Sincerity

I'm still surprisingly energetic at 9.30pm despite an unusually hectic day. It has a lot to do with the fabulous food and people I've been meeting.

For a start, my dear friend EE treated me to a fantastic Japanese lunch. The good thing about eating out with her is I can leave all the ordering to her. She has got great taste and she knows what I like, my job is to gobble up everything presented before me. Today, we feasted on a spread of baby squid, sashimi, Kurobuta pork loin, handrolls and a special hard boiled egg with an extra soft texture.

Since we were out merry making, how can we not drink Japanese sake? Well, she did. Mine was a yummilicious lychee sake martini. She's too smart, she even knows my tipple of choice. Oh, I could drink 10 glasses of that if I didn't have to go to the container yard after lunch! We ended up with a big fat bill which she insisted on paying. Thanks EE, from the bottom of my heart!

Something keeps lingering on my mind today. It's like this. I keep asking myself what is the most important attribute a person should have? After much thought, my answer is 'sincerity'.

A meeting with my supplier from Seoul must have triggered this. This is her first business trip to Singapore and it made her very nervous. Before we met, I had imagined a gentle and young lady. True enough, she's also polite, soft spoken and very sincere.

She had an important meeting with a big corporation in the afternoon, so it was a good idea for us to meet in the morning. I like to think that I'm the least intimidating person in the industry, and I had wanted her feel at home in a strange country.

Fortunately she hit it off with me and soon I could see her relaxing and enjoying the chat. When she asked what I majored in at the university, I said "I didn't go to the university."

"But you look so intelligent!" was all she could say with so much sincerity. As she looked at me with her big brown eyes, I could hear myself uttering "Can I buy you lunch before you leave Singapore?"

By the end of the meeting, my status had been elevated to that of a mentor (thanks to my age) and she was all pumped up for her next scary meeting. What I'm trying to say here is while flattery can get you everywhere, doing it with heaps of sincerity will help you score alot more brownie points.

But seriously, in all my years of living and working, I find that you don't have to be very smart or scheming to succeed in life. Sincerity of the genuine kind will get you places too.