Folks,

Average people are not rich.  Rich people are not average.

In I-Ching aka book of change, there is no good or bad.  Every strength become weakness under certain environment.  Ditto on weakness.  World / environment are dynamic.  Changes are constant.

From "Art of War" by Sun Tzu, know your own strength and weakness, half of the battle is won.

The KEY to career planning is to know WHAT you are?? What are your own strength and weakness?? What kind of career and environment allow you to be ABOVE AVERAGE?? What can you do that is EASY for you but HARD for others?? Conversely, if you are in an environment that DOES NOT FIT your personality and temperament, you could work very hard but you will not go anywhere.  The best that you can be is AVERAGE in that career.

Most of times, people ask THE WRONG QUESTION!!!

If you ask the WRONG QUESTION, you will NEVER get the RIGHT ANSWER!!

You could be successful in ANY career / business as long as you can EXCEL and ABOVE AVERAGE in that career / business.

To do that, you need 3 things:

1) Motivation -> You LOVE that area.  Then, you could INVEST the extra 10,000 hours to be VERY GOOD in that area.

2) Talent / Temperament -> You are born to be better than average people in doing this kind of stuff.

3) Environment / Industry -> You are working in a country / environment / culture / industry that appreciate YOUR STRENGTH and would not mind your weakness so much.

Do not follow the herd of cows.. Cows get slaughtered.  They just go into any hot areas that pays well.  They do not ask and care whether they could be ABOVE AVERAGE in that area.  That is what AVERAGE people do.

Find out WHAT you are.  INVEST on yourself to be VERY GOOD in the area that YOUR STRENGTH will be appreciated.

Dreamer

Folks,

Time for me to tell another story.

Once upon a time, I was studying in Texas, USA.  Because I was foreign student, I paid international tuition fee and that is a few thousands per year.  And, I worked part-time at the university computing center.

I am NOT normal.  I actually read the university handbook completely a few times.  Then, I found something interesting.  Texas state law say that if you are a research or teaching assistant working part-time, you get tuition waiver.  Aka, you pay in-state fee and can save a few thousands per semester.  At the handbook, it claimed that you have to be graduate student studying master or Phd to qualify to be research assistant.

Now, if you are NORMAL people, you will stop there.  But, I am NOT.  So, I actually go to the LAW LIBRARY and FIND the EXACT LAW that define what RESEARCH ASSISTANT is.  The LAW stated that a RESEARCH ASSISTANT is a student working part-time on a job that related to their study.  I copied the law and went to admission office and ask for TUITION WAIVER.  They have NO FORM and NO IDEA what to do.  They had to create a form and ask me to ask my DEAN to certify my job is related to my degree (EE).  I won!!  Subsequently, every foreign students worked at university get waiver too.

So, tell me, will a person that always say

A) They have NO CHOICE.

B) They are undiscovered

C) They have NO OPPORTUNITY

do what I did??

This is MY ATTITUDE!!

I want HIGHER SALARY.  I read and research books on how to negotiate and get better salary.

I want to invest better.  I read and study how to be better in investing.

Now, for this kind of people, unless a rock fell from the sky and kill the person instantly, they will not fail.  They may be beaten down again and again.  But, they will keep standing up and keep trying..  They will get better and better.  They will get somewhere.

It is EASY to tell whether a person can succeed or not.  It is in THEIR ATTITUDE and MENTALITY.

Dreamer

haha no some who know is surfing lowyatnet teaching us the stuff,
are u trying to imply dreamer not busy and not successful 

unfortunately your idea is ideal dreammaster.

Sure everyone wants to be engineer, doktor, lawyer all those professional jobs to be rich and successful but the competition is so tough not everyone can make it.

WintersuN,
<< Sure everyone wants to be engineer, doktor, lawyer all those professional jobs to be rich and successful but the competition is so tough not everyone can make it.>>

STOP THINKING like an average people!!!  Chasing HOT area instead of FINDING your own path.

Who says that YOU must be one of those to be successful??

We have a few EXCELLENT Chicken Rice Sellers in WHOLE Malaysia.  Do they have problem being rich??

OBVIOUSLY, you did not read "Millionaire Next Door".  The book based on actual research of millionaires in USA.  By the way, most of the doctors and lawyers in USA are NOT RICH.

Here we go again.  Average people THINKING like a herd..  Did not do any independent study to find out how many percents of doctors and lawyers are rich.

I did my own study.  I do not just BELIEVE in common myth.

<<unfortunately your idea is ideal dreammaster.>>

How many rich and successful persons that you know from first hand contacts?? Many of my family members and friends are millionaires.  They ranged from professional people with master degree to people NEVER enter high school like my cousins with ONLY SRJK© education...

Dreamer

---

Added on August 18, 2011, 10:04 am

Xerone,

WHAT and WHERE can you excel at??

Answer that question and the rest is easy...

Dreamer

Thanks I think it's a matter or vertical growth or lateral expansion. People have been successful with both approaches. I'm not so certain one is better than the other. But yes, you are right about doing things other people won't. But that means going the extra step, not to be interpreted as doing the unnecessary.

BTW, I'm just hypothesizing so please take no offense  But I wonder if there are people out there similar to Dreamer in principle, effort, belief, etc but are not successful and thus go unnoticed. Sure Dreamer may be one out of many that follows the same model but that would mean following that model itself does not guarantee success.

---

Added on August 18, 2011, 10:23 amAh well tiger beat me to it

im quite agree with u TS..and my thinking are just like u...

i will be grade soon..my job is already secure and currently im trap in the comfort zone..actually,,my aim is always to think above the AVERAGE people did..but,, now,,im afraid to take the risk..

what should i do?

Folks,

It is VERY SIMPLE...

There is NO GUARANTEE in life.  YOU have a CHOICE.

A) Do whatever you can to be successful.

B) Do nothing.

You could FAIL either cases.  But, people with (A) has NO REGRET in their lives.  They can HONESTLY tell themselves that they had done their best.  They DO NOT have to ask "What If" when they are old.

My mother tell me that

"Even if gold fell from the sky, you still have to catch faster than everyone else to get it".

<<Dreamer, for every successful man out there, there could be hundreds of unsuccessful men dead somewhere which is un-noticed. >>

People KNOW how to fail on their own.  They do not need to learn from me.

<< If not, Mr. Bill Gates is nobody or are there thousands and thousands of people which are far more successful than him.    >>

You ASKED the WRONG QUESTION!! The CORRECT QUESTION is what is SUCCESS??

There are at least thousands or a lot more people that are at least as successful as Bill Gates or more.

Dreamer

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-10414451.html

<< Article: Pak Dollah, the last great tok dalang, dies

Article from:
The Malay Mail
Article date:
September 28, 2005
Author:
AMIR HAFIZI CopyrightCopyright 2001 The Malay Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to Customer Support. (Hide copyright information)
KUALA LUMPUR: He was a master of light and shadow - the last of the great

Tok Dalangs - and now he's gone.

At 3pm yesterday, Pak Dollah Baju Merah died at Kota Baru Hospital of

complications from asthma. The 67-year-old was admitted the night before

after an asthma attack. He suffered a stroke last year.

"He was a genius. There are no more people like him," said Eddin Khoo,

researcher and freelance writer who had been a student of Pak Dollah.

Pak Dollah Baju Merah was born in Kelantan on Dec 24, 1937, as Abdullah

Ibrahim. He started performing wayang kulit when he was 13.

The man became a famous Tok Dalang (shadow player) in … >>

To Pak Dollah Baju Merah, Wayang Kulit is his ONE. And, he live accordingly to his ONE... He spent 54 years aka his whole life on this...>>
Folks,

How can YOU say that this person is NOT a successful person??  He spent his WHOLE LIFE on doing things that he LOVES.  How many people can say this about their lives??

Dreamer

too summarise it, dun get caught and dun step down 

Ok, so when there are forumers post up they have tried their best etc but still fail, then you never tell them "at least you have done your best to pursue, it's ok", instead, you will be the first one to scold them "stupid", know only how to whine, lazy to work harder, aim for comfort zone, unlike 70s etc etc etc.

You are giving contradicting statements here.

I have always put it in a friendly way and constructive manner, at least i never scold people stupid.

It's just that to people like dreamer, constructive manner is not the way to convince him. One must have real life experience to prove him and, to let him know the real life experience of someone, dreamer must know them in person.

---

Added on August 18, 2011, 11:13 am
If you don't want to waste your time, then please don't reply my thread.
You can choose:
1) Reply
2) Do not reply

No one force you to reply my posts. You have the CHOICE.

And, wheter i am teachable or not is not important to you, i know how successful i am now, my friends know how successful i am, my parents can retired with my monthly income, that's enough. 

Tigerr,

To be more precise, work smart by UNDERSTANDING your own strength and weakness.

Dreamer

Folks,

So, the QUESTION is how can I efficiently and effectively achieve an understanding of myself??

I use Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and cross reference with my real life experience to verify my personality type.  It is VERY EFFECTIVE...

There are FREE TESTS available over the Internet.

Dreamer

Debbie brings up an interesting point of discussion. She IS successful in getting to her goal. You may see her as being unsuccessful because you are measuring her relatively to someone else, not her goals. I should really research further on this Pak Dollah but I honestly can't say he is successful if he is just a wayang kulit player. Others would beg to differ. Just what kind of success are we talking about here?

average people are not rich?wat ur gonna say next?d earth is round not flat?

If you need to value someone's personality and attitude before listening to what his teaching, then I guess it's very hard for you to learn something or anything..

Have you not seen sports theme movies where in the beginning of the story the person or the team is the worst in the field then come one coach with worst attitude you can imagine then transfrom the person or the team from the worst to the best? Do you think whoever comes up with that idea made up the concept..that is how real life learning is..

Have you seen Coach Carter? That is based on real story..and also there are few other real story which I can't remember..

My real life story. I have two different Biology teacher during F4 & F5, one is very serious and barely smile even when he make jokes..and the other is a joker..I learn more from the serious one and I learned less from the other (he don't even finish the syllabus because he was too busy entertaining the students)..

Yeah..my point is if you have to be selective of who is teaching instead of what is being taught, then you might not learn anything..

Being smart won't get u rich. Being at the right time and place will

Folks,

Average people are not rich.  Rich people are not average.

1) To be RICH, you cannot have the ATTITUDE or MENTALITY to be AVERAGE in your effort and goal.  YOU need to be put in the EXTRA EFFORT. Of course, you reap what you sow.

2) It is getting HARDER to survive in Malaysia.  So, if your goal is to stay average in your chose profession / business, you MAY NOT survive. Not only Malaysia, which country is easy to survive?

3) You could ONLY put in the EXTRA EFFORT / MILE when you are YOUNG.  When you are older aka after 40 years old, you WILL NOT have the ability to push harder even if you want to.  It is TOO LATE!!! Someone said that they never stop learning even they are old? Some successful people career may just blossom after 40 years old.

4) If your AIM is to be THE BEST, you may or may not get there.  But, you DEFINITELY will be much better than AVERAGE people. Aim is achieving nothing without action.

5) If your AIM is to be AVERAGE, in most cases, you will be BELOW AVERAGE.  In the BEST CASE, you will be AVERAGE aka BARELY SURVIVE. Even stay average doesnt mean that cannot survive.

6) If your goal is to be ABOVE AVERAGE, you need to pick a business / profession where you have COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.  Do not chase HOT AREAS. If no competitive advantage, how?

7) Competition is a fact of life.  If you want something, you will have to COMPETE for that. Sometimes, money can buy what we want.

8) Anything worth having is worth fighting for. Got to look whether it is beyond your reach or not. Not fight blindly.

9) Rich and SUCCESSFUL people do not THINK like normal people.  They can SPOT opportunity while other cannot. Yes, but they may fail as well. Only those who stay alive will have the opportunity to speak.

10) Rich and Successful people go the extra mile and put in EXTRA EFFORT. Definately.

11) It is NOT my goal to force MY DEFINITION of Rich and Success on YOU.  I am just showing A WAY to get where you want to be.  Regardless of what your final goal is. No doubt on this.

I had worked 10+ jobs across 20+ years over multiple countries.  I had survived multiple recessions.  In one cases, my employer laid off 80% of my co-workers over multiple years with quarterly laid off.  I survived and I still achieve my goal in life.

No, this is NOT the ONLY way.  It is ONE WAY to do it.  If it works for you, take it.  If not, do something else.

I had trained / coached many people throughout my career.  They gone up one to two levels after I coached them.  Many of them are director / GM/ VP now.  So, it worked successfully for fair amount of people.

Dreamer

I am not here to hijack dreamer101's topic and in art & design field but due to the difficult condition, I had to detach from it and build my own business never to bow to the market standard.

I have school mate in the negative film processing industry and know of an artist committed suicide along with his two children, what caused such condition is over supply of graphic students and the practice of suppression by the advertising owner to all selfish business people, hard working is STUPID just to impress the boss.

If the job does not have career advancement, don't waste your time if you can't break the norm, in other words, you create your own career because a job has its limit and ceiling value, you can't become rich under employment. A country will only progress if people take on development than wait for it to come.