The Man in the mirror

Change...? Yes, most people wanted to change the world.

Most people saw the world is some sort of screwed up, and there are always something to fix.

And most people blame others for having that flaw...

Most people blame the governments, the authorities, the investors, the law makers, the teachers, the community, the societies, the corporate leaders, the trouble makers, their spouse, their uncle, their parents..... but most people forgot to blame one person...

It is the man in the mirror... Go straight in front of the mirror, and you can clearly see that person.

My dear friends, we could not directly change other people, but we can change ourselves. Start with one person.... it is the man in the mirror...

Knowledge is power - Is it true or just a myth?

Knowledge is power

Albert Einstein is a powerful figure
because of his knowledge

When I was a kid, people said that knowledge is power. So we must have knowledge in order for us to be successful. Is it true or just a myth? Well, I think that it might be true for the past generation because those who have knowledge at that time are those who are successful. Think about it, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Al-Farabi. These are those who make it big and his name was made known to the rest of the world. They don’t create any product or services, but they founded some knowledge that most of us still learn in this new world.

Things already changed

However, somewhere in 2009, I heard in a seminar, the speaker said “‘Knowledge is power’ is the biggest lie that I ever heard. Knowledge is potential power, but knowledge with application is power.” Well at that time I think that it make sense. If you have the knowledge but you did nothing with it you are absolutely added no value to people. I have studied engineering for 5 years but I am no good engineer because I only practice it for only 3 years and that knowledge that I have now, doesn’t make me any powerful. However, I don’t believe that the mantra ‘knowledge is power’ is the biggest lie. I just think that it was outdated. It was true before our generation, but because of the environment have changed, knowledge is power is no more relevant. What are more powerful is to take action from our knowledge. Because there are information overload due to the internet, we don’t have to be knowledgeable, but we just need to know how to get that knowledge. And most importantly is what we do with that knowledge. The key word is to take action.

What are the impact?

Looking towards the trend now, I do think that everybody can obtain knowledge easily. Universities in the past concentrating on providing knowledge to people. In the past, the bigger the library the more reputable the university was. But nowadays, people are looking at what the university can produce. Some university changed their theme to ‘Where knowledge is applied.’ The more a university can produce marketable graduate, the more powerful the reputation of the university. Not only grade, but what the graduate can contribute by the action that one might take. 

Mindset - It is not what you do, but how you do

Once upon a time, there was a father who was very ill. Before he passed away, he got some final words for his children "My children, I have two important reminder for both of you for the success of your life. The first one, do not collect debt from anyone. And the second one, do not expose your body direct to the hot sun." After those words, the father rest in peace.

• • •

Five years later, the mother pay some visit to the elder son. He saw his son is not doing very well and started to ask, "Dear son, what happened to your business?"

The elder son replied, "Mom, I just follow dad's advice. He advice us not to collect debt from anyone. So most of my customer did not paid their debt and after a while my cashflow is in trouble. His second advice was not to expose ourself to direct to the sun. I have a motorcycle, but because of his advice I have to ride a taxi everyday to commute from home to my workplace."

Her mother pity him, but could not offer any assistance.

• • •

Di Sini Lahirnya Sebuah Cinta

Syukur kehadirat Allh swt kerana memberi keizinan kepada aku untuk dilahirkan di Malaysia, bumi bertuah. Bumi yang tidak ada di mana-mana tempat didunia. Warisan yang unik, berbilang bangsa dan bangsa yang saling hormat menghormati. Lahirnya aku dibumi ini dalam keadaan yang aman dan tiada lagi pertumpahan darah. Aku anak merdeka!

Lebih 30 tahun aku menyambut kemerdekaan, tetapi tahun ini merupakan tahun yang aku rasakan agak terkesan sambutannya. Semangat patriotik yang sudah lama tidur dalam diri kini bangkit semula. Tidak seperti tahun-tahun sudah, setiap kali sambutan kemerdekaan pasti disambut dengan laungan merdeka pada jam 12 disusuli konsert dan sekali-sekala letupan bunga api. Manakala dipagi hari pula, acara perbarisan akan dijalankan. Maka lintas langsung di kaca televisyen pasti menunjukkan pancaragam serta badan beruniform berkawad serta memberikan tabik hormat kepada DYMM Agong serta barisan kepimpinan negara.

Tahun ini sambutannya agak berbeza pada diriku kerana ianya sedikit mengusik emosi. Terasa kesannya lebih mendalam berbanding sambutan luaran. Aku juga hairan, tidak pula aku libatkan dalam aktiviti-aktiviti sambutan seperti acara perbarisan yang pernah aku sertai pada tahun 2008. Namun setelah aku fikir-fikirkan mungkin terdapat beberapa faktor yang memberikan makna baru disebalik kemerdekaan yang ke-57:

1. Tema - Di Sini Lahirnya Sebuah Cinta
Tidak seperti tema tahun sebelumnya - 'Janji Ditepati' yang langsung tidak dapat aku hayati sebagai seorang warga negara. Apa signifikannya janji ditepati dan kemerdekaan. Namun sebelum-sebelumnya juga lebih banyak berkisar tentang perpaduan serta wawasan. (Untuk list penuh sehingga 2011, klik di sini). Walaupun ianya tema yang baik, namun tema kali ini membuatkan seseorang itu merenung kembali sejarah silam dan memberi kesedaran tentang erti sebuah cinta pada tanah air.

Tema kali ini juga tidak lari daripada lirik lagu Allahyarham Sudirman - Warisan yang dinyanyikan penuh dengan emosi yang digali. Sekiranya diberi mikrofon, sudah tentu aku dapat nyanyikan dengan penuh penghayatan dengan melodi yang kuat dan lirik yang mendalam. Lagu ini juga terngiang-ngiang dalam minda semasa memandu atau berehat di rumah. Liriknya sangat menginsafkan. Cuba dengar dan hayati klip video di bawah.

Innovation in Organizations

Typically in a start-up company, the level of innovation is very high. The founder have the vision of doing something different and they did things differently. However, when the company grew bigger, when the company became stable, most of the time they started to innovate less.

It is the entrepreneurship spirit in a start-up is what contributing to innovation. But how we can inculcate this in a corporate environment?

Intrapreneurship
The concept of intrapreneur is not a new term. Intrapreneurship can simply defined as behaving like an entrepreneur in a large organization. This include of assertive risk-taking, innovation and taking initiatives in doing new things differently.

The History
In 1976, in the article from The Economist, Norman Macrae predicted a few of business trends. One of them is “that dynamic corporations of the future be trying alternative ways of doing things in competition within themselves." He further suggest that "firms should not be paying people for attendance, but should be paying competing groups for modules of work done." In 1982, also in The Economist, Macrae suggested the "confederation of intrapreneurs."

The Power of Networking

Tele-copier machine

In 1970’s, salesmen have a problem to sell the new invention for corporate communication devices. They just invented a machine called tele-copier. Tele-copier is a machine that combine two devices into one, which are telephone and a photocopier machine. When salesman approached potential clients, client will ask who else do have this thing? If nobody else are using this, it will be useless.

The machine that known as tele-copier, today is known as facsimile. By 1990’s almost every organization will have their fax machine because it is one of the most useful devices at that time. Can you imagine if you are the only one that using facsimile? That device is pretty much useless. But the more people are using it, it create a different value to the users.

Metcalf’s Law

Robert Metcalf was the founder of ethernet. He define the Metcalf’s Law as:

Economic Value of a Network = (no. of users)²

Illustration of Metcalf's Law

In other words, if you are connected in a network of computer, the economic value is square. In other word, a computer connected into a system relatively have 1 economic value. If you have two computer in a network, the value is 4 and if you have three computers connected in a network the value has increased to 9. If we have more number of users, the economic value will increase exponentially, not arithmetically.

How does this apply in business world?

In business, the impact of the law remains the same. Imagine company like facebook or google, they know the important of Metcalf’s Law. That is why they are giving certain things for free, just to increase the number of users. They would then offer something meaningful later which in turns making them the big bucks. Company who don’t understand this law are focusing on making money everytime they do anything to the customer.

If we think about restaurant that operate franchise, which name that came first to our mind? Of course McDonald’s will come out first. Why? They do have the numbers, or in other words the network of the premise. 

Will People Remember You?

I was fortunate when the founder of Reach Your Goal from UK, Phil Berg shared some of his insight in an event organized by BNI Malaysia. Tonnes of lessons that I learned, and I am going to share with you some part of it.

Phil Berg

Get remembered by each and every person that meets you
If you got a chance to choose between these two things, which one will you choose?
i. To be remembered and be spoken about, or
ii. Become even better at what you do

Which one will you choose?
Well nothing wrong in choosing both, but which one you should put priority at?

Ok, let me ask you a question. Let say I was given an access to watch all the movies in the world and I don't know which one to watch. Can you name me a movie that you would recommend me to watch. Ok, let's think for a second.... [think... think.. don't cheat...]

Once you got that movie, what is the title of the movie?
Let's think for a while, is it the best ever movie that was made that you have ever seen.... or is it something that really stick into your mind because you remembered something about it?