My Life so Changed

Some of my friends are wandering how I have been for the past few months or weeks. It seems like I had disappeared. The fact is I have not been very active in hanging out with friends and ex-colleagues lately. There had been many changes in my life and I wanted the time to rediscover and re-organize myself, and to rebuild the confidence. I think everyone needs to do that at some points in their life, especially after going through some crisis.

Anyway, things are getting better. The dark clouds are moving away and I am once again clear-minded about what I want in my life.

If anyone of you is going through uncertainties, my only advice to you is to continue to believe in yourself. Have FAITH.

So, I wanted to share some of the things that I have written, which I never have the courage to publish. Initially, I feel like this kind of posting will make my blog looked like a diary, which I do not really want. However, from the survey I put out in my blog, I found that most people want me to share my life and work experience. So, I guess, this may be acceptable.

My Bad Habits- written on 31 March 2008, modified on 4 May 2008

More than eight years ago, I stepped into the work life at the age of twenty. Young, in-experienced and with only my diploma in IT as my qualification, I got my first job at a local securities firm. The starting paid is RM1500. It was considered a very good paid at that time as Malaysia had just recovered from the economic crisis late of 1997. Back then, I juggled between long-hours work and part-time study for Degree.

Through the years, I worked hard to acquire knowledge and experience. I rushed through most of the days with never-ending piles of works and I managed to climb the career ladder.

I achieved excellent results in study. I was the best PMR and SPM students in secondary schools and I got first class honours for my degree. I was promoted to manager-level job after 6 years of working as programmers in my third company, which I have worked for total of 6 years. I had 6-years long relationship with one that I thought was the love of my life, but the one who I could not bring myself to marry. I bought my first property more than 3 years ago. I have friends whom I hanged out and a few close friends whom I shared my feelings and thoughts.

My best friend was my notebook. I almost brought him everywhere I go, even sometimes on vacations. I declared myself a workaholic.

While everything seemed like heading to the right directions, I was actually heading to my own doom. And believe me, this is not an understatement.

In many ways, I found that I was living in a virtual reality, where things look good on the outside, but inside was empty.

I mixed with people who are no better than me. When I was in doubt in myself, they made me more doubtful by giving me negative advices. I could not blame them, though because I had made the same mistakes and I vowed not to do that again. Sometimes, our parents do that too. Like when I went swimming, they asked me to be careful of not to get drown. When I went diving, they would alert me about the possible tsunami. Of course, beneath the advices was the care and love. However, at most times, such advices did not make a point especially when you were already determined to do it. It just creates doubts and fears in you.

The property I bought more than 3 years ago was actually a bad decision. The developer was going to build another phase in front of my unit which, most probably blocked the city view that the tenant should be enjoying. I spent quite a lot of money there also on the renovation which never seem to be completed as I encountered some really bad contractors, one of which was a friend of my ex. So, finally, I decided to let go my pain and sell or rent out the unit.

So, I found some money and lost some. I have been cheated money too, by the closest person you ever imagined would cheat your money. Worst of all, I also been cheated my opportunities with false promises and empty hope.

And I let go of my relationship of 6 years. There were all the obvious reasons for me to have done this earlier, but I just ignore the signs and continue to pull through a bad relationship, where your loved one never really did care about you, although he pretended to be. And I had, all this while, used my works and activities with my friends to nullify the pain. Some people who knew of this break-up were actually very surprised and most could not see the reasons behind and straight away assumed I was doing a wrong thing. Of course, all people in this world had a ways for seeing and assuming things in conventional way, even without knowing the real stories behind (I intend to share these stories someday in a book). Anyway, let bygones be bygones. I am happy that I find a great love in the end, something that I have always wanted – happiness.

On my career and personal development, I had to rebuild myself because all the years of rushing through works, I actually ignored some basics and habits that caused me to be very inefficient. I have to re-organized myself and reset my mindset and habits.

And finally, I am ready to move on with 3 focuses in my live path:

1. To start a family, a happy family. Be a loving wife and mother.
2. Work using my talents, and redevelop myself into a person with better skillsets and efficiency. Change my bad habits.
3. Realize my longer-term dream like authoring a book. Yes, I am starting to write a little bit on this now.

My Bad Habits- written on 03 February 2008

I have not been writing any post lately, at least for a month now. For these periods of time, I was in a busy journey of rediscovering myself.

I have ventured into a new world - a totally different new world to me, a beautiful world so familiar to whatever I ever dreamt of until it feels like I may be dreaming. But in fact, I am living yet again. I found a new love, a new career direction and a new dream. Everything is as real as breathing. And I am still breathing each day, and being thankful to God and my love one for that reason.

But there is one thing that is risking things that I am having now. That is my bad habits. And I realize how critical it is for me to change. And I really want to change. Otherwise, I will continue to hurt people who really care about me. And for that, I get every reason to brave it out though.

Because of my bad habits, I turned the world upside down for my love one. I always got him into deep shit just to protect me and to give me chance to learn and change. And that, I am very grateful to him, yet it is so painstaking for me to hurt the one I love, like hurting myself. And I do not know why I kept on doing it again and again. Keep on giving myself excuse. I felt so helpless because my habits control me and not the other way around.

And today, I vowed that this all have to stop. All my bad habits had to stop. I am in different environments now. I need to change my mindset and behaviours to adapt to the new environment. No more excuses for me when I fail. Not more repeating my mistakes again and again.

How many lessons I need to learn in order for me to change?

The answer is no more lessons.

Image courtesy from www.sxc.hu

Efficiency

I came across the following story which provide a valuable lesson on efficiency.

The story of ''Masha and Sasha'':

Once upon a time, in a little village, there lived a dry-goods merchant who had two apprentices, Masha and Sasha. After six months, Masha came to the boss and said, ''Boss, I've been here just as long as Sasha, but you pay him two rubles a week more than me. That's just not fair.''

''You may be right, my boy,'' said the kindly merchant. ''So let's see what we can do about it.''

''Look out the window, way up the main street, almost at the edge of town. What do you see in the middle of the road?

''A peddler,'' Masha said, ''with a horse and wagon, coming this way.'' ''Very good. Go see what he's selling.'' Masha put on his cap, ran out of the store, up the street and came back in about seven minutes, with this report: ''He's selling linen.''

''Hmmm,'' the merchant mused. ''We're running low and could probably use some. Ask him how much he wants for it.''

Masha ran out again, came back in three minutes this time, because the peddler was continuously moving through town, and provided this information: ''He wants 100 rubles for each bolt.''

''Not bad,'' the merchant said, ''but I don't know how many meters to each bolt. Go find out.''

Another run out and back, and a minute later Masha brought back ''50 meters per bolt, Boss.''

''That's not bad. But how wide is the cloth?'' Another trip, another run - this time in the opposite direction, because the peddler was by now heading for the outskirts of the village - and Masha has discovered that the goods are 60 centimeters wide.

''O.K., Masha. Take a well-earned rest. But first, ask Sasha to come in.''

When Sasha entered, the merchant posed the same problem. ''Sasha, do you see the peddler who is just leaving our village? Go find out what he's selling.'' Completely out of breath, Sasha returns 10 minutes later. ''Boss, he's selling linen, and we're really short in this material. He has 50 bolts for sale, each one two-ply, 60 centimeters wide, 50 meters per bolt. He asked for 100 rubles a bolt, but I talked him into letting you have them for 92. He's unloading downstairs.''

This reminded me of the intense sessions I had with my mentor. He would bombard me with all sort of questions on my tasks or reports. When a question was asked, acting like Masha and giving answer like "Let me check and get back to you" would get me an F in the my report card.
I would then have to acknowledge that I was unprepared and were not efficient enough. Attention to details are crucial. There must be enough homework or preparation done. After several mistakes, eventually I learnt and I always be prepared.

A manager would always prefer someone like Sasha instead of Masha. And, of course, Sasha would be compensated much better than Masha because she is much more efficient and intuitive. Sasha is result-oriented while Masha is task-oriented.

On the other side of the coin, the wife of the author mentioned a contradictory outcome to Masha and Sasha in today's world.

''In today's real world,'' she sadly suggested, ''Sasha and Masha would both be making the same salary. Union rules, tenure, Equal Employment Opportunity and all sorts of governmental regulations would insist on it. Not only that, but if one of the two boys has to be fired, it won't be Masha. Count on it. He doesn't pose a threat to the boss's position!''

Times change. And with it ''the moral of the story.''

I agree it is very true also, especially if Masha is a good player of corporate games /politics or Masha's boss is very much the same.

Law of Paying Attention

Remember the Law of Paying Attention of the 21 Irrefutable Laws of relationship which suggested that we should pay attention to our loved one? We are to observe and maybe surprise our partner with something that he or she really desire. On the other note, I really wish to continue the series again soon.

Do you know when you really DESIRE something, you usually will get it? And on last week, I got what I desire because my partner has been paying attention to me. Although the desire is not too wishful and neither it is difficult to be fulfilled, it certainly made my day and I still feel sweet until now when I think about it.

So, the story goes like this. On one fine day when I went out with my darling to run some errands and while we were waiting in the queue, there was this advertisement banner in front of us. The banner has a picture of my favourite food and drink, nasi lemak and teh tarik. I stared unconsciously at the banner for quite sometimes. Actually, I was staring at the mouth-watering picture to be specific, but I tried to act like I was reading the texts on the banner, which was trying to depict the features of the advertised package.

The next thing I knew, we were on the way to another appointment, which was at a mamak restaurant. In no time, I was having my nasi lemak and teh tarik, the exact food of what I have pictured about half an hour ago. But now, I got to smell and taste it. Though the food is not expensive at all, and the restaurant is not of high standard as well as there is not famous chef in the restaurant, incredibly, I had an unmeasurable satisfaction out of it.

I thank my dear and told him that it was a very enjoyable lunch because I just thought of having exactly the same thing.

That was when he showed to me the Law of Paying Attention in full demonstration. He said "You think I don't know that when you were looking at the banner just now? I saw your expression and I know that is what you desire, so I brought you exactly here. It is not as easy as it seems, as I have to think of a restaurant that still sell nasi lemak (with the same packaging) at this hour of the day. Also, I have to call my business associate who will pass me something, to change to here at the last minute. "

I was incredulous. I asked him how would he notice I was actually looking at the food and craving for it, and not at the rest of the banner. I remembered I did make some efforts not to act like so gluttonous while staring at the picture and I definitely remembered there was absolutely not a single drop of saliva from my mouth. He reminded me he had a degree in psychology and he definitely is qualified enough from the years of study to be able to tell that from my expression despite my efforts.

I smiled sweetly. Inside, I was dancing and jumping. Passionately.



Well, although this story is a bit trivial, but sometimes, a simple action can really lighten up someones' day. Even though it is just a small thing, but it can be really sweet. I bet you all have your share of sweet stories too. So, let's pay attention to the one we really care about and make them happy. The world will definitely be a much happier place to live in.



I took a picture of the lovely meal after I gluttonize it passionately. It did not occur to me to take the picture before I dive in the meal (obviously), although that would be much more alike to the picture that was in my mind and on the banner.

Corporate Games aka Office Politics (Part 2)

First of all, I would like to thank my mentor for writing this part for me. Additionally, he told me there is a total of 16 corporate games. I never thought it can be that specific and I definitely curious to know more. So, there will be a lot of articles coming on this topics.

I encourage you readers to direct any questions you have about corporate games in the comments of this post. I shall get my mentor to answer your questions. He warned me though, the corporate game players are going to hate him (and me, since this is my blog) for all these exposures. I guess the last thing I will be affected both emotionally and spiritually is to upset all these players. I, basically, may even be elated to do this.

Here it goes:

Why does corporate games exist and rising?

Statistically over 65% of Malaysians are unaware of what their future holds in their work life.

It is actually a phenomenon which have been observed for the past few years among the working class at the age of between 20-30 years old.

There are primarily 4 reasons to such phenomenon:

Firstly, it is noticed that after graduation, most people would (with the exceptions of rich sons and daughters of the upper class) simply apply for any jobs that are available due to the pressures of the unemployment. "What happens if I don't get a job? What are my peers going to think of me? What will my parents say? How am I going to get the things I want?" That would be some of the thoughts in their minds. This we call, "The Pressure Point".

Secondly, after working on a job which they have not thought through carefully, the people would be hunting again for another job which they thought would be a better job than the current one, thinking "Hey, now that I have some working experience, I can get a better job with my qualification". But in actual fact, they are again considering the pay package as a major factor rather than the job which suits them in the long term. This we call, "The Monetary Factor".

Thirdly, within the companies of which they are working in, they had noticed that some people actually did not work as hard as they ought to be. And some were not as smart and efficient as they should be. But they managed to get promoted, getting authority and also making the "big bucks". So, after the observation, they are now beginning to learn what we call "The Corporate Games". Play their cards right, stick with the herds, play along with the crowd, bully the weak, make use of others, ignore the feelings of others. The list goes on and on. Suddenly, they thought they had found the shortcut to success. "The Corporate Games", so we call it.

Lastly, after being a seasoned "player" for a few years and playing their games, some actually "lost out" due to being exposed of their inability to perform. It can also be the herds had broken up , or they have failed once too many times to cover up. But try as they may to maintain their positions for "survival", they would resort to the most vicious of all corporate games, i.e. they sabotage others. Playing the back stabbing trick, the traps they laid out to their targets, the false achievements which they claimed away from others. The bad things go on and you do not want me to delve into that right now. This we call "The Ultimate Games".

For every beginning, there will be an ending. So, someday, a true leader comes along, hired by the company to "clean up" everything. Thus the day shall be the end of the players.

So, if corporate games are way of life, why don't these people succeed in their life permanently? The answer lies in the most basic law of nature, that is, as the Chinese saying goes, "For every mountain, there is a higher mountain". No matter how good they are, there is always someone who is more skillful in playing games.

Corporate Games aka Office Politics (Part 1)

Why don't you blog about Corporate Games? I think it will be an interesting topic. My mentor said this to me one day.

Yeah, right. Interesting. But the problem is I am like a kindergarden student when it comes to Corporate Games (aka Political Games) . I did remember the first day I was in the kindergarden school. There are several scenes where some kids threw tantrums, thrashed things and screamed to go home. I am proud to announce I was not one of them as I sat quietly and waited for my first lesson. Ironically, for corporate games lesson, I feel like I want to be like the kids who wanted to go home.

One part of kindergarden days that is similar to the initial learning of corporate games is that you never can expect what will be taught, who are your schoolmates, how they behave and how they will treat you. Sure enough I remembered the big fat bully aka the Bitch (ironically, the bully in my secondary school was in the same proportion of size, albeit in 2 times of the size). She used her appalling body and oppresive behaviour to intimidate the normal-5-years-old-size like me into following her command and "sharing" my lunches with her. Those who did not abide, would be the outcast and that's where they sat at one corner and nobody would play with them.

And then, you would also notice those so-eager-to-please doggy who followed her everywhere she went and anything she did, wagging their tails to her while barking at everybody else. And you know what, those group of people usually scored last in the class, except maybe the fat bitch. She must have some brains, at the very least, to lead a bunch of stupid people.

I guess kindergarden taught me more about corporate games more than anything else. I have been through some real corporate games, if you must know, and although I am still living healthily, I have escaped with some bruises and repressed eagerness to work in corporate environment. Still at kindergarden-level of knowledge in corporate games, I do not want to pretend I know a lot about it to qualify me to write a post (and good and bad news is I intend to write several posts). However, I think it is not hard to do some research to start something on these. Let us all learn together (that is always the intention of my blog) . Besides, my mentor will also share his experience with me. He is, after all, the master of tactics and strategy and that definitely includes corporate games. And he has seen it all. All the good, the evil, the kind, the mean, the black and the white of all that we had shared and experienced in this world.

Ok, let's go to the basic first in this part 1.

What is corporate game?

Edward B. Toupin said this:
A corporate game is an illegitimate means of getting things done. It is a way that people twist and turn situations to reach a specific goal. However, those people that don't play, risk their careers.

Politics and political maneuvering is the interpersonal conflicts and power plays that exist in most organizations. Among the specific actions commonly associated with office politics are intimidation, indirect communications, covert tactics for advancement, manipulation for control, indirectly telling the truth, hiding vulnerability issues, and playing for favors.

Politics came about as a way of handling intense competition. Generally, business itself is a competitive game ranging from simple tests of skill to full-blown battles. The game is driven by survival conditions induced by an expanding world market in which companies must continue to change and grow. There's a constant challenge to overwhelm the opposition, reduce costs, and acquire additional resources. All of these attributes trickle down through the ranks to cause individual battles for promotions, rewards, and recognition at all costs.

Another reason for office politics has to do with the hierarchical structure of most organizations. The higher you advance, the less room there is at the top. As long as people battle for the "corner office," workplace maneuvers will reign. This is where the most intense battles occur and where most people find that they are stepped on or pushed aside.

Stephen Ryan said this:

Every business is comprised of a variety of different systems, including information systems, human management systems, corporate vision dissemenation systems, marketing systems, fianancial accounting systems, customer relation management systems, health & safety systems and legal and compliance management systems, to name but a few. Regardless of whatever size of business you run, your MD will most likely be responsible for maintaining all these complex structures and your own performance as a manager will be measured against how well each of these systems are developed. To achieve this you may well implement performance appraisal systems such as KPI (Key Performance Indicator) analysis systems, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) measures and transparent, open and authoratitive reporting to the shareholders of the company.

With so many systems to maintain and be responsible for, you'd have thought that there would be little room for introducing ever greater complexity. Especially where this complexity involves the establishment of systems that are not open, not transparent, not ethical and not based on good business practices, but rather rampant - self-interest. "Political Games Systems".

When managers feel pressured by the responsibility of maintaining existing business systems, many of them fall into playing the game of politics. For many, this is a subconcious reaction to being squeezed. For others, it is a game to be relished. A game for lazy people, a game for con-men. For procrastinators. For people who would rather play games - than do things that make a real difference to the business.

We call this the "politics - replaces responsibility" syndrome.

Why you need to learn corporate games?

Improperly managing power and politics can make or break your career, cause many sleepless nights, and often has very little to do with your actual job duties. Many people who fail in their jobs do so because of political problems, not skill deficiencies. Many intelligent and capable people aren't as successful as they might be because they haven't learned to cope with office politics. Understanding why you might be having difficulty at work involves understanding the basic elements of office politics and why it exists.

Whether you decide to play or not, don't get caught in the middle. If you become the individual that battles politics, then you become the scorned of the organization. If you decide to stay out of it completely, then do your job and stay out. Those on the other end of the spectrum that play will respect your decision because that alone gives them less competition in their own battles.

One thing you'll notice is that no one will admit to playing games; however, that is part of the secret of politics. You, on the other hand, cannot confront anyone for playing games; however, you can identify the games and learn how to manage them to suit your needs. Once you figure out how to do this, then your stress level will drop, and you'll be accepted in your environment.

The summary of the lessons are:
1. Understand and learn about corporate games. Do not be a fool to ignore it. Do not wait until you are played out or crushed in the game, then only you learn.

2. You do not need to play it to hurt people but DO NOT fight it. Learn how to manage it to suit your needs and to reduce your stress.

If you are a woman, there is no doubt you may be at a little more disadvantages compared to the other sex in the corporate world. You might want to look at the rules of the games for corporate women.

And for those who never really work in a corporate environment before, my advice to you will be - do try out to get a taste of the games while you are still young and fearless because the higher level you go in your career ladder, the more intense the corporate games will be. And you will definitely appreciate the lessons to tame your brashness.

Why, why, why

Do you always have excuses for failures or mistakes? Like when you created a product that fail to sell, you blamed it on the lack of features or the poor marketing.

I do not deny there could be many reasons for failures, but what I do not agree is the way how people conveniently blame it on other things other than themselves when they fail. I actually learnt this the hard way from my mentor. I have made a lot of excuses for my mistakes, until my mentor stripped them off me and I stood naked (of course, I mean this figuratively) and I got nothing to hide. Imagine yourself having nothing to defend yourself, nothing to shield yourself. It was unnerving for me at first until I began to understand why he did that. And I had to say it was a life-saving experience for me.

Imagine your life, where you complain and are not satisfied with some of the things that happen to you but you do not do anything to change the situations. Like while you feel you are not making enough money or the small business you started long time ago is not going anywhere, but you do nothing (or very less of what you should do) . Instead of spending the times to work to get the money or improve your skillsets, you go to enjoy and hoo-ha with your friends in every free times you have. Then, you continue to complain about not having enough time and you blame it on all other things except yourself and the choices you have made, which are apparently stupid.

That is where I guess most of us live in our own defense, denying that we are the one who actually screw up our life. Not other people. Not our family, not our bosses and definitely not God.

Well, my mentor, he made me came out of this defense. To stand naked to the truth that I was the one who had not been reacting to my life. I was the one who denied myself the chance to be successful.

The approach he used to do that is none other than the 5-Whys technique famously used in Toyota, one of the top quality rankings automative makers in the world. The method is simple. Just keep on asking whys until it get the bottom of the causes, where usually it becomes clear that the root cause is due to the individuals and not the weather, relatives, or economy, etc.

As preached in most of the self-help books, while at most of the times we cannot change situations or other people's behaviors, we certainly can change our thinking and responses. Thus, most of our mistakes and failures originate from ourselves. We are the one who should be in control. We should not let the external factors affect us or the results. That is also why we need to keep the 3 principles in mind when we do anything, to guarantee results.

Here are some examples on where the 5-Whys is used to get to the root causes of the failures and then act on them (change them or do whatever it takes!).

Example 1

Why we fail to sell this product?
Because customers find the product is not useful.

Why do customers find the product not useful?
Because the product does not really help them improve their revenues in business.

Why didn't we make or design the product to help customer to improve their revenues in business?
Because we do not know that is what customers want in the first place.

Why didn't we know that in the first place?
Because we do not do any market research or product analysis to come out with the proper product design.

Why didn't we do that in the first place?
Because we do not know that is necessary and we do not know how to do that.

Why didn't we know that and if we do not know that, why we do not ask for help? (notice the same questions are repeating?)
Because I am not capable. Because I did not do my job well as the head of department. Because I just do not have the knowledge and experiences to make this successful. (this is where it gets to the individual's mistake, where the general term "we" is stripped off and one have to take the responsibility to own up to one mistakes.)

In that case, why should we let you keep your job if you are not really doing your job well?
Because I learnt from this mistake and I know what are the right things to do next times.

And why should we trust you will succeed the next time?
Because there will be no excuses for failures and I will be solely held responsible for it.

I have to admit I exaggerated a bit here to make the point. But this process of asking whys are very important to get to the bottom of things and to take actions. Notice also the causes of the failure change from the product to the people or the team (we) and finally to the one who are responsible for the team result. (I).

In my experience, I encountered people repeating the same mistakes and given the same (or slightly altered) excuses each time for the failures. One of the people is ME, which I have vowed to change. And I am changing . Not trying to change (trying is not good!), I am definitely changing. No more excuses, right?

In one of the company I worked in, during the span of 5 years, we encountered 4 of out 5 products failed to deliver the business values and revenues for the company. The 4 failed products are consecutive, which means only the first product are successful (maybe, out of luck) and for the rest of the products, we kept on repeating our mistakes and gave ourselves all sort of excuses to defend ourselves (and our jobs).

Example 2

This example is how my mentor had changed me, stripped down of all my defences and make me realized that I need to change and improve myself first before I can really do things efficiently. Of course, this is the summarized version. I hate to admit this but my defensiveness and stupidity were worse than depicted here. But I have learnt my lesson and dare to admit my mistakes so that YOU ALL can learn also and benefit from this.

So, how about YOU? Have you realize and admit YOUR MISTAKES?

Mentor: Why you made that mistake?
Me: Sorry, I did not follow what you have told me.

Mentor: Why you did not follow what I have told you? Did you choose to defy me?
Me: Sorry, I did not choose to defy you. I just forgotten at that point of time.

Mentor: Why you cannot remember what I have taught you?
Me: It did not register in my mind at that point of time. And I did not stop to think.

Mentor: Why is that?
Me: Because I did not listen properly, I am forgetful and I always do things on impulse.

Mentor: Why you are like that? What cause that?
Me: Sorry, it is my bad habit. Things are not organized and in place, that's why things are jumbled up and I cannot think and do things properly.

Mentor: And what you need to do?
Me: I need to change. I will listen properly. I will remember things. and I will always think carefully before I act. And most of all, I need to start to organize everything, so that everything is in place and I have a clear mind and space to do things efficiently.

Well, that are exactly what I am going to do and improve myself. So, the next time things screw up, ask yourself all the WHYS until you get origin of the problem.

4 prerequisites for being a Consultant

Every business has problems. Everyone has problems. Would it not be nice if we can pay someone to look into our problems and solve them for us? Would it not make our life much easier to live by everyday? That is provided if we can find such people who are willing and capable enough to do the jobs for us with a price tag of maybe our house or our latest Ferrari.

That is what consultants do. And, of course, the cost to do the job also. A consultant, in generic term, is a professional who provides advice in a particular area of expertise, for e.g. in business, management.


It maybe suffices for me to say, consultant is just providing advice and not really need to get their hands dirty by actually doing the job. But I have seen the most efficient consultant in the world (at least, in the world that I have seen) who really gets his hands dirty and able to execute every jobs perfectly. The load of his job are easily the jobs of 3 senior managers combined. And he is one crazy consultant, so let's call him C.C. for now.

C.C. inspired me to define consultants differently. They are those who knows what people needs and what they need to do, and they get it done, no matter what. No matter what. Period. There are simply no excuses for failure. After all, who will trust a consultant who can talk and advice, but who never really have done the job before.

C.C. is also the most efficient and knowledgable people I ever seen in my life. I mean the real efficient one. There are those who call themselves consultants but not living up to the title at all. I came across some business consultants, project consultants that just are NOT consultants.

For that, I treat C.C. as my role model and I long to become near as good as him someday.

Thanks to him, I start to understand the consultant style of doing things. In one of the sales training session conducted by C.C, he spoke of this:

Sell solutions, not sell the products.
Sell in a consultant way.
Do not have the salesman mentality , more like consultant mentality.

Let's put it this way, while normal salesman approach the customers and start to sell their company and products by telling about the good features and benefits, the consultant approach the customers and ask them what are their problems. Then they provide solutions to solve their problems. The solutions normally include their products and services. Otherwise, they can always work with other business associates.

While you might be tempted to become a consultant, here are the 4 prerequisites C.C. told me where one should look into:

1. Presales
A consultant should know the product inside out. A good understanding of the product and business is very important.

2. Public Relation
A consultant holds the role of a key account manager. Thus, he must have very good people-skill and very well-versed in sociology.

3. Analytically strong
A strong analytical mind is the key asset of a consultant. A consultant must analyze everything, the budgets, the values and potential of the business, assistance needed, potential hurdles,etc. These are done based on experience and situation.

4. Detailed
A consultant must have a keen sense of awareness of small things and situation and opportunities. He is also detailed in observing the reactions of people. He has to come out with a complete solution thinking, detailing every single steps from A-Z, coming out with the fail-safe or backup plan.