Lapor! Saya Lapar

Lapor! Saya Lapar..

It's an Indonesian joke which can directly interpreted as Sir! I'm hungry Sir!

The joke was started in a film comedy of army war. The film was not a really serious film, but it remind us about patriotic hearts of Indonesian Fathers.

For civilian people, including me, that joke is very amusing. For example, an army officer report duty to his/her leader and said: "Report duty! I'm hungry Sir!". The experience is like, really? Military is the toughest people on earth, should never say something like this.

Well, this joke is no longer funny for me. One time in 2006, I was work for Military Border Radio Communication. And yes, they did hungry. No, hungry is not the best word. Starving, it's the best word. There I found it by my self, in the deepest jungle of Entikong (Indonesia-Malaysia border), army officers was there to guard with a very minimum payment and supply food stock. There was no fancy foods there, nor fancy life. There's only duty!

If somehow, I hear an officer say something like this again: "Report duty Sir! I'm starving Sir!" Obviously, I will no longer laugh. It reminds me of the war inside of themselves, leaving all the good things world can offer, to serve their country.

Smoking in AC Room

I'm in a restaurant right now in a downtown of Jakarta. The room are separated in two areas. Outdoor for smoking area, and Indoor (with Air Conditioner) for non smoking area.

Apparently this rule is not completely working. I, with understanding of dislike the smokes, chosed a place indoor quite far, and strategic enough to feel the AC blow and decent outdoor view. Guess what? All people, literally all people around me, are smoking right now. Leaving me in pain breathing in smokes.

Well, what should I say, I can understand that this condition is accustomed here. Complaining is not a way out here. And most of the tables are occupied. Get out from here or smelling those smokes, are the only choices I have right now. Well, I choose to remain silent here enjoying my self. Ouw, I do have another choice: "smiling". I choose to smile right now.

Afterall, this is a hangout night.

29th

This evening, as I paced my car through that hectic traffic I was hiding.
I saw the moon sneeking at me behind the gray clouds. Cynically smiling at me, laughing for my loneliness.
Thus, the trees as well, mocking at me and I was sure they was spitting on me.
Even the rain agreed. As it fell to the earth hitting at me, as it is echoing all my failures.

I am alone in this world. My path is broken for my shield was taken away. 

Then come the angel, told me everything will be alright. The whisper was passing my ears, so calm. The wind break my window and also try to warmth me. Dwarfs are coming here, for they bring a lot of joy and happiness within their leather bags.

I'm surprised. I am not believe. I still feel that I am alone. 

Even the stars now testified, that for so long watching human time by time, a kind like me will end up in happiness, I still don't believe it. Nor the wise of the ocean, taking me to the very deep of the blue sea, performing the beauty in the darkest deep places, I still don't believe.

I only have one thing in my mind right now:

Where are you my love?
Are you ready to meet me?
Or, am I ready to meet you?
Where are you...

Talent Mapping

People say:

Build entrepreneurship of your passion. 

Well, i'm trying to do that. I made a map. Something which I really like to I less like, and try to relate them to possible income solution for my benefit.

Above picture is one of my greatest passion. Music. That is what I always love. Specially, choral music. Then, I try to define possible activities which can contribute to other from my passion. The results are actually quite awesome.

At least I can find three (3) sub majors of my passion and seven (7) possible activities which can be done and bring it to the business. However, I shall not start with business first. Let just say, I would like to help people first, I believe the income will follow. That is the unique part of doing our passion.

And then I tried to make a table. To map the opportunities, the challenges which I possibly face and the things which I currently can do. It's super awesome, that I actually can start my business even now. Just by posting it on the internet (my blog, kaskus), voila! I already start my business.

Let see where this is coming. Hopefully people out there start messaging me. Hopefully!

Pengajar Musik

Kondisi Barang : New

Harga : Rp. 140.000

Lokasi Seller : DKI Jakarta

Pengajar musik (untuk pemula dan madya) menyediakan jasa di bidang:

1. Dirigen (Conducting)
Dapat berupa choral clinic untuk membantu dirigen tetap dan koor.

2. Singing
With experience more than 10 years classical dan pop.

3. Instrument (Piano)
Classical, Pop, Jazz,

Advantages:
1. High musicality from long term experience.
2. Graduates from ITB Electrical Engineering: work in systematic way. Sangat baik untuk memberikan dasar musik.
3. JWC Business International Students for business perspective.

• Kelas untuk dirigen sebaiknya dilakukan saat latihan paduan suara.
• Kelas vokal dan piano bersifat fleksibel namun diutamakan di tempat pengajar, Komplek Jakarta Garden City, Cakung-Jakarta Timur. (45 menit)

Class can be held in Bahasa Indonesia or English.
Please check my Youtube channel: sahathutajulubo

Please contact: 081808604533.

Music is my Passion

Reading Other Reference

I have an experience:

When reading a reference and I stuck with it and very hard to understand, I will try to read from other references.

Well, it's easy now. We can just google it and read other reference. Somehow, I will understand more. Maybe it's because the different way of people in writing. The diction, the form of sentences, the texture of writing is different.

Just like eating, same food can have different taste. After a while, we eat those different tastes we can conclude what's that food taste should be.

That's why I conclude, reading just like eating food. The more we taste from different sources, the more we understand the basic taste.

To Love Our Company

Well,

There's nothing wrong with loving our company as an employee. It probably is a must. But to love means not to be ready to move to another one.

Love here I believe is not emotionally involved, but to run our role with highest energy we have. There are several reason which can make us leave our company:

- company can go bankrupt,
- we choose another suitable job

There are always reason to move to other place to work, but keep in our mind, where ever we work we should do it with full heart.

Employee Quadrant

Employee quadrant is explaining the ownership of employee compare with their skills and competencies.

1st Quadrant
Is the type of employee who can not in line with company's core values nor lack of skills and competencies. Action which can be done to this kind of company is to release them from company.

2nd Quadrant
Is the employee who can in line with company's core values but lack of skills and competencies. Action which can be applied is to provide training to the employee thus they can improved skills and competencies.

3rd Quadrant
Is the type of employee who are advanced in skills and competencies but not in line with company's core values. This type of employee is the hard one, because they usually choose not to in line with company's core. Action for this type of employee is kind of hard. What they need is sharing vision, character build and else which can finally make them accept the company's values.

4th Quadrant
Is the type of employee which is best ideal. This type of employee usually not so many in a company. At this stage, company will no longer do action to the employee, but the employee is encouraged to be the leader and mentor for others type of employee.

Naraioko

Alkisah di sebuah Negeri antah berantah, jauh di pedalaman Nirwana. Masa di mana sang Naga masih tertidur, dan Bumi masih bernafas dengan leluasa. Masa di mana segalanya memungkinkan. Bahkan sesuatu yang tidak pernah kita pikirkan.

Ketika itu kehidupan bukanlah sekedar mengejar kebahagiaan, melainkan kebahagiaan itu sendiri adalah kehidupan. Ketika itu mereka tidak perlu berbahasa tetapi pengertian ada di mana-mana. Bahkan, diam mampu membangkitkan kematian.

Ketika itu... setiap garis lurus adalah lurus dan bengkok adalah salah. Dan ketika salah berarti lenyap. Dan ketika itu, manusia adalah tidak berharga. Mereka hanyalah penghias kehidupan. Keberadaannya tidak terlalu penting. Sama persis dengan sepancar bintang kecil di langit yang sangat jauh, seperti cuping tambahan di telinga, atau hiasan kecil di jendela.

Ketika itu tidak banyak peraturan berlaku di sana, hanya naluri dan keinginan.

Naraioko: Aku tidak mengerti sebenarnya apa kesalahanku. Aku hanya ingin melakukan apa yang aku suka. Mengapa itu tidak boleh?
Buma: Engkau melawan alam. Kita hanya mahluk lemah. Alam dapat dengan mudah menghanguskanmu.
Naraioko: Hmm.. tidak bisa, aku akan tetap melakukan hal ini.
Buma: Sudahlah.. aku tahu kita memang harus terus bermimpi, tetapi apakah engkau yakin bahwa mimpimu itu akan membawa kebaikan di masa depan. Apakah engkau yakin bahwa itu bukan hanya egomu semata?
Naraioko: Engkau benar. Aku hanya ingin melihat dunia luar. Engkau tahu aku suka bertualang. Membantu spesies kita memang hanya kamuflase ku saja. Hmhh..

Ketika itu manusia memang mampu berpikir, tetapi alam terus memburu manusia. Bahkan, tanah, dinding-dinding gua, dan tumbuhan tidak bisa tidak untuk memangsa manusia.

Alam sudah terlalu benci kepada manusia. Masa itu, alam memburu manusia bukan karena lapar, tetapi suatu tindak pertahanan diri.

Dimensi Lain (Bagian 1)

Ia orang yang sangat berbeda denganku. Aku seorang yang sangat teratur, sangat rapih, tepat waktu, sangat sistematis dan sangat-sangat memerdulikan masalah kesantunan. Sedangkan Ia; Ia berbeda 180 derajat dari ku. Ia sangat tak acuh, selalu terlambat, hidup seenaknya, pergi seenaknya, pulang seenaknya. Seperti tidak ada yang menjadi beban dalam hidupnya. Ade mulai berpikir menimbang-nimbang dalam pikirannya. Ia termasuk orang yang menganut paham pengaruh hormon di dalam darah menentukan karakter dari orang tersebut. Ia mengaku dan sangat menyelami dirinya seorang Melankolis.

Ini pasti namanya Cinta. Pikir Ade. Sebagai seorang wanita dewasa berumur 27 tahun Ia tidak ingin lagi bermain-main dalam hal yang selalu dibicarakan teman-teman sebayanya saat ini, cinta dan keluarga. Ade tidak lagi mau merepotkan rasa di hatinya dengan perihal-perihal tak jelas nan mengambang di dalam hati, yang membuat Ia kelabakan selama merasakannya, cinta. Dahulu mungkin Ade berpikir seperti itu. Namun kini ketika seluruh keluarga mendesak, satu demi satu teman sebayanya menikah, bahkan telah memiliki anak; target Ade jelas. Cinta dan Keluarga. Titik. Tidak ada kesempatan untuk yang lain-lain.

Apa yah maksud perkataan Dia tadi? Kenapa Ia tadi tiba-tiba memanggil dirinya dengan sebutan aku. Biasanya Ia menggunakan kata gua. Akh, tapi tadi seharian Ia menggunakan kata yang sama ke semua orang. Kata Aku. Lantas kenapa diksinya menjadi sangat sopan kepadaku. Akh.. sudahlah, letih memikirkannya. Ade mulai dihantui dengan perasaan itu. Perasaan yang bergejolak. Suatu tanda tanya, yang selalu dipikirkan satu insan. Apakah saat ini dia sedang memikirkan aku juga?

**********************************************

Number of Visitors

Just came back to this blog after a while:

http://rahard.wordpress.com/

This is a blog of one of my lecturer in Bachelor Degree of Electrical Engineering back in 2001-2005. He is one very energetic lecturer with great sense of humor. His name is Budi Rahardjo. Well, there's a time. When my generation will take over his generation to continue fight for this world. Awesome!

Something catch my attention when visiting his blog.

Yes, his number of visitors. 3,174,294 visits. Superb!

I wonder if I will ever reach that number in this blog. Currently I have only 24,737 visits. If I turn to be a famous person, maybe I will. Or maybe if I take my Doctoral degree, people start to respect me and pay attention to my writings. Maybe, I can't really sure. It's just a theory.  

Sometimes blogging can be a battle. Battle to gain as many readers as possible. How the art of writing can actually engage them and be loyal to our blog.

The art of writing. 

I'm a hundred percent believe that what makes readers loyal is they get what they want. And that should be poured out in a blogger writings. As simple as that.

Si Pengemis dan Pangeran Tampan

Masih adakah 2 orang yang lebih berbeda dari ini?

Masih adakah 2 orang yang lebih berlawanan dari mereka?

Yang satu seorang pengemis. Kumel, bau, busuk, kusam, pakaiannya compang-camping. Dan yang paling penting, Ia menganggap dunia ini sangat kompleks. Semua yang ada di dunia ini, berikut permasalahannya sangat kompleks.

Yang satu lagi seorang Pangeran Tampan. Rupawan. Elegan. Eksklusif. Branded. High class. Dan yang paling penting, Ia menganggap dunia ini sederhana. Kebetulan tidak ada hal yang dapat memusingkannya.

Kemudian keduanya terlibat dalam pembicaraan tentang cinta.

Pangeran Tampan: Apakah engkau percaya dengan cinta?

Pengemis: Hmm... aku percaya, namun sepertinya cinta itu tidak ada.

Pangeran Tampan: Maksudmu?

Pengemis: Aku bisa melihat cinta di sekelilingku, tapi aku tidak bisa merasakannya.

Pangeran Tampan: Kalau begitu engkau tidak bisa berkata cinta itu tidak ada. Mungkin kau hanya belum menemukannya.

Pengemis: Ya, bisa dikatakan begitu. Cinta bukan untukku. Cinta bukan untuk orang seperti aku. Lihat diriku, siapakah yang mungkin mencintaiku?

Pangeran Tampan: Bukankah engkau lahir dari cinta?

Pengemis: Hmmhh... jikalau aku lahir dari cinta, nampaknya aku tak mungkin seperti ini. Aku mungkin sudah memiliki keluarga pada saat ini. Setidaknya yang mau melindungi aku. Mungkin bisa dikatakan, aku ini lahir dari nafsu. Nafsu kecelakaan, nafsu yang tidak bertanggung jawab.

Pangeran Tampan: Apakah engkau percaya cinta akan menemukanmu?

Pengemis: Hmmhh... nampaknya aku agak naif dengan pikiran seperti itu. Lihat diriku. Sepertinya untuk orang seperti aku, bisa bertahan seperti ini saja sudah syukur. Dan, sekali lagi cinta bukan untuk aku. Cinta bukan untuk orang sepertiku.

Pangeran Tampan: Aku yakin bahwa suatu saat cinta akan menemukanmu. Cinta ada di mana-mana. Tersebar diseluruh udara. Sesaat kau hirup, engkau bisa tenggelam di dalamnya.

Pengemis: Mudah bagimu mengatakannya. Sesaat ku hirup udara, yang ku cium adalah rasa lapar, bau harum makanan di luar sana.

Pangeran Tampan: Tidakkah engkau haus dan lapar akan cinta?

Pengemis: Sejujurnya iya. Aku mendambakannya setiap saat. Aku yakin semua orang seperti itu.

Pangeran Tampan: Exactly!

Pengemis: Tapi aku telah mengubur perasaan itu. Hal itu hanya membuat aku makin sakit dan terluka.

Pangeran Tampan: Kenapa?

Pengemis: Karena aku realistis. Memendam rasa itu hanya membuat aku terluka. Berlarut dalam mimpi yang menyayat hatiku.

Pangeran Tampan: Apakah engkau telah menyerah akan cinta?

Pengemis: Yah, bisa dikatakan begitu.

Pangeran Tampan: Aku sedang mencari cinta.

Pengemis: Bukannya engkau percaya cinta yang akan menemukanmu?

Pangeran Tampan: Iya, itu juga. Pada akhirnya aku yakin kami pasti bertemu. Entah aku yang menemuinya, atau cinta yang menemukanku.

Pengemis: Lantas, bagaimana hasil pencarianmu.

Pangeran Tampan: Belum ada hasil, tetapi aku optimis aku akan bertemu cinta. Ia ada di luar sana. Tinggal ku genggam, dan aku akan menjadi miliknya selamanya.

Pengemis: Kalau begitu, semoga beruntung untukmu, menemukan cinta.

Pangeran Tampan: Engkau bersikap sangat skeptik dengan cinta. Aku rasa engkau tidak boleh mempersalahkannya.

Pengemis: Aku sama sekali tidak menyalahkan cinta. Aku hanya telah menyerah. Dan aku tidak mau berpura-pura.

Pangeran Tampan: Aku salut kepadamu. Engkau sangat memegang teguh prinsipmu. Yang aku bingung, bagaimana engkau hidup tanpa cinta? Semua orang butuh cinta.

Pengemis: Rasanya hanya ada satu jalan. Aku hidup dengan diriku sendiri.

Pangeran Tampan: Lalu apakah engkau juga mau mencintai orang lain?

Pengemis: Kadang aku berbuat baik untuk orang lain, tapi rasanya itu bukan cinta. Tentu saja cinta lebih dari pada itu.

Pangeran Tampan: Nah.. engkau salah. Cinta ada bermacam-macam. Ada cinta kepada Tuhan, dengan sesama, dengan pasangan atau kekasih, cinta dengan keluarga, sahabat dan lain-lain. Cinta sama sekali tidak sebatas pangeran dan puteri seperti di negeri dongeng. Cinta ada di mana-mana. Tersebar di mana-mana. Di udara, di bumi, di tanah. Itu yang menghidupi kita. Semua orang tidak bisa hidup tanpa cinta.

Pengemis: Kalau begitu aku salah. Sepertinya aku bisa juga hidup dalam cinta. Sekalipun dalam kemiskinan.

Pangeran Tampan: Tepat sekali. Cinta adalah cinta. Tidak pernah terikat dengan apapun. Harta sekalipun. Karena memang itu hakikat manusia untuk mencintai. Carilah manusia yang paling kejam sepanjang abad. Selidiki hatinya. Adakah ia menaruh kasih kepada kekasihnya, anaknya, atau siapapun. Intinya, bahkan orang yang paling kejam tetap hidup dalam cinta.

Pengemis: Aku rasa engkau benar.

Pangeran Tampan: Lalu, bagaimana jika aku mengatakan aku mencintaimu. Maukah engkau menerimanya?

Pengemis: Engkau sudah gila!

Pangeran Tampan: Kenapa engkau bilang aku gila?

Pengemis: Karena engkau pangeran. Tampan. Sangat kaya. Terhormat. Pada dasarnya engkau adalah segalanya.

Pangeran Tampan: Aneh. Aku pikir kita sudah sepakat bahwa cinta tidak dipengaruhi apapun. Harta, status, penampilan, apapun. Mengapa engkau menarik hal itu kembali?

Pengemis: Karena aku pikir engkau tidak realistis. Engkau tenggelam dengan idealismu tentang cinta. Baiklah cintailah aku. Aku menerimamu. Apakah kamu pikir dunia akan menerima? Keluargamu akan menerima? Apa yang akan terjadi padaku selanjutnya? Aku akan hidup dalam kutukan sepanjang umur hidupku.

Pangeran Tampan: Aha... engkau memerdulikan orang lain. Engkau masih berpikir cinta dipengaruhi oleh hal-hal lain. Cinta masih dipusingkan oleh faktor-faktor lain.

Pengemis: Tentu saja. Itulah kenyataannya.

Pangeran Tampan: Sepertinya bukan itu kenyataannya.

Pengemis: Lalu apa?

Pangeran Tampan: Sebenarnya pertanyaan mudah. Mampukah engkau mencintaiku dengan semua keberadaanku?

Pengemis: Tentu saja aku mampu. Bahkan aku akan sangat terangkat. Aku akan menjadi kaya. Terkenal. Harkat martabatku akan menjadi baik.

Pangeran Tampan: Bukan? Bukan itu. Engkau menilainya salah. Kaya-miskin. Terhormat-terhina. Baik-buruk. Itu semua perbedaan. Mampukah engkau mencintai aku dengan semua perbedaan kita? Akan jauh lebih banyak dari pada itu. Bahkan hal-hal kecil akan memicu pertengkaran dahsyat. Pertanyaannya, mampukah engkau mencintai aku dengan semua perbedaan itu?

Pengemis: Aku rasa aku sanggup.

Pangeran Tampan: Nah! Benar begitu. Itu artinya engkau telah melihatku sebagai seorang manusia di mata manusia lain. Yang mau dicintai dan mencintai. Terlepas dari semua keberadaanku. Aku adalah manusia. Aku haus akan cinta. Aku dan cinta tidak bisa dipisahkan.

Capital Ladder

Guest Lecture
Tuesday, 10 Oct 2012.

Guest Lecture today presented Antony Liem, one of the founder of Merah Putih Incubator. He shared a lot of things about e-commerce in Indonesia. He was also one of the founder of famous socialite site kaskus.

The conclusion of his lecture is one:

Do not start e-commerce business now!

Indonesian people, culture, law, system are not ready yet. Instead, run business which are the supporting business of e-commerce. There are 4 types of supporting business of e-commerce:
1. Logistic Solution
2. Payment Solution
3. Price Comparison
4. Affiliate sales or Marketing
Those four are great opportunies following the rapid growth of internet penetration in Indonesia static or mobile.

One thing which captured my attention was his theory about Capital Ladder. It is a step of capital funding trust from different sources.

According to the lectures there are seven (7) sources people can get their capital. The higher the level, the more trustable and valuable business you have.

1. Sweat.
The very basic human capital. Our force is our modal.

2. Personal Money/Loan/Deposit
The very basic way people start their business is using their own money. Either it is their saving, loan or every personal liquid assets.

3. Angel Investor
Is a first kind of investation. But the investation is not to the business, but personal to the person. Usually comes from family, friend or mentor who believe in us. This type of investation required no fullback payment. Sometimes doesn't need to be paid back. That's why it is called Angel Investor.

4. Incubator
Incubator term here is taken from the same term of baby incubator. The new born "baby" company is guided by an incubator company to start its business. The incubator help not just the fund but also the skills and tips needed for that particular business. Merah-Putih is one of the example of incubator company in Indonesia.

5. Venture Capital
A venture capital agent will collect fund from fund holders all over the world. And then analyze it, calculate it, so that the fund which collected can be allocated to special business been analyzed. (I think one my friend work in this area. Finally I know what is he really doing. Haha)

6. Bank Loan
In this particular step, means that our business is actually worth a value to a Bank. A very trustworthy organization for business recogniztion.

7. IPO
The last funding step is IPO.

Sinetron v.s. Serial Film

Sinetron (Sinema Elektronik), Indonesian opera soap are rapidly fulfilling every hours of television slot nowadays. Mainly about love, family matters and stuff.

I just notice this, the main difference between Sinetron and Serial Film (which happens I watch in cable TV all the time) is:

Sinetron lacks of creativity

Sinetron comes up with problem-solving plot in a week time frame. So, the creativity will last for a week or two. Compare to serial film, which happens each episode brings new fresh idea PLUS the running stories (like in Sinetron), it is the winner of the creativity.

So, the question is:

Why we lack of creativity?

What makes Indonesian producers trapped in this kind of situation. Well, I think they are not. They must have a bunch of fresh ideas. The problem must be in commercial side. Commercial, in my opinion, kills ideas.

Back to business ethics, not everything should be commercially counted. An honest and trutful motivation for doing show, I believe will lead to greater impact. Even revenues.

Is Cutting Cost Effective?

I have a big question in mind right now.

Is cutting cost the right way to do?

As lectures, practicians and much people absorb that belief to cutting cost, I kinda against that opinion.

The main reason of cutting cost is:

Competition

Yes, competition. We can not do anything with our selling price, our revenue, because competition already set the price.

In my opinion, we can! As long as we give our customer additional value. Best deliverable quality for example. Customer nowadays is smart customer. They will choose to spend more for trustable quality right now. People are tired with cheap-easy-broken products.

It is the time for quality now. 

We can sell that quality and gain more revenue from it.

So, back to the question, is cutting cost the right thing to do? No, controlling cost for creating high quality products and services is the right thing to do now.

The moment of cost is over. It's the very moment of revenue now.

Character Propotional to Age?

One of my friend ask a question during a CEO Speaks event. He is quite young. He spelled his question with round-and-round-and-round-and-round preamble. The result, that CEO didn't know to answer, because the CEO didn't understand the question.

I noticed that situation. I spoke to my self, I see my self in that young fellow. Proud and silly. Very shallow but super arrogant. I did even worse. In a class presentation held by my friends, I asked a question and I answered it myself. (My God, if I remember that stupid experience, I feel so ashame. To ashame that I could throw my self to the sea right now).

So, the question is:

Will that young fellow will understand this in the future?

Does aging really matters to the character growth?

Well, my answer is yes. God faces us with so many experiences. The reason is one: so we can be more like Him. Wise is one of God's character.

What makes it different is:

How much a man want to learn from each experiences. 

A man who is humble enough to always learn from everything, everyone, everytime is the winner. While on the other hand, the one who refuse to learn and let the wind blows will gain a little percentage of this opportunities.

So yes, age does matter to character. But, what really matters is the humble heart to always learn. 

That makes a young fellow, can even more mature than an old childish man.

CEO Speaks, Bari Hamami, PT Trakindo Utama

JWW, October 4th 2012

CEO Speaks presenting Bari Hamami, CEO of PT Trakindo Utama, son of the Founder of Trakindo itself, AHK Hamami. Trakindo is the authorized dealer in Indonesia of Caterpillar products.

One that quite interesting is, I asked him a question during the Q&A session:

"Has or will Trakindo build its own machine?"

A quite simple question, but I'm sure I was representing the absolute dream of fellow Indonesian

He answered: 

"Yes we did! And it was super cool!! Back in 1983 Trakindo was trying to build a small tracktor with all of its Indonesian engineers resources. We build it and we sold it. But customer never cameback. We failed to create aftersell services, spareparts and those kind of things. Don't ever dream to build and sell your own product if the environment is not allowed you to. Especially when GOVERNMENT is not supporting you. Well, we still have that tracktor in our factory in Pulogadung. We keep it there. Not as a reminder of our failure, but as a spirit that one day we will get there."

I fully support his answer. I am thinking about companies like Huawei or ZTE, Chinese Telecommunication Vendor, which happen have a lot of support from their Government. They are rapidly growing! Seriously! Even beat the mature western companies. 

I also thinking about my former company, which a local Telecommuniation vendor. We were hit so bad because Government at that time promise to publish policy that require every companies in Indonesia to use more percentage of local made products. But the policy was never published, and many local companies were in pain. Only several could survive. 

Government play important role in local industries. Honestly, very important! I wonder about Mahatma Gandhi phylosophy to made-use-utilize India's own-country products. I believe that's what happens in USA. They are livin the Gandhi's phylosophy since long long time ago. They produce for themselves, and they consume for themselves. And they export the innovations to the world. 

Well, Indonesia should do the same thing. At least starts with me. My beautiful brain is rest too much. It's time for learn, invent and be creative. So help me God.

Inheritance Cost

I have this ONE BIG CRAZY IDEA. I suggest that every companies in the world put another cost in their cash flow calculation. That cost will be called:

Inheritance Cost. 

It is simply a cost for Next Generation spending. Cost for plant new trees, prepare new land, and growth new resources. This cost should be allocated, 1% from EBI (Earnings Before Interest) each year.

Several options to handle this cost is:

1. Companies themselves held green activities to renew/replant the resources they took from the Earth.
2. Transferred the cost to NGOs or UN organizations.

It is not a rule. It is simply and understanding that our children deserve best resources.

Consulting Skill Part 1 - Lottemart Case.

My DVD player was broken this morning. Argghhhhh... I hate Chinese!!! I swear I'll never buy Chinese product anymore!!! For the rest of my life. (Haha, kinda imposibble). It's not even two weeks yet. Then, I remember something, if it is not 2 weeks yet, I can return the thing and have a new one.

Then, I came to Lottemart in Gandaria City Mall. The place I bought that DVD Player.

Short story, I came to information and met this young lady. She said, "if you want to return the DVD Player, you need the buying struck." And I said, "Oh crap!! I don't have it anymore". Or, at least you should have a guarantee stamp from Lottemart", she added.

Ok, then I replied:
first, I never being told to keep the receipt buying struck, to return broken thing.
Second, I never being told to have a Lottemart stamp first I bought that thing.

She keep rejecting me!! Without any action she wanted to do for helping me.

Then I asked her to call her Manager. His name is Mardi. The same thing happened with him. He also keep rejecting me. Quite long conversation goes on and on.

Then, I said to my self. This is super crap!! They keep rejecting me without even try. So, I told to the Manager:

"With all due respect Sir, this is just a DVD Player. The price it self is not that expensive. I can just buy a new one easily. But, what you're doing here is keep rejecting me. You are really not a good consultant. Somehow, in this situation I am your customer. And, the first thing you should say is: "I understand you Sir, let me see what I can do". That's it! I will go away and still keep buying in Lottemart if you at least do something to help me. If somehow we can not find a way, it's alright. At least we already try something".

First lesson: CUSTOMER IS YOUR PARTNER, NOT YOUR ENEMY.

After saying that, Mardi, the Manager, seemed awaken. Then he replied: "Alright Pak, I'll try to ask the IT guy".

Then IT guy came. The conclusion is: "It can be solved if we have an administrator IT Password, but it takes a very long processes to have it".

So, I conclude, "if my kind of problem could be solved by you guys easily, will it be a great value add service to customer?"

Then I leave with hesitation whether I will coming back to that supermart or not. Most likely, not.

Welcome iPad Welcome Back

I can tell you, it's been super long time since I wrote my last blog. Well, it's alright, people changing all the time. I'm not even sure if I will consistenly write again. At least, now I have whity (my new iPad's nick name). Perhaps I can diligently write again. Prolly. I can't promise anything.

Well, in this special coming back moment, I would like to remind my self, why is actually the benefit of writing? What advantage taken for my self? Is it really working? 

The answer is I don't know. I'm not sure if I even care. Haha. But what I really like about is when people pay attention to me. Reading my blog, my videos on Youtube, reply my twit,etc. Frankly writing, I love to be famous. Who doesn't? Maybe only the famous people.

Noticing on my past writings, the No.1 hit is a writing called: "Menyanyi". I wrote quite details there, the technique and art of singing. It seems to be, many people make it a refference as a literatur for singing technique. I also found some links linked to that writings. The other one is the writing about My Mom Being Manipulated in Mall. Most people shared the same experience.

Well maybe, that's blog is all about. Write knowledge, sharing experience, etc. What I do want to know is, how to get many readers? Maybe I should write something serious often. People tend to like it. And knowledge is timeless.

Cerita di Ekamai (2)

Secarik kertas bertuliskan tulisan Thai yang sama sekali aku tidak mengerti apa maksudnya. Mengejanya saja aku bahkan tidak bisa. Tulisan itu ada bersama dengan tas Amanda yang kutemukan di BTS. Kertas itu dilipat asimetris dan dimasukkan ke dalam amplop. Nampaknya kertas itu dimasukkan dengan tergesa-gesa.

Aku bertanya-tanya, kenapa tulisannya berbahasa Thai, padahal aku sama sekali tidak bisa berbahasa Thai. Mungkin orang yang menuliskan itu menganggap diriku sebagai orang lokal Thailand. Memang perawakan orang Indonesia dan orang Thailand tidak berbeda jauh. Bahkan sekilas, jika orang melihatnya, seperti tidak ada perbedaan. Perbedaan akan terlihat ketika mereka mulai berbicara, karena kedua bangsa itu menggunakan bahasa yang berbeda.

Kemudian aku keluar di stasiun BTS Nana. Stasiun yang dari arah aku datang telah melewati soi apartemenku berada. Sekitar 80 meter lebih jauh. Aku biasanya turun di stasiun sebelumnya, yaitu stasiun Asoke. Karena insiden bayi tersebut aku jadi turun lebih jauh sedikit.

Aku turun dari tangga, berharap bertemu petugas kereta dan menjelaskan semuanya, namun aku tidak dapat menemukannya. Hari sudah berganti ternyata, pantas saja jika sang penjaga tidak lagi berada di tempatnya. Mungkin ia sedang makan. Mungkin ia sedang buang air. Atau apapun. Tidak ada jalan lain, aku harus meminta bantuan petugas apartemenku.

Aku berjalan menuruni tangga, sambil menggendong Amanda. Pikirkupun melayang:

Ini adalah kali pertama aku menggendong bayi dengan tas seperti ini. Aku merasa seperti seorang Ayah. Aku memang selalu ingin memiliki seorang putri. Ia tidur tenang sekali dibahu kiriku. Terlalu tenang. Nampaknya Ia menyukaiku. Tentu saja, aku orang yang baik dan ramah. Hal apa yang mungkin tidak disukai orang dariku.

Aku berjalan tidak terlalu jauh, kemudian aku mencari ponselku. Aku berhasil menemukannya, namun ternyata baterainya sudah habis. Penunjuk baterai di sebelah kiri atas menunjukkan warna merah, dan tidak ada lagi panel sinyal yang didapatkan. Kosong sama sekali. Aku berniat meminta resepsionis apartemen untuk menjemputku di depan gang apartemen. Biasanya percakapannya akan sbb.:

Aku: ”Hi Sir, could you please send the Tuc tuc to the main street?”

Resepsionis: ”Right away Sir”.

Namun, kali itu karena baterai ku habis, tidak ada pilihan lain selain berjalan kaki memasuki lorong Soi sampai ke apartemen. Jalan yang harus kutempuh cukup jauh. Hampir 100 meter jauhnya. Dan kali ini aku harus sambil menggendong tas kerjaku, dan tambahan menggendong Amanda di depan.

Kepala Amanda tergerak. Semula ia menghadap ke sebelah kanan, kini berpindah ke sebelah kiri. Aku berhenti berjalan sejenak, sampai kurasakan Amanda benar-benar nyaman dan kembali terlelap. Aku berpikir:

Berapa berat nih anak. Berat bener! Tapi kata orang tua, gak boleh bilang bayi itu berat, nanti dia jatuh sakit dan kurus. Kalau hanya sebatas pemikiran boleh nggak yah?

Pikiranku memang sering melayang-layang, bahkan ke hal-hal yang sangat tidak perlu. Bahkan aku pernah memikirkan

Mengapa helm tidak memiliki whipper? Bukankah itu akan menjadi inovasi yang baik?

Atau,

Harusnya permainan sepak bola, dimainkan dengan 2 bola di dalam lapangan. Pasti akan menjadi lebih seru dan menarik.

Lamunanku pun akhirnya buyar, seraya aku masuk ke halaman apartemen. Aku melihat penjaga portal yang selalu membukakan portal untuk mobil yang keluar-masuk apartemen melihatku dengan penuh tanya. Mungkin Ia bertanya

Anak siapa tuh yang dia bawa?

Aku hanya bisa tersenyum, dan Ia membalasnya. Suatu kebiasaan basa-basi tanpa suara yang cukup efektif untuk membangun hubungan dengan garis batas yang tetap nyata.

Aku bergegas memasuki lobi apartemen dan segera berbicara kepada resepsionis. Ia adalah seorang pemuda Thailand, mungkin berumur sekitar 24 tahun. Tidak terlalu tinggi, rambut hitam, mukanya mulus. Tidak terlalu ramah. Dia adalah salah satu resepsionis yang tidak aku favoritkan.

Aku: ”I have a problem, please help me!” Aku memasang muka panik.

Resepsionis: ”What can I do for you Sir?”

Aku: ”I found this baby in the BTS Sky-train. She is alone. No one there beside me. I carried her away.”

Resepsionis: ”Ha ku da happeng Sir?”

Aku: ”Sorry”. Aku sulit memahami kalimat yang dia katakan.

Resepsionis: ”How could that happened Sir?”

Aku: ”Ouw, I don’t know. I fell a sleep in the BTS. When I woke up, suddenly this baby was beside me, with all these bag and equipments. And this letter.

Resepsionis itu mengambil amplop dari tangan kananku, sementara tangan kiriku memegang kepala Amanda. Ia melihat sebentar ke arah surat itu, kemudian melihat ke arahku.

Resepsionis: ”it says: PLEASE TAKE CARE OF HER, I WILL FIND YOU.”

Aku: ”How can he/she can find me? Do this person know me before? Am i being followed?

Tiba-tiba kakiku lemas. Memikirkan bahwa aku berada di negeri orang dan diikuti oleh sekawanan mafia penjahat atau sejenisnya. Pikiranku kemudian melayang jauh. Membayangkan skenario-skenario yang mungkin terjadi, dan diakhiri dengan menuliskan surat wasiatku dan memberitahukan kepada ibuku di rumah.

Seraya aku makin cemas, Amanda seperti merasakannya, Ia kemudian juga menjadi gelisah. Kepalanya bergerak kesana kemari. Ia juga makin gelisah. Aku seperti terhubung dengannya secara emosional.

Aku berusaha menenangkan diriku. Dan berkata kepada resepsionis itu:

Aku: ”Could you please phone the police for me?”

Resepsionis: ”Okay Sir!”

Kemudian aku melihat Amanda terbangun. Ia melihat ke arahku. Menguap. Kemudian kembali terlelap.

Aku: ”Krub, may be you could contact the police in the morning. I belive the baby need to rest right now. Me as well. She could sleep with me tonight. I will take care of this tommorow.”

Resepsionis: ”Okay Sir, I will help you tomorrow.”

Aku: ”Thank you for your help Sir, I really appreciate it.”

Kemudian aku melangkah masuk lebih dalam ke dalam apartemen. Aku memijat tombol lift untuk meminta lift turun. Sesaat kemudian pintu lift terbuka dan aku masuk. Kali ini tas kerjaku tidak lagi aku gendong di punggung, melainkan aku menjinjingnya dengan tangan kananku. Aku memijat angka 12, lantai di mana apartemenku berada.

Sesaat sebelum pintu lift tertutup sepasang suami-isteri menaikki lift yang sama. Pasangan tua yang serasi. Mereka tidak terlihat lagi seperti sepasang kekasih, lebih seperti sepasang sahabat. Tapi aku yakin, mereka adalah pasangan yang sangat serasi ketika mereka muda.

Nyonya tua itu kemudian berkata kepadaku.

”How lovely she is. What is her name?”

Aku sedikit tersentak dengan pertanyaan itu, aku tidak tahu harus menjawab apa. Pertama aku gugup harus menjawab apa. Dan di saat yang bersamaan pikiranku melayang lagi.

Bagaimana wanita ini bisa tahu yah kalau bayi yang aku gendong ini cewek.

”Amanda”. Aku menjawab singkat.

”Hi Amanda! She is so pretty. You have a lovely daughter.”. Kali ini lelaki tua itu yang menyambut dengan ramah.

Kemudian pintu terbuka di lantai 8. Nampaknya mereka menghuni lantai tersebut. Mereka pun berpamitan.

”Well, good night! Good night Amanda, have a nice sleep. Sleep tight, don’t bother your daddy”

Aku hanya bisa menjawab.

”Good night, have a nice sleep to you to guys”.

Dan saat pintu lift tertutup. Aku tersenyum. Beberapa kata dalam percakapan tadi melintas.

Daughter.

Daddy.

Life Is Hard for 30+ Unmarried in Indonesia

Life is hard for 30+ people unmarried in Indonesia. Somehow, whole universe like judging you. You know, like there is something wrong about you. Some questions which usually asked:
1. Are you afraid of commitment?
2. Were your parents divorced?
3. Are you a player?
4. Are you gay?
5. Are you financially insecure?
6. Do you have love problem or something?
And many elses.

The worse thing is, none of them really care. Whole of your surroundings never really ask you, what's your intention of being unmarried in such an old age. Like the whole system against you.

For example, I've tried to explain my intention to one person. Thankfully, he/she understand. Now imagine, almost 100 questions a day, even they come from the same person. Do you really want to explain that much. Energy wasting! Finally, that kind of people will just answered with cliche answer:
1. Soon
or,
2. Just pray for me
even sometimes,
3. I have, I just uninvited you with

Sometimes, I think too many pressure living unmarried in this country. Maybe someday, I will get married, just for avoiding this kind of questions. Might be.