An Entrepreneur’s Journey

Since the cinemas are screening of Three Kingdoms (三国之见龙御甲), and the main cast is on Zhao Yun （赵云， 赵子龙), let’s discuss on him a bit. Ok, I am not an expert on the history, I’m just a fan of Three Kingdoms. Pardon me if it’s not the truth that you know.

Zhao Yun, a loyal general of Liu Bei (刘备) was claim to be the most courageous (一生是胆) general in country of Shu (蜀国). How did he got the “full of courage” title?

It was during the time when Cao Cao (曹操) army was chasing Liu Bei’s army, being having a weak army, Liu Bei has no choice but to leave his wife and son, Ah Dou (阿斗) behind. It was Zhao Yun who rode back to the enemy frontline, fought with 54 enemy generals to save Ah Dou.

It shows the loyalty Zhao Yun had for Liu Bei.

Another time was between a political marriage of Sun Quan’s (孙权) sister and Liu Bei. Due to the tension between Country of Shu and Country of Wu (吴国), Sun Quan’s sister went back to Country of Wu bringing Ah Dou with her. It was Zhao Yun again who got back Ah Dou while she’s on the way back.

Although Zhao Yun was highly skilled in martial art, full of courage but he never lead an army for any battle. And he was not in the rank of the 4 main generals (正牌将军). I am always wondering how can that be? He is definitely a talent not to be miss. Is it because Liu Bei didn’t trust him?

That’s because Zhao Yun was Liu Bei most trusted subordinate. Zhao Yun was given the role of taking care of the inside, meaning taking care of Liu Bei and his family. I wonder again, isn’t it a waste of talent?

Well, Liu Bei identify Zhao Yun as a meticulous person compared to Guan Yu (关羽) or Zhang Fei (张飞). Zhao Yun is the best person to take care of the inside, like a bodyguard, while the rest goes for war. Beside meticulous, Zhao Yun was also reliable, he will complete any task given to him, saving Ah Dou twice proved it.

It was said that Zhao Yun also has the political brain. When Liu Bei first got his first city after many years of struggle, he wants to share it with his subordinates. Zhao Yun was the only one who object, saying that this is only the beginning. They should consolidate all the resources to fight Cao Cao. This of course made Liu Bei unhappy, but accepted his idea.

This shows that Zhao Yun is not afraid to speak up, selfless, and had a political vision.

Another time when Liu Bei declare war on Country of Wu, to take revenge for Guan Yu’s death, Zhao Yun again advise him that it’s not the time to fight Wu, the real enemy is Cao Cao. Liu Bei lost the war, that’s the beginning of the fall of the Country of Shu.

Once again Zhao Yun proves his political point of view is correct.

In today’s term, Zhao Yun is like a idol, gaining lots of popularity among the Three Kingdoms fan. A person full of courage and vision, that is Zhao Yun or Zhao Zilong for you.

Recently there is a rise in Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国演义） searches. I reckon the reason being the Three Kingdom movie screened in cinema.

As for me, I’m a Three Kingdom fan from the age of 14. When I first started to learn about Three Kingdoms is through PC game. That got me interested in the history, which got me reading about the history.

Initially, I was interested in the Generals (武将). I was fascinated with strength, power and ranking of the Generals. Then I got interested in the story and chain of events in the history. Now I am so interested in the analyzing of individual characters and the lessons behind Three Kingdoms.

But I discover the one I have, Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国演义) is a novel being dramatize. 70% of the content is not true. To get to the real history, one got to read San Guo Zhi (三国志). San Guo Zhi uses ancient chinese which makes it extremely hard to understand.

Fortunately, due to globalization, lots of videos and DVDs from China got imported here. I found 2 sets of videos analyzing the history of Three Kingdoms.

I got lots of new insights to human behaviour, human psychology, strategy issues, political issues from those videos. I will get post some of my learnings soon. Watch out for it.

What an awesome Champions League!!

Liverpool into the semi final for the 3rd time in 4 years. Six goals in total. Arsenal may end their season with no trophy with the lose to Man U last night.

Liverpool?? Yes!!! One more chance for Champions League. Yeah!! The videos show the goals scored in the match. Enjoy!!

Recent good results of Liverpool certainly turned me, a Liverpool fan, into a happy person. The qualifying of semi final in the Champions League by knocking out Arsenal in a 5-3 aggregate, and beating Blackburn 3-1 makes a day for every Liverpool fans.

Here is a video of the hottest boy in the Liverpool squad right now. Fernando Torres, the man who scored 30 goals in his debut season. He is a natural striker, with a striker instinct. He knows where the goal is without looking at it.

Liverpool has been playing really well recently. They have finally found their form. They have been scoring goals in English Premier League, and they are in the quarter-final of Champions League. They beat Inter-Milan flat, the Italian League Champion. It so cool.

For doing so well, I am posting videos of some of my favourite Liverpool players. This first post to Liverpool will feature Xabi Alonso.

Xabi Alonso:

A master passer. A master in passing the ball. He is usually played as a defensive midfield with attack starts from him. I love this kind of players because the attacking play starts from him. He is also a player who loves to knock ball into goal from a distance. Watch the video to know what I mean. One of the most stunning goals.

I don’t usually like English drama, but Heroes is one of the fews that I like. After watching episodes 1 of Heroes Season 1, I was completely hooked.

While waiting for Season 2, I read reviews on it, since US has just aired the last episodes of season 2. The reviews were bad. It seems to me that it’s not worth watching.

While searching for reviews, I came across a test to check which Heroes character are you. Out of curiosity, I tried and this is my result.

Which Heroes Character Are You?

More on Heroes. Created by BuddyTV

You can find the test at Heroes Test. Tried it and let me know about it.

From a very young age, I was intrigue by the story of Romance of Three Kingdom. I first got to know this story from the computer game. That was the first time I got to know some of the characters in the story, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei etc.

This story is about China being divided into 3 huge forces during the A.D 189 - 240. During this time, many outstanding individuals who excel in war and politics appeared. It was one of the exciting and dramatic period of China.

Since then, I was hooked to this story. Started to went around looking for more information about the Three Kingdom. I got the comics initially. There are 2 types of comic that is about the Three Kingdom. But I’m not satisfied, because in the comic, lot of details are removed. Finally, I found the actual novel Romance of Three Kingdom, 三国演义。

I thought I’ll be satisfy after with the finding. Unfortunately, after reading the novel, I found out that this is only a novel, a story. Not everything written in the novel is true. The author simply added some colours so that readers will be interested to read on. So I begin to search for the actual records of Three Kingdom, 三国志。

The actual records are recorded in ancient chinese which I couldn’t understand.

I am always curious about some characters in the Three Kingdom. Like Zhuge Liang, is he really that intelligent?

Also Generals like Zhang Fei or Lu Bu seems to be quite stupid in the game or the novel. But these people are generals leading soldiers to war. How could they be stupid? The lives of the soldiers depend on them, how can they not be intelligent?

Fortunately I found a clip in youtube that analysed the history of Three Kingdom. It was a gem that I found, as there are many lessons to be learned. I would share some of the learnings in the next few posts.

Another disappointment match by Liverpool. Against strong teams like Man u, Arsenal or Chelsea, they can’t win. Now they can’t win the lower teams too. If they can’t win Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Man City, Wigan, and now West Ham; I wonder who else they can win. It seems to me Liverpool standard of football has drop to the level of the amateur.

Spending so much money to buy expensive players doesn’t work. Look at Arsenal, they didn’t spend money this season to get any star players ever since Henry left, yet, they are doing so well in the league.

Looking at their performance this season, I doubt they can even get into the top 4 this season, especially a few teams has improved this season, like Man City.

Benetiz may have a problem on buying players. Only 2 players whom he bought succeeded in Liverpool - Alonso and Mascherano. Even Torres, the most expensive player Liverpool ever bought is below par.

Benetiz, maybe you should start listening to the fans from the start. Your rotating policy obviously is a flop.

A big match, a disappointing night. As a Liverpool fan, this is the biggest match of the season. Playing against Man U is like playing in a cup final.

I could not watch this match because of business, but I am still very concern about the result. Alas, Liverpool didn’t win again. They didn’t beat their biggest rival at Anfield for 6 seasons. Maybe Liverpool are starting to form a belief that they can’t beat Man U.

One pattern that I observed from Liverpool this season was that they usually dominated a match, but couldn’t win. Also they have a very high number of shots, but couldn’t put it into the net.

After spending so much on players, another pattern did not change. They tends to lose to lower clubs, (lost to Reading last week 3-1), and they couldn’t beat the big clubs.

Every week when they go into match, it will never be a sure win. Yes, I know there will be no sure win in football, but for other big clubs, their chances of winning is superbly high. For Liverpool - base of their inconsistency, it is not so.

One match they can score 4-0, and in another they can lose it. A club that has a rich history, one of the biggest club with huge fan based, dominated the English football scene in the 70s and 80s, couldn’t pick up one Premier League Title for 18 years - what is happening to the club?

After losing last night match, I doubt they can lift the title this season. Think I got to wait another season.

Wendy, my mentor sent this amazingly beautiful 1000-hands Guan Yin Dance to me. Being able to witness this awesome dance allow me to connect with myself again. Thank you Wendy for sharing this video clip.

While watching this dance, I reflected on how fast I am moving, or my mind is working that I forgot to appreciate beauty around me.

There was once my mind was so busy working that I don’t even realize that I had crossed the road when it was on red light.

There are so many times that I walk so fast that I did not observe the beauty around me. How many of you did the same thing?

Here you are - 1000 hands Guan Yin dance