Lessons on life and money management

Turn creative ideas into money

by Azizi Ali

“Want to know how to multiply your turnover 10 times, increase your profits by 500% and get rid of your competitors - all at the same time?” an acquaintance asked me the other day.

Hey, when someone comes along spouting such words, even yours truly can’t help but be interested. “What do you have in mind?” I asked.

“Well, I know a way you can do all that with just one stroke,” he smiled widely.

Wow! This was getting better by the minute. My eyes lit up.

“All you have to do is lobby the government to raise the tax on impoted books,” he grinned.

“Once that happens - you’ve got it made. The imported books will be so much more expensive that few people can afford to buy them. That means they will have to buy local books only. Your sales will shoot up!”

He went on, “But that’s not the beauty of it all. What’s even better is that you can then raise your prices without doing any improvement whatsoever to your product. This will increase your profits automatically. Isn’t that wonderful?”

That nearly floored me. I looked into his eyes. He was grinning proudly as if he had given me the secrets to eternal happiness, sexual gratification and harmony in the afterlife.

I did not know whether to laugh or cry or kick him in the groin. What I did know was that I wanted to put as much distance between us as quickly as possible. Had a 747 been parked nearby, I would have cranked the engines and flown into the sunset right there and then. But I attempted a retort.

“No, it’s not a wonderful thing.” I told him. As expected, his jaw dropped and his eyes rolled. “In fact, it will be one of the worst things to happen to this country.”

“Why do you say that? Don’t you want to make more money?”

“Of course I do. Trade barriers, protection and unfair taxes have never worked in the history of the world. While it may appear to have short-term benefits, it will do serious damage in the long run.”

“While the idea behind protecting local industries is good - to give them breathing space - in reality, the reverse happens. Because of the absence of competition, the industries have little desire to improve productivity and quality. They just sit back and enjoy the big fat profits. Now, this may go on for years, but eventually it will all come crumbling down. Eventually, they willhave to pay the piper. It may take 10, 20 or even 50 years, but fall, they will. And when they fall, they have a long way to fall.”

“Case in point - communism.”

“Yes, of course, I want to increase my turnover and profits. But I want to do so by being good. I want people to buy my books because they want to, not because they have no other choice. I want to be hired because I am good, not because of my looks, my race or my religion. While there will be folks who will welcome such gifts with open arms, and indeed grab them in a split second, I’m not one of them. As long as you are protected, the best you can be is a ‘jaguh kampung’. And I have no intention of being that.”

He was breathing hard. Finally, he declared, “You’re too idealistic!” before storming off into the shadows.

I wanted to tell him that only only the strong would survive in this world. And you only become strong with competition.

Competition will ensure that you remain on your toes, get your better, innovate, reduce your cost, be creative, be resourceful and grow. And that’s how you grow big, strong and rock the world.

The only way Malaysia is going to make waves is to have world-class products, services and ideas. That has been the success factor in the past thousand years and that’s the way it’s going to be in the next thousand.

So, remove the barriers and let the flight begin. No one owes us anything.

A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his Middle East assignment.

A friend asked, “Why weren’t you successful with the Arabs?”

The salesman explained, “When I got posted in the Middle East , I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch as Cola is virtually unknown there.
But, I had a problem I didn’t know to speak Arabic. So, I planned to convey the message through three posters…

First poster - A man lying in the hot desert sand…totally exhausted and fainting.
Second poster - man is drinking our Cola.
Third poster- Our man is now totally refreshed.
Then these posters were pasted all over the place
“That should have worked,” said the friend.
The salesman replied “I also didn’t realize that Arabs read from right to left”

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