What a Year!
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To say that year 2008 has been a good year for me is an understatement. Year 2008 has been a Great Year! Gave more talks, (the most in my life so far) met new friends (all of them nice and exciting), learned new things. And when you have given a total of 376 talks in a year you can’t help but learn from the people you meet. Oh yes God has been gracious.
My son’s career is blooming, my daughter’s business is flourishing and my youngest daughter is entering college. We enjoy each other’s company. The Ilocana continues to support me and our many years of marriage has grown stronger so what else can a man ask for? What a year!
And then there were the challenges.
Everybody Loves A Winner… Or Do They Really?
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A big corporation recently hired several cannibals. "You are all part of our team now," said the HR rep during the welcoming briefing. "You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any of the other employees."
The cannibals promised they would not.
Four weeks later their boss remarked, "You're all working very hard, and I'm satisfied with you. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?"
The cannibals all shook their heads no.
After the boss had left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, "Which one of you idiots ate the secretary?"
A hand raised hesitantly, to which the leader of the cannibals continued, "You fool! For four weeks we've been eating Managers and no one noticed anything, but nooooo, you had to go and eat someone they would really miss !!
Does this mean that most managers know less compared to secretaries? I don’t know. But one thing I do know is that there are cannibals in the work place. And these are the people who eat you up with envy and jealousy the moment they see you successful and that your success poses as a threat to their own. Everybody wants to be a winner but winning carries a heavy responsibility. Success is not as easy as you think it is. One of the least expected and most stressful results of success is the antipathy of others.
What Inspires You?
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What magnificent event happened in your life that inspired you to become a better person? I am genuinely interested in knowing you and your story.
Tell me all about it in not more than 500 words. Winning entries will get a book of mine for free. Just make sure your story is authentic, honest and real and I just might publish it in my column of the Philippine Star with your permission of course. Tell me about it so I can use your story to inspire others.
Send your stories to franciskong{at}businessmatters{dot}org with the subject line:
"My Story: Your Name".
A Mountain Top Experience
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(This was published in my column of the Business Page in The Philippine Star some time ago. The mountain top experience I had, the opportunity to speak and interact with the people in that place certainly has inspired me to become a better person. This is why I would like to share this with you. Hoping that this would inspire you too. I am sure you have your own defining moments that inspired you to become a better person. Better at your work, better being a parent or child or better a citizen of this country. You might want to tell me about it too.)
One day a little girl was visiting Sunday school when her teacher asked to which religion or denomination her relatives belonged. "Is it Catholic, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians OR Seventh-day Adventists?"
The little girl replied, "I think they are six-day atheists."
Many people I know have become nominal Christians and practicing atheists and they can be found in the work place. They don’t want this to happen but somehow it does. The pressures of the city and the demands of work have made life difficult and developed a sense of cynicism in them.
The Crunch and the Moral Implications
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From the October 2 issue of Reuters comes this article entitled: “A Moral Reason Behind The Crunch” so I want you to listen to this.
Evangelicals see moral decline in Wall St. woes, says Ed Stoddard.
Conservative U.S. Christians say their culture has gone wrong and has taken the economy and Wall Street down with it. It is a view which outsiders may find puzzling but has wide resonance in the U.S. heartland: the notion that moral decay and a lost sense of responsibility has brought on the worst banking and credit crisis since the Great Depression.