I was talking to a friend hotelier, and he was recounting that for over 10 years in the early 1980s, he was working in a hotel in China.

One time, there were a group of students who came, and each was carrying an umbrella.  He told the tour guide that at that time of the year, there was no need to carry umbrellas because it hardly rained.

The tour guide reiterated that they have been advised to bring umbrellas - reason is at that time, China dd not have doors to their toilets.

So when you have to go to the comfort room, an umbrella was needed to shield yourself if you don’t want to be seen!

Fortunately, China has progressed quickly, and in most places, you will see western style sanitary toilets with door and lock!

I have been into Facebook a lot lately and maybe that’s why the blog has not have that much posts.

Obviously, I see the same with many blogs that I follow.  Being able to update through Twitter or Status updates with shorter and easier messages means that a lot of ideas do not make it anymore to the blog.  In short, microblogs is competing now with blogs.

At any rate, one of the games that I find quite entertaining lately in Facebook is Mafia Wars.

Here, you are a mafia don, and you try to gain power and money through alliances, and accumulating loot or items and weapons. You also can use your money to invest in businesses to earn money.

It is possible to play that you just make money.  It is also possible to play that you go ahead to gain power.  If you make more alliances, and buy more weapons, you become more powerful.  If you just concentrate make money, that is fine, but when people attack you, then you will keep losing, and therefore your money will slowly be lost or robbed.  However, if you spend too much time to accumulate power, then obviously your ability to use your money to create money generating enterprises becomes limited.

I find the game reflects real life businesses.  At first, I started to play that I only want to concentrate to earn as much money.  Then I find that by avoiding wars, or conflicts, or fights, I may minimize my losses, and not get hurt, but it is only through fights, or risks of losing that you gain experience, and  more weapons and power.

Thus, at the end, you win by taking the right risks, and not by avoiding risks.  WEll, its a game, and they always make you win, but you really will have the most winnings and power if you take risks, and even when you fail, get up again, and try.  

We are now in a much more affluent society, and happily one of the things is that it is easier to bounce back, and there are more opportunities to tackle even if some things do not work out.  So I guess in business and technology, what is important is the question: if you want to succeed, are you taking enough risks?  After all, a ship is safe in the harbor but that is not the reason ships are made.

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