Pic note: Welcome Today

from “workisnotajob” website

Tax Season… wheww!

tax season again… and it’s been so hard… lots of new accounting standards and policies… lots of new requirements… lots of pressure from regulatory bodies… shortage of staff… and for me, lack of staff… wheeww! … but the good problem is, we got lots of clients too… weeee! but got to be very very careful, this is serious work, and we are in assurance business, we need to assure our clients and at the same time, the regulatory bodies! We are running out of time till april 15 and there are lot more to review!

haayyy… by the way new office too! nice!
Mabuhay ang SVS… Santos Verde San Juan, CPAs!

Bazaar….

We joined a 2-day bazaar this weekend at the World Trade Center. While we are a “seasoned” retailer (at Star City), this is the 1st time that we tried short-term bazaar. It was tiring but good learning experience. The sales is not as expected (it was the day that Paquiao had a fight and the people all stayed near their TV)… but we created a lot of network and it opened doors of opportunity to our business. I met a lot of young entrepreneur and saw their zest and enthusiasm. I met a veteran entrepreneur and learned from her experience and tips. It was a good experience, that we started to ask around for the next one…

“Hard Times Make a Boy Dream”

“Hard times make a boy dream”… the quote that is the most vivid in my mind from the speech of our Boss during the opening of our 50th Puregold store (Cubao)… This is the first time that the Boss spoke to the public, that is, just so to keep up with his promise (to speak on the 50th store)… Actually he made a promise thinking that 50 is a long shot. But he (we) did it after only 9 years since we started the expansion in 2001 for our 2nd store in Tayuman. I’m kinda proud, I was there (and still am) to help.

“Hard times make a boy dream”: The message actually is: “there is hope, just dream” but behind that “there should be perseverance and right choices.” I was moved by his speech (kahit halata kabado). I believe that inspite of his “flaws” and his “moods”, he is a simple man with great dreams and aspiration! He is a leader that inspire us to move and dream further for our next 50 stores! Hope I will still be around to hear his next speech that will happen again on the 100th store.

Busy Season!

A time in a year on its first quarter before April 15….
Time suddenly became short and insufficient…

But this is the best time:
to learn (again), to think and analyze,
to improvise and be creative…
to calibrate memory and not forget whose issue goes to what client…
to realize why every minute is precious…
to grow with friends and partners and knowing we can rely on each other…
to impart knowledge to staff and learn also in the process.. and…
to drink more coffee, skip dinner (and bath?),
to sleep (or try not to sleep) on chairs….
to keep oneself sane and calm… until the 15th!

At the end of much dreaded deadline (but also awaited because the agony and stress will end by that time!)…. nice to say….ahhh…what a relief!

What’s the point…

That being subtle and courteous doesn’t pay off if you want to drive a point intensely.
However, putting raw emotions on written arguments also doesn’t pay-off.
But at the end of the day, summarizing it, being decent and professional is still the whole point.

…Just a piece of thought after an emotionally-drained moment at work.

T&I: The Longest Way is a Short-Cut

One of the most common obstacles to success is to cut corners. But short-cut never pays off in the long run. Let us try these valuable tips and insights:
1. Don’t give in to your mood or impulses, you need to change your approach to doing things.
2. Refrain from “fast-breaking,” because quality is sacrificed in the process.
3. Avoid cutting corners. It is really a sign of impatience and poor self-discipline.
4. Follow through… you can achieve a breakthrough.
5. Set up standard for yourself that require accountability.
6. Once you have standards in place, work according to them, not your moods.
7. Stay on track and keep focused. That will get you going in the right direction.
8. Self-discipline is a quality that is won through practice.

Remember, effort and time are wasted if you have to do things all over again
because you have not tried to do it right on the first time.

-From John C Maxwell’s “Failing Forward” and Katrina M’s Journal…..

Demented Week!

We can’t have it all! We can’t be “lucky” all the time…:)
While last week was a “Colorful Week,” this week was a “Demented Week”…. well I am not complaining… Because I know “this too shall pass…”
Rather than enumerating what happened, I’ll just recap here my feelings and thoughts (good or bad–sensya na) and the lessons and insights I’ve learned out from it (and that’s the important part naman!)
People can be so mean just to make sure that they look good to the management.
Professionalism speaks many language and has many perspective
“you should be on top of the situation!” has suddenly become a tagline of people who actually are not on “top” but want to impress that they are! Huh!
siya na nga! “know-it-all” and “blamelessly perfect” people annoy me so much….
Remorse is not their trait….
two big words for the week: accountability and accounting…

Well, life must go on…
Inspite of it all, I am keeping my values and I am still “intact” and not “losing” myself.
My first instinct is to fight back, but restrained myself, if I’ll do that, I will just put myself to their “level,” and because that was not the right thing to do
for the sake of my people who are working hard for the projects, I just have to be more “loud” about it. Just blowing the horn here and there. I owe it to them!
just have to learn the lessons out of it and improve!
I still believe that the world still belong to few people who are WILLING to make their hands dirty! (click here)

I will not allow this week to be uneventful… I am still grateful for good graces and blessings that came my way this week!
Opportunity to give lectures to new staff
Have fun in our badminton night with friends and staff
Reading good books this week, of course including Bible…
A chance to attend Gung Ho seminar again, this time as a judge and had fun (again)
Am happy to give up a book “What so Amazing About Grace” to a wonderful person, Bro Jojo Baldo (I really wanted to give him “The Shack” by Paul WM Young, but can’t find one at National’s)
Getting ready for the teambuilding next week, me as a team captain for blue team…
And my week will be capped-off by a nice family outing tomorrow. yeheyy!!…

Demented!

But why should I be affected?!
I just have to steer away from this kind of people who sucks the good things out of me…
I will not be dragged to their level… as I will not allow it…
Demented as I am right now,
I will still resolve to continue to live in my values of what’s right and what’s good…

T&I: The Blame Game

When things go wrong, the natural tendency is to look for someone to blame. You can go all the way back to Garden of Eden on this one…. When God asked Adam why he’d done it, he said it was Eve’s fault. Then God questioned Eve, she blamed it on the snake. The same thing happens today.

The next time you experience a failure, think about what you failed instead of who was at fault. Try to look at it objectively so that you can do better next time. Ask yourself:
• What lessons have I learned?
• How can I turn the failure into success?
• Where did I succeed as well as fail?

People who blame others for their failures never overcome them. They simply move from problem to problem. To reach your potentials, you must continually improve yourself, and you can’t do that if you don’t take responsibility for their actions and learn from your mistakes.

— Your Road Map to Success, John Maxwell

While our Audit motto (daw) is “Bawal Magkamali”…. Let us just take that as our GOAL and add this in parenthetical note: (“Pero pag nagkamali… bawal magkamaling hindi akuin ang pagkakamali kung mali talaga”)

Most importantly…. “If you fail… make sure to Fail Forward”

The Audit Star Awards!

I have commended some of our promising auditors who showed efforts beyond what were expected, and I made a powerpoint presentation shown in our Christmas Party.

That was only “short-listed” into 6 auditors, but I can actually think of many award categories and match them to too many auditors. As I can also think of an Auditor and can attribute him/her with several winning categories….. I know that this rare awarding ceremony will stir some emotions (both negative and positive) to all of almost 100 auditors there, but I plunged into it believing (actually hoping) that everybody will get inspired from these bunch of Star Awardees.

I know they will agree with me on the commendation of these 6 auditors and share with them their joy of accepting the “star awards.” I know that there are lot of people, especially their mentors, who are very proud for them. I want to congratulate them, too!

In the end, I really commend everyone, as this batch of auditors is just a bunch of great, deserving, persevering auditors!

see this:
2009 awarding2

These Are the Days….

My greatest appreciation to my staff and colleagues at Audit Department. Life and work wouldn’t have been so engaging, rewarding and “easy” without the enthusiasm, commitment, motivation of these people. I have learned a lot from this bunch and I hope that I was able to inspire them too. Our moments of working, planning, achieving and playing together deserves this video clip I made:

These are the Days, by Natalie Merchant.

101 Minus 8th and 9th – About Finances

Goal No. 79: Invest more on Mutual Fund
Have been thinking about a lot of things and one of them is about savings for the future. I have learned a lot (or I mean I put it in my hard brain again what I knew all along) about finances and future. I resolved that I have to have a constant thoughts about saving rather than spending. If I don’t usually flinch in spending for something, I should adopt the same attitude about putting them in safe saving. “Safe’ means I should not be able to retrieve it easily and without undue and dire reason. So, I am into Mutual Fund thing. I made sure that every month or everytime there’s unexpected receipt (like Lola Baby’s gift to Aliya and insurance proceeds), I put it into Mutual Fund. I have now also developed the habit of looking at the value of my investment everyday. Well, glad to say, that it is truly growing.

(Hey, it is also in mutual fund where I put the committed $20 or P500 saving for every goal accomplished here in 101)

Goal No. 84: Decide on the Old Insurance Plan (to Keep or Withdraw)
I made costly mistake by not being so conscious about the investments I made in the past. And now I have to decide whether to straigthen this up and continue with the policy or to recoup what’s left and cut further losses. I made honest assessment about my future intentions and capability if I will choose to continue it, and I have to be realistic… this will again become my least priority. So, I decided to withdraw whatever cash surrender value left from it (after deducting the interest accrued from the unpaid premium). I just console myself that if I will further delay my decision, the cash value will further diminish. So, I pulled it out and will put it in Mutual Fund.

Done October 22, 2009

Moving Forward on my 101….

#79: keeps on the habit of investing in mutual fund, (I have received 10k gift of Lola Baby to Aliya and it all goes to mutual fund, 5k goes to car registration)
#84: have finally decided to pull-out Jolo’s plan so not to diminish its value further (I will just put it in mutual fund)
#87: be more aware of financial matters: Meralco shares is going up (and now going low)… decide… decide… I have so&so shares at stake…
#94: Bought a microwave oven
#91: starting remodelling my purple room
#5: had a good “talk” with Jolo about attitude and habits. Also, bought the Jabbawokeez Mask for Jolo, Chess for Lean and new slippers for Aliya (been in my “to do” list for long), have to spend more time “dancing” with Jolo and playing with Lean and ALiya…
#17: Seen 2 groups of friends (SVS and SJS) and had fun
#30: went out our street to see the fireworks coming from SM, even I was the only one there gasping and amazing!
#34: adding more on my ‘travelling feet’ collection
#48: been conscious about learning new things and keeping tabs on them… (i’m currently reading about physics and religion)
#49: slowly creating habit for my health (ex. drinking 2 glasses of warm water every morning, less rice, take the opportunity to walk)
#58: finally launched by “pledge-gathering” for my Christmas Toy Gift-Giving… (I set-up a ChipIn (see my account how you can make contributions) and formally announced to network friends that I am “desperately” need of pledges)
#67: did “Pay-it-Forward” deed, I bought two tickets for “Truly Rich Seminar” of Bo Sanchez and gave it to two of my favorite cousins! (hey don’t forget me when you get rich!)
#69: inspite of toxic work, I keep on my weekly blog tips for staff
#70: released 1 major policy for implementation and 2 new policies for review

Giving Up… Letting Go… Saying Bye… Moving On…

I am not a quitter!
But there are things, situation, habits… and people that we have to let go… for me (for them) to grow, to prosper, to live on!

This week and last week are just that:
saying bye (but not giving up) — to a favorite, good friend who will be going back to States, and we don’t know if it is (again) for good or she will be coming back here (also for good?)
saying bye to another favorite friend who will be leaving for San Francisco, too. The prospect of seeing him again is quite too far (again), say 2-3 years.
letting go – two good audit staff are resigning (as their mentor, I really want them to explore/grow more, but at the same time, I feel bad because of feeling of “inadequacy” by not providing them enough reasons to stay…)
giving up (but to where it goes, I’m glad)…. our clothes and things for the flood victims! (included there is my “benchmark pants”… the one I want to squeeze into someday…)
saying good bye to the things we’ve lost during the flood… we are not complaining! we are not badly hit and, thank God, we have no serious casualty from our family, friends, or people we personally know.
giving up the habits of unconscious credit card spending….
saying good bye to my 7lbs… (really!!!)
giving up the plan to arrange my “adopted” sister’s medication… because she is giving up HERSELF…. (this one I still have to reconsider… I should not really give up on her)
letting go of the concept and image of Jolo as just a kid… I have to accept that he is a “grown” boy now! (whaaahh).
giving up the thought of keeping these people, things, situation, habit… with full understanding that “giving up, letting go, saying bye….” is just a phase for us to move on, grow and have better perspective….

Life goes on and on and on….

Things I Learned Today!

Don’t rush to please others without thinking about its cost to another.
I should guard myself against people who can “use” me for their seemingly good intent (but it’s not)
I should not make it easy for my dementor to antagonize me. I can make them confused, annoyed, and affected, too, without losing”me” in the process.
Take the chance to know your applicants, they have feelings too, (and life-story!)
Having foresight and vision is a very useful attribute of a leader.
Procedures need not be changed (at all times) if there are just lapses here and there…. Address the lapses, rather than resolving it by changing the process.
i learned the word “otorhinolaryngology” (and i can now recite it properly!)

Don’t be a Know-it-all Jerk

Avoid Seeming Like an Arrogant, Know-it-all Jerk.

Humility is a great virtue that any other virtues are rooted on this. Humility is sometimes construed as weakness or lack of self-confidence. But actually, if one is sincere to be humble, then one has more strong sense of self and can take “pride” of oneself. Humility is having consideration for others, appreciation for their views, curiosity about their lives, openness to failure, respect to others and willingness to be interested and be amused:

Here are some tips for showing humility:

1. Offer meaningful compliments: “You have a good memory,” “You obviously know a lot about this subject.”
2. Give credit to others: “The team did all the work,” “Jose came up with this idea.” Being generous with giving credit does NOT minimize your own contribution.
3. Ask questions and allow others to supply information. I’ve even seen some good leaders ask questions to which they knew the answers, merely to allow others the chance to demonstrate what they know.
4. You don’t know all the answers! —- And if you think so, then you are just as ignorant….
5. Admit error! It’s SO HARD to say “You were right, I was wrong” or “This was my fault,” but so important. Also, it’s a key to leadership. If you take responsibility for failure, it’s most likely you’ll be given responsibility for decisions.
6. Remember other people’s names and the details of their lives. It’s quite gratifying and shows sincerity.
7. Remember your limits. You’re just one person. You’re not infallible. It actually IS possible that you’re wrong.
8. Laugh at yourself. Tease. Few things are as winning as people who are willing to poke fun at their own mishaps, and be jolly with others.
9. Refuse to take offense. It’s their problem not yours! “Pride” takes offense but “humility” shrugs it off.
10. Be courteous to others, no matter who they are.

“The final test of a gentleman is his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.”

(great tips sourced from “the happiness project”, “katrina’s life’s journal”)

But Must….

Seven Tips for Getting Yourself To Do Something You Dread To Do (but must)!

How many times do you feel miserable because of some undesirable (but important) tasks you need to face or tackle (or having to decide – again – to put it off)? I guess we are on the same shoes….

For example, right now I have so many policies and procedures in different stages of completion (or non-completion), and some are gathering “dusts.” Don’t get me wrong, I love reading and writing and editing and giving “life” to a process by making it official. But admittedly, I felt overwhelmed by the various sub-tasks involved, various approval process, and the prospect of getting unpleasant comments, and worst, no comment at all. But I believe how noble is this work. So I must jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.

So, bear me with in sharing this to you. These techniques (gathered/compiled from various sources) will help us toward the finish line of hitting “send”.

1. Ask for help. Some of our hesitations came when we got to the point of “nowhere to go.” Why is this so hard? I have no idea. But whenever I ask for help, or tackle the subject (just to clear my mind, sometimes), I’m amazed at how much it helps.

2. Remember: most decisions/tasks don’t require extensive research. I often get paralyzed by my inability to make a decision (fast), or by delaying making decisions because of the “perceived” complexity. But by reminding myself that often, one choice just isn’t that much different from another choice, I can move on.

3. How do you eat an elephant? … One bite at a time…. If you feel yourself dismayed at the prospect of the chain of awful tasks that you have to accomplish, just take one step (or one bite) today. Tackle one part. Later, take the next “bite”. Invest some time, rather than wasting time for the “inspiration to come.” I realized that the forward motion is encouraging, and before long, I find myself speeding toward completion.

4. Do it first thing in the morning. The night before, vow to yourself to do the dreaded task. And the next day, at the first possible moment – as soon as you walk into work, or whenever – just do it. Don’t allow yourself to reflect or procrastinate.

5. Be creative in dealing interruption. How often have you finally steeled yourself to start some difficult project, only to be interrupted the minute you get going? This makes a hard task much harder. Interruptions are part of the job. But it doesn’t mean that we’ll be forever doomed not to finish the task because of these “interruptions.” Carve out some time to work (usually on the 1st hour of the day) Or ask colleague to cover for you on menial tasks (ex. answering queries).

6. Every Noble Work Seems At First Impossible. It’s not always as hard as you perceived it is. Most of the time we are just overwhelmed by the “perceived” enormity of the task, fear undermined the objective and nobility. Nobody may have done it before, but it doesn’t mean it cannot be done.

7. Visualize. See yourself finishing the task. Imagine the outcome of the project. Visualize pressing the “send” button. The end product usually motivates us to move forward. Novelty and challenge, as uncomfortable as they can be, DO bring happiness. The chore that feels onerous today may give you a huge boost of satisfaction tomorrow, when it’s behind you. Keep that in mind.

(thanks to my sources, “the happiness-project” and og mandino, and their sources as well)…

This Week’s Inventory of Blessings

Witnessed history-in-the-making during Cory’s wake and burial
Chance to teach Jolo a part of Filipino history
Was helped by cousin Pentz buy tiles for mother
finally bought the tiles for mother (she’s been requesting a month ago)
busted ref (a reason to buy anew one – been in a plan anyway… )
had a spa treat again from sis Flor
opportunity to sell real estate big time! if only…..
got the ultra-courage to talk to boss about personal stuff (and on his 1st day of coming to office after a long vacation – which usually a bad timing!)
tackled/issued overdue memo and manual
Starbucks with co-managers
new store opening at Tagaytay
date with Papi at Tagaytay stomach ache all day
resigning staff, complaining staff
surprised Jolo with new camera stand, and Lean with 2 choco waffles (his favorite)
Aliya walks around the house, giggles, laughs a lot
with SVS partners, finalized our Mission, Vision, Core Values.. (finally after 8 years…)
eating a lot lately…

Show of Gratitude After All These Years!

Just received a very nice testimonial from my former staff, ARlene… and it made my day!…..
“She had taught me invaluable things in so much ways she couldn’t imagine. She is never a boss,always a mentor. She is a “cool” person to head an important dept in an organization.
I’d like to say sorry po sa mga sakit ng ulo na binigay ko sa inyo when i was still in your dept. i know im not easy to manage, especially my too assuming attitude, unmindful behaviour when spurting out words to and about colleagues.
For me, you’re the best Audit Manager! this morning i got a praise from the CFO, saying about impressive report i was able to produce on a high level.i partly owe it to you po.salamat sa mga mahahabang arrows inserting words at mga words in red font sa walang sawa nyong pag edit sa mga reports ko.”

Really nice to know that in my own little way, i can inspire people, that I am remembered as a leader and mentor. Other staff may not agree to this testimonial, but then what matters is that at least one person affirms my ideals!