6. Friends and Foes (3).

Another example was, at one stage, my school was very popular with a particular club in school. Because I was mixing with some of the members, I found out that the members were doing all sort of nasty behaviours. I was shocked, because it involves gambling, alcohol, smoking and free sex. But having the experience of being with them, I coolly hide my disbelief and carry on the conversation as if nothing was unusual.

Because of that information, I managed to prevent myself and other true friends of mine from being dragged into that particular club. Had I not know the inside story, I may have innocently sign up for the club and became the guilty masses. If that did happen, believe me, you would probably be reading a book written from a jail instead.

BULLY.

I befriended with lots of ‘bad students’, but it was from a safe distance. They know my name and I know theirs. We say ‘hey man’ when we saw each other on the walk ways. We give each other ‘high five’ when we stumbled on the corridors (by the way, who does not want to do high five with one of the best students in the school). When other ‘bad students’ saw that I was a friend of another ‘bad students’ they would not dare to disturb me. Least, there could be a gang fight. So it was a kind of protection.

However, when there were major clashes between the rival gangs, I was not there to take any side (their clashes usually happened outside the school yard, during the time when I was heavily into my study books), so I was saved from being a target. At the same time, I excelled in my study and therefore had a close contact with teachers and known to most of the students in school. That is another deterrent from being a target.

This kind of intelligence and counter-intelligence tactics kept me away from being bullied. To the bully, I was an A student but far from being a nerd or a book worm. I was a School Monitor but at the same time was seen talking to the most fearsome trouble makers in the school. Bully? I never heard of it. Respect? Yes I got that a lot.

So, choose who your friends are but at the same time be available to all short of people. You will have the advantages of both worlds without the danger of disciplinary actions. You will then be guaranteed of smooth sailing in your school time.

BOY AND GIRL RELATIONSHIP.

Last but not least, lets talk about Boy and Girl Relationship (BGR) in school. It is hardly called love relationship. It mainly just raging hormone of teenagers wanted to be liked and to like somebody. Not to mention the social pressure of wanting to be the girlfriend of the most prominent boy in school or boyfriend of the hottest girl in school. Liking the most beautiful girl in your class or the most handsome boy in the class is not love. It is infatuation, it is lust, it is hormone, it is pressure, it is media influence and it is everything except love. It is not love, even if they make love in the process!

What good can this BGR bring? Now, that I can look back, I see nothing! Simply because all those who intensely involved in BGR in their high school days are today almost invariably a bunch of ‘not quite reach their full potential’ (a bunch of losers). Of all the close friends of mine who were busily trying to impress the opposite sex, I knew nobody who had reached universities.

However, those who could not care less (some however still naturally had girlfriend/boyfriend) did exceedingly well in their academic pursuits. Of course for me, being among the best students, lots of fans were there. The difference was I did not entertain them (or rather did not have the time to entertain them). So nothing was happening to distract me. Besides I got a goal to pursue. A girl giggling at me at that time could easily be the best impediment toward my success.

I remembered in university when I was talking to my friend about this subject. We both agreed that of all the pretty girls we know since from secondary school, none or extremely few of them managed to reach universities life. Similar stories with the boys. The most prominent boys (not necessarily handsome, usually they become prominent because of their sports accomplishment) ended up somewhere between passing form five and failing to get into a university.

The reason is simple; they were too distracted in school time. The pretty girls were busy responding or avoiding the guys who want to court them. The prominent boys were too busy attracting and exploiting the girls who were falling for them. They ended up getting married early (sometime by force), having kids and had to stop from studying.

So study hard. Forget about courting. You have plenty of time to do that once you have achieved your goal. One of the advice I take heed when I was in Form One, given by the headmaster was ‘do not get busy to attract the opposite sex now, once you succeed, they will come to you!’ Man! That was a prophecy. After I became a doctor, even after I got engaged, some pretty women were still trying their luck. Believe me; successful people always look better than the not so successful people. It does not matter from what angle you look at it.

6. Friends and Foes (2).

Having said that, one has to appreciate that there is a whole world of difference between ‘hanging around’ and just knowing them as detached friends. In real life, you cannot completely put a wall around you and become completely disassociate from all the ‘not so behaved’ group of students. To be wise in life, you need to know their side of story as well. To steer carefully in life, you need to know the life-stories of the ‘bad guys’. Not to emulate them, but to use it as a ‘inside information’. It is like your ‘counter-intelligence’ tactics. You need to know the tactics, the plots, the skills, the secrets from the dark side of society.

This is much like the saying, ‘a great detective would make a superb criminal’. This is because a good detective would know how the criminal thinks and acts. Such ability would enable the detective to anticipate the villain moves and therefore making the eventual arrest. Unfortunately, the best villains are also often the ones with police, detective or law enforcement background. This is simply because, having the knowledge of how law enforcers work, they know how to avoid captures. The point is, you need to know the other side of story if you want to be smart in life.

Life in a student community is by no means difference. You take your side, which group of students you are in and stand by it (hopefully the good kind of people). But do not shun the crook students. Befriend with them from a safe distance. I know this is easier said than done. But I have done it and so do many other smart students. That is why (you are probably wondering) there are some smart guys (who are well disciplined, doing well in study, dressed well, short haircut, does not smoke or drink) but pretty much very well accepted by the gangsters in schools.

While these smart students benefited from the good side of the community, they are also giving ‘high five’ and ‘hey man’ to the underworld students. I am sure you have seen these students. I was one of them. You do this far from being a hypocrite. You are just playing the game, and you play it well. Again, you got to know the stories. They provide you with tremendous leverage in your skills to face everyday problems at school. Life after school is not much different, so you may as well learn it now!

Let me give you an example. In Form Four, I was a monitor in school. Naturally after performing well in my form 3, I was appointed. While I was doing my duty as monitor, I also openly mix with all the troubled students. I joked with them, I played game with them, I shared stories and knowledge with them. I knew that they smoke, they drink and they play truants. But they have never done them openly in front of me. Out of respect as a friend and monitor, they did not want to do it while I was around.

They realized that, despite me knowing what they were doing, I still befriended them and not foolishly reporting them to the higher authority. I did not have concrete evidence to report and they were not about to sacrifice the friendship by defiantly doing it in front me. Beside, they benefited from being a friend of a monitor, less suspicion. And I did teach them some Mathematics and other wisdom in studying. The situation stayed that way. They were happy and I was happy. Other crooks saw me befriended the other group of crooks, so they dare not touch me. No bully! (to be continued ... )

6. Friends and Foes (1).

As students, we cannot run away from having friends. In fact, all those students who were with us for almost two decades of studying (right from Standard One to university life) are our friends, whether we like it or not. We will compare our life to them. We will definitely measure our success against theirs.

They will inevitably put a major influence on our life.

Who we are in the future will be determined by who we hang around with now.

Who are your friends now? If your friends are a bunch of failure, looser, mal-behaved then you will become like one of them soon or later. If your friends are great achiever, top scorer and well disciplined, you too will become like them in the future.

You will inevitably change your attitude and behavior as time goes. Attitude and behavior are learned and influenced traits. They can be mold to bad or good ones. The choice is yours, you decide who or what you are going to be.

Ask yourself now, what do you want to be in 10 years time, then find people who resemble the future-you, hang around with them and stick with them. Even if you are occasionally with them, they will put a tremendous effect on your up-bringing. Furthermore, if you put an extra effort to emulate them or model after them, you will become like them in their success.

I hope none of you out there have the mental retardation of trying to model a student or a figure who is failing all time whether in study or in general life.

Anthony Robbins, probably the world most popular self improvement guru stress the importance of modeling after successful person in order to be a champion. I highly recommend anybody who is hungry for success to read his books ‘Unlimited Power’ and ‘Awaken the Giant Within’.

Of course modeling somebody can also be true the other way round. If you hang around with the crook, smoker, drinker, the lazy, the gangster, the bully, whether you like it or not, you will become the sum of all of them, A FAILURE!

To this day, I could see myself as bits and pieces of all the great friends I have mix with. I have also admired and modeled some successful man and woman along the way. I could see their influences in me too. In truth, I am the way I am now because I have been positively influenced by all the great people I have mixed with. Life would not be the same had I choose the wrong friends.

It is not too late for you. Choose your friends now. While you cannot do anything about choosing your parents, you could mould your future just by selecting the right friends now. These friends need not to be your classmate, schoolmate or anybody around your age. They can be much older than you, they can be you teacher, your lecturer, your mentor or even your most successful businessman or politician in town.

The choice is yours, which of these groups do you think has a higher chance to survive and to succeed in both education and life in general. The answer is obvious. Where are you now? Who are you mingling with? Which groups are you belong to? Could you answer that honestly? Because that what you are years from now.

Do you want to succeed badly? – Then be in the winning group! (to be continued ... )

5. No Money? No Problem! (3).

When I do not have money, of course I felt depressed too. While depression turns other people to become a lazy snob, it turns me into a roaring lion. A lion ready to prowl to win. As a result, I studied even harder!

At the same time, I took every opportunity to earn and save money. During my school holidays in my secondary school, I helped my uncle to sell vegetables in return for some money. As success in my study becoming more prominent in my kampong, I was having more people ready to help with job opportunities and even ‘donated’ some money.

As my performance got better, money followed even easier. In matriculation, scholarship was offered without difficulties. Even at this level, success in study equates to getting financial incentives. However, many students failed to see this. To them, they need money first to succeed. In truth, success would have to come first and then money will follow later. That is what exactly happening in real working life too!

After successfully completing my matriculation, I was offered to continue studying in Australia. Again, scholarship was given for my success. However, as with many other scholarships, they were not enough. I was made to understand that I supposed to share house and food with several students for the scholarship to suffice.

However, I found that I am more productive if I am living alone. So I rented a room in an apartment-hostel in my university. By living alone, money was tight. There were times when I have less than AUD20 in my account (minimum balance was AUD 10). But I could always find extra money, I applied for student loan twice during my whole time studying there and I applied for financial assistant from Australian Government. I received that assistance for several months before they themselves had economic recession and thus ceased my financial help.

The sweetest things of all, I could work there. I did not have money to go back to Malaysia, so I worked in summer holidays. I did not mind not going back to Malaysia during term holidays. After all, the last thing I want on earth is to spend thousands of ringgit just to ease my homesickness.

I worked in Hills Factory in my first year summer holiday in Adelaide. I was earning AUD 11.00 per hour and I was working 8 hours per day for 5 days a week. By the time the summer holiday finished, I earned almost AUD 3000. That was the first time I earned money of that amount. I treasured it well. I used some of it for sight seeing, because the chances for me to do sight seeing after finish studying in Australia probably going to be in very remote future. The rest of the money I used to ease my financial woes throughout the next one year.

In Year Two and Three, I worked part time at night in a Thai Restaurant in Adelaide. I worked 3 nights a week. It was enough to ease my financial burden. The money I have collected was enough to send me home at the end of my second year.

Do you want to know what I did in the restaurant? I was a dish-washer. Yes I was a future doctor cum dish washer. Of course the fancy name for it is kitchen-hand. A job description of which involved mopping the floor, washing dishes, in charge of cutlery, cutting and preparing vegetables and meat as well as preparing some entrée. I definitely had no problem doing the job; my friends knew what I was doing. Some of them admire my ability to juggle times between work and study. I apparently did quite well in both fields.

The money problem hit me the worst in my fifth and sixth year. I could not work anymore due to the hectic and unpredictable schedule of my study. At that time, I can only say that miracles did help me in various ways. Some people did actually give me some money. My parents somehow blessed me with extra money. I wish to thank especially to my late mother who was somehow unrelenting in seeking and providing financial help for me. Somehow it astonished me, how did she as a housewife seems to be able to provide more than anybody else could (even more than my father who was a teacher could).

It was during this time when I was also studying another course (Certificate in Christian Studies) from another private college (Tabor Bible College). All the expenses somehow miraculously provided from various resources. People sometimes just stare at me in those times when I told them that I am studying medicine and studying in Bible College at the same time, and on top of that, working part time in a restaurant.

The whole work load and effort seems to be overwhelming to them. But I had the goal, and it was strong enough to compel me to succeed. At the end of my sixth year in Australia, not only I finished my medical course and became a doctor, I also successfully completed my three years course of Bible College. They were completed as per schedule, no extension and no delay.

You think having no money is the problem, I do not think so. It is the reaction toward lack of money is the real problem. Money is fortunately just a renewable source to pay for the price of education.

Just like everything else in life, there is always a price to pay for everything. If you stop pursuing your education, if you stop studying, you are actually paying a very high price indeed. You are paying it with years of ignorance and failure.

Robert Kiyosaki in his book says ‘if you think education is expensive, try ignorance’.

5. No Money? No Problem! (2).

I remembered well of my fondness in watching paid videos in my secondary school (Form Four and Five). We did not have any in my kampong. Each time the library screened a video movie, they would charge an entrance fee of RM1. What saddened me most, often I could not even afford that. That simply means, most of the time I had less than RM1 in my pocket. Or should I say, most of the time I had none in my pocket.

This was when I was in Form Four and Five. Some of my classmates then were driving a car or on a motorbike to school. I lived literally by faith. Luckily the hostel kitchen provided food for free. If I missed the meal (overslept or caught with extra co-curriculum activities), that would be a fasting time for me. You should see my picture in Form Four and Five, anybody can tell that I did not have enough food to eat.

Another occasion I remember well was one day when I went for my dinner in the dining hall in my Form Five. After receiving some steam rice, sambal bilis (anchovies paste) and terung rebus (boiled brinjal), I walk toward the dining table. That was when I slipped and my sambal and terung flew away out of my tray, leaving only my white plain rice. I kept my cool as always, cleaned my mess and told my friend that I am going to buy a canned sardine from the nearby grocery store and that I would eat in my room. The long queue of other students lining for their food did not allow me to ask for another supply of food. So I went quietly to my room, the only problem was I did not have any money. So dinner for me on that day was plain steam rice mixed with plain water. That was probably among the saddest moment of my life. I ate the food quickly, making sure nobody saw me, and continue life as usual.

When I was in Australia, there were times when I had to stop buying groceries because I have no money. There were times when I refused to go out with friends with the excuse of not feeling very well or busy. The fact was, I was afraid that they may stop over for some fast food and behold, I have no money with me. There was even one time when I was wondering in Marion Shopping Centre near my university, looking for another 5 cents to top up my money so I can pay the telephone bill. When I found 10 cents later, I thought I was blessed beyond description.

Many more sad stories I could tell, some are too embarrassing to tell. They probably will remain hidden with me for the rest of my life. I should mention as well that I have known many more even sad stories from friends who had to endure financial difficulties in their student times and yet manage to go through school time and finally succeed in life.

That entire problem with money did not deter me from studying. If anything it spurred me even more to study, with the hope that someday, none of this would be happening to me again. I am working extra hard now to ensure that none of these would ever occur to my children.

Money was never the problem; it was the reaction toward having no money is the problem.

Most people as a student would be depressed to study, when they have no financial ‘incentive’. Consequently they failed their exams, and they did not feel sad or guilty about failing because they have the perfect excuses for it – they did not have money!

In other words, to them their failures were not their fault. They were somebody else fault – their parents’ fault. In fact some of friends I knew during school days would proudly say that they did not do well in their study because they did not have money. It seems they were happy not having money, because if they do, than they have to look for another excuses for their failure.

The worst thing is; the community often validates their excuses too. These students forgot that it is THEIR life that they are making excuses from success. It is not the life of their parents or the life of the community that they are lying about. The only thing they have succeeded to lie to, is lying to themselves. What a pity!

Whenever I don’t have money, of course I fell depressed too (to be continued) ...

5. No Money? No Problem! (1).

‘He was a bright student, but he could not proceed studying because lack of money’.

That is probably the most frequent story I have heard now as an adult. This usually refers to a person who was considered as a bright student but somehow now as an adult leading a not so successful life for various reasons. The reasons are not necessarily financial, but often made to believe so.

When I was in school, the story was something like, ‘even if you are smart is your study, if you parents cannot provide money, you will not be able to success in your study’.

Well, I tend to agree to this when I was in primary and secondary school. Now, as I look back, I could not agree with it anymore. I have seen many cases where not only their parents were unable to provide financial support, but actually against the idea of them continuing to study, and yet now they are successful academically.

In fact yours truly were not from the financially well family too. I am the living evidence to nullify the theory above. My father was a primary school teacher with a regular salary; however I can honestly say that some of the so called farmers in my kampong were well off financially than us. I think we were having some serious financial management problems in those days.

I remember in primary school, my pocket money to school was only 20 cents. Of course other student did not have any, but there were lots more who have more than mine. My cousin was given 50 cents, some friends I know brings RM1 to school. That must be luxury back in 1980’s.

Of course with those 20 cents I have, I could only buy two pieces of pisang goreng (fried banana fritters) or one pack of fried noodle. Lucky for us, we were given pack of milk (by government) in most of the school days. Other than that, packing food from home was a norm.

When I was staying in a secondary school hostel, pocket money was given to me only once in several months. The pocket money was usually no more than RM20 for 2 to 3 months. I remember one occasion in Form Four, when I was unable to buy a work book which cost slightly more than RM10. It happened when the last time I received pocket money was several months ago.

While everyone else bought the book almost instantly (even the idea that they constantly have more than RM10 in their wallet at anytime was tantalizing to me at that time), I had to lie to my teacher. I told him that I had to go to the bank and get some money and only be able to buy the book next day. (I mean, how many of you guys really have to go to bank just to get RM10. In those days, ATM card was rarity among student).

The fact was, in that afternoon after finished school, I went back to my kampong. I left the hostel without permission, borrowed a bus fare from a friend and walk for 2 miles to get to my house. (The last part of the journey’s vehicle has left by the time I got there). Of course I managed to get the money from my parents, but not without difficulties and some tears. Money was a constant issue.

4. Education - The Easiest Way Toward Success (2).

Let gets real here. The people who succeed through the above methods are very few. They are exception rather than the typical. However, look around you; the chances are you will find many people who have changed their status through education.

They could have been born in a farming family, and now working as teachers. Your teacher could be one of them. Why don’t you asks your teacher, see what kind of family he was born into?

Like me, I was born in semi farming-teaching family and now I am in medical profession. My other doctor colleagues, more than half of them were born into a poor family. In fact 3 of my closest friend doctors are born into farmer families. Sometime I myself wonder how they could survive the medical school. As tough as my situation I thought, theirs were even more difficult.

One of them did not even receive financial support from their family to study medicine. And yet now he is a doctor, living a relatively comfortable lifestyle. If that is not what you call success, then I do not know what is.

The conclusion is clear. It is far easier to achieve success through education than any other ways. For you students, this may be your only chance to success. If you even thinking of spoiling it, that is a madness beyond description.

4. Education - The Easiest Way Toward Success (1).

Let define success first. Most people think success as having a prestigious and well paid job. In other words, to be successful means to attain higher level of education so that you can hold a well paid job and consequently earn huge amount of money.

Different people have different opinion of success. I do not want to beat around the bushes, all the definitions of success I have read and known, points to single common denominator – to have lots of money for easy living.

There are lots of ways to make money. Education is one of them. To study is actually to invest time and money toward the purpose of making even more money later on. This is no difference from investing in shares, stock markets or unit trusts. The only difference is the value of investment in education will never drop or crash. The value will be either static or going up. Once you hold an SPM qualification, you will not be downgraded to PMR later on. Once you get your Degree, it would not depreciate to Diploma later in life.

EDUCATION IS THE EASIEST WAY TOWARD SUCCESS.

Why? Let me explain.

In Malaysia, the opportunity for education is open wide. In fact you will be lawfully punished if you do not send your children to school at least to Primary School. The laws actually guarantee that you will be able to at least read and count. This is a luxury not available in many parts of the world.

I came from a poor family. My dad was a teacher, but we struggled each day juggling our financial needs. We lived in a bamboo house for the most part of my childhood. In Form Two and Tree, we were still living in a wooden house with room only partly divided between all my siblings and my parents. Our floor is basically the ground itself. I regretted very much for not taking the picture of the house which holds so much memory (then again, camera was such a luxury in those times). With the photo, I could at least see how much we as a family have progressed since then.

We were poor. How could I change the status from poor to middle class then to upper class and then rich? I could work hard and earn money. That is possible. Many people have done that. I personally know one or two who have started almost with nothing in their twenties and later became millionaires in their eighties. (May I add that both of them were immigrants).You may know examples of such stories as well. However, there are a lot more stories we did not hear of people who works just as hard (if not harder) and yet still toiling daily just to survive. Obviously this method is not for everybody.

I could nurture talents like acting, singing, playing sports etc and make money by becoming a celebrity. Stories exemplifying this are also abound. Even some of our local celebrities started very poor. However, not everybody has talents (I am definitely not one of them), and even if they do, without proper guidance and support, not to mention the opportunity, they will not succeed. Again this method only reserved for a very few special people.

May be I could hit a Lottery or Jackpot and become instant millionaire. I haven’t known anybody with such luck. They usually win, but they spend the money even before they got it.

I could joint politics and become rich in ways that nobody supposed to talk about.

I could mysteriously inherit fortune from distant relative.

I could marry a rich girl and inherit her money.

Well, all that I am sure has happened somewhere, sometime in the past. But, come on and admit it, do you really think this method is easily available to most of us. I personally do not think so.

Let gets real here. The people who succeed through the above methods are very few. They are exception rather than the typical. However, look around you; the chances are you will find many people who have changed their status through education (to be continued) ...

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (9).

Study smart simply means studying in the most efficient and effective way for you. For me, these are my way of studying smart:

1. Take personal notes.
2. The superiority of understanding over memorizing.
3. Finishing your assignments early.
4. Love your exams.
5. Manage your time.
6. Keep a Healthy Body

6. Keep a Healthy Body.

Any fools know the fact that for anybody wanting to perform in a maximum capacity, one needs a healthy body. It is no difference in studying. To be able to study at the most productive rate, our body must be at its peak of health. Our performance will be greatly compromised by any weakness or sickness or poisons.

Avoid drinking coffee just to keep awake. You may be awake, but your concentration goes down and your ability to retain information will be diminished. Your ability to extract it later will be also reduced. In other words, your memory will be adversely affected by caffeine. If your studies involve reasoning, logic calculation and creativity, the caffeine will also slow you down. Sure you will be awake, but you will not be as attentive as you should be.

If you are sleepy, by all means go to sleep. Just make sure you sleep at least 8 hours per day. More than 10 hours per day is plain lazy (may be early warning of a sickness). Less than 6 hours of sleep is not conducive for your health.

At the height of my study, I usually cease everything except studying, eating, sleeping and the toilet business. No more social, no more TV, no shopping etc. I still sleep average of 8 hours per day. And study almost the rest of the day. My sleeping time was not necessarily from 11.00 pm to 7.00 am. I slept whenever I feel sleepy. Sometimes I was wide awake at 3.00 am and I continued to study, and may be sleepy at 8.00 am and I go to sleep.

My 8 hours sleep is not necessarily continuous; I could probably sleep for 3 hours each time for 2 to 3 sessions. Of course continuous sleep is more satisfying. However, in the height of studying, I did not force myself to sleep continuously for 8 hours if I could wake up 4 hours later and be refreshed.

The harder I study, the more I need my sleep. Sleeping is very rejuvenating. It keeps your brain creative.

I do not smoke and I do not drink alcohol. Smoking and drinking are well known ways of poisoning your brain (the most important information storage and processor unit in your body). If you are smoking and drinking, you are already at the losing side compare to your counterparts who do not (if everything else being equal). Even if it does not feel like you are losing, you are definitely could have done much better without them. In other words, smoking and drinking alcohol mask the true potential in you!

When you are not so busy with exams and assignments, do not forget to exercise and have fun. As much as you can, eat freshly prepared food. Avoid having canned food or canned drinks. Avoid processed and junk food (yes that include instant noodles)

All these are the major keys in keeping your body at peak level. When you are on top of your health, your performance will be on top of your potential scale too.

In summary, study hard and study smart is the only way to succeed. No short cut. What else is there to do, if you want to achieve your goal?

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (8).

Study smart simply means studying in the most efficient and effective way for you. For me, these are my way of studying smart:

1. Take personal notes.
2. The superiority of understanding over memorizing.
3. Finishing your assignments early.
4. Love your exams.
5. Manage your time.
6. Keep a Healthy Body

5. Manage your time.

This cannot be overemphasized. Every student who wants to succeed definitely has to manage their time wisely. Nobody will win by playing haphazardly. Time is your best friend, only if you control it. Time will give you a great leverage, only if you master over it. Anyone who does not manage their time will be a slave to it. Unfortunately time is a fierce master, because it knows nothing about ‘slow down’ or ‘wait’.

KEEP A SCHEDULE / TIME TABLE OF WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.

Do this for a yearly and monthly basis. I myself did not see the importance of keeping a schedule until I was in matriculations. Initially I drew a weekly time table during my matriculation for an entirely different reason. I could not wait to go home to my hometown in Sabah! Therefore, by looking at my time table I could tell exactly how long still to go before I could go home. Then, as I was marking the empty column as each week passed, I was starting to note where the major tests were in the calendar. And then for the first time, I could see how long exactly before the exams. My time table started to give me a sense of time.

Then I divided each week-column into seven days, thus making my time table into daily affair. I put this under the transparent plastic covering of my table. At first, my friend sitting next to me frequently referred to my drawing to get his own sense of time. Later on, all my nearby friends started referring to it. By the end of second term almost everybody have their own version of time table.

As I advanced to university life, my schedule become more elaborate with the entire important events (academic and social) marked on it with all set of colours and captions. I don’t keep an organizer; it is difficult for me to see in-between pages. I have big calendar a size of typical manila card covering my wall. I just have to look at it once – and I know where I am in my university time scale.

PLANNING AND NEGOTIATING WITH TIME.

The schedule not only tells me the sense of time, but it also tells me to negotiate with time. I like to use the word ‘negotiate’ as compared to ‘plan’. To me, plan means you put things what you want to do at certain time and avoid putting things at other time. Unfortunately, things do not easily go that way. Sometimes you do not have the complete freedom of putting things in where they are supposed to be.

For example, my test may be at the morning after my friend big birthday party. None of those items could be changed. So instead of crying and making sad excuses for not attending the party, I could negotiate with my time. That is, if I want to attend the party, I have to prepare two nights before and leave the night before the exam free for the party. If the 3 nights preceding the exams are unavailable due to other reason, then I have to prepare even earlier.

While planning is done at the commencement of months or semester, negotiating time can always be done at the relatively late stage.

Planning somehow denotes rigidity and some sense of strictness. Negotiating time, on the other hand offers some flexibility. Still, whether it is planning or negotiating, the key is keep your schedule in one page in an accessible place.

6. Keep a Healthy Body (to be continued ...)

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (7).

Study smart simply means studying in the most efficient and effective way for you. For me, these are my way of studying smart:

1. Take personal notes.
2. The superiority of understanding over memorizing.
3. Finishing your assignments early.
4. Love your exams.
5. Manage your time.
6. Keep a Healthy Body

4. Love your exams.

I always look forward for examination days. Well, not so much for the exams, but for the day when the result is announced. I love it when the result of the exam is out, because it tells me right away where I am in the race.

I remember when I started Matriculation in Taiping Perak Malaysia. I was surrounded by different lots of people. My classmates were among the best performers in their previous schools. We were all gathered in one place to fight to be the best among the best. Slowly I got to know everybody’s SPM result, and mine was among the lowest in the class. But that did not deter me. All I was waiting for was the right time to show my true colors. That opportunity, I thought can only can be achieved by performing well in the coming exam. So I was extremely eager to wait for the coming first term exam.

In the first month of the term, I was already mapping out my schedule and start studying for the exam. I found out that the best student among us was in my class (the whole matriculation was divided into four classes). So I befriended him and started studying and learning from and with him. When the first term exams arrived, I was prepared. When the results were announced, I was not the best student, but I was definitely among the best. Other students opened their eyes to me. They started to notice me. That was exactly what I love about exams. It can put you where you are really belongs.

When I was in a medical school in Australia, once again I was in different lots of students, coming from different part of the world. Again, I became a stranger in a strange land, a nobody! Everything was much harder. I was again studying hard and eagerly waited for the first semester exam. This time it was not so much to make myself known to my colleagues (after maturing enough, somehow this was not as important as before). I needed to tell myself where I was in this race. I was now in the same battlefield with the Aussies whose language was not a problem for them. We were all nervous and many of my course mates simply aiming for just passing the exams. After the first semester exams result was announced, I certainly did better than just passing the exams. This has boosted my confidence and self esteem to the sky. Here I was, a kampong’s boy who was just 6 months ago could barely talk in English and now showing a pretty tough fight in this medical school.

That was the power of ‘loving your exams’ showing its advantage in my gamble in school.

That is why I always look forward for exams. When you are always waiting for exams, you will inevitably always prepare. When you are prepared, the exams are easy and results are sweet, and thus the cycle goes on. This is a positive feedback.

Of course the reverse is true as well. When you are terrified of exams, you will hate exams and therefore you wish it will never come. You will pretend that exams are still long way away. Consequently, you will never be fully prepared. This will give you a terrible blow when the results are finally announced. The blow will further strengthened you dislike toward exams, and the cycle goes on.

Love your exams and you will love the results more.

5. Manage your time (to be continued ... )

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (6).

Study smart simply means studying in the most efficient and effective way for you. For me, these are my way of studying smart:

1. Take personal notes.
2. The superiority of understanding over memorizing.
3. Finishing your assignments early.
4. Love your exams.
5. Manage your time.
6. Keep a Healthy Body.



3. Finishing your assignment early

This is paramount important, especially when the year end grade includes a certain percentage of your assignment marks. In fact some courses in high colleges and universities request assignments only and no exams at all.

The very reason for assignment to be given is for students to study early and constantly throughout the semester, instead of cramming everything in the last few weeks before exams.

There is nothing tricky about it. The earlier you finish your assignments, the better you are in managing time and therefore preparing for your final exams. Not only that, while in the course of working on your assignments, often you will gain better understanding of the subject the assignments are under. In this way, assignments help you in grasping faster the whole picture of the subject you are learning, thus making attending lectures and doing revision easier.

I whole heartedly believe that the ability to properly finish assignments early indicates ones ability to manage time wisely. This can be extrapolated by saying those who constantly finish assignments early will do better in their working lives. (After all, working life is full of assignments, projects and dead lines)

This is how I did my assignments.

I usually started looking for the reference materials the same day I received the assignments. I was fully aware of the fact that if I delayed looking for it, the materials will all be borrowed out or misplaced or somehow unavailable later on. Understandably, the materials will start disappearing when the closing date of the assignment is near. Therefore, by getting all the resources early, I was at an advantage start. I photocopied all the relevant materials and borrowed all the materials which can be put on loan. I always collect all the materials first; I may start doing the assignment one or two weeks later. I usually allocate one whole day just for reading and sorting out all the reference materials. Another whole day for putting ideas together (writing them straight on to computer is preferable). After that, all I have to do is re visit the ‘ideas’ once in a while, making necessary adjustments and wha lah… my assignment is pretty much finished.


I always finished my assignment one month before the due date, even though I may tell my friends that I have not yet finished (this is simply because I believe I still can improve on them, essentially, it is not yet finished until I handed it over). I use that one month to do final touch up. They are usually done after collecting tips, secrets ingredients and doing some checking from friends and lecturers. One thing for sure, I have never run out of resources and have never late in handing over my assignment. I have definitely never asked for extension, even when there were 3 assignments due at the same time.

In summary:

a. Collect all reference material at the same day you got the assignment
b. Finished the assignment at least 4 weeks before the due date.
c. Use the last 4 weeks for final touch up based on tips form friends and lectures.

4. Love your exams. (to be continued ... )

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (5).

Study smart simply means studying in the most efficient and effective way for you. For me, these are my way of studying smart:

1. Take personal notes.
2. The superiority of understanding over memorizing.
3. Finishing your assignments early.
4. Love your exams.
5. Manage your time.
6. Keep a Healthy Body.


2. The superiority of understanding over memorizing.

Do not merely memorize facts, try to understand it. If you just memorize it, there is no guarantee that you will understand it. However, if you understand it, there is a good chance that you can retain it in your memory. Of course understanding and memorizing at the same time will be even greater. However, if you have to choose one, understand first, and the memorizing part will come easy. That is what I meant by the superiority of understanding over memorizing.

Unfortunately for many students, they spend most of their times in memorizing facts and numbers. Sometimes this is done with elaborate methods and complex associations. I sometime wonder, if they can apply such complex ways of memorizing, why don’t they just apply the principles in understanding the facts instead. My memory is pretty good, I noticed it and so too other people. But I do not claim that I have a photographic memory. However, I do not want to rely on memory alone, I still try to understand every concepts and facts. Once I understood it, I find that I do not have to memorize it anymore. It just stuck there and easily retrieved once the keywords are punched. May be it is because of my ability to understand better which enables me to memorize better. I believe so!

Let me give you an example. What is the formula for velocity (V)? When I was first introduced to this formula in Form One or Two, I tried hard to memorize it. Velocity is equal to Distance (D) divided by Time (T) or V= D/T. In fact, I even created a triangle to simplify the formula in my personal notes. It looks like this;

With that pictogram, I thought it would help me to easily remember all the relevant formulas for velocity, time and distance. Unfortunately, sometimes when I redrew the diagram in an effort to retrieve the memory, I got confuse as to where are the D, T and V supposed to be. As you can see, if I misplace the D at the bottom instead of at the top, I will get a wrong formula. Soon it became apparent that memorizing the pictogram was very tedious. Not to mention, there are many more pictograms like this I have invented to simplify my methods of memorizing. I could easily confused one pictogram over the other.

Then I put a bit of effort in asking question like, why does Velocity (V) equal to Distance (D) divided by Time (T). Then I started to imagine a car racing from Apin-Apin to Keningau (60 km), and I can imagine the car will arrive in 10 minutes (1/6 hours), while bicycle takes 2 hours to get there. Knowing that the car is speedier (high velocity) than a bicycle, I tried to make sense the reason behind it. Suddenly it hit me like a revelation that a speed (velocity) is just a measure of how far (distance) you have covered in certain period (time). Eureka! That sentence summed up the whole thing. That understanding makes the pictogram above absolutely redundant. Needless to mention, I did not need to memorize the pictogram anymore. (You may need to read the above paragraph more than once to grasp what I meant).

Of course some facts need to be remembered or memorized with no understanding necessary. But these are exception, and very few of them. Examples are some names, places and dates. Formula is definitely not to be memorized, they are not only can be understood, they also can be derived if you know (not memorize) the principles behind them. For these facts that need to be memorized, I usually developed a simple way of association. There are various ways of strengthening our memory with association, and many books are written about it. I shall not divulge it further here, except to say that try to understand as much as you can. If it is an absolute fact and there is nothing there you need to understand then go ahead memorize it.

3. Finishing your assigments early (to be continued ... )

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (4).

Study smart simply means studying in the most efficient and effective way for you. For me, these are my way of studying smart:

1. Take personal notes.
2. The superiority of understanding over memorizing.
3. Finishing your assignments early.
4. Love your exams.
5. Manage your time.
6. Keep a Healthy Body.

1. Take personal notes.

I started to take personal notes when I was in Form Two. Did I hear you say 'but I started taking notes as soon as I learn how to write' I know, I know…. We are all used to take note (copying) from whatever the teachers write on the blackboard. That is not what I meant by taking personal notes.

Personal notes is what you write down from your own understanding of the topics presented by the teacher using your own phrases. Obviously, for you to do that, you have to understand the topic as fast as it is presented before you. This is why this method is very difficult but yet effective. Because you are taking personal notes, and you are to make you own words after understanding the concepts, you are somehow conditioned to be more attentive and more actively using your senses while listening and looking at your teacher.

Often when your personal notes are empty for a whole session, you know you did not understand a single idea of what was being presented. Other than that, this personal note is also a collection of tips, shorthand, mnemonics, unconventional formulas etc. In short, your personal notes are everything that is not available elsewhere in your textbooks or standard reference books. After a while you will see that making personal notes are not only handy but also an absolute necessary.

Initially I copied mine on a piece of paper. Soon I discovered very often that valuable piece of paper is always missing when I needed them the most. Then I started copying them in the ‘555’ notebook. As I got more enthusiastic in copying down personal note, a single 555 notebook gets filled up very quickly. Finally I bought an inch thick of hardcover notebook slightly larger than pocket size. It lasted me the whole year. In Form Three, I had to have two notebooks, one for Mathematics and one for everything else.

I first saw the benefit of doing this when I began to constantly referring to my personal notes and started to show my superiority in remembering things. The other students soon started copying what I have written down. Almost overnight it became a very precious item for me. In fact I guarded it fiercely because the possibility of it getting stolen was high. Some students actually offered to buy it from me; luckily the price was not very enticing.

Needless to mention, the notes gave me an edge in every test and exam. So much so other students also started to take their own personal notes. Of course some of them cannot differentiate personal notes and the verbatim notes (word to word copied from the teacher), thus rendering their ‘personal notes’ ineffective.

This habit of taking personal notes continued all the way to my university life. Again, I must stress, this is not a lecture notes which you copy from the board or any other form of presentation. This is your very own handwriting, words, phrases and understanding of the subjects. They are not available anywhere else. They are collection of tips, secrets, examples, parables, key points, mnemonics, shorthand etc. They are you top secret documents for success!

Write your very own personal notes. Keep it!

2. The superiority of understanding over memorizing.

(to be continued ... )

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (3).

I am sure you have heard of study group. This method has been proclaimed as the most productive and beneficial for studying. Let me give you a bit of shock. I found it the most inefficient, ineffective and unproductive way of studying. Complete waste of time. But hey, that is just me. May be this method is suitable for you. Let me share with you my experience. I have tried studying in group in Medical School. Our group consisted of all the Malaysians studying in my class. This was to ensure no language or cultural barriers in our discussion.

When we met, everybody was supposed to share on what they have learned from a particular subject. Then each person was given a task to study a topic. When the members meet again, we supposed to share what we have learned, hoping that one did not have to go back and read what the other guys have researched.

However, because of the nature of our study (medicines), we were very critical and thorough in every topic. This made us wanting to know more and often not trusting the person who presented the topic. Everyone thought that there could be more to learn. On top of that, everyone was hoping that everyone else has done a better job than himself and waiting to be corrected or filled up with a better way of understanding. This resulted in everyone start flipping the books and looking for facts to support their statements. Soon the meeting was very quiet with everyone fixing their eyes on the books and occasionally making a remark. Before long we were essentially studying on our own while sitting in a group. At the end of the meeting, often there was more confusion. Slowly each member started to learn on their own, and only start discussing for very critical topics. In the end, everybody agreed, studying on our own was more productive. The discussion, we left it during our outing in a beach, coffee shops and movies.

Once again, study group was not for me. However, it doesn’t mean it could not be yours. You just have to find the right way of studying, for you.

STUDY SMART - REVISION

When I did my revision, I always do it in at least 3 cycles. The first cycle would be reading and accessing the material at one goes. I tried to absorb as much as I can, getting the whole picture. If there were something I could not understand, I simply skipped and proceeded. I would do this for every subject. Depending on the study load and the length of time available for revision, first cycle usually last about 3-4 days. Then I would start the second cycle. In this cycle, I would skip the topics which I have already understood before starting the first cycle, re emphasis that topics I have just understood in first cycle and trying to understand the topics I have skipped in first cycles. This usually takes 2-3 days. The third cycle would be just going through the topics which I have just managed to grasp in second cycle and some of the most difficult topics which seemed I could never understand. At this stage also I would decide which topic I should get help from friends or tutors. Third cycle is usually very fast. No longer than a whole day worth of work.

The whole three cycles takes at least a week and should not be more than 10 days. Revision longer than 10 days is not a revision anymore, but just an ordinary study. (Revision by definition is the study you are doing in the last week before exam and strictly studying AGAIN on what you have studied before).

NO SHORTCUT AND NO CHEATING!

There is no short cut; you have to work hard to succeed. Even if there is a short cut (cheating or leaked questions etc), the success you will get is only a superficial and temporary. If you cheat, you may score all As in you exams, but still do not fully grasp the important issues and thus make you life more difficult in the next stage. This will prompt you to even more involved in cheating you way to ‘passing’ the exams.

For example, you may do not understand what F=Ma is, and instead of trying to understand it, during the exams, you happened to be so lucky and managed to copy the whole solution from your much brighter friend sitting next to you. Sure you will pass, but the next stage (you are now in matriculation, after passing Form Five from cheating), you will find that not only you have not understood F=Ma, but now you have to understand various other formulas which needed you to grasp the basic F=Ma first! Here you will find yourself suddenly in hell!

The same case applies in university life, example are abounds where students work hard to cheat all his way throughout the university life. After ‘graduation’, he suddenly finds himself very difficult to secure a job due to failed interviews. Even if he is accepted in a particular job, the chances are, he will be having a hard time working in a place where he is only ‘paper-qualified’ but not ‘brain-qualified’. These cheaters will endlessly cheat in trying to secure jobs, in trying to secure promotions and ranks and ultimately in handling financial matters. Soon time will catch up with them, and they will find themselves breaking the laws.

As you can see, the shortcut to success will eventually brings you to no success at all, but possibly humiliation and jail.

STUDY SMART!

Study smart simply means studying in the most efficient and effective way, for you. For me, these are my way of studying smart: (to be continued ... )

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (2).

In preparation for SPM, I often study until 3.00 to 4.00 o’clock in the morning. I went to bed around 4.00 am and then woke up at 6.00 am for morning class. By 1.00 pm, school usually finished and then I would sleep the whole afternoon, against the rule of the hostel. I would wake up just in time for bath and dinner before attending study night session at 7.00 pm until 10.00 pm. However my most productive study would be around 10.00 pm to 4.00 am in the morning. That is because only few of us left studying at that time, and thus the environment is more conducive. Of course it was against the rules, but after seeing the results in us, the warden seems happy for us to continue studying at those odd times. He understood that 90 percent of those attending the allocated time to study were really there just because they were asked to be there, and not for studying. Consequently, they were doing all sorts of very disturbing noises in the study rooms. Not to mention their efforts in impressing the opposite sex. Sometimes while studying in the early morning, we encounter all sorts of ghostly experiences. Only a few of us could pay the price to study with ghost, in order not to live like ghost in the future. After all, what else could I do, I have a goal to achieve!

Just for a side story. Some of my male colleagues try to emulate the few hard workers like us. They often stayed and slept (not studying) in the study rooms until early morning 6.00 am (leaving the impression that they have been studying the whole night long) and then staggered to their hostel, passing the female hostel. They would be hoping that the girls would notice them as hard workers and be impressed. In fact one particular guy who happened to be my roommate, often set his clock to wake up at 5.00 am, exactly when I usually about to fall asleep. He would then bring his blanket wrapped around his body and grabbed a few books and quickly walked to the study room. He often continued sleep there, waiting for the girls to wake up in the female hostel. When he thought he can be seen by them already, he then walked back home with an act of as if he has been studying the whole night. He would stagger passing the female hostel slowly, appeared drowsy just to make sure he will be noticed, with the blanket still wrapped around his body. He was seen I am sure, because he was very popular among the girls as a hard worker. He soon got married after failing Form Five and settled in kampong with half a dozen kids, became a story not worth repeating to even his own kids. However, that story is just for padding. Hope you learn something from it.

When I was in medical school, every time there was an exam (which always seems to be just around the corner) I studied like I have never studied before. Everything else seemed irrelevant to me once I got myself to work. I forsook everything except the most basic needs like eating, sleeping and going to toilet. Nothing else matter, as long as I could open my eyes, I would make sure they were staring at something related to the subject in question. I worked until I was about to collapse of exhaustion, then I would simply sleep anywhere, anytime. It could be in my room, my cubicle, library or some special room. I would sleep when I am really sleepy, and doesn’t matter what time they were. These usually happened during the study week, when there were no lectures interfering with my own private study. However, I never compromised on sleep. I still slept on average of 6-8 hours per day, no matter how busy studying was. Another classmate of mine work even harder, he studied until his eyes were red, and his appearance turned to zombie-like. He made the medical school his second home. He passed with honor in the course in the final year. He deserved every bit of it. My point is there is no easy success. We all have to work hard for it. I did! I have a dream to fulfill, is there any less I could do?

Did I say just work HARD, no I mentioned work SMART too. That was why I frequently deviated from the rule. That was why I studied when everyone else was asleep (in Form Five), and I slept when everyone was supposed to do their study. Given the situation and the prevailing problems at that time, what the few of us did was a smart thing to do. We could absorb more while everyone else was not around than the whole day of supposedly studying with the crowd.

What I mean by WORK SMART is ‘producing more result in less amounts of effort and time’. In other words it is efficient and effective. Efficient means less effort for more result in less time. Effective means working ONLY on what is required to achieve a defined set of results. Let me give an example, it is very efficient to drive from A to B as compared to just cycling, yet driving is not effective if you are heading toward C (when your intended destination is B).

You got to find the most efficient and effective way of studying FOR YOU. DO NOT try to follow someone else style, do not even try to follow the methods and formula given by other people. Find your own way. In a short while, I will tell you how I did my SMART STUDY, but do not follow them if it is not suitable for you. They are just for examples. The principle is, finding the most productive methods FOR YOU!

I am sure you have heard of study group. This method has been proclaimed as the most productive and beneficial for studying. Let me give you a bit of shock. I found it the most inefficient, ineffective and unproductive way of studying. Complete waste of time... (to be continued)

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time (1).

When I was preparing for my SRP, I often read books for hours continually. My fellow friends often asked how I could have done it. They often wondered how I got to enjoy reading continuously for hours. I simply said ‘what else could I do?’

Exactly, what else can I do? Because I have a goal to achieve! That is the power of a goal, the conviction to attain. It makes you to work hard; because there seems nothing else you could do other than striving toward achieving your goal. IF you have not been working hard toward your goal, it may be because it was not really your goal in the first place. You have only deceived yourself in setting that goal – throw it away. Ask yourself again; is this really what I want?

YOUR GOAL WILL EMPOWER YOU TO WORK HARD

When one of Napoleon Hill’s (one of the greatest self motivator and author of all time) employees asked him for a promotion, Napoleon Hill looked at him intently and said ‘if that is really what you want, there is nothing I could do to stop you from getting it’. What he was saying was, if that employee works hard enough, he himself as a boss could not help but to grant the employee the well deserved promotion. That is indeed a revelation for the discerning. If you really want it, nothing can stop you!

I have nurtured my fondness of reading primarily because I love stories. Before I knew how to read, I fondly remembered asking my aunt to tell me all sorts of stories. She was always seems amazed at my enjoyment of her story telling. Every time she tells a story, I will seat and listen with undivided attention with my mouth partly open. I still have that thrill now whenever I watch a good movie (a modern story telling).

After I have mastered reading in Primary School, I became an ardent reader. I read everything I could get my hands and eyes into. This including newspaper, magazines, bulletin and yes the ever famous GILA-GILA (a satire cartoon in Malaysia). In fact I must say thanks to the many humorous magazines that I could get at those times, despite frequent opposition from my parents. The humors somehow keep me entertained and as a consequence, wanting to read further. I believe my fondness of reading is due to the conditioning of my subconscious mind to associate reading with fun, joke, amazement and laugh.

In Standard Three and Four I always sneaked into the ‘library’ in our school (a two doors closet in teacher’s meeting room). I often got scolded for reading books when everyone else supposed to be somewhere else doing something. I was truly a maniac in reading. When finally borrowing book was allowed (Standard Five and Six), I was borrowing at least 2 books per day (the limit was 2 books per week). I borrowed all type of books, including the more-than-an-inch in thickness. My class teacher wondered how I could finish reading two thick books for an overnight lending. I told him I didn’t finish it overnight, I finished it in that afternoon itself. (You can imagine his disbelief.)

Usually, once I started reading a book, I could not put it down. I will read until the story ends. Sometimes I miss my meals and other errands while reading, much to my parents’ displeasure. Another reason I cannot wait until night to finish the book is the fact that we did not have electricity. I do not want to turn an enjoyable reading into a ‘pain in the eye’ reading in front of a kerosene lamp.

My incessant pleasure for reading gives me the cutting edge in my ability in studying hard. This is simply because most of the ‘studying hard’ part is down to ‘lots of reading’. So in SRP preparation, I was glued to books like an addict glued to drugs.

I still remember reading the whole History Text Book for Form One in one goes for less than 3 hours. I like reading story, history book is just a collection old stories. My fellow students hated history subject very much mainly due to many funny names, dates and places that were difficult to remember. I did not pay attention to any of those details when doing the reading for the first time, I just read to get the big picture. After reading it several times, all those details simply pop up in your ‘movie’ when you play the stories in your head.

I even read the numbers in Mathematics Text Book, to my friend amazement. I could read the numbers as if it is just a story. (In fact it is a story of how to solve common problems.) I must give credit to the authors of the Mathematics text books who seem to always present the mathematical problems in a story form, extracted from daily encounter.

One example is, A farmer want to buy x number of chicken to be put in y number of farm. Each farm must be filled up with 20 chickens before he could start filling up the next farm. If each chicken cost the farmer RM10, how many farms he can fill up with 20 chickens with RM 5248? Isn’t that a story? Even better, this story invite you to solve the mystery. Hey … this is like reading the ‘Seven Secret’ stories. By the way the answer is 26 farms.

In preparation for SPM, I often studied until 3.00 to 4.00 o’clock in the morning. I went to bed around 4.00 am and then woke up at 6.00 am for morning class (to be continued ... )

2. Dream The Impossible. Determine to win BIG. (2)

Secondly, there have been nobody (at that time) from my kampong who manage to score a respectable results in Form Five exams (SPM). It seems that Form Five was the limit for academic achievement for anybody who comes from there. Even for those people who somehow manage to get to Form Five, they were always associated with some kind of ‘not so good’ behavioral problems (drugs, gangsterism, unwanted pregnancy, rebellion etc). This happened too often, people at the village started to associate education with negative influence. Most parents were happy if their kids learn enough just to read and count. No more.

As such, I was lacking an inspirational figure. And yet, those were the times when I started conceiving my dream. I must have mentioned my dream to some of my friends as a kid, because I can remember now I was being teased as little ‘Dr Tan’ (after a doctor who was working in Keningau Hospital at that time). As a kid I was teased and mocked by fellow kids. The grown ups at the time however did not even care to bother. The subject of someone from this kampong wanting to become a doctor was not even worth the littlest space of their time and energy.

I had no hope, on the basis my surrounding. Nobody has ever gone beyond Form Five. Nobody had any idea what is the school system after Form Five. I myself did not even realize that Form Six existed until I was well in Secondary school. No discussion at all about the existence of Form Six among the daily conversation of the kampong people. Do not even mention about Matriculation, it was totally a new word to them. University, uni – what? We did not even know how to pronounce it, let alone to spell it.

Thirdly, no one has ever travelled further than the capital city of Kota Kinabalu from my kampong. There were one or two who managed to get a good grade and continue studying in Peninsular Malaysia under Sabah Foundation Sponsorships. However, they went there fully supervised and at a very young age (Form One), so their experience was limited in term of sharing and guidance. There was no university in Sabah at that time. If I want to be a doctor, I obviously had to go to Peninsular Malaysia.

The thought of living in a local hostel far away from family often resulting in many potential students running to their jungle hide out. Therefore the idea of being whisked away in an airplane and stay for months in strange land is definitely something needing more than just courage and bravery. This is the scary possibilities that I have to accept, to nurture my dreams. There was nobody I could ask about how to be a doctor. No soul to discuss about traveling, about buying a plane ticket or boarding a plane or to get around in another part of Malaysia.

I still remember with some degree of sadness when I boarded my first plane, and started looking for my seat number at the back of the seat (thinking it is printed at the back seat like those in buses), only to find out later that I have missed it and now I had to walk against the flow of the passengers.

There were many other problems hampering any potential students in those times. Economic disadvantage is one of the serious hindrances. Others are mediocre health, lack of basic amenities such as water and electricity, language barrier, custom and tradition, poor transport and road condition and geographical isolation. All these were working toward much discouragement for us.

All the problems above render me as ‘out of his mind’ boy at that time. But I had a dream and it was big. It was seemingly impossible. Today I am alive to tell you the truth. I have achieved my dream. It was not impossible after all.

Imagine yourself in a poker game. If you are just sitting there for fun and absolutely no desire to win the bet, you better get up and let somebody else play. Play to win the big money or you will loose! I repeat it again, you will loose big time if you are just sitting there without the wildest desire to win all the money on the table.

Therefore,

DREAM BIG, DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE!

In my seminars to motivate students, I often say to them ‘Do not just write a story, create a history’. You can only create a history if you start dreaming the impossible. If you dreams are too common and plain, then it would be just another story. If you break the academic achievement record in your region, you have created a history. If you become the fist person to go to Australia from your isolated place or you become the first person who takes the Socrates Oath as a doctor from a kampong where nobody had passed beyond Form Five, I think that is a history.

Too many people are simply satisfied with just being at par with the most successful person in their community. And they become just another story. If you surpassed the most successful person, that is a history, at least for you and for the rest of the community.

Now, you may want to look at the goal you have set before. Does it truly represent your biggest and wildest dream possible for you? Why don’t you set the biggest and wildest impossible?

3. Working Hard and Smart. One Step at a Time.

When I was preparing for my SRP, I often read books for hours continually. My fellow friends often asked how could I have done it. They often wonder how I got to enjoy reading continuously for hours. I simply said ... (to be continued).

2. Dream The Impossible. Determine to win BIG. (1).

I trust that you have now set your very own goal. Excellent! This chapter will give you some insights on how to review your goal. If the goal you have set is truly of your own, the rest of this chapter only serves to strengthen it. However if you have set the goal with some apprehension for whatever cause, you may want to re-look at it again later.

It is often quoted ‘Aim for the sun. Even if you missed, you will be still among the stars’. How true indeed. It is okay to dream, it is okay to dream BIG, the impossible dream. Dream the biggest and the wildest you can (of course within the boundary of sanity). But then again, time has proven that even what people may perceive as insanity is not a limit. Think of the Wright brothers who invented flying machine. Their society thought it was not only insane but blasphemy to God when they were talking about flying. We are surely glad that the Wright brothers did not listen to them. Can you imagine the world now without all the flying machine?

There seems to be no limit to what you can dream. You want to be the first Malaysian born President of USA? Sure, why not. Sonia Gandhi (Italian born) almost become the Prime Minister of India. Arnold Schwarnegger of Austrian born may one day become the president of USA.

You want to be the first man to land on the Sun. Okay you can laugh. That is totally insane. But wait, there could be a way. We just don’t know it yet. The problem is, we are currently thinking based on facts available to us now. For every discovery we have made, there are gazillions more we have not yet make. There are possibilities to land man on the Sun. Now you know how crazy I can be when talking about setting goals and dreaming the impossible.

My goal was to become a medical doctor. For some of you who are reading this book, being a doctor may means nothing in the context of dreaming the impossible. We have plenty of doctors now and we have numerous universities and colleges offering medical courses. At the same time, I truly believe that being a doctor is still a dream to most students out there. It still carries a noble intention, prestigious and respectable name for anyone possessing that dream. And it is still grand and mighty difficult to achieve.

However back in my time, in a secluded kampong, the intention to become a doctor was not only difficult, it was a sheer lunacy. It was a lunacy not because of what I wanted to be but because of where I came from. Let me tell you why. First, the name of my kampong was literally ‘earthworm’ in English translation. It was mythically named after a source of water which has resisted an ancient prolonged drought. The drought was very severe. The only brook in that kampong was reduced to an earthworm-sized of flowing water through a bamboo pipe and yet faithfully providing much needed source of life to the community. Hence the place named in such a way. As noble as the origin of the name may sound, you cannot help but feeling very inferior coming from a kampong with that name. With tradition and superstition still strongly manifested in the society, no one did believe that any good can emerge from a kampong named after an earthworm. Some efforts were initially done to change the name (indicating the uneasiness of the fellow kampong residences about the name), however it was never materialised and thus further strengthening the inevitability of the ‘cursed’ state of the kampong. The inferiority was there, not really a good start for anybody wanted to dream big. This factor seems to be quite significant, no one else manage to achieve even half of what I had achieved until today!

Secondly, there have been nobody (at that time) from my kampong who manage to score a respectable results in Form Five exams (SPM). It seems that Form Five was the limit for academic achievement for anybody who comes from there .... (to be continued)

1. Setting A Goal And Writting It Down (2).

I held mine for ten years. I achieved my goal one year later then what I expected. I graduated as a medical doctor in 1998.

When I was in Form Four, I absolutely did not have any intention to get my medical doctorate done in Australia. Therefore, I was doing the calculation based on local university system. I have worked out that in 1988, in Form Four, I have to spend two years in Form Six and five years of medical school in USM (University of Science, Malaysia) in order to be a doctor (I always had USM as my destination). I have even calculated that academic year ends middle of year (hence my medical course will end in June 1997). As it turned out to be, I did not go to Form Six. I went to a better pre-university program instead, USM Matriculation (where I always wanted to go). I did not do medicine locally. I went to a prestigious place instead, The Flinders University of South Australia. I graduated one year later because the course takes 6 years to complete in that university.

As you can see, goal setting inevitably have to include planning. That is why I emphasize to have a CLEARLY DEFINED GOAL. Which mean, putting your thought into the making of the goal. Do not just simply put a goal for the sake of it. Do not just simply put a goal because it is glamorous to have a grandiose goal. And yes, do not put somebody else goal as yours.

Yes you heard it right, and do not laugh. There are many people out there who is putting someone else goal as their. Have you ever heard of parents saying ‘you better be studying hard and become a lawyer, like so and so …’ what they are really saying is simply ‘my goal for you is to become a lawyer. Do it for me!’ Sometimes it is the uncle’s, the community’s or the kampong’s goal which become the goal of someone. If you are pursuing someone else goal, very likely that you will fail miserably, it was not your goal in the first place for heaven sake!

If you badly want to become an astronaut, then put it as your goal and start planning for it. Let it be your own strong desire. Do not set it as your goal because it is grand to be the first Malaysian to become an astronaut. You may think that the nation will be proud of it, if you could accomplish it. That is absolutely fine if you have a strong desire to be a pioneer. Although, I think it is imperative that you recognize the difference between having it as your own goal and having it as fulfilling the nation (someone else) goal. If your subconscious mind recognize it as foreign goal, you will fail. Your subconscious mind is your greatest ally. Do not lie to it. You cannot. It will know and you will definitely loose. SET YOUR OWN GOAL AND NOT SOMEBODY ELSE.

Just imagine if you sitting on a poker table and while playing you also know that if you win, somebody else will get the money. Will you play at your best? Somehow I do not think so!

A great author once wrote, there are only 3 steps to success:

1. Set your Goal.
2. Be prepared to pay the price to achieve the Goal.
3. PAY THE PRICE.


Every goal, dreams, desire has a price. Robert T Kiyosaki (author of best seller, Rich Dad, Poor Dad) says everything has a price. Even not setting a goal is attached to an even higher price – eternal misery. The price is not necessarily money. It could means working hard, separation from family, sacrificing leisure and comfort or risked your very own life.

Every successful people I have read about, they are always talking about setting and achieving goal. Why don’t you follow suit. Start setting your goal NOW! In fact, do not continue reading this book until you have set one goal for yourself. Write it down, sign it and date it. The rest of the book only makes sense after you have done so!

2. Dream The Impossible. Determine to win BIG!
(to be continued...)

1. Setting A Goal and Writing it Down (1).

Wise man says, if you do not have a target, you will always hit it right. If you don’t know where to go, you will always get there. The truth is, if you don’t have a clearly defined goal, anything you have achieved will be considered a success, even if it is a failure for your true capability. How would you know that you are going the right direction if you don’t know where you are going in the first place?

Sure you will always hit it, sure you will always get there, but was it there you supposed to hit? Was it there you were supposed to go? Was it there the money? Was it there you could have been or become? Was that the money you are looking at when you place your bet?

If you are looking back now, you will never know. If you are still in school today, then SET YOUR GOAL before it is too late. Only after you have set your GOAL, you would know where you are going. If you do not set a goal, you are a gambler who has no intention of winning. Are you just playing the cards for fun? I think it is your opponents who are having all the fun in the world.

I often have a conversation with ‘not so lucky’ adults who always reminisce back and say “when I was in school I always want to become a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer etc”. After talking a bit more with them, I could easily sense that they did not actually have such desire when they were in school. What they are really saying is “if I could start all over again, I will study to become a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer etc”. What is their goal NOW is what they think was their goal THEN.

So you students out there don’t be like them. SET YOUR OWN GOAL NOW!

WRITE DOWN YOUR GOAL AND PUT YOUR SIGNATURE ON IT.

In other words, make it black and white and certified yours truly. Oh don’t forget to put a date on it, so you can proudly trace back when was the time you start taking care of your life. After you write it down, put it somewhere where you can always see them. You can put them in YOUR wallet or purse, stick it on your mirror or write it on the front page of every book you own, on the ceiling of your bedroom or anywhere you can easily access them. Let other people see it as well. This way you can be accountable of your own goal. Make sure where ever you put it; it has to last until your goal is achieved.

I put mine in my wallet. The first time I wrote my goal was in 1988 while I was in Form Four in SMK Bingkor Keningau. I was in a science class. With my very little knowledge of English I wrote ‘With the God’s Power, will be a doctor in 1997’. Needless to mention, the grammar was out. That did not matter, it only tells me of how much I have improved since. I put mine in my wallet. I looked at it almost every day. Whenever I felt depressed, whenever I felt lazy or couldn’t take things any more, I just have to look at it. Nothing obvious happened after your look at it. Don’t expect a surge of power or a sudden disappearance of problems. In fact, not so much of your conscious mind that need to see it, but most importantly your subconscious mind. Because this part of your brain that will automatically work toward achieving your goal.

I held mine for ten years.... (to be continued)

Life Testimony - 05.

Of course, if anybody thinks that once you graduate, life would be a bed of roses, nothing can be further from the truth. You may end up even more frustrated than you are during your worst exams. Finding jobs is another chapter in life which is worth writing a book by itself. Even for medicine, the four months waiting for job placement was enough torture for me. Lucky for me, as a doctor my job is guaranteed. By the way, that is another skill a player needs to know. Would you put your money where the chance of winning is remote? Similarly, why bother doing a course if it guarantees no job. In Malaysia, at least for now, there are only two fields of study where you can be guaranteed of jobs. The Health Sciences (nurse, pharmacy, doctors etc) and the education field itself (teachers). Of course another way of betting is by applying for private company’s sponsorship that provides you with job. Please, this is the most logical skill to play the cards, put your money where the ‘job’ is!

My first year as a doctor (or House Officer) was absolute nightmare. It was the most hectic year of my life up to that point. Boy, I thought facing final year exams was bad. Apparently this is worst. However, undeniably this was also the year where my learning curve was the steepest. I think I have learnt more of the art of becoming a doctor in that one year alone compared to my whole six years of doing medicine. I learnt a lot even though I hardly sleep, no social life, zero fun and in essence no life. But I persevered.

In 2000 I was transferred to a small district in Sabah called Kota Belud. It is about one hour drive from the capital city. I became the boss of the health department in the whole district. Life was better. I continue to work hard and diligently.

By the time I was writing this book (2003), I was the Assistant Director of Sabah’s Public Health Department. Career was almost at the peak. And I was looking far beyond.

Looking back to what I have achieved, I am immensely proud of myself. Not so much of what I have attained, but from where I have begun. There is no way I could get here by chances alone and definitely not by miracles either. I have come here because I have something that my friends on the starting line did not have. That what I have I will share with you in this book. I hope the book will give you a new hope and a new way to look at your life as a student and as the best player in this casino of ours. Whatever stage of life you are now, it is never too early. At the same time, you can never be too late to benefit from this book. I humbly admit that I am not the only one who has the success story in life. There are many more out there. Some of them have accomplished more than what I have. What make me different is I am willing to write a book about my secret of success and share them with you.

The following are my ten essences of success.

Life Testimony - 04.

From there, study seems to be taxing and no more fun. Obviously different strategies needed to be adopted. Competition was high. Fun in studying took different meaning. In Form Four and Five, I was in science class, competing with better students from even wider region. Now we were talking not only competing among ourselves in our class, but also among other students in other school in the whole district.

Study was a battle, and casualties were many. This is like playing poker in ‘Maverick’ movie starred by Mel Gibson. Not only you have to beat those in your table, but you have to outplay the whole people on the ship. Not to mention the gun tooting bad cowboys and the corrupt law enforcers. Against all odd, I became the best student for the school again in SPM in 1989. My bet this time was different. I will elaborate on it in latter part of my book. Soon I was heading to a more challenging Casino!

In 1990, I was in Taiping Perak Malaysia in University Sains Malaysia (USM) Matriculations. Now I am playing against the best students from all over Malaysia. No kidding, I could never beat them. They were too clever, far better exposed and they know things much more than me. This was because all this while they were better resourced than me. I was from remote forrested kampong in Sabah, remember!

Obviously, if I want to stay sane, I got to stop competing. My strategies changed. No more beating the guy in front of me. I am now happy if I win bigger money than what I have got previously. It was not playing poker anymore, it just the big Casino with many types of gambling activities. Somehow, I think my life was just like playing a jackpot machine then. It is just me and the machine or in other words me and the system.

At that time, I just wanted to do my best and try to beat my own previous achievements. This method managed to get me through my 2 years of matriculations. In 1992, I was selected to advance my study in Australia in Medicine. In Australia, competing was out of the question, I could barely speak in English.

How do you play games with opponents who do not speak your language? Easy! Speak their language and speak it better.

Again, this time, I had only myself to beat and to compete with. In every achievement, I made a promise to do better the next time. Within 6 months in Medical School, I was comfortably speaking in English. In fact, I articulated better than any of my batch who previously spoke better English than me in Malaysia. I mingled with all the Australians and the English speaking Chinese Malaysian. I always reminded myself that it is their (not mine) disadvantage if they could not understand my English and it is my advantage that I could understand them (my listening skill was better). So I never feel discouraged, every time I speak, they will courteously correct me if my pronunciation or grammar is wrong. So, instead of being afraid of making mistake, I was actually eager to expose my speaking skills so I could be corrected whenever I made a mistake.

Other Malaysian friends of mine minimize their conversation with the Australians due to their apprehension. Consequently, they learn much slower than me. In fact, most of them speak too proper in English, it sounded memorized and text book-like. Here I was speaking in Australian slang and colloquial, they were still heavily accented in Malay English. I achieved that, because I simply talk more without being afraid of making mistakes. To this day I believe, the best way for anybody in Malaysia to learn English is to pack their bag and live for at least a year in English speaking nation. It is a simple logic, because in English speaking nation, you are surrounded by ‘teacher’ who will ‘teach’ you the skills in every moment of your life. Of course, provided you converse with them in the first place. I learn the language of the players, so I can win!

I persevered on. In 1998, as scheduled, I graduated as a medical doctor and also certified in a self-improvement course.

Life Testimony - 03.

In 1985, I started Form One. This was when the gambling begins. Meeting so many new faces from wider span of community, at first made me nervous and somehow inadequate. It was like a stranger strolled into a cowboy bar and tried to join a group of guests at the poker game. It was scary.

The secondary school was located about 5 miles from my kampong. Sometimes I have to walk to school but for most of the time there were pick-up trucks passing along the road and therefore I could hitch hike. At some stages in my Form 1, I stayed with relatives and friends. Staying with them was difficult, not only for me but also for the people I stayed with. There were many issues spoken and unspoken between me, them and my parents. It was definitely not conducive for learning. I was glad that toward Form Two my dad built a house (or rather a hut) on a piece of land belonged to him. The hut was located about 2 miles from the school. I stayed there until I was in Form Three. If my dad did not do that and if I continued staying with other people, I knew I would have failed miserably.

This is first and foremost rule you have to tackle in playing the game. You got to have a place you are comfortable with. Staying with some uncle or friends of your dad is like playing cards while sitting on a wobbly chair. You soon fall and all your cards will be scattered for everyone to see.

To this date, I oppose staying with other people. I always make a point to stay on my own whenever I am traveling. Even if I have a relative in town, I would still stay in a hotel or cheap boarding place. To this day, I have always oppose having student staying with me (even if they are our relatives), it will be difficult for me, but more so for them. I know. I have tasted it.

Again, despite new faces and new environment, I soon started enjoying school again. Somehow, without putting to much effort, I managed to secure the top position in my class. I believe this seemingly inherent ability to secure top position was due to my enthusiasm for the school activities. I was happy and having fun, so learning became easy. I cannot stress this point enough, if you are having difficult time (or having no fun) in your schools, you better forget all the overly promoted study techniques and skills. To all the parents out there, please provide the best learning environment for your kids FIRST and then start thinking about buying computer, sending to tuition and all the other craps. A poker player who is sitting on a spiky chair with thorns in his shoes and unbearable heat on his back has very little chance of winning.

Slowly however I became aware of the spirit of competition (or should I say the spirit of jealousy) which was shown by my colleagues whenever they were heaping praises on me. Before I realized it, I fell to a third place in the third term exam of Form One. It did not struck me as anything unusual until we got back to school in Form Two. A friend of mine, J, kept teasing me for losing my position in number one. Again, at first I was wondering what was the big deal with slipping from first to third place. It took me a while to realize that he was subtly implying that I have been defeated. It then dawned on me that he was actually indirectly giving me a mockery. Initially, I did not even care to find out who was in the number one position. After finding out that it was him (J) who defeated me, I realized now that I have a reason to study. I now have a goal to achieve. This probably was the first time I took my study very seriously! (By the way, J and I soon became a very close friend and we became study partner all the way to Form Five).

That is the second lesson I did learn in playing the game. When winning was so easy, you do not appreciate it. You do not even feel the loss when you are defeated, thinking that the winning number will come back to you again as it did in the past. Once you have realized that other players are aiming and working hard to win against you, you know that playing hard and smart is the only way to go. A goal and a plan must be in place to win the bet again. Winning a trophy is easy only when nobody else wants it.

I was surely fortunate to have been challenged by a determined player at that point of time. Soon in Form Three I was studying like I never studied before. Not for defeating anybody, but to do the best I could for my SRP (now PMR). In fact I did not care less about beating anybody any more. My utmost vengeance was to beat the best result ever achieved in that school. That was in 1987, the year I sat for SRP. I remembered it well because that was the year I broke the school record of SRP achievement. Not only I have beaten my arch rival, I have beaten every best student ever in that school before me! My vengeance was fulfilled beyond any measurable level.

I won my poker game that year. I won big time. I hit the jackpot. Do you want to know what my bet was? My bet was one whole year of my life in Form Three which I sacrificed to become essentially a hermit (bookworm). Yes I became the ‘no other extra curricula activities guy’. I meant business and studied like death is hanging on my neck. I had the goal and I want it. Surely, most people including my teacher did not like my bet. Toward the end of Form Three, the best student award was given to another student who was behind me in academics but did show some respectable achievements in sports. Somehow it was difficult to find one person who truly excels in both. He won the best student award for the school while poor me with no award broke the academic record. I had no regrets. That was my bet. That was the price I had to pay. I won what I wanted. That was the bottom line.