Think Big Dream High,E23-A Person Who Is Comfortable In The Comfort Zone

Success

1.Success is a process. It began with a dream, ambition and proceeded with a high level of confidence for someone who wants to succeed.

2. This process will only be complete if it is followed by an action plan. Continuous improvements made on the plan, increasing steadily until it reaches the maximum level of satisfaction.

3.The most important thing is that the person who wants to achieve success should not be satisfied to just be in the comfort zone.   Those who are not satisfied being in the comfort zone will minimize their chances of failure and maximize their chances to succeed.

Reality in Life

1.Being comfortable usually dampens effort to improve and increase our level of success. We lost the opportunity to identify all our weaknesses. We are swayed away with the fruits of our success.

2.A frog will eventually die without it realizing when the container full of water he is in, is  slowly being heated. The warmer the water, the more comfortable  the frog becomes. This frog who is snuggling in the container filled with water, face a sudden death when the  water slowly reaches boiling point.

3.In order not to face the same fate as the frog, we need to be alert and mindful all the time. When the water reaches boiling point, there is no way the frog can save itself. It is fated to die.  Comparatively, we will also not be able to act when it is too late to do anything. This in reality is what we are experiencing and faced with. We have this habit of thinking that we have all the time in the world to remedy our mistakes.

4. More often than not we hear phrases like, “its ok, lets wait a while and enjoy first. When the time comes we repent and ask Allah SWT for forgiveness”. Our repentance will only be accepted by Allah, SWT when we are in a healthy state of mind. When death comes knocking, the doors for repentance will be tightly shut.

Tips   

1.Don’t be satisfied too fast. Don’t be boastful too fast. Don’t be too quick to claim success. Don’t be comfortable too early. Always assume all the time  that our quest for success has not ended. Always assume all the time that we have unfinished business that we need to attend to. Always assume all the time that our performance need to be checked and improved.

2.The people around us will usually report the good stuff. We too would like to hear the positive things only. We always reprimand the staff that reported the negative things. In actual fact the bitter stuff is the medicine to cure us. That is our fault, we just like the sweet and things that look good on the surface. We forget that, the sweet things will slowly make us obese and die of  heart attack.

3.We are protected from being exposed to negative things. We need to have our own spy.We need to have an independent investigative system, to obtain information about our performance, our department’s performance and our company’s performance.

4.This is not the humane spy but rather the spy in the form of an early warning  trigger system. This system will  pull us back from daydreaming about our success.

5.These measures are all important to avoid falling and being trapped in the comfort zone. The zone that not only can kill a frog without any intellectual capacity but the same fate will befall to  intellectual people like us. We need to be alert at all times ,we need to think big dream high and have a strong heart.

Think Big Dream High,E22-We Must Have Courage To Implement An Idea

Ideas

1.A good idea will be meaningful only when it is implemented. To implement an idea you  have to be brave, courageous and available resources at your disposal.

2.Everybody have ideas. It may be good and workable or it may be bad. Ideas derived are dependent on our background, our experience, our education, our readings, our environment and our social life. The higher our education does not necessarily mean our ideas are better. Whatever idea and whoever comes up with the idea is not important. The important thing is that when the idea is implemented the results are effective and lucrative.

3. Not all ideas are relevant most of the time. Ideas relating to business opportunities have a shorter lifespan. Slow in making decisions and taking action resulted in opportunities leaving us and highly likely not coming back again!

 Reality in life

1.We have too many good ideas. We take too much time and using too many resources discussing about so many ideas. We often discuss the same ideas at different times. We often shed our responsibilities by passing certain ideas to others on the pretext that it is not in line with our roles and responsibilities.

2. There are not many who are willing to implement these ideas. There are not many who are willing to take the risk to implement these ideas. There are not many who are willing to take the first step to implement these ideas.

3.In general, all ideas can be divided into two categories. Ideas generated by normal people and ideas produced by professionals involved in R&D who are knowingly innovative and creative. Ideas from the first group are ad-hoc, no need to have disciplinary thinking to come up with the ideas. Ideas from the second group are more structured and produced from the laboratory  in a disciplined manner. Ideas from the second group are more related to technology. As an example, producing car models using solar energy, car designs which are aerodynamic etc. It is beyond a normal person’s capability.

4. Our discussion centered on the first category i.e. involving we as  normal people. We often heard the story of a marketing officer proposing to a big shoe manufacturer to open its shoes business in Africa once a upon a time. The irony of it is that none of the Africans met wore shoes. His boss told him that it was a crazy idea as no one will buy the shoes from his company. Actually, it was a good idea as this meant chances to sell shoes in Africa are  good compared to the market where most of the population are wearing shoes.

5. The same goes with an office boy’s idea of replacing the live plants in the office with plastic ones. This is a good idea as plastic plants are cheaper to maintain as they do  not need to be fertilized and watered everyday. Imagine the benefit of replacing thousands of trees for every office in a 38 storey building.

6. Both of these ideas have been implemented by the respective bosses and it has proven to be effective and lucrative.

Tips

1.As an example, a mother of a 3 year old boy found that her child is following the father’s footstep of having interest in cultural activities such as singing and dancing. This mother is worried that the child will be a singer.

2. The mother got an idea from her friend to train her child to become a doctor but maintain the interest in singing for himself only. The mother was attracted to the idea. According to the friend as the child is closer and within the mother’s control, from now on she should bring up her child to be interested in maths and science and reduce the interest in singing bit by bit.

3.Firstly, she bought toys on the subject of maths, science and medical doctor and not musical instrument. The child showed a positive response and started to show a keen interest in both maths and science. This made her happy.

4. Her second step was to open a mutual fund account in the child’s name amounting to RM10,000 in the hope that in 15 years time this investment with compounded dividend and capital appreciation will amount to about RM200,000 enough to bear his initial expenses to enter a medical school. Then he will apply for the government scholarship or loans.

5.The barriers to the implementation of all ideas revolves around  our in-depth understanding  of these ideas. We know the idea is good but we are a bit blurry as to how to implement this good idea.

6.What process to be followed. What will be the first step. How much resources are required. What is the measurement of success? What is good and bad about it. How to curtail and find the solution if there are problems. What are the conditions, regulations and policies to ensure that it can be implemented smoothly.

7.How to handle expansion and success beyond expectation. We need to make a reasonable analysis on the possibilities or feasibilities. We need to be clear on what needs to be carried out to ensure that the idea is effective and workable. We need to make sure that there are no gray areas  and vagueness in its implementation. We need to brainstorm with our friends, our employees, our boss and those involved in the implementation of the ideas beforehand.

8. The consultation process is important so that all issues relating to the idea is not overlooked. We need to follow a detailed checklist. We need to have a proper scheduling and a gantt chart of activities to be Implemented from start to finish.

9.What is more important is our gut feeling on these ideas i.e. whether it is workable or otherwise, profitable or not. We need to have a strong belief and confidence that the ideas will be successful. As a Muslim we need to pray, doa  and seek guidance from Allah SWT. When the guidance and direction  is clear then we should proceed. To always be brave to take risk in implementing a good idea, we must at all times, think big dream high and have a strong heart. 

Think Big Dream High,E 21- Those Who Do Not Envy Other People’s Success Are Loosers

Envy

1.Sincerity in praying and helping others to achieve success will indirectly expedite our own success. It seldom crossed our mind that by helping others to achieve success it will indirectly assist us to achieve success.

2.Being jealous means we are envious of other people’s success but we do not do anything to increase our success. We need to be envious of other people’s success so that we will also achieve success. We put those who are successful as our motivator and role model. It will serve as incentive for us to work harder to achieve success. We should be grateful of our friend’s success. Our friend’s success will be the standard of measurement for our own success.

3.If we don’t envy other people’s success then we do not have any yardstick nor challenges as motivation to achieve success. Envious of other people’s success will lead us to study their experience, improve our weaknesses, emulate their success until we became more successful than them.

4.At the same time we hope our friend will be more successful as that will be the only way for us to achieve greater success. Other people’s success will be the stepping stone for us to be more successful. A leapfrogging strategy for our success.

Reality in life

1.More often than not we tend to be too self opiniated. We are too selfish. We are too proud of ourselves. We close our eyes to our weaknesses. We sometimes think that when others are successful, it will lessen our opportunity to become successful. We are not happy when others are successful. We are worried that when others are successful, we lost the opportunities. Let others fail and we are the only ones successful. We are scared that other people are more successful than us. We do not want to see other people live comfortably and in luxury more than us. As far as we are concerned let others fail and we are the only ones successful.

2. When our friend gets promoted we feel jealous and resentful. When our friend gets more increment and received 18 months pay as bonus we feel jealous and unhappy. For the men, when a lady is appointed as the boss, they feel jealous and do not want to give their co-operation. We do not like to see other people’s success. Far from being grateful with other people’s success. Far from assisting and praying for other people’s success and happiness. These type of people actually are losers.

Tips

1.In Islam, besides praying for ourselves, we also pray for other people’s happiness and for all Muslim men and women. This is being taught by our religion. Allah Subhana Allahu Ta’ala’s blessings, good health, safety, good fortune, rewards and rizki are wide. What others received do not necessarily make our share lesser.

2. By being envious of other people’s success , more millionaires were created, more companies expanded multiple times and profiting. Countries like Japan, China and Korea were able to surpass the western technological capabalities and are now far more advanced in technological, industrial and commercial areas compared to the west.

3.At the initial stage, these countries copied the new technologies from their western counterparts. This happens because of the envious state in themselves and their leaders. This happens because of the envious feeling in every single person of their communities.

4.When others achieve number one, we also want to achieve number one. This indirectly, make other people want to be number one and work harder to be number one. Eventhough in the end, only one person gets number one but the overall level of productivity in the race to get number one increases multifold.

5.This happens in every sector be it education, employment and business. For the education sector, the level of excellence for all students increase. For the employment sector, the overall level of service extended increases. For the industrial or business sector, the level of quality, service, sales and profitability increases. This is the level of success that all of us should aim.

6.As a result of being envious of other people’s success, at the end of the day, all of us gained. Not only for ourselves but also for our community and country. All we need to do starting from now is to think big dream high and eliminate totally the element of selfishness.

Think Big Dream High,E 20 – People do not want to think in a simple way

Too much thinking

1.Everyone wants to impress the others. This usually happens during interaction, we try hard to impress the other party. That should be done. We failed to communicate if we cannot impressed our audience.

2.The issue we want to bring across stop short. In trying to impress, most of the time we expressed our messages in a long winded way.

3.We use expressive language and jargons to make it look intellectual. Using stylish language and using language with class. Armed with statistics to the last two decimal points. The audience looked impressed and stay tuned to what is being delivered.

4.However, most of the time we overlooked the real issue. We focus on the non importance. It looked good, impressive, with class and sophistication but way out of line. This is due to no fault of no one. It’s just that sometimes we think too much, to the extend that we missed the real issue that need to be solved.

Reality in Life

1.The real issue is set aside and the side issue takes centre stage. Say for example, the issue is on fishermen, instead the debate focus on cats.

2. Why cats? The fishermen catches fish and fish is a cat’s favourite food. No more discussion on fishermen and fishes but the cat’s issue is elaborated and discussed.

3.We got carried away and not focusing on the real issue i.e. the problems of the fishermen. We walked away from the real issue and tried to impress the audience with the cat story. In our presentation to support our story on the cats, we showed statistics, graphs, references and charts to impress the audience. Nothing is being mentioned on fishermen, maybe just a little bit on fishes.

4. In the end we derive solutions for the wrong problems. The real issue remained unsolved forever.

5. That is why, year in year out we have not been able to solve the real problem, regardless of the number of resolutions prepared and presented to the authorities. The same old problems keep cropping up.

6.A student who interpreted an examination question wrongly resulted in him being the only failure for the examination.

7. In a bigger scenario, if the authorities wrongly implemented a policy, millions of my countrymen’s community will suffer the consequences and be victimized. The effects will be felt far into the future generations to come. The impact is beyond our imagination.

8.The Felda Scheme appeared to be the most successful and effective programme for eradication of poverty among my countrymen. It was founded by the late Tun Abdul Razak, the father of our current Prime Minister.

9.The late Tun Razak understood for a fact that the basis for My countrymen and the country to become rich and successful are as follows; i) My countrymen must own property ii) My countrymen must work on a full time basis on the strength of their capability and ability i.e. as farmers, rubber tappers, carry out agricultural activities iii) The country as a whole benefited from the programme.

10.That is what Felda is all about. It gave opportunity for My countrymen to live comfortably and owning properties. Millions of My countrymen and their families benefited from the Felda scheme. The country became popular as the largest producer of oil palm and rubber. A programme implemented on the basis of a simple issue and a very clear way of thinking on how to solve problems faced by my countrymen. It has proven itself to be very effective and successful.

Tips

1.We need to constantly refer to the issue we want to resolve. Try to make it simple and solve it as it is. Do not complicate matters. Do not create unnecessary assumptions and cloudiness to it. To the extent that programmes being implemented have no clear goals.

2.As an example, how to make my countrymen contribute and participate actively and meaningfully towards the country’s economic development process?

3.The issue is what kind of profession and the number of my countrymen’s workforce that will benefit from the country’s economic development process?. This input is crucial in producing more quality and professional workers, entrepreneurs and businessmen. So that the average income of our community increases in tandem with the increase in the country’s average income.

4. In the process, we invited the experts and the intellectuals to discuss and provide answers to this issue. A lot of research and references made. A lot of discussions, ideas, comments and views obtained. A lot of resolutions made. Most of the resolutions however narrowed down to issues such as i) The need to increase the number of tuition classes for our children. ii) The need to create a special fund to sponsor the studies and tuition classes of our children. iii) The need to have only one school session from 7.30 am to 4.30 pm. iv) The need to teach science and mathematics in Bahasa Melayu. v) The need to have more boarding schools for students in the rural areas and many more relating to the side issues. These issues looked important enough. So a lot of time has been spent to discuss the reasons as to why my countrymen’s students do not excel in their studies.

5.In actual fact we already knew the answers. A lot of statistics available to explain the subject matter. What we need is the solution and how to do it right in an effective manner.

6.The truth of the matter, we lack discussion on the methods and programmes on how to increase the number of students in the technical and engineering streams much needed to be the effective contributors to our economic growth. We do not discuss the ways and means to increase the number of my countrymen’s workforce, five to ten years in the future, to be 70% qualified in the technical and engineering field. We lost focus as we do not comprehend the real issue that need to be solved.

7.As a result, until now and probably forever we will not have enough technical, engineering and technological savvy community to be able to develop, invent or innovate our own new and competitive technologies. We are just good in using and importing Western, Japanese, Korean or now Chinese technologies and products.

8.A lot of resources wasted, although there were some good ideas that came out of the process and exercise. All presenters were able put their points across. The audience were committed and gave their honest opinion. However, most of the time we failed in addressing the real problems.

9.The fact that we do not comprehend the real issue that need to be solved, make us largely responsible in providing solutions to side issues of non importance and way out of line. This is simply due to our countrymen not thinking in a simple way to solve a simple problem. We need to think big dream high but minus the sophistication.