This is how Ziana Zain teaches me the true meaning of the “unfair advantage”

People have been mistakenly thinking that only the rich, or if you are born into a rich family, or if you have a very high IQ, then only you’ll have an unfair advantage to be successful in life. In this article, I explain how, despite coming from a very average family, Ziana Zain, do still have an “unfair advantage” and rose to stardom, and how anyone can and should have their own “unfair advantage” too.  

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THERE's a clear misperception or rather misinterpretation of what “unfair advantage” really means. I used to think that you need to be wealthy or born into a rich family to have the “unfair advantage”. Or you need to have a very high IQ, so you can get good grades in school, then go to great universities, which will then pave the way to a successful life in the future. Well, I was totally wrong.

I have come to a realisation, that even if you come from a very poor family, you’d still have your unique  “unfair advantage”. This is after I had a great and deep conversation with one of Malaysia's most favourite pop-ballad-idol, Ziana Zain.  

I had the opportunity to interview Ziana (for non-Malaysian readers, Zaina Zain Malaysia’s most popular superstar in the mid-90s) and we talked for about one hour, and this article is the result of that conversation.

Zaina was not born into a wealthy family. A daughter of a police officer and a homemaker, Ziana remembers her life while growing up as very average. Despite that, she was able to reach stardom, which she contributed to the support given from her parents and most importantly the life education that her parents instilled since young, This is Ziana’s “unfair advantage”.

Zaina believes the “sharing of rezeki” is key to her success.

“The sharing of rezeki even to the smallest grain, it’ll multiply, especially in times of need,” says Ziana. She told me that this practice was instilled by her parents and now continued by her and her children. For her, this is the impetus to her stardom - not power, influence or money.

Again, her “unfair advantage” was, she had a good upbringing which makes her a remarkable lady that we know and loves today. Just ask anyone who has met and spoken to her, they all adore her! This is an “unfair advantage” that money could never buy.

Identify your own “unfair advantage”

First, we need to start looking elsewhere. For example, society (and people around me) used to measure my success based on two matrices; a) how rich you (or your family is) and b) how well you do in school.

I too came from a very modest family. And to make things worse, I, too, did not do too well in school. My grades were just average (if not worse). Just enough to get by.

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