Leo Chiang DOT COM

I was tagged by Andrew of “I Captured a Blog” and I was quite surprised to hear that he wanted to know what I do to be successful. First off, I do not really believe I am successful on my own terms and I was admittedly taken aback that anyone would think I was. However, success is a very subjective term and I humbly offer my opinions on how I have achieved the level of success I have thus far.

To understand why I view success as I do, you must learn some of my history. I am going to leave most of the psycho-babble out, but let’s just say I am not proud of the person I used to be. My learned experiences during those sordid years of my dirty past helped shape the person I am today and led me to appreciate all that I had taken advantage of most of my life.

When I was much younger I was a very self-absorbed, conceited and an amoral person (some would say these elements still exist, lol). I realized that I could use my charisma and leadership abilities to manipulate people to do my every whim. I was on top of what I had perceived to be a powerful and rich life. I ran with a bad crowd and I reviled law enforcement and the authority they tried to pose upon me. Everywhere I went I was surrounded by people who wanted my company. This was all a facade. Personal circumstances in my life led me to re-evaluate my value systems. When I needed emotional guidance and support from my so-called friends, alcohol was the crutch handed me, violence unto others the bandage. It was an ugly life, and I never felt so lonely and insignificant. This “black” period of my life taught me the elements of true success and it had nothing to do with money or power, but rather personal acceptance and pride.

Unfortunately, it took the untimely death of my best friend and the subsequent passings of both my grandfathers that I learned I had taken for granted those that truly loved me for just being. Since then I have worked very hard to make up for past transgressions. It certainly was not an overnight metamorphosis and there are elements of my flawed personality that I still struggle with. I could not have overcome the demon within myself if not for the continued and unconditional love granted to me by my family and the few true friends I have. Despite my many foolish mistakes they were all there to stand by me and pick me up, although they never failed to berate me for my sorry misdeeds. No fake words of comfort here, they were the ones brave enough to tell me the things I did not want to hear . . . but I really needed to.

• Success . . . knowing that the actions in my life can have monumental effects to those I love, I now try to live a less self-absorbed life. The “shoe on the other foot” way of thinking helps time to time.

• Success . . . my motivation to succeed is no longer selfish. I think about what I can do to help my friends and family if I were in a position to do so. My success means helping others to achieve theirs.

• Success . . . karma’s a bitch. I’m still paying interest on this one

• Success . . . positivity. When things look their bleakest focus on the so many wonderful aspects of your life. It sounds corny but they’re there!

• Success . . . I’ve finally learned to love again, but it took a long journey of trusting and loving myself first.

I’m not going to tag anybody else here, I’m just glad to share. However, I challenge you all to write a post like this and link back to this post so I can find it and read it. Let’s find out what’s your take on success. You may find out more about yourself than you know.

If you haven’t already today, contact your parents, sisters, brothers, true friends, lovers and pets. Tell them in your own words that you value their presence and you love them for just being.

Posted on March 24th, 2007 by Leo
Filed under: Lucid Thoughts