Category Archives: Count Your Blessings

Count Your Blessings Day #11 (Posted 29 April 2021)

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Salam Nuzul Quran everyone! (Sorry for sharing this a tad late on my blog!)

Today, I would like to share about our Mama, Zurhiati Saad.

Mama was a teacher throughout her whole career. For her, studies and academic is everything.

When we were young, Mama would always give us tuitions (along with our friends too). This is one of the ways she made sure we study. We had tuitions almost every night on different subjects. Until now I still don’t know how did Mama get her energy and time to do all of those. I am trying to do it with my kids – but couldn’t 100% emulate Mama. I probably only manage to study with them just 2-3 nights per week.

I still remember, to ensure that we have conducive space to study, one of our bedrooms was converted into study room with tables, chairs and whiteboard. All 4 of us would sleep in 1 bedroom. We had triple decker bed. 2 of us would share a bed, or add another mattress on the floor.

I still remember, she would always ask us about our results. If we didn’t get A, she would ask, why didn’t we get A? If we got 95%, she would ask, why didn’t we get 100%? Haha. I remember that one day, Zul Az brought his books and studied in front of Mama and followed her everywhere – to the kitchen, bedroom, and even in front of the bathroom as evidence that he is studying. That’s how much Mama put importance in our studies. Mama was also very generous in regards of books. If we ask for any books, even comic books, she would 100% buy them for us.

All those time and sacrifices she made when we were small, paid off well. Alhamdulillah all of us achieved good scores in our examinations, and received scholarships to study. And the scholarships came at the best time too – the business weren’t doing so well and the money was drying up fast at that time. It was a very stressful time for my parents. My parents often told us, Allah sent rezeki through us, through the scholarships. Alhamdulillah.

Mama has just retired end of last year and she is now enjoying her retirement – by learning programming!

Thank you, Mama for everything you have done for us. We are so blessed to have a great mother like you.Thank you, Allah for all the blessings you have given us.

Count Your Blessings – Day #9 (Posted 26 April 2021)

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Assalamualaikum wbt,

Hi everyone!

Sorry my post today is a bit late. I was a bit overwhelmed this morning. Haha.

Anyway, my #CountYourBlessings post today is about my kids.

Adam, Ameena and Azmi.

Adam was born in 2011. Alhamdulillah Allah gave me a very good and easy to manage baby for my firstborn. I remember that my dad commented “Rumah ni macam takde baby je” because of how quiet he was. He was just smiling and laughing all the time. A very good baby to start off my motherhood journey.

Then, next come Ameena in 2012, and Azmi in 2013. I usually become pregnant back within 5 months of giving birth. Hahaha. So right after Azmi, I immediately took Implanon so that I can plan my family. However, looking back, I wish I have given birth to another 2 kids before taking Implanon so that I can have 5 kids that are already big enough by now.

Their age is so near to each other that they are very close, like siblings-best friends. Now, they help each other in studies, they play and grow up together. I really love my kids.

When they were young, I was so stressed out. I didn’t care anymore about everything else. From the moment I woke up until the time I sleep, my life revolved around my babies. I didn’t care about how I look, how my clothes look – everything else is like “whatever”. However, now I am grateful that all of my kids are big enough already to become my little friends. They often accompany me everywhere I go, they love to hug and kiss me (and me them!) and always remind me if I did anything wrong. And now I start to enjoy my life more too with my little bundles of joy accompanying my in my life journey.

The way we grow up our little ones, is we teach them not to be afraid to say no and to speak up, and to always be affectionate with us. So, they usually will remind us little things like “Mommy, jangan baring masa azan”, or “Mommy, jangan marah2 sangat” and they will hold each other accountable for anything they have promised. They absolutely love to help me and help around the house. I am so grateful to be granted with the best kids ever who absolutely are not shy to kiss me.Thank you Allah for the wonderful children.

Count Your Blessings Day #8

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Assalamualaikum everyone, how are you?

For today’s Count Your Blessings story, I would like to share a bit about my team. I am truly blessed and grateful to Allah for granting me such wonderful teammates whom I can rely on. For today’s story, I would like focus on the Business Development and the Growth & Marketing team.

If you follow my stories, I actually came from the Engineering background, and dived into the IT sector in 2009. I really enjoy doing Marketing and Business Development activities. These are the 2 teams that I work closely with on daily basis.

I am grateful to have such a strong and closely knit team – From left: Haslan, Nisa, Pak Ngah (En Johari), Aliff, Ayah(Ir Aziz Ismail), Ezwan Zulkiflee, Amir, Anisa. In the front: Athilah, Alif Najmi Bahari.

My teammates work very hard, and have very good teamwork. Each one of us came from various different backgrounds – from Accountancy, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Ecommerce, Economics, Mathematics, Advertising, Electronics and Business Admin. None of us actually had any formal education in Marketing, but that does not stop us from doing the things we need to do to grow the company together. No excuses.

We learn together, we try and error together – and most important of all, we consistently improve our approach and knowledge together so that we can grow together to greater heights. In short, we do and experience almost everything together. I am proud to say that I learned a lot from each and every one of them. And I absolutely love to watch them grow.

For your info, one of my team members is differently abled, but instead of seeing it as a weakness, we see it as a strength – he can craft marketing materials very well and have very good eyes in coordinating colors and designs. Everyone falls in love with his designs. Here, we believe that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, which we work together to capitalize on our strengths and overcome our weaknesses.

Alhamdulillah, I am so happy to be blessed with such wonderful teammates. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to work with each and every one of them.

Thank you, Allah.

Count Your Blessings Day #7

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Assalamualaikum wbt everyone!

In today’s Count Your Blessings story, I would like to share about the blessings of believing in the path that Allah has laid for us.

When I was young, I always used to feel “I have worked so hard for this, why didn’t I get it?”. It became very stressful. I believe most of us were that way especially when we were younger. Alhamdulillah, as I grow, I started to always believe in the path that Allah has laid for me.

Let’s reminisce the old times..

When I was in Form 3, I prayed for so many times to Allah to join Sekolah Seri Puteri in Form 4. At that time my brother was in Sekolah Alam Shah, and I thought SSP is near to SAS, so my parents can visit us both in the same day instead of having to alternate weeks (Jealous daughter here haha). I received offer to go to SM Sains Selangor instead. I was happy and sad at the same time. Happy that I got to join an SBP, but sad because it’s not SSP. But then, I realized, Allah answered my doa. I didn’t get what I want but I got what I need – SMSS is right next to SAS. So, I actually achieved my objective of getting our parents to visit us both on the same day. I am truly blessed to have joined SMSS, which I will share in another story.

This actually happened again and again throughout my life.Early in my career, I usually become stressed out when any of the team members are leaving us. The sadness sometimes became unbearable. However, Allah always send someone else to join us with the right skills and right attitude, at the right time. I am blessed that Allah grant me such wonderful teammates.

Again and again, sometimes I don’t get what I want, but Allah always give me what I need.

I am truly blessed. Once I started to truly believe in the path that Allah has chosen for me – I enjoy my life more, I become less stressed out, and become happier in everything I do.

If you feel stressed out with your life, if you feel sad, if you feel you didn’t get what you want even after you worked so hard for it, try to look back and see all the hikmah in everything that you have gone through. Allah loves us, and we need to always believe that He always give us the best.

Count Your Blessings Day #6

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Assalamualaikum wbt and a very good morning everyone

I hope all of you are in good health.

Today, I would like to share about my family – one of the greatest blessings I have in my life.I grow up in a loving family, and we have very strong bonding between us.

Of course, we had our moments in life – we fought, we cried, but each time, we will come back together stronger, just like the saying “Air dicincang tidak akan putus”.

My siblings, Zul Az and Aisya Aziz, my brother in law, Mohd Mazeez Mohd Mazlan and I are working together at Authentic Venture Sdn Bhd, along with my dad, Ir Aziz Ismail, and Pak Ngah, to grow the company together to contribute to the nation’s economy. My mom, Zurhiati Saad, is our strongest supporter.

We hope we are able to be one of the biggest contributor to Malaysia’s economy one day, insya Allah. Please pray for us!

My youngest sister, Sara Aziz, is a doctor and she’s actually in the labour room right now as I am typing – waiting to deliver her and Ammar Yusri’s first baby! I am so excited, please pray for them and may everything goes well!

The way our parents grow us up and nurture us – we grow up to believe that there will always be someone who love us for whoever we may be. The way we are nurtured, results in confident adults who are not afraid to try out new things and to never give up. We are trained from we were young to study hard, and to push ourselves in order to grow to the next levels. This is what have been a part of our life, and what we are trying to instill in our kids too.

Now all my siblings are already married – with our own chosen sweethearts, whom we love dearly.

Here I would like to share a picture of us. However, there are a few people not in the picture: Afiq Osman, Sara Aziz, Ammar Yusri and Nur Afiqah Hunain.

Insya Allah, next time I will share pictures with everyone in it. Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah for a great family.

Count Your Blessings Day #5

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Assalamualaikum wbt,How are you guys doing? Hope everyone is doing great!

In my Count Your Blessings story today, I would like to share about one of my schools, where I learned about a lot new things in my life, especially in life skills.

Most of the things I learned in SMKA Maahad Hamidiah can be designate as my first time in a lot of things in my life.

Truth to be told, when I finished my UPSR, I had actually planned to go free hair when I join secondary school. However, of course I couldn’t do it when I joined Maahad. Haha. Entering Maahad, instead of going free hair, I had to wear “Tudung labuh”. This is a blessing for me. I learned to wear tudung more properly and started to enjoy wearing tudung instead.

If you know me since I was young, we always had a maid at home. So, at that time, I had very little life skills.

In Maahad, I learned to:
1. Live away from home
2. Wash my own clothes
3. Iron my own clothes
4. How to wear kain batik
5. How to take care of hygiene
6. How to make my own bed
7. How to wake up so early in the morning – haha.
8. Reading Al-Mathurat morning and evening.
9. How to consistently pray without missing the prayer times
10. How to study by myself without my mom keep nagging me to study

… and so many more things that I couldn’t even keep track of them.

And most important of all, SMKA Maahad Hamidiah is the school where I learned to make friends and learned to be compassionate. Here, I learned that we need to respect each other, help each other out and understand each other, and make lifelong friendships.

All my friends in Maahad, doesn’t matter whether they are girls or boys, are very nice people. They helped me a lot. I have so many good memories in Maahad that this post won’t be enough.

Even though I only spent 3 years in Maahad as I moved to another school in Form 4, we keep in touch even until now. I have a lot of Maahad friends here in Facebook. To you, my Maahad friends, thank you for helping me to adjust with the life away from home and thank you for being my friends. You know who you are.

I am blessed to be a Hamidian.

Count Your Blessings Day #4

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Assalamualaikum everyone!

It’s the first Friday of Ramadhan this year and I hope all of you are doing great.

I have been blessed with many wonderful people in my life. And right now, I am blessed with the best teammates ever.

Due to the length of this story, I will make this story into a few parts. Let me start with Part 1 today.

I joined Venture back in 2009, right after I graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology. I am from Electrical Engineering background, but dived into the IT Sector instead. I started out as Digital Marketer and also Programmer.

The year I joined Venture, was a challenging year for Venture. When I came in, a lot of people were actually leaving at that time. The first 2 years were quite hazy for me due to the fast turnover of people. I don’t even remember what I did for that first 2 years.

In 2011, Venture started to have some stability. The backbone of the company at that time depended on these 6 people – En Aziz (my dad), Mr Jabbar, Zul, Fauzul, Haslan and I. Aisya would join and help us out during summers. During this time, I learned a lot of new things – programming, managing projects, accounting, finance, human resources, sales, marketing and a whole vast of different areas.

My dad often told me that in order to be a good leader, you have to start from the bottom. And that is what I did. I am blessed to have wonderful people as my teammates, who supported me and helped me in my career. There are a lot of things that we learned and experimented together.

Even though it was very hard at that time, I am grateful to Allah for this experience as I am able to increase a lot of knowledge and skills within short period of time, which may not be the case if I enter Ventures during “cosy” years.

From these 7 people, I am very grateful that 5 of us are still here growing Venture together. Mr Jabbar and Fauzul have moved to their next adventures in life, but they will surely always be missed.

And yes, now in 2021, Ventures backbone has grown to have many more people, whom I love and cherish. We have a great team now – which I will share in another story.

I hope you have wonderful teammates too =)

#authenticventure #teammates #growth #love #countyourblessings

Count Your Blessings Day #3 – Fencing

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Assalamualaikum all!

Today, I would like to share one of the big blessings in my life that play a huge part in making me into who I am today.

It’s fencing. And my beloved coach, Linda Vollkommer-Lynch. Oh, I miss her so much.

I did not really join sports back in the schooldays.

However, I believe Allah wanted to show me something. I am absolutely grateful for this.

During my freshman year in Stevens, my best friend Latifah signed up both of us to join Fencing PE Class.

During the first session, we realized that we actually accidentally signed up to join the Fencing Varsity Team. Both of us, who did not even know what fencing is, and totally not sports people.

It was totally hilarious. But we decided, why not?

The first practice lasted for 3 hours. It was the first ever longest run and cardio in my life. Both of us vomited that day. And we couldn’t even walk the next day. Hahaha.

However, I pushed through. I had a wonderful Coach, and also an awesome team. I received a lot of support and learned a lot about fencing and weight lifting. My stamina and strength improved by leaps and bounds!

I started out as the backup fencer during my freshman year, moved up along the years and finally as Captain of the Foil team when I was in my Senior year. Alhamdulillah we won many tournaments, and finally in 2009, I competed in the NCAA regionals.

Fencing taught me that if I put my mindset to do something, I can actually do it! Even if it is something that I have never done before or don’t have any confidence in. This shapes my life – through fencing, I believe that I can do anything I want in my life. I just need the right mindset and must be willing to do what it takes.

Thank you Allah for this priceless experience – I will never trade this for anything in the world.

And thank you to my Coach, Linda, who is a huge part of my life when I was in Stevens. And thank you to all my teammates for the wonderful memories =)

#fencing #stevensinstituteoftechnology #countyourblessings #wonderfulmemories

Ramadhan #CountYourBlessings Post #2

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Assalamualaikum everyone, good morning!

So, how was your first day of Ramadhan yesterday? Hope everyone is alright.

Anyway, throughout Ramadhan, I would like to take this time to appreciate the things in my life. I am very lucky to have been blessed by so many wonderful things and people throughout the journey of my life. Thank you Allah for everything you grant us.

Today my post will be about the Fat Loss, Increase Muscle program with @coachcem that I have started back on 1st April 2021. Yesterday was the weighing day.

Alhamdulillah, I have managed to lose 2.1kg of fat (wow) and increase 100gm of muscles within 2 weeks.

For your info, I have embarked on my weight loss journey since last year. I started by increasing my activities and lead a more active lifestyle by going for a jog at least 3-4 times weekly. At that time, I still ate normally and still have my sugary drinks, chocolates, etc. I only managed to lose 3kg over a few months.

I started Keto (very low carb diet) back in January and I managed to lose more weight once I started Keto. (Alhamdulillah, I managed to lose 12kg in 3 months).

However, after just 3 months of Keto, I went for a medical check-up and to my surprise my cholesterol shot up very high. I wanted to lose weight to become healthier. So high cholesterol level is definitely unacceptable.

Alhamdulillah, just 1-2 weeks after that, I saw Coach Cem’s status regarding the free Fat Loss, Increase Muscles program. This is something that I need, at the right time, since I already have the right motivation and mindset.

So, for the past 2 weeks I tried my best to follow the program. I am able to restart eating rice, spaghetti, etc, based on the meal plan provided. In this, they emphasize on eating what your body need and also clean food.

I ate quite well these past 2 weeks and feel quite full all the time – and alhamdulillah I still lose weight and on track with my targets. This makes me very happy.

Thank you @coachcem and team for sharing your knowledge with us and help us in this journey.

And thank you everyone for your moral support !