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.

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