Hey guys,
I recently discovered a very nice blog about Investment: The Zen of Investment. This blog is written by two bright guys, who complement each other to produce a unique and high-quality product in the blogosphere.
J.S. Kim, as he introduces himself, was formerly a Private Wealth Manager with a couple of the largest global investment firms. Kaeho is deeply into martial arts, and we can see how he relates his lessons from martial arts into investment theories. This brilliant combination gives the blog a new insight, keeping it interesting and amusing on every single post.
Written with very deep economic understanding, they try to be simple and straight-forward on their statements, most of the time very mind-opening. After reading the real business behind McDonalds, or the relationship between Navy Seals and investing, I became addict to their posts.
They write a weekly e-zine with lots of contents that are not going to be online. If you are interested in investments and finance in general, I would recommend you to subscribe to them.
I would like to give you a small excerpt of his “What if Buddha invested?“:
If Buddha Searched for a Financial Consultant
The Dalai Lama says, “If you want to be wisely selfish, care for others.” In martial arts, my first instructor, Sensei Dukes, told me that he could teach me to lose all fear, even fear of dying.
He told me that all fear was rooted in ego, and that if you learn to let go of ego, all fear disappears. In relationships, all jealousy originates from ego. On the other hand, happiness originates out of selflessness.
…
Have a wonderful day,
Fer
Hey guys,
I just found these pictures I took one day in Osaka. I took them in a visit with kirai to the Umeda Sky Building. If you ever have a chance, I do recommend this visit, specially at sunset time 
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
…just something to think about…
- The world consists of independent atomic facts — existing states of affairs — out of which larger facts are built.
- Language consists of atomic, and then larger-scale propositions that correspond to these facts by sharing the same “logical form”.
- Thought, expressed in language, “pictures” these facts.
- We can analyse our thoughts and sentences to express (”express” as in show, not say) their true logical form.
- Those we cannot so analyse cannot be meaningfully discussed.
- Philosophy consists of no more than this form of analysis: “Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen” (”Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”).
“Ludwig Wittgenstein, tractatus” [ wikipedia ]
[ Thanks to a comment from Svaj Malizo (blog) 
]
Hi guys,
For the last months I’ve been getting ready to enter the Japanese market. In the upcoming year, I will go to Japan and get my career started there. It’s a very challenging and exciting adventure and I have the best partner to jump into the water.
As anyone who starts his/her career, I have to define my path and go all the way in that direction if I want to have any chances in the tough job market. Because of this, I had given myself quite some time to think deeply, and analyse my opportunities, weaknesses, threats and strengths -known as SWOT analysis.
After writing the obvious stuff in your CV -personal data, tag line, working experience, education, languages- you have to go deep inside yourself and define what you really are based on two key terms: soft skills and hard skills.
Disclaimer: I know it’s an oversimplification of the theory of multiple intelligences, but this classification can help identifying and expressing our own skills throughout the CV and it’s a worldwide standard.
Hard skills are easier to identify. They refer to skills that have to do with specific knowledge or abilities, that are usually acquired through theory. Examples of this can be your software skills or budgeting skills.
Soft skills refer to a cluster of personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that make someone a good employee and a compatible co-worker. Companies value soft skills because research suggests and experience shows that they can be just as important an indicator of job performance as hard skills.
The top 10 soft skills you can own -or work harder to master- are:
- Strong Work Ethic
- Are you motivated and dedicated to getting the job done, no matter what?
- Will you be conscientious and do your best work?
- Positive Attitude
- Are you optimistic and upbeat?
- Will you generate good energy and good will?
- Good Communication Skills
- Are you both verbally articulate and a good listener?
- Can you make your case and express your needs in a way that builds bridges with colleagues, customers and vendors?
- Time Management Abilities
- Do you know how to prioritize tasks and work on a number of different projects at once?
- Will you use your time on the job wisely?
- Problem-Solving Skills
- Are you resourceful and able to creatively solve problems that will inevitably arise?
- Will you take ownership of problems or leave them for someone else?
- Acting as a Team Player
- Will you work well in groups and teams?
- Will you be cooperative and take a leadership role when appropriate?
- Self-Confidence
- Do you truly believe you can do the job?
- Will you project a sense of calm and inspire confidence in others?
- Will you have the courage to ask questions that need to be asked and to freely contribute your ideas?
- Ability to Accept and Learn From Criticism
- Will you be able to handle criticism?
- Are you coachable and open to learning and growing as a person and as a professional?
- Flexibility/Adaptability
- Are you able to adapt to new situations and challenges?
- Will you embrace change and be open to new ideas?
- Working Well Under Pressure
- Can you handle the stress that accompanies deadlines and crises?
- Will you be able to do your best work and come through in a pinch?
Remember that writing this list down on your CV straight away would be worth nothing and you might loose your integrity if it’s not true.
Every single point in this list requires lots of effort and you might need to prove every single line with some actual fact from your past experiences. Be aware that double-checking with your past companies is a standard procedure for some companies.
Good luck! I think we have lots to work on!
Fer
Hi everyone,
I have been extremely busy these days with no time for posting and sharing cool stuff with you. Sorry for not keeping up with this as I should have been guys. Back on track now
I just wanted to take a small break here to share some thoughts about my new english posting attitude, and what consecuences has it shown on this blog.
First, I have to admit that due to this language switching, I have lost quite a few readers already. Also the fact that I have consideredly reduced my blogging frequency has pushed this tendency to the lowest bounds in this blog’s history.
Nonetheless, there are still quite a few who insistedly -through comments, mails and even phone calls- have tried to make me change my opinion and write in spanish again. They don’t seem to understand that I don’t write this blog for them, but for the people who are interested in what I have to say, in english or spanish, and willing to share ideas and correct my mistakes so we can learn together.
I don’t mind comments in spanish and I will reply to them in spanish as well. If I’m aiming to learn and share, why should I mind the language? After all, language it’s a way of expressing something, not something itself.
Some people suggested me to start writting a new blog only in english, but I have seem a recurring tendence to lower the quality and quantity in both blogs when that happen.
I have not yet completely reached the target reader i’m seeking, but as my good friend Adrien O’leary (the crazy one!) stated in this post six months ago, it’s not really easy to start a new blog once you have built up something. You need patience and lots of good work to show that you have the capacity to write something that is really worth the time your reader is spending on you. がんばります!
I’m not someone looking for fame or to be a blogstar, I’m just finding my way to interact with people from all over the world.
Thanks to those who have cheered me and pushed me to go further than I ever thought in this project. To them.
Fer
Hey guys,
Reading a post from Rafa called “Desarrollando“, I started thinking about the over-simplification that we suffer in this world. He stated that something as “simple” as writing something for the web so that other people can read it implies, in fact, a lot of very complex technologies that are completely transparent to us. And this can be extended to many things in our normal life.
Going deeper the rabbit’s hole, I think that it’s not only that we have delegated lots of our activities to other people -which seems normal since prehistoric times- but that now we seem not to care about anything else and sort things with the money we earn from our specialized job.
More precisely, I have seen a wide gap between our grandparents and my generation, and it’s getting wider and wider in my opinion. When I speak to elder people, they seem to have a much deeper understanding of the world they are living in; Economics, Politics, History, Geography, Gardening,… you name it, but they tend know much more, and I don’t really feel is a matter of age -being here longer-, but of the social culture they were brought up in.
Have you noticed that younger generations care less and less about the culture of being strong enough to “do things right”? Have you noticed that family-relationship-social values are not as strong as we have seen in our grandfathers?
Is it something that worries you?
Fer
“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”
Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), in Good Housekeeping
