Life Long Learning

Ah.. finally , a small breathing space , a space all for myself , a moment where I will be able to enjoy in my peaceful, tranquil and majestic hometown ,Penang . Finally , a well-deserved small break after all those hard works and efforts spent facing book this semester ( oh well , not really that much hard works anyway lol ,more like facebooking all the time ,and I am actually playing truant , skipping an entire week of class before my actual study break ,but meh, who cares ! )

Home sweet home indeed ~ People say , the heart will yearn for something familiar if you haven’t see it for a while . Why, so true indeed . It referring to my beloved hometown in this case.

I have always felt at ease in home , not because of the conveniences here ( washing machine , soft bed , air conditioner when needed , usable internet and best of all ,unlimited food ftw ! ) , but because of the freedom and flexibility it offers. though the convenience does serve as an added bonus ! And at home , I will have more opportunities to do whatever I wanted to do most and learn whatever I wanted to learn . You see, I am never a fans of textbook-based approach . In fact , I abhorred it. I hate the fact that since young , when we are still the innocent and naïve little sponge who could have absorbed everything easily , we have been drilled with the concept of textbook-based approach .

I can’t speak for other countries , but as for my own country , I can affirm you for sure , that having being subjected to arduous , long hours of digesting facts and figures , then regurgitating them during examinations , and subsequently forgetting them after examination , our education system is not one that I would put my children through . I think it is rather retarded that we should adhere to such rigid education system which , in my opinion , limits our creativity and opportunities to explore other subjects .Take for example , if a student who’s really talented in arts and drawing but not so inclined towards memorizing and studying facts, let’s name him John , be subjected to such education system , spending close to 12 years on learning stuff which may not necessarily be of importance to his future , wouldn’t it be a complete waste of time ? Besides, wouldn’t it stifle and limit his potential ? Wouldn’t it be better if John uses perhaps half of that time memorizing facts to hone and enhance his artistic skills ?

In countries like US , the education system is so much more efficient and effective . For instance , after their A level ( our pre-university equivalence ) , the students there are free to take and explore whatever subject they like in a gap year, before continuing their tertiary education .Now, that’s practical education .

All in all , I believed in life long education instead of a short term one. In today’s society , most people perceive “learning”  in very narrow terms: it’s what we do in school, and once we’ve got our college degree, the learning phase is over – it’s time to work.

Of course, things aren’t really that black and white:we carry on learning after we’ve left school, and not just in our careers but in every aspect of our lives. And learning often doesn’t equate to taking qualifications or passing exams. Approached the right way, learning isn’t a process of ticking boxes on a curriculum or course outline – it’s about exploration, growth and enrichment.

Learning should be a life long journey , something that one should continue doing till the last breath . True education should be an endless pursuit of pragmatic and practical knowledge , no matter in what field or aspect . Great leaders are often people with substance possessing wealth of knowledge .Steve jobs once said “ Stay hungry , stay foolish “ . Once a man stops learning , that’s when he stops living .

Recently , I was hooked to musical instruments and only now starting to venture into this fascinating world of music . And let me tell you , the joy and epiphany of learning something new , is simply fantastic ! As I slowly indulge in this journey of learning , the thrilling sense of acquiring yet another fascinating piece of knowledge from an endless treasure troves excites me and gives an adrenaline rush that’s unlike any activity . Remember that feeling when you encountered a difficult math problems that had you thinking for hours, maybe even days? Frustrating right ? How about the feeling after you solved it eventually ? That euphoria moment , that’s the feeling you will have when you learnt something new.

So, people , what are you waiting for ? Start learning and pick up new skills now !

Entrepreneurship, Why Now?

Inthis past few weeks ,I have been engagedwith the idea of entrepreneurship and starting my own business with the passion , vigor and energy more than Iever had in my past 20 years of living . The reason ? Well , for starters , inthis past few weeks ( 3 weeks to be exact ) , I have been attending businesstalks and entrepreneurship workshop conducted by renowned and successfulbusinessman , most noticeably , speakers like YB Tony Pua, former CEO of CyberVillage ,a pioneer in e-commerce , Ms Winnie Loo , CEO of A Cut Above , MrMichael Tan , CEO of myparttimejob.com and recently Mr Jonathan Quek,CEO ofTrue North Asia and Ms Candice Lee, Sales Director of Capital Asia Group.

I havealways been interested the idea of doing business from early age. You see, Ialways thought that working in a 9-5 job , collecting money every month isretarded . I mean , sure , there are lot of high flying employees out there whoare earning 5 figure salaries , living an exciting life , but unfortunately also, in this cruel , realistic world , there are too many people , stuck in themiddle income trap , often just stuck being an employee who works for the rich, deprived of knowledge to excel and achieving their true potential .

Thus , being an employee and working forothers have always had a bad impression in my heart and mind. Though , if I hadto work , I would definitely prefer working for people who have truecapabilities and knowledge , whereby I can learn and gain something ,andworking with people who are fun , friendly and downright crazy.( something likein nuffnang and Capital Asia,I believe) ,instead of being under tyrannyof the inept ( which ,unfortunately happened to a lot of employees in Malaysia).I am always drawn to unconventional work cultures that promote work hard andplay hard. Do you know that in Nuffnang’s office, there’s a place called Nuffie’sZone, whereby people can just sit down and rest on the plush sofa ,relaxinguntil they are ready to work again? Oh and they have a PS3 in their office too.Now, that’s what I called awesome work culture !

Butof course, if possible , I would love to start my own business and making a jobout of things I love doing best . Idigressed . Today, I had the honor to listen to the speech by Mr Jonathan Quekand Ms Candice Lee , both of whom have had a lot of ups and downs in their life,and very inspirational visionaries that strives for big goals ( and arecurrently in the progress of completing them ) .

MrJonathan Quek is the CEO of True North Asia ,a consultancy company aimed topromote youth intelligence and provides alternative investment consultancy ,while Ms Candice Lee is his partner and also the Sales Director of Capital AsiaGroup , a real estate consultancy group .

Asthey shared with us about their core values , what they do , the obstacles theyfaced when they first started , everybody’s eye lit up . Their enthusiasm was infectious , their passion was evident ,and the atmosphere was electrifying . Mere words alone would not do justice tothem . Their stories are simply inspirational and motivational.

Hereare some excerpts from the their talk . “ Imagine a plane , with fourpropellers , flying from K.L to Hawaii. Now , Hawaii is your destination .Doing business is a lot like flying this plane. In order to fly the plane , youmust have four propellers which are a metaphor for the Marketing department ,Human Resource department , Operation department and Finance department. Andyou must always set your destination right first . So, the destination is yourWHAT , the plane is your HOW and thefirst reason that got you flying that plane in the first place is your WHY. Ifyou have a very strong WHY , then you would know WHAT you want and the HOWwould eventually come :.

“

“There’s this one game in Miri where theyoungsters would spend playing .In Miri, there are a lot of monkeys , andmonkeys love peanuts. So ,the youngsters would take a lot of peanuts , lay themon the ground to form a trail , leading to a coconut contraption ( where theyput more peanuts into that coconut ). When a monkey follows the trail ofpeanuts , eating them along the way , eventually it will find the coconutfilled with the peanuts inside , and put its’ hand inside to pick up thosepeanuts. But , because the size of the opening in the coconut is quite small ,just barely big enough for the monkey’s hand , when the monkey grab a lot ofpeanuts , it won’t be able to take its’ hand out . So, the monkey will betrapped , and when it’s trapped , it will scream for help and eventually thevillagers would heard of the scream would come and catch it. Well , you see, alot of people are like the monkeys , they chase after things that they want ,often being too greedy and don’t want to let go . If the monkey just let gosome of the peanuts , it can always return and get more peanuts next time , butbecause of its greed and foolishness , the monkey got trapped. “

“Life’snot how fast your start but how well you end the race “

Theabove paragraph with quotations are excerpts from Mr Jonathan’s talk , notdirect transcript of it , but mere interpretation from my own memories. Anotherinteresting point worth mentioning from their talk is that they actually had instantnoodles for almost 6 months back when they are near bankruptcy.

MsCandice’s talk was also filled with fiery passion and enthusiasm , as shetalked about how had a complete turn over of her life . She shared with us hervery amusing history back when she was 20 years old , and told us that the twomain obstacles holding people back from doing the things they want to do are lackof emotional security and lack of strength of character. I guess one of themain highlights of her talk is when she talked about having the right plan forlife and she had a very detailed plan , in her own words “ to build a hotel ofmy own ,with the profits being used to set up an orphanage , in which we willtrain and provide financial education to the youths in that orphanage ,empowering and grooming them . When they grow up , they will be given sharesfor the hotel and be the ones managing and continue to grow it further . “

WhenI heard that , it truly sent chills down my spine , in a good way of course. Itwas so remarkable to see someone so young having such detailed plans , down tothe nitty-gritty details planned out for her future . After that , sheexpounded the concept of personality profiling , in which people’s personalityin general can be divided to 4 elements , namely fire, water, wind and earth.

Firetype of people are generally bold and courageous ,and are often adventurousrisk takers . While they may be the people who dare to be different and leads ,the flaw of a fire type person is that they are egoistic , proud and sometimeseven too full of themselves.

Watertype of people are generally obedient people who are great listeners, beingemotionally sensitive and very adept to changes , though their flaws would bethe slow pace that they work in , and lack of motivation and little interest inmost things. They would be the best people to consult when you break down andneed a shoulder to lean on and cry.

Windtype of people are typically influential , outgoing extroverts . They arenatural sales man that are very socially active and optimistic people. However,their flaw lies in their lack of discipline , attention-seeker and they oftenhave short-lived enthusiasm .

Earthtype of people are analytical people who often have deep thoughts &reflection , driven by laws and principles . They are usually quite reservedand trustworthy . Nevertheless ,they might occasionally have self-pity and theycan be quite judgmental sometimes, and easily falling into mental stress.

Somehow,I felt like I possesses characteristics from all of the elements above , thoughit’s more like a mix of several characteristics from each element . However, I findthis personality profiling very interesting , in the sense that this is whatpeople should be learning. If you read around my blog , you would have noticedthat I advocate the thinking of 3 rd perspective , that each and everyone of usis unique and should respect other people’s opinion even if they contradictours.

Ina nutshell , I guess I have really did acquire something from the talk afterall .People should have big dreams , dare to be different and ultimately make adifference in people’s life. Listening to their motivating talks , I reallyhope I would be able to make it big in the future ,meeting more people likethem and learning from them .

Yousee , I always believed in lifelong learning rather than just school ,textbook-based approach . I find it paradoxical that the formal educationsystem that is supposed to be empowering us , ironically did the opposite ,which is to limit people’s freedom of thinking flexibly and creatively .Learning is an endless process . I believe when one stop continue learning andimproving themselves , that is the time they die. Oh well, more on that nexttime. For now, I am just grateful I had the chance to listen to their wonderfultalks and meeting some right people in my life now. I suppose maybe,just maybe, this is destiny’s intervention too ? Be sure to check out their websites and blogsif you have the time ;D ! OH, by the way , the last tips that MsCandice shared with us was her business philosophy which was P.H.D ,whichstands for…….*drum rolls* Pain ( able to endure pain and work hard) , Hungerfor knowledge , and Dreams for which you should be fighting for , doingeverything to achieve them. That’s all for now , tata!

An incoherent musing~

Fate is a strange thing indeed . One moment , you will be outraged over the place that fate throws you into , somewhere that the you in the past would obviously despise and even cursed incessantly should you even put one foot inside it , yet another moment you would discover that the place fate puts you in is actually not bad after all. , and slowly ,  you would realize that the destiny is right all along , that the one who pulls the string of fate high above have already knew it beforehand that this place, the very place that you once detest , is the best place for you.

The paragraph above somehow describes the situation I am in right now. I used to detest public universities , public local universities to be more precise. The reason? No particular reasons actually. If there was any, it was probably due to my immature , naïve conjecture that all public universities in Malaysia especially are filled with racial sentiments , prejudices and not so bright people. Oh boy , how wrong I was . But hey, you can’t put all the blame on me. For a 17 year old guy , right after SPM , with most of my peers at that that time choosing to go either private universities or going abroad for studies ( mind you , they are an awful rich lots ) , and with all the mass media keep publishing bad news about public universities , coupled with rumors and gossips from relatives , it’s inevitable that my perception about our local universities would be shaped that way.

In a way, studying in  English Educated school is a double-edged sword . Sure, I mean , I am very grateful for my mediocre proficiency in English now, but on the other hand , most of us, eng-ed students ,if not all are incapable of speaking mandarin ( which is a shame really ,considering its importance in the world and that it’s the representation of our Chinese roots ) . Second of all , is that most of the eng-ed students came from a middle or upper income families . ( This is not really a generalized stereotype for all eng-ed students but a mere opinion that I observed from my school ) . This happens to be the case in my school.

So yeah, whenever the topic of graduation and the future comes up , I will be hearing my peers thinking of going abroad , for instance UK , Australia and etc , or some opting to stay here , preferring to go to colleges first before pursuing their tertiary education in private universities .So, there I was , always the guy with a few other , not so fortunate people that came from more frugal background will be raising the idea of going to local universities. And every time , almost immediately the richer peers would glare at us , their face making the expression of fear and horror, as if we have just mentioned apocalypse . Subsequently, we will be bombarded with various horror stories that only happen in local universities , for example , how we would be robbed of our possessions and tortured with incompetent lecturers , being subjected to the tyranny of the inept , staying in uncomfortable , dirty hostel , and for our female counterparts , facing sexual discrimination , harassment ,and even getting raped in the worst case scenario.

Hence, after hearing relentless complains and bad rumors regarding public universities , I actually succumbed to their stories and complained aggressively about going into public universities . In fact , I nearly fought with my parents to get into college . But as fate would have it , due to financial constraints and other factors , I eventually relented and get into this public university , University of Malaya ( UM ) ,after which I found out most of the fears and initial trepidation I had was unfounded , though the part about not so comfortable hostel was quite true, but I did get used to it anyway *chuckles *.

University , or rather should I say , public local university is a very strange place . It is a place where we discover a lot of things . In here , I learnt and discovered a lot , having able to see the world using another perspective . Initially , it was quite difficult to adept because the people here ( the Chinese here anyway ) are used to speaking Mandarin , and having studied in English Educated school for my entire schooling life , the transition was rather abrupt and sudden . I am still struggling to adept now . Though , I reckon I would make more friends ( and maybe even getting the chicks to dig me more xD ) if I had learn Mandarin . But alas, some things aren’t meant to be , so .. I will just have to let it be ;D . Oh, and that rumor about public local universities not having bright students ? Total bullshit . I have met some of the brightest people in UM , some of them having insanely high IQ , while some others possesses intelligence in other areas . In fact , I am quite amazed by their ability . I have seen some people excelling in sports , logical and rational thinking , while some others have superior leadership and managerial skills , with some even possessing very sharp business acumen. Heck , I even have a coursemate that is already earning big bucks every month even when he’s studying , and the best is , he have no plans to work after graduation ! Cool huh ?

In a nutshell , I may have plans to go somewhere else and study other things , but fate knows better I guess . Yes , perhaps if I chose to go elsewhere to pursue my tertiary education , life might have been easier on me , or maybe even more difficult. Either way , I am quite satisfied for my current life , and really grateful for living under a roof right now . It is indeed a blessing when I heard of plights from my other peers in other local universities .

That aside, this week have been quite a productive week . Last Thursday , I attended a business talk and met YB Tony Pua , the former CEO of Cyber Village ,a pioneer in e-commerce and DAP strong man .Also present was  Winnie Loo, CEO of A Cut Above . Today , me and my friends went to Tune Talks Sdn Bhd in Petaling Jaya for a site visit for our course assignment . Surprisingly , the receptionist at the company gave us a very warm reception even though we went there without prior notice . Even more shocking is the fact that they grant us an impromptu interview, when we did not even make a proper appointment ( well , in actual fact , we did , sadly we got rejected due to lack of time , according to their ceo ) Surprise Surprise… But this was a good surprise. It was really unexpected that they showed such politeness and courtesy to an unknown strangers , especially to a bunch of young students like us. It really amazed me .

This week’s many business related events have set me thinking. In fact , the idea of starting my own business have been playing in my mind for quite some time now. However, there are a few setbacks and problems. The major one being my laziness and tendency to procrastinate. Secondly , capital is needed to start a business and being undergraduate students that are still studying , I don’t have that capital ( though later I would soon realize there are ways to start a business that require less or no capital at all ). Last but not least , is lack of capable and competent partners. You see, business is never a solo work, and when you are starting a business , especially at this age, it is essential to find partner(s) who have the same vision as you in order to avoid complications and at least have a few other brains to help u tackle arising problems.

Well , the first and second problem isn’t really much of a problem , but the real problem is the third one. Often in society , there are too many people who don’t share the visions and aspirations to think big , go out there and realize it . Most people are felt satisfied following the norm , which is to just study hard , work hard , be a good employee , and continue churning money for the their boss. Now, what they don’t realize is that the higher they rise on the pay hierarchy , the more work they have to do , and in the end , they will be trapped in a vicious cycle. I believe this is what they called the middle income trap. Hence, study hard and working hard concept is no good. In order to break through this vicious cycle , one must learn to earn money the smart way , one of which is to earn passive incomes .

Passive income means to let money serve you , work for you , instead of your working for money. One way to achieve passive income is to start your own business. I digressed . Either way , this post’s main focus is neither about passive income nor business ,and I am certainly not the most appropriate man to expound these principles hence I shall stop here. Nevertheless , the main problem here is , so far , I have only found a few friends only who I believe have the vision and ideas to make it big , though they seem to be too busy with their respective activities lately . Oh well, everyone have their own commitments anyway. My only wish now is to be able to find some capable , competent partners who have the same thinking and visions as me , and together, hopefully we will be able to achieve something big ;)

Honestly though , I don’t know what’s stopping us. The knowledge is there , the tools are provided , the only thing left is to make the first step , yet it seems to take an eternity for some people to make that step. When you realize it , it will be too late already. The current me can only pray and wish for the best. That aside , I am still wishing for love, peace and happiness ;) To a better tomorrow yeah!!!

Of Politics

 I don’t usually talk about politics. In fact , in my entire blogging life so far, never have I ever touch about politics. To me ,the political world is far too mysterious , or more aptly put , dangerous to be meddled with. However , the recent Bersih 3.0 which have sparked controversies yet again and caused a lot of mindless people ranting and posting nonsensical statuses just following the crowd had irritates me too far.

You see , at this age and time , we can no longer afford to believe whatever we see or hear from another source , be it the internet , or even so called “ reliable “ sources like major newspaper / broadcaster ( e.g star/ astro ) As demonstrated by the recent squabbling over censorship of BBC distributed by our local broadcaster Astro.

People always blame the top management for most of the thing , if not everything. i.e they blame our prime minister for the outrages in bersih 3.0 , mismanagement in country’s financial acc , corruptions in the country.. bla bla bla . Obviously , being the one at the top , one is obviously liable to such blames and should shoulder some of the blames . but to demonize him and push all the blames to him ? to be the target of all the hatreds and accusations ? This is wrong . It’s immature to put the blame and point fingers only at our PM for all the bad happenings and  political ploy /shenanigans in the country . The thing is , yes, perhaps he may be the mastermind that pulls the string and is responsible for many of the bad political plots being put into action , but there are also chances that he might be the innocent guy that simply want nothing more than peace for the country . Now, before you bash and flame me about this, take a second to think about it  How many of us knows him personally ? How many of us have tried managing or leading a big organization as big as the country  ? I am sure that many of us are just average people that have done neither one of that .

And yes, while I do realize that we as the rakyat , the citizens of this country have the right to judge our leaders , but when you judge, at the very least ,have the courtesy to do research and prepare your case well instead of just hearing from a second handed sources before criticizing ,condemning and berating others. That is just plain immature and childish. People must bear in mind, there are always more than one side to anything.

 Take for example , the case of the policemen crashing into an innocent bystander . Many people blamed the men in blue for his carelessness and clumsy actions , but hey , what about the other side? Have you ever considered the fact that ,  the Bersih supporters nearby were rampaging his car and subsequently blocking his view. Now, if you were in that situation what will u do ? Obviously if you have the time and intelligence to think , you would have opted perhaps to brake and then go out of the car . Nevertheless , what the policemen decided to do was to step on the accelerator to shake off the people and consequently , crashing into the bystander. Is it wholly his fault? I doubt so.

Don’t get me wrong . I am not bashing Bersih or supporting the ruling party.I am not defending any of the political parties either as I practice a non-partisan view for politics. It’s just that , I believe we should take perspectives from two or more sides under account first before making a conclusive statement.The politickings in Malaysia has gone too far and thus unreliable , untrustable and unaccountable for.

Perhaps the ruling party has indeed adopted an authoritarian , dictatorship leadership , suppressing all the bad sides of the country , pulling all the strings to allow mass censorship and just displaying all the good sides , trying to portray themselves as the friendly , good guys while demonizing the opposition , but in the end , they still produce results . And what good would it be if the opposition governs the country ? Only god knows what will happen . What if the oppositions are the one pulling the strings, doing what I have just mentioned afore instead of the ruling party ?

The point is , I am afraid the political tension in Malaysia has reached a dangerous boiling point , and this is serious, as neither the opposition or the ruling party can be trusted anymore due to the excessive politickings displayed by both party. However , given these two limited choices, the more rational and logical side of me would definitely opted for the ruling party now as they have displayed progressive track records while the opposition have next to nothing to show , often just emphasizing on empty promises .  Don’t get me wrong , I trust DAP , as it has a good track record to show and is indeed making a big progress for my hometown . Though, the one that I fear for is its ally.

Oh well, here’s to hoping for a better suitable candidate for our nation’s leaders , or the hope in which our grassroots leaders can have a paradigm shift to rise above the political squabble and instead focus truly more on the nation’s development . Seriously , I wonder how much progress would we made already had they invest the time and money used in politickings in our nation development.