February 2012
6 posts
PNG On Sale
Mekere does the media rounds, drums down the value of PNG Ports and Telikom, sacks/replaces CEO’s with his own people, changes boards, so he can ‘privatise’ these multi billion kina people assets for a couple of million to his mates… he is a dinosaur, privatisation as an economic model is a dead theory. His economics are screwed.
If privatisation worked then the Global...
The fall and the sand
Not a single sad word needs to be said
No sound of mourning needs to be heard
No need to cry
Goodbye is Goodbye
Into battle we fall
Unwilling but with heart
Could we have saved you after all
When you were meant to leave us in the dark?
Life goes so fast
All these dreams will never be true
As you fall every minute into our past
In the hour that was your last, could we have saved you?
Angels laid...
When Government Wants to Be Business Partners and...
Is passenger shipping in PNG lucrative?
If you multiply 100 passengers by K100, that means Star Shipping makes over K100,000 per trip on anyone of its 50 year old boats from Rabaul to Lae. If you say 10 trips in a month, it makes a million or more each month.
If the crew and captain can just load passengers and overload the boat at will, they also pocket on the side several thousands per trip....
January 2012
13 posts
churning
When you start something, 99 percent of the time, you work alone, often confused, trying to figure things out. Does it get easier?…no it doesnt, after you climb one hill, you create another mountain. Some people are brilliant and things seem to just happen for them, for the others, the outsiders, its a constant battle to stay ahead of yourself.
Memories of war
The war in Iraq and the war and counter-war on terrorism rages everyday on our television screens and newspapers The terrible calamity of war is often forgotten amid the media orgy of bombings and beheadings. But if we took time to turn off our TV screens and close our newspapers, we would notice the tiny army of polite visitors who reach our shores and head off to far flung areas of PNG to say...
Talk To Me
You know I
I feel
a
certain unsure but certain
flow
for you
You are like magic
Twinkle
You are like choc sprinkles
Get you near to asking
Listen
Me & You
Should be
Flatten Your Mountains to Follow Your Star
In order to get there, you need a ‘why’ strong enough… strong enough to make you work harder, faster, better than everyone else and for far longer, a why strong enough to wake you up in the night eager to work and no matter what the weather, push you through the door, a why strong enough to make you ask the impossible and deliver to the unreasonable, a why strong enough for you...
The 2 AM Email Message
Hey
Its almost the New Year now. I would like to thank all of you for a great 2011. There have been some highs, and there have been some lows. But all of that will soon be in the past now and its time to look at the future.
Before I get to the future, I would also like to apologise to all of you. You all of all given me chances to succeed this year and i think i have fallen way short of the...
December 2011
7 posts
Putting the X back in Christmas
I think I’ve lost a few freinds in 2011. Its not that they died or anything…they just dont talk to me anymore. There was a time when they would turn up whenever to borrow money that would never get paid back, or one ‘shout’ after another that never got returned. Now the freinds I see the most are the ones who never really asked me for anything, but have given me alot. I...
1 use of pain
Once upon a dream they gave me a blunt knife and laughed at me, skinny kid, working in the rain. I learnt a deep lesson. In life, no matter how hard it hurts and how blunt the knife can be, the winner is the one who uses it to carve his own path, despite his pain.
November 2011
2 posts
Choosing The Challenge
Forgive me if my thoughts are muddled.
After reading the recent reports about the Special Agriculture Lease & Business Lease fiasco in Pomio where actual female landowners had their signatores forged on the lease documents, I decided that as an individual I need to make a stronger contribution to this country.
I cant believe that Papua New Guineans are getting conned out of their land and...
The Hole in the Facade of Paradise
Is a hero someone who looks like Superman and shoots webs out of his wrist like Spiderman and uses his special ‘spidey sense’ to rescue someone as they are about to be victimized by a mob?… Maybe in Fantasia.
No hero dropped out of the Morobe sky to save a 13 year old school girl from being abducted at Eriku and raped in broad daylight.
They say that a hero can be found in our most desperate...
October 2011
4 posts
Just Another Day
‘Every time we’re together, It’d never be the same. If you’re not here, How can you stay away, away so long.’
Jon Seceda’s massive 1990’s hit brings back memories to me every time I hear it.
I think of the good times in Mt Hagen when my two older sisters Fiona and Anna would come up from Port Moresby during school holidays.
They would have this song...
How To Use the Social Networking Site Facebook To...
Facebook is great for surface activities (ie people clicking ‘like’ on your status etc), but for deeper conversion, deeper discussions etc, Facebook fails as it is place for a million different actions by one individual quickly. It pans to the desire to talk too everyone at the same time, and affects our ability to concentrate on the deeper value of one good conversation at hand.
How...
Friendship and business don’t mix.
This is something I have been learning slowly, but recently the message was brought home hard.
I have sort of found myself caught in a drama between two friends. Problem is that they are both clients as well.
Instead of leaving me out of the problem and leaving my small business activities out, I have found myself dragged into the muddle.
It’s not their fault. The fact is that I thought maybe...
Mekere’s flawed Merger arguements indicates the...
Mekere doesnt make sense wiith the sale of Air Nuigini or merger. These are some of my points.
1. If Air Nuigini Merges with Airlines PNG, an airline that seems to be struggling and has a bad saftey record, the new entity inherits airlines PNG bad insurance ratings, APNG’s debt and APNG’s overheads. This puts Air Nuigini in a less favourable position. If Air Nugini was to merge and be put into a...
July 2011
2 posts
Have We Done Enough, Or Are We Just Cowards?
When we set out to do www.pngcars.com, we did it to show that anyone with limited knowledge could create a website that can earn money in PNG.
When we quit our jobs, we did it so we could try out other things and break from the monotony of petty office politics and small ideas that are dressed up and celebrated like big ideas.
When we took a cheap camera and wrote a small proposal to PNG TPA, we...
Creation and Sponsorship PNG Annual Nationwide...
A Proposal for Corporate Marketing Divisions: Creation and Sponsorship PNG Annual Nationwide Spelling Bee.
This is a proposal for anybody to consider. Please send your comments to jsmare@gmail.com
Creation and Sponsorship PNG Annual Nationwide Spelling Bee.
For some time now, I have been thinking about how we can develop a Nationwide activity sponsored by a Corporate brand that can enhance the...
June 2011
1 post
2 tags
How to Accept Payments Online
I am creating an online store and this question has been the most challenging.
How can i accept payments online?
Most other PNG online stores use Paypal which is what i began investigating. Unfortunately, Papua New Guineans in PNG can only use Paypal to send money ie buy things and cant use the service to sell items etc.
I looked at other online merchant facilities but after reading the...
May 2011
19 posts
2 tags
Cut Yourself on Broken Promises and Swedish Wisdom
I have a habit of making commitments, many of which i dont keep.
This means that i let myself down and i let others down.
Its not that i dont want to keep them. When i make these commitments, i have the best of intentions, but then i just dont deliver as i am overwhelmed by other commitments i have made.
And this is a problem. I drop so many balls, i let down so many people who are waiting for...
4 tags
Using internal posters to turn strategy into...
Last week i was at an office of organisation and was admiring the posters they had up.
All over the office as well as in the main lobby area, over the computer consoles, in the corridor, almost everywhere they had these big a3 - a2 posters up about their Corporate culture.
These posters were aimed at the staff. It dawned on me then that there are many customer service organisations in Papua New...
3 tags
Developing A Small Business Network In PNG
With the growth of the PNG Economy, I think we should see a flourishing of small businesses in PNG.
I think a great idea would be for someone or an organisation to develop a small business directory.
I am thinking of doing one now as a project, but if anyone else is developing something, please let me know.
I can image the directory can be online, with small business listed by category and...
3 tags
Ms Mayambo Peipul becomes first Papua New Guinean...
Port Moresby: Young Papua New Guinea Mayambo Peipul is the new President of the Moresby Arts Theatre.
This is the first time a Papua New Guinea has been elected to the position.
Ms Peipul hopes more Papua New Guinean’s will be part of the theatre as actors, assistants, stage hands and as audience members.
The Port Moresby Arts Theatre has expanded its creative role in the city by hosting monthly...
8 tags
Most Men Don’t Have Trust, John Savage.
In his book ‘Its Getting Easier,’ the late John Savage, super insurance salesman said the problem with many men was that they don’t have trust.
If they have a family they don’t trust their wives in their relationship as well as with their finances, if they have a business they don’t trust their employees, if they have children they don’t trust them to become successful.
He said most men are too...
5 tags
Each Negative Thought Is A Down Payment on...
I once bought a second hand book called ‘Its Getting Easier’by a super insurance salesman John Savage.
He wrote the book in 1983 to pass on the skills, values and knowledge he had gained along the years as he built up his prosperous but small practice of selling life insurance. In one year alone he made $14million dollars in business, so he was pretty good.
I have no idea who he was...
5 tags
Never Be Cheap to get more clients for your...
It’s not a good idea to be cheap when growing your business.
Some people will tell you to add incentives to get new business, like paying a client to refer you to another client.
But in the literature today, this advice seems counterproductive as it ‘cheapens’ the value of your product.
Its better that your client is so impressed with your work and who you are, that they refer you to others.
This...
3 tags
To Make a System Fool Proof, Remove the Fool
This is a great lesson for any business owner or manager.
Sometimes you have a person with some authority in an organisation, but who is just a fool and doesn’t know what they are doing.
You see these people in many offices in PNG. They occupy managerial posistions especially in Government bodies etc, but they dont do anything.
They dont add any value and many times the presence of these...
8 tags
A Billionaires Four Simple Principles of Success,
Howard Schultz, the Billionaire part owner of Starbucks has four principles of success.
“Don’t be threatened by people smarter than you”
“Compromise anything but your core values.”
“Seek to renew yourself even when you are hitting home runs.”
“ And everything matters.”
I agree with his first principle - “Don’t be threatened by people smarter than you”
For any person...
3 tags
Success is Not an Entitlement, Billionaire Howard...
Billionaire part owner of world coffee chain, Starbucks said in a recent interview with CNBC’s Christine Chan that ‘success is not an entitlement; you have to work on it all the time.’
The story of Starbucks is a famous one of how a good idea found a passionate young man and who looked at the suffering of his father and sought to create a company that his father should have...
7 tags
Money follows Ideas, Ideas should never follow...
Enterprising people often fall into the trap thinking that they need money to start something and make money.
But recently I read somewhere that this is a bad assumption.
One person who was once homeless, one day sat down and thought long and hard about his situation. And then he realized and wrote down on a peice of paper, ‘Money Follows Ideas.’
Since that day he has developed a...
4 tags
PNG Mothers - Thank you for Never Giving Up
I think that PNG Mothers know a little secret.
That no matter how hard it is - they never give up. Because they know that life is full of wonderful moments, waiting to happen.
Like watching the children they love graduate from school, or celebrating when they have a great game of netball or soccer, or seeing their kids get married and having children.
Many mothers will tell you about the...
4 tags
Avoid Toxic People – The World is Too Big for You...
One of popular writer Jack Canfield’s message in his bestseller, ‘The Success Principles’ is to avoid toxic people at all costs.
There are people who can be very negative towards you or have a negative influence on you.
It could be other co-workers, family members, team mates and even your friends.
Instead of helping you succeed in what you are doing, they hold you back with their mediocre...
2 tags
Dress for Success, Like Brad Pitt
Often people who reach for success, don’t know how they should dress for it. For young men who want to be successful entreprueners, there is no real style book on how to dress for success.Why should dress for success be important? Because the truth is, the way you look is often the way you are judged.
If you walk into a bank and ask for a loan dressed in faded Hawaian shirts and flip-flops,...
3 tags
Risk Taking, Not Gambling Could Make You A...
In Dr Thomas Stanley’s bestseller ‘The Millionaire Mind,’ he reports that in a survey ‘Taking Financial Risk vs Playing the Lottery: Correlates to Wealth,” (pg 145) it was found that those who answered ‘very important’ to the question ‘Willingness to Take Financial Risk” as a factor in creating their wealth, were more likely to be multi-millionaires.
As he goes on to further explain...