One thing that I can never forget about primary/middle school was the pressure of being accepted by the majority. One of the ways to stay acceptable was keeping up with the never ending fads. One year it was Badminton (when Malaysia won the Thomas Cup) then came football (World Cup), YO-YO, Transformers toy, Dragon Ball Z, New Kids On The Block, The Four Heavenly Kings (Aaron Kwok, Leon Lai, Andy Lau & Jackie Cheung) and the list goes on and on…

There’s one year, I really pity the parents because every kid seemed to have the same hairstyle of the favourite singer at that time to a point that it was so difficult to recognize their own child. Another year, parents have to dig deep into their pockets to purchase ADIDAS Predator boots because it was the IN thing at that time and our football team seemed to be sponsored by ADIDAS.

I do not understand all these until a couple of years back by reading a book by one of the biggest music mogul of our time. In the book, the author wrote about how artistes are “packaged” and getting the best marketing team to stir up a huge hype so that album sales would be chart topping.

Through all these passing fads, I tend to wonder who started it all, who is the TREND SETTER to be exact. What does it take to be the chart topping TREND? When one choose to follow the bandwagon, there are more losers than winners. Winners are always staying ahead while “losers” gets exhausted following.

All I know is, being the natural rebel that I am, I was always the odd one out because I refuse to be following nonsensical trends. When my friends were busy stepping on the gas peddle of their cars, I was busy listening to my favourite R&B Hip Hop album on the public bus. When most of friends were busy cheering for a particular soccer team at the mamak stalls, I am usually busy breeding Holland Lop rabbits.

Jokes aside, how much more can the Holland Lop rabbit not be consistent to the standard of perfection? How much more should the Beagle dog change in its appearance? Have you ever feel like when you finally found the answers, they just change the questions? The fact is, the Standard of Perfection is renewed every 5 years with minor or major changes to the breed standards of each breed. So how should we as Show Breeders stay consistent to the breed standards? Do you feel stupid trailing behind without anyone noticing that beautiful animal you have in that barn of yours?

The truth lies in one word, INTERPRETATIONS.

If I give you a word, GOOD, how do you define and interpret this word? What makes GOOD, good? How good is GOOD? How can it be GOOD? What does it take to be GOOD?

Each of us have our own preferences and a mind of our own (I hope). We like certain colours, certain style in something we like or even certain shapes or sizes. The best thing to do is NOT do it just because someone else is or say it should be done. The best thing to do is, not fall prey to cleverly crafted marketing gimmick.

If I tell the world today that one of the Holland Lop rabbits have the tendency of pooping GOLD, what do you think will happen? When the logic circuit in us malfunctions, it is extremely dangerous. We will lose all sense of decision making capabilities and what happens? We just follow blindly. Don’t be fooled by the passing fad, the self proclaimed “Trend Setters” are looting your resources. And all around these false “Trend Setters” are the opportunists trying to share a piece of the cake.

I am offering you a solution here. You MUST work towards your own interpretations. BREED FOR WHAT YOU LIKE AND MAKE YOUR OWN!!! That is exactly what a real Trend Setter would do!

Just think about it…

Gold Nuggets Anyone?