Tag Archives: Thoughts

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.

Inspiring, again

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As you may have noticed I guess my posts were not that interesting lately and probably not really inspiring. But slowly I am getting into a more inspiring mood, so I hope soon I will add some more inspiring stuff to this site again.

And I guess this is not the easiest period in a web project, as I know it takes about two years for a website to kind of take off. And it is only like one and a half year ago that I started Inspiration for Success, so I can’t really expect a lot, especially as I have been doing most of it alone and as my ambition like writing a post every day and creating inspirational tools and those things just take time and effort.

So yes, often the statement of Abraham Hicks about people who seem to have nice things coming to them quite easily sticks in my mind. As I still don’t know how that works, I still don’t know how I would allow that to happen to me. As when I started the project I thought I had some people working with me to make this site, this project a success. But they all backed out, they hardly put any time in the project, except the weekly meetings, the weekly conference calls. And yes, a few times a few hours or something. At least that is what I know about. But I have been writing every day, sending an inspirational quote every day, so I have put quite some time and effort. And yes, I made the start with the inspirational tools. So did things come easy to me? Well, not really in my opinion.

So while writing this right now I’m thinking something like ‘what’s next’. As I am not planning to give up on this, even though this project did not really bring me anything yet, at least not the thing I was looking for, the thing I was asking for. And yes, the site, the writing brought me a lot, like writing everything down, having something to look back to. And it taught me about persistence. And it taught me about leadership, like accepting more that probably a leader is often alone, that he or she has to set the pace, guide the team and not be part of it.

And yes, while writing this right now, I am thinking of my original goals with this site, with this project, where I think the main original goal was to achieve success fully in the open using the Principles of Success as described by Napoleon Hill. And this thinking brings me back to the beginning, to the start of Inspiration for Success, where I did a lot more work with a lot more enthusiasm and I guess a lot more result.

And yes, of course I am thinking also of stopping, like where does this whole thing lead, as Inspiration for Success certainly does not have the traffic, the users I originally had in mind. And while writing I have no clue how I would get everything to the quantity and quality of inspiring people, motivating people I originally had in mind. But that is maybe also where I should go back to right now, just redefine, or better revive my dream: offering inspiration for people like me, people who didn’t find inspiration all their life within their environment.

So if that applies to you, please let me know. And maybe I can help you, and probably others, if I know where you stand, what you want and what you are going through. So please let me know.

Phones and gadgets

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So today I had some time to spare. And I decided to look around a bit for mobile phones. And then I realized that the time for mobile phones is over. As all ‘phones’ I see displayed are specified by amount of memory and such. And a lot of memory, even the simple and cheap ‘phones’. Memory like gigabytes. And this made me think.

It made me think about progress, technological progress. And progress in ‘production’. As when I grew up there were things like Walkman‘s that were new. And stereo equipment with cassette players where as a small boy I liked the large tape drives.

And recently I am thinking if I am getting old or not. As I don’t like to use the ‘tablet type’ user interface that is becoming more common. I am very much used to using a mouse and keyboard and a, preferably, large, simple screen, a simple monitor. And I am very happy with it. And I am a bit annoyed that all websites have been changed the last few years towards the ‘large icon type’, that are mainly built for mobile phones and tablets.

And I was even amazed that the newest Windows version, Windows 8, has a user interface that is also based on ‘tablet use’. And I just don’t like it. I just prefer the good old menu’s and taskbar, even though I know these also evolved over the years (as screens got bigger). And I don’t understand why Windows went to this new user interface for what I thought was and is a desktop operating system.

So yes, I am wondering if I am the only one who would still prefer to use Windows XP, which I still do, as that is just working fine, even though my bank tries to push me towards a ‘more modern’ operating system. But then again, are they going to pay the bill? And what is ‘modern’ in an operating system anyhow? I can imagine some technical reasons as it may not be that easy to keep it all backwards compatible and such. But come on, an operating system is just an operating system and those things don’t change that much. Similar to that car engines or engines in general don’t change that much.

So is it all greed, greed of industrial conglomerates pushing us towards things we don’t really need?

And yes, I do use larger memory and larger disks and stuff as I want to store more stuff and more user friendly programs do use more memory.

But do we really need a completely different operating system for that? And do phones really need an operating system (visible to the user) at all?

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Progress

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I was a bit wondering about the progress I am making with my internet project here in Mindanao as there were no final agreements with the person I had quite a long talk with this afternoon. But yes, he seems to be interested, must be interested, is interested, as we had a long talk and it was all about the project, the business I have in mind. But he is key and I consider him more important, bigger than me.

And somehow there I make a mistake, as I had a similar feeling with someone else who offered to see me in Manila the first week of August. And I told him something like that, that I was honored that he wanted to meet me. But who am I that I would be lower, lesser than someone else? And who would be someone else that he would be higher, more than me, than you?

But still, I feel it. Still I have the feeling that people who are richer or more successful or more famous than I am are ‘more’, are ‘better’ than me. And I guess, or actually I am sure, that I am not the only one who feels like that. And it doesn’t make sense, as in the end we are all equal. In the end we all came into this world as a baby human being. And we all did our best to, well, live life or something. And some are indeed more ‘successful’ than others. But what is success anyhow and who decides? And who decides what is important in life? And if I failed, and I feel I did, in life, so what? Am I in control of everything that happens to me, around me? No, not really. Or yes, spiritually somehow.

But still, I have no clue how to deal with that feeling of ‘being lower’, ‘being less’. Even though rationally it doesn’t make sense, isn’t true.

Looking forward to your opinion on this.

Miss the 747

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City of EverettI still miss the Boeing 747. And I am not sure if there is some rationale behind it or if it is just youth sentiment. As for me the Boeing 747 is still somehow the most remarkable aircraft ever built, together with of course the Concorde. And why I am not sure about the rationale is because I found out that there have been more aircraft with the ‘hump’ that is so typical for the Boeing 747. But the rationale I guess is that the Boeing 747 was the plane that made mass travel around the word possible. And it was the biggest passenger plane for commercial use and stayed that for quite some time, even though it is now surpassed by the Airbus A380. And yes, the hump and the spiral staircase made it of course also very unique, together with the fact that it is still used as Air Force One.

And yes, I am still emotional related to the Boeing 747 and especially the City of Everett, the first prototype that has ever flown and that was also in service for a very long time. And I was shocked quite a while ago that the Boeing 747 is just an old, aging aircraft that is slowly being taken out of service, or even fast now, even though there has been a more modern version developed right now.

Anyhow, I have written about this before I guess, some good memories. And yes the Boeing 747 was even the aircraft I made my first flight with, so that also makes it special. Nothing more to say, but a great aircraft that deserves its place in aircraft history.

Photo: “Boeing 747 prototype” by Fawcett5 – Uploaded by Denniss. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons – original file