Journey of Life : Discover Your Voice to Inspire Others to Find Theirs

Story 2 (extracted from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. The visibility was extremely poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities.

Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, "Light, bearing on the starboard bow."

"Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out. Lookout replied, "Steady, captain" which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.

The captain then called the signalman, "Signal that ship : We are on the collision course, advise your change course 20 degrees."

Back came the signal, "Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees." The captain said, "Send, I'm a captain, change course 20 degrees."

"I'm a seaman second class...you had better change course 20 degrees" came the reply

By that time, the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send, I'm a battleship. Change course 20 degrees."

Back came the flashing light, "I'm a light house......."

"We change course", said the captain

Angelina Jolie & Catherine Zetajones. I'm sure yu know who they are? How beatiful they are? This is what we see from these 2 photos. The photo is worth thousand of words...that's what people always say.


OK now please scroll down....What do yu "first" see? What triggers yu to see and to perceive what it is? Why do yu think it causes yu to see the way yu see? What about if I say somebody else may have seen different thing.



So who's right? Why do yu think the sketch represents a young and beautiful lady...probably her age is about 25 years old. Do yu think it is absurd if I say the sketch is infact shows a very old and depressed woman...probably at the age of 70 years old. I still remember, we used to discuss with our lecturer about this sketch during my psychology class many many years ago.

This is about paradigm. The word paradigm originally comes from the Greek word "paradeigma" which means "pattern" or "example". Paradigm is what we "see" the world - not in terms of visual sense of sight but in terms of perceiving, understanding and interpreting. It is a map of territory.

Whether yu realize or not, the paradigm is a source of our behaviour and attitude. It is inseparable with our character i.e. what we "see" is what we are. The interesting thing is that two people may have looked at the same sketch, the same drawing, the same line, the same color...yet they may have perceived different thing. Why do they perceive different thing? I thought, the fact is the fact...1+1=2...and can not be something else. However, the reality is not that straight forward....what makes us see 1+1 and not 1+2 or 2+2?

It is all goes back to the "conditioning" prior to seeing the thing. In the case of the sketch, intentionally I showed yu the photos of Angelina and Catherine so that yu were conditioned to "see" a young and beautiful lady. And i believe, most people will first see the sketch as a young and beautiful lady.

OK...what have we learned from this:

1. Paradigm does exist
2. Not everybody has the same paradigm as we do
3. What we "see" is greatly influenced by what has been conditioned upon us prior to the event. If 5 seconds of viewing the photos of Angelina & Catherine has influenced your judgement...what else compared to several years of being conditioned by similar sets of values.
4. What we see is what we are...I will elaborate this topic in the future.

Leadership has become the favourite topic in the corporate world nowadays. Everywhere and everyone from the very top people to middle management have been inspired with the word leadership. A survey was conducted in my company with regards to leadership and the results had indicated that lots of leaders are required to be developed (on immediate basis) in order to sustain the "superior performance" of the company.

What are the differences between leaders and the rest of the workforce? Their character? attitude? personality? behaviour? apperance? Who are these guys? Are they born to be leaders? or is leader something that can be learned and thought in the classroom? Are they more superior in the IQ? All these questions need to be answered and understood in order for us to be one of them.

When talking about leadership, it's always come together with management. Leadership vs Management? Before we elaborate further on this topic, I would like to list down all the leadership/management jargon that requires everyone to clearly understand what it is.

1. Leadership, management
2. Paradigm, mindset, traits, principles, motivations, values, attitude, behaviour, habits, character
3. Vision, mission, goal, objectives, shared values, KPIs
4. Effective, efficient, quality principles
5. Time management, First Thing First, Right Things Right Everytime
6. Proactive, begin with ends in minds, put first thing first, win-win mentality, seek to understand, synergy, renewal

Night of aidil fitri...7:30 pm still in the office doing some work. What the heck am I doing here at this specific time? If in Malaysia, I normally be in the mosque performing the "takbir" rituals and other optional solat. My stomach also start making some noise for not having a real break fast yet (time for break fast in Finland now is 4:30 pm). Just have a cup of coffee. Someone did offer a package meal prepare by Banana Leaves restaurant (meant for contractor's muslim staff). But since I already promised to myself not to consume anymore "subhat" meal, I politely said no to such a very sincere offer.

Got to switch off the notebook now. OK where should I go? Mc Donald? Oh God not that fish burger again. Another alternative is the Singapore Wok Restaurant at Kamppi Metro Station. The irony is that the owner of the restaurant is Malaysian....why call it Singapore?...puzzle me. Anyway, that's my only option. At the end I went there to have prawn nasi goreng with a glass of coke. Cost me about Euro 10....equivalent to RM 46. What a blessing to be a Malaysian citizen...

After the break fast, I called Zahari, the Malaysian embassy staff whether I could go to his place to celebrate raya together with other Malaysian colleagues. Zahari being Zahari...a very nice guy....he welcome me to his well decorated apartment. When I arrived there around 9:45 pm, Azman, Rahman, Shawal, Wan Suzainan, & Wan Azizan were already there. They were helping Zahari to prepare "lemang", "ayam rendang" and "nasi impit".