The Man with Great Vision
Today we had Dato Tony Fernandes, the CEO of Air Asia to come to our faculty to give a talk entitled “Surviving a Downturn”. He even bought Jason Lo along. It was really entertaining listening to the Dato as he cracked a lot of jokes. The hall was full and we even had to stand. Usually, we’d be making noises during talks and stuff, but you know, you’d really pay attention when someone like him is speaking in front. He talked about how he first got the idea to start Air Asia, how he worked towards it, and how he managed Air Asia and made it as it is today.
He’s really a man with vision and I admire him for that. He sees the bigger picture and he’d think of all those things that others wouldn’t. He goes down into the field, carry bags, check in and do those things most CEOs would not. He would seek opportunity in times when people back out. Boy, I wish I had a brain like him.
I had a discussion with some of my friends today and we all agreed that studying has limited our creativity. We focused too much in our studies, our textbooks and exams. We study just for the sake of our exams, or at least most of us do. And we’ve became so caught up in our studies that we don’t know what’s happening outside our walls. Ask us anything about what’s in our books or in the uni, we’d probably be able to answer you, but if you ask us about the recent headlines, we’d be completely blanked.
If we didn’t have to worry about our studies so much, we’d probably had more time to think, to dream, and that’s what’s important. To be able to dream, because dreams do become reality. That’s how Dato Tony Fernandes started it all. So does this mean we should all stop school and day dream? Probably not. Maybe the schooling system in our country needs to be revised. We need more practicality. We need more than just thousands of words on few hundred pieces of paper. We need passion.
Sincerely yours,
