Category Archives: Uncategorized

My Hero

Dad passed away last week after a long fight with Parkinson’s disease. I will be forever grateful I was there holding his hand when he passed. When I think about it, he was really the person who taught me the most important lessons in life.

  1. Figure out your priorities
  2. Work hard and be humble
  3. Be kind to everyone

There are no words to do justice to what he meant to me. Here’s how I tried. Continue reading →

Stop Reading This Blog

I was in a Barnes and Nobles the other day, and noticed a table with a bunch of books in the self improvement section. (Actually, it was next to the cookbooks…hmmmm. Coincidence?).

All the books laid out exclaiming how to do everything you’re not doing now. Instead of being enticing, it made me want to go home and pull the covers over my head.

So take a moment. Stop reading this blog. Take a break from improving yourself. Take a moment and be happy with everything you’ve done, everyone you love in your life.

Wisdom

I consider myself really fortunate to have people in my life who are amazing mentors and role models. I just met with one who had recently retired from a very senior job, her choice. As we were talking about the transition, she said something to me that struck me:

“What was in the background now comes into the foreground.” Continue reading →

The One Question

There is an amazing professor at Wharton named Adam Grant who is the youngest tenured professor ever. More about him later.

He spends an incredible amount of time advising his students. He wrote this in response to a question a student of his asked him about deciding where to work. The one question is “How is this company different than all others?”

The 3 things he talks about are:

  1. Justice: is this a fair place?
  2. Security: Is it safe to work here?
  3. Control: Can I shape my destiny and have influence in this organization?

The questions to interview people are pretty standard, but these questions are interviewing the organization.  It’s easy to get focused on getting the offer, but you also need to assess the organization. These factors are going to affect our experiences more than anything else…whether you stay or go, they are worth asking.

Growing Up Asian

When people ask me how being Asian has affected me at work, I don’t have a great answer. I wasn’t aware that anyone was doing something to me because I was an Asian female, but I know that growing up in an Asian household affected me. Here were the things that hurt me at work: Continue reading →

A Way to Use Lessons Learned

Some of you have the My Lessons Learned one pager posted where you work, which is really humbling to me that people find it that valuable that they want it as a reminder. Recently, someone told me that she has highlighted the ones that she wants to work on specifically as part of her development plan as a daily reminder.

I thought that was such a great idea: there are times when some of the lessons might be particularly relevant for what you’re dealing with or what you want to focus on improving…and highlighting it is a great reminder to focus your attention. And as you master those, you can focus on others. Until you’ve mastered the whole list.

Full disclosure: it’s been 20 + years, and I’m still working on it.

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Yes, I am early, because I am reminding you!

Watch this commercial, created for Pandora bracelets. These are the new take on the old “charm” bracelets where you can buy beads with special significance (yes, I have mocked my BFF endlessly about hers, but I still buy her beads-that’s hers in the picture.)

I dare you not to shed a tear.