Letting your sales niche paves the way for bigger sales

I think I’ve gathered some good facts in my head to write in this post as a continuation of what I had written yesterday. The topic of yesterday’s blog post was ‘The 3 steps to secure loyal clients’. I think they were fairly simple to understand and easy to remember steps. I’m quite satisfied with the post because it simplified the sales process to just 3 simple easy to remember steps.
This morning in the daily meeting, the new sales engineer who I mentioned in earlier post suggested an idea which I considered to be brilliant. I thought it was brilliant because nobody really thought about it before and it can be used as a sales niche to opening opportunities for bigger sales to prospects.
You might know that in the business of making custom-made automated process machines, prospects are very careful when it comes to making purchase decisions and they sometimes are reluctant to discuss further about it because they don’t believe in what they hear. Prospects are not willing to commit until they are truly convinced that the machines can perform as expected and that will mean fast returns of their investments. Further, the machines that are being proposed are available elsewhere ‘on shelf’ with very competitive price. This makes it difficult for the sales team to pitch in their ‘promises’ that could make the prospects to not even considering their presentations. No matter how well the sales team phrases its ‘promises’; they sounded monotonous filled with platitudes.
Since the company is also selling small and single unit process equipments which we called them as the semi-auto equipments, some of these equipments, especially those that have higher profit margin and wider range of applicability, can be used as sales niche by aggressively offering prospects to buy for their smaller production quantity lines. The sales records shows that only one unit was sold last year because the sales team was concentrating on selling another type of semi-automated equipment that was common in the market and not versatile in its applications. This was due the fact that they were unaware of the potentiality of the semi-automated equipment that has a wider range of applications.For every sale of these equipments will ‘convert’ the prospects into customers, and subsequently open up the way for the purchase of the fully automated process machines to these customers. Thus, it will be easier for the sales team to pitch their ‘promises’ when the customers are ready to listen with open hearts.

The 3 steps of sales process to securing loyal clients

Today a new sales engineer starts his first day in the company. He had two years of experience selling automated packaging machines which made him quite seasoned in this field. He is expected to prove leadership to the present sales team. Since I’m the coach for the managing director of the company, it’s quite natural for him to ask me to make a short presentation about sales and marketing.
I wasn’t taken by surprise, after knowing him for two years now; I knew that I have to give one or two pitches to the new guy as well to the other two sales persons who had not really came up with outstanding and consistent sales figures since. Due to the …emm ‘so so’ performance of his sales force since I came in, I had begun reading and subscribing to the channel of Chuck Bauer’s getsalesresulnow on youtube.com to equip myself with marketing and sales knowledge, although sales is not my main bread and butter. Yes, I can say that I am all ready for a short presentation that could motivate these guys to building a solid pool of loyal clients.
Being a science student since the age of 16, I distanced myself from sales since. People who were closed to me told me that sales line could not make good money. I was convinced when I saw the shops in the town that I lived showed little signs of improved living standards. It was a common scene to see the owners sat behind their counters waiting for customer to drop in, really nothing interesting happened. The managing director who is few years younger than me also grew up learning science as his main stream. Thus, making us both paddling the same boat.
Before working on my own as a freelance process improvement consultant, I had been working in manufacturing department all the while. The people in the production or manufacturing were regarded as the pillars of the company, and many freshies (newbies) opted to work in the manufacturing department for better salary and future advancement. The corporation that I was with never had a president with sales or business background since it was incorporated. As such, I felt secured. Another fact that I wasn’t really involved in sales was because sales and marketing figures were all decided by the HQ (headquarters or head office) in Tokyo. We just produced in accordance to the figures given by the market representative from HQ. Furthermore, the local consumption was less that 5% of the total sales of the company so there not much of sales activities going on in the factory.
As competition got tougher and the emergence of stiff competitors from Taiwan and South Korea, the company that decided to mold all senior managers from developing countries into a all-rounded general managers knowledgeable in technology and in business. The corporation had also promoted a vice-president with business and sales background as its president for the first time in history of the corporation. It was a great surprise to every employee either in Japan or their overseas ventures. So, as to gear up the performance to the company for the new millennium all general managers from overseas ventures were brought to the executive training center in Japan to attend seminar organized by the HQ for a month; it was like a crash in-house course in MBA studies.
In one of the classes, I remembered very clearly a senior director of the sales and marketing division of the corporation emphasized that sales and marketing in like front wheel of a front wheel-driven cars, contradictory to the previous understanding that manufacturing was the power behind the wheels of the back wheel-driven cars. The analogy given was totally the opposite of my understanding that manufacturing push for sales was the norm of businesses to staying in business. The era of production push is fast losing its grip on how businesses are to be carried out nowadays. The only thing I had in my head was that I hope it’s was not too late for me to take sales and marketing seriously as the learning synapses of my brain were getting weaker.
I have to do what most good consultants would have done, that is, regardless of my weaken brain synapses I got to restructure my understanding on what business is all about today by getting totally involved in the business of creating customers rather than business of creating large inventory on products. As for my weak brain synapses, I guess by taking correct dosage of Eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA capsules daily I can revive the strength of my brain synapses….emm hope so…
You see, a sales person can be regarded as a preacher of a particular church who preaches to invite people to believe in his church. The general public are his prospects, and his job is to convert as many followers as possible attracting them with promises of good blessings and resurrection. Converts will be loyal if and only if they are held satisfied with the promises that were given to them through words and assurance of the preacher.
It’s a simple analogy of a salesperson and it gives me a vivid understand of what the sales department must do, that is to get as many prospects be converted into customers. Having able to convert them into customers is not the end yet; there is another area path that we have to take them in order to be loyal to us. This is the difficult part; turning the customers into clients who would come repeatedly for the products or services and consultations. At this juncture, your prospects were already converted to full pledge clients because they are held satisfied with the products or services that your had promised them earlier. How can sales persons do this?
Sales persons, being like a the front wheels of the front wheel-driven vehicles, have to get across what ever they had promised to the customers to the other functional groups of the organization, namely, designing, purchasing, manufacturing and assembly. The sales persons are also responsible to translate the requirements of the customers in meticulous details and they should be crystal-clear of what required by the customers. They must not leave it entire to the hand of these groups and must continuously coordinate the manufacturing processes of the products. At this stage no assumptions must be made by the sales persons because their customers are held satisfied with their promises. Many a time sale persons commit ‘unforced’ errors here which can cause serious damage to the company’s reputation. It is all because they make assumptions.
Let me repeat again the simple 3-step sales process that the sales person must adhere to in order to secure loyal clients.

1. Create customers by converting prospects into customers

2. Attract customers with promises that held them satisfied

3. Deliver promises by coordinating the efforts to produce the products or services, so as to convert customers into clients.

The wonder world of meetings and discussions - The Japanese style

It is just difficult for me to begin this post; and I don’t really know how and where to start despite of have a clear motive on what to write. I have many things in my head to write, but they just don’t line up in an organized manner. I think it’s better for me to might as well write what ever goes into my head. OK…You see, there are many kinds of meetings in a typical Japanese organization. In this blog post I’ll give a brief account on the daily meetings or discussions that are routinely conducted in a typical Japanese company. Let’s count how many types are there assuming that the working time of this hypothetical organization is the usual 9am to 5 pm:

1. At 8:55am a daily 5 minutes group assembly before work starts. I called it the morning exercise meeting. This meeting is normally conducted in factories or manufacturing plants where all employees will do simple rhythmic routine of stretching of the commonly used body muscles outside of their offices. Colleagues from the same office would group together and give morning greetings to each other.
The good point of this morning exercise meeting is employees are able to start work immediately from the time the siren sounded. They are in the alert mode as the exercise ends. This is because the early exercise that had given them the warming up to jump-start their work. So work begins fast. This meeting also encourages employees to come early by about 10 minutes before work. Through these morning exercise meetings, Japanese companies are gaining on the first few minutes of productive time from each worker. The number of productive hours gain is significant if we were to take the total sum per year.

2. From 9:00am to 9:15am a daily 15 minutes section morning meeting is conducted. All sections must carry out this morning meeting. This meeting is very ritualistic and is conducted while standing. Each member of the section will take turn to say a loud while pointing his/her index finger to the vision of the company; other will follow to recite the text. The ‘ritual’ of read the company’s vision can be at the beginning or at the end of the daily section meeting. An assistant to the section head will conduct the meeting, informing the section head and other member what are to be accomplished for the day.
The good point of this meeting is the tasks that must be accomplished for the day is known by every section member before actual work begins. Although everyone in the section has his/her separate duties and responsibilities; by the end of the day these duties can be summed up into one common goal. Shift workers are not exempted from holding this meeting. Shift managers must make sure that this meeting is conducted 15 minutes at the start of their shift work.

3. From 10am to 10:45am. A daily liaison meeting, an inter-department meeting where the supervisors or the key persons of the sections, lets say manufacturing and engineering departments, will meet to straighten things on issues relation to the on coming jobs between the departments. This meeting normally starts an hour after work begins, that is, 45 minutes after the section daily meeting. The supervisors of the said departments would have gotten all the facts to be discussed within the 45minutes period. The meeting will windup all issues or job requests so that jobs like maintenance can be smoothly carried out and jobs that are in the ‘no-man-land’ would be resolved and would have someone responsible. This meeting will take about 30 minutes.
The good point of this meeting is that communication between two or three departments are constantly maintained in high spirit so as everybody in the organization will be on the alert to carrying out and taking the correct jobs as planned. This type meeting will reduce if not eliminate entirely the sectionalism mindset, thus making way to have a fool-proof system or mistake-proof as miscommunication between members of the separate departments can surely be avoided.

5. From 10:00am to 11:00am., in larger organizations where 3 to 4 sections make up a department; a section head daily morning meeting is held with the department head. This meeting is scheduled at about the same time as the daily liaison meeting (3) and attended by the section heads of a department. Since this meeting will take slightly time longer time, about an hour or so, it is normally conducted in a meeting room with a fixed agenda every day with provisions to discuss possible solutions for problematic situations in a particular section. All daily figures from each section are recorded in a journal which serves as the official meeting minutes of the meeting. These figures are compared to the targeted department’s budgeted figures.
The good point of the meeting is daily achievements of the various sections are measured against the budgeted figures and thereafter estimations are made whether the monthly targets are within reached. These figures are analyzed and scrutinized daily; any discrepancies must be accompanied with objective evidences. Section heads, being university graduates, are expected to perform a higher degree of complex calculations as to forecast accurately against the budgeted figures.

6. From 11:00am onwards, department heads would make presentations to the factory manager. Department heads are third in rank below the president of a typical Japanese corporation. They are sometimes called as general managers. They are influential people in the factory working closely with the factory manager. Often factory manager will make consensus decisions with them on all matters related to factory operations. The daily encounters between department heads and the factory manager is usually one to one basis. However, factory manager has all the liberty to call on the department heads any anytime to discuss issue relating to the operation of the factory. Informal meetings or discussions can also be conducted over lunch at about twice a week where set-lunch boxes are brought in the meeting room and discussions can be on any factory matters that don’t necessarily have to be concluded with resolutions. These keep-in-view items are essential for near future factory expansion or production facilities for new products as preparation to anticipate the on going continuous improvements by marketing and the research and development departments.
The good point of the constant interaction between department heads and their boss is reflected in the comprehensiveness in analysis work to evaluate the action plans laid down by them daily. This daily checks is like steering your car in the busy streets of New York City, making all your senses to work to get good results in the operation of the factory.

7. From 4:45pm to 5:00pm. a daily 15 minutes meeting before work ends is conducted in a similar manner as the 15-minute section daily meeting (2). Here, members of the section may take turn to talk on the items that they have completed and on what to expect on the following day. The assistant to the section head makes record the presentations. Their presentations are short and concise.
The good point about this meeting is mainly for the reflection of each section member on his or her job well-done for the day. The voicing out of his/her accomplishments of the day has a positive impact on his/her mental alertness in preparation for tomorrow’s work

8. After 5:00pm. After work informal meetings and discussions would continue to about 9pm. Section heads, who are often busy formulating solutions on special projects with department head and even factory manager, apparently don’t have time to discuss daily matters with other members of his sections. This get together at company sponsored drinking clubs or pubs from 6pm to 9pm can serve the purpose of mending the cracks and breaks in the communication between him and other members of his section. The section head will use this daily drinking session to air out his dissatisfaction in the performance of the section or a member of his group; like wise the members can make comments on what he feels about his section head. Rarely, the members of other department would join in this 3-hour free talking unless they have had previous close ties with the section or the section head.

Maintaining constant communication to make the day’s efforts worth it is the result of meetings and discussions that are going on very strong in Japanese companies by employees to staying in close rapport to one another. Daily achievements are regarded as a step head towards attainment of the company’s goal; yes it is a process in making to attainment of the final goal. Their work expectations are dedicated for the well being of the group that they belong to; day in and day out. They show strong cohesiveness for more than 8 hours a day depending on each other to achieving what not be possible by an individual. This is the wonder world of participative management.

Positive thinking part 5: Believing

Yes, finally I am able to write the final part 5 of my positive thinking series. I really don’t expect it this early. The most wonderful aspect that I have learned in the course of writing this series is being more positive towards in life since the last 5 or 6 days. The best achievement of the week happened yesterday. I was able to save my client from losing his best customer by giving the right solutions for a process automation machine to qualify and meet the six sigma acceptance level of his client. This is something that I can proud of and it’s definitely a plus for my new consulting business.
Another pleasant thing happened was; just before I started writing this final part; I visited the Website of Michigan Technological University, USA, the school that I took my Bachelor in Chemical Engineering. I had never gone to the Website since I came back from there in 1983. That was really a long time ago. It was a long shot for me to do that because I don’t really think that I’ll be up there in Upper Michigan again. As I browsed the pages, I could get a page that allowed me to search for my name. Then, waaalla…. there was my name. I am very happy to be able to log in and would start to be in contact with my classmates.
I guess the best explanation on why I browsed the site was, for last one day or two my mind started working on this final part 5 which has to do with the reflection of one’s life. Throughout our life, we have met people from various walks of life whose habits and behaviors in one way or another had made what we are today. From them, we learned, filtered and stored all information about their habits and later used when and as situations demand.
Very often we can observe the similarity in verbal expressions of a father and son and even in the way they walk. These are habits that passed on in the family sometime down to few generations. If the habits were predominantly negative conscious efforts must be made to change or to improve. Schools, colleges and institutions are the places where positive habits can be learned. However, it would depend on the individual students themselves to learn what’s right and have a mindset to believing in the teachers.
To lead a life that is filled with contentment, we have to eliminate entirely the habits that are negative which can post as obstacles against our pursuit towards achieving success in all aspects of our life. We can bring about the change by believing in the people whom we look up to with great respect and admirations and let ourselves be immersed by the memories of these people who we believed has the positive characteristics that we desired.
There are two ways of learning and knowing the characteristics of these people. First, is by reflecting our life and think of the people closed to us who have made significant influence in our way of thinking. Second, is to the read repeatedly the bibliography of people who we admired. I mentioned repeatedly because it is important for us to grasp a very clear and comprehensive picture of their lives in our mind. Believing in them and believing in their deeds for humanity is of paramount importance. Failing to do so, all of our efforts and time will just be wasted away.
The first person whom I believed most was my mother. She was a friend, a teacher, a supervisor, and a mother to me. Until today my mental picture of how she dressed me up in my first school uniform for my first day of school is still very clear. My school uniform was always neat and starched pressed. And she would always slipped in 20cents (0.5 US cent at present forex rate) coin in my pocket. She never failed me, not a single day until I was big enough to manage on my own.
Went I was 16, my chemistry teacher whom through his understanding and patience made me believed in him that I went on studying in science and engineering. I was not his favorite student but I developed the belief that he could lead me by the hand to learning the subject that most students hate. I guess he might have known that we were students from a rural area and had acquired a teaching method that suited to our way of life. I would always ‘played back’ his style of teaching even after I left the high school. From there on I started to focus on what was right and believe in all my teachers and professors. One must give due respect to one’s teachers and have faith in them because through them we will come somebody of the same or higher status later in life. So the habit of believing in the people who were responsible to make us ‘grow’ is very important and this habit still runs deep in the eastern culture. By instilling this belief that my teachers were important to me when I was a student, I discovered that I would always be ready for classes most of the time and would not fail to impress them by submitting my complete assignments.
You see, when we believe in someone we will act as though we are that someone with meticulous details. This act of acquiring the action of an influential person can clearly be observed in a young Japanese manager who would imitate the moves of his boss when attending customer negotiations or important meetings in for his future undertakings to acquire the character of the boss that he believes in.
There are times in our lives we have to rely on the belief in our ability and trust our guts and judgments. When you compete in singles tennis game, for example, you are on your own against your opponent; decisions must be made and executed by you within a fraction of a second that can determine whether you or your opponent will merge as victorious. Your guts play important roles in deciding what shot to be taken. You can see that successful professional players have higher degree of self belief that they acquired through rigorous training, positive mental attitude and making wonderful passing shots.
I did try on two occasions to test my guts and my determinations. The first was to walk up Mount Fuji (3776 meters) in Japan in summer of 1990 with my International friends from Japan, Korea, Thailand and Singapore. We started from Tokyo in the morning and arrived at the 5th Station in the evening from there we paved our way up to reach the summit very early in the morning of the following day; and by the late evening we were back in Tokyo again. So, to complete this journey we had no time to get proper sleep for more than 36 hours. I was so exhausted that I slept for more than 12 hrs upon returning to my place.
It was a very slow journey up, trailing in long line and one could not be out of the line formation to make sure that no one stepped on a loose rock that could roll down and caused injuries to the people lining up at the rear. As I reached higher, the air was becoming thinner and to maintain my oxygen level in the body I grabbed two canisters of fresh air and take a breath or two of good air supply every time I felt weak. Some of my friends gave up because were too tired to continue due to lack of sleep. At the rest point (8th station), I had to make a decision to proceed or to give up and shortly after consulting my friends, I made a decision to continue the journey to the top. If I had decided to stop and take a rest, all I would get was just a little sleep in a crowded rest point with no fluffy mattress and pillows. We arrived at the summit at about 4am and were able to see the sun rising from the east. It was a beautiful sight indeed.
I could remember the challenge that I took together with other Hindu devotees to walk a distance to over 200 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur to a small town called Maran, situated in the north east region peninsular Malaysia, in 4days. It was an experience that I will not forget till the end of my life. The first few hours of day one was ok, but as the hours gone by, little by little my guts were being consumed by the heat from the sun, radiated heat from the surface of the tar road and pain in my feet. Mirages of me sitting at home watching TV with a glass of cool lemon tea started flashing in my head like a computer that be ‘consumed’ by Spyware or Malware. For me, I knew that the objective of this ‘game’ was to complete the whole distance in 4days but for the other Hindu participants this event was sacred in which their suffering would be blessed with good fortune later in life. So, it was no surprise that they were willing to endure the ‘punishment’ that they were receiving. After enjoying a healthy vegetarian dinner and good live musical performances on our first night, I decided to move on because I too had my purpose to complete my walk; passing through day two and the other two days; I kept my desire strong to complete the journey. When the walk ended, my feeling of achievement was so good and wonderful that it over came the pain of losing the whole nails from two toes of my left foot and swollen feet that lasted for about a month. From the experience, I could feel the hardship that my father experienced, when he was a teenage, escaping from the Japanese hard labor camp in Singapore walking more than two hundred kilometer back to his home town in northern Johor.
Now you see, going beyond our limit is crucial in developing our guts and determination which it not tested would not be tough to fight the challenges to become positive thinkers. Our guts should be subjected for endurance test after we acquired the self belief that we are capable to over come any unexpected obstacles. Weakness in a one’s determination is reflected when a person has never ending excuses about not getting any results.
Procrastination is the enemy that one has to fight till the end. It is the fruit of negative habits that have rooted in ones mind. These habits were either inherited or acquired later in life from sources of negative elements or both. You can see and understand better if you were to take the habit of smoking to present procrastination. Similarly, smoking habit is either acquired from internal family or from outside sources. The only effective and known weapon against procrastination is making definite decision and immediate actions. The act of taking fast actions in any problematic situations can instantly kills the habit of procrastination – just like spraying water into fire.
So, let’s start the design process of a wealthy life by first believing in others who shared your dreams now. Share the beliefs of friends and trusted associates who have achieved wealth (not necessarily money). Finally, have the faith in your pursuit of achieving the true sense of richness in life.

Positive thinking part 4: Achieving

Life has its purpose; and in my opinion, the purpose of living is to be especially good in a particular trade so as one would be able to contribute to the prosperity and wellbeing of his/her community. A community which is lack of specialized people will not be able to function as it is meant to be. Take for example a simple tribal community which depends on hunting as a source of survival must consists of people who are skillful in using the bows and arrows, and spears to hunt for food. These hunters are expected to be also skillful in other trades that are associated with hunting such as, the ability to read animals foot prints, tweaked branches and to estimate the presence of the hunted animals by the smell of its dung. The well-being of such community will depend on how good they are in their skills.
If we were to look at the organization that we are attached to, in which all the necessary functions are already fixed and predetermined to achieve certain definite targets, our involvement and contributions have to be significant. All the people who make up the organization are responsible for the organization’s constant rate of growth. Good players that excel would receive higher rewards that were comparable to their efforts that they have had contributed. Bad players were left behind.
Sun Tzu in his infamous Art of War chronicle pointed out that the excellent fighters can win a battle, the above average and average will definitely lose and nothing is expected from less capable. He reasoned out that excellent worriers made in advance all the calculations about the battle in every aspect leaving no stones unturned and only made their moves on calculated risks.
I made it sound so difficult to be especially good in your quest to be excellent and yes without any doubt I do agree that it is difficult; because it is not some thing that you can acquire over night. It requires a positive mental state that can be called as “a step beyond”, where every little move that our body made is directed towards achieving the goals that our mind and emotions yearned for. Tirelessly and diligently we have to tell ourselves aloud, letting our desires ‘touch’ all the senses that are connected to the brain to feel the goodness of wealth that will ultimate be ours.
In our quest for excellence, total improvements must be made continuously without looking back. Reflections of the past and changes in our actions are to be made while we are on the move. Keep up with the pace to achieve excellence; but not perfection because once we think that we are perfect; everything stops.
The 5 simple of rules achieving are;

Rule 1
“Be serious in your studies” does this phrase rings your bell. Yeah… Be serious in what we do. Japanese salary men know when to be dead serious and when not. Instructions by the boss is a serious matter, procrastination (delay-daley as what we call here in Malaysia) is a serious offence which can be a reason of a salary man being transferred to a non-productive small sub-contractor’s company.

Rule 2
Setting targets that are difficult but achievable are the fuel for continuous improvement because only with setting seemingly impossible can trigger out consciousness in beta waves, a state of the brain when get excited started noticing the difference between identical twins. All calculations and simulations must be done well in advance followed by taking actions based of plans advocate a series simple methods, and leaving no unturned stones. This rule requires high degree of concentration which has an indepth knowledge and understanding on the subjects in question.

Rule 3
This rule calls for an even higher accomplishment nearly impossible to be attained by an individual but is achievable by incorporating the mastermind developed by a group of people. The association of with 3 or 4 people with high degree of knowledge can work together constantly in consensus and pushes the capability and ability of these individuals to their limits.

Rule 4
Always use the shortest cut method. Strive to be different and be number 1. Compare and combine the information that you have gathered and look for a creative edge to turning your information into innovations. This rule calls for the use of my slogan “Splendid things begins with an idea”

Rule5
Reflections of your achievements should only be done as and when occasion demands. Never be satisfied of what you have achieved and contented that you have reached perfection. Please bear this in mind, that no human being is perfect, and a human brain will only stops working when the owner dies. There is always a new frontier that is waiting to be discovered.

All achievements have their rewards, and in a life time these is no limit on how many achievements must a person has. If you are a person who regards life as an arena of accumulating of wealth (not necessary in terms of money) like freedom, good health, happiness, friendship and money, there are a lot that you can do to be rewarded. Make your life busy, finished up all the things that are due for today and fill up your daily planner with schedules which make you excited. This is because improvements can only be made when you are busy.

Positive thinking part 3: Giving

One of the reasons I started blogging was to contribute to the needs of the younger generations in appreciation to what the world had given me – knowledge. I feel that knowledge belongs to every human being. Since I was able to get the knowledge for being in this world I feel that is my duty to disseminate to the young generations or fellow beings who were not lucky as I was.
Through blogging I can be thankful to the world because I am able the reach to the people of the world to tell them what I know and good at so they can continue the legacies of my ancestors, teachers, bosses, and close friends. The Internet made it possible for me, I am grateful that I am able to enjoy its wonders. I think most bloggers would share my opinion.
One should always be thankful for what ever he/she got. It’s not really difficult to be thankful – just look up at the sky and shout “thank you god” can ease you up or even change your feeling towards some situations that were not right. If you were a person who are too busy to say “thank you” for any thing that were given to you, please try it sometimes and feel the difference. Receiving a smile from a person who you are thankful to could also brighten up your day. A good day is whole a lot better that a bad one. You need a good day because there are so many things to be accomplished within a day. We just cannot afford to have a bad day in each month because it can cause a dent in our monthly planner and hence would affect the day’s accomplishments. This would subsequently lead us into procrastination.
To give to the needy is sometimes very difficult. This is because it’s difficult for us to be parted with the things that belong to us. Giving love to anything that lives is much easier because love is never ending. Our love don’t belong to us, we are supposed to deliver it to the hearts of the people that we care in appreciation of the splendid things that they have given us.
The 5 simple rules of giving are;

Rule 1
Always look out for something that we can appreciate. A well-done job by our peers must get ample appreciation from us. Positive competition in the office is very healthy indeed. Only “short minded” or judgmental people look at it with jealousy.

Rule 2
It’s best if we can develop the habit of giving more in return to what we received. If this rule is strictly closely followed we would never feel guilty because we are not in debt. It is a mindset of giving more than being paid.

Rule 3
Get a hobby that is fulfilling. Work on it constantly and gain what ever fulfillment that it offers. Many of positive thinkers who made their hobbies into their business get full satisfaction in what they do.

Rule 4
Live a life that people will look up to you, in what you do to others and to your self-realization in life. Leave a legacy for the younger generation to emulate. Just like the Malay saying that can be translated as “Tigers will leave their colorful stripes of their skin, human being, on the other hand, will leave their names and their deed to others” . Constantly ask ourselves the question “How will my name be remembered?”.

Rule 5
Give yourself a change to change the way people around you live by believing in what you preach. This rule calls for self-control so as to lead others achieving their goals in life. We have observed many leaders fell from grace because of lack of self-control and forced people to live against their will.

I take this opportunity to appreciate in advance my readers’ comments because of the valuable time they incurred to writing their opinions. Thank you

Positive thinking part 2: Curiosity

I am sure you can tell me that speaking to a person who is judgmental needs a lot more patience than speaking to a person who is curious. In other words, talking to a curious person is more interesting because he/she allows us to complete our explanations and would take us to an area that we haven’t yet explored. Conversation with judgmental people often ended up very brief and there not much discussion or exchange of ideas. For the benefit of my readers, the word judgmental person is refered as one who has little tolerance, compassion and objectivity towards others. I also refer such person as a negative thinker. As the famous quote says…….
“Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.” -- Eugene S. Wilson
The Chinese has this simple example to explain about being curious and the ability to learn more. A full cup of tea will not take more tea even though more tea is poured into it. This is to say that we will not be able to learn more of a particular knowledge if we think that we already have acquired the knowledge. On the hand, an empty cup can contain a fresh tea if it is poured into it. Curiosity here is the ability to ‘empty’ your mind in order to accept what are being taught to you; where else a judgmental behavior is like a tea cup that contains a cup full of stale tea if it is not emptied will get bad naturally.
Back to my school days story….. This time I was at a graduating students’ exhibition organized by one of the schools in the town. As I walked around browsing the exhibitions, I noticed a man who was neatly dressed with glasses that gave me the impression that he might be someone highly educated, was going around and asking lots of questions to the students. In the sleepy town where I came from, this sort of behavior was rare and I noticed that most of the students were seen trying to avoid this guy as he approached a particular exhibit. Being curious of his behavior, I decided to follow him and listening to all the questions he asked the exhibitors. As I listened to his questions I knew that he wanted to know the whys and how the students came up with the ideas of their exhibits. He would also ask about the basic theories behind the demonstration or exhibitions. I found that his method of finding out the truth was fascinating so I started to copy him by discarding the fears of asking questions to find out why. I gradually developed the habit of asking questions to speed up my learning process before going to the library to look for in depth references. Now, I can ask Google search all sorts of questions and I can get the answers within few seconds. The world has indeed changed.
I noticed that people who are judgmental make mistakes easily. They can be easily trapped in the cocoon of their assumptions. These are the people who have thousands of excuses of not able to live at their fullest. They are like toads that are living under half-cut coconut shells – as the say goes in my country. These toads don’t have the slightest idea of what's going on or what are happening in the world outside their coconut shells. That’s why we often listen to motivational teachers referring to expression; “out of the box” to look for the extra edge in life as self- fulfillment.
To live a life filled with knowledge and fulfillment one has to be guided by these simple rules.

Rule 1
Make the habit of asking when you are looking of an explanation and confirmation. A successful salesperson always ask for sales closure from his/her prospects which he/she would certainly get if he/she did what was right to impress his/her prospects before asking. A student doesn’t have to struggle with his/her text books really hard if he/she participates positively in his/her by asking lots of questions in class.

Rule 2
Make positive judgments AFTER weighing all explanations. It may takes a slightly longer time but again your decisions would be more decisive and without mistakes. Once the decisions are transformed into actions, the actions would be swift and since they are mistakes-free you’d be satisfied and better still, your customers will never stop believing in you.

Rule 3
Pour out the stale tea that has filled your mind for sometime now and fill it up with a new and freshly brewed tea. This rule calls for you and I to listen more. Every time you listen to your customers, it is like getting free consultations – you don’t have to pay for their ideas. Compare and combine their ideas if necessary; you are sure to end up with fantastic innovations after considering both in your implementations.

Rule 4
I sure that you have heard about participative management that made at Toyota as the greatest company in using or adopting suggestions from its employees as a source for continuous improvements. The rule here is to look for positive indicators in all opinions and suggestions given to you. Comments on your blog are your starting point to look for positive indicators no matter how harsh they would be. Don’t be dejected if you get nasty comments from your peers or close friends or family members or your boss, they carry a lot of well-intended messages.

Rule 5
Never judge a person before you get acquainted. Well, first impression might not be enough to reflect his/her inside reality. Just as the say goes” don’t judge the book by its cover”. This is the rule that you and I have to be aware because if you start to make judgment of people, you would find that sooner or later people would make same judgment about you. I am pretty sure that you would not like it...

In this discussion I pointed out that positive thinking can start off by asking questions, simple or stupid or ridiculous they may seem, they would never reflect you as people who possess such qualities. If you think that by asking such questions would make others to judge you as such, then you have chosen to lead a life that will not bring you to anywhere. Then you would see success a distance or the untouchable beauty.