8 Ways to Make RM1 Milliion

As emailed to me by the Malaysian Youth Entrepreneurship Forum :

1. Ask RM10 from 100,000 people you know.
   Considering the number of people you will get to know
   in your lifetime, this does not sound as ridiculous as
   it seems.
2. Think franchise. Trying to sell 1,000 packets of nasi lemak
   daily in one location may be a stretch. But if you have 10 locations
   selling 100 packs, it begins to sound possible.
   If you net a profit of RM1 per pack, all it takes is three years
   to become a nasi lemak millionaire.
3. Pay yourself first. Make it a standing instruction.
   The moment you get your salary, automatically set aside
   10% in your “Make Me a Million” savings account.
   Watch the compound grow.
4. The RM5 scheme. The plan is simple. Save RM5 every day.
   That’s not a log. Even a pack of cigarettes costs RM7.
   Then, deposit the money in an account that pays an interest
   of 10% p.a. In 42 years, you will have RM1 million, barring
   any fluctuations in the interest rate.
5. Invest in yourself. Learn a skill. Get an MBA.
   Up your qualifications. The more you’re worth, the more you’ll
   be paid. The good old way of working yourself up the
   ladder still works.
6. Join a reality show. Some offer big money and it’s fun.
   And even if you get booted out, take heart that you will
   provide the Malaysian public a lot of entertainment.
   Who knows, you may still make money.
7. Be an entrepreneur. Like to bake? Trim bonsai? Turn your hobby
   into a money-making venture. Someone once said:
   “If you love your job, you’ll never have to work a day.”
   Sounds like a great way to get rich.
8. Go online. A new, exciting and quirky idea could make million.
   For example, student Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from
   Wiltshire, England, started selling pixels on his website to fund his studies.

by Wira Budiman

Suatu kisah undangan pawana
Sebuah persada yang kita bina
Si anak desa tak lagi lena
Sedang bangsanya masih merana.

Dari Zaharah azam bermula
Destar pertiwi ingin dibela
Darul Ridzuan jemput bersila
Di dua kota jiwa ternyala.

Alam tumpangan silih berganti
Angin Sikamat turut mengerti
Arus di Gadut mengalir pasti
Alunan budi terus sebati.

Resminya padi tunduk berisi
Ragam putera hak diwarisi
Runtuh dan bangun sama dikongsi
Rentetan masa menjadi saksi.

Wira Budiman Azizan
11 Mac 1996 (hari sambutan ulangtahun SDAR ke-40)
(disiarkan dalam majalah SEDAR jilid ke-30)

Pindaan Para 3
24 Jun 2006 (malam sambutan ulangtahun SDAR ke-50)
(disiarkan dalam www.sdarians.blogspot.com)

Collars with Style

Hmmm… what collar? Its that hard piece of your shirt that goes around your neck !

So many styles, so many options. The angle, the length, the cutting, the edge, the buttons, the curve etc.

The other 2 hard pieces around your wrist are your cuffs. This collar issue came to attention during the last visit to my tailor a few weeks back.

All I wanted was a simple shirt, but then again, since I was curious (more or less not to the favour of my tailor coz this meant he had more work to do in the details, hahaha! – that’s what I pay him for anyway) of what types of collars there were available, I found this useful & informative site :

http://www.raresplendors.com/

I hope by visiting the above link, you’ll discover somthing new regarding the many  styles & options of making a shirt eg: cuffs, collars, buttons, cufflinks, tux, gems etc.
 

SDARA Official Tie SOLD OUT !!!

After almost 3 months in the market, this tie has sold 300 pieces around the globe, accross all 5 continents.

It was such a suprise to me that it was sold out during last night’s dinner !!!

We were already starting to take additional orders when a few excited SDARA members came up & said that they were even willing to purchase the last one (on display with a thousand fingerprints all over) but of course, I didn’t want want anyone to buy a masterpiece 2nd hand.

Produced on ‘blazing silk’ (it’s chemical silk, so there’s nothing to worry because even JAKIM is using this material with the same manufacturer), the SDARA official tie is flown in directly from Korea through a local designer based in KL.

More pics are available on my flickr page.

For those ex SDARians who still don’t have one, get yours today ! The next batch is due for arrival in mid July 2006.

Satria Neo Modified

I found this on lowyat.net

Not bad for the bodykit but i think buyers might want to upgrade the interior as well.

SDARA Annual Dinner 2006

Date     : 24th June 2006
Time     : 8.30 PM
Venue   : Taman Warisan Pertanian Putrajaya

WOW !

What an event !!! with about 1000 people who attended this function last night, things were absolutely fantastic & outrageous !

To me, what made it memorable was seeing the faces of ex teachers and ex students of Sekolah Dato’ Abdul Razak all under one roof. And being the SDARians that we’ll always be, there was never a sigle moment without laughter & shouts of joy in the air.

I’ve only been out of school for 10 years (back in 1996) but there were those who came from the very 1st bacth.. meaning they were in SDAR since the school was 1st opened! that was almost 50 years ago!!!

It’s no wonder that there was one chap who was a fiver in the late 60’s that couldn’t recall the names of any of his table mates though all of them knew and remembered him (we were seated in batches – the year we came out of school). Memory lapse? Well, I’d be too if I had not seen my ex dorm/classmate for the past 40 YEARS or so.. hahaha!

Like any alumni dinner, I don’t think the majority were there for the food but mainly to meet old friends, seniors & juniors who some of them have never even met since the day they left school (of course, during our school days, even a cream cracker in the middle of the night tasted better than Pringles does today!)

I met some seniors who still remembered me. The last time we saw each other was almost 15 years ago (they were in form 5 when i was in form 1). But this time around, everyone was more matured, well behaved & were rising stars in their respective careers.

And also like many alumni’s, it was a mixture of young and old (old in age but forever young at heart coz yesterday’s event made everybody feel like they were 17 again… hahaha!), working & retired, corporate & government, businessmen & professionals, generalists & specialists. I’d say we have a member in every field/profession you could think of so that alone, creates an interesting platform for sharing & exchanging ideas/experience in the long run.

A memorable moment for me was when some ex teachers & staff came to shake my hand & say “thank you for arranging & designing our attire for tonight”.

Well, i can’t take all the credit though coz the batik was partially sponsored by all the alumni members who attended the dinner as a gesture of thanks to all our ex teachers coz we are what we are today because of you. “Terima kasih Cikgu, terima kasih.”

And the batik itself was designed by my ex classmate, ‘Barry’ who today owns a batik business based in KL & is a shareholder of a batik factory in Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan. You can view the design on my flickr page. For this entire project, I’m merely the appointed project manager on behlaf of SDARA. My main duty is to market this merchandise & deliver it to all xSDARians accross the globe.

There were also teachers and some old friends who i haven’t seen for some time asking me this same familiar question.. “so, u still in the insurance business?” hmmm…. i kept asking myself, “am i in the wrong industry?” hahaha!

I hope not & YES, of course I’m still with AIA after almost 5 years (in insurance agent years… thats quite long)

If only they’d pop the other questions such as : ” naz, I need to insure my house/car/kids etc… could you drop by my office & advise …. etc etc etc.” OR
” bro, my father just gave me RM 1 mil but i don’t know how to manage this money…”

Of course it does happen but most of the time, the former question superceeds the latter. 1 to a million. hahaha! maybe after my 10th year in the business they’ll finally consider my prvious proposals. hahaha! just joking guys!

Finally, I’d like to say thank you to all the comittee members of the SDARA Annual Dinner 2006. It was a pleasure working with all of you for the past half year. As one of the youngest comittee members (remember, the rest are young too… but mainly at heart, hehe!) it was an interesting exposure & also a very valuble experience in hosting this memorable event.

See you all at our Jubli Emas next year !!!

SATRIA NEO… NEO MATRIX???

Emailed to me by one of my Advisors (Kadz). He’s a gas turbine engineer at a power generation plant. Hard to imagine? Just picture the blades on the engine of a Boeing 747-400 but on a larger scale. Each blade costs more than a Satria Neo 1.6L H-Line (AT) to replace. With 3 phases totalling more than 582 blades per turbine, it costs a whopping RM 11.1 mil to replace all the blades in a single turbine, enough money to buy more than 200 Satria Neo’s.

waduh waduh…smlm gi tengok keta satria neo kat kedai proton. boleh dikatakan design keta satria dah banyak improve. mmg banyak improvement.walaupun ada unsur2 yang “dipetik” dari manufacturer yang lain, sehinggakan terdetik “macam pernah ku lihat…tapi di mana ya..?”,namun kombinasi tetap ok.

stail “less is best” dan konsep simplicity memang jelas. tengok dail-dail yg memeningkan amat kurang. (psst..nampak cam dail air-cond honda).nak control player dari steering pun boleh. with climate control, anda boleh pastikan suhu tidak terlampau sejuk ataupun panas dalam kereta anda. sapa2 kaki panjang mungkin berasa kurang selesa kalau duduk kat seat belakang. soo kalau nak ranjau kamal (yg memang tinggi orangnya), anda sumer boleh beli keta nih dan ajak kamal jalan2… uhuu uhuuu…paling aku minat kereta nih… mmmmm… semi bucket seats!!! best ooooooo!!!!tapi aku rasa tranmissi gear aagak ketat!!kereta sport laaa katakan!! tak tau laa handling macam mana. proton kata dah adopt handling keta lotus dalm satria neo, tapi history handling kereta satria lama (yg auto) mmg poor (sorry tuan2 satria lama…. GTI dan yg manual ok).so, we can expect a lot of improvement dalam handling. engine campro yg digunakan boleh dibandingkan dengan gen2 sekarang.dengan body yg lebih rigan dari gen2, pastinyer performance yg lebih baik… (*secara logiknyer) safety pun mmg tip top dengan crush frontal design (crush is not a good word…)..errmmm…ataupun perkataan lain, “impact” frontal design dan juga airbags!!glove compartment dengan gaya luxurious (*bila tekan dia bukan perlahan-lahan) mmg satu benda baru dalam kereta nih. tapi saiz agak kecil, sehinggakan letak buku manual pun nampak sudah penuh!!! all in all….usaha memberangsangkan dari proton…… sapa2 berminat?

p/s: kalau aku nak beli buckets seats sahaja boleh tak??? sapa2 tau??

Book Reviews

According to a 2001 survey, the average Malaysian reads less than 2 books a YEAR !!!

Hmm… sounds like the the majority of the public but then again I’m sure if you are reading my blog, you are way above average ! (hope this doesn’t sound like i’m kissing up to my readers, hahaha!) 

Anyway, I do read & yes, more than 2 books a year. With work and all, at the moment I’m only able to do 2 books a month (average 200 pages – yeah, balme it on too much work at the office …). On top of that, I read many-many online articles of reviews on new gadgets/technologies, on cars, on politics, business, the economy but i’m not too big a fan of information regarding sports though. 

Currently, I’m reading Azizi Ali’s mXe.. (if only he would pay me to wirte this, haha!) but honestly, i’ve found he has his own personal style of writing (that’s why i own all his books!)

I must say & its no wonder why his books are bestsellers! And I guess that’s what the present breed of readers are hugry for, information in books that is conveyed on personal experience & many-many true life examples, not just based on theory per say.

When I was studying in school, I was more interested in novels (hmmm, my chemistry, physics & biology teachers knew of this & they were not too happy about it.. hehe) & also read the Reader’s Digest for exams purpose (& yes it did pay off!). Among my favourite authors :

1. Sidney Sheldon
2. Danielle Steel
3. Enid Blyton
4. Micheal Critchton
5. Stephen King
6. J.K. Rowling
7. Jules Verne
8. & of course Azizi Ali, the Millionare’s coach

Need a recommendation of what to read? The link below might help you keep track of what’s hot & new in the bestseller’s arena :

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html?8qa

Synchrozing your Insurance & Road Tax dates

I usually get calls in the middle of dinner regarding this issue. Very simple to address actually. Eg of the problems that people normally face :

Insurance expires on 24th Aug 2006 but the vehicle’s roadtax expires earlier, i.e. 20th June 2006. Like it or not, the insurance has got to be renewed or more consequences will prevail. But the question is, how can these 2 items be synchronized? Simple.

We make an ‘extension’ whereby the insurance policy can be extended up to a max of 6 months, i.e. in this case up to 24th Feb 2007. But we only need it up to the 20th of December 2006 (to qualify for 6 months roadtax). After that, all is synchronized & you can go back to the normal 1 yr radtax & insurance.

The above situation usually happens when :

1. you bought a used vehicle
2. you refinance your vehicle loan
3. you transfer/change ownership of a vehicle (father to son etc.)

Hope this info helps. Lazy to go to the bank/finance/insurance co & go thru all the hassel? Just give me a call & I’ll drop by your house/office & deliver the service right to your doorstep. most of my neighbours do..

Washing your car at home …

Hmmm… sounds familliar? But most of the time, we’re more enthsiastic during that moment of purchasing all the eqiuptment i.e. sponges, car shampoo, wax, tyre gel, rims cleaner etc.

So, my friends ask me, if they are just to lazy to wash (hmm, sounds fimiliar too, doesn’t it?) their car on their own at home, what would i recommend?

At the moment, 1 place which is different from the rest is Carnauba AutoSpa (& again, no, they are not paying me for my personal recommendation..). What’s so different? To make the illustration better, just visit their web & you shall know :

http://www.autospa.com.my/

But again, washing at home is good for sweating it out & you get to meet all the scratches on your car in person. Apart from that, its cheaper to wash at home, although the wax job is sometimes just too tiring & looks better when its done by the pros.

About car care products, McGuire’s is a good choice with a very wide range of items but any car shampoo will do as long as its not the same detergent that you dump into the washing machine… hehehe!