Common Courtesy.

I just finished reading Ellen DeGeneres’s book, [Seriously … I’m kidding] just in a day and I would say it’s quite a good book (I was searching for this particular book for a long, long time and then I found it at Virgin Megastores for LE156. Without doubt I just grab it even though it’s quite expensive. Here’s some tips that I learn after a few experiences; if you like something, just get it or you’ll never have it.

I like Ellen. I like her sense of humor, her wits and her trademark that she said at the end of her show “be kind to one another”. I find that she is very inspiring to me.

Well, there is a particular chapter in this book that bring me here, sitting in front of this laptop to write down this, this particular subject  that might sound cliché as it can be but I do think we need to do something about it. We need to change it.

That chapter she wrote about common courtesy on how she likes to be early and hate when people are late. So do me. I hate to be late because I too, have kind a sense of respect go people’s time and secondly because my watch was set to be 10 minutes early on purpose.  It is just annoying when people bring the term “common Malay behavior” when every time on a meeting or date you have to expect people will be late and so on.

Also when we talked about this, it brings us to the level of mentality of our people (Malay, Malaysian?) that maybe I’m stereotyping but it does happened, all the time to me. Maybe when a person is late in about 3-5 minutes that might be acceptable but 1 hour? You got to have good reason on that like your cats got sick or anything, maybe not traffic jam or … I don’t know.

The thing is this. Being early on anything you’re up to is not just about being able to keep on track of your plan and able to work it efficiently but also about respect and common courtesy that I think we need to change the way we look on that, as right now I think it is socially acceptable to be late as it is not a big deal or it’s a small matter. Maybe you think it’s a small stuff and I’ll leave that to you but considering all of the possible consequences that might happen; it is a big deal, to me.

Last but not least, it’s not that hard to just be ready earlier than we should, as it’s also a good habit and maybe it’s more than that like saying ‘thank you’, ‘please’ or just be kind to one another. It’s just a simple manner that was taught when we were kids. Above of all of this writing, my point is it’s nice to be punctual, to be on time.

Please,

Thank you.