October is definitely all about pink because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Of course it started by couple major players, but I love stating the fact it started by a cool lady named Evelyn Lauder Senior Corporate Vice President of the Estée Lauder Companies found Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 1993 and also established a pink ribbon as its symbol following Susan G. Komen Foundation in 1991 using it first at their race for breast cancer survivors.  I’m not going to go on about what is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, since you can read it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Breast_Cancer_Awareness_Month

Back home around this month, I would see all kind of things in pink from inbox email from women business networking group to billboard, ads on television, newspapers, magazines to even products’ pink influence supporting Breast Cancer Awareness.  Businesses and consumers both would take the advantage of this month to show how much we care!  The first blog I read started Oct was “10 things to know about breast cancer” by Karen Garloch even though there is no pink color on her blog   Estée Lauder Companies was the first one to start this awareness  later joined by many companies, but also maintain being the leader in this by organizing Global Illumination lite more than dozen world-famous landmarks in pink raising awareness early diagnosis of breast cancer. That’s a powerful method of branding though a great cause huh?

I don’t see much pink in Saigon this month. Maybe this is why Saigon is not on the list of city having its world-famous landmark lite up in pink together with other parts of the world? I asked my interns about pink awareness and breast cancer month, they have no idea what it is about.  If you ask what is so special about this month, they will answer Vietnamese Woman Day! I wasn’t ware there is such day until recently.  The exact date is 20th of Oct. I wanted to buy some flower last week and found the price of flower went up about 150% due to this special day!  I saw the same thing happened on the 8th of March, International Women’s, and yes I have no idea about this day until I came back to Vietnam. Businesses here takes these days as opportunity for them to increase profit not much sales instead of branding.  I still don’t see much excitement celebrating Vietnamese Women’s Day here through ads, billboards, commercial etc etc. I wonder if there is special promotion for the ladies from local business? Another question for the men in Vietnam: What do you do for those ladies of your life on this special day?

Prostate Cancer
New cases: 240,890
Deaths: 33,720

Breast Cancer
New cases: 230,480 (female); 2,140 (male)
Deaths: 39,520 (female); 450 (male)

Source: American Cancer Society.

We probably think, only women should worry about breast cancer right? I hope those numbers will raise some awareness of the men. “Prevention is better than cure” by Desiderius Erasmus

Campaign “Wear It Pink” Day will happen on 28th of Oct in UK. I want to start the same campaign here in Saigon! Maybe starting out from my office first huh? Would you join me by wearing pink this coming 28th of Oct? I expect a yes from my friends lol

I’m looking forward to see Vietnam joining the rest of the world in Oct raising awareness about breast cancer, would love to see local businesses showing more their corporate social responsibility for a great cause as Estée Lauder did. Saigon should have a race for pink October along with Terry Fox … and Vincom lights up the whole building in pink during Oct to celebrate Pink Awareness and Vietnamese Women Day next year!

DON’T FORGET TO WEAR PINK ON OCT 28TH! Let’s start this campaign this year!

PS: don’t forget to send me your pictures wearing pink on 28th of Oct, I’ll post it on my blog!

I’m glad to see the sinh cafe now has become as the Sinh Tourist, but my question for you is: “Shouldn’t your service be better since you are in the business so long?” or “Wouldn’t you want to keep a good reputation in this town, or as one of the main player in this tourism industry for the next 30 years at least?”

Through 3 years I have used your service, it got worse and worse everyday, don’t you guys know that? No one has told you that your service is getting bad? I don’t think i’m the only one.  Your management team decided not to do anything about bad service complaints from your previous customer?

Why I think your service is getting bad?

1) Your contracted buses are all old, much older than Phuong Trang and Mai Linh

2) Your bus driver and staff doesn’t even speak English, and foreigners are using your service more than local Vietnamese right?

3) What happened to the Sinh Tourist uniform? The staff on the bus don’t even wear a name tag of the company! Guess you don’t need more branding right?

4) Your office staff can’t even spell the name Robert correctly!

5) Your bus driver has a foul mouth, talked too much we can’t even catch a nap, since we sat right behind him.

6) Bus driver let another passenger or staff sitting next to him and talked loudly in Vietnamese, didn’t even care about what others think!

7) What’s happen to our wet towel? Don’t we get one anytime we used your service?

Your bus driver drove like a maniac, and the bus was shaking whole trip. Of course we were shaking too lol

Sitting on your bus I felt like I’m in the small local bus company running short trip between towns not city, not to tourist area, and for local Vietnamese only.

I hope lonely planet would prefer more foreigner tourists to use Phuong Trang or any other tour bus company instead of the Sinh Tourist.

I would choose other companies as well!

Until next keystroke!

Shea Bennett’s article in Dec 2010 stating 8% of online American, more women tweet than men.  What about now? Beginning of July, 2011 I came across a post on Tweet Grader about 100 most  powerful women on Twitter, but couldn’t find any post about 100 most powerful men on Twitter? Amazing reading these ladies’s profile and what they do and where they are at along with  Twitter and other social media tools.  So much to learn, and of course one thing at a time! Get all of them done.

Despite the popular myth “Women talk more than men”, Richard Knox and Fiona Macrae’s articles stated: “Men talk just as much as women” supported by study found, and maybe we don’t talk much more than men, but we can be more expressive?  Twitter is so for us, women now, wouldn’t you agree ladies?

I’m just beginning, a little late but I will conquer all! I just have to be “louder” than before. Always be a true believer of “Communicate effectively!” even on Twitter.

Looking forward to “100 most powerful men on Twitter” soon. Gender Jabber: fight on!

Sources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-419040/Women-talk-times-men-says-study.html,

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11762186,

http://tweet.grader.com/top/women

Asked a friend of mine who uses 4square regularly, why would he use it? He said “just for amusement”. I also asked if he cares about the badges, the answer was NO.

I did a google search about benefit of 4square, they mentioned about how it would benefit your business by feedback between business and consumers, but that’s more for B2C business, what about B2B business? As a business person, you don’t have that much time to return your friend’s phone call, have a drinks with friends, but you will take time out doing check in?

The question is: “Is it benefit you or your business or other people business?” and “is it worth it for you to take time out of your busy schedule to check in everywhere you go?”

Reading “3 benefits of using foursquare, 1 thing I want out of it” by Mike Walsh, it still didn’t convince me enough to spend more time on it.

Didn’t want to give up, so I read “6 benefits of Foursquare” and the only one I like is: VIRAL EFFECT. Yes it’s enough for me to put some time using it again soon! lol

Would it be good for your business? It depends, what kind of business are you in?

Viral effect: Isn’t social media all about?

Until next keystroke….

Sources:

http://www.wehelpyourock.com/2010/08/04/3-ways-i-benefit-from-using-foursquare-1-thing-i-want-out-of-it/

http://theblackfin.com/archive/2010/04/15/6-benefits-of-foursquare.aspx

Read an article about should you work for free or not, and what’s wrong with working for free. I totally agreed with Margaret Heffernan. It’s not because the company doesn’t have enough fund, and it’s more because they dont want to spend it on you. She is also right when she said: “If you don’t value your work, then who will?”

Hearing feedback from many of my local university students from the Eclub and HHSG, when they do internship at local companies, usually they dont get paid but also don’t get the training that they were supposed to get from the internship. They ended up quitting the internship for a month, or when they got enough information to write the report for the university/thesis.

Internship doesn’t get practiced like it used to be. I’m not sure because local companies don’t understand the real meaning of internship or they don’t care enough? “Internship is a system of on-the-job training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship” (Wikipedia). These interns have to be trained while doing intern at your company. Don’t forget that!

Also heard story about one student, who was doing internship with an export/import company. They basically used her time to pay their bills around town, or to deliver and pick up packages, and the worst part they dont even pay her for her gas riding around town all day.  To me this is about business ethic of that individual company, which I dont want to do any business with!

“Good people, good business!” wouldn’t you agree?

Until the next keystroke!

Every time I heard the song “Stranger in the night” by Frank Sinatra, it reminds me of my dad. Happy Father’s Day dad.

Even though we haven’t been living together for a long time, with a short time being together, it’s a lifetime memory for me. Many thing we did together: sang karaoke, cooked and ate dinner many nights, tried out new restaurants, took trips together but not as many places as I wanted.

Dad you will always be my hero!

Love you dad!

Great song to share: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlSbSKNk9f0

http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/06/which-country-has-the-funniest-people/174047/1

Would you consider yourself as a funny person? I make fun of my friends all the time, doesn’t mean I’m a funny person, maybe have a great sense of humor. Not sure if I would like to be considered as a funny person, not professional at all here wouldn’t you say? lol

So what do you think about power of a smile and doing business? Doesn’t make it easier?

“What many people fail to realize is that smiling is a way for us to engage with others on a personal level. It’s important to create a common ground.” * You probably know this famous quote: “Smile and the whole world smiles with you”

You have the power, so use it often: Smile anytime you can

*http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/the-simple-powers-of-a-smile/32091/

…until the next keystroke!

New goal for myself, starting to blog again. I seemed to forget that I actually like to write. Time flied quickly when you were busy. Since 2008, now it’s already second quarter of 2011 living in Saigon. My family and friends asked me to compare the life in Saigon with life in Los Angeles. I usually tell them it’s apple and orange, and there are good and bad from both. I miss my family and friends back home for sure. Yes I’m still calling US as home. The first year here, I thought I was living out the boxes, and eventually it gets better. It doesnt mean I miss my family and friends less. Adaption is the keyword here. I learnt to cope with the traffic, and the lifestyles, love the people and what I do everyday.

Mom called the other day and didn’t ask “When will you be home?” I think she also adapted that I now live in Saigon, a phone call around half of the globe away, and I would fly home if she needs me.

Some envied me living in Saigon, and some didn’t understand why. Some even asked why are you going back to Saigon, when thousand try to go oversea? So twisted most people would say.

Note to my real friends, who are envying my lifestyle: “The grass is always greener on the other side”. Thank you Vietnam, I learnt alot these 3 years, and still learning.

Until the next keystroke….

Living in Saigon for more than 3 years, I have learned a lot for the locals, and hopefully they learned alot from me too, but communication is still an issue. For example; “giving an opinion”

1) Unwanted opinion: “You’re so fat” “you should be married by now”, “why dont you have kids?” ….so easy giving these out without asking.

2) Suppressed opinion: opinion  you should voice but didn’t want to offend others, or afraid it will make you looked bad.

3) Mattered opinion: opinion that should matter, but no one can handle it, or can’t even take it and consider making any kind of adjustment!

Just make a note for myself, I’ll listen more, take those opinions in for consideration.

No one said life is easy, so keep that in mind!

Can’t say that i accomplish much, but here are some for the list

1) Helping Hand Saigon, its organization and activities

2) Got bigger circle of friends from English Club, charities and business

3) More than 2 years living in Vietnam, and haven’t wanted to move back to US yet

4) Almost 1 year, I haven’t seen my family

5) Dealt with layoff, restructuring and adapting

1 note on personal,

- Growing older, and be wiser, already passed that 35 years, you might agree with me right?

Have been telling my friend S, about needing to start writing my blog again. So many stuff i want to share with my fellow ppl, but didn’t know where to start

Left for 1 whole year, not sure what I should write first.

Let me start by telling you this story huh?

This afternoon came back from Binh Tan district, visiting Binh An Temple, where they have about 30 orphans and 70 elders taking care of. With HHSG, we want to lend a hand to help, preparing a event plan for GroupM to sponsor these places for the forgotten elders, who no one cares for.

M and I walked around the temple, meeting the childrens, and the elderly women. One pretty lady who lost one of her arms, came up and hugged us tightly. She asked us to guess how old she is? We didn’t dare to guess but she looks young with a beautiful smile on her face. Her brown were carefully tattooed showing her previous well-off comparing to the rest of women there. This makes me wondering about how she lost her arm. She told us she’s already in her 70s but looking like 50s, smiling brightly. She heard about M working in marketing industry and wanted to refer her some of her contacts to make more money. My thought you may ask? What’s happened to her? Why does she live here? She asked us to call her “grandma” since we are about her grandkids’ age. Why do her grandkids take care of her at this old age?

Binh An Temple has 70 elderly women, 30 orphans from months old to 15 years old to care for. One asked me about why don’t I have any children or why don’t I want any children? Simple answer i have for them “Why!”

More thoughts ran through my mind on the way back to this side of the town, would I still have a pretty smile on my face when i’m at her age? 70s? Where would I be? Will I still  be sane living the same environment?

Do I still want to dream or think about life “being like a box of chocolate or skittles”? Where do we start and end up at?

Wouldn’t you want to know?