I am a purely technical oriented person based on my formal education. But when you want to do business, you need to build up your soft skills especially related to business. I am an MDeC Pre-Seed fund recipient batch 4. I am very grateful that in addition to the maximum grant I got, MDeC offers a lot of short courses to assist the recipients. I have attended seven short courses conducted by MDeC: one is technical and the rest are business related or soft skills. The short courses are:
1. Short course in Microsoft Visual Basic.NET, 28 & 29 October 2008, at Microsoft Innovative Center (MIC), MDeC
2. Short course in Go-To-Market model Development organized by MDeC Pre-Seed, 2008 on 22 and 23 November 2007
3. Short course in Financial Planning and Management Workshop organized by MDeC Pre-Seed, 15th and 16th November 2008, Thye Foot Leong
4. Short course in Strategic Planning organized by MDeC Pre-Seed, 31 October - 2 November 2008 (3 full days), Malaysian Institute of Management
5. Short course in “Gold Mindset for Entrepreneurship” PowerCoaching organized by MDeC Pre-Seed, 25 June 2009, Coachers : Robert Chaen & Brenda Jose, Change University
6. Short course in Diamond Leader CEO PowerCamp organized by MDeC Pre-Seed, 22 & 23 July 2009, Coachers : Robert Chaen & Brenda Jose from Change University
7. Short course in Sales Ninja Hunter Workshop, 11,12 & 13 August 2009 organized by MdeC Pre-Seed, 23- July 2009, Coacher : Hanzo
I want to learn at a faster rate by taking advantage the short courses I attended. I will need 3 times more time to learn if read on my own if ?I were in college. but once I work, it is 3 times 10 times more time to learn if I read on my own!!
I also find out that the new knowledge from other areas can help to enhance my existing or based knowledge! For example in sales development skills, I learn about
1. Prospecting - increase your business opportunity
2. Networking - know more people
3. Positioning - how you approach your customer
I find out these are similar to my technical skills which I am enhancing with my PhD:
1. Prospecting - increase the possibility to find new contribution
2. Networking - know more about other people work including from other industry
3. Positioning - how to use these new ideas and structure in your main contribution
The more I learn soft skills and adapt into my based activities the more efficient and productive I am. So, I encourage other people to do so. Nothing to be ashamed by attending a short course whether you already know or never learn before. After all that is what Allah told us to do in the very first revelation to Muhammad s.a.w.!
