These are some of the popular questions plaguing the soon-to-be graduates, worrying about the bleak, unpredictable future. Here I will share, in capacity as your senior based on some years of working experience in the field.

1. Language – The skill to communicate

To be able to express oneself, one’s thought and idea is one of the most important ability sought after by the employer. Imagine coming to an interview and found ourselves mind stuck by a series of questions we thought we can answer but just couldn’t express it in words.

University is perhaps the last platform for many of us to get ready prior to stepping to the cold, realistic workplace. To brush up one’s language skill, there are four areas:

• Reading
• Listening
• Writing
• Speaking

Of these four language mastery, the last one is the most important. It is the most dynamic one, instantly putting an image to another person how competent we are in our language skill. There is really no shortcut to mastery except the age-old advice: practice makes perfect. Grab opportunity to start speaking in English, and pay attention to the simple subject-verb agreement. I/you/we/they will always follow by am/are. Have a friend to check on your speech. Practice in front of the mirror. When committed error, quickly recognize it and correct it immediately. You will then instantly turn a failure to a success.

Reading and writing take the second form, and no doubt will prove its worth as days go by. It is our ability to read and write that makes us more intelligent than the animals. With reading, we can help ourselves with external input in the form of books, articles, magazines or the like, hence absorbing what is important to stay abreast in our field of expertise. Writing consumes mental juice as we force ourselves to put down our thoughts in words. In the initial stage, try to use simple sentence. Again, pay attention to the rules of the game, i.e., subject verb agreement. For vocabulary, you will get it expanded as you read more materials and are exposed to different sentence structure. For example, this is a direct tone. An indirect tone is exhibited in this post.

2. Teamwork – the skill to work interdependently

Great works are achieved by collective effort. Solo performance can only go that far.

Look at Microsoft, Apple, and Google today and we will know that the best technologies are made through collaboration. In fact, teamwork and collaboration are in themselves a broad subject to talk about due to the richness of human interactions. As far as workplace is concerned, we will normally be assigned to a small team, or a department with defined roles and goals to be achieved. We will often start off with a superior above us, or a supervisor, or head of department.

Now it is important that we work well with people. Teamwork is more than just compliance. It is engaging the rest of the team members with the best of ourselves, the giving of our talents and expertise in contributing to the project. Teamwork also means shared workload, shared visions, and sometimes even shared meals and lots of working time together. Hence, on and off the working hours we ought to maintain good relationship with our team members.

Teamwork means cooperation. But it doesn’t mean blind submission. It takes a balance between courage and consideration when we try to work with people, especially tough people with weird personality. It takes courage when we detect errors or rooms for improvement and then speak up, and it takes consideration to temporarily put down our own pride and listen to others from their point of view.

What I can say is over time teamwork is what really build the personality of each team member. Mess that up and we will have a distorted view of teamwork at its best and it may hamper our ability to work with people next time.

3. The Brilliant Mind- The skill to analyse and to do research

Lending the advice from the first point, we should engage ourselves in continuous learning so that we can keep ourselves updated in the field we’re working in. New knowledge input is necessary as part of our regular diet, and be particularly selective when it comes to what we should feed our mind throughout the week. An alert and clear mind is needed to execute task, and we cannot afford going to the office half dazed and slow down the whole team just because of our lack of sleep.

Skipping body preparation, analytical skill is built when we utilize our expanding base of knowledge to discern the patterns in our day-to-day problem solving. To be able to break down, assimilate, and simplify the issue, identify its basic principles, and to come out with effective solutions takes some practice. For example, Steve Jobs saw the link between the beautiful calligraphic art and the dull, unimpressed PC in the early days. Today we have beautiful Macbook, founded by Apple on the principles of both simplicity and aesthetic.

Of course we will not be like Steve Jobs instantly when we first apply analytical skill. A lot of prior reading or research needs to take place. Learn to organize our thoughts in a systematic way. Learn to detect the underlying root and principles governing the root cause of a problem, and….like the lawyer, referring to past cases to make today’s decision.

Also learn to ask the right questions. Though no questions is stupid really, but the right question will gear the team toward the correct path. Common questions asked will be like ‘is this project in line with company’s objective?’ ‘will this work add value to the customers?’. The former stresses on the importance of company’s goal as the anchor of each project, and the latter aimed at end-user because they are the ultimate judge as to whether our products or services do deliver result or not.

Though all roads lead to Rome, the Rome is not built in a day. Start with small steps and we will see the Rome one day. Hope it help =)

The definition of discipline today is almost in opposition to the freedom celebrated by the modern society today. Any sense of restriction, limitation, or adherence to a certain set of rules, teachings, regulations, laws is not something easily swallowed by our society. Instead, human freedom is promoted, human rights are fought, and human expression is at the pinnacle throughout any point in the history.

While it’s not the intention of this post to specifically identify certain flawed human ‘rights’ today, it’s important for us to revisit the basic principle underlying human discipline. Far from what is embedded in the school system today, the word ‘discipline’ has an intrinsic meaning of ‘disciple’. The word ‘disciple’ is used when there is a master worth following, and the followers are willing to set their lives apart to imitate their master.

A short quote by Harry Emerson Fodsdick, as cited in Everyday Greatness written by Stephen Covey, wrote that

“No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined” (p.113).

Another one by Roy L. Smith,

“Real freedom is won through self-government, not through self-expression”.

One of the fruits we should seek as we mature and learn to be team players in an interdependent society is discipline. Some called it self-control, or self-restrain, or self-government. It has a sense of safeguarding and watching over our own actions, to see that these faculties of ours are not indulged in empty passions and destructive habits.

Evan just turned to age. Celebrating his ultimate arrival of freedom, he partakes alcohol, indulged in illicit sex, and crammed through his university years. Few years down the road in his early career as a business administrator, Evan felt unaccomplished with his dated human skills. Soon he lost his jobs, disappointment and depression sank in, and he wonders about the meaning of his existence.

Frank tires himself almost daily after school on the football field. It is his passion to play better, and he dreams about playing with the best team in his local district. Nevertheless, he flunk numerous times in Mathematics, which worries his family. Seeing an increasing imbalance between his academic and football commitment, the school teacher proposes if Frank would take additional hours during weekend to catch up with the studies. Feeling reluctant at first, Frank was eventually persuaded and was willing to press on despite his indifference to his scores. His eyes were on the football.

I gave two fictitious, imperfect examples. Evan thought of receiving his freedom by attaining age 21. The world is opened to him, or should we say he is now finally ‘opened’ to everything the world has to offer. We know the ending. The end is not good. Freedom does not promise good to Evan. He wasted his university years. He fails to build lifelong learning skill. He was way behind what the society wants from an employee. His freedom looks good at first, but he eventually pays the price.

Frank has a good future in developing his football habit. Constant discipline is needed to improve himself continuously. We may see that small setbacks, struggles, or some physical hurt did not hinder his passion. It has an unusual level of energy when it comes to football. While this piece of discipline may pay off, Frank’s academic result may betray him in the long run. Exercising discipline today to work on his studies means lesser contact hour with the round football, perhaps some sleep in the weekend, or some less interaction with other things. Discipline is essentially paying a price to work on a worthy goal, again and again to see the progress and eventually the finishing line.

When we think about discipline today, we think of body builder. Or when we think about discipline today, we think about yoga. But it can be more than that. Discipline means securing the freedom of our future by deliberating focusing our energy today on worthy goals.

Without focus, our lives are scattered. We may eventually lose our ways if we are not careful. With focus, add on discipline, and at its finishing line we may celebrate with the freedom. And this type of freedom is the function of our discipline.

A bank account flourishes when there is more deposit than there is withdrawal. The more we deposit, the number goes up and we are in the state of accumulation of wealth. An account is considered healthy as long as it is positive. We have rooms for allowance and are able to do occasional withdrawal if needed.

Just like the physical financial account, we maintain an emotional account with another human being. Be it our parent, our friends, or our teachers and colleagues, each of us immediately opened a ‘bank account’ with another person the moment we are acquainted with each other. We can say that the more affection we hold with our loved ones is a result of constant deposit in another person’s emotional bank account.

Now deposit in an emotional bank account can be done with acts of:

1. appreciation
2. approval
3. understanding
4. love
5. care
6. courtesy
7. promising them something and then fulfill it

They could be more. But these are some of the ways we can deposit in the emotional bank account with our neighbors. The effect of constant deposit is a healthy account leading to better relationship, which results in faster and more effective communication. It creates creative energy in synergistic conversations, where people are not afraid to express themselves, or perhaps uttering wrong words at the wrong time, simply because they trust each other’s intention so well that they can overlook these mistakes.

Before we go on, it is good to present the other side of the coin. A physical bank account exists so that we may deposit, and more importantly that we can withdraw it in future. But an emotional bank account withdrawal? These are some of the acts we often do to our neighbors, and sadly often to our loved ones.

1. No appreciation made
2. Disapproval, or body language showing dislikes
3. Listening with the intention to reply, rather than with the intention to understand
4. Hatred, unforgiveness, jealousy
5. Not giving them the due attention (shunning if serious)
6. Not being courteous
7. promise them something and then not fulfill it

The list may go on. What I did here is essentially reverse the 7 deposit acts, and here we are getting the withdrawal by committing either one of the combinations of the above. By committing these things to our neighbors, our friends, we are risking of depleting the emotional bank accounts we have with them. No one likes a bank account draining of its resource like the water tap. Relationship suffers, and a negative bank account changes our inclination with another human being. Instead of liking them, we are beginning to dislike them, or they began to dislike us.

Dante worked as a salesperson in an insurance company. He loves his job, and enjoys the attention of being looked upon as a successful young man. With branded outfits and the best hairstyles in town, he rehearsed to smile in front of the mirror every morning before going to work. The customers liked Dante. He has a charismatic personality and is a great talker. Everything seem to go well with an outgoing job he has.

Now Dante deposited the emotional bank accounts he hold with each of his customers. In hope to close a sales, he sometimes made promises beyond what was actually insured in the life insurance the customers interested in. And so he made things better, thinking that after all his customers are satisfied after signing the document. Years past and everything seem pretty well for him. He quit his job and join a public relation career in a multinational company.

Now we can learn from Dante. Yes we should affirm people’s worth, and yes we should be courteous and warm toward each other. No we shouldn’t make blank promises and, if the story allows, we should treat people genuinely by prioritizing on their need over closing a sales.

How is our emotional bank account with our parent? Do we do frequent deposit, or do we do withdrawal and suffer the relationship? How about our relationship with our loved ones, our friends, colleagues and extended family members?

Make a deposit today. Refrain from taking withdrawal. When an account flourishes, relationship improves, trust increases, love abounds, creativity unleashes… then we can truly enjoy the maximum benefit of living in an interdependent society.

Having a sense of direction as guided by a permanent marker such as a compass needle to the North can help to see who we are, or where we are going. These true north are sometimes called life principles, or natural laws, such things which govern human existence and human relationship. Examples for life principles would be love and trust, and natural laws such as reaping what we sow. Failure to observe these things are like a battleship refusing to give way to the permanently placed lighthouse.

Truth north principles are not hard to be spotted in our daily lives. In school examination, fairness is observed. Everyone is given an opportunity to do the best they can without cheating. On the traffic road, rules observance is the rules of the game. Break the rule and risk receiving a compound or worse, an unanticipated accident. So we see that these principles are around us. They are embedded in the systems, either humanly designed (school, traffic road), or naturally designed (life and death, reaping and sowing). Here I expound on two most observed, test-and-true principles.

• Sow and reap: The fruit of our labor

Reaping and sowing is a true north principle. The ants which labor night and day. They probably don’t sweat like human do, but they are really cooperative when it comes to teamwork task. They move together, work together, and they receive the fruit of their labor. In the same way no man being slothful and idle should expect receiving anything in such a manner. It’s like waht the Chinese idiom said ‘waiting for a rabbit under a tree stump’. Instead of waiting, or pushing responsibility aside, we should be rest assured that being hardworking in the things that we do will ultimately reap reward.

• Do unto others what you’d like them to do to you: The golden rule

Tooth for a tooth, and eye for an eye, but with a positive tone. We don’t harm others in hope of receiving retaliation. What it’s suggested here is that love and affection are always reciprocated if the parties sense the genuineness of the act committed to them. For example, if we wish to feel accepted in the classroom community, we need to first learn to accept others different than ourselves. Acceptance means openness, the willingness to let others dive into our world, influence us, which is always accompanied by our genuine listening attitude. As they feel accepted, they are opened and ready to accept one another. This sounds like a magic gimmick, but it’s the golden rule.

Understand it quickly and reversing them

Now the fastest way to understand these true north principles, I suppose, is to intentionally break them and to see its reverse effect. Sow little and reap little. Sow nothing and reap nothing. And for the golden rule, do not love and we will not be loved. Do not trust others, and we will not be trusted.

Well, some may suggest that there’s a cheat in this game, where we sow little today, and reap bountifully tomorrow. Or, be selfish and cynical, and expect to win friends and approvals. You’ll see that the answer is obvious. While there may be exception to this equation, natural law does not suggest producing a durian tree without a durian seed, nor does hatred brings trustworthiness and affection. We are bound by these rules. We either obey it, or we break the rules and break ourselves.

Where to find the True North?

Production refers to any desired result that we want. At personal level, our production may be our degree, our exam result, our work performance, or our goals and milestones in life.

Production Capability refers to the engine, the asset running behind the production. To obtain a degree, we need to be intellectually ready. To do well in work, we need to keep up with the skills required by the job nature.

Simply put, it is a golden egg and goose story. Take good care of the goose, and it will produce golden egg for you every day. Abuse it or treat it poorly may still get you the golden egg (sometimes even more in short term), but overtime the goose died and we lost the ability to gain golden egg.

P/PC requires balance. Here I present two extremes.

1. Bobby worked 12 to 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. He feels that working during weekend is a means to get ahead of his competitor. Sometimes he dismisses family request for quality time on a Sunday, and head back to office for half a day of work Whenever he finds little time he squeeze it to his work schedule. He did a lot of stuff, but his health deteriorates. Relationship suffers. He died a young age of 40 without seeing his children growing to adulthood.
2. Catherine is a yoga-aholic. Though a female, she loves to spend time either in the social club or at home exercising. She also holds a career in financial advisory firm serving as a assistant fund manger. Later she quit, finding that dedicating too much time at work may be too stressful for her at an early age of 28. She is seeking a day job, preferably 4 hours or so, so that she can concentrate in maintaining her shape.

Firstly, there are nothing too serious about the two fictitious examples above. Bobby is slightly into production, while Catherine production capability. Depending on individual’s focus, an imbalance on the P/PC may lead to decreased effectiveness in the long run. Think about what Bobby could do to both his work and his family if he doesn’t neglect both his health and his family now. And think about Catherine who has a promising career in late 20. What more could she achieve if work stress is dealt with properly with balance.

It takes wisdom to strike a balance between P/PC. Yes, sometimes we may in the season of rushing production, i.e., peak time, where we need to dedicate some off-work time to finish up a project or an assignment. And we certainly remembered the holidays we enjoyed back then, where we get recharged and refocused before moving on. But other than these, P/PC can be managed deliberately to ensure its balance will deliver highest effectiveness.

Managing ‘P’ takes milestone planning, or goal setting. Plan each time a year as to what expected milestone should be achieved. Allow buffer for breathing space, but not too much so as to create a challenging goal. Then, further break it down to smaller, measurable goal plans. Focus on these plans will lead us to move ahead to our goal, one step at a time.

Managing PC takes discipline and willpower. Know when to stop working, and know when to bulk up and unleash our highest skill and productiveness. Learn to take care of our physical faculty, as well as the mental, emotional, and spiritual faculties. A still mind, heart, and soul are not something dispensable if we’re talking about PC maintenance. Healthy body certainly helps, and PC renewal should ultimately push us to seek ways to go beyond maintenance, that we will seek ways to stretch our capability. Learn new skills. Learn interdependence. Pray. Build muscles. It’s only when we are better equipped that we will deliver a great P.