Focusing on the positives can do wonders

By choosing to ignore what he doesn’t have, one man is inspiring others.

RECENTLY, a foreigner came to Malaysia. He was not from another planet, but he looked different from all of us.

He is a man who has no arms and legs — Nick Vujicic. Thousands flocked to see him or listen to him speak. Some people allegedly travelled several hours just to see and hear the man.

Tears flowed, hugs were exchanged and many listened to him as though he was the very personification of hope. Well, he is. No doubt about that.

As I look at the overwhelming response that Nick is getting from people everywhere, I cannot help but wonder why. What is it about him that so motivates and inspires us? Is it the fact that he has defied all odds despite not having what most people have and take for granted? Well, perhaps.

I did not manage to attend any of Nick’s seminars or to see him in person.

But in my recent staff meeting, I showed my team a video of Nick speaking to a group of young people. I then asked each of them what they felt about what Nick said and what learned.

Words like thankfulness, appreciation, hope were among the favourite answers.

My own take-away was that I think Nick does not want us to just have a “feel-good” moment after listening to him. Nor do I think he is seeking fame and fortune by touring the world to speak to people.

Although he is not the only person in the world with his condition that has somehow managed to live a normal life, he is the only person who has taken the step to speak and share with others.

I personally believe that Nick’s intentions are for us to look at what we have, not what we do not have and think of what we want to do with it.

If we are business people that have just started out or we run a small company, I think sometimes we do feel like Nick Vujicic.

As a small set-up, we have very limited resources and very scarce manpower (in Bahasa, we call it “kakitangan”, literally arms and legs). We feel like Nick because what seems so effortless for some of the bigger companies requires so much more effort and time.

Compared to those companies that are more “endowed” so to speak with more staff and funds, we can feel helpless and incapable.

As SMEs or local set-ups, every time we encounter a multinational competitor in a business deal, we may sigh in defeat or think how this “skinny little boy” could beat that giant Goliath.

How can our small band of workers compete with their big, versatile team? This is especially true for those in the service industry. Having said that, there are of course many gung-ho SMEs out there who do not recoil when facing a bigger competitor.

Sometimes we make excuses for ourselves for what we cannot do because of what we do not have. Sometimes we complain about the lack of support from the government in helping SMEs.

But at the end of the day, the choice is still ours. Our situation can only change if we decide to do something with what we have, not what we do not have.

So I would say, stop expecting hand-outs and entitlements from others. We have arms and legs, so we should drop the dependency and we should find our own money and forge our own path.

To young people at work, often labelled as “Gen-Ys with a sense of entitlement”, I would say, “Stop expecting things to be spoon-fed to you. If you want something (better pay, a higher position, more freedom), start working for it.”

If anyone is entitled to help, I think Nick is the one most entitled to it. He could have asked for artificial arms and legs.

He could have refused to work or take care of himself and be a dependant on others for the rest of his life. Yet he did not. What about us? What are we doing with what we have now?

Jeanisha thinks that people who ‘have not’ are often the more creative and intelligent people because they are forced to use their brains more. Just think about how many who can’t even do simple math without a calculator these days. Talk to her at [e-mail]