Saturday, May 30, 2009

WE'RE ALL IDOLS! aka DON'T GET A JOB, GET A DREAM!

If you're anything like the one hundred million people who watch one of the many versions of American Idol, you're closer to understanding life.

Am I getting philosophical? No, I'm getting practical!

I believe in dreams. I've always believed in dreams. And, I believe in people with dreams.

Why are the thousands of people who auditioned for Idol like you? Well, for this simple reason: they took a risk......and, the finalists were going after their dream.

When was the last time you took a risk on a dream?

My Own Dream

I lived in a middle class suburban neighborhood in New York. From my home, I could look slightly west and see the Empire State Building. It became the symbol of my own dream for each of my 17 school years.

My dream was to live in the Big Apple. I dreamed of traveling the globe. I dreamed of meeting new people in new countries and making a positive impact on the world. I dreamed of making my mark on the world.

My father contributed to this dream in his own way. A seafaring man who ended his sea days as a cruise ship photographer, he talked about exotic ports and different cultures. He even married my mother a Cantonese-French gal from Brazil. And, I remember vividly his story of eating steak and drinking wine with the Argentine longshoremen on the Buenos Aires docks!

My dream became my single minded way of running my life. This dream dictated the movies I saw, the books I read and the things I taught myself. I was determined to pursue it.

One month after graduation, with my second paycheck from Citibank, I moved into The City on Park Avenue two blocks away from the Empire State Building. I'm still paying the price for this act with the loss of love from my younger brother who felt that I had abandoned the family.

One year later, I convinced the head of the international division at the bank to send me permanently abroad. After a nice bon voyage party with 100 family & friends, I was on my way. First stop, Nassau, Bahamas. Three continents, 30 cities and more than a thousand people later, I'm still pursuing my dream.

The story doesn't end there.

While still in New York, a friend and colleague, Norma, at Citibank, asked me to talk to her friend, Bikkit Tam, a processing clerk in the operations area. There was no reason given. No agenda. Norma just wanted me to talk to Bikkit.

Bikkit was from a modest background. I think she was born in Hong Kong. She may have been 2 years older than me. She spoke enough English to be understood, but not enough English to get ahead in a competitive environment. She was quiet and demure or what I would call a "typical Asian woman" profile.

I told Bikkit stories. Stories which I'm now sharing with you on my blog. I told her where I came from. How I convinced my interviewer to give me my first job. How I believed that anyone could do what I did.

I lost contact with Bikkit for several years. But, one day while I was living in Asia, she made contact with me. As her story goes, she managed to get her college degree and her MBA at night. She moved to Boston where she held a job in a bank as a manager which she liked. She eventually married. She was happy and felt that she was still pursuing her dream.

I thought to myself, "maybe Bikkit had already achieved it." I was proud of her.

So, what's my message? The message is you. Don't get a job.....get a dream. Even better, find a cause......join a cause.....set a bigger goal. Dream. And, believe in yourself!


Landy's Note: I refuse to let this be the end of the story. I'd like to hear about your dream, too. If I can help, write me through this blog.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Landy,

I could feel your energy and drive emanating from your blog. I'm glad you
wrote about your dreams. For many of us, the dream is to continue working so
we can have a nice apartment and a nice car.



I have one simple request: I can't read the fine print on your restaurant
blog. Could you move it to a separate page, OR link it such that it jumps to
another window in a large enough font. I love food too, and I read Dim Sum
Dolly and Chubby Hubby's food blogs religiously.


Warmest regards,

Y

Anonymous said...

Hi Landy,



It seems weird - I have been receiving your emails and reading them and
then deleting them but today's email struck me ...



I have been on this journey over the past year to deal with my issues
and generally "clean up my act". And try to figure out what my actual
purpose in life is ...



I've more or less realized it's probably got something to do with the
field of communications and media but more entertainment skewed as
that's my background.



Anyway, the long and short of it is that I'm pretty interested to
explore what's possible with what you're doing.



Hope to hear from you.



Regards,

A

Humphrey C said...

Hi Landy (Mr Samba),
as usual your stories never fail to interest me. when are you going to organise another Brazilian nite with eAngelz? I enjoyed the last seminar you did. I believe the Embassy in Singapore is holding their Brazil festival sometime in Sep 07. You gonna samba back here?
Humphrey C

Anonymous said...

Hi Landy,Recently a group of passionate people who are in a 3 months
leadership program choose Andrew & Grace home as the beneficiary of
their one day community project.Through our interaction with the girls,
we realized these teenagers can turn their lives around if there is
more love, compassion, commitment from people to have them win in their
lives.These girls come from troubled families, had brushes with the law
or are sexually abused teens.I like to see more done for these
teenagers, some ideas are attached on the annex below. DESCRIPTION OF
ORGANISATIONEstablished in 1998 to provide a refuge for troubled youths
and their families. It functioned as a voluntary Home for the broken
hearted. AG Home reaches out to these troubled youths for Jesus,
providing them and their families a place of refuge in order that their
lives may be restored, renewed and revived. AG Home is a joint project
of Presbyterian Community Services and Covenant Presbyterian Church. We
provide these youths with academic, physical, vocational and character
developmental programmes. Through surrogate parental guidance, these
youths are cared for in the most attentive manner. ADDRESS & MAIN
CONTACT119, Telok Kurau Lorong KSingapore 425760Tel: 6348 5674 Email:
info@aghome.orgWebsite: http://www.aghome.org If you read the
newspapers last week, you have read that AG Home will be closing down
soon. They are not able to extend the lease to the current place and
hence they will have to move out. As of now, they have not find a place
which is able to accommodate around 60 girls plus staff.The staff is
planning some fund raising activities, one of it will be a 100-thousand
$1 coin project. One of the leaders, Han Yong, a teacher at TJC is
having his students as part of the project to raise the $100k and it
will run from now till Sept/Oct. Beside fund raising, it will be great
if there is a core group of people going down to AG Home weekly to
create something special with them. There's this group of volunteers
who go down every Wed evening and do art and craft, pot luck or just
some simple activities with them. There's a lot to be done for the
girls in AG Home. The last I want to see is that the Home for the
Homeless will be without a Home soon. AnnexHow you can help? As an
individual, you can:- â?¢ Host your event e.g. a birthday celebration or
engagement/wedding party at AG Café. We help take care of the venue,
food and right through to serving. â?¢ Participate in our life science
projects e.g. caring for the crayfish/pets or do gardening over the
weekend. â?¢ Befriend/Mentor the girls. â?¢ Offer tuition to the girl. â?¢
Handle weekend reception duties. â?¢ Plan projects e.g. fund-raising,
outdoor excursions with the girls. â?¢ Provide short-term home stay for
the girls. â?¢ Baby-sit the babies when the young mums go to work. As a
corporate organisation, you can:- â?¢ For a token fee, invite AG Flames
to perform at your company function e.g. Dinner & Dance, Product
Launch, Training Seminars or Sales Conferences. â?¢ Organise corporate
sports and fun games e.g. basketball match with the girls. â?¢ Provide
maintenance for the facilities e.g. Adopt our Art Room or Music Room. â?¢
Run professional / lifeskills workshop such as deportment or
work-related (e.g. resume-writing, handling job interviews) for the
girls. â?¢ Sponsor the pets used for the girls' pet therapy. â?¢ Offer
scholarship grants to the girls.

Anonymous said...

Landy,

The new site looks great! Congrats!!

See you in September in Singapore or sooner in the Bay Area.....

Rgds,

Steve

Anonymous said...

Hi Landy,



It seems weird - I have been receiving your emails and reading them and
then deleting them but today's email struck me ...



I have been on this journey over the past year to deal with my issues
and generally "clean up my act". And try to figure out what my actual
purpose in life is ...



I've more or less realized it's probably got something to do with the
field of communications and media but more entertainment skewed as
that's my background.



Anyway, the long and short of it is that I'm pretty interested to
explore what's possible with what you're doing.



Hope to hear from you.



Regards,

A

Anonymous said...

Dear Landy,

I like the idea of your blog, wish you all the success.

But just one thing, can you make the text a bit more readable? Older people like me with bad eye sight has problem following your stories on the restaurants.

See you sometime soon.

Regards
Robert

Never A Dull Momemt said...

Karen

thanks for telling us about Andrew and Grace's Homel.

i'm sorry to hear about AG home. what happened to its support.

let's talk about this in detail.

landy@eAngelz.com

Never A Dull Momemt said...

humphrey c

thanks for your comments.

i'm glad you like our events. thanks for your support.

re samba. yes, i plan to be there. if you're into brazilian culture, there's a great new churrascaria in vivo cit....check it out. also, brix has latin music on sunday nite.

let me know how you find them...

landy

Anonymous said...

Hi Landy,


Thanks for your good wishes, and for putting me into your database. I just checked out the May 28th posting on your blog, and I like the message. I can identify with it -- for ages, my goal has been to work as a foreign correspondent in Israel... and I realized that I would have a much better chance of getting transferred to the Middle East from a major news market like Washington, New York or London, rather than from HK. But, my 9 years of news media experience in HK have definitely been worthwhile, and enabled me to get a job in the U.S. before making a move there. Hopefully, after a few years of gaining more experience in the States, I'll be closer to my objective.



I'll ask Leanne to send you her CV if she's interested.



Best,

Michael

Anonymous said...

Hi Bro Landy,



Thanks for your e-mail and write-up. Thoroughly enjoyed it. You should write a book on your experiences, life and travels throughout Asia, and all.



Yes I side with you. Enjoy life. Have a dream. Do things that normal people do, ride the bus, eat simple, live simple.

Live a happy life. Please yourself, not others. That is what real life and living is all about.



I now know where your good looks come from. Viva La France. Brains are all from China of course.



Cheers and see ya soon.



Didi Yip

Anonymous said...

I too agree with you that the road to happiness includes fulfilling your dreams, especially when it comes to your career. One thing you left out in your blog is that a key element that needs to go along with that, is sharing that dream with your family and helping them fulfill their own dreams. So many people get caught up in their careers and forget to remember that the road to happiness is love. I was fortunate enough to find my dream job or should I say career very early in life, and have successfully reached a place where I am completely content with where I am in terms of title, responsibilities, respect of my colleagues and peers, and etc. However, recently I've been reminded of what really matters, and that is family. My spouse, who is suppose to be my partner in life was getting the shorter end of the stick. With my late nights at the office, the traveling, and always thinking about work, and me constantly trying to find the next "best thing". So even though I've achieved my dream, what about my partner? Where does my partner's dream fit into my life, or even more importantly, our child's. Sure we spend wonderful evenings and weekends together as a family, but what about their dreams and aspirations? Have I helped them in achieving their dreams? I've had to realize the hard way that while I was focused on my career too much and that I needed to (and still need to) put the same amount of energy towards them and their dreams that I do for myself. And if I don't, then the risk is losing them, and they are more important than any career I could ever have. I find that th most fulfilling moments in my life comes at those little moments in life where I can say, "this is happiness". Be it my child's first school trip, my partner telling me about a project that's in developmen, my parents cooking dinner, my siblings getting together at my place just because, and the list goes on.

My advice to everyone is that family needs to come first before your own dreams because if you lose them, then was it worth it? In my eyes, my dreams don't even come close. If I couldn't do what I'm currently doing, I'm pretty sure I can find something satisfying but if I lost my family? That's a different story.

Landy, I applaud you for going after your dreams. But can you truly say that you've achieved full happiness? And where does your family's dream fit into your life and are they truly happy? Don't let your dreams become more important than the people you love.

Never A Dull Momemt said...

Dear Family Oriented Annoymous,

Of course, i agree fully!

It's so important that i'll devote a special piece to it later.

landy

Boss Of Me! said...

Hey Landy,

This post resonates with my purpose for writing my first book, Boss of Me! (www.bossofmesingapore.blogpot.com) as it profiles 20 people who followed their dreams and made it big in Singapore.
Just like you, I am a big believer of dreams and in my view, a successful person doesn't have to be a rich. He/she is someone who pursues his passion, remains steadfast to it and emerges as the leader in his field. That is a Boss of Me! individual.