to lack of education (I helped her to obtain MPF after her retirement in August) and more.
This is one of the reason why I enjoyed this job, that I am able to meet different layers of people in the society, though we are different in terms of race, age, gender, language, religion, belief, political view, education, social status, background, interest, point of view, to me regardless all the difference, the desire of human nature has never been changed in our entire history.
Since the beginning, we were born to desire with the pretty much same thing, food, protection, cares, attentions and sense of belongings, when we grew up, woman hope to attract man that is capable to provide her needs, family, protection, love, while man might look for woman can carry his healthy offspring.
Back in the stone age, cave men fought over cave women physically, and for those women who are attractive and beautiful, they always having trouble to make the right decision who should they rely on, that able to please her and provide her every needs; when a couple get married, the man hope to join a tribe, that can show his ability to hunt, influence and power, also provide protection for his family, as well as earn respect among the rest.
In modern time, the packaging have changed, men might not fight over women literally, but we compete through skills, wealth, social status; we do not join tribes anymore, instead we look for career, jobs, company, corp., even various kinds of social clubs, religious groups, politic parties that can benefit ourselves and our family.
When we have children, we hope our children able to survive in the society, be a decent being, contribute to the society, and so get them the best education we can afford. And when we become old, we want to have good retirement life, and then the generation has served its purpose, either good or bad.
Our society is like iPhone, it seems that iPhone have upgraded from 3 to 4, from 4 to 4GS, but the core value always reminds the same, and so is our nature.
The Globe
After the economic crisis in 2008 due to the US credibility problem,
this year we have a new “victim” - Europe, although the US creditability
rating has been deduced, US market is not the major concern anymore,
people are more worry about the debt few European countries are holding,
and they even discussed the possibility of the end of Euro.
To me I never find it a problem, you got to have faith, faith in things that move forwarded cannot be reserved, when you think about how hard it is to get back with your ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend, esp. after you have married, it is how hard the Europe can return to the point when single currency do not exist. Like every financial crisis, not matter how big the public and "professional" (their advices are mostly useless) perceive the problem is, it will eventually go away. It happened in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2008 and now 2011.
In fact I have been keep buying my company stock Manulife (HKG: 945) in the last couple months when the market is full of bad news, if you do not have faith in the future, you might as well just die right here right now, because a life without hope is barely a life, besides, life is a cycle, so is the financial world. Keep that in mind so you don’t have to come bugger me every times your MPF or funds do not perform well.
To me I never find it a problem, you got to have faith, faith in things that move forwarded cannot be reserved, when you think about how hard it is to get back with your ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend, esp. after you have married, it is how hard the Europe can return to the point when single currency do not exist. Like every financial crisis, not matter how big the public and "professional" (their advices are mostly useless) perceive the problem is, it will eventually go away. It happened in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2008 and now 2011.
In fact I have been keep buying my company stock Manulife (HKG: 945) in the last couple months when the market is full of bad news, if you do not have faith in the future, you might as well just die right here right now, because a life without hope is barely a life, besides, life is a cycle, so is the financial world. Keep that in mind so you don’t have to come bugger me every times your MPF or funds do not perform well.
Another big thing happened in 2011 is the death of the I.T. giant -
Steve Jobs, I am not a big fan of apple product, and still have not own a
single i-Product yet, but my artistic genes in my blood urged me
brought his biography and finished reading it within 1 week. Apart from
his mostly known motto: stay hunger, stay foolish! I have learnt 2
things in his life.
Pay attention to details: as the CEO and founder of an international corporation, the degree of details he pay attention to is insane, maybe over-the-line for many people, the things he care about ranged from the precise curve angel of the iPhone, to the setup of the sound system for his presentation. Many people believe if you are a big man, it is not important to care about the details, they say let the little men and women care about the details! They also claim, we the big guys, we only deal with the big business.
The reality turns out not to favor those who think that way, if a staff cannot handle little jobs, his boss won’t let him/her handle big project; if a fund manager cannot turn $1 into $2, mostly likely he cannot turn $1 million into $2 million; if a salesman cannot be serious about a small deal, no one want to discuss big deals with him. From various people I have met in my career life, I am pretty confident to say those who succeed in what they are doing; they always pay attention to fine details, so if you want to become successful in what you are doing, pay attention to details too.
Be focus and concentrate: before Steve Jobs, no one believes a single product (or idea should I say?) can beat multiple products, people believe in variety, choose, options, diversity, esp. in Hong Kong. The mainstream educates us (even my company): diversify! Do not put all the eggs into one basket.
The truth is, you can never succeed in what you do if you are not focus, look at all the great people you cannot find a single one who do not concentrate in his expertise, can you imagine Michael Jackson sing some pop song today, and go become a basketball player tomorrow? Vice vise I am sure we will have trouble imaging Michael Jordon trying to hold a music concert between his NBA careers.
Steve put all his resources into developing iPhone, iMac, iBook, iPod, while his competitors trying to do TV, mobile, computer, server, hi-fi all at the same time. His colleagues might have said to him: Steve, you are taking too much risk putting all your energy onto a single thing, you should diversify! I am glad he didn’t listen, so a better advice than diversify is given by the famous investor Warren Buffett: put all your eggs into the strongest basket, and then watch it carefully! Meaning: do what you good at, and then stick with it.
Hong Kong
You can only hear three things in Hong Kong consistently, money,
politics and complains, which I hold no interest in all of them, however
whoever I met, if he/she is still single, I always suggest they find
someone and get marry; if he/she already got married, I always suggest
they should have children; if he/she is a foreigner, I always suggest
they go apply for Hong Kong citizen. And in most case, after becoming HK
citizen, you can still keep your original citizenship; Manulife Hong
Kong’s CEO Michael Huddart, whom is an Australian born British has also
become a permanent resident of Hong Kong this year, top management
always know where all the goodies are, so I guess it must have a lot of
benefit to become one, haha.
Hong Kong is almost tax-free, if you have been working in other country, for example UK, the government charge you at least 30% for income tax, since Hong Kong has no army, thus no military expense, yet the freedom and safety we can enjoy is among one of the best cities in the world, I truly do not understand why some of the Hong Kong citizen still complain they lack of “freedom” and “democracy”, maybe they should go out and see more of the world and realize Hong Kong is so light-weight in everything.
The hottest topic of this year in Hong Kong is: who is the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong? But I don’t want to discuss that here, because who becomes the CEO of Hong Kong really doesn’t matter that much to me. I think most people cannot do well in their life is because they place their attention onto things like: who is the hottest singer? Who are the actors dating? Or which politician has spoken something stupid again? In fact knowing all this can never make your life better.
Put your attentions onto things that matters to you, your health, your family and your job. Those discussions should belong to the happy hours every Friday when you are with your friends. Never-the-less, more options will appear, next year all employee will able to pick their MPF service provider freely, more details will be update to you once the government policy has been confirmed.
The inflation is also a problem to us all, the inflation rate is reached as high as 6.5% this year, much more than what I have been taught in financial planning training, and they told me to assume inflation rate as 3%! It is never a bad thing to doubt everything you were taught in school.
Inflation increase hit us in all daily aspect, if your monthly salary is below $50k, your impact will be larger than those who earn higher than this water mark. If unfortunately you are having a bad luck, for example got sick, then I will be more worry since the latest government report show the medical expense has also increased greatly, they might consider setup mandatory medical insurance like MPF for retirement.
My mother told me when I was born (in 1982), she only needs to pay $150 to the hospital for everything, after 29 years, the expense on laboring might become as expensive as $50,000, I am afraid when I have my children, the medical expense will become as expensive as a flat.
Pay attention to details: as the CEO and founder of an international corporation, the degree of details he pay attention to is insane, maybe over-the-line for many people, the things he care about ranged from the precise curve angel of the iPhone, to the setup of the sound system for his presentation. Many people believe if you are a big man, it is not important to care about the details, they say let the little men and women care about the details! They also claim, we the big guys, we only deal with the big business.
The reality turns out not to favor those who think that way, if a staff cannot handle little jobs, his boss won’t let him/her handle big project; if a fund manager cannot turn $1 into $2, mostly likely he cannot turn $1 million into $2 million; if a salesman cannot be serious about a small deal, no one want to discuss big deals with him. From various people I have met in my career life, I am pretty confident to say those who succeed in what they are doing; they always pay attention to fine details, so if you want to become successful in what you are doing, pay attention to details too.
Be focus and concentrate: before Steve Jobs, no one believes a single product (or idea should I say?) can beat multiple products, people believe in variety, choose, options, diversity, esp. in Hong Kong. The mainstream educates us (even my company): diversify! Do not put all the eggs into one basket.
The truth is, you can never succeed in what you do if you are not focus, look at all the great people you cannot find a single one who do not concentrate in his expertise, can you imagine Michael Jackson sing some pop song today, and go become a basketball player tomorrow? Vice vise I am sure we will have trouble imaging Michael Jordon trying to hold a music concert between his NBA careers.
Steve put all his resources into developing iPhone, iMac, iBook, iPod, while his competitors trying to do TV, mobile, computer, server, hi-fi all at the same time. His colleagues might have said to him: Steve, you are taking too much risk putting all your energy onto a single thing, you should diversify! I am glad he didn’t listen, so a better advice than diversify is given by the famous investor Warren Buffett: put all your eggs into the strongest basket, and then watch it carefully! Meaning: do what you good at, and then stick with it.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is almost tax-free, if you have been working in other country, for example UK, the government charge you at least 30% for income tax, since Hong Kong has no army, thus no military expense, yet the freedom and safety we can enjoy is among one of the best cities in the world, I truly do not understand why some of the Hong Kong citizen still complain they lack of “freedom” and “democracy”, maybe they should go out and see more of the world and realize Hong Kong is so light-weight in everything.
The hottest topic of this year in Hong Kong is: who is the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong? But I don’t want to discuss that here, because who becomes the CEO of Hong Kong really doesn’t matter that much to me. I think most people cannot do well in their life is because they place their attention onto things like: who is the hottest singer? Who are the actors dating? Or which politician has spoken something stupid again? In fact knowing all this can never make your life better.
Put your attentions onto things that matters to you, your health, your family and your job. Those discussions should belong to the happy hours every Friday when you are with your friends. Never-the-less, more options will appear, next year all employee will able to pick their MPF service provider freely, more details will be update to you once the government policy has been confirmed.
The inflation is also a problem to us all, the inflation rate is reached as high as 6.5% this year, much more than what I have been taught in financial planning training, and they told me to assume inflation rate as 3%! It is never a bad thing to doubt everything you were taught in school.
Inflation increase hit us in all daily aspect, if your monthly salary is below $50k, your impact will be larger than those who earn higher than this water mark. If unfortunately you are having a bad luck, for example got sick, then I will be more worry since the latest government report show the medical expense has also increased greatly, they might consider setup mandatory medical insurance like MPF for retirement.
My mother told me when I was born (in 1982), she only needs to pay $150 to the hospital for everything, after 29 years, the expense on laboring might become as expensive as $50,000, I am afraid when I have my children, the medical expense will become as expensive as a flat.
My Clients
Most of you are doing very well, esp. my corp. clients. Turkish Airlines
is doing exceptionally well, Their Hong Kong office have expanded
almost triple in a single year, which is always a good sign. Globally
they have won multiple awards in 2011, which are
- Market Leadership Award - Air Transport World
- World’s Best Airline Europe - Skytrax
- World’s Best Airlines South Europe - Skytrax
- World’s Best Premium Economy Seat - Skytrax
- Best food onboard - Skyscanner
this link: http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-hk/
Or check out their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/turkishairlines
Please help me keep it that way, by any chance any of you bump into a very low tide of your life, and you become so depress that even suicide thoughts have come across your mind, (esp. those who have history of mental disorder and depression), do contact me first before doing that, because I won’t let your stupid thoughts spoil my career record, remember that :)
My Job
Under this condition I have asked him to assign myself as his MPF agent, this little action makes me re-think the value of insurance agency, since this is one of the best scenario to assess the necessity of existence of agents in this business, nowadays we have internet, banks, hotline service, brokers, insurance agents almost seems like an old sport no one pay attention to. No one want to waste our life in things that does not matter, so I asked myself, under this circumstances, what I can offer to my old friend to make the assignation make a different.
At the end of the day, the answers come clear; it is the relationship
that holds the highest value among all, there are too many professional
own better insurance knowledge than me, investment advisors is more
intelligent, salesman with better selling skill, yet they can never
replace the relationship I already established with my clients and
friends.
That is important because human might need knowledge, professional advice and service, yet above more we desire good relationship between another human, people that can understand and concern, sometimes you hear women complain why they marry a man who is stupid, lazy with 10 thousands different shortcoming, but they do not regret, because deeply they know that man care about her more than rest of the men in the world, and that what is the most important thing. The name of the “game” of human relationship is: who care more?
Now do not be worry I will behave stupid and lazy, in business good relationship isn’t enough, because you need to solve people’s problem, though like Manulife’s slogan: Caring and Professional, caring always come first. This incident has reinforced the value of my job even more, neglect whether what I am going to face in the future, from no money service to a multi-dollar contract, the core value will always be the same for me.
Personal highlight
I tried to avoid it as much as I can, but I finally need to visit dentist this year, to re-do my canal treatment for one of my teeth, it cost me a big $18,400, but I have no insurance coverage for dental. I cannot help myself keep thinking on the dentist chair, why I did not listen to my mother brushing my teeth regularly, and why I listen to my father did that canal treatment in China because it is much cheaper over there (only $1000). Yet it turns out the dentist in China did such a bad job they only remove one of the three nerves out of my teeth, now the dentist in Hong Kong need to re-drill the fillings, re-do everything, and later will put a crown to make the treatment permanently.
Now I have to suffer twice because I did not take good care of myself, and because I ignore the importance of quality. It is always a good thing to keep health and never get sick, but if you do, quality is always important.
However the good news is I am getting better and better with my job, soon turn to 30 years old, traditional Chinese saying: when a man at his 20, he can still be confuse about his life, when he approaches his 30, he should already able to find a clear path and direction for his life, so when he turns 40, things should go very well there should not be anything to worry.
I would not consider myself as an optimist, actually I like to look at things from a slightly pessimistic point of view, since life is full of disappointment in many ways, it is always unwise to put one’s hope and expectation too high.
The following conclusion might not fit the expectation of the majority understanding to my business here (financial planning), many thinks I go around and ask people to plan this and that, buy this and that, which they get from many financial corp. advertising campaign.
The truth is I never believe in planning myself, from days to days people cannot expect what can happens in the future, the more mankind try to gain control of our future, and think we have succeed, the more future use different kind of events to surprise us.
What I believe is life is like a movie, you can never know what will come next, but if play your current role to the best, people will love to give you more important role in the next movie, and then good things will happen to your life.
Last but not least, wish you all will have a nice and warm holiday with your friends and family. I will see you in 2012, when I was a kid, I was told by some highly intelligent professors, there should be flying cars invented by then, obviously I was cheated, or should I say they have planned the world very badly :)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Yim Tien Ho Calvin
Christmas, 2011
That is important because human might need knowledge, professional advice and service, yet above more we desire good relationship between another human, people that can understand and concern, sometimes you hear women complain why they marry a man who is stupid, lazy with 10 thousands different shortcoming, but they do not regret, because deeply they know that man care about her more than rest of the men in the world, and that what is the most important thing. The name of the “game” of human relationship is: who care more?
Now do not be worry I will behave stupid and lazy, in business good relationship isn’t enough, because you need to solve people’s problem, though like Manulife’s slogan: Caring and Professional, caring always come first. This incident has reinforced the value of my job even more, neglect whether what I am going to face in the future, from no money service to a multi-dollar contract, the core value will always be the same for me.
Personal highlight
I tried to avoid it as much as I can, but I finally need to visit dentist this year, to re-do my canal treatment for one of my teeth, it cost me a big $18,400, but I have no insurance coverage for dental. I cannot help myself keep thinking on the dentist chair, why I did not listen to my mother brushing my teeth regularly, and why I listen to my father did that canal treatment in China because it is much cheaper over there (only $1000). Yet it turns out the dentist in China did such a bad job they only remove one of the three nerves out of my teeth, now the dentist in Hong Kong need to re-drill the fillings, re-do everything, and later will put a crown to make the treatment permanently.
Now I have to suffer twice because I did not take good care of myself, and because I ignore the importance of quality. It is always a good thing to keep health and never get sick, but if you do, quality is always important.
However the good news is I am getting better and better with my job, soon turn to 30 years old, traditional Chinese saying: when a man at his 20, he can still be confuse about his life, when he approaches his 30, he should already able to find a clear path and direction for his life, so when he turns 40, things should go very well there should not be anything to worry.
I would not consider myself as an optimist, actually I like to look at things from a slightly pessimistic point of view, since life is full of disappointment in many ways, it is always unwise to put one’s hope and expectation too high.
The following conclusion might not fit the expectation of the majority understanding to my business here (financial planning), many thinks I go around and ask people to plan this and that, buy this and that, which they get from many financial corp. advertising campaign.
The truth is I never believe in planning myself, from days to days people cannot expect what can happens in the future, the more mankind try to gain control of our future, and think we have succeed, the more future use different kind of events to surprise us.
What I believe is life is like a movie, you can never know what will come next, but if play your current role to the best, people will love to give you more important role in the next movie, and then good things will happen to your life.
Last but not least, wish you all will have a nice and warm holiday with your friends and family. I will see you in 2012, when I was a kid, I was told by some highly intelligent professors, there should be flying cars invented by then, obviously I was cheated, or should I say they have planned the world very badly :)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Yim Tien Ho Calvin
Christmas, 2011
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