Istanbul ... Asia and Avrupa ...from the Blackberry

Again this is about Istanbul but author tries to present the story in a different way. In this article, author will share a visual story of what he saw during travel and at work.  This is a new approach of presentation that author wants to explore ... so enjoy the picture taken from Blackberry Curve Javelin ... :)


Late October 2010: Assignment in Istanbul was a short one. Just one week and full of meetings.  So I am able to snap some pictures during the break, after work and also during my route to the Airport.


At Work During Break


I went up to the roof top to look at the view of Maltepe area.  The building I worked is sandwiched by highway and a military camp.  I'm more interested on the area living so I took some picture of the highway ....


[Picture]


After Work


October is quite cold in Istanbul. We're talking about 10 Degree C plus some windchill factor ... so not much exploring I did during the working days.  But after work ... with cold weather outside ... nothing match the Turkish Tea or "Cay" they call it and a pool session at the bar ... 


[Picture]


Travelling Home


I took different route from normal.  Usual route I that took was taking a taxi from the hotel in Kartal and straight to Ataturk airport. This time, I took a taxi to Kadikoy, then a boat ride to Karakoy. From there, I took Tunel Train to the edge to Istikal Street and finally to a tram to Taksim Square. Why I did that?  My flight was at night so I took opportunity to spend time at Istikal Street and Taksim Square in this visit. 


I spend some time with my friend Zikri and Murat, enjoying the lunch and some dessert before taking a taxi to Ataturk Airport.... I would not recommend this type of travel if you're travelling with your bulking baggage.  I travelled light at that time so it was a fun walk. :) 


Something that shock me when I arrive home. The Taksim square where I hanged out on Saturday, was bombed on Sunday ... Felt relieved that I'm at home at that time ...

Being bachelor in Alor Setar..

I would like to recall my early involvement in my career adventure in Alor Setar.  Some are sweet and some are not ... anyway its an adventure it the blend of both stories.


I just reached 25 years old when I started my career in IT industry.  Alor Setar, Kedah was the first state in Malaysia that welcomed me in IT project management world.  I was recruited in Kuala Lumpur by TIME Systems Integrator and within one month, my first assignment was Alor Star.


Government was my first client. To be exact, the Land Administration Office.  It was a unique experience which exposed me to the meaning of tough negotiation, office politics and bureaucracy.


At the same time, I was exposed to the northern lifestyle of Malaysia.

New Year Resolution ...

Well, it is almost end of January. I guess it is not too late to bring up the topic on New Year Resolution.  Year 2010 has been a very good year for me. Lots of things been achieved in my career and family life.


There are also some hick ups here and there through out last year but it doesn't give a high weight to me to say that year 2010 is not a good year.  Let's recap what did I achieve last year and what's my resolution for year 2011.


Highlights on things that happened last year:

• Delivered 6 projects in Istanbul.
• Helping the company to get selected as finalist for IT Supplier of the Year award by the BCS (British Computing Society) & Computing UK IT Industry award 2010 in Organizational Excellence Category.
• Helping the company to get selected as finalist in CCR Credit Excellence Award.
• Appeared in the IT Roundtable Talk organized by ZDNET and CBS Interactive.
• Able to accomplished 2 family vacations which makes the family happy.
• Helping my wife to set up her on-line business.
• Enrolled to graduate school.
• My two cute little daughter got an excellence award at their school.
• The elder daughter got drafted into the school orchestra.
• Enjoying first day at nursery for by 4 years old boy.
• Running in 2 marathon (21km and 10 km respectively) in 2 countries. Putrajaya, Malaysia and Antalya, Turkey.

Some of the unforgettable event happened last year:

• Loss few colleague due to VSS happened in office.
• Car accident ... no one injured just the car ... thank God for that.
• Daughter been affected by Dengue fever ... thank God again .. she recovered.
• Son put some unidentified object in his nose ... have to pay visits to clinics ... 3 TIMES ...

Places that I went:

• Singapore
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Antalya, Turkey
• Nairobi, Kenya
• Dubai, UAE

And the most important event of the year ... Writing up in this blog ... 


Well looking at what been achieved .. I'm pretty satisfy with what happened last year and the 2011 resolution would be ... to make it better. Nothing specific yet on what to achieve as I would rather enjoy the process than getting straight to the end result.  The learning comes from the process and not the end result ... well that's is what I feel right now ...


That is what I can share with you on my experience in 2010 and sharing some idea on what I going to do in 2011.  Enjoy the reading ...

This Year Entry

Photo by Helico

Hi all,  


After three month of quietness, it is time for me to be active back on blog writing.  My initial plan in November 2010 was to have a periodic entry on the blog, however, being me ... I like to explore and learned new things.


November through December were a hectic month for me where I've traveled to few countries and also going back to school. So it is quiet a hustle for me to juggle on the first stage. Now, in January, I seems to got the hang on this new schedule and able to slot in some time for blogging.


Hope to see you in the next entry.  Happy new year .. if is not too late to wish.




  

The Fallings

This is the last article about P.Ramlee for this year.  In this article, author will explore the challenges and the hurdles faced by P.Ramlee throughout his life until his death.  Again author will try to extract some lesson that we can learn and apply in our worklife.

Source : HistoryAsia.com

31 October 2010, 10:00 pm.  I was waiting in front of the TV to watch, History Channel Biography about P.Ramlee.  It was a long awaiting program as I meant to use the information from the documentary for my blog. It took me another week to search relevant information to support facts shown in that documentary.  It was a good documentary and I learned a lot from it.  Congratulation to Suhaimi Baba for a good compilation and research.


My review and lesson learned from this documentary will be based from the observation during the show and connect those information with the previous articles sources.


All in previous articles, I've shown with you the golden era of P.Ramlee.  Now I'll list down some of the challenges he faced until his death.  My insight from this documentary was there were two turning points in his life.  


One in 1948 where his talent was spotted and he grew to be a big name in the industry. Another was 1964, where we would see his career starts to drop drastically and (this is my personal opinion) lead to his death.


Observing the duration between 1948 and 1964, I managed to identify series of tell tale signs of his fallings below.

1. The move to Merdeka Film Production in Kuala Lumpur was based from his trust with the management of Merdeka Film Production that he will get "What he want..." if he migrate from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.
2. While in Singapore, he worked with experience and well trained film crew and state-of-the-art equipments. Thus, that is why he manage to produce quality and award winning film during his days in Singapore.
3. Arriving to Kuala Lumpur, he had to faced in-experience crew and out-of-date film equipment.  Which, cause him some problem producing a quality film and it seems that he didn't get what been promise.  Given, an incompetent crew and inadequate equipment, the expectation given to him was so high just because he was a big name .... plus when the production was release, the blame was put on him ... (This is a very interesting case to look at .. an example of daydreaming management)
4. Series of unexpected event such as termination of contract with EMI Singapore and Shaw Brothers in 1968 and 1972 respectively.
5. Unsuccessful business venture with PERFIMA or "Malaysian Film Industries" where he and his counterpart was fired from the board even before the core business starts operating.
6. Being jeered by local fans simply because of the new trends in music industries where that where new pop culture starts gaining popularity in late 60s.
7. Lack of resource support in terms of financial from the financial institutions and governing body related to the music and film industries, simply because his popularity when down and no longer a money making machine to several organization.

It was sad to hear, for a such a legendary person, he had to end his life like that and based from the documentary, his family didn't even have any money for the funeral.

So what can we learned as a human, a member of society and member of organization?  Lets list it down here ... 

1. We will not always be at the top.  There will be a time where we may stumble into some hurdle that would lead to personal failure.  So it is wise to prepare some safety net while on top.  Such example, looking from career person perspective is to have some kind of personal investment or some kind of back-up business venture or entity. Like what Forrest Gump said "Life is like box of chocolate, you never know what you're going to get ... "
2. In business, do not trust people completely.  Do some preliminary background check first before making decision to follow or jumping to the next territory.
3. Beware of "daydreaming management".  Daydreaming management here means ... having a ambitious goal but the available resource, knowledge and effort does not support the achievable of that goal.  
4. Blend with the current trend.  Any thought process that produce something, sometimes sink over time. Place some new energy into it .. get it blend with the time. 
5. I took the quote of our great Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir ... "Step down at the time people likes you ..."  At the time we're liked, we will be asked to contribute this and that, we are popular and will be heard ... as our being getting low ... we become someone's liability ... before that happens ... move on to other territory or new way of doing things when the time comes.  Some example, if you're very good in managing computing system ... there will be a time when the method and tools that we use may get outdated overtime ... one of the example that you can do while you're at the top is by going into training new faces with your style and let the new faces evolve your style with the trend.  Or another idea is by being in a consultation domain where people will refer you as the contemporary expert and you can start talking about your thought on the new trends through speaking in a conference, book or article writing and etc.

In addition to that, what been done previous people is not something for us to use it for pointing fingers and blaming game ... it is for us to seek what are the things that we can pick and improve.  

My insight stops here .. :) see ya in next article... stay tune with Iskandarinperson blog....