Love/Liking your Job

This week I'm involved in the CSSCOM COC parade, so Toxin, Sam Poh, Thomas and I are all involved in the parade. While having dinner this evening, we started talking about "don't make your interest your job, or you will no longer like it"

There are 2 cases, making your interest your job and making your passion your job, there is a stark difference, but very hard to diffrentiate between the two.

you might have a real interest in a field, be it engineering or teaching or even art, but the problem with pursuing this interest as your bread bowl results in 2 problems.

1) Money. When you depend on your interest for your ricebowl, you end up sacrificing your interest to satisfy your hunger.

2) the corporate ladder looks very similar as you get closer to the top. At the base level, an engineer's job is starkly different from a fireman or from an accountant. however look at the next level, they all have a boss/supervisor that has to manage them and instruct them what to do. Similarly when you look onto the next level, their bosses needs to manage them, they still may have some ground experience, but it decreases in frequency as their appointment goes up. Very rarely do you see the manager of a franchise cook up a tidy meal for his customers. Also, at the top, they seem to do pretty much the same thing. CEOs' job scopes do not really differ that much.

I beleive this leads to much frustration to individuals. They end up asking themselves "is this really what I signed up for?" as they realise that they have been quite far removed from thier initial interest. Getting caught up with office politicking (and yes this is inevitable) it is easy to lose sight of what you wanted to do in the first place.

The only exception to this is if your interest is in politics, then if you went into that field, you would be perfectly fine ;)

There is a difference if your interest is more than just a liking of a field, if you LOVE, your job, it may evolve into your passion.

Then your motivations change as well. It is not merely a case of wanting to do what you like, instead you want to make a difference, which is quite the perspective change.

I beleive that if you have a real love and passion to change something, then you should very well make it your job. Take for example a toy designer. Having an interest for toys is not enough, because there is a lot of team work to come up with a design, presenting to bosses kills they joy you might have had conceptualising it, you might end up miserable, or worse, Furby is back on toy shelves everywhere. On the other hand, if your love for toys is such that you want to change how toys are received or maybe how toys are played, then you would fight tooth and nail for the toys you have pitched, and this sort of passion is very difficult to go unnoticed.

No one said it will be a walk in the park, and getting to that point where you have finally been the change you want to see, is a freaking uphill battle, but achievement was only possible with all the effort put in.

I hope I'm able to be like the latter, and shake the industry I work in :) I aim to combine my interest and job together!

Adventures and Misadventures

I'm starting to make my 'out-of-camp-once-a-week' into a habitual thing... don't know if that's good or not.

In any case, i'm out on a Friday! dental appointment this morning and leave in the afternoon. So let's start with my...

++Adventure++

I seem to like to post about my adventures only. oh well!

the long weekend of Labour Day, i managed to join SMUX group on their little trip to malaysia! (thanks Varun) It was an absolute blast! but i'll let the pictures on facebook speak for themselves!

Jasmine's
Agnes's
Mine

just a short photo trip!

so we started at Beach road, and took a long bus ride up to Genting. Reached at 5 am, so killed time at Starbucks (really? of all places >.<) before starting Activity #1!

WIND TUNNELLING

well, they might have spelled my name wrong ("Jonathan Weng", sheesh) but quite the experience nonetheless. the funniest is coming out of the first round drooling all over, because its so dry with all that wind!

Then our chartered bus ($1500 for 2 days, what an interesting way to travel!!!) brought us down to KL for... Activity #2! PAINTBALL

seriously seriously epic games! after talking about it for so long, i finally get my chance to dabble in our paint warfare, and it was a blast running around like a mad man, and going crazy trying to steal the flag for our team!

Pooped i was at the end of the first day, but still, got dragged out to Sugei Wang then Jalan Alor for dinner, but absolutely no regrets at all, just look at part of our dinner feast!


man, that Shiwen can really order! she seemed to know all the best things to get, and she had this voracious appetite that none of us could match!

After a sumptuous dinner, off to bed to recharge for the next day's activities.

We must have a proper breakfast before setting off, and i was lucky enough to be bunked with other guys who shared my enthusiasm! so Dim Sum breakfast at Chinatown (just a short walk from our hotel) YUM!


slept in the bus again on our journey to Malacca for Activity #3

ALL TERRAIN VEHICLE (ATV)

we were a little dissapointed when we saw a small little track at the ATV place, but we were not expecting our ATV route to be totally different, and went into the forests and went onto high hills, just awesome, fun as hell, and totally thrilling!

and to round it all off, we ended in Johore with Activity #4

GO-KARTING

I love the go-kart track. its also super out-of-place! its like in the middle of nowhere. in the bus it was like plantation-plantation-plantation-GO KART TRACK?!?! yes, because it was in the middle of nowhere, it was a BIG and WIDE area, with an excellent area to go insane on our go-kart. 10 mins sounded a little short, but it was about right. maybe a little longer and we could have raced a bit, but 10 mins was enough to adjust to the track. and it would be fun to go back with more friends next time!

Ah, i love these little malaysia trips. but too bad they cost so much, if not i would go everyweek if i could. but i like the possibilities of it. i'm gaining more knowledge and experience as i go along, and hopefully i'll be able to organise such a trip in the future too! and maybe be a bit more adventurous in where we go!

Thanks to everyone on the SMUX team! for making it so memorable!

++Mis-adventure++

The plan was to go from my dental appointment at SAFTI MI to Serangoon Gardens to meet Uncle Sebastian, Grandparents came to pick me up. i think there was a hint of lethargy due to the weather, but whether the weather made a difference or not i'm not sure.

So we were off the PIE and onto the CTE. there was this little stretch where there were some road works to the side, and i was going to exit at Bradell Exit. there seemed to be a slight narrow in the road (which i did not realise at all) and i felt the car strike something, then following by a grinding sound.

At this point i'm thinking the paint job on the side of the car is totally gone, so we stop to check the car. And Grandpa points out to me that the front left tyre is completely gone, leaving just the rim. i'm totally feeling guilty at this point but all energy was redirected to changing the tyre and getting our car out of the place.

After struggling damn long with the wheel (its FREAKING hard to change the damn thing >.<) we were still unable to get the spare tyre on, and found that it isn't just a problem with the wheel, but the wheel "tendon", the turning piston of sorts, has snapped, so we can't drive even if we could get the wheel in (the metal around the wheel bent too, so can't get the wheel in)

I don't know if its because i was tired from changing the tyre, or maybe i was a little shook up, but giddy spell hit, and a little short of oxygen at that point. thank goodness that the highway rescue team came, towed our car to Toa Payoh, letting us settle down, get some lunch and get someone to come tow our car to get fixed.

I'm utterly utterly blessed and grateful that no one got hurt, and tough i wish i didn't get into an accident in the first place, but glad that since it happened, there was a lot to learn from it, and the price paid was minimal.

++ My Take++
this month (thus far) i've had my fair share of (mis)adventures, but i guess this is what makes life interesting! i'd rather have all these than mundane routines anyday.

I've got a lot to be thankful for! now to move forward and continue this spirit!