Wilson Ng started helping the family business since 9 years old. Since then, he had dreamt to be a successful entrepreneur, one who starts great businesses  ( he has started 7) from scratch with insight, guts and initiative. He keeps his focus on growing the business by creating value-- not on politics, or wasteful distractions. He brings the same focus to community service, teaching, life and family.

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	Friday, September 23, 2005

Showing off Your Cards -- and your Personality   My grandfather used to play mahjong (chinese classic tile game) with my uncles and friends every week at the house.  When I was small, I would remember the sunday and holiday afternoons when my uncles, and their friends would come in, and start aggregating in the room.  I guess in other countries, people have regular poker or bridge games the same way. One of the interesting facets of watching the game is that people not only have different strategies on how to win, but you also see different interesting personalities at work.  It is a good time to see how people react in different circumstances.  There was the jolly one who always keep his cool, and here was the fast tempered one who would bump his head on the table when he makes a mistake.  There are people who are the best people to be with when lady luck smiles, but they are the people to avoid when they have a bad day.  There are people who play to relax, and there are people who play to win.  Mahjong is not only a game of chance, but there is also an element of strategy.  You can strategize to win, or you can take your chances to maximize your win.  Some of my grandpa's many friends always say that people show their best and their worst when playing mahjong, and the theory is that when somebody is courting your daughter, you should never say yes, until you have gotten your future son-in-law to a few games of mahjong together.  A perceptive player can immediately glean into the personality of the person on how he plays.  Is he a risk taker? How does he take pressure?  How does he react when he wins?  How does he react when he is losing heavily?  How does he conduct himself when somebody makes a move that makes him lose?  And how much strategy does he put into the game? There are also paranoid players who choose not to organize their cards, and while try to visualize the arrangement in their minds because they are mindful that some players will be able to infer their other cards ( or tiles) on hand through where they pull out the cards.  There are those who risk it these by taking care to organize the cards properly. I guess in some way or another, we show off our personality, and it is usually in those off moments that people make a decision on how they really perceive us.  I remember one writer who says that he could read a lot into a person by just observing closely how they go to a restaurant together.  There are people who are definite on what they want.  There are people who choose to order what they always order, and there are people who don't mind what is ordered, or is always game to try something new.  There are people who order without looking at the menu, and there are people who scans the menu for something new,  even if it is their 20th time in that restaurant that year alone.  And there are some people who don't bother to look at the menu, and just starts to grill the waiter on what is the best food to recommend. I also observed something when it comes to meal buffets.  There are people who go out and gets just enough, even if they can get more.  There are people who takes in more than their usual, because it is free.  There are people who finish what they take, and there are people who amusingly takes in a huge amount, and finds out that he got more than he could take.  There are also people who force themselves to finish what they have taken even if it was obvious they were full. What are the other off moments in which interestingly, you give yourself and your personality away to an interesting observer?  do you use these off moments also to understand people better?  Is it good to make conclusions on your  business associates based on their off moments?     1:31:54 AM     comment []   trackback []

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