LIFE Blog

Recently, one of my friend asked me why I seemed like willing to share all my knowledge, experiences and even resources with others including my rivals or competitors. Do I not afraid that they might use it against me or override me?

My answer is a very simple “NO”! Why should I? We’re not living in a world where information is scarce. In fact, we’re experiencing information explosion. No one can ever learn or master everything. And the moment I teach others of something, I know I’ll be learning other things right after then. And sometimes, I might encounter someone with higher logical mind, where we can debate to deepen or widen the topic discussed.

However, in this article, I would like to share the 7 life lessons from Mark Twain (the father of American literature)…

1. Ignorance and Confidence – A Winning Combination

We need enough ignorance to believe the impossible is possible, and enough confidence to turn the impossibilities into a reality. Most of the things that we are having today were birthed forth from crazy ideas; The Wright Brothers were ignorant enough to think that human can fly and confident enough to make it happen.

So, how about you? Do you have ‘crazy’ ideas? Perhaps those ‘crazy’ ideas can revolutionize the world if you are ignorant enough on how people will think of you and be confident enough in working it out.

2. Readers Are Leaders

Many people don’t read. However, this is one of the crucial parts of becoming a leader in whatever area. This has been a primitive truth. Socrates, one of the greatest thinker said, “Employ your time in improving yourselves by other man’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.”

The truth is, we can read a book and learn from it within a few hours on what others took a few years to learn. We can pick knowledge and we can pick truths. By reading, we are actually harnessing the authors’ minds.

3. First Thing First

We must be able to identify and complete the main thing first before anything else. Failure to do so will cause us to exhaust our resources before accomplishing the main goal. Therefore, we can’t afford to be busy in everything and forgot to do the main thing.

Before doing anything, we should at least consider whether that is the best use of our time or is it in alignment with my main goal. It’s not about how many things we have accomplished, rather it’s about how many right things we have accomplished that will make the difference.

4. Fight!

Whatever things we want, we must be willing to pay the price to get it. We must rise up from our comfort zone and fight for it. Being silent and doing nothing will not earn us any right for anything. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about physical type of fights. It’s about having the spirit of fighter within that will not give up their rights for whatever things that belongs to them.

The race is not given to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to the one that endures till the end. So, don’t give up easily unless and until you have given your best fight!

5. The Power of Planning

We should never underestimate the power of planning. A good plan is half of the work. The success or failure of a battle is often determined by the possession of a properly structured actionable plan.

While planning, we will know exactly our resources and then how to properly utilize it in order to achieve our goals. I’ve covered this topic in these blogposts;

a. Importance Of Preparation Stage
b. The Analogies Between Chess & Life

6. Be Courages

“Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the resistance and mastery of fear”

What an amazing statement! Both being courages and having fear shares the same amount of energy. So, why waste the energy on something negative? We shouldn’t be afraid of doing something that someone will say it’s impossible or it can’t be done. So, there is no need to be timid or easily be intimidated.

I would rather take the chance to go ahead rather than being regret at later days for not trying. So, don’t run and hide from your problems or visions but be courages to Dream, Explore and Discover!

7. Recognize Your Genius

“Thousands of geniuses lived and died undiscovered – either by themselves or by others”

The fact is that all of us have something that we can do or perform better than others. And our main objective in life is to discover it, pursue it and live it out to the max to benefit the society or the humankind at large.

So, don’t ever let your geniuses be undiscovered. We are given a lifetime to realize it. Life might be difficult sometimes but we shouldn’t be deluded by it. We are born with a special mission in this life and therefore we must tap into our abilities to fulfill it.

We must constantly remind ourselves that we already have what it takes to be a winner. No one is born as a loser. Therefore, we truly have no right to give excuses on why we can’t be a successful person.

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