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Dear Sir Lloyd, congratulations on your very engaging and inspiring
talk last time at the University of the Philippines. That’s one
experience that I will not forget since it coincided with our
centennial year. It’s amazing. But I have a question that I
wasn’t able to ask you. I’m not sure about my business idea if
that will work or not. I’m quite afraid of what’s going to
happen. Can you advise me?
Dear friend,
Yes, it was indeed very memorable for me. That
was a great experience with you as my audience. I remember each one
of you paying the most attentive attention to my lecture more than
you give to some of your professors. I should know because when I
had a short course training there in UP, I wasn’t paying attention
to my professors, too. Of course that was part of my younger days.
When I was in high school, I remember all my
classmates took the Upcat. I was the only one left in our classroom
because I knew that even if I’d luckily pass the entrance exams, I
won’t be able to enroll in anyway. My parents can’t afford to
send me in such a prestigious (and quite expensive) school and that
brought me to PUP, which as I always spells out as Parang University
of the Philippines.
And now to advise you on your confusion, let me
be clear on one thing—that there’s no incorrect idea, only fear.
Our decision in life is influenced by fundamental factors:
philosophy, attitude, and experience. Let me run through each one
for you briefly.
Philosophy means our value system, our set of
beliefs that helps us perceive things and events around us. People
don’t act based on what they know. They act according to what
they’ve learned. From what they’ve learned, they create a value
system that eventually makes them as a person. From our set of
beliefs, we decide on where to go, what to do, how to do it, why do
it, and when to do it. If you, for example, don’t have a clear
philosophy, you may not be able to decide smartly.
Our choice of attitude toward one thing or event
is very important, too. In my personal encounter with successful
people, I found out that there’s one common factor that makes them
such a profound member of the society. They don’t do different
things; they do things differently with the best choice of positive
attitude with them. They respond rather than react. They control
their emotion instead of them being controlled by it. They are
helpful for they know “the process of receiving starts the moment
you give.”
Thirdly, our experience can either be helpful or
obstructive in our decision-making process. Many people take
experience as a tool to confidently move on with their lives and
take more challenges in. They believe that they can make it after
what they’ve had experienced. But to some, their prior experience
holds them back to live a new life after a painful one. Experience
can be so overwhelming that it can prevent you from trying again as
it can give you the energy you need to welcome a brand new chapter
of your life.
And so, I think you should now start to think
about your “what ifs.” Many people have asked me “what if it
wouldn’t work?” They say, “What if I fail?” Some of them
would even tell me, “What if I’m wrong?” Only a few take the
other side of it. And the news is only those few people get to come
up with the best set of decisions. They succeed.
There are those who believe that the future
holds all of their hopes and dreams. That the future holds
everything they could ever want. The truth is the future holds
nothing—unless you put something into it. Put time in, your future
holds experience. Put effort in, the future holds success. Put
finances in wisely, your future holds wealth. Put nothing in and,
voila … nothing!
Ambrose Redmoon said that, “Courage is not the
absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more
important than fear.”
Everyone is afraid at some time of
another—afraid to start a new relationship, afraid to pursue their
business, afraid to let go of everything that they have. Those who
succeed in conquering fear have put their focus on what’s more
important to them rather than the fear itself. If your young child
darted into the street in front of traffic, you’d easily overcome
the fear of any physical danger that retrieving the child would
pose. The child’s life is more important to you than the fear. So
focus on what’s beyond the fear—what’s on the other
side—when you overcome the fear.
Now, that more valid question is, “What if it
works?” What if it will work out the way you see it now? What if
your decision to pursue it would change your life forever for the
better? What if?
Always find what’s important to you.
Value you dreams,
BIG
Big Lloyd Luna, the author of Is There a Job
Waiting for You?, is a career philosopher, a website engineer and a
motivational speaker. He is the president and CEO of The LLOYDLUNA
Communications and the founder of Value Your Dreams Movement. Do
e-mail at lloyd@lloydluna.com and visit www.lloydluna.com. To send
message type LUNA <your message> send to 2299.
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