The A Star Students

Few days back I was updating my profile after using the same profile write-up for many years and yet the old one doesn't seem to be impressive and reflective enough after "N" years. Therefore this time I took some serious effort to update the profile and at the same time ensure that the new profile is not exaggerated which is a common problem for profile writing.

With that in mind I have sent the draft copy for several friends of mine from different background to have a review on it. This is to ensure that the profile written is "true and fair", most importantly not exaggerated as I keep on telling those reviewer to point out to me and "don't give me face" on that. True enough I am glad that those reviewers have done a good "slapping" job on the profile but at the same time someone highlighted this to me and I added this into the profile.

The extract:

"He was the ex- president for the ACCA Student Ambassador and promoted ACCA's student's activities in Malaysia. Among the activities initiated during his tenure as students ambassador included study and exam technique seminar, which has benefited many ACCA students. The project begin since Year 1999 and NKT had extend his initiative starting from Penang, Ipoh, Klang Valley (Public and with specific institution) Johor Bharu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Miri Batu Pahat, Muar and other locations. Through these years of interaction with students all around, he understands the needs and problems faced by students and he is highly regarded by many students and often acts as personal mentor for some outstanding individuals."

The first study and exam technique talk begin in Penang and was organized by the Penang SA team. If my memory is not short, the title for the seminar was "The A Star Students". This was also the first ACCA SA event in Penang after I took over as the President of SA and the first ACCA student event in Penang that provide exam and study technique to the ACCA students in Penang.

The objectives of the seminar were simple, 1) to promote the ACCA student activities in Malaysia, 2) to share the study and exam technique of the ACCA Star student in Malaysia which kick started in Penang.

The first event was held in IPG Penang Burmah road campus. It was attended by about 80 students and I was pleased with the response and it motivated me and my SA team to extend such activities through to the other state of Malaysia. If I am right the second stop was Kuching and then followed by Kota Kinabalu. What surprised me was the event life span continued even after me stepping down from my term.

It continued as ACCA Malaysia office events and my personal community service events to the ACCA students all around Malaysia. I traveled to many parts of Malaysia to share this with students all around and hope this might be one of the ways to help students passing their exam as many of us know that taking ACCA exam might be a painful exercise. I must also give credit to the ACCA Malaysia office for organizing it not only in the major city but also in the smaller town in Malaysia. There is lot of ACCA member out there whom also welcomed such event. Alexandar Chin (present UK council member), the ACCA chairlady from Sabah, whom coordinated and organized the second talk in Kota Kinabalu have more than 150 students turn out for the events. One of the highest turnout rates!

I am not bias toward the place or town which such talks should be carry out. My idea is to go to any place when there is a need to have such talk and I am able to contribute to the ACCA student who wishes to enhance their chance of passing exam. While conducting the talk, many ACCA students shared their problem with me and we have our discussion after the talk while having break or tea. From there I slowly understand more and more of problem facing ACCA students on their studies and from time to time I will enhance my next presentation with all those experience gained from the previous talk and experience shared by students all around Malaysia.

I will usually provide them my email so that they can contact me should they need some assistant or some motivation. After 10 solid years apart I am still received greeting from some of them during festive. Recent months, I was residing in Penang, while waiting for my departure to the next port of embarkation. There were times where stranger that came up to me and greet me. They are some of those many participants who joined the talk and serious I can't recognise any of them.

Well they remembered me and the talk and most importantly 2 highlights in the talk 1) the Tai Chi (originated by Jana) 2) my self-introduction during the talk which was quoted in the following manner:

Normally people call me Ray

Those who wanted to defame me call me STING RAY

Those who like me call me SUGAR RAY

Those who love me call me SWEET SUGAR RAY

And those who are here to call will call me SWEETEST SUGAR RAY after today session

Well I am not sure whether in the near future (or even ever) I will conduct another session of such talks but it will remain in the memory of mine. 美好的回忆

Club 99

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content. One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy. The King asked the servant, 'Why are you sohappy?' The man replied, 'Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.' The king was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King's woes and the servant's' story, the advisor said, 'Your Majesty, I believe that the servant Has not been made part of The 99 Club.' 'The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?' the King inquired. The advisor replied, 'Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep.' when the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... So many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, 'What could've happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!' He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin as elusive. Finally, exhausted he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection. From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked. Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, 'Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club.' He continued, 'The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented, because they're always yearning and Striving for that extra 1, saying to themselves: 'Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life.' We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires.   That's the "99 club".

Choosing

This Saturday morning is rather cold, well normally this is the indication that Chinese New Year is coming and here we are in the New Year. As what I mentioned before, this is the beginning of a new cycle of my life as another 10 years will see another challenging cycle.

As usual Saturday and Sunday will usually be a great reading time for me. I have a habit to separate the different section of the newspaper and always start with the business column. There are two articles in the business section that attracted my attention. Well this is not about the main story but about two prominent Malaysian and how they dealt with their up and down of their career.

It might be two different stories but a common point, “a decision to be made at a specific point of time”. I have no intention to illustrate what is in the article but I would like to share with you what is my thought after reading the articles.

Everyone at the beginning of their career life, hope to be successful and one day achieve their social status. For example, an accountant might eventually hope to become a CFO and some executive out there might want to be a CEO and consider that is as the peak of their career life. They would regard that as successful in life.

Well friend always ask me whether I considered myself a successful person. I always said I don’t know and my measure of success might be different from the others. When what you gain is more than what you lost then you consider yourself successful. This is not measured only on monetary term but also the qualitative measurement which I consider as the key part for the measurement of success.

Executives who are now holding key position might consider themselves successful and most of the time they are not willing to step down from their position and holding on to it. One of the reasons might be economical reason where you got to live with the pay package given to you. The other reason might be the social status given to you that you are holding on to it.
Holding to the social status might be the main reasons as compared to the economical reasons. For example, I have a friend who is holding senior position in a company. He admitted to me that if he were to open a small shop, and do a small business his income might be higher than what he is earning now, however he will lost his social status by being a senior executive in a big corporation.

That might sound ridiculous to many of you, but that is the true fact out there. However the article I read today is different. It is all about a prominent Malaysian giving up a high level CEO position for the reason of family. That easily cost a few millions of income a year yet she opts to be out and spend more time with her family.

Yes economical issues will still be there and it is rather naïve of you thinking that once should stop every activity with the decision made. You might not be a CEO of a conglomerate but you might start a small business or doing other work that could compensate your income. Believe me what you gain might be more than the social status that you have lost.
To those of you out there, money when it come to certain level might not be your concern as you have built up the skill and experience to acquire it, it is the thirst for other needs or wants in life that dry your energy out and make you a slave towards the other needs and wants to you are looking forwards.

On the other hand how about having a fall on your career life? It is common to talk about job retrenchment, unable to get a job and it is the employer market now. However to me this might just be a “life cycle” and it is not threatening to your career. What is more crucial and critical here is that how should a person dealt with when he/she falls from a hero to zero?

I have personally gone through that. There are three things that you should do when you faced such situation. First you got to be patient when such situation comes after you. The fall might be due to some reasons that is out of your control and not within your plan. There will be a solution out there but you just need to be patient for the time to come and hold on to it, never give up.
Secondly, do not leave your life empty at this period of time. Fill up your life with healthy activities which add value to you. For examples, reading, traveling social works and others. Equip yourself and wait for the time to come. Get yourself ready for the next challenges to come. Prepare yourself for the challenges.

Thirdly, take off all noises and disturbance surrounding you. You might not want to hear baby crying, grumbling from others, discouragement from friends and families, all these to be a re rubbish and stay away from it to maintain your emotion. Once a person is facing challenges in life those disturbance will distract him and it will de-motivate you from think “you can”.
I am not saying that one should give up life easily but when you are facing such situation and need to make a choice thin k about what I have written and hope I share a fair piece with everyone out there. Be aggressive in life but when it is time to slow down or sacrifice some part of it act maturely and weight the gain and loss.

Well after I finish this article, I am going to write some simple goals in the next 10 years. Simple goal starting from buying a Rolex watch to a dream of getting financial freedom will be in the list. You have your choice but again when you face challenges in life act wisely.

Understand what we are doing would build up our self confidence. All the best!

Accountant of the 21st Century

Read an article in the Star. It is all about the implementation of the FRS 139.

Well when all the article is worried about the accounting treatment, here I am looking at the other side of the concerns.

Accountant of the 21^st century facing lots of challenges. Now with the implementation of FRS 139, what else the accountants need to worry about?

First of all accountant need to understand further on "what is financial instrument". Whatever stated in the text book or reference books are merely books. What happen in the real financial market is ever changing. Accountant need to keep them-selves updated with that. Malaysia might not be as advanced as other countries in the development of financial instruments (which to me is a blessing under the current economic crisis) however having more in-depth understanding will help the accountant to prepare for the future challenges. For examples, do you understand what Structural Products is? Something New?

Secondly, the off balance sheet instrument, this might also be a challenge for the accountant. The basic point is how to identified, or just ask a simple question: do you know what is the "off balance item about". This is more of the qualitative consideration rather than the quantitative consideration. Sound easy but when you come to the real life

Then here come the third consideration where you need to look for embedded derivative in a contract or even some other contract which from the surface doesn't seem to contain a derivative. Here is the problem, are our accountant equipped with such knowledge?

Potential and future accountants do not look at the accounting standards only, look beyond the standard and have more understanding of the fundamental of the financial instrument. This is the whole new world of challenges!

Stay tune for part 2

人生就是为别人而活

人生就是为别人而活

今天看电视节目时，听到这一句话 心里有所感想

为什么要为别人而活呢？

1. 为别人而活是因为责任，那么这是高人一等的情操, 今生无悔
   
2. 为别人而活是因为生存，那么这是为势所逼的现实， 情非得己
   
3. 为别人而活是因为面子，那么这是多么可悲的譏磨，可耻可悲
   

人的一生， 一定会为别人而活， 只是原因何在?是今生无悔，情非得己， 还是可悲呢？

不要因为你为别人而活而感到伤悲， 为了责任为了生存， 有何悲呢？

2009 第一章，为别人而活