Father Sez

I read an interesting article in Yahoo Finance titled “A teacher’s lessons for Business Leaders.”  

Perhaps the title of the article did not do the teacher concerned sufficient justice, as the lessons seem applicable to lots of others, besides business people. I always feel gratified whenever I read articles about successful teachers.  

There was a time when teachers of young children held a very high post in the local community. This was befitting of the role these teachers played in shaping the minds and bodies of our young. These days the moneyed positions have taken over. Our position on the totem pole is dictated more by the earning statistics. The noble teaching profession has even been relegated to a job that one does because of a lack of any other. 

The ancient Hindu scriptures say, “Mother, Father, Teacher, God.” I am sure lots of thought went into the formulating and articulating of this statement, so it should not be taken lightly. 

Coming back to the Yahoo Article, the teacher concerned Mr. Ron Clark took a class of underperforming students in Harlem and lifted them out to a level higher than that of the gifted class. This must have called for lots of sacrifice and service beyond the call of duty. I can only imagine the deep gratitude the parents of the underperforming class children, will have for Mr. Ron Clark. And one can imagine the contribution Mr. Ron has made to American society by guiding these youngsters, rather than just releasing them as “underperformers.” 

I owe a lot to my teachers. They encouraged us, tolerated the usual pranks that school kids all over the world do, guided us and taught us. For this, I shall always carry a debt of gratitude, and try to pay it forward by teaching others what I can about the mistakes I have made in life.  

Sadly these days the teaching profession seems to have gone quite off tangent. Many teachers quit in frustration. You may read this post to appreciate this a little better.  

I hope one day, not too long from now, teaching will regain its rightful place in society. Society needs to place the right value on the role teachers play in shaping the most basic and fundamental building blocks of our world. And give the profession the total support, resources and recognition it needs to get the job done right. 

In one of my previous posts, I have written about my investment in a smallish telecommunication contracting company. The company had and still has a good track record and is well regarded in the telecommunication contracting industry in Malaysia. 

In 1997, we got an opportunity to participate in a tender for what is called “Outside Plant Expansion” called by Ghana Telecom of Ghana. It was an international tender and we participated in it. When the 1^st round tender results were announced, we found ourselves in a strong position.  

Like I said before we were a smallish company. While we were very confident of our technical capability, funding was another issue.  

This is the story of how we got our funding strength and my written tribute to the person who gave us the helping hand.  

Some years ago, I was holding a relatively senior post in a PLC, which was a member of quite a large group. During that time, a friend called me up and said that a friend of his wanted to meet with me to ask for some advice. Naturally I agreed to meet him.

Let’s call this friend of the friend, DZ. DZ had a construction company and he had done some civil works for one of the group companies. Various guys from this company had made all kind of change requests in the work scope during their visits, which DZ had obliged. This affected the costs, and when the time came for him to claim variations, the trouble started. DZ wanted my advice on what to do. 

I told him that all the group companies were independent and I did not see how I could help in any way. I also told him that if his documentation was firm, he could legally dispute the claims as provided in his contract. Whilst this would be a pain, his chances would be strong. And then we talked about general things and he left.  

The next time, I met DZ was at a dinner party several years later. I had, by then, left the PLC and was then working in the telecommunication company. I told him about the tender in Ghana where we had a strong chance and whether he would be interested.

At the same dinner, he agreed to a JV and also to extend a shareholder loan of what was a huge amount. His finance people came over the next few days to negotiate terms etc. All were agreed smoothly and amicably. He left the full management to us, only attending and being briefed at the regular Board meetings we held. 

This shareholder loan gave suppliers confidence and we then obtained supplier credit for the most expensive item in Outside Plant expansion work, i.e. cables.  

The rest is history, rich history in my life. 

The project was completed successfully. The loans were all paid. We made reasonable money. For DZ, his shareholding also paid rich monetary dividends. 

All credit evaluation rules were broken in DZ extending us the credit. It was just his gut feel. I had only met him once before in my life. To have turned down my suggestion for joint participation would not have been surprising at all. 

Well, you, DZ did not and for that I, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.  Your helping hand that fateful day resulted in work and changed the lives of lots of people. I still receive emails from my Ghanaian friends who are now working in large companies in Ghana or even outside Ghana, based on skills they learnt whilst with us.  

None of which would have been possible without DZ’s helping hand! 

I am just rounding up my trip to Mali, West Africa and am preparing to go home. For geography and statistics buffs, a summary of the country is listed here. (by no less than the CIA).

It is a very poor country, with a GDP per capita of USD1,200 per annum. As with most statistics, this is an average.

Much like if you put your legs in boiling water and cover your head with ice, statistically you would be warm all over. So you see a large number of Mercs on the road, except that the owners probably represent less than 1% of the population.

The population breakdown shows almost 50% between 0 -14 years of age, a really young population.

Fortunately for me, I did not have a whirlwind schedule like what Brip Blap described recently. We had a chance to visit two towns away from the capital. (Though I really wanted to, I could not visit famed Timbuctoo, about a 1,000 km from the capital.)

The lessons I am bringing home for myself is deep, unbridled gratitude.

Gratitude for the unexplained events of chance that resulted in me being brought up in my country, where I had a much better education and hence a better chance at life.

Gratitude that I am better off than perhaps 95% of Mali’s population of 12 million people.

Gratitude that whatever my debt levels may be, I still have a very decent roof over my head, food on the table, electricity at the flick of a switch and clean fresh water at the turn of a tap.

Gratitude that my children have a much better life than those little boys and girls who, burnt black by the sun, run after cars and try to sell tissues, toothbrushes and other assorted items.  

My wife continualy advises me that we should always look downwards, so that we look at the so many people who do not have what we have and feel grateful. Rather than upwards at all those Richie Rich people and envy them.

I slip up on this quite often.

The trip has nailed this lesson to me once again.

MMND has mentioned a memorable quote in her article on the proven power of gratitude. ”

“In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.”
 

Albert Clarke

May my gratefulness today and everyday make me happy!

I went to school without attending preschool. In fact, I did not know there was such a thing as preschool. Hence when I entered Standard One, I could not read or write a word of English.

The first year was quite miserable. My father could not afford any tuition for me, and I just made do. Slowly I started understanding words and learnt to spell. By the end of Standard Two, I could read and write English reasonably.

My classmates in school, WYK, AL and OHT came from better backgrounds and their parents bought them story books. And WYK, AL and OHT were very generous in lending me their books to read.

And, boy, did I read. I loved the stories and read them voraciously. I think even in these early years, I started speed reading just because I had to return the books the next day.

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When I grandly (over grandly in fact) announced my Most Audacious Goal for 2008, I promised to follow the advise given by the more established bloggers that I should be polite and thank bloggers who give me a link that results in a large flow of traffic.  

Well, it happened again. 

This time, Free Money Finance, made a mention of my financial blunders in his roundup for the week of 21 January 08, and there was a spike in traffic. 

Thank you, FMF!  

And a warm welcome to all FMF readers, who are dropping by for the first time.  Please look around and make yourself at home. 

I’ll appreciate your views and comments. 

All of us have our own reasons to contribute to charity.

How much should we give, how we should give and to whom we should give are matters which are quite personal to each and everyone of us.

In a world where spending less and less is become a mantra, charity is quite a misfit. What corresponding value do we see or get when we give to charity? How should we allocate scarce funds for charity?  When even paying down a punishing debt requires self discipline, what kind of motivation and self discipline does giving to charity need? 

I think my earliest introduction to charity was watching my eldest brother make donations to roadside beggars. My original motivations were, I suppose, also from the concept of “being good.” Being good means we should help people and one way is to make donations.  

As I grew older, my motivations changed. It changed from the vague concept of “just being good” to specific guidance from our Holy Book.

Though I am no religious expert, some verses from our Holy Book have really struck some chords in me.  My favorite guiding verses on charity are:- 

Verse 274 of Surah 2 

Those who (in charity),

Spend of their goods

By night and by day,

In secret and in public,

Have their reward

With their Lord:

On them shall be no fear,

Nor shall they grieve      

Verse 18 of Surah 57 

For those who give in charity,

men and women,

And loan to God,

a beautiful loan,

It shall be increased manifold,

(to their credit)

And they shall have (besides),

A generous reward.  

Verse 9 of Surah 76 

Saying, we feed you

For the sake of God alone

No reward do we desire

From you nor thanks. 

These 3 verses (I am sure there are many other verses extolling charity) are my favorites. They are my guiding lights and give me my strong motivation to give and to expect nothing in return from the recipient(s), not even a word of thanks.  

I am sure that all the great religions of the world, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, etc., have equally compelling messages on charity. 

For people with strong religious beliefs, the motivation for contributing to charity may probably come from religion.  

What about those without strong religious beliefs? Where does their motivation and discipline come from?

There are many kinds of “helping hands”. 

There are hands that help us in a time of dire need, there are hands that just give us a break and there are hands that show us the way.  In our lives, there must have been many instances of us having been given helping hands.  

It could have been our teacher in school, who went out of her way and patiently taught us something that we just could not get the hang of. 

It could have been our boss who, based on his judgment, promoted us to a job that we had no experience in. The lucky break many talk about. 

It could have been some community program like this which gave a helping hand to Miguel Santos. 

It could have been a sibling, who sacrificed his or her wants or even needs to ensure that our needs were met.  

It could have been great neighbors, as Karma Calling points out. It could have been something seemingly inconsequential at that time, but the influence of which we still feel today. 

We may now have gone our respective separate ways and may have even forgotten about the particular helping hand. But some events may trigger off a memory, and we can’t help feeling a glow of gratitude. 

These days I find myself thinking a lot about the people who in one way or another helped shape my life to be what it is now. Many of whom, I did not even thank properly. 

This blog now gives me an opportunity to pay them tribute. Of course, I don’t expect most of them to be reading this blog, but at least my conscience will be a lot better. 

What about you? Have you thought about those who have given you a helping hand?