While walking down the street one day a ‘Member of The Senate’ is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

‘Welcome to heaven,’ says St. Peter. ‘Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.’

‘No problem, just let me in,’ says the Senator.
‘Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.’

‘Really, I’ve made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,’ says the Senator.

‘I’m sorry, but we have our rules.’

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people.

They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly & nice guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises… The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him. ‘Now it’s time to visit heaven.’

So, 24 hours pass with the Senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

‘Well, then, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.’

The Senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: ‘Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.’

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.

‘I don’t understand,’ stammers the Senator. ‘Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?’

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, ‘Yesterday we were campaigning.. .. Today you voted.’

They say that leadership can’t be quantified.

They are managers, coaches, supervisors, team leaders, employees, employers, the media…

But, why not?  Why can’t leadership be quantified?

Many of us do already know many of the qualities that make a good leader.  Couldn’t we then just create a list of those qualities, assign weighting to those qualities, and then give scores points on those qualities to gain a leadership score?

Now, that I think of it, aren’t there many tools and scores out there that do exactly this?

Then, why is there a perception that leadership is hard to quantify?  Bill Belichik, the head coach of a National Football League team New England Patriots, refers to this problem when speaking about possible leadership void at the team.  Does this mean that the NFL is not doing a good job of profiling and scoring individuals on a leadership scoreboard?

Even in his conversation, he mentions about “the work ethic, the motivation, the toughness, the intelligence, the ability to adjust…”  You can find the ESPN article here: http://bit.ly/8iVhIb.

I think this public perception about the difficulty of scoring leadership maybe has to do with general education and understanding of leadership by all of us, including myself.

What do you think?

Late last night, while trying to tweak the hard drive partitioning on my notebook, I turned off Avast’s On-Access Scanner, the  program’s active scan protections against viruses, malware, and hack attempts.  Turning it back on turned out to be a much harder task than anticipated and it took me a while to figure it out.  However, let me first give you the answer for those who are looking for the quick answer.

This is what you need to do:

Try a repair of Avast = Start/Control Panel/Add Remove Programs/ Select Avast /Change Remove/ scroll down to repair and select Repair.
You must be online for repair to work/ Reboot
You could also check if your OS is windows XP that the Avast Services are running

My little quest to find the solution

Starting the Avast program did not do the trick.  Once the Avast program started, there were no options to restart, or turn back on, the active-scan protection.  Searching for how to restart it proved not so easy as well.

I tried searching online for answers with the following keywords with no success:

• “how to turn it back on avast active scan”
• “how to turn on avast active scan”
• “turn on avast active scan”
• “restart avast active scan”

Finally, when I tried restarting the program again, I by chance saw that Avast names its active scan protection as “resident protection”.  “A HA!!”, I thought and searched for “enable resident protection”.

I got the answer from Avast Forum.

Image Borrowed from DailyGalaxy.com

We have all seen movies like The Matrix, Star Wars, I Robot, and Short Circuit that feature robots that can think and feel like humans or having robotic arms and legs.  These movies generally go in the Sci-Fi categories, but should they?

We used to think these were things that were going to happen in the future, but it is already happening.

We already have robots that can form societies (both good AND evil).  This story is really incredible.  Some of the robots take the malicious route of lying in order to have access to the food (recharging) to themselves.  Some of course take the higher road and warn other to not approach dangerous areas… Simply incredible that robots can form societies.  These robots learn what is food and what areas are dangerous.  And, they also make their own behavioral judgments.

Then, we also have robots that show human emotion.  This is supposed to be THE THING that separates a human from a robot.  This is definitely WAY beyond those robot dogs and pets from a decade ago.  These robots LEARN and MIMIC human facial expressions.

If robots can feel and form societies, how are we, humans, really different from robots?

And, consider this: A team of scientists from Sweden and Italy have been able to make a robotic hand that can feel.

We already know about pig hearts and whatever else out there. I think all the Japanimations, or those futuristic Japanese animes, have got it right.  Within the next twenty or thirty years, it is very possible that we have robots with feelings running around and humans with all robotic replacement parts.  After all, all of this is already happening.

I think this could be either really exciting and interesting, or just freaking plain weird and freaky.  What’s your take?

Someone famous was quoted with saying something like, “If someone ever was successful, he/she had some luck on the way”. And, if a successful person doesn’t admit luck, he or she is either lying or is a statistical outlier. 

I am not a motivational speaker or someone highly successful, but I have achieved some minor successes and are on the way to doing even better in the future IMHO (in my humble opinion).  And, I cannot agree more that luck is a HUGE part of someone’s success and that luck IS created, or at least the opportunity for luck is created. Getting a good client just when business cash flows are looking super tight, meeting someone great, or even coming up with great ideas are all possible if you (or me in those examples hehe) are out there working towards your life goals.

Now, I don’t mean to allude that everyone should be super motivated about career, business, and financial success.  What I meant by “working towards YOUR life goals” is that you are working toward what YOU want in YOUR life and type of lifestyle that YOU want to live.  For example, if someone wants to be a teacher and is incredibly happy doing that, THAT, to me, is success.

And, let’s tie this example into the topic at hand: luck. For that someone to find the ideal teaching position and environment, there are going to be many factors.  However, if that someone is going around and talking to people and putting in some effort to get the appropriate degrees and licenses, the chances are MUCH greater that someone will find that ideal teaching position.

Now, it’s your turn!  Let’s hear it from you.  What’s your thought on luck, fate, or whatever you call it?  Do you believe in luck?  How has it been helpful to you?  Please share your thoughts.

Hope you have found something you enjoy doing.  And, I wish you many good wishes and luck!

PS: This post was written 2AM at night after my basketball practice ended late and I could not sleep.  I did not edit the post one bit, so please use caution and excuse me if I sound a bit difficult to understand in any way.  CHEERS!

Hey, everyone!  If you enjoy reading my blog posts, I would like to point out that my best blog posts are going into an Internet Marketing Blog on my company WebGuru’s website as well as the soon to be launched Mongolia Business Blog.

Have a FAAAAN-TASTIC day!!

Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj speaks about Mongolia’s mining situation on Bloomberg.  President Ts. Elbegdorj says he expects a deal on Oyu Tolgoi within a week (video posted on September 25, 2009).

Of course, we have since learned that an agreement was reached on September 30th with the official signing for the Oyu Tolgoi investment agreement to take place on October 6, 2009, a “baljnyam” and “dashnyam” day which is considered an exceptional day according to horoscope and only occurs once a year or so.

In any case, here is the Mongolian President’s interview with Bloomberg.  On a side note, if he carries through everything or at least half of what he has been saying, Mongolia will be an awesome place to live and to do business.  Enjoy the video!

Please feel free to comment below.  Cheers!

Guinness World Records said that 8 foot 1 inch (2.47 meter) Sultan Kosen, from the town of Mardin in eastern Turkey, is now officially the tallest man walking the planet.

Recently I read an article on Yahoo on the world’s new tallest guy Sultan Kosen from Turkey.  What struck me about the story wasn’t his height, but just his simple wishes to date girls and to eventually marry one.  The guy said he never had a girlfriend, but he hoped his new fame will help him find dates.

Reading the story just made me realize we are all human and we all want the similar things in life.  No matter where we are in the world, men are simple creatures.  We all want to date the opposite sex (unless you are guy of course).  I mean you gotta read what he said:

“Up until now it’s been really difficult to find a girlfriend. I’ve never had one, they were usually scared of me. …Hopefully now that I’m famous I’ll be able to meet lots of girls. I’d like to get married.”

Come on!  You gotta give the guy some props.  Most of us guys have not had it as difficult as him.  We always were able to date one way or another.  What if you were in his shoes?  27 years old and not being able to date?

So maybe we can help get the word out and help him get a girlfriend.  If you know anyone in Turkey, please pass this forward.  Let’s help a brother out. 

Go CSU Rams

For a few months now, I have been thinking of the need to have or the value of having an online community for the Colorado State University (CSU) alumni.  Maybe we will call it something like Rams for Life.   In any case, I want to know YOUR thoughts on this.

The idea is essentially to allow for people to post jobs, find jobs, share ideas, and create a medium to for alumni of CSU to connect and to encourage each other.  I think there are many different platforms out there, but I don’t think there is one that REALLY DOES THIS to the full extent.

Below is a copy of an email that I sent to some of my friends who studied at CSU.  Please take a look and share your ideas with us.

Friends,

Do you see a value in having an online RAMS community on the web?

A few other people in the past pointed out that it would be great to have a site with news and information regarding CSU and CSU alumni, but more importantly connecting all of the RAM alumni online where we could post jobs, create groups with each other, and maybe also have profiles.

I know there are resources out there that do this to some level – CSU website, CSU alumni website, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc, but I don’t know if there is any single one site that encourage and foster stronger community where ideas can be shared and encouraged and where maybe businesses and folks can help each other succeed.

What are your thoughts on something like this?  Traci, does CSU already have plans to do something like this in-house?  I just think that, in this day and age, success really comes from people coming together for a common purpose and that having a platform where we can encourage CSU alumni to come together might be something REALLY useful in helping the alumni be even more successful.

As an entrepreneur, I am realizing more and more that I really cannot do everything.  For me to be successful, I need to reach more people (help more people, connect/share with more people) to have better chance to succeed.  Even ideas are better honed through discussions.  Personally, I am in the process of creating a mastermind group in Mongolia with other entrepreneurs with similar mindset where we can help each other succeed.

I think something like this should be encouraged and made available as much as possible for others as well.  I am thinking that my fellow CSU alumni could benefit from this as each of have needs – whether it is finding a new job, hiring the right person, growing our businesses, creating better proposals, improving scientific research, and more.

What does everyone think?  Let’s get the discussions rolling.

What are your thoughts on creating such an online community for the CSU alumni?

On a sunny morning on Tuesday, May 5th 2009, I noticed some green leaves on trees for the first time this year.  Finally, Ulaanbaatar is seeing vegetation and green for the first time since fall.  Winter is usually filled with white, brown, and grey colors.  And, early part of spring is usually filled with brown, the color of dirt.  Needless to say dirt is everywhere

…

Then on Saturday May 9th, it is snowing…

The dust storms this year have been few and far between.  Thank you the gods of weather!

…

NOTE: This was in my draft folder for at least four months now.  I have to publish it now.  Otherwise, I should just delete it.  If you are interested, I will post more information next Spring.  Cheers!