PASSION NATION

When I was eight years old, I read Richard Bach’s immortal classic Jonathan Livingston Seagull and learned about a bird that sought to touch perfection by doing the most, and that was to fly. I was totally enamored by the idea and romance of a single-minded pursuit above all other things. The only problem was, at eight your priorities change, and soon, that little nugget of understanding was lost in what was a great childhood.

I’m a lot older now, and since then, I’ve learned and experienced a lot of things. I’ve found that many of us choose to do certain things because everyone else is doing these same things. Some of us, however, choose to be different and go out of our way to be unique, simply for the sake of it. A few of us though, will choose to do the things they love to do the most, perfectly. This is passion.

Nothing confuses me more about people today than their inability to decide what they want to do in life. It worries me that their indecision to pursue their passions are rooted in a deep fear that what they really want to do in life might not be the right thing they should be doing; or that somehow doing what makes you happy might get in the way of being successful in life. I don’t blame them though; society places so much emphasis on being successful that we often forget that there are other more important things out there.

What is ironic about the pursuit of success is that some of the most successful people in the world today, are simply the most passionate about whatever it is they do. In short, the best "business model" for people today are the folks out there who do exactly the opposite of the conventional. They fight the tide and pursue their dreams.

Apple Computers’ CEO Steve Jobs was granted US$ 872,000,000 worth of stock options in his company because he is totally absorbed with turning Apple into the best computer in the world. Disney’s Michael Eisner got over US$ 506,000,000 in options last year because he is passionate about leading Disney to become the world’s biggest media conglomerate. Citigroup’s Sandy Weill, GE’s Jack Welch, Dream Work’s Steven Spielberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, the list goes on and on.

So why are people so afraid to pursue their dreams when humanity’s biggest success stories are about people who pursued their goals passionately? I suppose one reason is the fear of failure. Another is the idea that most of us believe we have only one life to live. I don’t propose to have all the solutions, but like I mentioned to you earlier, I’m a lot older now and I’ve learned this much.

In ancient China, a child was usually considered an adult at the age of 13. This was because the early Chinese geomancers believed that when a person completed a lunar cycle (meaning 12 years) they completed one lifetime. The old Chinese believed that a lunar cycle was an important time in a person’s life because it offered a man the opportunity to cheat fate.

Since the ancient times up to today, most Chinese fortune-tellers advise their clients to look to their "lunar birth year" as a year of opportunity. Their actions this year, would predicate their fortunes for the next lifetime (or at least the next 12 years) that followed. So by simply making a conscious effort to change some major aspect of your life, you could affect your fortunes until the next lunar cycle. It was, therefore, important to the attentive, to seek major changes in their lives in order to either change their fortunes, or keep them, as the need arose. You see, the lunar birth year affords a person the chance to be "reborn". It is an opportunity to change a person’s destiny by simply turning over a new page in their lives and starting over.

Most of my Chinese friends live and die by this rule. Every 12 years or so, they purposely try to do something different to change their lives. Most start a family at 24, open their own businesses at 36, become grandparents at 48, and retire at 60…and basically go on with life trying to do the things they enjoy the most and living as many "lifetimes" as they can.

I’ve thought about this concept many times and have grown quite fond of it over the years. I like to cling to the notion that there is always a second chance out there for me even if I monumentally mess up this life. Consider this for a moment; if you had more than one lifetime to live, would you be living your life today differently?

Years ago, a chance meeting with a rather interesting fortune-teller reminded me that I had choices in life. I’ve since changed jobs, moved twice and have traveled to many different countries. I have seen many strange and wonderful things and I’ve learned so much about the world around me. I’ve shed my old life and have since embraced a new one where I am somewhere in the middle of. I worry about ending this life yet I am very curious about my next one.

I plan to live many more lives, with the single-minded goal of living each one perfectly.