My Boss

I went to visit my late boss Halim Rahman’s grave few days ago, he already leave us 12 years ago, I still miss my boss so much. I thank you my boss help me to become who I am today. I am still learning and far from success.

I am a Jungle boy never travel oversea before, during teen time I just watched a TV program call Petronas Adventure Team-Silk Road, then I told my self I want to follow the team one day, after school, I try 3 years then manage to work for my boss with very small money, then start my 3? trip driving journey to more then 20+ country, 1st,? Malaysia drive to Mount Everest, 2nd Malaysia drive to India and 3rd Amsterdam drive back to Malaysia.

10 lesson I learn from my boss

1. Action for your Dream

Talk is cheap until get execute it, different people have different definition of Dream, some people want Dream car, house…….but my definition of Dream is something need to achieved not only with money but with long period of time to accumulated of skill and experience,? high amount of effort, challenges and sacrifice to achieve it. I have seem my boss so persistent even he have some madical condition, sometime he have to go another town to get medical assistant during the journey but he never give up and he just move on with his strong will to achieve his team objective with his life. At the end the fulfilment is priceless. I learn to never kill a person dream say he or she cant, encourage them. I still have some dream 30 years ago inside my heart and still not die and I am still work hard for that, even I can’t achieve it soon but at least I try and enjoy the journey.

2.? Trust

The moment I got the job, is the transition prior in digital and film photography, lots of things need lot of learning curve, experiment, try and error, ask the different specialist, that time internet is not common, my boss trust me fully and let me try to use the digital camera( I borrow money from another person to buy) to do the work, even I never to work in extreme condition, I have sleep with the batteries ( it drain very fast ) to keep it warm when in very extreme cold area. Try the camera is wet area, snow? mountain , desert area too. Even that time is also the transition time for digital to plate in book publishing too, no longer have colour separator process, I have to sleep in the printing house day and night to check the colour consistency, boss is happy with the book result, he even trust me print the book in the best printer in the World in Singapore ( when I was young I always go to book shop to read coffee table book , and I know this printer print all the best book ) He also let us we do a big scale exhibition in the galleries too. How happy boy I am thank you for my boss’s Trust. That I how I learn to do my own book and exhibition until now.

3.? Care

Boss will care for every one in the team, early of the year, boss give me an extra yellow ‘ North Face ‘winter jacket and winter camp to keep me really warm, I still keep the Jackey until now when I on my assignment. Every time I do my job , boss will make sure someone is prepare the food for me, because I work very late. Boss teach me to care for everyone even a toilet cleaner. Boss is kind, he will help everyone while he can, while some people still take advantage of him, at the end I can see those people don’t have a good life without integrity. We do lot of community work during our work , it really teach me serve the less fortunate community. At the end the person who received the most is the one who serve. After the first assignment, I go to see my Boss ask for addition money that I come out my own pocket, he told me he know the money I have not even can pay rent, he just write a big cheques more then I ask for to reward me:)

4.? Discipline

Biggest thing I lean until now is punctuality, Boss will scold if a person not on time, everyone will scare,? so everyone will be there on time so that is no delay, so we plan time very careful? Secondly is promise, when promise something have to deliver, don’t promise something I can’t deliver, so now I learn to be honest what I can / cant deliver on the time given to my client. I prefer a good character working partner. That is one day off, everyone is free to do anything,? I went to visit a mountain by cable car with few team members. In the half way lighting make the cable car hanging in the middle of the mountain 1 hour, someone try to call us but can’t so make boss worried and ground us to visit any place next city, after the dinner he come to apology and I understand he really care for us and how much responsible he have to make sure on our safety. well, next city, we got approval to visit another mountain again :P.

5. Be prepared

Boss teach us expected the unexpected, you fail to plan, you plan to fail ! have different plans to face the challenge, always think forward what will happen then we can prepare in advance. We will pack more spare parts and equipments because is hard to get things and source things in the middle of the place we not familiar, we always bring lots of food in the car for weeks, if we cant finished, we will donate to the local people in the last few days on the trip. When I am on a cross-country driving trip, I always risk assessment the location and? remember how boss teach us to prepare the trip, drive responsible with safety. Always think what to do when something happen not be optimise we are lucky so nothing will happen, no harm to spent more time to be prepared the SOP.

6. Team work

In the team, we have lots of top on their filed specialist- doctor, mechanic, arm force, chef , researcher，scientist and others, they work selfless help each other to make sure the team run well, boss don’t care who you are, how rich or powerful you are, in the team we are one Malaysian team, everyone need to listen his final instruction, someone do wrong, boss will sent back the person in next flight, is good to have a strong team leader that everyone obey without so much problem .Secondly is no one left behind, I have seen so many situation but the unforgettable is when we are in Mount Everest’s check point, they are only allow 5 cars ( we have 23 cars) go to Mount Everest base camp, Mount Everest is my boss’s dream very long time ago and is the team objective, but he tell the us if go everyone go, if not go everyone stay no go, we do the vote and all support Boss and after long 3 days ‘discussion’ with check point we all can go as a whole team, when we reach the base camp with our car, I believed all of the team have tear in their eye and we are the first convoy in the world to reach the Month Everest basecamp in the book of record.

7. Apology

People who know my boss is a hot tempered person, for me hot temper is warm heart person after I know him well, I do mistake sometime,? so boss will ‘teach’ me first , and later he will come to apology to me and buy me? food to then forgive each other, and move one, the more I know the reason behind, the more I know why he want me to be safe and better, listen first and don’t fight back and say sorry and let it cool down, job is job nothing personal, Now I can learn to talk to people who is hot temper like my wife :P? I can understand she always want me to be good :)

8. Humble

We have traveled so many road that people less traveled country, pass by so many area that is not so modern, less education, bad medical condition, bad housing condition, war zone and even a unstable government and also pass by some friendly country which are simple happiness life with sincere smile, at the end I am lucky and contented as a Malaysian living in peaceful, beautiful country call HOME. Only I see it then I can feel it, is hard to explain in word,? I learn that don’t need to have lots of things to be happy. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

9. Respect

The team have different race, religious team member, Boss let us pray together every morning follow our now religious praying time , we can sit in the same table to eat our own halal or non halal food and talk about own political view too :) that is few time I ask for good light, sun just shine during my shoot then finished shine after my shoot, when I ask for stop rain , it will stop a while and continue back after I shoot the photo and many more amazing nearly dead incident how great the God are. Until now I still practice this to my team, we pray together every morning follow our own religious, we care for muslim prayer time and fasting time, we can see lots of miracle things happen in our eye during our job.

10 .Be yourself

Life is up and down, I learn from boss that I can’t make everyone happy, everyone want different things in life with wearing different type of mask that they don't even want to, well that is life, is easy to talk about be yourself but hard to do, I can talk direct sincerely but not many people can accept. We don’t need to have people to approve us, just have to be ourself what I love to do, no one is perfect, just run it my own journey that people don’t understand, life is very shot, just make my life to be meaningful and create a different to other people, I can’t control the long of my life but I can control the wide of my life ( now I am just cant control wide of my body)? Boss really have a great life experience until his last day, even he pass away and his legacy will be remember. Thank you Boss giving me the opportunity for a life time unforgettable experience that I tell my son , well finally what I learn is not about bucket list like how much country I have visited and is about how much the place at that moment can inspire my life.

Thank you boss for the inspiration and encouragement. I miss you and I love you