Same business, different approach

Usually, within an industry, there are a lot of business being opened in the same vein, approached the same clients and even competing for the same job. In a healthy industry, the more businesses there are, the more efficient one business would be as you would want to give the best that you can give in order for you to get repeat customer. You will lose that customer if you service them badly or they seem to think the worse of you. Sometimes, you have given your best but it can still happen. At least you have given your best.

A legal firm is build in the same vein. Lawyers open up legal firm any other day, especially those who are sent by parents who were already lawyers and wanted them to take over the business one day. There are a lot of lawyers who are in the business due to family pressure. Some just do it for the sake of their parents and some are really serious in continuing the legacy.

The best way to really run and understand the business of legal firm is to start your own firm and starts from scratch. However, the trial and tribulation can make or break you and even some had to learn the hard way, as noble as a lawyer wants to be, it is all dollar and cent in the long run which will keep you in the business. I have been fortunate to get some projects which helped me along the way. Some people who started earlier than me had to struggle first before striking their pot of gold. Some are spoon fed. Some never struck anything at all. Some are in the business for the 'nobler' cause and they just scrapped by though their name might be in the news every day taking on the giants of corruption and such.

As for me, I am glad at where I am now though after some times, I have to admit, it is getting tougher to maintain the business.

Disclaimers are just to give you a peace of mind

Here is an important facts for everyone. That thing you call a disclaimer which tells the whole world that you are not liable for any injury, damages or even sometimes, death, due to something within your control like a piece of property, a car, a cat, a cow, a blog, a piece of writing or even yourself. All those words that you tell people, if this and this happens, you are not liable. Those things like what I have written down below, at the final part of this blog. All those things, it doesn't really work. It may deter a few uncouth character from doing things to you or whatever is yours but it does not mean they straight away laible for whatever they did to you or yours. It is not automatic.

"Disclaimer is useless", I uttered this in one conference and the look on the faces of the participants were priceless like a Mastercard advertisment. They were getting the lesson from lawyers who have seen that and done that and when they were told this, they were sceptic but accepting the reality. 

Let me break it down.

You have seen the sign "Once broken considered sold" put up in shops. Especially those selling things which can break easily like things made from glasses and even electronic things. It seems that if you break anything, you have to go to the cashier and pay up. Is that a fact? Nope. You don't have to as it may have been an accident in your part. You may have to have an argument with the shopkeeper or those who are attending the shop but you can have your day in court at any time. You can show to the court that you did not mean to do it and it was an accident. You can show that it was a negligence on the part of the shop to not keep something as fragile under lock and key.

If you lose something in our car stolen when you park it in the vicinity of  acar park, just because there was a sign saying they will not be liable for any lost of possessions within your car, would you just let it go? If it happened to me, as I was making the police report to report the theft, I will also claim damages from the car park operator for their negligence in not properly maintaining the safety of the car park. In a lot of cases, the car park operator or even the premise's owner has to pay up.

So, if any of this situation happens to you, do not easily pay up or owned up to the accuser. You might not having to pay for that broken mug or you might get some compensation.

School's out but class still in session

When you graduated and start to work, do you stop learning?

I bet everyone will say, they thought so too when they got their scroll from whatever high school, college or university they have been studying. We always thought that you will never have to go to class anymore. Waking up early in the morning and having to hear some bored lecturer lecturing the same things they have been lecturing for years. One of the running joke that I remembered when I used any of my seniors' lecture notes was how predictable some lecturers are that they will even tell the same joke they have been telling years before and it was reflected in the notes. That is how repetitive the lecturer was. Year in, year out.

It seems that, it is not the case. For instance, from Monday to Wednesday this week, I will be at a conference on Islamic finance. Though I am there more to network and exchange ideas with other participants, I do try to relearn and learn new stuff. It is not everyday I hear CEOs of banks across the country and some even come from outside of Malaysia talking about a topic I held dear to my heart. I have heard some of the topics before but hearing them from a different person makes it something worth learning. Even walking in the woods can teach you new things everytime you past new places (even old places).

And at today's session (Monday), I met some participants who are running multi-million dollar company and they still come for conference like these. I mean, if you only need to learn once and then work for the rest of your life, I think the education and even the book industries would go bankrupt in a matter of minutes. 

In short, you never stop learning, even if you already have a Ph.D in something. I bet, those with Ph.Ds are the one who have to learn more and more.

 

We learn new things every other day, whether we like it or not...

Hasbro, forgotten toymaker...

...not.

Read the fine print in the Transformers movie. And the G.I Joe movie and a few of those movies which has a tie-in with comic books. Some of the toys may come out of MacFarlane's assembly line. However, when movies like Transformers comes out, just see how the world suddenly is flooded with the toys from the movie. I mean flooded as if there are no other movie in town. 

So, boys and girls, it pays to play with your toys and then build them up again. Maybe one day you can own a factory where every kids in the world would want to buy your toys. G.I. Joe is coming next week. Just be ready to be flooded with Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes toys. And I hope Scarletts toys are build as anatomically correct as what I have seen in the trailer for the movie.

 

This Hasbro toy delivered me my tickets for Transformers 2

I am a sell-out

I mean, I have sold my soul to the devil of capitalism and became one of their minions. I have blogs which I have posted advertisments in which I try to sell things which I may not even wear, even if it ever arrive to my shore. Most of them are not even sold here. Okay, let me rephrase that. Some of them are not sold in Malaysia by a proper boutique opened by the company which manufacture the products. Malaysia is famous for its 'unendorsed' branded goods, so saying certain brands are not here is wrong.

Anyway, let us talk about being one of the minions working for the devil. A blog was supposed to be born for you to write something that you have an interest in. In my case, I registered 4 blogs, have 2 active ones which I post something everyday and 2 which I reserved the name for future use. I write everyday for the past 1 year and it actually help refined my writing. I have evidence which show that my writing a year ago was so lousy that a colleague thought that writing was done by someone else. 

Basically, my point is, even good writers have long ago sold their sold. Are they not write to sell books? Didn't they get paid for their articles? There are those who write for magazine which has more advertisements than articles. Are they committing sins? Rarely are blog nowadays does not has at least an adsense advertisement. I say, if you do not want to make money at all from your blog, keep it private. Then you are as pure as dew in the morning. 

As for me, I will continue writing all that I still believe in but occasionally, I may write pure commercial writings which may intrude the space reserve for quality writing. Just bear with and next time or if ever you meet me, you can at least ask me to buy you a drink.