Lessons from Surah Al-Mu'minun (The Believers)

1. Successful indeed are the believers.

2. Those who offer their Salât (prayers) with all solemnity and full submissiveness.

3. And those who turn away from Al-Laghw (dirty, false, evil vain talk, falsehood, and all that Allâh has forbidden).

4. And those who pay the Zakât .

5. And those who guard their chastity (i.e. private parts, from illegal sexual acts)

6. Except from their wives or (the captives and slaves) that their right hands possess, for then, they are free from blame;

7. But whoever seeks beyond that, then those are the transgressors;

8. Those who are faithfully true to their Amanât (all the duties which Allâh has ordained, honesty, moral responsibility and trusts etc.) and to their covenants;

9. And those who strictly guard their (five compulsory congregational) Salawât (prayers) (at their fixed stated hours).

10. These are indeed the inheritors.

11. Who shall inherit the Firdaus (Paradise). They shall dwell therein forever.

Corporate @ Keparat Lessons: Leadership Through Example

My Tyrant Boss was late again this morning. He came in at about 10 am. (Our office hours starts at 8.30am). He had no outside meetings this morning. He is simply late. He has been late for the past couple of weeks. The Little Bird (his PA) said Tyrant called this morning to say that he is coming in late. The Little Bird said "Takpe... (Dalam hati: Take your time! ... in a sarcastic tone!)....

If I or anybody else were to call or sms saying that we're coming in late, the Tyrant would ask us 1001 questions why and preach to us about the virtues of punctuality.... then he would preach to us again when we come into office... on the same thing....

The thing that ticks me is that the Tyrant is a person who does not tolerate people coming in late (not even for 5 minutes) but when it happens to him, its ok. Just fine and dandy.

The Tyrant is a also "leader" who would scold his managers like hell and ask them to justify why they are late. He would belittle them like small kids and start saying that since he can be early, why cant they. They should change their habits, implement them in 40 days, wake up and leave early from home, manage their personal affairs properly, work smart... bla bla bla....

The Tyrant would also make it a point to ask the Little Bird to call and check up on whether I am already in by the time he arrives or asks my colleague on the same. This practice on checking up on his managers seems to apply to others as well. Then whenever he meets us, he would give a lecture on the importance of being punctual, need to show good example, change habits, bla bla bla....

No doubt punctuality is a good virtue. I am also late sometimes. But for a person to preach virtues, he must walk his talk. He must come in early to preach to people about being punctual. Otherwise, he has lost the moral ground to preach and advise people. Its like a thief saying to others don't steal! His words will no longer have moral legitimacy. Masuk telinga kanan, keluar telinga kiri..... In the end, people will cast doubts on his leadership... being a leader is not easy, you gotta lead by good example.....

Happiness, Felicity, Blessedness, Bliss.....

Finally, I'm back in the blogging world after 3 weeks of technical glitches which almost led to the demise of this blog. Several conspiracy theories were hatched (such as my blog was sabotaged by Zionists for showing the Qana tragedy picture) but luckily, after resetting my templates several times, I managed to get this blog back on track.

Anyway, I woke up early this morning, 5am to be exact. Felt really fresh. Never had that feeling of a good night sleep for quite some time now. Most of the time my nights are a mixture of 2-3 hours of sleep, followed by a loud wailing cry of my daughter Maira at 3 am, asking me specifically to prepare her "susu botol". Then I continue sleeping for another 2 hours and then followed by another round of loud wailing cries by yours truly Maira, asking for "air kosong" at 5 am. Then I'd continue sleeping until either my handphone alarm rings or my wife wakes me up for subuh. Then we wake up, perform solat, dress ourselves, prepare Eimran for pre-school. And then off we go to work. That is the normal weekday routine, 5 days a week , almost 52 weeks, for the past few years of my life.

Anyway, I've now come to a stage where I need to reflect on my life. What have I done for the past years and where am I heading for the future? I am now at a cross-road, a junction where have to decide on which road to take next. Its will be very important decision as my wife and kids will be depending on it.

I've compared the achievements of my friends. Some have made it and are successful, some are at the same level as I am whilst some are relatively in the same position as they were the past couple of years. But, when I look at it, what really determines whether you have achieved in life, and in society? What is it that makes people feel satisfied of what they have become? Is it the money, house or car that they own? Their position? Their influence & role in society?

Lets face it. I am not really happy at my present workplace. Its far from my home where I have to endure 2 hours of heavy traffic daily. Then, my boss is a tyrant ("Little Napoleon" I call him) who has more mood swings than a lady pregnant with sextuplets! Its sometime difficult to talk to him as he gets emotional and temperamental. The work is also getting pretty mundane and boring where I have to sit in soo many meetings and take down the bloody minutes. (Imagine that almost 50% of my time is spent in long meetings just to jot down issues that are being discussed over and over again).

The company is also not doing well financially, where the bonus was pathetic last year. But this is unavoidable as the core activity of my company is not really a money spinner. We had to beg with the holding company in order to justify why we deserved it!! (FYI: holding company did not declare bonus for last year as they have been in the red for the past 10 years!!) And then the bombshell came when we were told that there's going to be a management change soon where a another entity will be taking over the company... Sigh!....

One thing good about this company, is that the colleagues that I work with are a nice bunch of people. They are very supportive among colleagues. I have basically no complaints about them. Also there's not much politicking among staff as they seem to be united against one common enemy - "Little Napolean The Tyrant".

And so I decided that I need to move on, since tanda-tanda besar dah muncul (as compared to "tanda-tanda kecil & besar kiamat" I learned in primary school!). To me all the "tanda-tanda" are already present. There is no point for me to be here anymore, I no longer have the passion which I used to have. To me, having passion in work is very important in order to achieve a satisfactory working life. I do not think I will go anywhere here. The most that I can go is becoming a Senior Manager. Even the Tyrant boss suggested that I relook at my plans and suggested that I should consider better options. With that coming from the Little Napoleon, no doubt it is "the time" to move on. My journey with this company is about to end...

I started to review and revamp my resume, updated a few items and start sending it to my network of friends. Some have been kind enough to forward to me tips on vacancies. I also started applying through Jobstreet though I doubt how successful I will be using this medium. So hopefully someone from the HR Dept of these places I've applied will be calling me soon. Need to brush up on my "interviewee" skills.

Coming back to the reflections I made of my achievements and others, I came across this Net article on Happiness. Then it struck me that what I am really looking for is HAPPINESS.... No matter what you do, no matter how much you earn, no matter how educated you are, it all depends on whether you are happy with your life.

The Introduction to the article was very enlightening indeed. It had me seriously thinking, of what i really seek for in my life... Here it is:

"According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, happiness is a state of well-being characterized by relative permanence, by dominantly agreeable emotion ranging in value from mere contentment to deep and intense joy in living, and by a natural desire for its continuation. "In the distinction between this term and its synonyms (i.e., felicity, beatitude, blessedness, bliss), it defines HAPPINESS as the general term denoting enjoyment of or pleasure able satisfaction in well-being, security, or fulfillment of wishes. FELICITY, a more bookish or elevated word, may denote a higher, more lasting, or more perfect happiness. BEATITUDE refers in this sense to the highest happiness, the felicity of the blessed. BLESSEDNESS suggests the deep joy of pure affection or of acceptance by God. BLISS may apply to a complete and assured felicity."

Some students of education and psychology define HAPPINESS as the continued feeling or state of delight, contentment, and joy emanating from the permanent sense of self-goodness, goodness of life and goodness of man's destiny.

Sources of happiness

Different individuals and groups of people may have different ideas with regard to the best ways of achieving happiness. However, there are several theories and speculations which many a people share as constituting the main sources of happiness. These may be classified as follows:

(1) Wealth.
(2) Rank and position.
(3) Educational achievements (Academic and Honorary Degrees).
(4) Fame (i.e., in politics, arts, sports, science, etc.).

The article then goes on to explain further about the subject. Pretty interesting read. I hope to finish reading the whole article soon. So the relevant questions for me now, what will make me a happy person? What type of job will make me a happier person? I've always said to myself, one of the most satisfying thing that I can achieve in my career is to work and earn a living doing the things that I enjoy most doing and having time with the people that matters most to me - my family.....

And the journey continues....

Bloggers Beware!

The headline in The Star caught my eye this morning. I was anxious to know what it was all about since t'was only 2 days ago that I started blogging. Lepas ni takleh nak blog la, i thought.... It said that the PM warned bloggers who spread untruths and slander on the Internet will face the law. Such a stern warning from the No. 1 man in Malaysia.... Well, I suppose he is feeling the heat from all the various comments made by certain bloggers about his administration, his famous son-in-law as well as the people at "Level 4". No doubt, Pak Lah and his government has been under the spotlight and has had its share of criticisms. And now it seems, the Government might be controlling Internet content. But Lim Keng Yeak, the Minister in charge stated that how could the Government control and censor the Net when it had pledged not to in promoting the MSC. So we have 2 contrasting views here..... As to which viewpoint will prevail, I suppose Pak Lah and Keng Yeak will have to decide in this morning's Cabinet meeting.

As for the me, I suppose I can still blog on as long as I am mindful of what I write. But should the Government decide to control the Net and its contents, I would think that it would be a tedious task and a rather unpopular one, both locally and internationally. We'll wait and see tomorrow's headlines.....