Rindu

Rindu membawa daku kekasih
Pada musim-musim bersamamu
Rasa kasih dan rindu
Yang tertanam buatmu
Di jambangan usiaku



Sejak dua menjak ni aku rajin bermimpi pasal arwah mak aku. Seolah-olah aku memang rindu gile dengan dia. AKu selalu berharap yang aku sedang mengalami mimpi yang tak best. AKu harap bila aku terjaga dari mimpi ni, aku akan nampak mak aku sedang duduk berehat di kerusi malas kegemarannya dan aku dapat tengok dia tersenyum memandang aku.

Dua malam yang sudah semasa aku dalam perjalanan pulang ke rumah dari workshop di KL, aku dapat rasakan perasaan sunyi dan hiba dalam diri aku sendiri. Seriyes, aku jarang melayan perasaan yang sebegini. Biasa lah, hati jantan kan kena selalu keras.

Tapi kali ni aku biarkan rasa sayu tu makin tebal dalam diri. Aku rasa ralat bila aku makin jarang dapat bersua atau pun berbual dengan ayah aku. Tambah-tambah bila aku dah jarang berniaga sama-sama dengan ayah aku dek kesibukan aku dengan workshop technopreneur nih.

Aku pun sendiri perasan yang aku selalu bertanyakan ke mana ayah aku nak pergi kalau dia bersiap hendak keluar. Entah, memang hati ni nak tahu ke mana hala tujuan ayah aku. Aku pun tahu, kalau aku asyik disoal hendak ke mana, aku pun mesti bengkek jugak. Macam di control2. Maybe aku nak selalu dekat dengan ayah aku.

It takes a loss of someone we love to make us understand the meaning of this loss.

Hari Ahad ni aku akan ziarah pusara arwah mak aku. Aku tahu, air mata aku pasti bercucuran bila aku berada dekat dengan pusara arwah mak aku. Arwah mak pernah cakap pada aku, yang aku ni perasa orangnya. Di luar nampak kental, tapi di dalam sangat sensitif.

Hari yang paling aku ingat ialah pada hari Jumaat, sebulan terakhir sebelum mak aku menghembuskan nafasnya yang terakhir. Aku temankan mak aku di wad HUKM dan suapkan dia makan buah honey dew. Aku temankan dia sampai mak aku terlelap, barulah aku beredar dari situ untuk sambung buat kerja aku. Kalau aku tahu itulah kali terakhir aku dapat bual-bual dengan mak aku, dah tentu aku akan stay kat situ sampai dia buka mata dia semula.

Al Fatihah untuk mummy.

Okay...let me get it straight. I come to the technopreneurship workshop to fill up some of my gaps in entrepreneurship knowledge. Really, I personally feel the entrepreneurship is a bit exaggerated in a sense that it is an acquired skill, not so much a privileged trait or inborn trait. Some people may think that in order for them to be an entrepreneur, they must take a course or two on entrepreneurship or perhaps, a degree in entrepreneurship. Only then they are qualified to be entrepreneurs.

Well, I believe an entrepreneurship is an experience of achieving independence in the sense of economic choices and lifestyle choices. All these boil down to the issues of values. What values do I treasure most in my life? Maybe some of my readers have figured them out by reading this blog. Goals driven by the values are so much easier to achieve despite the hardships which come along while indulging myself in business. The inner drive is very much important before the external drive.

I feel blessed to get to know new friends here in this workshop. Some of them are mature enough to share their entrepreneurship experiences with me. I still consider myself as green in this area. There are much to learn and to absorb their knowledge.

The only way to become a better entrepreneur is by taking calculated risk or chances and learn from my past mistakes. Mistakes are costly indeed, but do not ever lose the lessons. Or else, I will be same ol', same ol'.

Yesterday I met with Christoffer Erichsen and we finalized every little details before I commence my service to his company as sales consultant. I just realized that the job is pretty much intense but exciting at the same time. There are some prospects that I may fly to Dubai, Singapore and countries in South East Asia to promote and look for market for their services and products. I think it's awesome job to do. Challenging enough to make me look inside the mirror and ask this question; "Am I ready to Grow?"

On the same night I also took the opportunity to connect with a professor from USM, discussing his technology on production based on herbs. The discussion was great. We managed to bounce the ideas and I was some sort of proposing him an idea of bringing his product to the real market. I have an idea on how to push this idea into the market. I also quietly identify who are the people I want to hire or maybe engage for their expertise in this market segment.

Of course IDEAS are great but they are just ideas. What is more important is how to source for financing the ideas? That was the juice of the discussion that night. That issue I keep in my mind for further investigation and research.

I just want to finish off this night with a reading from Bakri Musa on 'Enhancing the Role of Private Sector in Education', an excellent article about our education dire state and the need to integrate private sector in education policymaking mechanism. Good reading I say!

The End of 2009

I know in just a few weeks away, we all will march into 2010. Yep, new year with new fanfare and new problems and new goals. So let see, how far have I become.

I started in 2009 with three business goals. I want to establish agriculture project, an IT business and an agriculture portal. Yes, I have commenced my agriculture project and IT business and agriculture portal. No doubt about that.

But the result is still shaky.

However, I know I should pat my own shoulder and say to myself, "Well done Farid!". Really, to start up a business actually require me to be tough emotionally, mentally and physically. From time to time I am being overwhelmed with a sheer amount of pressure to maintain the business activities. I know I am taking too much stress lately but I hope I won't get burn up quite easily.

My agriculture project commenced with planting of 2,400 of banana trees in 4 acres land in July this year. My first challenge came in a form of herd of buffaloes which ate some of the banana trees. Of course I was pissed off with orang kampung who don't know to handle their own animals but I couldn't do much because I'm an outsider for that area. Besides, it was my fault to because I didn't take into account of building up the fence around my rented land. So after we calculated the amount of money required to build the fence, it was dawned on me that I was lacking of funding. Alrite, here comes challenge number 2. Lack of funding.

I am still looking for investors for my project. I am actively engaged myself with Jabatan Pertanian Kuala Pilah to get some assistance in form of fencing and water pumps. Hopefully by early next year we can get the stuffs loaded to our farm.

Move to IT business now. My IT business is named MagicQuest Media & Training. But for some unknown reasons, the clerk who type the business name on business registration typed wrongly. She spelled, MagicQuest Media & Trading. So now, we can become trading firm as well. But who cares right?

We have secured an office in Wisma Rampai in Setapak. It was a huge step for me because I was a bit anxious to add my commitment but I guess this works as a leverage for us. By having commitment, we shall be more committed to make sure this business stays afloat. We also in the midst of pitching for jobs here and there.

At the moment we are working on project from MDeC. I am also lay out a plan with our sales associate in Washington DC to secure project from US as well. I'm thinking of making it into Sdn. Bhd so that we can secure small project from the government sector. We'll see about that.

And finally, our agriculture portal, named Mediatani.com is launched. We failed to get Pre Seed grant to fund this project but we believe in its potential so much, we continue to develop it and now it is on the web. Not much, but at least we have the thing online. Next step is to apply iCon grant for this website so that we can promote it for people to use it and get benefit from this portals.

I guess that's about it. Till next time.

Aku dah lama tak menulis kat sini. So maybe aku akan start menulis secara serius dalam masa sebulan dua lagi.

Ada beberapa perkara menarik yang ingin dikongsi bersama, terutama sekali dalam pandangan isu politik, sosial dan pengalaman hidup. Cumanya masalah yang perlu diselesaikan terlebih dahulu ialah pengurusan aktiviti. Ternyata hal ini menuntut banyak kefahaman dan juga kekuatan diri dalam menguruskan diri sendiri. Hehehe, siapa kata menguruskan diri sendiri itu perkara enteng?

Apa-apa pun, banyak benda yang ingin diluahkan dan juga dibicarakan. Atau mungkin jadi satu bebelan yang berpanjangan? Wallahu'alam. Kita tunggu saja.

Sementara itu, mungkin orang ramai perlu membaca lebih banyak berita tentang ekonomi. Aku rasa, dunia akan mengalami satu lagi gelombang gangguan ekonomi dalam masa setahun akan datang. I don't know..that is just my gut feeling.

I see you when I write again.

Alrite, this is for real. I'm dead set to close RM 42,000 per day. I promise to someone that I will get S Class by 2011. Commitment...commitment.

By the way, MagicQuest is ready to launch. Yeeehaaaaaa!!!! Anybody who wants to get affordable and reasonable printing for any media, feel free to contact us at our brand new website, coming soon to world wide web! :D feel free to visit www.magicquestmedia.com for more details. But for now, we have not put up anything yet.

So friends, I'm so want to be millionaire by 35!

Lewat Jalan Ini Sudah Ke Hujungnya

Aku rasa blog Berita Untuk Kawan: Jalan Sepi ni sudah sampai masanya ditamatkan. Cukup-cukuplah hidup aku ni sepi, sama aje dengan nama blog aku ni. Sebenarnya nama blog ni diilhamkan daripada pengalaman aku belajar di Amerika dulu. Dan blog ini bukanlah blog pertama yang aku tulis (aku mula menulis blog ketika dalam tahun 2001). Dulu-dulu ramai batch aku dapat study di Mid West area, tapi aku tercongok sorang-sorang di Pennsylvania. Even kawan baik aku sendiri tak datang lawat aku kat Penn State sana. So aku rasa sunyi. Aku rasa sunyi pasal aku tak ada sapa-sapa nak share. Penghubung persahabatan dengan kawan-kawan di M'sia hanyalah melalui internet.

Kebetulan aku tengah obses dengan lagu M Nasir & Ebiet G Ade yang bertajuk, Berita Untuk Kawan. Senikatanya cukup halus untuk difahami maksud universal tentang hubungan manusia sesama kita dan bersama alam. Jadi lahirlah blog ni, untuk catatan buah fikiran tentang isu semasa, tentang kesunyian aku di Amerika dan juga untuk aku melawan politik establishment.

Senikata "Berita Untuk Kawan"
Perjalanan ini. Trasa sangat menyedihkan.
Sayang engkau tak duduk disampingku kawan.
Banyak cerita Yang mestinya kau saksikan. Di tanah kering bebatuan
Tubuhku terguncang. Dihempas batu jalanan.
Hati tergetar menatap kering rerumputan
Perjalanan ini pun, Seperti jadi saksi,
Gembala kecil menangis sedih ...
Kawan coba dengar apa jawabnya, Ketika dia ku tanya mengapa
Bapak ibunya telah lama mati, Ditelan bencana tanah ini
Sesampainya di laut, Ku kabarkan semuanya
Kepada karang kepada ombak, Kepada matahari
Tetapi semua diam, Tetapi semua bisu, Tinggal aku sendiri
Terpaku menatap langit
Barangkali di sana ada jawabnya,
Mengapa di tanahku terjadi bencana
Mungkin Tuhan mulai bosan, Melihat tingkah kita,
Yang selalu salah dan bangga dengan dosa-dosa
Atau alam mulai enggan, Bersahabat dengan kita
Coba kita bertanya pada Rumput yang bergoyang.

Itu untuk hampir 5 tahun yang dulu.

Sekali air bah, sekali pantai berubah. Keadaan berubah. Bukanlah maksudnya hidup aku ni sudah tidak sunyi. Masih lagi sunyi dalam hati, tapi senario berbeza. Maksud sunyi pun jauh lebih intim, bukan sekadar hanya teman-teman untuk bergelak ketawa, tapi lebih untuk berkongsi perjalanan hidup yang mudah-mudahan akan lebih panjang lagi.

Aku masih lagi menulis tapi bukan lagi untuk tatapan umum. Menulis itu satu terapi yang cukup nyaman dilakukan sendirian. Menulis juga ibarat satu eskapisme yang memberi kepuasan dan kelegaan pada jiwa yang selalu tercari-cari arah moralnya dan spiritualnya. Jadi aku akan masih lagi menulis. Cuma ruangnya dirahsiakan bagi menghidupkan kebebasan dalam diri untuk menulis isu-isu dengan lebih jelas, nyata dan tanpa berhati-hati.

Terima kasih kepada teman-teman yang mungkin setia melayani bebelan aku di ruang Berita Untuk Kawan ini. Segala komentar dan kutukan diterima dengan hati yang berbelah bahagi. Sekiranya masih ada manusia yang ingin setia pada nukilan aku, bolehlah email aku di mxm659 at gmail dot com untuk dapatkan address ruang terbaru.

Berita Untuk Kawan berhenti setakat ini. Penulis Jalan Sepi sudah tamat melewati jalan ini. Terima kasih semuanya.

Aku serius shit kena letak laaa posting ni. memang aku gelak sampai menangis-nangis mengenangkan kemangkukan orang yang tulis ni. Tapi memang entertaining habis, kalah Nabil Raja Lawak.

Sinatra_Z - Why I Support Learning Math and Science in English.

Recently there is a lot of support calling for the reversal of teaching math and science in English.
Much of these support comes of intellectual who has never studied any form of science or math in their respective college or University.

Take for example the recent PPSMI forum which was supposed to be attended by Anwar Ibrahim but was replaced by Syed Husin ALi.

Syed Husin Ali is a Professor of Anthropology and Sociology from University Malaya. What science or mathematics is there? In fact I had to look at the dictionary to understand the meaning of Anthropology.

The anthropologist Eric Wolf once described anthropology as "the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences."

Zaidel describes Anthropology as a major you take in Uni if you can't do Math well but want to seem smart by having fancy words on your degree.

And Anwar Ibrahim? Degree in Malay Studies, Oiyoooo the only Math they have in Malay Studies is to calculate the amount of credit you take per semester which isn't much of a problem for Anwar because during his Uni days he spent most of them shouting slogans on the street and getting angry for no apparent reason.

Why I say getting angry for no apparent reason? Because later he Joined UMNO!!

Back to thw reason why I support the damn thing.
I came from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and trust me when I say this that a few years back this was the most Bahasa Kebangsaan University than any other local universities combined. Let's just say the first 3 years of my Engineering days were filled with Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu jargons. Just to show you what I mean take a look at some of these examples..

Engineering Term
Capacitor - Pemuat
Resistor - Perintang
Impedance - Galangan
Current - Arus

Others include : Momen Lentur, Tegasan, Terikan, Pepejal, Dinamik Haba and etc...

I mean those Engineering Lecturer took the extra mile to translate every single damn thing into Malay and I greatly respect this. As oppose to my sociology lecturers who like to screw up the Malay Language by prostituting English words into BM.

Take for example this term "Dekadensi Moral" When I first saw that term I was thinking what the hell is dekadensi moral, a type of resistor or something? Turns out Dekadensi comes from the English word Decadence. Dekadensi Moral means Moral Decadence direct translation where as you can simply translate it into "Kemerosotan Akhlak/Moral" which is much more clear. But NOOOO he had to use dekadensi so that he would seem smart and people won't question his Associate Professorship. Then you would have other words like kompak, visi, misi, infotainment, naratif kecil, naratif besar and penkek.

At first the Lecturers (Engineering) seemed to get it all good, they managed to translate the English term to BM very well and with very clear meaning. Then Things started to change as the subject get's more complex and you get newer terms. Take for example this Subject..

"Motorolla 68000 Microprocessor"

Which translates to Mikro Pemproses Motorolla 68000"
Sounds fine....

But then as you go deeper into the subject you will find more interesting terms. For instance

Timer - The clock cycle chip you use to send timing signals to the processors. It acts like a stopwatch to the processor.

BM Translation - Pemasa. Which is fine.

Then we have things like this -
Bistable Multivibrator - Dwimantap Penggetar Pelbagai. Apo Kobondo tu Jang?

Then in microprocessor you have this term call "Interrupt" and like it's name it means to interrupt the normal cycle of the processor and tell it to focus to doing something else. Kinda like the phone rings when you are cooking, you stop cooking and answer the phone.

The Malay Jargon Interrupt would be Sampukan. Interrupt Pin - Pin Sampukan.

Sampukan? Sampuk ke? Sejak bila Mikropemproses ada pocong atau Jembalang dalam dia? Ini Electrical Engineering ka Bomoh Engineering?

Masked Interrupt - Sampukan Bertopeng.
Handshake Interrupt - Sampukan Jabat Tangan. Ko salam dengan dia lepas tu ko kena sampuk, kira dia ni macam santau laa.

Then you have this thing called "Latch" which is an output chip.
Latch in Malay is Selak.
Selak as in Selak pintu, Selak Pagar or Selak pintu Jamban.

Mula-mula baca dulu saya ingat Selak dalam erti kata Selak Kain.
Contoh - Angin bertiup kencang lalu baju kurung Fasha Sanda pun selak sikit lalu Zaidel pun telah menerima ganguan emosi akibat dari kejadian itu.

Naah see,
And it gets interesting when it comes to "Electrical Power" Subject. In there there is this chapter where they talk about CoEnergy in power transmission. Coenergy in malay is translated to Kotenaga.

Which is why when he gave the lecture my lecturer would loudly proclaim KOtenaga compare to the students who prefer to pronounce it as KOTEnaga.

3 phase Coenergy in power transmission would then become
KoteNaga 3 fasa dalam penghantaran kuasa. OIYOOOOOO, kalah Anakonda!

Just for fun here are some other Technical Jargons you can play with...

Transformer - Pengubah
Decoder - Penyahkod (Mak Nyah kot)
Multiplexer - Pemultiplex
Polarity - Kutub
Instruction Set - Set Suruhan
Components - Peranti (I bet you didn't know that)
Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) - Penghantar Penerima Pemasa Serentak Am

Now try translating this
Connect Your Joy Stick into the server Port, you should find little problem with the Joystick as the server has Plug and Play mode.

Masukkan Kayu Ria anda ke dalam lubang pelayan, anda sepatutnya tidak mempunyai banyak masaalah dalam memasukkan kayu ria anda kerana pelayan ini mempunyai fungsi masuk dan main.

Hambik kau!
Tu belum dia kena sampuk ke selak ke nak nak pulak ada kotenaga.

By the time I was in my 4th year,
Everything was taught in English.... SENANG!

My attempt to pitch for Pre Seed Fund from MDeC failed. Well, I wouldn't say it was failed completely. It's just that our idea wasn't conveyed convincingly to the evaluation committee. Although I clearly noticed that the team was clueless about what we were presenting to them, I think that's a good educational experience for me to notice on how I do my presentation. Some room for improvement.

One question though - how are we gonna realistically guess the number of subscriber given that the project isn't in placed yet? Something for the evaluation committee to think about. Hahahaha..

Anyway, my property agent in Kuala Pilah found 4 acres of land for me to use. Good enough la kan.So Young Agronomics place an order of 2,400 small banana trees. So, tentatively they are ready to be planted in middle of June. One thing that I was a bit pissed off was because the miscommunication which they had on me. Previously I ordered 3000 trees and promised to pay the downpayment when I secured the money for that, which was about 2 weeks ago. They promised to have the trees ready by end of May. Unfortunately, this gentleman didn't remember to include his boss's email address so that I could email the confirmation note. On my part, I thought the transaction was complete when I replied the email and agreed on the terms and conditions produced by them.

So now the trees will only be ready in mid June. I was like, "fuck it!".

Another bad news I got through my friend is that MARA has a long que for loan application. The que to get the loan could be as long as 1 year long. And I was like, "fuck it, again!". Agaknya aku kena apply Skim Pembiayaan Ekonomi Desa under KKLW laaa pulakkk untuk projek tembikai nih. Banyak betul halangannya nak berniaga.

My mom is finally at home after she was hospitalized for almost a month. That's a good news. The bad news is my mom isn't like my mom before she went to the hospital a month ago. She is bed ridden now and she has some challenges with her memory and her cognitive ability. Sometimes her personality changed. One issue which we need to resolve as family is to figure out how to take care of my mom when everyone is working.

Aku pikir untuk hire orang gaji untuk bantu mak aku kat rumah. At least maybe dua orang gaji. And how exactly to pay for these two maids? Well, I've got an idea. But that needs an attention from my dad and I am willing to fork out the money for this idea. I am sure, if this idea flies, it will generate income to cover for mummy's homecare nursing expenses.

Whatever it is, kita buat satu-satu lah. Make sure projek kebun pisang ni menjadi. Make sure projek IT training for OKU pun menjadi. And make sure kitorang leh dapat financing support from KKLW ni menjadi. Mudah-mudahan dapatlah kami jadi orang-orang yang senang dalam tempoh 5 tahun akan datang. Ameen.

p/s: Iqbal raised an interesting point of view about having a 'scandal' and having an 'awek'. I'll write about it later.

Pagi tadi aku gi visit Rumah Nur Salam di Lorong Haji Taib 3 atas jemputan kawan aku. Aku pun tak tahu apsal dia ajak aku gi ke sana pagi-pagi hari Ahad tapi aku layan ajer la member aku. So buat pertama kalinya aku jejakkan kaki aku ke rumah kebajikan ni yang selama ini aku banyak dengar ceritanya daripada newspaper.

Pengasas rumah kebajikan ini ialah bekas penagih dadah yang kembali ke pangkal jalan. Aku sangat tertarik dengan kerja-kerja yang dia lakukan. Kerja-kerja kebajikan sebegini telah dia mulakan sejak dari tahun 2003 lagi kalau tak silap aku lah. Ramai penagih dadah wanita, isteri-isteri penagih dadah, pekerja seks, pondan dan maknyah diterima dengan hati yang terbuka. Selagi mereka mahu mengubah nasib diri dan memperbetulkan kehidupan masing-masing, selagi itulah mereka di Rumah Nur Salam ini akan selamanya menerima orang-orang begini.

Kawan aku bawak kawan-kawan dia sekali termasuk ler aku. Aku dengan muka tak malunya selamba bertanya apa barang-barang yang diorang perlukan untuk rumah kebajikan ni. Dalam kepala otak aku, dah pikir dah beberapa tempat yang aku rasakan boleh bantu mereka di sini. Aku harap aku dapatlah membantu diorang ni setakat mana pengalaman dan pengetahuan yang aku ada sepanjang berkhidmat secara sukarela untuk OKU di KL ni.

Motto hidup aku, hidup memberi lebih baik daripada hidup menerima. Harap-harapnya segala amal jariah aku ni dapat tebus aku di padang mahsyar nanti. Ameen.

p/s: aku suggest juga pada kawan-kawan yang berminat utk turun padang to make difference in these people's life to come forward and volunteer. Tak rugi hidup berkhidmat.

Siang tadi ada pitching session for Pre Seed Fund. Walaupun aku dah banyak buat presentation, tapi yang ni still aku terasa butterfly in my fat stomach. For me, it was a learning experience in taking questions from so called 'experts' in their respective areas. Some questions are really brilliant and put us in perspective and some questions are really plain dumb questions. So, that made them no less better than us anyway.

Anyway, mummy dah tunjuk progress sikit. Dia dah boleh buka mata and cam suara tapi masih tak dapat bersuara. Aku tak harap banyak pun untuk hypoxic patient sebab chances untuk mummy fully recover is very slim - almost to none actually. Aku datang bawa adik aku skali, Hamizah, melawat mak aku. Hamizah kata papa sweet sebab cara papa jaga mummy. Aku jadi tak terkata apa. Seperti biasa, aku datang and check apa-apa yang perlu dengan nurse di wad 6G tu.

Semalam satu family ada meeting dengan team medical from HUKM. The team consisted of medical doctors, neurologist, physiotherapist, pharmacist, dietitian, nutrionist, homecare nurses, private homecare provider and JKM. Did I miss anyone? I hope not. The team leader explained that my mom needs a 24 hr home care support from the family members. I agree given the condition experienced by my mom, I really don't think she can survive outside of the ward without such attention from us.

The doctor added that EEG result done onto mummy cannot be used exclusively to determine whether mummy can recover or not. I was glad to hear that because I seriously had a thought to punch at this nefrologist's face, who had the guts to say to me that she wants to stop dialysis treatment on my mother completely based on her EEG result. The reason is being she's unconscious (brain activity is not at par with normal and able person) and her hypoxic condition cannot guarantee her of her quality of life. Therefore, she deduced, the family should let my mom go in peace. I was literally holding my breath and trying to stay calm while I was discussing with her about my mom on Friday last week. I told them, for as long my mom is breathing by her own, we the family will do anything to support her lifespan.

Another issue was raised during the meeting was about her cost of feeding. The cost to support my mom is gonna be between RM 400 - RM 600 per month, only for her food. We are not too sure about her dialysis considering that she's not fully conscious. I start to wonder, which dialysis center is willing to accept her given her condition. Other than that, I think we are pretty much prepared to have her at home.

AgroTani dah kena tukar nama jadi Agronova pasal nama tu dah kena amik ngan orang lain. Esok akaun bank dah boleh buka di Agro Bank. Yahooo...first step. Young Agronomics, nama business aku sendiri, dah pun boleh diregisterkan di Agro Bank juga. Jadi projek pisang berangan 5 ekar aku akan bermula hujung bulan 5. Setakat ni, mengikut kata broker tanah aku di Kuala Pilah, aku mungkin dapat menyewa tanah seluas 12 ekar di sana. Jadi aku fikirkan, 5 ekar biarlah untuk YA and another 7 acres for Agronova for watermelon cultivation.

Ada satu Datuk suh aku menyewa kat salah satu office space yang dia ada di Bandar Tun Razak. Aku dah tengok office space. Ok ajer. Serba salah juga aku. Aku dah cakap terus terang, aku memang tak mampu untuk sewa lebih dari RM 850 sebulan. DIa nak offer kat aku dalam RM 1,500 but in deferred payment la if I get SMIDEC Start Up Grant. Hurmmm..aku ada seminggu untuk bagi jawapan kat dia. Fenin...fenin...

I had two meetings yesterday. Yes, two meetings on Sunday. One took place in Rebung Restaurant, owned by the very famous Chef Ismail and another one took place in Glenmarie. The first meeting was between me and two Borneo’s friends and the second one is between us and the manufacturer in Glenmarie.

I can see the direction of these meetings. I can see, somehow, in the next 6 or 12 months form now, something will materialize. The question is, whether I’m a part of it..or just spectator for this development.

As my friend had mentioned to me, we can do this in two ways. One is to go platform by platform. That will only give small money. Small change, he says. But if we are interested to create big values here, we might as well go through a few months of hardship and apply for VDP status – that would create big bucks. With VDP, we can go to Terengganu, Kuantan, Sabah and Sarawak.

The only concern right now is how to go through the stringent procedure with PETRONAS?

They have good product and we have good marketing and connections to tap into the market in Sabah and Sarawak. Furthermore, Sabah operation is expanding. Thus it is something that I need to consider as well.

By the way, watch this!

Hari ni masuk hari ke 8 mak aku ada dalam wad ICU. Yes, 8 hari dalam ICU dan 2 minggu dalam HUKM. Satu tempoh yang lama aku tak nampak mak aku berada kat rumah sendiri. Even doctors now are clueless on what caused my mom to stay in sedative condition now. The result from lumbar puncture is negative for meningitis. I was told that there will be EEG and CT scan on my mom's head but so far, nothing materialize.

Semuanya bermula dengan satu insiden. Mak aku jatuh dari tangga kat rumah on Saturday last two weeks ago. She only went to the hospital on Monday, only after she was threatened by her doctor at dialysis center. Mak aku memang takut masuk hospital pasal dia takut kena tahan kat wad. And yeah, dia terus kena tahan the moment dia masuk HUKM untuk check up for her benjol kat dahi tu.

Mak aku punya kesihatan deteriorated ever since that day. Hari Rabu after they did a CT scan on her head, mak aku tak boleh bercakap. Aku nampak mak aku macam cuba bercakap tapi tak boleh buka mulut dia. Masa tu hati aku dah terdetik dah. Mata aku dah berkaca-kaca kejap. Aku memang cukup sensitif kalau hal-hal yang melibatkan mak aku. Terus aku panggil doktor yang ada kat wad Neurosurgeri tu. Aku question whatever yang diorang buat, aku nak tau every detail about whatever they've been doing to my mom. Aku mintak doctors tu explain about the result of CT scan. They said the result is ok. Mak aku takde suffer any fraction or anything yang serious about her head except ada cracked kat atas kening dia. Tu pun will heal along the time lah. Then why my mom couldn't speak or at least to open up her mouth?

Aku risau kalau mak aku kena stroke. At that point I was maintaining my composure. Aku stayed kat situ and kept asking the doctors, please find the reason why my mom tak dapat buka mulut untuk bercakap. Masa tu mak aku still sedar. Still conscious. Akhirnya doktor dapat pinpoint kenapa mak aku takleh bukak mulut. Pasal darah mak aku pekat after the CT scan process. It's a temporary effect. So they handled what they need to handle about my mom.

The next day aku datang lagi. Masa tu aku tengok mak aku macam weng-weng sket. Aku layan sembang dengan mak aku macam biasa. Tengok-tengokkan dia. Cuma aku pelik bila mak aku bercakap, dia akan ulang dua kali. And bila aku datang dekat pada dia..bercakap dengan dia..dia ingat aku ni ayah aku. Aku seriously bertakung air mata masa tu. Dalam hati aku, ya allah, biarlah mak aku ingat sapa aku ni.

Tapi yang paling aku ingat bila aku datang hari Jumaat tengahari tu. Aku duduk sembang dengan mak aku. Mak aku macam ngantuk-ngantuk gitu. Nurse tengah serve lunch pada mak aku. Aku tengok mak aku makan sambil aku baca suratkhabar sebelah dia. Aku tanya mak aku, dia nak makan buah apa. Aku boleh tolong belikan. AKu turun pergi belikan buah honeydew dengan betik. Aku suapkan honeydew pada mulut dia. Mak aku nampak cam lalok-lalok gitu. Aku perasan jugak yang mak aku ni macam cam tak cam orang.

Kemudian Kak Liza datang dengan husband dia. Kak liza ni jiran aku and dia memang kerja nurse di Pantai Hospital. Mak aku masa tu dah pejam mata dah..tidur kot. Bila Kak Liza tegur mak aku...mak aku macam tak berapa cam dia. Tahap kesedaran mak aku pun dah macam menurun. Kak Liza goncang-goncang badan mak aku untuk dapatkan respond..macam tak ada pulak. Aku masa tu ingat, mak aku sure mengantuk nak tidor kot. Yang aku tahu, mak aku akan complaint sakit kalau tangan kiri dia digerakkan.

Aku stay dengan mak aku sampai jam 2.30 petang. Itulah yang last sekali aku nampak mak aku dalam keadaan sedar.

Sampai waktu malamnya, hari Sabtu jam 1.30 pagi..mak aku dimasukkan ke wad ICU dalam keadaan kritikal.

Hari ni masuk hari kedua mak aku ada di ICU. Doktor still tak tahu apa yang tak kena dengan mak aku. Sejak dari hari Isnin lepas, aku hari-hari paksa diri tersenyum bila aku kat HUKM jenguk mak aku. Hari-hari aku kena convince kan diri sendiri yang mak aku akan balik ke rumah tak lama lagi.

Semalam mummy masuk dalam ICU. Masa tu aku ada kat sana and tengok nurses tengah bantu mak aku bernafas. Aku berdiri kat sebelah katil mak aku sambil pegang tangan mak aku. Nurse yang berdiri sebelah aku tanya, mak awak pernah masuk wad ke? Aku kata, ya. Dia kata dia pernah jumpa mak aku di wad nefrologi. Ha ah, mak aku memang pernah masuk wad tu dan kami pernah berbual dengan nurse tu pasal skop kerja dia. Masa tu aku tengah bosan tak tahu nak wat apa.

Air mata aku dah start menitik masa tu. Aku dah tak kontrol-kontrol lagi dah. Jam 2 pagi and air mata aku menitik sebelah mak aku. Aku pegang tangan dia..aku urut2kan jari-jari dia. Harap-harap dia sedar yang aku ada sebelah dia. Masa tu Angah ngan Along tak ada lagi. Yang ada, aku, ayah aku and adik aku.

Aku tertido kat surau tingkat 2. Sedar2 Subuh dah masuk, papa kejutkan aku suruh balik rumah sebab mummy kena tahan kat ICU. Pelawat tak dibenarkan masuk.

Tadi hari ni, almost semua adik beradik mak aku sampai di HUKM. Adik-adik ayah aku pun ada juga. Semua amik giliran jenguk mak aku. Aku pun sama, amik giliran jenguk mak aku. Aku usap dahi dia..aku usapkan air mata yang keluar dari tepi mata dia. Aku cakap kat dia, tak lama lagi mummy balik rumah ek? Aku tak tahu apsal aku desperate sangat cakap camtu. AKu desperate nak tengok mak aku ada balik kat kerusi malas depan kat depan tv tu.

Resipi General Tso's Chicken yang aku print dari internet still ada lagi kat dalam kereta aku. Niat aku nak masakkan resipi tu sebab tu favourite aku masa study kat US dulu. Nak bagi mak aku rasa. Now hari ni dah masuk hari Ahad, mak aku still dalam wad lagi. Walaupun dia dah lepas kritikal stage, hati aku still lagi dalam kritikal.

Sekarang ni memang aku berserah secara total. Apa juga yang terbaik untuk mak aku, aku terima. Dia lagi tahu daripada hamba-hamba Nya.

I Shed My Tears After Watching This

Minggu ni akan mungkin mencetus sejarah dalam agenda politik M'sia. Perhimpunan Agung UMNO sedang berlangsung di PWTC. Najib ada banyak benda yang nak dikatakan. Tapi aku tak sure kalau semua perwakilan nak ikut semua benda yang dia katakan. Katanya UMNO kena berubah. Tapi perwakilan yang datang macam sama ajer dengan perwakilan tiga tahun dulu. Tak ubah-ubah. Atuk-atuk, nenek-nenek tua still yang sama duduk kat Majlis Tertinggi. Elok disepak keluar diorang semua ganti orang baru. Baru betul, 'Berani Berubah' bak kata Dato Mukhriz. Tapi tak sure la kalao 'Pemuda Berani' Khir Toyo nak tunjuk jalan keluar kat ahli MT. Khairy kata takpe..kita ni semuanya 'Setiakawan'. Masing-masing dengan slogan masing-masing ek. Kepoh lebey...haprak tak dak.

Dalam dua minggu sudah, Najib pun dok sibuk umumkan pasal pakej ransangan ekonomi ke 2 yang bernilai RM 60 billion (tapi sebenarnya RM 15 billion jek). Tapi pakej ransangan ekonomi pertama yang bernilai RM 7 billion masih lagi rakyat tak nampak kesannya yang nyata. Samada Najib yang tongong buat plan, atau pun rakyat yang bahlul dan buta mata tak dapat tengok. Korang rasa-rasa, siapa?

Kalau nak diikutkan lah kan, kerajaan Amerika dah umumkan yang negera diorang mengalami kemerosotan ekonomi bermula dalam bulan Disember 2007. Tapi pemimpin negara kita kata, Ooo..M'sia ni okay ape? Ekonomi kita ok!! Our banking system is still intact, no need to worry lorrr!!! Hehehe..sekarang apa sudah jadi? 100,000 orang hilang pekerjaan. Do we still need stimulus package? Or stim-no-fulus package?

Timbalan Menteri Kewangan, Mohd Noor Yaacop ke ape namanya kata teori 'Decoupling' dah collapse. Memang ler, aku rasa satu Asia dah tahu pasal ni sejak dua tahun sudah. Apa yang orang-orang kat Bank Negara and MOF buat pasal ni? Buat bodoh? Ke sebab menteri-menteri yang bodoh? Tapi lagi bodoh la orang yang mengikut ketua yang bodoh ek? Eish, entahlah, kawan ni tak pandai sangat bab ekonomi. Maklum la, kita ni rakyat apa tahu. Pak Menteri ajer yang pandai sorang...sebab pasal tu diorang jadi Menteri..yang kita ni ntah apa-apa.

Tun Daim Zainuddin kata, kalau pakej ransangan kedua ni tak disalurkan dengan cepat kepada rakyat, maka kita boleh lupakan untuk meransang ekonomi. Betul juga kata dia sebab dia pernah jadi Menteri Kewangan dan juga penasihat ekonomi pada Dr. Mahathir. Tapi yang aku tahu dalam bab ransang meransang ni, kena slow and steady..betul ke? Kerajaan mungkin lebih terrer, sebab tu memang slow giler babeng tak ingat nya diorang nak meransang. Sudahnya, rakyat dah tak teransang. Ekonomi tak turn on pon..stim pon tak ada. Hehehe..pesimis betul aku ni.

Tak, sebenarnya aku yakin ekonomi kita ni teguh sebab Najib kata kita tak payah nak risau apa-apa. Kerajaan pandai, depa dah pikir apa yang patut untuk dibuat. Itu pasal depa buat dua kali pakej ransangan ni. Yang pertama, cuma foreplay ajer. Bila tengok tak naik-naik, depa up sket ransangan tu. Tu yang dari RM 7 billion jadi RM 60 billion (walaupun sebenarnya cash yang keluar ialah RM 15 billion..lain-lain tu janji-janji ajer..takde maknanye pun).

CUma yang pelik, kalau betul ekonomi kita ni power bebenor..apsal payah benor pulak bank nak approve micro credit. Kata senang..proses 24 jam..pejam mata pejam mata bukak balik dah dapat RM 50,000. Tipu ajer la tu. Bank takut sebenarnya nak keluarkan duit sebab depa tak tahu macam mana nak assess situasi kewangan sekarang ni. Practically US dah start print duit pisang (takde control on money printing), EU dah start goyah pasal banyak sangat nak dibeli asset toxic, China dah malas nak tanggung deficit US dengan beli diorang nyer US treasury bond. Tapi dengar cerita skang ni, Norway punya matawang still kukuh pasal depa finance sendiri kewangan dengan duit dari hasil mahsul minyak diorang.

Haaaa....macam mana ek dengan hasil mahsul minyak kita? Dengar cerita PETRONAS pun sekarang dah start limit orang takleh duduk lama-lama kat opis. Pukul 9 malam dah kena tutup lampu and aircond. Guane tu?

Eishhh..teman tak tahu la nak kate ape. Perak dah jadi huru hara, surat kabor pembangkang dah kena gantung lesen, pembangkang pun dah ramai kena tahan pasal kes berkumpul dengar ceramah Brader Anwar...tu masa Najib belom jadi PM. Kalo Najib jadi PM..aku rasa MOF tu Rosmah yang akan run. Suruh Economic Planning Unit decide nak beli shopping mall mana untuk penuhkan selera shopping makcik tua tu.

Aku rasa-rasa ada 3 pilihanraya nak jalan ni. Tu pasal la huru hara sana sini. Kasik meriah sikit ek? FRU ramai-ramai kasik main air dengan water cannon diorang. Pak Samad Said kata, pilihanraya ni kita kena ajar sket deme deme ni dengan bahasa undi. Urmm..teman tak tahu la bahasa orang sastera ni..bahasa undi ni..tapi pengundi kat bukit-bukit tahu la ape kata Pak Samad. Kalo menang pembangkang kat bukit-bukit ni, mungkin hitam balik kot janggut Pak Samad. Hehehehee...

Apa apa pon, kita tunggu ajer..tengok apa nak jadi dengan Msia ni. Msia ni,bolehlah land. Tak pun, boleh la blah land. Mana satu? Entah ler.

Baru-baru ni aku dapat email daripada seorang yang pernah aku kenal. Bukan pernah, tapi memang aku kenal dan aku akan kenang sampai bila-bila. Berdebar-debar aku baca email daripada dia. Aku dapat rasanya kan jantung aku bagai nak luruh dan jatuh, setelah aku baca isi kandungan email dia. Hujung jari jemari aku terus rasa sejuk dan kaku. Itulah reaksi aku secara fizikal. Tapi emosinya macam laut yang bergelora dilanda tsunami, gitu lah kiranya.

Lama aku diamkan. Dan lama juga aku cuba lupakan. Satu tahun lebih. Tapi tak pernah aku berjaya.

Secara automatik peristiwa-peristiwa yang membawa rentetan saat-saat tu terbayang-bayang kat fikiran aku macam wayang lama berputar semula. Sejak pertemuan pertama dalam Januari 2006 hingga ke saat ini.

Tapi aku tak tahu apa yang buatkan aku membalas isi kandungan email tu dengan memaafkannya dengan secara terbuka. Agaknya, aku tak dapat nak tipu diri sendiri yang itulah harga kasih sayang aku. Bahkan lebih dari kasih sayang. Mungkin itulah perasaan cinta yang sejujurnya aku berikan. Biarlah dimarah, dibenci dan dilayan sebegitu rupa, tapi jauh di sudut hati aku ni masih juga mahu memaafkannya. Selebihnya aku biarkan Tuhan yang putuskan. Jadi pengajaran untuk kita yang masih lagi bernyawa.

Aku kira, itulah ruang kosong yang ditinggalkan oleh aku di bumi Adelaide dulu. Adakah email itu akan dapat bantu menutup ruang kosong yang ditinggalkan? Aku pun tak tahu. Aku masih lagi seperti dulu, sentiasa mengucapkan dan mengharapkan yang terbaik terjadi atas hidupnya. Mudah-mudahan, ameen.

Seringkali juga,
aku titipkan selalu doa kudus kepada Dia
biar lembut gelora hatinya
biar ihsan urusan hidupnya
biar bahagia selalu mengiringi usianya
biar gembira jadi milik dia selamanya.
- petikan sajak yang aku tulis untuk dia, pada Jumaat, 28 Julai 2006

Penantian

Berapa lama mesti kunanti
Sinar cahaya matamu
Gemerlap bagai bintang
Menghiasi malam
Malam yang menutup diriku

Berapa lama perlu kutunggu
Lontaran suara dari bibirmu
Memecah hening taman
Taman syurgawi
Pada sebuah hati yang sepi

( korus )
Penantian suatu siksa
Yang tidak tertanggung
Oleh tubuhku yang kering dan layu
Kepastian suatu penawar
Dalam suka dan duka
Yang meniti hidupku

As much as I like to write about my ambitions and what not, maybe sometimes I should include here of how I feel on certain issues. I guess the song above is the best description of how I feel right now.

My only driving force at this moment is work because it can fill up a huge void I have in my life, or rather I say, my heart. That's my reality.

AgroQuest
Okay, nampak gayanya aku kena tukar strategi. Berdasarkan daripada sembang-sembang dengan penasihat tembikai aku yang memang otai pasal hal tanam menanam tembikai ni, it is obvious that my cashflow for tembikai is wayyyyyy out of the reality. Seriously, aku pon tak aware pasal hal ni sampai bila diorang mention the cost untuk tanam tembikai with the help of automation is reaching RM11,000/hektar. Memang out figure aku!

So bila aku discuss balik dengan Bad tadi, aku rasa kitorang mesti bertanggungjawab atas risiko untuk buat projek tembikai ni. Therefore, as usual, I made the decision to scrap the idea of raising capital through public. The concern is that we may not achieve the profit rate as promised in our cashflow and it's no way that our cashflow is a true reflecton of the watermelon plantation.

However, the intention is clear - we will go into watermelon plantation within this year but through different means of collecting capital.

So this is what I thought. I plan to secure personal loan no more than RM 12,000. Aku cadang untuk daftarkan AgroQuest secepat mungkin and tanam tembikai secara kelakar di kawasan Serting Ilir (just untuk cukup syarat apply loan MARA). Selepas 6 bulan, aku akan apply for loan from MARA. We go maximum of RM 250,000. Interest rate is 4% on balance.

Then baru boleh kita kerjakan tanah 5 hektar di hujung Serting Ilir. Tak pun, based on maklumat yang aku dapat, kita 'henjut' terus tanah 10 hektar kawasan tanah kelapa sawit yang baru ditanam dalam setahun gitu. So I should expect the yield would be about 250 tan for the first season (and 750 mt or less for 1 year production). Assuming 70% of 250 tan is grade A material and 30% is grade B material, therefore we should gain about RM 197,000 (or RM 591,000 for 1 year). There is a possibility yang kitorang boleh dapatkan tanah kelapa sawit for free, depending on my negotiation skill la kan. So less cost. Hopefully is free! Wohohohoh!

So yes, kali dengan 3 season per year. Mudah-mudahan lagi bagus la and we don't have obligation towards creditor except for MARA for 8 years.

Okay, the downside is that we need to wait for 6 months. Fine by me (shitttt...bulan 9 jugak la kitorang start!).

So maybe what we can do in the meantime is raising capital through public (warm market sebenarnya) untuk projek pisang. Aku baru bercakap dengan peraih pisang dari Johor petang tadi and get his feedback on potensi pisang. Local market memang tak boleh nak support local demand. So yeah, there is a huge potential for us! So, maybe akan ada tembikai division and pisang division in AgroQuest.

The finite question is - sapo nak buek for both of project? Aku tau biar la aku handle tembikai. Bad dah penuh pasal dia kena handle MediaT@ni and M@gicQuest side by side (tu pasal ler aku suh share same office dengan MQ). Eak, not quite sure kalau dia sanggup pasal dia dah ada family. FizZah, not quite sure pasal tak nampak sangat dia keen untuk turun padang. So far nampak dia keen more on project management.

Takpe, this coming Saturday is our next meeting. Jadi memang betul-betul finalize la. Don't take anymore risk than we can handle. If we promise, we must deliver.

Medi@Tani Dot Com Sdn Bhd
Yes, let's talk about MT pulak. Hari Jumaat ni is the closing date for application of Pre Seed FUnd from MDEC. Yes, kitorang memang berterabur otak untuk siapkan paperwork and what not. Aku pon dah penat bercakap sorang-sorang untuk buat ayat to include in the paperwork. Terasa macam amik ENG202C balik. Kena buat executive summary etc. So yeah, it's practically ENG202C.

The application form did ask us of how to create revenue through our venture. Aku figure out, let say current statistic of internet user in Malaysia is about 15.8 million. Assuming 1% is 158,000 people who get involved or interested with agriculture. Only 10% is interested to go online. So we would get an audience of 15,800 people and each of them becomes our premium subscriber who pay RM 30 per year for exclusive news, training materials (including text, podcast & video) and marketplace for doing trading online on agriculture. That means about RM 474,000 revenue for the second year. Tu tak masuk lagi untuk ruang iklan. Remember, 1st year is the development stage (which aku akan jadi promoter tak ingat-ingat nya untuk portal ni!).

Aku dah call Tengku Zafrul, ex CEO of TuneMoney.com, to get his view on our online venture. He said we should meet up after he comes back from Dubai in two weeks time. Okiedokie, i'm fine by the tentative appointment. He may have a lot of advice or tips on how to do business/info services online. Most importantly is that he knows what works and what doesn't work for online business. This also reminds me to call up my mentor, Tengku Farith, and sit down with him and as usual, ask him to be my devil's advocate. AKu harap sangat otai-otai yang berpengalaman ni dapat bantu aku untuk get into perspective before aku pitch for the grant.

By the way aku dah bagitau kat Bad that aku nak reduce stake aku dalam MT. I'll just opt for 40%. I suggest he takes the same portion and let another 20% for our potential senior programmer.

So takat tu ajer la update pasal two ventures nih.

Random Thoughts
Anyway, this is just a random thought from me.

Semalam aku sembang-sembang dengan ayah aku bila aku balik rumah dalam pukul 1 pagi. Aku bersemangat gila babi citer kat ayah aku yang aku nak bina the next Sime Darby. Hahahaha, memang bila difikir-fikirkan, kelakar sial. But hey, dulu-dulu pun aku yakin giler ramai orang gelakkan kat Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim bila dia kata dia nak engineer the mass buyover Sime Darby from its English owner. But he did it in a single day when he was Chairman of PNB.

My plan was to start from agriculture sector. Build capital through this industry, branch out to another types of agriculture activities but still maintain our position in agriculture (especially in plantation and livestocks but we must raise to the stage of peraih laa). Finally AgroQuest akan jadi holding company - a place to collect assets. This will be about 4 to 5 years. Given a solid financial foundation, we should extend our reach into healthcare. Yang aku nampak ialah sediakan pusat hemodialysis center. In fact, aku dah adakan nama untuk dialysis center ni (sempena nama mak aku). Through my simple observation, dialysis center is a cashcow due to high demand from diabetic patients in M'sia. Silap-silap aribulan kalau aku tak jaga makan aku, aku pun boleh jadi one of loyal visitor of my own dialysis center. Medi@Tani and M@gicQuest akan jadi AgroQuest punya IT arm. And later we must develop our own property management company by acquiring high value properties and provide rental services. So yes, agriculture, healthcare, IT services and investment property arms. Cukup untuk bina a group of company, maybe in 15 to 20 years.



Yang paling menariknya, all the founders are budak Alam Shah. And that was exactly I said when I invited my friends to join my quest for becoming financially free men.

"Kalau aku nak kaya, aku nak tengok juga kawan-kawan Alam Shah aku kaya!".

Apa aku nak tulis ek? Entah, blur sket.

Anyway, minggu lepas Public Mutual ada buat annual dinner for all the branches in Klang Valley. Only those who closed sales RM 1 million and above in 2008 were invited to the dinner and that included myself. So yes, I consistently closed more than RM 1 million every year since 2007. Hmmmm..hat's off to myself.

Aku tengok ramai lagi top achievers dalam Public Mutual. Well you know what? Aku terfikir, gila babi sial orang-orang yang close berjuta-juta untuk Public Mutual, tapi sayang masing-masing networth mungkin masih lagi rendah. Syarikat akan makin kaya dan juga pendapatan syarikat makin meninggi tapi consultants diorang mungkin tak dapat jadi sekaya dari Dr. Teh Hong Piow (Chairman of PM Bhd).

Aku pikir, baiklah kita berniaga sikit-sikit dan menaikkan networth secara perlahan-lahan daripada mengkayakan orang lain. Orang yang berniaga jambu di Bangsar pun boleh dapat net income $300+ sehari. Kalau 20 hari berniaga, dah berapa ribu untungnya?

Acara kemuncak semasa dinner Public Mutual bagi aku ialah bila Leina Hangat dijemput untuk buat performance on that night. Hmmm..aku nampak dia berjalan dari pintu masuk Grand Ballroom sambil mula menyanyi lagu I Will Survive. Tak semena-mena dia berjalan ke arah aku and duduk atas riba aku. Tup tup aku perasan muka aku dah naik kat skrin. Semua orang tengok. Arghhhhh....malu gila aku! Aku dah tak gheti dah nak kaver muka aku..Si minah tu peluk aku lagik time tu. Shit, tetek dia selambak depan muka aku..close proximity la kan. Hahahaha. That was my 2 minute fame.

Memang habis la aku malam tu kena usik dengan member-member aku yang lain. Cilako!

But I guess the climax for last weekend when I was invited by my ex teacher to give talk to her Form 4 students kat SM Sains Tuanku Jaafar, Negeri Sembilan. So aku pon pergi ajer la ke sana, buat keja kebajikan ni tak rugi (3 jam drive..iskkk). Serious shit, berterabur otak aku dok memikirkan apa benda yang aku nak cakap pada diorang. Kate kawan aku, speech aku berterabur barai pada sesi pertama. Tapi sesi kedua, lebih teratur dan lebih fun. Personally aku sendiri rasa fun pada sesi kedua sebab aku dah ada struktur modul dalam kepala aku.

And of course, I was glad that I could be myself in the second talk session. Aku halau ajer budak-budak yang datang lambat depan cikgu diorang. Including PRS yang sepatutnya jadi supporting staff aku. I told them, Life is my best teacher. So I just want to tell them, doesn't matter what piece of paper you carry with you, the best is still the experience of which you collected in the past. You get hit by circumstances not because by coincidences but more because of our choice of action that led to that circumstances.

Talking about love, intention and goals, dedicated and fierce determination. Coupled with some anecdotes, some stories about my own experience and ones that I read from books and magazines - enough to make them opened their mouths. Harap-harap takde air liur menitik. Aku rasa budak-budak tu terbangak sekejap kot bila aku menitik air mata bila aku sentuh pasal love. I know the feeling was honest and sincere. Ada student pompuan nak hulur kat aku tisu dia. Entah aku tak tahu pasal apa aku emotional bila aku sebut pasal batch aku kat SAS dulu. Aku cerita pasal aku rasa terkilan arwah Donut meninggal and aku tak sempat nak jumpa dia. Aku cakap, aku lebih percaya kawan-kawan aku kat SAS more than I trust my own relatives pasal kawan-kawan aku tahu buruk baiknya aku masa aku membesar sama-sama dengan diorang. Even now aku buat business dengan kawan-kawan dari batch aku di SAS juga. I guess aku cakap tu pasal nak relate dengan semangat batch budak-budak ni kot. My last note to them; Play hard in life because life is YOUR playground.

Abih tu, cikgu aku sampaikan request dari students F5. Budak-budak F5 minta sekolah adakan sesi khas between aku dengan diorang satu batch. Dah haru, bila pulak aku dapat luangkan masa untuk diorang ni?

Right after that aku dengan kawan aku terus ke Bahau untuk collect sample tanah untuk kitorang hantarkan pada MARDI. Just nak make sure tanah tu subur dan sesuai untuk projek ladang tembikai kitorang. Dalam pada masa yang sama juga kitorang gi melawat kawasan Serting Ilir untuk berjumpa dengan potential land owner. Aduhhh, aku terasa macam YB masa nak bertanding pulak masuk kampung, jumpa orang-orang tua bertanya khabar. Badan dah penat, tekak dah sakit, mengantuk tu toksah kata. Paksa juga la badan. Surprisingly, I always have the energy for people and hold conversation with them. Agaknya dah 2 hari aku kat Negeri Sembilan, spontan pulak aku bercakap dalam loghat nogori dengan makcik-makcik di sana.

Habis urusan di Negeri Sembilan, kitorang terus balik ke KL untuk our next appointment dengan this international trader. He's an uncle to our friend. Saja nak tahu selok-belok fruit trading for international market. Our aim is to supply watermelon untuk Middle East market, or possibly European market. Semangat gila sebelum jumpa that chap. Lepas jumpa tu, terus semangat down pasal dengar cerita yang tak sedap dari dia. But at least the story about Halal Mart is about to open did cheer me up a bit la. At least that's one avenue we can try to sell our fruit product through. Tak sangka ek, even for fruit trading pun macam ada cartel yang control. Doesn't matter Chinese, Iranian or Egyptian..it's all monopoly. Nampak sangat la aku ni naif.

However, thank god I have nice people around me to give us some advice and tips or possibly to offer us their own cable in order to materialize our intention. Setidak-tidaknya beban tu tak la berat sangat nak pikul sorang-sorang.

So, next destination..hmmm..maybe Thailand? Bukan untuk bercuti..tapi more untuk melawat Jabatan Pertanian di sana. Mana tahu boleh dapatkan tips berguna atau pun teknologi yang bagus untuk penanaman tembikai di sini. Kan?

The 2nd draft of business plan for AgroQuest (ladang tembikai) akan siap dalam Jumaat ni. Eak tengah preparekan and FizZah akan sediakan risk analysis for the business. We had convened on last Saturday and we went through chapter by chapter. Hopefully the loan package will be attractive for our potential creditors. I have a strong feeling that the bumpy road isn't over yet. I have yet to inform to our lawyer that we have agreed to appoint him as our legal advisor for this business entity.

Paperwork MediaTani will be sent to MDEC this week. Bad is handling that. MagicQuest Media will also be registered within this week. I need to handle that. Talking about that, I need to schedule a time with my client because she offered me a visit to his son's post production house. Anak dia kerja as producer kat advertising company and so they have post production unit. Something yang MagicQuest akan get involved with. So ni kena jadualkan jugak la dengan Bad pasal dia yang akan lead that company.

Alang-alang dah aku tulis kat sini kan. Aku nak advertise kan jugak la. I need a senior programmer to become our partner in MediaTani. Sapa-sapa yang ada background in being programmer for at least 3 years, please contact me. Thank you.

Kalu ada apa-apa cerita menarik lagi, nanti ler aku update kat sini. Aku dah penat nih.

Things Start to Moving On

My first venture is my AgroQuest agriculture-based business. This is scheduled to run in April when I secure enough number of creditors. At this moment we are aiming at raising RM 80,000 (it could go up to RM 100,000) to kick start. I have started the negotiation with the land owner. My colleague will finish the business plan in a matter of week. Another friend of mine suggested me to set an appointment with his father to fund this venture considering that his father's company is looking for chances to expand into agriculture sector.

This Friday we will re-visit the site again and collect some soil sample to check for its fertility. Hopefully that piece of land is very fertile for watermelon to grow.



Training matter shall be resolved by this weekend. I am also looking forward to meet up with CEO of Master Melon Sdn Bhd, the producer and exporter of watermelon to Middle East market,this Thursday just to get some insights and maybe, if I were lucky enough, to gain useful tips and advice to be successful in this sector.

Next in pipeline is my MediaTani Sdn Bhd venture with cooperation from MDEC via its pre-seed fund. Of course, we are running like crazy to write up the necessary application documents. I'm about to have migraine due to staying up late at night, formulating and planning for the documents submission. This is also a 'support service' to my first business entity, AgroQuest. I also have met with the manager of pre seed from MDEC - practically just to do PR exercise and get his advice on how to make sure our application for this grant a succesful one. My friend will review my application documents just to make sure everything is good to go. By the way, he is the recipient of this grant for the batch in 2007. So, good to have coach for grant application.

This is scheduled to kick off somewhere in September 2009.

The next venture is into training/post production house for OKU. I am planning to apply for grant from JTK under OKU scheme about RM 200,000 to fund for our hardware acquisition and set up of business premise in order to set up a training center and post production house. I will be holding the majority shareholding in this but I will let my friend to head the company. Hopefully he can do a real good job.



I aim to have affiliation with Majlis Latihan & Vokasional Kebangsaan, Lembaga Zakat Selangor, Pusat Pungutan Zakat WP and BAKTI to help out the OKUs out there by funding them at our training center so they will be equipped with skills in creative multimedia design. Hopefully by doing that, they can earn income and live independently.

Again, this thing can only be kicked off in September 2009 due to some regulation issues.

One good news - my sister is coming back for good from Japan. Can't wait to see her again! :)

Kepala aku bercelaru sekarang ni. Sebenarnya, quite frankly, aku rasa aku agak hilang fokus. Maybe the impact from last week issues occurred in my life. Somehow aku tiba-tiba teringin nak ada di tepi pantai sambil tengok matahari naik dari horizon. Paling bodoh pun aku terasa nak ada atas gunung sambil tengok matahari terbit..atau terbenam.

Banyak benda, banyak kerja yang aku anticipate dalam tempoh beberapa bulan, atau pun beberapa tahun akan datang. Tapi something strikes me. Apakah yang aku tengah kerjakan, atau pun akan kerjakan, dapat mak aku tengok hasilnya?

I read somewhere that someone has to follow his own vision of his life. Vision is something that keeps that man awake at night or can't wait for tomorrow to come. Maybe it's a calling. Maybe it's an epiphany.

I know for sure, manusia yang macam mana aku nak jadi. Aku tahu for sure, cara yang macam mana yang aku nak bila aku tinggalkan dunia ni. Cuma kadang-kadang aku terfikir, mampu ke aku buat?

I saw somebody wrote his status, "It's not what you say that people will see, but what you do that people will witness".

I hope people will be kind in judging me for what my actions are.

Bak Dah Meninggal

My grandfather, fondly know as Bak, has passed away last Friday at 9.30 am. Mummy at that time was prepped for her surgery to 'install' fistulae onto her arm to enable her to undergo her hemodialysis treatment. I was still at home, crunching some works on my PC when I received the news from my sister.

The first thing I asked my sister when I got the news, "Mummy tau tak pasal ni?" And she said, "No".

Along, me and my sister reached Kuala Krai by 5 pm that day itself. We stopped at Gua Musang for a short break and continued the journey all the way to the kampung. My parents and Angah followed suit later.

Papa informed us that mummy had to postpone her surgery due to her high blood pressure. Doctor didn't want to take the risk by having the surgery on that day. Worst still, the blood pressure was still high when the nurse checked for the second time. I wonder how her blood pressure would shoot up if she knew that her father has passed away just when she was thinking to visit him last week.

The rest is pretty much a history to be remember. One week fulls of drama. One week fulls of emotion.

I almost shed a tear remembering about my Bak. He was the only grandfather I have in my life since I have never met my grandfather from my father's side. I will always remember him for his generosity, his stubbornnes, his political jokes and his stand against America.

Don't really know where to start writing. Too much thoughts stuffed in this heavy head. It's 3.28 am and I'm still awake, listening to the Beatles' songs. Cranking my head of what to write in my own blog.

This week is a double whammy of bad news in my family. First, I got phone call from my high school buddy, who is a doctor in Hospital Kuala Krai, saying that my grandpa is zeroing to his death based on medical observation and evaluation. He explained to me carefully on what was the attending doctor reviewed about my grandpa. He also recommended me to come home to Kelantan, maybe to see my grandparent for the last time while he is still alive.

Then, my mom was admitted to emergency ward in HUKM on last Monday at the very early hour. My brother called me up at 4 am when I was upstairs - fixing figures and figuring out my plan for my agriculture project. He said that we needed to bring the mother to a clinic. I ran down to downstairs and I saw my mom was semi conscious. I could see her eyes opened and she tried to mutter something, but somehow I couldn't identify what she was trying to say. While holding my mom's hand, I asked her a few questions and looked for recognizable response. I didn't get the respond I was looking for.

The brother and my dad were still arguing whether to bring the mother to a clinic or to a hospital. I thought - this argument is a waste. They wanted to ask for my mother's opinion. It was so obvious that my mother could not communicate at that time. Even if she did, we all could not understand a word what she said. So I thought, let's do something for the best interest of her.

Really I didn't actually know what to do. All I know was inspired from the ER tv series. I knew at that time my mom wasn't fully conscious and I tried to check her pulse. It sounded very quick. So I didn't fathom what was going on. Semi conscious but heart beat ran fast. So yes, we collectively agreed we needed to bring her to the hospital. Then a question came hard upon us. How were we going to move her to the hospital? Mother is overweight and three of us could not even lift her without probably injured her.

I said, "That's why the hospital has ambulance!".

But brother was a bit hesitate to call. He wasn't sure of what to say and how to give instruction. I was half shouted, 'Use your common sense!". I still held my mother's hand gently. Mother seemed to have difficulty to breathe and she looked as if she were in excruciating pain. Finally the brother called up and we asked for ambulance to be despatched to our house.

It took almost 40 minutes for the ambulance to reach our house. Surprisingly, no medical officer was available on that ambulance. I was totally flabbergasted! How on earth can an ambulance move around without qualified doctor on board? Two personnel quickly came into the house and started to arrange their stretcher for the mother to be carried out safely out from the house.

My dad joined the mother in the ambulance. I decided to let my mother to be carried to HUKM since my mom has always gone there for her scheduled medical check ups. I followed the ambulance to the hospital by driving my car.

Doctor and her medical staffs quickly ran checks on my mother once she reached the emergency ward. The doctor confirmed with me that my mom was low on sugar in her blood which was dangerous for her. My mother is a diabetic patient and being in hypoglycemic situation is a huge sin for her. So she was given sugar drip. I saw wires here and there attached to my mother's body. I didn't feel anything except that I was still furious at how one medical staff forcefully pushed the sugar tubes to go down into my mother's vein through the catheter stucked at her hand.

Mother regained her consciousness and began to ask me few questions like, how did she get to the hospital or who brought her to the hospital etc. So those questions confirm my assumption that mother was semi conscious. She even didn't feel the pain when a medical assistant pricked her skin and inserted a catheter into her vein.

I didn't want to write the rest of the event. Enough I'd say, our emergency response 'plan' worked out very well and I took the lead. My mother is now in HUKM for further examination and warded in nefralogy ward. She's scheduled for hemodialysis. I know this process will be painful for her and would cause uneasiness to her body. But that is the price to pay when she didn't want to take care of her health especially her diet with sugary meals and drinks. I decided to take off from work and visited her at the ward as often as I could. I massaged her as much as I could so that I could ease her muscle cramps due to sitting for too long in the bed. Bought her newspapers for her to read. Along came all the way from Rawang to visit her too. He even discussed with the specialist on what to do next. I let him to decide because practically, he's the eldest and he should take lead on this matter. My father just let his children do what we suppose to do in this kind of event.

I am just praying that my mom can come out from the ward as soon as possible so that she can meet her father before he closed his eyes for one last time.

25 Random Things About Me

Rules:
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1. I was born on August 31st - Merdeka baby.
2. I can't sleep early at night, usually go to bed at 4 am or 5 am.
3. I love Star Trek series. I admire Captain Jean Luc Picard's character. And Spock, of course.
4. I flew to Australia in November 2007 just to get rejected by a girl I fancied.
5. I aspire to found a foundation which provides scholarship for talented & bright young people.
6. I believe in universal justice, across the border of creed, skin color and nationality.
7. I said I love you papa and hugged my dad for the first time in my life in 2007.
8. I actually wanted to be musician or maybe, an orchestra conductor. I played saxophone in high school and a percussionist in Penn State Wind Orchestra.
9. I cried a bit after I made my first phone call to my parents in M'sia when I checked in to my apartment at West Beaver Ave in August 1999.
10. I'm a sentimental person but a stoic as well.
11. I did eat pork (unintentionally) twice - a pepperoni pizza at Pollock Hall and a bacon sandwich in American Airlines
12. I'm dying to see Malaysians live with one another without prejudice and stereotypes about skin color. Sheesshh!!
13. I wish to bring my parents to visit State College one day.
14. I'm proud to have an engineer brother, a technician brother and a doctor-to-be sister.
15. Mak Long Kesuma is my benchmark for role model in academic excellence back in high school.
16. I'm a reformed hot tempered person.
17. I plan to be philanthropist millionaire beginning at 35.
18. Someone told me that I should be politician one day as career. I politely declined. I know why now I said no.
19. I wrote letters to Anwar Ibrahim when he was in prison and I actually got his reply too.
20. I picked up Chemical Engineering as my major because I wanted to prove to my brother that I can do better than him. My ego screwed me up badly 5 years later.
21. Cooking is my past time activity when I was in Penn State. I love trying different recipes.
22. I puked twice when I accompanied Peng Ai to climb a small mountain in Cheras. Okay, sangatlah tak fit aku nih.
23. Creameries ice cream and Ben & Jerry ice cream are so much better than Haagen Dasz.
24. I can easily recognize the faces of people, rather than remembering people's names.
25. I aspire to build the next Sime Darby.

Perak Is In Constitutional Crisis

In the recent development of political crisis in Perak, I for once, feel very sad of all the things occured in this state. I seriously feel betrayed by my own Sultan which I thought this institution can be the rakyat saviour, instead has become an instrument to deny the will of rakyat. The Sultan's institution should portray impartiality in dealing with such issue and absolute understanding of the rule of law.



No one is above the law, as so does the Constitution say. However, I truly understand that under certain provisions the Sultans are spared some special rights due to their positions. I honestly feel that HRH Sultan Azlan Shah must have understood these contentions due to his professional background. However, I am a firm believer that the Sultans must put the interest of the people first before their own interest as we all know that the Sultans are the head of the states. Hence, HRH Sultan Azlan Shah should and by right, oblige to the request made by the CM Dato Seri Mohammad Nizar to dissolve the DUN and subsequently to hold a snap election.

The issue of validity of the resignation letters does not warrant the Election Commission the right to stall its due process. By law, the EC must comply with the request of the Speaker of DUN because only through the Speaker of DUN, all the issue of validity of these damned letters must be resolved beforehand. Therefore through this event, we have seen that the EC, again and again, has seemed to act in favor of the ruling party. It is a clear violation of the objective of its establishment.

I have lost respect to the most admirable HRH Sultan Azlan Shah and to the royalties as a whole. They are nothing more than useless institution, sponsored and subsidized by the sweat of rakyat, only to act dumbly and stupid and cowardly.



I call upon my fellow rakyat out there to continue supporting Dato Seri Mohammad Nizar for his quest to serve the rakyat in Perak. I salute you Dato Seri for acting courageously in his capacity as Menteri Besar of Perak, Chief of Executive body of the state.

Aku dapat information daripada kawan aku yang katanya, dia ada potential investor yang ada RM 500,000 readily available for business purposes. Hmmm..memang menarik! Tadi pun masa aku duduk sembang-sembang dengan client, dia ada cadangkan juga supaya aku mengwar-warkan berita tentang projek pertanian aku ni pada client-client aku yang lain. Katanya, ramai yang berminat nak tanam modal dalam projek-projek begini dan mendapat pulangan hasil yang lebih konkrit. Itu katanya lah. Aku pun cuma angguk-angguk ajer.

Bagi aku, aku prefer amik loan daripada give up equity. AKu tak nak lose control over my own business establishment. Profit sharing pun okay for as long I can keep the control over my business to myself.

Sometimes, setiap perniagaan tu ada personal touch oleh penciptanya. Okay la, aku tak mencipta apa-apa pun kat sini. Cumanya aku menggerakkan perniagaan yang dah sekian lama tok nenek kita buat iaitu menanam dan memasarkannya. Tapi kali ini lebih sistematik dan record keeping yang lebih sempurna (bukan macam cara aku simpan resit dalam kereta aku!).

Nilai permulaan projek pertanian untuk 11 ekar ialah RM 130,000. Jadinya aku perlukan sebanyak tu untuk mulakan dan juga generate hasil dalam masa satu tahun. Aliran kewangannya dah pun aku buat dan Bad dah refine semula. Aku tahu aku boleh dapatkan pioneer status untuk syarikat ni daripada MIDA. Jadi kami boleh elakkan cukai untuk 5 tahun pertama.

Apa yang aku takutkan ialah kalau-kalau andaian aku salah pasal kos perbelanjaan ladang. Sebabnya harga baja boleh turun dan naik sesuka hati. TUrun bagus la, tapi kalau naik, mampos aku. Dah sah-sah messed up gile cashflow aku. Gaji aku turun takpe, aku tak kesah, janji business hidup.

Lagi satu kos untuk sewa tanah. Harap-harap kos sewa tanah maintain at least untuk the first 3 years lah. Or else, again, die laaa..

Ya Allah, bagi la aku kekuatan nak bagi semua ni menjadi. Ameen.

RM 1.6 million in the next 5 years in company's saving. Ameen 10X!

I think I just fucked up my cashflow for my kebun projek.

Bodoh, tu la pandai-pandai sangat nak combine pisang dengan tembikai. ABih semua figure lari!

#$%$%^%$&%$&*&$$$@(*&%^$^$...

My Intention in Kuala Pilah

Today we went to Kuala Pilah to look for land for rent. The whole trip was a bit adventure due to traffic situation and road condition. Imagine this; the road is like zigzaggy, narrow and awfully quiet. We passed through kampung orang asli while we were at the top of mountains at the border of Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. That was the first time I drove in that area and I swear, I do not want to drive through that area anymore. Creepy indeed!

It was a bit gamble because I couldn't contact the tok penghulu kampung in Kampung Tengkek. Yeah, the name is a bit off. Thank god it's not 'tungkik' or 'tengik'. Anyhow, the people in Kg Tengkek are nice people. This is the birthplace of homestay program in Malaysia. Cool kan?

So we were there to meet En. Abdullah Hassan, the tok penghulu in that area. I was referred to this gentleman by another kind-hearted gentleman whom I met in Banting via my friend. Of course our objective to visit him is to seek his help in getting land for our agro-entrepreneurial activities. He was very helpful in explaining to us about dealing with land here in Negeri Sembilan. I felt a bit obscure when he asked me about the size of land which we are looking. He himself is managing and handling his farm land of 50 acres size. We were just looking for 10 acres instead.

Nonetheless, he never looked down on us. Yes, we are a bunch of young men who are coming back to 'kampung' instead of going to 'bandar'. Like my partner said - we are tired with the game of life in urban area. Probably.

He offered 11 acres piece of land near Kuala Pilah area and 10 acres of land near Bahau for reasonable rental rate. Both offer are very, very, very enticing to us. I took my sweet time to ask him on incentive provided by the state Agriculture Department. Other than that, I also asked him a few questions on challenge to become farm owner and agro-based entrepreneur. He said, most of the problem would be when the reality hits the paper plan.

You see, I did my calculation for the cashflow to run a banana farm. Figures on the paper can look nice due to our assumptions on the cost of certain items. However, my cashflow could be off due to many reason. One of them is the fluctuation of price of fertilizer. Same goes with the price offered by the wholeseller. I did my study on the marketing and sales of our local fruits and I found out that the market price is pretty much set by these wholesellers. Therefore, it is very pertinent for me to set our vision to become wholeseller. Only this can ensure our profitability and maintaining the business. According to my calculation, we would only hit more than million ringgit savings in the company by the fourth year with an assumption that the fertilizer cost only increased by 10% per year. I even put low salary for myself just to make sure the company can survive with minimal cost.

Hopefully by the third or fourth year, our company could channel some of the cash to start a business in F&B. Maybe opens up a kopitiam or cafe. That would be the next step for us. Investment for real estate would be our last and final step. Agriculture, F&B and real estate/properties. These will be my goal in business.

I have a vision for this business venture. My vision is to see this is an empire of business. We start with simple and yet almost guaranteed return and expand ourselves into cash generating business like restaurateur. My final dreams are to set up a foundation that gives scholarship to young Malaysians to excel in their academic and to help young entrepreneurs to establish themselves.

BIla aku melayan facebook, dapat tengok muka adik-adik di penn state sane berlonggok sesama Melayu..tetiba aku teringat pesan Bro. Djafer masa seminar Musim Luruh MISNA di Cornell dulu. Katanya, kita ini ummah Islam, bukan ummah Melayu. Jadi pecahkan lingkungan sosial hingga menjangkaui di luar ruang lingkup Melayu. Aduhhh, terasa sungguh aku bila terkena perlian macam tu. Nadanya bersahaja tapi penuh makna.

Imaam Djafer ni Muslim Chaplain di Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY. Hebat ceramah dia, hebat lagi karakter dia. Selalu juga selisih dengan dia di masjid Al Hikmah di Troy kalau aku menginap kat rumah Chot di 15th Street.

Anyway, I didn't do much today except for surveying land for my agriculture project in Meru and Bukit Kapar area. The rental is very cheap there. I was totally surprise! Maybe it's due to my brief friendship with the Tok Penghulu in that area. Well, no harm in making friends with people anywhere and anytime, kan?

So I came back to my costing to prepare for our agriculture entrepreneurial adventure. I've got stock of 11 acres in total. That does not include the land offered by my friend's mom in Banting. So I've got to evaluate her offer as well.



The plan initially was to grow chilli fertigation style. The drawback is the exorbitant cost on setting up the fertigation system. Especially for beginner like myself. Then I had discussion with one guy who worked part time on his own small banana farm and I found out the profit yields from the farm is quite considerable and the cost is relatively low. I did some math and I figured out we shall start to accumulate cash in the company to the millionth by the 4th year if we keep increasing the land by 3 acres per year to grow banana! And so does chilli.

So I guess we now shall combine between banana and chilli semi fertigation style. The bad news is it requires us to come up with costly paid up capital. I guess it's around RM 150,000. That is plus 10% for contingency plan.

Mungkin boleh difikir-fikirkan. Kalau mengikut tanah tadi, 2 teres untuk cili merah dan 2 teres untuk cili padi. Kalau ada 4500 pokok untuk cili merah dan 4500 pokok untuk cili padi...mungkin berbaloi. Mungkin lah.

Sekarang, aku dah tak mampu fikir apa-apa. Cuma pisang dan cili..yang terbaru ialah tembikai. Haihhhhh...

Pertanian Adalah Perniagaan

Buat masa ni aku tengah sibuk dengan mencari lokasi tanah-tanah yang diiklankan untuk disewa bagi tujuan pertanian. RUpa-rupanya memang ramai umat manusia di Malaysia ni tengah cari tanah juga untuk bercucuk tanam. Nampaknya gelombang usahawan tani tu dah hinggap ramai orang termasuklah aku dan geng-geng ASK (Alam Shah Kroni). Slogan Pertanian Adalah Pertaniah dah mula menjadi slogan popular di kalangan orang muda. Ko cuba bayangkan ni, engineer yang kerja hampir 10 tahun di PETRONAS Carigali pun sibuk cari tanah untuk bercucuk tanam? Hahahaha, tu yang buat aku lagi berkobar-kobar untuk projek pertanian kami.

Sabtu lepas aku dengan beberapa orang kawan baru menjenguk kebun tanaman secara fertigasi di Sg Buloh. Wah, memang bersemangat habis aku bersoal jawab dengan pekerja Indonesia di kebun tu. Masa tu kami berempat kebanyakannya ada background technical (ada yang engineering dan computer science), jadi soalan yang ditanya semuanya berkaitan dengan soal teknikal dalam menjalankan fertigasi ni. Otai betul Abg Indon tu jawab soalan-soalan kami pasal kaedah fertigasi and SOP nya sekali. Bila aku nampak saja paip, tong bancuh, pump dan dripper, terus aku bayangkan CSTR yang aku belajar dengan Prof. Janna Maranas di Penn State dulu.

Jadi hari Ahad ni kitorang berlima akan ke Muar untuk melawat kebun pisang Abg Fauzi. Well, Abg Fauzi ni salah seorang daripada client unit trust aku and kenalan lama aku sejak aku belajar di Amerika lagi. Dia salah seorang contoh profesional yang bekerja di syarikat komunikasi (sebagai Pengurus) tapi menghabiskan masa hujung minggunya untuk berkebun. Dari kebun pisangnya seluas 2 ekar, sudah pun bertambah hingga jadi 10 ekar lebih.

Memang aku sangat bersemangat dalam projek pertanian ni. Dalam kepala otak aku, dah terbayang dah beberapa pelan yang bakal dilaksanakan. Aku cadangkan pada kawan-kawan aku untuk mulakan projek pertanian ni dengan tanaman pisang dan cili separa fertigasi (kos permulaan yang tinggi untuk fertigasi). Mungkin lepas kami sepakat untuk putuskan urusan pembahagian ekuiti dalam syarikat, barulah kami akan buat cost-benefit analysis untuk pemilihan fokus tanaman kami. Kalau nak untung cepat, ada orang dah cadangkan tanam pokok popi. Aku pun pikir camtu jugak, tapi aku tak nak kena hukum gantung bawah Akta Dadah Merbahaya 39B. Unless ini Myanmar atau pun Siam, mungkin kitorang boleh jadi exporter popi terbesar kot. Hahahaha.

Kalau ikutkan my gut feeling, aku rasa tahun ketiga baru company start untung bersih kot. Tapi tak tau la, kami belom buat cost-benefit analysis. Aku bukannya ada background dalam accounting, cuma harapkan kawan-kawan hak mana yang ada skil sikit-sikit bab accounting. Aku fikir, salah satu kaedah untuk aku kurangkan kos operasi ialah dengan menggunakan segala jenis geran yang kerajaan sediakan untuk bantu usahawan baru. Cara kedua baru aku fikir untuk apply loan. Seboleh-bolehnya tak nak guna loan bank pasal ada interest. Kalau dapat cari business angel, memang sangat menarik la projek ni! Mungkin kami boleh pakat-pakat join mana-mana koperasi dan mohon pinjaman daripada koperasi. Interest pun rendah berbanding dengan interest yang bank kenakan. Yang penting, business plan kena mantaplah. Bab goreng-goreng dalam kertas kerja ni aku dah biasa, cuma bab figure ni kena buat kasik kaw-kaw punya. Or else, kena rejek bodo jek.

Random Thoughts



Hurmm...tambah tolak darab bahagi, tinggal lagi 6 tahun untuk aku cecah umur 35. Aku dah janji pada diri sendiri untuk jadi jutawan bila umur aku cecah 35 pada 31 Ogos 2015. Cikgu aku masa di sekolah rendah dulu pernah pesan - biar menangis sekarang, jangan menangis kemudian hari. Betul kata dia, bukan senang nak senang. Tapi bukan susah juga untuk jadi susah. Hari-hari aku berdoa lepas solat, "Ya Allah, jadikan aku jutawan yang dermawan!". Tuhan kata, mintalah kepadaKu, nescaya Aku akan perkenankan. Hmm..tu dah mintak la tu kan.

Aihh, terkenang pulak masa zaman-zaman aku mula bisnes unit trust. Nangis dalam hati tu toksah kata, banyak kali dah. Kena perli dengan bapak sendiri. Kena reject dengan potential clients. Aku takkan lupakan dorongan kawan aku, Seri, sebab dialah client cash aku yang pertama. Tapi berkat sabar dalam unit trust, aku belajar banyak benda dalam urusan bisnes. Kenal orang-orang yang banyak bantu aku untuk fahamkan cara berniaga dan peluang perniagaan. Dengan bisnes unit trust ni juga aku dapat melancong sampai ke Australia (untuk patah hati) dan Jepun (layan urut kaki dengan awek jepun). Tahun ni akan ke Bandung/Jakarta pulak.



Lepas tu aku buat side project dalam bidang IT. Pernah merasa tandatangan check sendiri sampai RM 10,000. Itulah manisnya berniaga. Hilang rasa penat dan pressure bila hasilnya kita nampak. Tersengih-sengih aku and business partner aku masa tu lepas tandatangan sorang satu check sejumlah tu. Aku beruntung sebab dapat business partner yang sangat cermat jaga kewangan syarikat kami. Tapi kami berhenti berniaga IT pasal terlalu kompetitif ruang niaga untuk bidang tu. Dia sekarang dalam bisnes fotografi pulak dan berjaya. Aku masih lagi dengan bisnes unit trust dengan Public Mutual tapi sentiasa aktif untuk explore bidang perniagaan lain.



Kerja makan gaji? Aku nekad ikut pesan nabi, "Perniagaan ialah 9/10 punca pendapatan". Orang kata bekerja makan gaji tu selamat. Terjamin kata orang lagi. Entahlah, bila ekonomi meleset, ramai juga orang kena buang kerja. Atau pun gaji dipotong. Bila aku kenen-kenen makcik yang berniaga nasi lemak, sedap juga dia buat untung dalam seratus dua sehari walau pun ekonomi meleset. Aku rasa, aku tak malu nak berniaga nasi lemak atau goreng pisang, asalkan aku terus berniaga. Mungkin kerja makan gaji tak sesuai untuk aku ni kot.



Dan mungkin bila satu hari nanti, bila aku sudah berjaya dalam kareer aku nanti, aku akan mencari orang-orang muda yang nak ikut jejak langkah aku. Mungkin aku akan jadi mentor dan curahkan segala ilmu dan pengalaman yang aku ada untuk memulakan perniagaan kepada orang-orang muda yang datang mencari mentor. Sebagaimana mentor aku sekarang ni yang sedang lakukan kepada aku. Hidup memberi lebih bermakna daripada hidup menerima.

Pepatah orang Melayu ada menyebut, rezeki secupak takkan jadi segantang. Bagi aku, rezeki secupak kalau diusahakan betul-betul, boleh datangkan nikmat segantang.

What say you?

Help by the Beatles



Do I need help? Yes, sometimes. I'm not a Superman. Just an ordinary man trying to do extraordinary things in life.

Tee Off at Golf Driving Range (Bukit Jalil Golf Club)