Daily Lessons from Life 18 November 2009

"Wed, Nov 18, 2009 AFP - Outrage in Washington over Obama's Japan bow

WASHINGTON - News photos of President Barack Obama bowing to Japan's emperor have incensed critics here, who said the US leader should stand tall when representing America overseas." AND

"Obama meets half-brother The two who share the same, late father, only met for five minutes. -Reuters -->Wed, Nov 18, 2009 Reuters"

I have 2 headlines, actually 3 to choose from and to comment on. I did not include the 'heading' of the 3rd one as it was too depressing and involved parents who killed their children 'out of kindness' in murder-cum-suicide situation. The other 2 involved President Obama in his recent 4-nation Asia Pacific trip.

Lessons for me are:

1. when murder-cum-suicide happened, there is no rationality. Just emotion working! Normally the result is disastrous and non-comprehensible by rationality. It is therefore absolutely key to take care of the emotional outburst before trying to deal with rationality. i.e. find an outlet for that emotional outburst without hurting anyone physically first. Unfortunate for some cases, that outlet weren't found and tragedies and deaths happened;

2. Nurture vs. Nature - is leader born or bred? 2 half-brothers by the same father. One became the 44th and the 1st African-American President of the USA and the other a businessman working in Southern China. It seems both were not closed and both lived in different environment from a young age. So, nurture has an upper-hand in this particular case though some research studies of identical twins that were separated from young revealed that the achievements of each twin can be dramatically different. So, I go for nurture as the more important factor in developing oneself than nature;

3. Both Obama shared the same father. A father, whom both acknowledged and wrote about in their own books, has a alcoholism problem and not a very nice man! Yet. Both seems to grow up well. A President of the USA and a businessman in Southern China. It shows that while someone can be abusive to you, you need not let him prevailed! It is similar in wanting to change the world or embarked on a world changing vision, that if you have the will, and the physics is not against you, you can succeed! It you plant that thought of success in your conscious mind and repeat it often enough for it to seep into your subconscious mind until it becomes an instinct, you can succeed!

3 powerful stories to teach me about life and how I can choose to be successful!