Success Principles

An old friend and colleague of mine, Steven Choo called to have lunch and without hesitation, I agreed.

Steven is a very close friend whom I have known for more than thirty years. I first met Steven when I returned from Singapore after training in my new employer's, Olivetti (M) Sdn. Bhd, training center there in 1974.

Steven was very friendly and was already very excited about golfing. He was a member of the Seremban Golf Club at that time. He impressed me, then, as an agressive sale person.

Before long, he was promoted to be my manager. We worked well together and performed quite well and that was followed by another promotion for Steven to Ipoh as the Branch Manager. I was also offered a promotion to be the sales manager for Kota Kinabalu, but I turned down the opportunity as I thought it too far for my liking.

However, another year down the road, I was made another offer which I couldn't refuse. The chance to be the sales manager for our Penang Branch. I assume office in July and kept close contact with Steven. Molly, my wife, and I use to drive all the way to Ipoh, stay at Steven's home, and have breakfast at the famous Ipoh curry noodle shop on Yang Kalsom Road. Really Crazy!

Our friendship stayed strong over the years and subsequently we parted of course, each going our ways but still kept in touch.

Over lunch today, we talked on all the things that were of interest to us and it dawned on me that we were both having almost totally grey hair and passed our our half century mark. Steven was already 60 plus while I was approaching 60 (57 to be exact).

After we parted from lunch, I had the opportunity to reflect on my life and felt happy for both of us as we were still healthy and rasonably successful in our lives, physically and financially.

We are now both doing the things that we love to do and can decide our rate of work involvement and not be too pressured in having to do because of earning a living.

I also felt that life has been kind to me and my involvement in community service through the Lions Club gave and still is giving me great satisfaction in being able to be of use to my community.

Just yesterday, a former staff and colleague of mine, KH Loh, called to have a short meeting with me and brought me great news. The offer of an opportunity to secure a substantially large amount of fund for community service. I am now preparing a paper to request to be submitted to Loh next week. Interesting, we both agreed that though we may now be materially wealthy, we know people who are super rich and willing to offer funds for community and humanitarian services through us. This gives us great satisfaction.

Well, I will now work on the paper and look forward to securing the allocation for me to help those who need assistance most.

Well, as the saying goes - Life is not about what we get out of it, but what we put into it. Anyone game to join me in serving? Write me and I shall be most delighted to invite you into our team. Cheers and good night!

Good morning!

This morning I got up rather early, at 5 a.m. to be exact, due to the unusually warm weather.

I decided to find something to read and thus got into the web and reached an interesting article that caught my attention.

It was an article about the appointment of a Singaporean academician by the name of Dr. Shih Choon Fong, being appointed as president of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia’s much anticipated US$10 billion university.

I was of course happy for Dr. Shih, but I was really pleased that this university select its people, especially the president, basing on competency rather than race, religion or political affiliation. As Malaysians, we have lived in an environment where race, religion and political affiliation have great influence in the selection of people for appointment in so many aspects of our lives. This is indeed most saddening and something that I have quietly campaign against in my own small ways.

I have always taught participants in my success seminars that to be truly successful, we must be able to transcend these mind-sets. We must be able to appreciate that competency has no race, no religion and no political affiliation. Competency is nothing else but competency!

Shih, who is president of the National University of Singapore, has proven himself by contributing significantly to the current high standards that NUS is known for. It is amongst the top universities in the world!

In the appointment of Dr. shih, credit must be accorded to Mr. Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources, who is chairman of the university’s governing board. He has the vision and courage to appoint someone who can best fit the bill to deliver results because he is “the right person” to fulfill the vision for the new institution. Know our objective, know the people we require to achieve the objective and get them to do the job! Whatever his or her race, religion or political affiliation has no bearing on his ability to deliver.

This brings to mind remark by the late premier of China, Teng Shau Peng - "Whatever the color of the cat, be it black, white or brown, as long as it catches the most rats, its the right cat."

So focus on wisdom, character and competency instead of irrelevant attributes when choosing people to do the job.

Remember to choose the best to deliver the best result!

5th April 2009

Yesterday was an interesting, eventful and memorable day for me.

I started the day conducting a 3 1/2 hour seminar on Inter-departmental Co-operation and Support for a progressive local college which truly believes in creating a continuous learning platform for its employees whom they term as partners. I had an audience of about 40 people and I was happy that we started the morning punctually and the participants were most co-operative and participatory. I shared with them the value of doing the best one can in every assignment that we are entrusted with no matter how simple the assignment might be. I emphasized to my participants the importance of internalizing the habit of doing our best in everything we do. I also shared with the importance of everyone in an organization and how each of us can make a difference in ensuring the success of the the organization where we are a part of. My sharing of experiences and knowledge was very well received and received very positive feedback which was most rewarding. The day ended at 1.00pm and I felt most rewarded although I have done the session gratis.

Went home to prepare for my next activity of the day; visiting someone who as impacted the lives of many of us, who have studied in a century old institution know as St. John Institution sited in Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur. The person that we were going to visit was our former teacher and subsequently Brother Director who has served Malaysia for 64 years! Our appointment was to be at 5.oopm and since there was still a couple of hours before the scheduled time, I decided to have a short nap as I felt a little tired since I started the day earlier than normal that morning.

Oop, by the time I awoke from my nap, it was nearing 5.00pm and I was supposed to be at the gate of Little Sisters of the Poor Home to meet my very fellow Johanian, Chin Kee and family who has so kindly arranged the visit to our very beloved Brother Lawrence. I was sure that they were already at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Cheras and I felt really bad. For a moment, I was unsure whether I should go or not as I was definitely late. However, this visit was very significant to me have always have great admiration and respect for the De La Salle Brotherhood that has done so much for education in Malaysia and I didn't want to miss this appointment to meet up with someone who has impacted the lives of so many of us through his sheer love of serving and teaching us to become good and useful individuals. I Decided then that no matter what, I must go ahead with the visit and thus, called John, my next door neighbour who is also a Johanian with whom I have, earlier, made arrangement to go together for this visit.

Brother Lawrence's health, we understood from Chin Kee, has deteriorated since he last saw him not too long ago. We were also informed that he had 2 falls recently, the reason for the blood clots on both his arms. Despite his age, and illness, Brother Lawrence was still very dignified and cracked some jokes for us. All of us expressed our thanks to him and John even told him that he was very strict which made Brother Lawrence laughed. He then told us of a student who visited him and when Brother Lawrence asked him if he had made any mark on his (the student) life, he gave a positive response and indicated that the mark was made on his buttock.

Brother Lawrence also expressed his wish to make a trip to Kota Kinabalu as soon as possible when his health recovers. He sounded determined and still wanted to stay active despite of his advanced age. He truly has strong spirit. He expressed that his frustration is not being able to be as active as he would want to be.

Though a short visit, we felt good that we made the trip to visit Brother Lawrence and truly hope that he will recover soonest. We also considered getting him the Astro Entertainment subscription if the Home permits as he mentioned it a few times. John also offered to get him a short wave radio so that he can listen to BBC and Voice of America which he said he like to listen to. As for me, I would love to arrange a trip for him to visit Kota Kinabalu if his health permit as he still remember my good friend in KK who helped him build a little school in a remote village on the outskirt of KK some years ago.

We truly admire and salute Brother Lawrence and many of his kind who have done so much in Malaysian education but seldom acknowledge or publicized. As for Brother Lawrence, we are happy that he has been recognized and awarded the Datukship by His Majesty, our Beloved Agong of Malaysia. Brother, you will always be remembered and love by all of us whose lives you touched one way or another.

John then invited all of us for dinner at the royal Selangor Club which we truly appreciated and enjoyed.

the night was not over for me yet as my brother, Raymond is back from Australia and I had to see him. So I sent John back and picked Molly and headed for KL again. We reached Ray's house at 9.30pm and Isaac arrive slightly later. We had a great session discussing some current issues and received some updates from Ray on the projects and ideas that he has. Keeping in touch with old friends is always energizing especially those who are share positive ideas and happenings.

We parted at 11.30 pm and headed for home.

What are the lessons that the above have for my readers?

Well, gratitude is a quality that we must all have. Many people contributed ot our lives and we mustn't forget them. The good that others do for us must be remembered, while the good we do for others can be forgotten. Also, friends are important to our lives as we human are all social creatures. What we promised must be done; no excuses for not doing them.