I thought it would be fun to describe the key events in my life, so here it is:
1969 - Born in Saigon, Vietnam.
April 30, 1975 - Escapes war-torn Vietnam on the last boat to leave the country. A few hours later, the Viet Cong invades the capital and seizes the Presidential Palace.
June 17, 1975 - Lands in Montreal, Canada with family.
June 1982 - Graduates as valedictorian of elementary school St-Anselme.
May 1986 - Wins literary contest at the Salon du livre de Montreal with short story about the Vietnam War. Synopsis: A man meets a mysterious Bohemian fortune teller who warns him about the past being a dangerous place. This revelation plunges him into his dark, violent and murderous past.
May 1987 - Wins literary contest at the Salon international de la jeunesse, with poetic essay about the plight of the homeless. Synopsis: A homeless protagonist speaks poetically about the fate of millions of homeless people.
June 1987 - Graduates as valedictorian of Jeanne-Mance high school. Wins Excellence and Leadership Award from Montreal Catholic School Board.
November 1987 - Falls in love for the first time. (Sniff, sniff).
1989 - Love ends. Devastated. Becomes a mindless zombie studying Molecular Biology at McGill University. Average grade of 50% in all courses, except for a "B" in a course on French literary techniques.
1991 - Drops out of McGill University. Age of darkness begins. Dates a beautiful, poetic and idealistic girl who introduces him to the writings of Nietszche about the "superman."
1993 - Reads Harry Lorraine's book on memory techniques and scores high on Civil Servants' Admission Exam. Is recruited by the Ministry of Justice to work in quality control for the federal jurisprudence database. Becomes team leader within 9 months.
1994 - Leaves Justice to study journalism at Concordia University. Discovers by accident the book "Mechanism of Mind" by Dr Edward de Bono. Begins process of mental self-reconstruction by reading and studying every book written by Dr de Bono.
1995 - Drops out of journalism school and begins working for IBM at the completion of its spectacular turnaround under CEO Lou Gerstner from yearly loss of 8 billion to yearly gain of 3 billion. Creates CIGNAL, the Career Intelligence Gathering Network for Advanced Learning with a team of six, but the project fails. Creates graphic design studio with two friends, but the venture fails.
1996 - Returns to McGill University to study management part-time. Works for American Express as account administrator for Fortune 100 accounts.
1998 - Writes research paper titled "Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations" in an economics course given by Carl Beigie, former advisor to Finance Minister Michael Wilson. Professor Beigie gave momentous advice in two words: "uncommitted expertise."
1999 - Graduates with Distinction from McGill University. Recruited by CDI Corporate Education Services one day later as project coordinator. Takes over Nortel as account manager and generates six-figure revenues.
June 2000 - Leaves CDI and launches Major Force, a marketing communications firm.
2001 - Recruits friend Quoc Pham as VP Creative for Major Force.
April 2003 - Major Force becomes Evok Communications (www.evok.ca). Leaves the firm to experiment with OneDollarBrain, a firm based purely on intellectual capital. Spends the next two years reading 800 books, seven days a week, and furiously typing out revolutionary ideas using a Smith Corona electric typewriter.
April 2004 - Writes "Un Sens A La Vie" (A Meaningful Life), a one-page description of his ideal career which would enable emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual growth. Also describes the ideal employer.
August 2004 - Writes "Perfect Man Enterprise," a one-page revolutionary manifesto about the need for a globally accessible pool of classic and proven knowledge to educate, encourage and empower men in a world where conflicting ideas about manhood create violence, war and aggression.
2005 - Creates Share & Learn -- "the people's network for passionate learning and personal growth" -- with sister Zoonie. Creates in August the Ideal Career workshop.
February 14, 2006 - Co-creates Talentelle, a company dedicated to strategic career training for women.
May 2006 - Creates BMW workshop (http://businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com), thanks to encouragement and support from sister Zoonie. Begins teaching BMW at Tyark College (www.tyark.com) and other colleges offering an entrepreneurship programme. Begins new career as business coach for women at CEFQ (www.cefq.ca). Discovers the writings of the brilliant Ayn Rand.
October 2007 - Creates with brother Joe a Web portal (www.careerknowledge.net) for empowering talented professionals and managers every day.
December 2007 - Releases Ideal Career Framework (ICF) eBook as a Christmas gift to all women. Releases the BMW workshop manual as an eBook sold worldwide through international affiliates.
April 2008 - Writes revolutionary essay on Talentism, a post-capitalism economic doctrine based on enlightened and sovereign human capital. Creates the Capitalist Kit (DVD, handbook and posters) to intellectually and economically empower all those who seek financial autonomy and freedom. The Capitalist Kit is translated into 42 languages and is endorsed by several heads of state.
April 2009 - Google acquires CareerKnowledge.net for US$30 million. Becomes millionaire before age 40, as planned.
May 2010 - Launches Calligraphers Beyond Borders as an international organization using calligraphy to promote peace, freedom and democracy.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
9/11 redefines every man's work
A man cannot know what he's truly capable of, until he finds himself in the heat of battle, forced to defend loved ones and everything he holds dear in this life.
However, it would be unwise to engage in battle without personal power.
And personal power comes from personal beliefs. This is why, on my 35th birthday, I sat down in a library and wrote on my laptop everything I believed in. It seemed like a good time to pause and reflect on what was happening in the world.
After a few hours of typing, I created the following document: http://www.geocities.com/omnidigitalbrain/freedom35.html
It was around that time that I began to realize that every man's work is radically redefined by the 9/11 attack. Any man who has a sense of honor cannot ignore the call to duty in a post-9/11 world.
First, I began to research the "terrorist problem" by reading America's Secret War, by George Friedman, the founder and chairman of Stratfor (also known as the "shadow CIA"). Friedman describes in spellbinding prose the chain of events that created a character like Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda organization.
The puzzling revelation for me was that after graduating from the University of Saudi Arabia in public administration and economics, Bin Laden took over a few family businesses and built a personal fortune of 300 million dollars.
Why would such an educated man, who obviously had everything to gain by keeping a low profile and enjoying his vast wealth, decide to challenge a mighty superpower? Indeed, there are severe risks to opposing the United States: in 1998, two Tomahawk missiles were launched against Bin Laden, at a cost of one million dollars each. The U.S. missed their target.
Osama Bin Laden got his revenge three years later, exacting a cost to the U.S. economy of over 80 billion dollars. And that's not even including the non-monetary costs in human lives and increased levels of fear.
Any talk of war makes me very uneasy, because I went through the war experience myself -- as a five-year-old boy. I escaped the Vietnam War by the skin of my teeth. If my parents had taken a few more hours to decide to leave Vietnam on April 30, 1975 I would have had a very different destiny. I would have been trapped in a communist-controlled country now ranked 142nd (out of 155) by the United Nations in terms of economic freedom.
In addition to trying to better understand terrorism, I also tried to create solutions for a more peaceful world. One important document I created, in 2004, was a mysterious manifesto called "Perfect Man Enterprise." It seemed like some voice inside of me just spoke, and I was just taking dictation.
This manifesto just said, basically, that the key to peace is to gather valuable knowledge and share it with all men.
However, it would be unwise to engage in battle without personal power.
And personal power comes from personal beliefs. This is why, on my 35th birthday, I sat down in a library and wrote on my laptop everything I believed in. It seemed like a good time to pause and reflect on what was happening in the world.
After a few hours of typing, I created the following document: http://www.geocities.com/omnidigitalbrain/freedom35.html
It was around that time that I began to realize that every man's work is radically redefined by the 9/11 attack. Any man who has a sense of honor cannot ignore the call to duty in a post-9/11 world.
First, I began to research the "terrorist problem" by reading America's Secret War, by George Friedman, the founder and chairman of Stratfor (also known as the "shadow CIA"). Friedman describes in spellbinding prose the chain of events that created a character like Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda organization.
The puzzling revelation for me was that after graduating from the University of Saudi Arabia in public administration and economics, Bin Laden took over a few family businesses and built a personal fortune of 300 million dollars.
Why would such an educated man, who obviously had everything to gain by keeping a low profile and enjoying his vast wealth, decide to challenge a mighty superpower? Indeed, there are severe risks to opposing the United States: in 1998, two Tomahawk missiles were launched against Bin Laden, at a cost of one million dollars each. The U.S. missed their target.
Osama Bin Laden got his revenge three years later, exacting a cost to the U.S. economy of over 80 billion dollars. And that's not even including the non-monetary costs in human lives and increased levels of fear.
Any talk of war makes me very uneasy, because I went through the war experience myself -- as a five-year-old boy. I escaped the Vietnam War by the skin of my teeth. If my parents had taken a few more hours to decide to leave Vietnam on April 30, 1975 I would have had a very different destiny. I would have been trapped in a communist-controlled country now ranked 142nd (out of 155) by the United Nations in terms of economic freedom.
In addition to trying to better understand terrorism, I also tried to create solutions for a more peaceful world. One important document I created, in 2004, was a mysterious manifesto called "Perfect Man Enterprise." It seemed like some voice inside of me just spoke, and I was just taking dictation.
This manifesto just said, basically, that the key to peace is to gather valuable knowledge and share it with all men.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
A deadly nightmare
When I was 17, my French professor Henri Chalifour encouraged me to participate in a literary contest organized on the occasion of the Salon du livre, a popular book fair held in Montreal.
Up until then, I had never written anything, let alone fiction good enough for a provincial literary contest. However, I had read every book written by Agatha Christie, the famed mystery novelist.
The contest required submission of a short story.
Here's where my life, once again, seemed to slip away from my control. I can't remember what happened exactly. I only remember that somebody called me and announced that I had won the literary prize (an electronic Brother typewriter). I was quite surprised when I heard the news. I did not expect to win. I just wrote what I had to write.
My short story, titled "Un Cauchemar... Mortel !" (A Deadly Nightmare), was about a young man who, somehow, let the past take over his life.
I think the judges liked the dramatic ending. The story was a mixture of autobiography (it was about the Vietnam war) and fiction. The style of writing was deeply personal. In fact, it was written like the confession of a criminal who had just committed murder.
So that was 1986.
Surprisingly, the following year, I entered another literary contest and won again ($500). This time, however, it was a poetic essay about the plight of the homeless.
Up until then, I had never written anything, let alone fiction good enough for a provincial literary contest. However, I had read every book written by Agatha Christie, the famed mystery novelist.
The contest required submission of a short story.
Here's where my life, once again, seemed to slip away from my control. I can't remember what happened exactly. I only remember that somebody called me and announced that I had won the literary prize (an electronic Brother typewriter). I was quite surprised when I heard the news. I did not expect to win. I just wrote what I had to write.
My short story, titled "Un Cauchemar... Mortel !" (A Deadly Nightmare), was about a young man who, somehow, let the past take over his life.
I think the judges liked the dramatic ending. The story was a mixture of autobiography (it was about the Vietnam war) and fiction. The style of writing was deeply personal. In fact, it was written like the confession of a criminal who had just committed murder.
So that was 1986.
Surprisingly, the following year, I entered another literary contest and won again ($500). This time, however, it was a poetic essay about the plight of the homeless.
Saigon and Hong Kong, circa 1975
I don't remember much about my childhood before the age of 5. But I remember hearing bombs explode while I was at school in Saigon in 1975. The teacher told us to hide under tables and desks. Then, what happened next was a flurry of furious events that were as confusing as they were surreal.
I am told by my parents that on April 30, 1975 we left Vietnam on the last boat leaving the country. A few hours later, the Viet Cong seized the presidential palace in Saigon, effectively taking over the country.
A few weeks later, after a perilous trip on the seas, I found myself sick to my stomach and alone in a hospital in Hong Kong. I was hungry and extremely weak. In fact, I was unconscious most of the time. The five-year-old boy that I was, did not fully understand the tragedy of the situation.
But he intuitively felt he lost everything. He lost his family, his brothers and sisters, his friends -- and worst of all for a little boy, he lost all his toys!
If the frail boy felt any anger, it was muted by his physical weakness which prevented him from feeling anything. He did not even feel alive. He felt he was in a state between life and death. That strange, mysterious state of being where one becomes aware, inexplicably, of the sudden presence of one's soul.
(to be continued)
I am told by my parents that on April 30, 1975 we left Vietnam on the last boat leaving the country. A few hours later, the Viet Cong seized the presidential palace in Saigon, effectively taking over the country.
A few weeks later, after a perilous trip on the seas, I found myself sick to my stomach and alone in a hospital in Hong Kong. I was hungry and extremely weak. In fact, I was unconscious most of the time. The five-year-old boy that I was, did not fully understand the tragedy of the situation.
But he intuitively felt he lost everything. He lost his family, his brothers and sisters, his friends -- and worst of all for a little boy, he lost all his toys!
If the frail boy felt any anger, it was muted by his physical weakness which prevented him from feeling anything. He did not even feel alive. He felt he was in a state between life and death. That strange, mysterious state of being where one becomes aware, inexplicably, of the sudden presence of one's soul.
(to be continued)
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Purpose
I created this blog to chronicle my mysterious career so far, and to explore my theory that an authentic career is nothing but biographical culmination.
That is, by identifying and integrating all the elements, events and encounters in one's life, one can see for the first time the shape and contour of one's true career.
Indeed, my theory is that a true career comes from a strategic study (1) of one's biography, of one's self-knowledge and of an accurate, evolving understanding of the person one has become.
If a career has little to do with who we truly are, then it has little validity. It has little momentum. And it has little power in helping us to become the best we can be.
(1) By "strategic study," I mean a structured analysis using the Ideal Career Framework (ICF) I developed in August 2005. More on ICF later.
That is, by identifying and integrating all the elements, events and encounters in one's life, one can see for the first time the shape and contour of one's true career.
Indeed, my theory is that a true career comes from a strategic study (1) of one's biography, of one's self-knowledge and of an accurate, evolving understanding of the person one has become.
If a career has little to do with who we truly are, then it has little validity. It has little momentum. And it has little power in helping us to become the best we can be.
(1) By "strategic study," I mean a structured analysis using the Ideal Career Framework (ICF) I developed in August 2005. More on ICF later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)