Netsuite, Krisis Malah Untung

Professional Services Director Asia Pacific Netsuite,

Dean Stockwell.

By: Agustinus Gius Gala


Krisis ekonomi global membuat kelimpungan perusahaan-perusahaan di seluruh dunia, tetapi tidak bagi Netsuite. Krisis yang berawal dari Amerika Serikat ini justru mendatangkan keuntungan bagi perusahaan yang bergerak di software as a service (SaaP) ini.
"It's good for us," ujar Professional Services Director Asia Pacific Netsuite, Dean Stockwell, saat Kompas.com berkunjung ke Kantor Regional Asia Pacific Netsuite di Singapura beberapa waktu lalu. Diungkapkannya, situasi sekarang ini memang tidak bisa dikatakan baik bagi setiap perusahaan. Diakui Stockwell, akibat krisis ini membuat beberapa perusahaan mungkin tidak akan menjadi kliennya di tahun depan, tetapi ia optimistis perusahaan yang lebih besar justru akan menjadi klien perusahaan yang mempunyai inisial "N" di bursa saham Wall Street ini.
"Keadaan ekonomi mungkin membuat small company tersisih sehingga mungkin tidak menjadi klien kami lagi tahun depan, tapi sebagai gantinya bigger company melirik kami sebagai alternatif. Itu sangat bagus bagi bisnis kami," paparnya.

Hal serupa disampaikan Corporat Account Managet Netsuit Rick Lanman. Dikatakannya, iklim ekonomi sekarang ini merupakan kesempatan bagi perusahaan yang berdiri sejak tahun 1998 ini. Menurutnya, perusahaan yang menggunakan jasa Netsuite bisa menghemat pengeluarannya hingga 40 persen. "Perusahaan-perusahaan tentu mencari cara bijak untuk menghemat uang, Netsuite mempunyai solusinya," klaimnya. "Jadi, iklim ekonomi memang sukar bagi konsumen, tapi dari perspektif kami justru menguntungkan," ujarnya sambil tertawa.
Ia memaparkan bukti dari "kebaikan" kondisi ekonomi sekarang ini untuk Netsuite. Pada kuartal empat 2008, Netsuite membukukan keuntungan sebagai perusahaan publik yang tercatat di New York Stock Exchange. "Pada kuartal pertama 2009 juga demikian. Laba kami meningkat secara signifikan sebanyak 52 persen dibanding tahun lalu," ujarnya.
Perusahaan yang saat ini mempunyai 8 cabang di seluruh dunia ini pada tahun 2008 mencatat pendapatan 152,476 juta dollar AS, jauh lebih banyak dibandingkan tahun 2007 yang mencapai 108,541 juta dollar AS.

Saat ini, Netsuite sedang menggarap pasar Asia Pasifik, termasuk Indonesia, yang dinilainya merupakan pasar potensial bagi perusahaan yang saat ini mempunyai 6.600 lebih klien di seluruh dunia. "Asia Pasifik menyumbang pertumbuhan double digit," ungkap Stockwell.
Netsuite, menurut Channel Manager Asia Joni Wong Angkasa, membangun sebuah aplikasi industri dan bisnis dengan berbasis online yang mendukung seluruh kebutuhan perusahaan, dari Manajemen Hubungan Pelanggan (CRM), Perencanaan Sumber Daya Perusahaan (ERP), hingga ke Situs Jualan. Ia mengklaim sebagai yang pertama dan satu-satunya aplikasi berbasis web yang menawarkan semuanya dalam satu sistem terpadu dan merupakan solusi yang andal. Selain itu, Netsuite dapat digunakan untuk membuat pihak manajemen mengambil keputusan lebih baik dan lebih cepat dengan dukungan data yang real-time.

"Yang artinya, para penjual atau sales dapat melihat catatan data lengkap pelanggan, termasuk dukungan kasus, masalah penagihan, dan banyak lagi. Gudang manajer dapat segera melihat pesanan penjualan yang telah disetujui pada panel kontrol, staf administrasi keuangan dapat melihat data sejarah pembayaran ketika menelepon pelanggan untuk mengumpulkan pembayaran," pungkasnya.

~From Kompas.com~

Gaya Kepemimpinan Layang-layang Ala Agung Adiprasetyo

"Karyawan bisa tidak produktif, karena pemimpin dianggap tidak manusiawi"

By: Agustinus Gius Gala

Gaya kepemimpinan layang-layang ala Agung Adiprasetyo sangat menarik untuk dicoba oleh kita sebagai pemimpin saat ini. Penduduk Indonesia pada dasarnya adalah orang baik sehingga para pemimpin perusahaan tidak perlu menerapkan gaya kepimpinan yang otoritatif atau pusing membuat aturan yang ketat bagi karyawannya. Berangkat dari pemikiran itulah, Agung Adiprasetyo, CEO Kompas Gramedia, menerapkan gaya kepemimpinan yang disebutnya gaya kepemimpinan layang-layang.

Gaya layang-layang yang ia maksudkan adalah jangan pernah menganggap adalah orang yang bodoh sehingga harus selalu diawasi. Jangan pula menjadi pemimpin yang otoriter dan selalu mengawasi karyawannya. "Karyawan bisa tidak produktif, karena pemimpin dianggap tidak manusiawi," jelasnya seusai peluncuran buku Indonesian Top CEO Wisdom: Precious Lessons, di Jakarta, Selasa (16/6).
Sebaliknya, tidak bagus pula jika karyawan dibiarkan begitu saja tanpa arahan, mereka akan merasa tidak diperhatikan. "Tinggal tarik ulur pada waktu yang tepat, jangan sampai lepas. Yang terpenting layang-layang harus tetap diberi angin," kata dia.
Ia menemukan teori tersebut dari pengalaman dirinya sendiri, Agung yang memulai kariernya sebagai petugas yang memberi cap pada koran, yang menjadi bukti iklan telah merasakan pahit getirnya menjadi karyawan.

"Pekerjaan awal saya sedikit di atas satpam. Seluruh keluhan karyawan dialami. Karena saya juga ikut mengalami bagaimana susahnya dulu merintis," ujarnya.
Selain terlalu otoritatif, menurut dia, kesalahan lain yang juga sering dilakukan para pemimpin adalah, mereka takut jika akan tergeser dari posisi yang ia duduki saat ini. Agung menerangkan, dari awal ia telah siap jika sewaktu-waktu dirinya dipindahkan.
"Kalau saya terus menjabat pada posisi yang sekarang, berarti saya tidak bisa naik jabatan. Kalau mau naik jabatan berarti harus siap untuk diganti," guraunya. Agung mengaku saat ini telah menyiapkan dua nama pengganti dirinya. Lebih jauh dia menerangkan, karyawan harus terus diingatkan untuk mengikuti perkembangan zaman, kalau tidak kemampuan yang dimiliki seorang karyawan lama kelamaan tidak lagi dapat dipergunakan.
"Itu yang berbahaya, tugas dari CEO untuk membawa karyawannya agar bisa up to date pada zamannya. Makin banyak karyawan yang dibawa up to date pada zamannya, perusahaan akan bertahan baik, jika tidak ya gagal," terang dia.

Agung juga menegaskan pentingnya sumber daya manusia dalam sebuah perusahaan. Oleh karena itu, ia terus mendorong seluruh karyawannya untuk terus berinovasi dan menguasai teknologi yang sedang berkembang. "SDM ditempatkan pada posisi paling depan nomor satu, setelah itu semua masalah akan beres. Mau urusan marketing, keuangan semuanya beres. Makanya SDM hal yang paling penting," pungkasnya.


~From Kompas.com~

Collaborative marketing

Philip Kotler: Think Customers
and You'll Be Save

"Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value."
~Philip Kotler~


By: Agustinus Gius Gala

JAKARTA,— Mengakhiri seminar sehari bertajuk "Marketing in Turbulent Times" pada hari Rabu (KOMPAS.com,27/5), Prof Philip Kotler, yang dijuluki Bapak Marketing Modern, memberikan nasihatnya kepada para pebisnis di Indonesia: "Think customers and you'll be save". Artinya kurang lebih, rengkuhlah para pelanggan Anda supaya bisnis Anda bisa tetap berlangsung baik.
Seminar di Ballroom Hotel Indonesia Kempinski, Jakarta, dan diselenggarakan atas kerja sama Kompas Gramedia, Markplus Inc, dan BRI Prioritas itu berlangsung menarik. Kotler di penghujung seminar menjelaskan masa depan marketing yang akan ditandai dengan kolaborasi antara produser dan seluruh stakeholder, termasuk pelanggan tadi.

"Collaborative marketing antara lain ditandai dengan co-created experiences," kata Kotler. Ia menjelaskan, keterlibatan pelanggan dalam menghasilkan produk yang lebih baik menjadi bagian penting dari model pemasaran masa kini.
Ia mencontohkan tentang pelibatan komunitas sepeda motor. Mereka diundang oleh perusahaan tertentu untuk memberikan sumbangan pemikiran guna memperbaiki produk motor yang menjadi idola mereka itu. "Belum semua perusahaan memasuki collaborative marketing secara utuh," ujarnya. Sebagian baru memasuki fase relationship marketing, yang sifatnya lebih menjaga hubungan antara produsen dengan konsumen. Namun ini masih lebih baik daripada sekedar transactional marketing, yang muncul pada era 50-an.
Kepada ratusan hadirin yang tampak betah mengikuti seminar dari pagi hingga petang itu, Kotler menjelaskan evolusi marketing mulai dari era 50-an sampai era 2000-an, yang ia sebut financially-driven marketing.

Masing-masing era menciptakan istilah tersendiri dalam dunia marketing, yang berlaku baik pada masanya. Tetapi selayaknya sebuah evolusi, makin ke sini makin kompleks sejalan dengan kemajuan ekonomi dan industri komunikasi.
Dalam bahasa Inggrisnya yang sangat jelas dan tidak rumit itu, Kotler, yang hari ini berusia 78 tahun, itu merumuskan pola marketing masa depan itu sebagai Marketing 3.0, yang bukunya segera diluncurkan.

Marketing nantinya tidak hanya menyentuh pikiran dan hati pelanggan, tetapi juga harus sampai pada penciptaan semangat (spirit) di antara para pelanggan. Sehingga, suatu perusahaan tidak hanya mampu membuat sekadar lebih baik atau berbeda dengan kompetitornya, tetapi juga bahkan mampu membuat perbedaan. Kotler malam ini menghadiri jamuan makan malam (gala dinner) yang diselenggarakan oleh Kementerian Budpar. Pada kesempatan itu, Kotler akan diangkat oleh Pemerintah Indonesia sebagai Dubes Pariwisata Indonesia.

~From Kompas.com~

The Persuit of Happyness

Chris Gardner

By Agustinus Gius Gala

Christopher Gardner is the owner and CEO of Gardner Rich LLC with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Conquering grave challenges to become a successful entrepreneur, Gardner is an avid motivational and aspirational speaker, addressing the keys to overcoming obstacles and breaking cycles. Gardner is also a passionate philanthropist whose work has been recognized by many esteemed organizations.

The amazing story of Gardner’s life was published as an autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness, (Amistad/Harper Collins) in May 2006, and became a New York Times and Washington Post #1 bestseller. In paperback, the book spent over twenty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into fourteen languages. Gardner was also the inspiration for the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness,” released by Columbia Pictures in December 2006. The movie is the #2 all-time domestic grossing drama. Will Smith starred as Gardner and received Academy Award, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his performance. Gardner was an associate producer on the film.
Gardner’s second book, Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be will be published on May 12, 2009.

Born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Christopher Paul Gardner’s childhood was marked by poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and family illiteracy. Gardner published his autobiography out of a desire to shed light on these universal issues and show they do not have to define you. Gardner never knew his father, and lived with his beloved mother, Bettye Jean Triplett (nee Gardner), when not in foster homes. Gardner is indebted to Bettye Jean for his success as she provided him with strong “spiritual genetics” and taught him that in spite of where he came from, he could chart another path and attain whatever goals he set for himself.

Gardner joined the Navy out of high school and then moved to San Francisco where he worked as a medical research associate and for a scientific medical supply distributor. In 1981, as a new father to son Christopher Gardner Jr., he was determined to find a career that would be both lucrative and fulfilling. Fascinated by finance, but without connections, an MBA or even a college degree, Gardner applied for training programs at brokerages, willing to live on next to nothing while he learned a new trade. Chris Jr.‘s mother left and Gardner, despite his circumstances, fought to keep his son because, as he says, “I made up my mind as a young kid that when I had children they were going to know who their father is, and that he isn’t going anywhere.”
Gardner earned a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program but became homeless when he could not make ends meet on his meager trainee salary. Today, Gardner is involved with homelessness initiatives assisting families to stay intact, and assisting homeless men and women who are employed but still cannot get by. It is estimated that 12% of the homeless population in the United States is employed; in some communities that estimate is as high as 30%.

Gardner worked at Bear Stearns & Co from 1983-1987 where he became a top earner. In 1987 he founded the brokerage firm Gardner Rich in Chicago from his home with just $10,000. Gardner Rich LLC is an institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions for some of the nations largest institutions, public pension plans and unions. Dedicated to improving the well-being of children through positive paternal involvement, Gardner is a board member of the National Fatherhood Initiative, and received the group’s Father of the Year Award in 2002. He serves on the board of the National Education Foundation and sponsors two annual awards: the National Education Association’s National Educational Support Personnel Award and the American Federation of Teachers’ Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel (PSRP) Award.

He also serves on the board of the International Rescue Committee, which works to provide access to safety, sanctuary, and sustainable change for millions of people whose lives have been shattered by violence and oppression. Gardner is still very committed to Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where he and his son received assistance in the early 1980’s. He has helped fund a project that creates low-income housing and opportunities for employment in the notoriously poor Tenderloin area of the city. Gardner has also been honored by the NAACP Image Awards with awards for both the book and movie versions of The Pursuit of Happyness; Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women’s (LACAAW) 2006 Humanitarian Award; The Continental Africa Chamber of Commerce’s 2006 Friends of Africa Award; The Glaucoma Foundation’s Kitty Carlisle Hart Lifetime Achievement Award; The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA); Covenant House, Common Ground and other organizations committed to combating violence against women, homelessness, and financial illiteracy; issues of the utmost importance to Gardner.

Chris Gardner’s aim, through his speaking engagements and media projects, is to help others achieve their full potential. His practical guidance and inspirational story have made him a frequent guest on CNN, CNBC and the Fox News Channel. He has been featured on “The CBS Evening News,” “20/20,” “Oprah,” “Today Show,” “The View,” “Entertainment Tonight,” as well as in People, USA Today, Associated Press, New York Times, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Jet, Reader’s Digest, Trader Monthly, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Post and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, amongst others.
Gardner has two children and resides in Chicago and New York.

~From Chris Gardnermedia~

Inspiration of The Day

"False words are not only evil in themselves,

but they infect the soul with evil"

~Plato~

"Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned

through self-discipline. Faith will accomplish"

~Bruce Lee~

"Bad men are full of repentance"

~Aristotle~

"Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems,

in my opinion, to characterize our age"

~Albert Einstein~

Pengusaha "Berdinas" Celana Pendek

Bob Sadino


“Jangan mengeluh dengan keadaan”
~Om Bob Sadino~

By Agustinus Gius Gala

Biografi:
Nama : Bob Sadino
Lahir : Tanjungkarang, Lampung, 9 Maret 1933
Agama : Islam
Ayah : Sadino
Anak : Dua Orang

Pendidikan:
SD, Yogyakarta (1947)
SMP, Jakarta (1950)
SMA, Jakarta (1953)

Karir:
Karyawan Unilever (1954-1955)
Karyawan Djakarta Lloyd, Amsterdam dan Hamburg (1950-1967)
Pemilik Tunggal Kem Chicks Supermarket (1969)
Dirut PT Boga Catur Rata
PT Kem Foods (pabrik sosis dan daging ham)
PT Kem Farms (kebun sayur)

Bob Sadino kembali ke Indonesia pada tahun 1967, setelah bertahun-tahun di Eropa dengan pekerjaan terakhir sebagai karyawan Djakarta Lloyd di Amsterdam dan Hamburg, anak bungsu dari lima bersaudara ini hanya punya satu tekad, yaitu bekerja tanpa harus di bawah perintah orang lain. Ayahnya, Sadino orang Solo yang jadi guru kepala di SMP dan SMA Tanjungkarang, meninggal ketika Bob berusia 19. Ini telah menjadi tantangan baginya, sehingga akhirnya ia harus hidup mandiri. Modal yang Bob bawa dari Eropa hanya dua mobil Mercedes buatan tahun 1960-an. Satu ia jual untuk membeli sebidang tanah di Kemang, Jakarta Selatan, yang ketika itu masih sepi dan lebih berupa sawah dan kebun. Mobil satunya lagi ia jadikan taksi dan Bob sendiri yang menjadi sopirnya. Bob menerima pemberian 50 ekor ayam ras dari seorang temannya.

Ia berhasil menjadi pemilik tunggal Kem Chicks dan pengusaha perladangan sayur sistem hidroponik. Lalu ada Kem Food, pabrik pengolahan daging di Pulogadung, dan sebuah warung shaslik di Blok M, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan. Catatan awal tahun 1985 menyebutkan, rata-rata per bulan perusahaan Bob menjual 40-50 ton daging segar, 60-70 ton daging olahan, dan sayuran segar 100 ton. Bob memberikan contoh salah satu hasil penjualan produknya, yaitu bisa menjual kangkung per kilo Rp 1.000. Ia tidak mau bergerak di luar bisnis makanan. Baginya, bidang yang ditekuninya sekarang tidak akan ada habisnya. Om Bob, demikian ia biasa dipanggil oleh bawahannya tidak melakukan olah raga khusus. Haji yang menyukai musik klasik dan jazz ini mengakui, saat-saat yang paling indah baginya adalah ketika bersembahyang jamaah dengan kedua anaknya.

Pengusaha Berpakaian Dinas Celana Pendek

Pria berpakaian ”dinas” celana pendek jin dan kemeja lengan pendek yang ujung lengannya tidak dijahit, ini adalah salah satu sosok entrepreneur sukses yang memulai usahanya benar-benar dari bawah dan bukan berasal dari keluarga wirausaha. Pendiri dan pemilik tunggal Kem Chicks (supermarket), ini mantan sopir taksi dan karyawan Unilever yang kemudian menjadi pengusaha sukses.Titik balik yang getir menimpa keluarga Bob Sadino. Bob rindu pulang kampung setelah merantau sembilan tahun di Amsterdam, Belanda dan Hamburg, Jerman, sejak tahun 1958. Ia membawa pulang istrinya, mengajaknya hidup serba kekurangan. Padahal mereka tadinya hidup mapan dengan gaji yang cukup besar.Sekembalinya di tanah air, Bob bertekad tidak ingin lagi jadi karyawan yang diperintah atasan. Karena itu ia harus kerja apa saja untuk menghidupi diri sendiri dan istrinya. Ia pernah jadi sopir taksi. Mobilnya tabrakan dan hancur. Lantas beralih jadi kuli bangunan dengan upah harian Rp 100.Suatu hari, temannya menyarankan Bob memelihara ayam untuk melawan depresi yang dialaminya. Bob tertarik.

Ketika beternak ayam itulah muncul inspirasi berwirausaha. Bob memperhatikan kehidupan ayam-ayam ternaknya. Ia mendapat ilham, ayam saja bisa berjuang untuk hidup, tentu manusia pun juga bisa.Sebagai peternak ayam, Bob dan istrinya, setiap hari menjual beberapa kilogram telor. Dalam tempo satu setengah tahun, ia dan istrinya memiliki banyak langganan, terutama orang asing, karena mereka fasih berbahasa Inggris. Bob dan istrinya tinggal di kawasan Kemang, Jakarta, di mana terdapat banyak menetap orang asing.Tidak jarang pasangan tersebut dimaki pelanggan, babu orang asing sekalipun. Namun mereka mengaca pada diri sendiri, memperbaiki pelayanan. Perubahan drastis pun terjadi pada diri Bob, dari pribadi feodal menjadi pelayan. Setelah itu, lama kelamaan Bob yang berambut perak, menjadi pemilik tunggal super market (pasar swalayan) Kem Chicks. Ia selalu tampil sederhana dengan kemeja lengan pendek dan celana pendek.Bisnis pasar swalayan Bob berkembang pesat, merambah ke agribisnis, khususnya holtikutura, mengelola kebun-kebun sayur mayur untuk konsumsi orang asing di Indonesia.

Karena itu ia juga menjalin kerjasama dengan para petani di beberapa daerah.Bob percaya bahwa setiap langkah sukses selalu diawali kegagalan demi kegagalan. Perjalanan wirausaha tidak semulus yang dikira. Ia dan istrinya sering jungkir balik. Baginya uang bukan yang nomor satu. Yang penting kemauan, komitmen, berani mencari dan menangkap peluang.Di saat melakukan sesuatu pikiran seseorang berkembang, rencana tidak harus selalu baku dan kaku, yang ada pada diri seseorang adalah pengembangan dari apa yang telah ia lakukan. Kelemahan banyak orang, terlalu banyak mikir untuk membuat rencana sehingga ia tidak segera melangkah. “Yang paling penting tindakan,” kata Bob.Keberhasilan Bob tidak terlepas dari ketidaktahuannya sehingga ia langsung terjun ke lapangan. Setelah jatuh bangun, Bob trampil dan menguasai bidangnya. Proses keberhasilan Bob berbeda dengan kelaziman, mestinya dimulai dari ilmu, kemudian praktik, lalu menjadi trampil dan profesional.Menurut Bob, banyak orang yang memulai dari ilmu, berpikir dan bertindak serba canggih, arogan, karena merasa memiliki ilmu yang melebihi orang lain.Sedangkan Bob selalu luwes terhadap pelanggan, mau mendengarkan saran dan keluhan pelanggan. Dengan sikap seperti itu Bob meraih simpati pelanggan dan mampu menciptakan pasar.

Menurut Bob, kepuasan pelanggan akan menciptakan kepuasan diri sendiri. Karena itu ia selalu berusaha melayani pelanggan sebaik-baiknya.Bob menempatkan perusahaannya seperti sebuah keluarga. Semua anggota keluarga Kem Chicks harus saling menghargai, tidak ada yang utama, semuanya punya fungsi dan kekuatan.Anak GuruKembali ke tanah air tahun 1967, setelah bertahun-tahun di Eropa dengan pekerjaan terakhir sebagai karyawan Djakarta Lloyd di Amsterdam dan Hamburg, Bob, anak bungsu dari lima bersaudara, hanya punya satu tekad, bekerja mandiri. Ayahnya, Sadino, pria Solo yang jadi guru kepala di SMP dan SMA Tanjungkarang, meninggal dunia ketika Bob berusia 19.Modal yang ia bawa dari Eropa, dua sedan Mercedes buatan tahun 1960-an. Satu ia jual untuk membeli sebidang tanah di Kemang, Jakarta Selatan. Ketika itu, kawasan Kemang sepi, masih terhampar sawah dan kebun. Sedangkan mobil satunya lagi ditaksikan, Bob sendiri sopirnya.Suatu kali, mobil itu disewakan. Ternyata, bukan uang yang kembali, tetapi berita kecelakaan yang menghancurkan mobilnya. ”Hati saya ikut hancur,” kata Bob. Kehilangan sumber penghasilan, Bob lantas bekerja jadi kuli bangunan. Padahal, kalau ia mau, istrinya, Soelami Soejoed, yang berpengalaman sebagai sekretaris di luar negeri, bisa menyelamatkan keadaan. Tetapi, Bob bersikeras, ”Sayalah kepala keluarga. Saya yang harus mencari nafkah.”Untuk menenangkan pikiran, Bob menerima pemberian 50 ekor ayam ras dari kenalannya, Sri Mulyono Herlambang. Dari sini Bob menanjak: Ia berhasil menjadi pemilik tunggal Kem Chicks dan pengusaha perladangan sayur sistem hidroponik. Lalu ada Kem Food, pabrik pengolahan daging di Pulogadung, dan sebuah ”warung” shaslik di Blok M, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta.

Catatan awal 1985 menunjukkan, rata-rata per bulan perusahaan Bob menjual 40 sampai 50 ton daging segar, 60 sampai 70 ton daging olahan, dan 100 ton sayuran segar.”Saya hidup dari fantasi,” kata Bob menggambarkan keberhasilan usahanya. Ayah dua anak ini lalu memberi contoh satu hasil fantasinya, bisa menjual kangkung Rp 1.000 per kilogram. ”Di mana pun tidak ada orang jual kangkung dengan harga segitu,” kata Bob.Om Bob, panggilan akrab bagi anak buahnya, tidak mau bergerak di luar bisnis makanan. Baginya, bidang yang ditekuninya sekarang tidak ada habis-habisnya. Karena itu ia tak ingin berkhayal yang macam-macam.Haji yang berpenampilan nyentrik ini, penggemar berat musik klasik dan jazz. Saat-saat yang paling indah baginya, ketika shalat bersama istri dan dua anaknya.

~From Biography of Bob Sadino~

The Greatest Composer

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

"Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived.

I would bare my head and kneel at his grave"
~L.v. Beethoven (1824)~

By Agustinus Gius Gala

He was born Georg Friederich Händel on 23 February 1685 in Halle, Germany, son of a barber-surgeon who intended him for the law. At first he practised music clandestinely, but his father was encouraged to allow him to study and he became a pupil of Zachow, the principal organist in Halle. When he was 17 he was appointed organist of the Calvinist Cathedral, but a year later he left for Hamburg. There he played the violin and harpsichord in the opera house, where his Almira was given at the beginning of 1705, soon followed by his Nero.

The next year he accepted an invitation to Italy, where he spent more than three years, in Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice. He had operas or other dramatic works given in all these cities (oratorios in Rome, including La resurrezione) and, writing many Italian cantatas, perfected his technique in setting Italian words for the human voice. In Rome he also composed some Latin church music. He left Italy early in 1710 and went to Hanover, where he was appointed Kapellmeister to the elector. But he at once took leave to take up an invitation to London, where his opera Rinaldo was produced early in 1711. Back in Hanover, he applied for a second leave and returned to London in autumn 1712. Four more operas followed in 1712-15, with mixed success; he also wrote music for the church and for court and was awarded a royal pension. In 1716 he may have visited Germany (where possibly he set Brockes's Passion text); it was probably the next year that he wrote the Water Music to serenade George I at a river-party on the Thames.

In 1717 he entered the service of the Earl of Carnarvon (soon to be Duke of Chandos) at Edgware, near London, where he wrote 11 anthems and two dramatic works, the evergreen Acis and Galatea and Esther, for the modest band of singers and players retained there.
In 1718-19 a group of noblemen tried to put Italian opera in London on a firmer footing, and launched a company with royal patronage, the Royal Academy of Music; Handel, appointed musical director, went to Germany, visiting Dresden and poaching several singers for the Academy, which opened in April 1720. Handel's Radamisto was the second opera and it inaugurated a noble series over the ensuing years including Ottone, Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda, Tamerlano and Admeto. Works by Bononcini (seen by some as a rival to Handel) and others were given too, with success at least equal to Handel's, by a company with some of the finest singers in Europe, notably the castrato Senesino and the soprano Cuzzoni. But public support was variable and the financial basis insecure, and in 1728 the venture collapsed.

The previous year Handel, who had been appointed a composer to the Chapel Royal in 1723, had composed four anthems for the coronation of George II and had taken British naturalization.
Opera remained his central interest, and with the Academy impresario, Heidegger, he hired the King's Theatre and (after a journey to Italy and Germany to engage fresh singers) embarked on a five-year series of seasons starting in late 1729. Success was mixed. In 1732 Esther was given at a London musical society by friends of Handel's, then by a rival group in public; Handel prepared to put it on at the King's Theatre, but the Bishop of London banned a stage version of a biblical work. He then put on Acis, also in response to a rival venture. The next summer he was invited to Oxford and wrote an oratorio, Athalia, for performance at the Sheldonian Theatre. Meanwhile, a second opera company ('Opera of the Nobility', including Senesino) had been set up in competition with Handel's and the two competed for audiences over the next four seasons before both failed. This period drew from Handel, however, such operas as Orlando and two with ballet, Ariodante and Alcina, among his finest scores.

During the rest of the 1730s Handel moved between Italian opera and the English forms, oratorio, ode and the like, unsure of his future commercially and artistically. After a joumey to Dublin in 1741-2, where Messiah had its premiere (in aid of charities), he put opera behind him and for most of the remainder of his life gave oratorio performances, mostly at the new Covent Garden theatre, usually at or close to the Lent season. The Old Testament provided the basis for most of them (Samson, Belshazar, Joseph. Joshua, Solomon, for example), but he sometimes experimented, turning to classical mythology (Semele, Hercules) or Christian history (Theodora), with little public success. All these works, along with such earlier ones as Acis and his two Cecilian odes (to Dryden words), were performed in concert form in English. At these performances he usually played in the interval a concerto on the organ (a newly invented musical genre) or directed a concerto grosso (his op.6, a set of 12, published in 1740, represents his finest achievement in the form).

During his last decade he gave regular performances of Messiah, usually with about 16 singers and an orchestra of about 40, in aid of the Foundling Hospital. In 1749 he wrote a suite for wind instruments (with optional strings) for performance in Green Park to accompany the Royal Fireworks celebrating the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. His last oratorio, composed as he grew blind, was Jephtha (1752); The Triumph of Time and Truth (1757) is largely composed of earlier material. Handel was very economical in the re-use of his ideas; at many times in his life he also drew heavily on the music of others (though generally avoiding detection) - such 'borrowings' may be of anything from a brief motif to entire movements, sometimes as they stood but more often accommodated to his own style.

Handel died in 1759 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, recognized in England and by many in Germany as the greatest composer of his day. The wide range of expression at his command is shown not only in the operas, with their rich and varied arias, but also in the form he created, the English oratorio, where it is applied to the fates of nations as well as individuals. He had a vivid sense of drama. But above all he had a resource and originality of invention, to be seen in the extraordinary variety of music in the op.6 concertos, for example, in which melodic beauty, boldness and humour all play a part, that place him and J.S. Bach as the supreme masters of the Baroque era in music.

~The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music~

Crises Call for Critical Choices

John Maxwell

By Agustinus Gius Gala


With the economy in its current state, it seems like every time we turn around, a new crisis appears. Bank failures, home foreclosures, business ventures reluctantly abandoned. In times like these, good leadership is especially critical. I recently addressed this in a session for the Maximum Impact program, which will be available in October. One of the things I talked about was decision-making during a crisis. Here are the top five types of tough choices good leaders make during tough times:

1. Courageous decisions. What must be done?

Crises usually prompt an organization to narrow its focus. Leaders have to make those calls. That requires courage when others have a lot invested in what will be eliminated. A leader has to be willing to stand up to all competing agendas and do what must be done.

2. Priority decisions. What must be done first?

The Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto once said, “If you’re Noah, and your ark is about to sink, look for the elephants first, because you can throw over a bunch of cats and dogs and squirrels and everything else that is just a small animal - and your ark will keep sinking. But if you can find one elephant to get overboard, you’re in much better shape.” If you’re a leader, identify your elephants.

3. Change decisions. What must be done differently?

Even ideas that would have worked well a month earlier may be useless in an emergency. Leaders know when it’s time to make a change. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: When the horse is dead, DISMOUNT.

4. Creative decisions. What are my options?

You probably know how this saying ends:

“If I always do what I’ve always done….” That’s right: “. . . I always get what I’ve always gotten.” When the old methods aren’t working to solve the crisis, they need to be questioned. Think outside of the box. Get every option out on the table. A good leader will be open-minded and explore all options on the spectrum between “change nothing” and “change everything.” The right choice usually lies somewhere in the middle.

5. Support decisions. Who can help me?

Leaders are responsible for having the right people on the team and making sure they are in the right places. In their book, The Wisdom of Teams, Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith write,

Team leaders genuinely believe that they do not have all the answers-so they do not insist on providing them. They believe they do not need to make all key decisions-so they do not do so. They believe they cannot succeed without the combined contributions of all the other members of the team to a common end-so they avoid any action that might constrain inputs or intimidate anyone on the team. Ego is not their predominant concern.

Leaders are not MADE in a crisis. Leaders are REVEALED in a crisis. It’s easy to steer a ship in calm waters. Only the turbulence of a storm shows a captain’s true skill. If your organization is facing a storm, take the wheel and make the decisions that only a leader can make.

~From John Maxwell~

Does Teamwork Really Make The Dream Work in Tough Times?

John Maxwell

By Agustinus Gius Gala

In today’s economic climate, layoffs seem to be a fact of life. The newly unemployed take the biggest hit, of course. But layoffs and restructuring cause difficulties for those remaining, too. Last week’s post was about pre-layoff decisions that a leader must make. This time I want to talk about post-layoff situations that leaders must often navigate. Suppose you’re facing a situation where staff has been cut, and departments have been combined and shuffled. Work teams that had years of experience together are dissolved, with their remaining members split up and partnered with people they have no history with. Employees are suddenly expected follow a leader they know only a little - or not at all.

Now imagine that you’re one of those team leaders. You’ve been assigned an unfamiliar team and new objectives. How do you get this new team up to speed and working toward a common goal?

1. Acknowledge the Challenge

The situation is awkward. You know it; your team knows it. Don’t be afraid to state the obvious: A group that has never worked together will not perform as well as one that’s been together for years. By sitting down with the entire team and acknowledging the challenge, you create common ground. You also relieve the pressure of expecting instant camaraderie, while at the same time setting the team’s first goal: Getting to know each other.

2. Build Relationships

Relationship-building requires time. If members of your team barely know each other, you need to provide specific opportunities for them to interact. Call a meeting with a primarily social agenda. Encourage people to talk about more than work - i.e. topics like hobbies, background, family, etc. This will increase their comfort level for future interactions, when it’s time to really get down to business. As the leader, you also need to get to know everyone individually. Schedule your own one-on-one time with each member of the team. Be intentional about getting to know them. The better you know their strengths and weaknesses, the better you can help them play to their strengths, maximize their potential, and work together as a team.

3. Develop a Clear Strategy

A new team probably means new goals and responsibilities. Bring everyone together to communicate the big picture for the team. Then strategize with the entire group on how you will work together to achieve team goals. Creating a strategy helps team members to know their position, which creates clarity and security. They’ll be confident of what they need to prioritize and what they can expect other team members to deliver.

Tough times bring tough leadership situations. But then again, so do good times. Everyone’s saying that this economy will eventually turn around. When it does and organizations start growing, you may again find yourself leading new teams of people that you don’t know in tasks that they’ve never done before. You’ll be able to use this same trust-building strategy then, because it works in good times as well as bad.

~From John Maxwell~

Seeking Creativity In Its Natural Habitat

John Maxwell

By Agustinus Gius Gala

In Part 1 on the topic of creativity, I told you that I didn’t fit the creative mold. But I didn’t let that stop me from working to become more creative. I shared with you how I look to the creative thinking of others for the tools and inspiration to grow in this area. But learning from others wasn’t enough. I have discovered that my usual environment and learning methods sometimes make it very hard to get into a creative frame of mind.

Forget waiting for creativity to find you.

You see, I’ve been described as a “high energy person.” I’m always on the lookout for new opportunities, and I really like being busy. I find great enjoyment in multitasking. In the Fast Company interview that I referenced in the last post, Teresa Amabile said, “Time pressure stifles creativity because people can’t deeply engage with the problem. Creativity requires an incubation period; people need time to soak in a problem and let the ideas bubble up.”

That can be a problem for me: Lack of time. I’m capable of filling every hour with tasks and appointments. When that happens, creative thinking falls by the wayside. To change this, I have to give creativity the time and attention it deserves. The first thing I do is write thinking time onto my calendar like a regular appointment. And then I treat it like an appointment. I gather my legal pads, files and other resources, and I move from my normal work area and settle into a quiet, peaceful spot. There I narrow my focus. Over time, I’ve developed the discipline to keep my mind from wandering off-topic. And carving out these distraction-free hours makes me quiet and still enough to let creative ideas “bubble up.”

When I was younger, my thinking spot was a rock on a hill. Later, I set up a “thinking chair” in my office, which I use solely for that purpose. These days, I also do some of my best thinking while swimming laps in the pool. It doesn’t replace the writing time that I still schedule. (I just haven’t found a waterproof legal pad yet…) But an hour of swimming laps back and forth, with its silence and rhythm, gives me just what I need to focus on one or two specific problems or ideas. Maybe deep thinking and introspection comes more naturally for you. Even if it does, setting aside dedicated time for creative thinking will help you be intentional. No one can afford to go about their daily life waiting for the muse to strike. Instead, chase after and tackle her, doing so in a way that works for you.

No one person has a corner on all of the creativity.

If you want to do something creative, bring in others to help you. Now this comes easily for me. I love spending time with people. The synergy of a good conversation energizes me like nothing else. And my favorite thing is to gather with people I respect for a shared creative meeting. In fact, I do this with just about everything I come up with. And I promise you, every idea I take into a collaborative environment comes out better than it was before.

Here’s a current example. My newest book, Put Your Dream to the Test, started out going in a completely different direction. Sitting with a “creative brain trust,” I shared an outline that I thought would be great for the new book. But as we batted it around, my writer, Charlie, zeroed in on a single chapter and its outline. He spoke up: “John, THIS is the book you need to write.” The energy in the room ignited. We all knew very quickly that he was right. And that single chapter outline bloomed into one for the entire book. I think it goes without saying that Put Your Dream to the Test is a much better book than that original outline would have produced.

Do you share your creative ideas with others? Or do you merely turn them over and over within your own mind? If so, you might be limiting your ideas, when including others in the process could take them to a level 10. Pull together a team of people who can increase the creative energy in a room. Then toss your idea into the middle of the table and let them have at it. Want to be more creative? Be proactive. Schedule it. Chase after it. Don’t wait for the muse to strike. Creative thoughts rarely come and find us. We have to be intentional about finding them.

~From John Maxwell~

Imagination: Your Ticket To A Dream

John Maxwell

By Agustinus Gius Gala



In only a few days, I’ll be boarding a plane to fly halfway around the world, where I’ll have the privilege of teaching in the Philippines, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia. This kind of work is a dream come true for me. Of course, the scope is much larger than I originally imagined. But the dream of adding value to others is something I’ve been pursuing for close to 40 years. The following excerpt from my book, Put Your Dream to the Test, is about the importance of imagination to the achievement of your dream. I hope it encourages and equips you as you examine your own dreams. How do people discover their dreams? By dreaming! That may sound overly simplistic, but that’s where it starts. Imagination is the soil that brings a dream to life.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein, a dreamer and thinker, understood the value of the imagination. He said, “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.” Einstein called his imagination a “holy curiosity.” If you come from a discouraging background, or you don’t think of yourself as an especially imaginative person, don’t lose hope. You can still discover and develop a dream. God has put that ability in every one of us. If you know and watch children, then you know that’s true. Every child dreams. Every child possesses imagination.

My wife, Margaret, and I have five grandchildren, and whenever we are with them, we see their vivid imaginations at work, whisking them away from this world to ones of their own creation. You have it in you to dream. Author and friend Max Lucado is clear about your possibilities: “You weren’t an accident. You weren’t mass produced. You aren’t an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.” Beyond that, some people would even argue that the more drab your beginnings, the greater your potential for dreaming. Businessman Howard Schultz, who came from a very humble background, used the fertile soil of his imagination to help him cultivate the idea of Starbucks, the company he founded. Schultz says,


One thing I’ve noticed about romantics: They try to create a new and better world from the drabness of everyday life. That is Starbuck’s aim, too. We try to create, in our stores, an oasis, a little neighborhood spot where you can take a break, listen to some jazz, or ponder universal or personal or even whimsical questions over a cup of coffee. Who dreams up such a place?

From my personal experience, I’d say that the more uninspiring your origins, the more likely you are to use your imagination and invent worlds where everything seems possible.

That’s certainly true of me.

I believe God wants us to dream, and to dream big, because He’s a big God who wants to do big things and He wants to do them through us. My friend Dale Turner asserts, “Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.” It’s never too late to dream.

If you’re wondering whether the dreams of your imagination are likely to take root in the soil of reality, then start by asking yourself the following questions (from Put Your Dream to the Test.)
~The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?
~The Clarity Question: Do I clearly see my dream?
~The Reality Question: Am I depending on factors within my control to achieve my dream?
~The Passion Question: Does my dream compel me to follow it?
~The Pathway Question: Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?
~The People Question: Have I included the people I need to realize my dream?
~The Cost Question: Am I willing to pay the price for my dream?
~The Tenacity Question: Am I moving closer to my dream?
~The Fulfillment Question: Does working toward my dream bring satisfaction?
~The Significance Question: Does my dream benefit others?

I believe that if you really explore each question, examine yourself honestly, and answer yes to all them, the odds of your achieving your dream are very good. The more yeses you can answer, the more on target you are to fulfill your dreaming. I truly believe that everyone has the potential to imagine a worthwhile dream, and most have the ability to achieve it. And it doesn’t matter how big or how seemingly outrageous your dream appears to others if your answers are yes to the Dream Test questions.

~From John Maxwell~

How Successful People Think

What’s a successful person’s greatest

resource in difficult times? Good thinking!

By Agustinus Gius Gala


Good thinkers are always in demand. A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss. Good thinkers solve problems, they never lack ideas for building an organization, and they always have hope for a better future. Good thinkers rarely find themselves at the mercy of ruthless people who would take advantage of them or try to deceive them, people like Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who once boasted, “What luck for rulers that men do not think”. Those who develop the process of good thinking can rule themselves - even while under an oppressive ruler or in other difficult circumstances. In short, good thinkers are successful.

I’ve studied successful people for forty years, and though the diversity you find among them is astounding, I’ve found that they are all alike in one way: how they think! That is the one thing that separates successful people from unsuccessful ones. And here’s the good news. How successful people think can be learned. If you change your thinking, you can change your life!

HOW TO BECOME A BETTER THINKER

Do you want to master the process of good thinking? Do you want to be a better thinker tomorrow than you are today? Then you need to engage in an ongoing process that improves your thinking. I recommend you do the following:
1. Expose Yourself to Good Input
Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out. Read books, review trade magazines, listen to CDs, and spend time with good thinkers. And when something intrigues you-whether it’s someone else’s idea or the seed of an idea that you’ve come up with yourself-keep it in front of you. Put it in writing and keep it somewhere in a favorite place to stimulate your thinking.
2. Expose Yourself to Good Thinkers
All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are good thinkers. Now, I love all people. I try to be kind to everyone I meet, and I desire to add value to as many people as I can through conferences, books, audio lessons, etc. But the people I seek out and choose to spend time with all challenge me with their thinking and their actions. They are constantly trying to grow and learn. The writer of Proverbs observed that sharp people sharpen one another, just as iron sharpens iron. If you want to be a sharp thinker, be around sharp people.
3. Choose to Think Good Thoughts
To become a good thinker, you must become intentional about the thinking process. Regularly put yourself in the right place to think, shape, stretch, and land your thoughts. Make it a priority. Thinking is a discipline.
Recently I had breakfast with Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, a fast food restaurant chain headquartered in the Atlanta area. I told him that I was working on this book and I asked him if he made thinking time a high priority. Not only did he say yes, but he told me about what he calls his “thinking schedule.” It helps him to fight the hectic pace of life that discourages intentional thinking. Dan says he sets aside time just to think for half a day every two weeks, for one whole day every month, and for two or three full days every year. Dan explains, “This helps me ‘keep the main thing, the main thing,’ since I am so easily distracted”. You may want to do something similar, or you can develop a schedule and method of your own. No matter what you choose to do, go to a special thinking place, take paper and pen, and make sure you capture your ideas in writing.
4. Act on Your Good Thoughts
Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date. World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker said it all when he remarked, “I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through-then follow through.”
5. Allow Your Emotions to Create Another Good Thought
To start the thinking process, you cannot rely on your feelings. In Failing Forward, I wrote that you can act your way into feeling long before you can feel your way into action. If you wait until you feel like doing something, you will likely never accomplish it. The same is true for thinking. You cannot wait until you feel like thinking to do it. However, I’ve found that once you engage in the process of good thinking, you can use your emotions to feed the process and create mental momentum.
Try it for yourself. After you go through the disciplined process of thinking and enjoy some success, allow yourself to savor the moment and try riding the mental energy of that success. If you’re like me, it’s likely to spur additional thoughts and productive ideas.
6. Repeat the Process
One good thought does not make a good life. The people who have one good thought and try to ride it for an entire career often end up unhappy or destitute. They are the one-hit wonders, the one-book authors, the one-message speakers, the one-time inventors who spend their life struggling to protect or promote their single idea. Success comes to those who have an entire mountain of gold that they continually mine, not those who find one nugget and try to live on it for fifty years. To become someone who can mine a lot of gold, you need to keep repeating the process of good thinking.

This article is an excerpt from the introduction to my latest book, How Successful People Think. Available now from booksellers in the United States, it’s derived from my book, Thinking for a Change.
Edited and distilled down to the bare essentials, this book is designed to help you expand your thinking and achieve your dreams with the following

11 keys to successful thinking
1. Cultivate Big-Picture Thinking
2. Engage in Focused Thinking
3. Harness Creative Thinking
4. Employ Realistic Thinking
5. Utilize Strategic Thinking
6. Explore Possibility Thinking
7. Learn from Reflective Thinking
8. Question Popular Thinking
9. Benefit from Shared Thinking
10. Practice Unselfish Thinking
11. Rely on Bottom-Line Thinking

~From John Maxwell on Leadership~

Nusantara Indonesia

Wonderful of West Manggarai

By Agustinus Gius Gala

Aktivitas perekonomian
Manggarai Barat

Peta Kaupaten Manggarai Barat

Tarian "Caci"

Taman Nasional Komodo

Biawak Komodo

Holocaust Survivors' Storyteller

Elie Wiesel

Nobel Prize for Peace

"Always Question Those Who Are Certain
of What Tey Are Saying"

~Elie Wiesel~

By Agustinus Gius Gala

Elie Wiesel was born in the small town of Sighet in Transylvania on September 30, 1928, where people of different languages and religions have lived side by side for centuries, sometimes peacefully, sometimes in bitter conflict. The region was long claimed by both Hungary and Romania, in the 20th century, it changed hands repeatedly, a hostage to the fortunes of war. Elie Wiesel grew up in the close-knit Jewish community of Sighet. While the family spoke Yiddish at home, they read newspapers and conducted their grocery business in German, Hungarian or Romanian as the occasion demanded. Ukrainian, Russian and other languages were also widely spoken in the town. Elie began religious studies in classical Hebrew almost as soon as he could speak. The young boy's life centered entirely on his religious studies. He loved the mystical tradition and folk tales of the Hassidic sect of Judaism, to which his mother's family belonged. His father, though religious, encouraged the boy to study the modern Hebrew language and concentrate on his secular studies.

The first years of World War II left Sighet relatively untouched. Although the village changed hands from Romania to Hungary, the Wiesel family believed they were safe from the persecutions suffered by Jews in Germany and Poland. The secure world of Wiesel's childhood ended abruptly with the arrival of the Nazis in Sighet in 1944. The Jewish inhabitants of the village were deported en masse to concentration camps in Poland. The 15 year-old boy was separated from his mother and sister immediately on arrival in Auschwitz. He never saw them again. He managed to remain with his father for the next year as they were worked almost to death, starved, beaten, and shuttled from camp to camp on foot, or in open cattle cars, in driving snow, without food, proper shoes, or clothing. In the last months of the war, Wiesel's father succumbed to dysentery, starvation, exhaustion and exposure.

After the war, the teenaged Wiesel found asylum in France, where he learned for the first time that his two older sisters had survived the war. Wiesel mastered the French language and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, while supporting himself as a choir master and teacher of Hebrew. He became a professional journalist, writing for newspapers in both France and Israel.
For ten years, he observed a self-imposed vow of silence and wrote nothing about his wartime experience. In 1955, at the urging of the Catholic writer Francois Mauriac, he set down his memories in Yiddish, in a 900-page work entitled Un die welt hot geshvign (And the world kept silent). The book was first published in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Wiesel compressed the work into a 127-page French adaptation, La Nuit (Night), but several years passed before he was able to find a publisher for the French or English versions of the work. Even after Wiesel found publishers for the French and English translations, the book sold few copies.

In 1956, while he was in New York covering the United Nations, Elie Wiesel was struck by a taxi cab. His injuries confined him to a wheelchair for almost a year. Unable to renew the French document which had allowed him to travel as a "stateless" person, Wiesel applied successfully for American citizenship. Once he recovered, he remained in New York and became a feature writer for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Jewish Daily Forward (Der forverts ). Wiesel continued to write books in French, including the semi-autobiographical novels L'Aube (Dawn), and Le Jour (translated as The Accident ). In his novel La Ville de la Chance (translated as The Town Beyond the Wall ), Wiesel imagined a return to his home town, a journey he did not undertake in life until after the book was published.

As these and other books began to win him an international reputation, Wiesel took an increasing interest in the plight of persecuted Jews in the Soviet Union. He first traveled to the USSR in 1965 and reported on his travels in The Jews of Silence. His 1968 account of the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors appeared in English as A Beggar In Jerusalem . In time, Wiesel was able to use his fame to plead for justice for oppressed peoples in the Soviet Union, South Africa, Vietnam, Biafra and Bangladesh.
He has written plays including Zalmen, or the Madness of God and The Trial of God (Le Proces de Shamgorod ). His other novels include The Gates of the Forest, The Oath, The Testament, and The Fifth Son. His essays and short stories have been collected in the volumes Legends of Our Time, One Generation After, and A Jew Today. Wiesel still writes his books in French, his wife Marion often collaborates with him on their English translation. Since 1976, he has been Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities at Boston University. He makes his home in New York City with his wife and their son, Elisha.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Elie Wiesel Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. In 1985 he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Freedom and, in 1986, the Nobel Prize for Peace. The English translation of his memoirs was published in 1995 as All Rivers Run to the Sea. A second volume of memoirs, And the Sea is Never Full, appeared in 2000. Over the years, Wiesel has spoken out on behalf of the victims of genocide and oppression all over the world, from Bosnia to Darfur. Although he is now known to millions for his human rights activism, he has by no means abandoned the art of fiction. His latest novel is A Mad Desire to Dance (2009).

This page last revised on Mar 02, 2009 08:55 PDT

~From Academy of Achievement~

First Lady of Civil Rigths

Coretta Scott King
Pioneer of Civil Rights

"When You Are Willing To Make

Sacrifices for A Great Cause,

You Will Never Be Alone"
~Coretta Scott King~

By Agustinus Gius Gala

Coretta Scott was born in Heiberger on April 27, 1927, Alabama and raised on the farm of her parents Bernice McMurry Scott, and Obadiah Scott, in Perry County, Alabama. She was exposed at an early age to the injustices of life in a segregated society. She walked five miles a day to attend the one-room Crossroad School in Marion, Alabama, while the white students rode buses to an all-white school closer by. Young Coretta excelled at her studies, particularly music, and was valedictorian of her graduating class at Lincoln High School. She graduated in 1945 and received a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

As an undergraduate, she took an active interest in the nascent civil rights movement; she joined the Antioch chapter of the NAACP, and the college's Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees. She graduated from Antioch with a B.A. in music and education and won a scholarship to study concert singing at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. In Boston she met a young theology student, Martin Luther King, Jr., and her life was changed forever. They were married on June 18, 1953, in a ceremony conducted by the groom's father, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Coretta Scott King completed her degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory and the young couple moved in September 1954 to Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. had accepted an appointment as Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

They were soon caught up in the dramatic events that triggered the modern civil rights movement. When Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat on a Montgomery city bus to a white passenger, she was arrested for violating the city's ordinances giving white passengers preferential treatment in public conveyances. The black citizens of Montgomery organized immediately in defense of Mrs. Parks, and under Martin Luther King's leadership organized a boycott of the city's buses. The Montgomery bus boycott drew the attention of the world to the continued injustice of segregation in the United States, and led to court decisions striking down all local ordinances separating the races in public transit.

Dr. King's eloquent advocacy of nonviolent civil disobedience soon made him the most recognizable face of the civil rights movement, and he was called on to lead marches in city after city, with Mrs. King at his side, inspiring the citizens, black and white, to defy the segregation laws. The visibility of Dr. King's leadership attracted fierce opposition from the supporters of institutionalized racism. In 1956, white supremacists bombed the King family home in Montgomery. Mrs. King and the couple's first child narrowly escaped injury.
The Kings had four children in all: Yolanda Denise; Martin Luther, III; Dexter Scott; and Bernice Albertine. Although the demands of raising a family had caused Mrs. King to retire from singing, she found another way to put her musical background to the service of the cause. She conceived and performed a series of critically acclaimed Freedom Concerts, combining poetry, narration and music to tell the story of the Civil Rights movement. Over the next few years, Mrs. King staged Freedom Concerts in some of America's most distinguished concert venues, as fundraisers for the organization her husband had founded, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Dr. King's fame spread beyond the United States, and he was increasingly seen not only as a leader of the American civil rights movement, but as the symbol of an international struggle for human liberation from racism, colonialism and all forms of oppression and discrimination. In 1957, Dr. King and Mrs. King journeyed to Africa to celebrate the independence of Ghana. In 1959, they made a pilgrimage to India to honor the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, whose philosophy of nonviolence had inspired them. Dr. King's leadership of the movement for human rights was recognized on the international stage when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. In 1964, Mrs. King accompanied her husband when he traveled to Oslo, Norway to accept the Prize.

In the 1960s, Dr. King broadened his message and his activism to embrace causes of international peace and economic justice. Mrs. King found herself in increasing demand as a public speaker. She became the first woman to deliver the Class Day address at Harvard, and the first woman to preach at a statutory service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. She served as a Women's Strike for Peace delegate to the 17-nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 1962. Mrs. King became a liaison to international peace and justice organizations even before Dr. King took a public stand in 1967 against United States intervention in the Vietnam War.

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Channeling her grief, Mrs. King concentrated her energies on fulfilling her husband's work by building The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change as a living memorial to her husband's life and dream. Years of planning, fundraising and lobbying, lay ahead, but Mrs. King would not be deterred, nor did she neglect direct involvement in the causes her husband had championed. In 1969, Coretta Scott King published the first volume of her autobiography, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr. In the 1970s, Mrs. King maintained her husband's commitment to the cause of economic justice. In 1974 she formed the Full Employment Action Council, a broad coalition of over 100 religious, labor, business, civil and women's rights organizations dedicated to a national policy of full employment and equal economic opportunity; Mrs. King served as Co-Chair of the Council.

In 1981, The King Center, the first institution built in memory of an African American leader, opened to the public. The Center is housed in the Freedom Hall complex encircling Dr. King's tomb in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of a 23-acre national historic site that also includes Dr. King's birthplace and the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he and his father both preached. The King Center Library and Archives houses the largest collection of documents from the Civil Rights era. The Center receives over one million visitors a year, and has trained tens of thousands of students, teachers, community leaders and administrators in Dr. King's philosophy and strategy of nonviolence through seminars, workshops and training programs.

Mrs. King continued to serve the cause of justice and human rights; her travels took her throughout the world on goodwill missions to Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. In 1983, she marked the 20th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington, by leading a gathering of more than 800 human rights organizations, the Coalition of Conscience, in the largest demonstration the capital city had seen up to that time.
Mrs. King led the successful campaign to establish Dr. King's birthday, January 15, as a national holiday in the United States. By an Act of Congress, the first national observance of the holiday took place in 1986. Dr. King's birthday is now marked by annual celebrations in over 100 countries. Mrs. King was invited by President Clinton to witness the historic handshake between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yassir Arafat at the signing of the Middle East Peace Accords in 1993. In 1985 Mrs. King and three of her children were arrested at the South African embassy in Washington, D.C., for protesting against that country's apartheid system of racial segregation and disenfranchisement. Ten years later, she stood with Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg when he was sworn in as President of South Africa.

After 27 years at the helm of The King Center, Mrs. King turned over leadership of the Center to her son, Dexter Scott King, in 1995. She remained active in the causes of racial and economic justice, and in her remaining years devoted much of her energy to AIDS education and curbing gun violence. Although she died in 2006 at the age of 78, she remains an inspirational figure to men and women around the world.

This page last revised on Jan 07, 2008 09:49 PDT

~From Academy of Achievement~

Ordinary People Can Win

David DeFord

Everest Survivor

By Agustinus Gius Gala

Seaborn Beck Weathers, a pathologist from Dallas, loves adventure. He climbed many mountains his adventure quest. He admits that in his pursuit of exploration, he seriously neglected his family.
In 1996 Weathers joined 10 other climbers on the ultimate mountain experience—Everest. Unfortunately, this trek coincided with one of the most devastating storms on record. Temperatures dipped to 60 below zero, and the wind whipped the beleaguered team at 70 miles per hour. Since 1921, Everest claimed 150 lives. On May 10, 1996, due to the storm, 8 people were killed—including four from Weather’s team--the worst day on Everest in 75 years.

In the midst of this terrible storm, a serious eye condition aggravated by the high altitude rendered him temporarily blind. As the team struggled to descend, Weathers became separated from the group. Blind, whipped by the wind, and freezing, he fell. Dr. Weathers became fully coated with ice—even his face lay under a thick layer. Others of his party came upon him, but seeing almost no respiratory activity, they were forced to leave him and let the mountain claim him.

Beck heard their conversation and their decision to leave him, but was unable to respond.
As he lay on the side of the world’s tallest mountain, Weathers thought of his family back in Texas. He thought about his neglect of them, and his continual quest for adventure. He realized that in moments he would die and that he would never see his family again.“This is not acceptable!” he said to himself. He decided to fight. Beck started slightly moving his fingers, then his arm. Eventually, he rose to his feet. Blind, he slowly started shuffling in the direction he thought would take him to his camp.

Miraculously, he wandered close enough to camp that his teammates saw him. They could not recognize him in his frozen state. They helped him into a tent, and treated his terribly frozen limbs and face.
The only way to get him down from the mountain was by helicopter. A rescue of this type had never been tried at such a high altitude. But a courageous pilot maneuvered the chopper onto the mountain side allowing the team to load the fading Weathers. Both of his hands had to be amputated and he lost his nose and ears. After years of rehabilitation he has reclaimed his life. Dr. Weathers continues his pathology practice and has become a successful author and public speaker. His positive approach to adversity has inspired thousands.
In his books and speeches Beck tells others about what he has learned—and how we can apply these bits of wisdom to our lives.

First, we all must have a defining moment to initiate true change. His defining moment came on the mountainside as he realized that he was soon to perish and that he wouldn’t see his family again. Ours can come from some discomfort or realization that some unacceptable occurrence is imminent.
Second, if our purpose is strong enough, we can press toward achievement of goals. At first Weathers was unable to even respond to his rescuers. Then, his thoughts of his family spurred him to begin moving fingers, then get to his feet, and then find camp in spite of the low likelihood of success. We, too, can achieve our greatest and most difficult goals if our purpose is strong. Third, when others would have given up, he persevered. He made it to camp where treatment and rescue could occur.
I encourage you to think of times where you have had defining moments, strong purpose, and perseverance. As you apply these traits, you can achieve most anything you desire.

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all." Dale Carnegie

"Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves." Winston Churchill

"What we do not see, what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement." Napoleon Hill

"When you are down on your back, if you can look up, you can get up." Les Brown

"I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy." Anthony (Tony) Robbins.

~From Ordinary People Can Win~