Choices - is what we make in life... kenneth

7 Frightening Reality of Post-Recession Economic

2011-11-01T08:12:00.001+08:00

1. Doing more with less

The theme of this troubling economy has been to do more with less. This theme has run across companies, both large and small, in the post-recession era. After sacking thousands of employees in order to cuts costs, pummeling employee morale in the process, managers focusing on the bottom line remain hesitant to hire more bodies in order to explore more avenues of business, even when profits begin to pick up. Despite layoffs and hiring freezes, work still needs to get done. Companies are not going to cut back on how much work must be performed to turn a bigger profit. Instead, they simply turn to their existing employees, put a cool hand on their shoulders, smile, and ask them to take on increased duties. Those who fear for their own job will not say no. When companies see that the work still gets done, they no longer feel the need to hire and thus begin a cycle that continues today and will continue tomorrow.

2. Held back by housing

According to the National Association of Realtors, existing homes sold at an annualized rate of 4.9 million units in September. This number is only slightly ahead of the 4.77 million rate in June, which marked a 14-year low. With the U.S. housing industry still sluggish, homeowners who want to sell are forced to stay right where they are. What does that mean? Well, for those who are unemployed and struggling to pay their mortgage, it means a lot. If they can’t move, they are forced to limit their options when it comes to the job search. Those job seekers are stuck looking in the immediate vicinity for work and their options to relocate become seriously limited - not unless you want to add on the extra expense of paying rent while you wait for your home to sell.

3. Choose your education carefully

It's a truth universally acknowledged that applications to schools surge during a recession. There are no jobs, so why not get more training and make yourself a better candidate when there are jobs? Makes sense, right? But there are some disturbing figures to consider when the highly held belief is that the economy won’t be improving to acceptable levels for some time. First, graduates are not finding work. The unemployment rate for young college graduates reached an all-time high in 2009 and according to government figures 33% of people ages 20 to 29 were unemployed last year. Higher education is not helping students get ahead in this economy with many graduates having to make ends meet in jobs they are overqualified for, such as waitresses or bartenders. Not finding work is no excuse to not pay your loans. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that the amount of loans taken out by students last year hit the $100 billion mark for the first time. To make matters even worse, the total amount of outstanding student debt is expected to pass $1 trillion for the first time ever this year. That debt won’t go away and will become an albatross around the necks of students, even if they end up finding the jobs of their dreams. There is nothing like being successful and still being unable to make ends meet. Choosing education has become a much more difficult decision to make.

4. Age diversity

An aging workforce is going to continue to be a big challenge for employers, who increasingly prefer to cut costs on training for new positions. Compounding this is the fact that people are delaying retirement because of the recession. While gender and racial diversity will remain critical concerns, age diversity presents a new challenge for the corporate world.

5. More short term jobs

The recession might be over, but unemployment figures have remained the same at 9.1%. This has forced Americans to look at jobs differently, with many accepting temporary and part-time positions rather than holding out for full-time permanent work. That's helped the underemployment rate remain sky-high—climbing from 16.2% to 16.5%—and there are no signs of it changing anytime soon: retailers are expected to hire around the same or even lower than the 627,600 seasonal holiday employees that were hired last year.

Those hiring this holiday season include Macy’s, which plans to add 78,000 temporary workers; Fedex, which will add 20,000 temporary employees to its workforce; Kohl’s, which will hire 40,000 seasonal workers; and Toys R’ Us, which is expected to hire 40,000 new workers to deal with the holiday rush. While some temporary workers might find full-time work, more than likely, when those temporary positions end, the unemployment rate will go right back to where it was before they were created.

6. The importance of internships and volunteering

Because there is still a shortage of jobs, landing an internship is going to be more important than ever. Despite increased competition, if you're a college student or looking to break into a new field, they're an integral part of your next career move.

Starting in high school, students need to cultivate paid or unpaid work experiences that build skills, character, work ethic and resume. Employers use internships to prescreen and hire talent. Your career currency comes down to the following equation: internship experience + skills. This is how you get your foot in the door and demonstrate your passion for your field of interest.

Because competition for internships is so high, another possible avenue for job seekers is to volunteer your services. Unpaid labor is hard to pass up, especially in the non-profit industry, which, at times, struggles to pay for a full-time work force and can use the help. The skills you pick up at these companies is transferable to other jobs within your chosen industry.

7. Negotiate a package, not a salary

While the recession has affected the number of jobs and the kind of compensation on offer, it hasn't changed how you should approach salary negotiations. However, what you negotiate for might change. While salary increases, stock options and signing bonuses might be in shorter supply, there might be opportunities to for other types of compensation such as at-risk pay based on milestones achieved, paid time-off and a flexible work schedule.

You should value the entire package and quantify everything. How you do that is up to you. Your compensation number should factor in what is essential to you and what is non-essential. You could even give weights to the essential and the non-essential in determining the value of your offer. As an example signing bonus, relocation, 401k match, day care and base salary could get an 80 percent weight while the other 20 percent would fall under extra vacation, nicer title etc. At the end of the day, each person will be different on what they value and what they consider essential.

Source -- Jon Minners, Phil Stott, Alex Tuttle, Vault.com

The Award Winning Article of McKinsey - Harvard Business Review Announces 52nd Annual McKinsey Award Winners

2011-06-29T13:19:00.002+08:00

How Will You Measure Your Life?

by Clayton M. Christensen

Editor’s Note: When the members of the class of 2010 entered business school, the economy was strong and their post-graduation ambitions could be limitless. Just a few weeks later, the economy went into a tailspin. They’ve spent the past two years recalibrating their worldview and their definition of success.

The students seem highly aware of how the world has changed (as the sampling of views in this article shows). In the spring, Harvard Business School’s graduating class asked HBS professor Clay Christensen to address them—but not on how to apply his principles and thinking to their post-HBS careers. The students wanted to know how to apply them to their personal lives. He shared with them a set of guidelines that have helped him find meaning in his own life. Though Christensen’s thinking comes from his deep religious faith, we believe that these are strategies anyone can use. And so we asked him to share them with the readers of HBR. To learn more about Christensen’s work, visit his HBR Author Page.

Before I published The Innovator’s Dilemma, I got a call from Andrew Grove, then the chairman of Intel. He had read one of my early papers about disruptive technology, and he asked if I could talk to his direct reports and explain my research and what it implied for Intel. Excited, I flew to Silicon Valley and showed up at the appointed time, only to have Grove say, “Look, stuff has happened. We have only 10 minutes for you. Tell us what your model of disruption means for Intel.” I said that I couldn’t—that I needed a full 30 minutes to explain the model, because only with it as context would any comments about Intel make sense. Ten minutes into my explanation, Grove interrupted: “Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.”

I insisted that I needed 10 more minutes to describe how the process of disruption had worked its way through a very different industry, steel, so that he and his team could understand how disruption worked. I told the story of how Nucor and other steel minimills had begun by attacking the lowest end of the market—steel reinforcing bars, or rebar—and later moved up toward the high end, undercutting the traditional steel mills.

When I finished the minimill story, Grove said, “OK, I get it. What it means for Intel is...,” and then went on to articulate what would become the company’s strategy for going to the bottom of the market to launch the Celeron processor.

I’ve thought about that a million times since. If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

That experience had a profound influence on me. When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, they’ll say, “OK, I get it.” And they’ll answer their own question more insightfully than I could have.

My class at HBS is structured to help my students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. To that backbone I attach different models or theories that help students think about the various dimensions of a general manager’s job in stimulating innovation and growth. In each session we look at one company through the lenses of those theories—using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what managerial actions will yield the needed results.

On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.

The Age of Customer Capitalism

by Roger Martin

Modern capitalism can be broken down into two major eras. The first, managerial capitalism, began in 1932 and was defined by the then radical notion that firms ought to have professional management. The second, shareholder value capitalism, began in 1976. Its governing premise is that the purpose of every corporation should be to maximize shareholders’ wealth. If firms pursue this goal, the thinking goes, both shareholders and society will benefit. This is a tragically flawed premise, and it is time we abandoned it and made the shift to a third era: customer-driven capitalism.

Two Milestones in Management

The first two eras were both heralded by an influential academic work. In 1932, Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means published their legendary treatise, The Modern Corporation and Private Property, which asserted that management should be divorced from ownership. After that, the business world would no longer be dominated by CEO owners like the Rockefellers, Mellons, Carnegies, and Morgans. Firms would be run by the hired help, a new class of professional CEO. This movement, said Berle and Means, was not to be feared; it was part of a brave new era of economic expansion (which would actually take a few years to get going, as it turned out, owing to the Great Depression).

While there certainly continued to be owner-CEOs, professional managers came to dominate the corner office. Entrepreneurs were welcome to start up new firms but would be wise to hand them over to professional managers, who were more dependable and less volatile, once the business reached a significant size.

Then in 1976 managerial capitalism received a stinging rebuke: Michael C. Jensen and William H. Meckling’s “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure,” published in the Journal of Financial Economics. The paper, which has gone on to become the most-cited academic business article of all time, argued that owners were getting short shrift from professional managers, who enhanced their own financial well-being rather than that of the shareholders. This was bad for shareholders and wasteful for the economy, Jensen and Meckling argued; the managers were squandering corporate and societal resources to feather their own nests.

Their critique ushered in the current era of capitalism, as CEOs quickly saw the need to swear allegiance to “maximizing shareholder value.” Boards of directors soon came to view their job as aligning the interests of senior management with those of shareholders through the use of stock-based compensation. No longer would the shareholder be abused—the shareholder would be king.

The two most critical figures of the shareholder movement were perhaps Roberto Goizueta, the CEO of Coca-Cola from 1981 until his death in 1997, and Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. A speech that Welch gave at the Pierre Hotel in New York several months after his appointment is seen by many as the true dawn of the era of shareholder value. Though he didn’t use that term explicitly, the speech marked a clear shift to a profits-first focus. Both men were outspoken advocates of focusing companies on shareholder value, and both received unprecedented amounts of stock-based compensation. Goizueta was the first American manager to become a billionaire on the basis of stock holdings in a company that he’d neither founded nor taken public. And it was estimated that Welch owned as much as $900 million worth of GE stock at the time he left the company.

A Flawed Logic

Have shareholders actually been better off since they displaced managers as the center of the business universe? The simple answer is no. From 1933 to the end of 1976, when they were allegedly playing second fiddle to professional managers, shareholders of the S&P 500 earned compound annual real returns of 7.6%. From 1977 to the end of 2008, they did considerably worse—earning real returns of 5.9% a year. If you modify the start and end dates of the two periods, you can produce performance numbers that are at parity, but there’s no sign that shareholders benefited more when their interests were put first and foremost. On this basis, it’s hard to argue that Jensen and Meckling did shareholders a huge favor.

That counterintuitive answer begs a provocative follow-up question: If the shareholders were all you cared about, would focusing on increasing shareholder value be the best way to make sure they benefited?

Why Leaders Lose Their Way (From HBR)

2011-06-29T13:18:00.000+08:00

Bill George is a Professor of Management Practice, Henry B. Arthur Fellow of Ethics, at Harvard Business School.

Executive Summary:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is just the latest in a string of high-profile leaders making the perp walk. What went wrong, and how can we learn from it? Professor Bill George discusses how powerful people lose their moral bearings. To stay grounded executives must prepare themselves to confront enormous complexities and pressures. Key concepts include:

Leaders who move up have greater freedom to control their destinies, but also experience increased pressure and seduction.
Leaders can avoid these pitfalls by devoting themselves to personal development that cultivates their inner compass, or True North. This requires reframing their leadership from being heroes to being servants of the people they lead.

Top of Form

In recent months several high-level leaders have mysteriously lost their way. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund and a leading French politician, was arraigned on charges of sexual assault. Before that David Sokol, rumored to be Warren Buffett's successor, was forced to resign for trading in Lubrizol stock prior to recommending that Berkshire Hathaway purchase the company. Examples abound of other recent failures:

· Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd resigned for submitting false expense reports concerning his relationship with a contractor.

US Senator John Ensign (R-NV) resigned after covering up an extramarital affair with monetary payoffs.
Lee B. Farkas, former chairman of giant mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, in April was found guilty for his role in one of the largest bank fraud schemes in American history.

These talented leaders were highly successful in their respective fields and at the peak of their careers. This makes their behavior especially perplexing, raising questions about what caused them to lose their way:

Why do leaders known for integrity and leadership engage in unethical activities?
Why do they risk great careers and unblemished reputations for such ephemeral gains?
Do they think they won't get caught or believe their elevated status puts them above the law?
Was this the first time they did something inappropriate, or have they been on the slippery slope for years?

In these ongoing revelations, the media, politicians, and the general public frequently characterize these leaders as bad people, even calling them evil. Simplistic notions of good and bad only cloud our understanding of why good leaders lose their way, and how this could happen to any of us.

Leaders who lose their way are not necessarily bad people; rather, they lose their moral bearings, often yielding to seductions in their paths. Very few people go into leadership roles to cheat or do evil, yet we all have the capacity for actions we deeply regret unless we stay grounded.

Self-reflection: a path to leadership development

Before anyone takes on a leadership role, they should ask themselves, "Why do I want to lead?" and "What's the purpose of my leadership?" These questions are simple to ask, but finding the real answers may take decades. If the honest answers are power, prestige, and money, leaders are at risk of relying on external gratification for fulfillment. There is nothing wrong with desiring these outward symbols as long as they are combined with a deeper desire to serve something greater than oneself.

Leaders whose goal is the quest for power over others, unlimited wealth, or the fame that comes with success tend to look to others to gain satisfaction, and often appear self-centered and egotistical. They start to believe their own press. As leaders of institutions, they eventually believe the institution cannot succeed without them.

The leadership trap

While most people value fair compensation for their accomplishments, few leaders start out seeking only money, power, and prestige. Along the way, the rewards—bonus checks, newspaper articles, perks, and stock appreciation—fuel increasing desires for more.

This creates a deep desire to keep it going, often driven by desires to overcome narcissistic wounds from childhood. Many times, this desire is so strong that leaders breach the ethical standards that previously governed their conduct, which can be bizarre and even illegal.

Very few people go into leadership to cheat or do evil.

As Novartis chairman Daniel Vasella (HBS PMD 57) told Fortune magazine, "for many of us the idea of being a successful manager—leading the company from peak to peak, delivering the goods quarter by quarter—is an intoxicating one. It is a pattern of celebration leading to belief, leading to distortion. When you achieve good results… you are typically celebrated, and you begin to believe that the figure at the center of all that champagne-toasting is yourself."

When leaders focus on external gratification instead of inner satisfaction, they lose their grounding. Often they reject the honest critic who speaks truth to power. Instead, they surround themselves with sycophants who tell them what they want to hear. Over time, they are unable to engage in honest dialogue; others learn not to confront them with reality.

The dark side of leadership

Many leaders get to the top by imposing their will on others, even destroying people standing in their way. When they reach the top, they may be paranoid that others are trying to knock them off their pedestal. Sometimes they develop an impostor complex, caused by deep insecurities that they aren't good enough and may be unmasked.

To prove they aren't impostors, they drive so hard for perfection that they are incapable of acknowledging their failures. When confronted by them, they convince themselves and others that these problems are neither their fault nor their responsibility. Or they look for scapegoats to blame for their problems. Using their power, charisma, and communications skills, they force people to accept these distortions, causing entire organizations to lose touch with reality.

At this stage leaders are vulnerable to making big mistakes, such as violating the law or putting their organizations' existence at risk. Their distortions convince them they are doing nothing wrong, or they rationalize that their deviations are acceptable to achieve a greater good.

During the financial crisis, Lehman CEO Richard Fuld refused to recognize that Lehman was undercapitalized. His denial turned balance sheet misjudgments into catastrophe for the entire financial system. Fuld persistently rejected advice to seek added capital, deluding himself into thinking the federal government would bail him out. When the crisis hit, he had run out of options other than bankruptcy.

It's lonely at the top, because leaders know they are ultimately responsible for the lives and fortunes of people. If they fail, many get deeply hurt. They often deny the burdens and loneliness, becoming incapable of facing reality. They shut down their inner voice, because it is too painful to confront or even acknowledge; it may, however, appear in their dreams as they try to resolve conflicts rustling around inside their heads.

Meanwhile, their work lives and personal lives get out of balance. They lose touch with those closest to them̬their spouses, children, and best friends—or co-opt them with their points of view. Eventually, they lose their capacity to think logically about important issues.

Values-centered leadership

Leading is high stress work. There is no way to avoid the constant challenges of being responsible for people, organizations, outcomes, and uncertainties in the environment. Leaders who move up have greater freedom to control their destinies, but also experience increased pressure and seduction.

Leaders can avoid these pitfalls by devoting themselves to personal development that cultivates their inner compass, or True North. This requires reframing their leadership from being heroes to beingservants of the people they lead. This process requires thought and introspection because many people get into leadership roles in response to their ego needs. It enables them to transition from seeking external gratification to finding internal satisfaction by making meaningful contributions through their leadership.

Maintaining their equilibrium amid this stress requires discipline. Some people practice meditation or yoga to relieve stress, while others find solace in prayer or taking long runs or walks. Still others find relief through laughter, music, television, sporting events, and reading. Their choices don't matter, as long as they relieve stress and enable them to think clearly about work and personal issues.

A system to support values-centered leadership

The reality is that people cannot stay grounded by themselves. Leaders depend on people closest to them to stay centered. They should seek out people who influence them in profound ways and stay connected to them. Often their spouse or partner knows them best. They aren't impressed by titles, prestige, or wealth accumulation; instead, they worry that these outward symbols may be causing the loss of authenticity.

Spouses and partners can't carry this entire burden though. We need mentors to advise us when facing difficult decisions. Reliable mentors are entirely honest and straight with us, defining reality and developing action plans.

In addition, intimate support groups like the True North Groups, with whom people can share their life experiences, hopes, fears, and challenges, are invaluable. Members of our True North Group aren't impressed by external success, but care enough about us as human beings and as leaders to confront us when we aren't being honest with ourselves.

As Senator Ensign told his fellow senators in a farewell speech in May, "When one takes a position of leadership, there is a very real danger of getting caught up in the hype surrounding that status … Surround yourselves with people who will be honest with you about how you really are and what you are becoming, and then make them promise to not hold back… from telling you the truth."

Great People Are Overrated (From HBR)

2011-06-29T13:15:00.001+08:00

Bill Taylor

William C. Taylor is cofounder of Fast Company magazine and author of Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself, published January 4, 2011. Follow him at twitter.com/practicallyrad.

2:42 PM Monday June 20, 2011

Last month, in an article in the New York Times on the ever-escalating "war for talent" in Silicon Valley, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a passing comment that has become the entrepreneurial equivalent of a verbal tick — something that's said all the time, almost without thinking.

"Someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good," he argued when asked why he was willing to pay $47 million to acquire FriendFeed, a price that translated to about $4 million per employee. "They are 100 times better."

Zuckerberg's casual calculation reminded me of a conversation with Marc Andreessen, the legendary cofounder of Netscape, and now one of Silicon Valley's most high-profile venture capitalists. "The gap between what a highly productive person can do and what an average person can do is getting bigger and bigger," he told Polly LaBarre and me for our book,

Mavericks at Work. "Five great programmers can completely outperform 1,000 mediocre programmers."

Now, I admire what Mark Zuckerberg has built, and I consider Marc Andreessen without peer as an entrepreneur and a thinker, but do we take seriously what these two Silicon Valley giants claim about talent?

If you are building a company, would you prefer one standout person over one hundred pretty good people?

If you were launching a technology or developing a product, would you rather have five great engineers rather than 1,000 average engineers?

Have we become so culturally invested in the allure of the Free Agent, the lone wolf, the techno-rebel with a cause, that we are prepared to shower millions of dollars (maybe tens of millions) on a small number of superstars rather than a well-assembled team that may not dazzle with individual brilliance, but overwhelms with collective capability?

Isn't that what we see time and again with athletic competition, perhaps the closest thing we have these days to the frenzied competition in Silicon Valley? I spent Father's Day at Fenway Park, as the Red Sox hosted the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins to celebrate their victory. Nobody would suggest the Bruins had the best individual players in the NHL — throughout the year, the stars of the Vancouver Canucks shone much more brightly. But it was the Bruins' work as a team, a collective show of commitment and determination, that won the day. And what won on the ice won on the hardwood as well — LeBron James vs. the Dallas Mavericks, anyone?

Or think about the soccer pitch. Recently, The Economist published a brilliant little essay on the "management secrets" of FC Barcelona, universally considered the best soccer team in the world, perhaps of all time. "How has a club that is based in one of Europe's unemployment blackspots turned itself into the ruling power in the world's most popular sports?" the magazine asked. "An obvious answer is that Barca plays as a team in a sport that has far too many prima donnas...Barca has provided a distinctive solution to some of the most contentious problems in management theory. What is the right balance between stars and the rest of mankind?"

I'm with The Economist — and the Boston Bruins and the Dallas Mavericks. Yes, a big part of the transformation of business over the last 20 years has been a pendulum swing in the logic of success. The strong no longer take from the weak; the smart take from the strong. From an organizational and competitive standpoint, raw power, brand incumbency, and sheer size, have lost their luster as sources of success.

But it's possible for the pendulum to swing too far in the other direction. The latest trend in Silicon Valley, and the subject of the New York Times article in which Mark Zuckerberg explained his talent calculus, is called "acqhiring" — shelling out big bucks to acquire a company, not to buy a product or a piece of technology, but to hire a few (or even one) software programmer or engineer who will arrive at the acquiring company and make a huge impact. Facebook, according to the Times, is the pioneer of this new phenomenon, acquiring a slew of companies, killing their products, but keeping their developers.

Star-gazing entrepreneurs who are reluctant to look to sports for lessons in the limits of individual talent might instead look to Wall Street, and the research of Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg, captured in Chasing Stars.

Here's how Groysberg's publisher distills his insights: "After examining the careers of more than 1,000 star analysts at Wall Street investment banks, and conducting more than two hundred frank interviews, Groysberg comes to a striking conclusion: star analysts who change firms suffer an immediate and lasting decline in performance. Their earlier excellence appears to have depended heavily on their former firms' general and proprietary resources, organizational cultures, networks, and colleagues. There are a few exceptions, such as stars that move with their teams and stars that switch to better firms. Female stars also perform better after changing jobs than their male counterparts do. But most stars who switch firms turn out to be meteors, quickly losing luster in their new settings."

I'm certainly not suggesting that leaders who are growing companies or building teams should settle for mediocrity. But I am suggesting that there is more to long-term performance than the excellence of your individual players. Great teams, great companies, great organizations of all kinds are as much about character as credentials, about what makes people tick as much as what they know. Most of business life isn't really a choice between one great person and 100 pretty good people, but if that is the choice, I'm not sure I'd make the same choice as Mark Zuckerberg — especially if those 100 pretty good people work great as a team.

Part II

I'm pleased, although not surprised, by the incredible wave of reactions to and comments about my post, "Great People Are Overrated." (I'm also not surprised by the vitriol and personal nature of some of the barbs aimed at me. That seems to go with the territory whenever you question an article of faith among the web startup crowd.)

My guess is that the post touched a nerve because it touched on one of the great dividing lines in our business culture today. As members of an economy, a society, and a collection of companies, all of us are engaged in a conversation (sometimes explicit, mainly implicit) about what makes the world go 'round — individual brilliance or group genius, self-possessed superstars or well-rounded teams.

This is not a strictly either-or choice, of course. Even the best groups have stars, and not all stars find it hard to work well with others. But there remains the question of balance, priorities, even business mythology. If we're building a company, what sorts of people do we want to recruit? If we're paying our people, what sorts of contributions and behaviors do we wish to reward? If we're thinking about our country and society, what kind of outcomes are we comfortable with, in terms of wealth and income distribution? Ultimately, are we fielding a team, or assembling a collection of individuals?

As I said in my original post, the great sweep of business and innovation has increased the power of the individual and the small team over the lumbering herd. The "smart" do, in fact, take from the "strong." But like so much of what we do in America's startup culture, I worry that we are taking this basic insight to crazy excess, making the claim that one superstar engineer is literally more valuable more than one hundred good engineers (Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg) or worth more than 200 good engineers (Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen). Or, as one of the commenters on my post suggested, one Shakespeare is worth more than 100 Bill Taylors.

On that last point I would certainly not disagree. But on the broader point, I think we're in for a major correction. It's worth noting that the debate over this post takes place during IBM's centennial celebration. Now, I'm excited by the rise of Facebook, the IPO of LinkedIn, and all the latest successes from the startup world. It's great stuff. But for IBM to celebrate its 100th anniversary as a company, to remain, despite wave after wave of disruptive technological change, as a world-shaping force for solving big problems and making a big difference — that's truly something to admire. I wonder where Groupon and LinkedIn will be a hundred years from now.

IBM has stayed in the game for a century because it understands that groups are as important as individuals, that character counts along with credentials. In Mavericks at Work, Polly LaBarre and I wrote about Extreme Blue, an IBM initiative to make the company more attractive to young hotshots that might otherwise gravitate to companies like Facebook and Google. But from the moment Extreme Bluers report for duty, they get immersed in a system that emphasizes group cohesion over me-first individual achievement.

IBM even produced a manual of sorts, called Staying Extreme, that describes the way talented young people do their best work. "To be clear," it warns, "when you leave Extreme Blue and join another group at IBM (or any other company for that matter), we will be watching. And if we find out that you are making the program look like we are producing a bunch of arrogant wannabes, we will forget we ever knew you. Be ambitious. Be a leader. But do not belittle others in pursuit of your ambition."

Several years ago, at the height of the last War for Talent, Malcolm Gladwell offered his version of this same corrective. In an essay called "The Talent Myth," the New Yorker writer looked at business's obsession with hiring the best and the brightest, and raised a bright red flag. The problem with this star-studded approach, he said, is the "assumption that an organization's intelligence is simply a function of the intelligence of its employees. [Some companies] believe in stars, because they don't believe in systems. In a way, that's understandable, because our lives are so obviously enriched by individual brilliance. Groups don't write great novels, and a committee didn't come up with the theory of relativity. But companies work by different rules. They don't just create; they execute and compete and coordinate the efforts of many different people, and the organizations that are most successful at that task are the ones where the system is the star."

The star of Gladwell's assault on the star system was Enron, a company that famously populated itself with the brightest lights of the most elite institutions, and then went down in flames. "The reasons for [Enron's] collapse are complex, needless to say," Gladwell concluded. "But what if Enron failed not in spite of its talent mind-set but because of it? What if smart people are overrated?"

It was the last question by Gladwell that inspired the title of my original post. The question he raised several years ago has come back with such a vengeance today. There is more to long-term performance than the excellence of your individual players. Great companies, great organizations of all kinds, are as much about character as credentials, about how everyone works together as well as how each person does his or her work. Winning teams are more than just a collection of talented individuals.

As I said in my original essay, this is not an argument for settling for mediocrity. But it is a plea for some sense of proportion. And in a world of endless booms and busts, bubbles and popped bubbles, Wars for Talent and extended periods of unemployment, proportion is not such a bad thing.

Oh, and to those of you (and there are many) who responded to my original post with such rancor and derision: if you conduct yourself at work the same way you conduct yourself in these online comments, you're kind of making my point. Maybe you should embrace a sense of proportion as well.

Workplace Evolution

2011-06-13T16:04:00.001+08:00

Sunday June 12, 2011

Source: BY PRIYA KULASAGARAN
educate@thestar.com.my

Employers who have been used to a rigid work culture will have to change their ways if they want to retain their young, talented workers.

CREATIVITY, innovation and the knowledge economy are supposed to be key defining terms for the 21st century workplace.

But Harris Abdullah*, 26, thinks that these ideas are more rhetoric than reality for the Malaysian companies that he has worked for so far.

Having worked for four employers in the past two years, Harris says that there is a common underlying reason for his job-hopping.

“While all my previous bosses kept lauding the virtues of creativity, the employees were treated like production-line workers rather than individuals.

“At my last job for instance, you were only working if you were chained to the desk between nine to five everyday.

“In fact, my colleagues and I felt obliged to hang around an extra hour or two even when we had completed our work for the day, as it was an unspoken rule that only lazy employees left work on time,” he says.

He adds that his current working environment is a more conducive one due to a different management mindset.

“I now work for a multinational firm, and I think that my bosses here allow more flexibility – my performance is measured by the quality of my work rather than how long I stay in the office,” he says.

In a recent report on youth unemployment (“Work in progress”,in The Star’s Rage section, May 11), Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan was quoted saying that young graduates have become increasingly demanding.

“They (graduates) must prove that they can work first, there must be a compromise. Prove you can add value to the company, then you can start demanding,” he says.

This demanding nature of the current white-collar workforce has been seen as a common Generation Y (Gen Y) trait.

Gen Y, generally referring to those born after 1980, is a much hyped about cohort set to shape the future social, economic and political landscape.

One reason why this generation is warranting such attention is because of its sheer size as 11.5 million people or about 40% of Malaysia’s population is under the age of 30.

The worldwide Gen Y population is an estimated two billion.

In terms of the workplace, the stereotype of the typical Gen Y worker is one who questions authority, is technologically-savvy, and expects work to accommodate his personal life rather than the other way around.

It is this perception of the new workforce that has employers in a twist about what exactly to do with them.

Senior business executive G. Sreenivasan says that young graduates today have an overt sense of entitlement.

“I notice my younger colleagues are quick to demand flexible hours and perks; I don’t remember being like that when I entered the workforce.

“Perhaps it’s because they have grown up being accustomed to having all their wants catered to by their parents, and expect their bosses to do the same,” he says.

He adds that parents are partly to blame for fuelling such narcissism.

“Look at the recent uproar of government scholarships, with parents insisting that their children are worth taxpayer money simply because they scored a string of A’s in their examinations.

“Unfortunately, academic grades or even a first-class degree means nothing in the workplace if you cannot communicate well and don’t have a good attitude,” he says.

While manager Margaret Gomez has no issues with her young subordinates, she thinks that a major failing of Gen Y workers is their inability to separate their personal lives from their professional ones.

“I have received resumes where applicants attached quite inappropriate photographs; one even sent a picture of herself in a silly pose in her bedroom!

“While these sort of things are fine to share on social networking sites, it’s important to set some boundaries for work if people are going to take you seriously,” she says.

Even so, Gomez thinks employers should tap into this sharing nature of the young instead of just dismissing it.

“The great thing about young people is their enthusiasm and I think employers would do well to use this positive energy; what’s wrong with making the workplace more conducive and even a little more fun?” she says.

Changing mindsets

Based on 17 young people spoken to for this article, the consensus seems to be a rather simple one: that they are misunderstood, do not want to be dictated to, and believe that employers should earn their respect.

Despite calling himself a “job-hopper”, Harris believes that the new crop of workers are no less loyal than before.

“We’re just less inclined to be completely subservient to a company,” he says.

“I saw my parents slave through corporate jobs, sacrificing their time for family and leisure with nothing much to show for it at the end of the day.

“I have no desire to repeat their mistakes, but I would definitely stay at a company that earns my trust — I foresee sticking to the firm I am working for right now because my bosses have my respect, and respect me in turn.”

Echoing this sentiment of learning from one’s parents, Lee Su Ann,* 23, says that the current workforce is idealistic and wants to enjoy the work that they do.

“I think every generation goes through a change of mindsets, based on the kind of ideas they were exposed to.

“My parents’ generation made it more acceptable for women to go to work and earn an income, so my generation is set on breaking its own glass ceiling as well.

“Perhaps what defines my generation is that more of us embrace the idea of actually loving work, rather than just seeing a job as a source of income,” she says

She adds that due to globalisation and technology, young people today have more opportunities at their disposal.

“We have the power of information now, so sourcing for new ideas and jobs is easier than before.

“Since our parents worked hard to provide a better life for us, we are able to start on a stronger footing than they were able to,” she adds.

Ravin Rajasingham,* 28, thinks that Generation Y is more questioning of authority that those from generations past.

“I don’t see this as a bad thing because what I really mean to do is offer constructive criticism of the status quo.

“The problem is that some Malaysian employers see this as rude behaviour, and immediately silence the feedback we offer,” he says.

Stringent hierarchical values and excessive bureaucracy are also things that do not sit well with Gen Y.

“I think this problem of being treated according to your ‘employee status’ is particularly prevalent in Malaysia,” says banking personnel Shamsiah*.

“It’s hard for a junior to sell his or her ideas at my company, because you have to pay your dues by working for a certain number of years first.

“Also, decisions are always made in a top-down manner, without taking into consideration any employee input.

“If we are going to seriously encourage creativity, this attitude has to change.”

Lawyer Chee Ying* agrees, adding that an employee’s value does not come from age alone.

“While I believe in proving my worth to employers before making demands, I think I should be immediately recognised for the work I deliver,” says the 26-year-old.

“If my bosses want immediate results, I want immediate compensation as well.”

He clarifies that compensation here need not be monetary incentives alone.

“Of course, I won’t say no to a bonus! But it would help if I were given more opportunities to learn, and handle more challenging assignments as well as have a mentor to guide me in perfecting my skills,” he says.

Unrealistic demands?

Ravin further theorises that the new workforce is seen as demanding because they refuse to put up with age-old practices.

“My previous boss reprimanded me for being troublesome because I asked a lot of questions about the way things were being run,” he says.

“The final straw was last year when the company’s profits were down —faulty office equipment went unrepaired, claims went unpaid and we didn’t receive our annual bonus due to cost issues.

“But the top management still took home fat bonuses. When I questioned the rationale for this, I was reprimanded yet again. So I left.”

Now working for a non-governmental organisation in Australia, Ravin says that he is much happier with his current arrangement.

“While my pay is much lower than what it used to be and the job is less glamorous, the process here is more transparent – I feel valued as an employee,” he shares.

For mechanical engineer Kelly Tay*, 26, the gender disparity of her previous workplace caused disillusionment with local employers.

“I remember being subjected to sexist remarks in interview after interview,” she says.

“A company questioned my commitment to the job because of my gender; the interviewer actually asked me if I would prefer to be a secretary instead because that was a ‘proper’ woman’s job!

“After finally securing a job at a local firm, I only lasted three months because I received inappropriate attention from my older male colleagues.

“When I complained to my female supervisor, she just said that if she could put up with it, I should as well.”

Kelly has since secured a job in Taiwan, and adds that she has no plans of returning.

Aizat Musa, 24, meanwhile, thinks that it is unrealistic for employers to set low wages for entry-level jobs and expect graduates to be “thankful for them”.

“My pay at my first job last year was RM1,800 - initially I was glad to just gain employment, but by the end of my first month I was struggling to make ends meet.

“I don’t think I had any luxurious expenses; I had to pay for my study loan (RM150); petrol costs, car instalments and parking charges (RM900); and room rental (RM350),” he says.

He adds that while he could still get by, some of his peers were less fortunate.

“I was lucky because I knew my parents could still help me out financially if there was an emergency of any sort.

“But some of my friends were in a much worse situation, having to live in unsafe places and eat instant noodles every day so that they could set aside savings for a rainy day.

“It’s easy for employers to say ‘take low-paying jobs because you’re still young’, but I think that only those from privileged backgrounds can afford to take up such jobs because they can still fall back on their families,” he says.

Some may think that Gen Y’s expectations of the workplace are excessive, but increasing research on the demographic suggest that they are not all that different from their predecessors.

A study on over 1,000 people between the ages of 16 and 63 by the Ashridge Business School, United Kingdom for instance, suggests that many of the attitudes and behaviours of people are more a reflection of their age rather than their generation.

Meanwhile, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) 2009 study titled Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation indicates that there a number of similarities between millennials and previous generations

“The new generation wants stability, security and variety in their working environment,” concludes the PwC report.

“They want to be loyal to an organisation that they are proud to work for and which reflects their own values.”

Is that not an ideal that we can all aspire to?

* Names have been changed

Winning the Talent War

2011-06-10T17:29:00.006+08:00

ACCA-KPMG Report outlines key fundamentals to counter rapidly escalating diaspora
26 May 2011

Kuala Lumpur | The training, development and retention of the finance function is crucial to the success of an organisation, especially in the current economic climate, asserts a new report from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and KPMG entitled Maximizing People Power: Effective talent management in finance.

The timely report comes in the wake of the World Bank Report’s findings that unless Malaysia manages to prevent ‘brain drain’ – the massive exodus of talent across borders – its aspiration towards becoming a high-income nation will be jeopardised.

As of 2010, the total Malaysian diaspora was estimated at 1 million people, with the figure for skilled migration having quadrupled just over the last three decades.

Asserts Mohamad Raslan Abdul Raslan, Managing Partner, KPMG in Malaysia, “Now more than ever before, there is an urgent cry for talent management within the country – attracting, developing and retaining skilled professionals”.

HELEN BRAND, ACCA CHIEF EXECUTIVE. IMAGE COURTESY ACCA.

Helen Brand, ACCA Chief Executive elaborates, “Some 20% of our graduates have migrated to or sought employment in another country, adversely impacting the quality of local human capital stock. Our profession has not been spared and the accountancy sector’s growth has also been stymied by a shortage of talent, with audit being the worst hit”.

Brand adds, “Last year, we found that only 20 per cent of organisations had a talent strategy for their finance team. We found that most talent management strategies weren’t strategic at all – they were informal, sometimes run in isolation of other departments and not part of a wider integrated plan. This cannot continue”.

In view of this, the timely joint report, which adopts a deliberately fundamental approach, outlines eight key components towards addressing talent management needs comprising the following:

· Define talent
· Identify recruitment and talent needs
· Define the competencies needed
· Target development
· Offer comprehensive learning
· Structure career paths
· Use performance management and reward
· Review regularly

Raslan observes that the report is very much in line with the government’s efforts to encourage more Malaysian professionals working abroad to return, so as to meet the needs of the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) and to boost the number of skilled finance and accounting professionals, of which Malaysia currently has a meagre 83,000. It is hoped that with the introduction of a systematic national talent management program, the country will be able to retain its skilled workforce and prevent further brain drain.

Maximizing People Power also states that the responsibility lies with CFOs to establish and maintain great talent practices, underscoring the importance of including a talent management plan that addresses the skills, capabilities and experience levels that are needed.

The report notes that there is an increased demand for the relatively new role of the Finance Business Partner (FBP) – the highly commercial accountant who applies their core technical knowledge to business issues and provides the much needed finance lens on organizational decision making.

Raslan submits: “Finance Business Partnering is crucial to the whole business. It helps raise standards, takes a forward looking approach and has a strong commercial view. However, the Finance Business Partner needs to be free from the distractions of core finance work to offer this level of support.”

Brand concludes: “Talent management is broader than the individual; it is about managing aspirations and bringing a diverse range of talents together across the organization for the benefit of the business; it is about boosting the finance function’s credibility both internally and externally. There are tremendous opportunities ahead of us, and our experience tells us that those organizations who put talent at the heart of their finance function gain competitive advantage.”.

Source : ACCA

The Star: Author blames recession on financiers

2011-06-10T14:53:00.000+08:00

NEW YORK: "Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present" (Alfred A. Knopf), by Jeff Madrick: There are two good reasons for taking a job in a bank or other private financial institution.

One: You can earn a decent living, or better, without getting too much dirt under your fingernails.

Two: You can use your talent for economics to help enterprising people in business, local government and nongovernment organizations to get loans so they can build schools, houses, roads, factories or cupcake shops that will provide jobs and otherwise benefit the community.

Trouble is, complains author Jeff Madrick in "Age of Greed," for almost half a century some extremely clever and occasionally unscrupulous people have concentrated so much on the first motive, they've forgotten the second. He sums up that process in a subtitle: "The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present."

Oddly, Bernard Madoff doesn't appear in the book's index. Maybe his fraud was too simple. All he did to deserve a 150-year sentence was to take in money from investors, divert it to his own purposes and pay back the investors who asked for their supposed profits by using money that arrived from new victims.

The recession was a bigger matter.

"... Wall Street professionals got fabulously rich," Madrick writes in an "Epilogue" after describing what happened in meticulous detail. "They channeled hundreds of millions of dollars into wasteful investments that could have been spent on energy, transportation and communications infrastructure, health care and medical research, education, technical and business, R&D, and new, truly innovative consumer products and business equipment.

"... But the largest cost of the crisis was the steepest recession since the 1930s. (Production) fell sharply. Eight million jobs were lost. And recovery in the subsequent year and a half beginning in mid-2009 was slow, and will likely stay slow, resulting in considerably higher unemployment and lower national income for many years (more) than could have been realized. Federal tax revenues were and will continue to be reduced accordingly, and the budget deficit will be much higher as a result."

He makes a good case - and financial news junkies will savor it. Some will call it partisan. Regrettably, a considerable number will find it hard to plow through.

Those with the concentration to do that will acquire a good basis for judging the difference between the contrasting remedies for recession that arise from the work of two of the most prominent economists of the 20th century: Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes.

Friedman, mostly favored by Republicans, would reduce taxes and the size of government, confident that the savings to taxpayers would increase their spending as consumers and nourish job-creating private industry. Keynesians, mostly Democrats, would raise taxes so government would have money to improve public services that create jobs directly. - AP

Online:

http://jeffmadrick.com/

A Cup.. A Cup of Hot Chocolate... A Lesson for Life

2009-11-08T21:45:00.001+08:00

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.

During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.

Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups.

They are just tools to hold and contain life.

The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.

Sharing of a nice story =)

2009-09-17T22:58:00.001+08:00

Subject: The Pastor and his son

A good reminder of God's Love.

Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at the church, the Pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts.

This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, 'OK, dad, I'm ready.'

His Pastor dad asked, 'Ready for what?'

'Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out.' Dad responds, 'Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain.'

The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, 'But Dad, aren't people still going to Hell, even though it's raining?'

Dad answers, 'Son, I am not going out in this weather.' Despondently, the boy asks, 'Dad, can I go? Please?'

His father hesitated for a moment then said, 'Son, you can go. Here are the tracts, be careful son.'

'Thanks
Dad!'

And with that, he was off and out into the rain. his eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel Tract.

After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted.

Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered. He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer.

Finally, this eleven year old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch! He rang again and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, 'What can I do for you, son?' With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that *JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU* and I came to give you my very last Gospel Tract which will tell you all about JESUS and His great LOVE.'

With that, he handed her his last tract and turned to leave. She called to him as he departed. 'Thank you, son! And God Bless You!'

Well, the following Sunday morning in church Pastor Dad was in the pulpit. As the service began, he asked, 'Does anybody have any testimony or want to say anything?'

Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet. As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face, 'No one in this church knows me. I've never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart that I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live.

So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted I was about to leap off, when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, 'I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.' I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself again, 'Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me.' I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.

When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you! The words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, TO LEAP TO LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, 'Ma'am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.' Then he gave me this Gospel Tract that I now hold in my hand.

As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel Tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them any more.

You see---I am now a Happy Child of the KING. Since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel Tract, I have come here to personally say THANK YOU to God's little angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in hell.'

There was not a dry eye in the church. And as shouts of praise and honor to THE KING resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated.

He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Probably no church has had a more glorious moment, and probably this universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love & honor for his son... Except for One.

Our Father also allowed His Son to go out into a cold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of heaven shouted praises and honor to The King, the Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power and every name that is named.

Blessed are your eyes for reading this message.

Don't let this message die, read it again and pass it to others. Heaven is for His people! Remember, God's message CAN make the difference in the life of someone close to you.

Please share this wonderful message...

'Faith is the affirmation and the act that bids eternal truth be present fact.' (……..Coleridge)

Three things in life that, once gone, never come back -

1. Time
2. Words
3. Opportunity

Three things in life that can destroy a person -

1. Anger
2. Pride
3. Unforgiveness

Three things in life that you should never lose-

1. Hope
2. Peace
3. Honesty

Three things in life that are most valuable -

1. Love
2. Family & Friends
3. Kindness

Three
things in life that are never certain -

1. Fortune
2. Success
3. Dreams

Three things that make a person -

1. Commitment
2. Sincerity
3. Hard work

Three things that are truly constant -

Father - Son - Holy Spirit

I ask the Lord to bless you, as I pray for you today; to guide you and protect you, as you go along your way. God's love is always with you, God's promises are true. And when you give God all your cares, you know God will see you through.

Pass this along to People you want God to Bless - I just did !.

~~~***My God Reigns***~~~

NO one falls in love by choice, it is by CHANCE.
No one stays in love by chance, it is by WORK.

And no one falls out of love by chance, it is by CHOICE

If you love this man please forward this message.

He did something for you, now do something for him.
Spread his word, and you'll be rewarded.

How will you be rewarded?

Matthew 10:32
'Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven".

Love is acceptance...

2009-07-13T23:30:00.000+08:00

A Story of true love.
Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain!

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80s arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb.

He said he was in a hurry, as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him.

I saw him looking at his watch, and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.

On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.

I inquired as to her health; he told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.

He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are'?

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, ''She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is.'

I had to hold back tears as he left. I had goose bumps on my arms and thought, 'That is the kind of love I want in my life'.

True love is neither physical nor romantic.
True love is acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

With all the jokes and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes there is one that comes along that has an important message.

This one I thought I could share with you.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

I hope you share this with someone you care about. I just did.

'Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain!

Joke about 710

2009-05-23T12:56:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I was having some work done at the workshop. A woman came in and asked for a 'seven-hundred- ten'.

We all looked at each other, and the mechanic asked, "What is a seven-hundred- ten?"

She replied, "You know, the little piece in the middle of the engine. I lost it and need a new one. It had always been there."

The mechanic gave the woman a piece of paper and a pen and asked her to draw what the piece looked like. She drew a circle and in the middle of it wrote 710 !!

He then took her over to another car which had the hood up and asked, "Is there a 710 on this car?"

She pointed and said, "Of course, it's right there."

Now go to the photo below to learn what a 710 is..........

...

....

...

....

...

Nokia Express 5800

2009-05-16T10:05:00.004+08:00

(So this is how big it looks in my palm)
Kinda of like this because it really have most features of what I- phone has...
and it's only 3/4 the price of I-phone and i get to have a GPS service for life.

Okie... Mum & Dad since you were asking about the phone if it's nice to use or not... below here are the phone's features and in this phone i can do many things with it... Mainly my favorite feature is the GPS (Global Positioning System); then the Wifi system which enable me to read mails and facebook anywhere with this little phone. Then the phone offer an auto adjustment of image when you hold the phone at different angel and has similar touch screen function like I- phone...
I would like to say Thank you to both of you for getting me this phone. =) Really like it though it's not an I-phone but it's good enough.

Nokia 5800 Features and Specs:

8GB Micro SD Card you and Extend up to 16GB for all your music collection and photos
Store upto 6000 tracks in your nokia 5800 (8GB will be appx more than 1000 songs)
3.2 inch (640×360 and 16:9 aspect ratio) touchscreen little smaller compared I-phone 3.5 inch
3.2 MP Camera- Carl Zeiss Optics with 3x Digital Zoom
Symbian S60 5th Edition
3.5mm jack
You Can record DVD quality Videos 30fps
3.5G
Wi-Fi
GPS (I love this feature)
Bluetooth
Stereo FM with RDS
TV output function
Touch and motion sensor
4 Input methods with handwriting recognition (Similar to PDA)

Thank you again Mum & Dad

Nice story....

2009-05-09T15:53:00.002+08:00

It's another morning.. ...

Again I have to go to office Ohh, this is me.

I shouted having a glance on my snap in today's news paper.

But what the HELL it is doing in the death column?? Strange!

One sec... Let me think, last night when I was going to bed I had a severe pain in my chest,

but I don't remember anything after that, I think I had a sound sleep.

Its morning now, ohh... It's already 10:00 AM, where is my coffee?

I will be late for office and my boss will get a chance to irritate me.

Where is everyone.??? I screamed.

"I think there is a crowed outside my room, let me check." I said to myself. So many people... Not all of them crying. But why some of them crying.

WHAT IS THIS???

I m laying there on the floor. "I AM HERE" .

I shouted!!! No one listen. "LOOK I AM NOT DEAD" .

I screamed once again!!! No one is interested in me.

They all were looking me on the bed. I went back to my bed room.

"Am I dead??" I asked myself.

Where is my wife, my children, my mom-DAD, my friends?

I found them in the next room, all of them were crying. still trying to console each other.

My wife was crying. she was really looking sad.

My little kid was not sure what happened, but he was crying just coz his mom was sad.

How can I go without saying my kid that I really love him, I really do care of him.. ??

How can I go without saying my wife that she is really most beautiful

and most caring wife in this world..??

How can I go without saying my parents that I m just because of u ??

How can I go without telling my friends that without them

perhaps I have done most of the

wrong things in my life.

Thanks for being there always when I need them and sorry for not being

there when they really need me..

I can see a person standing in the corner and trying to hide his tears.

Ohh. he was once my best friend, but a small misunderstanding made us part,

and we both have strong enough ego to keep us disconnect.

I went there.. And offered him my hand,

"Dear friend. I just want to say sorry for everything, we r still best friend,

please forgive me." No response from other side, what the hell??

He is still preserving his ego, I am saying sorry. even then!!! I really don't care for such people. But one sec.. it seems he is not able to see me!!!!

He did not see my extended hand.

My goodness. AM I REALLY DEAD???

I just sat down near ME; I was also feeling like crying.

"OHH ALMIGHTY!!!! PLEASE JUST GIVE ME FEW MORE DAYS."

I just wasn't to make my wife, my parents; my friends realize that how much I love them.

My wife entered in the room, she looks beautiful.

"YOUR BEAUTIFUL" I shouted.

She didn't hear my words,

in fact she never heard these words coz I never said this to her.

"GOD!!!!" I screamed. a little more time plzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. .

I cried. One more chance please. to hug my child,

to make my mom smile just once,

to feel my dad proud on me at least for a moment,

to say sorry to my friends for everything

I have not given to them, and thanks for still being in my life..

Then I looked up and cried!!!!

I shouted.. "GOD!!!! ONE MORE CHANCE PLEASE!!!!"

"You shouted in your sleep," said my wife as she gently woke me up.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

I was sleeping.. Ohh that was just a dream..

My wife was there. she can hear me. This is the happiest moment of my life.

I hugged her and whispered..

"U R THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND CARING WIFE IN THIS UNIVERSE..

I REALLY LOVE U DEAR"

I can't understand the reason of the smile on

her face with some tears in her eyes, still I m happy..

" THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS SECOND? CHANCE."

So, Now it's not late.. Forget your egos, past....,

and express your love to others....

Be friendly.... . keep smiling and be happy for ever.

"Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain.

They steal your energy and keep you away from love”.

Papaya Leaf ...

2009-05-08T20:27:00.007+08:00

What can Papaya Leaf help us?

Papaya leaf, latex, and fruit contain several digestive enzymes, which account for the herb's action as a digestive aid and its ability to tenderize, that is, predigest meat. The latex contains the most enzymes, followed by the leaves, and lastly the fruit, though the fruit still contains enough to aid digestion. Retrieved from https://www.herbco.com/c-260-papaya-leaf.aspx

Papaya leaf...

In a hot sunny afternoon I've receive a missed call from my aunt and was wondering why she called. Anyway I was in the middle of class, that's why i wasn't not answering it. However, I feel something is different because she never used to call me in the afternoon, so I decided to give a return call to find out. Ring... Ring... She pick up, Aunt were you looking for me? Yes, sorry to disturb you , was just wondering if your girlfriend's house planted a Papaya tree? I asked why? Then she explain that she needs the leaf to make it into herbal medicine for the brother-in-law because he was in a critical state of Dengue. So I told her nope, my girlfriend house doesn't not have any papaya tree, then she say it's okay, she will go look around at the morning market the next day.

After putting down the phone, I feel uneasy but continued with my class. Class ended, I went towards my car and decided to drive around and try to search for any papaya tree, looking around for quite sometime and finally found one little papaya tree near a Malay village at Cheras. So to be polited, I would like to ask if the papaya tree was owned by someone... Looking around and there was no one there (The papaya tree was at the road side). So i assume there is no owner, soon I picked pick up a pen knife from my stationary case and cut some of the leaf... alright so now I have some of the leaf... then time to pass it to my aunt.

Arriving at her place, pressing on the door bell and so she came out to open the gate, I can see her expression filled with surprise and amazement (Maybe KL hard to find Papaya tree)... then she say so sorry to trouble you... Thank you... Soon my Uncle came back as well... So I left by greeting them a nice day, hoping that those papaya leaf will provide some help to her brother-in-law.

It was Wednesday and I was not having class in the morning, suddenly a familiar ring tone rang.. That was my phone... Okay... So it was from Home and who will call me at this hour, It was my mum, ha ha not working I say? She replied: Nope, not feeling well so stay at home to rest. Anyway, you aunt's brother-in-law passed away this morning. I was shock to hear that... and suddenly the only things that comes to my mind is Papaya leaf...

Without second thought I messaged my Uncle to send him a condolence. He replied: "Appreciate it Kenneth, and tx for d time to look for d papaya leaves. May God Bless his soul...". For that second, my mind went blank and just couldn't say anything besides praying for the decease.

This incident reminds me that human are just as weak and fragile like any other insects, death is just a mear gap from alive... After all this happen, I was feeling relief because at least I have done my best to search for the Papaya leaves... So if one day someone called you to help them in finding something will you do so? I bet i will try my best to do so...

and may God bless those soul in peace. Amen !!!

English!!! Differences between Malaysian and British

2009-03-02T23:26:00.005+08:00

> British English vs. Malaysian English

> Who says our English is teruk? Just read below - Ours is simple,
> short,
> concise, straight-to-the-point, effective etc.

> WHEN GIVING A CUSTOMER BAD NEWS

> Britons: I'm sorry, sir, but we don't seem to have the sweater you
> want in your size, but if you give me a moment, I can call the other
> outlets for you.

> Malaysians: No stock.

> RETURNING A CALL

> Britons: Hello, this is John Smith. Did anyone call for me a few
> moments
> ago?

> Malaysians: Hello, who call?

> ASKING SOMEONE TO MAKE WAY
>
> Britons: Excuse me, I would like to get by. Would you please make way?

> Malaysians: S-kew me.

> WHEN SOMEONE OFFERS TO PAY

> Britons: Hey! Put your wallet away, this drink is on me.

> Malaysians: No need lah.

> WHEN ASKING FOR PERMISSION

> Britons: Excuse me, but do you think it would be possible for me to
> enter through this door?

> Malaysians: (pointing at the door) Can ah?

> WHEN ENTERTAINING

> Britons: Please make yourself right at home.

> Malaysians: No need shy shy one lah!

> WHEN DOUBTING SOMEONE

> Britons: I don't recall you giving me the money.

> Malaysians: Where got?

> WHEN DECLINING AN OFFER

> Britons: I would prefer not to do that, if you don't mind.

> Malaysians: Don't want lah.

> IN DISAGREEING ON A TOPIC OF DISCUSSION

> Britons: Err...Tom, I have to stop you there. I understand where
> you're coming from, but I really have to disagree with what you said about the
> issue.

> Malaysians: You mad ah?

> WHEN ASKING SOMEONE TO LOWER THEIR VOICE.

> Britons: Excuse me, but could you please lower your voice? I'm trying
> to concentrate over here.

> Malaysians: Shut up lah!

> WHEN ASKING SOMEONE IF HE/SHE KNOWS YOU.

> Britons: Excuse me, but I noticed you staring at me for sometime. Do I
know you?

> Malaysians: See what, see what?

> WHEN ASSESSING A TIGHT SITUATION.

> Britons: We seem to be in a bit of a predicament at the moment.

> Malaysians: Die lah!!

> WHEN TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT HAD HAPPENED

> Britons: Will someone tell me what has just happened?

> Malaysians: What happened ah? Why like that one lah?

> WHEN SOMEONE DID SOMETHING WRONG

> Britons: This isn't the way to do it. Here, let me show you.

> Malaysians: Like that also don't know how to do!

> WHEN ONE IS ANGRY

> Britons: Would you mind not disturbing me?

> Malaysians: Celaka you!

Heaven and Hell? Where is it GOD?

2009-02-26T22:16:00.004+08:00

A holy man was having a conversation with God one day and Said,

' God , I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'

God led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.

In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which
smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.

They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible
to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.

But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

God said, 'You have seen Hell.'

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one.

There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water.

The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and
plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, 'I don't understand..'

It is simple,' said God . 'It requires but one skill.

You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

Interview Tips and common Questions =)

2009-02-19T17:07:00.008+08:00

Why this post?

Why Interview?

Who needs interview?

Student?

Fresh Graduate?

Or you? Who have just lost or very much in need of a job?

Everyone is a possible target and we do not know when we will really need these skills... so do not procastinate.. get our self prepared all time to face challenges.

Are you ready?

Here we go...

50 Top Questions in an Interview:

1. Tell me about yourself:

The most often asked question in interviews. You need to have a shortstatement prepared in your mind. Be careful that it does not soundrehearsed. Limit it to work-related items unless instructed otherwise.Talk about things you have done and jobs you have held that relate tothe position you are interviewing for. Start with the item farthestback and work up to the present.

2. Why did you leave your last job?

Stay positive regardless of the circumstances. Never refer to a majorproblem with management and never speak ill of supervisors, co-workersor the organization. If you do, you will be the one looking bad. Keepsmiling and talk about leaving for a positive reason such as anopportunity, a chance to do something special or other forward-lookingreasons.

3. What experience do you have in this field?

Speak about specifics that relate to the position you are applying for.If you do not have specific experience, get as close as you can.

4. Do you consider yourself successful?

You should always answer yes and briefly explain why. A goodexplanation is that you have set goals, and you have met some and areon track to achieve the others.

5. What do co-workers say about you?

Be prepared with a quote or two from co-workers. Either a specificstatement or a paraphrase will work. Jill Clark, a co-worker at SmithCompany, always said I was the hardest workers she had ever known. Itis as powerful as Jill having said it at the interview herself.

6. What do you know about this organization?

This question is one reason to do some research on the organizationbefore the interview. Find out where they have been and where they aregoing. What are the current issues and who are the major players?

7. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A widevariety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement.Have some good ones handy to mention.

8. Are you applying for other jobs?

Be honest but do not spend a lot of time in this area. Keep the focuson this job and what you can do for this organization. Anything else isa distraction.

9. Why do you want to work for this organization?

This may take some thought and certainly, should be based on theresearch you have done on the organization. Sincerity is extremelyimportant here and will easily be sensed. Relate it to your long-termcareer goals.

10. Do you know anyone who works for us?

Be aware of the policy on relatives working for the organization. Thiscan affect your answer even though they asked about friends notrelatives. Be careful to mention a friend only if they are well thoughtof.

11. What kind of salary do you need?

A loaded question. A nasty little game that you will probably lose ifyou answer first. So, do not answer it. Instead, say something like,That’s a tough question. Can you tell me the range for this position?In most cases, the interviewer, taken off guard, will tell you. If not,say that it can depend on the details of the job. Then give a widerange.

12. Are you a team player?

You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready.Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team ratherthan for yourself are good evidence of your team attitude. Do not brag,just say it in a matter-of-fact tone. This is a key point.

13. How long would you expect to work for us if hired?

Specifics here are not good. Something like this should work: I’d likeit to be a long time. Or As long as we both feel I’m doing a good job.

14. Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel about that?

This is serious. Do not make light of it or in any way seem like youlike to fire people. At the same time, you will do it when it is theright thing to do. When it comes to the organization versus theindividual who has created a harmful situation, you will protect theorganization. Remember firing is not the same as layoff or reduction inforce.

15. What is your philosophy towards work?

The interviewer is not looking for a long or flowery dissertation here.Do you have strong feelings that the job gets done? Yes. That’s thetype of answer that works best here. Short and positive, showing abenefit to the organization.

16. If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?

Answer yes if you would. But since you need to work, this is the typeof work you prefer. Do not say yes if you do not mean it.

17. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?

If you have not, say no. If you have, be honest, brief and avoid saying negative things about the people or organization involved.

18. Explain how you would be an asset to this organization?

You should be anxious for this question. It gives you a chance tohighlight your best points as they relate to the position beingdiscussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship.

19. Why should we hire you?

Point out how your assets meet what the organization needs. Do notmention any other candidates to make a comparison.

20. Tell me about a suggestion you have madeHave a good one ready.

Be sure and use a suggestion that was acceptedand was then considered successful. One related to the type of workapplied for is a real plus.

21. What irritates you about co-workers?

This is a trap question. Think real hard but fail to come up withanything that irritates you. A short statement that you seem to getalong with folks is great.

22. What is your greatest strength?

Numerous answers are good, just stay positive. A few good examples:Your ability to prioritize, Your problem-solving skills, Your abilityto work under pressure, Your ability to focus on projects, Yourprofessional expertise, Your leadership skills, Your positive attitude

23. Tell me about your dream job.

Stay away from a specific job. You cannot win. If you say the job youare contending for is it, you strain credibility. If you say anotherjob is it, you plant the suspicion that you will be dissatisfied withthis position if hired. The best is to stay genetic and say somethinglike: A job where I love the work, like the people, can contribute andcan’t wait to get to work.

24. Why do you think you would do well at this job?

Give several reasons and include skills, experience and interest.

25. What are you looking for in a job?

See answer # 23

26. What kind of person would you refuse to work with?

Do not be trivial. It would take disloyalty to the organization,violence or lawbreaking to get you to object. Minor objections willlabel you as a whiner.

27. What is more important to you: the money or the work?

Money is always important, but the work is the most important. There isno better answer.

28. What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?

There are numerous good possibilities:Loyalty, Energy, Positive attitude, Leadership, Team player, Expertise,Initiative, Patience, Hard work, Creativity, Problem solver

29. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor Biggest trap of all.

This is a test to see if you will speak ill ofyour boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a formerboss, you may well below the interview right there. Stay positive anddevelop a poor memory about any trouble with a supervisor.

30. What has disappointed you about a job?

Don’t get trivial or negative. Safe areas are few but can include:Not enough of a challenge. You were laid off in a reduction Company didnot win a contract, which would have given you more responsibility.

31. Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.

You may say that you thrive under certain types of pressure. Give anexample that relates to the type of position applied for.

32. Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?

Probably this one. Do not give fuel to the suspicion that you may wantanother job more than this one.

33. What motivates you to do your best on the job?

This is a personal trait that only you can say, but good examples are:Challenge, Achievement, Recognition

34. Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?

This is up to you. Be totally honest.

35. How would you know you were successful on this job?

Several ways are good measures:You set high standards for yourself and meet them. Your outcomes are asuccess.Your boss tell you that you are successful

36. Would you be willing to relocate if required?

You should be clear on this with your family prior to the interview ifyou think there is a chance it may come up. Do not say yes just to getthe job if the real answer is no. This can create a lot of problemslater on in your career. Be honest at this point and save yourselffuture grief.

37. Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?

This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry aboutthe deep ethical and philosophical implications. Just say yes.

38. Describe your management style.

Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like progressive,salesman or consensus, can have several meanings or descriptionsdepending on which management expert you listen to. The situationalstyle is safe, because it says you will manage according to thesituation, instead of one size fits all.

39. What have you learned from mistakes on the job?

Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Makeit small, well intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. Anexample would be working too far ahead of colleagues on a project andthus throwing coordination off.

40. Do you have any blind spots?

Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blindspots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them dotheir own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them.

41. If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?

Be careful to mention traits that are needed and that you have.

42. Do you think you are overqualified for this position?

Regardless of your qualifications, state that you are very wellqualified for the position.

43. How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?

First, if you have experience that the interviewer does not know about,bring that up: Then, point out (if true) that you are a hard workingquick learner.

44. What qualities do you look for in a boss?

Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense ofhumor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. Allbosses think they have these traits.

45. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute betweenothers.

Pick a specific incident. Concentrate on your problem solving techniqueand not the dispute you settled.

46. What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?

Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.

47. Describe your work ethic.

Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, determination toget the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.

48. What has been your biggest professional disappointment?

Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Showacceptance and no negative feelings.

49. Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.

Talk about having fun by accomplishing something for the organization.

50. Do you have any questions for me?

Always have some questions prepared. Questions prepared where you will be an asset to the organization are good. How soon will I be able to be productive? and What type of projects will I be able to assist on? areexamples.

Retrieved from:

(Excerpted from the book The Accelerated Job Search by Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D,

published by The Management Advantage, Inc.)

Top Medical Universities in US

2009-02-07T21:09:00.003+08:00

The following Universities are top in the world....
Especially Harvard University; John Hopkins University;
University of Pennsylvania (Top Business School too)...

It may sounds funny... When i was much younger... During my secondary school time... Study was not a cup of my tea... In fact i dislike study, Never get to sit down quietly study and do my revision... Even during SPM & STPM, I'll do my revision the day before exam, and thanks God i did okay still (Hopeless at that time, my parents' view..haha) But today, reading has become part of my interest.... I can spend hours to read and do my research without feeling bored and started to look into more knowledge advancement in all areas...

Medical school was my dream...
But I did not make my dream into action and now there is no excuse
for me to regret that I'm not studying Medic
(Didn't get straight A's so cannot study medic).
Hahaha but still I'm in a Health line... as I'm in Psychology...
Here are some nice and beautiful Universities (Just Blog this for my Brother)
Anyway... RSMU- Russia State Medical University is one of the oldest Uni and most prominent Medical university in Russia.

To me as a Psychology student I'll hope and Dream that I can get myself entering Stanford University, USA. However, this dream will hardly being achieved...

Why?
Stanford University is the Top University for Psychology in the world...
Top 15 University in the World.

To get your Self Entering to Stanford you'll need these:
1. High CGPA @ Min 3.8 preferably 4.0 (They want the best of the best)
2. Publication of High Quality Journals & Research Papers
(Not many students writes journals or research paper)
3. You have a connection with Standford University (You parents are Alumni)
4. Your parents are RICH and have High Social Economic Status (High SES)
5. You are a Poor but you're a Genius
6. You can go through a though selection of Interview, Entry Examination, and write a good thesis paper.
7. You are determine enough to compete with the smartest people on earth...
8. God helps you
9. You family supports you
10. You help yourself

Why Private and Not Local?
Here are the reasons:
1. Local Universities are previously Good in the 60's -70's
but have gradually fall behind other universities in the world even
its sister School NUS_National University of Singapore is not is top 25.
Where is UM... somewhere around 250++

2. Local Universities are mostly conducting their course in BM...
So when you graduated for you Degree but you want to continue your
studies in overseas you'll face the problems of language because you
do not use English as the main medium in all your studies.
Eg. All Psychology terms are in English, but if you learn in BM
you will get confuse when you need to learn in English.

3. Even you're a very very smart student you might not get into the course you
previously wanted to study. Eg. You've scored 10 A1 and you apply for
Medic in UM and you did not get it, then you wonder why?
Other people scored 10B3 and they get into Medic...
coz they have the privileges so you better stop dreaming...
Collect more money and go for Private.

4. Thinking that those Professor will entertain you when you have questions...
the scenario might not be such...
those people who will entertain you are the Tutor and your friends...

5. Fees are cheap... way cheap compared to Private Universities...
With RM50K you can only get one single Degree in a Private University...
In Local you can use it for at least 3 Degree.

6. To improve your BM choose Local...
To Improve Mandarin choose Local...
To improve English choose Private...

7. To get cheap and good education choose Local...
To get expensive and Good education choose Private (Depending on which uni as well)...

8. Choose your courses... if you can't get it in Private go for Local...
Usually Local Universities offers more courses compared to private universities
and Local have more facilities too....

9. Anyway there is not definite answer whether to choose Private or Local
(This only happens in Malaysia) Both have its Pros and Cons
In oversea usually Privates are the best..
Eg. Harvard University; Cambridge University; Stanford University and many more...

Hahaha all the above are just my personal view... But is somehow fact. To enter the world class Universities, one must be highly competitive and intelligent. Never mind, for now i will choose to enjoy these pictures and scenery below.

1. Harvard University (Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is also the first and oldest corporation in North America.

Harvard University Library.

The Harvard University Library System, centered in Widener Library in Harvard Yard and comprising over 90 individual libraries and over 15 million volumes, is considered the fourth largest library collection in the world, after the Library of Congress, the British Library, and the French Bibliothèque Nationale.

John Harvard Statue at Harvard University.

A statue of John Harvard, sculpted by Daniel Chester French, sits in Harvard Yard at Harvard University. The statue, known by Harvard tour guides as the statue of three lies, claims that it depicts John Harvard, Founder, 1638, but in reality Harvard was merely a contributor, not the founder; the institution was founded in 1636; and the statue is actually a likeness of somebody else.

2. Johns Hopkins University (Located in Baltimore, Maryland)

The Johns Hopkins University is a private university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Johns Hopkins also maintains full-time campuses in greater Maryland, Washington, D.C., Italy, and China. It is particularly esteemed for its medical, scientific, and international studies programs.

3. University of Pennsylvania (Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is America’s first university and is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. As a member of the Ivy League, Penn is also one of the Colonial Colleges.

Benjamin Franklin statue at University of Pennsylvania

Benjamin Franklin, Penn’s founder, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating several “faculties” (e.g., theology, classics, medicine) into one institution.

4. Washington University in St. Louis (Located in St. Louis County, Missouri)
Washington University in St. Louis is a nonsectarian, private research university located in St. Louis County, Missouri. The university has students and faculty from all 50 US states and more than 125 nations. Twenty-two Nobel laureates have been associated with Washington University, nine doing the major part of their pioneering research at the university. Washington University is made up of seven graduate and undergraduate schools that encompass a broad range of academic fields.
5. University of California, San Francisco (Located in San Francisco)
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is one of the world’s leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF’s medical, pharmacy, dental, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world.

Head Columns

Founded in 1873, the mission of UCSF is to serve as a “public university dedicated to saving lives and improving health.” Though one of the ten campuses of the University of California, it is unique for being the only University of California campus dedicated solely to graduate education, and this in health and biomedical sciences.

6. University of Washington (Located in Seattle, Washington)
The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest university in the Northwestern United States and the oldest public university on the west coast.

7. Stanford University (Located in Stanford, California) Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a highly selective and well regarded private university located in Stanford, California, United States

Clark Center I

Stanford was founded by railroad magnate and California Governor Leland Stanford and his wife, Jane Stanford. It is named in honor of their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died of typhoid just before his 16th birthday.

8. Duke University (Located in Durham, North Carolina)
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. Besides academics, research, and athletics, Duke is also well known for its sizable campus and Gothic architecture, especially Duke Chapel. The forests surrounding parts of the campus belie the University’s proximity to downtown Durham.

9. Yale University (Located in New Haven, Connecticut) Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is a member of the Ivy League. Particularly well-known are its undergraduate school, Yale College, and the Yale Law School, each of which has produced a number of U.S. presidents and foreign heads of state.

Beinecke Library

Originally called the Collegiate School, the institution opened in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson, in Killingworth (now Clinton). It later moved to Saybrook, and then Wethersfield.

10. Baylor College of Medicine (Located in Houston, Texas) Baylor College of Medicine, located in Houston, Texas, USA, is one of the world’s leading centers for biomedical research and clinical care. Situated within the Texas Medical Center, a 1,000-acre complex that is home to 46 member institutions and is the largest medical center in the world.

The day when we know each other....

2009-01-29T22:41:00.003+08:00

Penang Trip for ICSWS

2009-01-29T08:59:00.004+08:00

Haha... finally arrived at Pinang... the first phenomena that attracted me was these pictures below... Isn't that houses.. but how come it's also a shop... after questioning my friends... then only we find out that this is the 'Norms' in Pinang Island....

One of the nicest part in USM Pinang....
Others just look alike with UTM, UM or UPM.... so this is something different here....

Here are the faces of the experts...

The day before the Conference starts... Here is where i went for a date... Queensbay

Pinang are famous of Nice and delicious food....
So as a food lover, we have ordered lots of food (more than 8 kinds for two of us)
Though we've ordered many different dishes including some Dim Sum...
it's still very cheap... with a RM50 note you'll still have balance...
If you're in KL i don't think we can get 8, probably only 4dishes...
Therefore we enjoy eating over there....

This is a Golden Curry Bread

Wan Ton Noodle (Most popular food for this shop) It's nice though

Yang Chow Fried Rice & Lo Mai Kai
(P.S The Lo Ma Kai is really really really nice.... KL hardly found one like this)

Am I Lucky or Bad Luck ???

2009-01-12T10:26:00.007+08:00

Lunch de Chow Kit ^.^

2009-01-04T10:28:00.003+08:00

It's nice to have lunch at different places during middle of day...
To me Chow Kit is a place where i often hear a lot from different resources...
but being at the place is a whole different experience to me.
I'm a city boy... but somehow I'm lucky enough to experience village life during my childhood... and this also mean I still get to play with traditional games,
chasing little chick and catching fishes in the drain....
Today's children childhood games are : Sony PSP, Nitendo, Play Station, PC Games...

The trip to Chow Kit wasn't too far away from my work place...
Anyway Chow Kit is in KL downtown...
it's just about the jam that makes me think twice before going to that place.
Luckly we are going there by public transport...
Chow kit is not the kind of place for me to 'lepak'...
Kinda of not used to it... as it is opposing my lifestyle
(Coz it's dirty & I'm a little Obsessive compulsive on cleanliness)
... but no harm to expose myself to those places...
and this valuable trip makes me learn that money is not easy to earn.
See those people opening their business over there... waiting for customer to visit their stalls... and in today's economic condition.. it makes their life even harder.

For those kids who are too lucky and was born in a rich family...
don't be a spoiled brat to blindly spend your parents money....
well I'm from a well to do family... Not rich but i do know money is hard earn when i personally try to make my own money.
So thanks to both my parents....
thanks for their patient to educate me through trail and error...
thanks for their advices...

Here are some sence from Chow Kit small Alley....

Lunch De Chow Kit ^.^ an interesting one..... hahaha....
Thanks to my colleagues: Nona, Zahara... =)

My review on KIC Oil & Gas ^.^ Part 2 My farewell party

2009-01-04T09:52:00.014+08:00

There are no parties without no ending...
but this party that I've is one that comes with a nice and memorable ending....
It's shouldn't be an ending... but a new beginning....
A new beginning that I've made some new friends... learned new experiences...
A new beginning that I'll continue my journey to my next goal....
I'm glad to work in KIC as I've made many friends...
What is more important is that I've learn many valuable experience through observation...

Pent house View... Guest Waiting Area

Pent House View... To the Bra area & Aquarium meeting room

On going project... The APH project " Iskandar Project in Johor Bahru."

It states:
BEST OF LUCK GOOD BYE FAREWELL FUAD< party="" let="" memory="" remains="" cheers="" from="" rg="" group="" gonna="" miss="" you=")">Below are my farewell party pictures with my colleagues....

Pictures with my colleagues..... My review on KIC Oil & Gas ^.^ Part 1

2009-01-01T10:26:00.001+08:00

Food is a way how people express their warmest welcome to new staff....
We've welcome parties, Birthday parties, Annual parties, Special parties and celebration,
and Farewell parties....
Let me count...
All together I've attended more than 5 Parties while having internship with KIC.
Hahaha.... lots and lots of nice food.

Knowledge & Development unit Line up... Staring from left is Sharanee, Nona, Kent.. ^.^

Photo time (With Resource Director)

Eating time....

Working in KIC Oil & Gas was really really enjoyable...
Not because it's relaxing..
but it meaningful and experiential for me.
Everyday we people out there are just consumer of petrol fuel and knowing how to drive and fill our vehicle with petrol or diesel. But one ever thought of where all this resources comes from? Working in this company provides me an insight of how oil terminaling works.
How to train talents and how to react to problems
(I'm under HR Department @ Knowledge & Development Unit)
Different working environment requires different needs for these employees...
In KIC I've gain a rough idea of Managing people...
It also provides me an observation ground to observe human behavior....
Never forget I'm a Psychology student. This is the right place for Psycho people to learn... LOL.

OKAY...
People here are nice, they do not hesitate to teach me what ever i wanna learn...
(there are many things to learn in this company... 2 month of internship is too short for me to acquire sufficient knowledge from this company, though I'm learning everyday.)
Special Thanks to my colleagues... especially my Supervisor Sharanee and Norjuliana.

To Be Continued...

Miracle ^.^

2008-12-30T08:50:00.000+08:00

Here is an overview of world religion... the Purple region is Christianity; Green is Islam; Blue is Judaism; Red is Hinduism; Brown is Buddhism... Etc....

Here I'm about to share a little miracle YT Bb have seen in the church....
An image on the floor....
Try look at this image below... Everyone knows Jesus... so lets have a look....

Miracle @ SFA Church

Fun Personality test ^.^

2008-12-30T08:35:00.000+08:00

My Test result:

Disorder | Rating
Paranoid: Low
Schizoid: Low
Schizotypal: High
Antisocial: Low
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: Moderate
Narcissistic: High
Avoidant: Low
Dependent: Low
Obsessive-Compulsive: Moderate

You can try this test @
http://www.4degreez.com/misc/personality_disorder_test.mv

What is Schizotypal Personality Disorder?

Quick Summary:

Many believe that schizotypal personality disorder represents mild schizophrenia. The disorder is characterized by odd forms of thinking and perceiving, and individuals with this disorder often seek isolation from others. They sometimes believe to have extra sensory ability or that unrelated events relate to them in some important way. They generally engage in eccentric behavior and have difficulty concentrating for long periods of time. Their speech is often over elaborate and difficult to follow.

Symptoms of Schizotypal Personality Disorder:

Odd or eccentric mannerisms or appearance
Superstitious or preoccupied with paranormal phenomena
Difficult to follow speech patterns
Feelings of anxiety in social situations
Suspiciousness and paranoia
Odd beliefs or magical thinking
Appears shy, aloof, or withdrawn to others

What is Histrionic Personality Disorder?

Quick Summary:

People with histrionic personality disorder are constant attention seekers. They need to be the center of attention all the time, often interrupting others in order to dominate the conversation. They use grandiose language to discribe everyday events and seek constant praise. They may dress provacatively or exaggerate illnesses in order to gain attention. Histrionics also tend to exaggerate friendships and relationships, believing that everyone loves them. They are often manipulative.

Symptoms of Histrionic Personality Disorder:

Needs to be the center of attention
Dresses or acts provocatively
Rapidly-shifting and shallow emotions
Exaggerates friendships
Overly-dramatic, occassionally theatrical speech
easily influenced; highly suggestible

What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

Quick Summary:

Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by self-centeredness. Like histrionic disorder, people with this disorder seek attention and praise. They exaggerate their achievements, expecting others to recongize them as being superior. They tend to be choosy about picking friends, since they believe that not just anyone is worthy of being their friend. Narcissists tend to make good first impressions, yet have difficulty maintaining long-lasting relationships. They are generally uninterested in the feelings of others and may take advantage of them.

Symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

Requires excessive praise and admiration
Takes advantage of others
Grandiose sense of self-importance
Lack of empathy
Lying, to self and others
Obsessed with fantasies of fame, power, or beauty

Additional Information:

Narcissism is most often found in men and is often diagnosed with other mental disorders.

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder?

Quick Summary:

While Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder (OCDP) sounds similar in name to obsessive-compulsive anxiety disorder, the two are markedly different disorders. People with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are overly focused on orderliness and perfection. Their need to do everything "right" often interferes with their productivity. They tend to get caught up in the details and miss the bigger picture. They set unreasonably high standards for themselves and others, and tend to be very critical of others when they do not live up to these high standards. They avoid working in teams, believing others to be too careless or incompetent. They avoid making decisions because they fear making mistakes and are rarely generous with their time or money. They often have difficulty expressing emotion.

Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder:

Need for perfection and excessive discipline
Preoccupation with orderliness
Inflexibility
Lack of generosity
Hyper-focus on details and rules
Excessive devotion to work

Additional Information:

The potential for improvement with treatment is better for obsessive-compulsive personality disorder than for other personality disorders. A combination of medication and therapy tends to yield positive results.

Sun Tzu's: The Art of War !

2008-12-26T17:50:00.001+08:00

The Sun Tzu's The Art of War' is one of the world's best books on strategy and competition. It was written in app. 500 B.C. and established itself as the leading treatise on confronting and defeating opponents through superior strategy.

You must know five things to win:

1. Victory comes from knowing when to attack and when to avoid battle.

2. Victory comes from correctly using large and small forces.

3. Victory comes from everyone sharing the same goals.

4. Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems.

5. Victory comes from having a capable commander and the government leaving him alone.

Words to share... ^.^

2008-12-26T14:22:00.000+08:00

"Every problem has a gift for you in its hands."

– Richard Bach

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

– Albert Einstein

Mitusbishi Lancer Evolution X ^.^

2008-12-26T10:10:00.000+08:00

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, one of my favorite sport car... now here are some how news :

According to The Star...

That’s a distinct possibility now that the police have taken delivery of 25 units of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

Better known as the Evo X in some markets, Mitsubishi’s World Rally Championship-inspired high-performance car is as mean as they come.

With a 2.0-litre turbocharged Mivec engine pumping out 295bhp, sports suspension and a tarmac gripping all-wheel drive system, suffice to say that the Lancer Evolution has enough blistering pace and sure-footedness to pin down any throttle-happy felons.

According to the Bukit Aman public relations department, the cars will carry the police livery and be equipped with communications and siren systems, and could be deployed for high-speed pursuits or even as VIP escorts. The police version will be a five-speed manual.

Besides Malaysia, the current Evolution model is also used by the police in Japan and Australia as high-speed interceptors.

Pardon the pun but it’s a copping fast car that the Mat Keretas will have to be on the lookout for now. And it looks like the men in uniform will be having some fun.

Wanna drive those to chase "Mat rempit" and "Mat Keretas" too.... wahaha...