But what do I want to become? I sat down and thought long and hard. After 5 days, 17 hours, 23 minutes and 47 seconds, I came up with a definite answer. I was going to be a monkey.
That's why I'm messing with you! :)
Share with us any success or achievement stories you have got so far, whether it is big or small.
My first success is similar to everyone's success. Know what it is? We won the sperm race! Did you know that out of millions and millions of sperms, we were the only ones who made it into an ovum?
Along to achievements that really addresses the question...
I came from an environment where everyone speaks to me in English. I was the playful type and often skipped my kindergarten lessons. Knowing only a few words of Mandarin, I went to a Chinese primary school where everyone spoke in Mandarin. I could barely utter a few words there. One day, I lost my pencil and had to borrow one from someone. My language skill then was so bad that I only realised that I had tried to borrow a 'nose' when the boy burst out laughing. I picked up fast because the environment forced me so and during my second year in the school, I was in the top 20 of hundreds of students of the same standard (back then my report card showed class position and school position). I guess that was my proudest achievement then. Oh, I also won a trophy during primary one for a Malay story telling competition!
I subsequently earned two trophies in my mental arithmetic class, one when I was the second best in the class, and another when I was the first. During my final year in school, I was awarded as the champion of a Scrabble competition which I participated in. I then won two trophies during my prefect camp, which I really forgot why I got them. I think one of them was because I was the group leader there and the other said 'Torch Bearer'.
Trophies aside, I'm also happy that I survived five years of being a prefect in my secondary school. The reason why I said 'survived' is because being a prefect is really not easy. Under the constant watchful eyes of the teachers, I can hardly keep my nails looking long and beautiful before having to cut them off again.
The reason why prefects are so easily spotted.
Being rebellious while under watch can be a very tough matter. I guess it's kind of like a minister opposing his party's policy. You want something to change but you cannot do too much for fear of losing your position. I think my balancing of the two should count as one of my achievements!
I believe that I, at my age, have achieved in life what many others have not. Proud as I am of this, I also have my upbringing to thank. I was brought up to love reading, allowed the freedom to explore and be my inquisitive self and given the encouragement to rebel against anything which are not in line with my reasonable and logical beliefs. Without these, I would probably now be a dysfunctional gossiper calling up a random person to tell him or her about the weird outfit X's friend's sister's cousin's friend's brother's girlfriend's classmate's friend is wearing today.
How do you define a ‘successful person’, what are the elements that make someone successful? Tell us why.
Everybody defines 'success' in their own ways. Some people's main goal in life is to get married, settle down and have a nice family. Others want to invent revolutionary technology to improve lives.
I believe a person is successful when he achieves his goals. And to be able to do that, one must first and foremost have a dream. You may say that that was unnecessary to mention, but I think it plays the biggest role of one's success. I once heard a short story on a Youtube video, which I think is very interesting. Here's a summary:
One day, a man (let's call him Joe) asked a successful man, "Can you teach me to be as successful as you?" The man agreed, but first asked Joe to meet him at the beach the next day. Joe found it strange but met up with the man anyway. The man then said to Joe, "Come, let's walk into the water," as he signaled Joe to join him. As they slowly descend into the water, the depth gradually increased and the water finally reached their chins. Out of a sudden, the man pushes Joe's head into the water and held him there for a while while Joe struggled helplessly against his grasp. Finally, the man let go and Joe lifted his head and took a much appreciated gasp of air. "How did that feel?" The man asked Joe. Joe replied angrily, "Are you insane? You almost drowned me! My lungs hurt so much as I couldn't get even a breath of air!" The man just smiled and replied, "To be successful, you must want to achieve your dreams so much as you wanted that breath of air. Once you have that desire, then you will be successful."Focus, in my opinion, is one of the most important element of success. I find that many people lose their focus in life easily. And most never get back on track. Some have nothing to focus on in the first place. I must admit that it is quite difficult to keep a 100% focus on my dreams with all the distractions around me. TV shows, computer games and beautifully written novels often cause me to lose my focus, and I always try my best to recollect my thoughts. That is one of the reason why I have made myself a promise to not get married until my dreams are achieved. This is because I want the driving force of my success to be my dreams, not the need to put food on the table.
I also think that successful dreams should not be easy to achieve. They must have some degree of challenge. If millions of people can achieve that dream without much difficulty, then that's not a dream, that's called life. I'm saying that there is a difference between what you will already have to go through and what you choose whether or not you want to go through.
What inspires you? Do you have any role models?
Life's possibilities inspires me the most. There are so many possible things we can achieve in our lifetime. Isn't it strange that while everybody is born the same, very few succeed? Life is indeed a game. But it is not a multiple-choiced one. In fact, it is a very subjective one. We can write our own story, determine how the story ends and whether the legend of our 'hero' a.k.a. ourselves will live on. The fact that there is a chance, regardless of how small, that I can succeed in this world has been a great inspiration for me. I believe that the more I work at it, the better the chances and the greater the possibilities I have for me to grow and achieve.
All these while, the world has been my role model. There is always something useful we can learn from everyone and every creature in this world. Yes, even from the annoying person from your school or workplace. You'll learn never to act like that because it pisses people off! I am always fascinated about the lengths every creature will go to just to survive. People work towards bringing up successful children so that the next generation in their family will live a better life than they do and migrating birds fly hundreds of thousands of miles throughout their lifetime just to survive the weather.
I will never point at someone and say, "I'll walk his footsteps." I believe every footprint we leave should be different and we should all be unique in achieving our dreams. That is what makes life fun and challenging!
Do you have any ambitions? What three ambitions/goals have you set yourself for the next year, the next five years and your life?
Next year
- Excel in my studies (Law)
- Start my own online business (my business plan is ready!)
- Improve my web coding skills by learning more markup languages.
- Secure a place in a reputable law firm/corporation.
- Graduate with First Class Honours.
- Pursue my Masters in Law and maybe one in Financial Economics.
- Become a millionaire by 30 and double that wealth every two years or shorter.
- Build a beautiful mansion with medieval features while incorporating green technology.
- Travel to almost every country in the world.
Just kidding. I told you I wanted to be a monkey. And I also told you that I will always get back my focus. Haiyo, that's why you should focus! :P
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