Life; The Next Chapter

Thomas Edison dikatakan sebagai antara inventor paling prolifik di dunia. Antara kredit yang beliau terima untuk ciptaannya yang paling popular, adalah mentol. Namun, iika kita ingin bersoal jawab mengenai pencapaian beliau, banyak boleh diperkatakan. Ada pendapat yang mengatakan beliau bukanlah inventor sebenar sebaliknya hanya meniru idea-idea inventor original. Apapun, tak kisahlah. Saya hanya mahu masalah saya selesai. Jadi kepada sesiapa yang berbakat mereka cipta tu, silalah cipta mesin-mesin yang seperti berikut ya:

1) Mesin Seterika Baju

Saya suka mencuci baju (dengan mesin). Baju-baju saya melalui proses pemeringkatan dua kali. Pertama kali di cuci dengan serbuk pencuci dan kali kedua dengan Softlan. Cuma, saya dapati baju yang dicuci sendiri dan yang di hantar ke kedai dobi berbeza dari tahap kekedutannya.

Baju yang dicuci sendiri perlu digosok supaya pemakainya kelihatan lebih tegap.

Saya dah lupa bila kali terakhir saya gosok baju. Mungkin 8 tahun yang lepas (just kidding!). Dulu waktu zaman remaja, memanglah saya particular dengan baju. Tak mahu emak gosokkan sebab emak gosok tak straight. Saya mahu gosok sendiri, lebih berkualiti. 🙂

Ketika di universiti mungkin keyakinan diri tu lebih tinggi. Baju gosok ke, baju tak gosok ke, orang hensem tetap hensem. Jadi saya amat jarang menggosok baju. Kecuali jika ada acara formal sahaja. Lagipun biasanya pakai T-Shirt sahaja.

Di KL, baju walaupun T-Shirt perlu digosok juga sedikit at least, supaya tidak kelihatan serabai sangat. Lagi-lagi pula status “bujang”, manalah tahu terserempak dengan bakal-bakal mak mertua di mana-mana. Jadi penampilan kenalah jaga kan? Sebelum ini makcik dobi menjadi penggosok baju, namun disebabkan oleh masalah peribadi makcik dobi tersebut telah menutup bisnesnya.

Dan kami pun terpaksa membeli mesin basuh dan mencuci baju sendiri. Hence, keperluan mesin menggosok baju.

Idea: Saya tak dapat menggambarkan bagaimana rupa mesin gosok baju tersebut, ada conveyor belt ke tidak, macam mana mekanisma gosok dan sebagainya. Tetapi saya ada satu idea supaya mana-mana Thomas Edison Jr di luar sana boleh mula projek ini somewhere.

Instead of guna seterika seperti biasa, why not guna bahan kimia untuk straightkan baju?

Kita campur chemical solution tersebut dalam mesin basuh macam kita masukkan Softlan dan kemudian apabila kita sidaikan baju diampaian, baju-baju tersebut akan jadi lurus seperti di ampaian.

Kalau rambut pun boleh diluruskan, takkan baju tak boleh. Brilliant kan? hehe… 🙂

2) Mesin Memasak

Saya terfikir idea ini semalam. Sewaktu pergi ke gerai membeli lauk sebelum balik ke rumah memasak nasi. Taklah sukar sangat, tetapi 30 minit terbuang macam tu je.

Idea: Jika anda perhatikan dalam proses memasak, bahan mentah biasanya sama. Daging, ayam, bawang, garam, kunyit, gula dan sebagainya. Kalau mamak yang masak mee di kedai tu, beliau tak payah fikir-fikir pun, tangannya dah jadi macam robot. Ceduk dari bekas ini sikit, ceduk dari bekas ini sikit, ceduk dari bekas itu sikit, tumis, masukkan mee dan siap.

Kenapa tak ada satu mesin yang ada compartment-compartment untuk diletakkan bahan-bahan ini. Di samping itu ia juga ada tangki minyak dan ruangan penyimpan daging. Ia juga mestilah dilengkapi dengan microprocessor dan memori supaya kita boleh menyimpan resipi dan cara-cara memasak. Cara-cara memasak ini kita boleh simpan seperti kita menyimpan macro dalam Microsoft Excel (mula-mula ambil dari sini, gerakkan ke sini, ambil itu, campurkan, etc).

Mungkin kali pertama kita menggunakan mesin itu, kita kena programkan dulu resipi tersebut dan beritahu mesin tersebut di mana bawang, kunyit, garam , berapa kuantiti yang diperlukan dan cara masakan (grill, goreng atau rebus). Tetapi selepas itu mesin tersebut boleh ikut program yang telah disetkan kali pertama.

Sebagai pelengkap yang wajib, mesin tersebut juga mestilah boleh mencuci diri sendiri (kuali atau periuk yang digunakan).

Cara menumis? Alah, ini mudah. Kita gunakanlah style mesin basuh, pusing aje. Ketika menumis apa yang penting adalah haba dapat sampai ke setiap pelusuk bahan yang ditumis kan?

Untuk lebih clear, bayangkan mesin basuh, microwave, mixer dalam satu.

Ketika saya kecil dahulu ada iklan untuk susu Sustagen. Dalam iklan tersebut seorang budak kecil bangun pagi apabila jam locengnya berbunyi. Sambil beliau mandi dan pakai baju, jam loceng tersebut telah memulakan satu proses membancuh susu Sustagen yang siap dihantar (dengan keretapi mainan) ke depan pintu sebelum kanak-kanak tersebut pergi ke sekolah. Sejak saya melihat iklan tersebut, hari-hari saya berfantasi mengenai kewujudan mesin seperti itu.

Bayangkan, balik rumah je, klik dua-tiga butang, bila siap mandi, makanan dah siap. Bila bangun tidur je, klik dua tiga butang lagi, mandi-mandi, sarapan dah siap. Best tak?

Oh, manalah sustageniuses-sustageniuses ni. Takkan semua orang minum Dumex kot.

Jika ada sesiapa yang telah mencipta mana-mana mesin di atas, sila hubungi saya ya. Saya nak beli. 🙂

Have an Awesome Weekend!

Sabri

Tambahan kemudian: p/s: Ada pembaca menghubungi saya setelah membaca artikel di atas. Beliau kata, beliau tahu bagaimana saya boleh mendapatkan kedua-dua mesin di atas. Beliau kata, deposit atau down paymentnya memang mahal, tetapi maintenance bulan-bulan murah aje. Bil elektrik pun tak payah bayar. Mesra alam.

Saya pun reply. Saya berminat. Macam mana? Kat mana nak dapat?

Beliau kata, senang je. Cari isteri, kahwin! Kuang, kuang, kuang.

Rasanya macam nak ketuk je orang buat lawak time orang serius-serius ni. Apapun, betul juga. Kahwin, food for thought. hak3x. 🙂

Hari ini saya akan berkongsi satu rahsia.

Ummar menghubungi saya sehari dua ini kerana beliau terpilih untuk mewakili sekolahnya dalam pertandingan bahas. Jadi beliau meminta beberapa tips dan strategi yang boleh digunakan. Dan saya pun memberikannya. Dan memang strategi-strategi saya mujarab. hehe… Oh ya, jangan kagum sangat dengan Ummar, beliau adalah pemain ragbi bukan pembahas profesional. Jadi dia tak se”polished” abangnya lagi.:)

Apapun, strategi-strategi tersebut menjadi. Jadi semalam saya memberikannya strategi yang lebih advance lagi dan juga pesanan tambahan, “Pastikan tak ada debater perempuan yang menangis atau berhenti bercakap sebelum loceng berbunyi. Kalau ada yang menangis, memang sah akan kalah.”

Dan hari ini terbukti kata-kata tersebut menjadi kenyataan.

Salah seorang ahli pasukannya menangis dan kalahlah Ummar di peringkat separuh akhir.

Macam mana saya tahu akan ada debater perempuan yang menangis?

Inilah rahsia yang ingin saya kongsikan. Saya tidak tahu mengapa, cuma sekadar pemerhatian.

Pengalaman saya ketika berbahas dahulu, sehinggalah kepada membantu junior-junior saya berbahas, saya dapati pembahas wanita ada kecenderungan untuk crumble emotionally, terutama setelah dekat-dekat ataupun ketika perlawanan akhir. Ini bukan diskriminasi ya.

Mereka sebenarnya cemerlang sahaja, bahkan kadang-kadang lebih talented dari ahli pasukan lain. Dan ahli pasukan lain menaruh kepercayaan kepada mereka. Namun secara tiba-tiba, harapan dan tekanan ini memuncak. Lagi dekat dengan final, lagi tinggi tekanan yang diletakkan kepada mereka.

Perasaan self doubt tu muncul tiba-tiba. Mereka tiba-tiba merasakan pembahas simpanan lebih baik dari mereka dan mereka mahu bertukar tempat.

Saya ingat ia terjadi ketika zaman saya sahaja, tetapi selepas saya membantu junior-junior saya dan saya lihat ia berlaku di zaman-zaman mereka juga dan kini di zaman Ummar juga. 🙂

Ya jadi rahsianya, jangan ingat debater wanita yang petah berbicara itu mempunyai hati batu. Selagi namanya wanita, pasti beliau akan menangis juga. Jadi kalau nak menang bahas, pastikan ahli pasukan bahas wanita anda tidak menangis! 🙂

Sabri
Pembahas Pencen

I am used to something bigger and more spacious. But that’s during my undergraduate years in Tronoh. As we all might be aware already, in KL a densely populated city, space is luxury. Hence the smaller space. But I am proud of it as its my first year. After a year using a kiddie desk (a real kiddie desk) :p

I am sure in the coming years this space will be bigger, but for what it is now, I am proud of it. Especially for the chair. Even in Tronoh I don’t get a chair like this.

Day View (Sofa Bed in Sofa position)

Night View (Sofa Bed in Bed position)

Sweet Dreams~! 🙂

Sabri

And only God knows how little I have left in me right now.

I couldn’t wait to show off my small workspace of my own in my rented house in KL. Finally I will have a proper chair to sit on while doing my work. All this while I am using a kiddie chair & kiddie table (implied meaning: I am not that fat! I can still use kid’s chair okay~yeah, I know although I broke 2 of them in the process).

My house will also finally have a proper shoe rack. I think it can fit like 50+ pairs of shoes. Why we need that much space I don’t know. Only 3 of us (all guys) live in the house if you are curious.

The shop promise to deliver everything on Sunday 6-8PM (we bought them Saturday noon). And even after waiting until 11PM+, not all items are delivered. Earlier at 6PM the delivery guy called me telling that they will be a little bit late because they are still in Balakong and they will take dinner first (for about an hour) before sending the item to us.

I am okay with they guys having their dinner first, but for one hour? And when he knows he is already running late? Heck, I don’t use one hour for lunch when working although I can. I am in no mood to argue so I just say to him, please be here by 10 PM or I am afraid we will be asleep after that. We go to bed early (although that’s not the case).

They know they can’t play ball with me so after that they call my friends. If they call me I will refuse to pick up saying I am already asleep and the next day call their boss complaining that they didn’t deliver on time and threaten to cancel the order. No, I am not a pain in the ass customer. I know and understand well that some customers are impossible to please, this is my field. But I can and will be a pain in the ass if the seller/contractor are not professional.

When they arrive, they deliver the sofa bed and my chair. But they say they just realized that the console table which we order have a missing drawer (after opening the box in front of us) and the shoe rack have a bad back (without opening it up in front of us)

Well, I work in this industry. And I am a businessman myself. I can smell bullshit 10 kilometres away.

They blame the missing drawer on the warehouse personnel for not checking first whether all items are there or not. But I don’t believe them. From the way they open the sealed box I know already that there are something going on already. And while discussing the missing drawer, they mention that the shoe rack has a bad back.

In my head, hey guys. How come you know that the shoe rack have a bad back without taking it out of the box first but missed the missing drawer for the table? After all, both of them are in their box? A BIQ question mark.

At first, I refuse to say anything to them. I said, I don’t know. They are the expert in furniture. Not me. I just know how to buy them. Call and discuss with your boss to see what she have to say. Easy.

Judging from their behavior I know they are hiding something from their boss. But they said no need to call the boss. This is a very simple matter to solve. We can solve it among ourselves. To add to the insult, they said this.

The shoe rack has a bad back. If it is **** client, they will put it up and just tape the broken part to hide it. But because we are brothers (of the same race), we don’t want to give you a broken products.

Awww! Now it seems that they are doing me a favor. Oh please. You can’t play racial card on me. I know people don’t use the racist card if they have nothing to hide. I hate racist people. They give us all a bad name. A Malay who do a sloppy work will tarnish other Malay’s name. People will generalize that we are unprofessional. When people say something like that (or something along that line), this is what I will hear.

We don’t give this bullshit excuse to the **** because we cannot bullshit the **** . They don’t tolerate shoddy job. But we brothers, we are born to be sloppy and lazy. So I know you will understand. That’s why I give you this bullshit excuse.

I don’t tolerate double standard. If you say one thing to one person, and the other to one person, that’s mean you have something wrong with you and you are not proud of what you do. If it is up to me, I will definitely decline everything and call their boss tomorrow. But then my friend said, its okay.

So we accept the sofa bed and the chair.

This morning I tried to create a scene. Aha. I call their office phone but unfortunately it went to the fax machine. I then Google and list down all their branches. I also found the hp number of one of the staff at the branch. Nobody is picking up the phone still. I google their HQ contact information and tried to call them. To no avail.

Then I found an hp number belong to someone who work in the HQ. He picked up the phone. I asked him if he has the number that I can use to call the Setapak branch. He politely said he did not have them as he is not in the office right now. He add that they are having an annual dinner tonight so it is a holiday for them. He also gave me a few alternatives on what to do.

Because that guy is professional with his answer I am not that furious anymore. He is frank and give me a few options that I can choose to take. That’s what is professional customer service in this modern age guys.

Be transparent, courteous with your reply and give your customer a few options for them to choose from. You don’t lie to them and forced them to choose the only option you want them to take. Its not right. Plus, don’t use racial card to hide your incompetence. It tarnish the reputation of the whole race. Not all people from that race are as incompetent.

As a conclusion, I was just disappointed not to get my toys yet. Ahaxz. :p

But really I need to shake off this feeling. I am usually have a higher level of tolerance toward unfavorable stuff that happened to me. I don’t want to be bitter like this, but the feeling that you get after being lied to was not great. I could not help not to feel cheated. Maybe I have become a cheater-phobic now. 😉

On a happier note; Wait for pics (my sofa bed was awesome)! Its something I wish I have as a kid. 🙂

Sabri

Cadangan saya dalam tempoh terdekat saya ingin belajar masak Nasi Ayam Penyet. Namun setelah difikir-fikirkan, belajar buat ais krim nampak lebih menarik. Jadi saya telah mendaftarkan diri untuk kursus masakan bagaimana untuk membuat aiskrim sendiri.

Jadi hujung minggu ini saya akan ke Pulau Pinang untuk belajar membuat ais krim.

Bukan ais krim Malaysia ya, tetapi ais krim sebenar seperti gambar di atas. 🙂 (dengan sedikit pengubahsuaian kepada menu). 🙂

Saya baru pulang dari Miri semalam setelah menghabiskan hujung minggu di sana. Ia seperti satu sesi retreat. Di samping melakukan brainstorming and mini-bootcamp untuk rakan-rakan saya, kami juga berjalan-jalan sedikit. Kami membincangkan banyak perkara, dari aspek nilai kehidupan, perancangan masa depan dan termasuklah perniagaan.

A very good and informative sharing session.

Dalam perjalanan pulang, saya terfikir. Dapat berjalan-jalan ini best. Cuma yang tak bestnya, satu sahaja. Saya berjalan-jalan dengan duit sendiri. Jika orang lain boleh berjalan-jalan dan “claim” sana-sini, saya pula setiap sen yang dikeluarkan adalah dari poket sendiri.

Best berjalan tu, tetapi pada masa yang sama, jikalah ada orang yang tolong membayarkan, mesti lagi best. 🙂

Tetapi apabila saya berfikir lebih dalam lagi,

“Hmm… kalau berjalan dengan duit orang, pasti aturcara pun orang yang tetapkan. Tidak bebas sepertimana berjalan dengan duit sendiri. Berjalan dengan duit sendiri boleh balik hotel bila penat, boleh ambil teksi bila nak cepat. Tak perlu menunggu atau ditunggu. Boleh shopping di mana-mana yang disukai dan bila-bila disukai.”

Lagi pun bila claim-claim sesuka hati nanti, boleh jatuh tahap haram pula. Makan sesuatu yang bukan milik kita.

Akhirnya saya berkata kepada diri sendiri. Ahh, kalau begini aku bersyukur berjalan guna duit sendiri. Walaupun terasa sayang untuk berpisah dengan duit, tetapi sekurang-kurangnya pemikiran ketika berjalan aman-damai. Bukankah itu tujuannya berjalan-jalan. 🙂

Oh, 3 minggu lagi kemungkinan besar saya akan menghadiri kursus memasak Nasi Ayam Penyet. Awesome! 🙂

Sabri

About 6 months ago, the HR person in my company said to me, “One of your task now is to clone yourself. You have to train the new people that will come to be as awesome as you.”

At that moment, I realize that it will be a complicated task. I can control how I react and respond, but I can’t control other people and what they decided to do. It is almost an impossible task.

But today, I am proud to say as a team we have done tremendously well. My team members are not my clone per se, but we share the same passion and I can say that we are equally competent at a similar level. I think I did quite well in managing and in the same time training them to be competent at the job. It gave me the utmost satisfaction seeing them progress and becoming a better and better person every day.

They are the guinea pig in my experiment to hone my leadership skill (so you can trust my leadership tips, they are all tried and tested). 😉

Two things I learned in these process:

1. As a leader, it is not always about you. Sometimes you need to let the people you lead to shine. Give them space to grow and grow they will be. Inspire them. When they grow bigger, you will become bigger as well.
2. Nothing is impossible if you are passionate and determined in accomplishing that impossible task.

Have an Awesome 2010! 🙂

Sabri