The other day, I received a comment that I looked younger than my years.  Ok, so that was flattery, but it did made me looked into the mirror twice.  But let us assume for once that it is true, and that set off a lot of wishful thinking and thoughts….

  I have had a backbreaking schedule since as long as I can remember.  For the last 20 years, I reckon I have worked 75 hour weeks on average. I don’t take a lot of break and can hardly remember more than 2 or 3 days when I was totally disengaged from the business.  I eat too much for my own good, and I exercise too little.  I read too much ( that makes me a couch potato too!) and I spend too much time in front of the computer. 

Read the rest of this entry »

One of life’s luxuries I hope I can be able to afford in the future, currently only knowingly practiced by the world’s richest man, is the Think Week.

Twice a year, for one week, Bill Gates goes into a secluded site for his bi-annual think week.  This is the time, which he purportedly spends 18 hour days just reading and thinking about the latest technologies, and what he feels Microsoft should ponder in the future.

Nobody is allowed to be there, not employees, not family, not anybody except a person who discreetly brings him a simple meal twice a day.  During this time, he would pour on hundreds of white papers, submitted by people from Microsoft and others, on what are the technologies that matter, and where Microsoft should go.

I think this is a great great idea.  Sometimes, we need complete silence to think deep, and listen to ourselves, and put in full concentration on things.  Or maybe it is a good idea not even to wait that long. I know some people who give themselves a few minutes a day to go deep and momentarily forget what are the business issue at hand, and do the crossword puzzle.  It is also said that Bill Gates ocassionally gives himself a few minutes of distraction to solve an online bridge problem.

It is said that Bill Gates famous paper on the Internet Tidal Wave in 1995, or the initiatives to go online video game, to do secure computing, or the tablet PC all came from this think week.

Now if he can afford that, why can’t we?  If he is so busy that he has to manage the world’s largest software company, with over 60,000 employees and can give himself a week, why can’t I?