And that is exactly what life is all about. There are times when we’re being given some of the best things in the world and feel fortunate. But there are also times when we’re being thrown into some difficult situations which make us feel we’re useless. Yes, shits like this do happen (and sometimes they happen a lot too) but I believe that we have the power to make the best out of whatever situation we’re in.

For example, if you are complaining about your job now, there are actually few things that you can do. The obvious option is of course to look for another job. But if you can’t do that, then you have to make the most out of your current situation. Introduce new ideas, contribute more to the team, get to know more people from other teams, help another teammate with his/her task, etc. Make yourself a valuable member of the team, and a valuable employee for the company.

The thing with most people is that we complain too much whenever things are not the way we want them to be. We complain and complain, ….and complain. Yet, we do nothing to improve the overall situation. And no matter how much you try to deny it, the truth is that we CAN improve the situation. Here are few things you can consider doing:

• stop complaining
• think of the positive things in current situation
• think of how you can improve on the positive things
• make yourself valuable to your team and company
• think out of the box

Remember that you don’t have to just stick to the things listed in your job description. Feel free to explore out of the box. Most importantly, you have to understand your current situation. If you can’t move away from it, then change how you look at it.

As Mary Engelbreit once said “If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it — change the way you think about it.”

While most people love the 3 good ideas, there are a lot more people who are fearful of the 7 bad ideas. In the end, they feel hesitant to come out with any ideas. They are afraid of being looked down by others. They are afraid of being called “stupid”. They are afraid of bad ideas.

But if you don’t come out with any ideas at all, then the hope of getting a good idea is zero.

That’s why in my personal opinion, having bad ideas is way better than having no ideas at all. Generate more ideas, be it good or bad. Learn from the bad, and keep the good. That way, you will eventually come out with few good ideas.

Well, easier said than done. If you want to do this, I think you have to let go of your ego for a while…. and feel that it’s okay to look stupid with all the bad ideas you come out with. Hopefully in the long run, you will learn to understand that there’s no idea which is bad….and someone who is willing to contribute ideas is always smarter than someone who does not contribute ideas at all.

And yet, some of them have been very successful in their life. It’s like they do not have much weaknesses to begin with. Oh, and what about those that have shortcomings or are less fortunate than a lot of us – learning difficulties, deaf, handicapped, mute, etc. Time and time again, people who are less fortunate have proved to us that they can be as successful (if not more) as well.

So what actually enables them to be so successful? What are the secrets/factors behind it? For me, there are only 3 main secrets or factors.

Luck – this is something outside our control but it is also something that we should be aware of. Just don’t pay too much attention to it.

Belief – this is very important because it helps to push you forward. Without having something that you truly believe it, you can’t go far.

Perseverance – never give up. Yes, sometimes it does pay off to give up but if there’s something that you truly believe in, you should not give up. Push on. If it fails, think of a different approach. Remember that Rome was not built in a day. It took a lot of hard work to build the entire city.

The last 2 points are very important and they go hand-in-hand with one another. If you do not have something that you really believe in, then just believe in yourself. Believe that you can accomplish the task at hand. Believe that you can achieve your ambitions. Believe in yourself because if all things failed you, you still have yourself.

And never give up. If you are not a genius or if you can’t learn things as fast as some other smarter people can, then work harder. If it takes other people just 8 hours to learn something, then you should work harder …maybe 10 or 12 hours to learn it up.

Also, bear in mind that most people prefer a hardworking + average person than a smart + lazy person.

Last but not least, I sincerely believe that being successful is not a myth and the opportunity to be successful in life is there for everyone to grab. The question is whether you have the belief and the perseverance to get it.

Hope it helps.

p/s….. some people said that i can pick up things fast, but to be honest, i do tend to spend longer time than some smart people i know. The way that I can remain competitive is to work harder.

………

Recruiter :  Hey, so you’re traveling to Sydney this coming weekend?

Me :  Yeap.

Recruiter :  Whoa, good opportunity for you to work with people from other countries.

Me :  Hmm, nothing special. I was based in UK for 7 months before this. So I’ve worked with people from various countries.

Recruiter :  Oh…but…how come your English is like this?

Me :  Erm, what do you mean by this?

Recruiter :  You know…accent. Your English seems very Malaysian to me, and there’s no accent.

Me :  Honestly, I don’t see a need to learn other people’s accents. As long as I can speak clearly, I don’t see any harm.

Recruiter :  But it’s actually better to speak in their accent so that you can impress people during interview.

Me :  Well, it also depends on who am I talking to, no?

………

Ok, the last line probably pissed her off a little.

The thing is, people should not assume that everyone thinks alike. To them, accent can be used to impress people but to us, it can mean nothing. What we want to do is just to use our English to deliver our messages CLEARLY and EFFECTIVELY. Simple right? Surprisingly, a lot of people failed to see this and end up using accent….which they really shouldn’t. You know…those people who talk in alien language that nobody can understand them at all? I bet some of them are trying to speak with accent.

I know this post does sound a bit like a ranting post, but really, my advice to everyone out there – stop assuming that people will do what you think they will do. Or, stop thinking that people will do whatever you think YOU would do. For this case, the recruiter thinks English should be used with accent in order to impress people, and she thinks other people should do the same too. But the truth is, most people prefer to use English without any accent, as long as the messages can be delivered properly.

So, stop assuming.

p/s…. by the way, I wanted to ask her which accent does she think is appropriate. British? Scottish? Aussies? American? But I was quite pissed that I ended up answering 1 word reply to her – yes/no/okay

p/s…. and yes, I must admit I can’t really speak with accent and I don’t have any intention of learning it.

So what should you do then? What if you really want to get a promotion?

To begin with, you can refer to Damien’s “Idiot’s guide to getting a promotion“. It’s a good guide which teaches you how to manage a list of to-do and discuss it with your boss. This list can also be considered as the “requirements for getting promotion” list. Feel free to read through it.

After that, the conversation with your supervisor should have been completed. By then you should be able to know if the company has any plan to promote you, or if they think you are too good to be promoted. If it’s the first case, then congrats, you can stop reading here. If it’s the second case, please proceed

The next sensible thing for you to do is to ask yourself if you are indeed too good in what you do that you cannot be replaced. If yes, what is it that you are so good at? Is it something which can only be applied to your current job? Or is it a skill which you can still use once promoted? Identify the skills and see how you can apply them after you are promoted. If the skills cannot be ‘reused’, then is there a way to train up other people? How long do you think it will take to train someone up to be at your level? And do your bosses agree to such a transition?

Try to get the answers to those questions and hopefully it will be clearer to you whether it is possible to have a promotion in your current company, or not. If it’s not possible, then it is really your call to either stay or to find another job which allows you to have a promotion. Oh yeah, 1 more thing, always remember that a good company should never ever rely too much on a person. For a proper company, nobody is irreplaceable. It is just a question of whether they want to replace you (and the amount of time spent on the transition), or not.

True, you can always have plan B, plan C, D, X, Y, Z. But all those backup plans are there to minimize the damages done when shit happens. For example, your boss screwed up and decided to retrench 20 people in the company and you’re 1 of them. Is it within your control? Hmm, not really. But can you have a backup plan before it happens? Definitely! One of your backup plans could be having an emergency fund to help support your expenses when you’re jobless, or you can have a backup plan to sell your car in order to raise some fund.

However, despite all the backup plans, it doesn’t remove the fact that shit has happened. What’s next then? Be honest about it. Don’t give any excuses and don’t attempt to hide it. If someone asks you what has happened, just admit that shit happened even though not everyone will buy into that “shit happens” excuse. But that’s their choice. For you, being honest is the best you could do.

Well, there’s actually 1 more thing that you should know. That is… our society does not like people who screwed up, or people who have been in a “shit happens” situation. That is why entrepreneurs who have failed in their businesses find it hard to land a job after their businesses closed down. However, our society despises cheaters even more than people who experienced “shit happens” situations. So, in the end, the decision is still yours – be honest about the entire situation, or try to cheat your way through it.

Wrong wrong wrong. Ideas can come from anyone in a healthy environment. If you have some ideas which you think have not been implemented and might be able to help improve things, then do voice out. Perhaps you can voice out to your supervisor if you’re afraid to approach the top people. Start small, maybe just introduce it within your team and see how it goes. The important thing here is to share your ideas especially if you have seen them becoming successful in other companies.

For example, whiteboarding or brown bag session, 360 degrees performance review, etc. Useful ideas that you have experienced in your previous jobs can also be introduced in your new company.

Remember that you are in a company to contribute to the business in any ways possible. Furthermore, you will be able to leave something significant and useful for others to learn and spread the next time they switch company.

An angry customer threatening to sue the company he used to love because the salesman did not tell him the important terms and conditions, or a motivated employee who decided to resign from his so-called ‘dream’ job once he realized a lot of the promises made during the interview could not be materialized.

Yes, we’ve seen and heard about all such examples. And all of them are due to (in one way or another) this reason – the failure to set the right expectations.

You can argue that it is the customer’s fault (or the interviewee’s) for not asking the proper questions. Yeap, you can definitely do that, just like what most people did. The thing is, this same group of people always end up finding themselves with a pissed off customer or an extremely demotivated employee. And the end result is not going to be the win-win situation everyone wants to achieve – for the customer, he will spread the negative comments (well, you don’t really need to care if your product is so good that everyone will still flock to your shop) and stop buying from you…..and the employee will also spread the negative comments and go look for another job. Either way, it’s definitely not good outcome for both parties in the long run.

Why do they (the customers and the employees) behave this way? Speaking from experience, it’s because we feel betrayed by the people/companies we trusted. Let’s say we buy an expensive product from you. We thought about it for a very long time and finally decided to buy it. We asked A-Y but missed out on Z. And you assumed you don’t have to tell us about Z just because we didn’t ask about it. Big mistake. If Z is important, then you should tell us about it. If you don’t, and once we found out about it, we’ll be very angry.

That’s why I always believe in setting the right expectations. It’s part of being a good salesman, consultant, interviewer, customer service officer, etc. Heck, I can even say it’s part of being successful in life!

So always always remember to set the right expectations and stop assuming people know about it just because they never ask. If you feel it’s important, then say it out. Set the right expectations before they make their decision. Remember that you should be helping them in making the right decision, and not trying to cheat them into making one.

p/s…. I understand that sometimes it’s not possible to clear all their doubts and set all the expectations right… so if you are unsure what kind of expectations to set, try to look at what are the important things that they should know. Things that they will be very pissed off if you don’t tell them about it. Things like conditions, clauses, possible contracts or bonds, etc.

p/s…. I’m writing this post because I became a victim twice in a month just because the salesman did not set the right expectations. I asked many many questions and they assumed I would know the few important points (clauses, missing software, etc) which I did not ask. Yes, I was pissed and they received a lot of lectures from me.

All of us have a role (or roles) to play in this world especially to our family and society. If everyone starts to think about creating values for the society, I am very sure together we can make this world a better place.

Here are some simple examples to get you started:

• Recycle
• Donate blood
• Encourage people to donate blood
• Teach others things that you are good at / share your knowledge
• Motivate people
• Make people laugh
• Help out those in need including your customers
• Start a motivational blog
• Stop eating shark’s fin
• Organize sporting events to promote healthy living
• Turn off the tap if you’re not using
• Turn off the lights if you’re not in the room

And the list can go on and on and on. But these are very simple examples which should be good enough to get you started. The more ‘advanced’ examples would be things like how your current job can contribute to the society or are you creating things which can improve the life of others, etc.

Or are you just trying to protect yourselves and reap off benefits just for yourselves? If that’s the case, don’t you think it’s time for you to do your part for the society?

I understand that not every job can contribute to the society especially those in the financial sector. But if our own job can’t do that, then we just have to spend some of our personal time to do it.

Remember that it’s never too late to start creating values for the society. Simple acts could go a long way.

And let’s face it, most people do not like subjective things since they can be pretty unpredictable. People prefer to have the numbers do the talking. This goes all the way back when calculus was first introduced. Since then, everyone focuses on numbers and anything that can be quantified in numbers. Well, that’s not a bad thing. The bad thing here is, we tend to rely too much on numbers.

Some of the examples I can think of:

• A mutual fund agent wants you to open an account to invest in a new fund, they will come out with all the nice numbers, projected profit, etc – all of them are numbers. And as investors, numbers are important to us so we get influenced by these agents, and go on to buy from them. But one thing that we don’t know is that, behind all these numbers, is this mutual fund agent really trying to help us by giving us the best possible advice? Or is he just trying to get our signature and then disappears forever? What about the fund manager involved? Does he just care about his own money or does he actually invest his own money in the same fund, because he really believes in it?
• A company pays the employees very well but the turnover rate is still very high. The boss would say “We pay them well! Why do they still want to leave?” Well, you can measure the amount you pay your people against other employers, but how do you measure whether they are happy to work for you or not?
• A father buys a lot of stuff for his little son – phones, cars, Macbooks (:P), etc. But he himself has no time to accompany his son due to work. In the end, the son grew up to be rebellious and started to mix with the wrong group of people. To the father, he could not understand why the son turned out this way even after all the money he has spent. But he didn’t realize that “love” is not something which can be measured by numbers.

I don’t know about you but I personally feel that people are becoming more and more ‘addicted’ to numbers. Some even do that to the extreme where only numbers are important. But time and time again, they will know that numbers ARE important but definitely not the most important thing in the world. Relying on numbers do help, but relying TOO MUCH on numbers will bring more harm than good.

Remember that numbers are there to help us make the right decisions and not to make the decisions for us.

p/s…. What happened in the recent economy crash is that there are just too many irresponsible fund managers and traders. We can measure the numbers, but we can’t measure what they are thinking or how responsible they are. That is why, at the end of the day, the people who lost the most are those who focus only on numbers – the investors.