Apabila Setiap Garisan Ada Maknanya

Apabila Setiap Garisan Ada Maknanya

Alhamdulillah, pada 7 Oktober 2026, projek Certified Visual Teachers (CVT) menerima satu detik yang amat bermakna. Delegasi Sekretariat Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund, diketuai Ketua Sekretariat Encik Rizatuddin Ramli, bersama penyumbang dana Yayasan MySDG dan Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Johor, telah mengadakan lawatan pemantauan impak ke tiga buah sekolah di Kulai, Johor.

Projek ini, di bawah Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund, dilaksanakan oleh Yayasan Wiba Prima dengan sokongan Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia dan JPN Johor. Ia menggunakan kaedah Visualization Through Freehand (VTF), pendekatan lakaran visual spontan yang dimajukan oleh Dr. Ruzaimi Mat Rani, yang hanya memerlukan pensel dan kertas.

Mengapa pendekatan semudah ini penting? Kerana ia boleh dilaksanakan di mana-mana bilik darjah, tidak kira kaya atau miskin sumbernya. Inilah teras prinsip Leave No One Behind.

Di SK (F) Sinar Bahagia, saya menyaksikan sesuatu yang sukar dilupakan. Guru Besar terkesan melihat murid Pendidikan Khas melakar, sehingga setiap garisan yang dihasilkan mempunyai maksudnya tersendiri. Di saat itu, saya yakin bahawa kaedah yang mudah dan kos rendah benar-benar mampu memberi impak besar, terutama kepada mereka yang paling memerlukan.

Perjalanan ini bukan bermula semalam. Sejak 2023, lebih 2,500 orang guru telah dilatih dalam kaedah VTF di beberapa negeri, dan pendekatan ini turut menerima pengiktirafan antarabangsa di QS Reimagine Education Awards, London, pada 2025 dan sekali lagi pada 2026.

Di bawah projek UN SDG Trust Fund ini pula, 100 orang guru telah dilatih dan kini mengaplikasikan VTF di dalam bilik darjah masing-masing, dengan sasaran menjangkau kira-kira 15,000 murid di seluruh Johor. Mereka bakal menerima pensijilan Certified Visual Teachers pada Januari 2027.

Setiap guru yang dilatih bukan sekadar belajar melukis. Mereka menjadi pemangkin perubahan kepada ratusan murid. Dan apabila setiap garisan yang dilakar seorang murid mempunyai makna, di situlah pembelajaran yang sebenar berlaku.

Terima kasih kepada semua guru, JPN Johor, KPM, Sekretariat Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund dan Yayasan MySDG. Insya-Allah, perjalanan ini akan terus kita kembangkan untuk manfaat lebih ramai anak bangsa.

📰 Liputan penuh Utusan Malaysia: https://utusan.com.my/nasional/2026/10/delegasi-malaysia-un-sdg-trust-fund-tinjau-program-guru-visual-bertauliah/

 

Beyond the Certificate: What 20 UniSZA Students Taught Me About Entrepreneurship

By Coach Amirul Iskandar Mannan

On 9 October 2026, my article “Daripada Kemahiran Kepada Pendapatan: Peluang Melalui Usahawan Tutor Online” appeared in Utusan Malaysia.

Alhamdulillah.

Seeing the article in print felt meaningful, especially after the long Usahawan Tutor Online (UTO) journey.

But the real story is not about getting published.

It is about what happened inside a classroom at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), and what that experience could mean for thousands of other students.

An idea that started years ago

UTO began in 2022 through an initiative involving Yayasan Wiba Prima and Drawzania.

The idea was straightforward.

What if we could help someone learn a visual skill, teach that skill to others, and turn it into a potential source of income?

Through collaboration with UniSZA's Pusat Pemindahan Ilmu dan Pendidikan Berterusan (P2P), UTO developed into a Senate-recognised professional certificate programme.

In September 2026, we finally delivered the first professional certificate cohort.

Twenty students from UniSZA's Faculty of Innovative Design and Technology (FRIT) joined us for five days.

For Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani and me, the challenge was not simply to deliver an interesting training programme.

We wanted participants to experience something real.

From learning a skill to finding a customer

The students began by developing their visual and drawing capabilities.

Then we introduced the business challenge.

Who would you teach?

Why would someone want to join your class?

What would you offer?

How would you promote it?

And most importantly, would someone actually register?

The students formed nine teams and began building their small teaching businesses.

They created offers, developed marketing materials, and reached out through social media and their personal networks.

Some found interested customers quickly.

Others had to improve their messages or approach more people.

Seven teams ran paid classes, while two started with free classes.

Both approaches provided opportunities to learn.

A paid class tests whether customers are willing to exchange money for the value offered.

A free introductory class can help a new tutor gain experience, understand learners, and build confidence.

Neither approach guarantees future success.

But both can help someone begin.

The moment learning became real

One of my favourite moments was watching the students present evidence of the classes they had conducted.

They were no longer talking about a hypothetical business.

They had taught real people.

They had experienced the pressure of preparing lessons, communicating with participants, and delivering something they had promised.

They also discovered that entrepreneurship involves much more than creating an attractive poster or writing a business plan.

You need to understand people.

You need to communicate.

You need to earn trust.

And you need to deliver value.

That is why I believe application must be part of the learning process, not merely an activity at the end of a training programme.

Technology makes the journey easier

One important difference between launching UTO in 2022 and delivering it in 2026 is the accessibility of AI.

Today, students can use AI to explore ideas, prepare marketing content, improve communication and organise their business activities.

That can reduce the time and effort required to get started.

But AI is not the hero of the UTO story.

The students are.

AI can help produce a poster, but someone still needs to understand the customer.

AI can help prepare teaching materials, but someone still needs to teach.

AI can suggest ideas, but someone still needs to make decisions and take responsibility.

As I often share in my programmes, AI can help with the Bits, but humans must own the Bricks.

The opportunity beyond UniSZA

What excites me most is the possibility of giving more young people access to experiences like this.

Imagine students discovering that a skill they already have, or one they can learn through a structured programme, could be valuable to someone else.

Imagine a student conducting a small class during the weekend.

Imagine that first experience developing into regular teaching, additional income, or perhaps a larger business.

Not everyone will become a full-time entrepreneur.

And that is perfectly fine.

The objective is to create options.

For students from lower-income families, those options may be particularly meaningful.

This is where universities, foundations, zakat institutions, corporate sponsors and community organisations can play an important role.

We already invest in helping young people gain knowledge and qualifications.

What if we also invested in giving them structured opportunities to create value in the real world?

And what if we followed up after 30 and 90 days to understand who continued, what they achieved, and what support they still needed?

That would help us move beyond measuring attendance and satisfaction towards understanding meaningful outcomes.

The next chapter

I am grateful to Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani, Yayasan Wiba Prima, Drawzania, P2P, FRIT and the UniSZA team for making this first cohort possible.

I am equally grateful to the students who were willing to try.

We cannot yet say how many will continue teaching or eventually build sustainable businesses.

That journey is still unfolding.

But we can say they have experienced something important.

They have taken an idea into the market.

They have taught real learners.

They have begun discovering the value of their capabilities.

And for me, that is a meaningful first step.

The question now is not simply whether we can deliver another UTO programme.

It is how many more students we can allow to begin.

If your university, foundation or organisation is exploring practical student entrepreneurship and income generation initiatives, I would welcome a conversation about how we might create more opportunities together.

Because education should not only prepare people to find opportunities.

It should also help them develop the confidence and capability to create opportunities.

---

This article expands on my Utusan Malaysia contribution published on 9 October 2026.

#UsahawanTutorOnline #UTO #EntrepreneurshipEducation #StudentEmpowerment #UniSZA #ExperientialLearning #YouthDevelopment #SocialImpact #CoachAmirul

Anak Susah Fokus Belajar? Mungkin Kita Perlu Tanya Soalan Yang Berbeza

 

Anak Susah Fokus Belajar? Mungkin Kita Perlu Tanya Soalan Yang Berbeza

When a child struggles with learning, it's natural for parents to want to solve the problem.

We look for more exercises. We consider another tuition class. We reduce screen time. We tell them to concentrate. Sometimes we simply ask them to study longer.

But I've been thinking about a different starting point:

Before asking a child to learn more, should we first try to understand how they appear to learn better?

“Tak fokus” doesn't always tell us what to do

Saying that a child “cannot focus” describes what we're seeing. It doesn't necessarily tell us what will help.

That's why observation matters.

Perhaps the child becomes more engaged when allowed to do something rather than only listen.

Perhaps involving them in a discussion makes a difference.

Perhaps listening to an explanation helps.

Perhaps they need repetition before something begins to make sense.

None of these observations should become a permanent label.

The purpose is not to say:

“Anak saya memang jenis ini.”

A more useful question is:

“Bila saya cuba cara ini, apa yang berlaku?”

That small change in language changes the parent's role from someone trying to diagnose the child into someone learning alongside the child.

FAHAM → CUBA → PERHATI

I've simplified this into three actions:

FAHAM — Start by trying to understand how your child responds to learning.

CUBA — Change one small thing in the way you support them.

PERHATI — Observe what happens.

Did the child engage longer?

Did they understand more easily?

Were they able to explain the idea afterwards?

Did they become frustrated?

Would the same approach work again?

Then repeat.

That's far more useful than simply giving a child a “colour” and assuming we've discovered the answer.

I made a short video about this

I've shared some of this thinking in a short Bahasa Melayu video:

Watch: Anak Susah Fokus Belajar? Mungkin Ini Puncanya
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iq3PigrKgC4 

The video is also part of a bigger experiment I've been working on.

Introducing KPBA

I've developed a short parent programme called:

KPBA — Kenali Personaliti Belajar Anak

Lain Anak, Lain Cara Belajarnya.

KPBA is a 30-minute LIVE online session designed to give parents a simple starting point for reflecting on how their child responds to learning.

After the session, parents complete a 24-question reflection together with their child.

They then receive a personalised reflection profile by email showing the tendencies that appeared most strongly in their responses.

But I don't want the journey to stop at a result.

That's why KPBA continues with a 7-Day Challenge.

Parents receive a practical guide and can use a 7-day e-Tuition trial as one environment in which to try different approaches, observe their child's responses and reflect on what appears to help.

The objective isn't to prove that a child belongs to one category.

It is to help parents become better observers of their own children.

A small experiment for RM19

I'm intentionally starting KPBA small.

The first session will be:

17 October 2026
10.30 pagi
LIVE Online — 30 minutes
RM19 per family

Why RM19?

Because at this stage, I want families to experience the idea, use it with their children and tell me what works, what doesn't and what can be improved.

This is V1.

We'll learn from real parents and continue improving it.

Perhaps the better question isn't “Why can't my child focus?”

Perhaps it's:

“What seems to help my child learn?”

That is a question we can actually explore together.

And that's what I hope KPBA helps parents begin doing.

FAHAM → CUBA → PERHATI.

🌈 Lain Anak, Lain Cara Belajarnya.

Learn more about KPBA and register for the 17 October session
https://kenalipersonalitibelajaranak.netlify.app/

Suggested blog tags: Parenting, Pendidikan Anak, Cara Anak Belajar, KPBA, Learning, Education, Ibu Bapa, Coach Amirul

What Happens When Students Have to Launch a Business — Not Just Write About One?

 

What Happens When Students Have to Launch a Business — Not Just Write About One?

There is something wonderfully imperfect about the photograph accompanying this article.

It is simply a whiteboard.

Nine team names. Marketing channels. Responses. Bookings. Revenue figures. Scribbles. Corrections.

It isn't particularly beautiful.

But to me, it represents something important about how we might rethink entrepreneurship education.

From learning about entrepreneurship to experiencing it

Over five days at UniSZA, participants in the FRIT Professional Entrepreneur Certification Bootcamp — Sijil Profesional Usahawan Tutor Online (UTO) went through a learning journey that was deliberately practical.

The challenge was not simply to understand entrepreneurship.

They had to do it.

Participants developed their capabilities, identified potential customers, created an offer, developed marketing materials, approached real people, managed registrations and prepared to deliver an actual online class.

The journey could be summarised simply:

SKILL → OFFER → MARKET → CUSTOMER → DELIVERY → FEEDBACK → IMPROVEMENT

And once the businesses met the real world, something interesting happened.

The market doesn't give everyone the same answer

Different teams achieved different results.

Some generated paid bookings.

Two teams deliberately chose to run their first programmes free.

Some attracted participants quickly.

Others had to rethink their marketing channels, messages or follow-up.

That's exactly what should happen.

A classroom exercise often has a model answer.

The market doesn't.

When someone doesn't respond to your WhatsApp message, that's data.

When people show interest but don't register, that's data.

When they register but don't attend, that's data.

When customers are willing to pay, that's data.

When you offer something free and people still don't come, that's data too.

The entrepreneur's job is to learn from that evidence.

Perhaps we need to rethink what “success” looks like

One of the dangers of entrepreneurship programmes is measuring success only by whether participants can produce a business plan or make a convincing presentation.

Those are useful skills.

But they are not the same as building a business.

A beautiful business plan has never had to convince a customer to take RM10 out of their pocket.

A real entrepreneur does.

That's why I increasingly like this learning sequence:

DO → EXPERIENCE → PRACTISE → APPLY

Give learners enough knowledge to begin.

Then let reality become part of the classroom.

Where does AI fit?

AI was also integrated into the programme.

Participants could use AI to help generate ideas, improve messaging, develop marketing materials and accelerate parts of the business-building process.

But there was an important principle underneath this:

Use AI for the Bits. Humans own the Bricks.

AI can help draft.

AI can generate.

AI can analyse.

AI can accelerate.

But the human still has to decide:

Who am I trying to help?

What value am I creating?

Is this claim true?

Should I charge for this?

How do I treat my customer?

What did I learn when things didn't work?

What should I do next?

AI can assist entrepreneurship.

It cannot take responsibility for being the entrepreneur.

The whiteboard matters

And that's why I like this photograph.

It isn't a picture of participants sitting in rows listening to a trainer.

It is evidence of people trying things.

Behind those numbers are conversations, decisions, experiments, successes, disappointments and lessons.

That's learning.

What happens after the certificate?

Perhaps the most important question now isn't what happened during these five days.

It's what happens over the next 90 days.

Will participants conduct another class?

Will they improve their offer?

Will they find new customers?

Will someone turn this experiment into a genuine source of supplementary income?

Will one of these nine little brands still exist a year from now?

We don't know yet.

And I think it's important to say that.

A five-day programme cannot promise to create successful entrepreneurs.

What it can do is help people experience the process of becoming one — and give them tools, confidence, evidence and a starting point from which to continue.

For me, that's a much more meaningful outcome than simply completing another course.

Don't just teach entrepreneurship.
Create opportunities to experience it.

Think Better → Work Smarter → Create Impact.

Before We Teach Students to Solve Problems, Should We Teach Them to See the Problem?

 

Before We Teach Students to Solve Problems, Should We Teach Them to See the Problem?

My reflections on Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani’s latest Utusan Malaysia article — and why visual thinking matters even more in the age of AI

This week, my friend, partner and mentor Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani published another thought-provoking article in Utusan Malaysia titled:

“PISA cemerlang: Ajar murid cara memvisualkan masalah.”

At first glance, the article is about education, PISA and how our students approach problem-solving.

But I believe the message goes much further.

It raises a question that applies not only to students, but also to adults, leaders, organisations — and increasingly, anyone working with Artificial Intelligence:

Can we solve a problem effectively if we cannot first make sense of the problem?

Visual is not just about drawing

Mention visual communication and many people immediately think about art.

“I cannot draw.”

“I am not creative.”

“My drawings are ugly.”

But that misses the point.

Visual thinking is not about producing a beautiful drawing.

It is about using simple visual elements to help our brain organise information and understand relationships.

A box.

An arrow.

A stick figure.

A timeline.

A circle around an important idea.

A simple comparison.

None of these requires artistic talent.

What they require is thought.

And that is precisely why drawing can become such a powerful thinking tool.

When the problem becomes visible, our thinking changes

Imagine receiving a complicated problem containing several people, events, numbers, conditions and possible outcomes.

We can keep everything in our heads.

Or we can put it on paper.

The moment we begin drawing the relationships, we may suddenly notice:

“That connects to this.”

“This information is missing.”

“These two things are actually separate problems.”

“This is the real bottleneck.”

“That assumption may be wrong.”

The drawing has not magically solved the problem.

It has helped us think about the problem differently.

That distinction is important.

This matters even more in the age of AI

Today we have another temptation.

Instead of struggling with the problem ourselves, we can simply open ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or another AI platform and type:

“Solve this for me.”

AI may give us an answer.

It may even give us a very convincing answer.

But there is a danger.

If we never understood the problem ourselves, how will we know whether the answer actually makes sense?

This is why I constantly emphasise in my AI training:

Think before prompting.

AI can help us analyse, organise, generate and accelerate.

But humans still need to understand the purpose, context and consequences.

One very practical way of doing this is to make our thinking visible before handing the task to AI.

Sketch the problem.

Map the people.

Draw the process.

Show the relationships.

Identify the desired outcome.

Then prompt.

The quality of the conversation with AI often improves because the quality of our own thinking has improved first.

From information consumers to problem solvers

Education cannot only be about helping students remember more information.

Information is everywhere.

AI can already retrieve, summarise and generate enormous amounts of it.

The more important capability is becoming:

What can you DO with information?

Can you understand it?

Can you connect ideas?

Can you identify what matters?

Can you see patterns?

Can you communicate your thinking?

Can you turn complexity into something understandable?

Can you solve a problem when there is no obvious answer?

These are fundamentally human capabilities.

And visual thinking can help develop them.

We should not wait until adulthood

I therefore agree strongly with the direction highlighted in Dr Ruzaimi’s article.

Imagine children becoming comfortable from an early age with taking a blank piece of paper and saying:

“Let me draw the problem first.”

Not because they want to become artists.

Because they want to become better thinkers.

Imagine that habit continuing into university, the workplace, entrepreneurship and leadership.

Before the meeting: draw the issue.

Before presenting: map the message.

Before making a decision: visualise the choices.

Before prompting AI: structure the problem.

That is a very different relationship with visualisation.

The bigger idea behind Profits from Visuals

This is also one of the ideas behind our book, Profits from Visuals — How Visuals Drive Profits for Individuals and Organisations.

The word profits is deliberately broader than money.

When people communicate more clearly, there is value.

When teams understand each other faster, there is value.

When a complicated idea becomes simple, there is value.

When someone sees a problem differently and discovers a solution, there is value.

And when a student develops the confidence to put an idea on paper and explain their thinking, there is tremendous value.

My takeaway

Perhaps improving education is not only about giving students more information.

Perhaps we also need to give them better ways of thinking about information.

And one of those ways can be surprisingly simple:

Pen. Paper. Think. Draw. See.

Because visual is not merely something we look at.

Visual can be how we think, how we communicate and how we solve problems.

And in a world increasingly powered by AI, I believe that deeply human ability will matter more, not less.

---

📖 Get a copy of Profits from Visuals

If you would like to explore how visual thinking and visual communication can improve the way we think, communicate, learn and solve problems, get in touch with me for a copy of:

Profits from Visuals — How Visuals Drive Profits for Individuals and Organisations

📩 Send me a DM/message and I’ll share the details.

Think Better → Work Smarter → Create Impact.

#ProfitsFromVisuals #VisualThinking #VisualCommunication #ProblemSolving #Education #FutureOfEducation #FutureOfLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #HumanCentredAI #VisualTeachers #VisualLeaders #ThinkBetter #WorkSmarter #CreateImpact

Visual Leaders: Making Complex Ideas Clear, Visible and Actionable

 

Visual Leaders: Making Complex Ideas Clear, Visible and Actionable

We live and work in an environment filled with information.

Emails. Reports. Presentations. Meetings. WhatsApp messages. Dashboards. Documents.

Yet having more information does not necessarily mean we have better communication.

Sometimes the real problem is much simpler:

We understand the idea in our own head, but we struggle to help other people see what we see.

That is where visual communication becomes powerful.

Visual communication is not about becoming an artist

One of the biggest misconceptions about visual communication is that you need to know how to draw.

You don’t.

The purpose is not to produce beautiful artwork.

The purpose is to make thinking visible.

A few boxes, arrows, simple icons, people, timelines or diagrams can sometimes help a group understand an idea far more quickly than another paragraph of explanation.

That is why one of the messages in the Visual Leaders programme resonates strongly with me:

“Communication capability — not a drawing competition.”

That distinction matters.

The objective is not artistic perfection.

The objective is understanding.

Why does this matter in the workplace?

Think about how many workplace challenges are actually communication challenges.

A strategy makes sense to management but is unclear to the team.

A project has many moving parts, and nobody sees the whole picture.

A meeting finishes, but different people leave with different interpretations.

A process is explained in a five-page document when a simple flow diagram might make the relationship between the steps easier to understand.

Visual communication gives us another way of thinking and communicating.

The Visual Leaders approach highlights several practical benefits: improving clarity, supporting decisions, increasing engagement, encouraging innovation, helping people see problems and solutions, creating shared understanding, and responding more effectively to change.

None of these are really about drawing.

They are about better communication.

From ideas to action through visuals

The Visual Leaders learning journey shown in the video moves through four areas:

Fundamentals → Visualise → Create → Simplify

Participants first build confidence using simple visual elements.

They then learn how to turn ideas into visible structures, create useful visual representations, and eventually use diagrams and visual techniques to simplify complexity.

Importantly, the programme is designed around 20% theory and 80% practical application.

I like that approach because communication is not something we master simply by listening to someone explain it.

We have to practise.

Draw.

Explain.

Test.

Get feedback.

Improve.

Then use it in a real situation.

You do not have to draw well. You have to communicate well.

This may be the most important idea.

Many adults stop drawing because somewhere along the way we decided that drawing belonged to artists.

But drawing can also be a thinking tool.

A circle can represent a person.

An arrow can represent movement.

A box can represent a process.

A simple road can represent a journey.

The objective is not to impress people with the picture.

The objective is to help people understand the idea behind the picture.

Once we make that shift, visual communication becomes much more accessible.

A useful capability for leaders and teams

For me, this is where Visual Leaders becomes particularly relevant.

Leadership requires communication.

Training requires communication.

Problem-solving requires communication.

Change requires communication.

Collaboration requires communication.

And increasingly, leaders need ways to take complexity and make it understandable without making it simplistic.

Visual thinking gives us another tool to do exactly that.

Not to replace words.

Not to replace presentations.

Not to replace conversations.

But to make those conversations clearer.

Make it visible

The next time you struggle to explain something, try something different.

Before writing another page or adding another slide, take a pen and paper.

Draw the people involved.

Draw the process.

Draw the choices.

Draw where you are now and where you want to go.

Then ask:

“Can someone else see what I am trying to say?”

Sometimes clarity starts not with another sentence, but with a simple visual.

That is what Visual Leaders is ultimately about:

From ideas to action through visuals.

Learn more about the Visual Leaders programme here:

https://visleaders-doaach24.manus.space/

Think better. Communicate clearer. Make ideas visible.

Visual Leaders / Visual Communication Through Freehand (VCTF) materials featured in the video are credited to Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani and Dreamfoundry Media Sdn. Bhd.

 

Resilient Entrepreneur: When Business Gets Hard, How Do We Respond?

By Coach Amirul Iskandar Mannan

Alhamdulillah, today I had the opportunity to spend the morning with the participants of the ProBiz Smart Agro programme at Kolej Profesional MARA Beranang for a session on:

Resilient Entrepreneur: Mengurus Stres & Cabaran Perniagaan

It was a small group, which made the session even more meaningful. We were able to talk openly about the real pressures entrepreneurs face, especially when business does not go according to plan.

Because the truth is simple:

Business will test you.

Sales may slow down.

Customers may say no.

Costs may increase.

Plans may fail.

You may feel tired, disappointed or uncertain about what to do next.

The question is not whether challenges will come.

The real question is:

How do we respond when they do?

A setback is not proof that you are failing

One of the messages I shared during the session was this:

A setback is not proof that you are failing.
It is proof that you are trying.

Too often, we interpret a bad result as a judgement about ourselves.

The business did not work.

The customer rejected the offer.

The idea failed.

Therefore, we tell ourselves:

“I am not good enough.”

But that is not necessarily true.

Sometimes, failure is simply feedback.

Something did not work.

Now we have new information.

We learn.

We adjust.

We try again.

That is why I often remind participants:

Every master was once a disaster.

Nobody begins as an expert.

Every successful entrepreneur was once confused, inexperienced and unsure.

The difference is not that they never failed.

The difference is that they kept learning.

The Super Mario Effect: What if failure was part of the game?

During the session, I shared a short video by Mark Rober about what he calls the Super Mario Effect.

The idea is powerful.

When we play a game such as Super Mario, falling into a hole does not normally make us say:

“I am terrible at life. I should stop.”

We simply restart.

We learn what went wrong.

We try again.

Our attention remains on the goal rather than on the embarrassment of failure.

What if entrepreneurs approached challenges the same way?

Instead of asking:

“Why did I fail?”

perhaps we ask:

“What did this teach me?”

Instead of:

“Maybe I cannot do this.”

perhaps:

“What should I try differently next?”

This does not mean ignoring mistakes.

It means using mistakes as information.

As Muslims, resilience goes deeper than mindset

There is also another dimension that I believe is very important.

As Muslims, resilience is not only about psychology, motivation or positive thinking.

We have Allah SWT.

Allah SWT reminds us in Surah Ash-Sharh:

“Indeed, with hardship comes ease.”
Surah Ash-Sharh, 94:5

Hardship is real.

Business pressure is real.

Financial worries are real.

But hardship is not the whole story.

Our faith gives us perspective.

During the session, I shared four values that I believe are important for every Muslim entrepreneur:

• Sabr — stay steady when things become difficult.
• Ikhtiar — do what is within our ability and take responsible action.
• Tawakkul — trust Allah SWT with what is outside our control.
• Ihsan — continue doing our work properly, ethically, and with excellence.

One line captures this well:

My responsibility is the effort.
The outcome belongs to Allah SWT.

That is not an excuse to do less.

It is a reminder to do our best without pretending we can control everything.

Focus on what you can control

One of the practical exercises in the session was to separate business challenges into two simple categories:

What I can control
and
What I cannot control

We cannot control the market.

We cannot control the weather.

We cannot control what every customer thinks.

We cannot change yesterday.

But we can control our effort.

Our response.

Our next message.

Our next decision.

Our pricing.

Our follow-up.

Our willingness to learn.

This is where resilience becomes practical.

RESET: Pause, see clearly, choose and act

I introduced a simple RESET loop for participants to use when business becomes overwhelming:

BERHENTI — pause before panic makes the decision.

JELAS — see the situation clearly. What is real? What can I control?

PILIH — choose one useful action.

BERTINDAK — take one small step today.

Then learn from what happens and repeat.

Resilience is not about pretending everything is okay.

It is about having a way to respond when things are not okay.

AI can help us think — but humans must still decide

We also explored how AI can support entrepreneurs.

Not by replacing judgement.

Not by making decisions for us.

But by helping us think.

I demonstrated this using a simple example relevant to Smart Agro.

A weak question such as:

“How do I sell my ikan keli?”

will normally produce a generic answer.

But when we improve the thinking behind the question using my PIDO framework — Parameter, Instruction, Details and Output — the quality of the response improves.

AI can help us generate options.

But the entrepreneur still needs to judge:

Which idea is realistic?

Which one fits my budget?

Which one can I test this week?

Which one fits my values?

AI may help with the possibilities.

The human still owns the decision.

The goal is not to avoid every challenge

At the end of the session, I wanted participants to leave with one simple thought:

“Challenges will still come.
But now, I have a way to respond.”

That is resilience.

Not the absence of difficulty.

Not pretending to be strong all the time.

It is the ability to pause, think clearly, act responsibly, learn from what happens, and keep moving.

For Muslim entrepreneurs, we do all of that while holding on to something even deeper:

Sabr.
Ikhtiar.
Tawakkul.
Ihsan.

Alhamdulillah, I am grateful to Kolej Profesional MARA Beranang, the programme team and the ProBiz Smart Agro participants for the warm welcome and meaningful engagement.

May their businesses continue to grow, create value, and bring benefit to others, insya-Allah.

And when things get difficult, remember:

Do your best.
Learn from what happens.
Keep going.
Trust Allah SWT.

Think Better → Work Smarter → Create Impact.

Coach Amirul Iskandar Mannan
Trainer | Author | Speaker | CEO, Yayasan Wiba Prima

Entrepreneurship, Business Resilience, Smart Agro, Muslim Entrepreneur, Sabr, Ikhtiar, Tawakkul, Ihsan, AI for Business, PIDO, Human-Centred AI, KPM Beranang, MARA.