Passionately M

Life is like a chess. Wrong choice of move sometimes will get you checkmated -- no matter how intelligent or smart you think you are. The queen collapses, the others on the gameboard remain standing, but the game is over.  The good thing is we can start another game! In business, it takes years to set up and sustain one. Normally it takes five (5) years to see if it can stand the test of time.  We see many successful businessmen and we want to be like them but we do not know what is really behind those successes. They also experienced how it failed -- not just once, but many times. According to Jack Ma , founder of Alibaba, "If you don't give up, you still have a chance.  Giving up is the greatest failure."  We do not want to experience that greatest failure. So never, ever give up when you feel it is very hard to move, when you have that rockbottom collapse and when the world leaves you alone. Life gives us many chances to succeed -- we only have to figure...

I love green color. Like the traffic light, it symbolizes 'go' which means there is a continuity of movement. Green is life.  Green is hope. As they say, while there is life, there is hope. Hope is infinite so I love also the infinity symbol. When you have hope in your heart, you will develop endurance amidst trials, darkness and despair. Few years ago I started a page at Facebook with the word 'hope' so I could feed myself with inspiring words related to hope everyday. Some viewers thanked me for those motivational lines. But one day I got a message from someone saying that he had copyrighted that line for a non-profit organization, so what could I do but to put it to a halt for some time, and change the name later to start with an action verb -- the most used verb these days -- 'share'.  Hope is already in each and everyone of us -- whether we are in good or bad situation. What we need to do is to care to share it and one loses it, help him restore ...

My former colleague, 50+ years old, who is currently working in one of the leading aluminum companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) asked me about a good business idea as he has been preparing for early retirement for some years already -- not in the Philippines but in the UAE. His family members are all here. His wife who has been suffering from cancer for few years has received a very good medical treatment as one of company benefits through its accredited health insurance outfit. (Prayers for her... I bought my second-hand Toyota Corolla from her in 1990's.) His sons, daughter-in-law and granddaughter are enjoying their lives here which they consider as their second home, so for now he cannot see himself going back to the Philippines very soon. He and his sons each managed to invest in properties in our home country so they all have places to stay in when they decide to return back for good. I asked him about his passion as it is better to invest in a business where ...

On 27 July 2018, there will be 103 minutes total lunar eclipse -- the longest "blood moon" of the century , which will be witnessed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as published in Khaleej Times . Definitely it will be an amazing experience to see this. I love the view of moon. This love inspired me to paint "SuperMoon" few years back. After recession which painfully hit our company in 2009, looking up at the moon gave me hope in the darkness. I repeatedly told myself to believe that after the black totality there would appear the moon. In my loneliness and homesickness, I would imagine my mother, children and grandchildren all looking at that bright luminous pearl hanging on the velvety black sky.  Despite distance, I was thinking that we were one as a family together under the same roof, same heaven. For many days my head has seemed foggy for some reasons. I have wanted to do some great things -- others I started already, in progress and many more still i...