Things my teachers taught me

Kak Ruby's post here reminded me of several short but inspiring pieces of advice I've received over the years. Strangely enough all of them are from my student days, and all the advice came from teachers. Dah kerja ni keras kepala sikit, tak nak terima nasihat dah - perasan pandai.

"Always do better than your best."

This came from Mrs Ho, former music & maths teacher (what a combination!) at my secondary school. I can't remember when exactly she said this, maybe on her last day at school or at the state level Pesta Muzik competition in 1991. It's my number one motivation mantra.

"As an engineer, you're not expected to remember everything, but you should know where to look for the information."

I heard this from the Dean of Engineering at my university when I attended its Open Day. Let's just say it's the secret of my success at work.

And the last one was an interview tip from Ayah (well, he was a teacher for a very short while), when I was applying for my scholarship. He was relating to me his scholarship interview that finally got him to UK to do his Bachelor's and eventually Master's degree in Electronic Engineering back in the 70's, footsteps I followed 25 years later. Apparently, when the interviewer asked him what he knew about Electronic Engineering, his answer was, "I don't know". The interviewer then said, "If you don't know, then why do you want to take it up?" to which he responded, "It's because I don't know that I want to study the subject."

I thought it was a brilliant answer and wanted to use it for my interview, but his advice was,

"You can't say you don't know. It's not acceptable in this day and age."

Fortunately that question didn't come up during the interview. Although there have been times when it's the only answer I can think of.