Book Review
34
You Too Can Excel By Dr Victor SL Tan
For a book title, it may sound too common. However, this is one book that is everything except common. I have written this book for a top civil servant who has over 35 years of experience where he shares his experiences through stories, insights, and hindsight for those aspiring young leaders who too want to reach the top positions in organisations. As the book appears to have two names, allow me to differentiate between an author and a writer. A writer is the one who helps write the book, but the author is the one with the stories and the sharing of his views. The writer plays the role of interviewing to unleash what is inside the author and help write the book. Of course, there are authors who write their own books too. However, many people have books trapped inside them but do not translate their gems to be shared with the world. One such individual, Datuk Ir. Amrullah has unleashed his trapped book into reality with his first book, You Too Can Excel. The book is written more in a style of self-improvement rather than a biography. This book is divided into 10 Chapters.
Chapter 1 gives a good background of Datuk Amrullah Kamal describing the events that had shaped him. His years of martial arts training through Taekwondo, Judo, and Silat classes have developed a sense of confidence and discipline that serves him well. His scouting activities developed his leadership, and survival skills as well as inculcated in him a sense of independence. His parents’ spiritual teachings have inculcated good moral principles and humility in him. His resilience and courage in his younger days certainly helped him in his later years. Before introducing Chapter 2, there is a brief introduction on what are the 7 Majestic Step-Ups. The term Step-Up means to do something faster and better with greater intensity to achieve the desired results. Chapter 2 to Chapter 8 covers the 7 Majestic StepUps providing specific examples of how Datuk Amrullah had used them to excel. He rose from the rank of an executive engineer to the Director of JKR Sabah and then the Director-General Dewan Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu, and finally the President of Majlis Perbandaran Tawau, Malaysia Retailer Vol 10 No 1
At the recent book launch at the Ark Event Space, Plaza Damas, Kuala Lumpur.
through using this approach to help achieve extraordinary results often with seemingly impossible tasks. In many of his works, he had tapped into his foresight to develop an inspiring vision to win over people’s commitment. He had the guts to do what was right rather than what was popular. He had used his superb persuasive skill to influence his superiors to approve something that had never been approved before. For example, he managed to get a huge budget for the development of rural roads in Sabah approved as well as for 45 fresh engineers despite the staff intake freeze policy. In everything, one can sense that this man has a hunger for success and is performance-driven. He not only executed well with massive action, but his followthrough was relentless. To him, there is no such thing as failure unless one gives up trying. He did whatever it took, often outside his decision-making powers, using his influential skills to get a difficult idea approved and implemented. He was quick to admit that he did not chalk up all the great achievements by himself. He had leveraged the motivated team that he had developed. Perhaps his courage, tenacity, and perseverance could be best attested by his attending Tony Robbins fire-walking seminar 3 times and having climbed Mount Kinabalu to reach the summit when he was 51 years old. Chapter 9 is an emotional chapter where he shares his greatest loss. It is heart-rendering to read about the loss
