There is an Irish toast, popularised by John Lennon – and more recently by the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and it goes something like this: “Everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end yet.”
For people like Zhariff Afandi, a man who understands struggle, it’s just the beginning – but he is doing more than alright.
Despite being born without arms, Zhariff Afandi is an avid outdoorsman and motivational speaker with three bachelor’s degrees (in developmental psychology, sociology, and law). In addition to founding Loka, a brick-and-mortar platform for homegrown clothing brands at Nu Sentral, he recently encapsulated some of his personal story and thoughts in his first book, titled “S.O.S”.
“Struggle is everywhere – and it doesn’t get any easier when you’re in an industry that seems oversaturated in almost every way.” He says this while getting wired for a video interview, using his phenomenally dexterous toes to helpfully move things out of the way.
Speaking by proxy to practitioners of the real estate industry, he begins by offering some standard advice about persisting in the face of difficulty, “I guess it’s just about doing and persevering. With these kinds of things, you just have to keep going.”
As this is what most people do when attempting to overcome obstacles – he goes on to offer a thought about doing something different besides trying to break through a wall, “People think there’s only one way of doing things, then they get stuck and they keep trying.“
“I’ve always had this view that whatever you do – whatever’s been done – there’s always a better way of doing things.”
Zhariff goes on to paint an anecdote from his first days of adulting, “I was 17 years old when I got my first job, it was sales – selling event tickets for the Salem millennium event back in Y2K (back in 1999).”
“So there I was working like a normal sales guy, they send you to Subang (or wherever) in a van and then you have these tickets to sell and you go knocking on doors, meeting and talking to people.”
“I found that to be such an exhausting way to do things and I thought: there needs to be a better way.”
He sat down in a café somewhere in Taipan, Subang, to collect his thoughts, gave his mother a call and said “I have an idea, I’m doing this thing selling tickets for the millennium event. I think I want to change the way we do it, I’m going to do it more like a corporate package.”
With some corporate contacts, Zhariff turned a rave into a C-suite package with an ingenious pitch, “So we have this huge event at Subang airport – maybe you would want to consider these tickets as a gift for your clients or for your staff?”
The responses were such that instead of having to sell each ticket individually, Zhariff was able to unload bundles of 10, 20, and sometimes even 50, tickets with a single visit, “Far better than walking the streets and asking people to buy tickets one at a time.”
“A lot of things are daunting and difficult, but if you just sit down for a while and give it a little thought, a better way of doing things may come to mind.”
Solutions may not always pop up ready-made, but Zhariff reckons the first obstacle is usually found in the mind, “If you have a nimble and flexible mindset, then you are able to move like water.”
Zhariff certainly has an affinity for water – he once swam from Pulau Kapas to Kelutut Beach during the 11th Kapas-Marang International Swimathon, covering a distance of six and a half kilometres in just under three hours.
“Water will always find a way to move. Water isn’t even restricted to its natural state – it can turn to vapour and still move.”
“Rigidity is one of the downfalls of your mind. Once you have a rigid mind – then you’re stuck and end up being angry or intolerant. Tolerance comes from fluidity of mind and thoughts. When you’re fluid then you’ll always find a way.”
“I always believe there are better ways of doing things, and this is where each person will have to figure it out for themselves.”
Watch a video on Zhariff Afandi recalling his narrow escape from the tragedy of the Highland Towers collapse, watch another video of our latest interview with him, or visit the Propwall.my Facebook page for more motivational stories.
