Chapter 4

Common Beliefs
that Prevent
Success in Your
Career
 Common Beliefs that Prevent Success in Your Career

4.1 Common Beliefs that Prevent Success in Your Career

This person was born to a struggling single 13-year-old mother. She was also a victim of
physical and sexual abuse before the age of 13. She, then, became pregnant to a still born
baby and got into trouble with the law before the age of 15. Based on this account, do you
think she would be successful? The answer is she is now one of the richest and most
powerful person in US media industry. Her name is Oprah Winfrey and she needs no
introduction. The following beliefs often bother many in their pursuit for career success.
Let's review them and see how many others have proven the beliefs very wrong!

Belief No. 1:
"I cannot afford to fail! I have failed before. It will not work!"
During Dato' Jimmy Choo's early days in London, many Malaysians did not appreciate
his shoes. He had a lot of difficulty promoting his shoes locally. Two years after setting
up his shop in London, Vogue featured an eight-page spread on his shoes and the rest is
history. Now they say, "Jimmy, I can't afford your shoes!"

Did you know that Donald Trump had failed in business and was almost a bankrupt? In
the 1980s and early 1990s, he had personal wealth of $1 billion. But, in the late 1990s,
due to the worldwide depression, property prices went down badly and he was $900
million in debt. His business knows how and experience carried him through and within
three years he made over $3 billion!

In his book The Art of the Comeback, Trump talked about how the experience had made
him wiser, stronger and more focused. He even highlighted that if not for the `failure', he
would not have found out who his true friends were!

Ray Kroc, the founder of the McDonald's franchise, had diabetes, arthritis and huge debts
at a certain point of his career!

Azizi Ali, Malaysia's own personal finance author failed in his first business — the music
industry.

The point is this if we were to ask any of the people who we see as successful, he would
most likely say that they have failed whilst trying to reach a goal at one point or another.
Yet, most of the time, the concern of failure is probably one of the reasons why we do not
want to pursue a goal.

So the irony is, since we are most likely to fail before we succeed, we should `fail' more
often (by taking more action and calculated risks), so that we can be more successful in
more of our goals progressively!

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 Common Beliefs that Prevent Success in Your Career

Belief No. 2:
"I don't have the education", "I studied the wrong thing ..."
There are numerous examples of successful individuals who overcame their so-called
lack of education.

Did you know that Lim Goh Tong, the founder of Genting Berhad, was forced to leave
school when he was 16 years old? With his limited education he had managed to carry
out many huge engineering projects and grew his business into a multinational
conglomerate from scratch! And the interesting fact is his company hires many highly
educated people who are more educated than him!

Jobstreet's Mark Chang recalled that he could not even read English when he was in
Form Three. When he went to USA to study, he knew he had to learn English quickly or
he would not survive. He listened to the radio programme Voice of America every
evening. He also said that it helped that no one spoke to him in any language other than
English and thus he simply had to improve his command of the language!

Michael Dell of Dell Computers did not complete his university education and yet he
took his start up company which he ran out of his dorm room to later become a public
listed multinational conglomarate.

The founder and chairman of Public Bank, Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow do not have any
university or college education. He only completed his secondary education. He learnt the
ropes of banking when he was at OCBC Bank and then later at Malayan Banking.

Chef Wan's career didn't start in the food industry. Surprisingly, he wanted to become an
accountant. He worked in a bank for seven years before venturing into the culinary world.
He obtained an Associate Degree in Professional Chef Training and Hotel Management
at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and things went uphill from then on.

Belief No. 3:
"I don't have enough money", "I don't have money to be successful in my career",
"I am very poor! Lim Goh Tong came to Malaya when he was 20 years old with a small
suitcase and 175 dollars. Enough said.

Ex-MCA President, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting's father died when he was eight, leaving his

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mother to fend for his family of 11 siblings. He helped his mother tap rubber and harvest
paddy to make a living. He recalled his childhood days when he ate sweet potato leaves
and diluted porridge for breakfast, lunch and tea every day. Rice was only eaten for
dinner.

In one of his speeches, he mentioned that he believes that poverty and hardship provided
him with valuable lessons about perseverance and self-reliance.

In another interview with Berita Harian in 2005, Dato' Seri said that his years of hardship
taught him to cherish life than he would have otherwise. He added that without his past
he would never have got to where he was now.

Michael Dell started his PC business career when he was a university student with not
much capital compared to the multibillion business Dell Computers is now! It's not how
much money you have; it's how resourceful you are that matters.

Belief No. 4:
"I'm too fat, too thin, too old, too shy, handicapped ..."
Afdlin Shauki is a popular local actor who has been riding on his `disadvantage' in
movies such as Buli, Sumolah and theatre plays such as Why You're Still Fat at Actors
Studio. He truly believes that `fat people can be heroes'.

Adibah Noor is one of Malaysia's most versatile female artist who is a talented singer,
entertainer and actress. In one of her interviews she said that when people observed that
she is amply endowed, she is not offended at all. "If that is a polite way of saying I'm fat,
I'm not at all upset. I'm fat what. Not in denial. Just don't hate me because I'm beautiful ...
hahaha!" She added that she will only lose weight for health reasons if it will help save
her life and not for anything else.

Did you know Lim Goh Tong started developing Genting Highlands when he was almost
50 years old! To him there is no such thing as retirement. Even when he was in his 80s he
still worked as usual. He thinks that anytime is a good time to venture into a business
opportunity, especially for the good profits!

The founder of Malaysia's `The Chicken Rice Shop' franchise, Khoo Cheng Gaik started
the venture when she was more than 55 years old. Tony Leong, the popular award
winning Hong Kong actor was a quiet and shy child. When he was growing up, his
parents frequently quarreled over money and his father, a chronic gambler left the family
when he was eight. Neverheles, he overcame this 'weakneess' in a positive manner
through acting. Here are some of his inner thoughts on his shyness: "After my father left
me when I was eight, I became afraid to talk to other people. In school, when other
children talked about their parents, I would get very embarrassed. I didn't want to
mention my father, so I seldom talked to others. In acting I can express my emotions
without getting embarrassed. I can cry or smash things on the set but no one knows
whether I'm actually acting or that's really how I am feeling."

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 Common Beliefs that Prevent Success in Your Career

Alfred Ho is blind. He has been a singer and guitarist for more than 20 years. He started
out as a telephone operator and got into the entertainment scene when he wrote in and got
into a radio programme. His big break into music happened when he accidentally
participated in a music competition which he thought was a TV programme appearance

Belief No. 5:
"I am just a low level employee"
Many people are concerned with starting out at the highest position they can possibly get
but do you realise that many successful individuals started with very humble beginnings
and learnt the ropes as they progressed?

For instance, did you know that Air Asia's Tony Fernandes started his career as an
auditor? AnitaAli, the founder of the Laksa Shack franchise was once a bathroom cleaner
at government schools and a waitress at a fast food chain. She rose to be a senior
operations manager and learnt about the food and beverage business before starting her
venture.

Tan Sri Teh Heng Piow started as a bank clerk at OCBC Bank. Popular fashion designer,
Bernard Chandran started as a teenager designing clothes for transvestites! Dato' Seri
Ong Ka Ting, the former MCA President, started out as a mathematics teacher at Catholic
High School in Petaling Jaya.

Belief No. 6:
“I don't have time”, “I’m too busy ...”
We are all given 24 hours a day to eat, sleep, relax and work. It's how we use the time
that determines where we go.

Many successful individuals have made use of their time well and made tough choices on
how they use their time.

For example, Azizi Ali was a full time pilot when he got his MBA and his financial
planning certification and wrote multiple bestselling books on personal finance. He said
that he chose to do things that progressed his career and sacrificed watching TV, going to
parties or reading on subjects that did not relate to his career.

Belief No. 7:
"I don't know how to start", "I don't have the experience or knowledge" One of the
common traits of successful people are their abilities to learn while they take action in
their respective endeavours.

In one of his interviews, Jobstreet's founder Mark Chang felt that his company's growth
was very gradual, with a little bit happening every day. He started the business as an
owner-worker. He was essentially an engineer when he started. When the company grew,
he became a manager faced with new responsibilities that needed new skills. And as he
took on new positions, his knowledge and skills increased.

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Lim Goh Tong started out as a vegetable farmer and a petty trader. With the kind of
background he had, many were surprised that he managed to build an entertainment city
on a mountain. He certainly was not born with the knowledge to be an architect or builder
of such a grand venture in Malaysia.

Body Shop's founder, Anita Roddick, demonstrated this point well in her book Body and
Soul. "As I didn't know how things were supposed to be done. I didn't know the rules and
I didn't I know the risks.

As far as I was concerned there were no rules and so I just went on my merry way
working from gut instinct. I honestly believe I would not have succeeded if I had been
taught about business." Still want more examples? It's probably quite well known that
Tony Fernandes had no previous experience running an airline when he started Air Asia.
He was actually from the music industry! And to .add to that, he began his career as an
auditor!

Belief No. 8:
"I'm not Tony Fernandes, Lim Goh Tong or Bill Gates!"
My good friend, CT Chong had many years of experience as an employee in a finance
and accounting company. In 2005, he deliberated about his future and decided to take up
a course related to his interest in computers and Internet.

He did not find the course very useful but through hard work, he managed to generate an
alternative `career' in an Internet business which pays him as high an income as his full-
time job. My elder sister SL Yap was employed in the financial services line for years.

Then, she decided to quit her job in Ipoh to move to the city to start working part time in
the unit trust industry. With no major contacts or knowledge of the KL market, she
worked hard and over the years built a successful career in the unit trust industry. Now
she is one of the top unit trust agency leaders earning many times more than the income
from her last job!

In conclusion
Our beliefs play a major part in determining whether or not we are able to overcome
challenges and succeed in our career endeavours. One of the characteristic of a successful
person is their ability to choose powerful beliefs that will help them overcome a
challenge.

Of course, they are mindful of their weaknesses and shortcomings but they choose to
think positively so that they can improve themselves. Consider a situation faced by two
different persons: Say the company has just announced that there will be no pay increase
this year for all staff. A typical response from many people would be to complain about
how unfair the management's decision is and how their hardwork is not being rewarded.
Some may even choose not to work hard.

A person who has powerful beliefs will choose to think about ways to further improve

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their skills and contributions within the company so that they will be rewarded with a pay
increase in the future - regardless they are rewarded and recognized by their present
company. This is because they understand that their skills and abilities will be rewarded
sooner or later as long as they can help companies do better in revenues or profits!

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