The Path To Success…..

Lets define success, in this context I will define it as being successful in your field. What field am I talking about then? Well, if you’re a student then your field is education, if you’re an executive your field would be to climb the corporate ladder, or if you’re a father/mother would be bringing up a God fearing, honest, and hardworking children. So now that we have cleared up what we mean by success, lets now evaluate how successful we are. Unfortunately I am unable to state or evaluate YOU, my reader. However I can share my evaluation of my success.

I may not be able to use the words “I have succeeded”, but the title of this entry states it clear. I am still on my path to finding my own success. Honestly I do not believe anyone can truly find the end of this path as we constantly have something that we will or hope to achieve.

My success of being a son of my parents, I may not be the perfect son in fact I think I a far from it. But I think till this point in my life I find myself at a comfortable level that I have done and achieve certain milestones in my life. I was able to complete my university education with somewhat good grades. Worked hard to sustain my own lifestyle the best that I can with part-time jobs since my earlier days. Generally honestly is still kept with my parents as they are too open to my opinions and suggestions. They trust my judgment and support whatever I set my mind in achieving. As children, you would understand that there are still some aspects that we still keep to ourselves. But generally my parents would have an idea what is going on in my life and of what stage of maturity I am in. I have also gotten myself involved in “healthy activities” such as Boys’ Brigade, Church, and my favorite past time mamak (at least not pubs and dance clubs). I think that is the gist of my success in being a son. With that i give myself seven out of ten. Now lets look at another side of my life, my achievements in Boys’ Brigade.

The Boys’ Brigade, I have been in it for as long as I can remember. I joined as a Junior (no Pre-Junior then) in 1990 and advanced to the Senior Section and then eventually out grew my “blue” age and went into officer ship. How successful I am in this? Who I am today in greatly influenced leaders, NCO (Non-Commissioned Officers), officers and peers. How would I fair in a scale of one to ten? I hope I have achieved at least a seven. I do not believe I was a good member or an officer. Although I have been appointed the rank of a Lieutenant, I still feel my contribution is still somewhat at a minimum. I try to teach or advise those that are still in blues what I have been thought. That is the way of the brigade, what we have been thought we pass down. Maybe my term as an officer is still new and I might not have seen the fruits of my labor. Not many people see the point of why I do what I do. Honestly I don’t know either. After beginning to work, life is so much packed in a small box. Monday till Friday I am stuck at work, Sundays I have church and the only time I have left for anything would be either on Saturdays and Sundays afternoons. But taking out Saturdays from my “free” list, there seems to be little time left for myself. But then how successful am I as a Lieutenant? I guess the answers will speak for themselves when time catches up. At this point, I consider myself as failed. I want to push harder and stronger. At current point six out of ten.

Seems that I have written quite a lot Well I am not finished yet in evaluating my self success. My next evaluation would be my studies (education).

Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Choong Wen
Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR)
Primary school was pretty much a screw-up as I never did my home work, and was considered the class joker. Teachers tried and failed. At one stage I really tried to change but people and teachers treated me with biased opinions and I was “expected” to cause problems. So eventually I gave up after a while. After the “dreadful” time in primary I went to high school.

Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Desa Perdana
Pemeriksaan Menengah Rendah (PMR) & Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM)
A Fresh start with new surroundings, unbiased opinions, no preconceived opinions of me. I took the opportunity and eventually worked my way through the ranks. From the last class to the first class, from a prefect to the prefects trainer, from a member to the president and captain of Green House, from school player to the captain of the under 18 basketball team, president of the basket ball club, member to the president and trainer of Fire Brigade Cadets, getting involved in photography club, computer club, Interact club. Amongst all these, I managed to stay in the top class from Form 2 and 3 and in Form 4 and 5 top class in arts stream. My grades were not great but they were average, I would be somewhere in the middle of the class rankings. My SPM results were average, with no fails. I managed to get into colleges so I had 5 credits.

Tertiary years were great too!
Taylor’s College Subang & University Science Malaysia (Penang)
Diploma in Advertising
I kept an average Course Grade Point Average of 3.32 at the end of my 2 year diploma. I had loads of fun in college, joining orientation teams, participated in the record breaking of the Longest Sushi In Malaysia, help organize a graduation party in Nuvo Dance Club with sponsors from everywhere. We booked the entire ground floor and have a great time there. Then I was blessed with an opportunity to go overseas.

Edith Cowen University, Perth, Western Australia
Bachelor of Communications Double Major In Advertising and Public Relations
University years were one of the greatest times of my life. When I first arrived in this “new land” things were very much different in everyway possible. The lifestyle was almost a complete turn over of my normal life in Malaysia. No more spoon feeding in classes that’s for sure, if we did not complete our work, our lecturers would simply fail us. Criticisms were straight forward and harsh. I learned to be so much more independent. But it was all good once I got used to it, it started to become fun, joined the Malaysian Students Council (MSC) and was elected the Advertising and Promotions Director. Helped out in university International Students’ Orientations and also got involved in the Student Guild and even help in the campaigning process to get a friend of mine run for President of the Students Guild. Worked four jobs, got baptized, volunteered in church, help in planning the tertiary students ministry’s (called AGAPE) yearly camp, traveled to Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne at my own savings from work. I also joined a FGA mission team to Hong Kong for two weeks. From a stranger to a family member, from an outsider to a brother. That experience and the people I met there will always have a special place in my heart. Studies, I managed to get into the honors program but similar to many international students I did not have the financial funds to support another one year to get honors.

Now lets look at how successful I am in the education line – Primary School was a bummer, I think I failed miserably. High School I have achieved great heights but I forgot my primary purpose which was to study hard, so I give myself five out of ten. College I did fairly good in my results (compared to high school) and my other passion of extra co-curriculum activities, so I give it a seven out of ten. University was challenging, but I think I could have done better in studies, so I will stick with seven out of ten.

Now after such a long evaluation, we have finally reached my duties to society in the working environment. I won’t talk about my previous jobs as it would then take forever to finish this post. My current job in education, it started off a great change from the challenging and long hours of the corporate life. I love the job, I love the people that I have met along the way and I love the feeling of being able to help make a difference in someone’s life. But I have just finished my first phase (my first full semester). The results were not that would have expected. I came in with a heart that was filled with fire to help. But the exams results were not what I have expected. I have stared to question my abilities being an educator. Am I really suitable for this job? Did I do more harm than good? Did they learn anything from me? If so why the bad results? Was I too lenient and did not push them hard enough? So many questions unanswered. Honestly I cannot put a grade on this. but I will put a grade based on my current available information - bad grades even with extra classes and revisions – Grade four out of ten.

What is the reason for this whole grandfather story? Simple, at each step of our lives we have to remember what is our main priority or rather what is our role now. You’re your parents’ child, so you have a duty to be a son/daughter to your parents, by honoring them, respecting them. As a student, you have a responsibility to yourself in achieving and accomplishing the best of your abilities. You owe it to yourselves to do the best that you can because it will affect your entire life. When you work, you should have loyalty to the company, society and family.

I am not much of a role model, based on only quantitative facts I am able to grade myself at an average of five over ten. What about the qualitative facts? Friends? Relationships? Religion? Honesty? Commitment? There is so much we have to look into ourselves. Where would we want to place ourselves, how we would like to place ourselves, and what do we hope to achieve at the end of our life’s journey.

Take sometime now, think about your life. How would you manage up to? How would you then grade yourself? Do a self check on yourself. See how much would your give yourself?

In His Service
Lt. Timothy Chan Liem Joe
2nd Subang Jaya Company
Boys’ Brigade Malaysia