5 days holiday

Marry Christmas and Happy New Year!

5 days holiday, for some of you might be nothing. Especially government servant. They might have 20 to 30 days per year of holiday. But for my new company, only 8 days per year. So 5 days in a row can consider a long period of time. Especially nowadays, a lot of things has been assigned.

I am planning to start a business. A few business idea is playing around my mind lately. And I have been talking on this topic to some of my closest friends and family. However, nothing has been setup yet including registering the company. Anybody can help out on suggesting the company's name?

Happy Eid Adha

I have not been publish any post lately. Busy is the only lousy excuse I can give, but the truth is I am very lazy to write up.

Well, Happy Raya Qurban. How's your qurban? Are you one of the contributor, or eater?
Either both you should be grateful.
Me? This year I am the eater only... hehe... Maybe next year will be the contributor.

Happy Deepavali : Are you a bollywood fans?

Happy Deepavali to all my Indian friends.

Ok, I know it's a bit late to wish. Already passed 3 days Malaysians are celebrating Deepavali and for this year no public holiday is being given by most companies because it falls on Saturday. Some of my Indian friends a bit pissed-off but what to do.

So my topic today is not to discuss on how happening this year celebration. But there is something I need to bring up. Malaysian peoples are celebrating all of this festive season regardless of the races. This is align to the constitution of Malaysia where we have these 3 main races. Moreover the new theme of 1Malaysia by our latest prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib is emphasizing in living with the multi-racial society.

If you study history, Malaysian is consist of 3 main races which is Malay, Chinese and Indian. Indian in this context means Tamil, no hindustan or other races. But the media, even some society or company (which is one of them is my ex-company) when they trying to emphasize on the multi-cultural based society, they will use the hindustan songs and dance the hindustan dance. This is, for me, not fit with what we have in our society. Are they trying to show people (especially foreign people) that we have hindustan people in our society (maybe because of the famous bollywood) whereas in-fact we are having tamil as our part of society.

I'm not sure, I might be wrong on this because I definitely cannot understand the languages. But I know that the language is different between tamil and hindustan. Also stated in the social contract that Indian language that will be the taught in school is Tamil language.

As I said, I might be wrong. Feel free to give your comments to agree or not with my opinion. But, if I were English and people are celebrating my festive season with Spanish culture in my country, I don't feel right about it.

Happy Eid Mubarak

To all bloggers and blog readers, wishing all of you Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and Maaf Zahir Batin.
If direct translation to english would be Safe Super Day.

p/s: Oh ya! Don't forget the super money yaa....

Jakarta Trip

Now I'm in Jakarta, on a business trip. I'll be here from today until Thursday. Which part of Jakarta? I'm not too sure. I got some opportunities here to learn more on the business process. I think it is a good experience to be here. Thank to God.

So, Ramadhan is coming to it's end. While other people concentrating on the last 10 days by performing as many prayer as they can, I am a part from the country. I don't even know where is the nearest mosque to perform the prayer. Of course I can pray inside the bedroom, but when the bed is keep on lambai2 at me, I end up lying on the bed.

Thank God there is an internet WiFi over here. At least I can drop few words on my blog. I did a mistake by not bringing the converter. The laptop run out of battery very soon. Luckily the receptionist lend me the converter. This is important in the future to bring the converter when ever on the oversea trip.

Will write more soon. Wish me a pleasant trip over here and hopefully all the objective can be achieved within these four days.

Ads mistake!

Internet is a blessing gift from God. Who agree with me? I think most of the information can easily be gain. Some doubt can be answered by using man's best friend, Google!

Just to make it as a story, today I checked my e-mail and there is an e-mail from one of the leading job searching company in the country. What happened then? One of the advertiser refuse to reveal the company's name. So, they put it as "Company Confidential".

As a human, the feeling of want to know (perasaan ingin tahu) inside of me was getting stronger. So, I tried to get some hint from the advertisement. So, what is the mistake that they have made? Yup... they put in the company's fax number.

So, using the man's best friend, I started to google out the company's fax number an within 0.19 seconds, I received the firm answer, who they are actually.

Brilliant isn't it?

Where The Wild Things Are

"Where The Wild Things Are (Live In Minneapolis)"

Steve Vai - Live in Minneapolis

This coming Sept 29th, Steve will release his new DVD on his latest live concert recorded at Minneapolis. Available in DVD, CD and Blu-ray. for more info log on to www.vai.com

Enjoy the preview!

..

..

Happy Ramadhan (I am taking a course now!)

I would like to take this opportunity to wish a Happy Ramadhan to all muslim all over the world.

So, we moved to new office. My busy level is suddenly high and I am unable to take some breath. Why is it so? I think it is time for me to move on, from sitting and do nothing to become active and achieve something. I am not happy if I were in this company for a long period of time, receive the salary and achieve nothing.

As Kiyosaki wrote in his Rich Dad Poor Dad; Rich Dad Lesson No 6 - Work to learn, Not for Money. Not for the salary. Why? Working is the best field for us to learn! Where else you can get an environment, equipment and facilities to learn and get paid? The only thing that offers you such kind of privilege is the 3-letters thing called J.O.B.

Remember not to be addicted to this 3 letters, cause it might as well represent some other meaning. My advise to myself, get good at work and learn everything from it. So I put myself into this way - I am taking a short-to-midterm course and enjoy all the facilities such as laptop, office and stationery, learn a lot of things and get paid at the end of the month. Isn't it better than having a masters degree, bare all the laptops and stationery cost, learn a lot of things and paying for the tuition fees.

It just the matter on how you look at a thing.

We are moving

Been quite busy lately. A lot of task been assigned and I am keeping myself busy all the time. Just to inform, in case you already know I'm working in this company RCG, we are moving to Kota Damansara this week end. Our new office will be start launching on 17th of August and we'll have a small party over there.

In case you need a biometrics solution at your premises or houses, feel free to drop by some message or comments.

more info : www.rcg.tv

Nisfu Syaaban : Bida'ah

Soal:
Apakah hukum atau dari manakah asalnya amalan membaca
yaasin 3 kali pada malam nisfu Syaaban. Adakah ada
dalil yang jelas mengenai perkara ini.

Jawab:
Oleh: TuanHassan Tn-Lah < [EMAIL PROTECTED] >

Amalan nisfu Sya'aban adalah suatu perayaan yang
direka berdasarkan nas-nas yang lemah dan mardud
(tertolak). Inilah pendapat majoriti mujtahid hari ini
antaranya Prof Qardhawi (Fatawa Mu'asirat), Syekh
Sayyid Sabiq (Fiqh Sunnah), Prof Mutawalli Sya'rawi
(anta Tasal), Dr Abdul Karim Zaidan (alMufassal) dan
Prof TM Hasbi asSiddiqui (Sunnah dan Bid'ah). Amalan
membaca Yaasin 3X pada malam nisyfu Sya'aban adalah
bid'ah dan tidak ada nas yang menyokongnya.
Amalan nisfu Sya'aban ini adalah adat Melayu dan
ia bukan peristiwa yang disyari'atkan.

thtl for al_ahkam online

--------

From:           Tn Hassan Tn Lah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Soalan :
Adakah keistimewaan atau kelebihan hari atau malam nisfu syaban ?

Jawab:
Para pengkaji Sunnah mengesahkan fadhilat malam nisfu sya'ban ni
tiada dasar dalam Islam. Malam yg diagung2kan itu sebenarnya malam
lailatul Qadr sahaja. (lihat Dr Qardhawi, Fatawa Mu'asirat)
th

--------


Soalan :
Tak kan lah dengan membaca yasin boleh mendatangkan bidaah, kan kita
digalakkan untuk banyak membaca alquran, saya menjadi confuse dengan
apa yg  diceritakan thtl.

Jawab:
Kita sudah mengkaji dalam semua kitab2 fatwa dan laman web
antaranya: islam Online, kitab Qardhawi: Fatawa Mu'asirat, Lujnah
Daimah
Arab saudi, Lujnah fatwa alAzhar, Sayyid Sabiq, Fiqh Sunnah, Ustaz
Basri Ibrahim, Kusza...
Penjelasan:
Baca yaasin tidak bid'ah.
Ia menjadi bid'ah bila dikaitkan dengan peristiwa dan malam2 tertentu
sedangkan amalan itu tidak diambil dari nabi saw.
Th

--------

Soalan :
Adakah terdapat nas sahih yang mengatakan pada malam nisfu
syaban, catitan amalan untuk tahun lalu akan di bawa ke langit dan
buku yang baru akan dibuka untuk amalan yang datang ?


Jawab:
Pendapat tersebut adalah Dha'if.
Perkara di atas terdapat di dalam beberapa kitab tetapi nas atau
sumbernya tiada yang sahih.
Tiada ditemui sumber/nas sahih berkaitan perkara di atas setelah
dilakukan  kajian mendalam oleh berbagai pihak.

From: Tn Hassan Tn Lah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Soalan :
Apakah hukum berpuasa sunat selepas 15 Syaaban ?

Jawab:
Berkata Imam asSyawkani (Nailool Awthor, Jld
3/243),"jumhur ulama' mengharuskan puasa sunat selepas
15 Sya'ban kerana larangannya datang dari hadis
dha'ef.


PUASA DI BULAN SYAABAN

Adalah disunatkan berpuasa di bulan Sya`ban
sebagaimana yang diriwayatkan daripada Aisyah
Radhiallahu `anha berkata:

Maksudnya: "Adalah Rasulullah Shallallahu `alaihi
wasallam berpuasa sehingga kami mengatakan baginda
tidak berbuka, dan baginda berbuka sehingga kami
mengatakan baginda tidak berpuasa. Saya tidak pernah
melihat Rasulullah Shallallahu `alaihi wasallam
menyempurnakan puasa satu bulan kecuali pada
bulan Ramadan dan saya tidak pernah melihat baginda
berpuasa lebih banyak daripadanya pada bulan Sya`ban."
(Hadith riwayat Bukhari)

Rasulullah Shallallahu `alaihi wasallam memperbanyakkan
berpuasa pada bulan ini adalah disebabkan oleh
beberapa perkara sebagaimana yang diriwayatkan
daripada Usamah bin Zaid berkata:

Maksudnya: "Wahai Rasulullah! Aku belum pernah melihat
engkau berpuasa satu bulan daripada bulan-bulan
sebagaimana (banyaknya) engkau berpuasa di bulan
Sya`ban" Baginda bersabda: "Sedemikian itu kerana
bulan Sya`ban, bulan yang manusia lalai (kerana
terletak) di antara bulan Rajab dan bulan Ramadan, dan

Ia adalah bulan di mana diangkat padanya amalan-amalan
manusia kepada Allah Rabbul `Alamin, maka aku suka
supaya diangkat amalanku sedang aku di dalam
keadaan berpuasa." (Hadith riwayat An-Nasa'i)

Wallahualam

My horoscope Today!

Daily Aries Horoscope - 3rd August, 2009

The sooner you "give it up" at work, the better. That can mean lots of different things to different people. For some it's about giving up your job altogether, though that sounds kind of extreme. Certainly, all Aries are not about to be pouring their work down the drain. For others, it will be more about giving up some kind of damaging drama in the work place, or getting rid of some deadwood from your list of To Do projects, or allowing a colleague the chance to have evolved since the last time you clashed. Whatever it is, give it up!

It's not too late to pursue your dreams in 2009.

=================================
Above article I took from Yahoo! website. What did they mentioned? Sooner to give up the work the better? I was thinking about this matter lately. Waiting for the right timing.

FIM 2009 : Franchise

What do you do on last week end?

Me? Owh.. I went to Franchise International Malaysia 2009 (FIM 2009) at PWTC, an exhibition organized by MFA to encourage people to open a franchise business. More details : http://www.mfa.org.my/fim2009/

Why franchise?
1. The brand - brand is established. When the brand name is strong enough, they will do the talking and we don't have to spend so much on promotion and advertising.
2. Proven System - While most of small business fails because of the system is not established. Franchisor have solve most of the problems when they began their business. We just need to follow step-by-step according to the guidelines or SOP.
3. Everything is ready - If you were to open a business from a scratch, you need to think of everything. The product, the man power allocation, the supplier, recipe (if your franchise is FnB). etc etc.
4. Network and support - Once there is any problem or difficulties, you just need to inform the franchisor and they will give their hand for support. Because you are representing their brand and your success is their success as well.
5. Financial support from the government - Franchisor will often have their projection or estimation of sales and profit. If you are preparing your working paper, all the figures is well estimated. Not simply put a number. So, financial bodies and government agencies will be more confident with all the figures that you put in.

That is some of advantages. But what I want to share with you today is, I met one young millionaire from Indonesia who working with his kebab franchise.

A few years ago, I went to Japan on some business trip. Inside the MAS airplane, I did not watch the movies, instead I watch documentary and some business related show. One of them is 'the million maker' and on this series, they are showing a millionaire from Surabaya, Indonesia who made is fortune at the age as young as 23 (millionaire as in USD, not rupiah btw). I watch the show twice, on my way to Japan and on my way return back to Malaysia.

So, I was surprise I had a chance to met him last week end. I sit around and get some info from him as well as exchanging some ideas. He is very nice guy and he is the man with a different level of thinking. What surprise me was, he is at my age now and our date of birth is very near. I am only older 4 days than him. With same zodiak, he is far away more successful than me. (But I will catch up very soon!)


He own his chain of franchise with the FnB industries - Kebab Turki Baba Rafi. The cost of opening his franchise is relatively low (around RM30k to RM40K). It is a great way to start a business. Anybody who are interested, please inform me as I am seeking for a business partner. :)

Have more info on his franchise at : http://www.babarafi.com/


Other franchise that interest me is the Mawar tuition center.
I met them as well at the mid-valley exhibition. The cost of opening this franchise is RM83K and profit per month will be around RM10K to RM35K.

Have more info on his franchise at : http://www.mawar.edu.my/

I am deeply considering this both 2 of the franchises. Still under my consideration and will do some servay and market analysis on both of them. As I am trying to move to the right side of the Kiyosaki's quadrant, I am inviting anyone of you who are interested to become my partner. :)

Music : The View

http://www.theviewareonfire.com/

Recently I have addicted to this band - The View.

They are from Scotland forming the band since 2005. Their album : Which Bitch - the title at first sound not interesting to me. However, after listening to their songs, I started to realize the arrangement and progression or what-so-ever is beautifully well created. So, if you are indie fans, let's check this band out.

Enjoy some sample tracks.
1. Give Back The Sun
2. Double Yellow Line
3. Glass Smash

If you think you want to steal RM2, think again!

Penghantar surat didakwa kerana rompak RM2

31/07/2009 12:54pm

SHAH ALAM 31 Julai – Gara-gara merompak sebanyak RM2, seorang penghantar surat berhadapan hukuman penjara maksimum 20 tahun, denda serta sebatan apabila didakwa di Mahkamah Seksyen di sini hari ini.

B. Thiyagu, 24, yang turut dikatakan mencederakan mangsa dengan sebatang besi dan topi keledar bagaimanapun mengaku tidak bersalah selepas pertuduhan dibacakan di hadapan hakim, Hasbi Hasan.

Tertuduh dibebaskan dengan ikat jamin RM8,000 dengan seorang penjamin dan kes itu akan disebut semula pada 17 Ogos ini. - Utusan

If you think stealing RM2 is not a big deal, then think again. You might be in prison for 20 years because of that.

Moral of the story, don't steal whatever which is not belongs to you.

J.W. Marriott

Everybody is familiar on the recent bomb which took place in J.W. Marriot in Jakarta. J.W. Marriot is a world class hotel which provide luxury rooms and facilities to their customers.

Yesterday I went to J.W. Marriott Hotel at Bukit Bintang as part of the after sales service. Being a world class hotel, they are always taking counter-measure on what ever happened to avoid or at least minimize the re-occurance of the trouble happened.

Starting from entering the hotel's parking lot, they are using the device like a giant dentist mirror to check anything under the car. Entering the lift they are scanning each part of the body. Wow... If this is the case, hotel have turned to airport or can I say manufacturing area. I remembered last time I work at Cubic, we need to scan the whole body when exit from the factory premises.

According to Robert Kiyosaki security is direct proportion to freedom. When you focus more on security, you will have less freedom. This is totally true in this case, at least.

Gathering SMSLD@Hj. Samuri Kajang

SMSLD - Sekolah Menengah Sains Lahad Datu.
Some of you might not know, I completed my secondary education at Sabah. Lahad Datu. A place which very far a way from the metropolitan and with peaceful and cheerful environment. No water facilities. Everyday the tank lorry will fetch water at Lahad Datu town located 14km from the school. I was very used to take bath with water from the rain and get skin disease after completed my SPM!

It where all the stories begin. I made a lot of friends there, and I am very proud of each one of them. I haven't met some of them for since 10 years ago. How times flies. Some of them already got kids (including me), some in their relationship and some still searching for the perfect partner for life.

It took place at the Haji Samuri, Satey Kajang on July 12th. It was quite near to my house actually. But since I never been there for quite a while (can I say 15 years?) and I lost on my way there.

Thanks to Fide' (or they called him as Max Hardy) who organize everything. We actually keep in touch at one of our website www.smsld.net (come and check it out).

Some funny little things happened, including a good friend of mine who mistakenly arrive 1 day earlier. (I was almost did the same, but luckily I got an internet connection at my house and able to re-check on that warm Saturday).

Glad to meet all of you. Hope someone will organize the same gathering one day. To those who can't attend, hope to meet you again.

Related post : Ustaz Amir Blog
More picture : smsld.net

UPSR : Still Relevant?

Still in education theme here. After the PPSMI, now the UPSR. Some suggestion to scrapped the UPSR which the purpose is to eliminate the exam oriented mindset of pupils and parents. There is some point there. But my opinion, in whatever we do, there must be some target to achieve. If not because of the examination, do you think all the student will read books, focus on class, revise the subject, do homework or attend tuition?

If there were no exams during my time, I wont even care about the lesson and syllabus will become just a syllabus.

Again in anything we do there must be target. That is why KPI or MBO is a very powerful tools in management. The reason behind it was the objective! What is the objective of attending school?

I agree with TSMY to mentioned that UPSR is still relevant, whereas there will be some additional area, co-curriculum will be assess as well. Let the academician become excel in their field and the footballer, or photographer excel in whatever they do as well. So that we can produce a product of the future which we already set a target of what they want to be since primary school. Not everybody wants to be professionals, not everybody wants to be businessman, not everybody wants to be sportsman. So let them choose themselves. But in the meantime, don't scrap the UPSR examination as syllabus need assessment as well.

Music : Composed Songs

Back in my time at University, as a student, there always enough time to do everything we wanted to do. I have a very deepest interest in Music! I played the guitar and also other instruments (but not good at it). Jamming is our weekly activity and it was like a drug for me, stronger than heroin. Those were the days.

Aside from playing, I did compose some songs and luckily some of them I have recorded. Some live jamm session and some I recorded using a multi-track recording software called Cakewalk. Recently, one of my friend just bounce some idea to go for a recording session and start to work on our stuff. So, I just downloaded some of my stuff which I keep a copy from at my gmail. I started to listen to some of my recoding and guess what? The melody keep on flowing into my head.

Even I lose touch with my friends, I still listen to these music. I wish I could spend enough time in the future to work on some of my composed stuff and really do some serious recording. I'll try to allocate myself some time, who knows, I might be just another person on the AIM in next few years. :)

PPSMI - > PPSMM (2012)

So, government cancelled the PPSMI? I believe there's a lot of opinions on this. I personally support the idea of PPSMI. It's not just about the english. There's a whole lot of things, considering my experience from my kindergarten until climbing some few steps at the corporate ladder.

For me, I am the product before the implementation of PPSMI. I studied engineering in Multimedia University. I found out it was difficult to translate all those Malay terms to English during the foundation stage. Some of our friend in South Africa manage to understand the concept and explain to us on the physics subject because they learn science in English at their school. The concept is the same thing with what we learn in form 5, but the terms made us confused, hence, that is my reason for my poor grade. :) Hehe...

If we said, Japanese can do it, why we can't? My opinion is simple. Japanese own most of the largest companies. They decide whatever direction they wanted to. But for us, most of the company is foreign company. We work for them. We did not decide, but we have to follow their instructions. Multi-national company (MNC) will always instruct using English, not Malay. If the student graduated the subject in Malay, they will have difficulties in understanding instructions.

What ever I mentioned above was electronics and manufacturing industries (as my career background began there). How about constructions and oil & gas, where we own some companies? My opinion is the same. All these big companies will expand abroad. Especially mid-east, China etc. We still need to employ foreign people at their country. Then, if we just started to convert every terms, the same situation will happened like me communicating with my ex-colleague from Japan last time. Everytime need to press the electronic dictionary. Same goes in finance and banking, accountancy, medical, etc. Please give me the picagari... err.. what is picagari..?? Let me press the dictionary.. (of course this is lousy example. but did you get my point..?)

I strongly agreed with our former PM, Tun Mahathir in their future vision. However, government also have their point. The gap is there. In 5 years time, those who live in town can get good result, hence excellent career in life, while those studied in rural areas don't have this English atmosphere will end up missing their seats at the higher education level.

However, a lot of steps can be taken to strengthen the English gap. Like Tun mentioned, it's not the idea is to be blamed, it's the implementation. PPSMI is not about the statistics of improvement of the subject, the pass-rate, the gap, the difficulties, the lack of quality teachers etc. It's about the future. To do something for the future requires CHANGES. After some CHANGES there will be some PROBLEMS occur. To solve the PROBLEMS we need some SOLUTIONS. To implement the SOLUTIONS we need some CHANGES. And the cycle goes.

Steve Vai & Andy Timmons - Beat it

Tribute to Michael Jackson.
This video is recorded on June 27th 09, performed live at Meinl Guitar Festival.

Enjoy!

Michael Jackson Passed Away

Michael Joseph Jackson, the king of pop had passed away at the age of 50. He was suffered cardiac arrest and failed to respond to CPR given by paramedics in the ambulance that responded to a 911 call to his L.A. mansion just after noon. He was actually overdose by drugs, which he takes as the painkiller for his cardiac arrest.

Michael has a huge contribution in the music industry. His record was sold about 750 million, which is equivalent to a 3 quarter billion and recognized by Guinness book of record as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time.

He converted to Islam on Nov 2007 and changed his name to Mikaeel. He was influenced by his brother Jermaine Friday who was converted to Islam on 1989 and shared to him how peaceful and beautiful the religion is.

May God bless his soul.

Al-Fatihah.

Michael Jackson passed away, a lot of news and medias are reporting on it. But did you aware that Ustaz Fathi Yakan, the author of the book "Apa ertinya saya menganut Islam (which translated to Malay la..)" had also passed away last 13th June? He was at 76 year old when he passed away. He was the chief of Pakatan Amal Islami Lubnan and had a great contibution on the da'wah movement in Lubnan. May God bless his soul too.

Al-Fatihah.

Toyota Hybrid coming to Malaysia

After a few millions sold worldwide, at last this coming August, only Toyota will bring their Hybrid model Prius to Malaysian market. Hybrid has become more famous day-by-day since the hike in fuel price last year. Beside the fuel factor, the environment will also benefited and of course long term pocket cashflow.

The cost price for this car is about RM73k++ (without tax). I am not too sure how the price will be after include everything on the road. This car can go up-tp 200km with 10litres of fuel with 1.8-litre engine. Imagine how much you can save on long term. If you decided to buy hybrid, one thing need to consider as well, the cost to service the car. I have not yet google on this, but if possible anybody got some ideas on this can drop by some comment on it?

Great Creature of Nature

New species discovered in remote mountains of Ecuador

Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum is a species of glass frog or crystal frog (so called because you can see their internal organs through their translucent skin). This species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List.

This is interesting. How God's creature can actually own a transparent body. You can clearly see it's internal organ. Crazy ain't it? However, this is endangered species. You might not find it elsewhere unless you are willing to go to the remote mountain of Ecuador.

p.s. where is Ecuador btw?

Changing My Financial Blueprint This Weekend

I have been putting the title above as my status for Y! Messenger. I got a good friend of mine pm me and asking what is the meaning of blueprint? I am expecting someone asking me how will I change the financial blueprint, rather than asking what's the meaning of blueprint- cause you can always google the meaning.

Well, this week there will be a seminar conducted by T. Harv Eker. It's called The Millionaire Mind Intensive™. I am going to join the seminar and see myself what T. Harv Eker going to deliver on that seminar.

Preview of the seminar.

Harv Eker have it's own theory of great wealth. It is called “The Secret Psychology of Wealth”.

There is a secret psychology to money. Most people don't know about it, that's why most people never become financially successful. A lack of money is not the problem, it is merely a symptom of what's going on inside you.”

T. Harv Eker

I've been reading his book in 2006, during my first job at Melaka. I was at that moment got excited of getting something extraordinary. I started to feel about how's career will look like and started to feel there's something ain't right with climbing the career ladder. I keep on emphasizing that even if I earn RM10k per month as an employee, the fastest for me to become a millionaire is by working for for 100 month (or 8.33 years) and keep 100% of my earning. However, this will not merely true because I still have to pay the tax, cut 11% for EPF, feed myself and my family, and maintain my lifestyle.

Than I've began to do some research on how to become a millionaire. That is how I began to read books. The first book I started with is "Menjejaki Jutawan Senyap", followed by Rich Dad Poor Dad, Cashflow Quadrant and The Secret of Millionairemind (at that moment I just can't resist the millionaire words and it was at the Best Seller list).

Harv Eker best quotes is "Give me 5 minutes with anyone and I can predict your financial future for the rest of your life".

You can find more information from www.harveker.com, peakpotential.com, or just a simple google and youtube will do.

3rd Month Birthday of our son -> 1st year of Anniversary

Muhammad Hafyzul Izzwan Bin Johan Irwan

Last 28th May 2009 was the 3rd month birthday (according to calendar month) for our baby Hafyz. Yeah, time flies very fast. Sometimes I just could not believe that I am actually a father. Life is no more joking, and I must face it more seriously.

Today, it is our 1st anniversary. I married my wife at the same date as today, last year. Its been a whole year full of memory and I believe my wife is the best gift I ever had. It's been a hard year to survive since we are staying separate for almost a year. I was a week-end husband. But now, we're going to start it all over again. This is the 2nd week my wife resigned her job. Yeah, a lot of people condemn my wife for leaving her post as the 'government servant'. But as for me, I won't listen to them, as what Mal Emelry said in his book - Don't listen to anybody, unless you want to end up like them.

p/s : Sometimes we need to consider something that money can't buy.

Malaysia's Richest Tycoon

Forbes has just announced the Malaysia's 40 richest. As last year, the 'Sugar King' Robert Kuok is still lead the chart followed by the Malaysia's leading telco provider Ananda Krishnan.

Top 10 on the list:

1. Robert Kuok
2. Ananda Krishnan
3. Lee Shin Cheng
4. Lee Kim Hua
5. Teh Hong Piow
6. Quek Leng Chan
7. Yeoh Tiong Lay
8. Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary
9. Tiong Hiew King
10. Vincent Tan

For more info, refer to forbes website.

Oh ya.. Btw, non of them are now having a jay-ow-bee.

Pain

I have been subscribing this blog of business at http://www.trizle.com/ the rock business.
The way they representing point is very 'rock' way and not as what traditional books or most writer wrote. Their points are very good as well as how he/they represent it.

Article taken from the blog.

What Counts

Posted: 18 May 2009 02:14 AM PDT

A reporter once asked Mohammed Ali how many sit-ups could he do. His reply?

"I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that’s when I start counting, because that’s when it really counts."

Pain drives you to get better at X.

Kobe Bryant didn't spend his childhood playing against other 12-year-olds; he forced himself to play against his father's professional teammates.

Gaining proficiency at something is like building freakish muscles:

• The more you stress yourself, the stronger you become at it.

Likewise, the less you stress yourself, the weaker you become at it.

Seek pain.

=====================================
Back to my article


Most people are wanting to do something very comfortable in life. The easier the better. Put away all the risk and do what every people wish to do. And the result will be very expected, they become just like every other people. Just an easy example, everybody wants to work with the government today. It does not happened back 10 or 20 years ago where everybody want to work in the private sector.

Everybody wants to become an engineer during my time (including me). And very few people want to be in the bio/plantation/education. But as you can see now, engineering market is saturated, results in wages becoming very average (even the studies are much harder) and you need to perform very well or else, wait for the next recession and off you go. Back in form 5, at my time nobody wants to become a teacher. Only those who not perform well in SPM will then get a teaching course when they applied UPU. Some of my friends are very frustrated and upset when she got that course at UPSI, even she was very shy to tell others. But what happened today, every body are applying for KPLI and DPLI. Can you predict what will happened tomorrow?

The best is to get out of the comfort zone.
Get a greater degree in life, seek for more pain cause that is what people would not want to do.

"Do what people won't today, so that you can live the life later that people can't."

Putrajaya Mosque (Happy Labour Day)

First of all Happy Labour Day to all workers around the world (even though you are not really a labour). You all have made a huge contribution on transforming the world.
1st May was a public holiday all over the county. So, I took this opportunity to perform the Friday prayer at Putrajaya Mosque. It was my second time performing my friday prayer inside the mosque, but this time together with my father-in-law and my brother-in-law. Walking about 5 minutes from the parking with an extremely hot weather and entering the mosque with an air-conditioning.

Finish the prayer, there's a bunch of people were crowding in one side of the exit. It was the former prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. I have a few times met him, especially in MMU, when he pays a visit after his retirement, during my convocation and some functions. I was grateful to shake his hand at that moment. He was a strong leader who worked very hard to transform the country, and even the Putrajaya City is also one of his plan during his time as a prime minister.

A few moment before leaving the building, suddenly a guy come and whisper at me, saying.. "Laaa... ingatkan imam besar mana, imam besar hadhari rupanya..".
In my mind, there are two things.
1. Tun never proposed the idea of Islam Hadhari.
2. As I said earlier, he is the one who work on the Putrajaya City, and even the Putrajaya Mosque was also under his project.
Why do these kind of people never thankful or appreciate the person who actually create the idea of the place?
Or if he don't like the idea of Putrajaya, why the hell he was there in the first place?

Robert Kiyosaki Live in Malaysia

Robert Kiyosaki is the author of the best seller "RICH DAD POOR DAD", a book that teaches on financial education. Being 6 years in the New York Times Best Seller list, he is no doubt a great people to seek advice on financial matters. The good news is he's coming to Malaysia this coming to Malaysia next month. And the BEST news is, I am going for the Seminar.

It was 5 years ago, where Robert last visit to Malaysia and give his talk. 5 years passed by, he decided to come back, not by himself, instead his bringing his group or they call them the Rich Dad's Advisors (as you can see from the picture beside you) and his wife Kim Kiyosaki - the author of 'Rich Woman'.

I was attending a workshop (or a preview for this event) by Jackie Wong, sharing some knowledge on basic of Robert teaching. The Workshop was fun and I do get a lot of contacts. I starting to felt like this is the advantages to be in the middle of the city. Whereas, in Muar, the opportunity was there but it is difficult for me (maybe at that moment) to grab some of the golden opportunities.

I am a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki. I read a lot of his writings and own more than half of his series. I am fortunate enough to be able to join this seminar, even though I am flat broke. I got a promo price and what I can think of at that moment is to use my most precious flat little plastic card with a build in chip and swipe it. The rest, I will work on later. In addition, there is a free gift of ticket to attend the T. Harv Eker - the author of 'The Secret of Million Dollar Mind'. I have read his book on 2006 and I was impressed by the idea of financial blueprint. It really make sense.

I do really hope to actually gain something from the seminar. Of course later on I will share some of the knowledge to some of you who are interested in listening it.

For more info :

http://www.robertkiyosakiasia.com/

http://www.srpl.net/

World Largest Company

Recently Forbes Global has announced the largest company in the world for the year 2009.
Below is the top 20 list of the largest companies.

Rank	Company	Country	Industry	Sales ($bil)	Profits ($bil)	Assets ($bil)	Market Value ($bil)
1	General Electric	United States	Conglomerates	182.52	17.41	797.77	89.87
2	Royal Dutch Shell	Netherlands	Oil & Gas Operations	458.36	26.28	278.44	135.10
3	Toyota Motor	Japan	Consumer Durables	263.42	17.21	324.98	102.35
4	ExxonMobil	United States	Oil & Gas Operations	425.70	45.22	228.05	335.54
5	BP	United Kingdom	Oil & Gas Operations	361.14	21.16	228.24	119.70
6	HSBC Holdings	United Kingdom	Banking	142.05	5.73	2,520.45	85.04
7	AT&T	United States	Telecommunications Services	124.03	12.87	265.25	140.08
8	Wal-Mart Stores	United States	Retailing	405.61	13.40	163.43	193.15
9	Banco Santander	Spain	Banking	96.23	13.25	1,318.86	49.75
9	Chevron	United States	Oil & Gas Operations	255.11	23.93	161.17	121.70
11	Total	France	Oil & Gas Operations	223.15	14.74	164.66	112.90
12	ICBC	China	Banking	53.60	11.16	1,188.08	170.83
13	Gazprom	Russia	Oil & Gas Operations	97.29	26.78	276.81	74.55
14	PetroChina	China	Oil & Gas Operations	114.32	19.94	145.14	270.56
15	Volkswagen Group	Germany	Consumer Durables	158.40	6.52	244.05	75.18
16	JPMorgan Chase	United States	Banking	101.49	3.70	2,175.05	85.87
17	GDF Suez	France	Utilities	115.59	9.05	232.71	70.46
18	ENI	Italy	Oil & Gas Operations	158.32	12.91	139.80	80.68
19	Berkshire Hathaway	United States	Diversified Financials	107.79	4.99	267.40	122.11
20	Vodafone	United Kingdom	Telecommunications Services	70.39	13.30	252.08	93.66

It is obvious that oil and gas dominates the top 20. No wonder the oil and gas always earn more in-terms of salaries and bonuses. So, fresh grads who are looking for a good lifetime job, I might highly recommend this industries for the time being (Nobody can clearly predict the future, btw).

You can get more details here for full list.

If we narrow down the scope to Malaysia, some of the companies might have been performing well this year. Perhaps the global recession is the opportunity for the local companies to get their butt on the list and get notice around the world.

Rank	Company	Country	Industry	Sales ($bil)	Profits ($bil)	Assets ($bil)	Market Value ($bil)
534	Maybank	Malaysia	Banking	4.71	0.90	81.98	6.71
569	Sime Darby	Malaysia	Conglomerates	10.41	1.07	10.79	9.16
575	Tenaga Nasional	Malaysia	Utilities	7.58	0.76	20.58	7.54
685	Public Bank	Malaysia	Banking	3.02	0.76	56.55	8.62
705	Bumiputra-Commerce	Malaysia	Banking	3.68	0.57	59.60	6.66
875	MISC	Malaysia	Transportation	4.05	0.76	9.08	8.58
1051	IOI Group	Malaysia	Food, Drink & Tobacco	4.49	0.68	5.27	6.14
1290	RHB Capital	Malaysia	Banking	1.74	0.31	30.13	2.17
1467	Petronas Gas	Malaysia	Oil & Gas Operations	0.98	0.34	3.06	5.20
1540	YTL	Malaysia	Utilities	2.00	0.24	11.77	3.11
1612	PLUS Expressways	Malaysia	Transportation	0.87	0.32	4.92	3.96
1684	PPB Group	Malaysia	Food, Drink & Tobacco	1.02	0.38	3.82	3.10
1692	AMMB Holdings	Malaysia	Banking	1.72	0.21	25.82	1.82
1734	TM International	Malaysia	Telecommunications Services	3.33	0.15	10.75	3.06
1805	Hong Leong Financial Group	Malaysia	Banking	1.20	0.17	25.53	1.30
1823	Genting	Malaysia	Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure	2.66	0.17	8.78	3.46
1938	Petronas Dagangan	Malaysia	Oil & Gas Operations	6.97	0.21	2.69	1.98
1941	Kuala Lumpur Kepong	Malaysia	Food, Drink & Tobacco	2.28	0.30	2.47	2.87
1976	Telekom Malaysia	Malaysia	Telecommunications Services	2.54	0.23	6.51	3.21

These are the giants companies in Malaysia. Malaysian Maybank leads the way at rank 534, but only Sime Darby managed to earn a billion of profit (in USD). I have no idea how the decide the rank.

So, aren't you wanting to have a part of the cake and receive some portion of their profits in term of dividend?

Happy 1st April

Today, with nothing to do I just viewed the youtube from my beloved laptop. What happened was everything turn upside down. WTF! And they said that is their new layout. However, they claim that they are doing that for a reason.

Your New Viewing Experience

At YouTube, we're always looking to improve the way you watch videos online. As part of that, today we're excited to introduce our new page layout. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your new YouTube viewing experience:

1

Turn your monitor upside-down

Our internal tests have shown that modern computer monitors give a higher quality picture when flipped upside down—kind of like how it's best to rotate your mattress every six months. You might find that YouTube videos look better this way.

2

Tilt your head to the side

Imagine you've got water in your ear and need to get it out. Tilt your head toward one shoulder and watch the video (gentle head-smacking on the opposite side is optional).

3

Move to Australia

As you probably know, everything in Australia is upside-down, so moving to Australia may provide you with a more natural YouTube viewing experience. (Note: If you live Down Under, and the page is still upside-down for you, then we recommended moving to the northern hemisphere.)

Of course, if you prefer the way things used to be, just click on the "I prefer the old-fashioned layout!" when watching a video.

Happy April 1st!

Are you being Retrenched?

Retrenched Workers Are In Higher Demand Now

Recently the government provided a real boost for retrenched workers in its 2nd stimulus package announcement

It announced that companies who employ workers retrenched from 1 July 2008 be given double tax deduction * on the amount of remuneration paid.
This allows companies to enjoy big tax savings by employing retrenched workers.

How does it work?

If an employer recruits a retrenched worker from another company and pays a salary of RM24,000 a year. Normally, tax deduction to the employer is RM24,000 from taxable profit. However, with this measure, the company is allowed to deduct RM48,000 from profit, that is, at double the salary. This represents an additional tax reduction for the company of RM6,000 or 25% from RM24,000.

If you are in this situation, now is the best time to get that interview because companies are much more likely to hire a retrenched worker because of this government incentive!

**Articles taken from jobstreet.

So, if you are a retrenched worker, worry no more. Hurry to update your resume and apply for new job. If you are not, then just pray so. If you received the VSS or monetary compensation, and you got another job, then, that will be fantastic!

Happy 26th Birthday Dear Me...

26th March, it was the biggest day for me. On March 26, I turn 26 years old. Oh my God, I'm getting older. In my new company, there's another person named Denise, which is in the same department as me, who happened to born on the same date as me. We might celebrate it together later with other colleagues, maybe.

As usual, the first wish was always the Jusco, which send me the birthday card earlier this month, but as for this year, Parkson too, did send the card with various coupons to be redeemed. The best thing about Parkson's coupon is, I think I can use the coupon as there is no (or not much) terms and conditions, or pre-requisite before using them. So, if you are not a Bonuslink member, better to grap one.
Up to now, there are 2 text message I received wish me for my birthday, which is my lovely wife, and of course my dearest parents. They are the most important person in my life. Thanks a lot, I love you all very much.

As my previous post, I promised to drop some words for my new company. So, overall it was OK. Everybody is nice to me. The only major thing for me is, I CAN'T SPEAK or UNDERSTAND CHINESE LANGUAGE. Language always be the barrier in communication. I must take some counter-measure on this matter, to learn as soon as possible on this language. Back on track, I was in the Product Marketing Department, role as product engineer. Our company do a lot of Biometrics and RFID product, as well as other product with innovations. Check it out at http://www.rcg.tv. There is a line-up of products that will attract your interest. The only matter is whether you are willing to throw the big bucks or not.

As for the politics, today they have announced the winner for the Wanita, Puteri and Pemuda UMNO. It was really a shocking moment when they announced the winner of Ketua Pemuda as Khairy Jamaluddin. OMG, doesn't eveybody alert on the warning that was given to him regarding the 'politik wang' issue? Or is it the person who already received the SI who voted him? However, it was the decision of the perwakilan. However, I am waiting for tomorrow's result on the Timbalan Presiden post.

Feel free to drop some comment on this matter?