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What would you do when things are urgent and you have no solution to them… yet?

What would you do when you feel so helpless knowing you do not have the ability to accomplish certain things?

What would you do when life deals you a cruel hand?

What would you do when your mind is overloaded with information, scattered all around and you can’t seems to combine them?

What would you do when people around keep on bombarding you with advices, ideas, stories, just for the sake to weaken you?

What would you do when you wanted something done so badly but you do not know where to start?

I have been through these, many of us have been through these, and all of us have different thoughts and ways to deal with these.

Most of the time, you feel so stressed up, having to complete certain tasks before due date, not having single idea of where to start, being pissed of by people around you who “big talk” when you’re already in that bad situation, etc…

But hey, is life really that bad? Have you ever tried to pull yourself out and view the situation as a “third person”?

Have you ever done something on impulse, only to feel regret later?

Sometimes, we tend to get so focused on the thing in front of our eyes that we often fail to realize what lies behind.

An obstacle is right in front of your eyes, you know you must get through it, you tried to find solutions to overcome it, you seek for advice from people around you… but in the end, you found nothing. After all the hard works, you are still standing at the same point before you started off.

Then you start blaming everybody, everything, even yourself…

But come to think of it, is there really no other alternative available? Have you ever thought of:

Are you already in the incorrect first step before you started?

Are you being too focused on the obstacle that you neglected things happening around it?

Are those information from people around you usable?

Is the situation really that bad, as what you have heard from others, but never witness it by yourself before?

How about starting from several choices that you have in mind, slowly and carefully considering each of them, then filter them one by one. At the end of the day, the combination of the left over might be the best solution!

There are always choices and alternatives in life. It is just that sometimes we are too tensed up and being blinded by the current situation that we are unable get a hold of them. Our emotion is disrupted and we lose our cool so easily.

No one can predict the future. Most of the time, we try to predict our future based on the past experience of the others. Can we be sure that we will be walking the same path as well? Is the outcome of our trial will be exactly the same as the others? No one can tell.

More importantly, we must realize what is the best for ourselves. What is our goal in life? What we want to achieve through the process? What is the expected outcome and what elements are required in between? Again, no one can tell, we know ourselves the best.

Since the end of last year game, I found myself lost interest in staying in the team anymore. If the seniors hadn’t appointed me to be one of the deputy, I think I would not be at where I am now.

For one reason, I have no confident in things I do. When someone is doing the same thing as mine and come out better than what I did, and he uses his result to give comment on mine, I’ll be de-motivated. This has happened for quite sometimes and I find it really irritating. I know there’re always better people around me and I really wish to learn from them, but in this case it’s really just like he’s purposely comparing his result with mine. I wonder why does people just like to step on others.

I used to think that no matter what I do, someone is never satisfied.

I used to think that someone always give pressure to others based on what he himself is good at.

I used to think as a deputy, the words I said can change things and motivate others.

Last night, I’ve a chat with one of the juniors. Currently he’s in-charge of all the management and “internal affair” of the team. To my surprise, after the long chat, I realized that:

- Things are not as bad as I thought.

- Different people have different way of “motivating” each other, just that the methods they used might not be suitable.

- To some juniors, I am who I am… but for some, I’m just a great talker little doer.

All these while I’ve been so self-centered. I’ve always been blinded by the prejudice I have against that one particular person that I neglected my responsibility for the remaining 23 members in the team.

When I was in my mid-teen age, I used to be a rebellious son. Everything my parents said, I’d find excuses to fight back, to show them that I was right. But little did I know that my parents have something that I never have, even til now…

Patience.

Being a leader is never an easy task. So what does it take to be a good leader?

Life is never fair. No matter how we dislike something, there’re times we have to bear with it in order to pleased others. Instead of being irrational, there’re things we need to sacrifice in order for other people to bring good to everyone. Being a leader is not about wanting people to walk your path, but to walk with people at the same path.

14 days left to competition, and the team’s spirit is deteriorating due to final exam in these two weeks. Just hope that in these two weeks time I can play my part, to change what I have done.

I believe most people have at least heard of this book.

In case if you haven’t, it was published in 2005 and was the top worldwide best selling business and management book by W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

This book is mainly about business and the idea of winning without competing. It challenges the conventional idea of the business world a.k.a. red ocean and how any business can break from this chain of red ocean to create new blue water, and make the world a better place.

However, I personally think that the concept being highlighted in this book is not limited only to the business world. Somehow there are more to it. This might sounds weird but what I’m going to talk about here is “life lesson” that I learned from this great book.

Lesson 1: The Four Actions Framework “Create – Eliminate – Raise – Reduce”

Be clear which element adds value to our life and which do not. Keeping those useless elements will not bring any good, so we might as well reduce or eliminate them and reserve the space to create and raise those which are more useful.

Lesson 2: Three Characteristics of Good Strategy “Focus – Divergence – Compelling Tagline”

Focus: Human is born with only two hands. Sometimes we tend to do too many things at once, but in the end realize that we can’t accomplish anything. Be focus.

Divergence: Following the crowd will not always lead you to a better path. There are times when we must stand alone and make hard decisions which are very different from the norm.

Compelling Tagline: If you are good in something, prove it by action. Always walk the talk.

Lesson 3: Value Innovation

You are good in something, but the sad truth is no one will ever give a damn. People will only appreciates when your effort adds value to their life.

Lesson 4: Reconstruct Market Boundaries (Alternatives and Complementary Offerings)

Whatever option you have now is not necessarily the best, hence always look for alternatives and dare to challenge conventional wisdom.

Lesson 5: Focus on the Big Picture, not the Numbers

Everything that happens, it happens for a reason. Always look at things from different perspective.

Lesson 6: Reach Beyond Existing Demand

Always push yourself to the limit and strive hard to achieve your goals. There is no free lunch in this world and you get what you deserve based on your effort.

Lesson 7: Get The Strategic Sequence Right

If you can’t walk, you can’t fly. As mentioned by Sun Tzu in the first chapter of “The Art of War“, proper planning is always the most crucial first step.

Lesson 8: Overcoming Key Organizational Hurdles

Big problem often comes from small problems. To solve a big problem, always work backward by breaking it into smaller pieces.

Lesson 9: Build Execution Into Strategy (Be Fair)

In the book, the author focus on the fair process. So the same principle applies in life, be fair.

Lesson 10: Renewal of Blue Ocean Strategy

Finally, always be ready to change. As mentioned by Spencer Johnson in “Who Moved My Cheese?“,we can only improve by adapting to changes around us. Nonetheless, be sure whether is the change really required. If it is not, stick to the original plan.

This is one of the most inspiring books I’ve read. Although it has been published for quite sometime, its idea and concept is never outdated and can be applied in various fields.

Ya, I know… For a 200 over pages book, it is quite expensive (well, at least for me =P). But from what I got from it, I think it is really worth it.

P/S: Special thanks to XinHui.

It’s good to know something at least a little bit more than others…

These 2 days I’ve been returning to my previous diploma campus helping some of my juniors with something that I’ve been working very long and hard on, something that has been keeping me so busy that I normally sacrifice my holiday and stay back at UTM to learn… Microcontrollers.

It’s wonderful to see how this group of juniors improve in such a fast pace. The last time I met them was bout 5 months ago, where they just started organising this club for students to learn and develop robotic stuffs. And now, they are the seniors here and organising the same training program for the new juniors. They sacrifice their holiday as well just to guide these juniors to learn things which will never been taught in their syllabus.

Thinking back during my diploma era, we’ve long for this type of training program to be held during our time. However our network were lacking and we can hardly contact any senior to guide us through the process. At the same time, the staffs were unsupportive with this type of activity back then. Hence, we ended up not being able to come across this knowledge until we entered degree.

What makes 2 individuals with same education background different (besides gender, age, bla bla bla and all the crap you can think of… =P ) ? You bet…… it’s experience.

Some people spend their life doing what normal people do, while some spend their life exceeding their limits, doing “extraordinary” things… and that’s what we get, normal folks and “extraordinary” people.

Once there’s a friend who told me this, “Everything changes, but there’s only 2 things that will never change, what are they?”

It’s the first 2 words of the sentence.

Humans are emotional. We normally relate things to 2 types of feeling, pain and pleasure. Most of us (even myself) are afraid of changes. We love to live in our comfort zone most of the time without realising anything wrong. We dislike changes because psychologically, change = pain. When things changed to problems, it’s only then we regret for not doing anything bout it earlier.

It’s the same as the process of learning. Most of us dislike learning something new or extra. What we want is what sufficient for us at this moment. As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain.” It’s painful, it requires us to go extra miles in order to learn something new. Hence, most of them time we procrastinate. We remain at the same spot wihout going anywhere.

Frankly, I totally admire their learning spirit. Wish them the very best on their journey of learning and hope that one day, they will succeed in what they do. =)