Followership

The whole world talks about Leadership while less emphasis is put on the importance of Followership. Some people are not meant to lead while some are born to lead. I do agree that leadership can be nurtured to reach a certain level but the charisma is an inborn thing coupled with characteristics.
Some will perform at its best if they play the role of a follower where backstage is their true platform.

I have been given chances to lead and chances to follow. Without consciously knowing it, I've found out that I've practise the 4S in my past Followership.

1. Support - Leader can't perform and obtain great achievements without the support of the followers. Most importantly, once the goal and vision is cast out, we fully support it and live it till its realization.
2. Systematize - Leaders are more of a visionary and a strategist and that is the reason their life is normally a "mess" and we help them in multi-tasking, realign and plan. Their thoughts are moving faster than their actions. Therefore, we organize resources for them to make quick decisions.
3. Seek - For certain major decisions, it is good to seek the advice or opinions from the Leader. They might have walk-thru the landmines before and sometimes experiential advice is invaluable. Try to avoid giving unwanted Surprise for our leaders.
4. Solve - The last thing a leader wants is problems upon problems left unsolved. We should take the initiative to be resourceful and assist in the micro areas especially during the implementation stage.

Of course I'm sharing all these in the context of someone worth following; not on the Title but more on the Person. Maybe it is the reason that we respect them or we passionately wanting to accomplish the vision set by the leader. It is not so much on submitting ourselves and licking their feet but it is a sense of Respect and Accountability that we put forth for them.

In whatever reason, Followership is as important as Leadership.

Powerful Story is more influential than Logical Analysis

Recently, I've met 3 new friends through another friend. What a blessing to know all of em'.

One man in particular, in his 50's, doesn't has a super high education but went through The School of Hard-Knocks! Due to some crisis, he dropped from the status of million-aire to thousand-aire and eventually zero-aire!

He doesn't give up. He learn, explore & kept discovering different strategies to achieve his goal.
Then he bounced back from nothing to SOMETHING. And he taught his children the same principle.
Today, he is living a comfortable life and yet developed the necessary momentum to continue forward.

He thinks like a man of action and acts like a man of thoughts.
After knowing years & years of complications, he knew how to detangled it into few simple principles and he lived & prospered from it.

To summarise what I've observed,
1) We've got to have mentor or mentors in life.
2) Willing to learn & apply.
3) Renew our mind & change strategies till we've got it.
4) Then use the strategies continuingly to gain an empire of wealth!!
5) Share the knowledge & empower others to gain self-satisfaction.

What a blessed meeting....

A Unique School

2 days ago, I went to a property forum entitled Rethinking Property, organised by BFM radio station. There were 3 prominent speakers.

It was an eye-and-mind-opener! One of the speaker that striked me the most was John Hardy, the founder of Green School in Bali, Indonesia.

I do not know there is such school that existed.
My first impression was .... yeah, another school teaching about green stuff, recycling waste, saving energy, blah blah blah...etc.
It is much more than that. Of course listening to the founder himself talks about his vision of creating "Green Leaders" in the future who cares about what happens to the world, put my grasshopper mindset in the backburner!

John Hardy & his wife Cynthia sold off their jewellery business to set this green school up.
The whole school was made of bamboo! No air-conditioning, but natural flow of air and no toxic building material but "organic" material. What a building!

The students can learn basic skills such as reading, writing and I like the fact that they focus more on the practical side instead of boring-standard-Teach-N-Go-curriculum like most school did. They even learn art & music and most importantly, interaction skills.

All of us are Rice-Consumers but the students learn to be a Rice-Producer!
They plant, grow & harvest their own paddy & vegetables.
There's no computer software of any kind that can do a better job in teaching children about the Law of Sowing & Reaping than planting with their own labor, knowing that "If they don't work, they don't eat" principle still exist in 21st century!

Moreover, they get to interact with students from all over the world. They learn, adapt, communicate & build projects together. It reminds me of the word GLOCALIZATION instead of GLOBALISATION.
What a great example of a local village with global society in it.

In my opinion, the skills & the talent that the students potentially build up with will enable them to be more holistically balance in the aspect of mental & emotional strength.
I can't imagine our future generations are still following the status quo of going to a typical school and scoring all the As that their parents dreamt of and expect them to have the adaptability and competitiveness in the global marketplace!
It is not the sole issue of competitiveness but also the morality & respect that we need to nurture the future leaders.

Well, be sure to check the website and find out more at http://www.greenschool.org.
Thumbs up and a big salute to John Hardy, Cynthia and the team that run that place.

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!

Eh, you got STUDY or not?....(Part 2)

Well, Academic Education does form an elementary staircase for us to climb. But it is definitely not enough.

We need Financial Education.

To make money, there are 4 entities for us to tap into; P-I-C-N

Physical - which is our Neck-Down ability or commonly known as Hard Labour.
We can't progress much using this part of our body. Perhaps RM5 - RM20 / hour! We can survive but can't afford to support a complete family expenses or retired.

Intelligence - which is our Neck-Up ability. It is the ability to manage, analyse, rationalise and calculate. It enable us to look at where we are and where we want to go.

Capital - Use money to make money. The best is to use Intelligence + Capital to generate more Cash! The difference is using our own Capital or Other People's Capital. We can venture into business or investments.

Network - which is our contacts. I've known some people creating investments or business opportunities through the contacts that they have established in the past years. That's where learning to play Golf came in, haha....! Hence, I totally agree with "It is not what you know, it is who you know that matters!"

Today I've got to know a person making RM30,000 in a day in which most people use a year to earn it.
Surprisingly, that person is using "C" & "N" entities only, not using any "I" entity at all!
Hmmmm.....that got me thinking a little.....

Financial Education is about creating Wealth, expanding Wealth and managing Wealth, tapping into the I-C-N entities.
It is about knowing which tools or methods to go about it as well.

In wealth creation, it involve risks. That's why some people are meant to be employee while risk-takers have the potential to be great entrepreneurs or investors. It also depends on whether we are looking at Fast-Short-Term-Income or Slow-Long-Term-Income.

Those who tapped into I-C-N entities are normally creating a Steady & Long term income. While those who tapped into C-N entities only are creating Fast & Unsecured income.

Success is build on the basic pyramid of Academic Education --> Financial Education --> Life Education.
Let's explore that...

To be continue....

Eh, you got STUDY or not?....(Part 1)

Education....
Is it a Springboard or a Stumbling Block?
It depends....
In my opinion, there's 3 main significant types of Education:

1) Academic Education
2) Financial Education
3) Life Education

Academic Education - that's the foundation of equipping us to Read, Write & Calculate. I wanted to put "Think" as well but I beg to differ on this. Sometimes Academic Education crippled most people than bringing them up to explore life. Why?

Looking at my own academic life, did I use any of the knowledge to achieve a very successful life? The answer is a big "NO".

In Academic Education,
...We are taught to memorize, not to question...
...We are taught to learn, not to think...
...We are taught on theories, not on applications...
...We are taught on scoring grades, not on exploring alternatives...
...We are taught that "A" students are the best and "D" students are the hooligans!

Don't forget, normally "A" students work for "B" students and "B" students work for "C" students.
Eventually, "D" students own the business!!

Quite commonly, I've found out people of low education are more Flexible, Resourceful and Street-Smarts than the graduates who are more Rigid, Planful & IQ-oriented.

Therefore, it is not surprising to see Ah Beng who sells Fish-Head noodle or Hakka Yong Tau Foo can afford a banglo and drive a Mercedez than Mr. Manager, Mr. Engineer or Mrs Accountant.

Later in our life, until we realized something is wrong, we'll begin to question....
"Why am I broke?"
"Why can't I afford that car?"
"Why do I need to pay my house for 30 donkey-years and some can afford to buy cash!"
"Why do some people earn a yearly salary that is equivalent to some people's monthly salary?"

Well, it is better to ask the "Why" now than later. That's why we need to explore Financial Education.

To be continue.....

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!!

You from Jupiter, I from Neptune!

Every human being is different.
Different in thinking, behavior, personalities, taste & style. Depending on 2 factors;

Part of it is Natured and the other part is Nurtured.

If we blend it together, we'll have a Group.
Fuel it with Vision & Culture, the Group will become a Team.

A healthy and perfect team would consists of a DRIVER, a COMMUNICATOR, a PLANNER & an ANALYST.

A DRIVER sees the macro view as a whole. Risk is the Driver's breakfast! The word "No" and "Can't" will stir up a "tsunami..cal" reaction from the Driver coz they are butt-kicker!

We need Drivers to say GO, GO, GO....LET'S DO IT, LET'S GET IT DONE, LET'S MOVE!
Basically they are result & tasks-oriented, outspoken and sometimes doesn't really look into the consequences.
But becareful if it is practised to the extreme resulting in ignorance on people's needs & feelings. No doubt we need Driver to steer the ship forward. Try to calm down with Lavender's tea from time to time!

A COMMUNICATOR inspires and sometimes able to erupt a volcanic excitement among team members and influencing the Red light to turn Green!

They are happy-go-lucky and like a sense of spotlight shining on them at times.
They are relationship-builder, influencer and innovator. They are best fitted in Marketing, Advertising & PR department. They can be great leader because inspiring people is always better than just merely managing people.
Forgive & Forget are their mottos! Passion is in their DNA. Enthusiasm stick in their hemoglobin!
They are the Links, Lubricants and Bridges of an organisation. Without them, it is BOOOOOORRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNGGGGG!

While the communicator is always on the frontstage, the PLANNER is always working on the backstage ensuring the process, procedures and alignment are in place. If "Ah Lian" wants to sing and open a concert, she definitely needs "Ah Beng" as organiser! "Ah Lian" can't be singing and organising at the same time and same goes with "Ah Beng", period!

Planners are able to see the pros & cons of each projects and normally they have more "white hair" than anybody else because they think a lot!
It might slow down the whole process but it helps to minimize blockages or potholes that other department needs to fill through along the way.
Planner is not an outspoken person and at times, you'll misunderstand that they have no opinion!
They are peacemaker and dislike arguments or confrontations. They rather sacrifice themself than to provoke someone.
If you have problems and like someone to listen, a shoulder to cry on and a tissue for free, call them!
Loyalty & Friendship are what they cherish in life.

We have the DRIVER that kicks-butt, the COMMUNICATOR to innovates, the PLANNER to oversees from A --> Z, finally we have the ANALYST which has a biiiiiggggg left brain working on details and information.

While the Communicator has a problem figuring out what's the real deal with Bank A's offer, the Analyst can summarise Bank A, B, C & D's offer and pick the best deal!
They are meticulous, logical and analytical.
"Disney..istic" imagination doesn't appeal to them. "Matrix" figures attract them like bees & honey.
But extreme analysis leads to paralysis sometimes. Therefore, most entrepreneurs are not analyst. They survey a little and the rest is about guts and instincts!
No doubt analysts are good in accounting, operation and engineering where precision is needed as much as making a Swiss watch working for a hundred years! Therefore, they are great in a way.

Well, in summary....

If 4 person have lunch together in a fine-dining restaurant; be it the DRIVER, the PLANNER, the COMMUNICATOR and the ANALYST, this is what you'll find out:

DRIVER will say, "Hey, this lunch is on me. Don't worry, just order. We are going to hit 1 million sales!"

COMMUNICATOR will say, "Why not call upon Jane, Michael, Wong, Suzy ....etc, eventually inviting a "lorry" of people joining. As communicator likes gathering and they are people oriented. They like Party!

PLANNER will say, "Hold it Communicator, how much budget do we have? Why not have this big lunch after we hit the 1 million sales? What if we've had this lunch but failed to meet this target?"

ANALYST will say "1 million sales....hmmm, divide it by 4 salesperson, RM250,000 / person. Divide it further by 4 weeks, RM62,500 / week. RM12,500 / day. On average we have around RM10,000 - RM11,000 / day, therefore, why not we eat chicken rice first!

There's no right or wrong in this personality quadrants but more of understanding our own strengths & weaknesses and how to blend with each other to a pre-determined direction.

Now you can understand your teammates better, your spouse better, your friends better, even your family members better (we tend to think moms like to nag, nag and nag...now u know why!).

Don't pre-label yourself as a fix DRIVER or COMMUNICATOR or PLANNER or ANALYST as we can intersect each behavior according to different situations.

As long as we keep improving and learning how to adapt with each other, we'll spell PROGRESS the right way.
Or else STAGNATION & FRUSTRATION fills the gap!

Types of Teacher

When I was in primary school, I can recalled a daily routine of greeting our teacher,
"Se....laaa....mat Paaa....gi Cikgu!"
Upon 30 minutes of teaching, we'll happily said,
"Terrrr....rima Kaaaa...sih Cikgu!"

Teacher plays an important role in moulding the student's mind. Not just equipping them with skills but programming their mindset to believe who they are. At times, who they believe who they are, are not who they are suppose to be.
Therefore, the journey of our potential is an on-going question.
It depends on how we look at ourself and how other people influenced us.

I came across a few types of Teacher; it can be our Boss, our Manager, our Parents, our Siblings, our Colleagues....etc

An Average Teacher tells,
A Good Teacher shows,
A Great Teacher demonstrates,
A Superb Teacher inspired......Which one are you?

An Average Teacher likes to use the word "YOU". "You do this", "You do that", "You are not suppose to do this & that", it is "You, You & always You".

A Good Teacher says "I" or "Let me...". "I can show you that", "Let me guide you on that", etc...
A Great Teacher leads through "Let's do it!"

A Superb Teacher says, "YOU CAN DO IT, I BELIEVE IN YOU!"

Nothing beats the belief that others have for us. It is the fuel that burn us to move forward innovatively & with commitment. Words are powerful; it can MAKE us or BREAK us.

Becareful on using our Tongues. We can curse someone or bless someone with it.
Perhaps we can read the book entitled "How to Use Our Tongue for DUMMIES!"
Does this book exist? I don't think so.
Perhaps YOU ARE THE WRITER!