I know a guy who recently joined a new company as a sales person.
A few years before, he was a salesperson at a different company, selling something totally different.
But still in the same industry.

Now, he was given a budget, slightly over RM 1 mil for 2008.
And he joined the company 4 months after 2008 started i.e. he was behind other sales rep, and definitely his own budget due to his late entry and a grave situation.

What’s the grave situation?

One of his main accounts decided to stop doing business with the new company 3 days after he joined!
And he easily lost half-a-mill there…

And this guy told me he couldn’t be bothered.
He said, he believe that how hard he work and try to achieve his budget, they’re all meaningless. Why?
Because the company is not going to revise his budget…

…Loss a main account, budget not revised, new to all these — what could be worse?
He just press on with his daily job.

What did he do?

Quietly, he did the opposite of what his Boss asked him to do.
The Boss asked him to expand his market…seek new accounts…or maybe upgrade the current account by putting more instruments in.
But no Mam.
This guy came up with his own salvation plan based on his belief and some ‘calculated-risk taking’ action plan.

– He focused on just 2 main accounts
– He served them like hell
– He solidify his relationship with the existing customer
– He repeat his own success
– He learned from failure; especially the ones which is not his

He consistently did that all year long, since Day One he joined the company.
Net result?
Personally, I think this is the ‘killer’…

December 31st 2008, his Boss called him.
She asked him to check his Bank Account balance and call her back. He did as he told immediately.
And he was overjoyed. He smiled from ears to ears. He never thought that this is possible.
He made it.

He divided the amount Credited to his account that day (minus the existing amount of course) over his Total Incentive for the whole year and he got…

…slightly over 70%!

No wonder he was overjoyed.
In that moment, being new (just 6 months — just confirmed), losing one main account and 4 months behind, did not seem too bad at all.
Not bad at all.

Now, the question to you:
– Can you relate to the same situation this guy’s in? With the M&A, job-cutting, economic downturn, etc, some of us bound to relate to this guy situation. I guarantee that
– Can you spot the elements that make him a success? I’m pretty sure they’re all obvious…
– Can you imagine what else he’ll achieve with such a head-start in 2009?

Lets hope I can write about him again next year

On the News, Cameron Highland had already been hit, and the ‘shocking’ News of all – Another Landslide. This time it’s Taman Mewah, Bukit Antarabangsa.

When a particular event like this occurs, there arre going to be a barrage of ideas, opinions, theories and accusations come out but in the end, ‘no action’ taken. They do not seem to learn from history and they keep ignoring it.

Note 2: My wife’s sister-in-law gave birth to a healthy, 3.5 kg baby girl. Um…but there’s no picture here because:

- she can’t see the baby yet. There’s some complication and the Doctor put her under observation (she might have to celebrate one of the Big Day on the hospital bed)
- I don’t think I can upload the picture yet because of my ‘technical’ glitch (whatever)

Note 3: One of my wife’s niece – N – came back from Australia for a holiday. I guess Air Asia had made it possible for all these ‘closing the huge gap’ in distance.And Oh! Another N had also came back from Australia to collect her research data here.

The first N studies in Sydney and the second N in Perth. My wife had to choose her study place next year. The choice is between Canada and New Zealand. I let her decide…

Note 4: It’s Eidul Adha and the feel was hardly noticed; if there’s a feeling at all. Maybe it’s the rain. Maybe it’s the economy. Maybe it’s just me…

photo credit: splorp

Note:

I really look forward to that day…

But if I do not live that long to answer her, I really hope to get over my domain and hosting craps, and keep this blog alive so that it can be sort of legacy I can leave behind.

That’s why it’s important for me to keep this blog alive. The reason goes deep. It’s PERSONAL…

And I SERIOUSLY thought about posting my daily job affairs here. That a hillarious one I’m telling ya

I’m pretty sure before you read this message, you’ve been bombarded with countless news, updates, and snippets so on and so forth about how BAD the current economic situation. Some experts even said that we’re moving from financial crisis into economic crisis – whatever that suppose to mean.

Regardless what they’re saying, let me ask you, ”What are you doing about it NOW?” Not yesterday, not tomorrow – what are you doing about it now?

Maybe I should be thankful that I got a job – A JOB – which without fail supply me with a steady monthly income and fund part of my expenses. What left I guess is the question whether the amount it provides me is enough or not.

But that’s not all…

…I can’t guarantee for how long my JOB is going to keep me!

With everything around me turning around faster than my Hyundai Matrix’s wheels at 110 km/hr I can’t safely say that tomorrow I still have my job. NO I can’t..

But I’m going to tell you what I AM doing now.

I’m typing of course (just kidding)! No, what I really want to tell you is now, right now, I’m on the lookout for something to supplement or possibly replace my job income. And not only looking for it, I’m actively testing them out.

Right now, many of tests are carried out off-line.

As far as I’m concern, testing things off-line provide instant gratification compared to on-line testing which I’ve found it to be ‘ultra’ slow and de-motivating. In the current economic situation, I appreciate faster result and turn around, and in my ‘test’ that’s equivalent to fast cash return i.e. profit.

Take for example my recent investment using my Employee Provident Fund.

I’ve been registering myself as a Unit Trust Consultant. I’ve taken the test, passed it but not actively promoting it. Come August and my license was about to expired. I received a letter reminding this but I believe I didn’t pay any attention to it so it was forgotten.

Until that day when the Guy who sign me up as an agent called me, “Hey Bro, your license is about to expire. I suggest you pump a bit of money in and you can use the commission from that to pay off the renewal fee.”

Well, I like the idea so I did as I was told.

You see, the best part about investing with EPF is I don’t physically see the money so I didn’t feel duped or seduced. What more, rather than letting the Government dictate what to do with my EPF, I can exercise a bit of control to where I want my hard earned money to end up.

Even with that, I can only pray and hope my money go to work and multiply. Even investing in mutual fund had it inherent, unavoidable risk.

And that was August…

When I saw my man a few days ago, I asked him, “Ey, when is the commission going to come in? I didn’t see it in my statement..”
“Have you checked your bank account?,” he asked.
“Nope.” I said. “Why?”
“The commission will be credited directly to your account, that’s why,” he said.

I went to the ATM straight away guess what… I can’t wipe off that smile on my face after seeing the balance. No wonder they said compound interest is the wonder of the world. And you know what…I want MORE!

Maybe that’s another story but for now, if I compared the time I spent building a website, creating content and getting traffic with save some money to invest, I can confidently said that I’ve done the wrong thing. Investing is FAR, far easier.

But looking from another angle, building an online business is also an investment. Only in my case, I haven’t got what I was hoping for or what I was expecting. And that easily was caused by too many factors.

If I consider my online biz as a setback, how do I overcome it?

If everybody else around the world is forecasting doom and gloom, would I just succumb to it and surrender?

No Sir not just yet. I still got a few tricks left under my sleeve and I think ‘it isn’t over ‘till the fat lady sing.’

I’ll keep looking and when I find it I know I’m going to reap all the rewards it got to offer. But that’s just me. How about you? I wish you’re in far better condition than me but if you’re not, let me leave you with a piece of advice: Don’t look up. Look down. Be thankful and know that there’s someone out there is doing much worse than you (e.g Mr. Lehman and Meryll

So take care and never stop looking.

Yesterday was a long day for me – a very long day.

For those who are totally number addict…

8 may be your auspicious number. Some say it brings good luck and good thing. Imagine yesterday, you have a string of eights. What would that brings you? Triple luck? You figured.

Yesterday, when I reached home and about to savor the taste of my favorite ‘roti canai telur’ (not really describable if you’ve never been to this country), I got a phone call from my Aunt who stay with my Grandma.

“Can you come over? Something’s not quite right with Granny,” I sensed panic in her voice. “She complained that it’s hard to catch her breath, and she felt pain on the left side,” She added. “I’ll be there right away. Just hang on.” And I quickly rushed out of the house.

08-08-08 is a Friday…

Friday is when traffic at my place increases it flows. It gets heavier as the day approached midday, just before we Moslem perform our congregational pray. I can’t explain how that always happens but I just go along with it. It’s easier that way.

Knowing this, I decided to use the so-called ‘by-pass’ road. It ‘s very much improved with two lanes on both side and street lights a few meters apart from one another. I can press the acceleration pedal with more confidence all the way.

But then…

After negotiating a corner, I felt something had happened to my car. Oh! I’m driving a Korean made car which I had all the intention to change to a Japanese made car soon, due to the change in petrol price. But I ignored it since I don’t feel the car swayed or compromised.

A bad feeling grew stronger. I decided to stop by the roadside to do a quick inspection. A passer-by in a home-made Perodua Kancil honk at me, and signaled me with his hand. Let’s just say I understand what his sign language means I just nod.

Look at that…

The rear tyre of my car, on the left side, was totally flat! Totally. I can’t believe that my car still can give me the driving comfort. Really, I was puzzled with that. At that moment, if I think about 08-08-08, this is the second ‘not-so-good-thing’ I experienced that day.

So much for the triple good things ey? Or was it?

Considering the ‘still-good’ condition of my car, well, maybe it’s one of the good strings of things. Who knows, there may be more to come. And maybe I spoke to soon because there’s one ‘open 7 days’ workshop right in front of me. Must be my luck…

Good and bad balance each other…

That seems to be the case for me. As a bad thing tried to ride on ole’ me, a good thing comes around to balance it out – a punctured tyre, a stable ride, a ‘convenient’ workshop…all fall into their places nicely. Like it was planned and governed by a Higher Authority. Maybe it’s a Friday. I don’t know.

I just follow the flow.

After much inspection, the culprit was a ‘crooked’ nail. How in hell did it end in my tyre? Where did I pick it up? It doesn’t matter. My Granny is more important. So I quickly made a few phone calls.

First, I called my younger brother who stays with Granny. He said he was on his way back. But I sensed there’s no panic or urgency in his voice. That’s weird.

Next, I called my younger sister. She’s still at her office. I ‘ordered’ her to immediately pick me up from the workshop so I can go and see Granny. She had a better idea. “If this is serious, let me go to Granny first. Besides, the traffic is really bad now.” She suggested.

I give that idea a go.

What’s wrong with Granny?

It’s not serious. It’s not critical. And it’s not her heart. Actually, Granny has high blood pressure. I thought, like my late Uncle, ‘Stroke’ was paying her a visit. When my Sister broke me the news, I was relieved.

3 hours later, I was at Granny’s house. All I can say is, she’s as healthy as ever. Doctor just prescribed some antacids. That’s all. The diagnosis was she had too much ‘air’ in her, especially on her left side.

I was more relief when I saw her.

So, how would you remember 08-08-08 yesterday?

If you only have one chance to make yesterday more memorable…

If you only have one action to make yesterday more meaningful…

If you only have one day to make all other days count…

How would you do it? How would you want it to be remembered?

Yesterday was a long day for me – a very long day, and oh…I didn’t tell you that right after coming back from Granny’s house, I took a quick shower and prepared myself for ‘an hour journey’ to one of my best friends sister’s wedding? The wedding place was in Trengganu and Friday is like Sunday to them.

Good and bad follows each other like shadow. And the most important lesson of all – Good or Bad, it’s in the thinking.

May you see 08-08-08 as a day full of Goodness, and the day after, and the day after, and the day after, and on, and on, and on…

Make everyday your Good Day.

I admit that I’m almost shivering while typing this. I got mixed emotions to his statement. Part of me is anxious, disgusted and bored with Malaysia’s political scene today. Some of you might argue that,”Hey, you’re running an online business blog so skip all these political drama and stuff.” But I got news for you Brother.

Politics is very much related to business. And business is affected by politics.

Why?

My summary to that is, politics set the ground rules for business and businessmen or women. Different loacality is bound to different kind of standards and rules. Therefore, knowing the political climates is not only required but it’s essential to the SURVIVAL of a business. Agree?

But let me be straight here. When it comes to Dr. Mahathir, I couldn’t be more personal. And I think Dr. Mahathir could not be more PERSONAL than he was today. So, because this is personal, I shall address Dr. Mahathir as Che Det.

Now, I’m thinking emotionally more than rationally when it comes to Che Det and my reasons for that are:

• I grew in his era. I experienced more BENEFITS than RISKS during his leadership. I can’t say the same to the current leadership though.
• I was influenced by his way of thinking. Che Det was called ‘The Ultra Malay’ by some who were intimidated by his tenacity and focus so much so, he was put away during the reign of the First Malaysian Prime Minister under the act that Che Det championed later on: ISA. A few of my friends borrowed his ‘bestsellers’: The Malay Dilemma and I didn’t even bother to ask them back. I bought a new one each time!
• I was inspired by him. For a local leadership champion in setting objectives and making the effort to achieve them, Che Det is at the TOP of my list. No local heroes or heroins have ever come closer.
• I like his ideas. Well, MOST of it anyway especially those that touches moving forward by setting higher standard and elevating the thinking. One that shadows me until today is,“If everyone else is running, you can’t expect to keep up with them by walking. You can, if you run faster than them.”
• I admire his foresightedness. I’m aware that some people like to live for today and today only BUT I believe in living at least until tomorrow. Maybe we did not immediately see the result of our action today but we certainly can see it later or in the future (and that could be tomorrow!). Che Det promotes Malay to Master English but not at the expense of Bahasa Melayu and he got reasons for that…if only we’re looking from his angle say, 10 years from now.

It’s hard to predict the weather nowadays. We barely passed the tragedy of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and recently, an even tragic earth-shattering event that hit China. Che Det did that to UMNO today and it was ‘unpredictable’.

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What motivate him to make such a move?

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Personally, as one of his ‘fans’, I suspect that it got something to do with the outcome of the ‘all-famous’ Lingam’s Videp Clip investigation. Che Det is someone who don’t like to live in the past so to speak, and the motion made by the Cabinets right after the report was ‘officially’ released were really ‘disturbing’.

Not only it adds to more controversy and speculation, it turns almost everyone to a secondary school prefect whose job is to look for mistakes like keeping long fingernails, long hair, not wearing name-tags, etc. If you asked Ken Blanchard, he would say that we can change people better by reinforcing positive bahaviors than by pointing out mistakes and punishing.
(Ken Blanchard is well known for his One Minute Manager series)

Che Det sense something is not quite right with today’s leadership and he believe with the saying that ‘fish rots from its head’. And he also feels that someone got to stand up and boldly make a statement. Being a ‘near perfectionist’ as he is, he understand that: If you want to get something done and in the right way, you got to do it yourself.

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He did that to George Soros…

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…and people paid attention to him. In fact, the whole world paid attention to him. And since success leaves clues, Che Det repeats his action. Did he get YOUR attention NOW? I’m pretty sure he did!

He had reinforced time and again that the his main concern is to stop ‘silent monarchy’. He said that the party is not ‘parti orang Melayu tapi parti Pak Lah’ (the party is not a party for the Malays BUT for Pak Lah). Boy, maybe now he’s thinking,”If only I could turn back time…”

Let’s not forget that Che Det appointed Pak Lah. He did that after he himself ‘cross-off’ Brother Anuar Ibrahim. Guess what, Bro Anwar said that he’s making a comeback and he’s going straight to the Most Top Post in the Cabinet Minister – The Prime Minister.

He said that he’s ‘buying’ his way in.

Well, who teach Bro Anwar all these ‘fancy political maneuvers’ eh? I wonder…

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What about Che Det ’Malay conciousness’?

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My mother-in-law said this upon hearing the news,”He had retired. He should focus more on the hereafter. Stay out of politics. He’s over and done.” That’s my mother-in-law. My father-in-law thinks differently,”He’s finally shown the right way. He must’ve come to his senses now.” Both represent how laymen respond to Che Det’s move.

What’s your respond?

I can already tell that some of my ‘Ultra-Malay-to-be’ friends will think that Che Det has lost it. He’s going insane. Maybe he’s senile (well, what can you say about 80 plus years-old still trying to meddle with political power-play?). He lost it once he steps out of UMNO.

Let me tell you, in my opinion, what’s not quite right with this…

First, it’s not right to EQUATE Malay with UMNO. If you support PAS or PKR, it doesn’t make you less Malay than those who join UMNO, am I right? I mean, who set such an arbitrary standard that somehow implied ‘if you’re a Malay, you must support UMNO’. Scrap that…

That’s really an obsolete ‘generalization’.

Second, if you’re not in UMNO, does that means you can’t bring up Malay? Come on! Where does this come from? This is equivalent to saying,”The only way to build this country, is to work for the Government!” I’m NOT buying that. Not even for a second. I’ve been working for the Private Sectors all my working lives and I’m happy at that. In fact, I can contribute more towards the development of Malays simply because I control and made most of my decisions. Not some ‘upper-level’ opinion that could cost my next year salary increase!

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So, where do we go from here?

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I’m putting a close watch to Che Det’s next move. Whatever direction he’s taking after this, I believe that it’s well thought out and calculated. Che Det always learn from his mistakes. He will never forget Bro Anwar and he’ll never forget Pak Lah. That’s enough to keep him on his toes.

And I’ll be right behind him…

Each and every year, people all over the world are remembering this day as one of the MOST important days but lets just say I did not need the whole world to remind me of it.

7 years ago, my beloved mom was diagnosed with colon cancer. For those who are ‘Anatomy or Biology or Pathology’ impaired, it’s a type of cancer that affected the large interstine (and don’t make me go beyond this description – I’m not writing a medical lecture here

And she hang on for slightly over a month after that

I still remember that day. My neighbour was hosting a wedding ceremony for her daughter and my Dad was the honorable chef. Everything was seemed OK when suddenly someone called my dad home.

Even he was less than a hundred paces away, Dad was too late. Mom left him without saying good-bye…

For me, it’s even worse.

When I got the news, I headed back to Kuantan at a break-neck speed from Kota Bharu, Kelantan which normally took 6 hours. I managed to trim 2 hours from a normal time trip but I was also too late.

And that was 7 years ago.

Today, I’ve been married for 4 years and with my marriage, I had a ‘mother’ – my mother-in-law. And if there’s one thing I learned from my late mother’s passing that I deem as the most important is this:

‘Don’t wait for tomorrow for the things you can do today’

I wish I’ve done more for Mom. I knew I can and since I can’t rewind time and make up for the lost opportunity, I’ve decided to move on. I still have the other ‘Mom’.

For my wife, being a mother herself now has opened a new dimension for her in understanding what it means to be a mother.

“Happy Mothers Day”

photo credit: ToOliver2

Every year, this date is ONE of the most important dates in my life. Why? Because it’s my birthday !

I supposed, it’s a ‘norm’ in todays online marketing strategy to put something up when it comes to special occassion like this. I’ve seen marketers time and again promotes ‘special offer’ products packages when they celebrate their birthday, their sons and daughters birthday, when they move to a new place and many more.

But you WON’T see any of that on this joyous date. No way…

I just want to take this moment to reflect and meditate on simple questions: How far I’ve come and where I’m heading now?

The answer I’ll get, coming right from the bottom of my heart, is more valuable than any courses I’ve attended or any ideas from my recent book (ebook) purchase.

“Happy birthday Nezrul and may all your wishes come true”

photo credit: Sugarbloom Bev ;o)

photo credit: El Fotopakismo

The common thing about a political campaign and a marketing campaign.

First, both campaigns aim for the same thing: to win ‘customers’. In marketing, the customers are the end-user, who ever they may be and for political campaign, the customers are the voters.

Second, both campaigns have a ‘brand’ to promote. Political parties promote the party as a brand.

Third, both campaigns have product and in politics, the product is not tangible but it’s still a product, namely manifesto, improvement and social benefits.

Fourth, both campaigns are measurable which means there are parameters that can be manipulated to gain an upper hand.

Fifth, both campaigns are competitive in nature and were created with the competitors in mind.

I can go on and on with a few others but I’ll find that to be boring and unnecessary because I’m more interested to put forth my argument on how a better managed political campaign can take after a better managed marketing campaign.

On top of my list, the main aim for a marketing campaign is to create buy in. The best buy in is when the customers sell themselves on a product without being forced by a campaign. In other words, the customers BOUGHT and not SOLD.

There’s a significant implication for the last statement.

A marketing campaign that causes the customers to buy faces less resistance than a campaign that had to be sold to them. For example, customers at large want to reduce their cars’ petrol consumption and make their cars more powerful. If you have a product that can do all these, how difficult do you think having to sell such product?

I believe it’s not too difficult because there’s a tendency for a buy in from the customers.

Compare that to a new hair gel. I don’t think that it’s frequent for a customer to lose sleep over a hair gel compared to saving hundreds for their petrol so there’s a need to SELL hair gel before a customer buys in.

See the difference?

So, for a political campaign, the campaigners need to craft their ‘product’ and ‘position’ the product to make sure there’s already a buy in from the voters (customers).

How they do this?

They do this through a market research and for a 13 days campaign, either they have to come up with some fast and effective research method or they might consider outsourcing.

But doing the research is a MUST. There’s no shortcut.

The old method of casting enough issue and keep throwing the issue to the voters and keep provoking them will only back-fire. Voters are smarter nowadays and they’ll only settle for the best available product.

From the research, campaigners would able to tell:

. The main issue in certain localities (geographically)
. The psychographic (emotional) profile of the majority of voters
. The demographic (socio-economic) profile of the voters

Maybe people will think that since the Government hold all the records, their parties will have an upper hands against the opposition. I beg to differ. Why?

The records and data that the Government had, most of the time is ‘out-dated’ and this is due to the habit of our Malaysian citizen (voters themselves) not having the conscience to update new record if there’s one (come on, admit it…).

Unless it’s a matter of life or death, right?

So, who ever got their hand on the ‘primary’ data and an updated one first, they have higher chances to gain advantages. If they did it effectively, creating a successful campaign can take less than a week. Hence, short political campaign is just a perspective.

That’s just the way I see Malaysian Political campaign and marketing had in common and Malaysia is in badly need of good campaign managers. Why? There are only effective and ineffective campaign not good or bad party. If all parties took the time to research their market (voters) 4 years ago, imagine the kind of campaign they can come up with, even if all they had less than 2 weeks to campaign.

Think about it.

Nezrul

Let’s just get to the point for something profitable you can immediately do, in this post shall we?

If you’re anything like me, for the past 10 months or so, I’ve read countless ebooks, articles, and listen to hours of recordings on how to make money online and how to build online business.

Allow me to tell you this: Nothing has changed since then. Nothing! Why?

Because that’s all I do – reading and listening…

So, for this year, I’m changing the game-plan. And I’m taking you with me. I can’t guarantee immediate profit from following me BUT I can promise this…

“You will profit!”

…sometimes ‘immediately’

How are we going to do this?

Step 1 – Read my idea to get started.
Step 2 – Take the lesson (that means ‘click’ the link)
Step 3 – Visit private label special offer
Step 4 – Practise, practise, and practise some MORE
Step 5 – Keep in touch…

…There’s more to come.

- Nezrul