Stay Earthed But Not Lie Low!

When you are described as 'earthed', it means that you are grounded in sound values and beliefs. In Mandarin, ‘earthed’ means being ‘sensible, practical and realistic’. In electrical terms, earthed means safe as it directs charges towards the ground. Our character is determined by how we treat others. How we express our values, and behave towards another person is how we will be judged.

Moonshi Moshenruddin did not attend college. And, from a toilet cleaner he now is the CEO of an IT infrastructure firm, CommGate. Describing himself, he said, ‘I am committed to master and I don't tolerate mediocrity. I dare to fight the good fight.’

Start small, and contribute big. Here is a way to enhance our natural environment at low tide. If we think systematically, every action of ours has a consequence. Both inaction and action matter. Our planet has a run-out date, yet we need not accelerate its aging and over-consumption.

Google’s Earth Day tribute shows a dynamic banner comprising flowers and a garden patch. It morphs gradually, like a blooming bush. Do your part in sustaining our planet. Talk to a farmer. Chat with an agriculturist or gardener. Go to the botanical gardens. Build your own vegetable, herb and flower garden. Buys seeds. Discover farmer markets around your community.

All the best to the participants of Ironman South Africa! Have a safe and eventful race. It has been a choppy swim, and rainy and windy ride so far.

Stay earthed. Dig deep. Tap in.

Getting To The Top of the Hill

Getting a podium finish can be a deeply satisfying experience. Going onstage to receive your degree from your Dean of Faculty is also a richly rewarding experience. To complete a marathon and earn your medal and finisher-tee are also worth relishing. Getting to the top of the summit for Ironman Norseman – the extreme long distance triathlon – after the 37K mark of the marathon for a steep, rugged, climb up, may be just as memorable [at the time of writing, twice-Ironman World Champion, Tim DeBoom won the 2011 edition of Norseman. Full report on the Endurance Conspiracy website].

Education has always emphasised success through examination grades, as well as landing the best jobs. Plaudits and pundits have agreed that it is better to be at the top of the game and stay on top, instead of being at the rank bottom. Our language is peppered with altitude-raising language like ‘top-dog’, ‘top scorer’, ‘top student’, ‘head honcho’, ‘high-flyer’, ‘corporate ladder’, ‘top rung’, ‘topping your performance’ and ‘head of the class’. Even the alter-ego of television known as Reality TV flouts highly-important titles like ‘Top Chef’, ‘Top Model’, ‘Top-40 Hits’ and the like. Here are the top-50 leadership blogs for 2010.

We, at Leadership Lessons from Triathlons, are already into our third year of sharing our content. We hope to get onto one of these prestigious lists in the near future. We have earned a few badges of merit in the past two years like appearing on AllTop, The Entrepreneur Blog, and currently a top-100 ranking for a leadership blog.

Google recently ranked us as #2 on its encrypted version, and #9 on its standard version for ‘Leadership Lessons’. It is an honour to be ranked just below Time magazine. We are, currently, #86 for the top leadership blog on Invesp.com. We boast no authors, television celebrities and renowned experts – well, at least not yet, however we do have a panel of excellent featured guests, and stories on excellent people. Everyday People with Extraordinary talents, abilities and lives – these are what we are motivated by, and strive to bring to you.

All these numbers mean little unless we stay current, contemporary, and fresh in our content. Our success is measured by our scope and depth of collaboration with others, degree of connectivity with our readers, and feedback from our readers.

*****

All the best to participants of Ironman Regensberg in Germany: Matthew, Clifford, Mano, Conrad, Chris and Angeline. Have a splendid race! Congratulations to Don Ng and Tee Boon Tiong for completed the grueling, extreme long-distance triathlon, Norseman! We extend our long distance kudos to this Dynamic Duo for being the first Singaporean and Malaysian to complete this race within the cutoff. Enjoy your top-of-the-world feeling!