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...

How important is an item's shelf life to you? Does it really matter? What if, for some reasons, some bad people changed the expiry dates? I viewed one documentary on some medicines with some men erasing the expiry dates with an acetone and then stamping new dates on the products packaging. Where is their conscience? Are they not thinking that many people can possibly die because of their greed for money? Or perhaps they read Harvard Health Publishing of Harvard Medical School ("Drug Expiration Dates -- Do They Mean Anything?") that " the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date ". So it is important to check the manufacturing date. Few years back I had a flatmate who was always excited when she purchased processed foods at very much low prices. She always looked for those items with shelf life soon to finish. Maybe it was also one reason she always suffered f...

I viewed some financial gurus or life coaches' videos inviting viewers (through sponsored Youtube advertisements) to join their free webinars. As a come-on, they show what they have purchased (big houses, luxuy cars, travels, etc.) by applying time-tested wealth-generation systems, which they say, took them many years to learn so prospects do not have to go on long bloody routes and many trial-and-error cycles. They offer wealth generation courses for a substantial amount of money.  They say --  "Money will not make you happy but lack of it will make you unhappy". Of course participants get very interested because of the very convincing presentation and there are testimonies, too. Mmm. Then some of them say, "OK, mentor me, please, and I will pay you after I generate money from your system. I am poor."  The wealth gurus say, "If you don't have resources, you can be resourceful." A wake-up line? See these people are millionaires or even bi...

The degree of Master of Public Health obtained from the leading university in our country, University of the Philippines Manila (College of Public Health) is a new milestone to my youngest daughter who turned 27 last 14 June 2018. It was her graduation this morning. The online website of the said university shows the following subjects as  core courses  in the curriculum for Master in Public Health  --  principles of epidemiology ;  principles of health administration;  practice of health administration; man, health and environment 1 & 2;  field practice;  research methods, and; public health education. I cried in joy and with a grateful heart thanked God for this huge blessing that despite all tall challenges she reached that far in her quest to make a difference in her and our lives as well as others'. How time flies! We can only connect the dots between yesterday and today to understand passion and purpose in life, and where the...

There are many of us who feel vulnerable, silently enduring what life throws us. Life is a choice -- but when other choices are worse than the present situation, you will choose the lesser evil. When you are vulnerable, it's either you stay in the dark or go outside bravely.  Time is the most dominant resource so you lose a lot of opportunities when you stay in the dark day in, day out, on the same status.  If you go out,  you will be exposed to the possibility of being harmed. It is at your weakest or most vulnerable moments that you will be attacked by visible and hidden enemies physically and / or emotionally.  You must be a wise and fierce warrior with undefeated spirit to rise. The highest wastage in life is that time between (from-point) when you are most vulnerable and cannot utilize your talents to the maximum, and (to-point) when you become the person you must become. Unfortunately, time cannot be recycled and can never be carried over to the next d...