Reflections

1^st of Muharram or 14^th October this year is the start of the new year of the Islamic calendar. Apart from being a public holiday, the beginning of the Islamic New Year is very special to me. I started my own legal practice at this very day three years ago. It’s a symbolic. The new year of Islamic calendar started at the same date of the holy prophet Muhammad (PBUH) migration from Mecca to Madinah. In Islam we call it the HIjrah; the migration physically but also spiritually. Migrating to a better place. The spread of Islam faced a lot of challenges but at the end perseverance prevailed and Islam flourished throughout the Arabian lands and whole over the world.

I started my working career with a conventional finance company. It was my first taste of corporate world. The first day was bittersweet experience. Bosses are nice and friendly but I cannot understand a single thing of banking terms. All terms are mentioned in acronym. I don’t understand corporate world. I know the law but do not know how to infuse my legal knowledge to corporate world. Lot of my opinion does not make business sense. That’s when I decided to pursue my MBA. Hard work and continuous learning makes my life in corporate world lot easier after that.

My next career was with an investment bank. It is normal course of career transition; from a conventional bank to investment bank. The pace in investment bank is very fast and challenging. I observed that companies that can offer challenges to its employee, these are companies that can attract the best talent.

Mediocre employee is more comfortable sitting in his/her cubicle at one corner of the office, hoping that he do not have to communicate to anyone or do anything outside his comfort zone. A Star employee willing to take risk, rock the boat, and questioning the norm. The risk with A Star employee is that they will make mistake here and there. Some companies will punish these A Star students and forcing them out from the company. The effect is these companies will keep the mediocre employee in their payroll and these mediocre, well will reflect the performance of the company in the future; mediocre performance.

After two years with the investment bank I went to an oil and gas company looking for new challenge. This company has very “cool” policy like everyone must have a Facebook account defines the culture of this company.  It is no surprise because “youngsters” are running this company. The company looks fresh, and energetic compared to the conventional bank that I work for before.

The odyssey of my profession took another twist when one of my former clients asked to join her in a legal firm. I just finish my LLM at the point of time and looking for fresh challenges. I jumped to the opportunity to work at a legal firm. Well, I am a lawyer anyway.

Throughout my career, I learned to value relationships. You need to interact with your colleague, your boss, and your clients. I noticed that most problems arise due to miscommunication. Most company policies failed because the bosses failed to communicate the rationale of the policies. We live in the new millennium and management style of the post merdeka era should be in the museum together with walkman and “butterfly”.

You can tell lawyers and their conservative dress code, law office with the sober environment, and typical name card. I believe that a lawyer should build a relationship with their clients; not only a solicitor-client relationship, it must be a meaningful relationship apart from contributing to the betterment of the society.

The money is good, the job is secured but I stayed awake at night with those burning questions.

Then I decided to open up my own legal firm, with the intention to make a change, to disrupt the market, to put dent to the universe. I believe that the main reason for our existence is serve a purpose higher than our selves. I got to do what I always believe in. I got to do the charities that I want, take the time to climb the Kinabalu, or having real chat with a stranger at a food stall. I’m having a life of a person. Do you notice whenever people introduce themselves by their profession? Well, I can manage to introduce myself as …my self.

Three years down the road I still persevere with the said idea. Slowly but surely the idea is gaining traction. I began to meet like-minded persons who share the same values. It is not sufficient to conduct your business as usual as it must be something great, something awesome. To create great thing requires lot of sacrifices, hard word, determination, and perseverance. I believe that when you work on something great, you must stay true with your philosophy. I made mistake for deviating from that philosophy in my early days of my private legal practice. I paid heavy price for those mistakes, learn from it and change my approach.

It has been blessed three years of my life. I achieve so much both in my profession and as a person. There is so much to be done, roll up my sleeves, and try to dent the universe.