Iskandar In Person

Istanbul ... Asia and Avrupa ...from the Blackberry

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Again this is about Istanbul but author tries to present the story in a different way. In this article, author will share a visual story of what he saw during travel and at work. This is a new approach of presentation that author wants to explore ... so enjoy the picture taken from Blackberry Curve Javelin ... :)

Late October 2010: Assignment in Istanbul was a short one. Just one week and full of meetings. So I am able to snap some pictures during the break, after work and also during my route to the Airport.

At Work During Break

I went up to the roof top to look at the view of Maltepe area. The building I worked is sandwiched by highway and a military camp. I'm more interested on the area living so I took some picture of the highway ....

[Picture]

After Work

October is quite cold in Istanbul. We're talking about 10 Degree C plus some windchill factor ... so not much exploring I did during the working days. But after work ... with cold weather outside ... nothing match the Turkish Tea or "Cay" they call it and a pool session at the bar ...

[Picture]

Travelling Home

I took different route from normal. Usual route I that took was taking a taxi from the hotel in Kartal and straight to Ataturk airport. This time, I took a taxi to Kadikoy, then a boat ride to Karakoy. From there, I took Tunel Train to the edge to Istikal Street and finally to a tram to Taksim Square. Why I did that? My flight was at night so I took opportunity to spend time at Istikal Street and Taksim Square in this visit.

I spend some time with my friend Zikri and Murat, enjoying the lunch and some dessert before taking a taxi to Ataturk Airport.... I would not recommend this type of travel if you're travelling with your bulking baggage. I travelled light at that time so it was a fun walk. :)

Something that shock me when I arrive home. The Taksim square where I hanged out on Saturday, was bombed on Sunday ... Felt relieved that I'm at home at that time ...

Being bachelor in Alor Setar..

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

I would like to recall my early involvement in my career adventure in Alor Setar. Some are sweet and some are not ... anyway its an adventure it the blend of both stories.

I just reached 25 years old when I started my career in IT industry. Alor Setar, Kedah was the first state in Malaysia that welcomed me in IT project management world. I was recruited in Kuala Lumpur by TIME Systems Integrator and within one month, my first assignment was Alor Star.

Government was my first client. To be exact, the Land Administration Office. It was a unique experience which exposed me to the meaning of tough negotiation, office politics and bureaucracy.

At the same time, I was exposed to the northern lifestyle of Malaysia.

New Year Resolution ...

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Well, it is almost end of January. I guess it is not too late to bring up the topic on New Year Resolution. Year 2010 has been a very good year for me. Lots of things been achieved in my career and family life.

There are also some hick ups here and there through out last year but it doesn't give a high weight to me to say that year 2010 is not a good year. Let's recap what did I achieve last year and what's my resolution for year 2011.

Highlights on things that happened last year:

Delivered 6 projects in Istanbul.
Helping the company to get selected as finalist for IT Supplier of the Year award by the BCS (British Computing Society) & Computing UK IT Industry award 2010 in Organizational Excellence Category.
Helping the company to get selected as finalist in CCR Credit Excellence Award.
Appeared in the IT Roundtable Talk organized by ZDNET and CBS Interactive.
Able to accomplished 2 family vacations which makes the family happy.
Helping my wife to set up her on-line business.
Enrolled to graduate school.
My two cute little daughter got an excellence award at their school.
The elder daughter got drafted into the school orchestra.
Enjoying first day at nursery for by 4 years old boy.
Running in 2 marathon (21km and 10 km respectively) in 2 countries. Putrajaya, Malaysia and Antalya, Turkey.

Some of the unforgettable event happened last year:

Loss few colleague due to VSS happened in office.
Car accident ... no one injured just the car ... thank God for that.
Daughter been affected by Dengue fever ... thank God again .. she recovered.
Son put some unidentified object in his nose ... have to pay visits to clinics ... 3 TIMES ...

Places that I went:

Singapore
Istanbul, Turkey
Antalya, Turkey
Nairobi, Kenya
Dubai, UAE

And the most important event of the year ... Writing up in this blog ...

Well looking at what been achieved .. I'm pretty satisfy with what happened last year and the 2011 resolution would be ... to make it better. Nothing specific yet on what to achieve as I would rather enjoy the process than getting straight to the end result. The learning comes from the process and not the end result ... well that's is what I feel right now ...

That is what I can share with you on my experience in 2010 and sharing some idea on what I going to do in 2011. Enjoy the reading ...

This Year Entry

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Photo by Helico

Hi all,

After three month of quietness, it is time for me to be active back on blog writing. My initial plan in November 2010 was to have a periodic entry on the blog, however, being me ... I like to explore and learned new things.

November through December were a hectic month for me where I've traveled to few countries and also going back to school. So it is quiet a hustle for me to juggle on the first stage. Now, in January, I seems to got the hang on this new schedule and able to slot in some time for blogging.

Hope to see you in the next entry. Happy new year .. if is not too late to wish.

The Fallings

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:03:00 +0000

This is the last article about P.Ramlee for this year. In this article, author will explore the challenges and the hurdles faced by P.Ramlee throughout his life until his death. Again author will try to extract some lesson that we can learn and apply in our worklife.

Source : HistoryAsia.com

31 October 2010, 10:00 pm. I was waiting in front of the TV to watch, History Channel Biography about P.Ramlee. It was a long awaiting program as I meant to use the information from the documentary for my blog. It took me another week to search relevant information to support facts shown in that documentary. It was a good documentary and I learned a lot from it. Congratulation to Suhaimi Baba for a good compilation and research.

My review and lesson learned from this documentary will be based from the observation during the show and connect those information with the previous articles sources.

All in previous articles, I've shown with you the golden era of P.Ramlee. Now I'll list down some of the challenges he faced until his death. My insight from this documentary was there were two turning points in his life.

One in 1948 where his talent was spotted and he grew to be a big name in the industry. Another was 1964, where we would see his career starts to drop drastically and (this is my personal opinion) lead to his death.

Observing the duration between 1948 and 1964, I managed to identify series of tell tale signs of his fallings below.

The move to Merdeka Film Production in Kuala Lumpur was based from his trust with the management of Merdeka Film Production that he will get "What he want..." if he migrate from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.
While in Singapore, he worked with experience and well trained film crew and state-of-the-art equipments. Thus, that is why he manage to produce quality and award winning film during his days in Singapore.
Arriving to Kuala Lumpur, he had to faced in-experience crew and out-of-date film equipment. Which, cause him some problem producing a quality film and it seems that he didn't get what been promise. Given, an incompetent crew and inadequate equipment, the expectation given to him was so high just because he was a big name .... plus when the production was release, the blame was put on him ... (This is a very interesting case to look at .. an example of daydreaming management)
Series of unexpected event such as termination of contract with EMI Singapore and Shaw Brothers in 1968 and 1972 respectively.
Unsuccessful business venture with PERFIMA or "Malaysian Film Industries" where he and his counterpart was fired from the board even before the core business starts operating.
Being jeered by local fans simply because of the new trends in music industries where that where new pop culture starts gaining popularity in late 60s.
Lack of resource support in terms of financial from the financial institutions and governing body related to the music and film industries, simply because his popularity when down and no longer a money making machine to several organization.

It was sad to hear, for a such a legendary person, he had to end his life like that and based from the documentary, his family didn't even have any money for the funeral.

So what can we learned as a human, a member of society and member of organization? Lets list it down here ...

We will not always be at the top. There will be a time where we may stumble into some hurdle that would lead to personal failure. So it is wise to prepare some safety net while on top. Such example, looking from career person perspective is to have some kind of personal investment or some kind of back-up business venture or entity. Like what Forrest Gump said "Life is like box of chocolate, you never know what you're going to get ... "
In business, do not trust people completely. Do some preliminary background check first before making decision to follow or jumping to the next territory.
Beware of "daydreaming management". Daydreaming management here means ... having a ambitious goal but the available resource, knowledge and effort does not support the achievable of that goal.
Blend with the current trend. Any thought process that produce something, sometimes sink over time. Place some new energy into it .. get it blend with the time.
I took the quote of our great Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir ... "Step down at the time people likes you ..." At the time we're liked, we will be asked to contribute this and that, we are popular and will be heard ... as our being getting low ... we become someone's liability ... before that happens ... move on to other territory or new way of doing things when the time comes. Some example, if you're very good in managing computing system ... there will be a time when the method and tools that we use may get outdated overtime ... one of the example that you can do while you're at the top is by going into training new faces with your style and let the new faces evolve your style with the trend. Or another idea is by being in a consultation domain where people will refer you as the contemporary expert and you can start talking about your thought on the new trends through speaking in a conference, book or article writing and etc.

In addition to that, what been done previous people is not something for us to use it for pointing fingers and blaming game ... it is for us to seek what are the things that we can pick and improve.

My insight stops here .. :) see ya in next article... stay tune with Iskandarinperson blog....

Follow The Clues

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:58:00 +0000

In entry this time, the author will be following the clues that can be learned from various award winning film directed and/or played by P.Ramlee. These clues will then be articulated to workplace adaptation. Let play follow the clue and see what we can get from this article. Enjoy the reading...

Starting with a list of award winning film directed/contributed by him. I'll be selecting a few below (not in particular order):

Film # 1 : Hang Tuah

Source : AsianTorrentZ

It was a story of Malay Legendary Warrior back somewhere between 1400 through 1500. The story re-lived and directed by Phani Majumdar and placed it to the silver screen. P. Ramlee was the main cast in this film and been doing the musical score. The uniqueness of this film was it the only film made in color among films he produced or worked in his career. The film was released in Jan 1956 and in May 1956 it got the "Best Music Score" in the 3rd Asian Film Festival in Hong Kong. In 1957, the film was shown in the Berlin International Film Festival. It was the first Malayan entry at that time.

Collaborations with international director was already a trend adapted by P.Ramlee. This collaboration produced a very positive result even though the film did not win anything in Berlin International Film Festival.

Film # 2 : Madu Tiga

Source : Wikipedia

This was a comedy film directed by him. A story of how a husband managed his three wives. This film won the "Best Comedy Award" in the 11th Asian Film Festival in Taipei. It was recorded that this film was an adaptation of a Chinese Film. Which Chinese Film is unknown at the point this article was written. The "Madu Tiga" song written in this film became an evergreen song among the mens in Malaysia :) even now and the last re-production of this song was made by Ahmad Dhani, a singer and composer from Indonesia.

Even though the film was an adaptation of some other movie, the re-presentation of this movie was unique that I did not realize at the first place that this film was an adaptation movie. One unique feature of this film of how he blended the music into the film where just by listening to the song, people (in Malaysia especially) will remember the film by heart.

The keyword that I can capture from this movie were:

Adaptation and re-creation of idea.
Anchor element, which I define it as what are the things that would make people remember.

Learning points

From this write up, I manage to extract some key point which we can apply it in our workplace, and I'll place it below in point form.

Collaboration with people outside of your domain or culture. There are lots of learning and experience that you can get when you work with people especially those from outside of your country. They bring in different ideas which was nurtured through their culture. When you collaborate ... some simple idea that you have can be enhance to something amazing even radical. Some management likes radical ideas but make sure that the radical idea are inline with the organizational objective.
Solving problem using ideas based from your territorial knowledge sometimes make workplace life very mundane. Try to adapt some idea outside the box, get out to the wild for some ideas and adapt the idea to our domain, and re-engineer it to make it yours.
And finally in what ever you do, keep searching for the masterpiece, something people could remember over and over again. It may take some time but when the masterpiece come, I'm sure you'll never regret doing it.

From Zero to Legend II

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:24:00 +0000

This article is a continuation of From Zero to Legend I. In previous article, author was discussing about P.Ramlee's historical path from starting his musical career until he was found in 1948 and sharing some clues that we can learn from that historical path. In this article, again author will be continuing P.Ramlee's historical path from 1948 until 1973 and how his historical path can build some significant clue towards our workplace and/or daily work. This article is currently been written while author is in Istanbul, so you might find an odd hours release of this article.

From 1948 through 1973

Starting from 1948, author will be focusing on P.Ramlee's new role in film industry. Between this period, we will see how P.Ramlee evolved his works from acting to directing film and share the result of his works below. His work is now a household name and been played continuously until now.

It has been recorded that P.Ramlee had acted in 60 films and directed about 37 film.[3] That's within 25 years ... what an amazing productivity we can see from him. Looking at this we could see he produced/worked on 3-4 films in year.

Source : P-Ramlee Cyber Museum

Let see the result of his work. I'll select a few:

Hang Tuah film won the Best Musical Score in 3rd Asian Film Festival Hong Kong in 1956.
The same film went for Official Screening at the 7th Berlin International Festival in 1957.
Anak ku Sazali won Best Male Actor in 4th Asian Film Festival in Tokyo in 1957.
Sumpah Orang Minyak won the Best Black and White Photography, in 5th Asian Film Festival in Manila in 1958.
In 1959, Pendekar Bujang Lapok won the Best Comedy Award in 6th Asian Film Festival in Kuala Lumpur.
1960, Nujum Pak Belalang won the Best Comedy Award in 7th Asian Film Festival in Tokyo.
1962, Seniman Bujang Lapok was nominated for Best Comedy Award in 9th Asian Film Festival in Seoul.
1963, He won Best Comedy for film called "Love Parade" and won Most Versatile Talent and Best Black and White Photography for his Ibu Mertuaku Film in the 10th Asian Film Festival in Tokyo.
And the list goes on... for a list of awards achieved by him kindly refer to this page for further details.
Further list of his 66 movies and award can be found in this page.

Observations

From these success story I made my observations from his works and awards that he took:

He continued to produce and act at least 3 to 4 film consistently in a year.
He starts producing award winning film starting 1956 through 1964 and before reaching his peak he had been working on 25 film before it start producing award winning film.
His movies covers multiple genre from comedy, thriller, love & hate and patriotic to name a few.

Clues Learned

From here, we learned a clue from this blog that:

Consistent efforts pays. We should keep producing and improving our work no matter how many times it takes before reaching THE MASTERPIECE work.
Keep trying in different angle of work and again keep it consistent.
Success didn't come overnight, continuous efforts, continuous improvisation and eagerness to explore are the keys to for achieve successful result. Overnight success, would be something that we can find in our dreams. :).

As you see, talent does not totally create Legend. It is about work, focus and consistency that made up a Legend.

Hope this blog would inspire you.

Notes from a friend.

By the way, thanks to Pak Tam who reminded me that History Channel will be screening a special P.Ramlee documentary on 31 October 2010. If I manage to get some points from this screening, I will be sharing with the readers here probably on November 1, 2010.

Source:

Diary of P.Ramlee, http://www.p-ramlee.com/p-ramlee/history.htm
P.Ramlee Documentary, http://thestaronline.tv/default.aspx?vid=6263
http://www.penang-vacations.com/story-of-p-ramlee.html
P-Ramlee Cyber Museum, http://www.p-ramlee.com/

On Travel

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 06:33:00 +0000

I'm currently on travel mode and the slot for making entry was limited since Friday. So I'm making a bit of adjustment for entry this week.

The P.Ramlee Campaign will be extended until 31 Oct.
Additional entry on travel will be place.
Number of entry this week is expected to be around 3 or 4.

Sorry readers for the inconvenient.

From Zero to Legend I

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:20:00 +0000

Source: p-ramlee.com

Going through P.Ramlee's biography through various medium (listed at the end of this article), I found lot of interesting facts about him, which if I were to blog the whole thing in this article, it is going to be a very long one. So I'm going to break this blog entry into two segments. "From Zero to Legend I" and "From Zero to Legend II". In "From Zero to Legend I", I will be blogging about his family, his teen life and the day he was discovered by a film director, B. S. Rajhans from Malay Film Production. While in "From Zero to Legend II", I will be blogging about his path to become a legend. This blog is not just a story, it will highlight what are some lesson that we can learn from his biography and what clues that we can use to build our own success.

So the story begins here …

In The Beginning

It was 1925, Teuku Nyak Puteh, migrated from Lhokseumawe, Acheh and married a maiden Che Mah Hussein from Kubang Buaya, Butterworth, Malaya[1] (During those years Malaysia was Malaya, a British Occupied Land). Not until 1929, March 22, a baby was born and given a name Teuku Zakaria bin Teuku Nyak Putih @ Ramli Bin Puteh. I believe, during those days nobody realize that the baby would later become a legend and idol to various generation in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

Schooling

Source : Penang-TravelTips

He went through a normal life just like any kids during those year where he started his early education at Sekolah Melayu Kampung Jawa, then Francis Light English School in 1939 through 1941. Later during Japanese occupation (1942-1945) in order to earn a living at the age around 13 years old he worked as an office boy at a tin production company before enrolling himself to Japanese Navy School "Kaigun Heigakkō"[2]. After the war he resume his education at Penang Free School from 1945 through 1947.

The Music

Source : Kith Kin

His fond on music started as early at the age of 13 (Based from available information), where he learnt Ukelele and Violin as his first instrument and it is said that he learned a formal music lesson from a gentlemen called Tuan Kamarudin[2].

Going through his musical historical track, I would summarized it as below:

Around 1942 or 43

At the age of 13, he learned musical art with Ukulele and Violin as his early instrument.[5]

1945

Won third place in Radio Malaya Singing Contest.[3]

1946

Source: p-ramlee.com

This is where, he was seen experiencing with various musical groups.
Performed with Orkes Mutiara.[3]
Performed with Pancaragam Bintang Sore.[3]
Performed with Sinaran Bintang Sore.[3]
Won Second Place in Radio Malaya Singing Contest.[3]
First Place in Penang Keronchong Singing Contest while performing with Pemuda Indonesia Keronchong Party. [3]

1947

Performed with Coronation Amateur Party.[3]
Performed with Teruna Sekampung.[3]
At this year he adopted the name P.Ramlee, a reversed from this @ name which is Ramlee bin Puteh. The P means Puteh.[3]
Finally after 3 years of trying he gained First Place in Radio Malaya Singing Contest.[3]

1948

He played with Pancaragam Mustika.
This year was the turning point of his musical career where he was discovered by B.S. Rajhan from Malay Film Production while doing a performance at the Malay Agricultural Show in Butterworth. What happened after that … would be the track of the Legend where I'm going to blogged it in my next entry title "From Zero to Legend II".

Between 1942 through 1948, that's about 6 years of toil and experiments that he endure before converging to his turning point of his musical career. There are clues from this story that I would like to share with the readers here which are:

It took lots of attempt, focus and consistency to achieve some result in our life. It was shown in P.Ramlee's attempt to get the First Place in the Radio Malaya Singing Contest in 1947. We can try to apply it to our career or our workplace. Three keywords that I could extract for sharing here which are tries, focus and consistency.
There always a turning point in our life ... if we consistently build our success track, hold the dream and sustain the effort. We seen his efforts at certain point after 6 years of work, been discovered by a film director from Malay Film Production. In our career or workplace, there will be a point where we will be discovered by someone, whether within the organization or outside organization. The keyword here is, again, consistency. We never know when the day will come. So it is important for us to sustain the effort.
Never stop experimenting in a new environment or new things that relates to our works or career. We seen from this blog, that P.Ramlee performed with various musical groups. Which suggested that, we should keep trying in various area of our career or workplace. For example, in our career, if for so long you been doing server installation, probably you might want to move into grid computing installation or probably IT project management … (this sample is what I can think of at this moment). Another example, if in your organization, you may want to try to experience with different department, say if previously you're working on IT Operation, you may want to try Network Operation or Project Operation … which have somewhat similarity with what you do. You never know by doing those shift you may found your most strength or someone may discover you for a better opportunity?

Hope the clues that I share with you may help you or inspire you to do something big … Have a thought to share? Feel free to drop a comment below … Keep tuning to my next entry ..

Cheers.

Sources:

Puteh Ramlee, http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puteh_Ramlee
P.Ramlee, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13357930551&v=info
P-Ramlee, http://www.p-ramlee.com/p-ramlee/bio.htm
Imperal Japanese Naval Academy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japanese_Naval_Academy
P-Ramlee, http://p-ramlee.com.my/Biography.php

A Very Special Tribute to A Legend ....

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 10:30:00 +0000

Source : ninotazizquotes

P.Ramlee, a name that very synonym to any Malaysian. Let trigger a keyword here.... P.Ramlee .. movie.. The first few things that came acrosss each of Malaysian mind were "Bujang Lapok", "Ali Baba Bujang Lapok", "Tiga Abdul" and the list continues.

Now lets try it on youtube ... type "p.ramlee movie" and see how many movies appear on the screen. Then try to google this keyword "P.Ramlee"... and see how's the result looks like.

Local television station ASTRO is currently paying a tribute to this legendary name for a month with "Di mana kan ku cari ganti" campaign. I’m triggered to contribute my part by writing few articles about him. I was born one year before he died in 1973, ever since his works through songs and films were continuously played consistently until now.

Impact that he brought to the film and music industry in Malaysia is massive, however, until now we haven't found any unique musician, composer or film maker that can create such masterpiece on his work. His works been studied by many and inspires more even those who are not in the film and music industry.

I am amazed by his road to fame and how he build his film & music empire. In this blog I'll be sharing some clues that I found from this legend and how we can use his trail and learn how he did it.

Sharing in this blog will be divided into 3 :

His life from nobody to a legend. What are the clues we can get from his life journey.
His works on the box-office movie, how did his work become so ever green that even my 9 year old kid loves his movie.
What are the hurdles that he faced and how can we learn from it.

Enough of the intro ... in next article about P.Ramlee, I'll be blogging on his life ... "From 0 to Legend"

Keep tuning to this blog.

Source: http://www.astro.com.my/pramlee/

Pledge from South China Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:23:00 +0000

Source : Stuck in Customs

The world is talking about “Water” today. From this side of the world, next to South China Sea, Malaysia is blessed with abundance of freshwater resources. With 22,000 cubic meters of water available to each person annually, Malaysia is not considered water stressed. [Asia Society]
No matter how blessed Malaysia with the amount of freshwater she got, the global water crisis does not choose side and she is not exempted.

The global weather change, rapid economic development and the growing population in the urban area are creating a new challenge to the authority to manage the trend of water usage. In certain state, local analyst had pre-empted the public of potential clean water crisis in 2012.

This blog post is one of the initiatives to start conserving this precious gift. It started with awareness and then translated into action. While the government are working to mitigate this issue, as a citizen, a prudent usage of clean water would be a good start not only will help the nation but also be part of the world citizen to conserve and mitigate the world water crisis.

Writing for the Blog Action Day 2010 on Water event .... this is the voice from Malaysia ...

WATER: How much we know ...

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 06:19:00 +0000

In supporting The Blog Action Day 2010, today’s posting will be discussing about “Water”. Tomorrow, 3811 blogs from 126 countries and anticipated 28,779,085 readers will be converging into one topic ... and this article is another contribution from Iskandar In Person after signing a petition to “support UN’s effort to bring clean, safe water to millions globally.” Presenting to you .. from a laymen’s perspective “WATER: How much we know ... “

Such a simple word ... WATER but it plays a great impact in our life. We all know and aware the importance of water level in our body and you can feel it yourselves if there’s a drop of water level in the body. Some questions for you and me to ponder...

How much we know about the water we consume?

I’ll bring these questions into my plate to answer on my part and probably you can take these questions to your side and answer it to your own perspective. Feel free to use it. You can place your thought in the comment section or even place yours in your own blog ... either way will work for me.

Water we consume

Source : Feng Shui Newsletter

I’m talking from a laymen’s perspective as I’m not an expert in this area. We consume the water for our daily life from dawn to night. It can be for replenishing it into our body for our daily routine chores like driving to work, playing with children, enjoying some casual jog at the lake or even sleep .. that are part of the examples.

Other than for our body, we consume it for cleaning the dishes, clothes, car or even ourselves in the morning.

Well .. that water need to come from some source isn’t it ... I would say river and lake. It was processed and flowed to us for daily consumption. How much water is enough? Thats depend on our appreciation of the water source which we sometime take it for granted ... (me too sometimes took it for granted.)

Source : BlogActionDay '10 Water

I received a tweet this morning from @blogactionday, showing a photo and a very interesting tag line “The polluted water in this glass is what this woman in Ethiopia drinks every day” [click here for source] ... looking at that visual, I felt blessed to be in this part of this world where I’m still able to get a clear water from the tap. (Even though need to put filter in order to ensure the cleanliness).

So .. Lessons for me after learning from that picture.

While other people in other part of the world struggling to get a clean glass of water, we should appreciate what we have here in Malaysia and not to waste it. Someone next door may also need it so let not be too self-centred on water usage ...
Teach the young generation (I’ll start with my kids) to appreciate the water and not to take it for granted. I'll take in the idea from Mashable on board.
To my Malaysian politicians, water is a human right. Choose your word correctly when talking about water in order to get your votes. The water is not for your party only it’s for the people, the country and the world.

Talk Water on 15 October 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:17:00 +0000

Source : Feng Shui Newsletter

Between today until October 15, Iskandar In Person's entries will be focusing on water. I came across "Blog Action Day 2010" from reading Problogger today. What's about Blog Action Day 2010?

It is an annual event that unites bloggers of the world posting about the same issue on the same day, which is Oct 15. Looking at the one who behind this initiative, is a team from Blogactionday.Change.org who are promoting blog network for social issue.

I found this event is interesting and decided to participate. You can do the same by going to this link ... Blog Action Day 2010. Register and lets talk about "Water" on that day ... it is going to be fun.

If you need more information about this day, visit their blog here.

Review on Father and Son : Homemade Spacecraft

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 06:27:00 +0000

Source : JunkBlogger

I landed on an article titled “Father and Son Launched Their Homemade Spacecraft into Space” yesterday. The father, Luke Geissbuhler made a homemade video to capture these historic father and son activity which I believe going to make some impact to readers around the world. I’ve seen this article has been shared several time in my Facebook wall and I’m not surprised if they hit the news in next few week or even days.

There’s some values that I can shared from this entry by Hedy in www.junksblogger.com, which is the father and son relationship. I would say Max will remember this for the rest of his life. He can proudly say “My father and me did this”.

Other than the values captured here, another lesson that we can learn together is that, some people see space project requires a complex and a very high comprehension and detail on the subject. This two gentlemen prove it wrong, all you need are an IPhone, Weather balloon and a video camera to make it happen. Simple thought which make things happen.

I’ve also came across some criticism on what are the benefits of space exploration? Despite all the argument to defense the initiative, I would like to add this example as another reason on the benefits of space exploration. This example shows some direct benefits to the family. It brings father and son together.

Kudos to Luke and Max Geissbuhler, for able to think out of the box and at the same time making things simple.

To follow the story click on the blog link below or the video link I place it here.

Click Here to go to JunkBlogger page

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Source: JunkBlogger

Coloring the Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Source: Young Germany

This article is somewhat a log on what I am doing with this blog. I have been exploring this blog writing for nearly three months now.

Recalling what I did with this blog was:

Focus on article writing within the category that been set.
Adding categories as more articles been created/compile.
Placing adsense and ad banner to start monetize the blog.
Installing some codes to track visits and pageviews.
Subscribing to some blog forum and blog sharing sites.
Integrating the blog with twitters and facebook fan page.
Subscribing to feedburner.
Subscribing to Google analytics
Building up followers, reviewing and commenting other blogs.
Placing blogspot tools such as Blog List, Blog Roll, Email forms and counters.
Playing with banners.

Source: jinwei-diabolo.blogspot.com

So, what should I do to balance back my life in office and home?Looks like I've been busy for last 3 months. I'm experiencing a build-up of an efforts from 15-20 minutes a day to about 2-3 hours a day ... and this blog writing activities really addicting.

I'm thinking of bringing in project management methodology into this blog building efforts. Set some realistic goal and try to achieve it. I'll come back next week on how to make this blog more colorful.

Reading on Power of Visual Thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Source: NetworkedBlog

Today’s reading is from blog that I followed through NetworkedBlogs, The Wired News. It’s a blog written by various author and the blog name is Wired News. In this write up I will be highlighting the learning I got and place one or two pointers that I captured from this reading. For further reading about “The Power of Visual Thinking” by Clive Thompson, feel free to click on the link at the end of this article.

Power of Visual Thinking

Source : Wired News

The key sharing point of this article was visual thinking, which means drawing pictures to solve problem give more venues to expedite on decision making process. He uses crayon as to show how he make a selection from various choices shown to him. The choices he used was list of laptop that he found online when he wanted to make a purchase.

Using the argument place forward by Dan Roam, a visual-thinking guru and author of “The Back of the Napkin”, he highlighted that our culture relies too much on choices and arrangement of words. Another thought raised by David Sibbet, a visualization expert, was if we want everyone to have the same understanding of a problem, “fastest way to do it is with a picture”.

What do I got from this article

In a simple word, I’ll say “Picture worth thousands of word”. I’ve seen in certain meeting that I attended, a problem was shared through drawings on the whiteboard. From what I see the ambient of the meeting was lively and full of colors. However, in one of my experience attending meeting (most of the time meeting with Government Officials) where everybody talking about protocols and going through some documents together, the ambient was dull and most of the time I slept while the meeting was going on.

For further readings on this article … click here.

New Approach Under Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 04:34:00 +0000

Introducing new category called “Reading Log”

This page and category is meant to capture some reading material I gathered from blogs that I followed. I learned that placing own article on daily basis may compromise the quality of the content. However, by not placing daily article, I learned that there is a drop in overall page views in this blog. Thus to compensate the readers with updated material, I’ll be sharing my daily readings and capture it in this blog.

So .. What do you do?

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:47:00 +0000

This article is a continuation of the "Hi! How are you ... ". The key-point of that article is how to connect with people ...so in this article we will bring it to the next level, where we going to connect two type of people (fast pace and slow pace) together in a workplace. Again I got this from Joe Pici's learning CD. I'm connecting to some experience I had during my years as computer engineer and trying to convince my superior.

Source : Freephotos4all

Let me set some scenario here. At your workplace and there are some issues with the corporate computer system. Upon routine system check you found a pre-mature sign of system degradation and it is an unanticipated risk. Following further investigation, you got to the source of the problem and certain part need to be upgraded. The upgrade is costly and company is currently performing a cost cutting measure on selected business operation.

If not resolve, in 6 month, corporate computer system will be experiencing full outage, and it will be impacting overall organization operation. Your superior have just left the company few weeks ago and a new superior just reporting for less than 2 weeks. The new superior do not have the same computer background as you do. So ... what do you do?

Source: Freephotos4all

These are some ideas on how to use "Hi .. how are you ..", make the connection and score.

Please note that not that result may varies with different people and organization. The ideas given is based on a successful mission experienced by me back in those years ...

Ready??? Let's see how things work here ...

First Build the Connection

At the hallway or before the superior hit his desk, you should greet him with the normal "Hi .. how are you? .... how's the traffic today?".... you definitely will get a warm response from him. Remember, do not go straight to the point, we are building the connection here.

Next Identify which type of person he is ... whether he is a fast pace or a slow pace..

To know whether he is a fast pace or slow pace person, look at how he enter the office. Does he say hi to people around him since he is new to the company... from there we can assume, whether he is a fast pace or a slow pace. Next, look at his shirt pocket, is he slipping a pen or not and what type of pen that he use. You can observe it at the beginning conversation. If he is not wearing a pen on his shirt pocket, high likely he is not a detail person. He might be a forgetful person. If he is wearing a pen, look at the type of the pen, is it a normal ball pen or some expensive one like Parker or etc. If it is a normal ball pen, that's an indication he is a slow pace person. He need fact, figures and logic in order to make decision and he is quiet firm with his decision. If the pen is fancy and looks expensive, then he like style and quite serious about self-grooming. This is a tell tale saying that he is a fast pace person. How did I know this ... it is through experience and a discipline called profiling (we will discuss this in other article).

In this case, my new superior is a well dressed and having an expensive pen on his shirt. He greeted everyone he meet. So I assume that he is a fast pace person. We will then go to the next level.

Talking to Fast Pace people

To talk with fast pace we need to show some energy and enthusiasm. Show how well you know the corporate computer system and articulate it enthusiastically. Use simple language to explain the issue and straight away shows the benefits, the solution and the result.

When he asks questions, he usually starts to pay some attention. Do not have long pause to think. If you did that, he will think that you didn't know your material and he will move on.

The objective of your conversation would be to call for another meeting to show more detail solution and result and then connect them with finance people.

One conversation idea that you can use to connect him with finance:

1. “Once we clear with the detail solution and results … would it be beneficial to you if we can get finance people to sit with us so that we can get some sponsorship to move forward?”

He will normally agree since you've guided him with information and opportunity to make decision. Send him an email or some memo stating the meeting place and time after this conversation.

Meeting has been set with him, now is to get to the finance people to sponsor the upgrade. Finance people are usually slow paced people. Without proper documentation, logical and systematic explanation, it is very hard to get some buy in from them. So what do you do?

Talking to Slow Pace People

With finance people, you need to go slow with them, get some time with them to sit down explaining what happen, then share the problem that you’re facing, and what support that you need from them.

You can start the conversation with this idea below:

1. “Hi Lee (name is fictitious), how are you? I’m glad that you can spend some time with me to discuss on some issue that I’m facing right now …” .. then finished your sentence with the rest of the issue.

Don’t get their decision yet because they will need more from you if you want to get their decision. Systematically show them your plan of action and mention when they will be needed for a meeting. Some idea that you can use in the conversation:

1. “I’m going to show you the solution here and how much is needed to achieve this solution …. I really need your support to deliver this solution … but I don’t need your final decision now … I’ll give you sometime to digest this…”

Offered some hand on what do they need from us in order to get buy in from them. Usually, they will ask to follow this and that procedure, fill in some forms and etc. Some idea in this conversation:

1. “What can I do for you to expedite your assessment … can you show me some procedure that I can use or forms that I can fill?”

Take note and do not respond or comment to their request immediately, come back to them later. This will give some indication to them that you’re studying the procedures and forms given and they will appreciate such gesture.

Connecting Slow Pace People and Fast Pace People

With fast pace people, after you've done with the follow up meeting showing the detail solution and result, set an expectation to the fast paced people your plan to get some sponsor from the finance people. He will be happy to know that you have initiated some conversation with the finance people and he did not have to do anything on the first stage.

Now is to offer the fast pace people to start communicating with the slow pace people. The fast paced people have been informed about the benefits, the solution and the results. And from the slow pace people they are aware about you going through the procedure and forms for sponsoring the upgrade.

At Connecting Point.

In the meeting now, you’ll have fast pace and slow pace people together. Try not to irritate each other when presenting the solution and what’s needed to achieve the solution. If you irritate either one of them through you selection of words … that’s it .. you need to recreate the wheel again.

Some of conversation ideas in the meeting with fast and slow pace people when you get them together:

1. Gentlemen, I’ll calling you to this meeting in order to achieve a mutual understanding and decision to proceed with the solution that I’m about to present to you … (this conversation is meant to make both side feel important and will be part of the decision process)
2. (After presenting the solution) … I hope you understand the objective of this solution and Lee (the finance people), I understand that with current cost cutting measure, it is going to be some convincing work that we need to do, we can help you to get relevant information to you so that you could easily talk to higher management to get the sponsor.
3. (After presenting the solution .. talking to your superior) … Sir, with the solution presented and with the support and resource that we have, can I get your approval to proceed with the detail work with finance and the engineering team? (See with the fast pace people, you’re giving indication to him to straight go to work … fast pace people like this type of conversation)

In conclusion to talk and connect to fast and slow pace people these are some key points that you should consider:

1. Presenting benefits, solution and result in different tone with different type of people.
a. With fast pace people, be concise and talk enthusiastically. Offer some quick decision opportunity.
b. With slow pace people, talk and present the idea systematically.
2. Never irritate each other when talking or discussing with slow or fast pace people … you’ll never achieve anything if you irritate others.

The Eccentric Thrifter: Good Bye Spaces by Linda Jordan

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 06:08:00 +0000

It was lunch time and as usual I was browsing for new materials for my blog. Then I landed on this page by Linda Jordan. She's a veteran genealogist and also making heritage family cookbooks. A farm-grown nature lover and enjoy working at her greenhouse ...

Good Bye Spaces Synopsis

This blog entry casually discussed about the closing of Windows Live Space blogs where she places her thought about this in a very simple and nicely worded manner.

So enjoy her write up by click the link below ...

The Eccentric Thrifter: Good Bye Spaces

Hi ! How are you today ....

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 05:00:00 +0000

This article is based from Joe Pici's sales teaching on value proposition CD that I bought in one of the sales function. The key points that this article is sharing with the readers on how to connect with people in the workplace and develop your ideas to get support especially with the management by using the skill taught by Joe Pici.

In the first period of his speech, Joe was highlighting the importance of understanding people's behaviour before doing business with them, i.e. we need to understand what type of people are we working with here. Are they the slow paced type for are they the fast pace type?

The slow pace type of people are people who are being analytics before making decision. They need facts and logics before getting to buy your idea. The fast pace people are people who are talkers, think fast and energetic ... and usually get things done fast.

Learning from these two type of people, I beginning to realize that there are these people in our workplace. Usually we find slow pace people among the accounts and engineering side. The fast pace people are usually the sales, marketing and the top managements.

So, how are we going to work with these type of people? Below are some idea that I expand from Joe Pici's teaching.

1. Know yourself first.

Understand which side are you in. Look at yourself at your workplace. Are you analytics where you like to spend sometime to study, analyse and then logically articulate your idea or your understanding to people or do you like to be a moderator, where you induce people to talk through various casual and official interaction?

There's nothing wrong with being slow pace or fast pace. It is just to differentiate what type of people you are and how you can use your type to adapt in your working environment.

2. Understand who are the people you're going to work with.

In any event, people appreciate some courtesy. You will find it quite easy to blend in with people if you understand and know what things that people like and what things that people don't. Again try to understand what type of people that you're going to work with. Are they the slow pace type or are they the fast pace type...

3. Start the connections

Once you understand what type of people you're going to work with it's time to connect with them. Do not go straight to the point and do not irritate them ... you won't get you idea or your intention developed if you irritate the people you're going to work with. Usually connection starts with simple "Hi .. how are you?" or "Nice dress you have today .... " or some nice and warm wording ...

See how easy it is to start a conversation. You can do this with anybody. Now lets move further on how we relate this to our workplace.

In our day in day out, we usually have ideas what we wanted to share, solution to present to our team members and management. You may experience your idea been turned down. Sometime, it been cut down even you've not finished explaining the idea. It happens to me when I was a junior engineer back 10 to 11 years ago.

It is quite frustrating when that happen. I was thinking why that happen until as I gain some experience over the years, I realize that I forgot to start the connection and do my homework on with what type of people I going to work with.

Connection usually don't start on the desk, it usually start before the office, on the hallway or during lunch. Upon understanding the type, start with a genuine "hi how are you ..." ... and then have a casual talk about weather, traffic or lunch .. anything that set up the environment.

Upon establishing the comfort in conversation, then start approaching the person with issues or challenge that you're facing to create some awareness in him/her. Make sure he/she understand the issue/challenge then offer a time to further discuss the issue. You can give some initial idea about the solution you have but don't give too much information to him/her, you can expand that idea in a follow up discussion with him/her.

Then, when you got the time from him/her then start sending email to him/her confirming the time. This usually works for ideas or solution that you feel going to give some turning point in your career or your next appraisal session.

Some mistake that I made in my early days was sending email to a list of people mentioning about the issue/challenge and straight away mention about the solution. Then I called for a meeting without giving some chance for those people to fully understand my intention.

The teachings from Joe Pici in his Value Proposition speech, helps to properly articulate the manner to make connection to people and present the ideas and solution in workplace.

In the next entry of Hi ! How are you today ... I'll share the choice of words that worth trying when presenting some ideas....

Leadership : Belief in Values

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0000

In this article series, I'm going to highlight values as the core elements in developing leadership.

What is values?

Values are what we learned through nature or how we are nurtured. As we go deeper in gaining experience, we are expose to various nature of thinking and values. Leaders .... no matter how he/she been nurtured will use nature to build his/her values... and values varied to different people and organization.

Throughout the exposure in organizational nature for 13 years, I have and still carries ... values of ownership toward work. Taking ownership on you work means you are in control and when you're in control you make decision. When you make decision, you are moving one point to another in your career and in your life.

So what is your values?

"I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!"

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Source : Wikipedia

In "Alice in Wonderland", The Rabbit sang "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!". The Rabbit appears at the beginning of the story running back and forth looking at the clock and shouting the infamous word .. "I'm late! .. I'm late!" ... then mistaken Alice as his servant .... and the story goes on ...

Lets us pause there for now and look at the character "The Rabbit". The behavior seems to imitate what we(who work in the office .. especially) always do ... which are rushing to work, hopping from one meeting room to another, taking phone call after one and another (during peak hours ... especially when dealing with demanding clients) .... and the best part (if you remember), losing track on when the last email our colleague send us ... especially when he/she tries to get some update from us on some of the task assigned to us. And the infamous word that came out during lunch conversation were ...." too many things to do ... too less time"

Well, that is part and parcel of life in office during highly busy time .... and we sometimes brought it back to home (well.... few of us did ...) and start forgetting where we put the car keys and remote. And the infamous word that came out from our mouth when someone ... especially our love one asking why we didn't pay the bill (for example) .. was ... "I was catching up deadline .. I don't have time ..... "

The point that I'm trying to raise here is time challenge ... it is something that everybody encounter ... from housewife to corporate CEO ... and time challenge is now a business opportunity for some training organizer .. where they introduce ... TIME MANAGEMENT skill course.

If we re-look back at ourselves and compare it to other people around us ... none of us have extra hours in a day ... everybody have 24 hours a day ... from a baby to the old lady next door (that's my neighbour ....) they have 24 hours a day ... then the question is how some people can perform 10 tasks in a day and some cannot even finish 1 task in a day .... my personal answer is WE ARE HUMAN .... we have characters and we have habits ... and those 2 elements determine how focus we are to some task and how we appreciate the 24 hours...

Identifying our own character and habits, will help us to focus on priority and control our own time. Time is commodity. The knowledge, skill and how well we manage the time will determine how far we go in our career and our daily life.

I will exploring more on this topic ... so stay tune with iskandarinperson ... there will be more to come ....

Antalya Marathon Mar 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:37:00 +0000

The third marathon since 2009 and a month after Putrajaya Marathon. I was on Istanbul assignment for a month. So I took this opportunity to run in Antalya Marathon.

In terms of training module, it is just maintaining the current training program that I'm doing. I did 10 km this time as not want to pressure myself since I'm on assignment. I spend 2 week before going to Istanbul running on the road and another 2 weeks in Istanbul running on threadmill.

Mediteranean Sea

Antalya is about 700 km from Istanbul and I took one hour flight to get there. Weather was excellent at that time in Antalya, where it was about 18-19 Degree C compared to Istanbul temperature of 7-9 Degree C.

Not much that I know about Antalya except colleague in Istanbul mentioned that it is a tourist area where lots of historic place as back as Byzantine Empire can be found here. But this trip is not much about looking the historical place because my plan was to take a flight on Saturday, pick up the racing kit, check in to hotel, run and come back to Istanbul the next day.

I took the low fare flight called Pegasus at Sabiha Gokhen International Airport, which cost me around 150 Turkish Lira round trip and manage to get a good deal on room for Euro 69.00 per night at the Titanic Beach and Resort Hotel. The rate does not include breakfast buuuuttttt ... include all you can eat DINNERRRRRR....

Taxi fare from Antalya Airport was around TL 60 to the race-kit collection center and about TL 70 to the resort. I've only manage to walk around the resort enjoying the sun set, having a good dinner and ready for tomorrow's race.

I met some friends from Istanbul Runner and decided to run with them tomorrow morning.

The race starts at 9:00 a.m. At the starting line I can see Malaysian Flag been hanged at the starting board. It make me proud since I'm the only Malaysian running in that race.

Upon release the first few kilometers were mainly asphalt road so not much a problem, then the thrill begin ... I was running into the town which still maintain the old Roman architecture and then I saw some group of people dress in Centurion with spears singing some song .. in Turkish I believe ... passing that group I saw few ambulance start crawling around the area ... then I felt my feet was stepping on a unfamilar ground ... it's roman brick road .. and it's killing my feet ... I stumbed into several brick and it hurts ...

Next the running sign brought me to a another road ... it's under construction road .. oooo mine .. there goes my feet and knees... I'm didn't anticipate such terrain ...

The run ends at the stadium which I'm glad that I'm getting some flat surface for my feet ... buutttt .. the terrain now was dirt and grass ... running on grass it not that bad ... it feels like running on a cushion after bombarding the foot with different kind of terrain ...

In the end .. I've finish my run, claim the medal and enjoy the mediteranean fruits and drinks at the refreshment area. .... It was an enjoyable run eventhough the leg's hurts.

Too bad I have to catch up my Sunday evening flight to Istanbul for work tomorrow ... One good thing about being in Istanbul ... after a harsh day punishing my body ... I reward myself with a nice Turkish Bath at the Hotel SPA ... nothing beats the feeling after the massage ...

My first Monday word after getting out from bed was "Did I ran 10 km in Antalya yesterday? ... that's 700 km away from here dude ... don't believe that I did that ... However the picture below marked that .... I was in Antalya running during weekend.

Putrajaya Marathon 2010 Feb ... 21 km ...

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Credit : Hooha

I would say this is the most well prepared run I had since Singapore Marathon in December 2009. Eventhough it is quite challenging to prepare for 21 km after only one 10 km run competition ... it is the need inside that wanted to push ownself beyond the limit.

After reading and getting some feedback from various people, I placed a four steps program that help me to prepare for the 21 km run.

The goal of this run is to finish the run. Time is not really my concern in this run.

Step 1: 2 x 15 minutes session

In this step, I'd spend 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes in the evening to condition my muscle to run continously for 15 minutes. The rest 15 minutes in the session is the warm-up and stretching period.

In that 15 minutes run session I started to jog and increase to speed to the level my leg muscle start to feel some pain then I stop, relax and look at how far the distance i could cover. Then I continue the same step until the 15 minutes is over. After that, followed by a breeze walk and warm-up activity.

I keep doing the same activity for about 2 weeks until i got a distance of 2 km within 15 minutes. I did that day and night.... of course there's pain here and there but I did not push myself when I encountered the pain ... when the muscle starts feeling tired I stop running for about a minute or two and then continue to run again after that. So basically, the leg muscle is conditioned slowly for the run and the benefits of it is i didn't injured myself.

Step 2 : 2 x 30 minutes run

My wife starts to jog

After two weeks, my wife starts joining me running... but not for the run but just for herself. At weekend, the kids starts joining too ... so there's a motivation there ... so instead of running around my neighborhood area, I went to public playground about 3 km from my home.

I repeated the program, now instead of running for 15 minutes, I ran for 30 minutes with the same method in mind.

Running around the Tasik Cempaka .. that was challenging !!!! I was running uphill and down hill. It really kill my leg, especially the knee... but since I've conditioned myself on the first two week, recovery is fast ...

Step 3 : Get a Coach

Zairinator Zam

On weekend morning, taa daaa the coach came in .... hmm who am I to have a coach ... its my good friend Zairin, the IronMan ... he is triathlete and still going at the age of late 30s...

This is what Zairin did to me.

We ran together at Putrajaya jogging track near his house ... first session, he was a bit relax ... but on the second session ... he was killing me with his speed... luckily I survive his session after 2 bottle of 1 litre drinking water, I got my breathe back ... Thanks pal....

Step 4 : Pray

After 6 weeks of training, I'm feeling better now, I can wake up in the morning without feeling tired. I can last longer hours in the office. It feels fresh .. and I like this feeling ... The night has come and there I am standing among the crowd waiting the horn to blow ... sharp at 8:30 p.m. Putrajaya Night Marathon 10 KM Category runners were released ... so what I did ... pray for the best that I could complete it in one piece ...

Wee .. at finish line

First 1 km I did it in 6 minutes ... that's impressive ... then at 10 km mark ... 1 Hour 29 minutes and 59 Sec ... well that is much more impressive .. and finally at the end point ... 3 hours and 50 minutes .and i'm not panting...just steady running .. pick-up the medal .. meet some friends, laughing and drive to the closest restaurant and eat like I never ate for 3 days ...

The next day, there a few muscle pain here and there but I can still go to office and work fresh ...

At this point ... I said to myself ... a new passion is born ....

Thanks yalll....for the support.

Ordinary things Extraordinary story.

noreply@blogger.com (Iskandar Hussein) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Watching the Discovery Science Channel tonight with topic "How do they do it", a striking sentence calls for my attention. It's "Ordinary things ... extraordinary story". Let's explore this sentence and associate it with the values that this blog carry.

On daily basis, we commute to work, have meetings, preparing some documentations and talk to people. For a working class people like us, it is something ordinary that we do. We sometimes doesn't realize that what ordinary things to us is something extraordinary for some other people.

Try to write something about your workplace, it doesn't have to be by commenting this article but you can do it by your own. Pick one item that you find at your workplace and try to write something about it and share it with your friends. Play around with some word placement. You may realized that you've learned new things from your workplace.

Source: Bright Eye

Who knows you might make a living out of it.... the point that I'm trying to make here is, if you spend sometime at your workplace looking at ordinary things from a different perspectives, you'll learn more and subconsciously you're building a positive perspective about your workplace and yourselves.

Positive, productive and successful people work differently every time. Thus, they never get bored with their job, career and their life.