Most people dream of many things but most do not dare to take actions. They prefer to wait for that one golden opportunity – the opportunity which will propel them to stardom, to become a millionaire, or to be what they believe they should be.

So they wait…and wait…and wait….ignoring other opportunities which appear around them.

And it won’t come as a surprise if I tell you that some people actually spend their entire life waiting for such golden opportunities. 1 year become 5 years…and 5 years become 10 years….and so on. By the time they realized, it’s all too late and they would’ve wasted much of their life waiting for nothing.

Do you want to end up this way as well?

To be fair, sometimes there’s no harm to wait for a better opportunity or a better option. But the key here is not to wait too long or become too obsessed with that one ‘golden’ opportunity. Waiting is okay, but you have to know when to stop waiting and call it quit. I know it’s not easy to give up on something you strongly believe in…but at times, that will be your best option.

Let me give you a simple example (used by the radio One FM). Lee brought Muthu to visit a client. Upon arriving at the lobby area in ground floor, they found out that the lift has broken down. Muthu, being the lazy person he was, decided to wait for the lift to be repaired since the client’s office was located at the 12th floor. Lee, on the other hand, had a feeling that the lift would be out for quite some time. So, he took the risk and used the stairs. In the end, the repairman was not able to fix the lift on the day itself and Muthu was penalized for not attending the meeting with the client.

As you can see, Muthu did not want to take the risk and grab the available opportunities. He strongly believed that the lift would return to normal soon. So he waited. Lee took the risk and went for the other seemingly better opportunity – to use the stairs. True, maybe the lift would return to normal once Lee went for the stairs but it was a risk worth taking.

Last but not least, I hope that everyone who reads this article will learn to be more open-minded and pay attention to the countless opportunities which present themselves to us in our daily life. The opportunities that we strongly believe would work might not work at all and the golden opportunity that we believe would come might not come in the end. So, there’s really no point for us to be stubborn and hold on to something which is not going to bring us anything good.

I know it’s easier said than done. But understanding such situations/cases will certainly help (at least for me).

I was in the clinic the other day and there was this auntie who approached the nurse and threw questions after questions.

“This doctor can or not?”

“Why ask me to come here when that doctor not around?”

“How long have to wait?”

“So many patients one, so how long ah?”

…and all the while, the nurse was on the phone with another doctor.

We’ve seen this multiple times be it in a meeting, in an interview, during a presentation, in the operation room, etc. But bombarding the other person with questions after questions is useless if you don’t at least let that person time to think how to answer you. Or worse, not enough time for the person to even give you an answer.

And if there’s no answer, what’s the point of asking questions in the first place?

So if you really want to get some explanations or some proper answers, please respect the other person and give that person some time to reply you. Unless, the sole purpose of your questions is to make the other person feel stressed up – some interviewers do use this technique. Otherwise, you should always refrain from being so impatient.

Ask – respect – be patient – wait – get the response – and ask your next question.

Oh, and the auntie, she didn’t really get her answers back. She asked more than 5 questions but the nurse only heard 1 of them. But kudos to the auntie, she was actually bringing her elderly mother to see the doctor. For this, I respect her and I think a lot of young people should learn from her.

Warning: This is sort of like a rant post.

Thursday (the day I’m writing this) has not been very kind to me so far, thanks to my work (which is doing a year 2000 technology) and some inconsiderate drivers. So I was having this negative aura around me when I approached the Kelana Jaya Shell station to pump petrol.

Once I stopped the car, there was this bank employee who walked towards me with a big smile on his face. So I smiled back (pretty reluctantly). I proceeded with all those Bonuslink and credit card stuff while anticipating this guy to ask me if I would like to apply for a credit card from the bank he’s working for.

And I waited….and waited. Then I heard someone talking behind the pillar, right next to my car. And he was alone, the credit card salesman. Yes, he was using his mobile phone, right next to my car and I was pumping petrol.

I could feel the atomic bomb exploded within me. I called out to him:

“EXCUSE ME? hey you, can’t you read that simple sign that says NO MOBILE PHONE USAGE? Next time want to make a call, go further away la, there are so many empty spaces here”.

He smiled and walked off. His plan to get a new credit card customer, ruined, because of his own stupidity.

And we see this ALL THE TIME. People who want to get some deals or businesses from the potential customers, only to show the ugly side of them. For me, if you can’t even follow simple things like not using a mobile phone in a petrol station, how do you expect me to believe whatever you are going to say? I already have a negative impression of you without you even saying anything.

Sorry man, I’ll pass. No point buying from someone I dislike.

p/s….. and sometimes i really really wonder, why is it so hard for people to follow simple instructions like not using phone in the petrol station? i’ve seen so many people making phone calls while pumping petrol. If you want to risk your life, so be it. Why do you want to risk other people’s life…. and also their cars?

We live in the information age, and in my opinion, it has make our life somewhat more complicated than before. Perhaps it’s due to the unlimited amount of information that we’re exposed to and the countless of options available to us.

Our designers are coming out with more and more complex designs. Our building architects are doing the same. Our consumers demand more and more features in a single product even though they don’t need all of the features. And our doctors are giving us more and more medicines when the simpler approach would be to drink more water and eat more fruits.

Well, in some cases, going the not-so-simple direction does help but most often than not, it just complicate things. Perhaps we are being trained this way, or our environment forces us to become this way. I don’t know. All I know is, we are starting to lose what we always call “common sense”. Ever heard of people saying “common sense is no longer common”? Maybe that has something to do with our way of life which ignores the simple stuff and focus on the not-so-simple stuff.

Heck, some people even come out with many different ways to cut a fruit!!

But people, I guess it’s time to wake up a little and be aware of how simplicity can actually improves our life. There are many problems which don’t require us to think of complicated and complex solution. All they need is one simple solution, that’s all. Not everything is complicated, so don’t assume everything to be complicated. Start thinking the simple way and if cannot be solved, move on to more complicated solution.

Hope it helps.

p/s…… the reason I am writing this post is that, nowadays, i really notice a lot of us tend to think a bit too much on a problem. We would think of sooooo many complicated solutions and yet failed to solve the problem. Why? Because the solution is supposed to be simple and straightforward, but most of us just failed to figure it out.

Let’s admit this, our attention (yes, all of us) span are getting shorter as compared to ….say…10 years ago? Perhaps it’s due to how we’ve been brought up (babies who watch TV often tend to have shorter attention span when they grew up), or perhaps it’s because we have too many choices thanks to the Internet.

Well, irregardless of the reasons, it is a fact that we all must admit. Just look around you and I’m sure you can find the following examples pretty easily:

• People having problem listening to others properly.
• People interrupting while others are doing or saying something.
• People getting agitated when something goes on for a bit longer than usual.
• People falling asleep during a long meeting session.
• People getting tired of a new toy which was bought few months ago.
• etc….

As more and more content come pouring onto us, our attention span will become shorter and shorter because there just isn’t enough time for us to go through every single content. In the end, we’ll spend very very limited amount of time on 1 single content before we chuck it aside and go on to the next one. And yes, content in this context can be the person talking in front of a meeting.

I know this (the amount of content pouring in) cannot be avoided at times but what can be done here is for us to be less wasteful. Pick the content carefully and give our full attention to it. Listen to the person WELL if you chose to listen in the first place. Focus on what the person in front has to say if you chose to sit in the meeting (remember that nobody can force you to do so besides yourself). Fully utilize the new toy that you have just bought…. or better, justify why you need it before buying it and remember those reasons AFTER you bought it.

And I believe that is the best we all can do for ourselves, our money, our toys and also the people around us. Be more selective and then give our full attention whenever we are engaged in something or with someone.

Oh, and as for businesses or content providers….it also means if your stuff is not good enough, you will be totally ignored. but either you try to make us look at you….or don’t try at all. It’s up to you.