Syed Mokhtar Albukhary

I have a high Growth Emotional Need. It is typical me to buy so many books because I might think that I can benefits from the content. However, I hardly finish reading book because of so many reasons (or excuses). Yesterday, I bought a book - a biography of Malaysian tycoon, the only bumiputera that makes into the list of top 10 riches man in Malaysia (according to Forbes) for more than a decades. He ranked no. 6 in Malaysia and no. 344 of riches man in the world from the latest Forbes list. This book really interest me and for the first time I managed to read the whole book, cover-to-cover in less than 18 hours.

This book really reveal how Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar started the trading business after skipped his SPM examination because the family could not afford to pay for the examination fees. He is really a genius in doing business and there are some strategies that he used which most of people wont. He did not become rich overnight. He really did it step-by-step from a sole-proprietorship. He has his own principle of doing business since the beginning of his venture.

"It was based on the idea that every business needs two key figures who must work together to succeed: one to run the business, another to manage the finances."

He never do business by his own and always have a partner that will complement. And this principle is true if you look at other giant corporations in the world, most of them started by 2 co-founders.

He went to ups and downs especially during the economic crisis where he lost almost 80% of his net worth.

"The Asian Economic Crisis of 1997 came down hard on me. I was hit by the economic downturn, and it was made worse because I refused to relinquish my own companies as well as those acquired as a bumiputera to settle my debts. It was a question of pride, and I struggled to maintain the dignity of the Malays by not letting go especially of strategic assets. And this cost me RM2.4 billion."

He puts his interest aside and always think about other people, especially the Malays, the country and the less fortunate.  There are a lot of moves that he did which is not financially strategic, but in order maintain the equity of the bumiputera and protecting the assets. He did not trade stocks and make profits when the price when up. But he holds it and add value so that the price will go up which will benefits the other stakeholders.

Syed Mokhtar has a magic touch, even in heavily diversified industries, he always take over the companies that is sick and turn it around to make the companies run in profit. He has done this over-and-over again especially on the 3 corporations that he took over starting from the MMC, PERNAS and DRB-Hicom. He made many of strategic moves which was not advised by his financial advisor, but he made the decision when he look at it as a whole group benefits, instead of only financial aspect. And this move is actually proven in the long run. It is interesting to see the Proton next moves after DRB-Hicom took over. And I wonder what will happened if he took over Malaysian Airlines.

Ali Alabbar once asked: "Your business is so huge, so why are you working so hard?"
Syed Mokhtar answered: "We all need to be strong and successful so we have the ability to help other."
Being a philanthropist, he contribute so much and just enjoyed to do so.

"Whenever I do charity, my heart moves. It is not about corporate social responsibility. It is about caring, something that comes from the heart. My wish is that people with money will help those less fortunate so that the world is more just and fair to all." 

All and all, I felt truly inspired to achieve more success with the leadership, humility and achievement shown by Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar after reading this book.

When was the last time you feel inspired?

Marrying at the age of 25

When I give talk about Law of Attraction, I will always give an example of my marriage. When I was 17 or 16, I always made a claim that I am going to marry at the age of 25. While I set the target, I never have any candidate for my future wife in my mind. Why 25? I am not sure, but I justify; because our prophet get married when he was 25. And I am sure that is the best age to fit marriage, at least for male. 

My wedding in June 2007

Guess what happened when I turn 25? I got married. And at that time, most of my friend was not married yet while some percentage married earlier than me. It does not mean good or bad, but the point is, the Law of Attraction work. 

Recently we have a chit-chat with my good friends, Syazly, Jack (Safwan) and BHN participant from Indonesia, Wahyu about marriage. Than I recall back one of my conversation with 1 of my friend. Back then, I was 18 or 19 year-old. I told my friend, Azmil, we should get married at 25 while his opinion 30 should be better. Then I started to argue my point. 

"If we get married at 25, the next year we got our first child. And the first child married at 25, most probability we will be having our first grandchildren at the age of 52. If we got married at 30 and our first child married also at the age of 30, most probably by the age of 62 only we will have the chance to see our first grandchildren. And that assume that the baby born the next year after marriage. And by then, we will be too old and we might not able to see the 5th or 6th grandchildren."

I still remember the reply from Azmil "It's ok if they don't meet me, as long as they know that their grandfather is a Rockstar." (Azmil is our drummer at that time, and he is really talented when it comes to music. And btw, Azmil married at the age of 25, almost the same date with me).

But as I recall the story, it gives some impact to our conversation, especially to Safwan. He started to realize that he needs to prepare on getting married from now. 

While there is no right and wrong answer to this. It depends on every individual value. Some really appreciate their next generation as they are going to continue our legacy. Some might think that they need to achieve 'something' first before getting married. Some might think that it is better to be matured enough before getting married. If the marriage fails, then there is no point of getting marry at early age. However, my advise is to look things at broader perspective and consider the long term impact to us.

Butterflies and Hurricanes

Songs can motivate people. Especially when the lyrics gives some meaning. Different people likes different kind of song, and we need to respect that.



This song provide very good lyrics:

Change everything you are, and everything you were
Your number has been called

Fight the battle has begun, revenge will surely come
Your hardtime are ahead

Best You've got to be the best, you've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now!

Working With Different Colored Brain

In my life, as an employee I have some difficulties to work with people. Especially my superior. Once in a while, I have a good idea. For example, working in a company where training is part of our bread and butter, I do think that to upgrade the HRDF status of the company is important. We were at class C at that time. What stopping us to upgrade to class B was the TTT. Being a subsidiary of a University, we don't have trainer that parked under our payroll, which is one of the requirement of class B and of course to upgrade to class A we need to have 2 trainers.

Since we don't have any trainers inside the company (we outsource from our parent company most of the time), I proposed to my CEO to send me to the TTT course. I begin to explain why we need this to him. The result - he don't agreed. It is a five days course and there bound to be some problem if I leave the company for 5 days (and I realized how important I am to the company).

Frustrated, I just went back into my room and start talking to other colleagues. They were all agreed with me but somehow the boss just couldn't see.

One day, we have a new head coming onboard. After convincing the same idea to her, she started to see the CEO. Interestingly, the CEO agreed to send me for the 5 days HRDF-TTT course. I was quite surprise. Is it because our new head is a female; easily convinced the male CEO or because of she is a great influencer?

Today we studied Colored Brain. And I noticed that my CEO is a Purple Brained. He just look things into details and always try to find ways to reject our first submission especially on documentation. By knowing this characteristic, I know that he needs a lot of information before he can proceed with any decision. While being a Green Brain, I always talk thing without any structure and jumping here and there. This results to my communication did not match with what his brain is trying to process.

Moving forward - the next time if I were to submit a proposal or asking an approval, I might need to spend more time to feed him with more details and information before asking him to make any decision. This way, it fits to his way of communicating and this can help him to make a decision.

And by the way, from this writing I noticed that I am Green Brained. Do you noticed that?
What is your Boss Brain Color? Call me and I can help you to identify that.

Training: A month full of training activities!

Being in training line is something that I am passionate about. Training can educate people and add value to their live. However, the most important thing is that I have seen people changes from a single training session. It is a changing point to some people's life.

Working in my current company, MMU Cnergy, as a training provider have so many advantages. Nonetheless, I see a lot of point to be improved. We are constantly making change for the better!

Talking about training, I thing this two months are an interesting period. These are some list of training that I will be joining in the next few days:

1. Teaming for Quantum Growth by Lawrence Walter Seminar. I have been working with Dr Lawrence and from testimonial from other people, his training is a total transformation. Using active NLP technique, Dr Lawrence Walter has the unique ability to touch human heart and made the transformation really happened. It does not only change the participants, it also changes the whole culture of the organization. And I am really excited for this training. Training will be on 17th and 18th October 2012.

2. Colored Brain Train-the-trainer certification. I have invested some amount of money to be certified as colored brain practitioner and trainer. Developed by Arthur F. Carmazzi, it is an interesting topic that talk about your brain. How your brain process information and how to communicate with different types of brain color so that we can communicate better. I will elaborate more when I am certified to talk about this. Training will be on 26th - 28th October. (and this is during the Eid celebration)

3. Training Needs Analysis - by PSMB. This is a free subsidized training by HRDF and they are meant for SMEs. SMEs don't have sufficient fund in their HRDF. It is an initiative by PSMB to conduct some free training and without any hesitation I signed up because it can greatly benefit my current job function and my career as well. TNA will actually provide some tools to evaluate whether the training is really needed by an organization or an individual. As you might aware, training require some investment in terms of money and time. And to make sure this two most valuable items is not wasted, a proper TNA will help to identify whether which training should be conducted to minimize competency gap. The training will be on 7th - 8th November 2012.

That were the list of trainings that I am going to attend. Some training that we are organizing and happening this month are:
1. Winnable Relationship and High Impact Presentation (with Dale Carnegie) for TM Government. (8 - 10 October)
2. Talent Assessment (with Leaderonomics) for Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad. (11 - 12 October)
3. Creative and Critical Thinking for AUO Crystal. (19 - 20 October)
4. Instructional Design Training for University Tun Hussein Onn. (31 Oct - 2 Nov)

These does not count our MMU Toastmasters meeting - which is also part of development programme.

It was an interesting journey in the training business and I am looking forward to have more achievement in this near future!

Hopefully, everybody will be benefited from all of these training programme.

10-20-30 Rule

This is the rule if you are going for a pitching - requesting for a funder to fund your business idea. But might also be good for sales presentations.

In summary:
10 - Prepare your slides not more than 10 slides.
20 - Present your presentation within 20 minutes.
30 - Use the minimum of 30 points for font size.

Simple video but I thing this is important when you do business pitching.

Positive Thinking

What are the positive things that you are thinking today?

Let's list down positive things that wish to have and look at it happening today!

"How to be Successful" by Steve Vai

Is it a coincidence that Steve Vai talk about success? He sounds like a success guru or personal development expert.
I have been a big fan of Steve Vai - if you reckoned in so many of my previous post. I am not a big fan of Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani or Petrucci. Now, I am soo into this personal development stuff, talking about success and stuff.

It is about the attraction - like attract like. That's the law.
Anyhow, enjoy whatever he said. Because whatever he said does not have contradiction at all with other personal development book and Steve Vai is the living proof of successful people in his field concentrating in things that he is passionate the most. Same goes to Steve Jobs (another coincidence that all of my idols named Steve).

Steve do talk about imagine that you able to play the difficult part of the music. This is again law of attraction. And LoA is the area that I have interest in.

All and all, I have viewed this video again-and-again with the hope that whatever he said, stuck into my brain!

Thank you

Cancer Information

I found something that probably useful. However, the content is not verified by expert. If you are an expert and if you could contribute in verifying this information, please comment on the article.

LATEST CANCER INFORMATION

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY …

[Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins ]

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to STARVE the cancer cells by not feeding it with foods it needs to multiple.

What cancer cells feed on:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Note: Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells will starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes t o nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.

To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water--best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines will become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor.

Anger, unforgiving and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

Lesson from CEO of JP Morgan

I found an interesting article which was shared by one of my friend in Facebook.

Even though I am not sure whether it is a true story or just something make-up, but I think the lesson was there.

Read it through and the analysis in business point of view really make sense.

Hope you learn something from it!

A reply from CEO of J.P. Morgan to a pretty girl seeking a rich husband

A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?

I'm going to be honest of what I'm going to say here.

I'm 25 this year. I'm very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above.

You might say that I'm greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York.

My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married?

I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you?

Among those I've dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit.

If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden(?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I'm here humbly to ask a few questions:
1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches are only average-looking? I've met a few girls who don't have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys.

4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)

Ms. Pretty

A philosophical reply from CEO of J.P. Morgan:

Dear Ms. Pretty,
I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor.

My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I'm not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain.

Put the details aside, what you're trying to do is an exchange of "beauty" and "money" : Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square.

However, there's a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can't be prettier year after year.

Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It's not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worse 10 years later.

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a "trading position".
If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term - same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or "leased".

Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income.This has better chance than finding a rich fool.

Hope this reply helps.

signed,
J.P. Morgan CEO

A Dollar and Some Ambition: Jim Rohn

Capital in your business isn't what matters. It isn't the money that buys you a future; it's your skills that buy you a future. Money and no skills, I'm telling you, you are still poor. Money and no ambition, where are you? Money and no courage, you're broke. A little bit of money and a whole lot of courage is all we need.

When looking for people, don't always look for the ones with money; money doesn't matter. What matters is somebody's willingness, somebody's ingenuity, somebody's willingness to try. If they have a dollar to invest, that's plenty for me. A dollar and some ambition and I can show you how to get rich and it will be one of the classic stories of the company. When recruiting somebody and they would say, "I don't have any money," I'd say, "I've been looking for you for six months! Let me show you how to do it without any money."

Because here are the rules of capitalism: you can either buy and sell or, if you are in certain circumstances, you can sell and buy. That is, if you've got ambition. Now if you haven't got ambition we can't cure that and money can't cure it—lack of ambition. But if you have a dollar and some ambition I will show you how to get rich. Even if you don't have a dollar I will show you how to get rich, because you can sell and buy. Somebody says, "As soon as the product arrives I'll sell it." No, no, you don't understand. You don't understand the magic of fortune if you say “I have to wait till the product gets here.” And you probably don't understand the value of your own story.

By selling and buying you are simply sharing from your own excitement and belief about the product and the opportunity. Once the customer says yes, ask for the money and then go get the product. After doing that three or four times you will be able to buy and sell, but never let money keep you from an opportunity when you have in its place true ambition, faith and courage.

Makanan Kegemaran Nabi

MAKANAN KEGEMARAN RASULULAH S.A.W

1. Barli – Bagus untuk demam jika dibuat sup.
2. Kurma – Nabi berkata rumah yang tidak mempunyai kurma adalah sepert rumah yang tidak ada makanan.
3. Buah Tin – Buah dari syurga. Boleh mengubati buasir.
4. Anggur – Nabi suka buah anggur. Ia membersihkan darah, menguatkan buah pinggang, membersihkan perut
5. Madu – Ia adalah makanan segala makanan, minuman segala minuman, ubat segala ubat. Mengubati cirit birit jika dibancuh dengan air panas, membuka selera, menguatkan perut, membuang kahak. Elok diminun waktu pagi dengan air suam.
6. Tembikai (Segala Jenis) – Nabi berkata wanita mengandung tidak akan gagal melahirkan anak yang baik dari segi karater dan wajahnya.
7. Susu – Nabi berkata susu baik untuk membuang panas badan seperti tangan membuang peluh dari dahi. Menguatkan belakang, memperbaiki otak memperbaharui pandangan mata, membuang kelupaan.
8. Cendawan – Baik untuk mata, perancang keluarga.
9. Minyak Zaitun – Rawatan kulit dan rambut. Melambatkan penuaan, merawat radang perut.
10. Delima – Membersihkan tubuh dari syaitan & bisikan syaitan selama 40 hari.
11. Cuka – Nabi selalu meminum dengan minyak zaitun (Trend yang popular di restoran Itali)
12. Air – Minuman terbaik. Jika dahaga hendaklah disedut perlahan-lahan. Jangan diteguk. Mudah mendapat sakit pada hati. Ilmu yang bermanfaat harus dikongsikan.