Leave Baggage At Work

Many business people do not realise the importance of their family in their business. Your family will either support you and help get you to your vision, or your family will hinder you along the journey. Even when you arrive home, how you spend your time with your family is important. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan at work. Don’t take it home with you!

Leave your work at work
Your to-do list at work will always be there. You have to come to the realisation that you will never get to the end of it. So at the end of each working day, leave it all behind you as you close the office or shop door. You are going to need to learn how to prioritise your work so that you are able to leave work at a reasonable hour to be able to spend time with your family.


Balance family and work
Some business people believe that family and business should be kept separate. But you live and breathe both, especially if you operate your own business. Learn to share the experiences of work with your wife or your husband (and children) in a positive way. Don’t let the only time you share work with your family be when things are not going well. No one wants to hear complaints all the time. Too much negativity about the business will eventually shut you out. Share the positive aspects of your work. Make sure you talk about the fun things and celebrate the successes. Then your spouse will be more open to hear about your challenges at work and offer support during times of stress.

No business person on their death bed ever said, “I wish I’d spent more time at work!” Learn to bring your family on your journey. They are your most loyal supporters and they are the ones who will always cheer from the sidelines.

Delegate to maximize your time
If you continually try to handle everything yourself and neglect to delegate responsibilities to other people, you will be constantly tired and your relationships at home will be impacted. Learn to pace yourself. Don’t try to do everything or you will kill yourself, your business and your family.

Take care of yourself
Do you take work home? Do you stay up late after the children go to bed and your partner is asleep? Do you skip meals to catch up on paperwork, even though it keeps replenishing itself like weeds along a hillside? Too often we view sleep and exercise as luxuries rather than necessities. Yes, there are occasions when we need to work late or put in an all-nighter, but this must not become a lifestyle. If you want to reach your destiny, your vision and your plan, you must organise your life accordingly and learn to pace yourself.

Schedule time for relaxation
Isn’t it ironic that we used to take holidays to escape work, and yet today we take work with us on holidays via mobile phones, pagers and laptops. All that outside connection leaves us disconnected from each other.

Stay Energized

Ironically, the answer is the opposite to what you would expect: To have more energy - in any form - put out more energy! Your entire being is designed to run as efficiently as possible, and to use only those resources that it needs to do the job at hand.

Physical Energy
If you lead a sedentary, quiet life, you will find your energy drops to a level that is only sufficient to manage this lifestyle. Conversely, if you engage in regular physical exercise, you will find your energy levels rising to meet the demand, and persisting in anticipation of future demands. So the secret here is: To have more energy available, put out more energy!



But don't think that you just "put your head down and work". That is often a destructive process as you "wear yourself out" by working but not investing time in ensuring that you are well fed, well rested and to a degree, well exercised.

"Hard work" is not "Exercise". This is a common misconception among businesspeople, and is one worth addressing here. 

Constructive and positive exercise for a human has exactly the same basis and principles as constructive and positive exercise for a race-horse: Short, spaced periods of controlled intensive activity, followed by rest periods, palliative care (massage, hot-tub, stretching) and first-class nutrition.

Mental Energy
One of the principles of physical exercise is that of "rotation" or "muscle confusion" in which the personal trainer or sports coach will include as a component in their training regime, exercises that are different to the run of the mill, and which change all of the time. 



Their purpose here is to ensure that the athlete's muscles cannot become "too comfortable in a familiar groove" but are being challenged to do new things all of the time.

This same principle applies to mental training. All of us tend to think and operate in our "familiar grooves" and the more specialized our work, the deeper the groove, often as not. 



One of the tricks in increasing our mental energy is in ensuring that we are continually challenging our mind with sources of new thinking. This is not to say that we dissipate our mental energies across an unorganized mass of topics; it is to say that occasionally - but regularly - we should spend a little mental effort on a field of knowledge with which we are not familiar.

Retail At Its Best

Forbes magazine analysed the secrets of Apple’s retail success and put it down to:


1: Forget about the money, remember the customer!

2: Making money is a result not the goal

3: Delight the customer

4: Don’t sell — help customers solve problems

5: Ask the customer about their challenges and help them!

6: Apple staff don’t have sales quotas or commissions!

7: They aim to create adoring fans as well as employees

8: And they change the store regularly to excite the customer.

Apple tells their team to approach customers with a personalized warm welcome and probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs. Next, they present a solution for the customer to take home today and they do this by listening to resolve any issues or concerns. And they finally end with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.

Hypocrite

Former US Vice President Adlai Stevenson once said – “A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.”

Greed Compliment Scam

Investors in the nation’s largest gold invest scheme today urged Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to compel the company’s director Chong Yuk Ming to refund their monies. More than 6,700 people who had invested RM411 million in the scheme are demanding that BNM and Bestino return their investments.

Saraswathy, who leads Bestino Action Committee, said this after a meeting with the central bank’s assistant governor Abu Hassan Alshari Yahaya.

Bestino, which is based in Ipoh, stopped taking in investments after BNM raided the company for illegal deposit-taking activities last year. Four of its directors were charged in the Sessions Court in Ipoh on Feb 23, 2011, with illegal deposit taking under section 25(1) of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 and section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.

Chong, on Feb 13, told the media that the Bestino was prepared to return the money to the investors on April 30, provided BNM gave its approval. Following the statement, BNM issued an official clarification, saying Bestino need not wait for a green light from it and the company could go ahead and refund investors their money.

They also urged Chong to show the proof of the US$146 million (RM438 million), he claimed was in HSBC Bank in Hong Kong and which will be used to refund investors.
Chong declined, and said that BNM clarification on their website cannot be taken as an official approval to bring in the money into Malaysia.

Who Is Leela Ratos

The nation has lost a great but humble and selfless doctor – Dr Leela Ratos - a prominent doctor and philanthropist, was well-known, especially among thousands living in the Klang Valley, some of whom have sought treatment at her clinics for two generations. For over 50 years, she dedicated herself to serving others and gave free treatment to poor patients.

She opened her clinic day and night during the 1969 riots, caring for the wounded and women and children who lost their husbands and fathers and had nowhere to turn to.

Chong Suet Fah, 46, whose mother was pregnant with her sixth child in 1969 when her husband was killed during the riots, recalled how Dr Leela came to the family’s rescue. “We were very young then. Dr Leela gave us free treatment. She took care of us and others in the same situation – she bought us milk and diapers and made sure we were okay.

“And it was Dr Leela who gave me a job at her Jalan Pudu clinic during the recession in the 1980s. “She helped so many but she never boasted or shouted about it. My mother told us what she did for us,” she said at Dr Leela’s wake yesterday where her family, friends and patients gathered to remember her.

Dr Leela died on Thursday, aged 76, leaving five children and three grandchildren. Her husband and Orang Asli advocate Datuk Dr Antony Ratos died in 2010. Their chain of clinics Dr Leela Ratos dan Rakan-Rakan is well known.

Her list of accomplishments is long, having dedicated her life to social work and giving scholarships to those in need. She was also Cheshire Charity Home’s founding member and its longest serving committee member.

V. Penchavaranam, fondly known as “Papa”, has worked with Dr Leela at her Jalan Pudu clinic for 41 years and recalled what a dedicated doctor she was and how the free treatment for the poor continued throughout the years.

“She and her husband also adopted many unfortunate children regardless of race as she wanted to give them a good life. We never dreamt of working anywhere else. She was a dear friend who we will miss dearly,” said the 65-year-old.

To her children Anthuan, Dr Anita, Ari, Antonia and Dr Andre, Dr Leela was a loving mother and friend whose life and memory they would forever cherish. Her oldest child Anthuan described their mother as a loving and inspiring person who never said a nasty word to anyone.

“It amazes us how she juggled work, five children and charity work all at the same time. She was a wonderful mother,” he said.

Malaysian Graduates

KUALA LUMPUR: Graduates emerging from the national education system are failing to meet the expectations of prospective employers due to a lack of critical thinking skills and poor communication.

This has resulted in employers having to provide additional training to fit them into their respective job scopes while many graduates have to accept employment that does not correspond with their qualifications.

Malaysian-based education, human resource and recruitment consultants feel there is a need for a sound foundation in critical thinking to be incorporated into the education system to prepare future generations for the employment market.

Manpower Staffing Services (M) Sdn Bhd country manager Sam Haggag said there was a distinct gap between what the education system was producing and what employers were looking for.

“This has resulted in six out of 10 graduates from Malaysian universities taking as long as six months to find a job.

“The other 40% take even longer,” said Haggag, whose company provides workforce solutions that include recruitment and training.

“Recruitment is a distinct challenge as the uni­­v­­ersities are churning out graduates who don’t have the requisite skills to enter the workforce.

“The lack of proficiency in English limits their ability to communicate beyond the borders of Malaysia and this lowers their confidence and curtails their ability to add value in the workplace,” he added.

Hong Leong Bank chief human resources officer Ramon Chelvarajasingam said many new graduates lacked the critical thinking skills required to keep up in a constantly changing and increasingly competitive world.

These days, most employers look for graduates with a high level of confidence who were exposed to niche areas outside their academic studies.

Prospect Consulting Sdn Bhd director Nina Adlan, who provides advisory services to educational institutions aiming to set up branch campuses in Malaysia, said she had observed “a disconnect”’ between what graduates state on their curriculum vitae and what they are like in reality.

“When we hire, we consider the way graduates converse and portray themselves to be more important than what’s in the CV.

“What’s the point in having good academic results when they can’t communicate, can’t conduct a proper conversation and have no confidence?” she asked.