Posted on my living room door is someone’s definition of “Control”.
According to whoever wrote it, “Control” means going into business to do what you love and having the time to do it. Whoever wrote it might have overlooked the truth that there is a great divide between doing what we love and actually enjoying it.
I know many so-called successful businessmen who are now doing what they love but are not necessarily able to enjoy it because things have gone out of proportion or priority.
A number of friends got together recently and from the way the conversation went, you would think you were in the company of miserable salesmen and not millionaires. Everyone seemed to moan about how hard business has been and how difficult it was to run their companies.
I guess no one is exempt and soon, I would wager that even the heir apparent and newly elected President “Noy” will probably bemoan what a difficult position he finds himself in.
As I pointed out, everything rotates on the problem of proportion and priority.
My friends are unhappy because they overlooked their priority and redefined their proportions. The idea is to do what you love, pursue what you are passionate in or what you believe in. That’s “priority”. It is also what your vision will be based on.
While going through group analysis, it became obvious that everyone had a common problem. We all made other peoples’ problems “OUR” problem. Initially, they talked about managers and supervisors, then they talked about employees and union members, then they talked about relatives and finally, people who simply crossed the street and got into our lives.
Then we had the realization that it’s nice to care about people, but half of the time, we get distracted thinking of others and end up getting lost or misdirected in our priorities.
After that the talks shifted to “proportion”. Doing what we love and making it profitable does not necessarily mean that it has to be in the millions. Doing what we love, making a profit in the millions does not exactly mean that we enjoy it.
In fact a number of the people I listened to were no longer directly “enjoying” what they were doing. They shifted from the thing they enjoyed and focused on “profit” and then rewarded themselves with something else such as a lifestyle of the rich and famous, travel or leisure. But in order to maintain that they also had to increase the proportion of business as well as profit which in turn increased the demand on their personal time or liberty.
So not only have they become trapped in the social guilt of false responsibility they also became slaves to their money-making machinery for profit.
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I have been told by a handful of people close to the newly elected president, that they don’t always enjoy what I write. Someone even warned me that I should be careful because the newly elected President tends to have a very long memory.
To be fair, they were not threats but well meaning advise. By God’s grace, I simply kept my mouth shut and refrained from telling them that they now sound exactly the same way people in many past administrations sounded like when “warning” members of media.
Rather than “kick them in the shins” I would rather share a few thoughts to the incoming President in the hope that it would be a blessing to him.
President “Noy” will undoubtedly receive unsolicited advise, ideas, criticism, suggestion etc. The right mind-set is to remember that many of these are probably solutions or aspirations that other people believe in or are passionate about.
The worse thing a leader can do is to dismiss them.
President “Noy” needs only to review the many times in his life when others dismissed his opinions and suggestions. I am certain that being dismissed or ignored did not lessen his belief or his passion in his ideas.
On the other hand, being dismissed or disregarded tends to foster disrespect, contempt or an active dislike for those who ignored or belittled our ideas and attempt at helping.
So rather than trivialize, belittle or reject them, I would suggest to President “Noy” to start his own on-line “Suggestion Box” that everyone can read and see. In like manner create a group that would be a living breathing “Suggestion Box”.
If we sincerely want every Filipino to contribute and to take part in nation building, them we must open up our ears, our minds and our hearts to their concerns and especially their solutions.
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The second suggestion for President “Noy” is to always be willing to face and talk to your critics or “accuser”.
While giving an interview to an Asian news crew, I came upon the realization that Presidents Marcos, Ramos and Arroyo all had a habit of privately speaking or calling on their critics. This practice of getting it straight from the horse’s mouth is probably one work habit that kept all three Presidents from getting into unnecessary entanglements with media.
As a young boy there were at least two occasions when I answered the phone and someone on the other hand went, “May I speak to Louie Beltran please” so I asked who’s calling please and the caller said “The President”. Of course I asked “President of which company, sir?”
“ Luisito, this is President Marcos”.
In my early years in broadcasting someone in Malacañang painted an ugly picture of me to President Arroyo. She could have branded me as an enemy, but to her credit, she invited me for lunch along with my employers.
Thanks to the Holy Spirit I was totally clueless and guiltless as I walked into what was suppose to be lunch with me as the main course. But because PGMA asked, she got the answers. On top of that she even asked me to pray over her.
Remember Mr. President “Noy”, “Ask and you shall receive”.