Lesson 2-Never judge a person by looking at his past...

Alright! After the last post on ' How long can you wait?', I got quite a few comments by some great people! So guys, if you miss that post, you can read it here! Come back again to lesson 2, which I will talk about

"Why we should never judge someone by looking at his past."

Yup. This is brought up by Bro. Darren too. He brought up during Zoe Conference, on 17/6/2009. It's a great conference which I learnt a lot, experience a lot, and will never want it to end, even though it lasted from late morning to night.

So the words...
Why we should never judge someone by looking at his past. I got to admit that. We do that often, and always too. I did that. When we got to know somebody, and when we know them better, we tend to judge that person, and we determine what kind of person he will be in the future.

So for e.g...
-We got a friend who has failed his PSLE , we somehow thinks that he will be a lowly-paid worker next time.
-We got a friend who has failed A levels , we somehow thinks that he will not be able to
enter a local university, and hence no good career prospects. Anyway, there's nothing much to show off how great a local university degree is. This post explains it. let's continue...
-We got a friend who goes polytechnic, instead of A levels, we somehow thinks that he has low chance of entering local university, and hence no good career prospects.
-We got a friend who fights in school, and we somehow thinks that he will be a great gangster, or a robber, or gang leader in the future.
-We have a friend who can't cook very well, we somehow thinks his husband will have a hard time eating her food in the future.

And so on... and so on...

Actually, that is what I did last time. I judge them on what they are in the present, and present a negative outlook on them. However, I'm not doing that anymore. I can say it's difficult, but it's another point of view I will need to see. And so when Bro. Darren brought this up, I can fully understand what he meant.

"We need to see people of what they will be in the Future"

That's the point of view we have to look at. However, I dare to say, it's hard to do it, even for me. But we Have to do it! There's one reason. We are only looking people at their surface, at their present. As we all know, people do change. And really, people do change.

I think in some time of our lives, we see these things we never thought we will see in life...

-the most stupid guy in your primary school whom you thought will never make it to university earns more than you...
-the laziest guy in your class whom you thought will never make it in life becomes your superior/supervisor...
-the most ugliest guy in your primary school whom you thought will never get a girlfriend got married earlier than you...
-the most quiet guy in your class whom you think will never stand on stage becomes a public speaker to a massive crowd...
... these are the things that shock us when we see them. Because, we never thought they would become so great, as we judge them based on what we see them years ago in school. What happen after we did not meet them, we do not know. And when we see them again, everything change.

However, things can turn out on the other side too!
-the most clever guy in your class whom you thought to be a CEO in the future, lost his job due to retrenchment...
-the most nerdy friend in your class whom you thought will be a nerd/'toot' forever in school, turn out to be a gang leader. By the way, I've got a friend who turn out this way...
-the smartest guy in your class whom you thought will excel in all subjects, got retained in school, and got kicked out in the end. I've got a friend who turn out this way too...

I guess all these may sound familiar to you guys too...

So what really makes these people turn out the way we never thought they will turn out to be??
The answer is simple...
" The actions they take will determine their route in the future..."

When you are taking the train towards the East, you will never reach the West.
Yes! So for the above few instances, the most stupid, weakest, lousiest, ugliest, fattest, or what ever negativity you can name, become the best, the strongest, the smartest, the fittest, the prettiest, because they DID something which change their life! So when the vice versa happens, they did something to change their life too!

Today, we all knew Barak Obama is the President of United States, and probably the World-Elected President too. However, by looking back to his childhood days, we found out that he lived in Indonesia. He stayed there for a few years, before he moved to the States. His parents divorced and re-married. There are also history of him taking marijuana, cocaine, alcohol during his childhood days too. Yup! Can we ever imagine a small boy like him, studied in Indonesia become a US president one day? Hardly.

However, things never happen just like that, if not people on the streets will think that taking marijuana or cocaine will become a president next time. No! things do not happen this way! What we need to look at what he did on his way to presidency.

First, he decided to leave Indonesia and return to USA, Hawaii. If he didn't do this, he would not be where he is today.And, if he chose to continue taking marijuana and cocaine his whole life, he also would not be where he is today, maybe at some drug rehabilitation center.

So guys, have we decided the route we are taking? Have we drew out the roadmap that we will want to walk in the next 40-50 years of our lives? If we do not like the path we are going, do we still walk on it, or change the route? If we decide to change, do we have the belief and perseverance to change the course?

Yes. And that brings me back to the point. Let's not judge a person by what he will become by looking at his past. You never know when they will change, and become somebody you will never expect them to become.

Then, we turn the eyes and look at ourselves too! So let's not judge ourselves, by looking at our past! We may have failed PSLE/O lvl/A lvl/University, or used to be the most quiet, naughtiest, lousiest, lowest in class... So what? As long as we stand up, stop walking that path, and Change the route we are walking, we will change ourselves, and you will be the one who shock your friends, not vice versa.

Everyone knows who is Adam Khoo, the CEO of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, a millionaire at age 26, authors of multiple books, an Asian Success Coach, a public speaker... but in the past, he was a kid who failed in school, who can't do maths and science, who play computer games all day and night, who did poorly for his PSLE and ended by in a lousy secondary school... So what really change him? What did he really do? He did alot alot of things, and it's interestig to read his life story.

So what if we stutter in class when we read out a comprehension page, we may be a great speaker, or a world leader in the future?
So what if we are quiet and shy in class, we may be someone who is very influencial to many people?
So what if we are the lowest in class, fail multiple subjects before, didn't get into top schools or college, we may be someone who earns more than those uni grads, or even, be the boss of these people!

And again, before you have to achieve all that, you need to Change your road, Walk on a different path towards a Different direction. You will reach there in the end. *but if nothing changes, then, everything will stays the same, and you can really predict your own future. :D

So before i log off, let's look around us, our friends and family. See them once again, and lead them to the correct path they should take. See them as someone great in the future!

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