#NALS2017: Up Close And Personal With Thaqif Abdul Rashid

Thinkonomics ©Leaderonomics

Leaderonomics was proud to be a learning partner for the recently-concluded National Aspiration and Leadership Summit (NALS) 2017 (4 Feb), a platform for Malaysian youths to make their voices heard surrounding what is happening around the country at the present state.

We caught up with the director of NALS 2017, Thaqif Abdul Rashid, who has been living outside Malaysia for the past 12 years. We asked him some thought-provoking questions from our Thinkonomics set, a gameplay that consists of various thinking questions based on our five Leaderonomics values: Relationships, Empowering, Giving, Growth and Building the future.

Q&A with Thaqif

1. If you could programme your life into a virtual reality adventure game, what game would you be playing in?

Pokémon would definitely be the game I would be playing, i.e. going out at a very young age in an attempt to explore the world with the way I see things and analyse every cave, mountain and forest. It’s exciting to meet new people and adapt to the current challenges using virtual reality.

2. What is wrong with the world today? How should we fix it?

The world today is bombarded by too much negative news and thoughts that create fear and thoughts of destructions. I believe that the media plays a huge role in shaping the way our society works. People should realise that changes can happen only with the help and support from everyone. The government is there to govern, but the people are there to make that change. Our mindset has to change first before we can fix the world.

3. Have you been the kind of friend you would want as a friend? How did it go?

To be honest, I’m not that good at keeping in touch with friends. In that, I may or may not have been the friend I myself would want. I’ve been there for most of my friends; and have always been the person who will support a friend, but I think I lack in giving my time to friends in the long-term.

4. If life is so short, why do we do things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?

One of the factors would be peer pressure that will influence them to think that what they are doing suit them and is the right choice. On hindsight, we are never satisfied with what we have. Sometimes we want to do something that is not as easy as we thought it would. Other times, people are not willing to go that extra mile to reach their target.

5. Your hope for Malaysia.

It is for society to have the right mindset that the changes we want will not come from the government; rather the onus is on us to make little changes within our own community, mukim, kampong,bandar and university. We put so much expectation on the government that we forget the power is always in our hands. I hope Malaysians can open up their minds and think further in creating a better nation for our country we call home.

6. Share with us what you have learnt from any of the NALS 2017 sessions.

One of the sessions was “Proud to be Malaysian” session. One of the participants made an observation about how we identify ourselves as Malaysians, and not according to our ethnic groups, when we travel abroad.
It is one of the strongest points made by fellow participants in acknowledging why Malaysia is truly a diverse country. You need to have the love for your country to go through the challenges and still willing to do something to make our nation great again.

If you would like to find out more about our Leaderonomics Campus initiatives to help your university accelerate further, email us at campus@leaderonomics.com. To know more about what Leaderonomics do as a social enterprise, check out www.leaderonomics.org. To read more about NALS 2017 feature stories, click here.