Year End Reflection

To all readers and "friends". Aheem....trying to clear my throat before I make a year end speech. Pretty serious-huh?

Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan sekalian. Thank you for taking interests in my blog for another year. I must say that I am the one that benefited the most out of blogging because writing keeps my brain muscles moving. Brain exercise is one thing but my heart is also get to exercise as well. Writing with honesty and revealing what I feel on a particular issue certainly help me emotionally. I think you have seen it all here -- funny, sarcasm, wit, anger, nag, sad, regret, hope, care, boast, greed, fear, etc.

The third part is my writing skill. I have been struggling with it for years. Can't get my tenses right, mixed up singular with plural nouns, typical school boy English with out of tuned, out of tempo conjunctions(but, however, subsequently, etc). English has cost me dearly. After I came out from school, I flung so many professional job interviews whenever written English is required. I was trying to psycho myself with all kind of positive thinkings, yells it aloud I CAN, I MUST, I WILL. I wanted it to make it happen badly, very badly I am telling you. I was trying to read. I was trying to impress with flowery language and bombastic words but it made others' hair stand on end. I CAN, I MUST, I WILL got me no where but to the land of broken hearts.

I am grateful for my bosses who sacrificed their precious times to flood my drafts with red inks. The first few red inks papers made me felt almost crippled by snake venom. I felt immobilized, paralyzed and lost the ability to feel -- waiting to be taken HOME. You see your colleagues composing masterpieces and yet you are still working on your mechanics and techniques. How frustrating is that? You feel that you are so small that you are regretted to be born into this world. Your analytical skills, business acumen, ability to relate others are literally destroyed by English. English does not only cost you your career advancement but it can affect your self-esteem. My heart beats will be drumming every time I send in my drafts for review. You know how an insecure person feel when he is waiting to be criticized. Don't play play-ah!

I am grateful that I can write in simple English to communicate with you today. I am sure my "teachers" will still leave some red inks circles and a few arrows here and there(if I show them my draft). It's too bad that one of them had gone back to heaven and the other one retired already.

So what is the moral of the story today? Don't be offended if I sound like treating you like a student. Investing is like English, it is not a nice-to-have but a must-have. Like grammars, there are rules. Like painting or music, some endow with a natural gift but many will struggle. I can go on and on but what is my punch line? Punch line? Here you are:

Good investors are made, not born!

Investing is a journey, not a destination!

See you in 2012!