Behind a Successful Man There is a Woman

Do you familiar with that saying?
"Behind a Successful Man There is a Woman".

Some feminists may not be happy with this phrase. For them, it is gender biased and putting women's roles not as important as those of men. I disagree with that kind of narrow mentality. Anyway, I am not interested to discuss in this line further.

For me, this is really a respect to all women. Women who play their roles right behind, adjacent and along with their beloved partners in life - the husbands.

Allah s.w.t. has created many things in the universe, in pair. Women are created for men, and vice versa. They are complimenting to and supporting each other. For those of us who are the believers fo God as the creator of mankind, this is the most precious gift - for both healthy and natural men and women.

In fact, in the current hectic life in modern age, where both men and women are struggling to survive in this challenging world, they can also be the success factor to each other.

They are motivating each other, and becoming the source of strength and support to each other. This is compounded for a married couple, whose family will become another factor that drive the motivation and reasons to be successful in life.

Hence, we can also say that, behind a successful couple or partners in life, there is a family.

I say this not from hearsay, but from my own experience. I have a beloved wife and big family. They are all my source of happiness, strength, support and motivation to work and strive harder for the betterment.

That's already a success. Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah s.w.t.).

Jam

Consistency - One of Many Qualities Leading to Success

Suddenly, my well known blogging friend jolted me with a striking question, "Have you blogged recently?" He reminded again, "you need to be consistent and have discipline."

That's really a valuable reminder for me on that particular day. He reminded me of 2 things - consistency and discipline.

Lately, due to my hectic schedule and activities on the ground in my office, together with another busy activities in my NGO life, I have failed to adhere to my own planning to write 1 article a day in my blog. I have failed to be consistent in contributing my thought through my blog. It has not been easy to maintain consistency in many things in life.

One online dictionary defines "consistency" as "harmony of conduct or practice with profession", or, "firmness of character". Essentially, to be consistent is to have a firm character in specific conduct or practice related to certain profession.

If I want to be successful and excellent in continuously contributing ideas and thoughts through writing in blog, I have no other option but to be consistent in that profession. I need to be consistent in writing. I need to instill discipline in me in order to be consistent.

From real life examples, we can easily relate successful people in their specific areas to certain consistency in their behaviour.
For example:

• Steve Jobs, the inventor of Apple computer, IMac and iPod, is well known of his consistency in creating new designs and ideas;
• Siti Norhaliza, one of the most popular female singer in Malaysia and maintain her popularity until now, has been consistent in preserving her clean identity and behaviour;
• Nicol David, who has succeeded in becoming the world woman squash champion, has been consistent in maintaining her stamina and performance.

There are many other successful people who you can easily identify his or her consistent behaviours relating to their success.
So, whatever it takes, I need to instill and inculcate this one quality - CONSISTENCY.

This has led me to complete writing this article.

Jam

Increasing the Rate of Success by Learning from Others

Observing children's behaviour is very fascinating. The fact that children can learn and absorb very fast are because they are learning from others. While they observe and scrutinize adults' action and speech, they learn. The challenge is to provide them with right principles in life so that they learn the right behaviours.

Learning from others is actually a lifelong process.

I was travelling with a few friends recently. One thing good about travelling with friends, especially in long journey, is the opportunity to chat and discuss many personal stories and experience. It is even more interesting since all the friends were coming from various background and exposure in life and career. For a journey of 6-7 hours each direction, there were plentiful of subjects to talk about.

Without going into details of so many issues, good and bad stories, jokes, men's joke and opinions being talked about, learning from others through this kind of candid but interactive sessions can help us in increasing the rate of success in what we want to achieve:

1. Personal family background can be a factor to achieve success - A well known example is about a successful businessman or stateman coming from a family that has the same success in those areas. Unless we really want to be successful in a totally different area, the family background can be helpful if we were to be successful in the same area;
2. "Old stories" for others, new ideas for you - There were so many "old stories" being shared across in a candid and fun manners. In many cases, you may find that some of those "old stories" can be a refreshing new ideas for you to further explore and relate to what you are doing to achieve your personal goals;
3. Generate new solutions from listening the problems of others - People will always have problems and challenges in their life. "To err is human" is a fact of life. Learning from others also means to listen to their problems and challenges and how they solve them. Talking and listening attentively to people is an enriching experience as we are learning or developing new solutions for the same problems and challenges that we may face in the future.

We need to create and grab opportunities which will allow us to listen and learn from others. Nowadays, many professional bodies and societies are organizing various regular functions allowing their members to network, interact, meet and talk to each others.

My recent travelling with friends in a long journey was another example of opportunity to listen, share and learn from others. By doing so, we may increase the rate of success by learning the right and proven formula and techniques.

Jam