The story goes back to 15 years ago, on
a nice afternoon, me and 5 other friends were playing "sepak takraw".
At that young age, we hardly utilizes
all the 3 steps allowed, known as "botoi", means reply a serve
directly on one go.
Looking at us
playing is a man who is in his late 20's, physically thin and on a first glance
would be normally being labelled a drug-addict.
After watching
us playing for a while, he then approached us, and said:
"Kalah
Takpa, Gaya Mau Ada" (play in style even if you are losing / will lose).
Then, he quietly
stepped back, and continues watching us playing. Then after, knowing that he is
watching, we tend to utilizes all the 3 steps allowed. It wasn't that long for
us to realize that, in that way, sepak takraw is more fun and it increases the
spirit of team work.
Fast forward
to 4th of August 2013, when I recall that incident, isn't that we often missed
out the opportunity to see the positive side of things happened / happening to
us?
Two lessons
can be extracted.
1. Taking Advice
In my
opinion, to take advice only from someone higher in status and knowledge is a
wrong perception. Advice means life experience, and a personal insight. Advice
can be given by anybody, either on positive note, or even negative.
Example of
negative note:
A
chain smoker can give a public awareness talk (a.k.a. advice) on how they became
chain smokers.
A wise man
once said, "Do not look upon who is saying, rather, look upon (i.e. listen)
to what is being said".
2. Excellence
Sometimes, we
fail to see the big pictures. We tend to focus too much on winning (or, afraid
to lose) that we do not focus on excellence anymore (i.e. in style). It is always
the line between winning and losing, or right and wrong. But in reality, the
focus should be towards excellence. I strongly believe that, only then, we can
be creative and innovative.
The word “excellence” comes from “excel”
which means “to be exceptionally good at something”. Excellence also means “the quality of being
extremely good or outstanding”. It is
“the state of excelling; surpassing merit or quality” and “the activity etc. in
which a person excels”.
(From Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary and the New Oxford Dictionary of Modern English)
