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LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 29 June 2008 Issue

There is a common notion that human beings often survive life or death and even emergency situations because of the so-called ‘adrenaline rush’. It is a situation where the processes in the human anatomy automatically react or respond to a given situation which the mind perceives to be critical.

In science, adrenaline, or epinephrine, is a hormone produced by the adrenal gland found directly above the kidney of the human body. They say that when adrenaline is secreted into the bloodstream, the hormone prepares the body for action by boosting the supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles while reducing considerably non-emergency processes in the body like that of digestion. Short bursts of physical prowess results from dilated blood vessels and air passages that makes the body pass more blood to the muscles as more oxygen are put in into the lungs in a timely and precise manner.

They say that the discovery of the adrenaline as a substance produced by the adrenal gland was first reported in May 1886 by American physician William Bates in the New York Medical Journal. It  was Napoleon Cybulski, a Polish physiologist and a pioneer of endocrinology, who isolated and identified the substance in 1895. German chemist Friedrich Stolz, however, was the first person to synthesize the hormone artificially in 1904.

Since the hormone causes an increase in heart rate and stroke volume, constricts the small blood vessels in the skin but dilates the arterioles in skeletal muscles, the pupils and air passages, starts the breakdown of lipids in fat cells, elevates blood sugar and suppresses the immune system, they say that it is important to douse the adrenaline released in the human system after a stressful situation. Before, this is done naturally because man is habitualy engaged in a lot of physical activity. But in today’s world where human exertion is less, the amount of adrenaline left in the body results in insomnia, palpitations, high blood pressure, and restive nerves.
 
In 1915, American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon theorized the so-called ‘fight-or-flight’ response by holding that animals react to threats through a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system that prepares the animals either to flee or to fight. And they say that this response system was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome which regulates stress reaction among vertebrates and other organisms. Thus, the ‘fight-or-flight’ response is often used to characterize the situation known as adrenaline rush.

To be sure there is always the adrenaline that serves as a lifeline in every severe and extemporaneous situation man is confronted with. But summoning the aid and comfort of this hormone in normal times would only mean stress, a condition that produces unneeded bodily strain and causes much of the physical maladies and human ailments known in today’s world.  Unfortunately, this is how nature works.

If human beings would only heed this law of nature, they would realize that life is all about perfecting or working for that state of constant peace and tranquility in this hectic, fast-paced and crazier world. And it is all because everyone has this adrenaline that rushes automatically in times of great need. 

Reality dictates that putting the adrenaline to work unnecessarily could spell the end of life.

“The answer is always in your heart.” - Jimbo Soriano (his response to a life situation which I was discussing with daughter Bea following Jimbo’s high school entrance interview, 5 May 2008)

LINK: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 6 April 2008 Issue

Oftentimes, it takes death to know how a person lived. 

It was Easter Sunday, March 23, when a major television channel reported that two young ladies met a fatal car accident along C-5 that morning on their way to hear an early morning mass after a day’s work in an airline company.

One of the fatalities is Abigael Encarnacion Parong, a young lass who just earned her degree in Legal Management in Ateneo de Manila University in 2007. Her companion in that tragic accident was Kristine Marie Oroqueta.

Abegael lived a normal life as a child and a young adult except that she exuded creative intelligence, a deep Christian faith, athletic talents and diligence. She was always a source of joy to her parents Lyn and Lito, sibling Paolo, relatives and friends. All those who knew her would remember her for the very distinct sweet smile she always carried on her amiable face that invited enduring friendship even to people who were not personally close to her.

She was one person who simply loves to love people. It is precisely for this reason obviously that she dedicated a good part of her youth working as an active volunteer of Gawad Kalinga to help build poor communities in Nueva Ecija and Payatas, Quezon City because she truly shared the vision of ending slums, violence and poverty in the country in her own modest ways.

During her graduation rites, Jesuit priest and Ateneo president, Bienvenido F. Nebres, who personally took time out from his busy schedule to celebrate a funeral mass for Abegael, was quoted as referring to her as an example of living a happy and a meaningful life as an Atenean who was a friend to all. Like others, Fr. Nebres also remembers her for her distinct sweet smile. 

No wonder Abigael’s friends fondly called her “Angel”. Perhaps, it was no mere coincidence when her late paternal grandfather ordered her parents to use “EL” instead of “IL” as the last two letters of her name. “EL” stands for God in the biblical jargon. Abigael’s lifetime was indeed an epitome of the presence of God every step of the way.

Family, relatives and friends who attended her funeral were surprised with the herd of people who paid their last respects for Abigael, many of whom they do not even know. But apparently with their show of grief, she touched their lives too in simple ways one way or the other.

Her uncle, Danny Dula, even remarked that the internment seems to be her premiere night if it were in the movies. Her aunt, Cora Encarnacion, said that they knew only of the purposeful life Abegail lived with her untimely death. All the attention, respect and the little stories shared about her goodness were surely a source of great consolation to her family that she did not leave this earth in vain even if it was short-lived.

Abegael did not die as a heroine or a public figure or a celebrity. The quality of life that she lived would not even deserve media attention other than the fact that her death was tragic.

There is this philosophical story that when a person is born everyone around is happy and proud to welcome the newly born as the baby cries out loud to his or her lungs content maybe in anticipation of living in a cruel world.  But when a person dies, it should be that mourners cry bereaving the loss of the person who touched their lives as his or her soul looks at them with gladness and peace from somewhere beyond. For sure though, the extent and degree of the grief of the mourners measure the kind of life that the dead lived.

There are countless of Abegaels who lived and passed this world quietly. Their memories would obviously live in the hearts of the people they touched. Abegael’s passing is a reminder that there is a great sense for every human being to live a life of meaning to and for others.

The death of Abegael and all those of her breed defined their lives. Certainly, they were earth’s loss. But come to think of it, human beings like Abegael are heaven’s gain.

PUBLISHED: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 3 February 2008 Issue

Employees need to be in the offices by eight in the morning. Many children have to be in school usually earlier than that. Works or assignments have to be delivered or submitted within a given time frame. There are meetings, activities or gatherings here and there where one is expected to be on time, or at least attend. There are obligations like bills, debts and budget that have to be met or some overdue personal differences that have to be settled. There are also personal wants that are time bound like watching a favorite movie or a concert.

In short, every one has to beat a deadline nowadays.  Deadlines are not only imposed by peers, by authorities, by the system, by events or by society itself. Deadlines are also imposed by nature and circumstances, like the cycle of environment where people live or the biological dictates and processes of one’s being. Oftentimes though, these situations are rather postponed to accommodate a myriad of least important human activities until such time that there is a threat or danger to one’s life or property that is clear and present.

There is a race against time because human beings recognize that, one way or the other, things would meet their end. And the usual options are either to extend it or beat it.

What further complicate deadlines is also the fact that human activities are becoming more and more complex as the world gets older. A lot of these activities that satisfy human pleasures impose too much demand on one’s time as if a day could extend beyond twenty hours.

It is easy to blame the unabated progress of, or advancement in, technology and modern science as the culprit. But this is ironic considering that technology and science are meant to make life easier and comfortable. The problem perhaps is that they give everyone broader choices, better facilities, greater access and more freedom which human beings would naturally occupy their limited space of time with.

Racing against time meant having to live in a very stressful environment. Those who do not join the bandwagon are usually typecast or tagged by society as lazy, bums or non-achievers. Those who do usually sacrifice a lot of things that are more significant in life like adequate sleep, healthy lifestyles, friendships, kinship, or for the faithful, even spending just a very brief moment with God.

It is even a source of wonder that even the time that should be spent for leisure, vacations or holidays are also becoming nerve-wracking these days.

Experts suggest that proper time management is the reasonable approach to the race against time. Some suggest to classify human activities in terms of priority, urgency and importance or a combination thereof which would all the more necessitate immediate action above all else. Some recommend a basic action plan of prioritizing, delegating, and learning to say ‘no’. There is a lot of sense in these prescriptions. Getting organized though and doing things systematically in accord with the frame one had set for himself also require a lot of discipline and effort.

Canadian teacher and small business consultant, Susan Ward, is probably right when she said that time management is a myth. “No matter how organized we are, there are always only 24 hours in a day. Time doesn’t change. All we can actually manage is ourselves and what we do with the time that we have.”

There are just too much endeavors in this world that could fill one’s time. It is always a matter of choice which one to take. What is unfortunate is to race against time because the person spent a lot of it on things that do not really matter for his or her personal gratification.

Time is just like money. It has to be spent or even invested wisely.  Otherwise and unlike money though, time would never be earned back because no matter how it was spent it will be lost forever.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 25 November 2007 Issue

Occupation refers to the principal activity that a person does during his lifetime to earn a living. And occupation is normally left to the individual’s own choosing.

To earn a living, an individual could opt either to accept employment, to be engaged in some profession, to be an entrepreneur, or to be an investor.

Employment means having to be in the service of another person or entity called the employer that directs and controls the material details of the work to be performed. The arrangement between the employer and the employee is always defined or even limited by a contract, whether express or implied, that is usually subject to some minimum standards imposed by laws under the theory that the state must afford appropriate protection to labor. The employee is paid for the services rendered in expectation of his or her contribution to the employer’s productivity, generally driven by the employer’s motivation to realize a profit.

A profession, on the other hand, arises when a specialized field of human activity transforms itself as an occupation through merit and fitness obtained through a formal education and normally after passing state-sponsored qualifying examinations. The practice of most professions is regulated by the government and the professionals are bound by some rules or norms of ethical standards.

The entrepreneur, a word first defined by an 18th-century Irish economic theorist, Richard Cantillon, is a person who assumes the inherent risks of initiating and operating a new enterprise or venture as an occupation by mobilizing the factors of production of land, labor and/or capital also for the purpose of making profits. The entrepreneur is the business owner.

An investor is someone who commits capital in order to gain financial returns. Treating investment as an occupation means making money out of existing monies and resources most often out of passive income like interest, rent, royalties, dividends or some forms of speculative gains.

Typically, a person’s occupation starts with employment. Many would end up in this state until retirement day. If monies were saved or some assets were acquired out of employment, they could be used to change their occupation or start another one either as an entrepreneur or an investor or both. Without such assets though, the person is bound to live either a life of misery or dependency until his retirement from this world. Some gifted employees may also climb up the apex of the corporate ladder and be an entrepreneur in their own right using other people’s money and resources.

Many people would choose the path of spending more years of study to possess a bona fide standing in a regulated profession. Most starting out professionals would begin their career as an employee, often justified by the sense of a lack of experience, while the gutsy others would rather embark immediately on entrepreneurship as a mode of carrying out their vocation. Success in a professional career also provides the professional the opportunity to become an investor.

Entrepreneurship is a good option because it permits people to exclusively enjoy the profits arising from the value of their own hard work. Simply stated entrepreneurship is self-employment, and that means being an employer and employee at the same time. Every successful entrepreneur eventually becomes an investor.

Obviously, the most comfortable and ideal of these occupations is to become an investor. And this is simply because investors make their own money and resources work for them with least human effort and risk. But to be one, the individual needs to muster a good amount of resources from employment, from the practice of profession or from entrepreneurship. The only exception perhaps would be those who were born in a silver platter or those who got married to someone with a silver spoon. Otherwise, to attain the station of an investor necessitates hard work.

In the scheme of things though, each of these occupations provides the dynamic engine to complete the economic cycle of society.

At the end of the day, every person despite their occupational beginnings should strive to become an investor as a reward for a lifetime of hard work.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 4 November 2007 Issue

The month of November begins with the commemoration of the departed.

Sooner or later those who remember would also have their time to be remembered.  True enough because “No One Here Gets Out Alive”, so goes the title of the book written by journalist Jerry Hopkins on the life of James “Jim” Morrison, a charismatic and iconic American rock singer.

Death has been defined as the permanent end of life of a biological organism. Medically, death can be ‘clinical’, or the moment when the individual stops to breathe and his or her heart ceases to beat. Or it can also be ‘biological’, or when the electrical activity in the brain stops indicating a permanent end of consciousness. 

Modern science has found a way to revive back to life clinical deaths through defibrillation, life support devices, artificial pacemakers and even organ transplants. In brain or ‘biological’ death, getting back to life would almost be a miracle because it normally involves the irreversible loss of the person’s cognitive functions inclusive of the human thought and personality.

In America, the death of a person is legally determined following “The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA)”, a draft state law that was approved in 1980 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, in cooperation with the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, and the President’s Commission on Medical Ethics, and widely adopted by most US states to provide a comprehensive and medically sound basis for determining death in all situations.

The three-section Act provides: “An individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead.”

In 2005, the case of Theresa Marie “Terri” Schiavo of Florida, who for fifteen years of persistent vegetative state became dependent on a artificial life sustenance after suffering from severe brain damage due to a respiratory and cardiac arrest in 1990, hugged international limelight. Whether or not Terri should be allowed to die or kept to live became of the center of a unique political and judicial controversy in the United States.

Eventually, the decision of Judge George W. Greer of the Pinellas-Pasco County Circuit Court in Clearwater, Florida to have the feeding tubes of Terri removed prevailed. And apparently, the court’s decision was anchored on Terri’s wish not to continue with her life-prolonging measures.  But for pro-life advocates, Terri’s death was a case of ‘judicial murder’.

Coincidentally, Judge Greer and rock star Jim Morrison were for a time roommates while studying at the Florida State University.

The sufferings of Terri and all others who are terminally ill could provide the legal justification that the right to die is as much an option and deserves respect as the right to life. 

But regardless of the legal, moral, scientific and philosophical dimensions, death would always remain to be mystical event in human existence. Despite the continuing advancement in medical science, no one knows for sure when death will come, how one’s life will end and what exactly happens after life. Death is as mysterious as the origin of life. As they say, it is like a thief in the night.

Death is also the end of one’s human drama. “Life is a stage and all of us are mere players upon it”, said William Shakespeare. Every individual can rightfully choose to close his or her curtain on a happy or a sad note. But the choice should be done during one’s lifetime because that is how the departed would be remembered in times like All Soul’s Day.

PUBLISHED: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 23 September 2007 Issue

A devastatingly handsome young man from New York married his cousin. They say that this man has an unusually vigorous sexual appetite that made his wife consider sex as an ordeal. He had a serious illicit relationship with his wife’s beautiful social secretary, with a young princess from Norway, and carried on a 20 year secret affair with his father’s private secretary.

This man was a chain smoker and known to drink eight to ten shots of martinis a day. They say that he was used to having his own way and never had any doubt that he could always get what he wanted without regard to its moral righteousness. And he did, even after suffering from polio.

The man is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, considered as one greatest presidents of the United States and the only one who occupied that position for more than two terms. He was responsible for the New Deal, a series of economic programs that provided relief to the American economy during the Great Depression in the nineteen thirties.

Born from an aristocratic family in United Kingdom, this man was known for his independent and rebellious nature as a child and performed poorly in school for which he was punished.  In 1915, he took much of the blame for the shameless fiasco in the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I, being one of its political and military engineers. Because of the shame from such incident, he was demoted from his cabinet position until he finally resigned from his position.

The man’s fondness for alcohol was well-documented. They say that he consumed alcoholic drinks almost daily for long periods in his life. His favorite was the Johnnie Walker Red whisky. They also say that he often sleeps until noon and used opium while in college.

The man is Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, a politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was a noted statesman, orator, strategist and a key world leader during World War II. His life has been considered to a unique extent as part of modern British and world history. He even won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his own historical writings.

On the other hand, a man born in Austria led one of the greatest expansions in industrial production and civil improvement that Germany had ever seen. He also led the largest infrastructure works in Germany with the constructions of dozens of dams, autobahns, railroads and similar facilities. His policies stressed on the importance of family life with men as breadwinners and women dedicated to rearing up their children.

The man was a decorated war hero and was a known vegetarian. He did not smoke and even promoted aggressive anti-smoking campaigns throughout Germany. And the man, of course, is no other than Adolf Hitler.

The rough profile of these three men figured in circulated emails asking readers which candidates to choose for a political office judging from their background. And without knowing the personality behind their profile, the choice would obviously go to Adolf Hitler.

The foregoing highlights the fact that it is always unfortunate when people recklessly pass judgment on other people for the mistakes they supposedly commit in the course of their lives. Who does not err in the first place?  Even saints, heroes, and popes did, once upon their lives.  But it is non sequitur that people with distorted values or commit their own share of misdemeanors once upon a time would never have their rightful place in society and history. 

What really distinguishes a life of infamy and a life of distinction is the ability of the person to rise above the defining moments of his or her life, especially at a time when his or her sense of innate goodness is being called upon to act and react.

In life, there is no such a thing as an indelible blot if only the person knows how to seek relief from the inherent goodness of his or her own conscience and heart.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 16 September 2007 Issue

Life on earth is admittedly complicated and difficult especially with the rat race and the myriad of tasks of daily living one has to endure. Every man’s quest for his ne plus ultra is almost an impossible dream because perhaps the world was never meant by its Creator to be a paradise.

Consciously or unconsciously, different people exist and live in this world for different reasons. And at the end of one’s lifetime, practically none of those which every man pursues and tangibly acquires while here on earth he or she could bring with him or her in the next realm.

But surely, every man would leave behind some memories of him or her, good or bad.  Some would chose to forget while others would choose to remember whatever moments were left behind by the person. Fortunately, a person can always choose how he or she wants to be remembered during his or her lifetime.

One of the most important faculties of the human mind is its ability to remember.

It is a great source of wonder what this world would be if human beings have no memory of their immediate past. Perhaps, life would be peaceful because every frustration, antagonism and troubles would be buried immediately after they occur. When everything is forward looking, there is absolutely nothing to keep, no ax to grind, and no excess baggage to worry about.

It sounds utopian but without any memory life also loses outright its meaning and significance. What people think, see, hear or feel would also not matter.

During one’s lifetime, people spend much time recording the past. Development of better tools and technology to perpetuate and preserve human events and interaction is a never ending quest. When people look back, it gives them their sense of being, their sense of belonging, and their sense of humanity.

It is the natural gift of mental and emotional faculties that makes human beings human and provides the real attribute that distinguishes them from other creations. And the human memory rightly serves this purpose.

Inevitably, one’s entire journey in life is his or her building block of memories in this world, for others or those who were left behind to keep after that lifetime on earth is up. 

In the end, it is not so much whether the person lived a life in misery or a life of fortune, a life of constant struggle or a life of ease, or a life of helplessness or a life of strength. It is when people constantly capture a vivid imagination of the person at whim just to remember how he or she made a good difference during his or her lifetime that really matters. 

It is in this sense that the people of the world remember and revere heroes, saints, champions, great men and women, and even ordinary individuals who lived momentous lives, even long after they were gone. Human memory would always preserve and carry on its memory of other human beings.

The purpose of living therefore is all about building good memories. In doing so, it is essential that people should aspire to make others happy and thrive. People should avoid antagonizing and taking advantage of others simply to perpetuate personal ends and selfish motives. In short, people should constantly strive to live for others starting with his or her immediate family.

And the best thing about building wonderful memories is it does not require special skills or talents or possessions. The only thing needed is a sincere heart to love and to take care of others to make sure that those memories are kept in mind till the end of time.

A person who left behind memories worth keeping, worth remembering and worth celebrating certainly led and lived a meaningful life, even if he or she left nothing tangible in this world.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) – 5 August 2007 Issue

Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci once said that “water is the driving force of all nature”. 

This chemical substance scientifically consisting of two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single atom of oxygen is critical to the existence and for the proliferation of life. 71 percent of the earth’s surface is water.  At least two-thirds of the human body is composed of water.

Evidences of human civilization began and flourished in places where water is abundant. Ancient Egypt has the Nile River.  The great Mesopotamia (now a region of Iraq) had the rivers of Tigris and the Euphrates. It is not a source of wonder why at least two and a half billion people of six nations, including the two most populous China and India, settled and live in the major river systems of the mountain range of the Himalayas. The existence of, and access to, bodies of water also contributed much to the success of prosperous cities like London, New York City, Chicago, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. With only one percent of world’s supply of available fresh water, Middle East countries consider water as a vital resource.

Earth’s water supply is definitely sufficient to sustain human life and other life forms. The balance of water is constant and the water cycle has no beginning and no end for as long as this planet exists in the universe. Water therefore is not a scarce resource but a strategic one. Since water can assume different states (solid, liquid or gas) and could be rendered inutile by contamination, the availability of water needed, and the quality of water fit, for human and life consumption is threatened and results to its scarcity. And this has become a major global concern.

The 2006 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) shares the same point of view. The report rejects the argument that the global water crisis is brought about by the lack of physical supply. It argues that the crisis is attributable “to poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships, as well as flawed water management policies that exacerbate scarcity”. It is for these reasons that in this era of supposed global prosperity, more than a billion people are denied the right to clean water. At least 2.6 billion people are denied access to adequate sanitation. Every year some 1.8 million children die as a result of diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation thereby making unclean water the world’s second biggest killer of children at the start of the 21st century.

With the ‘below-than-normal’ rainfall over a couple of months, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently warned the public to prepare for a possible drought that could eventually result in a water and power shortage. And this has a chilling effect on the Filipino people particularly on the economy, food security, health and sanitation.

Of course, the changing weather or climatic pattern brought about by global warming is the easy culprit for this malady. But the month of August, they say, also produces the most amount of rainfall in this country compared with the other months of the year. Thus, it could be so that by the end of this month, or in the months that would follow, the problem government is facing is no longer about drought but of floods and water-related disasters. Again, blame it to global warming.

Unfortunately, the government and its constituents always seem to take a reactive stance to a nagging problem. No wonder, the fact that the Philippines is an archipelago surrounded by great bodies of water and waterways has not made it until today as one of the most progressive countries in the world.

Water sustains life and a sound proactive management and sustainable use of water resources also makes it a strategic tool for progress.

But more importantly as the UNDP report said: “The unifying principle for public action in water and sanitation is the recognition that water is a basic human right.” And it is part of the government’s social contract to promote, enhance and protect this right.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) – 1 July 2007 Issue

Many people treat life as a race. And depending on the individual motivation or personal ambition, it could be a race for fortune, a race for fame, a race for excellence, or a race for affection or a combination of any of these.

The truth is, in every race there will always be someone who would get to the finish line ahead of the pack. And they are very few. Someone will always run faster, climb higher or fly farther. Certainly, it takes a lot of determination and great personal to be on top because not every one could take the limelight or be number one all at the same time. That spot belongs to the fittest.

And the irony of it all is that some people who made it first in the race would just eventually find out for themselves that after all it is still lonely to be at the top, most especially if along the way the winner either purposely forget that there are other more important things in life than the race itself or take a scheming or shrewd advantage of other people, situation and events utterly disregarding the basic rules of decency, compassion and humanity. In this sense, victory is not always sweet, many times it is bitter.

But it does not mean that a person should take a back seat and stop working on his or her dreams. Every individual is endowed with the gift of opportunity to finish the race regardless how far or how lowly is his or her starting line. The fact that someone will always be better or that it is lonely at the top is not an excuse to quit or get laid back.

Every person who dreams of success in their pre-determined endeavors, big or small, should find encouragement, inspiration and motivation from those who achieved ahead their own dreams with flying colors.

Perhaps the better way to treat life is to treat it as a journey.  It should not be a matter of who finishes the race first.  It should not even be a matter whether the person finishes the race or not. It does not also matter much who is good, better or best particularly if the person makes other people lose just to win.

Treating life as journey should mean making a good difference in the lives of other people along the way towards the finish line. Life is more meaningful for the person if he or she consciously helps other people succeed and not when he or she make others fail or fall to achieve his or her own success. Personal victory is measured not when the individual tells other people that he or she did but when other people say he or she does.

Making a good difference in the lives of others means taking good care of all those people who are part of the journey. In the process, these people would give back the same amount care, support and concern, and more often than not, much more. Feel proud of their achievements and they would also share the same pride because everyone becomes part of each one success.

If life then should be treated as a race, let it be a contest of how others can make others succeed.

Real heroes and champions are never born. They are made by the unsung heroes and the unknown champions who lived and traveled with them in the course of their lives because they too felt that their heroes and champions also took care of them along the way.

Making a good difference in the lives of others therefore also means making a good difference in one’s own life.

Unfortunately, people tend to disregard others and even oneself in a race. But in a journey, there is much time to be significant and meaningful in this fast pace world.