In the middle or on the edge

Friday was fantastic. More than a thousand people filled up the halls of SMX Convention Center and attended the “Success Through Excellence” seminar. The speakers awed the audience with their presentations, the sponsors were happy and I was ecstatic. I was tired but I had a great feeling of fulfillment. “Love for country was the recurring theme.” And so I would like to thank the many who attended and the many who served and made it successful. The event was a risk. Filling up so many seats is no small feat. But this is what life is all about. Living on the edge and taking risks.

Larry Winget says it right. In his book “All Men are Idiots” he says that only the people who are on the edge are the ones who made history. Larry says: “In every area of life and business, the people on the edge are the ones who made history. No one who comes from the centrist position – that safe middle ground – ever really had much of an impact on society. It’s the people on the edge we all know and remember.

Elvis and the Beatles: Musicians on the edge. Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali: artists on the edge. The United States of America would not exist if it weren’t for a handful of renegades. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were all edgy guys. Gandhi was on the edge. Good or bad, right or wrong, it doesn’t matter. The people who change history are not the people who do safe things, take easy route, follow the status quo or say what everyone else says or try to make everyone happy.

As I read his book it all made sense to me. There are people who refuse to take up challenges. Insists on staying in their comfort zones. Never willing to take risk and will defend the Status Quo to the death. These are the same people who are timid, average, they are mediocre and these are the same people who will never experience success, as they never stretch themselves to the max.

Winget says: “The multitudes live in the middle, living mediocre lives, thinking mediocre thoughts, doing mediocre things and achieving mediocre results. Their income falls in the median range. Their houses are in the median range. Their entire lives are median range mediocre and stuck deeply in the middle. Sadly, most don’t even recognize their predicament because everyone they know is stuck there in the middle with them.”

This is amazingly true. One observation I have is that winners tend to find themselves in the company of winners. Losers are similarly in the company of losers. They share the same interest. Giving credence to the old but revised cliché that says: “Birds of the same feather they pooh...pooh....together.”

You and I need to live on the edge. Though we may be few we need to be. The edge is where people dare to defy their upbringing, their education, and their situation to become wildly happy, successful and prosperous in spite of themselves. The edge is the place you get to live once you stop lying to yourself and everyone else and squarely face where you are, and then decide to go to a better place. The edge is where the fun is, where the money is and where true self-satisfaction is. The best part of living on the edge is that it isn’t crowded at all.

Stay out of the crowd and be willing to take risks. Risk loving. Risk investing on books, tapes, seminars and deve-lop a lifetime of learning. Risk trying extreme sports. Risk cultivating new friends. Risk taking up a new craft. Risk starting a business. Life is a gift from God and it is an adventure to be explored.

Somebody says this right. If you are not living on the edge then you are taking up too much space.

(Develop your leadership skills! Francis Kong will be the lead trainer for the Dr. John Maxwell’s “Developing the Leader Within You” leadership program this August 26-27 at the EDSA Shangrila-Hotel. For further inquiries contact Inspire Leadership Consultancy Inc. 632-6872614 OR 09178511115)