I REFUSE to be another Adam Khoo!!

Well, I don’t mean that he is not a great person to be taken as a role model, but simply I will be ME! Michael Kuan Foo Siong!

For more than six months I have exiled myself to LALA land with only a privileged few that I kept in close contact with. I wasn’t just being plain lazy (sometimes I am), I was also doing some small projects on and off to keep me financially afloat. The bulk of the time I committed to reflect on what went wrong in my “employed” corporate career and to plan the next chapter of my life which I am about to embark. Most time I would feel productively discouraged and suck up the lessons it try to teach. Productively discouraged? Is there such a thing? Yes, there is.

Everyone would feel discouraged at some point in their lives. However, most never really thought about what discouragement is trying to teach them. Most would take it negatively and carelessly apply the “once bitten twice shy” rule on whatever that has discouraged them. It is quite a lame excuse for quitting, isn’t it? Discouragement doesn’t usually wants us to stop trying, but it merely attempts to let us know what truly went wrong so we can succeed the second, third or the gazillion time. Life is HARD. Live STRONGER then! By learning from my discouragement, I realized the ways of the future is never the ways of the present nor the past. To change dynamically in life thus becomes imperative and excruciatingly frightful. Being stubborn and blockheadedly subscribing to the “traditional” ways becomes a sure way of slow suicide or failure. People of success know that and are very fluid in methods but steadfast in principles.

On the 12th of July 2007 (two days after my 32nd birthday), Life Textbooks (S) Pte Ltd was incorporated and thus also the first step on my third attempt to setup a business. It is primarily a training company, but to me, it is more than that. My first attempt failed because I was building a business on myself. If I stop working, the business would too. Then what’s the point of having a business? I would have fare better being employed. My second attempt got me into hot soup because of wrong partners. Partners that are ruthless and would overtly exploit me. I figure if I am exploitable, then I should be the only person doing that. I ain’t no Uncle Robert to anyone. I will still remain generous, but not at the expense of myself anymore.

Setting up Life Textbooks has seen my life once again coming back a full circle. The time I had reflecting on what was done made me revisit and reflect the one most important question that would shape my life once again. What is my PASSION? My life can only be considered lived well if I live it according to my heart. I am a person that wields my words fluently and I have been able to use it to great effect. (Both positively and negatively.) My heart never fails to skip a beat when people’s lives were changed because of what I said. The glint in their eyes made it all worthwhile. Though acknowledging the gift of the gab I have, I must also be aware of the downside it could create. In the words of Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben; “With great powers come great responsibilities.” Or as said in the Book of Life; “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.” (Ecclesiastes 1:18) Not that I proclaim to be the smartest Alec on earth, I am merely acknowledging that I do have experiences that not many has.

I see two major stumbling blocks that could make or break the business. Pride and Privacy. Pride, being one of the seven deadly sins mentioned in the Bible is also what I believe to be the cause of the other six deadly sins. The thought of oneself being above all others causes one’s heart to become callous and deceitful. With that it set an individual to become a runaway train that only serve the “numero uno”, self. I have seen and heard of many good teachers that fallen from grace because of pride. The good intent of affirmations and wicked “boot-licking” of their audience blew up their heads to giganormous size that blurred their vision and forget their humble beginnings. My personal solution? Keep true friends close, real friends that would not reserve themselves to “kick my butt” when necessary. The challenge is in finding and keeping them when pride sets in. The effect of pride could also result in me pushing my true friends away when they are kicking my butt. That requires a great deal of wisdom that is not earthly by nature.

Privacy. To be a teacher is to be a role model, which means that every time I am doing or saying something, someone (other than God) is watching you intently. I cannot afford to be saying one thing yet doing another opposite. The saying of; “Walking the Talk” becomes more urgently real. Again many teachers I know that couldn’t manage this determine their early demise from teaching. The solution again is strength not earthly by nature.

To teach or train is to not only impart a part of himself as a teacher, but he also has to be sensitive of an individual’s right to self-determination. I once had a mentor that faithfully subscribe to the first but disregard the latter totally. He was practically shoving stuffs down people’s throat without even giving two-cents worth on anybody else’s opinions. I must not make or mould another me, but to let the person to truly be all he is. Many trainers and teacher subscribed to methods of sure success if applied. Not that I disagree with them, I only subscribe to something else. I believe every individual has their own unique destinies. My work is to help them find it and bring it out to its fullest potential. I have heard many “secrets” of success that are actually not secrets at all. They are only great habits that are consciously built as a foundation on which successes naturally blossoms. Whatever a person’s destiny is, his attitudes would determine where he will be going and would shape the characteristics he adopt.

I am who I am by the grace of my Maker. I have to make sure His Grace is not be without effect. So no matter who you take as a role model, Adam Khoo or Albert Einstein., remember well that you are made unique. Don’t dogmatically adhere to methods, only the principles that are sound and proven. Live a life of love, always learning and leave a legacy of yourself that help someone live his destiny to its fullest. To that I say again, I REFUSE to be another Adam Khoo! Not that he is a bad person, just only I will be me. Do pray for me.

“Soli De Gloria”
Michael Kuan a.k.a WindyG

Everything In It's Time..

Know i have not wrote for a very very long time. Been on a self-imposed exile to reflect, recuperate and recharge. So watch out world! I am alive and I'LL BE BACK!

In the meantime, enjoy this lyrics that touched my heart.

Everything in It's Time - Corrine May

Sometimes I wonder what lies ahead
How long till my hunger is fed
They say it’s hard to make it in this part of town
So many people on this merry-go-round

Some folks try astrology
Some turn to crystal balls
To find an answer,
To get through it all
I just fall on my knees and I try to pray
In the silence I can hear Him say

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign
Everything in its time

I often feel like I’m two steps behind
Somebody must have moved that finish line
There are a thousand reasons
Why I should give up
But I’m stubborn in the things I believe

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign

’cause maybe there’s another plan
One I still can’t see
A little surprise, like Your love in my life
Funny how time changes how we see

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign
Everything in its time
Everything in its time