Winners Make Sacrifices, Losers Make Excuses

I went for a briefing/training for my part-time job this afternoon. My main duty for this assignment will be to promote this membership card to potential members, more or less like a sales/recruiter job lah.

Anyway, I realised how much I have changed and learnt throughout the years. A few years back, I would never even in my wildest dream have thought that I will one day be taking on a sales position. You see, from young I was always the quiet and obedient boy sitting in a corner minding his own business. Ha.

I still remember the first time I actually went into sales; it was in 2004, the year when Gys, Kok and me decide to bravely and perhaps a bit foolishly invest money to purchase an automated doughnut machine and happily started to pursue our doughnuts empire dream at the pasar malams.

Before we could open for business though, we had to locate the Pasar Malam organiser in order to rent a stall at the Pasar Malam. I can still remember that I did not even dare to approach anyone. It was mainly Gys and Kok who did all the talking. Ha.

Yah, my skin then was extremely "thin" and I was not called "shy boy" for nothing. I had a reputation to maintain lei! Ha.

It was when we actually started selling the doughnuts that I began to open up. I had to because the sales figure was disastrous! I think we made our first sales of $2 after about an hour, far off our projected sales!

As the days went by, I began to enjoy myself more. We were actually singing crap and shouting crazy doughnuts slogan so as to attract the crowd to our stall. It was then that I realised that nobody actually give a damn about you, as in you make a fool out of yourself, people might laugh at you but after a while, they will leave. They will get on with their life and forget all about this group of crazy clowns. Ha.

Furthermore, if you are shy and you are afraid of this and that, you lose out. I think it was around that time that my skin started to thicken. :) Side track for a bit, I suddenly remember this particular episode where we sold a doughnut to an Eurasian.

He was quite a strange man as in he did not talk but just smiled at us and indicated that he wanted one stick of doughnuts. So we conjured up our masterpiece through this wonderful doughnut machine and handed it to him.

It was then that Gys decided to follow the man and see what was his reaction after eating the doughnut. (Because we did not have much confidence in our doughnuts). Ha. Gys followed the guy for a while and then he suddenly ran back to our stall, almost breathless. "He's coming back!!!" Gys exclaimed.

For that moment, we all thought that maybe our doughnuts really sucked so much that he was coming back to demand a refund. But guess what happened?

He actually came back, gave up a thumbs up, smiled and then left! Ha. That really made our day sia. Customer satisfaction to the max.

I think the doughnut venture though not successful really pushed me towards the path of entrepreneurship. After that I went on to sell muffins (a few years later without Gys and kok) while Gys actually went on to join 2 other partners to set up a company and eventually went solo to set up his own company.

Talking about Gys, there's really so much I wanted and could learn from him. Among us in the gang, I believe he's the only one who walked the walk. He wanted to pursue his dreams of making games. He told himself that he wanted to be his own boss and he really went for it.

He cut all the bridges and burnt the ships, he never looked back. One thing I really admire about him is that despite all the stress and hectic schedule that comes from being an entrepreneurship, his number one priority in life is still his family and friends. :)

Haiz... really missed that crappy guy.

About a few months back, I was complaining to Kok about how difficult my programming module was and how I was finding it difficult to cope because I was from the poly and this module was particularly theoretical and mathematical intensive.

Kok said something that really made me think hard for a while. He said, "My bro told me this, Winners make sacrifices, losers make excuses."

That statement is very very true. And I think this mentality is what differentiate the winners from the losers. Deep down inside, I know that if I really put in effort and more hours to study for this module, I will be able to do well, after all I'm not THAT stupid. Ha.

But was I willing to do it? No? That's why I was coming up with all these excuses so as to make myself feel better. Losers = Excuses. Winners = Sacrifices. Which are you?

A lot of people say they want to be their own boss, start their own business. But I realised that most of them are all talk no action. I witness for myself the serious extent of Loserisum.

The 2 years I was working before I started my studies at Uni last year, I had the opportunity to work at various places, some were quite an enriching experience while some really cannot make it.

The last place I worked at, the mood there was really so demoralising that you cannot help but be dragged down by them. People go back on the dot, have no pride in their work and are just counting the days to payday. That is really darn sad!

There was this guy who was scared of this, scared of that, scared of offending the users (we were doing desktop support) yet back at his desk, he will complain about this and that. Really a typical loser.

He says that he has no control. In fact, a lot of people I meet say that they hated their jobs but they cannot leave because they got commitments. And when I tell them I want to start a business, they will like admire me. (Maybe deep down inside they are thinking that this guy is talking crap. Ha. But little do these people know that they DO have a choice.

Before I continue further, let me tell you about one experiment I read in a book.

There was this hospital that housed terminally ill patients who had only a few months left to live. So, the doctors there decided to do an experiment. For the patients living on the first level, they did nothing. But for the second level patients, they actually gave them a plant to take care of.

The purpose of the plants was so that these patients had a sense of control of something. A few months later, most of the level one patients passed away while the second level patients who had plants were still alive. Some even showed improvement.

Then the doctors took away some plants from the second level patients and within a short while they passed away too. (I think the experiment was something like that, I can't really remember in details)

What did this experiment showed us? No, not that keeping plants can make us live longer but when one loses a sense of control of his life, he loses his will to live, in fact, when one feels that he is not in control, he finds little motivation to live.

Ask yourself this, on days when you really feel depressed, what was the reason? Was it because you dreaded going to work because you did not feel like it but you still had to go because you had "no choice"?

Most people feel very sad or stress especially when it comes to money and they are afraid of losing their job, that's why they keep working at it even though they really cannot stand it because they have to put the rice on the table.

These people whine, complain about mostly everything. They feel that their lives are out of their control but instead they are controlled by the environment/situation. Like if they get sacked by the company, they will say it's the company's fault. It's their bad luck.

But in truth, Everyone of us HAVE a CHOICE. It is just whether you are willing to bear the consequences if you make that decision. For example, someone who hates his job but cannot leave because he has to pay his house mortgage. He feels that he is trapped.

But no, he actually HAVE a choice. He can quit and find another job. But you must be saying, siu kai then what about the mortgage? Well, he can CHOOSE NOT to pay for it but it will of course not be practical right? So, maybe he can look for another job while he continues with his current job.

Perhaps the new job he finds is paying less than his current job. Well, he can either find another one that pays better or carry on his current job or take on other part-time jobs. You see, this guy has ample choices. Who says he is trapped in his job?

Losers make excuse. Winners make sacrifices.

Of course it is easier said than done, that's why I believe that your destiny is shaped by the decisions you make in every stage of your life. If you cannot afford the mortgage, don't buy a house yet. Wait till you are more stable in your career.

The people I cannot stand most are lazy people. Because these people thinks that the whole world owes them a living. Hello, NO ONE owes you a living. Singapore don't owe you a living just because you were born in Singapore. Your parents don't owe you a living just because they gave birth to you. (Maybe when you were younger they did.)

Sometimes I really don't know why people like to complain so much. Every morning when I read the Straits Times Forum, people complain about this and that. Can't they just shut the hell up and do something about it? Oh, maybe they are doing something about it by complaining. Ha.

I think I was suffering for Loserisum too for the past few years. When things go wrong, I will try to blame the situation, like maybe the task was too difficult, that maybe the client was too demanding. I did not take responsibility for the failure. I did not make enough sacrifices to ensure that I succeed. Instead, I came up with lots of excuses why I failed.

You see, it's never too late to wake up. Loserisum can be cured the moment you stop making excuses, take control of your life and take responsibility for the things that happen to you.

At the place where I'm studying now, I really don't like the competitiveness of the people. Most are self-centered and will go all out to score that all important A. But siukai, you are being naive, when you go out to work, it will also be like that what. People will compete to climb the corporate ladder.

That's what I hate about this. I'm not into climbing, I prefer crawling. Ha. You see, I don't like stress. Not that I can't work under stress, in fact I think I perform well under stress. Just that if I want to be stressed, I want to be stressed from within.

Like stress because I'm thinking of ways to outsell my competitors. Like stress from how to promote my new product I created myself. Not stressed from not being able to meet my bosses deadline for a presentation. Not stressed from not being able to come up with a good proposal for fear of losing that promotion.

You get the difference? Stress that comes from within I call it motivation. Motivation is good stress because you want to succeed for your own sake. Because YOU WANT TO. NOT YOU NEED TO. That's the difference!

Yah! I think I just reached another level of enlightenment. Ha. Need to = no choice. Want to = Got choice. It all boils down to choices again.

Of course there are people out there who have limited choices because maybe they simply do not have enough education to succeed or maybe heaven dealt them a poor card and they were born disabled or met with accidents.

These are the people I liked to help. But I cannot. Not I don't want to. But I cannot yet because I do not have the means. When I am rich enough, I will go all out and help people who really need the help; people who genuinely wants to climb up on their own feet but lack the means. NOT lazy people. People who can work but just stay at home and shake leg waiting for welfare money to come in.

I also want to help people with dreams. Because I know how much it means if someone can come along and give you a helping hand to push you one step closer to achieving that dream.

When I succeed in the future, I want to do a lot of things. I want to help my family, relatives, my friends and other people who really deserves the break.

Good guys deserves a good break. But sometimes the hand we are dealt with are just plain bad. I know how crappy it feels when you keep thinking but cannot fulfill that dream. So, trust me, I'll make things right the moment I succeed. :)

Remember, Winners Make Sacrifices, Losers Make Excuses.

I'll end with this quote from Will Smith's character in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. In the movie, Will Smith is a man who is trying very hard to survive and earn money to feed his son.

There was one scene which he told his son this, "Do not let somebody, not even me, tell you you can’t do it. People can’t do it themselves and they try to tell you you can’t do it. If you have a dream, go for it!”