A year after

It's somewhat a funny thing when I glanced my blog tonight. Well yes, I should be reading some journal papers right now but never mind that.You see, there have not been any posts for the last one year, so when I look at all my past writings it became clear what I have been thinking last year. I was lost in thought and giving my future into God's hand. I listed a lot of dreams, and somehow one of those dreams actually came true. Who knows ?

Last year I was stuck in a busy, crowded, weirdly very well organised Hong Kong. Today I stormed out and walked through my very first snow-shower of Birkerød. One thought : How Great is Our God. A dream I felt too scared to say, a PhD in an European country, really did came true.

A journey of three years in an unknown place has started. This too, adds up to the all other things that has been answered so beautifully whenever I give Him the control.


Today I really don't have any specific desires of what I should do as my long term career. Today, I just want to be drenched in sweat of serving my Lord and Father. Today,  this is my life desire :

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. (Matthew 16:24)

When in doubt, I remember.

You know that worried feeling we get when you look around and everybody seems to be moving to their desired life and you are only sitting here confused? That's exactly the spot I am right now. I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with my life at this point of time. There. I said it. A stupid guy travelling 5 hours flight away from his home just to wonder the same question in a different timezone. 

Well okay maybe i lied a little there. The truth is, I have too many things I want to try doing in my life. I want to become an environmental consultant. I want to become a process engineer. I want to be a drilling engineer in a strange country. I want to be a management consultant with a chemical engineering expertise. I want to take a Phd in European country. I want to be a researcher in a foreign country. I want to be a technopreneur promoting a new technology in Indonesia. The list may go on if I keep imagining, but lets just cut it there. The sad thing is, I could not possibly try all of them in this lifetime. So the real question : Which path should I take ? 

Should I choose the one I enjoy the most? Well I think every path has their own fun, so thats not doable. Should I send out massive application to most of them and see the result? Sounds stupid. "If you stand for everything, you will fall for anything" some quote in the web told me. Passion? I am passionate for all of them. Kind of. So what ? Which one? What if I take this one and that one is more interesting? What if this? What if that? If you who are reading this is having the same kind of confusion about your future, you are in good company! 

So.. like how?

Then I remember.

To the time when I seem to be paralysed by an evil spirit.

To the time when I had a very chronic stomach problem that made me cannot even finish any meal served before me.

To the time when I had a severe measles a couple days away from VERY IMPORTANT graduation exams.

Never in any of those times has He failed my cry for help. During those urgent times, his help came at the perfect time.

When I was paralysed and I cried for help, his help came right away. Soothingly freeing my body through a mysterious gospel song suddenly playing out of nowhere.

When I had that stomach problem, and I wondered can I survive this disease later in my master studies abroad. Yet his healing comes at the right time. I eat so much I gained a few kilograms now.

When that measles disabled me completely from studying for the last 5 days before my graduation exam. Even thinking clearly was very hard to do because of the pain I was having. I eventually gave up trying to study and just focused on resting and praying. Thus all the pain went away hours before the exam started. I even got an A. It wasn't me, it was clearly Him. He made my mind so clear that I can get the answers so easily during the most important test of my bachelor degree. 

His help and answer will definitely come at the perfect time. I think the answer I am looking for, is just to stay calm and wait. The right time will definitely come where the path will be given to me. The path might not be the one listed in my list, but the bible says

 "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" - Proverbs 19:21 [NIV]

Keep the faith !

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." Isaiah 30:21 [NIV]

A Glance to Hong Kong

It has been a very long delay in between my post, that's why I think I should start writing again. I have been living in one of Asia's heart of business, the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, for about 4 months. As an Indonesian who rarely travel, I automatically became an observer. Below are only the few things that catches my attention.

Figure 1. A glimpse of Hong Kong Island from Victoria Harbour

1. Skyscrapers

With only around 1104 square kilometers of land, it seems finding a place to live is going to be hard for 7,2 million residents of Hong Kong (year 2012). Maybe that's why they have tall buildings everywhere. A fun fact is these tall buildings make pollution worse in the streets, because small roads and tall walls make exhaust gases from vehicles literally trapped in our breathing level.  To my surprise, my hometown Jakarta is actually more crowded than Hong Kong (740,3 square km with resident >10 million).

2. Unfriendly Service

Not basing on any statistics, but 3 of 5 waitresses I encounter happens to be grumpy. Of course back in Indonesia, this would make me furious! We were bossing around the waiters in Indonesia, and I mean bossing. Customers can even scold waiters for not giving appropriate service. I still meet people who thinks "they should be scolded to service right". Little do they know there might just be an additional spit in their soup.

In Hong Kong, on the other hand, I would think again before asking the waiter for help. Last week I had a yam cha with my cousin, and when we asked her to cut the cake for us, she were grumbling right in front of us. Though she is talking in cantonese, I think what she said is "You ask me to do THIS KIND OF THING? You can use your chopstick to cut it yourself!" (In which she uses a chopstick to cut the soft cake and throws it angrily to the dirty dish basket). Well that pretty much sums up most Chinese restaurants in HK. Younger waiters are, in general, kinder at giving service. Its the old ones we should be careful of!

3. Never get lost

I am but just a third world country citizen who is occasionally raped by the stupid public transport system back home. A little exaggerating, but yeah you'll get the picture once you spend one month in Jakarta. In Hong Kong, I think the MTR train covers 80% of Hong Kong. Add the ba si (big bus) and siu ba (mini-bus) there, I can get anywhere by a simple browse on the internet. My friend dropped something like "In Hong Kong it is very hard to get lost, as the MTR is literally everywhere". Never bother driving a car, the public transport system is more than enough. Probably that is reason I see more Porsche and BMW in the streets, because only filthy rich people buy cars. Oh fun facts, in HK there is more BMWs than Toyotas. Yeah, What the F. 

4. Rich Javanese Maids

Don't know if I should really say rich, but if I compare their salary with fresh grads in Indonesia, they do make more. They get an average of HKD 4500 per month, free rent, free food, and weekends for vacation. In addition, their workload are fairly little. HK homes are not that big, you'll get all things done before 3 pm.  Want to sign up for becoming a HK maid?

These are really the outside skin of HK that I happen to notice. I hope I can linger more in the city to find out more of its unique features!

September 24th, 2012.

I remember 24 September 2012 like it was yesterday. It is my very first birthday lying in Santo Boromeus hospital's bed and also the third time I am hospitalized. How did I end up there? It was only because of a bowl of soto - a kind of Indonesian food - that I ate 10 minutes beforehand. I was riding a motorcycle with my friend when suddenly I feel that something is totally wrong with my body. I feel my breathing become heavier, and also a chest pain around my heart. I can feel blood is hardly pumped from my heart (which I think is a case of hypotension). Thankfully, I am actually heading to a hospital to visit a friend (and I end up getting hospitalized together, what an irony) so I go straight to the Emergency Unit. 

Birthday in hospital (true story)

It was the worst experience in my life. Have you ever felt your life is leaving you as you go ? At least, that is how I felt at that moment. Even though part of them is because of I panicking, but the fear, it is very much real.  It was at that moment that I shouted in my heart "JESUS SAVE ME" as loud as I can. 5 minutes later, I was laying helplessly in my hospital bed feeling torn apart. It took around 3 hours for me to just stand back at my two feet. I was later diagnosed as a strange case of gastritis and potassium deficiency combined together. The doctor only told me to go home, but for fear's sake (yes it is indeed a traumatic experience) he gave the option to stay at the hospital for monitoring. I took the safest choice. 

As I was spending the night there with my deteriorated body, I realize how fast it is life can be taken away from a mere human. We go on thinking that we might just live until 70-ish, even to the point of "lets do stupid things while we are young", until something like this actually happen to ourselves. At the face of death, it matters not our GPA, our fame, our position, our achievements, our lover, our parents, our house, our money, that game we have not tried yet, and all of those worldly things. Do you know what I think in that split-second ? Regrets. The things I have yet to do, and the words I have yet to say. In that regretful split-second, I pray to Him to just let me live through this. I have yet to accomplish anything ! It was then I can feel life -sort of- coming back to my body again. 

Today, it has been almost 12 months since the event. Lots of things happened in between, and I still have yet to do all the things I was thinking at that split-second. However, something else happened to myself after the incident. I gradually (not instantly) lost interest in worldly goals. Positions, achievements, college degrees, and other things does not satisfy me anymore. I shifted my passion into something less worldly, something that cannot be separated by death, something that is eternal. Achieving something did entertain me for a certain period of time, but afterwards I would feel.. "so what?". Sometimes, I hear people say that they are fighting for their own self-satisfaction. I am beginning to question are there even such a thing called self-satisfaction? It is like trying to fill in a bottomless pit. 

When death knocks on our door, what will our answer be ? Can we answer it like Paul, an apostle in the new testament, who answered, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4 : 7)" ? 

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. 

Pray and Be Alone With God - Paul Washer

If you have 60 minutes to do nothing, you should watch this video. Oh this is christians related, or if you want to know about christianity you can watch it too :). Enjoy and pray !

Is being nice an act of kindness ?

I was on my way to dreamland , until a tweet I saw from John Piper gave me a blow in the head. You could follow him in twitter at @JohnPiper. Here's that tweet :

"Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness." Psalm 141:5 So kindness and tenderness are not the same.

Why did this tweet gave me such an effect ? I am a genuine phlegmatic, a.k.a  peace lover. I am doing quite a good job there, even close to a fanatic, if I have to grade myself. I would give all ends to preserve peace. This is not exaggerating, I would gladly give myself as a sacrifice to calm a conflict involving myself. Prove ? Well some time ago, all the newly graduates for Chemical Engineering major were gathered by the study program chair to give critics and inputs. After the session ended, I met with my research supervisor and told him about the session. This is what he responded to :

"Bisa toh kamu Hans ngritik gitu? Kamu gak tegaan begitu."
"Hans can you really give a critic ? I see you incapable of doing so, you are too nice. "

I thought for a while, and indeed I did not give any harsh comment in the session. Although I find it hard to distinguish the reason to my action were ignorance or being nice (I have both properties as a phlegmatic) , the purpose -which I unconsciously create- is to just give the atmosphere the peace it deserves. "The session have been conducted for a long time, the people before me have made my points, for the sake of not wasting anyone's time I will just say a quick comment." This behavior might truly create peace for a short term, but is a seed for chaos in the long run. 

It is like letting a crumbling airplane full of busy passengers wanting to take off. The passengers were not in the light about the plane conditions, they just want to get to their destinations as fast as they can. What should we do for the passengers sake? The right decision in this case, would be to delay the flight for a maintenance or change vehicle. Some would complaint, and even call us names for saving their asses. That is temporary chaos, but in the long run they will eventually came to the truth and thanking us. 

Doing what others want is not kindness, it is even far from love. It is an act of ignorance, not caring. I must be getting old now, because now I see discipline as an act of love. It is so much better to hurt the one we love now, rather than letting them suffer at a later time. Stop following our heart so much, use that brain for a change. Men, make a girl cry now with the truth rather than constantly giving fake consolation. That is kindness. 

Si vis pacem, para bellum. - If you want peace, prepare for war. 

A Lesson from Wealth

First of all, I want to explain my reason for choosing the word 'wealth' at the title. While I see many people -especially those books at a certain foreign bookstore- defining success as having a wealthy pocket, I disagree.  I do not think a successful person necessarily need to have a multibillion business empire. Success is as simple as a housewife who raise her child to be a man/woman of good values and character. She is a successful housewife, and thus a successful person. Wealth on the other hand, is a completely different subject to discuss (at least for me). Well lets not take my word for it, because 4 years in engineering had taught me to always cite from a reliable source! According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, success can be defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Read again my opinion, and you'll notice wealth is not my life purpose :). 

The topic, however, is very interesting that I want to blog it. I had the inspiration when I was randomly looking at Indonesia's Top 40 richest person in Forbes. You can look it up yourself here. Initially, my goal of clicking the page was to find out who is in charge at what company. Yet the stories and traits I found is indeed alluring. I have yet to look at the stories for all 40 people, but I have looked at some of them and came with a certain similarity between them. Below, I choose to cover some of the characters short life stories. 

1. Eka Tjipta Widjaja

Mr Eka Tjipta (Courtesy of The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.)

Mr. Eka is an immigrant from China, and have started working since the age of 9. He barely graduated from elementary school, because of Japan invasion at the time. His economy was very tight at that moment, but even amongst the difficulties he faced he managed to develop a "concept" of door to door selling. He sold stuffs such as biscuits from his parents' store by using bicycle. He faced many difficulties in his early years, but he stand by it because of a principle. 

"We can face any hardships that might arise, as long as we have the will to fight. We must remain persevere every time faced with difficulties, and always be wise in spending the pennies we earn."

Today he is the owner of Sinar Mas Group and holds an asset of USD 7,7 Billion. Mr. Eka currently ranks #2 in Indonesia Richest Man. 

2. Djoko Susanto

Mr. Djoko Susanto (Courtesy of www.eciputra.com)

In his young days, Mr. Djoko Susanto worked at his parents store located in Jakarta. He dropped out of high school when he was 17. The store was not what you would call lively, because it only sold food. It seems food only store was not very consumer-attracting. Young Djoko thought that if things were to go like this everyday, the store would go bankrupt. He decided to change the store concept from food to cigarette store. His "hunch" was right, this made the store gained new customers from smokers to wholesale seller. It tuns out his new idea not only bring a great portion of profit, but also the interest of Mr. Putera Sampoerna, who had the largest national cigarette business at the time. They formed a joint store named "Alfa Toko Gudang Rabat" and this was the root of todays Alfamart. Even though their joint business must be separated later on, Mr. Djoko continue managing the store until it became todays very big chain of convenience store. 

Todays Alfamart franchise have 6.000 stores nationwide -if not more- and this made Mr. Djoko Susanto the #20 Richest Man in Indonesia. His asset, as Forbes count in March 2013 is worth USD 1,6 Billion.

Thoughts 

I will not question their orientation of money. But aside from the justification of selling cigarette, I find their journey very inspiring. How often is it that we've seen people giving up to their situation? Making up weaknesses as their shield to protect from the ever judging eyes of people ? 

"I am poor and uneducated, I can't find a decent job, I'll just blame the government for not establishing a good work opportunity for me." I hope I'm wrong, but I think there are TOO MANY people out there in Indonesia living with these thought. As easy pointing the finger out to someone else is, blaming another will not get us anywhere.

Mr. Eka Tjipta said, we should never surrender to problem. Stay calm, calculate all the resources at hand, play them well, and the most important is to stop being consumptive! Save your income for that dream apartment, not spend it instantly for an iPhone 5. 

Perseverance is enough for some cases, but what if we're trying hard at the wrong road, the wrong business, the wrong career? That's the lesson from entrepreneur Djoko Santoso. Take that risk of changing your pace, it might change our life completely. Analyze our situation, make that big decision. Trust me on this:  Failure is better than standing still. 

Be careful if you think you stand, cause you just might be sinking. - Casting Crowns

Source :

http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2011/11/26/089368569/Kisah-Joko-Alfamart-Susanto-Si-Miliarder-Baru
www.ekatjiptafoundation.org
www.forbes.com
www.eciputra.com