Inspiring Quotes

My work diary contains a quote at the bottom of the page for each day. I've found that every day has brought with it a nugget of wisdom that I can apply to my life. When I'm in really boring meetings I leaf through to find the ones most pertinent to me. And even though I haven't been sitting in boring meetings today (I was at a wedding until late last night instead and thus I'm feeling totally unproductive) I thought I would share the inspiration:

Management means helping people get the best out of themselves, not organising things - Lauren Appley

A special lady peahen brought out the best in this peacock at
Riversands Farm in Joburg after the Colour Run last weekend.

As a management trainee I found this quote extremely enlightening. It sums up exactly what a good manager is meant to be and do and allows you to immediately identify managers that aren't up to standard. If I think of the good managers that I've experienced within my company and outside of my company, all of them have a passion for growing people and pushing them to do well. After reading this quote I have been actively noticing the occasions when I'm encouraging my team mates and colleagues to push themselves beyond what they think they are capable of. I've also noticed that the managers I respect the most are the ones who are pushing me to continually improve, hang in there and to grow my own potential as much as possible.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit - President Harry S Truman

When you get credit for a job well done, it feels great. When you don't get credit, or someone else take the credit for something you did, it's not so great. Alexander Graham Bell is credited as being the first person to patent the telephone. He revolutionised history, business and daily life on an enormous scale. His patents were challenged over and over again, with others claiming to have invented the telephone before Bell. Imagine now, being someone who had invented a telephone-like device but all the recognition went to Bell. Now imagine that the inventor of the telephone was not credited in a public arena. Instead, people were presented with this idea of a device that could transmit speech and told to improve on this idea. The telephone could have developed in a very different way.

Now, imagine that no work was credited to a name and instead, all those who contributed to make it great did so out of a passion for a job well done and pushing boundaries. I know it's an idealistic view that I have. And I will still look to receive credit where credit is due. But for the day to day work - I'm going to try and be less bothered about who did the work and more bothered about making sure that as a team, we do an awesome job.

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lessons afterwards - Vernon Law

For those that have suffered in order to gain experience, I think this quote speaks for itself. And for those who can't identify with this quote, I would suggest you go out get some experience quickly!

I am indeed rich since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes - Edward Gibbon

~Fun times with friends~
Do you see the resemblance to the peacock picture
above - we were inspired by a peacock at the wedding
of another good friend.

I try to live within my means. I don't have a credit card, but I do have huge loans that I need to pay off. Every month, money comes in to my bank account and then the majority goes back towards paying my loans. I have enough left over to buy food and petrol and if I'm lucky I'll maybe have enough to buy a new top or pair of jeans at the end of the month, the day before my next pay day. Even though I don't buy a lot of luxuaries, I am lucky enough to be able to cover my monthly repayments every month, have 3 good meals a day, see my family, boyfriend, friends and every now and then spoil myself with something special. I have enough.

Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life - Harvey Mackay

Would be nice if the Colour Me Crazy Colour Run
counted as a job

I'm still working on this one. I enjoy the challenges of my job, but I would prefer to apply them in a different setting. Ideally I want to improve peoples lives through engineering and education. I don't know how exactly yet, but I'm hoping that it will be revealed to me as time goes on.

Learnings Of A Generation Y New Employee

We live in an age of instant gratification. I recently read a post about why generation Y yuppies are unhappy and it gave me some food for thought. Before reading the rest of my post, you can check out the generation Y post here.

Metaphor for what I thought my job would look like
before I started working...

When the post talked about generation Y kids starting out in their careers and expecting them to be great from day 1, I instantly related to this. I've been working for just over a year and a half and it's only in the past few months that I've really begun to feel a sense of making a difference in my job. My parents, grandparents and other older relatives and family friends all told me that it was going to take time and that no matter what job I start out with, it's likely to be crap. So, even though I logically knew that my first 6 months to a year were going to be tough, it was still frustrating to me when they were even tougher than expected. 

...Metaphor for what my job actually looked like
a few weeks after I started

I also got given some really amazing advice from the older people in my life that I took to heart. Using this advice helped me to make the most of a bad situation, here are some of the things I've been told about or learnt along the way that pertain to my experience as a new employee:

1. Be humble. When you go into a job as a newbie, expect to know nothing. Instead of acting like you know it all (and even if you think you know how to do something or how something works) rather ask. No one like a know it all. But when the "know-it-all" knows nothing about the company it's even worse (and you end up looking really stupid, instead of intelligent).
2. Give it 6 months before you decide on whether you like the job or not. It takes a while to learn the ropes and how a company operates. Add to this trying to learn how to be useful to your company - the only way to settle into your new job is to give it time.
3. Be willing to learn. Ask questions. Don't assume that just because someone is a cleaner, tea-lady, receptionist that you can't learn from them. I've learnt the most interesting things from some extremely surprising sources. Our engineering finance lady knows more about machine inspections and care than I did when I first arrived - and she doesn't have a technical degree, just years of factory experience.
4. Find the gap and fill it. When I arrived our control systems were buggy and no one was really looking after them. I've now become the "go to girl" for control systems in our factory. No one asked me to do it. I saw the gap and took it. The fact that I have my own set of "go to guys" (who have years more experience than I do) is irrelevant. What's important is that I'm driving change with control systems where before there was none and that is what makes me valuable to my team.
5. Observe the good and bad managers. Knowing how to interact with people is extremely important. So is knowing how to handle and motivate a team. Taking note of how managers interact with people and deal with their teams is an important part of growing in business. There are techniques that you will learn from the good managers and there are techniques you'll learn to avoid from the bad managers.
6. Chat to the people in your company who have been there for years. The quiet, white haired grandfather figure who keeps to himself and gets on with the job is only too happy to help out, no matter what problem you face. The talkative co-ordinator who is always reminiscing about how things used to be done in "the old days" has held a variety of positions within the same factory and understands the subtle people interactions you need in order to keep things running smoothly. And the blunt, no bull artisan who kaks guys out when they're not pulling their weight has a heart of gold and knows exactly how to coax another day's work out of something that should have broken down a month ago.

I've applied all of these things to my job and even though it hasn't been rainbows and unicorns, I can appreciate that there's a lot in life that needs a long term approach and building a career is one of them.

Since I'm a generation Y kid, I'll always get a kick out of instant gratification. However for the big things in life, I'm trying to look past instant gratification (no weekly clothes shopping trips for me) and rather invest in building a life, career and name for myself that will reap rewards years down the line. Starting now. And maybe, if I'm lucky, my current investments will start to reap rewards sooner than expected and I'll get not instant gratification, but delayed, prolonged gratification.

Homeowner 101

When I was at varsity I read a few of the books from the Rich Dad and Rich Women series by husband and wife duo - Robert and Kim Kiyosaki. The two most inspiring books were "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert and "Rich Woman" by Kim. To learn more about their books and products, you can click here to go to their website. Since then, the idea of buying up property to create cashflow has been ingrained on my mind and I decided that I would buy my own property as soon as it was feasible. 

A while ago, the opportunity came up for me to buy the flat that I have been renting for the past year or so. I hadn't been planning on buying property so soon after starting work so I thought long and hard about the decision, crunched my numbers and decided it would make a good investment. Even though things will be tight for a while, I've taken the plunge and I'm really excited about my decision. I've bought the flat with the idea that I will be renting it out in years to come, when I move out. There was lots that I have learnt through this whole property buying process. You can find some of the key points below, along with the costs that you don't really think to take into account:

1. You decide at some point that you want to buy property. I was lucky and the opportunity presented itself to me. For other properties I will probably need to search a bit harder. Shop around before deciding on the property - you need to be sure it's the right one for you.
2. You crunch your numbers and if you can afford it, make an offer on the house. If the seller likes your offer, they'll accept. Otherwise they'll decline and you can make a higher offer or find something else.
3. You then go to the bank to see if they will loan you the amount you need. For first time buyers you will usually be awarded the full amount of the loan you request. For more experienced buyers they will probably award you less than the full amount and you will have to come up with a portion of the money yourself. You can approach banks yourself about the loan. Or you can get someone called a "bond originator" to do it for you. I got my loan through a bond originator. You don't pay fees to them as (I think) they are paid by the bank. Your estate agent should be able to recommend someone to you.
4. Your bond (hopefully) gets approved. Then you start getting lawyers involved to help you file paperwork etc etc. This part is quite hazy to me. Usually the seller nominates a lawyer to help with the transfer. Luckily for me my dad is a lawyer and the sellers, at my request, agreed to use him to do the transfer (and thus I was able to save on some lawyer fees there, but apparently they would have been about R10 000).
5. As this was my first property, I needed to get life insurance organised. Banks do offer up their own life insurance, however, I found my own life insurance privately for about half the monthly amount that the bank was offering me, R140 per month as opposed to R300 per month.
6. I also dealt with another set of lawyers - I stand to be corrected, but I think they represent the bank - who facilitated the signing of the contract for the loan from bank to me. I had to pay them about R10 000 for the work that they did. I also had to make up front payments for 3 months worth of my rates and levies which came to about R 2000.
7. After that, there was quite a wait for the papers to be transferred into my name, but finally they all came through. My dad got help from a lawyer in Joburg for this and he also waived his fees, which would have been about R 1700. The bank then contacted me to confirm the date of my first loan repayment, which is near the end of this month. 

All in all, not including my monthly life insurance payment, my fees should have come to R23 700, I was lucky to get away with paying only half of this. However, when you're thinking of buying your first property, I would say try to find out what you'll need to pay in lawyers fees as well. And if you can't find out, use the number above as a guideline (and maybe add a few extra grand, just to be safe).

Now, I'm sure I've left out a whole bunch of details that are important, but it's a long process and these are the things that jumped out at me as being important milestones in the process. The best way to learn is to do. Even though it's scary and huge amounts of money, I think of it as "forced savings" - once I've paid off my flat I'll have effectively "saved" money up to the value of my flat. And if I don't sell my flat, once I've paid it off, any rental income that I get from it, will be mine to use as I like (probably to go out and buy another rental property!).

It snowed last year around about this time!
The door to my flat is at the top, right in the middle.

Playing with my camera and a wine glass on the walkway/ledge
outside my flat.

Cool Cucumber Soup

I haven't posted a recipe for a while, and since the days are becoming longer and warmer, I thought that I should share with you a recipe for cucumber soup. This is a quick and easy recipe and is best eaten chilled from the fridge with a dash of cream on a warm summer's day/evening.

Although many people may wonder at cold soup, if you like cucumber and something that tastes fresh, this is definitely worth a try! And really easy to make as well.

Picture from http://www.marthastewart.com/315733/chilled-cucumber-mint-soup
Go to the link above to try Martha Stewart's version of cucumber soup!

Ingredients

butter/oil/marge for frying
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 english cucumber, sliced but not skinned
15 ml flour
600 ml milk
300 ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper
nutmeg 

Method

1. Heat butter/marge/oil. Add onions and cucumber and cook gently for 5 minutes.
   
2. Add flour and stir constantly.
   
3. Remove from stove and gradually add warm milk, then stock. Replace on stove plate and bring to boil.
   
4. Add seasoning and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
   
5. Puree soup in a blender, you can add more milk if needed.
   
6. Chill and serve with cream and freshly chopped mint.

5 TED Talks on Education Part 2

A few days ago I posted on the first TED talk on education. To read more about it click here.

The second TED Talk was by Geoffrey Canada on the difference between the education that rich people get vs the education that poor people get. He also talks about the "schooling business model" and how it's one of the business models that hasn't changed for years, even though year after year, it continues to display exceedingly poor results. Even though he's speaking about the schooling system in the USA, I think a lot of this can be applied in the global context as well.

Sports Dinner school event with my friend Sossy

The idea of failing business models of schools really appealed to me. At school I was one of the lucky kids: I loved to learn, I understood most concepts quite quickly and I came out the other side of the school business model rather successfully. At university things were slightly different - I battled with a lot of concepts and if it wasn't for my group of friends patiently sitting with me, explaining maths, physics and electronics concepts to me, I wouldn't have been able to pass in the amount of time that I did. I suddenly had a new understanding of why some of my high school and junior school classmates weren't all that fond of school and why learning seemed to be a burden to them. 

Some of the guys who kept me sane when stuff made no sense.
For this particular study occasion, we were all confused and lost.
(L-R: Frosty, Russell, Sam and Craig)

Dr. Canada speaks of the schooling system having a "one-size-fits-all" approach. If you're sharp enough to cotton on to the lesson quickly that's great, and if you don't get it, then that's too bad. Many schools continue to do the same thing, over and over again, even though it produces the same bad results. WHAT TYPE OF BUSINESS MODEL IS THAT?! If I had to go to my directors and tell them that I'm going to carry on doing my job the same way as usual, even though it's producing terrible results, I'm sure I would get fired on the spot!

Looking at schooling as a business model, I have to ask, how can we change the schooling system in order to better service our customers? What can we do to ensure that we encourage more kids to see learning not as a burden, but as a blessing?

In his talk, Dr. Canada mentions that there have been studies done that show that poor kids loose ground in the summer time. He mentions that test data for teachers only comes out at the end of the year, after the holidays. And who is really going to look at previous years data. Is there a way of ensuring that teachers get real time data on their kids, as they are getting taught, so that they can see where the trouble points are and try to address them? Better yet, what about giving the kids the same feedback and pointing out the sections where they may need to do a bit of extra work in order to pass that year?

I have no background in education, other than having gone through the schooling system myself. But, from what I can gather from these talks and my own experience, part of the responsibility of the failing business models of schools lies with the custodians of the schooling system. Dr. Canada mentions that at his school they have a network in place which acts like a parent figure to the kids, holding them accountable and pushing them to do better. I think we need more networks like this within our schools. However, it needs to be something that is driven by the old boys and girls of those schools, by the parents of students at the schools, by the community and not by the teachers. 

I was lucky enough to go to a school with a strong Old Girls network. Imagine if all schools had something similar, where past students of the schools mentored and inspired the present day students. Even better, imagine so called "good" schools partnering with the "not so good" schools, sharing resources and mentoring each other.

I don't have the answers to how we can better change our schooling business model, but it's sparked a thought process in me. As Dr. Canada mentions near the close of his talk - by changing and trying new things, its inevitable that some ideas and techniques will fail. But if we don't try something new, we'll never improve on our current model.

In my usual pose when studying and working - on my bed

5 TED Talks on Education Part 1

Mr Hallows and some of my class mates - Mr Hallows gave up
some of his evenings during our matric year to give us night lessons
so that we could complete our science syllabus on time.

While I was at varsity I was lucky enough to work for a company called Teach Me 2. They're a private tutoring company and offer tutors for people from university down to school level. I tutored mainly matric and Gr 11 science and maths and I really loved it.

Recently, the Teach Me 2 team posted an awesome article on facebook. It has links to 5 TED talks all centred around the theme of education and all of these talks got me thinking.

The first talk is by Rita Pierson and it focuses on how every child needs a champion. It also focuses on how the role of the champion is to encourage and build relationships with the children that they champion.

During my junior and high school career I was lucky enough to come across a few teachers who have been incredible at inspiring and encouraging their classes to learn. There was my Grade 4 teacher, Mrs Anderson, who encouraged us to listen and do maths in our head with her stories of Mrs Blobs. My Grade 6 teacher, Mr Randall, had an incredible sense of fun and we spent lots of time playing games in which we, hopefully, learnt something. I clearly remember the speech he gave us on the first day of term where he told us that he expected us to behave like adults (as much as you can in Grade 6) and that he would do his best to treat us like adults. Then there was my Grade 7 maths teacher, Mr Eburne. I can't remember why he sticks out in my head as a good teacher, other than his morning quizzes, I think it was the relationships that he built up with us as a class. 

In Grade 8 I had an awesome Maths teacher by the name of Mrs de Jager. She had incredible energy and taught us a song so that we would never forget the Pythagoras Theorem - I can still remember the tune and words! My matric art teacher, Mrs Conyngham, loved to share her knowledge of art history with us and would always give us constructive advice on our practical pieces. Mr Hallows, my matric science teacher, had an awesome sense of humour and always used to teach us a new topic by first talking about it to us, then writing it down on the board and then having us write it down for our own notes. And lastly, my matric Computer Science teacher, Mrs Ward. I ended up being the only person to take Comp Sci in my year and we had amazing one-on-one lessons that often ended up in chats, since I often finished my tasks early. To this day, I use the practical skills that Comp Sci taught me on a daily basis, while my maths and science skills help me to understand and troubleshoot physical issues in our plant.

The one thing that all of these teachers have in common is their ability to connect and build relationships with their students, which is the essence of the message that Rita Pierson is trying to get across. I have only just realised that most of my inspirational teachers taught subjects that I then went on to pursue at a university level. Along with my parents, these teachers really stand out as being the ones pushing me and my classmates to go further. They were also my champions and I feel incredibly blessed that I had so many to inspire me to push my boundaries and go further than I thought I could go. 

And now, I'm left wondering, how much of my career path was truly my own choice, how much of my career was chance and how much of it was due to the fact that I had incredible teachers in the maths and sciences?

Breaking Point

How do you know when you've reached breaking point? That time when enough is enough. When cracks start to show through your smile. When you can feel your resolve and determination crumble and all you want to do is run away and let someone else deal with the issues that have to be dealt with. Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes is sneaks up on you. Either way, you start to wonder if what you're doing is actually making a difference, and if it is making a difference, why aren't you seeing it?

It's different for everyone - I become an emotional wreck. I cry. A lot. I battle to stop crying, even when friends and colleagues try to distract me with coffee, hugs and funny stories. This weekend I reached breaking point (it snuck up on me) and this morning it showed.

I went in to chat with my boss as soon as he got in and asked him for some time off because I've reached my breaking point. It's got to the point where I start to freak when I hear my phone whistle to tell me a message has come through and I panic when I hear my phone ring. I know that he's under even more stress than I am but he still took time to listen to me and sympathise with me. He's given me words of encouragement and called me up this evening to check up on me, with the first words out of his mouth being "don't worry, it's not a call out". I asked for tomorrow off as a sick day as well and he's given me that. 

Maintenance/Engineering Team May 2013

One of the artisans in my team sent me a message after I left the office today saying that he was worried because I looked so sad and that I must enjoy my time off, rest and chill out. It may have brought a few tears to my eyes but it also made me realise that even though I'm extremely different from most of my team members (I'm wearing the black and grey striped jersey in the pic above), they still value and respect me as one of them.

Another colleague/friend saw I was a wreck this morning when he came to see me with a change request, so he left my office, but soon after sent me a message saying that he's happy to have coffee and just chat if I need to. I took him up on the offer just before I left today and it definitely helped to just shoot the breeze for a while and take a break.

I've also been given lots of advice from one of our software contractors who has been in a similar position to me: take some time off and if I need to get medication for stress, do it. It's a job and my health and well-being is more important than getting stressed beyond what I can handle. Just before I left, he and his office mate went on to distract me with advice on good movies to see and the driving habits of Pretoria/rest of South Africa vs Joburg drivers.

All of the people I've chatted with today have been males and they've listened to what I've had to say and given me words of encouragement, letting me know it's alright to take some time off so I can get my head back in the game. And if I shed a few tears along they way, they were OK with that too. Even though the work is tough and frustrating, there are pockets of awesome people, like the guys today. Whoever said engineers and technical people aren't in touch with emotions obviously haven't met these guys!

So, what do you do to come back from your breaking point? Some people resort to therapy - talking therapy, walking therapy, eating therapy. I'll do those tomorrow. Today I resorted to reading and retail therapy :)