" The Art of Choosing " by Sheena Iyengar

Am reading a book called " The Art of Choosing " by Sheena Iyengar, an interesting choice of book which reflects on my experience for the past three weeks. What happened you may ask. Well, for the last weeks I have been meeting quite a lot of people through work and through the short and long conversations I had with them left me with questions, reflections and realizations. 

And so how this may relate to the book. Though I am three chapters through it really made me reflect back to where and how I am now. 

Case 1 

Customer : So you work here part time? 

Me : Yes 

Customer : How much they pay your per hour 

Me : xx/hour miss

Customer : Oh that's good. It;s good to see young people are actually taking initiative to come out and work instead of spending your free time huha with friends. 

Me : *smile sheepishly* Well, I do huha sometimes but I like working too. Cause I meet lots of people and I learn a lot too. 

Customer : Yes, and your English very good also. Last time I was only a helper in my uncle's kitchen, but I met a lot of foreigner at my shop. I learned English from them. And now, I have friends from all over the world. These foreigners, if you are nice to them they will come back and find you. I tell you ah girl, you can work to find money. But keep in mind to take all experience also, good or bad. If customer tell you wrong, you learn from them. If customer ask you something, you find the answer and tell them. That's how you learn and get experience. You are so young and you have long way to go so take this time to learn and experience everything. 

* So after quite a long chat, she left and leave me with this advice. 

Customer : Never say you are tired or bored with this. This is actually a free class for you, a class about life. Its free lagi! I wish you all the best ah girl. 

Case 2 

Abang H : You know when I first take over this cafe, it was a mess. The profit per day was only below RM 100. Very bad you know! But you know what I did? I told the boss don't worry, I have all the strategies to start over and build this cafe back. Boss trust me and gave me green light. And after only 6 months, we manage to get XXk per month of profit.I am very proud of my team because I think they are the one who worked hard for this. I started as a plate washer in Store X back in 2000 right after my SPM. Then, I got promoted as a the person to handle 'live cooking' in the same store. Back then it was still a new thing, so I got a bit popular lah. Then, after my result came out, I flew to Brunei and work with the kitchen there. Pay was good and benefits were too. But after 2 years I came back. Then, I continue my degree in Uxxx but I didn't finish on time because that time I worked part time in Hotel X. So after I finally finish my degree, I worked as a food consultant with Company X, Y and Z. After a while, Mr F met me and asked if I want to take over this cafe. I said yes despite knowing that it would be a big challenge for me. So you can see how I treat this cafe like my baby, my girlfriend. Because I worked so hard on it, I practically spent my whole life for this cafe. If I look back to last two years, I would say I am a crazy man. No one want to take this cafe, its practically dying, a ghost town. I used to dream of owning my own cafe or restaurant since I was a little boy and now I dare say that I have achieved that dream. 

Well there are few other conversations that were as inspiring but these two are the one which really struck me. I love how both person looks at life, how they treat life and how they live life. There are times when I question myself on why I am doing what I am doing. The organizations that I joined, the volunteering work I do, the countless part time jobs I took. I do admit part of the reason is because of the money , I worked my ass off just to finance myself and fund myself for travelling purposes. But the other parts is because I enjoy meeting people, I enjoy working in different environment and I simply enjoy doing things instead of being lifeless in my room. 

On some events of my involvement in volunteering work, people do ask if I get paid for this. If I even get any subsidization or even a free T-Shirt. Sometimes I do, but usually I don't. But what I get in return is much more valuable than just a free T-Shirt or lunch buffet.  It's experience, connections and conversations. These are the things that I will not get if I would have stayed in my room scrolling through YouTube videos. Back to the two people I've met, they may have went through a different kind of life if they had made a different choice back then. If the customer had choose to not engaged in conversations with her customer, her English may not be as good as now. And she may not have friends from different parts of the world. And if Abang H would not have taken the challenge of rebuilding the cafe, he might not achieve his dream after all. The cafe would still be a failure and he would still be working in a job that doesn't really have his heart in it. He would not have achieved his dream. 

Well, I am not bragging about the things I've joined cause you may have been in more things than I have. You may have more experience that I have, and they may be different to mine. But this is my experience based in the choices I made. This is how I decide my life to be. Life should be how you want it to be. From a different perspective, it can be either negative or positive. The choice you make can either be constructive or destructive. There's no correct way of how you make decision for yourself but it's how you act on it. 

Before I end, a quote from the book ( that really really made me sit there and spent 10 minutes reflecting )  , 

" Should we act or should we hang back and observe? " 

p/s : I will try and write a review on the book as soon as I finish reading it ( hopefully it wont be after an eternity )