Francis Kong disciplines over 2,000 willing and enthusiastic people

A new call for discipline and grit. (Photo by Hector Landaeta, taken from www.sxc.hu)

By Anthony O. Alcantara

I know it sounds ridiculous. But that is the truth. Over 2,000 people even paid good money just to have Francis Kong discipline them. They practically begged Francis to do it. I was one of them.

Of course, we are not masochists, and I think Francis Kong is not a gleeful and eager sadist either. His seminar, held at the SMX, was titled “Winning Disciplines for Success.” If you look up the etymology of the word discipline, it comes from the Latin disciplina, which means teaching, learning.

So in that sense, discipline is not so bad. Francis certainly laments the negative connotation of the word. And yet discipline, he says, is what we need to succeed.

There are certain highlights that I would like to share, along with my thoughts. Some of what he said was really funny and insightful at the same time, but I won’t mention them here because it’s best to listen to him instead, if you have the chance.

It’s all right

Francis said right behaviors come from right thinking. Right thinking comes from right concepts. Right concepts come from right ideas. We know this already, but some reminders, especially for some high school students in the audience, are needed.

One idea he mentioned is the idea of retirement. I’ve written my thoughts on retirement before, and how it doesn’t appeal to me. Here’s Francis take on the idea: “Good people do not retire. They re-fire.” I love that. Indeed people don’t have to retire at all. They can always find meaningful and productive things to do.

He also showed us a video clip of a TED talk by Joachim de Posada on delayed gratification. De Posada thinks it is the “most important factor for success”. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0yhHKWUa0g (7.15 minutes).

The studies went like this: An experimenter is alone with a 6-year-old in a room. A tasty-looking marshmallow is placed on a table or plate. The experimenter tells the kid that he or she will be left alone in the room for a few minutes because the experimenter needs to take care of a few things. “If you don’t eat the marshmallow, you will get two when I get back.”

Yummy marshmallows

Because of this strong tendency of marshmallows to get into kids’ mouths, most of the marshmallows didn’t survive. Some kids, however, resisted the strong urge to eat the marshmallows. Years later, the kids were tracked down, and, voila, those who exhibited self-control were more successful in terms of grades and other achievements.

I don’t know if Francis knows about the studies of Harvard researcher Angela Duckworth, who found out that self-discipline is only part of the story of success.

You can watch her TED talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaeFnxSfSC4 (18.38 minutes). If you haven’t seen this yet, I encourage you to take a look and let me know what you think.

Duckworth said the other more important factor is “grit”. She defined it as “sustained passion and perseverance.” She said it is necessary for “high-level achievement”.

Grit is it

This reminds me of novelist Haruki Murakami, whose book on running I recently read, and who I think exhibits unwavering grit. Grit, I believe, is also the reason for Francis Kong’s success. After all, he said he has a “PhD”, “Passing high school with difficulty”.

In any case, Duckworth’s video is a nice complement to De Posada’s.

Francis also said creativity is important. For him, the three most important people in business were Henry Ford, who was a consummate entrepreneur, Thomas Edison, who was a brilliant inventor, and Steve Jobs, who was a combination of entrepreneur and inventor. Steve Jobs had the mindset of an artist.

One thing I like about Francis’s seminar was that he invited other speakers to share ideas about discipline.

Jeric and Paul Soriano talked about the creative discipline, the creative mindset. Jeric, the director of the movie Hotshots long ago and who now directs commercials, proposed three steps:

1. Change the way you think.
2. Change the way you speak.
3. Change the way you react.

Words have power

He elaborated on the power of words, saying that we mainly use words to think. Coming from a director, it was unexpected, at least for me. I thought he’d say people think in pictures.

“When you hear words, pictures are being developed,” he said. I agree. But still, we do think in pictures. When we were babies we had no words so we thought in pictures, and also smells, feelings, sounds, Elmo, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

It was only later on that we used words. But yes, words pack a lot of power and we should use them to program our mental “software”, as Jeric said in the seminar.

And as for Paul, Jeric’s son and the boyfriend of Toni Gonzaga, he presented an interesting equation:

Your creativity (IDEA) + passion + heart + soul + body + desire = MAKING IT HAPPEN

Outrunning your doubts

Indeed he knows how to make things happen. He created the film Thelma, an inspirational movie about an impoverished young girl whose quick feet led her to national and international running competitions, and out of poverty. She outran obstacles and difficulties and self-doubts.

At first no one would support Paul. “Why is it that people would watch Petrang Kabayo and Praybeyt Benjamin but not something inspirational?” he said.

So he took matters into his own hands. He became director, producer and co-writer of the film, much like how Bruce Lee would do it. International audiences liked the movie, and they wept, according to Paul.

Sportscaster and former national tennis player Dyan Castillejo was also one of the speakers. She talked about physical discipline. The key take-away from her speech was the power of routines.

Routines, rather than discipline

She didn’t like to call it discipline because of the negative connotation of the word. Routines are somehow less daunting. So if you want to make exercise a part of your life, make it part of your routine. Schedule it. Make exercise as natural as brushing your teeth, or taking a bath.

And take your exercise equipment with you. Dyan brings barbells wherever she goes. I wouldn’t go that far though.

To wrap up this article, just a few more ideas from Francis.

He talked about intellectual, emotional, and spiritual disciplines. Intellectual discipline is simple. Francis said we should read and listen and expose ourselves to things that expand our intellect, things that enhance our creativity.

For emotional discipline, he said we should develop two things: confidence and people skills. He quoted a Stanford survey that revealed success is 87% people skills and only 13% product knowledge.

No wonder smooth-talking idiots can become millionaires. But seriously, it’s not all about  talents.

Change the world

And as for spiritual discipline, Francis reminds us of our spiritual nature, saying, “Don’t just make a difference in this world; make this world different!”

That’s it for now. I was supposed to include ideas from the speech of Butch Jimenez, the Retail Business Group Head and HR Group Head of PLDT. But I’ll have a separate article for that. You’ll know why.

In all, I believe discipline and, much more importantly, grit, can help us make a different world.

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Run and write with Haruki Murakami

Novelist Haruki Murakami writes three to four hours a day. (Photo by Gal Oren.)

By Anthony O. Alcantara

I wish I could do that. But if I did, I would easily be left behind, and as for writing, I wouldn’t even know where to begin a novel.

I’ve never read any of Haruki Murakami’s novels. His popularity in bookstores, however, intrigued me, and I made a mental note to read some of his works this year. When I came upon his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, I said, “Hey, I used to run, too.”

I learned that he runs every day. Before I got married, I was doing exactly that — run every day, for about two months. And before that, I was running three times a week. I felt a connection. So I guess his book about running — a memoir, actually — would be a good place to start to experience his work. He talks about how he writes, too. Vicariously, then, I could run and write with Mr. Murakami by reading his short book.

It’s inspiring to read how Murakami nurtured and allowed running and writing to feed on each other, to provide the physical, mental, emotional, and creative fuel to keep the two things going.

Murakami has been running every day for more than 20 years. Is it because of his strong willpower? Natural runner’s physique? Superhuman leg muscles? Perhaps a childhood trauma that left ominous voices in his head shouting, “Run, Mr. Murakami! Run!”?

Nope. His reason? “It suits me.” That’s what he said in the book. I wish it were that simple for everybody. For him, no amount of persuasion will convince anyone to take up running if it doesn’t suit that person.

The problem is, getting up from the sofa to the fridge to get food suits many people. And they prefer doing that instead of running. We can’t do much about that. But if you find any suitable physical activity that suits you, then that would be a good start.

As for being a novelist, he said there should be three ingredients: talent, focus, and endurance. Talent, of course, can be developed, but there must be a modicum of talent to begin with. I like his take on focus. Indeed, without focus, your talent will go to waste. Murakami concentrates on writing three to four hours a day. Not many can do that.

And as for endurance, he says you need energy to keep your focus on writing. If you feel drained and exhausted after hours of writing instead of energized and motivated, then, obviously, you won’t last long in the craft.

What is interesting to me is that talent, focus, and endurance are the basic ingredients of being excellent at anything. It can be cooking, singing, or weight lifting, or whatever “suits you”, as Murakami would probably say.

He seems to be deliberately thoughtful, quietly passionate, and compassionately wise. You may want to read his short memoir. Who knows, it may suit you, too.

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A tribute to my guitar teacher

My guitar hero, Franco, leftmost holding a trophy, is shown here with the other winners. Guess who's the "girl magnet"?

By Anthony O. Alcantara

Disguised as an impresario who organizes megabuck shows, I went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines recently to watch Guitar Forays, the closing concert of the 2012 Philippine International Guitar Festival and Competition. To my deep shock and chagrin, nobody even acknowledged my presence.

And when I got rid of my disguise, nobody even noticed. So I just assumed my usual role–the unobtrusive fly on the wall.

My unobtrusiveness was momentarily disrupted when Mr. Greg Yu, also a good-looking fly but so much more wealthier and older and a bit chubbier, announced the champion of the competition. It was my guitar teacher, Franco Maigue.

I would have wanted to high five Tony Boy Cojuangco, who was only two meters away from me. But Gretchen Barreto was beside him. And I feared for my life when I saw her expensive-looking high heels, which appeared very capable of inflicting unimaginable pain.

Beautiful guitars

So it was with great joy that I clapped and cheered for Franco. He won a Yuichi Imai Limited Model guitar worth $12,000, or more than half a million pesos, and P35,000 in cash. The second placer was Takashi Endo of Japan. He brought home a Milagro Guitar by Neris Gonzalez and P20,000 in cash. Worrapat Yansupap of Thailand was third place. He won an Armando Derecho Concert Guitar and P15,000 in cash. There was also a special prize for Best Filipino Guitarist, which Roneil Santos won. He got a Milagro guitar, too.

Japanese luthier Yuichi Imai, right, tells Franco how to install the strap for the guitar case. One day I hope to play with Franco's precious guitar.

Four years ago, I took lessons from Franco. He already had a reputation for excellent guitar playing at that time, and he seemed to be popular with the girls. Hoping to imbibe his great guitar playing, and not necessarily his celebrity status with girls, I asked him to teach me the basics of classical guitar.

I was not really a beginner. I taught myself to play the instrument in high school. But then, I’ve developed bad habits. Franco fixed the bad habits, though sometimes now they have a way of creeping back.

He taught me what a solid top guitar was. At that time, all guitars looked pretty solid to me. He also taught me how to use a nail file and sandpaper for my fingernails.

Playing with the heart

Anyway, I didn’t see him play during the competition because of work. I heard that his competitors–who came from the US, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan–were a formidable lot. Some demonstrated technically flawless guitar playing.

They said that what made Franco win, despite having exceeded the allotted time, was how he made the judges feel the music, with puso, with heart. The judges, who were all foreigners, felt it.

In the end, playing with heart may be more important than playing flawlessly. Playing with emotion may matter more than not missing a single note. Winning hearts may be more fulfilling than winning a competition.

And I congratulate Franco for his hard-won and well-deserved victory.

(If you want to know more about classical guitar playing, the Guitar Friends, and the Philippine International Guitar Festival and Competition, check this out: http://www.philippineguitarfestival.com/.)

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How to achieve your goals in 2012 like a piece of Pi

Achieving goals can be a piece of Pi. (Photo courtesy of Michal Zacharzewski; photo taken from www.sxc.hu.)

By Anthony O. Alcantara

Yes. It can be a piece of Pi. The Pi, of course, is that number introduced to us when we were in elementary or high school.

Pi doesn’t talk much, but it has a lot of digits in it. It is infinite, as far as existing supercomputers tell us.

So, you may ask, who am to give you advice on achieving your goals in 2012? Am I an expert? Am I a productivity guru? Well, no. But I’ve read David Allen and recently learned about the Pomodoro technique, among others. And I’m hoping that by the proven scientific principle of osmosis, I can give you some sensible advice.

But what has Pi anything to do with it? Well, in college, I had a math textbook containing the first 100 digits of Pi on the cover. I challenged myself to memorize it. Then in December last year, I rediscovered Pi while surfing the internet, and stumbled upon the Joy of Pi website.

Actually, I was looking for something to help me with my meditation. And since Pi is supposed to be a “transcendental number”, I thought it might help.

After setting a goal of memorizing 1,000 decimal places of Pi before the end of December, I realized that achieving this feat is a lot like setting and achieving goals in life.

So here are some tips:

1. Chunk it up.

Yes, I know you’ve heard it all before. But repetition can be a good thing. In any case, any big goal should be broken down into easy-to-achieve goals. It’s pretty obvious. If you masticate on a big chunk of steak, you are likely to choke, especially if someone decides to tickle you pink. So if you want to make the process more bearable and enjoyable, you cut it into smaller pieces.

It’s the same with memorizing random digits. What I did is to break down the 1,000 digits into 100-digit segments. Then I memorized those segments one at a time. Each segment is like a poem to me. “Come live with me and be my love…” Something like that, but less sexy.

2. Use what works for you.

I’m familiar with some mnemonic techniques that others use. Some have used transliteration of digits into letters, such as 0 for s or z, 1 for t or d, 2 for n, 3 for m, 4 for r, 5 for l, 6 for sh or ch, 7 for g or k, 8 for f or v, 9 for p or b.

So for the first 24 digits of Pi, for example, you can just memorize this sentence:

“My turtle Pancho will, my love, pick up my new mover Ginger.”

It’s cool isn’t it? But it doesn’t work for me. It makes me a lot slower when reciting the numbers because I still have to “translate” the letters into numbers. Neither do the other techniques work for me, such as the method of loci where you think of your favorite spots at home or some familiar place and make silly or outrageous images.

So I used my old technique which is a combination of visual and auditory stimuli generated by the numbers. I divided each 100-digit segment into five or six “sentences”. Within those “sentences”, there are two- to six-digit “words”.

There are some repetitions within the numbers. For example, 6535, 8979, etc. Somewhere between digits 701 to 800, there is also a string of six 9s. I don’t know how statistically improbable is that. I’m not a mathematician.

Anyway, I think there are few people who use the same technique.

3. Focus.

This is obvious. But certainly it’s very hard to do for most of us. I think it may help to make it mindless or automatic to a certain extent. Just like brushing your teeth or taking a bath, you should find the time to achieve one single task that would help you achieve your goals everyday.

I’ve come to love the blog of Leo Babauta. Though his articles have become a little repetitious, I’ve come to view them as useful reminders. Two posts that may be useful are those about how to set and achieve life goals and about how to establish new habits.

Establishing habits is important. I do recommend that instead of setting new year’s resolutions, we set habits instead.

You may want to try out the Pomodoro technique, too. It’s a simple productivity tool that you may like. I’ve been experimenting with it and, so far, I’m noticing some wonderful improvements in my productivity.

And as for memorizing the digits of Pi, I set aside 30 minutes each day. I have work and other responsibilities so this is the only amount of time I can set aside. And before December was up, I was able to memorize 1,000 decimal places of Pi.

Now I’m hoping that these tips I’ve learned from memorizing Pi will also extend to my ability to achieve other goals, and thereby make me more awesome, and less inclined to do seemingly useless things.

Here’s wishing you more awesomeness for the Chinese New Year.

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Ristorante delle Mitre: Eat like a bishop

Carding's Crispy Pata (regular). You can literally die eating this. At least you die happy and content.

By Anthony O. Alcantara

If you want good food fit for a gourmet, tag along with a bishop and you won’t be disappointed. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many bishops out there willing to dine with you. But good thing there’s Ristorante delle Mitre.

The restaurant is located just across San Agustin Church in Intramuros. In this restaurant, you eat what the bishops love to eat. The menu will show you the favorites of the bishops, exactly how they want them cooked.

So the first thing you do is to think of your favorite bishop. Then you look him up in the menu. No, they don’t serve bishops there. They serve dishes based on the bishops’ favorite recipes. You will see the description of each dish and the bishop responsible for putting it on the menu.

If your favorite bishop isn’t on the menu, well, he probably doesn’t care much for good food. Too bad.

Another option is to scan the menu and ask the waiter for the best sellers or his recommendations. In our case, we asked for the best pork dish and the best fish dish in bishopdom.

Voila! We have Carding’s Crispy Pata (regular). It’s the favorite of His Eminence Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal, the Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu.

One look at this dish evokes images of gustatory bliss. It didn’t disappoint. After eating a piece of the crispy pork skin, I gasped and suddenly poured out hyperboles of pleasure. And after chewing lazily on a piece of meat, tears of rapture almost dropped from my eyes.

The special mix of soy sauce and vinegar and spices added to the heavenly taste of this dish. I can now conclude that Bishop Vidal has awesome taste buds. Not bad.

Grilled Salmon and Chicken Arroz Caldo. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

Bishop Gabriel Reyes of Antipolo also has an entry that we liked–Grilled Salmon. The presentation is nice. The sculptured tomato is something I’d like to learn how to do. On top of the salmon is a slice of lemon with a slit three-fourths through and twisted.It’s a great-tasting simple dish.

For our baby Aria, we ordered Chicken Arroz Caldo, an epiphany of the recipe of Bishop Edgardo Juanich, Vicar Apostolic of Taytay. It was very flavorful, not the usual arroz caldo on the streets. The chicken is tasty, too. And judging by the smacking I heard, the dish hurdled the high standards of Aria. Or was Aria just hungry?

Anyway, the price was reasonable:

P288 – Carding’s Crispy Pata (regular)
P238 – Grilled Salmon
P78 – Chicken Arroz Caldo
P604 – Total

If you have P1,000 for a date, you’ll have enough left for your fare going home.

Originally, Ristorante delle Mitre is a place where Bishops dine. And since Bishops feed their flock spiritually, and sometimes with crispy pata and grilled salmon to nourish their bodies, they thought of opening a restaurant to let ordinary people “partake of the Lord’s bounty.” It started as an outreach program of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

You will see a few miters on display in the restaurant.

The text on the menu describes the restaurant as a “place of dining and relaxation after a day’s toil.” It provides “affordable menu for Intramuros workers at lunch break and fine dining for discerning patrons in the evening.”

Another thing I liked about the restaurant is that they provide equal opportunity employment. They have deaf persons as servers. So don’t be surprised if a few people there communicate with hand signals.You may like to tip them generously. In any case, the service is excellent, the food, heavenly, and the ambiance, redolent of Spanish times and religious fervor.

Mitre, after all, is the Italian word for miter, the headdress worn by bishops.

My rating? An enlightening 4.5 stars out of 5.

Spiritually and physically sated. Aria also gets a lollipop from the lady at the cashier.

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