Taking Another Look: Importance of Second Chances

When we meet someone for the first time, we often create a defining image in our minds of who that person is. We may also determine whether or not that someone is worth getting to know. Sometimes when an initial interaction is particularly uncomfortable or challenging, we can decide to close our hearts to this new acquaintance entirely. But being too quick to judge can cause us to lose out on a potentially wonderful, enriching relationship. First impressions don't always give the complete picture, so if you meet someone who leaves you less than impressed; consider giving them a second chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Everyone deserves to be given a second chance. We know from personal experience how painful it can feel to be misunderstood or judged. We have good hearts and want them to be seen. We have so much to offer and want others to welcome our gifts. When someone shuts us out before they even know who we are, it can feel frustrating, hurtful, and confusing. By giving others a second chance, we can extend the same courtesy we would ask for ourselves. In this way, we set a precedent for all our relationships: to allow everyone the freedom and safety to simply be human. Whether it is a blind date, the man sitting next to you on the airplane, or your new neighbor, everyone has a full life outside of their interaction with you. They may be preoccupied with a personal or business situation that affects the way they are presenting themselves, or maybe they had a rough day or some bad news. If you give them the room to be who they are, where they are, you will allow yourself to do the same.

When you are considering giving someone a second chance, first check in with your inner knowing. If you find that your intuition is advising you to keep your distance, it is important to honor the guidance you receive. By honoring your intuition when it has wisdom to share, you can feel confident and happy in your decision to give others a second chance.

Something to share:

How true it is that the first time you come across a person you tend to ignore him just as he takes no notice of you. This is a common human nature. But will you take the initiative and friendly approach to start the conversation and connect the relationship with him the second time meeting him?

Few days ago I saw this Indonesian guy in the pool when I went for a swim in Tiara Hotel’s swimming pool. Before I got into the pool, he started swimming away. So there was no chance to say “Hello”. Yesterday I was in the sauna room after the ping pong games with my colleague, SS. The door opened and this guy walked in. I looked at him and he looked at me but there was no eye contact. After a while, I decided to open my mouth and talked to him in Bahasa Indonesia. Once we had started our conversation, I found that he was as friendly as me and he spoke fairly good English. I felt glad that I had made a new friend because of taking the second chance.

One day my HRD personnels came to see me and proposed to promote someone who had sat for the evaluation test and his result was just at the borderline. The reason given was that he was the next in line. They also explained to me that the mill manager was satisfied with his performance and supported the promotion. Accordingly, the not so good result might have been due to his sick condition on the day the test took place. I told them on principle I could not approve such a recommendation but I could consider giving him the second chance. I suggested allowing him to re-sit the test and we would judge again by his new result. He passed with flying color and eventually he got his promotion.

Yes. “Everyone deserves to be given a second chance!” Don’t you agree?

Making Mistakes

We failed because we made mistakes. We made mistakes because we were lack of experiences. Thus, with the right concept, we had learned to gain experiences from the mistakes we had made. We had introspected to find out where go wrong. We needed to analyze the whole process one more time. Through evaluation, then we are able to avoid making the same errors but come out with a better action plan to make it the next time.

Something to Share:

Everybody makes mistakes for no man is born perfect. In actual fact, the more mistakes we make, the better we will become as we have learned through making mistakes. That’s what we call gaining experiences.

Peter F. Drucker, the father of Modern Management, once said,”The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more things he will try. I would never promote into a top level job a man who was not making mistakes….. He is sure to be mediocre.”

You may make hundreds of mistakes but each mistake made must not be the same as the previous mistake. That’s what we call experimenting.

A positive thinking person needs to do thing right the first time or at least he makes an attempt to do so. If not, he must learn the lesson and does it right the second time. Something is not right if a person keeps doing wrong and repeating the same mistake!

I used to tell my subordinates that there are 3 types of managers in plantations.

1st type – he has not learned from his own mistakes. (Gaining no experience thus chance of demotion or being sacked is great.)

2nd type – he has learned from his own mistakes. (Gaining limited experiences thus chance of promotion is slim.)

3rd type – he has learned from his own mistakes and also from other people’s mistakes. (Gaining more experiences thus chance of promotion is great.)

Higher Cost Of Production: A Great Concern To All Planters

PETALING JAYA: The sharp drop in crude palm oil (CPO) prices, rising cost of raw materials and burdensome taxes have resulted in the cost of production (COP) escalating among local plantation players, hurting smaller and newer plantation companies, especially those from Sarawak.

Planters claim that the current COP had surged, on average, RM1,200 to RM1,700 per tonne now. The COP of more efficient planters jumped at least 50% to RM1,200 per tonne currently from RM600 to RM650 in the past five years. The COP at the less efficient planters, as well as new planters, which meant younger palm trees with lower yields, shot up 87.5% to above RM1,500 per tonne from RM800 earlier.

“Just imagine with a COP above RM1,500 at the current CPO price of RM1,600 to RM1,700 per tonne, many medium to small-time planters will be facing difficulties in making (decent) margins,” said Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association president Boon Weng Siew.

Analysts have estimated that the COP among Sarawak oil palm players would be the highest nationwide at RM1,700 to RM2,000 per tonne.

“At current CPO price of RM1,700, how are Sarawak players going to break even or service their high borrowings at the banks and pay the windfall tax?” Boon asked.

He said the COP situation has changed dramatically, especially the price of fertilisers. The price of fertilizers had gone up by almost three folds to RM4,000 per tonne from RM1,300 to RM1,400 per tonne over the past three years.

The COP of efficient planters like IOI Corp Bhd and United Plantations Bhd is estimated to be in the range of RM1,100 to RM1,200 per tonne “at best,” according to Boon. Analysts have projected the two companies’ yield at 25 to 28 tonnes per ha per year, which was higher than the national industry average of 20 tonnes.

Plantation giant Sime Darby Bhd is said to have an average COP of about RM1,100 per tonne.

Plantation analysts projected the COP for medium-sized planters like IJM Plantations Bhd, Tradewinds Plantation Bhd and Asiatic Development Bhd at RM1,300 to RM1,500 per tonne.

Of late, many oil palm planters nationwide are struggling to keep their escalating COP at bay while grappling with the current decline in crude palm oil (CPO) prices.

They also have to contend with taxes deemed unfair such as the windfall tax and the cess imposed by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), as well as the high cost of fertilizers, chemicals and fuels.

The CPO price trend in November and December would be critical to determine the actual margin erosion among local plantation companies, an analyst with a bank-backed brokerage said. But he noted that the average CPO price at RM3,000 per tonne so far this year was still higher than the 2007 average at RM2,600 per tonne.

“I strongly believe that major oil palm plantation companies can still make good profits for 2008, given the higher CPO average this year and many have locked in their CPO selling price at RM3,000 per tonne in the previous months,” the analyst said.

Boon said many Sarawak-based oil palm plantation players, as new entrants with poor FFB yields, would be hit harder this year, given the bearish CPO price, high COP and the various taxes imposed on them such as the windfall tax.

Last week, seven major Sarawak oil palm companies appealed to the Government to waive the windfall tax or raise the CPO threshold price to RM3,000 per tonne from RM2,000 for calculating the windfall tax.

The Government has imposed a windfall tax on CPO sales at above RM2,000 per tonne, with a 15% tax applicable to plantations in mainland Malaysia, and a 7.5% tax for those in east Malaysia.

Ta Ann Holdings Bhd, a giant timber group with heavy investments in oil palm plantations, is worried. Managing director Datuk Wong Kuo Hea said: “Seasoned Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah planters have enough hectarage of profitable harvesting area to be financially self dependent. Sarawak, as a late entrant, has the lowest area planted with only 20% that can contribute to profit. We are also not financially self-sufficient in our operation and still require huge injection of funds into our new plantations.”

Analysts have projected that many Sarawak planters would continue to make losses from the first to fifth year of harvesting but would start to make profit only in year six if the CPO price was at RM1,700 per tonne.

Top listed Sarawak-based planters include Ta Ann, Sarawak Plantations Bhd, Rimbunan Sawit Bhd, Sarawak Oil Palm Bhd and WTK Holdings Bhd

Close Friends

When we are close friends with someone, we intuitively know when they need a hug, a helping hand, or a sympathetic ear. Likewise, when we are going through bleak periods in our lives, we count on friends to support us through loss, illness, and other setbacks, both big and small. And while part of being a good friend means being there when the other person needs us, it is just as important to be there for our friends so we can share in their joyous celebrations and triumphs.

After all, who else would our friends want to celebrate their promotions, graduations, marriages, and good news with than their loved ones and good friends? Yet depending on what is happening in our lives, it can sometimes be difficult to be there for our friends during the good times. We can become so busy with our own lives that we forget to make time. Or, we may be so focused on our own problems that we may not feel like celebrating with our friends. We may even take their joyful moments for granted, assuming that as long as we’re there for our friends during the bad times that we are doing our jobs. Yet part of being a true friend means also being there during the good times. Success and happiness can feel empty without someone to share them with, and who better to join in our victory dances than our good friends.

Taking the time from our busy lives to honor our friends’ happy moments is a wonderful way to show them that they matter. And in many ways, by wanting you around during their happy occasions, your friends are also honoring you. After all, it is the people we cherish that we want around us to sing at our birthdays, visit our newborn babies, and pop open that bottle of champagne with when we reach a milestone moment. The next time a friend wants you to be there to celebrate with them, remember to feel honored that they thought of asking you. Together, you can celebrate their happiness and your rich friendship.

Something to share:

Tan Jing Ming, my old pal, wrote his comment in my other blog (I Hope You Sing – You’ve Got A Friend): “Close friends are usually childhood friends where we have been friends for many years during our younger days and shared a lot fun together.” Yes. Close friends are our intimate friends. They are also our lifelong friends since childhood. We used to spend most of the time together after school; having fun together in various outdoor games and activities. Thus our relationship got closer day by day as we grew up in our hometown. But sad to say that only few in number remained keeping in touch as we have separated from each other and settled down in different places. The relationship somehow seems to be drifted apart as time goes by.

On the other hand, we do get close to some of our colleagues in our workplace and later become intimate friends. But most of them remain as casual friends. Our other casual friends also include our neighbors, our club members, our church members, parents of our children, friends of our colleagues and co-workers, and people we used to come across every now and then in our everyday lives. These are new and old acquaintances that we bump into and whenever we come across each other we used to nod our heads and say “Hello” without close fellowship. So the relationship remains casual.

There is no excuse for not having time for our friends who are staying in the same town or city. There is also no reason why we can’t meet up a friend when he happens to be in town. The Chinese saying puts it very clearly, “Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar?” 有朋友自远方来，不亦乐呼？(You Peng You Zi Yen Fang Lai, Bu Yi Le Hu) No mater how busy we are, we must always be ready to give our good friends our time. Yes. It will be a joyful moment to meet up and spend time with friends coming from other places. Our time is not only the precious gift that we can give, but also the top priority that we should make ourselves available for friends. When we are invited by our friends to attend their special functions, I am sure our presence will be much felt, honored and greatly appreciated by them.

I feel bad when I couldn’t attend the wedding of Lim Keng Hian’s son in Kuala Lumpur in May 2008 as I was told all of a sudden to make a trip to Acheh on the wedding date. Actually I felt honored of his invitation and I really wanted to share the happy moments with him and his family. Moreover, I was expecting to meet some of our old friends and ex-colleagues whom we had not met for quite a number of years at the wedding dinner. I am sure they were invited too.

As I plan to retire soon, I think I will not have any more excuses but the time to attend any invitation of my friends in near future. I will be a much happier person from now on to share the joyfulness of my close friends who have added richness to my life.

Wisdom & Decision Making

WHERE CAN WE FIND WISDOM?

Who among us does not look back in regret over a past decision? Sometimes we had inadequate information to make the right judgment. But often we simply lacked the necessary wisdom to make the right choice at the right time.

- THE NIV QUIET TIME BIBLE (Ecclesiastes 7/Pg 791)

Something to share:

Wisdom comes with experience, and experience come with age. God says, “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom,” and “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding.” (Proverbs 4:7a & 3:13) With adequate experience, you will have the wisdom to make the right decision at the right time to gain success. But if you make the right decision at the wrong timing, it’s unacceptable. Making a wrong decision is already a mistake but if at the wrong time, then it’s a disaster. As a consequence, our reputation or position could be at stake.

It’s essential to make analysis well before making a decision. Always gather adequate information to do a thorough cost- and -benefit analysis before making decision. Don’t be in a hurry to make decision if you are not sure of your perception and situation. However, this doesn’t mean that you can become indecisive by adopting the so-called “wait and see” attitude. The “keep delaying” attitude is another form of your indecisiveness. It’s better to make a decision than not making decision at all. However, any decision made should be an effective one. Then it’s a right decision.

Why do people look back and regret over a past decision? It’s alright to look back and learn from past mistake but it’s just a waste of time if you keep regretting over it. Remember that what had been done cannot be undone. If you think you had made a wrong decision in the past, then you should look forward to spend time on gathering adequate information to make a right decision today so that you won’t regret over it later on.

Our life journey is a process of decision making. As a leader, you must realize the power of decision making. Timing is of paramount important. Thus, decision making must not long past its time and purpose. You are solely responsible for making a decision and don’t find a scapegoat to blame for the wrong decision made. You must learn from the past mistakes once you realize that a wrong decision had been made. When you are determined not to repeat the same mistakes, such determination will give you the power to make a right decision but make it at the right time. Once a decision has been made, then it’s time to act immediately. Any delayed action is undesirable because circumstances may change rapidly. Therefore, to be really successful, you have to make the right decision at the right time and followed by fast action with total commitment.