“You don’t lose anythings by being humble. A humble person will win the heart of a King.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita
It has been a long time since I last posted on this blog. A lot has happened, but one theme has continued to ring true in my life so far. The ability to remain humble is truly quite a hard feat to master. These few months I was quite lucky to have a few people congratulate me on my success.
Recently I attended an annual conference called, ‘Discovery trip in China for Young Eminent Oversea Chinese, 2015′. I was honoured by such a title and naturally my ego was boosted to one of arrogance. It took quite a bit of internal control to remain humble and understand that this was merely a title and that I am not yet ’eminent’. The sole reason is because I have done nothing that I will term as ’eminent’. By not accepting the title, I felt that I was able to open up to everyone at the conference because I did not believe that I was above them and thankfully through this attitude I made many friends for life. This is not a post to ‘toot my own horn’, instead this is a post to warn of the dangers of arrogance. I will describe these warnings in anecdote.
The first anecdote was the jealousy I felt towards my colleague when he was shown more interest by the press than I did. Initially I felt jealous, but after some internal consultation I saw from a different perspective. Instead of jealousy I felt proud of my colleague promoting our cause to the Chinese population. I felt jealous because I thought I was ’eminent’ and that it should be me on the camera. I wanted to doing something that I have neither the experience or the ability to perform adequately for. Had I rushed into it then I would not have done the role justice. Therefore my warning is: Arrogance prevents a person from seeing the bigger picture (the common good). Humbleness allows us to detach ourselves from emotions and see the bigger picture. Does our actions enhance our cause or will it merely hinder it?
My second anecdote was that upon my return from China, many people congratulated me on my successful trip to China, and how very proud of me they were. The trip was covered on the Chinese news and I was pictured with my colleagues on quite a few blogs. However through my realisation during the trip, I was able to control my arrogance. My next warning is: Do not let those who compliment you cloud your flaws. What I mean is this, when you are constantly told how great you are, a lot of the time, you truly believe you can do no wrong. But we are all human and there are always more we can learn and improve. It feels good to be complimented, who doesn’t like to be complimented? However we must remain humble and see that we are normal people and that there are still areas we can improve on.
By not clouding my vision and distracted by negative emotions, I wish to go back to China a few years later and truly call myself an ’eminent’ young oversea Chinese. I also hope through my experiences you are able to see pass the false idea that you are ‘almighty’ and see that we are only a speck of paint in the bigger picture of life.
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