Three Things Your Boss Will Tell You About Aiming For Success

If you have 30 minutes to talk with your CEO at fireside, what topics will you bring up? I bet the questions would be about his success path. How did he make his way to the top? What differences he have made to achieve target? What driven him the most?

I once had the opportunity to ask such questions. The man in power sure has a lot of experience to share. Stories were told, lessons were learned, and traits were shared. Hearing his speech was like reading a motivation book. He gave three key points he feels affected him along the road to his success.

1. Focus on your goal. What should be the goal here is what really matters to you. Something that cannot get out of your head, something that you feel is the most important to you. No matter how distractive your surroundings, your mind will always get back to it. No matter how difficult it might seem, you will always try to succeed it.
2. Be competent in your work. Be irreplaceable. Go extra mile to learn different approach to make things more efficient. Be acknowledged for your expertise. Learn third language, take new project, travel to new places, grab the challenge, anything to expand your experience and shape your skills.
3. Execute your plan. You will never know how good a plan is until you start carrying it out. You never know how good a dream is until you make it a reality. Start immediately and you will feel the urge to finish it immediately as well. One tip to remember: always listen to your guts. Spontaneous decision is usually the best decision.

Semarang Trip

Two weeks before Ramadan, we decided to visit grandma. We bought single trip tickets, we chose train as the schedule and location was more convenient. The train, Argo Bromo Anggrek, departed on 09:30 from Gambir Station. The journey took 5.5 hours with two short stops at Cirebon and Pekalongan. It was a while I rode an executive train, I was excited to explore each train car. The seat is comfy, has wide leg room, and could be rotated 360 degrees. I bought lunches at the train station before boarding. To my surprise, the train has small restaurant selling instant food, like noodles and fried rice packed in plastic bento box for around IDR 20-30k.

At the restaurant counter

Going back to my seat, I enjoyed the scenic views of rice field and village. There's a TV in each train car playing movies, but no sound coming out of it. In the afternoon, the train passes the beach of north Java (Pantura). We could see the Java sea along the way for a couple of minutes. We arrived at Semarang Tawang station at 3 pm. The train continued its journey to Surabaya.

Semarang Tawang station

We started our trip driving around the old city of Semarang. Our first stop was market square. There are various old buildings. The legendary Gereja Blenduk (Dome Church) stands in the middle. The square was crowded with pedestrians, people were enjoying cool afternoon breeze in the shade of trees and buildings.

Dome Church

My mom was curious to know how the inside of Gereja Blenduk looks like. She approached an old man, who was apparently the watchman. He allowed us to enter the church just paying 10k for donation. The church was built in 1753, the oldest and the only one having the largest pipe organ in the province. The seats are made from rattan. The tiles look like batik pattern. The stain glasses are modest yet beautiful. We really admire the architecture.

We continued to walk around the square. There is a mini gallery and flea market at the corner.

Next stop was Toko Oen, the legendary bakery and ice cream parlor. The ice cream is all homemade and has authentic taste. The place has indeed vintage ambience, stuffed with classic old furniture and old photographs. When were about to leave, fortuitously we met the owner! He told us that the children of Oen are all doctors and have no interest to continue the family business. The current shop is the only location which is keep maintained by the origin family. The other shop in Malang was already handed over to another owner.

The next day, I decided to explore the city of Semarang. Together with my sister-in-law, we took Uber to Lawang Sewu Museum. It is a historic building, used to be headquarters of Dutch railway company in early 1900. "Lawang Sewu" means thousand doors, and certainly this building seems like having infinite doors. If the doors are all opened, I could see the end of the building through the aisle from one end.

The patio is so long, person at the other end looks like just a dot. There are several intersections and hundred of rooms, some of which are locked to preserve its antique furniture.

There are stairs to the second floor facing beautiful large stain glasses.

There is a building section which the doors are double layered and I think it's beautiful.

Our next destination was Sam Poo Kong temple. It is the oldest and the largest chinese temple in Semarang. It feels like travelling to China for a moment.

The sun was getting to set and the lights were coming out, resulting to dramatic view of the temple.

The entrance ticket for the whole temple was 28k. For Lawang Sewu museum the ticket price was 10k. It is best to hire taxi/Uber to get to places around the city as it is much easier than using public transport.

Yang Cepat, Yang Lebih Produktif

Sadarkah kamu bahwa video-video yang kamu tonton di Facebook ataupun Youtube seringkali dikemas dalam format cepat (hyperlapse)? Selain agar lebih ngirit space, juga agar lebih menarik. Nonton lima menit video tutorial saja kita sudah bisa tau sepuluh macam DIY. Jika suka videonya, tinggal klik like, share, atau save buat jaga-jaga siapa tau nanti kepengen bikin yang seperti itu (walaupun pada kenyataannya terlupakan). Awalnya memang hanya iseng buka satu video, kita pikir ah paling sebentar ini gak nyampe lima menit. Gak taunya setelah satu video selesai, muncul video berikutnya yang mirip-mirip tapi judulnya menarik. Gak terasa dua jam habis cuma untuk nonton video. Setelah itu, kita kembali ke rutinitas.

Tanpa kita sadari, keputusan kita untuk menonton video-video tersebut dilakukan tanpa berpikir panjang. Walaupun terkadang kita senang melihat proses, tapi sebenarnya kita lebih penasaran dengan hasil akhir. Bahkan jika video itu panjang atau kelamaan prosesnya, tanpa ragu kita klik fast-forward hingga ke tampilan akhir. "Oh...ternyata kaya gitu...", adalah kalimat yang sering kita ucapkan di dalam pikiran. Jarang kita mengulang video yang sudah ditonton. Ibarat buka puasa dengan sop buah porsi besar. Awalnya terlihat sangat menggiurkan. Disantap langsung dalam sekejap habis tak bersisa. Begitu disuruh sebutin buah apa aja tadi yang dimakan hanya mampu ingat empat atau lima buah saja, selebihnya lupa. Kalau disuruh ngulang makan sop buah lagi, ogah karena sudah kenyang. Tapi kalau ditawari gorengan, mau juga deh nyomot barang dua biji. Padahal belum sepuluh menit tapi perut udah begah kekenyangan.

Kembali lagi ke video. Video yang dipercepat terlihat lebih menarik daripada yang biasa. Berkat mudahnya teknologi, kita bisa melakukan banyak hal dalam waktu yang singkat. Yang kita lihat di layar, semua memang serba cepat. Namun demikian, rutinitas yang kita jalankan bergerak dengan kecepatan biasa (biasa disini maksudnya biasa lambat). Misalnya, kita bekerja 8 jam sehari. Mulai dari hari Senin saja kita sudah agak malas karena terpikir kemacetan yang bakal membuat pergerakan kita jadi lambat. Sampai di kantor kita lambat mengingat-ingat apa saja yang terakhir dikerjakan dan apa yang belum. Lambat-lambat kita mulai bekerja, walaupun mata sering melirik ke jam menghitung sisa waktu menuju makan siang. Cara bekerja seperti ini sangat membosankan. Mungkin saking bosannya, kita sengaja menunda. Sampai ketika pekerjaan sudah menumpuk atau mendekati deadline, baru kita sibuk dan stress. Baru deh kita mulai bergerak cepat, kita fast-forward cara bekerja kita. Mata yang tadinya ngantuk jadi terpaksa melek. Disinilah mulai terasa semangat energi. Kita tau bahwa kita mesti mempercepat proses agar sampai ke hasil akhir, persis seperti video yang dipercepat.

Bekerja lebih cepat terasa lebih bersemangat. Sebenernya kita tidak hanya bisa mempercepat video yang kita lihat di dunia maya, tapi kita juga bisa mempercepat "video kita" di dunia nyata. Misalnya, mulai dari pekerjaan kecil, seperti mengelap meja, bisa kita lakukan dalam waktu 1 menit. Tidak perlu berlama-lama yang penting goal-nya tercapai. Jika sudah dimulai, energi yang muncul akan semakin besar. Kita jadi tambah semangat untuk mengerjakan hal-hal lainnya. Trik ini membuat pekerjaan kita lebih efisien, lebih produktif, mengurangi galau dan baper, yang pasti kita lebih puas dan pede sama diri sendiri.

Jadi, jangan berpikir terlalu lama. Lakukan apa yang menurutmu penting untuk dilakukan...dan lakukan itu dengan cepat! Hap hap hap! :-)

Tambahan: Dua artikel berikut mungkin bisa jadi inspirasi kamu:

Artikel 1 -> 35 Tips Tokcer Agar Kamu Produktif, Serta Bisa Kerja Dengan Cepat dan Efisien

Artikel 2 -> Cara Membedakan Pekerjaan Penting, Kerjaan Mendesak, dan Kerjaan Nggak Penting

Spiritless Situation

A friend of mine has just reminded me that I haven't updated my blog for quite a while. This was due to several reasons. I got some new tasks in the office which require me to spend more energy working all day long. Arriving home, I already got too exhausted to do anything other than sleeping. Three years ago, I could do many things before going home. I could go to Toastmasters club, or going to the gym, or taking dance class, even jogging in the evening. But now, I could do nothing of them. The spirit has gone. I have been trying to find out why it is gone and how should I do to get it back. So I think by getting back to blog writing, I could find again my strength and passion in writing.

Melawan Kanker dengan Virus

Semalam saya menonton tayangan dokumentasi di kanal FOX HD tentang penemuan dalam dunia kedokteran: mengobati kanker dengan virus. Tayangan berjudul "VICE Special Report: Killing Cancer" tersebut menampilkan hasil riset di berbagai institusi ilmu kedokteran yang melakukan uji klinis pengobatan berbagai macam kanker dengan merekayasa sel punca dari virus. Jenis virus yang dipakai bervariasi, mulai dari virus flu, virus campak hingga HIV.

Abramson Cancer Center di Universitas Pennsylvania merupakan salah satu lembaga riset yang mengembangkan uji coba pengobatan sel punca dari sistem imun untuk melawan sel kanker. Sistem kekebalan tubuh manusia sangat berperan penting dalam melindungi badan dari penyakit. Sistem imun bekerja dengan mengandalkan "T-cells" yang merupakan pertahanan terdepan dalam mencari dan menghancurkan sel-sel penyakit. Sayangnya T-cells ini tidak cukup efektif melawan penyakit kanker. Kemudian dilakukan riset modifikasi sel punca agar menjadi T-cells yang lebih kuat dan pintar melawan kanker. Pasien penderita kanker diuji coba dengan terapi Chimeric Antigen Receptor dimana sel darah putih diambil dari pasien untuk dimodifikasi menjadi lebih agresif terhadap sel kanker. Setelah direkayasa, sel darah putih tersebut dikembalikan dalam tubuh pasien dan dibiarkan bekerja. Efek yang dialami pasien bervariasi tergantung dari seberapa besar dan ganasnya kanker yang diderita. Emily Whitehead merupakan salah satu anak penderita leukemia yang menjalani terapi ini di tahun 2012. Darah putih diambil dan dikumpulkan dari tubuhnya untuk kemudian "diprogram ulang" dalam proses yang menggunakan HIV non-aktif. T-cells dari darah putih dimodifikasi secara genetis dengan sedemikian rupa agar bisa mendeteksi dan meyerang sel-sel kanker. Setelah darah putih dikembalikan dalam tubuh Emily, selama beberapa minggu Emily berbaring dalam ruang rawat intensif. Beberapa hari setelahnya Emily berangsur pulih. Dokter yang memeriksanya sudah tidak lagi menemukan satupun sel kanker dalam tubuhnya. Hal ini membuktikan bahwa terapi T-cells bekerja dengan sangat baik melawan kanker. Saat ini Emily sudah empat tahun terbebas dari kanker dan hidup sehat seperti anak-anak seumurnya.

Penemuan ini sangat menjanjikan di masa depan. Pasien penderita kanker bisa diselamatkan dengan terapi modifikasi sel punca dari virus. Semoga penelitian kanker di Indonesia bisa ikut mengembangkan dan menerapkan terapi ini. Dengan demikian, penderita kanker bisa terbebas dari efek buruk kemoterapi dan bisa seterusnya menjalani hidup dengan sehat.

Meine Glückwünsche vom Herzen!

Chalk Mountain

What's the good thing of living in Indonesia? The sun always shines. And what best to do when the weather is nice? Excursion! During Christmas holiday, I thought I'd just spent the whole days staying at home, clean up things or watching movies. Then a friend of mine, Wulan, all over sudden invited me to go for a little hiking. So off we went to Chalk Mountain (or Chalk Hill perhaps, because it's 390 meters high only). It has four peaks, but we decided to visit just one, Puncak Lalana. On the way to top, we realized that there were just two of us, no other hikers in sight. The only annoying thing was mosquitoes. They flew in troops, like dozens of them surrounding and biting and itching our skin. I should have brought mosquito repellent beforehand!

My trip my adventure! Hell yeah

The trail is half arid and half moist. There are several rocky steep ascension which quite challenging to climb. Yellow straps come in handy since the rocks are too keen to hold. In between of those sedimentary rocks, there are various gap holes. My deep dark fears came intermittently as I glanced over the holes. I was afraid a rattle snake might pop up its head out of the hole. As a person with trypophobia, I found it uneasy to manage climbing on the rocks. But when we reached at the top, the view was just amazing.

180 degree view

The place is simply fascinating to take photos. I wonder how the view looks like when the sun sets, must be wonderful.

It felt amazing to be on top, but when it came to climbing down, it was scary as fuck. There's no support strap, which is actually perfect to practice rock climbing.

I like this place, it fits for short excursion. Next time I'll try other peaks, there are three to go.