Think Big Dream High,E35- Those Who Are Not Able To Manage Success

Success

1.All of us dreamt of success. All of us work hard to succeed. All of us do not want success to be temporary. All of us do not want success to be enjoyed mid-way only. All of us want to maintain success forever. All of us want to succeed in every single thing that we do.

2.Now we are successful. We felt exhilarated when we actually succeeded. We are successful in our studies, career, life and politics. Chasing after success is not easy. Its not easy to succeed. Managing success is actually more difficult than putting in the effort to achieve success. Most of us failed in managing our success.

Reality in Life    

1.Most successful  people are not able to maintain their success. Most students were able to obtain 9As for their SPM examination but were not able to continue their studies even up to the first degree level. They failed half way in their studies. We read news of an eighteen year old student who graduated with first class honours but a failure in life and ended up as an upper class  prostitute.

2.Tiger Woods was the world’s no 1 golf player until 2010. He shocked his fans all over the world by falling to no 7 world ranking. That was a year after the car accident that uncovered his infidelity towards his wife in November 2009. As a result of the incident,Tiger failed to win any of the major championships entered since 2008.

3.Rory Mcllroy is now the world’s golf no 1 player.In 2012 he won the top money list titles for both PGA tours and European tours. Even though he is only 21 years old, Roy Mcllroy does  have the physical, mental and emotional strengths  to manage the stiff competition. He is capable of  controlling the pressure and emotions during each tough game. He possesses an amazing intellectual strength and self confidence to face the challenging golf courses and spectators.        

4.The first generation was successful in business. The second generation was successful in expanding the business empire. The third generation however, is slowly destroying all the success created by the previous two generations before him. The grandfather from a poor background was able to built a successful business empire. His son who inherited his wealth was successful in expanding the business. The grandson who inherited all the wealth from his father is slowly destroying the business empire handed down by his grandfather.

5.Many politicians and leaders struggle to succeed. YAB Tun Abdullah, our former PM was able to secure the highest position in government or in his political party. However, upon securing the highest position in government as Prime Minister, he failed to maintain his career success.   YB Dato’ Seri  Anwar Ibrahim, the Opposition leader, at one time was at the height of his career and his popularity was on the rise but he failed mid-way.

6.Many PTD or Government Heads of Department struggled to do any possible thing to lobby for promotion and be successful. There are those who were able to hold JUSA or higher positions. However, upon successfully occupying this position, they failed to maintain their career success. The media is always reporting news of these higher position officers caught committing adultery  with their former secretaries or girl friends. There were many higher level officers including former Minister charged by SPRM for graft cases or living beyond their means.

7.All of the above scenarios actually existed and happened. Why does this happened? Why does a brilliant student failed in her life? Why does a world famous golf player failed in the golf tournament he participated. Why does the above corporate leader failed to maintain his expanding business empire? Why do the political leaders failed to maintain their positions eventhough they were  at the top of their careers? Why do the above Heads of Department failed to develop further their careers? Why do these people failed to manage the success achieved?.                

Tips

1.Maintaining success requires inherent skills.  Having working skills enabled us to achieve success. The skills in managing success is not the same skills required in order to succeed. Many people failed to succeed. It is the norm. Many people who are successful failed to manage their success. This is something interesting for us to find out the reason.

2.We always assumed that somebody who is successful will continuously be successful. It does not happened that way. A lot depended on their skills and capabalities to manage their success. A successful person can fail and their failure is a disappointment not only to themselves or their families but to those people who read their story in medias the world over.

3.Love, women, money, wealth, greed, selfish, ict illiterate, poor mental resilience, poor pressure resilience and impatience are among the things related to failure either on its own or a combination of them. These were some of the reasons noted why a person failed to manage their success. Suffice to open up our minds and lessons learned  in managing success. Thus, we therefore need to avoid, distance ourselves, shut our eyes so as not to be involved with infidelity, power crazy, questionable source of money and greed in all aspects of our lives.

4. All of these factors related to unhealthy desires and wants in actual fact are refrained by Allah SWT for us to be involved with. In the event we still want to be involved, be involved in a manner allowed and ordained by Allah SWT. For example, if we love a woman so much, marry them the syariah way. If we love money and wealth so much, accumulate them in a legal manner. If we love power, secure it in a clean way. InsyaAllah when our acts are checked, done in an honest and proper way, we should be able to manage and sustain our success for a long time.

5.There are many examples of people who were able to manage their success. Again we cannot ignore our son of the soil, YABhg Tun Dr Mahathir as the role model in this aspect. Tun not only manages and maneuvered his success but he was also able to manage the many crisis he was confronted with in a jubilant manner. His most prominent career well known to the public was as a politician and Prime Minister. How come Tun was able to face and overcome  all the crisis and yet still be successful. The answer is love. As we knew it, Tun truly loves his wife, his family, his career, the nation and its people.

6. Women- Tun was able to put a barrier on any forms of ill intentions  relating to women and sex eventhough there were some trials and tribulations. Wealth- Tun gave his full attention and focused  on his role and career as a politician, no reports of taking grafts on him. Of cause his sons on their own are in business and can be categorized as super rich. Throne- Tun was at the top of the power throne but he was skillful in managing this throne. At the ground level, rakyat were not able to smell any kind of wrongdoings or arrogance.

7. His mental strength is strong and superb. He has strong convictions. Tun was able to face all kinds of pressure either from within or externally and from various segments of the communities but Tun was smart, rationale and logical in confronting all of these issues. Tun was a very patient man  throughout his more than 39 years political career. Tun is actually successful and excellent in managing his success. He is actually a successful and an exemplary  mega manager and statesman. Tun, I believe is a person who always think big dream high and has a strong heart. 

Think Big Dream High,E34 – A Small and Simple Thing But Difficult To Do and Practise

Small And Simple Things

1.It is the norm for us to ignore things that are small and simple. We prefer the complex and big things. We assumed complex and big things has got class and come with challenges. Simple and small things has got no excitement and are of no issue. Every other person  can do it. As  a result we overlooked things and am not interested in  re-doing it again.

2.Success in life is closely related to our strengths.  We need to have at least two main strengths. The strengths that cover all aspects of life i.e. economic strength, social strength and political strength. The strengths that cover all aspects of health i.e. physical strength, mental strength, emotional and spiritual strength.

3. When we and our family live comfortably without any debts then we have economic strength. When we are comfortable mixing with society, career and family life then we have social strength. When we have the freedom to choose a responsible  government to care for us and the country then we have political strength. When we are always energetic, not overweight or obese then we have physical strength. When all the time our thinking is fresh, active and alert then we have mental strength. When we are able to control our emotions and not the other way round then we have emotional strength. When we are determined to always be positive and do good deeds to achieve null bad behavior then we have spiritual strength.

  

Reality in Life     

1.Our desires are the ones controlling us. We are under influence to buy a bigger house on credit basis. We are under influence to purchase household equipment on credit basis. We are under influence to buy motor vehicle on credit basis.

2. We no longer practice the culture of putting a handful of rice grain into another container everytime we cook just like what our grandmother used to practice. If our grandmother cooks three times a day then she will take three more handfuls of rice grain that she intended to cook. This culture of saving is simple but we are not practising it. This is the foundation to the present savings culture. Our forefathers have actually taught us this ingenious culture.

3.We are under influenced by our ego. We become self centered. Our social circle is limited. We are too busy with our career. We have no quality time with our family. We do not practice the smiling culture eventhough the Ustaz reminded us that smiling is a sadaqah and part of iman.

4.We are no longer free to state our opinion. The media has  control over  our political thinking despite the fact that we knew what actually happened in the country’s political arena. We have no other alternative  but to submit to what the media has influenced us as to  the choice of our leaders. We have no strength in politics since we are not able to determine the rightful person to be our leader that will care for our development and wellbeing, our religion and our country. A leader who is trustworthy without any personal and family’s interest.

5.We are too comfortable being in our chairs be it at home or office. We are too engrossed in work and glued to our TV set. We are not practicing a healthy culture at home and in the office. We allocated too  little time to strengthen our physical being eventhough in reality we have all the time in the world to do it.

6.We are now in the working environment, there is no need to read books, make references or memorised any facts. Those activities were confined to our school days. Now we hold a high position in society. We see no necessity to exercise our brain and to strengthen our mental capability. We have become lazy to think seriously on any area we are involved in.

7.We are successful now. We are the big boss, the successful entrepreneur. Our emotions go up and down according to our mood. We usually hear phrases like “ boss is not in a good mood today”, “boss is in a bad mood, don’t disturb him” from staff having successful bosses.

8.Our house is just about 100 meters from the surau or mosque. Our office eventhough is on the 40^th floor has a surau at the ground floor in the same building. Eventhough we have plenty of free time, we gave too many excuses not to visit Allah SWT’s house. Our thoughts and discussion on economics, social and political issues within and outside of the country is enough justification  for us not to have  time to think of Allah SWT. We may have other strengths but spiritually we are weak, fragile and easily challenged.

      

Tips

1.In actual fact all of these  strengths are built through simple and small practices. Practices mean we do it all the time in a consistent and continuous manner. Putting aside 10% of our income a month in ASB is simple. We can start right now. Smiling and making someone else’s happy is simple. Having a friendly attitude will reflect our positive aura and this will make it easier for all those who interact with us. We can start right now.

2. Firmly stating our choice as to the leader we trust to take care of our welfare is actually simple. We can decide ourselves the leadership criteria in the leader we want to choose. If the leader fulfill the criteria we have laid down then he will be our choice. The media only gave us a bit of information although not all true. We make the final  decision as to who we want to choose. It is simple. We can do it right now.

3.We can every half hour, walk around our office rather than sitting down for hours in our chair. We can make and answer phone calls while standing or walking around our table so that we can dispel the comfort of just sitting in our chair. We can every half an hour go up and down the staircase during advertisement break eventhough we are glued to our favourite TV programme. We can also walk at most 10 minutes from the parking lot to the place we want to visit. However, our instincts tell us to park right at the front door of the place we want to go. We can actually make use of the staircase to go to the 2^nd or 3^rd floor of our office building.

4.During school days, our PE teacher used to instruct us to squat, jump/skip or do on the spot running, push up etc. every morning. It is simple and there is no need to get out of the house to do it. We can start doing it right now. No need to wait for free time to exercise at the gymnasium. That time will never come.

5.Allocating time everyday to read 10 lines of the Al-Quran does not even take 5 minutes of our time. Allocating time every night to read an extract of the Al-Hadith does not even take 5 minutes of our time. Memorising the Al-Quranic verses of our choice every day is not as difficult as we thought. All these are exercises that can strengthen our mental and capability to think. It is that simple. We can start doing it now.

6.We have reached the top level of our career and  successful. It is not wrong for the boss to be friendly with the staff. It is easy to control our emotions for the sake of brightening up the office environment. The boss can also joke once in a while with all the staff. Smiling, laughter and jokes are the effective medicine for our mood swings. It is also the prescription to maintain one’s youthfulness. That is not difficult to practice. It is simple. We can start doing it now.

7.A person’s level of faith is closely related to their spiritual strength. Always thinking of Allah SWT all the time is not something difficult to do. While driving, we can zikir. During exercise we can zikir. Reduce browsing time in the office for about 5 minutes and substitute it by performing solat dhuha will not make our boss dislike us.  By waking up at about 5 am in the morning will allow us sufficient time to be with Allah SWT and perform solat tahajud and witir. Practising these daily rituals is actually easy.

8.As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect” and Money grows on the tree of patience”. There is nothing wrong with making lots of money until it accumulated to the size of a mountain. The problem is we are not even doing it bit by bit. This is actually very simple. We can start doing it right now but before that we need to always think big dream high and have strong heart.                              

Think Big Dream High,E33–Strengthening Your Ability To Think

Thinking

1.Thinking is a form of exercise. Our muscles are continuously under reconstruction when we  carry out physical exercise on a regular basis. New cells are released to re-construct the muscles. Oxygen and liquid will flow through our body and cells in larger quantities when we exercise on a regular basis. We take in a lot of oxygen and drink lots of water when we exercise. If our diet contains adequate proteins then our muscles will be re-constructed in a more speedier manner.

2.The same goes with our brains. Our brain cells will be repaired and renewed when we regularly exercise our brains. Regular exercise will increase the amount of oxygen and reduce the rate of slowness of our mental development. A teenager usually possesses 100 billion brain cells and this amount reduces to 20 billion when the person reaches 80 years old.

3.The size of the brain contracts and dries up as our age increases. This happens when the brain cells are lacking in water, oxygen, vitamins, minerals and air which subsequently hasten the death rate of our brain cells. Upon reaching this situation, human beings usually become not alert, forgetful and senile.

4.The ways and forms of brain exercises include normal physical exercise, reading, counting, memorizing such as memorizing the Al-Quran, Al Hadith or facts and figures, writing, browsing, watching, viewing and observing Allah SWT’s creations  and other related activities that can activate our brains. The more regular we exercise our brains the higher the chances of maintaining the overall brain health, ability and productivity. A healthier brain is demonstrated in a person who is more alert, creative  with better thinking capacity able to generate useful and meaningful ideas.

5.Sleeping is when we rest our whole body including our brains. However, if we overdo or underdo our sleep our whole body feels tired. Our head hurts as a result of  forcing ourselves to remain in bed. Our head hurts if we purposely do not want to wake up. We forced ourselves to close our eyes. In actual fact we are already up and awake.

6.Daily sleep of 5 to 8 hours is sufficient rest. Do not sleep for less than 5 hours or more than 8 hours daily. When we forced ourselves to discontinue or prolong sleeping patterns we are making our brains passive. We are purposely making our brains dysfunctional. We are purposely not exercising our brains.

7.Our laziness and inactivity are weakening our brain cells, Our brain cells are not getting adequate supply of water, oxygen, vitamins or minerals. This will be the signal for  the activation of  the free radicals in our brains to attack and destroy the good brain cells. It will gradually reduce the number of stable and good brain cells. If this bad habit persists, it can shorten a person’s life. We need to exercise our brains and carry out physical exercises on a regular basis in order to always feel fresh, full of vigour, young and to prolong our life span. More information on this matter can be obtained from my book, “Diet Hang Tuah”.

Reality in Life

1.We are always hearing sighing uttered such as, “I have no strength to think”. This could be due to our inability to think, not able to think or we are too lazy to think. In school, lecture halls or in meetings we remained quiet. We declined invitations to attend seminars. We declined requests to present seminar papers. We declined invitations to attend intellectual discourse or forum.

2.We chose selectively the people whom we want to meet since we do not wish to have interactions with many people. We declined invitations to attend our residential area community meetings or our mosque religious talks or our neighborhood social gatherings. We declined invitations from friends and other students to join their study group.

3.When we are lazy to think, sooner or later we will not be able to think in a more effective manner. By making our brain inactive will gradually make it passive and dormant.

4. As days passes by we become lifeless, inactive and powerless. We are way behind in our studies. We care less for our office. Our business is deteriorating. Our power is gradually diminishing. It has lessened our influence. It made us uneasy and uncomfortable being with the family. We are the odd one out in our social circles. We become withered like the unwatered plants. Our brain dries up just like the fallen and dried leaves that can no longer processed food for the plant.

Tips

1.Our former PM, YABhg Tun Mahathir Mohammad is about 90 years old. Judging by his activities, its as if he is around 50 years old only. About 40 years younger than his actual age. Tun’s youthfulness is a result of continuous usage of his brains. His brains  remained youthful, active and fresh.

2. Tun is still able to share ideas and opinions with anybody. Tun can still write a book and  Tun can still write on his blog. Tun can still travel and explore the natural environment overseas. Tun can still deliver various talks and lectures. Tun can still give spontaneous and cynical comments as usual to local and foreign TV stations on the cruelty of the Jews and other global issues. Tun’s opinions and views are respected, feared and valued not only locally but internationally.

3.His immunity and resilience is due to his good physical and mental health. From Tun’s activities, abilities and capabalities, we can safely assume that he regularly exercises his physical and mental wellbeing. We can assume that Tun practices  a good diet. I am confident that Tun’s brain cells remained fresh and maintain its quantity and quality if not more or better compared with others of his age.

4. I am very confident that Tun is an avid reader, always making references through browsing, watching various movies, discussion and studying the latest reading materials. I believe Tun read all kinds of reading materials  ranging from history, technology, art, plant, handicraft  etc which is of interest to him. Nobody can bamboozle and cheat him. Tun is meticulous, open minded and is aware of many issues and things.

5.If we do not wish to be lagging in our thinking or becoming someone who has no strength  to think then I suggest we emulate Tun’s way of living.  I am assuming that Tun is always taking care and maintaining his physical and mental strength. I have no way of knowing Tun’s actual way of living other than what is publicly known mostly from reading and observation. I am confident that Tun is someone who regularly exercises his physical and mental wellbeing, active in his daily activities with a strong liking for any forms of challenges to his ability, knowledge, intelligence and daily activities. 

6. For want of ideas, we can also emulate what Tun practices  in maintaining his physical well being  and brain health. To begin with, we need first to think big dream high and have a strong heart.    

Think Big Dream High,E32- The Frying Culture

Frying

1.Frying as we know it, is frying of food in the pan. In the process of frying, condiments such as chillies, onions, garlic, black sauce, spices etc are added and the combination depends on the chef and the dish being cooked.

2.Frying here is not the act of frying food in the pan. It is a subtle way of referring to the act of manufacturing a story favoring oneself or his group and painting a negative, deceitful, manipulative and  untruthful things about the other party.

3.There are those who practice the  frying culture in an amateur way and there are those who practice it in a professional manner. There are those who did it unintentionally and those who did it purposely. The are those who did it in an ad-hoc manner and those who did it with proper planning.

4.In a worse case scenario, there are those whereby this frying culture is a normal routine in their daily lives. Life seems incomplete if  in a day, you failed to practice the culture. Frying with bamboozling connotation comes with specific condiments. Usually the condiments revolved around friends, tuition classes, pretty ladies, money, projects, position, power, influence etc. It all depends on who is frying and who is being fried.

Reality in Life      

1.Those in the habit of frying the others did it for various reasons. There are positive and negative reasons. However, for all intents and purposes, the act of frying gives the upper hand to the person doing it.

2.A student wanting to escape a disciplinary action is forced to bamboozle his teacher. A child wanting to escape from being scolded by his parents is forced to bamboozle his parents. Husbands or wives wanting more attention from their spouses is forced to bamboozle their husbands or wives.  Employees wanting to escape from being sidelined by their superior is forced to bamboozle their bosses.

3. There are also employees wanting to be in the good books of their bosses will continuously bamboozled their bosses. Heads of Departments or Agencies who did not complete the work assigned or did not achieve the KPI for his agency will have to think of a variety of excuses, ways and means to bamboozle his Minister in every Post Cabinet meeting.

4. The leaders are also not spared from bamboozling their members especially during their party AGM.They want to impress their members that they are the best to serve the rakyat. These leaders either in service or retired have always been portraying that they were championing the rakyat’s woes but in actual fact, the rakyat were never cared for by them.

5. Discreetly, he only took care of his business partners, the rich and wealthy, his friends and relatives. This obviously is not made known to the rakyat as he knows how to cover his act which had been carried out in a world class manner. These leaders usually quoted, “the rich and wealthy work hard for their money and you too can be rich and wealthy if you work as hard as they do”. These were among the phrases frequently quipped by the leaders to bamboozle the rakyat. There are many such leaders throughout this world. In the end it’s the rakyat that brought them down. 

6.The examples above indicated that the frying culture can be  found  in every level of societies. Its as if there is nothing wrong in practicing this frying culture. It has become a way of life.

7.We are fully aware that this is a wrongful act and a big sin. Despite knowing that It is a big sin as we keep on doing it. We enjoyed practicing the frying culture on others and have no guilty conscience about it.  If others are doing it so can we.

8.For the short term, those who practises the frying culture usually escaped from being detected by their victims. However, sooner or later, those who keep on practicing the frying culture will be detected and made known to the public. Their body language usually gives them away. Their facial expression, the movements of their hands, head, smile etc are reflective of their intentions and actions. The characters of the people who practices the frying culture are sometimes moulded to be as efficient as a mamak frying the mee mamak!.

Tips

1.The characters and intentions of a person will determine whether he or she practices the frying culture. If there is a spark of guilty conscience in him, he will not do it. If he is afraid of committing a sin, he will not do it. If he has iman, he will not do it unto others. He is fully aware and his conscience is always reminding him that Allah SWT knows his bad intentions and Allah SWT knows and sees  All.

2.To do away with this frying culture, a strong willpower is required. We need to equip ourselves with adequate information and knowledge. We should  always impart our duties in a proper and effective manner.

3.Do our homework, make references and carry out researches as much as possible. Say and do the right things even though this may not be to the liking of others. Do it in a diplomatic manner.  Admit when there’s something missing. State the obstacles faced in a rationale and acceptable manner.  We become stronger and confident with proper and adequate preparation. Our facial expression will reflect our sincerity. We need not be pessimistic and scared. Only those who are pessimistic and scared will practice the frying culture.

4.Remember that the truth will always prevail. The truth will prevail over all kinds of wrongdoings. In the end those who speak the truth and nothing but the truth are the real winners. To be able to embrace this sincerity, we need to always think big dream high and have a strong heart.  

Think Big Dream High, E31 –Our Total Submission To Allah SWT.

Tawakkal

1.Tawakkal means relying and having 100% confidence in Allah SWT after putting in the effort to do a particular work or task.  The outcome of our efforts is determined by Allah SWT. Allah SWT is the One granting us the wiseness and knowledge.

2.The more efforts we put in, the higher  our level of wiseness and the more knowledge we gained. All this came from Allah SWT. Whomever submit totally to Allah SWT, then Allah SWT will fulfill all his needs, will help him and protect him.

3.When we have 100% trust in Allah SWT, we will rely totally on Him. This is the stronghold of a genuine Muslim. When our faith is strong, the stronger will be our level of confidence and our tawakkal to Allah SWT. Allah SWT has a role in all aspects of our lives and in our decisions. Allah SWT has a role in all aspects of our actions and behavior.

Reality in Life     

1.Most of us forget that Allah SWT has a role. At times, what we say, what we write, our thoughts and thinking or what we did, do not reflect Allah SWT’s  role at all. In our daily lives, we see people freely  condemning others, freely beating up people, freely slandering people,freely using religious for self or group interest,freely betraying people, freely killing others, freely lying and cheating others or freely doing all kind of bad things to others. We are too arrogant, we are too proud and we think we are too powerful, untouchable and above the law.

2. We think we are the most powerful person in this world. We are above both the civil and shariah laws. We are not afraid to do anything including abusing of power to fulfill our wants, appetite and desires. We do anything  that comes to mind to ensure our safety, security, interest and wellbeing. We do anything that we can think of to guarantee our position and  power. We manipulated all kinds of statements, information and facts. All of these are carried out for our benefits and advantages.

3. We say it is white when it is clear to all eyes that it is black. We do everything within our power and influences to say it is white and to make people belief it is white when in actual fact it is black.  We say it is black even though it is clear to everyone that it is white. We do everything within our power and influences to say it is black and to make people belief it is black when in actual fact it is white.

4.This is a reflection of the idiosyncrasies of human beings when their thoughts, their soul, their actions are based on solely on their desires and their opinions. We think we are too wise and smart. We think we have all the knowledge and experiences. We only belief what we want to belief. We rely totally on our intelligence without having to refer to Al Quran, Al Hadith or perform solat istikharah before our decisions and actions were taken.

Tips 

1.No matter how much our experiences and our power, no matter how smart we are, no matter how much religious and other knowledge we possessed, we cannot be over confident, arrogant and proud.

2.Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to be rich, super rich, safe and live happily ever after. Every student wants to obtain good results. Every employee wants to achieve success in their career. Every leader wants to remain or be in power. Every one of us do not want to face any form of failure, any form of victimization, any form of unfair treatment and any form of disappointment. There should not be any form of barrier for anybody to work hard in a fair, professional, respectable way and in a manner acceptable to Allah SWT. Once we have put in all our care and efforts in a diligent manner then we say the doa and tawakkal. We submit totally to Allah SWT.

3. We must not forget that Allah SWT has a role. Allah SWT knows and understand  whom He should bestow His favours and whom He should fulfill their desires and doa. We must remember that Allah SWT is there all the time to assist us. We need to submit totally to Him, the Creator. We need to remember that we are His humble servants. We do not have the real power.

3. Even though we assume we have the power, we must remember that it is on loan to us for a temporary period. Allah SWT is the One that is Most Powerful, Most Beneficent and Most Gracious.  We should of cause need to think big dream high and have a strong heart, but we must accept the reality that Allah SWT  is the One that determines our faith. Such understanding will place us in the right perspective. It will make us realize that Allah SWT  is the Greatest. It will make us realise who we really are. It will make us be thankful and repentance all the time.

Think Big Dream High,E30 – Those Who Do Not like To Focus

Focus

1.Focus means putting all of our attention in resolving one issue at a time until  it is successfully completed. In other words we focus all of our effort and resources on a particular task till its completion. We put aside time, our thoughts, interest, our soul and  our spirit to the task at hand.  We allocate money, workers and resources that we possessed to the task at hand.

2. This is the only way to ensure the minimization of failure to the task at hand. Giving full attention and focus to our studies, InsyaAllah we will not fail. Giving full attention and focus to our career, InsyaAllah we will not fail. Giving full attention and focus to our business, InsyaAllah we will not fail.

3.When we focused, we know with certainty our direction. We know with certainty our aim. We know with certainty our deadline and time frame. By focusing our effort, we can picture the fruits of our labour looming ahead.

Reality in Life

1.There is nothing wrong with being ambitious. It is not inhibiting our focus. However, most of us have this undesirable streak of greediness, impatience and disorderly. These characteristics are against being focused.

2.Greediness caused us wanting everything at one time. Being impatient caused us unable to control our desires to achieve success in a short period of time. Being disorderly caused us to want to do everything at one time. In the end we loose out and not only that, even what is in our possession slipped through our fingers.

3.A student keen to do a double major, believing that he can do it, only manages to achieve an average pass and has difficulty in broadening his career. A successful restauranter is better off expanding his line of business in the catering or food processing sector than dabbling in construction and property development. He has the expertise and experience in food industry why waste time getting involved in a totally new industry which is  alien to him. This could however be done if he sold off his restaurant business to focus on his new property development projects.

4.Just like a cockroach without its tail, it will run around aimlessly without any clear direction. Just like the cockroach being pricked with a pin and when held upside down, we can see its tentacles moving non stop unable to move anywhere. More often than not we hear phrases like, “I am too busy” or “Everyday I reached home at about 10.17 pm in the evening” or “There’s just too much work to do in the office”.

5. Doing 10 projects at the same time, make us become too busy. By implementing one project at a time until completion and then proceeding to start another project until successful will enable us to complete all 10 projects in the same period of time or maybe slightly more but we are confident of its success, quality and productivity.

6.We save time since monitoring and supervising activities can be done in a more effective manner for each of the projects. The learning curve on correcting the weaknesses become shorter when we focused. Experience can be obtained and acquired in a more effective and in-depth manner. The risks suffered can be minimized. Abandoned projects can be totally avoided. Shortage of resources can be overcome. There will be more savings in time and resources achieved through discipline and focus.

7.Nowadays many organizations  are into  multi-tasking. This concept is  suitable for the lower level management staff category such as clerical and those that do not require high expertise. The professionals and the middle management category should not practiced multi-tasking. This reduces their efficiency and productivity. It will not assist them in becoming an expert in their area of interests. It will only create a feeling of confusion and frustration in the employee.

8.Before even finishing  a task, he is being assigned another task. Before completing the new task, he is being asked to replace his co-worker who has gone outstation. The work was not completed in a proper manner, though done on time. The research was not done properly, poor quality of work and  the expertise and experience gained in an improper manner. Not only the organization, the office and the boss suffer losses but worst than that, the employee himself failed in his career.    

Tips

1.Avoid totally practising the culture of the cockroach without tail or the cockroach being pricked with a pin. The sun’s rays will burn anything within its area of  focus. By focusing, our vision can be as clear as 20/20. By focusing, our confidence level is high to achieve success. By focusing, will continue to enhance our skills and expertise. By focusing will make us more creative and innovative as we will be exposed to the latest technology in our area of involvement.

2.Focus will not make us monotonous as we will all the time be challenged   to explore new opportunities in our area of involvement. Being focused, will allow us to have more quality time spent with our family. Being focused, will enable us to  have more time to pamper ourselves in religious knowledge and our health. Being focused will enable us  to think big dream high and have a strong heart to achieve greater success in exploring new endeavors, new opportunities and new challenges.

Think Big Dream High,E 29 – The Player Or The Game, Which Is More Superior?

The Player And The Game

1.Both are important. Pele is important  and so is football. Tiger Woods is important and so is the golf game. Pele is actually more popular and created a phenomenal interest throughout the world for the football game. Same goes for Tiger Woods. He is more popular than the golf game. But where is Pele now?. The football game has become more popular with upcoming new and young players. Where is Tiger Woods now? The golf game  continues to become popular with new, young players who excelled in their games. Rory Mcllroy is now the golf game trendsetter and  not Tiger Woods anymore. This means players come and go but the game itself remains supreme forever.

2.The fans are the ones that determine the direction of the game.  The technology, quality of the related equipments and the rules of the game has to be improved from time to time. With continuous improvement, the fans will be happier and their numbers will increase.

3.Why is Pele synonym with the football game and Tiger Woods synonym with the golf game? The truth of the matter, the phenomenal interest is heavily due to the TV and newspaper media publicity.  The media is the one that makes the respective players and the games popular. The media plays a more than effective role. If the media says A is good, the public’s opinion will be swayed towards A. if the media says B is good then the public’s opinion will be swayed towards B.

4.That is why the responsibility and intention of a reporter will be questioned by Allah SWT in the hereafter. The appropriate rewards or punishments awaited them. Heaven for the one who is kind, fair and sincere in their reporting and hell for those who reported slanderous  issues, purposely manipulating facts and issues for the benefit of certain group without any justifiable basis.

5.The same analogy binds the leader with the rakyat and the country. A leader will be remembered throughout his life if he is successful in developing the country and raising the standards of living of the rakyat. The rakyat will continue to appreciate and be thankful to the leader if the leader has actually performs good deeds to the country and its people. Once again it is the media’s role to popularize the leader.

Reality in life

1.A leader is important but they come and go. What about the country and its people? The country and its people will remained forever. The football game has become increasingly popular as Pele popularized it. The popularity and the speed with which a country develops is the same as well. It depends on the country’s leader. The fans love football because of Pele. The rakyat is proud and love their country because of the leaders good deeds.

2.Our role as the rakyat is to ensure that our leader continues to give focus  in the development of the country. The country’s leader cannot deviate his focus from that of developing the country to issues of personal interest to him. A leader is responsible for the direction, mission and vision of the country.

3.We as the rakyat should always give the signal and warning to our leaders so that they will always be on the right track. If they are on the right track and honest, we will elect them again, otherwise we will choose the one that can be trusted to protect our present and future generation’s interest.

4.The rakyat is becoming more educated and intelligent. The rakyat is becoming more conscientious and brilliant. The rakyat is becoming cleverer at siphoning the news. The rakyat knows how to differentiate between diamond, silver, gold, stone and jewel. The rakyat is becoming smarter at choosing which leader can be relied on, fair and responsible towards their wellbeing. We are in the era of ICT and knowledge based community. The leader just cannot mislead us with rhetoric speeches. They need to perform and deliver the goods.

Tips  

1.The electronic and print media spent too much time reporting on items that challenges the minds of the rakyat. The media is often playing with the intellectual capacity of the rakyat. We are heading towards a developed nation status. The media should play its role in contributing towards the development of the intellectual minds of the rakyat. The media should be in the same wavelength with the country’s leader on issues pertaining to programmes and development agenda of the country’s development process. The media should  not carry too much news on slanderous, misleading, untruths and negative news. These media cannot continuously insult the intelligence of the readers or viewers.

2.Day and night the leaders are thinking of ways on how to make the rakyat’s lives better. The media should also do their homework and  present news that can open the minds of the rakyat so that they can work hand in hand with the leaders to develop the country. Not highlighting sensational and destructive news that hurt other people’s feelings.

3.The leader belongs to the rakyat. The media belongs to the rakyat. It is not necessary for our media to act immature. By holding strongly to the oath of allegiance in the journalism professionalism will make our media achieve world class quality and respect.

4.The rakyat will choose the leader in a smart and orderly manner. The rakyat knows which leader that should be appreciated.The rakyat knows how to be thankful to the leader who has served the rakyat well. The rakyat can see, the rakyat can feel, the rakyat can hear and therefore the rakyat can select wisely the best leader for them.

5.The rakyat knows that the leader is actually interested in developing the country with sustainable programmes that can benefit future generations to come. The main duty of the leader is to ensure the wellbeing of the rakyat. The rakyat just want to see progress for the country. The rakyat just want to see prosperity, stability and honesty. The rakyat just want safety and security. They do not want disparity, disunity, dispute or clashes.

6.There is no need for the politicians and media to sensationalised racial, embarassing or sensitive issues. Focus on uniting our own community, uniting all the rakyat. The country will be more peaceful and successful if we are all united and living in harmony. The country developed and the rakyat will automatically follow suit. The rakyat and the country are supreme.

7.Regardless of what happens to Pele and Tiger Woods, the fooball and golf fans will always remember, appreciate and thankful to both of them for popularizing these two sports throughout the world. However, between Pele and football, football is more supreme. Between Tiger Woods and golf, golf is more supreme. Football and golf will continue to exist and be of interest years to come. Same goes with the leader, the rakyat and the country. The rakyat and the country are more supreme because as the rakyat, we are a friendly and civilized group of people who love peace and harmony for our country. We  are always thinking big dream high and have a strong heart.

Think Big Dream High, E28 – The Smiling Society

Smiling

1.The higher the level of position and status the more difficult it is to smile to the others. The same goes for those who are in the lower position, the least important they are, the more difficult for them to smile to the others. Moderate people like us are always generous with our smile.

2 The VIPs do not smile intentionally as they needed to portray the image that they have the authority, stature, serious  and not easy to be associated with. The lower level staff find it difficult to smile due to their poor social status. There is a reason for all of our actions.

3. In Islam, smiling  is a sunnat. A smile is a sadaqah. It is encouraged to smile to anybody regardless of his social status. It makes the person who we are dealing with happy and so do we. It created a harmonious environment and friendship.

Reality in life 

1.The  VIPs too smile and have big laughs when they are among the VIPs circle. The Tuns will only smile with the other Tuns. The Tan Sris will only smile with the other Tan Sris. Sometimes the VIPs have a big laugh too, but it happen only during their happy hours with their boys or machai.

2.But one thing for sure, the VIPs will definitely give a  big smile when they are in front of the TV or newspaper camera. They have to show their friendliness to the public. They need to show their closeness to the public. Obviously technically we can brand them as the real hypocrite.

3.Majority of our community are poor thus they find it difficult to smile. So long as their lives remained unchanged, they find it difficult to smile. Our country is developing everyday. The capitalists or the wealthy are creating wealth and progressing every second. They are  doing it in multiples. This is the basis of a capitalism economic system. They can afford to smile among themselves even more than the majority of our community.

4.Whenever a programme is launched by the VIPs, the capitalist and the wealthy will immediately reap the benefits. Its as if,  today, the VIP announced a project,  tomorrow the wealthy and the capitalist become richer. They can continue to smile, as most of the programs announced by the VIPs are more for the benefit of the wealthy and less for the needy and poor. The way it is announced however, looks like it is for the benefit of the poor and needy. This is the strength of the media, the public relations strategy and the publicity.

Tips    

1.In order for the majority of our community to smile, the VIPs need to launch  programmmes that can make these people smile. The programmes for the wealthy ones, must be continued as these programmes will lead to a chain of job opportunities. These programmes, will contribute towards the country’s development process even faster. This fact cannot be denied.

2.At the same time, the programmes for the lower level categories such as the poor,unemployed,widowers and needy ought to be identified and introduced. We do not want the income for the majority of us increases as a result of  being dragged by the income from the wealthy which  increases multifold. We want the income of our community increases proportionately and not as a result of the increase in the average income. The increase in the average income is actually due to the increase in  income of the wealthy category. Mathematically, it is correct but socially, it is very wrong.

3.We need to have many sustainable programmes like FELDA and FELCRA. These are the kind of programmes that should be announced on a regular basis by the VIPs. Maybe programmes like FELDA and FELCRA are not appropriate in the current  environment  as they were in the 50s, 60s and 70s. However,similar programmes which will involve  majority of the poor,unemployed and needy people,will make them own income,saving and assets.Which definitely will change their social status and make them smile throughout their lives.

4.The VIPs need to do research and brainstorming with selected  ordinary people representing the society not necessarily with Phd or high position to identify  programmes with the objective and parameters of creating real income,saving and assets.These programmes must be able to generate and increase our  community overall real average income and their savings on permanent and continuous basis. It will enable our community being the majority in numbers  to own landed properties gradually and value add these assets in the future generations.

5.These are the kind of sustainable programmes that  we need from our elite VIPs to announce. These are the kind of programmes that need to be carried out by our VIPs for our community being the majority.  Programmes that can increase our real income, accumulate our real savings, create and protect our  real assets.

6.By having these programmes, our community will not find it difficult to smile. This will enable  us, our children, our children’s children smiling throughout our entire lives. Therefore, apart from us, our elite VIPs too need to think big dream high and have a strong heart to enable all of us to continuously have a smiling face.                    

Think Big Dream High, E 27- The Spirit Of Sacrificing

Sacrifice

1.Making sacrifices in general is about a sincere action of giving or donating something which we own and dear to us. The highest and most valuable sacrifice is one’s life and the lowest and least of all is one’s time. Sacrificing will have value to Allah SWT if it is made only for the sake of Allah SWT. Sacrificing one’s life, assets, thoughts, emotion, desire, spiritual or time for the sake of Allah SWT will be rewarded with heaven and good omens/deeds.

2.For a country’s leader sacrificing will be in the form of abdicating himself to be of service to the country and the rakyat. His soul, desire, emotions, spiritual, mental and assets owned by the leader will be sacrificed and donated to the rakyat to care for their wellbeing and takes precedence over his personal interest. This is a real leader with a charismatic leadership.

3.As the head of the family, sacrificing is about allocating all of his assets to ensure that his family members are successful in education, career and their lives. He is responsible for the happiness of his children and wife in this world and hereafter.

4.This means sacrificing is something big i.e. giving out everything you have internally and externally including those that can be seen and cannot be seen to another person. This is not for personal interest. It is a reflection of one’s sincerity, kindness and high moral value towards Allah SWT, himself and the people around him.

Reality in life

1.FILO or FINO i.e. First In  Last Out or First In No Out has been the practice for most of us. We want to be the first to receive other people’s gifts and as far as possible, to be the last person to donate something to another person. There are also others who do not want to give anything to other people.

2.Seldom if ever someone who accidentally hit an unattended parked vehicle leaving a note at the car’s wiper apologizing for the incident and leaving a contact number for any claims of damages. This is a small example of our inner sacrifice. Our inner voice asked us to ignore and just leave the scene of incident. After all nobody knows we are the one who hit the car. By owning up and placing the message at the car’s wiper we have sacrificed our desire for the sake of Allah SWT.

Tips

1.Be determined to be someone having a noble and kind heart. Be determined to be someone rich and wealthy, a millionaire but who is always contributing for waqf, donating and paying zakat on his profits and assets. Be determined to channel our thoughts, emotions, desire, spiritual, time and energy for the Islamic religion. Be determined to be directly involved in contributing towards the success of our family, community and our country.

2.Be determined not to ask for any form of payment for the contribution and assistance made. No more Mr 10%, no more Datin 20%. No more acronym USA(Untuk Saya Apa) i.e. what is it for me?. We help and assist with sincerity. We arrange appointments with the VIPs with sincerity. We lobby projects from VIP with sincerity. In return we only ask for an appropriate amount of professional fees, equivalent to the services rendered.  If we receive the payment, we are determined to pay zakat, donate it and distribute it to the poor and needy and the orphanage.

3.We are determined to erase any form of revenge towards another person. We are determined to sacrifice our beauty sleep for the sake of performing the night solat sunnat. We are determined to sacrifice our full stomach to perform the sunnat fasting. We are determined to sacrifice our enjoyment with our  friends in order to start a distant learning programme for a degree in business administration.

4.This is our determination, will power and intention to be ever ready to make sacrifices when there is a call for it. To have all this right attitude and spirit we need to think big dream high and have a strong heart.