Blogging this recipe for the base:

1 package active dry yeast
1/2 warm water
3 cups of Hong Kong flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup warm milk
1 tablespoon canola oil, plus more as needed

It’s simple, but there’s only one ingredient you can’t buy or replicate – LOVE for LIFE.

Cheers,

BBT

Not just on Sundays. Not just when you need Him most. Look around. Feel His presence. See His works.

Couple verses of the day from the past few days (I will write my thoughts on these).

1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Proverbs 17:9

Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

1 John 4:11-12

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 3:11

[More on Love and Hatred] For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

1 John 4:10

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

John 13:34-35

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve posted to my blog.  It’s amazing when you look back at the 2 weeks, how much you’ve done or not done, accomplished or not accomplished.  Sometimes you feel you are starting over from square 1.  But you can’t look at it that way.  Yes momentum has slowed a bit and you may be coming out of a slump.  But the way I look at it, it’s a time to reflect what’s been done, learn from it, and move to the next phase.  It might be 2 steps forward one step back.  Then 4 steps forward then one step back.  And then soon, it’ll be all forward from then on!

So in the last 2 weeks since my last post on Business Strategy, I’ve managed to:

1) Impress the COO and Head of UK Operations at the #2 UK law firm in the magic circle (#4 worldwide based on revenues).

2) Get an employment offer to be supply and procurement manager at the UK law firm

3) Spend money I don’t really have (okay it was Valentine’s day and I had accepted the job and wanted to treat my wife to a wonderful weekend out! – wouldn’t recommend to spend money before you have it, but I was just really happpy)

4) Try a fantastic Michelin rated restaurant called the Bingham (I think my second in my life.  The first being Tru in Chicago – though not sure if its Michelin rated.  I’ll have to look that up)

5) Establish a great recruiting contact at Huxley Associates (who helped me get the role at the UK law firm)

6) Finish one of my 7 books on self improvement.  Start on 3 of the books.  Reading books is somewhat challenging for me, as I have a short attention span. so finishing a book is like a MAJOR accomplishment for me.

7) Tell my wife I love her (but that’s everyday!)

8) Catch up with a good friend from Chicago and his future wife.  Someone that I believe is a good person to have in my life where we can help each other become better individuals.  He’s a prime example of someone with less experience (not that much less) that I respect and can take advice / criticism from without feeling negative.

9) Watch a movie – The Descendants (w/ my wife, friend, and friend’s fiancee).  Great story.

10) Ran twice.  A good start.  Got sick so had to stop. (just an excuse – but I really did have a cough…still do)

Amazing what one can achieve in 2 weeks.  I’m sure I could have accomplished a lot more, but the nice thing is I can see some very positive outcomes in the last 2 weeks.

Sometimes you just have to keep a log of your activities.  We all forget what we’ve achieved and accomplished and the time it takes.  Great time to reflect is at the end of every week.

Successful businesses are innovative.

 

Innovation is:

1) New Approach

2) New Strategy

3) New Profit Source

4) New Organization

 

Source: David Yang Sr. – Successful HK Business Man / Uncle

 

I would like to say that as I grow older (I will be 33 at the end of next month), that I become wiser.  Wiser, not by purely studying, but from experience.  I believe that there exists 2 types of wise people.

 

There is the ‘Wise by what I read and study’.  This person can definitely talk the talk.  Wise by people’s standards because he/she can talk about all those experiences that other people have.

 

Then there are the ‘Wise by experience’.  This person supports what they read by having their own personal experience.  I fit into this category.

 

This takes me to religion.  I attend church as much as I can on Sunday.   Lately, I’ve been attending Mass.  I’m not Catholic, but also not opposed to Catholicism, as I may have once been.  (For personal reasons that I can dive into later).  Personally, I feel empty when I attend Mass.  Not that I don’t feel God’s presence or use that time to reflect on the week’s or weekend’s activities.  I just don’t feel revived and refreshed, like I’m ready to take on the world with this very positive attitude.  I sometimes feel very negative leaving.

 

Now I will probably get a lot of criticism from long time Catholics, but please give me the benefit of the doubt.  I’m attending Mass, as a non-Catholic and trying to adopt and learn what it means to be Catholic.  I’ve attended services at other churches for a period of time – Seventh Day Adventist, Anglican, Presbyterian, etc.  I won’t say I’m an expert, but there’s one thing for certain that I notice.  There are some individuals that go through the motion and there are some individuals who are actually getting something out of it.  They are actually feeling God’s presence and applying it to themselves that very second, that very day, that week.

 

This is a real challenge in any religion, belief, practice, etc.  To apply what you’ve read, listened, and studied to your everyday life.  So this takes me back to life experiences.  If you don’t reflect on your life experiences and compare them to what you’ve learned, studied, read, or listened to, you don’t become wiser.  You merely become a person who knows a lot in theory, but doesn’t know a lot in practice.  This may be very common sense, but it’s surprising the number of people you come across (even myself sometimes), when they fall into the first category of Wisdom.

 

I leave you with one last thought.  I subscribe to a daily Bible verse (www.biblegateway.com) and sometimes I like to reflect on the verse that is sent to me.  Now, whether or not you are Christian, I encourage you to just read the verses as if they were written by a wise person who is experienced.  Think about your experiences and how the verse can be applied to your life.  This is the verse from today:

 

Ephesians 4:2

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

 

I can’t really say more about this verse.  If you live like this, I guarantee that you will have a great life.

 

Have a blessed and wonderful day!