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"Lifelong Learning"
Was up at about 5.30 am. Decided to take an early morning walk. There’s been so many starts and stops and re-start as I try to make exercising a part of my routine.
I decided not to bring my techie handphone. No, no gadgets this morning. I set out on my usual track but at a crossroad decided to allow myself to drift instead of taking the familiar and calculated steps. It was refreshing to discover places of the estate that I had never explored. Can’t imagine that I’ve lived here for over two years and not seeing what I saw today.
Mostly private property that only about 20% of the population can afford. At 6 am, there was little activity in most of the homes. I wondered how the rich live. I saw a few small banana trees growing out of a small opening in the pavement outside one of the houses. You don’t find a lot of those in urban city Singapore. I didn’t expect to see that.
I saw two joggers and found myself half following them, half drifting into a big park with a running track. It was still dark. It hit me then that I didn’t know where I was and that if a robber were to stop me in my track, there’d be no one around to help me.
Lord, in 2010, I took a leap of faith and left the security of my 22+ year work to pioneer digital storytelling. I believe that Singapore needs storytelling. People need to listen to one another. People need to talk to one another. My friends tell me I was brave to do that. At 50.
Brave? I was, I am driven by a passion, a dream. Coupled with a whole lot of idealism. Naive I was. I thought many times long ago that I would one day go for broke for you to prove the limits of your faithfulness. Ha! I’m proving the limits of mine!
Lord, if I could have seen the future and known all that I would be going through today, the uncharted territories I would track, the so many new things I would have to learn, maybe, just maybe I wouldn’t have made the choices that I made. Lord, I have a team now. How can I lead a team when where I am taking them is where I have not been to myself?
Lord, this morning while it was still dark, I saw the bright moon and some stars. I kept walking when I was lost. The beauty that I’ve been missing out on these past two years captivated me. And then I found the streets signs. I know those names. I just hadn’t explored further and deeper. I saw buildings I never saw. I couldn’t see my way but I heard the familiar sounds of the highway nearby. And I knew I couldn’t have been too far lost.
Lord, I enjoyed my talk with you this morning.
I kept walking and found an unfamiliar bus stop… but I recognised the bus number. I knew I couldn’t be too far lost.
Lord, I discovered an exercise station this morning. It’s just around the corner from my block – almost at my door step! I’ve signed up for gym memberships in the past. I’ve given up those… too far and too expensive. I’ve been living here for two years. How come I never discovered this FREE exercise station with all the equipment that I fits all the kinds of exercise that I need and like to do?
Lord, I’ve allowed myself to drift in this plunge I took in digital storytelling. The path is unfamiliar and not easy. It’s ok Lord, you are with me and together we will do exploits and discover treasures along the way.
This is so cool! I just discovered the QR (Quick Response) bar code. Install the free QR Reader app for your iPhone and scan this image to see where it takes you 
Imagine what possibilities! WOW.
P.S. 26 Sep 2011 – Here’s how one person has taken it to the grave.
Oh! The Japanese were on to it in 2008 already!
The challenges I am facing as a start-up is daunting. It’s fine when you get hit by one set back, but when they come in a slew, that’s another matter. My presumptions are being tested in the world as it is and not as what I think it is. This is not reality TV. This is REAL life.
The biggest challenge is cash flow. How do I make digital storytelling (DS) sustainable for the long haul. I want to use DS for social good. I know it can. I see DS becoming a great tree from which many will find shade, shelter, a place to nest, and food to eat.
I can allow obstacles to paralyse me or I can rise up to the challenge. We are made of greater stuff than we often realise. Attitude is what makes the difference.
What do I do when the road ahead has never been trodden? There are no manuals no crystal balls to tell me what to do. I was a missionary from 1988-2010. I did not have a salary like working people do. I have stories — the kind you read in story books but cannot imagine will happen to you — stories of how he provided for me. God has never failed to look after me and those I love.
Isaiah the prophet said:
Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear what I say.
When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?
Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?
When he has leveled the surface,
does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?
Does he not plant wheat in its place,
barley in its plot,
and spelt in its field?
His God instructs him
and teaches him the right way.
Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,
and cumin with a stick.
grain must be ground to make bread;
so one does not go on threshing it forever.
The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it,
but one does not use horses to grind grain.
All this also comes from the LORD Almighty,
whose plan is wonderful,
whose wisdom is magnificent.
God knows my need. He also knows what it takes to make a harvest. He gave the farmer understanding of each type of seed. He taught the farmer timing, technology, and treatment.
He will teach me how to make digital storytelling thrive.
* Isaiah 28:23-27
I’m happy to say I recorded my first podcast early this morning. I’ve been thinking and talking about it for the longest time.
I have been listening and reading up podcast tutorials, watching training videos (it’s amazing the resources you can find out there), thinking about the topics I will address. I’m still studying the technical aspects of geting it available online and on iTune.
I wonder if I can sustain the series. It’s a long haul commitment – not easy when I have competing demands. Never mind, I got started. That’s what counts right now.
I hope to launch the series soon! I know I should put a launch date to it… I will, I will…
Management consultant Raymond Ng recently told me that he had changed his marketing strategy over 200 times. I admire his tenacity and learner mindset.
My good friend Wee Lin, whom I look up to as an innovator, entrepreneur, and marketing guru said to me, “Lots of people have got their market strategy in place when their product isn’t even fully developed. You have a good product. But you have not got your marketing plan in place.”
Marketing is about understanding the people I am want to connect with and putting into their hands what I have and can offer. It’s been almost seven months since I started out my Digital Storytelling Asia social enterprise. I’m learning what doesn’t work (at the moment). How can anyone want what they don’t know about or understand?
Digital storytelling has so much to offer to make life better. But until it is seen as both a need and a want, it will only remain with the few who have felt its magic.
Commenting about the first car he ever built, Henry Ford said: ”If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.”
He also said, “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.”
I am learning to listen to the market. Digital storytelling is what people want, but don’t yet know that they want it.
