Alhamdulillah, as I write this… I’ve arrived safely in Johor Bahru to run the 4-day Inner Circle Meeting (ICM) Titan programme with more than 200 millionaire entrepreneurs from all over the country. The trip home this time, Manchester to Kuala Lumpur, was really long. I was supposed to fly out on Friday around 9pm and land at KLIA around 7pm the next day. But the flight from Manchester to Abu Dhabi was delayed, so I missed my connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur. In the end… I had to transit in Abu Dhabi for more than 12 hours. Alhamdulillah everything was made easy, and now I’m at the hotel where ICM Johor Bahru is being held.

While resting a while before tomorrow’s session, I came across a quote that got me thinking…

“Good people see the good and bring out the best in other people.”

I read it a few times. Then I thought… if that’s true… what’s the opposite? Maybe… “Negative people see the worst and bring out the worst in other people.” Isn’t that what happens all the time? People who are always negative find it easier to see other people’s weaknesses, mistakes and shortcomings. They’d rather criticise than build. Quicker to judge than to understand.

I’ve been in the training and entrepreneur development world for almost 18 years. In that time, I’ve met tens of thousands of people from all kinds of backgrounds. The truth is… most of them didn’t come to me when they were doing well. They came when life was a struggle. Some were almost bankrupt. Some had problems at home. Some had lost their confidence. Some were at the lowest point of their lives.

If I had only looked at their situation at that moment… maybe I would have said the same thing, “This one cannot succeed…” But I chose not to judge someone’s future based on his condition that day. I believe every person has potential that Allah gave him. Some already show it… some are still hidden. Sometimes that potential is just waiting for someone who believes in them before they believe in themselves.

And Alhamdulillah… along this journey I’ve seen it happen again and again. Many who once came with huge debts… today are building companies worth millions of ringgit. Many who used to be afraid of doing business… today provide jobs to hundreds of people. Many who were almost ready to give up… today are an inspiration to others. Not because they changed in a day… but because they chose not to give up, and there was someone who kept believing they could rise again.

Then I always wonder… how many people out there fail not because they have no potential… but because in their whole life, nobody ever truly believed in them? Nobody ever said… “I believe you can do it.” Instead… all they heard was criticism, sarcasm, mockery and words that broke their spirit.

That’s when I realised… sometimes one word can bring a person down. And sometimes… one word can change his whole life. Isn’t it true that almost every one of us still remembers the words of someone who lifted our spirit? And we also still remember the words of someone who almost destroyed our confidence.

That’s why I believe… what we see in other people doesn’t only tell us who they are. It tells us more about who we are. People who always see opportunity will find it easier to see potential. People who always look for faults will end up finding more faults. Sometimes we think we’re judging other people… when actually we’re showing the state of our own heart.

I’m not saying we should close our eyes to someone’s weaknesses. No. Weaknesses still need to be fixed. Mistakes still need to be pointed out. But how we do it decides whether we’re building a person… or tearing one down. There’s a difference between correcting someone because we want him to be better… and putting someone down just because we want to look better ourselves.

Whatever you choose… I believe we get back what we give. If we choose to build… Allah will bring people who build us. If we choose to strengthen… Allah will bring people who strengthen us. If we choose to always see the potential in others… insya-Allah there will also be people who see the potential in us.

And never worry about the words of negative people… because in the end they don’t build our life. They only give an opinion. We’re the ones who decide. We’re the ones who choose to rise. We’re the ones who work hard. And we’re the ones who end up building our own life.

May Allah make us people who always build and support others to rise. Because this life never lacks people who love to criticise, insult and bring others down… but we always need more people who are willing to support, strengthen and celebrate other people’s success. Because bringing someone down is easy… but helping someone rise again sometimes takes years. Isn’t falling easy… but getting back up, that’s really hard!

— Datuk Wira Dr Azizan Osman