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.

Positive thinking part 1: Focusing what is right

We have heard and read a lot about positive thinking. It is the topic of choice for many motivational speakers and writers. Often they would speak and write with full dedication and emotion to reflect the meaning of positive thinking. So, one may think there is really nothing more for me to write because I am running out of content. Yeah, I would agree if I am stuck half way or delay my write up or even scrap it entirely and will think of another topic which not many of us have heard. To get some fresh thoughts on how I can approach the topic, I went for a 30mins walk just to psychic my mind, and think positive about writing this blog and looking forward to what is right to get my ideas here.
I have in mind to write 5 parts in my positive thinking blog. This is the first part which is going to be most difficult, I think, because this is the part that I have to gather lots of momentum to begin and completing the rest. From here on I will have to focus on doing what is right to complete all 5 parts within an estimated time frame of about 5 days.
I really can’t recall when did I start to inculcate positive thinking mindset as my habit. I was brought up in a small town that was once regarded as “sleeping hollow” of Malaysia. There nothing much happening in the town except for a few housewives taking their own sweet time walking to the wet market in the morning. There was not much positive things happening, everybody were feeling like the birds, the bees and the trees; letting the days passed by. I guess that sort of life was regarded as being positive in a sense because everybody was minding their own business.
One thing I’d always remember when I was a kid was, my mother always bragged about me being clever to the neighbors and her friends. I'd guess most mothers do. She may have other reasons though, like, flattering me so that I could help her with her daily chores without complaining. The most difficult part for me was to live up to the expectation that she had, like proving to the neighbors that I got good grades in school. Even when I was playing with my friends I had to be good at the games that we were playing rather than letting her down. Gradually, after many years of making it a habit, it had become a part of me that I had to focus on what was right every time. Sometime during my childhood, I think, I did make a decision to start looking at things around me positively by doing what was right for every difficult situation I encountered.
How can we do what is right in a problematic situation? There are five simple rules that we have to adhere in order to focus on doing what is right for any given problematic situations. The rules of this type of mindset are:-

Rule 1
Do not decide alone on how to deal with the situation. As you might have read from my earlier blog in which I indicated that there is an 80% chance that your decision might go wrong. Ask for a second or may be a third opinion before deciding on the course of actions. With all information at hand you can start believing in your guts to act on the situations. This rule requires you to focus on the resources and information you have gathered for the situation.

Rule 2
Getting right at the first attempt is always crucial in solving all problematic situations. By not getting the correct solution the first time can have a led down effect which can be devastating on your next subsequence trials. So, the rule is, to breakdown the problems into sub-category and breaking down future into elemental contributors then scrutinize each element thoroughly. One very popular method of scrutinizing that has proven track record is by asking the question “why” at every answer you got until the root causes surfaced out. This might look difficult but once you get the hang of it, it will be a piece of cake. Once the root causes are known, you can table out 2 or 3 action plans and begin your quest for solutions taking the one which promises good return.

Rule 3
The rule here is to keep focusing on the progress of the action plan that you have taken. All measurements must be made here, not to forget the comparison with some know standards. Quantifying each finding in terms of money or any other equivalent measures will help you knowing where you stand and also in making corrections to your actions. Hence, the chances for you to go wrong are totally eliminated. This rule will shunt out the fears of making the wrong course of action and gives you the confidence and motivation to achieve even further than expected.

Rule 4
You must not let your concentration on focusing the right things gets carried away on a different course or disrupted even for a brief moment. Reflecting on the results you have gotten at regular intervals and compare them with your expectation will make you focus deeper into the situation. Strict adhere to this rule will lead you in keeping a constant input to your subconscious mind suggesting on what is right. The effect of this continuous input to your subconscious mind can change your mindset towards focus what is right than what is not right.

Rule 5
The final rule is to engage your subconscious mind on continuing your quest in the subconscious level. Once you are able to engage the subconscious mind, you are in the auto-pilot state of near perfection. By do so; you are in the state where your subconscious mind is in fact controlling the course of the entire action plan. This is the ultimate goal of focusing what is right.

We have gone through the first part of positive thinking that calls for focusing what is right in every situation that crosses our path. Take for example, you got an important sales appointment tomorrow at 8am. So then the question is; what is right for you to do to in order to get your product or service sold to the prospect?

The recent tragic earthquake in Sichuan Province, China revealed many miraculous survival stories told by the survivors who were mainly school children. Stories on how they did the right thing to eliminate their fears in the dark under the rumbles of concrete blocks that enclosed them from the outside world while waiting for help. One child decided to sing some songs that were taught in school and in places where there was a little light one of the children decided to draw pictures. They acted positively to drive away the fear of death and by these acts they brought back their feeling of living as normal although they were in darkness and in pain. These children taught us how to live a life of positive thinking through focusing and doing what is right.

The Big Boss - What to do when the boss is always right

Well not all bosses are bad, most of them are good not only at their work but also at their judgment. If not because these qualities they won't be the boss in the first place; unless they were there due to some kind of big string tied to them.
What I am arriving at is that if your boss is the person that has good judgment about where his/her organization and business is heading, then my advice is to stick close with him/her. Treat him/her like your special grade customer, all priorities must be opened to the boss. This is because he/she needs all the support and leadership he/she could get from his/her employees; I mean he/she just can't do it alone. You will realize that by doing so your boss is more motivated in his pursuit to achieving the business goals resulting in a win-win situation between you and your boss.
Good bosses normally give direction with distinction, not obscure or vague picture of his/her goals. Their vision is usually sharp, just like the needle of a compass. Your job is to follow the direction of the compass needle and don't ever lose sight of it. To be ahead of him/her you must always strive for more, like 30% extra than targeted, and by the end of the day you will realize you have done it effortlessly.
This is what the Japanese called “Hoshin Kanri” or in many English , policy deployment. Do a Google search on Hoshin Kanri and you’d be surprised on the huge amount of write-ups about it. I called it “my boss policy control”. By adhering to the boss’s policy or vision, you’ll find out that you are focused and poised in your actions to get the results that you and your organization are looking for.
Those who failed were those who led their ego went in between the boss and themselves. These were the people who said that they got their own way of doing things. They thought that by following the direction of the compass needle given by the boss, the boss was undermining their leadership quality and gave no or little authority to make things happen. If fact one of the major attributes on leadership laid down by Napoleon Hill, the author of the great book Think and Grow Rich is “the habit of doing more than paid for” These are the people who will become bad bosses later in their life. So, look out for these type of bosses.
Once I had this experience in Japan. The organization that I was with organized a field trip to some interesting places which we had to pay some amount from our pocket money. Well, since we had to pay partially, some of us, especially those who came from countries far away from Japan suggested to substitute with other places of interest. There was much discussion that some how or rather boiled into argument. I realized that my Koreans friends were very passive in this discussion, so out of curiosity I asked one of them. The answer I got was very subtly simple. He said in his Korean culture, once we find that the organization has worked diligently to provide us with good service we just follow and look forward in the results. He continued that he would only complain if he finds that the trip is not worth his money rather than wasting time arguing for something that is not known. It came out later that the trip was really a good one and those who left behind could only envy us.
Business is about getting things done the way that you and your boss had planned, at a profit. With more profit you can invest in more resources to get even more splendid things done. To achieve this, there is nothing more important than having all the people in your organization working together towards the direction squarely targeted at the vision of the big boss.

Double your profit: its function divided by wastage

11 major attributes of leadership

"To err is human": 80% of your decisions are wrong

My title is true if you make these decisions alone, with no consensus or consultations or considering the opinions from your spouse or close friends or peers. Listen to them and make them part of your decision making process. Making the move alone or even believing on your guts can be your biggest mistake.
Nothing is more assuring than asking your customers what they want from your products or services rather than assuming that your products or services are good enough for them.
Listen from someone you trust before making all your business decisions. It makes a lot of sense to knowing your short comings in advance than facing the consequence of the wrong decision. Make your organization work for you.

Make solutions work for you

"That's what I like about Lord Young. While you all bring me problems, he brings me solutions."
MARGARET THATCHER

Have you ever wondered why your business wasted too much time and money solving unnecessary problems? Problems that were not supposed to be there in the first place. Do you realize that a significant amount of these unnecessary problems were in fact imported or brought in from outside of your organization? Where did these problems come from?
Unnecessary problems are unknowing imported into your business through your daily business activities. They didn’t sneak in; in fact they came in through your gates quite freely. Its like computer viruses infected your computer system that has no firewall installed. Some came in as via the unofficial routes and you even paid for a good portion of these problems ‘appearance fees’ to be in your business.
These problems can cause hiccups to the smooth running of your business machine. It’s like an opposite force that pulls you against the direction of your intended motion. What are they actually? They include all the problems related to the following;
1. Employees related
. Corrupt and irresponsible officers
. Hand phones and internet nuisance
. Never give a damn about recruitment filtering
2. Machines and equipments related
. Purchase of improper or poor quality tools and equipments for your processes.
. Careless maintenance
. Installation of invalidated systems for your operation
3. Methods and procedures related
. No written job description and work procedures
. Marketing and sales assumptions that are not based on facts
. Usage of unofficial imported methods to carry out routine operations
4. Materials related
. Regardless to reuse, recycle and recover materials in operation process
. Usage of under specification materials
. Uncoordinated material procurement activities
These subheadings can guide you to listing down all the unnecessary problems that you have led them dwelled in your business.
Now, it’s time for you to take appropriate actions and make sure these problems will not get into your business once and for all. How? Well, if you are stopping spy wares or computer viruses from getting into you laptop, your have to install firewalls, anti-spies, and anti-viruses software. To ensure that your ‘firewall’ is effective, adhere to these simple 3 steps.
First, meet with all key personnel in your organization and instruct them to only bring in only solutions to their operation daily. A 45-minute meeting is sufficient for this purpose. Don’t have time, then plan one. Block the time in you daily planner i.e. 45 minutes from 9:00am to 9:45am. Remember, you want to hear only SOLUTIONS to your listed problems not problems. Make this habit a culture in your daily routine of you business.
Second, make sure to put 300% effort to track down every process in your business operation. How can you to get 300% effort? Selected 2 of you very best employees and make them put in 100% effort each to forming your mastermind group alliance.
Third, take prompt actions. Go through every single solution; document and implement them.