Question First, Think Later

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

When we drive, the road are straightforward, there is a beginning and an end. You begin at your home, and your destination could be your workplace.

Once you entered the office, there’s beginning and an end too. You start at 9AM, lunch by 1PM sometime, and end your work by 6PM. Then the routine to go home begin. And then the routine to sleep.

Some anointed this as: eat, sleep, wake up, repeat cycle.

When we grow up, we are taught the linear progression of life. Go to kindergarten, then to primary school, and then high school, university, work and then the ultimate pension.

In this age, we are putting ourself in a lot of autopilot mode.

And this lead to a huge gap of when I first started my career.

There wasn’t a straight path. And the worst news is, not everyone is alive to accomplish that “straight path”.

My Initial Mistake

I was around 25+ years old when I officially start dipping my feet into the corporate world. Although I have worked and freelanced before that for few years, this is different. Working along side true engineers that face true world problems.

And there I was.

I begin to hope for someone to start giving me a task. Anything, give me a checklist for me to check and mark as done. I desperately need this.

After all, after 25+ years of living experience, everything taught us that life will give us a straightforward checklist.

That was such a big mistake. And how the system trained us, is another big mistake. With my first career, I had to start thinking on my own. No lecturer to guide me. No one to hold my hand. And the mistake I made, I have to own them.

I constantly needed a guide.

Until I don’t.

I’ve grown and mature from those phase, where I now seek problem instead of waiting for them. But it was a long journey that I hope, my writing will help you realize sooner rather than later.

Think for yourself.

My Second Mistake

…is that, I always ask questions first, like a child excited to see the world around him.

When given something to worked on, I would question everything like a child, to a point that this become autonomous and habit. And then, I started to see those who taught me has faded smile.

What began as an excitement to answer my questions, then become a burden that others tried to avoid.

But that’s what a good person would do right? Question everything?

On one moment, I stopped asking questions, but then those faded smiles become eager for me to ask them questions.

What seems to be the problem?

If I asked too much, I get pushed. If I did not ask anything at all, others would like the attention back.

Truth is, it does not matter.

What truly matters, is my growth. I have been desperately trying to satisfy other’s criteria and check marks. I rely on other’s benchmarks and definition of success.

That in the end, I became a grass that sways to every wind direction, without a solid stance.

The mistake, is paving my path on other’s blueprint.

I did not even enjoy it, and felt like a hypocrite. So I start doing things on my own first. I research what I needed to, I explore what needs to be explored, I delegate what needs to be, and I own my career.

Before we fill someone else’s cup, fill our own first, for it is our own mistake we did not have a drink in the end.

My Third Mistake

I näively believed that life is a linear progression.

I would go in my career ladder, climb as high as I can, and then I would return to my family, take care of my parents, tends to my wife and child.

But life has never been linear. The earth did not orbit the sun linearly. Atoms are not made of straight lines. The air we breath aren’t a straight snack bar.

Everything floats around us at random, and we expect life to be linear.

My father passed away and I lost my chance to tend to him.
A lot of opportunities vanish and I lost my chance to try them.

The mistake, is hoping what we plan will manifest, until we forgot to give our all to “now”.

You’re not living in the future.

You’re now, even as you read this newsletter.

My Last (But Not Least) Mistake

As for the final cherry on top of the cake, the most profound mistake of my life, but definitely not the least.

I wasted time.

The most important currency, is never money. There was no money in the age of Adam.

There are so many advise I would like to give to my young self, but the important of all is, to spend the time wisely.

Time, is the only linear progression in our life. You’re young, and then you’re old. There’s no other way around it. And at one point, we die.

I give advice on careers, and most and majority of it revolves around my mistakes in this field.

Spend your time wisely.

Regardless of your religion, beliefs or experience. The one true fact that everyone can agree upon is that time is your only truth, and how you spend it truly matters.

Make an impact with it.

May Allah s.w.t. grant all my reader success, happiness in life and blessed time spent. We are but temporary in this world.