Kickstart in MindValley Hall of Awesomeness

Cheeky Bernard Eng secretly signed up on behalf of me in EventBrite for an inspirational talk organized by Kickstart in Mindvalley Hall of Awesomeness.

I’m glad he did that and frankly, a person’s life could change 360 degree depending on who you are with. Bernard Eng pretty much changed my lifestyle ever since 21st of June 2014.

Mindvalley is located at UOA Bangsar, Tower A and is very convenient via Bangsar LRT. Once you have arrived at the station, take an escalator down and head to Tower A which is on your right. A security check at lobby is imperative to gain access to the building, hence, patience is virtue.
 
As I made haste to reach the elevator, I felt so small being in this building with its lofty ceiling that invites echoes from a tiny word uttered, smooth and glossy marble wall that does not make your finger dusty with a single swipe and solemn silence that is projected from the spacious walkway.

The Hall of Awesomeness greeted me with colourful bean bags lying lazily on the floor waiting for bumps to warm its surface and numerous adults milling around, socialising as if greeting old friend. I made friend with a sanguine veteran who was from property management background. Cladded with a director hat and t-shirt, he appeared to be an ex-UMian who studied in agriculture. He was taken aback to learn that I pursued Environmental Science in UM as the size and core education business of UM did struck some contradictions for my study as compared to UPM. Nevertheless, I clarified by saying it was a new program, newly established in about eight years ago.

A handful of working adults still have not turned their working mode off as they were seen busy with their smartphones, or perhaps the organizer should have had a simple ice breaking session for everyone to chuck techies away and start talking literally.

The monthly talk by Kickstart featured Dr. Shariha Khalid and Chris Erichsen, who are the co-founders of Scope Group. The husband and wife  jointly initiated a bold social enterprise in Malaysia to tackle drug issue. Novel I would say. Of all the social enterprises that I have heard, it often revolved in environment, poverty, education and humanity issues but not really on drug.

It is a sensitive and stagnant issue to talk about. Ever since school, we had seen billboard propagating drug as the number 1 enemy in our country and to date, the billboard still exists. In disguise, it means that drug remains as our current challenge to fight against.

Dr. Shariha, a plastic surgeon in UK, had for the past 14 years felt a strong urge to make a move to ensure everyone receives a decent medical treatment regardless of whether you are a patient, or, a drug abuser. A visit to Pusat Serenti hit her hard to witness cruelty on our current negligence over the drug abusers’ life. Basically, if a person is caught doing drug, he/she will be placed in Pusat Serenti for two years and it literally means, a complete cease in drug intake. Two years later when they are released, most of them who have still not remove the root cause of their drug abuse habit will happily inject dose of drug. And when such horrid injection takes place, a person basically dies immediately as his/her body is unable to take the drug after two-year cessation.

She and her husband, a German then took lead to reinvent the current system of drug abuse treatment by selling their idea (business model). Their success came to a peak when one Pusat Serenti was willing to give a try on their innovative idea and ever since then more and more Pusat Serenti had adopted the new system. The name Pusat Serenti was even changed to Pusat Pemulihan Penagihan Narkotik (Puspen) and there was an increase awareness that the society needed to show more empathy on this group of drug victim and not just abandoned them in agony, with only family members to understand what they are going through.

It was as if standing at the edge of cliff, questioning themselves whether to unroot their feet and take a leap of faith to another cliff or just stay rooted forever. To give up or not to, a question that every individual will encounter as they are working on something meaningful.

Some other inspiration that I got from them is about how one should never be reluctant to test your idea/business model/prototype in order to find out an answer.

And just that you want to change a person or a system, there is no point telling that person that he/she is wrong because human will never like to receive such comment. In addition, they will not see your point that they are wrong if you never give them a better alternative.

Lastly, always approach the right stakeholders in order to make a change with significant impact.