Why Konami should hire me as the spokesperson for Winning Eleven.

I was born into a family of 2 football freaks - One is my daddy, and the other is my elder brother.

When I was a very small kid, I often had big fights with my bro, solely because 2 TV shows clashed. My bro's favorite - "British Soccer highlights" was shown on channel A while my pick - "Masked Rider" (any Japs would know who he is) was on channel B, at the exact time before dinner during weekdays. If Law of Majority applied, you could easily tell who'd be the winner.

So you can imagine the "attraction" of football to me.

Time flies. I joined BBDO at my 30th. Everyday around 6pm, workplace got empty and occasional yelling was heard.

It was from the studio. You'd see a big crowd spectating 2 pals playing a video soccer game. But my first feeling was - "How boring! 2 people sitting in front of the TV for 20 mins with only a few goals in total. What a FXXKing waste of time!!"

However, peer group pressure seemed to be having kinda influence on me, a very very human being who didn't want to be left out.

I sat down and played.

But the game was extremely hard to pick-up, not only because it used all buttons (8 + 2 joysticks) of the controller, but it's interacting with a football-hater who was ignorant of all Dos of a typical football game.

Again, you could imagine the "normal" result of each game.

Yet, a Leo never gives up, for his mega-sized ego.

Hours of practice followed each lost match. As time passed, I began to grasp the tricks of the game. And the more tricks I learned, the more I appreciated the real football games for I could tell a good player from the bad ones.

Yes, I learn how to watch a real football game, from a video football game.

Because it's more than a game. It's a simulator. Not only simulating skin-deep things like the faces of players nor the ways they move. It's far more than that. The game is so human (Thanks to the powerful AI built-in!) that no 2 matches are the same. Be addicted to it and you'll know what I mean. It's something too grand to describe.

Heard from unverified source that coaches in real world do use the "spectator mode" of this game to test new formations.

It's one of the best-selling video game series in history.

It's developed by the Japanese game giant, Konami.

It's Winning Eleven.

Just when you think you've mastered all the controls, you'll always find more new tricks, either by chance or accident. Even at the off-line mode (which renders online updates impossible).

It's close to human (and maybe more than that).

It's a game ahead of our time.

It's phenomenal.

It's a godsend.

Wall•E. The cartoon that alarms adults to rethink life.

Ruination of environment.

Obesity.

Over-advertising.

Over-consumption.

Over-automation.

Lack of human touch.

Irresponsible waste disposal.

Don't think these are topics to be discussed in some kind of worldwide summit, rather, they are topics brought up in Pixar's latest animation blockbuster - Wall•E. A seemingly entertaining cartoon that draws our attention to big issues which gonna affect the human race in the not-so-distant future.

Mind you. The issues mentioned above are highly similar, if not identical, to the ones that remained unsolved, in all the lost civilizations before our time.

Now. The only moment that matters.

From the recent blockbuster " Kung Fu Panda ", there's a line worth revisiting. A line from Master Wu Gwai.

" Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Now is a gift, that's why it's called Present. "

For booklovers who've read Spencer Johnson's The Present, this pun should sound pretty familiar.

And what I gonna share with you is some kind of How To, for you to practise at every moment of Now that makes you feel good and gets you connected with your Being. From a book I'm currently reading - Practising the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

Make this a habit. From time to time, ask yourself one powerful question? "Am I at ease at this moment?" or "What's going on inside me at this moment?"

But don't answer it immediately. All you need is to observe, from within.

- Your current thoughts,
- Your feelings about such thoughts,
- Any body tension rooted from such feelings?

The essence of such constant diagnosis is to detect the What, if any, that makes you resist the moment of Now, and in turn your whole Life, since Life is composed of hundreds of trillions of Now moments.

We have to find out the root causes that deter one from achieving his /her dream life. Once the What is found, we can then get to the How to rectify it.

So let's be patient and be in the Now. And see What you've got.

I just tell what most Ad Agency creatives forbidden to. The truth.

This is an interview of me, featured in the most authoritative financial post in Hong Kong - Hong Kong Economics Journal, on July 22, 2008.

For those who can't read Chinese, below is the highlight.

That Creativity of Ads are for Marketing results, but never purely for the sake of winning awards.

Because the industry worldwide has got extremely sick that most practitioners make "Scam Ads" (fake ads) to win awards for their own sake and do shit and brainless stuff for real clients.

A phenomenon I coin as AD - Adverse Dichotomy.

Life is short. Have a Not-To-Do list.

Can't wait to share with you some jaw-dropping wisdom from the book I'm currently reading - THE 4-HOUR WORK WEEK by Timothy Ferris, published by Vermilion.

Being busy is a form a laziness.

Being overwhelmed is as unproductive as doing nothing.

Checking emails all day and to reply each promptly won't get you anywhere.

And fine-tuning every PowerPoint slide to perfection won't make you a bestselling author.

Cliche as it might sound, 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort and time.

If you aim to be productive, learn to be selective.

Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.

Make your own Not-To-Do list and stick to it.

There should never be more than 2 mission-critical items to complete each day.

Don't ever arrive at the office or get in front of your computer without a list of priorities.

9-5 is a yesterday's norm. "Being busy" 8 hours a day would only hypnotize you to feel comfortable with such never-ending rat-race.

Maximize income from minimal time and effort is our primary goal.

Let's not forget Parkinson's Law from now on. It states that shorter deadlines do create work quality on par, if not better.

Everyone should have similar experience. If we have 1 month to prepare a presentation, at least 3 weeks and a half are spent on "conceptualizing". When we have only 12 hours to prepare one, chances are it turns out to be far more impressive because of our greater focus, for we know for sure there would be no time for us to fuck around.

To focus, we should never Multi-task. Multi-tasking doesn't make an able man, it only shows he's inability to prioritize. 2 tasks at most per day. Concentrate without distraction.

Try. It'll be difficult, because it's against your habit, your bad habits.

Yet just try. I'll come back with more on my next post.

What we should learn from the Westerners. Compliment.

When I left home and got into the elevator this morning, a Gweipor entered. She's an elegant senior British lady whom I'd never met.

She got out on my floor, which she thought was the G/F.

I told her not to rush.

And she started to praise my tee (A black Galliano with pattern mimicking the Royal Army outfit), from the bottom of her heart.

I said the tee was indeed not too accepted nor appreciated by the mass.

As the dialog went on, she was not a resident of my building, only there to take care of her friend's flat who's currently out of town.

When we parted, we shook hands and I wished her a super day.

This might sound trivial. Yet sometimes it's the trivial thing that matters. It makes each of us feel good - The healthiest state of mind that every book on spirituality emphasizes.

I'm not trying to be biased. Have you ever seen such happened among us Chinese? If so, be generous to let me know.

Update at 16:51 the same day - I got a 2nd compliment regarding my Galliano tee. Again, it's from a She, and another European. According to all spiritual maestros, there's no such thing as coincidence.

God and Angels not only work 24/7. They work in the speed of light.

Miracles happen every day, and every second.

If you've read my previous post, my partner's bro was still in the Intensive Care Unit.

And I swear to God, it was only less than a minute after publishing my last post, the good news came. My partner was telling our IT Director on mobile, that his bro had been moved to the standard ward, which implied the critical moments were over.

Big thanks to all who responded to my last post (And I'm not sure how many could it be considering a less than 1 minute duration). That definitely includes Tomaz Mok - The most experienced advertising practitioner in Greater China, or probably the whole of Asia, with the youngest-looking face.

Kind-hearted people look young, as I always believe.

Wanna look younger? Simply be kind. To everyone around you, including the "strangers".

Ask and It Is given. Pray and you shall receive.

No matter how tough the reality seems.


*A side story: While his bro was receiving the brain surgery to have the blood clogs removed, a "sign" showed up at my partner's home. That a bird flew and hit the window of his bedroom and died.