Problems and Solutions

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

- Bill Gates

Everybody has some sort of problem in their life. Some major and some minor but somehow, it might be affecting the daily life in the form of finance, time management, personal relationship and so on. But not everyone have the capability to understand and analyze their problems. Due to this inefficiency, problem solving becoming a task. Many people are living with problems and 'quite comfortable' with it because they could not find the solution.

Believe that problems do have answers, that they can be overcome, and that you can solve them.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Above is absolutely true because if you believe that you can solve your problem, that is the first step of solving the problem. What is the point of looking for solution but never believe in solving it at first place. Many of you do not know the solution but refusing to look for it. Why? Is it because of ego? Low motivation? No confidence? There should be a reason. But anyway, please throw all those characters away and start looking for the solution for all the problems that you are facing.

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. So, start looking for the 'opportunity' to claim the solutions for all your problems. All the best.

Circle of Influence

It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction. You have the power to decide your circle. You can either join the power circle or create a circle and invite those who can influence your life and show you the path of success. No matter what, you have to decide. Decide to change the way of your life. Decide now to enter new circle in your life.

How To Become Highly Effective People - By Dr. Stephen R Covey

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 1 says, "You're in charge. You're the creator." Being proactive is about choice. Habit 2 is the first, or mental, creation. Beginning with the End in Mind is about vision. Habit 3 is the second creation, the physical creation. This habit is where Habits 1 and 2 come together. It happens day in and day out, moment-by-moment. It deals with many of the questions addressed in the field of time management. But that's not all it's about. Habit 3 is about life management as well--your purpose, values, roles, and priorities. What are "first things?" First things are those things you, personally, find of most worth. If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing time and events according to the personal priorities you established in Habit 2.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Habit 6: Synergize
Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. is an American author best-known for his book Life's Little Instruction Book which was a New York Times bestseller.

Below is one of my favourite portion from his book.

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
2. Work at something you enjoy and that's worthy of your time and talent.
3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
6. Be generous.
7. Have a grateful heart.
8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
12. Commit yourself to quality.
13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationship with people you love and respect.
14. Be loyal.
15. Be honest.
16. Be a self-starter.
17. Be decisive even it it means you'll sometimes be wrong.
18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.
20. Take good care of those you love.

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

This is a quote from Michael Jordan and I believe this is the quote for many of us. Failing is part of our life. None of the millionaires out there became one overnight. Almost all of them fail their first business, fail to further their studies, fail in their first attempt for almost anything but there is one thing in common that none of them fail. That is their determination and "I will do it, I can do it" attitude. No matter how tough the nature reacts towards your actions, no matter how painful your failure is, please don't quit. Success is sweet but with the additional topping called failure will make the success even sweeter. There is always a failure behind every success so do not quit or feel down if fail. The more you fail, the more chance for you to succeed. This is true. Dare to fail.

"God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest." Swedish Proverb

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you". Success is everywhere. It is up to you to decide. Opportunity will not reveal itself to those who do not believe in success. In this case, I believe in Jesus Christ. "Those who believe in me, come to me and I will end your sufferings"

Duplication versus Success

All of us need to learn from mistake. Many people always ask tips from people who already be success on how to become success; ex: steps, tips and tricks and so on. But I will always ask what mistake they did in the journey of creating success.

It is wiser to learn from other’s mistake than to learn from own mistakes. If I want to be like Thomas Alva Edison, I need to duplicate what he did. He did not repeat the 999 mistakes that he made. That’s why on 1000th attempt, he created light.

To create success, duplicate those who are creating success. Our life is full of duplication. If we see our friend using a new hp, we also will try to buy the same or better one. We see our friend open a shop, we also quickly will figure out to open a shop. But how many people actually ask their friends on how he could buy a new hp, how he can open a shop, and think ways of duplicating friend’s method to do the same thing. It is not the matter of doing but doing it in right way.

Knowledge is like pouring water in a jug. Once full, it will overflow. I don’t wish the water to be wasted so I am supplying the overflowing water to my friends.

3 Ultimate Questions

Always think of three questions as below:-

1. Where are you now?
2. Where you want to go?
3. How you can get there?

These questions might sound silly but it has hidden meaning which can turn your life upside down.

1. Where are you now? Deep meaning is review your current assets and liabilities
2. Where you want to go? Deep meaning is setting your objectives and priority
3. How you can get there? Deep meaning is planning to achieve your goals

By understanding these basic fundamentals, we can change our life dramatically. SUCCESS does not happen overnight but failure does. Decide to change and change to make better decision.

Train Story

Working life is like a train journey. The post that we hold is like a train. Many people do not have the courage to change train because worry if the new train might not reach the desired destiny. Many people stuck in the same train for many years because for them, destiny is not important, just a comfortable train is enough for the remaining journey. To change destiny, we must change train. Either express or normal train but must change. Train to Paris will only go to Paris. There is no meaning if you want to go to Aberdeen but still believe train to Paris could bring you to Aberdeen. Please change the way you think.

Options versus Opportunity

Life is full of options. People are always surrounded by multiple options every single day. As a basic, to live or to die is also an option. I believe many of us choose the first one. That’s why you can read this mail. Some also choose the second one. If there are no options, life will be difficult. Just imagine your school exams. Papers with optional answers seem to be easier than papers without optional answers. From the food we eat, cloths we wear, vehicle that we use up to our life partner was a choice. It would not be a choice if there is no option. Today I am a happily married man with one kid. That is an option which I took. Sometimes, our option might not lead to what we wanted at first place. Not everybody choosing the right options all the time in their life. Some don’t even know what options available to them. When we were born, we were fed by our parents. We did not have any options to choose what we want at that time. When we grew up, we were shown options such as cloths, toys etc. We choose what we like. When we were teenager, we found our own options and choose on our own accord. Some went wrong and some went good. After graduation, we were presented many options via media on how to succeed in life. We choose to work and current job was one of the options which we took few years back. So, all the consequences that we are facing now due to our selected option previously are merely our own responsibility. Nobody to blame as others only showed options. We choose it.

Precious options sometime do not show it to many people. We have to hunt for the options. At some time, we need to create the options. Some options will only come once in a life time. For example, if I want to be rich, debt free and have a lot of spare time, definitely there will be options for it. But I need to look for it. First of all, decide what you want. Then don’t look but HUNT for the options. It might be hiding in your own closet (I mean should be around you). Best options will always come in camouflage. It will not reveal itself until you are ready to accept the options. It will always knock your door very quietly. Make sure you are ready to open the door when it knocks. Path of success is ONE WAY TICKET and no way back. Once you started your journey in path of success, don’t ever look back. But make sure the path you are going is really path of success or else, it will be a painful journey.

A Bird Story

A bird in a cage always wants freedom, NOT a bigger or comfortable cage. End of the day, no matter how big the cage is, it will always hold the birds actual capability of flying high.

Many people are like birds but just changing to a bigger and better cage. Once be in a comfortable cage, they will be happy. Sooner or later, that cage also will become smaller when they think want to fly. But at a time, you can’t afford to fly free anymore because you can’t catch up with other group of free birds. Spending too long in a cage will only damage the birds flying capability and end of the day, no options left for the bird than spending the rest of its life in the cage. Have you seen some people stayed in same company for more than 10 years? Now you can realize that they are birds with broken wings.

I don’t want to restrict my life in a cage even given a golden cage. I want to fly. Fly high and look at other birds in the cage. Company is a cage. Going to a bigger cage will not solve any problem. Eliminate the cage and sure can see your actual potential. As for human being, you should and must be flying without wings and only dead should stop us from achieving what we want in life. Don’t stop. Don’t restrict. Don’t quit. Open the cage and fly away freely and happily NOW. You want to be fed in the cage or want to look for own food outside the cage? Being fed leaves you no options to choose. Finding your own food leaves you millions of options to choose. Options are life. Life is to be chosen.

Spiritual Life versus Practical Life

This is common believe among many of us. God created us. God created the situation that we live now. So, whatever situation we are facing now and going to face in future is determined by God. If God already fixed a destiny for us, why we need to work hard, study hard and so on? It’s already fated. Whatever we do, the end of the story going to be the same right? No. God wrote the fate but at the same time, God gave us a powerful tool called mind. We are being asked by God to use our mind as a tool to re-write our destiny. Nothing is fate. All are in our hand. Always believe in your 6th sense. Our life is in our hand. Everything else is just a guide, like a torch where you can always go on without a torch but you cannot see upcoming hurdles. That’s why we need a torch. But after some time, your life will be enlightened by wisdom and hence, you can throw away your torch.

Changing Companies’

Sometimes when we think to switch company, we must always remember this phrase “Better the Devil You Know than the Angel You Don’t “. There is always pro and cons. Some company will pay you with high income but the package comes with massive pressure. Some company might pay you low but comes with low pressure. Anyway, keep looking. You might find something that you are looking for, something that you like. Go for it. But if you take any organization or companies’ especially manufacturing line, it is always a pyramid system where the income level go higher to the top but at the same point pressure level goes lower to the top. It is always been like that for centuries. That’s why some people stay in the same organization for a long time hoping they will go to the top but many never realize, as time goes, everything else will pass you by. At the end, when you are at the top, others around you already succeed many years back.

I won’t say that humans are free of problems because there are no human without problem. But we must learn on how to manage those problems without affecting our life. All of us are learning and I’ll be glad to share with the ways to overcome those problems. Nobody success in life without hurdles. Hurdles can come in many forms like tight finance, debts, personal relationship with people around and so on.

But do not worry. Relax. If there is a problem, sure there is a solution. Nature is very fair, if it gives a problem, definitely it will give the solution. It depends on how we are going to find it. If there is no problem, mankind cannot go further.

Respond versus Reaction

To respond is positive, to react is negative. Don’t react to people’s comment or behavior. For example, if people condemn about our car, don’t react by arguing with them. Instead, respond with buying a better car than theirs.

Clicking Factor

This working life is like rat race. Change to another job might solve our problems but will never give permanent solutions for a bright future. Today I work under my superior in this company. If I go to another company, I will work under a new superior. How many years it will take to actually be a superior so we can start giving instruction to others? Even that happen, we will be still reporting to another superior unless we own the company.

When we were toddler, suddenly we started to crawl and walk. What clicked our mind then to walk? Then, we started to talk. What clicked our mind to talk? Sure something clicked but what, we do not know. Maybe because not matured enough to understand things that happened around us.

But now, I always think. Why I need to wait something to happen so that it will click my mind to change my present attitude, behavior, mindset, career etc. Why don’t I find the ‘clicking factor’ now and start to make changes so I can avoid the ‘clicking factor’. Why we need to avoid the clicking factor? Normally, clicking factor will be devastating and have a lot of big impacts. For example, some people suddenly will fall into major sickness. So, the sickness is clicking factor here. Once it clicked their mind, then they will start a healthy life. Why don’t we start a healthy life before the clicking factor happen? My personal life has many clicking factors. Example, once my son was born, that was really a clicking factor because suddenly I found my financial became tight, my time with family is getting lesser and so on. When I analyze, I found that I never take any action before this clicking factor clicked my mind.

Now, I am thinking all the clicking factors that could happen in my life and started to look for options to eliminate these clicking factors. You need to know your clicking factor. Example of clicking factors that I am thinking right now is my son’s future, education, family, savings, financial freedom, settling all my debts, having a lot of free time and so on. Once I know my clicking factors, I will start to find ways to avoid all this clicking factors. I will not wait until all these happen and then I will not have anything to revert back. Think out of box.

Opponent versus Obstacle

Opponent can be defined as challenger or rival whereas obstacle can be defined as barrier or obstruction. People now days are confused with these two terms. If I ask you one question, which subject would you prefer, opponent or obstacle, what would you choose? Can you define? In our daily life, we meet many opponents and obstacle. Both can come in the form of human being or material. Let me give an example. Let say, you want to open a book shop in your housing area whereby there are 2 existing book shop. These 2 shops are your opponents. Their bosses are your opponents. In order to win the market, you need to win those 2 opponents. If they sell a book for $2, then you need to sell the same book for $1. In this case, you won the competition thus won the market for the book. If you can see here, you need an opponent to win on something. If you want to be a winner, you need a challenger. Without an opponent, you cannot be a winner at first place. What I want to say is, having opponents in daily life give us positive pressure. Positive pressure to win will lead the way to success. If there is no opponents, you will not win thus the winning mentality will disappear from your mind. Once you lose this mentality, do you think that you can succeed? But, sometimes, winning can be difficult because not only opponents, but there will be obstacles. This will make things difficult for you to win on something.

Have you seen football matches? Take a striker as an example. He could run through 10 outfield players with the ball but he will have to face an obstacle, GOALKEEPER. I would rather say that goalkeeper is an obstacle not an opponent, because the striker won the opponents because he could run faster and his dribbling skill is better that the opponents. But will he celebrate for that? Never. He will only celebrate once he surpasses the obstacle by kicking the ball in the net. Once he won the obstacles, he deserves to win.

This small story tells you that, at certain circumstances in life, not only opponents but obstacles will also appear to block your way to success. You must SURPASS the opponents and BREAK the obstacles. Now, opponents are negative minded people and obstacle is your mind. So, SURPASS those negative minded people and BREAK you mindset in order to win and succeed in this life. No matter what you do, opponents and obstacles will always try to be close with you. Don’t draw a circle around you, because the bigger the circle, the more opponents and obstacles can accommodate your circle. ERASE the circle and move to the world without boundaries. Then, you can choose to be in whichever circle you want. An ocean is always better than a pond.

Target versus Action

Please set your target and then work towards it, not vice versa. People always start a business then set a target to achieve from the business. That will lead to more damage. I would set my target and what I want to achieve first, and then do any business where I can achieve my target. This is the right direction. Success is not miracle or magic. Success is something that can be created by anyone as long they follow the correct footsteps and method. You can start creating success right now if you want to. Success is not a choice. It is a decision, so DECIDE now.

Desire to Win

Do you know what you want in life? Many people living their life without knowing what actually they want to achieve. Life is not a river where u must follow the flow all the time. Life is like a boat. You need to row the boat. Don’t ever let the boat float without destination and hoping that the flow will bring you somewhere. It will only bring you to a place where you hate most of the time. Majority of us are just working to earn money to cover all the expenses which created by themselves and for basic needs of life. Example, for a bachelor, he need to work to pay for his house rent, branded clothing, cigarettes, alcohol, food, entertainment and so on. All of you will do almost the same thing at the end of month. Deduct all the expenses from salary and with that little balance to cover daily pocket money. Is this a life that we want to life forever? How if you are married? Then you have additional commitment such as wife and kids. Then, this person will start working overtime and overnight to cover those additional expenses for the additional commitment. Why we need to attach ourselves to commitment without preparing ourselves with additional income? Why all the time, the mechanism is working vice versa? It is common human mindset to look for commitment instead income. It is sometime the stereotype of thinking force ourselves to buy commitment and sell our time to pay for the commitment. First of all, we must decide on what we want in this life. And must analyze on our desires. Blind aims will never hit the target. We must always think of the consequences of missing those desires because, consequences will make you stronger and will strengthen your mind to achieve. Please think and decide your desire in life. Don’t live this life without a desire. Eventually, desire will keep you moving forward and forward every day. Desire to win.

Self Confident

In order to be achievers, self confidence is very essential. Self confident is believing in your action without any doubt and convinced that the action will give positive outcome no matter what. This is a very important self development stage in every human being. Many people start doing something or taking action on some matter without self confident thus resulting in failure and negative impact. This self confident is something hidden in yourself and will only reveal itself at the moment whereby you need to take a decision. A decision taken without self confident normally will give you a minimum chance of victory even though the action is carefully planned. A cake will never complete without icing. Everybody can make a cake but only those who can make cake with very good icing is considered a good baker. Your action is like the cake. Your confident is like the icing. Please make sure all your action comes with self confidence to get the desired output. Normally, you think many times to do something, example venturing into a business, sitting for an exam, buying a car, choosing a career and so on. But are you assured that the choice that you make going to give you what you want? Many of us cannot be sure the output of our action but we believe somehow it will fulfill our desire. That is called self-confident. Self-confident should come with some analysis, and then it is worth going for it. If the analysis showing a negative sign, then the self-confident is not sufficient to take the action. If the analysis is showing the positive sign, then you proceed with the actions with high level of self confident. If you believe in yourself, believe that you can make changes in your life, believe that you can change other’s life, and then trust in yourself to do what you want to do. Definitely it will give a very positive result. But if you fail in any of the actions you took, don’t let the fire of your confidence to fade. It should not fade. Actions can be renewed but self confident is something difficult to renew. Once you lose it, it might take ages to get it back. Once there was a great saint who said, “Come with me, I will show you the way to eternity”. So, keep looking for the ‘saint’ and start trailing his footstep. In current global situation, you must look for the achievers, follow their footsteps with full of self confident and I am sure, you will achieve what other’s are achieving now. Be confident.

Self Development and Motivation

Self development is very essential in everybody’s life. We should not be stagnant in every aspect of life. The aspects can be family, finance, career, recreation and so on. What type of changes we need to make in our life? What is the method to develop our inner strength? Every people who already achieved the status of success in life have their individual recipe for their success. So, there is no necessity for us to create a new recipe to develop ourselves. We can always follow the same old recipe from those successful people. If we talk about self development, there are so many things that we need to consider. The most important aspect in self development is motivation. Motivation is an impulse which can come in many forms. For some people, motivation can come in the form of money, some in the form of materials and some in the form of recognition. But anyhow, we need to have a very strong impulse in our life to become achiever. Without motivation, people will not make any changes in life. Life will be stagnant. We need to be motivated all the time. All the achievers in this world has tremendous amount of motivation within themselves. For example, Wright Brothers. Without motivation and dare to fail attitude, today we would not be flying to any part of the world. You should not lose your motivation or feel down if you tripped and fall during your first baby steps. You should not lose your motivation if your friend or colleagues tell you that you cannot do or cannot win. You should not lose your motivation when you fail in your first trial. Accept the pain and the success will accept you because, without going through painful experience, a rock cannot turn into a statue. If you keep yourself motivated all the time, your self development will become a part of your life. You will be always thinking on improving your life, thus improving the life of those around you. You can read motivational books, talk with achievers, and attend self development seminars and so on. But please do it without fail. Please keep up your motivation level. Don’t lose it for anything. This is the most important key factor which will bring you to the hall of fame, if not today, definitely one day later.