LESSONS OF SUCCESS

LESSONS OF SUCCESS

THE LEGACY OF TAN SRI DATO’ SRI DR. TEH HONG PIOW

By Dr. Victor S.L. Tan

 

INTRODUCTION

Success often means different things to different people.  Generally, success is a sense of satisfaction or fulfillment from achieving one’s goal.  No one could claim success unless it is recognized by at least one other person.  For any achievement to be considered a lasting success, it should be sustainable.

Diagram 1: The Success Model Of Tan Sri Teh

Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow is known for his entrepreneurship, altruism, keen business acumen, and wealth.  Tan Sri Teh's life is a classic rags-to-riches story.  There are two major influences over Tan Sri Teh that is his emotional distance from his father and the size of his family.  As a result, Tan Sri Teh was very independent from a young age.  His unique style of ‘discipline with care’ both at home and at work, led to an effective leadership style of ‘iron man in velvet glove’.  It is part of Tan Sri’s belief that when people stop learning, they stop leading.

A person can only move forward by leaving his or her comfort zone.  Taking risk can be immensely rewarding if combined with thoughtfulness and calculation.  The lessons learned from Tan Sri Teh's early years are:

·         Do not let obstacles in the early years of your life set you back

·         Make up any lack of external resources with your own internal resources

·         The world does not stop for you to adjust. 

THE 8 P’s

Diagram 2: The 8 Ps – Success Principles of Tan Sri Teh

Principle 1: Know Your PURPOSE

A clear PURPOSE provides the direction and focus to go about in a deliberate manner until one goal after another is achieved.  It also enables us to overcome all obstacles and challenges and provides the energy and creativity to sustain the effort until the goal is achieved.

It is only by having a PURPOSE that a leader can ignite the fire in his people.  The leader also need to ensure that the PURPOSE has meaning and is challenging enough to inspire everyone to achieve it.  The way a leader communicates a PURPOSE can make all the difference between success or failure.

Principle 2: Be PASSIONATE About Your Chosen Field

PASSION is defined as evoking strong and intense emotion.  To have a PASSION in one’s chosen field is great, but if there is no one to share it with, then that passion dies a natural death.  PASSION can become a self-motivating tool that encourages people to achieve their goals and even willing to contribute to activities not directly related to the actual day-to-day duties simply for the love of the organization and what they are doing.  Self-motivated employees, driven by PASSION can change the world.

Principle 3: Be People-Oriented

Diagram 3: The 7 Hidden reasons Why Employees Leave by Leigh Branham

 Diagram 4: Key Ingredients Employee Want from Workplace

It is often the smallest of gestures that leaves the most impact on others.  Being PEOPLE ORIENTED does make great business sense as happy and satisfied employees are committed and productive employees.  Success is about focusing on people, treating them with respect and bringing out the best in them.

Principle 4: Have perseverance To Overcome All Odds

Not many people have the stamina to go the distance in the journey to achieve success.  To succeed, one requires strength of character.  A person with a strong character is almost always passionate about what he does.  Success does not come easy.  When a strong foundation is built based on a sound and strong character, a person develops a great sense of self-belief and confidence.

Diagram 5: Tan Sri Teh's life Lesson

Determination, dedication, self-belief and a never-give-up spirit are what distinguish people who realize their dreams from those who do not.

Principle 5: Be Proactive In Thought And Action

Learn that there is a time to work and a time to play, but it is always best to prepare for the days of necessity.  Being PROACTIVE means having an orientation to the future, anticipating problems and taking affirmative steps to deal positively with them rather than reacting after an incident has already occurred.

Principle 6: Practice Professionalism

The PROFESSIONALISM begins with the mind – a positive attitude.  PROFESSIONALISM can also be reflected in the way one deals with people.  A great deal of success depends on the competency of its people.  PROFESSIONALISM is reflected in knowledge and also in the manner in which decisions are made.

PROFESSIONALISM increases confidence and trust.  Practicing PROFESSIONALISM in the workplace entails sincerity and integrity and result in good reputation.  Attitude and behavior play a large part in PROFESSIONALISM.

Principle 7: Maintain Prudence

Prudence is basically good judgment or wisdom gained from experience, and expressed with realistic caution.  It is more about being realistic than about being conservative.

Principle 8: Be Positive Towards Work And Life

Being positive is an outlook in life, a state of mind, a habit of thinking positive thoughts, and using positive words, and delivering positive acts every day.  A secret to being positive towards work or life and succeed in them is love – love what you do and do what you love.  When it is all about passion, fear can be turned into something positive.  The few tips towards being positive:

·         Walk the walk, talk the talk

·         Being positive towards the staff

·         Communicating positively and convincingly

·         Addressing the needs and wants of people

·         Believe in people and earn their loyalty

 

SUSTAINING SUCCESS

Sustaining success is more challenging than achieving success.  Resilience is crucial towards developing a sustainable, successful organization.

The performance of an organization is affected by its shared beliefs, core values and behavioral patterns.  Beliefs are assumptions or perceptions about things, people and the organizations as a whole that are taken as true.  Core values are primary or dominant values that are emphasized and accepted throughout the organization. The relationship is as shown in Diagram 6.

Diagram 6: Corporate Culture Process

 Recognition of an employee’s work goes beyond simply watching him achieve his KPIs and rewarding him for it.  Tan Sri Teh's advice:

 QUOATES

1.         For our own success to be real, it must contribute to the success of others.

- Eleanor Roosevelt, Humanitarian and former American First Lady

2.         Leaders are made, they are not born.  They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.

- Vince Lombardi, American Football Coach

3.         Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

- Leo F. Buscaglia, American Author

4.         Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success.

- Henry Ford

5.         Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

- Norman Cousins, American Author and Humanitarian

6.         Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

- Albert Einstein

7.         Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.

- Lao Tzu