Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Success Vs. Failure: Finale

Continuation for previous week...

MESSAGE TO CHAMPIONS

Coach Anang: Failure in your SPM doesn't mean it's the end of your life... It'll hurt you so much, but in the end... It is you that matters. Stand up and get on with your new life. Learn from your failure, and plan your life ahead. You're just 19 yeas old... There are many more years ahead of you. Fill it up with greater success. Let others have their success now, but InsyaAllah, dengan TEKAD dan usaha , you will also gain your success one day.

My mom always giving me this advice:
"Jangan terlalu terburu-buru mengejar kejayaan, tak semestinya kejayaan sekarang menjamin kejayaan di masa hadapan. Ingatilah cerita si kura-kura dengan arnab - yang berlari cepat, tidak semestinya akan sampai di pintu kejayaan lebih awal"

Take one step at a time.. InsyaAllah, champs sekalian akan berjaya suatu hari nanti. Berjanji pada diri sendiri yang kalian akan berusaha dengan bersungguh2. Kegagalan bukanlah satu penghalang, akan tetapi ianya satu pintu untuk kejayaan.


Pahatlah semula TEKAD di hati mu dan teruskanlah dengan langkah pertama mu... Insyaallah, Wawasan akan di julang, dan Kejayaan akan digenggam.

Coach Lan : You need willpower, determination, prayers, support from friends and the understanding of yourself to lift yourself up and move on. This sharing is for my friends, but it is especially for my adik-adik to learn from. I can almost connect and understand our adik-adik Champions immediately simply because, I was once their shoes.




From the Editorial Team: Notice how Coach Anang’s and Coach Lan’s answers came out surprisingly similar, even though they answered the questions separately and they live thousands of miles apart ? Coach Anang is currently doing his PhD. in Melbourne, Australia and Coach Lan works and lives in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Missed the previous episodes?

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Labels: Dear Coach

TekadMon at 8:54 pm

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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Success Vs. Failure: Part 3

Once you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up. Let’s see what Coach Anang and Coach Lan did to rise above their failures….

Part 3 : The Rise Above

Coach Anang : Start your “Langkah Pertama” and move on with your life. There are so many other opportunities and paths for success. If you failed once, it doesn't mean you will fail forever. I have to build up my own self-confidence that I can do it. Usually people get de-motivated and lose his/her self-confidence when they failed. It's normal. But it's not the end of one's life. Besides taking action, I also believe that we should also pray and asks guidance from the Almighty.





Coach Lan : For me, the failures empowers me to move forward. I learned to not make the same mistakes again.

The power is in you - the key is to understand yourself. Understanding yourself is the key to unlock your potential. Know your weaknesses and strengths, etc. From there, it becomes a lot easier to move on. For me, failure is actually wisdom for success in the future. So, yeah, once I understood myself, I switched lanes and flew. I took up Communications in UiTM. I was in the Dean's list almost all semesters, almost effortlessly. Ambik extra subjects lagi, buat kerja part-time lagi sebab nak bayar fees. But then fate took another turn. My mum fell ill and I had to make the hospital my first home. We bunked in with my mum, tidur atas lantai and during puasa, makan nasi sejuk. But I had friends to support me during my UiTM days. Thank God. So, yes, friends in need are friends indeed - that can help you through the roughest of times.

In the final segment, a special message for the Champions from Coach Lan and Coach Anang. Read it next week.

Labels: Dear Coach

TekadMon at 12:02 pm

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Monday, July 09, 2007

Success vs Failure: Part 2

Everybody dreams of being successful in whatever they do. But how do we react when the unthinkable happens?

Let's see how Coach Anang and Coach Lan coped in the second installment of Success Vs. Failure Series.

THE REALISATION

Coach Anang: After what happened to me, I believed that whatever happens to you, it is your call. You can just go weeping down for even a hundred years... but nothing is going to change the situation.

I kept reanalyzing and reassessing myself (muhasabah). What went wrong? How could this happen. How can I improve myself. Initially, memang I was really frustrated... and thought that that's the end of the world.

However, I started to take things one step at a time, finding alternative options, analyzing my results and find suitable path to my career (since I got E and D for my Biology and Chemistry), I believed that was no-no for me, so I took up areas that are related to Mathematics and
Statistics. Then there are IT and computing). Alhamdulillah, it turned out well for me. I was also getting advice from other people on how to deal with this. Talk to other people. That is important. You can't really think with your own mind at that time. Second or third opinion is much better.

For me failure is a cure. It is bitter but can heal yourself. It makes us realize of our individual performance, capability and needs. Sometimes when failure happened, you'll realize that you have not done enough to achieve what you wanted, or you have done it in different way, or you need some help or guidance. The bitter part is where you have to get it off quickly....


Coach Lan : The reason why I think I didn’t do well in SPM and A-Levels was because I struggled to be in the crowd - to remain in my friend's league. I didn’t love what I was doing. I was forcing myself. For some, it can work, but for rebellious souls like myself, it can’t. My friends did accounting and mathematics. I wanted to do that too, not realising that my strengths are in the creative and social sciences. While I was in secondary school, I borrowed psychology and sociology books to read while my friends were practicing mathematics and accounting. Human behaviour intrigued me and I always like business - since I was a kid, I've always made my own money - jual gambar, sell keychains and stickers, anything that I feel marketable. I’d make like a few hundreds monthly. not bad eh? . :D that's how we are different. Our school systems do not support people like me. hehehe.

Also I think the reason why I fail a lot is because I love to try and experience new things and take risks to try. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I perform well. if I fail, I learn and move on and I know would have gained some knowledge. If u ask me whether I dare not fail or I fear failure, I'd say its 90-10.Tthere's a part of me that is afraid to take big risks. I'm still deliberating whether I should do something that is big. Otherwise, I'll go for it. just do it...but with substance and calculated risk. Then only will you learn.

What did our Coaches do to push themselves and rise up again after each failure? Read the 3rd part next week…

Labels: Dear Coach

TekadMon at 7:29 pm

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Monday, July 02, 2007

Success Vs. Failure: Part 1

Have you ever failed in your life?

Have you ever felt like giving up when things don’t happen your way?

These are only a couple out of many questions that the Champions have put forward to the Coaches. And we are going to reveal the answers, or rather, the experiences and real-life stories of our very own, Coach Lan and Coach Anang. Why do we choose the word 'reveal'? Because we will be posting their takes on success vs. failure in a four-part series. Be sure that you watch out this space for the weeks to come, as we are going to post one part of the series every week!

Here goes article No. 1!

THE FALL

Our Coaches said that they have experienced failure not just once, but many times…

Coach Anang : If you have never failed, then life is perfect... but unfortunately it's not. In terms of academic failure, I failed many times, even to achieve my own objectives. The greatest failure that I have experienced was during my A-Level time at Kolej Yayasan Mara KL (KYPMKL). I failed badly and for me it was really, really bad. I got 1 B 1 E and 1 D for my courses that time. If you spell it out, it becomes BED.. pegi tidur lah...That time I intended to pursue my course in biology and medicine, so I took up maths & statistics, chemistry, and biology. I was really shocked, and very disappointed with myself. When the results were released, the pressure kept on coming from my family. Furthermore at that time my dad was hospitalized, and would be going for his heart bypass surgery... memang macam jatuh ditimpa tangga. Since I didn't get good results for my A-Level, my sponsor MARA asked me to change course. I had to do my first year at PPP UiTM. As it turned out, I had to do my degree locally, at UTP, due to the economic disaster 1997.

Coach Lan : Everyone faces failures in their life. I don’t know about you, but I did - many times. After I got my SPM results, I thought that I was probably the "stupidest" of all. All the while, I was in the top 10. Then for SPM, I ended in the bad grade list in my school at 16 aggregate! (I will not go into the pressure bit because I think we all know how parents are like especially when they have high hopes of you and especially when you were in one of the so called finest schools in the country.) A - levels didn't help either. 1A 2Bs and 2Es. I’ve also lost money in ventures, made mistakes in counselling, failed test-beds....

From failure, comes the realisations. Read the continuation next week.

Labels: Dear Coach

TekadMon at 6:09 pm

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