I love the first 2 series of Ip Man movies, and when IpMan 3 came out, I was exhilarated. I was excited too because the movie features additional characters like Mike Tyson, the legendary, American former professional boxer.
I think, this movie is great because, in addition to the fighting scenes which display good martial arts techniques which are imminent in its previous movies, they now also give extra emphasis on good, positive values that we can emulate as a fellow human being.
Here are the 5 valuable takeaways that I get and I will try my best to apply in my life. 🙂
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1. Lead by example
Ip Man is a great leader who leads by example.
He is a selfless person and helps a lot of people unconditionally. He protected and defended the school his son was enrolled, when it was forced for takeover by thugs, who collude with the top police.
With gust and energy, he reminded the police officer that, all that we do is not for today, but for tomorrow. Whatever we do in life, we become examples to our children.
Our children will follow our footsteps. Our children see what we do and they follow us. We need to lead by example.
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I am also reminded by this. I advocate my clients to have proper financial planning.
6 months emergency funds, savings ratio of at least 20% per month, debt service ratio of not more than 30% per month, save your money first before spending. Identify your Needs and Wants.
Selling an ice lemon tea drink at $2, when the cost price is only $0.20 is Halal. Lending your friend $2000 and expecting him to repay you back $2000.20 is Haram because there is Riba. Avoid Riba. Grow your money the shariah compliant way.
I do not want to be label as “cakap tak serupa bikin” which literally means, “say only but never do“. I ensure that I walk my talk and do things that I preach. I lead by example.
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…….. 2. Although you want to perfect your craft, you must spend quality time with your family.
When Ip Man got to know that his wife got cancer and only has 6 months time to live, he dropped everything and had a heart to heart talk with his wife.
He mentioned candidly that his only regret in life is that, not being better to his wife, because he was always occupied with martial arts, which is his number 1 passion.
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In my enthusiasm, to perfect my craft, my financial planning skills, I used to get carried away.
I packed myself with appointments and more appointments. To me, my work is play. I am not ashamed to say that I enjoy my work as a financial consultant. I love creating new ideas, sharing financial planning concepts with my clients. Sometimes, my appointments end late, past midnight.
Now, I make it a point to spend quality time with my wife, travelling for holidays and enjoy each other’s company. I make it a point to visit my parents and in laws, at least once a week, despite my busy schedule.
(A picture of myself and my beautiful family)
I have to always remember that family comes first.
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3. Have a spouse that supports you in your craft or business
In the movie, Ip Man was challenged by a martial art artist who lay claim that Ip Man’s Win Chun is not authentic.
(Snapshot taken from the movie trailer)
Ip Man ignored the challenge and chose to spend time with his wife. He cooked pigeon porridge for his wife. He took a family portrait with his wife. He learnt how to dance, not something that he loves, but did it anyway because of his undying love for his wife.
Subsequently, he had a heart to heart talk with his his wife and his wife encouraged him to train up and continue the fight with his challenger. Despite her health predicament, she encourages him because she understands what he does and supports him.
Finally when his challenger acknowledged his defeat, Ip Man replied, “There is nothing more important than the love by your side.” In his victory, Ip Man dished out his most precious advice and that is very profound to me.
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I am thankful and I am blessed to have my wife who supports my mission to uplift the financial standards of my community in Singapore. She may not have the same level of inclination and passion for finance as me, but she supports and encourages what I do.
She stands behind me and supports me in what I do. That is all that matters. 🙂
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. 4. Humility is everything
Humility is a trait that Ip Man carries well. He walks away from taunts and is even willing to kneel and kowtow to his enemies so as to keep his family and friends safe from harm.
He has that kind of quiet confidence that speaks, “I know I’m good and I don’t need to trumpet it to the world. I don’t need reporters to endorse me. I am for who I am.”
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There is a Malay proverb that says, Resmi Padi, Semakin Berisi, Semakin Merunduk, which literally means, be like the rice stalk, it bends lower as it is laden with ripening grains. As you gain more power, you become more humble.
There are many successful financial consultants in my industry.
One of my mentors is successful senior financial consultant, Mr Shahul Hamed. He has been in the industry for more than 30 years, yet always humble and always willing to help others when in need. He is charismatic and a man with few words. I envision myself to be like him as I grew myself professionally. Just advance and move forward to help as many people as I possibily can and STAY HUMBLE. Insya’Allah…
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. 5. Mastery of any field is for the greater good
There is a lot of martial artists during Ip Man’s time. However, many hold different opinions on martial art. Some view that winning is everything, and practicing martial arts is for defeating others. Some exploited their skills for money.
Ip Man thinks differently. He thinks that every battle should be fought for the greater good.
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I believe it doesn’t matter whichever industry we are in, we do it for the greater good.
As a Muslim, I am reminded by what Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) advised us more than 1400 years ago, “The best of people are those that bring most benefit to the rest of mankind.” [Daraqutni, Hasan]
Do whatever I can within my power as a financial consultant to share my financial planning knowledge with Singaporeans. Continue to upgrade myself, learn new things, create new financial planning concepts, simplify difficult technical jargons, all in all, for the benefit of my clients. Insya’Allah…
I do hope you enjoy Ip Man 3 movie and learn something from it too. Do share this blog post around. Thank you! 🙂
p.s. By the way, if you wish to discover a simple & halal way to create a positive monthly cashflow and calculate your net worth for FREE, then please click here…
By now, you might have known that I have set up and lead a group of Muslim financial consultants to promote cooperative insurance and shariah compliant funds in Singapore.
Many people thought that being a financial consultant is a very easy and glamorous job. Very flexible timing. You can work as and when you want. You are paid generous commissions. You get to travel all over the world for free.
It is further than the truth. What people don’t see is the hardwork. The rejections. The disappointment. The sacrifice. The failure, and persistency and willingness to get up back and move forward.
You fall, you rise up back.
You fall, you stand up again.
You fall, you bring yourself up to 2 feet and move forward again.
Step by step.
Just continue moving forward. Every single step counts. Move forward and build up your momentum.
One POWERFUL technique that I always share with my mentees, on how to magically transform your frustration, loss or failure into strength is to do a self reflection exercise by asking yourself 3 pertinent questions.
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Ask the following questions to transform frustrations, loss or failure into strength:
1) What must I learn from this incident so that I can be better tomorrow?
2) What must I learn so that when faced with the same situation, I will be better off?
3) Who can help to me to face the same problem so that it will become easy and easier to overcome?
For winners, frustrations, loss and failure gives inspiration for us to continuously learn and take action till we become better and stronger. We always work to change every challenge that we faced into an opportunity.
Only the naive would hope that everything goes along with his desires. Always prepare for the worst situation and strive consistently and persistently to achieve the best results.
I hope this post inspires you. Remember, when you faced with any kind of frustrations, loss or failure, ask these questions to transform them into strength: 1) What must I learn from this incident so that I can be better tomorrow?
2) What must I learn so that when faced with the same situation, I will be better off?
3) Who can help to me to face the same problem so that it will become easy and easier to overcome?
Share this blog post with your love ones and see you soon! Insya’Allah. 🙂
p.s. By the way, if you wish to discover a simple & halal way to create a positive monthly cashflow and calculate your net worth for FREE, then please click here…
In my opinion, the secret recipe to the success in the development in Islamic finance in Singapore is to build our foundations and platform right locally first and then, scale it, expand globally.
I have listed the steps.
Build up our strong foundation of Islamic Finance for our local population first and then expand globally.
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The first crucial step is to introduce murabahah financing for Singaporeans who want to purchase our properties the shariah compliant way, as an alternative to conventional mortgage loans.
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No individual or entities in Singapore will give Qard Hassan, also known as interest free loan to our local population.
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Even if there are willing, charitable individuals/organisations, they are too few among us. The most pragmatic way is to set up the strong foundation, where transactions with mutual benefits can be established, yet it is shariah compliant.
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The success of any business endeavour lies on MARKET DEMAND.
Everyone needs a roof on our head.
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Murabahah financing is a good start. Under Murabahah financing, financial institution earns profit from a mark up of the cost price payable over number of financing years, while the buyers pay instalment yet do away with interest based transactions. Mutual Benefit! 🙂
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There are other shariah compliant financial instruments, that financial institutions can look, to introduce or expand in the market. Some examples:
Restricted and non restricted mudarabah account
Shariah Compliant Fund (already available in NTUC Income Cooperative)
Musharakah (Partnership between financial institutions and business owners on profit/loss sharing basis)
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. 2. Enhance Competitiveness Of Shariah Compliant Products in Singapore
. Example again in murabahah financing.
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The effective profit rate earn by financial institution needs to be comparable with the effective interest rate by conventional financing facilities.
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If we can create and maintain competitive shariah compliant instruments on a small scale on a profitable note, to make it bigger, and bring it to a global scale will be easier.
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In my interaction with Non Muslims from other countries, they like shariah compliant products in their country due to salient advantages.
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Example, competitive rates as compared to conventional ones and other benefits like, having one month “instalment holiday” at the end of the year, where they don’t have to pay for mortgage instalment for that particular month.
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. 3.Tax Exemption to smoothen certain process pertinent to Islamic Finance
. Again, example, in a transaction like Murabahah financing for properties.
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The seller has to transfer the ownership to the financial institution and the financial institution has to transfer again to the buyer.
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The transfer of properties or risk of ownership specifically is essential in Murabahah and cant be compromise.
.. Remove in between tax from such transactions, as it will add cost and reduce competitiveness in such financing activities.
. 4. Work with financial consultants and property agents
. Financial consultants and property agents are the frontline who deals with customers on financial transactions, every single day.
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Work with us.
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When sharah compliant instruments are introduced, we already have the database of clients, who are interested in shariah compliant products.
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Though our jobscope may seems more of an advisory role, we have been trained to sell. In order for the take up rate for shariah compliant products to skyrocket, it has to be sold. Incentivise the whole process. It is wishful thinking, to assume that shariah compliant products will move on its own, when introduce to the market.
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Education is also a key to the success of the promotion of a particular financial instrument. Engage us the practitioners by introducing educational grants and training schemes, that we can use to upgrade ourselves, specifically on Islamic Finance.
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. 5. Ability to sell cross borders transactions
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From my understanding, financial consultants in Singapore can only sell to locals.
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If we want to sell to foreigners, they must have a FIN number.
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Usually, they are PRs, Employment Pass, S Pass or Work Permit holders.
. Singapore has its advantages of its strong Singapore Dollar. Foreigners will love to diversify their investments, and if Singapore allows for such cross border transactions with stringent underwriting, that will help. Imagine money flows from neighbouring countries with sizeable Muslim population….
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Of course, this is just my thoughts as a practitioner in Singapore.
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After all the above has been done, only then Singapore is poised to attract the petro-dollars from the Middle East.
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Singapore, with its solid, working blueprint specifically on development of shariah compliant products, coupled with its inherent strengths is just a step away to champion Islamic Finance worldwide.
. What is needed then is just to identify what works on a small scale domestically, and expand it further, worldwide.
p.s. By the way, if you wish to discover a simple & halal way to create a positive monthly cashflow and calculate your net worth for FREE, then please click here…
On this special occasion, I will like to give a present for my blog readers of HelmiHakim.com.
I will like to offer FREE access to my special email service, OtakJutawan.com where you get motivational quotes on finance every week for the next 3 years. Click below for more details. Insya’Allah.
Click the link below now to claim your FREE gift! 🙂
Note: The story that I’m about to share is a fiction, and not a reflection of reality in Singapore.
The story goes….
On a bright, Sunday morning at a housing estate in Yew Tee, Misnah was beaming ear to ear, excited because she is going to finally get married to the love of her life, Ahmad the following week.
She and Ahmad had diligently save money in their Al-Wadiah savings account, giving Hibah of 0.8%/annum and the money accumulated is just nice to pay for their combined wedding at a halal restaurant.
They have also bought their lovely freehold condominium with a special themed concept and successfully attain Murabahah financing.
Ahmad since the first day, he started working, had diligently, invested his money in a shariah compliant equity fund, and now making a superb profit. He is smart, because during the subprime mortgage crisis in year 2008, he did a lot of top up, thus enhancing his portfolio return by so much more. That money is just nice, for their honeymoon trip to Morocco and also to finance the renovation cost of their new house. Ahmad is smart because gain of profit through capital appreciation is not taxable in Singapore. Alhamdulillah, all the profits belong to him.
Their wedding ensued with love and a year later, they were blessed with a beautiful daughter, named Siti.
Little did Ahmad know, his wife had also been investing in shariah compliant REITs, earning quarterly dividends, enough to pay for pampers and milk.
Ahmad gets his family covered under Islamic Insurance Takaful, because he loves his family.
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They also heard that the government is building an expressway called PUE (Pulau Ubin Expressway) and just issued Sukuk based on the ijarah model.
The Sukuk or Islamic bond is shariah compliant because the returns is not from interest coupons but from the toll reapt from the specially designed ERP gantries. Once the cost of building the expressway is recovered, the Sukuk will be redeemed at par.
Meanwhile, Ahmad quit his job as an engineer to fulfil his childhood passion to run his own business. He and his friend form a musharakah partnership, with 60:40 share. To set up the factory, his partner and himself, do it via the Istisna contract with XYZ financial institution and purchase the special raw materials from a local distributor under Salaam contract.
Time flies, their only daughter, Siti has grown up and want to go to a university in UK. She gets service based ijarah financing method to pay for her tertiary education. Her parents did some savings based on non restricted mudarabah, since she was young, and the money is just enough to pay for her food and accommodation while she is studying in UK.
Upon graduation, she found her soulmate, got married and the cycle continues……
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Now, back to reality.
Many of you might have read about DBS winding down its Islamic banking unit, The Islamic Bank of Asia Limited (IB Asia).
When I chat with my friends, they told me, that this is not surprising. HSBC insurance removed its Takaful products a few years back. NTUC Income closed its sukuk fund, NTUC Income Amanah bond too. It is some kind of a downward trend. 🙁
So the pertinent question is, “Is there really potential for Islamic Finance to grow in Singapore?”
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In my opinion, Singapore is the best country in the world to establish and grow Islamic finance.
We have a strong, well respected government, and a reputable brand name of a reliable financial hub with proven track records. Our economy is sound. We are rated the top investment grade of AAA by Standard & Poor. Our finance industry in Singapore is well regulated, with competent and highly qualified financial professionals. We are honest, sincere and if contracts or partnerships were formed, we stick and hold by to it.
Islamic finance thrives in such environment. 🙂
Although some may argue that, Singapore lack the critical mass of domestic consumers for Islamic Finance products, I believe that Singapore’s Muslim population of 700,000 is quite a sizeable niche market to start on and expand from there. In fact, I believe that Singapore’s Muslim population of 700,000 is a good core to start on.
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So with all the advantages that Singapore has to offer, how can we catapult ourselves to success? What is our story that we can share with the rest of the world, when it comes to Islamic Finance? 🙂
Stay tune on my blog, to discover more. Insya’Allah… 🙂
p.s. By the way, if you wish to discover a simple & halal way to create a positive monthly cashflow and calculate your net worth for FREE, then please click here…
Yesterday, I went to Johor Bahru to watch a Malay movie, titled “Kapsul”.
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I was very excited to watch it simply because the movie features the special appearance of 2 individuals that I respected most in my life.
Firstly, my first internet marketing mentor, Dr Irfan Khairi.
(Dr Irfan Khairi and me 10 years ago)
I went to Dr Irfan’s “Jutawan Internet” seminar when I was still serving my national service, travelling all the way from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur by bus. He is the one, who gave me the inspiration to set up my blog, HelmiHakim.com when I first joined the finance industry.
Secondly, Tun Dr Mahathir, Malaysia’s former Prime Minister.
(Tun Dr Mahathir and me 5 years ago at an Islamic Finance seminar in Singapore)
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Tun Dr Mahathir inspired me with his authentic, robust and no nonsense style of leadership. .
He is a firm advocate of “berani kerana benar” (fearless due to truthfulness) principle and is a visionary leader.
I am also impressed with his sheer determination and commitment to uplift the economic standard of the Malay community, at large, even at his old age of 90 now.
When I studied for my finance degree years back, I had some difficulties to understand certain financial jargons and how the economy works.
I referred to a lot of Dr Mahathir’s brilliant speeches on the world economic crisis. Dr Mahathir’s ability to simplify complex subject matter, compound with his excellent communication skills, his honest, yet unorthodox, mind blogging interpretation of the finance world impressed me, a lot. A respectable leader, one its kind.
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So when the movie is out, I jump at the opportunity to watch it.
The movie itself presents an excellent and creative way to look back at history, the struggle of the Malays since pre-independence.
In the movie, a high tech security expert Zohri Ibrahim makes a bet with a few friends to steal a time capsule planted by Tun Mahathir which contains his vision for year 2020.
Once the capsule is activated, Zohri is taken on a journey through time where he learns about the struggles of the generation before him.
It shows how helpless our forefathers were during the Japanese Occupation, during the reigns of power of the communist, and fighting for independence from the British.
I was emotionally touched to see the pain, the struggle, the sacrifices of our forefathers, and a sense of gratitude overwhelmed me, appreciating how lucky we are today, living in a country where we can call it, our own. Never to be subdued, subjugate by foreign invaders.
The part that touch me the most is when Zohri comes back to the real world, and meet Tun Dr Mahathir in real person.
Tun Dr Mahathir gently touch Zohri’s shoulder and said, “Ingat orang muda. Perjuangan kita belum selesai…..”
In English translation, it translates as, “Remember young man… Our fight has not ended”.
I can feel the hairs on my body standing. A gush of emotions overwhelmed me. I can relate to this, because I see myself working hard everyday, finding methods, strategies on how to uplift the economic standards of my community through financial planning.
It is an uphill battle that I am fighting day and night. It a very tiring, yet rewarding experience.
Tun Mahathir’s words of wisdom transcend beyond countries, and is an excellent advice to many youngsters to appreciate what we have today, yet continue to work hard, upgrade ourselves and strive forward for the betterment of our community.
It personally evokes and injects motivation within me. Congratulations to the producers for the movie well done! Considering the steep budget allocated to this movie, it will be a special and memorable memento and a reminder for our future generation to come. Amin… Insya’Allah…. 🙂
p.s. By the way, if you wish to discover a simple & halal way to create a positive monthly cashflow and calculate your net worth for FREE, then please click here…
A certified financial consultant, Helmi Hakim has won praise for his patience, perseverance and practicality when solving his clients’ financial concerns. For more information on how you can manage your finances better, contact Helmi Hakim at 96520134.
