Always a matter of perspective

When the English playwright Oscar Wilde arrived at his club late at night after witnessing the first presentation of a play that had been a complete failure, someone asked.  “How did your play go tonight, Oscar?

“Oh,” said Wilde, “The play was a great success. The audience was a failure.” 

What a perspective that is. Now listen to this one.

What could be more disastrous for a 4th grade boy than to be forced to wear glasses? And yet one little boy with new spectacles was still thankful to God. His teacher asked him why. “Because it keeps the boys from hitting me and the girls from kissing me.”

I think that that young man is going to do very well in life.

Life is a matter of perspective. How we look at things determine how we behave, and how we behave determines the outcome of what we do.

This is why you and I have to make sure that our perspective this New Year is right so that things will turn out right as well.

Let me give you some suggestions on the power of perspectives.

We worry too much about what we eat between Christmas and New Year and the next Christmas. Whereas the right thing to do is to worry about what we eat between the New Year till the next Christmas. This perspective alone is a powerful one.

Columnist and author Bill Vaughan says: “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”

Popular TV host and publisher and undoubtedly one of the richest women in the world says: “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”

Somebody says: “A new year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.”

Columnist Ellen Goodman says: “We spend Jan. 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but for potential.”

And, one of my favorite quotations that comes from Michael Josephson who says: “Look for opportunities this year to make a significant long-term, positive impact on the lives of others. The best way to feel good is to be good.”

That’s what you and I should do: to positively impact the lives of other people, no matter who and what they are.

A columnist’s job, like me, is to write and maintain this column.

Until now, I am still awed by the thought that this paper has given me the opportunity to occupy their space and express my thoughts. Not that I am extremely good with what I do, although I want to believe that so desperately, but more for God giving me the opportunity to influence the masses positively, and also the fact that the people behind this paper are all so nice and gracious.

This paper can also be viewed online, and I receive a lot of positive feedback from readers all over the world. They encourage and inspire me to do a better job every single time, which leads me to the mission of wanting to encourage and inspire more people in return.

The job of an entrepreneur like me is to run a business profitably, offer opportunities for employment, and create wealth. This is my job, but the mission is to add value to the market place, to raise the bar of quality and excellence, and to bring out the potential of my people to do better each and every day of their lives. The mission behind the job gives us meaning behind our living.

The job of a public speaker like me is not to just hold the microphone, blast away with words and pontificate on issues giving a second hand stump speech on politics, economy, show business, personalities or movie reviews. While the main job of the speaker is to speak, the mission is to offer hope, instill values, challenge people to become better, and help make this country to be a better place.

This is no longer just a job to me anymore. This has become my mission.

Success does not come from what we do nor from what we have. Instead, it comes from what we attract by becoming the person God wants us to be, and to make a positive impact on the world we are in.

Make sure that you carry the right perspective in what you do this New Year. Make this year the best year ever for God’s glory.

(Send your leaders. Bring your key people. Attend and experience two inspiring days with Francis Kong learning leadership and life skills in his widely acclaimed Level Up Leadership March 16-17 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. For further inquiries contact Inspire at 09158055910 or call 632-6310912 or 6310660 for details.)