I stayed at home in the morning to tackle household related to-do lists that I kept pushing off in the office. I felt very accomplished crossing them off
- pay the tuition fee for the Jakarta international school! What a big step! Girls will start there in October.
- pay fees to tutors, ending online class for Sofia for good.
- pay bills
Then I went to office for a meeting about a subject that I knew a bit but not enough. I learned a lot. I am surprised how much satisfaction gives me learning new topics 10 years into my professional career.
We had a meeting with a high official, someone that is powerful, fearful for many, but sooooooo insightful. Every time I meet with him, I learn something new, not only on specific topics, but the power of story telling. He’s such a master!!! Few things that he said yesterday that I found so powerful:
- When presenting a problem to someone, tell the truth, don’t sugar coated, provides pro and cons in the simplest way, and let them decide. They’ve paid to make hard decisions. This is so true but we often like to present hard decisions in an ambiguous way to be cautious, because we don’t know if the leader has a preference and we don’t want to be perceived to contradict him/her. This will proven to be wrong in the long term.
- You need to choose your battle. You can’t win every time but you can win some, and compromise in other battles that are okay to lose. Again, wisdom from experience.
- Break the problem into small pieces so you have a chance to fix it. If you want to solve it all at once, it will take years to solve and too many enemies to fight to.
It was probably my last meeting with him. I wish I can listen to him more. As a great leader, he inspires me and makes me want to do more and better.
bye for now…. going for my 4 miles run… to keep pounding these ideas! 😀
Our New Journey 