Happy Harvest Festival

To all KDM friends, Happy Harvest Festival!

Treat Yourself Well

Treat yourself well, you will become more outstanding, and others will see you as more worthy.

On the other hand, the more you give to others, the weaker you will become, when they have finished using you, you are done for.


Therefore, don't try to please others always, the more you care about others, the more insignificant you are.
Please your own self, and let others please you,then only it will add to your worthiness.
Life is short, treat yourself well!

How to be successful as a business owner

After dropping out from regular employment in 2002, I stopped working for multi-nations corporate companies. I worked for several family type of business. During these 10 years I noticed successful owners of these business have the following common traits:

1. Hot tempered - They enjoy shouting at their workers and humiliating them.
   
2. Stingy - They are very calculative, trying to save every possible cent
3. Exploiting - They exploit everyone whenever there is the chance to do so, like not giving overtime payment where it is due, not giving increments to workers who have worked for many years.While dealing with suppliers ,they always try to short change them, and delay payments for as long as possible.
   
4. Thick skin - They are not ashamed to do all the above event though they know very well others are well aware of this.
5. Want face - This is very contradicting to their thick skin behavior, they like to bask in the lime light by fighting to become office bearers of various associations, clubs etc.
   
6. Pound foolish penny wise - All the money they saved by swindling, exploitations, cheating will be sometimes wasted in foolish spending which they thought are smart.They buy huge volume of stock in order to gain bulk discounts, but forgetting they do not have enough space to store them. Then they will have to incur more expenses to acquire new storage space. Otherwise the stock which are not properly housed, will be either stolen or damaged by staff carelessly knocking into them because they are blocking the passage way. And don't forget the stock may be expired if it is not cleared soon enough. If caught with selling expired goods the owners may be fined heavily.
   
7. Workaholic - They can work without meals and sleep when they are busy. They want their workers to work like them but not willing to pay them well.They work hard then reap huge profits, while the workers work hard but the income remain the same.
   

So, you want to be a businessman, how many of the above match you?

Back to square one

My friend knows that I am looking for a job and offered me to look after his vegetable farm. If I accept the offer, it will be back to square one for me. My father was a farmer, but I did not want to follow his foot step 40 years ago and left my village. Now I will be a farmer after going one big circle! Sometimes I wonder would I be happier if I just accept my destiny and did not go through so much troubles trying to be some thing different. Maybe I would be relaxing at home, letting my children and grand children to tend to the farm and not worrying how to support them to finish their education.

In those days, every child was expected to grow up and become a farmer with exception of a very few who came from businessmen or high government officials' families. But I did not want to become a farmer. My little heart silently promised myself that I would change my fate. I knew the only way to achieve it was through receiving higher education. Therefore I put my full effort into my study.My friends skipped class for the slightest reasons, but I never skip class even once. I went to school with torn clothes and gaping shoes, I ignored the teasing from others.My mother worked as a domestic help in the town, she would buy new clothes and shoes for me when she came home. But she was not allowed to come home every week end. I did not mind the waiting, study was of the utmost importance to me.

We all had to help our families to process the harvested products brought home by our parents. Arranging them neatly and hooked them up so that they were easy to be handled during the drying process. Although I was very tired after doing these chores, I persisted in completing all my home works and revisions. It paid off, I obtained a grade 1 for my primary 6 examinations. Only 2 persons from my school got grade 1, the other boy was from a rich family.
I told my father that I wanted to continue my study. He was not surprised at my request. He said, "wait till your mother comes back and discuss with her". My mother agreed to let me continue studying but only for 1 or 2 more years. when I grew bigger I would have to work in the farm or she would find me a job in the town.

My mother enrolled me in an English medium secondary school in the town where she worked. She said it would be advantageous for me to know English when I look for jobs in the future. She was definitely right! Since I came from a Chinese medium school, I had to spend 1 year in the Remove Class to strengthen my English before joining the other kids who were from English medium school in Form 1. Although all my class mates were from Chinese school also, but they were town kids so they already knew some English. Whereas the only English I knew were, "My name is...", and "I am 12 years old". Fortunately all my class mates were very nice, they always helped me whenever I ran into difficulty with English language. Thank you guys, if you are reading my blog!!!

During school holidays while my class mates were having fun, I worked in FELDA scheme and rubber estates to earn money for my school fees and especially for buying text books. Besides, I would go round asking friends whether any of their siblings or cousins wanted to sell their used text books. I could get them for half price or sometimes at 1/3 the price for a brand new book. You may not believe me, I had never own a new text book all my secondary school life, except on occasions that a new version was introduced, which was very very rare during those days.
Since I did not ask money from my parents, they allowed me to continue after 2 years. My mother gave me pocket money of RM30 every month. At the beginning of a new school term I would carry a flour sackful of rice from home, and I need not buy rice for the whole school term. I managed to complete my secondary school education on a year-to-year basis, hinging on whether I find jobs to earn enough money for the next term. I like to think that I was lucky because I found works every school holidays. But in fact it was due to the fact that people around me were nice people, they were always on the look out for holidays jobs for me, therefore I was never short of jobs.

With my Malaysian Certificate of Education(MCE)/Senior Cambridge(SC), I got a job with the Broadcasting Department (RTM) as a technician. I took up a correspondence course (now it is called distant learning)to prepare for the City & Guilds Institute of London examinations. It was recognized by the Broadcasting Department and the Telecommunications Department at that time. I obtained my Full Technological Certificate after 6 years, normal duration was 5 years but I met a road accident in between. After working for the government for 7 years I joined a private firm because there was the opportunity to learn computer servicing which was very new then.

I was job-hopping frequently after that because it was the fastest way to gain rapid salary raise.It proved to be of my own undoing later, my pay was so much higher than my peers that I was asked to retire early.
For the next 10 years I worked in many kinds of job which were totally not connected to my formal training.Now I can't even get one of those jobs due to my age.Soon I may have to become a farmer as I was originally destined to be. Oh what a joke!

He put a computer in every home

Co-founder of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, passed away peacefully after a 7 years long battle with pancreatic cancer on 5 October 2011 at the age of 56.

He produced the Apple personal computer making it possible for ordinary man to own a computer at home. Before that you could only find a computer in the office of a company which is above medium size. It was even out of the reach of the average small business.

With the increase in personal computers (PC) in every home the Internet under went a tremendous transformation. It was no longer limited to large corporates and the military, it was within reach of everyone. Steve Jobs changed the way the world's leaders run things.
Steve not only introduced PC into every home, he brought to the world iPod, iPhone, i Pad later part in his life. He had changed the way people, especially youngsters, manage their personal life and business and the way they communicate.

Steve Jobs was ousted once from the company he started in the 80's by ungrateful share holders, but returned to rescue the ailing company ten years later. He turned the company around and make it what it is today - the world's most valuable technology company. Steve Jobs lives in our hearts forever!

I'm old and weak

I discover I like to lock myself in my room thinking of old days and friends who had passed away. More shocking is,sometimes I find tears in my eyes. Am I becoming weak and old already?

I spend hours in a coffee shop reading news paper or just simply idling there. The people have already got use to it and treated me like just another piece of furniture there.

The children play ground is another favourite hang out of mine. I can spend long hours watching children play and other activities going on there.

Going online is another favourite passtime for me, but it is also proved too taxing for me, it requires typing and interaction.It is unlike the things I mentioned above where I can let my mind go blank.

It got worse if I met any unpleasant incidence in the work place.
Is there a name for this codition? I believe it is called depression.

Self Pride

If you can not come to terms with what you are doing despite all your achievement in career or business, you  have no pride.

This has got nothing to do with how difficult or how stressful your duty is,you should be pleased in spite of all the hard works.

You should feel comfortable with what you do to attain your achievement and believe in it that your deed will bring good to the world and enhance humanity.