Recently, I've been jaded despite having a new line of work. Its not that I'm not enjoying it, to be honest, i really like the type of job I'll be dealing on in the next few moths. But I couldn't help but feel tired and well, bored. I'm not sure if this is the effect if there isn't enough action going on yet or the passion is not that as strong.
Speaking of passion, here's another article I got from one of my favorite columnist/marketing practitioner: Bong Osorio. What the artilces talks about is the commencement exercise speech of Mr. Gabby Lopez III, the Chair and CEO of ABS CBN. It really was an insightful and a back to reality kind of speech where you realize what you should value most. It's more of helping the new graduates see their work (or for the entrepreneur driven- their endeavor) a different and positive way.
Speaking of passion, here's another article I got from one of my favorite columnist/marketing practitioner: Bong Osorio. What the artilces talks about is the commencement exercise speech of Mr. Gabby Lopez III, the Chair and CEO of ABS CBN. It really was an insightful and a back to reality kind of speech where you realize what you should value most. It's more of helping the new graduates see their work (or for the entrepreneur driven- their endeavor) a different and positive way.
Pursuing a life with meaning
by Bong Osorio
On true freedom: Graduation is always a day of freedom — not just the literal freedom from classroom and books, but also your day of freedom to choose your destiny and chart your future.
To illustrate what true freedom is, EL3 shared this anecdote: “One day, the Jesuit priest in India was walking when he met three laborers, all doing the same thing — smashing rocks in the noonday sun. He felt sorry as he approached them. ‘O, brothers, ano yang ginagawa ninyo?’ The first man answered: ‘Father, kita mo naman, nagbabasag ako ng bato.’ The second man answered: ‘Nagtratrabaho po ako para may makain ang aking pamilya.’ And the third man answered: ‘Ako po, tumutulong gumawa ng malaki at matibay na dam para may mainom na tubig ang bayan.’
Different answers for the same job. Yet all of them spoke the truth. Which of the three men is truly free? To EL3, the third one is truly free. He said, “What he saw in his menial job is a heroic purpose — water for his town. He saw something bigger than himself — his love for the people. The second one was okay, because what he felt was modest, but equally important — his love for family. The two men are both tied to the earth, but they are not trapped. The spirit of the third man is free to soar to a vision of the future he was creating. He can fly. The second man has a heart that is free, free to give love to his family. The first one, yung nagbabasag ng bato, is probably a sad person. He sees the truth, but a truth so plain that it is almost a lie, because he cannot imagine.
“The questions you ask after graduation are: Do you want to be the first, the second or the third man? Will your hands be bound to the drudgery of work? Or will your heart be freed by love? Or will you be the best: A spirit freed from the reality of the present by the promise of a future you will make possible for yourself?
The lesson you will soon learn is that reality is what you make it. Invest in imagination. When you turn it into reality, it’s yours to own.
In a way, you are freer than I was, when I was your age. I grew up understanding that I would take on the job of my father, who had taken on the job of his own father. Sure, there was money, but I never felt the limitless freedom and the universe of possibilities before you right now. The road will never be this wide-open again, at any other time in your life. So travel carefully. Freedom to dream is one thing; finding the break for that dream to come true is another.”
On getting a break: “Yung old expression na when opportunity knocks, open the door — yes, opportunity knocks, pero mahina kumatok, kaya huwag kayong umasa. The other expression, ‘Grab the opportunity’ — sure, it happens, but not all opportunities are just waiting to be grabbed. Opportunity is a lot subtler than a knock on the door, or a low-hanging fruit. Finding opportunity is like finding a hidden treasure, but the trick is in knowing what your treasure really is. After all, opportunities have presented themselves to you, way before you get your diplomas. Your opportunities actually began the moment you read your first word, the moment you wrote your first sentence, met the first teacher that inspired you, saw your father fix a car, watched your first anime, passed by the first building that impressed you, or typed on the first computer you ever saw. All of them are opportunities, depending on whatever you become.
“The grace of God is when you recognize those treasures. There are indeed factors that predetermine the breaks you are going to get — your genetics, your country of birth, your family history, your unique family dynamics and many others — but what you do with your available chances in life is always your choice, your blessing or your curse. It’s your power of choice. If you find your passion in a moment of awareness, if God’s voice speaks to you of your purpose — yes na yes! That’s the most important part — to find your passion and to discover your own special genius.”
On not working only for money: “Do what you love, do what you are meant to do, or you will forever be mediocre — in anything you do. Let me tell you a truth I discovered at ABS-CBN, the company where I spent most of my time: in my 25 years in this company, I have learned people don’t work for money. Sure, you need money just like you need air to breathe, but it’s not why you live. At ABS-CBN, people work 12 to 15 hours a day but it’s not the money that drives them, it’s the teleserye that they are creating, or the anime they are producing, or the service to all those devastated by Ondoy. I have found that at ABS-CBN, passion is everything. Without it you don’t have a life!”
On going for a job that builds you long-term: EL3 shared this story: “There was a man whose refrigerator broke down. He couldn’t fix it. Calls a mechanic. The mechanic enters, proud of his job. The mechanic looks at the refrigerator. The man can tell he is no ordinary mechanic because he approaches the ref like Pacquiao facing Cotto. Then the mechanic taps the ref on the side — blag! It works! The mechanic gives the man the charge slip. P5,000. ‘Ano? P5,000? Eh, it only took you one minute to tap it!’ The mechanic folds his arms, looks the man straight in the eye and says: “Sir, it took me only one minute to tap it, but how many years did it take me to learn where, how, when to tap? You’re paying for my years, not my minute.’
“That is exactly what your employers will be paying you one day — for your years, not your minute. Sa rank and file, minutes ang bilangan. Sa CEO, it’s years of leadership, turning imagination to action, creativity to reality, and obstacles to miracles, yan ang bilangan. In the best-selling book entitled Blink, the writer estimates that we can be good at anything we do, only after 10,000 hours of practice.”
“If you can avoid it, huwag lang magbasag ng bato. It can be a change of attitude towards your job, squeezing out of every day whatever opportunity or training you can get from it. There must be a reason you are placed there, since there are no accidents in this world, but do not stay there forever. Huwag kang makuntento. Connect, network, search, Google, study, apply, but move on and move up! Give time to reach your prime — in years, not in minutes. That is the only way to succeed. One of the biggest pushes to success is if you recognize — right here, right now — how lucky you have been so far.”
On embracing an attitude of gratitude: EL3 told this tale: “One day, more than 60 years ago, in a Nazi concentration camp, that infamous place of gas chambers and mass graves, a prisoner’s name was called. The man was told he was about to be exterminated. He cried and pleaded to the Nazi soldiers. He said he had a wife and children waiting. He could not die because who would feed them when the war was over? Suddenly, out of the blue, a stranger came up and said, ‘I will take the place of that man. You can exterminate me.’ And so they exterminated the stranger. He was Maximillian Kolbe, now canonized as Saint Maximillian. The man who was saved received unexpected grace at the most impossible brink of death, from a stranger he did not know, and never got to thank. But to St. Maximillian, it was also unexpected grace, for his passion was to serve God, and he got his wish — immortality instead of dying — living forever as a saint.”
“In a place of cruel, inhuman death, two men found gratitude. Every day of our life, someone is dying for us, not in one instant, but in little increments every day: the parent who forgot his own happiness to work hard for your schooling, the teacher who sacrificed other lucrative careers to share his knowledge with you, the millions of Filipinos who pay taxes honestly, and countless personal heroes. Truly, if you review your whole life thus far, with gratitude, everything — absolutely everything — is unexpected grace. So we honor our heroes, not just by saying thank you, but by living as if every breath is a thank you, by living with honor, by paying it forward now, not tomorrow, not when you can. Now.”
On time and the efficient use of it: Lopez recounted, “The legend goes that when Leonardo da Vinci was painting ‘The Last Supper,’ he needed a model for Jesus Christ. So he looked for the handsomest young man in Milan. He saw it in an educated nobleman named Pietro, who looked perfect for Jesus, a face filled with love and wisdom. Of course, the result was great! Handsome Jesus became the centerpiece of the masterpiece. Years later, it was time for Leonardo to paint Judas, so the painter again searched for the most evil-looking tambay in the streets para pumapel na Judas. Eventually, he found the ugliest criminal ever seen, and brought him to the studio. Then Leonardo became suspicious: ‘Hey, criminal, haven’t I seen you before?’ The criminal bowed his head and said, ‘Yes, master. It is I, Pietro. Many years ago, I was your model for Jesus.’
“Time is a friend to the wise but a traitor to the fool. The world is spinning faster than it has ever spun before. Before you know it, the open road is already leading you back home. Before you know it, the highway has become a narrow street, with almost zero options to turn left, or right, or start all over again. Before you know it, it could be the end of the day. And when you reach that homestretch, believe me, you will ask yourself: Did I live true to my dreams? Or did I just serve the dream of my pharaohs? Did I win hearts, did I lift spirits, did I enrich minds, or did I lose even my own soul? What was I able to give back to the universe? Or did I just take and take and take, what I could not take even to my grave?”
On wealth, power, and fame: “They are illusions of the kingdom, but they are not the kingdom itself. Bear in mind that oriental metaphor of a man riding a tiger — you may be acclaimed as the strongest and the bravest warrior in the village, imagine being able to ride a tiger. But it is very hard to get down, because the moment you do, the tiger may eat you. Ganyan ang wealth, power and fame. They are tigers that can eat their masters. Be careful. As the philosopher Seneca said, ‘Wealth is not the addition of all that you own, but the subtraction of all that you need.’ With that definition, even a beggar is a millionaire.
On the secret of success, of happiness, of the meaning of life: “Whenever I think I already know it, the secret reveals itself to be different. And I am a poor man again, and I line up again to pay my tuition in the school of life. But that is life, isn’t it? We are exactly where we should be, to learn what we should learn, to help a fellow pilgrim, whenever we have the chance. Some people are blessed enough to know fragments of the secret: The third laborer making the dam, the mechanic who can fix by tapping, the Nazi prisoner who became a saint. Maybe Leonardo da Vinci. Maybe even the model for Jesus and Judas. Fellow pilgrim, the best gifts I can give you are some fragments I picked up along the way: Latch on to your passion. Make your own break. Give time to reach your prime. Have an attitude of gratitude. Your reward is when you pay it forward. Be a careful tiger rider. And never, ever give up. And you can be a Jesus, or a Judas, depende sa balbas. Live a life fully, beautifully, wilting and dying — that is the natural order of things. You cannot take gold or silver to your grave. Pursue a life with meaning for God, family and country.
