"Doing what you love" and "Loving what you do"

I am not so much of an ICT-savvy. Whatever little knowledge that I have of ICT, I would classify it as just basic knowledge. Using Maslow's Hieracrchy of Needs as the analogy, well, I would situate my knowledge at the lowest level of that hierarchy. Purely my 'basic' needs; i.e. suffice for me to get by in this era of information and technology. So, one day, out of my other 'basic' need of creating a platform where I could share my thoughts and feelings about 'things' I feel, observe and experience as a human being situated in a societal domain, I managed to create this blog. Simply using the basic knowledge that I have of ICT; i.e. with a bit of 'trial-and-error' though.

Frankly, my drive for creating this blog was due to my 'love' for knowledge. Reading books is interesting. Sharing what I read with others make it even more exciting. But, putting it down in written form, that is the final satisfaction. I actually could 'see' my own thoughts in their 'physical' forms. And that is when I understood the importance of  making my tacit knowledge as explicit as possible so that I will be well understood by people who read or try to read my thoughts. Judging from the 'silent' response as well as some 'transformation' of ideas made by friends in other contexts of use, well, I guess I am doing fine.

Recently, a friend asked me to add some pictures to my blog. It took me a while to think of how best should I rationalize my 'preference' of not adding pictures. Although I find Gardner's Multiple Intelligence as insightful to the understanding of how we should cater for different kind of Intelligences inherent in different individuals and that some people prefer to have the 'visual' effects to be 'spatially' utilized, I have my reasons for not to. And I purposely chose pure black and white as the 'background'. They are 'not' colours, and that is actually the reason; i.e. pure idea presented  in its basic form, and it actually falls upon you to choose the suitable colours to 'paint' my ideas with ; i.e. from your own personal collections, of course.

I know it is selfish of me. But, I only want you to read and focus on my 'abstract' ideas and not to be distracted by other colourful tangible 'things', of which I believe you could easily find in other blogs should you wish to entertain yourself with beautiful sights. And also, as I intend to spread what I myself termed as the 'seeds' of knowledge, I leave it to your own discretion whether you want to let my ideas grow and blossom or, as you wish, to not let it grow at all.  No obligation, whatsoever.

In fact, my opinion is no different than what Drucker once described of what IDEA is when he  defined : "Ideas are somewhat like babies - they are born small, immature, and shapeless. They are promise rather than fulfillment". In other words, you may choose to throw my seed away if you feel that this type of seed does not suit the climate of the place that you inhabit, and you might in fact, know by a hunch that it will not survive even a day should you try to plant it in your knowledge garden, already filled with beautiful, colourful, exotic species of various knowledge plants . The choice is ultimately yours.

There was another friend who bluntly asked me how much did I earn from making this blog. Funny. Haven't you heard of the famous saying that, "Money can't buy Love"?. Well, I must say, I totally agree with this saying. This is all about LOVE. My love for Knowledge and I love doing this. So, this explains why there is no single ad in my blog. To this, I could not agree more with Drucker, ( I really like this man of great thoughts), when he stated that "Economic wants and economic satisfactions are important but not absolutes. Above all, economic activities, economic institutions, economic rationality, are means to noneconomic ( that is human or social) ends rather than ends in themselves". But, this particular sincere comment of his is the one which has the highest impact on my conscience:  " I saw no point in being the richest man in the cemetery". Funny. He really does have a great sense of humour.

So, my dear readers, I must admit though that having a strong love for knowledge, will NOT blind me to the simple fact that DUTY (aka 'responsibility' ) takes precedence over LOVE. I personally believe that it is the high regards for DUTY that will enable one to do something that he or she does not love or to simply persevere in the face of adversity. But, if you have both LOVE and DUTY as your source of passion that motivates you in whatever you do in life, then, I must say, you really have a KILLING combination of inner DRIVE. I strongly perceive that it is in the sincere attempt to execute one's DUTY which might be born out of LOVE that will transcend one's limitation to one's exceptional performance. 

And so, when I read about a mom being charged for giving a false information just to ensure that she could enlist her child into a 'good' school, I said to myself : "This is purely an ACT of LOVE". Of course, my motherly instinct tells me that it was her love for her child that has tempted her to commit such an act. Her pure love to ensure that her child will have chance at obtaining a better future. It was also an ACT of DUTY. Again, my motherly hunch is that it was purely her strong obligation that instigated her to try all her might to 'free' her child from 'inheriting' her present depressing situation; i.e. by providing her child with an enabling condition for potential development. Of course, I could be wrong, but as they say, only a woman understands another woman.

Nevertheless, she really understood the IMPORTANCE of KNOWLEDGE as an essential MEANS in one's life. No doubt, she actually displays a good understanding of what K-economy is all about.  With knowledge being the commodity, becoming an 'enabled' knowledge worker allows one to own one's 'means of production'. This brings me back to my childhood memories. I remember a motto (or is it an old saying?), I came across when I was small. In Malay, it was written as "Ilmu Pelita Hidup". Literally translated, the meaning is more or less like this: "Knowledge : The Torch of Life". And this simply explains why I have such a high regard for knowledge and in fact, silently hoping that everybody will actively engage themselves in knowledge-seeking endeavors.

However, in the ever-changing and fast-paced world that we live today, it is no exaggeration on my part to say that I do sometimes find myself caught in the midst of confusion and and trapped in a  chaotic  environment. And that is when I realize the crucial importance of relying to one's faith when everything seems to making no sense.  Sincerely, I believe faith will not fail to 'light up' the heart and provide me with spiritual guidance at times when I sense that the feeling of darkness is starting to envelop me. And that my dear readers, is simply the power of faith.

Well, back to the predicament faced by the mom, I sincerely believe that we all could learn some valuable lessons from her situation. Personally, I feel that her  'failed' attempt is not merely about championing her cause for the right for education for all, but more importantly for equal quality education for all so that the potentials of her child could be well developed and enhanced. And so, in our quest to develop first class human capitals, I strongly believe  we need to go all out in discovering the hidden potentials among our young generation. This,  of course, signifies the forever importance and the relevancy of utilizing a centralized system of assessment of students' performance. Simply because, it is only through a standardized evaluation could we identify the unpolished gems of the country from all over the place and then, to tap on their valuable potentials.