Hey everyone,

As people bid each other christmas greetings and happy new year, I know that 2011 is finally drawing to a close.

2011 is a rather mixed bag for a lot of people around the world, rich and poor, weak and powerful alike. To recap some of the events in 2011.

-Uprising across the Middle East region against long-term dictator and despot specifically in country like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and finally Syria.

-Across the Mediterranean water, we seen old European masters in deep trouble following severe austerity plans in countries like Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal with unemployment as high as 40%.

-USA is still having its enormous debt over its head and a relatively high unemployment although its corporation has done relatively well so far.

-Last but not least, lets not forget about the shockingly awful disasters and the sheer frequency by which they have hit this year, it is truly unprecedented. We have the Queensland flood the size of france and germany combined, followed by Cyclone Yasi, a Cat 5 cyclone. Then over the water Christchurch was hit by a powerful earthquake. A month later Japan had the double whammy of quake and tsunami, decimating many coastal towns in north-eastern Japan and a prolonged radiation problem. We also had the Thailand and Philippines flood that shut down industry and claimed many lives.

-We had riots everywhere across the world and in cyberspace, with Anonymous and the Occupy movement, as well as the London riot.

-Finally, for the rich of the world, the financial market has taken a serious beating this year after the strong recovery in 2010 with major blue chips down between 8-15%.

Personally for me, 2011 was still a relatively decent year, i did really well in university, and towards the end, got myself a Monash Marketing Excellence Award, which i am rather proud of. I have been in the care of truly inspirational university staff and i am eternally thankful for their help and contribution in my journey of learning.

I have also made some really wonderful friends and acquaintances along my journey in Monash, and i will strive to do my best to keep those friendship for as long as possible.

However, my performance at the university was somewhat shadowed by the fact that I once again graduated in a time where the economies around the world are showing lackluster performance, and may put off hiring as the forecast are not very bright for 2012.

Many people still said to me that i am still young. My advice to younger people though, being young is not a reason to be foolish and stupid. Even if you are young, take your early life seriously, as these are your shaping years and the decision you made today will be amplified in the future. If you make the right choices now, you will reap bountiful rewards in the future and if your choices are wrong, it would be very hard to come back up.

I have always dreamed of building an empire of my own someday, even though until today i have yet to attain the real world experience of how to run even one small business on my own. Nevertheless, i would rather die than commit to a life of endless 9-5 labor, unless the company i worked for are truly a great company that rewards well not only monetarily, but also through career advancement.

If anything, i know that dreaming up something big in my life is always going to be an uphill task. But life would be very sad for those who never dared to dream what they have always wanted. A word of advice from a fund manager i saw not too long ago is, take your risk, but manage it well. 

That in essence is how you should run your life, take risk, but diversify. Draft up a risk management plan for yourself, and take insurance wherever possible. In times of uncertainty, risk management has never been so important.

And of course, be daring to dream, take a leap of faith in yourself. Always.

-Aries

I am currently doing Master of Business in Monash and i am finishing my course at the end of this year, and here is some tip i have to say. (Some of these recommendations may be more relevant to people doing commerce)

1. Planning and Choosing Your Course

As somebody who have been through the trouble of making the wrong choice when i was  younger and ended up not really liking what I did in undergrad (which is science), this is something that i wish to tell students who are deciding your course of study. I only have one thing to tell you, and that is to follow your heart.

No matter what any of your friends, colleagues, parents, in-laws or education counsellor said, choosing what you like to do is far more important than choosing what you are good at. Sometimes you can be good at a certain subject, and thus thinks that my life is destined to be etc etc, because you are good at that current subjects. But you will soon realize that down the line, unless you can truly love and enjoy the subject and related topics to your course beyond your university education, you will never find true satisfaction.

A wise lecturer once said, the things you learn in uni are what makes you smart, but it is the things you learn beyond uni that makes you rich.

I find that there is a lot of truth in that simple line, in more ways than one, although rich is one good side effects. You will also come to understand your education to its full extent, and realize truly what does it imply, and brings your knowledge beyond uni to the classroom and share it with others of similar passion. You will come to not only appreciate, but also apply the principles in the things you do in daily life. Uni are meant to be education you can apply in the real world, and it is, but you need to be able to like the subjects to be able to grow your knowledge in your area of study on your own and one day, comes to see how you can apply those skills.

Finally, financial-wise, the modern world offers just about every job there is an almost equal opportunity. It is no longer only the accountants, the financial analysts, or the doctors that can make a decent living, but also anyone else who are proficient and passionate about their work.

I have come to see many of my college friends who are starting all kinds of careers, many of which are completely unrelated to their field of work, and enjoyed some amazing success. A few of the highlights are friends who have started to be a professional photographer, a tattoo artist, a fashion trend-setter, a professional blogger, search-engine guru, and a graphic artist. Neither of them study anything in this fields, but the income they earn from these interests and hobbies, have probably eclipsed their main job (if they hold any).

The lesson here is, as long as you can put that passion you have on your interest, it does not matter what you do, the money will come eventually. It might take a while, but eventually people will recognize you and your work and how passionate you are at it.

2. When in Uni, plan ahead and be aware of the resources the university is giving you

I cant stress enough, how important it is to have a plan and stick to the plan in university. It is written in my guidebook that assignments due simultaneously, on the same day, are a fact of university life.

Allow sufficient time for you to be able to do a proper research prior to the assignment and allow yourself time to think through it before you begin writing. The amount of research and the time you spent thinking about the subject will be apparent in the work that you submit. I am not an advocate of recycling old assignment. I feel that university is an opportunity for you to be able to have time to fully learn, and grow in your thinking, and you should always aim to complete an assignment that you feel is challenging and difficult. There is no point doing an assignment that you or other people have done, and you are almost guaranteed to have a solid average mark for it. If you want to do well in uni, do something that you know other people will struggle to do and do not be afraid when you have made that choice.

Extra Tip : There is also a very important trick if you are studying business in Monash and here it is.

Word counts on your assignment guidelines are arbitrary. If you really want to say what you want to say, and you feel that it adds value to the overall quality of your assignment, do not be afraid to write it down. It is recommended that whatever data you can pile into a table, pile it into a table. As for the rest, just type it in.

In my 1 and half years of Master so far, i have not submitted a single assignment that does not go over the word limit by at least 500 words. In some extreme cases i wrote almost double the word limit, from 2500 to 5000 or from 3000 to 6500. I have NOT been marked down.

I have however been marked down because lecturer felt that there is a critical missing piece of information that i needed to write but didnt, simply because i was afraid i would get marked down by the word limit. It is therefore more important to write a complete assignment rather than writing an assignment with missing critical pieces of information.

Finally, when you are in university be aware of the wealth of resources that are available throughout your course and use it as much as possible. These are some of them

- The university library, online journals, and important software such as bloomberg computer, or microsoft project professional

-The university health and wellbeing center. They offer important information on how to manage your stress and how you can diagnose early an onset of burnout or stress.

-The university career centre. They provide tip on how to write your resume and cv, use it. They also provide information on what jobs are available on the university website.

-Consultation with your lecturer. Your lecturer are people who are passionate at their field of study, and i have always left a consultation session with more than what i need to ask, and this will help you form a clearer picture of learning

- Clubs and societies. Many clubs and societies in uni are useful, and they offer you the opportunity to get involved in uni and meet friends, as well as learn skills that will otherwise be hard to learn in your current field of study e.g. photography and investing

- Computer labs and study labs access after hours

- University public seminar and public lecture. Find out what is happening when and make a booking to attend! They are worthwhile.

3. Group work

Many subjects in the field of business and commerce requires you to have groupwork. These are some tips to do well in group work:

-Attend your first 2 tutorial class, when the groups are assigned. Most importantly, prepare well for these 2 early class. Early class are like interviews, everyone is seeing how everyone else performs in class, to see whether they will be willing to work with you or not. If you prepare well for class and are diligent enough, it will show, and it will be easier for you to recruit people whom you want to be in your group because you know they wont be disappointed working with you. If you can get the first pick of people in your group, chances are you will do well in the group work (but not always)

- In the event that the group does not perform as well as you expected it to be, always be flexible and be ready to cover up for them. Allows for compromise. Unless some people are total dead weight, which some of them are, the marks you lost in your subject will be more than made up for the friends you make when you compromise a little so that they can fulfill their other obligations.

4. Have fun and make lots of friends

Finally, i also want to say that university is a time for you to have fun and enjoy the university life. 

Make friends with people, meet-up with them from time-to-time and always keep in touch with your friends from last semester, or whom had left uni to go to other country.

One last thing to say is that, always try to help your friends, in whatever capacity you can, in whatever problems they may be facing in their life and recognize people for their strengths.

You can name it whatever you want, but good things will happen to people who do good, and the friends you make in your university life is far more important than the grades you will get, and this reason is good enough for you to compromise and cover-up when you could. Not many people will get far in life simply relying on their marks and intelligence. Your friends and acquaintances and what they can testify of your character will go a long way to help you in your life, away from uni, and that is priceless.

It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity

it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,

we were the best of friends, we were the worst of enemies

-Adapted from the opening of Tales of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

There have been floods, a wave of unrest spreading over the middle east, and earthquake in both New Zealand and then most recently, Japan. For me to celebrate this day like any other would be somewhat inappropriate considering the scale of the disasters to have hit us in recent memory.

So I would like to take this opportunity to do the smallest bit i can to help the people in New Zealand and Japan, and would like to encourage you all, as my friends to do your bit for the lives of these people, whether be it direct monetary donations, or a fundraising of your own.

At the end of the day, we are all on the same boat, and one day it could be our turn to need their help.

Best wishes to everyone and thanks for wishing me a happy 23rd birthday :)

-Aries

PS: For donation to the New Zealand earthquake at the Australian Red Cross please click here

For donation to the Japan earthquake/tsunami appeal at the Australian Red Cross please click here

Alternatively, you can donate at any place of your convenience.

He was sharing about how he might consider teaching in the future, when he retires from being a full-time dentist right now. I said that I don’t like teaching, in which he replied ‘ That’s selfish man’.

So after thinking about it for 2 days i decided to write this post, partly to help me understand myself better, and perhaps to encourage myself to share the extensive knowledge that i have.

Many of my friends would agree that overall, I am not a good teacher. I have the knowledge within me, but for some reason i neither have the skill nor the patience to be able to impart bit by bit of what I know.  I get irritated easily if people does not understand quickly what i feel is something that is easy to learn, even though i know i was once at that same stage of learning. I seems to impart my knowledge or converse with people with the assumption that everyone knows as much or more than i do, or that they have relatively similar way of thinking, which is often not true. Therefore, it results in me talking with people using terms and jargon that people new to the topic often do not understand.

I feel that partly a reason of why i assume such a thing is that i feel that i dislike being underestimated or thought of as less intelligent than others and i often hide the fact that i am not familiar with some topic of the conversation with friends or acquaintances by researching in depth later on at home to make up for the lack of said knowledge (with the exception of mathematical topics, in which i hate, and plainly admit suck at it).

The second reason is probably more deep seated. I grew up during my primary and secondary school without having any characteristic to be proud of, other than my intelligence and wealth of general knowledge. I have come to use information as a means of surviving through what i call the difficult years, and grew to hoard information, as it was the only competitive advantage i have socially. For the most part of my teenage years, i hold the deep seated believe that information is power, and the more information that i know that others do not, the more powerful and confident i become. Although i realized this folly of mine when i began to turn 20, and has tried to dissipate some of this bad habit, i still find teaching others often become a challenge, especially to people who have little or no knowledge at all to what i want to teach them.

Nevertheless, as my housemate replied me with that comment, i understood that when i grow older in the future, there are few things in life more rewarding than teaching somebody the knowledge that you have and see the other person find joy and inspiration from it, just as I did when he taught me.

-Aries

I am sure many of you have heard of infamous story of the wolf of the trading world, characterized by movies such as Wall Street, Ponzi schemer’ Bernard Madoff, and many other hedge fund managers earning billions every year. And to tell you the truth, when you get down to it, you realize how they were able to achieve such a feat, often without any of their own money to start with. Literally, creating money out of thin air.

There is a lot of upside of doing a day-trading when you are at my age. You can afford to take the losses for one, knowing that you still have the life ahead of you if the market take a turn for the worse. The income is pretty decent, easily blowing those part-time restaurant jobs or a volunteer intern with little or no pay, provided of course  you do your research and do it well.

As with most things in life, there is almost always two-sides of the same coin. Being in this business intensively for the past 6 months, you can see that in essence traders are simply said, bastard. Smart, but heartless. And indeed, being heartless is probably the best thing you can have to succeed in this line of work. Let me illustrate my point, If there was a natural disaster, such as the recent Queensland flood, I can guarantee you that the traders will capitalize on the rebuilding project, while selling off companies that are taking a beating like insurance. Although, they can make excuses and say, we are contributing and funding the recovery effort, everyone knows that the only benefit they want is the enlarged wallet. People get jailed 10 years for looting in a disaster of this scale, and the value of the loot is simply said negligible.

Many other things that traders do can be considered a crime, if the offence were visible, but we have the easiest of excuses, that we are simply playing within the rules. Its no wonder, the financial engineer of Wall Street and the like have an enviable position. The combined power of the money that we trader have, is enough to make or break countries, we are able to make money when things are going bad, and when things are going good. If people all over are losing money, we still make money, if people make money, we make money. The real loss you have if  you enter this line of work, is selling your soul, and i’m not sure if i am able to do that.

-Acidz

In the same light, i have not tried to learn so much in a year before as this, where i tried my hands in pretty much everything i had wanted to try on to test where my strength and weaknesses lies. I have done good in my studies, learn plenty of things from travel experiences and the people I met along the way, done alright in the stock market thanks to my very own housemate and mentor, and finally i can say i am able to pay my own rent now (although living expenses will take some more time).

In terms of events, this year has truly been the one to remind me that i am not getting any younger. At least 7 of my friends finally graduated from their double-degree and long-ass single degree courses like med and law, some of them have chosen to return to their homeland, and it was sad bidding farewell to these old friends. 4 Others have gotten married, and i wish them the best in their married life, and may they have bountiful blessings in the year to come. Few others have secured job overseas, and they have left Melbourne. Although, my friends in Melbourne are dwindling, i take heart that many have moved on in their journey with life, and as i am getting ready for work, i can learn from the steps they took.

Truly i say, if i were to count my blessing this year, i have been really blessed in almost every sense of the word. My family is doing good, and the house that i am currently living in, is by far the best home i has lived in Melbourne, especially due to the 3 housemate im living with. Apart from the troubles that i brought upon myself, everything else has been as smooth sailing as it could ever be.

So as the new year dawns, i hope that this year may be better than the last, and that i can make worthwhile contributions to improve myself and others.

Lastly, thanks for all the friends and relatives that has made this year possible. For all those that have stayed with me along the way, and encourage me when the going gets tough, this is for you guys.

-acidz

Sermon for both sundays was so good that i thought it was tailored for myself.

Had a busy day on monday, but lecturer gave a week extension.

Tuesday was great. Beaten down in three important argument by two friends, but i learnt a lot.

That fateful night, i was discussing about what i am going to do a year from now, and pretty much still confused between staying here and going back to Indonesia. A housemate of mine told me to just focus my energy on one, and if by the end of the day (which is the middle of next year), the other option still look very good in comparison, at least i wont have my mind at two places, and that i gave one option everything i got.

As my sister is coming here, and as i feel that i have a strong emotional attachment to staying in melbourne, stuff like friends, the food and the weather, i decide to focus my effort on securing a PR and getting a job here. I think that is a good decision.

So thats that for tuesday.

Not much happen on wednesday and thursday other than furiously trying to write my essay for friday.

Everything works so well on friday that i thought the stars was somehow aligned, and even though i am tired from the lack of sleep, i had a great night out with few close friends of mine, playing mahjong and sharing life stories.

One important question came up on friday, and thats what do i look for in a girl?

It is a simple, but really difficult to answer. You know you are attracted to somebody, but when you really think about it, you dont know why. You just simply cant put a finger on the list anymore, its just a whole state of flux in your mind. Perhaps the way we are attracted to somebody is hardwired into our brain. I have no doubt that in life sometimes you have to make compromises on the person that you end up with, and often, in making that choice you can be more rational about the criteria. But for a person that you have a natural attraction to, that is hard. You dont really know why, you just do.

-Aries