Educating a Nation... and Myself

Putting the Entire Malaysian School Syllabus into YouTube Videos

2012-01-21T15:03:00.002+08:00

It started years back, 4 or 5 if I'm not mistaken, when I was tutoring some orphanages. I met this form 3 kid, let's call him John. John was having some trouble with something called fractions. 0.7, 0.8, he doesn't know how it come about. I was shocked to say the least. This is a problem that any primary school kid can solve.

So just to test his understanding of math I started asking him form 3 math questions, he doesn't understand what I'm asking, I then asked form 1 questions, he still doesn't understand, finally I asked him a truly basic math question. "John... What is half plus half?" he looked at me, thought about it for a while, blinked a few times... then he answered "1/4". I looked at him and I realized why he didn't like school, school was a big waste of time for him. 6 hours everyday of confusion, 6 hours every day of mind numbing torture, 6 hours everyday being reminded that everyone else in school does better than him.

I took a roll of newspaper, and I asked John "how many newspapers is this?" He said "1". I then tore the newspaper in half and I asked "John, how many newspapers are there on my left hand?" He said "1/2" I said "Great! How many newspapers are there on my right hand?" John said "1/2" I said "Great! Now when I take the two halves of the newspapers and I combine them together again (while physically putting the two halves together) what do you get?"

Suddenly you see his eyes light up. Suddenly the answer became obvious for him. Suddenly he understands. 1/2 + 1/2 = 1. Now he understands the fundamentals.

I got angry. Not at John. I got angry because... because... why didn't anyone in the 9 years he was in school show this to him? 9 years and nobody taught him?

So now we're working on an initiative that will give every kid with an internet connection the ability to learn anything in the Malaysian school syllabus for free. We're working with the Khan Academy to make this happen. Go visit www.khanacademy.org.

We're trying to catch the form 5's in time for their math exams this year so fingers and toes crossed that we can win enough funding to make it all happen.

Now that's what I call customer service!

2011-10-19T15:40:00.001+08:00

You know how it is at most hospitals. They're decrepid, sad places where people go to when they're really really sick. It doesn't help then when the staff don't smile at you, they take their time and they have words stamped on their forehead saying " I don't give a damn about you".So that's hospitals in general for you, especially the government ones. But some are different. Thankfully. I was at the Sunway medical center because Tasha's (my girlfriend) cousin fractured her leg. We parked our car, got into the lift and ended up on the 4th floor at her supposed wing. A group of people who were talking to each other then turned to us, stopped talking as we got off the lift and said good afternoon to us. It was s shocker because no one in Malaysia ever does that.They then asked us where we were going. Then we realized that we were in the wrong wing. An administrative nurse who was with them then took the effort to go out of her way to escort us into the next lift, walked us all the way to the other wing and went in to the ward to say hi to Tasha's cousin.Wow. Man... That was a major inconvenience for he. We felt really special. We felt welcome and most importantly, we thought. Wow. This is a really great place.Never in my history of hospital visits have I ever felt so welcome. Now that's what I call customer service.

Making a Difference

2011-10-06T11:08:00.005+08:00

Strange, I never thought a passing of a man whom I have never met and whom I never really got to know would sadden me.

Steve Jobs passed away today and I'm reminded of a statement that a cousin of mine said to me many years back. He said "Edmond, forget it, you can't change the world". But Steve did, many people have before him and many will do after him.

Is my vision for a better Malaysia such a far away dream? Is my dream for a better education for our kids, a nation without corruption and what the heck, busses and trains that come and leave on time a dream that is too far away? No, no and no. I believe that in this lifetime we Malaysians will get our act together and change.

It doesn't take a thousand people to change our world. It starts with one person. It will start with me. It will start with you.

So what are we waiting for?

When shit hits the fan

2011-08-17T17:31:00.002+08:00

In Malaysia, shit needs to hit the fan more often.

"Shit hits the fan"

Meaning: Messy and exciting consequences brought about by a previously secret situation becoming public.

People say to me, "Edmond, in training do you really have to talk about corruption so directly?". I say "Yes, I do". It's because I truly believe that our country will be a much better place without corruption. Malaysia will have better roads, we will have public transportation systems, we will have better healthcare, better police, better education and the list goes on and on.

I've met gwai lohs that say the've moved their base of operations to Singapore because to do business here, they need to give money under the table. Corruption is one of the reasons that we don't have the level of foreign direct investment that we should have. Corruption is the root of inefficiency within our private and public sectors.

Take this scenario, it's a construction project and a contractor has just bribed the project manager on his way into winning the contract. Contractor then uses inferior or unsafe materials because his margins are now lower thanks to having to give under the table money. Project manager then notices inferior and UNSAFE materials used but cannot say or do anything about it otherwise he will risk exposure. So shit doesn't hit the fan and we as Malaysians inherit bad quality and potentially life endangering negligence and that is just in the construction industry. How about education, healthcare and security?

Here's hoping that our MACC does a better job. When more shit hits the fan, it get's really messy but to us ordinary Malaysian citizens, it also gets really exciting.

It's not work, it's "plork"

2011-08-15T21:45:00.006+08:00

When people ask me what I do for fun when I'm away from work, I'm flummoxed, I'm what you would say "confused", I would then look at them for a while, think about it, run through all the scenarios in my head about how I have fun and realize a pattern:

I have fun writing
I have fun doing my YouTube videos
I have fun being in front of people training
I have fun reading

Then I realize that my fun = work. That what I do for work is (in majority) what I do for fun. Which is when I realize that I don't work... I play-work, or plork.

Maybe that's why I don't do too many holidays anymore...

Generation Y's are more aware then the previous generations

2011-08-14T15:24:00.003+08:00

"I bought a small shoe, and they gave me such a big bag, now I'll have to recycle"

"Mummy, don't take the plastic bag, it's a waste"

These are just some of the statements I heard coming out of teens over the past few days when shopping for groceries. This contrasts with...

"Recycle? Aiyah what for la?"

That came from my 76 year old dad. My dads a great guy, but when it comes to being aware about the environment, about education, about politics, he's not very aware at all.

Which brings me to the point of this post, I think Malaysia will keep getting better and better. If the Gen Y's are indeed better than the previous generations, Malaysia will get cleaner on the street, cleaner in politics, better in education and more responsible with their actions.

If life seems tough

2011-08-10T00:11:00.001+08:00

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.

- Winston Churchill

Which means that if life seems tough for you, then good. You'll be better than everyone else who is having the easy life.

I Think Malaysian Society's Maturing

2011-05-22T13:05:00.004+08:00

I look at our country and I feel that we have a lot of work to do. Our lawyers are busy trying to convince one another if a man has poked another in the butt. Our police are busy with trying to prove if one man has poked another in the butt. Our politicians are busy with trying to tell our people that one man has or hasn't poked another in the butt. Our newspapers are excited to write about whether one man has poked another in the butt.

But I see something else happening outside the mainstream swirl of events. People are starting to ask questions such as "I don't want to know if someone has poked a butt, I want to know what the government is doing to improve education" and "I don't care if someone has poked a butt, I want to know how we're going to use tax payer's money"

When we step outside the mainstream media, we can see something amazing starting to happen. Dialog. Granted, when dialog isn't something that we are used to do, flaming wars happen more often than not. Just compare a www.ted.com blog and a local Malaysian political blog and you'll know what I mean. But it's starting to happen and dialog this time is not centered on someone's butt, its centered on things that are truly important to our country. We're starting to ask crucial questions that will shape our destiny such as education, healthcare, tax, governance and it is from this dialog that you see a shift in how Malaysian society is starting to think.

It's a far cry from the days when the opposition fellas would tell you to vote for them because well... not good to give the ruling party all the votes la. This time we're really talking. And about things that matter too.

Being Mad

2011-05-21T00:49:00.002+08:00

Ghandhi said... If you're right no need to be mad. If you're wrong, no right to be mad.

No wonder Ghandhi was hardly ever mad.

Is it wrong to celebrate revenge?

2011-05-03T23:36:00.003+08:00

To the jihadists who fought the American influence, the burning and ultimately destroyed twin towers was a celebratory moment. Marking the end of American invincibility.

Fast forward 10 years and the death of Osama Bin Laden brought thousands of people to the steps of the White House in celebration. Justice as most people will call it.

Is it wrong for the Americans or the jihadists to celebrate? For you to truly understand wrong from right, you need to step into the shoes of the person you are judging. Not just to look at the person from the outside and watching him from our own eyes, but to step into his world for but a few minutes, to feel what he feels, to see what he sees and to experience what he experiences. The pain, the sorrow, the anguish of both sides.

If you're Malaysian as I am, then I'm afraid that is not truly possible, but we can try. Watch this video and tell me if celebrating revenge is right or wrong.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_richards_a_radical_experiment_in_empathy.html

Turning Ugly People Beautiful

2011-04-29T23:30:00.006+08:00

Some people are really ugly. No not the look kinda ugly, but the real, deep inside bottom of the soul kinda ugly. If these people looked on the outside like how they looked on the inside, they might as well be crawling around like Smeagol from Lord of the Rings.

You know these people, it's the selfish boss, the sabotaging colleague, the malicious gossiping queen, the rumour monger, the office politician, the lying, cheating salesman. You know these people and they're everywhere. Correction, they're not everywhere, I believe that most people are not like Smeagol, but some of them are somewhere, waiting to rub their ugliness on you.

But looks can be deceiving. Be it that you're looking to their appearances or you're looking at their insides. What if you were wrong all these years? What if these people weren't really ugly, but misunderstood? If they were merely misunderstood, won't this change your impression of this person?

There was this saying that I heard many years back and still live by. It goes "Everybody does the best they can with the knowledge that they have".

Which means the malicious gossip queen is doing what she does because she believes it's the best way of going through life. Which means the selfish boss is doing what he does because he believes it's the best way to be a boss. Which means the lying, cheating salesman is lying and cheating because he believes it's the only way to get ahead in his career.

Everybody does the best they can with the knowledge that they have. It means it's not an inner ugliness problem. It's now a lack of knowledge problem.

And since you now understand that everyone is doing their best in life, this makes them seem human again, they are no longer ugly, no longer Smeagol, but beautiful.

You only need to look at them from a different angle.

Government Did Good Today

2011-04-28T16:59:00.005+08:00

I had a nice day today.

Yes, although tax day is ominously coming, I was brightened up by a government agency. What? You may say. No way! You may also say. But yes, my day was actually brightened up by a government agency.

You see, I don't have much respect or hope for any of our government agencies. They are not exactly bastions of effectiveness or even friendliness.

Except for one government agency, our income tax department, or what you'd call "HASIL" in Malaysia.

A few days back I was trying to file my taxes online when I realized, alamak, I forgot my password. So I made a trip to the HASIL office in Damansara Perdana. I was fully expecting long queues, disgruntled faces and sleepy heads manning the counters. I was fully expecting a dreadful day of time wasting, yawning and quiet frustration.

What happened was quite the opposite. I parked my car in the building, signs everywhere as to which lift to take. Took the lift out of the car park. There were lots of people at the lobby but the guard manning the lift entrance still had the time to look at me, smile and say "tax?" I nodded, "3rd floor please" she said. Went up the lift and when the door opened, I was surprise surprise, not greeted by mobs of people. I was greeted by a spacious hall. Nicely air conditioned. The first government place I went to where the space smelled really nice. I walked in the hall and standing by the door is a woman who looked at me, smiled and said good afternoon sir, how may I help you. Told her I wanted to refresh my online password and she promptly ushered me to a counter.

I waited at the counter for only a few minutes when it became my turn. The counter person looked at me, smiled and said "how may I help you?" I got my password refreshed in seconds and I was out of the hall in no time. Got downstairs back to the lift lobby, the guard looked at me, smiled, asked me where did I park. I told her "B2" and then she looked at me and said "paid your parking yet? It's here at the corner" pointing me to the autopay machine.

Best of all... The guys at HASIL were so fast, the parking machine told me to "please pay RM 0.00"

The guard didn't have to do that, she could have just not even noticed that I was there. She could have looked bored, just like most other security guards. She could have let me go all the way down to the car only for me to realize that I haven't paid for parking.

Guys, this is amazing ok. A government department is showing the private sector what good customer service really is. I never thought I'd see this day but it's happened already.

HASIL has shown us that government departments can be efficient and friendly, that government employees can be quick thinkers and fast movers. I think what we need to do is find out how they did it, how they overcame generations of apathy to create a culture that is both exciting and promising.

I think I need to find someone to interview at HASIL and put it into a book or a case study or all government departments to read and follow. Now, that will make a big difference.

Do you know anyone in there guys?

Worry? What's That?

2011-04-27T22:49:00.003+08:00

It happened today. I ran out of hot water so I took my heating pot over to the sink to fill it up. Then I saw a white dot in the water and I wondered. Where did that come from? It wasn't there a second ago. I looked up in the ceiling. Nope. No peeling paint. I looked for lizards in the ceiling. Nope, no lizard in sight. Because dried lizard shit can be white flakes. Trust me, I know.

Hmmm... Strange.

I decided to dump the entire contents of the pot into the sink and start again. This time when I unflipped the pot, I saw a lot more white specks. I was like "what the?" I looked at the pot's cover and noticed some plastic bits contained inside the top metal holder. Then it hit me.

The plastic's all degraded and flaked from years of use and I have been drinking plastic laced water for years. Well, maybe not years, depending on when the plastic got flaky.

This fact would have made lots of people stare at disbelief, curse and swear and even worry to bit about what has happened to their bodies. Maybe even write a letter to the plastic hot water pot complaining about how it ruined their lives.

It's strange but I was like, ok so it happened already. I need to buy a new pot.

I didn't use to be like this. I used to worry if something like this were to happen. I wonder what happened to 'worry Edmond'. I'm not sure when it was replaced with 'not very worried Edmond'.

All the self help books must be paying off.

Trying to Walk a Cat

2011-04-26T21:01:00.002+08:00

Have you ever tried to walk a cat? No?

Have you ever seen anyone try to walk a cat? I have. I thought the woman was crazy. She was walking at her pace, hand behind her holding a leash and connected to the leash was an unhappy cat who's struggling to go the other way, paws outstretched in front of her and trying to pull the owner. The cat was obviously going "MEORRREOOOOERRR". Which in cat language roughly means I hate you, or I don't want to walk with you, or I hate walks. Pick your choice.

If you've ever tried to walk a cat or seen someone try to walk a cat, you'll notice that it is an act of futility. Perhaps that's why so few people do it.

But looking into my life, I have many times tried to walk a cat. Not a physical, real cat but a representation of a cat. Many times I have tried to change a loved one's behaviour. Many times I've tried to make my colleague change because she's acting all "out of line". Many times I've tried to change the driving habits of the errant driver ahead of me.

All of which is akin to "Trying to walk a cat".

However, have you seen cats following people? I have. Many a times a cat has followed me, rubbed herself on me and purred, seemingly asking me to scratch her. Numerous times I've had kittens follow me while meowing at me, seemingly asking me to take them home.

You don't need a leash to make cats follow you. All you need is a promise of compassion and cats all around will be following you wherever you go.

Up in Smoke

2011-04-25T20:08:00.004+08:00

Ai yai yai.

Just today I was passing by Damansara Utama and just when I was going to stop at the traffic lights I saw a column of smoke coming up from a compound. I was saying to myself, who are these buggers burning something in the open? The air is bad enough, throw your things away for MBPJ to take away la. Don't burn them.

And while I was thinking all this, I realized that it was coming from...

The police station.

Ai yai yai - yaiyaiyai.

I wonder if they can actually issue out summonses to themselves? For burning leaves out in the open.

Then I drove a little bit further and at the corner of the police compound there is this plastic playground play-thing for kids. You know, those plastic thingee that allows kids to climb up the plastic staircase and slide down and is maybe 3 meters high?

Surrounding the playground thingee is an unkept compound with lalang growing all around it, looking like a kid hasn't ventured near it for years and one word, graffitied to the plastic play thingee.

"Fuck".

My thoughts exactly.

Ai yai yai-yaiyaiyaiyai.

Jalan meter? Tak ada.

2011-04-23T15:11:00.006+08:00

Taxi! I wave my hand above my head. The taxi pulls up at the side of a busy road, I open the door and the first thing I ask is "Jalan meter?" The taxi driver then looks at me with a face that seems to imply "are you stupid ar? I have 12 kids to feed and petrol is expensive". He then says "tak ada!" I look in his car and Lo and Behold! There it is, a meter. Ok, so maybe there are some cobwebs in there but there's a meter! I 'm disappointed because it means I will need to pay much more for a trip downtown that I would actually would need to pay.

And taxi fare's are not cheap nowadays anymore! You'd think that with such fairs these guys would be driving us around in Camry's and not in 1985 Protons that have no power steering, creaks every time the driver takes a turn and has back breaking suspension and and and SMELLY seats that has 20 years of cigarette smoke ingrained into it. But no, it's expensive and there's nothing I can do about it and it can only get more expensive when the taxi drive says "meter tak ada".

Then there's the sign on the taxi door that says "no haggling". It kind of reminds me of the police "saya anti rasuah" button they had years ago. I wonder what happened to it. Comes to show that signs and buttons do nothing except make Malaysians laugh in frustration.

But lets be fair to these guys, I have met honest, friendly, good taxi drivers. When I meet these guys I thank my lucky start and I usually tip them a really good sum. I want to reward the good taxi drivers!

Here's a message to the "meter tak ada" taxi drivers. I am not going to sit in your taxis. Even if I have to walk for an hour. Even if I am drop dead tired. Even if you're the last taxi on earth.

And to the honest taxi drivers. I will always tip you and thank you. Thank you for making Malaysia a better place. And guys, if we all do our part and do the same, we'll see the "meter tak ada" taxi drivers go extinct because they have no business.

1 Malaysia

2011-04-22T14:55:00.004+08:00

I feel that this is too important a topic to ignore. Lots of people talk about 1 Malaysia. Most of the comments I get are negative. Not only are they negative, they display body language that only happens when they hear something absolutely preposterous, nonsensical and unbelievable. They roll their eyes, one eyebrow is raised and they go har?

Actually, I think almost everyone I know thinks that the 1 Malaysia idea is a bunch of rhetoric hogwash, or nonsense.

But is it?

Isn't 1 Malaysia who we should be in the first place? What happened along the way? How did we become 3 Malaysia? How did we get here? Are we such racists? I have had Africans talk to me saying that Malaysia is a very racist country. I would tend to agree.

I think that every big, country changing idea will meet with a lot of resistance and a lot of skepticism. What more with our government's track record of talking big and acting small. But if we lose hope then what next? We can never lose hope that one day our children will enjoy a country free of prejudice, free of racism and a truly 1 Malaysia. A country where we celebrate diversity and bask in unity.

I believe in the 1 Malaysia concept. We can't lose hope. I'm keeping the faith and I'll try to do my part. What about you?

How may I serve you?

2011-04-22T13:03:00.005+08:00

I'm usually quite a cincai guy. Where it doesn't take much to make me happy. These days however, I find myself getting quite a little bit more particular. Is it because I teach customer service? Is it because I teach people how to make people happy? I'm not sure. But I am certain that I am a little bit more particular than in the past because I find myself frowning in restaurants more nowadays than I did in the past.

Bad service is everywhere. You don't even have to go far. There's this mamak near my place, I go there because the food is quite ok, better than the regular fare you get in most mamaks. At least this place has fresh chicken and fresh curries and lots and lots of vegetables. The only part I find terrible? The service. Not all of their service mind you, their order takers are usually pretty sharp and attentive, it's the cashier. Man, that guy needs to smile. At least a bit and at least when I'm giving you my hard earned money. But no. I walk up to the counter, I look at him (he doesn't look at me at all), I pass him the bill (he looks at the bill, not at me), he then punches the keys in his cash register, mutters the total to me (without looking at me), I take out my wallet (he looks at my wallet), I give him the cash (he looks at my cash), he takes my cash and presses the register again, it goes KA CHING! Then he puts the change on the bill tray (without looking at me, without saying thank you and without smiling). Really, he looks like his wife hasn't entertained him for a loooooong time, either that or he looks constipated.

The mamak is only the beginning. I'm going to link you to a horror story. I mean this is reeeeally bad. And it's from a fast food chain that sounds like a combination of submarine and highway. Have a look:

hthequantumsingularity.blogspot.com/2010/11/bad-service-at-subway-summit-usj-p.html

I'm going to end with good news. Because I'd rather give you good news than bad news. Problem is another word for opportunity. It's the same coin, only on different sides. You can't have one without the other. So look at it this way. If you are in the service industry, it's really easy to get ahead in your career. Why? Because everybody else is doing such a bad job. Even Patrick Teoh seems to think so in his book Teohlogy. And it's not even unique to the service industry, in Malaysia, it is a lot more common to find substandard work than it is common to find great work. So all you have to do is just be a little bit better, smile a little bit more, make a few more people happy, do slightly better quality work and you'll be well on your way to a great career.

Malaysia has lots of issues and problems to iron out. Which means you have lots of opportunities waiting for you. What are you waiting for?

My book is finished!

2010-10-09T18:06:00.000+08:00

Woo Hoo!

My book Flush Your Stress Down the Toilet is finally finished. Well... Actually it's been finished for more than 2 months already. If you want a copy feel free to drop me a message.

Marketing over the internet

2010-04-30T11:16:00.003+08:00

Wow. Just 2 days ago I went to a short talk on marketing over the internet. It is not my specific area of specialty and it just seemed like an alien language to me. I didn't understand it, I didn't use it and I wasn't really planning to. Boy, my mind was changed that day. There is a method to the madness and it doesn't depend on spending money nor does it have to be hard.

The first rule of marketing over the internet is to give, give, give, give, give and give more. Give content, give value, give tips, give ideas and give fun. The more we give on a consistent basis, the more fans we attract and the more trust we gain. So content is king, inspiring trust is the result. Sounds simple and has given me more reasons to pursue my hobby in writing. Blog is more updated now, twitter is a part of my life now and my ebook is coming along nicely. I targeted to complete a mini ebook on Flush Your Stress Down The Toilet by the end of this week. But it seems that I have too much to say and it will surpass 10 pages and will take longer than this week :)

Will let you guys know when it's coming out.

Writing e-books

2010-04-26T11:05:00.002+08:00

Ever thought of writing a book but you don't know where to start and how to get your ideas on paper? Well, it's the journey that I am currently going through right now. There's so much in my head. The hundred books I've read the past years, the countless amazing people I've met and all the training I have done with people have given me a unique perspective of human potential.

I was at the National Achievers Congress that just ended yesterday, one of the best speeches came from Tom Hua, he's like the guru of internet marketing. I can't regurgitate everything that he said, but what was most applicable to me is his thoughts on creating our own propriety content. In my case, it's knowledge on paper. Instead of focusing on writing a whole book. I can write 10 pages on 10 chapters on 10 ebooks. Making it available to the market 1 ebook at a time. Writing 10 pages is simple, writing 100 is complicated.

As I write here, I have already begun. Let's see what comes out.

Don't wanna change

2010-04-25T15:55:00.002+08:00

I remember when I was 15 years old. I had a friend, this Indian chap, you can see he's trying. He's a good chap with a good heart. I wonder how he is now. I wonder because when I was 15, he made a statement at our prefectorial meeting when he was reprimanded for some mistakes. He said "I don't want to change anymore. I have changed a lot already. I've changed enough!" I wonder what's happened to him. I wonder how this belief has affected him. I wish him the best. Maybe he has thrown away this belief.

Lots of people don't want to change. Because of that, they don't want to learn. Because if they learn something new, that means they will be wrong about their previous beliefs.

How well and how much we learn is dependant on 1. Our motivation for learning and 2. Our self esteem. Learning involves being wrong, being corrected, slapping our foreheads saying to ourselves, "I did it all wrong all this while?" That requires a self esteem that can take some hits and come out still in one piece. If there is one thing that helps me in my learning process is this thought. "I look forward to being wrong because I become a better person".

With this belief you will change quick, learn quick, be tremendously likeable and very successful

Going for conferences or congreses or seminars

2010-04-25T01:01:00.003+08:00

Many years ago I realized that I was a very opinionated person. I was the type who would defend my point of view till the end. Till death do us part. It started changing when I realized that everything I had in life is the result of my thinking and that I didn't have all that I desired or aspired for because of the way I think. It was a slow sinking realization that I may have been wrong about ALOT of things in my life.

Besides the obvious learning part, I think the reason for me liking conferences, congresses and seminars because it offers me a different perspective, a different out look or even if it is the same perspective, it offers me a different meaning towards the same perspectives. Sometimes I go for talks that were so terrible that I clench my teeth in frustration, most times I end up in OK events and sometimes I meet speakers that just blows my mind away.

Finding these gems have changed me as a person and worth all the other average events that I had to put up with. I still get defensive when my thoughts are challenged nowadays, but I'm more open to ask "what if I'm wrong?" Now I am happy when I'm wrong, because that means I'm growing.

Going through crap & coming out smelling nice

2010-04-22T17:06:00.007+08:00

Crap's everywhere. You can probably find crap in the office, you can find crap in your favourite teh tarik place, you can find crap at home, in the car, on your couch, in the radio, on TV and last but not least, the toilet.

Let's define crap because it's obvious I'm not talking about the brownish thing that comes out of you know where. We say "oh crap", "what the crap" or "shit" when something happens to us that doesn't meet our expectations. When coffee spills out of your Starbucks mug onto your brand new silk tie, or when your boss looks at you with those accusing eyes when you weren't the one who stuffed a potted plant into the company photocopier, or when your girlfriend gives you the cold shoulder and you're going like "what did I do this time?". In all of these cases, you didn't expect the outcomes did you? So you went "oh crap"

So we go through crap then go around cussing and swearing, getting irritated, tasting bitter in our mouths and end up spoiling our dinner and giving others crap. In other words, you went through crap and you are now spreading your stink to everyone that comes close enough to you. Does this happen to you? At least sometimes? I know I do sometimes.

Here are two ways on how to go through crap and come out smelling nice: -

Turn the big cow sized crap into small lizard dropping sizes. When I mean to say is that all the issues we have are neither big nor small but thinking makes it so. A reckless driver has the power to either make us smile with gratefulness that we are not late or we can curse all drivers of the opposite sex and let it ruin our day. How do we do this? Simple. We use timelines. When we are going through a tough situation that's making us feel bad, all we need to do is think, "When I'm 80 years old and I look back at today, will this be a petty event?". 99.9% of the time, you will answer yes, it's a petty event. You have hence made most of your life's challenges look like lizard shit.
Ask if that really is real shit or a plastic shit toy from Toys R Us. Seriously. All of the events in life that happen to us have no meaning other than the meaning we give it. A man who loses his arm can attach the meaning of uselessness to his life, another can attach a meaning of strength over adversity. Both these men's life will turn out very differently. So if we are thinking that my colleague is disrespecting me, or my husband never cares for me, or the economy is killing me. Ask yourself this, "IS IT 100% TRUE, ALL THE TIME?". If you answer no, it's not 100% true all the time, then you have made another 90% of your problems seem like a lie that you tell yourself.

Hope you come out of this smelling like flowers. :)

A drop in the ocean

2010-04-01T18:22:00.002+08:00

It's so easy to think that what we do does not make a difference. That we are just a drop in the vast ocean. Then I remembered a saying by a scientific figure, a meteorologist I think. He said that a flutter of a butterfly's wings can cause a cascade of events that leads to a hurricane.

Then I stopped thinking of what we are trying to do as a drop in the ocean, I started thinking that what we are doing is like a flutter of a butterfly's wings. Writing this actually put a huge smile in my face.

We are also who we meet

2010-03-23T16:10:00.002+08:00

I have been meeting terrific people the past year and specifically the past month. I have met people with vision, people with big ass scary dreams, I've been meeting powerful people with hearts of gold and pockets the size of caves, people who want to make a difference in the country that we live in.

It's no secret that I am passionate about growing Malaysia from the inside out, using education as a means for growing our country. Sometimes it gets lonely and discouraging though because for the longest time it seemed that few cared. I heard this statement last week that changed all that, "The more discouraged we are, the more hopeful we must be". That statement rings in my head everytime there is a setback.

As opposed to someone telling me, "Ai ya, just take care of yourself enough already". Because there is always a clear and present danger that if I hear that enough, I might actually agree.

As much as we are what we eat, we are who we meet and right now, I am thankful for all the supportive, big minded people that have become a part of my life.

What causes intelligence?

2010-03-21T02:44:00.004+08:00

I remember being rather stupid when I was young. I remember when I was 5 or 6, I was offered a soggy piece of potato chip and I didn't even think that it may have been through another person's mouth. I remember getting punished when I was about 7 or 8 because I could not draw a straight line. I remember eating lunch alone downstairs of my primary school because it was lunchtime, when it was 9am. Yes, I was stupid and people around me made sure I knew that.

Somehow that started changing. sometime around the lunchtime nonsense I got addicted to reading everything colourful that came my way. I started reading all the encyclopedia's I could find. I started liking Reader's Digest, soon when I entered secondary school, I would devour every page of Newsweek and Time. Soon I was the person in school that seemed to know everything and soon, everybody thought I was smart. I never did lose the love of learning because it gave me a lot of joy.

That's why I think Malaysia is heading to disaster unless we improve our education system quick. Kids that come out of our formal schools hate learning and they hate books. How can we blame them? Everytime they see a book, they have to memorize it. Books = Excruciatingly boring time. Hence, they throw away books and never regaine their interest in books when they age.

Malaysia is no longer the world's manufacturing base. We are not cheap and we do not have enough engineers. We are also never a creative or design base. Creative thinking was never thought in schools nor encouraged in the corporate or private sector. This is where we hope to change things. This is where our passion lies and by golly, we better do something within the next 10 years or we will be stuck in the middle income trap for the next 2 generations.

Perspective - Your source of greatness

2009-12-05T11:34:00.003+08:00

Half empty, half full. Cliche, commonly used, lost it's impact after getting flogged to death by positive thinking people lecturing their negative counterparts.

Half empty, half full. Thought provoking, useful analogy to describe the human propensity of being either negative or positive. Easy to explain and useful to snap people out of their emotional downward spiral.

Two perspectives on a well known saying. Both from the positive and negative perspective.

When we are faced with problems, some will bury their heads in the sand (my old and usual response), some will complain and fight back against reality, others will take it by the horn, stare it down with teeth bared and frighten their problems to submission.

How we face our problems is determined by how we look at it. So here's a simple way to change or perspective anytime we are faced with a challenge. Just ask yourself : How else can I look at this? If you can ask yourself this question often enough, everytime you come to a challenge, you will automatically begin looking for a positive solution.

So simple, cannot work wan lah, what's this positive thinking thing, leave me alone I like to be miserable.

So simple, it's just one question, perhaps it may work.

You decide.

Our six human needs

2009-12-05T10:18:00.003+08:00

As human beings, we have six distinct needs. I have six distinct needs, you have six distinct needs. Here they are: -

Certainty
Uncertainty
Significance
Love and connection
To grow
To contribute beyond ourselves

The priority of which is determined by our conditioning and our personality. We all need all six, however we have dominant needs. For example, office warriors are certainty freaks as opposed to entrepreneurs who value the excitement of uncertainty.

This is what Anthony Robbins say, but is there anything else? Where does purpose and passion come in? Is it that all 6 of these needs are subsets of a bigger picture? Could it be that by living our purpose and passion, we fulfill all six?

If I relate it to myself, then yes, to live my purpose and passion I will meet all six needs. I will meet it many times over. But what about our brothers and sisters that become road sweepers and garbage collectors. If I believe in purpose, then in order for society to hold itself up and survive till today, there must be people who will live their purpose in the humbler rungs of society.

I guess that brings us to the science of human possibility, that all can, but few will. I write this article because a very special someone was worried of her cousin that she loves very much. For years she has been trying to assist her cousin in improving her life conditions. Bringing her along from her hometown to Penang, to KL, assisting her to find jobs and find a place to live. Yet, her cousin seems unwilling to move on her own, moving only when shoved in a particular direction. Normally I will feel sad and disappointed for this person, yet, I understand that we all have our place in this world. That she will meet her six human needs, albeit in a less often, less intense manner.

Recipe for success

2009-12-01T10:31:00.002+08:00

Success is like a nicely done cake. Just the right sweetness, just the right texture, just the right mix. To bake the perfect cake, you could do 2 things, try to guess what's inside or follow a recipe. Life is like baking a cake, when we are in the pursuit of success we forget that there were others before us and we can literally take their recipe for success and follow it.

So who's your success mentor? Who would you like to become? If you know who you would like to become and you don't have a mentor you can model, it's time to find one.

Snap your friend out of it!

2009-11-30T16:38:00.003+08:00

It's the human condition. The ability to take little things and turn them into disproportionately desperate situations. Or the ability to take a possibility and to turn it into a definite impossibility. We all know about the talk about positive thinking, but how do we really remain in a positive mind frame? Telling someone to think positive is like telling a kid to go design the next skyscraper. He may well know what it looks like and how to sketch something tall and relatively nice but where does he even begin to piece together the calculations needed, the construction contracts and the various other technical areas needed in building a skyscraper?

So if you see someone thinking negative in the future, spare them the "just think positive" speech, it will just piss them off even more. "What do you mean think positive?! My life's ruined you idiot!"

So do this instead.

Usually when someone is in an emotional rut, they are in a emotionally, mentally and physically unsupportive state, when they are in this state, no matter what you say to them, they will just dig deeper and deeper into their sorrows. So the first thing you have to do is to literally snap them out of the state they are in.

Anthony Robbins sometimes does it with a shock, he asks them with a loud voice "what do you mean you're depressed", then goes on to do his counselling session. If you don't want to look crazy in a coffee shop, just talk about something cheerful, lead them to an emotionally nice memory, when you have successfully gotten them to at least smile and think of something happy, you then give them useful, action oriented, time framed advice.

Another way is to change their physiology. Get them out of the slouch or slow walk that they have been having the past few days, get them around positive noise and have them do fast paced activities. Because our body is connected to our brain, just influencing the body and getting it to do fast paced activity will change their mindset.

When advising someone who's in an emotional rollercoaster, refrain from suggesting BIG suggestions, things that seem undoable to an unresourceful person. Advice on a small do-able action, better still if there's a time frame and better still if you could help them do it. Of course, the small action should be taking your friend closer to a positive outcome.

The wonderful thing about doing this is that once your friend can see an action that they can take, that the action is do-able and they can see themselves feeling better and getting closer to a solution, you have made a big step in helping your friend to SNAP OUT OF IT!

Go try it. :)

Becoming the best at what we do

2009-11-23T22:49:00.003+08:00

Just last week, I was assisting a training program by my good friend Francis. It is a program called Being your own sales manager. Within this program, I had a huge AHA moment. It came from the simplest of words. Francis uttered the words "be the best!" countless times in this two day program.

Francis shared his experiences in training and how throughout the years he has strived to be the top dog in training. It shook me up quite a lot because right at that point I realised that my thought patterns were more like "I want to get good at this" or "I am getting good" or "I am good". When Francis mentioned about being the best, it opened up a whole new can of worms, broadened my thinking by many magnitudes and this got me really excited.

Here's the thing, I have gotten quite good at training. I now consistently get higher ratings than many trainers who have been plying this trade for 10 years. But being the best. The ultimate best. Now that is exciting and it also means that I cannot stop learning. It also means that when I do become the best, I can inspire others to do the same.

It's just one word. But it has inspired me to think bigger than I've been thinking.

Ahhh.... The Pursuit of Success

2009-08-18T00:46:00.002+08:00

We're all chasing after it aren't we? Success. Some people will say that they're not, that they are not chasing after success, well that means that they are either happy where they are (which is fabulous by the way) or they don't think they can achieve any better success than they already have (which is just terrible).

Success is nice isn't it? Oh wow, just thinking of it gives me goosebumps. I am patiently (or rather impatiently) waiting for the day when we can finally influence a major positive change in Malaysia's education system. Sigh... Just thinking of the lives that we can forever change. We're talking about millions of people here. Wow!

Success is defined by different people... well... differently. My success is not your success, your success is not my success. This happens because money is not the measure of success, though many times it seems to be. If money is the sole measure of success, then the divorced, miserable man who lives with empty scotch bottles would be a huge success with his five houses and two Ferraris.

I think and ponder of the meaning of success because I teach people the skills to reach success. I teach people of possibilities, I teach of hope and I assist people to believe in themselves through proper self talk. I cannot define success for people, but I can help people define it themselves. Here is a definition of success that I truly believe in no matter who you are and what background you come from, "Success is a constant realization of worthwhile goals". Many small successes will add up to large successes.

I used to have a polarized view of success. That success = time and financial freedom. Here is the bombshell. Do you think Mother Teresa is a successful woman? I think she is tremendously successful at what she does but she has absolutely no time or financial freedom. Through my years I have met people who don't place much weightage on financial freedom, for them as long as money is enough, then it is enough. I have met others who absolutely love to be busy, who does not care about time freedom. For them, contribution in life is one of their life's major values.

So coming from the phrase, "Success is a constant realization of worthwhile goals", what are your worthwhile goals? Do you know your life's purpose? Your life's passion? Are you setting constant goals to achieve them? If you haven't found your purpose of or passion, perhaps we want to set goals to look for them?

Because success is a constant realization of worthwhile goals, it is VERY EASY to be successful. Set a worthwhile goal now, achieve it and voila! You're a successful man. Have a blessed week. :)

The Scourge of Laziness

2009-08-12T22:03:00.002+08:00

I am a motivated man. Usually I am raring to go, impatient to make the stage again to make a difference. Yet...

Even after going through lots of personal development, I still have spots of laziness. Now, laziness is not to be confused with taking a break, nonono, taking a break is something well deserved and frankly it is a skill I had to acquire. In the past I would work myself till I burned out, totally refuse to work, then work like hell again, only to burn out. I did that often enough to know that it is a 3 month cycle for me. 3 months of ungodly effort and focus, then 1 month of burnout where I would be incapable of doing anything.

Now that I have learned how to relax, burnout is a thing of the past, but now there is a challenge with relaxation's alter ego, laziness.

In fact, writing this blog is one of the more productive things I have done today. Made me stop to think... Why do I feel lazy? It's been a hectic week, but I had a greeeeat weekend to recharge. Then I thought about what Anthony Robbins said about pain and pleasure and how everything we do is linked to our avoidance of pain or the pursuit of pleasure. Then I thought, waitaminute, I had no pain today nor did I have pleasure.

Then it hit me. AHA! That's it! I had not enough pain (i.e. no looming deadlines) and not enough pleasure (no rewards to pursue) today, or yesterday for the matter.

I think I'm going to go set some goals now. Put in a good mix of pain & pleasure in my future timelines and see what happens. :) I have an inkling that it's going to work. As it usually does.

Darn, I have to remind myself often about what I teach others. Guess I'm human after all.

The shadows

2009-08-09T14:24:00.004+08:00

What's that?

It's following me. Following me everywhere I go.

It never leaves my side. It is always there at every I turn. In the darkness, it envelopes me. In the brightness it defines me. The brighter the light that shines from above me, the clearer it seems.

It shadows will only leave me alone when...

When I hold my own source of light onto it. When I focus my attention and my light onto my own shadow. It disappears.

I'm not talking about the shadow that is caused by the absence of light. I'm talking about the shadows of our past. How many of us have shadows that haunt us. Shadows that define us. Shadows that disempowers us. Shadows that cripple us with it's all enveloping darkness. Shadows that make us weep and shadows that make us cry with the advent of tough times. Shadows can kill us. As I have personally seen before in my own family.

For years I have lived in the shadows in my past. The shadows never left me. The shadows didn't want to leave me. They were content in following me around, never leaving me in peace. Along the way I have met people and read books that brought light into this phenomena. I learned that shadows were caused by our mind. Our mind, you see, is the greatest trickster. It throws a blanket over us, giving us the illusion that we are in darkness when there is light all over. Over the years I learned to lift the veil of darkness, and now I see nothing but light.

Glorious glorious light. The mornings seem brighter. The nights seem starrier. The depths of despair seem more like potholes nowadays while the heights of triumph seem like conquered mountains of pride. Yes, I am happy today. I am thankful today. I am overwhelmed by the blessings that have come my way.

This is what I do for people. I lift the veil of darkness and assist people to see the light. I assist people in their search for success. Empowering them with the skills they need to get out there and make it all happen. I do this for companies too, because their people need it now more than ever.

It's been a tremendous week. The HR 360 conference went so superbly well and the conflict management program I had a few days ago was so fabulous, my client wants me back in the next few months.

Grateful, thankful, happy are the 3 words that define my week. :)

The HR 360 Conference

2009-08-06T22:55:00.004+08:00

Just a couple of days ago the HR360 conference ended. They had some of the biggest names in human resource there and I had heaps of fun giving my speeches. There were so many blessings that I just didn't see coming.

I was actually only just a sponsor of the event and I was elevated into the main corporate sponsor. So instead of a small little logo at the bottom of the page, I was the top main logo together with SAP. Talk about a really nice suprise
I was only supposed to do one talk in the morning of the second day but instead got two speaking slots. So I added in a talk about developing malaysian leadership in addition to the original developing happiness in the workplace one.
People seemed to really like my talks and they want to see me in the near future for business.
Francis Jee, my guru in many areas of training took time off his hectic schedule to come and support me and to offer me advice.

I got a huge buzz from this event, met plenty of highly motivated and talented people and I feel that I had made an impact.

Talk about a great start to the week. :)

I think amazing things happen when we live our passions and people can hear it over the phone and see it in real life. I think by thinking about our passion day in and day out, unexpected people show up and support us in our journey.

And it really helps to have great friends supporting me along the way. Wow wow wow.

Why we think it's ok to cheat and steal sometimes

2009-08-01T18:45:00.004+08:00

There are two things that triggered this written piece. The first is when i saw a man, in this luxury SUV, finishing a drink and tossing it right out the window during the peak of Friday evening traffic jams. This has nothing directly to do with cheating and stealing but it made me go into deep thought about our human nature. I honked the perpetrator, he looked back at me, I gestured at the bottle on the ground and he looked at me menacingly. It seemed like he was ready for a fight.

A day later, my girl friend has a few housemates that were shifting out together. They packed everything, took back their deposits and took a few of my girl friend's belongings. They took some plates (talk about being cheap) and they took the front door lock. We noticed it when we were looking for it so right before they left I asked them if they had seen the front door lock. They looked at me and told me they never saw it, no idea, don't have the lightest clue. Nowadays I could tell when someone is lying, at least many of the times. She didn't give a damn about the question, answered too quickly, there was a sign of embarassment from her fiance. Her eyes, oh her eyes were looking the wrong way too.

I felt anger. They were stealing from my girl friend and I had no idea how to handle it. I had no proof. Only later did the proof surface, long after they were gone. The bunch of keys they handed back lacked the key for the main door. They took the main door lock + the keys for it.

This incident again made me question our human nature. Why is it sometimes ok to cheat and steal sometimes, why is it ok to throw things out the window when we know that it is wrong? I think I found the answer in Dan Ariely's video in www.ted.com. People are willing to cheat and steal sometimes when it does not alter their perception of their good self. That's why it seems ok to to take back a pencil from the office and it is not ok to take 10 cents from the petty cash box.

Society also has a role to play here. When bad habits become socially unacceptable, less people will do it because society will look down on them. Take the environment, where my parents came from, it seemed ok to toss tissues out the window. Now, we have kids telling their parents to take less plastic bags from Tesco. I think as we mature as a society we will start doing more of the right things, and less of the wrong things. When everybody starts honking the litterer, people will stop throwing things out their window. It seems that external pressure works.

The HR 360 conference is coming up in a few days time. I will be there to talk about developing leadership and growing happiness in the workplace. My dear HR manager friends, most of them do not understand the importance of the position they are in. They can exert alot of influence in society, they can be the guide posts and the gurus that we never had in our education systems. They can turn out to be the beacon of light that our country so craves.

I hope that after my speach they will understand that and they shall go out to the world with a renewed sense of purpose.

The evil of jealousy and green eyed envy

2009-07-27T13:02:00.006+08:00

Over the last weekend I had to question myself and ponder upon my seemingly irrational behaviour. Over the weekend I met a few successful Malaysian celebrities who seemed to have everything just perfect and hunky dory. They have a great supportive family, they look terrific, they are doing great in business and they just seem to have everything in perfect order.

It was great to meet them. Then there was this feeling that bubbled up from within. A feeling that I knew I didn't want inside of me. I wanted to get it out so bad and I struggled and struggled and struggled. But yet I could not get the jealousy and enviousness out of my system. I had to leave. I had to leave quick and I had to leave far.

It was a strange feeling because as the years went by in my own personal development journey, I have been largely, 99% been happy for other people's success, heck, I teach the skills of success and happiness myself and I'm almost always ecstatic of other people's success. But not this time. I was green eyed envious.

When I left the place I felt better and I quickly became my old self again and I forgot about the incident for the rest of the day. But, because I was mindful I knew I had to look deep into myself and question myself to find the source of this intense jealousy. I knew that if I didn't deal with this feeling, it will pop up again and again and again. So I took the time to reflect. I took some quiet time in the night to ponder my behaviour.

I understand very well that our conscious mind likes to think that it is in control of us, but I know that our subconscious mind, which is in control of most of our bodily and mind functions is the one that is actually in charge. So our conscious mind is kind of like the proxy of our subconscious mind. This is a simple explanation as to why I could not control my emotions as hard as I tried, and I REALLY tried! A good example to use is driving, ever thought long and hard about how to shift gears and depressing the clutch? Perhaps in the beginning? Do you do it now? Of course not! We have automated and relegated driving to our automated response region of our subconscious mind.

I knew this was what happened to me over the weekend when I met the nice and humble folks who happened to be celebrities. Some automated response kicked in. There is another story about Larry Bird, the NBA player of yesteryear. Oh wait... was it Larry or another player? Anyhow, they wanted to shoot a commercial and it required Larry to miss. Though Larry wanted to miss the hoop but everytime he tried to miss, he plonked the basketball in. He tried for 19 times before he finally missed once.

And I tried and I tried and I tried to stop my envy. I couldn't

When I pondered upon this later in the evening, I took myself out of the equation and looked upon myself from a third person view and I realized that there was alot of pain in my past. I did not have supportive parents, they were quite the opposite of supportive actually, I did not have good growing up years and I had to fight and fight and fight long and hard to get everything I had today. So these subconscious feelings of unfairness bubbled up to the surface and consumed me.

Because I went through the process of acceptance, because I recognized my feelings and forgave myself for feeling them, the envy is gone. My test of this was actually reading a book which was brilliantly authored by one of the celebrities. Voila, the envy is largely gone. Though the jealousy is still there and I reckon it will always be there, but the simple act of forgiving myself for feeling the way I did and being mindful about what my thoughts were got me out of the crap hole.

I'm really grateful knowing what I know. Can you imagine going through life being jealous of eveyone who's successful?

You are not you.

2009-07-21T17:03:00.003+08:00

When we are asked who we are, we will usually mention a few things: -

Our name and
What sort of work we do

But is this really who we are? Is this the sum of our identity?

I was just talking to a friend about some principles of neuro linguistic programming and there is a part of the book by Michael Hall that talks about the disidentification pattern. When life gets tough, when we become too hard on ourselves, when everything seems to be going wrong and we cannot seem to get out of our downward emotional spiral, it is useful to know that: -

We are not our problems
We are not our actions or reactions
We are not our body
We are not our mind
We are not our thoughts
We are not our beliefs
We are not what we say
We are not what we hear
We are not what we feel

That's right, as much as my hand is not me, but only a part of me. We are bigger than our body, we are more than our mind, our beliefs can change in an instant, what we say, hear and feel is dictatable with rules that we can change or bend.

The only trick is that we must know how. To reinvent ourselves and hence change the way we look at life is simple. Assagioli (1965, 1973) provided a process for discovering one's higher self with this "exercise in dis-identification"

Everytime we identify ourselves with a physical sensation we enslave ourselves to the body... I have an emotional life, but I am not my emotions or feelings. I have an intellect, but I am not that intellect. I am I. The centre of pure consciousness.

So who are you? When you can answer this, you will find that you are bigger than any challenges that you face.

Wonderful. Wonderful stuff.

We can throw our masks away now...

2009-06-24T02:43:00.001+08:00

I was recently driving down the road near my office and I saw this man, a construction worker with yellow boots and hard hat, walking down the road with a huge smile in his face. Some smiles look like smirks, some smiles are barely seen, this one is gloriously teeth baring. It was so obvious that he was thinking of a wonderfully happy thought. Seeing him smile, I couldn’t help but smile a huge one myself. It really did lift me up a notch. Well… two notches actually.

Sometimes I catch myself smiling even when I don’t feel like it. In days past, I remember the awkwardness of being in an event all alone and smiling just for the sake of smiling. It was the insecure smile. I remember the times I walked into my old office with a smile, not the genuine smile, but the “I am pretending that everything is wonderful” smile. I have put on this smile mask for so long that I mistook it for the authentic me.

Some say fake it till you make it. Well, there’s actually some truth in this. There was this research done where chronically depressed people were injected with botox on their frown lines to prevent them from frowning. Voila, it was reported that there was a general uplift in mood and everybody was generally happier. All because they couldn’t physically frown. So smiling has the general ability to do the same too. Try smiling when you are upset and you’ll notice that a 1 minute effort would lift your mood up.

I have come to the point that faking it till I make it is not going to allow me to actually make it. When I speak on stage it becomes so apparent what my moods are. Faking it takes away a lot of energy. So I learned to be authentic. That’s right, the bare bones, no filters kind of authentic. I find it is very liberating, immensely empowering and nicely refreshing. The air I breathed minus the mask somehow seemed fresher.

When we communicate with our colleagues with a mask, it creates a nice first impression (unless you wore an ugly mask that morning). Problem is, how long are we willing to keep it up? We will get found out sooner or later. I found this out the hard way when I was working with my previous company. I was smiling at them, saying nice things to them while at the back of my head I was thinking that they are such lazy incompetent people. Yes, I was quite the idiot back then. It didn’t take long for my old colleagues to see right through me.

So the answer is not to wear the mask, but to be authentic. However, should we show our authentic ugly self? Isn’t that why we need to wear a mask in the first place? Well, it may sound over simplistic, but we need to authentically like the people we communicate with. Yes, especially with the people we cannot stand. Have you noticed that there are bound to be some people who like the person you dislike? It’s still the same person, but because of differing perceptions of the person, different people have different opinions. So the key is to change our perception, but how?

Our outside world is a reflection of our inside world. That means I see ugliness in people because I see ugliness in myself, when I see laziness in others because I see laziness in myself.

So the key here is to change the way we see ourselves, by loving ourselves, accepting ourselves and forgiving ourselves. It is then that we can throw our masks away and never have to put it on ever again.

Interesting people

2009-06-03T12:35:00.002+08:00

It's been a pretty amazing couple of weeks actually, I've been meeting interesting people from all walks of life. There are: -

The Selangor government people who are organizing a personal development program. I am privileged to have been chosen as the training coordinator as well as one of the speakers for the day.
Rita, who is a single mother of 3 kids who does a wonderful job in inspiring people with her life experiences and is currently funding 35 underprivileged single mother families.
There's Gene, who is interestingly lead a parellel life path, been an engineer for 5 years, left to pursue his passion for people development on Sept 07 ( I left on Nov 07). Had the same challenges on training as well. Talking to him is like talking to the mirror. Pretty awesome
There's Tuck Loon who is such a wise man. I met him when I wanted to experiment with meditation and by golly, he has such amazing wisdom that after listening to him my life was just never the same. I became more loving, more patient and more transparent to people. I was no longer pretending to be better than who I am and instead started to accept myself for who I am.
Francis Jee, Faridah Hameed, Garry Chow, people with big hearts who want to assist the community in their journey through life via training. Some people are just concerned with filling classes to make money. These guys are concerned with filling classes to make a difference. There's a world of difference there.
Then there are my friends who somehow stuck with me though I was mostly too busy. Put up with me coming late all the time because of work, not being able to show up because of commitments, and still they would call me all the time to come out. I'm blessed.

Not to mention others I have had the bodacious luck to meet the past year. Ghazali, Kahar, Joanne, and lots more. These guys changed my life and I'm forever grateful for it.

Strange how people show up when we start living our passions. It's like the universe is putting together all these cirumstances and introducing me to all these people.

That's why I teach living the passionate life, amazing things happen.

What the world needs more is love

2009-06-01T19:13:00.009+08:00

What the world needs is more love. Sounds so deceptively simple, so unrealistically uncomplicated, so unbearably untrue. How can we love our enemy? How can we kiss the hand that slaps us? How can we forgive the soul that hurt us?

Can we really love more? Even if we have been hurt so many countless times? By so many different people or circumstances? Can we really forgive? Truly forgive? Sometimes I'm not sure, sometimes I struggle with what I should feel. Sometimes I think, "Hey great! I've really got my act together!" This is when I am practicing the very things that I preach. Then a difficult time passes by and I grapple with my feelings. That actually happened a few days ago when I was in the Read Malaysia Fair. We have a booth in the fair and a credit card reseller was placed right next to my booth. When curious onlookers were looking at my booth, the resellers would just come by and ask "want credit card, credit card sir, free gift credit card" and would hound them until they get so wide eyed with disgust and leave. Ai yai yai. Guess if they didn't chase people away from my booth or kept people away I would be ok.

But then, feeling that way about them seemed wrong. I knew it was wrong. According to the law of attraction, I attracted them to my life, when times are good, it's so easy to think that it's true, when times are bad, it rips my ego out to think that I was the culprit who attracted bad circumstances. I practice positive self talk too, again it's easy to practice, until circumstances pop out to challenge my positiveness.

What did work was my realization that it was not the credit card guys that were driving me up the wall, it was my perception of them that drove me up the wall. So I worked on that, started accepting them for what they were doing and took action in speaking to them that what they did was detrimental to my own business (since they were driving people away). I actually felt really angry at first, then started to take a position of empathy. It was not easy at all... I had to literally work on myself for a while first.

It ended well. For 9/10 days they rarely ever went over their boundaries any more. Sounds like kissing the hand that slaps us isn't such a bad thing after all.

Till the journey's end

2009-05-24T00:46:00.002+08:00

Sometimes it's so easy to just give up isn't it? To just throw it all away, to take the easy way out, to take the shorter road, to cut our losses. It would be so easy to just leave all my problems behind and migrate to a place like Australia or New Zealand wouldn't it?

Sometimes I wonder, why the heck did I leave my engineering career? Why the heck can't I just be a training manager somewhere earning a great income? Instead I had to start up my own company. Starting it up and getting it off the ground wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Somehow people did not just flock to my door. Sometimes I wonder, how am I ever going to inspire a better education system? Who am I kidding here. I guess I got to this state of mind after today's non-profit Blueprint to Success learning series. Turnout was ok, not good, but ok, so it got me thinking hard.

Sometimes things get so heavy. Having to juggle family, business and myself, I tend to forget about the last of the three, that is myself. In the pursuit of my dreams and goals I forget to treat myself well. In pursuit of my passion I forgot the most fundamental thing...

I forgot to enjoy the journey.

Oh my I feel silly. For someone who teaches about living the passionate life, sometimes I forget to live the passion. I am doing my passion, but doing it and living it are both very different. Along the way there are times that I forget to enjoy the learning I do, I forget to enjoy the teachings I give, I forget to stop and enjoy the smiles that pass me by.

At least I now remember. That's what matters doesn't it?

Meditation. BAH! Oh wait...

2009-05-15T17:48:00.004+08:00

There's a BIG difference between being a great speaker and being a mediocre one. I have to admit that I fall into the category of mediocre. I realize that I come across as a good, not excellent, just good. So I am currently in a search as to why... I know I can speak with great impact. I know I have impeccable command with language. I know that my intonation is varied and that my use of body gestures is top notch. Heck I even teach public speaking!

But I feel that I am missing a soul. That the person I portray is but a shell of me. A facade that I put up when I am in front of people. No doubt that I have conviction towards what I say. I think that comes from the fact that I practice, then I preach. I don't speak about anything I haven't done before. But I am having a challenge in connecting with people in an emotional level.

I have been vely logical all my life. Left brained you may say. I also have a lot of crap that I keep to myself, away from prying eyes. Away from judgement. Hidden in a closet. I think I do this because I have yet to come to peace with myself.

People who know my story look at me and say it's a suprise I didn't become a criminal, or even mentally insane. Well... it's not even half as bad as what Victor Frankl endured in the German concentration camps in World War 2. But I wouldn't wish my past on even my worst enemies. Don't really have any enemies, but if I did, I wouldn't wish them my past.

So I feel I have lots to hide. I know that to move on, I have to reveal my true self. It's hard to be in my position because normally, this will be done with little fanfare with only our closest friends seeing any difference in us. However I teach to large crowds, and they will be able to tell the difference. I feel it's hard to do because I will expose myself to the elements and I will certainly get wet.

But I remember as a kid how I would run into the soccer pitch when it was pouring cats and dogs. The feeling is liberating. So in my efforts to come in peace with my past, I am going to try out meditation. I feel that I am the last person on earth to try meditation. But I think it's only wise to try out age old techniques that has worked for generations.

So when you do see me on stage. I will strive to let you see the ugly side of me too. The insecure side, the side that is still fighting temptation, the side that struggles with dicipline, the side that hates it when I judge people. Because I know, that unless I make peace with my past, I will have very little chance for the future.

Sending a shout-out to the world

2009-04-16T22:39:00.003+08:00

That's why I'm sitting here in Starbucks. I am here to meet a friend who works in the advertising industry. Because I hear that advertising agencies are willing to do creative work for you if you have a great idea.

Because marketing is such an art. Well, at least that's what Harv Eker says in his audios. Question is how do I reach out to as many people as possible, in as short a time as possible, convince them in a few seconds that perhaps they may want to look deeper into their lives and to strive for bigger better things because they are all capable of it. You see, the sentence to describe what I want to do is longer than the time I have to capture the audience's attention.

So I don't just teach, I also research better marketing ideas, I learn about advertising, I learn about better design, all the while trying to improve me, my self talk, my confidence, my human relations, my personal and organizational leadership and to keep my eye on achieving my passions.

Sounds like alot of work?

It feels great working on me. I have a feeling you'll feel great working on you too.

Now... back to the question of public outreach...

I stopped writing

2009-04-14T22:10:00.004+08:00

I had a broken pen. No I didn't

I had a broken keyboard. No I didn't

I had a broken heart. That maybe I did. But that's a different story altogether.

Writing became painful. Writing became a chore. Writing became dreaded. Writing became meaningless. Almost to the point of "Ahhh... what's the use?"

I met up with a friend of mine a few weeks ago, her name is Lily and I haven't met her for ages, almost 3 years I would assume. She came for one of our Blueprint to Success events and then she said she wanted to start up her own venture and was seeking my advice. So we met up for coffee and we caught up over old times. The conversation inevitably shifted to business and I gave her my 2 cents, the nuts and bolts, it was over rather quickly. Then the conversation shifted.

You see, Lily is an editor of a magazine and she has tonnes of writing experience. Just about then I was having difficulty with my writing, the words that come out of me, though real, feels censored, it feels scientific, it feels mathematical, it feels soulless, bordering dull. People have said that I write well and that they enjoy my pieces, but why is it that I don't enjoy my own pieces. Shouldn't I be enjoying my own writing? And then Lily dispensed the best advice I have had in ages.

She told me to go crazy, to go wild, to let myself loose, to venture to unknown territory, because she said, "nobody has to know." Lily advised me to write everything down, all my thoughts, fears, aspirations, hopes, hopelessness, gripes, anger, frustration, happiness, joy and indifference. So I did. My gosh did it liberate me. So now I have a stash of notes that only I can see. Sorry folks, the stash is plenty private, although you will all see it in time to come. With that little advice that Lily gave me, I rediscovered my love for writing.

Along the way I also learned a thing or two about myself.

Thanks Lily. I owe you one. :-)

Passing is an Illusion

2009-02-27T16:04:00.004+08:00

Erm... Actually the picture depicted on the right isn't too far off. Was coaching a different kid this time and he was in Form 1. In my 1 hour session with him I gradually felt the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. It seemed that he had exams in within the next 5 days.

I slowly went from optimism to helplessness in my time with him because he said that he was doing ok, all he had troubles with was with multiplication and division. Not too bad seeing that he only started learning these principles about a month ago. I thought, ahh, easy peasy. WIth a few easy illustrations and he'll be well on his way.

Then as we went along I realised that X and / was the least of his problems. He has problems understanding the concept of addition and subtraction. Where 1000 + 1 = 2000. Now to some accountants that may be true in profit and loss statements, but to a kid?

I soon realised that numbers mean almost nothing to him. He had trouble with simple concepts such as Half + Half = One. I guess that means digging up some standard four books and working with him till he gets good at the basic principles.

What's shocking is that he still passes his exams with a C. Isn't that a pass?

No wonder he has a torrid time in school, nothing makes sense to him.

I guess i will have to see how to turn him to become an A student within the next half a year.

Dodgy Teaching Methods?

2009-02-20T11:27:00.000+08:00

Last Thursday, instead of tutoring really young kids, I went off to tutor youths at the Precious Youth Centre. It's a place where orphanage kids, when they became teenagers, would shift to this new home.

So I was teaching this kid, trying to guide him through his work. Gosh, I wish his story was just a little bit better. It seems that because his command in language was a little poor, he was sent to the last, poorest class. Even though he had really good talents, especially in maths which he aced all the time.

I was also teaching him about acceleration and how the formulas came about to explain acceleration, it was such a simple concept, which he misunderstood so badly. All it took was 5 minutes with a story of a red ferrari and him on the wheel and he got it straightaway. You see, it's not the student, it's that teachers he had in school just wasn't up to par.

He was also told by his maths teacher to copy from his text book, word by word an example question and it's answer. Why copy the whole thing? Isn't it already there in the text book. After which I asked him if he understands what he is copying and he said no. Sheesh...

He's a little bit weak in english so I taught him some english. It seems that he is really keen and enthusiastic to learn, it's just that nobody paid him any attention in school. He devoured the newspaper articles I gave him and showed the learning attitude of a winner.

I think this kid has a future that's really bright. He only needs some attention, some encouragement and lots of love. So I'll be back there this Thursday again.

Malaysian Heroes

2009-02-17T21:41:00.001+08:00

I was looking for Malaysian heroes. Googled it, asked if anyone knew any. There doesn't seem to be any. It can't be. There must be a whole bunch of unsung heroes that make a big difference to Malaysia somewhere. Actually google did show some results, but they were all past prime ministers. Yes, they are heroes but they can't be IT. There's gotta me more people.

If I were to ask people of any current heroes that they know of here in Malaysia, they cannot think of any.

Perhaps I should look for them, dig them out of the woodwork. Because their stories can inspire many Malaysians.

Peace... Sweet inner peace

2009-02-17T00:27:00.000+08:00

I think we were put on this earth to create high drama. To create excitement. To make plain canvasses to works of art. To mold steel into magnificent skyscrapers. To turn natural rubber to a fun filled safe layer of joy. To speak when there is silence. To silence when we speak too much. When our lives get too dull, we crave for sponteneity and excitement. When our lives get too hectic and exciting, we crave for peace and quiet. We will always crave what we don't have and so if we are experiencing yin, we will want yang, when we experience yang, we will want yin.

So how do we achieve inner piece? We can't be meditating all the time. Is it even possible to meditate our way to inner piece? If we spend all our time meditating, how can we ever accomplish anything?

Some people mention that it's great that I do what I do because it makes a big difference to people's lives. However I do this not only for others but for myself. To silence that voice that will just not go away. The voice that tells me to go out there to kick some sense into people, the voice that tells me to get off my ass and go make a difference, the voice that tells me that life is too short to be insignificant.

So I did get off my ass. I did start my own company so I could start making a difference and I did start believing that life is way too short. So you see, I'm achieving inner peace just by following my passions in life.

Perhaps that's why it's so important to find our passion in life. So we can achieve inner peace

What we need

2009-02-12T12:25:00.000+08:00

We need better transportation systems.

- Better busses, better trains, better roads, less traffic jams, less polluting vehicles

We need better medical care

- Better hospitals, better clinics, better doctors, better protection systems, more research

We need a better political system

- More accountability, less hanky panky, more common sense, better leadership. MUCH better leadership

We need a better economy

- We need more foreign investment, more attractions, more opportunity, less poverty, more abundance

We need a better environment

- Cleaner air, cleaner water, less pollution, better industrial practices

We need a better education system

- More creativity, better teachers, better facilities, better teaching methods, more empowerment

We can improve so many things here in Malaysia. So who's going to do it?

Big minded people, opportunity minded people, possibility minded people, passion and purpose driven people. Not people who are bored on their desks and wondering how they are going to goof off. That's why we need to help people find their passion and purpose in life. Because with passion and purpose, come great power and strength. Then we will develop as a nation.

Huge Responsibility

2009-02-05T13:57:00.000+08:00

I have a huge responsibility in doing what I do.

I have to do a FANTASTIC job when I'm up on stage in order to inspire and motivate others to action.

If I do a crap job, people get disillusioned, they stop listening and they may lose their belief in personal development. That is of course a little extreme, but there are bound to be first timers that come round just once. And I have to blow their mind away, I have to be able to connect to them emotionally and logically, I have to be able to invoke a want in them strong enough to break through their self imposed comfort zones.

I guess that's why I work so hard in trying to improve myself first. To improve my own relationships, my own behavior, my own self talk, my own leadership ability, my own public speaking ability, my own confidence, my own attitude. I guess that's why I read so much, that's why I appreciate all the mentors I have in life and that's why I appreciate my supportive friends.

It's actually quite scary, but hey, if I don't push my comfort zone, I'll never get anywhere.

So it's a New Year!

2009-01-29T11:52:00.000+08:00

I guess the interesting bit about being Chinese is that we get to make two distinct new year resolutions. Because we do have two new years. The first is the Gregorian calender new year and the other is the Chinese new year. It's a big thing for all Chinese around the world. It's not a religious thing, instead it is a cultural thing. Personally for me it's been food, food and more food. It's a time when all diets fail and all willpower melts away.

The Chinese are a superstitious bunch. The younger generation slightly less so, but the superstition continues to be very pervasive in our society. There's a big following for horoscopes, palm reading and what not. Do I believe in them? Nope. Not one bit. I do however think that they are a self fulfilling prophecy.

They do say that 2009 is a really crap year for most of the Chinese horoscope signs. I think the horoscope reader needs to take a break. Because when we do fail, it is never the lack of resources, it is usually the lack of resourcefulness. I'm not exactly sure how we can let our lives be dictated by something someone who doesn't know us the least bit, who looks at the stars and the moon and the wind?

We can't. I think for all the prediction of doom and gloom, there is hope. Lots of it. And it lies in all of us.

2009 is going to be a FANTASTIC year! You'll see.

Learning Impaired. RUBBISH!

2009-01-17T22:57:00.001+08:00

Continuing from the previous post...

At the Precious Children's Home outing, I was assigned to chaperone a kid by the name of Siva. I heard repeated warnings that he is difficult to handle, that he was a slow learner. But here's what I discovered....

HE'S NOT!!!

My God! How wrong can we be? He took my handphone and started working the camera after a quick 'show him how to do it' session. You see, I was a hopeless when I was young. I could not even draw a straight line when I was 7. And he is 5.

There are many different types of intelligence. Our education system only caters for one. The human encyclopedia, hard disk storage type of intelligence. Since my memory is somewhat dodgy, I never could do well. The best education systems allows people to learn using the strength of our unique intelligence. Some learn by dance, some learn by music, some learn by visual means, some by kinesthetic, some by listening.

If you'd like to learn more about this, visit the TED web site and watch the video by Ken Robinson. Here's the link:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

There was this story, I heard it from a self help audio cd, can't remember which one anymore. I think it happened in the UK. The university entrance results were mixed up between the very bright students and the poor students. So the bright students were told that they did horrendously and the poor students were told that they did tremendously well! When both groups of students started university, the bright students showed a terrible rot in their performance while the poor students started getting amazing results.

Once the truth was uncovered, the teachers was asked how the poor students could improve so much. They said that when the students got terrible results, they assumed that it was their teaching methods, not the students. So they changed their teaching strategy.

Siva isn't learning impaired. It's our teaching methods that are impaired. Siva gets told all the time that he's learning impaired. That better stop, or he might just start believing that it's true.

Inspirational People

2009-01-17T21:44:00.000+08:00

Some people are just inspirational. Even without words, there are those that can inspire with the weight of their actions.

Today I was at an outing that took the kids from the Precious Childrens Home to 1 Utama. We went to the movies, we had a nice lunch at Italiannies and we took the kids shopping! Man that was fun!

These kids reminds us of our humanity. Of our frailness, of our strength, of our indifference, of our ability to care. I was given a chaperone job for a kid by the name of Siva. People said he was learning impaired. BAH! RUBBISH! HAMBUG! But more on that in the next blog post.

The person that was responsible for this, her name is Bek. She is utterly committed in making these kids lives that little bit better by tutoring them, by being there for them, by bringing happiness to their faces, by being that parent figure that is ominously missing from their lives. She doesn't even know them. They can't help her. They can't pay her bills. They can't help her solve life's problems. Yet she spends her precious time being there for them.

We have too few caring people, too few passionate people, too few generious people. Bek is like a breath of fresh air, like a candle in the midst of all the blinding darkness. Inspirational, beautiful.

A true modern day hero.

The Hospital

2009-01-12T00:14:00.000+08:00

My mom was feeling quite unwell over the past few days so I spent a good part of the weekend going in and out of the hospital. She'll be fine now which is great news.

Hospitals are not the kind of places we want to be. Hospitals usually mean something is wrong. Wither with ourselves or of others. It doesn't help that hospitals, especially the government ones make visitors feel like they are visiting a sickly place. Peeling paint, blood unwashed from a bed, the discrepit toilets, the really terrible food in their food courts. If being unwell, or being with someone unwell doesn't make you feel unwell, then the condition of our hospitals will.

The hospital is really no place to be. How I wish our government hospitals would be like Gray's Anatomy, or like the old ER show from the 90s. But they're not. I guess that's just one of the many reasons to stay fit, to eat right and to smell the flowers along the highway of life. I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day a few years back. A habit that I am now so grateful to have fought off after a 10 year battle with the bud.

Hmmm... maybe I should have a quit smoking program. That will definately make a big difference.

Farewell!

2009-01-07T00:18:00.000+08:00

When you mix fear, apprehension and excitement what do you get? A farewell reception for students leaving to a foreign country to finish their degrees. I've been in their shoes before and I understand what happens when you roll up all these emotions together, you get confused.

So I was there at the reception and I gave a talk to them. It was a talk about improving lives, both their own and others. It was a talk about coming back to Malaysia to make a difference in our own country.

60 percent of our youth who studies in Australia stays behind. That does not suprise me because 60% of my uni mates from Adelaide either works there or has migrated there for good. In a time when we need them to make a difference here in Malaysia, they are there. Life is good there, very comfortable in fact. Then again, the biggest obstacle to a GREAT life is a good life.

I wish these guys would come back, we need their brains and their hearts to bring our country out of the muck that it is stuck in.

Perhaps we need to make this country so attractive, so irresistable that it becomes a country that people flock to and not flock out of.

Partnership with HELP University College

2009-01-04T00:20:00.000+08:00

This is one of the biggest thing happening in 2009. Education Republic is partnering with University of Adelaide Alumni and HELP University College to run a learning series.

This learning series will be held every month starting from March 2009.The entire goal here is to empower our comunity with the skills to not only survive, but to thrive and succeed in life! This learning series encompasses skills such as passion development, leadership, human relations, communications, public speaking, entrepreneurship, finance and many more. They are not in any particular order, but they are all in the cards.

Now I only need to find more like minded people to speak and to spread their knowledge.

2009 is EXCITING!

Telling a Story

2009-01-03T23:54:00.000+08:00

There are stories that make us cry, there are stories that make us laugh, there are stories that makes us want to cower under our blankets. It hasn't changed much since the time we were kids. We all still love a good story. Especially those that make us want to reach for a pillow and sit down with anticipation.

Isn't that what learning is all about? Story telling? Of both giving stories and receiving them. Most of the things I know today are from stories. Told to me by books, people and events. So it is this way that we are teaching people. With stories.

The best educators in the world are first story tellers, then teachers. Look at all the religious icons, the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha. All great story tellers.

I think we have lost the art of great story telling. Where learning has become a hum drum of boring facts and tiresome, tedious figures and numbers.

I think we should bring back great story telling in learning. To put back the yearning back into learning.

Hardly just training

2008-12-30T03:29:00.001+08:00

It's strange, I've never had a problem sleeping, I'm usually like a log who plonks into his pillow and dozes off with scant regard for the morning alarm clock.

But today's different. It's 3am now and I have just read through the latest Newsweek magazine on the list of global elites. It's a list of the current world leaders in everything from politics to business to philantropy to technology, even terrorists and corrupt heads of state who wield great power. I couldn't sleep because I am in awe with what they have achieved (the good ones, omit the bad ones). The difference they have made and how the world is a better place because they existed. These are the people who have shaped society and have changed the world around them. They consist of people like Obama, Warren Buffett, Steve jobs, the Dalai Lama, even Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook and Eric Schmidt from Google fame.

Then I couldn't sleep thinking about them. So I picked up a book by Richard Branson - Business Stripped Bare and he was telling us of Virgin Unite and how that made such a diffence to many african lives and how they are now going to the forefront of environmental issues.

These people remind me of what Education Republic is. It is not a training company, although it is a big part of what we do when empowering people. Education Republic is a company that is first and foremost started so like minded individuals could form a team to make a diffence to the lives of our community.

We are here to empower people to achieve better lives. We exist to give people the tools to not just survive, but to thrive. Because living life is a skill, not a talent (though that helps). We think big, and we think about our vision everyday. And our vision is to change Malaysia's education system for the better.

Which is why I can't sleep.

I wonder... How would Richard Branson accomplish this?

Is Education Enough?

2008-12-29T02:30:00.001+08:00

I was forced to answer this question today because I was going through a friend's blog. It had lots of personal stories so it's best that I don't link it here.

Is education enough? Is better preparing our youth better for the future enough? Is empowering ourselves with better knowledge enough to get us through the challenges that lie ahead enough? Some say we need not only education, but also compassion.

But I think education is enough. At least to reach the tipping point.

Take love for example. We can feel love and we can love. However unless we understand how to communicate and transfer that love across space, then our loved ones would not feel our love. Love is a feeling, while showing love is a skill. A skill that is meant to be learnt and to be practiced.

I believe that with adequate education, our youth of tomorrow would have the values and the tools to be able to ward off the temptations and the seemingly rewarding practices of corruption. Which happens to be one of the biggest social ills that we are facing now.

Meows and Woofs

2008-12-23T17:02:00.000+08:00

I just got two cats a couple of days back. Awesomely cute, invitingly furry and very poopy. I've had cats before so it's nothing new. They're just as diverse as we are when it comes to personality.

There are lots of organizations specializing in therepeutic medication using animals. There is something about cats and dogs, dolphins and horses. It's like we have this inate need to bond with the nature around us and doing so gives us great joy.

Cleaning up the poop is a very small price to pay for two bundles of joy.

Meditation

2008-12-20T00:25:00.001+08:00

I've been reading articles and snippets about meditation for so long, about 3 years from my estimates. People like John Gray talks about it. Oh you know, the guy who wrote Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. There's also people like Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins and many of his contemporaries.

So from an invite from a friend of mine Lily, I thought what the heck, lets go for a meditation session. I thought I was going to snicker and hohoho my way through the session to the dismay of all the other members. Then again, I told myself that I'll check whatever mental baggage I had and leave my machoness out the door. Not that meditating is not macho, just that it'll be hard to imagine Rambo or Mr. T doing meditation. Not that I look like any of them but you get my drift...

So I did. I just came back from the session and with odd results. I was really tired before the meditation from all the work and running around I had to do and after the hour plus long session I felt I had all the energy in the world. I was alive and bouncy again. Now... I didn't do it properly, my mind was not quiet nor was it still. I was majorly distracted. While I was supposed to rid my mind of any thoughts, I was thinking about: -

- My house

- My cat who died months ago

- My work

- Me presenting in public

- The chair I was sitting on

- Nasi lemak

Not in any particular order but take this and multiply it by a hundred fold and you'll understand how un-quiet my mind is. That could come from my inability to pay attention for any sort of time period. But I think meditation helps. It trains us to quieten up.

We are most resourceful when our minds are clear and I can see things from a higher perspective.

I think I'll join them again in the next session. I wonder if I'll be more serene the next time...

Time Trading

2008-12-18T15:04:00.000+08:00

The story of the one red paperclip.

It's a story of what life could be. Where fun is not something we have on the weekend, or after hours at work. Where fun is not a byproduct of hard work. Where fun is ingrained so deeply in us that we can't do anything without being that little bit cheeky or smiley.

The story of the one red paperclip.

It's the story of Kyle Macdonald who lives in Canada. He traded a paperclip for a house. Yes... a house. It's a fair trade too. Along the way he learns of human nature, of life as one big

playground, of funtastic work.

So how did he do this? How did he trade a paperclip for a house? Heck, if that is possible, I have lots of paperclips strewn on my desk. Well, he played this game called bigger and better. So he went off and traded a paperclip for a wooden fish look-alike pen and traded that with an ET looking doorknob that fits a capuccino machine. Traded the doorknob with a camping stove and traded that with a 1000W Honda generator.

Bigger and better, till he got that house.

That's what we do everyday isn't it? We trade our time everyday for bigger and better things. Or do we?

Is television a bigger and better thing compared to our time?

Is staying in an uninspiring, unchallenging job a bigger and better trade for our time?

Perhaps we should be trading our time for huge dreams and ambitions? Bigger and better.

Some food for thought for our new years resolution setting period...

Helping Him

2008-12-16T19:17:00.000+08:00

I just got off the phone with an old friend. A friend whom I've known for easily a decade. He's been through alot. The scourge of depression hit him hard. Depression is such a dreadful desease, it takes away people ability to function in society and with the incapacity comes further societal rejection and with it comes a deepening depression.

It's a terrible merry go round where people are not let off the ride and it keeps going faster and faster and faster, where things get blurrier and blurrier till they succumb to the fatigue of it all. I know this first hand because I have a family member that is still suffering.

So this friend called me, looking for a referral to a job. He didn't know what he wanted and was not sure what he can offer. It was difficult for me because as much as I wanted to help, he's not recommendable.

So I had to question myself, how do I help such a person? A person that is so damaged, that all our well meaning advice goes out the other ear. Drugs didn't work for him. Would the Law of Attraction work? Would Neuro Linguistic Programming work?

I must find an answer.

Opportunity

2008-12-15T21:34:00.000+08:00

Ever since I decided that I was going to start my own education business in October, terrific things have been happening. When I made my decision, it wasn't a 'maybe', 'if', 'perhaps'. It was a 'I will'. Once I made that strong decision to go for it, suddenly all the right circumstances and the right people showed up.

I've read the Law of Attraction by Michael J. Losier, I've internalized the teachings of Rhonda Bryne in the Secret. Yet I've always had this voice in my head that says 'YEAH RIGHT! IT'LL NEVER WORK'. For those of you who have no idea of what I'm rambling about, pick up the books, it's wonderful stuff. To summarize, the two books teach that we attract to ourselves everything that happens in our life. In other words, what we think about most, will materialize. Sound odd? You betcha. Then again, most successful people have this in common. They all visualize their success before they become successful. All athletes do this. They visualize their win before they actually win.

So anyhow, opportunities were bouncing around all over me and I had to make decisions to say no to some of them though they sounded really good. What happened to all these opportunities before? Somehow they only showed up when I made up my mind.

It's the law of attraction and it's actually working for me. How cool is that?

Finding our passion

2008-11-16T21:45:00.000+08:00

It's such a confusing subject isn't it?

And it is painful to think of it. It's hard to look back into our lives, to remember the joy that we had doing what we love. Only to let it go to pursue something more realistic, something that pays the bills. So now we have put our passions into the closet, where it is to be hidden from view for the rest of our lives.

When people ask the elderly about their lives and if there were any regrets, they rarely regret what they have done. They usually regret what they did not do. They say that they wished they took more risks, they wished they lived a little more, they wished they took the bull by the horns and blasted through life with gusto!

But to chase a normal life of work, tv and dinner? Haven't we asked ourselves enough times about what life really is about? Whether there is more to life than this? About the meaning of life perhaps?

I have asked myself this question so many times throughout the years. I've stayed awake late at night, I've refused to wake up in the morning, I've sat in my bosses office and in countless meeting and asked myself... is this it? Is that all? Is my life going to be played round in loops for the rest of my life? I said NO! There is more to this! I will not be the man my boss has become! I will not be the man floating through life, never finding his purpose!

So I started this journey of self discovery. To find out what really matters to me. Not what matters to other people, because I've lived this far following the rules set for me by others. I was lucky enough to have known some champion friends who became my closest mentors. And they taught me one thing.

They taught me to dream.

To dream the impossible dream.

To dream the worthwhile dream.

To dream the happy dream.

To dream the heart filled dream.

To dream of love.

To dream of fulfillment.

To dream of sharing this with many others.

Living a life of passion

2008-11-09T15:56:00.000+08:00

So where do we start in our pursuit of meaning? How many times have we asked ourselves what we are doing here in the world? This can't be all there is! There has got to be more than work, go home, sleep and work, go home sleep, movie in the weekend.

They say that there are two great moments our lives. The first is when we were born. The second is when we find out why.

When we do find out why, waking up is a joy, the sun shines brighter, the day seems shorter. Work and play is no longer two seperate events. When we understand our purpose in life, we will transition from work - work, to work - play, to play - play. Now wouldn't that be nice.

As romantic as it sounds, we would probably never have a eureka moment, we would probably never wake up one day and say "THAT'S IT!" and live our lives from that eureka moment. Finding our purpose and passion in life is a process. A process that takes effort, it takes looking for the dart board in the room, shooting a few darts, missing, correcting all the time until finally we make that bullseye.

So how did I get here?

2008-11-05T22:44:00.000+08:00

I remember the days when I was wondering about the meaning of life. When I would sit in my desk in my office feeling that my work had no meaning. That there has got to be something more to life. That it has got to be more than work, money, get married, have kids and repeat the cycle.

I remember when, as a kid, I thought I'd be an engineer all my life, marry at age 26, have kids and live happily ever after. At 28, I can safely that my plans did not turn out turn out as planned. Well, I'm still happy though everything else went out the window. I guess everything is a little simpler when we're young and unexposed to the world.

Things really started happening about two and a half years ago. This was when I was fortunate enough to meet some really great people who became my mentors. They taught me how to dream BIG. They taught me how to teach myself new things. They taught me the love of learning and the love of books. What happened is that since then, I have been in a constant pursuit of knowledge.

From this pursuit of knowledge, everything changed. The relationships with me and my family and friends changed, my self talk and self confidence changed, the circumstances surrounding me changed, I now started living a passion driven life.

In the next few posts I will be describing how to achieve the same and to dramatically change the conditions and circumstances that we may not be too pleased about.

Please stay tuned...

Beginning of an era

2008-10-31T11:09:00.000+08:00

I have dreamed of this for years. I have written down this dream, I have visualised this dream, I have dreamt this dream, I have stayed awake with this dream. And now it's within my grasp. My passion and my determination have culminated in us starting up Education Republic.

Right from the beginning, the vision has been to change the way Malaysians view education. To give our fellow Malaysians the tools to not just make life easier, but to enable them to succeed beyond their current ability.

The key is to have people teach themselves and not wait for the world to teach them. We lack this habit in Malaysia, hence the extremely low reading habit of 6 pages per year per person. Most developed nations read 6 BOOKS per person per year.

It's just the beginning and I can't wait for what comes next. :)