People Picker Upper???
"What's that?" you may wonder.
Allow me to share with you...
It is because of WHAT I have been involved in over the past two and a half decades.
"Hm, what's that you're involved in?" you may ask.
I have been involved in many activities relating to teenagers and young adults. Are you one of them?
After my secondary education and college days, I began my career as a lecturer in Bedford College in 1975. Being young and surrounded by college students (mostly girls) was interesting indeed! Perhaps you can remember the feeling you had when you landed your first job, well, this would be "your heaven on earth" with a lot of beautiful angels.
Then, I had a short stint in Sim Lim Finance, a local finance company. Here I became very good at counting people's money manually (we do not have the currency counting machine back then). You may think that this must be a boring job... and guess what?
You're right! So, I decided to venture into "greener pastures".
I started working as a manager for a pub (New Moon, in Bangsar). The exposure was a good eye-opener! In fact, I learned more things in those six months than the earlier twenty years of my life!! WoW!!
Changes in family circumstances in 1979 found me back in Penang, my hometown. For about a year I worked in Hanafiah, Raslan and Mohamad (HRM) while lecturing on a parttime basis in Ge Te Institution. I learnt a lot about systems audit, internal control and usually conduct cash audit in banks.
"Hrmp! Uh! Uh!", you may think.
I heard that!! And yes you guessed it right!
So in 1982, while still lecturing, the opportunity to give talks to schools and youth organisations - Youth Advisory Centre (YAC) and the Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) came along. This was followed by invitations to design and present training workshops for uniformed, educational as well as commercial organisations and factories. At first I did most of these presentations for free.
"FREE! Are you nuts?", you may feel.
Wait, wait the best is yet to come.
Public seminars and workshops soon followed. It was fun as well as rewarding to be a catalyst in the transformation of young adults. Enriching in terms of experience and it helped to pay some bills!
In 1989, I was awarded the Competent Gavelier Certificate from Toastmasters International for completing their COMMUNICATION AND LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME. Now, I know how to "stand up, speak up and shut up".
Meanwhile, my lecturing experience evolved to the stage where one of my students (Lim Shyang Huei) gained a gold award from the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examination Board (LCCIEB) for being the world's best in Management Accounting in 1991. In 1992 another of my student (Leow Yew Way) gave me a repeat performace. Although they put in most of the effort and rightfully earned the awards, I am very proud to be able to guide them in their career paths.
Talk about throwing the golden boomerang!
"Nothing comes from nothing .......... so somewhere in ...... I must have done something good." so goes the lyrics of a song in the movie "Sound of Music".
In 1996, I decided to put my lecturing and training experience into books. "Effective Learning Skills" is the result. I am still working on many others but for the moment I am learning how to share myself with a larger community - people like you, the userd of the internet.
Afterall, I believe in enriching others and myself. I used to say to students in my classes "As I teach you, I am enriched because I am learning from each of you". This is in line with my concept of "one to many and many to one". WoW!!
Please feel free to move around throughout the pages. Remember, I welcome your comments, feedback and suggestions.