Today's Business Lessons
By choice or by default
By Francis J. Kong
(The Philippine Star)
Updated September 22, 2012
I love my life! I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I love my job.
I’ve been speaking in public for so many years now, but I can still
recall the first 12 years of my speaking career. I would do some one
hundred talks a year and never charge a cent or even accept honorarium.
Some people had remarked how I love doing talks pro-bono, to which I
would smile and think to myself, “But I’m not doing this pro-bono. I’m
actually doing this pro-Deo.”
I believe that God is the one who has equipped me and called me to
speak. This is my main motivation for doing what I do. Today, while the
corporate world rewards my services with professional fees, I still do
talks for schools “pro-Deo”.
I recently did a talk for a group of students from our country’s
leading university. I found out that it’s not true that young people
today have very short attention span. They actually want to be engaged;
they just need communicators who understand them, their world and their
concerns. After the talk, I agreed to have a little snack with them, and
I kid you not when I say that practically the whole class continued to
mill around me as I had a few bites of my chicken snack while answering
the unending questions they threw at me.
Those kids, bright and bubbly,
were seriously hungry to learn. I went home that evening savoring those
precious moments I’ve spent with them discussing life and success
issues.
I remember them asking, “Sir Francis, how did you become successful?”
My response was my usual one: “By never thinking that I am. This way I
continue to learn and strive to improve. Success is never a destination
but a journey – don’t you think so?” And the kids nodded with approval
as smiles broke out all over the place.
Success is the intentional, pre-meditated use of choice and decision.
Unless you choose and act on it, then you fail by default. It’s a
process, and I can assure you that it’s a never-ending one. A person’s
success and achievements depend more on his goal choices than on his
abilities. Individuals with similar talents, intelligence and abilities
will achieve different results because they select and pursue different
goals.
You and I are the products of the choices we make from day to day.
Each choice we choose and each decision we make, plus the courses of
action we take, affect the kind of person that we become each day.
There’s no escaping this. Thus, even the smallest choices are important
because, over time, their cumulative effect becomes significant.
Your decisions define you. Your goals can be the seeds of success.
Meanwhile, for those who simply drift through life – the “Whatevers”,
I call them – their complacency is the biggest killer of opportunity
and potential.
Every decision involves personal costs and requires a certain amount
of risk taking.
Deciding may be intimidating at times, but refusing to
do so would be failure by default.
Don’t fail by default. Set goals. Your goals matter. The bigger your
dreams and goals are, the higher you can rise, the sweeter your success
can be. Live intentionally, so you live your life to the full and become
a blessing to others.
The young students loved these thoughts. I only wish older people would too.
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