The financial rippling effects has reached our doorstep

Western Digital announced that Kuching plant will be closed down by March 2009 leaving 1500 workers laid off.

The Timber is suffering worst effect and fear 100,000 workers may be laid off if situation worsen after Chinese New Year. Many of the timber camps have closed since November 2008 for festival till March 2009. Demand is very low from usual Japan market and many companies even cancelled orders.

Petrol/Diesel dropped another 10 cents since the famous 80 cents hike in August but kampua/kolok mee or other coffee shop increase had not reduced a cent. I think the operators will not move until no customers willing to patronise their premises.

Are we prepared for worst as we prepared to close the year and welcome the new year in 10 days time ?

Recruitment & Succession Planning

Some 10 years ago, this topic is not so a concern to me but now it is becoming more critical as we grow bigger and faster. As I have learnt from one of my favourite speakers, as manager, we need to consciously identify potential team members and not during when we need one. Thus, averagely every other month, I will engage in interviewing potential members though I may not have any vacancy. And every 6 months, I will put up an advertisement in the paper to encourage wider application for picking. This is to enable creation of a potential pools to select and also to provide training ground for us to select the right people.

Having good pools of right staff will help in picking right successors to succeed eventual team leader though mentorship is importance to ensure their learning is in right direction. The one who could work together tirelessly and supportively moving towards goals together is a diamond to any great leader.

It is true that people will come and go during the process or at any time, thus we must always be prepared and accept the fact that this is natural although at times, we must reflect on what have gone wrong in trying to improve our team weaknesses or environment weaknesses. Yes, some of the members are good but due to dissatisfaction of certain situation, it leads to breakups but there are many who just have attitude problems to work.

As leader, beside challenges and obstacles, we will face with a lot of learnings and improvement through encounters of human issues. If we could manage this aspect well, as in any professions, we will be able to move "mountains". Every great organisation, human assets are backbone to them.

Spending time with our good people is a must so that we could lead and mould them beside opening the door of open discussion and two ways motivation approach. Every week, I am trying to sit down with my key people sharing with them the crux of our business beside giving them my personal sharings and hearing their challenges and successes. Many are still quite closeup but I believe the strong one will start the ball rolling.

Therefore, to build company, we must build people. Recruit the right one, mould them and lead them to success and they shall attract more successes and when the chain reaction goes smoothly, the organisation will growing strongly continuously.

Brain Seems Better Than Physique

It seems that what you know is more appreciate or valued that what you can do ? Right...no ?
Well, try the following;

Usually people salary is paid based on what you can think of or your better brain thinking rather than physical extensive works. Look at the leader who think, plan and lead is paid better than follower who just follow what the leader instructs.

Of course there is exception if you are the best of your field and specialist when everyone needs your expertise...with little brain to bargain, you will get the better pay than those who just think.

That is why may be our parents or teachers always encourage us to study well in order to build up our brain. But the smarter of all are not the smartest kids in class as when we leave school, usually those grade A students are working for those grade B or C (of course not the grade D or E). Don't you agree ? Well, that is the fact !

I believe that this group B & C sutdents are those who are smart in using their brain in balance with higher EQ than the smartest kids.

It is not too late to discover than the requirement to have both IQ & EQ in balance and utilise wisely. Exposure @ Experience would help the balancing acts. Be alert and move with great confident that we are all equally good and the difference is only on whether we do use our intelligent to best of opportunities.

Brainstorming Session

After 10 days, I back again to KL to have my brain squeezed further. Tomorrow, my top management had organised a day brainstorming session in coming out with new business plan for the next 3 years.

We had a similar session last year at Dorsett Regency and guess what...we are coming back to the same venue...why ? May be to ride on the good fortune this year as we had been doing quite well on the directions that we set last year at the same venue.

However, this year...we shall have tougher challenge with global financial woes and Malaysia market will not be spare. We need to be very careful and chart out extra dynamic plans to sail through this financial waves.

I look forward to this session to draft a strong plans for continuous growth and profitability in this challenging situation in 2009-2011.

In fact, at personal...it is also about time to do some reflection to ensure our personal objectives can be achieved or on track...good luck !

Q3 Performance Review

To be frank, I am very tired at the moment after two days gruelling presentations from morning till evening plus after hours activity till early hours before waking up 3 hours later to updates my notes before attending the following sessions.

Quality Productivity and Preparing for worst have been the main topic with the global economic turmoil and local sentiment. Everyone is asked to stay focus on their business plans, never give up and work extra mile to deliver real results. Writing the strategies is quite easy but the real action will come in execution. Discipline, determined mindset with flexibility will lead surer progress.

Coming out from this meeting is very motivating whilst moving forward to run the final lap of the year 2008 whilst getting ready to start 2009.

In the next 3 months, a lot of expectation has been set up namely Budget & Business Plan 2009, Performance Appraisal 2008, Quality Transformation follow through and Nailing the Q4 budget.

Travellings is also expected to move faster as I need to run longer and consistent to cover wider and deeper network.

However for now, unwinding myself at coffee bean writing down my thoughts before proceeding for my dinner and also a spa session later in the night. Have a nice weekend.

Last Quarter

Time is flying passed us without waiting although we do wait for time to pass at times.

We are now in the last quarter of the year and I am now doing my review on my performance for the past 3 quarters. The budget management session shall be held sometime this month as to have thorough review and create the last push for the year end closing.

This is also a time for budgetting for next year performance beside staff appraisal evaluating the performance for each staff.

On the economic front - globally or locally, the reports are not rosy as compared to previous year around this time. You may have heard about the bailouts running into hundreds of billions USD. Tough challenges is ahead of us and we need to dig deep to prepare for the worst as we chart out our new blue print for next year whilst squeezing the last drops to close the year beautifully.

For me, I know...this month I will have few sleepless nights ahead in meeting the benchmarks set in order to deliver the goals. Whatever it is, I and the team will need to work out smartly together to meet the benchmarks/deadlines.

Management Trainees

I was a product of a thorough management trainee programme and till today, I am thankful that I have gone through this programme for the first 24 months of my corporate life. The first 6 months was most of the time about lectures/theory all round with mental setting by various department heads and also peers. A lot of sarcasism learned and unlearned as my mental was mould over and over again in the corporate living. Every evening I will need to sit down with my manager to have 30 minutes chat on what I have learned through the day. Then, on every Saturday (those day, we still have half day), both the manager and myself will sit in a sharing session headed by the GM on a very open manner in discussing the progress of my learning and weaknesses or problems I have discovered in the particular department. A monthly report will also need to be produced and submitted to the department head (like a thesis with recommendation on improvement)

Actually, together in the programme, there are 8 of us and we have actually assigned in pairs and then we were scheduled to attach with 6 department in 6 months. Sharing of information and learning is crucial in our group. We go breakfast, lunch and dinner (minus sleeping) together almost everyday (As our mentor had also gave us a challenge to form up a common identity for our group). In between training sessions, we were also entrusted to organise or lead the whole company on grouping activities like sport day, family day etc. We have laughters, angers, frustration, sad or belacan taste throughout the programme. However,...two of us left the company after 6 months, after they found that they do not belong to this industry (today they are successful practising lawyers). Another one, two months after that. After a year, there are only 3 left in the group.

From day one, we were also "forced" to take up professional course or get fired. Oh yes...that is the challenge. So, I took up and graduated with another degree (An Associate) after 2.5 years. (For infors...out of the 8...none except the writer) Hmmm now, I was recognised as a Chartered last year...(satisfied...)...that is probably why I was the last of the "Rising Sun" (our group's name) to move on from the company after 8.5 years, and I remembered on the advice of one of my managers (who is very well qualified), within 3 years..."you have to learn more than you can adsorb in order for you to root strongly in the career you want..."

Looking back now, it was the initial mental conditioning (foundation) that is the crux of the learning. It does make a different !

Petrol Savings

In a commitment to respond to petrol savings, I have recently re-calculated my petrol consumption and found that my Matrix 1.6 Auto is a big user, gulping a lot...and average it has only able to bring me 9.9km per litre at town driving (can you believe it ?...is my computation wrong ?...my mileage is 368 for RM100 = 37 litre...this has only last average 5-6 days. May because of hot days for the last one week...normally consumption is higher when we are going through hot condition). It is a wake up call indeed !

This is in addition that I am using special additive supposedly to increase efficiency by 25%. Today, I have decided and installed a magnetic fuel saver which is alleged to be able to increase efficiency by 10% and up 30% on long run...

"The magnetic saver is clipped at the fuel pipe before the entry to the engine. It is supposed to magnetize the petrol molecules so that the injection is more stable and equal to enable complete burning. Through this process, the car will also experience more power and engine is also smoother. It has a warranty of 15 years and it is a German's product. It was proven over in Germany, the fuel efficiency can be improved by 30% after the vehicle was installed with this fuel saver"

I hope it works ! (then I can start introducing and selling !) Hooha !

Reap What You Sow

This is an universal principle and known to farmers worldwide. In fact this becoming a knowledge to all who had go through life.

In farm...
1. When you plant durian seed, you will get durian tree..
2. When you nurture the fruit trees well, they will bear much fruits..
3. Whe nyou take care of the farm well, you will reap more fruits...

In life...
1. When you give a smile to another, you will receive a smile back
2. When you give a frown, you will receive a frown/surprise look back or even a scolding..
3. When you are lazy, you will not achieve success
4. When you are careless, you will lose out more
5. When you offer love, you will receive them back (may be not from the person but from others)

You may not get immediate results of what you sow but definitely, the principle will not just miss the linkage, it will let you enjoy your fruit in time to come...

In Chinese culture, this is probably people called wealth creation for future. Whatever we enjoy probably owned to what we have done in the past ?? Malay saying...bersusah-susah ke hulu, bersenang-senang ke hilir.. ???

Therefore, we must always careful on what we sow as eventually we will reap the fruits of it.

Structure Tree

Structure tree method has became my integral basis of business planning. This method has been taught to me when I first started my insurance career as management trainee. It is very useful in tracking down and thinking out of the action plans.

Every action begins with end in mind, our objective in achieving at the end of the day. From there, we have planned each and every step. We rationalise the challenges along the way and come up with solution or alternative to move up the trunk, branch and towards the leaves and flowers.

In summary, we are looking at from starting point to the end.

Example;
End in Mind : Achieve RM10m production...
- what are the sources available : Agency / Direct / Brokers / FI / Franchise / Coinsurance
- who are the supporter under each branch ? list them down...
- what are their business volume for each of the leaves...said under Agent A - how much is he doing annually ? type of business whether is preferred or declined...
- what are the action plans to attract those business or build up the support ?
- what are the challenges along the way ?
- timeframe for doing it ?
the questioning will go on and on until we are satisfied every leaves are accounted for...it shall become our structure tree...in engineering term is a blue print for a new building to be constructed.

The success will come with how detailed our plans are and our discipline in keeping this structure tree updated over the time.

Try it and you will see the difference and from here you can also track your subordinates in their work planning and thinking.

Quality Transformation

Officially on 13th June 2008, my company has launched the Quality Transformation programme, a programme which I have shared and indicated in my previous blog. Through embarkation of this programme, we aim to improve our service delivery to our customers. A total mental shakeup is necessary to make this programme a success as we have identified all key action plans to implement immediately.

Last Friday, we have our soft launch in our Kuching Branch whereby my CEO had personally given his important message on how best we could lead the Quality Transformation in our branch operations especially highlighting each of the 6 core values;

* INTEGRITY
* TEAMWORK
* ENTREPRENEURSHIP
* ACCOUNTABILITY
* CUSTOMER CENTRIC
* CARING

We have been given 2 pieces of t-Shirt (to be worn on every Friday...suka..nya saya...), a Quality Service handbook and a lanyard to keep reminding ourself of the importance on this programme as we want to achieve quantum leap in our service.

(A Photo showing my CEO was handing out the Quality Service handbook to my staff)

Thinking Big

First of all, the level of our success or achievement depends on how big is our thinking on dreams. The chance of success depends on how deep is our thinking to materialise the dreams. Every now and then, I heard about success stories, how insignificant people achieve their dreams through their thinking, determination, sacrifices and never ending belief in their thinking.

The methodology to success is simple and straightforward and that is why many simple men and women have been able to achieve success by simply believing in their dreams. If we have failed in our quest to materialise our dream, we must be prepared to get up and continue the quest. Success does not come with one try but many tries. The one try may be just because of luck but when the dream come true through many actions, sacrifices and efforts, it shall be a lasting achievement to enjoy.

Medical Leave

A friend asked me about my company's guideline on medical leave...how many days available for a staff a year ? Before answering, I asked why ?

He obediently shared with me on his difficult encounter with one of his lady staff who is a frequent taker on medical leave...all in all for this month alone, she has taken 3 days. I told him that we have a mximum 30 days per staff but of course it must be genuine with doctor's certification and normally when a person taken such a long leave, they are usually having a serious illness. however, for normal flu or cold..it is unlikely to be such a long time. If it is then, we will need to sit down with the staff to find out whether it is a habitual issue.

From my corporate encounters, my bosses will always discourage a staff from taking medical leave especially after going for a few days annual leave. Staff will be strongly advised to take good care of their health whilst resting as usually few will go overboard by over exerting themself during their earned leave and then exposing their health to sickness. Of course, if a person is sick, she or he can still obtain medical leave as long as the doctor certified them. But then, in this scenario of MC after leave may not look good as a good responsible staff.....what do you think ?

BTW, my friend's staff also taken MC leave after two days annual leave...what a difficult task to address people's habitual issue.

Responsibility

Responsibility is the unity of two words: Response's Ability. So, do we have the ability to response when we are entrusted with the responsibility ?

I would like to share a classic example of Responsibility of what I have experienced last week with my house moving contractor whom I have asked to assist to move my big household item; Master bedroom set, Book cupboards, Refrigerator, Washine Machine and 7 seaters sofa. On the day of moving, he came with his two assistance and they easily move out the cupboards and one queen bed (without the matress) in two trips. It took them about 3 hours though (do not know why so slow but nevermind so long we could finish). It was then about 1pm and we still have the king size bed, two matresses and 7 seaters sofa to move. My sister-in-law was curious on why the contractor is yet to be seen after the 2nd trip, hence she called me to inform. I had assumed that they had gone for lunch and given sometime they will continue to move my things. Somehow, my six sense also told me that something is not right, as such, I quickly phoned the contractor and to my surprise, he apologised to me that he is now at his factory rushing for another customer's furniture as the customer is having an opening tomorrow. He is not sure whether he would be able to complete the moving today as it was already 2pm. I practically seek for his understanding to help as I do not have any lorry to move and it is quite difficult to get one at that hour. He promised to call back...or at least will continue tomorrow.

Today is already 7 days after we had last spoken and I am still waiting for his call. When reflected, he also did not informed me when he just went to his factory to work on his other commitment while leaving me in the dark. Really irresponsible acts ! If fact earlier as I told my dad, I was prepared to pay RM500 for his assistance to complete the moving !

BTW, we did managed to move the rest of the furniture by ourself and completed on that day itself, thanks to my brother who managed to contact his previous renovation contractor. Luckily, we had moved the fridge and washine machine a day earlier using my brother's double cabins as my dad advised that we cannot use the fridge without giving it at least a day to settle down.

If you could imagine this irresponsible action by the part of the contractor, you could understand why trust and integrity play an important role in the first action of our relationship. I am dissappointed with this contractor who do not appreciate the commitment to respond and his undertakings.

We are Who We Think ?

We are who we think ? Seriously, it is going to be real when we think of it. When the conscius brain is set to portray the future self it seeps down to the subconscius mind and that is where it slowly transform our self into the future self that we think we are.

How fast ? depends on how strong is our repetitive signal to this change. Though I have not read a thousand books as yet but at least I have gone through as many as 30 management/self help books and generally, all of them reminded me that the powerful subconscius mind will change and transform us (it does not know negative or positive) based on the feedbacks from our own self. Therefore, we must be careful of what we feed to the subconscius....through reading, watching or living in the conducive environment whereby our friends, colleagues or people around us may influence our thinking.

Beware of what you think the next moment you want to your self . It is really up to you !

Six Honest Helpers

Everyone must appreciate these six honest helpers as they shall be able to resolve a lot of challenges ahead. They are always around if one care to ask them for assistance. They are;

a) Who
b) Where
c) Why
d) When
e) What
f) How

Now you know them right ? from very young age. So how many times have you neglected them in approaching your challenges in life. Don't worry, many including myself have also neglected them at times.

If one could seek their assistance to the fullest, they shall be alright and the force shall be with them. The winners will always rely on them to lead their decision.

So, the next time you need them, just call up them and seek their assistance (you must know how to ask to ensure they are able to respond effectively).

Thoughts To Ponder

This passage was in The Sunday Post yesterday and I felt it is worthwhile to share with all;

a) The most destructive habit : Worry

b) The greatest joy : Giving

c) The greatest loss : Loss of self respect

d) The most satisfying work : Helping others

e) The ugliest personality trait : Selfishness

f) The most endangered species : Dedicated leaders

g) Our greatest natural resource : Our youth

h) The greatest "shot in the arm" : Encouragement

i) The greatest problem to overcome: Fear

j) The most effective sleeping pill : Peace of mind

k) The most crippling failure disease: Excuses

l) The most powerful force in life : Love

m) The most dangerous pariah : A Gossiper

n) The world's most incredible computer : The brain

o) The worst thing to be without : Hope

p) The deadliest weapon : The tougue

q) The two most power-filled words : I can

r) The greatest asset : Faith

s) The most worthless emotion : Self pity

t) The most beautiful attire : Smile

u) The most prized possession : Integrity

Have a wonderful week ahead.

M-Election 2008

The heat is definitely up as 4 days had passed since the nomination day on 24th Feb and yet I have not had the time to attend any of the political rallies. Ten more days to go before all Malaysians cast their votes to determine the next 5 years of governmentship. Frankly, I have not attended any of the rallies since my school time. Why ? I would probably say, " no time for 2 hours hearing" as I have already received a lot of feedbacks from "kopi talk"....However, these kopi-o talks may not give the true presentation of the facts. Therefore, I have other sources to verify..leh....hehehe.

It is definitely very important to make the wise decision to ensure the real voice of rakyat is received and implemented. Making a wrong move will lead to suffering of development.

My hope and wish for this Election is that the new elected representatives will sincerely discharge their true duty without fear and favour. We need a progressive government who would take care of the people and willing to catch those big fishes who committed all types of corruption under the nose of the government. Do not protect these crooked leaders, expose them (the bad apples) and ensure they are put to justice so that our countries development plans can be implemented smoothly and fairly to all. Be transparent and sincere to ensure a new wave of development can really bring forth the progress to the people.

Do not just compare with the poorer countries but always look forward to compete with progressive countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New Zealand or Australia so that Malaysia could stand at the forefront of these countries in the advancement of good economy and lifestyle. Do not just play defensive approaches but need a bold leadership to acknowledge the weaknesses that we have as Malaysian and lead to transform us to a better community in this part of the world.

On unity, I will continue to pray for real Malaysian for Malaysia with equality to all races as a progressive Malaysian with no longer differenciation of races (though this is a long shot but I can see this is achievable sooner than 50 years ago...agreed ?). May be should set a target to have total equality by 2020, huh...as what our beloved Tun Dr. M aspired of Malaysia to become an truly industrialised nation by then.

So, on this 8th of March, I will cast my vote wisely to ensure a voice is fruitfully heard ! Yes, Malaysia Mesti Boleh..lah !

Positive Minds

Yesterday, I read an article by one local writer named Dunstan Chan in Borneo Post. Dunstan is a public cum motivational speaker and I have met him in person on few occasions when I was organising charity events probably 6-7 years back. Well, I am not going to talk about him but on his article where it strikes me yet again.

He had mentioned about "being grateful and make full use of what we have and not keep longing on what we do not have". It is a mind reflecting statement, why ?

He had shared one experience truely by himself when he met with one guy in USA named by John. As when his friend introduced him to John, he naturally extend his hand for handshake but there is no response from John ?? A careful look, he realised that John does not have any hands/arms. He is embarassed and shock but John responded with a big smile and said it is okay and he gets it all the time. For the next two hours, he spent his most memorable time with John observing him, the way he took his lunch with his foots and also learnt that John can drive with his foots.

Well, this is really extraordinary...isnt't it? ! So, from the statement, if John is negative, he would not be able to be successful as what he is now. For your information, John is a successful public speaker in US. One may be handicapped by his or her physical body but he or she can still achieve their dreams if they really want to. However, if one is handicapped by his mind, nothing can be achievable even if they have perfect body.

Be careful of your mind...

Everyday is a new beginning

No matter how bad was yesterday, it has passed and today is a new beginning and we have the opportunity to make good of what we have failed to achieve yesterday, so that we could achieve a better result in the future.

Yes, if we are negative in mind, we always felt the above statement is a fluke. If this is so, then we will continue to suffer such a negative state of mind and be left behind.

Yes, it is tough whenever we fell down and try to stand up as fast as possible. But if we have fell down and do not wish to stand up and pick up the experience, we will always be at that position and never progress.

Yes, it takes an extraordinary courage to believe and keep believing so that we could stand up strong and move forward to discipline achieve what we set out to achieve.

Ask any of the successful person, had he/she not faced with the negativities and how they overcame them ?

I believe that everyone is given opportunity to progress and be successful in what they endeavour. God is fair and loving...however, we decide whether we want to take this opportunity or not and even the single task, we will always face with challenges and temptation to stop moving forward. This negativity may link to evil temptation.

So, my friends, always remember to pray strongly and discipline though you may have strong mental but the odds at times are stronger than what you can imagine...have a heart to invite the divine grace to bless you with the wisdom to lead your determination to success.

Quality Service Transformation

We have just launched our Customer Service Charter during our first QSBM 2008 and this year, my company is embarking on the total Quality Service Transformation in facing the new wave of business challenges.

Over the past 5 years, we have grown from a small company of RM50m to today an average size insurance firm commanding RM283m as at 31/12/2007. This is a 466% growth !

A lot of sacrifices, commitment and determination plus sweats and tears in putting up this record breaking effort year after year.

The new target for this year is RM320m and 2009 is RM360m. As the figure speaks for itself, we are indeed of total retransformation to ensure the team could progress further to achieve another record breaking year. Thus, the QS transformation is very aptly good for our company to deliver highest level of service and not in purely competing in pricing. Staff will be inculcated with the highest understanding of quality service (before and after sales services). There will a lot of reengineering of service flow and benchmarking monitoring process to ensure quality is always on the check.

The biggest challenges is not on servicing the customers but getting staff to be on a good customer mindset and always be professional in their quests of delivery.

In service industry, quality service is the key factor for customer to appreciate the service on long term though price factor may influence the decision of a new customer but not in the long run as customer would normally appreciate the quality of the service. I am for one would choose for quality service when it comes to my decision even when buying the China DVDs :) where I have also being avoiding from buying those DVDs as the quality for newer movies normally is not worth of considering.

What is your choice ? Quality or Price ?

100 Years of Celebration

My wife is going to walk 20km this Sunday joining her colleagues in celebrating their 100th year Anniversary in business. No joke ! It is 12.5 miles !

This is a commitment from the management of the company to celebrate life together as the company grows together with their policyholders and staff.

I am actually very concern of the long distance and are worried about her as she had never walk so far. However, I am proud of her commitment and determination to achieve this participation and I do pray for God's blessing and protection on her throughout the journey together with her colleagues.

Multitasking, is it real ?

Often in management, we have use this great word..MULTI-TASKING especially when management wishes their star employees to deliver all tasks promptly meeting the deadlines or benchmarks set.

What is actual multi-tasking in real senses ? From the wikipedia...it defines as the ability to execute more than one task at the same time.

So, does this happen to anyone of us or will it actually be achieveable ? By strict meaning, YES it is possible and it depends on what sort of tasks involved.

Example of multi-tasking : Reading newspaper whilst having breakfast or foods or easing youself in the toilet.

For computer CPU, it can deliver more tasks at the same time and speed of completion would depend on the size of the RAM memory. I believe it would be quite similar to us, human...if we want to move faster and accurate we must increase the usage of our brains so that it could manage the tasks assigned in a systematic manner.

Yesterday, I am quite dissapointed with one of my staff when she admitted that she could not be multitasked. She can only do one task at a time and at a very slow pace. Therefore her compliance for the month is only 9% when comparing to her colleague who can achieve 60% with double loads and variety of products.

To help her, I have advised her to work out her To-Do List whilst put extra focus on sharpening her skills to speed up her learning process. The To-Do List will help her in planning her work rather than just processing one tasks for the whole day.

Interest and commitment may also play the part of whether multi-tasking skills can be acquired or not ?

Indeed There Is Right & Wrong

Many times we may have heard people saying there is no right or wrong when commenting on a cirscumstance, an event or a happening that is considering deep understanding. I myself at times also been influenced by such statement as it seems that this statement give a leeway or on the fence opinion or consolation to the receiving party.

In my deeper self, I believe there is right and wrong in every circumstances though at times we are not able to differentiate it between right or wrong as the situation is in very thin line of decision or we may not have the knowledge or we would not want to acknowledge the result unless it is to our favour.

If there is no right or wrong then the appointed Judges all over the world would not be able to pass judgement fairly (discard all the unfair judges or those that are under political influenced or other forces). They are a special group of people that is given the trust to judge what is right and fair to a right party and set out punishment to the wrong party. It is definitely tough but still there is a right or wrong.

In the eyes of our Almighty, there is always righteous or wrongdoers and He has all the power to understand all circumstances no matter how complicate the situation is.

****
Many would argue especially in business approaches such situation of no right or wrong will appear quite often especially when emotion is taken into play. In fact, if we do it with fairness and integrity we are doing it for our own bright future though we may not get the business. If we secure the business in unfair manners or illegal ways, we would need to compensate back on our future encounters. It is a definitely very challenging situation especially when the surrounding people or supporters pressing hard on the results.

I have a friend who is a good Christian and had shared of his experience of how he had struggle to maintain his integrity, honesty and faithfulness of not giving any undertable money or commissions to one of the strong contacts and at the end, he lost the tender worth RM5m though his tender price is the lowest.

In another case, they would said...it is the person's intellingence to secure such feat. Imagine such bribery action is been praised ?? or others justified that they are only working for a living @ just like to prostitute, GROs etc also a profession to earn a living.

That is probably "why" those in business are always harder to pass through the gate of heaven...as they have a lot of cleaning up to do. ***
Temptation is great in this material world. We need to seek for God's wisdom to overcome such situation as using our human's thinking will only get things worst.

***

A wrong is a wrong even if it is a good lie...we must sincerely seek for forgiveness and not to start pointing fingers on others too. This is very much similar of a leader who recently confessed of his wrong doings but also declared that his action is similar to other leaders who may have been worst but they are lucky as they have not caught in the act. Isn't he is not a sore loser ?

Who are we to judge but ourself. We must therefore constantly remind ourself that there is always right and wrong in our action. We must try to do with our sincere conscience, faith, integrity and honesty.

***

So how to breed good values ? It starts from us being individual. Clean up ourself (from head to toe) to be a truly better person upholding integrity (remember nobody is sinless). Sharing with younger ones the fruits of being honest, sincere and faithful to righteous.

I have learnt one sharing from my Church's friend when she went to a newly baptised Catholic...."In our life time on earth, we are working hard to live a wonderful life and hope to own a proper house and we must also prepare our new house in heaven in this life time as there will be no time for us to work hard after death for our future house."

Hence, we may not be able to prosper in our life time when doing good deeds (so far...many have been richer in faith and receive a lot of blessings, whereby God will never fail us) but for sure, we are definitely building the future house in Heaven.

Have nice weekend.

Twelve Motivation Messages

I have put up a new desk top calendar of 2008...but before I discard away my old 2007 desktop calendar, I would like to share the twelve motivation messages (on the calendar) that had been giving reflection throughout the year;

STRENGTH : Conquering others requires force; conquering
oneself requires strength.

UNSAFE : Playing safe is unsafe. Standing still is risky. You
must go forward.

RAINBOW : If you want rainbow, you've got to put up with rain!

NO DIRECTION : If one does not know which port one is
sailing, no wind is favourable.

ONE WIFE : When Adam was lonely, God created for him, not ten
friends, but one wife.

SPEAK THE TRUTH : When you speak the truth, you don't have to
remember what you said.

FEELING: The first and most important step toward success is
the feeling that you can succeed.

REAL EXCITEMENT: I love to succeed, but the real spiritual
and emotional excitement is in the doing.

IN YOU : Success lies not in time, place or circumstances,
but in the person.

FEAR : Some are afraid of the dark, others wait for it to see
the stars.

COURAGE : Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak;
courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

CARE : If you find in your heart to care for somebody else,
you will have succeeded.