Debut Demo - Original Song

Where would I be without you?

I wouldn't have been this strong and independent.
I wouldn't have opened my eyes and heart to the less fortunate and been humbled.
I wouldn't have served the underprivileged children/youths and realized how fortunate I am.
I wouldn't have been blessed and to be able to be a blessing to others.
I wouldn't have been loved and in turn overflow with love.
I wouldn't have a teachable spirit and reflected and learnt with an open heart and mind.
I wouldn't have been taught many good values in life so I can be a better person.
I wouldn't have the courage and abilities to pursue my dream of becoming a performer.
I wouldn't have fulfilled my dream of recording a song and I know in due time, an album.

I wouldn't be who I am today without You.

You who picked me up when I was down.
You who gave me strength when I was weak.
You who comforted me when my tears couldn't stop.
You who provided so I never lacked.
You who taught me how to believe, how to hope, how to love.
You who loved me for who I am, with all my strengths, weaknesses, sillyness, quirks, character flaws.
You who always accepted and welcomed me back with open arms despite my disobedience.
You who brought me this far in my career, in my relationships, in my life.
You who gave all of yourself, your dignity, your blood, so I have everything and have eternal life.
You who are more than I can ever fathom and imagine.
You who are my all in all.
You who are my God, my Saviour, my Lord, my beloved and precious Jesus and Heavenly Father.


如果没有你

Written and Sung by Shannon Zann (苏仪珍)
Piano by Gaylin Tan

给你我的生命 是最棒的决定
从死去到复活 从软弱到坚强
你医治我破碎的灵

有了你的带领 认识你的旨意
从骄傲到谦虚 从自大到感激
你一直在陶冶我心

如果没有你就不会有我
如果没有你的爱我还是会寂寞
若不是你 从来不曾想过放开我的手
我会在哪里还是会委屈

如果没有你我就不会在这里
如果没有你的宝血我就看不到奇迹
若不是你天天眷顾着我牵着我的手
我才会在这里 拥有你给的一切美丽
(因你我在这里 能够分享我所有经历)

颂赞你的美好 是我一生梦想
从空虚到充实 从贫穷到富有
你给我未来和盼望

有你给我的爱 是我最大能耐
从悲伤到欢喜 从孤独到温馨
你是我最爱的天父

我叛逆的时候你依然在我身边
我忘了你的时候你永远记得你的誓言

View/listen demo on Youtube or click below.




《如果没有你》 will be part of a woman's ministry compilation album produced by Oops Asia Singapore, where all the songs will be originals written and sung by women, and is scheduled to be released around mid 2012.

This is the first time I wrote a complete song, and the first time I stepped into a recording studio to record a full song. I was really excited to be able to express myself in words and melody, to put it into permanence onto a mp3 track, to share God's goodness with others, and ultimately to fulfill and embark on my dream of singing for God.

I was also quite nervous while doing the recording cause there were so many things to take note - facing the mic while glimpsing at the lyrics from the corner of my eyes, taking deep enough breaths but not to breathe too heavily, trying to sing with emotions while remembering all of those things.

I would say I definitely want to change certain ways I sung certain parts of the song, in terms of variations, emotions, techniques, and perhaps even edit the lyrics. But as this is a demo recording, we didn't re-record every single thing that was not up to my satisfaction. Plus somehow I didn't hear the playback thoroughly, thus the vocals are not recorded to perfection, so please pardon the flat note and what nots.

From the writing of the song to it being accepted to recording the demo, and to proper recording and post production in future, all these would not have been possible without God's anointing and grace upon me. It was my childhood dream to be a singer, but it was unimaginable to be able to fulfill it. I don't pack a powerful voice and flawless techniques at this point, but what I have, I give back unto our Lord. In my weakness, God's strength is made perfect, so I pray that in spite of my imperfections, you will be touched and be ministered to by my debut demo.

Key Quotes from Steve Jobs

www.apple.com

Below are some quotes I found and read which resonated with me in one way or the other, and my top 10 fave quotes are right at the bottom of this entry.

Sieved from straitstimes.com and www.macstories.net

“You know, I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can’t say any more than that it’s the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me.”

'Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10.30 at night with a new idea, or because they realised something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem. It's ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.'

'These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life.
I'm not downplaying that. But it's a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light - that it's going to change everything. Things don't have to change the world to be important.'

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

“Insanely Great!”

“It’s rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing.”

“I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I’m only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I’ve got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that.”

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”

'One more thing ...'

'I don't think I've ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life.

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

“We’ve gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time.”

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.”

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

“Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack. You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview. So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.”

“We’ve had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren’t going to lay off people, that we’d taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place – the last thing we were going to do is lay them off.”

“I mean, some people say, ‘Oh, God, if [Jobs] got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble.’ And, you know, I think it wouldn’t be a party, but there are really capable people at Apple. My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that’s what I try to do.”

“It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. We just want to make great products.”

“So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things.”

“When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else.”

“Our DNA is as a consumer company – for that individual customer who’s voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That’s who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it’s not up to par, it’s our fault, plain and simply.”

“That happens more than you think, because this is not just engineering and science. There is art, too. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of one of these crises, you’re not sure you’re going to make it to the other end. But we’ve always made it, and so we have a certain degree of confidence, although sometimes you wonder. I think the key thing is that we’re not all terrified at the same time. I mean, we do put our heart and soul into these things.”

“I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.”

“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

A photo of Apple's founder Steve Jobs stands on a computer at Apple's flagship store on New York's 5th Avenue, October 5, 2011. -- PHOTO: AFP

My Top 10 Faves:

#10
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”
 
"And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important."

#9
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.”

#8
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

#7
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

#6
“My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”

#5
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

#4
'Death is the destination we all share, and that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.'

#3
'Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.'

#2
“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”

#1
'Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.'

Steve Job's Stanford Commencement Address, 2005

I'm a big apple fan, or a worm, as a friend calls it. A happy worm. Thank you and your team, Steve, for the brilliant innovations, and I believe your successors will aim to continue the legacy you have left behind. Meanwhile, here's saying..

A apple with the word 'bye' carved into it sits outside an Apple store after it was left by a man commemorating the life of Apple Inc's founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs, October 5, 2011 in Pasadena, California. -- PHOTO: AFP

Goodbye Mr Apple. Goodbye Mr Steve Job. RIP.