30 October 2010

Go help clean your mother's hand.

I read this in one of the blogs and really wanted to share this with you.


One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company.

He passed the first interview; the director did the last interview, made the last decision.

The director discovered from the CV, that the youth's academic result is excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never has a year he did not score.

The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarship in school?" and the youth answered "none".

The director asked, " Is it your father pay for your school fees?" the youth answered, my father passed away when I was one year old, it is my mother who paid for my school fees.

The director asked, " Where did your mother worked?" the youth answered, my mother worked as cloth cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hand, the youth showed a pair of hand that is smooth and perfect to the director.

The director asked, " Did you ever help your mother washed the cloth before?" The youth answered, never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books, furthermore, my mother can wash cloths faster than me.

The director said, I had a request, when you go back today, go and help to clean your mother's hand, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that its chance of landing the job is high, when he went back, he happily wanted to clean his mother's hand, his mother feel strange, happy but mixed with fear, she showed her hand to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother's hand slowly, his tear drop down as he did that. It is first time he found his mother's hand is so wrinkled, and there are so many bruises in her hand. Some bruises incites pains so strong that shiver her mother's body when cleaned with water.

This is the first time the youth realized and experienced that it is this pair of hand that washed the cloth everyday to earn him the school fees, the bruises in the mother's hand is the price that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence and probably his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother hand, the youth quietly cleaned all remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and sons talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office

The director noticed the tear in the youth's eye, asked: " Can you tell you what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'

The director asked, " please tell me your feeling."

The youth said, Number 1, I knew what is appreciation, without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, I knew how to work together with my mother, then only I can realize how difficult and tough to get something done. Number 3, I knew the importance and value of family relationship.

The director said, " This is what I am asking, I want to recruit a person that can appreciate the help of other, a person that knew the suffering of others to get thing done, and a person that would not put money as his only goal in life to be my manager. You are hired.

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates, every employees worked diligently and in a team, the company's result improved tremendously.

A child who has been protected and habitually given whatever he did, he developed "entitlement mentality" and always put himself first. He is ignorance of his parent's effort. When he started work, he assumed every people must listen to him, and when he became a manager, he would never know how suffering his employee and always blame others. For this kind of people, he can have good result, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement, he will grumble and full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parent, did we love the kid or destroy the kid?

You can let your kid lived in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experienced it. After a meal, let them washed their plate and bowl together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parent are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learn the ability to work with others to get thing done.

23 October 2010

You Think ! ! !

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in Kayu with a client and having a late lunch discussion. Late lunch was at 4:00 pm.

After the discussion, my client left and I packed my stuff, took the bill and wanted to leave. As I got up from my chair and turned around I saw someone in the next table eating alone who look extremely familiar, except that he is now a few times the size when I know him earlier.

A few times the size does not mean fat but muscular. I just couldn't figure out who this person was and where I met him. Then he looked up at me and said "What ! ! "

"I replied you look familiar I think I know you fr..."

He then jumped in and said "YOU THINK ! ! Huh! !"

and he continued eating.

Hmmm dunno to consider that an embarrassing moment or just met a really rude person. Have you encountered such situations before?

20 October 2010

A day in the life ...

I had an appointment at 11:30 am and when I was on the way there, the client called and canceled. As it was near to lunch and I started felling hungry I decided to just stop by somewhere for lunch. Then decided to walk in to all the offices in one of the office towers to mine for new prospects.

Have not done this for a long time. I have to say that it was a bit scary but then when you get the hang of it, it's not too bad.

Thanks Robert Cheah for telling me that all I am trying to do is to help them. If they are not interested or do not give me a chance then maybe they are just not ready. Don't be disheartened, when they are ready they will accept your help.

Results, I walked 8 floors of one tower, got 3 telephone numbers and 1 appointment next month. Good or bad? I don't know only time will tell...

19 October 2010

Is KFC, MacDonalds, Burger King, etc Fast Food or Slow Food

I saw this in the local newspaper and that reminded me that I need to put this article up on my blog.


According to my classification, KFC, MacDonalds, Pizza hut, Dominos Pizza, Carl's Jr, Burger King, etc are classified in to a fast food restaurant.

To me fast food means it should be served fast, and it is meant for people who are in a hurry. I used to think and still think that when I am rushed for time I will go for one of these options when I need to grab a bite.

Whenever I visit any one of these restaurants in Kuala Lumpur I will curse as the line moves too slowly.

The reason why I curse is because this fast food takes too long to be served. I have calculated the time taken for a customer to be served in MacDonalds and KFC to be approximately 5 minutes. So if you get in the line and there are 3 people ahead of you, you will expect to wait 15 minutes, if there are 4 then 20 minutes.

The same amount of time is also required even if you were to go to a drive through, especially at KFC. Can you imagine, waiting 20 minutes in the car with your engine on to buy a quick bite because there are 3 cars in front of you? Then you take 3 minutes to finish the meal. It is totally ridiculous.

That is if all the customers ahead of you are Malaysians. If there are any foreigners, please expect to take a longer time. The reason for this is because the cashier or the person serving usually do not understand or speak any English. Worse if the foreigner in front is an Arab, they cannot speak English properly either adding to the confusion.

I have since developed a strategy to queuing up at a fast food restaurant line. My strategy is to make sure that there are no foreigners in my line, make sure I have exact change and never use a Credit Card. The cashiers usually do not know how to accept a transaction with using a credit card.

I believe that a fast food restaurant should serve food fast for people who are in a hurry or on the run. So I pose a challenge to MacDonalds and KFC, the two restaurants I visit most to bring their customer serving time down to 1 minute per customer. Otherwise they might as well revert to the old way where we just go to the restaurant, sit down and wait to be served.

Not to just offer nonconstructive criticism, I would also offer some suggestions as to where they can improve;

  1. Hire staff who can Speak more than 1 Language, where English is preferred
  2. Modify your work-flow or
  3. increase your staff strength
  4. Staff who cannot converse in English should be placed in the outskirts where chances of serving foreigners are more remote. Do not place these staff in the city centre where the main tourists spots are.
Thanks whoever it is who put up this picture in the Star on Saturday 16th October 2010.

16 October 2010

Starting Life again @ 40

It has been some time now that I just cannot take the pressure of corporate politics and the pressure of management.

I have been lamenting to myself, wouldn't it be good if I were just an ordinary salesman? I don't have to worry about the target of the company, I don't have to think about the intricacies of mechanics and implementation. I don't have to think about the different ways to manage different people and get them all to be happy working with me. Don't have to manage the expectations and unreasonableness of bosses.

All I have to do is to just go out, see my customer and make them happy. I get my sales and come back. Life will be .... simple.

I have also been looking in to what my dad is doing for the past year. I have tried but not given my best shot at it. The main reason is that I always has this excuse of my full time job and not able to concentrate on this.

Perhaps now is a great opportunity for me to start doing what my dad has been doing and pick up from where he has left off. I know it is tough, as it is rated as the toughest career in the world. However, if I don't pick it up now I will not be able to take over from him. Over the next few years, I need to meet my targets and proof myself so that I may be able to take over his role. Only upon that I can take over his residual income that is enough for him to retire comfortably.

This is the start of a new career, and as I will be turning 40 soon, I guess I'm starting life again at 40.

I have to say that it's scary, but I have to take this leap as my income previously although considered high is still not high enough to keep my dad should he retire. Time to just close my eyes and take this leap, this leap of faith.

Come to think of this, it is the second time in my working life that I have opted to take a huge pay cut with the hope of getting something more in the future. Hope all things will go well this time.