We live in a world where long attention span is hard to come by. Having tonnes of things screaming for our attention every minute of our life does not help either. We can try all we want to focus on one thing, before something else comes along and tries to pull us away. Yes, we are getting more and more impatient.

Perhaps that is why we tend to jump to conclusion faster than before. We notice the NOW, not the future. If someone does not show any promise NOW, then we’ll say that the person is just not good enough. We don’t have the time to sit still and wait for the person to show what he can really do. Why? Because someone else will be knocking on our door, trying to get our attention. Plenty of options and limited time are the best ingredients for short attention span.

Actually, this kind of thing does not happen only in office. Sometimes, it happens in school too. How often have we heard about teachers looking down and discriminating students who are slow learners? Some even go to the extend of saying those kids do not have a bright future! But are the teachers right in their judgment? Most of the time, no. In my opinion, these teachers, just like the rest of us, judge too quickly. They judge based on what they can see and what they know about the students (and how long do you think a particular teacher knows about a particular student? Few months? Weeks?). Most of the time, they start judging without even knowing the students thoroughly!

But the blame should not be solely on the teachers. It is our society which is creating such a bad habit and the teachers are just part of our society.

Anyway, I think all of us should just face the reality that nobody can predict the future, the teachers included. Students who appear to be promising and talented do not mean they will be successful in the future. On the other hand, students who are being regarded as slow may not be a flop at all! A lot of other factors have to be taken into account. The obvious things that we can see NOW might not even be there 10 years down the road! So who are we to judge others based on what may not even be there in the future?

That is why I personally feel that all of us should learn to be more patient. We should learn not to be short-sighted and narrow-minded. Try to look at others from a different perspective. Someone might not be good, smart or talented NOW, but if the person is hardworking enough, he might make it in the long run. Who knows, this person might even be better than most of the talented people that we have now.

And all this person needs is patience, from all of us, time, and trust. I believe that if we are able to give those 3 to the people who need them, amazing things can be achieved. Because I believe that, at the end of the day, all of us have a role to play and we CAN contribute in one way or another as long as others trust in our abilities.

This is going to be a short post since I need to pack n fly to Bangkok soon.

Yesterday was my cousin brother’s wedding dinner in Batu Pahat, Johor. He’s not a rich guy actually and his parents are not doing very well either. But for the wedding dinner, they decided to make it slightly better….at around RM 500 per table. So 1 person should cost around RM 50.

Well, a lot of people have been telling my friends (not me since it’s not applicable to me yet) not to organize wedding dinners in small cities or small towns since there are a lot of cheapskate people there. They will pay you RM 20 or RM 30……but bringing along the entire family. You invited one people, but ended up having 5 or 6 people…. all for the same price.

And there are also those who give only RM 10 or RM 20, just to enjoy the nice meal.

But well, what I heard from my parents last night, was quite shocking. Around 10% of the people came with RM 5 – RM 10 red packet…..and around 3-5% of the people came with RM 1.

Yes, RM 1. You can’t even buy a chocolate bar with that.

Perhaps, its due to the economy downturn and people are becoming more and more cheapksate than before? I don’t know. I only know that I’ll not have a big wedding dinner in small town or city….because chances are, I will suffer heavy financial losses.

p/s… whether those people hate my cousin brother (or his wife) or not…I’m not sure. LOL

My sister and her husband went to Curve the other day to look for a birthday gift for a baby girl. After walking around for few hours, they decided to buy a RM 90 toy imported from Italy called Ch**c*. They wrapped it up, and gave the birthday gift to the baby’s parents (who are based in Melaka) 2 days later.

On the 3rd day, the parents called my sister to tell her that the toy is faulty. My sister got it back on the 4th day and went to the shop to ask for a warranty. The sales girl told her that the warranty period is only 3 days which means my sister was not eligible for it.

Ok, my sister is much prettier than this.

When my sister told me about this, I was quite surprised. I thought the global economy is really bad? The company is really making a big mistake here by doing this. It’s either the employees (management team included) don’t care, or they are really really bad in handling the customers.

In my opinion, there are few things they (the company) can actually do to improve this situation.

• Tell the customers that the warranty period is over and show the proof (it must be stated somewhere – in the receipt, the box, etc).
• Offer to repair the toy but informs the customers that there’s no promise the toy can be repaired. Do it Free-of-charge and promise to give the customers the reply within so and so number of days.
• Extend the warranty period to 1 week since 3 days is ridiculously short.

These 3 are very very common things a business can do to make the customers happier…or at least, lower down the “pissed off” meter to a manageable level. The funny thing is, most businesses don’t do these 3 things. The only thing that most businesses like to do is to piss the customers off.

No wonder so many businesses are closing down nowadays. Serve them right.

UPDATE: The customer service officer in the HQ office managed to “fix” the toy up after we told them that we are VERY disappointed with their service and might even inform our friends about it. No warranty still but at least, they’ve fixed it up.

Becoming financially independent is one of my lifelong dreams not because I love to have tonnes of money (er..well…it’s one of the reasons, but not the most important reason). Its because I can pursue my REAL dreams with those money (like owning an animation studio, etc). But firstly, I need to achieve the first part – achieving financial freedom aka financially independent.

That’s why I’m quite stingy financially conscious nowadays. I don’t spend much anymore and I cut down a lot on my WANTs. Some of my friends and relatives noticed this change and told me that life is short and I should enjoy life more. According to them, too much planning and thinking might not be good since I will not enjoy my life that much due to the constraints.

Will I become like this? I mean in terms of the hair and the look Hope not!

True. We will never know what may happen tomorrow. We might no longer be here to use the money we’ve saved, to drive the BMW we just bought or to enjoy the newly-installed jacuzzi. And we can’t bring those things with us to the other world. So the best thing to do, logically speaking, is to enjoy while we’re still here – buy those things we want, and enjoy!

A lot of people told me that (and a lot of them are still telling me that).

To me, my opinion is slightly different. I prefer to strive or ‘suffer’ a little now, in order to pursue what I believe in. I might not achieve those dreams in my lifetime since there are things which are outside my control (the LUCK factor). However, I feel that just like everything we do, the important thing is to try our very best and don’t regret. The last thing I want is to regret for not doing my best in pursuing my dreams or something I strongly believe in while I still have the ability to do so.

I’ve been given the opportunity to live in this world. And when I leave this world, I want to know that I’ve at least done my best to pursue my dreams. Whether I achieve them or not, it’s a different story.

So the next time someone tells me to stop worrying so much or stop thinking so much and just enjoy life, I will tell them that even though it’s important for me to enjoy my life, it’s even more important for me to pursue my dreams as long as I’m in this world.

Life is short. So, if there’s something you really want to achieve…I strongly believe you should try your best to achieve it. Whether you enjoy your life or not, it depends on how you manage your time and how you look at things. Remember that to some people, they can enjoy life with the simplest of things – sky, birds, family, coffee, etc.