Inspired

I had to attend a seminar for entrepreneurs this morning and it started off with an opening speech by a highly ranked government officer. I was appalled hearing the speech due to the many mis-pronunciations the person had while delivering his key note address.

niche - "nis"
assure - "ajur"
prepared - "p-pare"
dare - "da"
globalisation - "gobilisacion"

these are just some of the mis-pronunciations ... the speech was close to 15 mins long so you can imagine how many there were.

There was a mat salleh in our midst who during his speech, pronouced perfectly the names in Malay without a hinge of being the foreign guy. In comparison, our officer failed miserably.

On this note, I wonder on the competitiveness of our so-called leaders and the kind of image they project to the rest of the world. While I don't deny that there are some really charismatic leaders in our midst (think Rafidah, Lim Keng Yaik etc), the in-articulate ones are aplenty and they give public speaking almost everyday.

Thankfully enough, the saving grace of the event were the invited speakers, who were successful entrepreneurs in their own right. i was truly inspired by them; their faith, zeal, determination and boldness to take risk and face failures.

To quote one of them, three recipes of success:

1) Always believe it can be done

2) "Always find a sense of humour in every situation because you need it to face the challenges that come your way, and they are many."

3) There is always a way round the problem

In event like this, I am reminded that there was still hope for this country. Much as there are weaknesses, there are also many remarkable individuals who are making a difference in their own way.