Kuala Lampur, Nov. 13 -- I had this thought a long time ago, but it became clearer when I was serving as the Director of Universiti Malaya's Centre for Corporate Communications in 2022-2023. Life, I realised then, is a bit like advertising.

In advertising, you can plan campaigns down to the smallest detail. You can study your audience, craft your message, and track your AVEs and ROIs. But at the end of the day, you still cannot predict which one will work. Sometimes the campaign that took months to prepare disappears without a ripple. Other times, something you did almost casually becomes the one people remember.

It is humbling, really. You can give your best effort and still not control the result.

That, I think, is the quiet truth ab...