Inspiration for Success
About inspiration, motivation and success
Again I managed to do all the (work) things I planned today. And I sent the daily quote and I’m writing here now.
And I had a nice evening with friends, so I guess it’s enough as sometimes you just need to say it’s enough.
But yes, I will still also update my more personal blog on op weg naar success.
So what’s next? I’ve learned a lot and somehow I progressed a lot, but still there are some things missing.
But yes, I am making progress and I’m becoming more careful. Especially more careful with people, more careful with choosing people.
As today I received an e-mail in reply to a request from me to meet a previous employee again. As I thought he might be one of the people who could be part of restarting my business. And please keep in mind the goal of my business has always been and still is to indeed support myself, but also to support Filipinos and the Philippine economy. But especially the last has proven not to be easy as it is virtually impossible to find decent staff. As it has been very easy to find graduates who were all willing to be trained, which they were and which I did. But in the end I found myself without customers, without any money to invest and without any people willing to support me, help me rebuild the business. As most of those people willing to be trained decided to look for greener pastures elsewhere after having been trained.
And yes, I made my share of mistakes and of course I am responsible for my business, not the staff, the people I hired. And yes, I guess my management skills and social skills are not the best in the world. But looking back I am starting to realize more and more that it is not only me that is the cause that my business is not flourishing, was not growing and in the end kind of stopped. And no, it was certainly not the fault of the staff I hired, the graduates who were just looking for a start and of course in the end left my very small company that was kind of surviving and in the end couldn’t really survive anymore.
But looking back, knowing what I know now I think the main reason is the culture, the Philippine culture that makes it virtually impossible to start a company that wants to do a bit more than standard stuff, a company that wants to stand out and wants to deliver advanced quality stuff and services. And you can’t do that with graduates. And you can’t do that in an environment where the good people go abroad to work. And you can’t do that in a culture where it seems people only want to work as an employee, work for money.
And yes, I know more what I want now and I am still determined to build the company that I have in mind. And yes, I know that is virtually impossible, here in Cagayan de Oro City. But yes, I know anything is possible and that persistence in the end normally pays off.
But yes, I was very disappointed with the reply I got today. As for me it was an e-mail to someone who I think might be willing and capable to help me rebuild the company, build the company I have in mind to not only serve customers, but also help Filipinos stay with their family, not going abroad. Build a company that can provide decent jobs to the people of Cagayan de Oro City. Help him earn more, have a nicer job.
And no, apparently he was not the right person to ask. As the first thing he did was demanding for solving issues with his Social Security plan. And yes, of course I know there are and have been problems with the payments to the SSS. But the reason is very simple: the company just never earned enough to fulfill many of its obligations to the government. And looking back I have never really earned anything from this company. On the contrary, I think I invested more than the company ever earned. And yes, my mistake with all my good intentions trying to build a decent company here. And yes, certainly for me, for my own income, for my own money. But also definitely for the staff, for the people in Cagayan de Oro City, in The Philippines. But they didn’t make it easy, just leaving mostly after half a year, after a year, after their being trained.
And yes, I guess this person doesn’t know all this, doesn’t know that I lost most of the money I had when I first came to The Philippines. And doesn’t know I lost a lot more, money I don’t even have a clue how to pay back. And my living in a big house and my supposedly high living standard is only a very small part of that.
And yes, I can imagine he is worried about his SSS. And of course I guess that is my problem, the problem of my company. And of course I am looking for ways to settle all my debts. But is the implicit where is my money really the first thing to mention if you are being invited for coffee or something, being invited to restart or cooperate in a business?
Today the post of Leo Babauta stuck kind of in my mind. As he states something like ‘write every day’. And ‘create a blog’. And in my mind is now something that I’m not really a writer as Leo states that he started writing when he was seven or so. And right now I was reading I should not just write about myself, as I mostly do. I should have a purpose. And that’s what lately has been missing a bit. Where lately I guess means quite some time already.
But yes, let’s not forget that no matter what I have been writing every day. And I am writing now, even though it’s late, my back aches, I’m coughing and I just want to rest. And I don’t know what to write. Or at least I don’t know what to write that would be of use. But again, I guess I’m too hard on myself, as I want to inspire people, before for success as I thought what success was. But now more inspire people to achieve their goals. Or their main goal in life.
And yes, I am writing to improve the world. And that’s also why I have been writing so much about my internet problems and such. As I want people to read it and have some influence. And yes, I’m good in search engine optimization, so consciously or unconsciously I have been and am building some kind of internet structure to do something about what Globe and Smart could improve, should improve. And through them I want to reach other companies to improve, to make the world for humans again, not for organizations.
So well, maybe this post is part of all that. Of me trying to improve the world, trying to reach out, trying to find readers. So I would have some influence. As I’m sure Leo has.
“In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.” ― Mother Teresa
I just finished downloading the movie Source Code and I couldn’t resist watching it while I actually wanted to do some other things, even though I kind of finished the things I had planned for today. And I guess I wrote a similar post before, or actually I’m sure, as I found the image of the movie poster as shown next to this text already uploaded to the site.
And I still love the movie and especially the quote “Everything is going to be okay.” as stated quite some time by Captain Colter Stevens, the main character in the film. So I sent it as the daily quote of today, even though I’m quite sure I also sent the quote before. But I guess that’s what we all want to hear, always, that everything is going to be okay.
And while watching I had some strange feelings and strange thoughts as I downloaded the movie illegally through a torrent, especially as I was complaining quite a bit about one of my internet service providers violating the copyright of web pages recently, although that’s a bit of a different story, as they make changes to something while I just downloaded Source Code in it’s original form. At least that’s what I believe. And especially with movies I often watch the trailer and am always amazed about how many people are involved in making a movie. And I am grateful for all those people making such a thing. And no, in this case I didn’t pay for it. And also for most of the music I have on my system I didn’t pay. Most of it is downloaded, copied. And that’s the biggest problem with digital stuff, that you can copy it, for free mostly, even in the original quality. And no, I don’t really feel guilty about it, which is kind of strange, as I also certainly believe the people making the movie should be paid or at least have something in return for what they made. But again, this is kind of what this site, my project Inspiration for Success is all about, or partly about. As the more I think about ‘work’ and ‘business’ and ‘industry’ and ‘paying’ I get the feeling we need some kind of new way to distribute the wealth and maybe the work. As slowly we can produce anything anybody could ever need, slowly we can give any service anybody would ever need. And somehow the payment system we have is standing in the way to let everybody have what he wants to have, at least related to ‘stuff’.
And no, I wouldn’t know how to get there, although we did it before, as I guess in ancient times there was no such thing as money or X-deals. And the weird thing is that technically we are basically at a level what we always wanted, what humanity has striven for so long: ‘have’ stuff without having to work for it.
So let’s find a way, let’s find a way to make sure everybody has the food, the ‘stuff’ and the services he wants. Without continuous asking whether he worked for it or not.
As yes, there is enough of everything, we can produce anything and I’m quite sure most people would (still) love to ‘give’ the work, the effort to make that happen.
So let’s make that happen.