Tag Archives: Dream

Going to the moon

Today I discussed my draft presentation for the internet city project with someone, and yes, I compare my project with something like flying to the moon. As when John F. Kennedy set the goal of going to the moon there was no budget, no technical capability, not enough knowledge, no experience and not enough time (target ‘this decade’). But that didn’t stop us from going to the moon, on schedule. So the idea that grew slowly in my mind over the last two years or so may be similar to something like flying to the moon, read ‘impossible’, but with the right mindset I believe it can certainly be done.

And maybe I should study a bit more how he did it, how it was prepared, like similar to my project, it would probably be announced by the Mayor of Cagayan de Oro City and not by me, and it would probably be attached to him, not to me. So let’s try to figure out what was all behind that simple statement of intending to go to the moon by John F. Kennedy.

Well, found some background on the moon program on Wikipedia.

Be careful what you wish for…

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Mitsubishi Pajero Black 2015. A while ago I wrote a letter to Mitsubishi in Japan, as I wanted to inform them that I have put my mind on a black Mitsubishi Pajero, highest model, diesel with manual transmission. And while writing this, I realize that that letter was partly written based on fear, fear of not receiving the car I am determined to acquire within the time frame that Mitsubishi will still produce this car. But of course there was more, as somehow of course I am hoping that Mitsubishi would just give me the car I am determined to have, preferably including everything needed to be able to drive it, as as of the moment I still have no clue how I would realize all of this in the ‘real world’, the real world of money and such.

And I actually had no clue what to expect. I just wrote a letter to the President of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation in Japan, including an image of the car I have in mind, with the statement that I am determined to have this car, brand new, but have no means of just buying the car in the near future. So basically my request was to reserve a car like that for me until I would have the funds available to buy and drive it. And of course I doubted(?!) and still doubt that they would just give me that car, so my main request was basically to just have some kind of reply, even if it were just a confirmation of receipt of my letter.

So I had no clue what to expect, but, as I mostly do recently with these type of things, I just sent the letter and left it to The Universe what to do with it. And for quite a while, months, I didn’t hear anything. And as it was not really priority and I didn’t feel anything about it, I didn’t do anything like following up, something I often do (persistence…). So a few weeks ago I received a letter from Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, which made me quite happy, as at least I got a reply to my strange letter, my strange request. And I was a bit scared to open the letter at first, but after one or two days I opened the letter to see what the President of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation had done with my strange request.

And I was a bit disappointed. Or actually a lot. As it seemed my letter apparently hadn’t reached Mr. Takashi Nishioka, the President of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, the person I was trying to reach. Apparently the letter had been passed to the marketing department of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and was handled with what felt like a standard reply to Mitsubishi Pajero enthusiasts. Something like that they were happy with my interest in a Mitsubishi Pajero, but that Mitsubishi Motors Corporation does not sell cars themselves and that I should contact the local representation in The Philippines. And yes, the address was provided, but no name of a contact person or anything and the postal code was missing.

And of course this letter made me think of leadership, the leadership that Napoleon Hill mentions when he states that leadership requires delegation to capable lieutenants, so a leader can appear to be in many places at the same time and can handle many things at the same time. And to me Mr. Takashi Nishioka did not really pass the leadership test, as my letter was intended to be personally read by him, which I thought I stated pretty clearly, and not to be handled by the marketing department of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. Actually I would have appreciated a simple one sentence letter stating that he had received my letter with his signature, than a more or less standard letter from the marketing department. Anyhow, of course it is up to him or Mitsubishi how to deal with with this, so please don’t misunderstand, as I mean no offense here or anything. I made and sent the letter and just released it to The Universe, and this is what I got.

And of course, me being me, persistent and dreaming and taking action, decided to see if I could get something more. So I did two things:

I wrote a letter to Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation as suggested, without any research, so I didn’t add the name of the CEO or anything.
I wrote a second letter to Mr. Takashi Nishioka as I wanted to inform him about my feelings about the handling of my first letter.

And I guess it will take a while again before I hear anything related to (1) as PHLPOST took months to deliver the first letter, but today I got an e-mail from Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation relating to my letter, which kind of made me happy, as the tone of the letter was very accommodating, even though I had the feeling that Mitsubishi Philippines didn’t really know what to do with my request, which of course is logical.

Ah, and one of the reasons to write this post, or actually the main reason, was that Mitsubishi Philippines stated that the car I have in mind is only available with automatic transmission in The Philippines. And that statement made me think, made me think a lot. Because how far should I go, should you go, to get exactly what you want. Something like “if Mitsubishi would decide to give me a black Pajero, highest model, diesel, with automatic transmission, should I take it or not?”.

Very interesting question to me, which made me think again about the phrase “Be careful what you wish for”.

Dreams of the poor

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Today we were driving through a very poor neighborhood. You could call it slums. And while driving there I was wondering what people in those neighborhoods are dreaming of, what people in those neighborhoods want to achieve in life. And I have thought about that more often lately, as e.g. I have been trying to help a fourteen year old boy from a poor family dream bigger. And I am not sure if I arrived, as in the end he cheated on me, so I didn’t trust him anymore. And I told him that. And then he didn’t come back. So maybe I have given him something, something for a better life, maybe not. Time will tell.

And no, I’m not so much upset about those things anymore. As it is his life, it is life, and I just tried to do my best and it is up to him what to do with it. And yes, I know a person like me, a grown up, a foreigner, might make quite some impression. And as I know what other people can do to children, like the influence parents have over how a child developed, I have been very careful what I told him, what I tried to teach him. And yes, I was a bit disappointed he didn’t come back. But that is maybe partly because of the culture. As I didn’t have any clue how to deal with the trust issue. But somehow I was hoping we could repair it, continue with finding some more success for him than his family has, than I had until now.

But yes, today I was confronted with the fact again that I have no clue what people in those poor neighborhoods dream about, what they consider success, what would inspire them for, well, do better?

And I still don’t speak the language here, which is kind of a handicap in a situation like that, if you want to know more about the lives of those people and trying to help them find a better life. As Philippine people may be happier than average, still, living and/or being born in a neighborhood like that I guess is not really an advantage.

Big dreams

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Today I searched for ‘inspirational quote big’ and found and sent the quote “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” from Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. And I chose it because today I got a bit scared, as it seems my biggest idea, my biggest project, or actually projects, seem to come alive. As one of the people I was talking to today was thinking about how to implement all the things I have in mind. And I felt scared because my dream is so big that nobody, or at least not people in their right mind, would dream that big.

But somehow I have been able to at least have people think about what I have in mind, and it seems more and more people are kind of supporting the idea. And I have no clue how this should all come together as I don’t even have the budget to fly to Manila or something, but somehow people seem to believe in the idea and consider it possible.

But yes, if Napoleon Hill is right, the the deepest downfalls can result in big things, big dreams, as everything I am working on right now goes back to about two years ago when my life fell apart for the second time and I even considered committing suicide. As I felt like I had nothing left, no friends, no business, no customers, no income, no money, no nothing. And looking back the strange thing is that at that time things came to me, like the book Think and Grow Rich, that somehow got my attention in a way that I started working from it. And I still feel a bit embarrassed about how I got it, the person I got it from, as I have some very bad memories related to that person. But it seems indeed that God or the Universe has strange ways to achieve things, as somehow things seem to start to come together right now, even though I don’t feel really successful yet and the financial success I am still looking for seems still far away.

But yes, somehow I started believing in the Principles of Success, so somehow my subconscious has taken up the idea that I can really get what I want and that I don’t even really need to do the effort for it, that I don’t need to do it all alone, something I felt I had to all my life, until recently. And those thoughts go back to Abraham Hicks, who indeed points to the Law of Attraction, some kind of law in the Universe where you indeed just have to think, have to feel what you want, and it will just come to you.

And looking back right now it is indeed a weird mix of all kind of things, like desire and belief and dreaming big. And somehow indeed action and persistence, but I can also confirm that it seems only inspired action works and that forcing things hardly ever or never work. And yes, somehow also autosuggestion works, but also there, only if you are really serious and defined about what you want.

And no, I’m not there yet. And yes, looking back one of the main things or maybe even the main or only things is something like self confidence. As somehow I am much more confident in what I want and what I do, as I don’t mind so much anymore what other people think, as it is my life and they are my dreams.

And yes, I was a bit scared today of what I have set in motion. But somehow it is also a very good feeling and makes me, again, more confident that anything is possible and that the things I have in mind have a good chance of becoming reality.

So yes, I can certainly recommend that you buy the book Think and Grow Rich and start working from it. Or any other book that suits you, helps you gain more confidence. As it seems that is the road to success.

Dare to dream big, bigger

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It is strange, what is happening to me, what has happened to me since I started reading Think and Grow Rich around two years ago. And working from it, earlier, let’s not forget about that. And now kind of living it. As somehow this whole thing, this whole experience has given me self confidence, more than I ever had before, more than I could ever imagine. As yesterday I was able to mention some very strange amounts to a sales representative of a very large company. And indicating that if they wouldn’t be willing to help me now, I would presume they are not interested in what I am working on, in my project. And yes, indicating that they would be out, not being considered as a supplier if they would indicate that my project needed to produce sales for them within three months or something, I would bypass them.

And the strange thing is that I meant it. I meant that I would not deal with them in the future if they would not consider me a serious customer right now. And I mentioned the amounts I stated, amounts that would be unimaginable to mention for me two years ago and before.

And don’t misunderstand me, as today I also felt sad, sad that big companies like this company consider themselves so powerful that they wouldn’t want to deal with customers with a time schedule of one to two years, which is I guess is quite common in projects like the one I am working on. Actually they stated something like “if you won’t order within three months we are not there for you, just come back when you are ready to order”. And that made me very sad, as it seems that they only consider customers with buying power, customers that will spend within three months. As what is three months anyhow. What can you do in that type of period, like the feasibility study stage I am in right now. Anyhow, it is their choice, but it is fully against everything what I have learned from Napoleon Hill, the idea that the customer comes first, that doing business, earning money, is all about giving service.

And I had another sample, as one of the hosting providers I am using made me believe they had cut off all the contact forms in all of the sites I am hosting there, where in the end it appeared they only took one site offline. But where I am a customer for years, they refused to put the site online for a week or so to sort out a problem they encountered. No, they just took it offline. So yes, I decided to move that site and sort out the problem later. And yes, the moving of the site probably cost more time than solving the problem itself. But I didn’t have time to fully check everything and being a web developer, an offline site is like a deadly sin. So I moved the site and I would have moved them all, were it not that some of the sites I am hosting there are very difficult to move.

But yes, they made an impression, a very bad one, and it won’t be easy to change my feeling about that company again towards the positive. And I guess I am not the only one. But yes, they are big and I am only one small customer. So who cares?

But I think in the end ignoring one customer can be fatal, can damage your business very much. And I learned that myself the hard way.

So for my new project my main priority is customer service. Give the customer what he wants and needs, no matter what. As in the end that is the only thing that counts. At least if you are building your business for the long term, which I normally prefer to do.

So yes, when I am big, when I have built these big companies, I hope I will remember all this. And maybe that is also why I had to start small and lose it all, in order to grow big and do better, not only for myself, but for the world.