In exam, u aim for an A. About solat, what's ur target? merely not to miss one?

This post is about an idea i got in the process of updating my facebook status a few weeks ago. The idea was about this common advice in our society which goes, "belajar bersungguh2 ye, sembahyang jgn tinggal"(do ur best in study, don't miss a solat). it's a good advice, but not good enough. There's some degree of materialism in it.

Let me explain. What does it mean by 'doing ur best in study'? It could mean never to skip a class/lecture, doing ur assignments excellently and to be fully prepared for any quizzes/tests.

The 2nd part of the advice is where i found something wrong. U do ur best in study(to achieve worldly success), but about success in the hereafter, ur commitment about solat is only not to miss one?

This is really not right! Ideally, we should give 100% commitment in achieving success in this world n also in the hereafter. but above all, success in hereafter must come first. Example of an act resulting from being a 100% committed muslim is always trying to improve the quality of solat - maybe by trying to perform solat at the mosque as frequent as possible or by understanding what u recite in solat. The point is to constantly improving - even by 1% each day.

Many of my friends strive to improve their performance in exams. But r they improving their performance in practicing Islamic teachings? They wanna get more A's in exams but they only perform Subuh prayer if they r still awake to do it or they luckily get up a bit early. Why aren't they planning their time well so that they'll be sure that they r gonna be able to wake up early? This shows what their target is regarding solat. (i've been mentioning only about solat. there r many things other than that we can improve on)

This is what i think is missing in most of the self-improvement materials - because most of it come from the western world that doesn't really care about life in the hereafter. My last words, to be truly successful in this world, u must give 100% commitment to achieve it. So, for The Almighty God, for heaven - the ultimate success, do u intend to give any less than 100%?

Accepting harsh realities

In the course of living this life until it's time to meet our Creator, we r bound to go thru hard times - the death of someone u love, letting go of someone u love just because u have to, facing a terrible failure, betrayed n so on. I want to share with u what i say to myself in hard times.

How do u treat someone u love? parents would do their best to provide the best for their children - healthy and delicious foods, cozy bed on which u can sleep sound, the best education they can afford, etc. And true lovers would do anything to see their partner happy( i don't have to give an example for this do i? coz i think u r more expert in this. =P)

U see? when u love someone, u'd do anything/everything u do is for his/her goodness. Now that's the love of human! How about God? He is The Almighty, The Most Loving! - if ur parents/partners love u, how much better do u think God loves u?

The connection is this, everything we r going thru in this life is in God's plan - He wants it to happen to us. So, would He allow anything bad to happen to us? Just like parents who provide the best for their kids, He surely allows only the best things to happen to us!

I told u that lovers would do anything to see their partners happy. Now if God loves us, why don't all the things that He puts us thru make us happy? Why does sometimes He put us thru grief n sorrow? Doesn't He wanna see us happy? Well, God certainly does! in fact He wants us to achieve the eternal ultimate happiness - the heaven.

There's a price to pay to succeed in this world. If u wanna be a self-made millionaire, u have to work hard, have a solid self-discipline n many more. U have to be 100% committed to be truly successful in this world n u also have to face some tests (eg, betrayal of a business partner or someone in ur company embezzle the company's fund.)

What does this has to do with the topic? ok so there's success in this world. How about success in the hereafter? To me, success in the hereafter is being able to stay in heaven. N just like the worldly success, u don't get to enter heaven for free - u have to pay the price. It may include: being a 100% committed Muslim(i'll write about this in the next post) n also passing God's tests excellently.

Can't u see? the reason why He put us thru grief n sorrow is that they are part of His tests which ultimately will lead us to heaven.

Finally, i want to state again the most important point of this post - everything we have gone/are going/will go thru in this life is in God's plan. And because He loves us very3 much, His plan must be the best for our goodness.

What is ur ideal job?

This is a post about the ways of making sure that u r doing the right job for ur success - from what I've read or listened. This may not be so important now, but its importance grows as u get older in the pursuit of success.

Ask urself these questions:

1. If u get 1 million today, would u still be doing ur job tomorrow?

- If u ask Chef Wan this, would he stop cooking? I bet no because he really3 love cooking. But if u ask someone whose reason for working is merely to 'cari duit', this guy will definitely quit his job straightaway n do something else.

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2. What job would u still be doing even when u don't get paid a penny

- Did u know that Donald Trump has been on the brink of bankruptcy and in millions of debts? He was not only getting zero(not a penny), in fact it was negative!(less than zero). U see, because he loved what he did, he continued doing his job until he succeeded.

- Think of it this way : do u think singers only sing when someone is paying them? no! a true singer would sing anywhere n anytime - whether there's anyone listening or not. For example, they'd sing in the toilet, waiting for someone in the car alone, riding a motorcycle, and definitely on a stage. U see? a true singer not only sing when they get paid(on a stage), but also when no one's paying(anytime n anywhere else).

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3. What is something that u would u do if u were guaranteed to succeed?

- the question says it all. what is it?

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4. What job would u do if u only have 3 years left to live?

- same with this one. ask urself.

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* Ur ideal job should be smthg that doesn't make u think about retiring - how old do u think Sir Alex Ferguson (manager of Manchester United F.C) is? He's 68! The average people would've retired at least 8 years ago but he's not coz he really likes his job.

* Ur ideal job is something u do bcoz u choose to. Not bcoz u have to.

* Ur ideal job should make u feel that sometimes, when u r going to bed at night, u feel like u cant wait to wake up to do the job the next morning.

To finish, the answer may not come now. i myself haven't got the answer, but we have to keep asking ourselves these questions till we get the answer.

Melayu janganlah melayu

[Please read this post till the last word to avoid any misunderstandings]

I remember in a public relation class the lecturer asked us to do a debate about whether or not we should allow the government's boarding school [sekolah berasrama penuh(SBP)] to be opened to non-Malay. The topic really had caught my attention to an extent that i almost lost control of my emotion. And the best part was, i can't express what i felt because it was a debate! - i had to wait for my turn! I was very very frustrated and in the end i was only able to express about 25% of my opinion. Man, i hate debates.

Okay, some of u may argue that it is important to be able to control the emotion - yeah, exactly what the debate taught me. Don’t get me wrong! I agree with that. 100%! But the reason that my emotion almost went out of control was that the things that i wasn't able to tell the class that day was the things that i thought was very very very important. And here I am, through the power of technology, presenting the remaining 75% of my thoughts and ideas that i wasn't able to present that day. =P

To begin, I would surely agree if the topic that was discussed in the class and the similar one regarding UiTM is implemented. The reason is, by doing that, we (the Malays) can improve our education level through competition. The Chinese’s education level is far better than us. If we stick to the same old stuff, how are we gonna get ahead? What’s the point of keeping UiTM as Malay right if its students study just to pass the exam? (Look, I’m just suggesting a way for us to improve our education level. If u can think of any other better way to do that, then you are most welcome to share it. The point is, we must improve our education level!)

“I fear they will conquer us little by little if we do that”. Well, that is unnecessary! We are afraid because they are educationally and economically better than us! If we are at the same level with them or above them, what do we have to worry about? Let me explain.

A piece of land was up for sale in my kampung. The owner was Malay and he wanted to sell the land only to Malay. That land ended up being sold to a Chinese because the Malay man the owner sold the land to was actually buying the land for a Chinese. Now, if the Malay man was a rich man, do u think he would’ve accepted the Chinese man’s offer? Definitely no! if the Malay man was at the same level with the Chinese(in terms of wealth), he wouldn’t have been so desperate to do such a despicable thing!

That illustrates the importance of improving our economical strength and I think it’s more important than education level. It is because even if there were 5 Malay university and only 1 Chinese university, if the majority of the Chinese student’s CGPA are above 3.5 and the average for the Malay students is 3.00, who’ll get the better jobs? It’s obvious! Moreover, the average Chinese students will still get good jobs because most of the employers in Malaysia are non-Malay – mostly Chinese.

So? We must improve our economy! Study entrepreneurial strategies and business tactics. When we are economically stronger, we are richer. And when we are richer, they can’t buy us!

We don’t have to worry about them conquering us. We should worry about our attitude instead! Our lack of commitment to excellence! No, the UiTM issue isn’t the problem and neither is the Chinese. The problem is us! We are not strong. And it would be the same for the centuries to come if we don't change our attitude. If we are strong, no one can bully us.

In what way should we change?

Dream big dreams! never settle for less. A Malay friend of mine told me that her friends (Malay) said that she was being materialistic when she told them she wanted to have her own nice car, a big house and so on in the future. Come on, that's no materialistic man.. That just mean that she set a high target for her achievement. If u talk to the Chinese about this, i bet there'll be no problem at all because high achievement is in their culture. To me, it’s not about being materialistic. It’s about being the best u can be. Ideally, everyone should be the best they can be.

• A student should always set 4.00 as his target.
• A restaurateur should always think about expanding his business. e.g. by opening more branches.
• A songwriter should always try to make genuine music of the best quality.
• A father should always try to understand his wife and kids better and his kids and wife should do the same to him in return.

If u think that I’m not being realistic, here’s an example: for my diploma, my targeted pointer for every semester is definitely 4.00. But 4.00 isn’t what I’m targeting. What I’m targeting is actually to get the best possible pointer! I was only able to be get on the dean’s list for the 1^st sem and I messed up for the rest – only able to maintain my pointer around 3.30. Now if I I didn’t set 4.00 as my target, my pointer could’ve been <3.

Finally, i never meant to portray the Chinese as crooks, greedy or anything. Anyone would be the same if he is in their place. I've met a good Chinese and a bad Chinese. i've met a nice Malay and also a crooked one. Okay, enough. Enough thinking about other people! Stop blaming anything for our own weaknesses! Think about how we can improve ourselves instead. Only we can change our own fate.

"You'll keep on getting what u've always got if u keep on doing what u've always done"

Success is not an accident

We are living at the greatest time in all of human history. The number of people who are able to acquire great wealth in today’s world is far higher than what’s possible in the past. Statistics show that there are about 7 million millionaires in America and about 250 billionaires. The number is growing at 15% – 20% each year. We’ve never seen such a fast wealth creation in all of human history.

Here’s the good news, virtually everyone starts with nothing. Most of the millionaires are self-made. This fact is backed by a research done by Brian Tracy (He is a motivator who has done research and interviews with thousands of self-made millionaires). Self-made means they all started with nothing – zero!

That means that anyone can do it! You can do it! Why? Because they’ve done it! They’ve proved that you can become a millionaire starting with nothing.

But how can you be like them? Another main purpose of this post is to tell you this – if you think the same way and do the same things as the successful people do, you will become one of them. Success is not an accident! It is the result of doing certain specific things. The equation is simple:-

1. Think what the successful poeple think.

2. Do what the successful people do.

Zero -------------------------------------------> Success

My third point is this, read self-improvement books. The golden rule of life is this – your life only gets better when you get better. So you must read to improve yourself! Don’t just read those romantic, fantasy, love novels. I tell you what, even the already successful people still read self-improvement books regularly. So who are we not to read them? Most importantly, you must read such books to understand the 2 points at the center of the previous equation.

To finish, I want to tell you that I used millionaire just as an easy example of success. It doesn’t mean that you must be a millionaire to be successful. No, that’s wrong! There are many middle-income people who are much happier and living a more meaningful life than the rich people. Remember, money is never good or bad, it’s just a tool. It can be either good or bad. It can be donated to charity fund and it can also be used to bribe a politician to betray his party. My last words - embrace it! success is not an accident. it's the result of your thoughts and actions.