MY JOURNEY CONTINUES...

Assallamualaikum...

After the three nights that my daughter and I performed Sholat Ishtiharah (a pray that ask Allah for direction), I asked her how she felt. She told me that she was not able to sleep as soundly as before and it got even worse after the time where my wife joined us in the Sholat. I am now convinced that going over to the company that wanted to "head-hunt" her is not going to happen.

However, at the same time, my daughter told me that she is having good positive vibes whenever she thinks about the company that we are planning to open eventually. I warned her not to give me high hopes concerning this but she convinced me otherwise.... Alhamdulillah... Syukran Jazeelan

BEWARE OF GOLD INVESTMENT SCHEME.

Assallamualaikum...

Like I said before, NO MLM for me...

Recently a friend of mine called me while I was driving to work in the morning and said that he wants me to check out a gold investment scheme. It is not buying gold but investing in a gold mine company based in Panama. Can score big time he says..

I asked him to SMS me the website and I will check it out for him.

I received the SMS and google it. Yes if I just click on the links on the first page of google, everything seems to be legit but as I open the rest of google, the company's history start to come up until I landed on a page that can even connect me to a Singapore government page to show that the company is on the Alert List.

I called that friend of mine to reveal it to him and even emailed him the link to proof that it is a scam. He sounded disappointed and even wanted to defend it saying that this was being introduced by his manager that got so many to sign up already. Knowing my friend, I hoped he has not signed up yet...

The same day another acquaintance which I know doing MLM, sms me and tried to arrange for a meeting to discuss about exactly the same venture but now the company is mining at some other place... I flatly said I am not interested after I checked out the website that he gave me.

I FIGURED IT OUT

Assallamualaikum...

I am so excited that finally I am able to put an advertisement on my blog... You may be asking why can't this happen earlier with Adsense ?

That was the first widget that I tried but Adsense turned me down flatly because IMHO the kind of blog I am writing (which is actually what blogs are supposed to be anyway) will resulted in very high payouts from them and it is not economical to allow that to happen... There you go, finally I got that out of my chest ... :)

So I found  adBrite thru this link.

After that I got this link to fix it into my blog. You will be able to do this in the older version of blogger. That was what I did when I was not able to figure it out using the latest dashboard. Perhaps one reason they updated the dashboard is because they want to stop this activity...

Well, all of the above are my conspiracy theories which explains what might had happened to me...

I DO NOT DO MLM ... PERIOD.

Assallamualaikum...

Just to make it clear to anyone that's going to approach me doing MLM, please stop right where you are because I am NOT interested...

At the same time the objective for me to write this thoughts down not to say MLM is illegal, it just DO NOT WORK for me. PERIOD.

My business plan is very simple.

1. If it is going to be selling a product. Then I will get THE CHEAPEST, THE BEST, THE MOST TASTY AND GRATIFYING thing and redistribute among my affiliates. No Multi-Level. YOU SELL...YOU GAIN.
If you think my price is cheap enough for you to redistribute it and leverage on others, than do it so that you can sell more and everyone will be happier with the amount of reward you will get at the end of the sales. NO KICKBACK REWARD STRUCTURE....

2. If I am going to go into the service line, then I will provide A COMPREHENSIVE SERVICE THAT IS SECOND TO NONE !!! Almost everything will be taken care of FROM THE FIRST HELLO TO THE LAST GOODBYE !!!

GAINING WISDOM

Assallamualaikum...

I would like to apologize if you find this blog narcissistic because it was not meant to be like that at all, I am really jotting down and sharing my discovery of Wisdom given by Allah The All Knowing, All Mighty that can benefit everyone including me by recording them down not really in real time but as the event completes together with my own assessment of it. Of course I welcome any views about what I have written via FB comments, that will really complete my thought process ... getting feedbacks from the readers of my humble thoughts... I am forever grateful for it...

So yesterday, as I was blogging away, I got an SMS from Sister Habibah. She wanted 10 packs of my Red Bean Pau. Needless to say, I made the delivery as soon as I can. I always looked forward connecting with her because she is such a wonderful and positive person. I will always bring back some of her positive vibes with me after meeting her.

As usual, after the business transaction, I would talk about some of the things in my business. Of course it was being encouraged by her and also Jalal; another colleague of hers who share the same office.

Many things were being shared but there is one very significant thing that I want to take note of ...

One of the Wisdom I got from Allah is... if you have not found success in whatever you are doing, perhaps you should look at the process again and do the direct opposite of it.

For example, I do not view myself as someone who is successful eventhough I have achieved quite a number things in life, like being able to articulate myself and blogging is a major achievement for a Malay boy who has never passed his English Subject when he was in school. Yes, I have been known to be very talkative in class before but I was not able to write comprehensively before or knowing how to write a decent sentence before.

So ... why did I claim that I had applied; "the principle of doing the opposite process if one cannot find success in the current process will get one to achieve what one set out to do"; before ?

Since I view myself as someone who have not attain a major success in life, I attributed that to the way I was being brought up. Yes, the process that my parent had taken is the thing I should focus on doing opposite to it to get the result of having successful offspring... Needless to say, I am very happy by how much my kids have progressed at their tertiary level which I did not do while I was at their age.

However, I lost sight of this wisdom when it was time to apply it to myself... Post married life, I have been making all the major decisions in my family without consulting or getting consensus from any of them including my beloved wife. See what it has done for me ? Nothing, I will always come back to square one. Even with my latest venture in business. I am exactly where I started before. Don't you think it is time for me to look at the process that have landed me in this predicament ?

I needed my businessman / investor friend to point it to me that this time around he wanted me to get consensus from each member of my family before setting out this business venture with my daughter and I was taken aback... perhaps this is the answer to the reason why I kept failing ... SubhanAllah, WalhamduliLLAH, Wala ILLAHI ha ILLAHU WauALLAHU AKBAR ... :)

Meeting with my daughter (part 4 of 4)

Assallamualaikum...

Blogging really helps me in several ways

1. It has a calming effect because now I know that my thoughts will be recorded and I will not be stressed out looking for what I want to do when the time comes for whatever I am planning to do materializes. It also give me an assurance that I am planning to succeed because I do not want to be caught in a situation that I have failed to plan...

2. It puts my mind at ease giving me a chance to step back and see the viability of the idea because it is like doing a mind mapping exercise. This had already saved me time when I cancelled my appointment with my property agent friend after assessing my idea thoroughly about collaborating with him  and finding out that it was just too impulsive to act upon. I was spot on because that friend of mine is not looking for any form of  collaboration either.

Let me put this down, I really appreciate if anyone would tell me that they are not interested or cannot give me what I want flatly on my face and as quickly as possible because this saves me time and open the opportunity to others who can deliver the things that I want. Hence I appreciate that he had told me that he is not looking for any collaboration but he just wants to concentrate on his real estate business which I respect and I will definitely come back to him when I want to manage my real estate in the future.. :)

3. By starting this blog with my Islamic greetings ... Assallamualaikum (Peace and health be upon you) reminds me to be careful not to indulge myself from writing inflammatory remarks especially about others and thinking positively so that it will also benefit others if ever this humble blog of mine is being read by others... Inshaa Allah (if Allah wills it)

So my daughter and I continued to discuss the best approach to set up our company. More or less doing an informal business plan. So far we have agreed that

1. I will not be drawing any salary from the company instead the salary should be given to a person that can help my daughter directly in the business such as an Assistant Quantity Surveyor that can do the daily grinds of the work which she can oversee, give guidance and control the timeline. Then this will free her so that she can run the vital operations of the company i.e. getting tender documents, researching, calling for quotations etc... which actually what she likes to do. (Perhaps we can also find someone to get the tender documents as well and I have just the person that I want to employ for this position :)

2. Our first year target is just to be able to get the company off the ground. If this can sustain my daughter's well being just like having a job, realistically speaking we have lifted off...

So this got my mind racing forward about what is the immediate thing for my daughter to do so as we are not just building sand castles in the sky. Hence, I told her to start doing her homework i.e. research on the kind of projects that she can handle. She should know exactly what she is capable of doing from the first nail to the last bolt of the project.

Meeting with my daughter (part 3 of 4)

Assallamualaikum...

When business people says that they are not doing well in their business, that's the clue for you to go into it. I've seen this happen. When people says trust me on this, that's when they want to cheat you. This is just human nature. The objective or motivation for them to say this is to deter the listener from going into business and putting off the idea that you are going to be cheated... that is how slick and slippery the situation in business.

I am writing about this because my daughter's boss keep saying that it is not as rosy as what she thinks about running a general contractor business but he is enjoying every minute of it, showing off his Rolex watch, going to expensive holidays, owning properties all over the island etc... He just do not want any more competition or shutting out anyone who have this idea opening a lucrative business that he is enjoying and wants to continue enjoying for the rest of his life. But enough talk about him which is not my priority when I set up this blog...

The next thing that I asked my daughter that night was, "Are you still interested to set up our business ?" without batting an eyelid, she said, "Yes, of course." A sudden rush of cool relief runs down my whole being. I have prepared for a negative answer but I guess I will not have to use it this time... Alhamdulillah