Generation Change: Five Investments




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Generation Change: Five Investments
by Meryl Grace Agudelo on Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 10:58pm ·
(Wajahat's talk during the Generation Change Conference)


1. Invest in failure.

I want you to embrace failure, I want you to hug it, I want you to poke it. Stop trying to be perfect, its a fallacy. No one is perfect. Perfection does no exist. Life has an amazaing way of humbling all of us. Yes or No? We will all be humbled by life. Its okay to fall down, especially if you choose to run a different race in life, if you choose to run a different path. If you're going uphill, if you are chasing your dreams and passions, you will fall. People will laugh at you. Its okay. But see failure as a necessary building block, a necessary foundation that will lead you to your desired destination.

2. Invest in you passion.

Have the audacity to follow your passion and not other poeple's expectation of what you need to be. I want you all to invest in yourself, in your dreams and then you will be emotionally, spiritually health. You will be content with your life. In order to do that, I want you all to admit that we are all lucky people, that we are privilaged people, its okay to admit it. Many of us have education, many of us have access to new media, we have choices. If you have a choice in life to be what you want to be then you are lucky and privilaged because many people today, they have no choice. 90% of the world has no choice. Full stop.

So if you have a choice in life to be what you want to be I want you guys to think about yourself in this question. Most people in life are running a race, its called the Rat race. They are running, ruinning, running. They move to the right, they move to the left, I have to be her, I have to be him. Its very important to ask ourselves though, why are we running, where are we running, did we want to keep running, what do I want to do with my life, where am i going, why am I going there, do I even want to go there? If not, where do I want to go and how do I want to get there. So invest in your passion.

3. Invest in the challeges and tests of your generation.
my challege in my generation is the 9/11 attack, that was my 'until one day'. The people of the Philippines, you have immense challeges that are different from my challenges. There are two choices, to run away from them or to embrace them. That's it.

As a change agent, as a leader, you cannmot run away from these challeges. You have to take it head on and I as you can see like to have fun, I say dance with the challege.

4. Invest in the right people


Everyone cares about what will people say. This is universal. Don't care about people, invest however in the right people. The right people are the ones who are sincere, the right people are the ones who invest in you and help you achieve your dream. You have to send out positive energy, positive karma and know that the universe will reciprocate. Relationships is all about reciprocation. You get what you give. Good people with good vision attracts good people with good vision. That's how the world works.

5. Invest in your community.


Invest in your family, invest in your friends, invest in your network. First, for your emotional and spiritual health, all studies have shown people who are active and grounded with the community are usuallly more happy. People who have network of friends are usually more happy. People who are lonely, do you know what happens to them? They die. They did a study , the only variable was loneliness.The person who felt lonely died 10 years before the person who felt they have invested in the community, 10 years! Loneliness kills. And if you maintyain these communities, this will help. Professional success: Most jobs, someone vouches for you, someone says 'hey, I know someone who's good'. Sixty percent of jobs are recommendation. Build a powerful community.

Do you know the movie Highlander? its an awesome movie on 1989's in which there is a race of people who have swords. They go around chopping off each others heads and after they chop off they say this 'there can only be one' then they get their powers. Why do I mention this? in many communities there is a menatality that says 'there can only be one'. There can only be one doctor, I have to chop off othe people's head. there can only be one supersstar, i have to be that superstar, I have to kill the other person. One playwriter, one mayor, one politician and I will kill all others beside me to be that one person. instead of saying that 'there can only be one', as change agents, as leaders, you guys need to invest in the following: 'There can and will be many' .
By investing in your community, in your friends and in your network, you are increasing the pie. More people will eb able to eat the pie, there will be more flavors. Invest on it and there will eb a huge return of investments. Trust me, i speak from experience.

So, those are my five investments to you. That was my story. This is a brave new world. You are the heroes in shaping the story of this new world. You will nees all the help and ally you can get. One of the ally is the gift of technology and new media which is quite simply the language of the new generation. These are the new tools of communication, we can't escape it, we can't hide it, we can't delete it. We have to accept it, learn it and adopt to it and use it as a tool to push the dialogue forward and use it to build bridges to bridge communities and nation.Forget that there can only be one. There can and will be many. you, the change agents, the social entrepreneurs, the leaders, the heroes, the protagonist of the story that's still being written, you will have to work together to push this forward so that every Filipino can enjoy their Happy Ever After. Thank you so much.


Wajahat Ali, journalist and contributor at Washington Post, The Guardian, Salon, Slate,
Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, and Huffington Post


Full audio file can be downloaded here: http://www.mediafire.com/?upx66bcg6f9ajacUnlike · · Unfollow Post · Share

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