Can A Chicken Identify an Eagle?

It takes a good person to identify another good person.
It takes a great person to identify another great person.
But it takes a humble person to identify an incredible person.

Quite often that we meet some empty vessels which tend to makes the most noise wanting spotlights, recognitions & credits while practically doing not much & riding on the sub-ordinate's success. And sometimes it is a mystery to me that such categories of people are placed nearly on top of an organization, ruining it than running it!

When people go for job interviews, most of the time, interviewer over-emphasizes the knowledge & experience of someone in a particular field or the specialized knowledge which they generally perceived as the only important focus in someone's career.
Wait a minute...what about their initiative, commitment, attention to details, ability to strategize, good connections, communicate with respect, resourcefulness, team spirit, responsibilities, integrity....etc?
Aren't those attributes build a stronger foundation for someone to be able to grow the company in the long run?

The question is "Can A Chicken Identify an Eagle? Or an Eaglet?"
It takes someone from a great height to be able to see the potential of another person reaching a greater heights! That is a People-Builder, a Developer & an Enabler!

It is sad to see a company functioning as a Juice Extractor of talented people where fresh employees are full with brain-nutrients & attitude-minerals are being squeezed until the passion & commitment are dehydrated in the name of growth & bad management!

Eventually, it is okay for a local "Watermelon" like us to leave as imported talents such as "Apple" or "Orange" can replace us. Then the process of extraction begins again....
That's why we are seeing local "Watermelons" or "Durians" being exported out as they find more values in other countries.

In a nutshell, it is important to find an Eaglet, invest & build the Eaglet into an Eagle. Then train the Eagle to look for other Eagles to grow together. Sometimes an Eaglet may come in a form of pigeon or turkey for us to discover that they are true Eagles in the making, with hidden wings & sharp claws!

The talent is out there....

Admire vs. Envy

Let us learn to enjoy the beauty of admiring what we don't have that we can find in others. Jealousy will make us miserable. Envy will lead us to frustrations. Try to improve and strengthen our natural assets and what we are good at rather than comparing our weaknesses with other's strengths. The purpose is not to widen our gap with others but to find commonalities for accomplishments.

Some are born tall - they are naturally good for modeling!
Some are born short - don't worry, when the lightning strikes, the tall guy got it first!
Some are good in striking conversation - a magnet to a party!
Some are good in building long term friendship - loyalty comes in!
Some are naturally beautiful - but without brains.....oops!
Some are uggggggly - but with rationality and intelligence!

Well, I'm just having fun putting up some labels. But it is all about appreciating and admiring our own self.

Like yourself and Love who you are!
YOU ARE SPECIAL......

Knowledge is a Liability

...only if we don't use it!

What is an Asset? It is something that generates & put money in.
What is a Liability? It is something that takes money out.

How do we gain knowledge?
We have to learn & "buy" from different sources. From books, learning tools, seminars, conferences or courses. Of course money is flowing out in this case. Therefore, unused-knowledge is a liability!
Which means, don't pursue any knowledge if we don't intend to apply it.

Why do we pursue knowledge then?
Because we believe "Knowledge is Power"......IT IS NOT! "Applied Knowledge is Power"!
Knowledge only gives us Potential Power. It can load us with preparation, proper mindset & different angles of looking at things.
But the Final Power lies in our ACTION!

So, let's pump ourselves up!!

Coffee-Business serving People or People-Business serving Coffee?

What an amazing book from the former President of Starbucks which contains nothing about coffee!
It is about how Starbucks focuses on People over Profits!
"There can be no coffee without people!"
That is the true essence of Starbucks.

Some companies believe that building a system, the system will build the business.
But Starbucks believe that building people, the people will grow the business!

I personally like one of the sayings in this book:
"Think Like A Person of Action and Act Like A Person of Thought".
Wow, simple & yet powerful stuff!

It is sort of the Yin & Yang between the Thoughts & Actions.
At times, we need to Think first before the Action. But sometimes, we need to Act first, then Think later.
This is very true especially a new opportunity arises.
When we analyze from A --> Z before taking actions, we could have miss the boat. And sometimes the boat doesn't return!!
But we can't be recklessly doing and running like a bull as well and be stubbornly positive about a hopeless projects. Persistency has to be coupled with Flexibility.
Imagine someone still persistently having faith & thinking positive about the growth of cassette industry in the year of 2011!!

Another empowering principle that I like from the book as well:
"The person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom!"
Some company truly believe human beings are capable of independent thinking if certain rules are removed.

Should we follow rules or should we fulfill the needs of people? The rule tells people "how-to-do" instead of explaining "why" & "what we are trying to achieve".

At Starbucks, they believed that they're in the Human Service Business, not the Customer Service Business.
As long as People are not being treated as Assets or Labour Costs alone, they can flourish in the environment of Encouragement, Appreciation, Reward & Respect.

Eventhough nowadays, consumers tend to go to Oldtown, Newtown, Georgetown or whatever Town kopitiam, I do prefer Starbucks off & on as I like the feeling of being greeted as a "friend" than filling up order number in kopitiam and passed it to a foreign worker who sometimes doesn't understand my extra request. I am saying this with all my respect to the foreign workers who contributed to the lack of workforce in the F&B industry. But sometimes it is good if we can understand them and vice-versa.

Let's learn to be a Logical-Person, Emotional-Person & a People-Person.

Our Parents... An Asset or Liability?

With all the MBA, KPI and goal settings around, some people might treat their parents as liability. Or an asset if they are rich!
But they are neither an asset nor liability, they are HUMAN BEING!

Last Saturday, I've watched "Great Day", a malaysian-made movie (I prefer "Woo-Hoo" though...and I definitely miss Ah Beng's voice!).

I did laughed & cried, though I am a man! Man have tears too okay! Overall, I did enjoy the movie.
The only setback of that movie was the transition or the flow.
It was badly done. While there are scenes where people cried (...me too!) momentarily and suddenly it hops to another scene.
Anyway, it is easier said than done. I do salute and give respect to the director. But I do like how the camera framing certain scenes from certain perspective. It was really good angles! Plus the 2 "pakcik" who acts naturally and hilariously.

Man...nowadays, don't "pray-play" with "uncles", they can act one u know!

Well, that movie triggers me to reminisce back on my grandfather during the 80s. He used to fly kites with me when I was really young. I still remember I used to dragged him back when it started to rain as I was running and he was walking with a "tongkat", without the "ali" of course....hahahah! 

Then I remember on how my father loved to bring us for peanut cream & yam cake on the roadside while driving a dark green toyota with the plate number AK 2223.
And every friday, we'll go for swimming. Eventhough until now, I still don't know how to float!
Almost every Saturday, we'll dine out.
For every Tuesday night, I'll eat what my father had bought, which is the "triangular-shaped bun with margerine & sugar" while watching Blue Thunder!
And at times, my parents would rent a nintendo set for us for a week and I am a Mario Bros specialist! I did finished level 8 ok!
The most exciting time was when my father brought back whole lots of durian with his 60cc honda cub! We'll ate durian beside the "longkang" in our house and we'll wacked the whole bag!

During my primary school days, I used to bring 60 cents to school. My mother expected me to have a typical lunch consists of soup noodles but I bought "keropok" and "Animal Survival" stickers instead! When my mother found that out, I was asked to kneel down to "Tei Chee Koong-Koong" (aiyah, don't know how to translate, I guess "The-Floor-Deity") and promised the deity not to cheat anymore!
You know what, I've broke that promise!

Well, we are not super rich, but I would say I'm quite happy & lucky in a way coz my parents are still around.

My father was a vegetable wholesaler and my mother was a seamstress. During the 80s, there was a crisis and my father's business was suffering. My mother kept supporting him emotionally and she took care of me & my 2 brothers pretty well I would say. We ate Maggi mee sometimes, but some good stuff as well. Especially my mother's home-made mini pork chop!

With all the ETP, GTP, NKRA ....etc to build the nation into a high income nation, please do not forget on how our parents bring the food on the table, raise us up, gave us education, shelter and love.

Well, "Great Day" is a movie reminding us of how we ignore our parents at times, as we move towards the stream of income-building & cultural modernisation! I wonder if Chinese New Year no longer serve the purpose of bringing family members together in future as the future generations have less & less childrens.

Back in the 80s, our CNY gathering consists of around 20 - 30 family members.
Nowadays, perhaps around 10 members including spouse and children.
Further down the road, perhaps around 5-6 members. Maybe some children who study abroad prefer video-conferencing with their parents instead of coming back for a reunion dinner! They might order pizza, delivers to their home and have reunion of their own!

Whatever it is, please go back for a reunion dinner on the CNY's eve and remember, our parents doesn't have much "years" to see us. Appreciate every moments of it.

Eh, you got STUDY or not?....(Part 3)

To me....
Life Education is to unlock and enhance the potential of both Academic & Financial Education gained.

Because Life Education is about ....

- Mindset

- Attitude &

- Experience

Mindset:
It is about our PRE-CONCEPTION and BELIEF that we've build up over the years towards people, events, societies and the world. It affects how we see things, how we think and how we behave.

You'll find short-term thinkers tend to focus on small-people & insignificant events while long-term thinkers discuss on ideas, strategies and vision. It is all about having a Microscopic-Mindset or Telescopic-Mindset.

Sometimes people tend to put a lot of time scratching and digging the ground looking for a RM1 note while they ignore the RM100 note which just flew by their head! They are busy worrying not to lose the RM1 but forgot to look at how to earn RM100!

It also touches on how we PERCEIVE FAILURE; do we personalize it, magnify it, ignore it or USE IT?
You know the answer!

Attitude:
Besides being positive, SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE will help us tap into the Network entity to create success.

Success is about the wealth of having good friends around us as well, besides monetary gain.
It is a person's down-to-earth personality that enable him / her to blend well in societies. What I like the most are those friends / relatives from "kampung" or far from the city. They are so genuine and free from manipulation! It is rare nowadays.

RESPECT & APPRECIATION are another 2 significant factors to build bridges & bonds with people instead of walls. Because our association with people determine our quality of life. It is a war between Virus & Anti-Virus in the society, depending on which program we want to install in our mind!

I've known a person who is not highly educated, got divorced, no goals or directions, not much discipline but managed a few businesses with success lately. Why? He changed and mix with the right crowd! He had developed quite a healthy level of social intelligence!

Experience:
It is all about being RESOURCEFUL to gain valuable experience. It is our personal journey, personal understanding, personal encounter, personal learning & personal adaptation that form our experiences. But make sure we keep uplifting experiences and dilute-off the bad moments.

Keep a wide experiences of knowledge & exposures!

Let's triple-up our Education!

You Bhd: A great company or a PN17 company?

Wow, time really flies....

Remember the time that we talked about Y2K? Some are afraid of the "bugs" will shut down certain computer systems!
Here we are... 2010, almost ending!

10 years already past.
Some thought 2020 is still a long way to go.
Yeah, try wasting another 10 years and calculate how many extra wrinkles on our forehead by that time! We won't be able to smile by then as we have extra 2382 fine lines when we do! Well, definitely it is not the fine lines that matter, it is our journey that counts.

Time is only moving in one direction, which is Forward.
But thoughts can be travelling Forward or Backward.
To move Forward, sometimes we need to scan a little Backward.

Perhaps reviewing some aspects of our life will help. Especially in terms of:
1) The income that we earn? Surviving? Satisfying? Enriching? Or "Fatt Tatt" already, haha....?
2) The job that we do? Is it based on passion or merely a surviving tool?
3) Family: Are we settling down? Do we have the correct budget for family planning? Any education fund for our kids?
4) Who is our hero in life? Perhaps any mentor around?
5) Are we happy with where we are? Job, Biz, Charity, Education...etc
6) Do we want to excel in our job, or starting a small biz or try investing?
7) What else do we want to learn more? Leadership? Entrepreneurship? Self-Enrichment? Socialising? Parenting? Playing musical instruments? A different job scope? Property? ...etc
8) The circle of friends that we associate with? Is it the same? Do we want a change?
9) Satisfy with our body weight & posture? Overweight? Fit? Big tummy? Stamina?
10) Our personalities, habits & attributes? Do we want to be more extrovert, risk-taking, positive, open-minded, prudent, generous, caring, result-oriented or people-oriented? ...etc

Well, the list could be endless.
Perhaps we can provoke ourself this question:
"If I have a 100k to acquire a stake in someone's life and expecting a consistent or higher return, who would I invest in?"
Is it "John Wong Sdn Bhd", "Adeline Tan Sdn Bhd", "Shukri Enterprise", "Krishnan Bhd" or etc....
Just think about everyone as a company for a while.....

Then we'll begin mapping People in Business aspects. We'll start searching for the relevant attributes don't we?
Are you going to invest in Intelligence or Emotional Intelligence? Knowledge or Attitude? Certificates or Leadership?

The interesting part is "Are you going to buy a stake of your ownself?"
If "YOU" are listed in Bursa Malaysia as YOU BHD, are you going to buy? Do you think others will buy? Or all of them who have bought it, sold it coz you are a PN17 company!! haha.....
Joke a bit lah...you are not that bad! All of us are unique and I truly believe we have our own spark plug to ignite our real desire and potential in life.

When you think about companies like SPSetia, Maxis, YTL, IOI, Amway, Petronas, HongLeong (of course it is not an endorsement or recommendation to buy!), what are the attributes that we like about them? Perhaps mapping it in-person like Ananda Krishnan, Liew Kee Sin, Francis Yeoh, Tony Fernandes, Idris Jala...etc...
Attributes like Integrity, Growth, Performance, Trust, Confidence, Management, Leadership, Branding, Ethics, CSR....etc, comes to mind.

Well, I hope it can provoke us a little.
Afterall, we are after a balance circle of success and on top of all, HAPPINESS & SELF-SATISFACTION!
Hmmm.....let's think about it....

Know or Don't Know...

Some people know what they know;
some know what they don't know;
some don't know what they know;
the potential is in what they don't know about what they don't know about!

The worst is they don't know what they don't know....
and yet they think they know what they don't know and sometimes they thought they shouldn't know what they don't know coz they think others will not know what they don't know about what they don't know, therefore they could care less on what they should know on what they don't know and change it to what they know!!

To summarise, it is called IGNORANCE! haha...gotcha!!

But the moment we know what we know, the more we got to know what we don't know.
The key is to continuously upgrading from
don't know what we don't know --> know what we don't know --> know what we know --> DO WHAT WE KNOW!!

Employee ah, employee....what do you want?

Last month & this month, my current company encounters a total of 6 people resigning. Another 3 thinking of resigning....That's really bad.

I've worked in multiple sizes of company before; small, medium and big.
Some with proper system and some without.
Some are doing competitively great and some are on the sun-set industry.
Some are managed by caring bosses & managers and some are just taking advantage of employees.

Well, finding talents is a difficult task today. Retaining them is even more difficult.

Out of my own journey talking to people as an employee, I've summarised what normally employees are looking for when they work in a company; it doesn't matter whether it has system or not, big or small.

1) Career path - Nobody wants to work forever as an executive or trainee level. The issue is whether the company has a plan to move up the employee on a career ladder or they just want to maintain the "tradition". Another issue is whether the employee is equipped with the skills for the new tasks. Budget allocation from a company in training might be a good idea!

2) Leadership - Manage by using our Head, Lead by using our Heart. Management is more on a Left-Brain area while Leadership is more on a Right-Brain stuff. We have to balance between;
- Looking at the big picture vs. Looking at the details.
- Task-oriented vs. People-oriented.
- Intelligence vs. Imagination.
- Instincts vs. Analysis
- Influence vs. Authority

Can we learn something from the managers / directors or we are just merely working like a robot?

3) Reward - Can you imagine cost of living keep going up and the range of salary remain the same today as compared to 5 - 10 years ago? Nowadays even a chicken rice / economy rice costs around RM4.50 - RM5.50, depending on the location. A typical malaysian car costs around RM40k - RM60k and people normally can afford to buy if the repayment period is drag up to 7 or 9 years. A mid-class apartment / condo costs around RM200k - RM300k....developer's price! Upon completion, perhaps rising up to RM300k - RM400k.....for an empty units excluding furnishing, renovation & decoration.

To me, salary comprises of 3 parts;
- Costs of Living
- Employee's ability
- Employee's performance

We can't just pay a standard rate for fresh graduate RM1,500 - RM1,800 / mth as if it is the same as 10 years back!

4) Appreciation - this is the most significant factor. Being acknowledged and felt we are part of the organisation is most important. Confront privately, compliment publicly. I've seen a boss that wanted to cut short a meeting duration by telling the employee, "Just tell me the bad news or problems faced, skip the good news!". Or "I don't care what are you going to do, just get it done!"

Well, that boss definitely save lots of time but not realising in long term, he is wasting more time by not listening & appreciating staff as he needed to train, re-train, train & retrain due to the frequent movement of people leaving & people coming in. The worst thing happen is when the employees felt they are a commodity instead of human being!

Whether a company wants to keep hiring new people or maintaining the talented employee for future growth will depend largely on the company's direction, mission & culture.

When Starbucks re-define their company mission from:

"WE ARE NOT A COFFEE BUSINESS SERVING PEOPLE....BUT A PEOPLE BUSINESS SERVING COFFEE!", whatever they do or decide will be more people-oriented and not coffee-oriented.

Eventually, it boils down to the Directors or Founders mindset of setting up the business.

What's the purpose of a particular business is being set up?
I've wrote another note on The Purpose of Building A Business.