A B C D E F G

A B C D E F G   - 7 ways to success...

A for Aspiration for success
B for Believe You Can achieve your goals
C for Commitment to do what it takes to achieve your goals
D for Do it !  Don't just, think about it, take actions.
E for Evaluate what you've done so far
F for Follow Through to the end
G for Give Gratitude to all who have helped you succeed!

9 books that every leader should read

List of 9 books that a good leader should read, as recommended by Royal Professor Ungku Aziz. An insight into books that influence Ungku Aziz's thinking.

1. Fit for Life, Not Fat for Life - Harvey Diamond
A leader should have a healthy diet.
A book on how to balance between proteins and starches, meat and non-meat, life food and cooked food.

2. Thinking Course - Edward de Bono
A leader should be able to spot opportunities.
A book on lateral thinking, and how to think differently

3. The Mind Map - Tony Buzan
4. Head First - Tony Buzan
Successful people need to have a strong mind to remain resilient.
A book on holistic thinking. Start with a central idea, and branch out to detailed points involving the central ideas, using colours, shapes and lines.

5. The 36 strategies of the Chinese : Adopting an ancient Chinese wisdom to the business world - Wee Chow Hou & Lan Luh Luh
A book on strategies to create something out of nothing

6. The Art of war - Sun Tzu
A renown Chinese scholar. This one book and its strategies have spurned off many other book titles written by other authors who have interpreted the timeless strategies for modern business audience.
A book on strategies on winning a war without fighting.

7. Level 5 leadership - Jim Collins
A book about humility

8. The prince on the Art of Power - Niccolo Machiavelli
A book on the art of beign feared and loved

9. Leader's window - JDW Beck & NM Yeager
A book on tips of successful leader.



Other books on leadership that are worth mentioning here:
1. The 21 irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John C Maxwell


Now you know what books to buy for your loved ones.

5 Qualities of a Good Leader

The (Malaysian) Royal Professor Ungku Aziz Ungku Hamid gave his views on the qualities he considers a good leader should have during a talk on the Quest for Success in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC)

I didn't attend the talk, and this article is taken from theSun.

I do have fond memories of the professor. I have a graduation picture taken with Professor Ungku Aziz way back in the 80's when Ungku Aziz was the then Vice Chancellor for Universiti Malaya, from where I graduated with a Bachelor of Accounting. I won't put the picture up because I don't want the picture to be doctored and used unscrupulously. The Royal Professor is a wise old man, at aged 87, and what he says makes sense, and he is a tall order to follow.

5 qualities of a good leader according to Royal Professor Ungku Aziz

1. Intelligence
2. Credibility
3. Humility
4. Courage
5. Discipline

Success Quotes from Ungku Aziz

Success is almost like the Holy Grail, where everyone knows about it, but not quite able to identify it

.

A good leader would be able to spot opportunities during a crisis. Every crisis opens up opportunities

A leader should be a 'kiasu' person - a Hokkien word that literally translates as a person who is 'afraid to lose' or someone who wants to win at all costs. Someone 'kiasu' is an aggressive person, and that is needed to be successful nowadays.

Like a traveller, we need to have 2 important things for the journey (of life) - a map and a compass- so that we know our destination (goals), and directions to get there.

Ungku Aziz also recommends some books that every leader should read. Do put this in you must-buy gifts for yourself and loved ones.

Who is Ungku Aziz?

Free Self Improvement products for download

Found this site that offers free download of self improvement products.

Topics such as :
* One On One Personal Mentoring
* Goal Setting Workshop
* Improve Self Confidence
* Mind Power Subliminal Software
* A year of 12 Self Improvement Audio ebooks
* 132 Quotes for Inspiration and Motivation
* 7 Day Success Workshop
* Healthy Food For Healthy Life,
* And TONS MORE!

If you missed the giveaway promotion, I will be summarising the contents of the topics and posting it on this blog. So do come back for a visit!

It's time like this (the coming R.e.c.e.s.i.o.n) that you need to find an escape from the doom & gloom

But while the economy is gaining all the attention, don't neglect the most important thing in life:

YOU!!!

It's time to internalize ourselves and fight back by getting stronger, growing from the inside out and making a difference in our own lives by tackling the challenges we face!

How to find Job Satisfaction

Jobs can't make you happy, but you can find meaning and satisfaction in your work. Says a writer of an article in the Star

Don't expect the job to make you happy. You got to make it happen.

1. Work is anything but fulfilling. So..

2. To find satisfaction in a job, people have to find meaning in the job. And..

3. More often, people have to create that meaning for themselves.

Factors that can influence job satisfaction are :
- how significant is the job to others
- how much freedom does one have to make decisions
- how many different things you get to do at work

Creating your own job satisfaction
1. A job needs to give a person a sense of purpose that he/she is not just a cog in the wheel.

2. Think about the positives of the job and how the job is helping people

3. Recognise that every job is to serve and help others. The money you receive for the job you do is payment for helping others.

4. It's important to find a job that fills one's needs and interests.

5. Believe in the product or service you are providing

6. Know all you can about the occupation - what it does, what happens after you are through with your part. Don't stop there. Continuously learn on the job.

7. Have a balance outside of work, and you will bring a fresher perspective to the work place.

8. Be sociable with your colleagues.

9. Establish mutual trust with supervisor

10. Be organised. Plan your day, and try to space out the tedious and non-tedious tasks

11. Take breaks during working hours.


I would like to add the following to that lists:
12. Uphold your values. If the job requires you to compromise on your values, chuck it. I have been told once by my boss "You are too honest and straight in your thinking" because I chose not to comply with his request to create invoices for financing purposes. I left the employment 3 months after joining, and decided henceforth to work for myself and determine the type of jobs I will take on.

How to be happy at work

How to be happy at work seems to be a popular topic on the internet. If you do a search for that exact phrase "how to be happy at work" on Google, you will get at least 9,580 results for that phrase.

One of the great sites that I stumbled upon has a book titled 'Happy hour is 9 to 5' about happiness at work for both employees and managers, new employees, and grizzled veterans. It's for people working in small startups, in big corporations and in government. It's for everyone who wants to be happy at work, to find a job they can love, to create a great workplace because being happy at work is no longer a luxury. It's a necessity. Read the whole book FREE online. You will feel very happy after visiting his site aptly called The Chief Happiness Officer.


It's very important to do things happily. Because if you continue doing that task which makes you not happy, it will affect the happiness of the people around you. For example, I don't enjoy cleaning the house, so I get help from someone who's willing to do it happily.

Self Made Millionaire : Lim Goh Tong

Success case
Read about how Malaysia's casino king, Tan Sri Datuk Seri Lim Goh Tong achieved the impossible, and transformed an un-explored hilltop to one of the world's most successful casino resorts, Genting Resort. And he was in his 50's when he conceived that idea. And he graduated from the school of hard knocks.

This is a writeup about Lim Goh Tong from Wikipedia

Why Personal development

Why is the personal development industry booming?

Because the schools didn't equip us with the knowledge to achieve success.

We spend years in school, college or university to get our degrees in Accounts, English, Mathematics, Physics, History, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Art, Economics, etc. As good children, we followed what our elders say : Get a good education; it is the key to achieving everything you want.

However, we often read in the newspapers that graduates don't have what it takes to be good employees. They don't have
- communication skills
- leadership skills,
- confidence
- presentation skills,
and many more.

The skills that are lacking are 'soft skills'. They are not taught in schools. They are acquired through the years from books, people we mix, projects entrusted on us, and many other indirect ways.

If you want to try your hand at running your own business, you will soon realise that the schools also didn't teach you how to run a business (unless you went to a 'business school').

As a business owner you need to have skills in recruiting staff - the right kind, you need skills to motivate the staff, you need skills to bring in customers (the marketing aspect), you need skills to retain the customers (the service aspect), you need skills to manage your books (the finance aspect) and you need presentation skills (to get your customers to listen to you in the first place).

So what makes one successful? Having vision, perseverance, and knowing where and when to look for help.

Surround yourself with successful people. Read books, and listen to tapes and audios on how these people become successful.

What motivates them.

Emulate from the best.

Eating an elephant

How do we learn a seemingly complicated new subject?

How do you eat an elephant?

Take one bite at a time. Don’t look at the elephant and get overwhelmed or try to swallow the whole thing at once.

The first law of learning is repetition. You need to read, re-read, listen, re-listen, watch and re-watch the subject matter again and again, and apply all of the important points daily until they are firmly embedded into your being.

Life is one long learning process.

Every day is fresh, a clean slate, an opportunity to create or re-create. We shouldn't stop learning, however old we are.