Tycoon-ism: “A stumble may prevent a fall.” – English Proverb

If we died whenever we made a mistake then our species would have died out long ago. Good thing we are always given the chance to correct our ways before we get too badly beaten up. We often forget this when we encounter problems. We think that things are too complicated and there’s no simple solution to our problems, hence, we feel overwhelmed and depressed. But isn’t life a collection of lessons? We may commit mistakes, but then we are always given a chance to apologize. Granted some apologies fall on deaf ears, or that we still have to face the consequence of what we did, it does not mean that it should be the end of the world for us. We can choose to stay and wallow at our misfortune or we can move ahead and face the consequences of our actions. The later is preferable, mostly because it is too depressing to stay depressed.

Tycoon-ism: “Whoever is happy will make others happy too. He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery.” – Anne Frank

There was a story about post war Germany during the cold war. This happened when there was a still a Berlin wall. It is important to note that the wall was put up to stop the exodus of the Germans to the Allied controlled area. And so this wall represented the ideological division between post war Communism and Western democracy. In this story, there was an apparent garbage disposal problem o the East side. Some of their more enterprising officials started dumping their garbage on the other side of the wall to the West side. The West side, not to be outdone, retaliated swiftly and decisively. And so on the morning after the garbage was dumped the East side found on their side of the wall all sorts of canned goods and items, neatly stacked, with the message: “You share only what you have.” It is heartwarming to know that even at such an unprovoked attack, we can still muster the courage to share out the goodness of our hearts. “

Tycoon-ism: “Minds are like parachutes – they only function when open.” – Thomas Dewar

Children are always a wonder. They ask the silliest questions yet in retrospect, you realize that in their line of thinking, their questions and remarks do make sense. But if you put an adult mind into the shoes of a child as he processes each information as something new then in no time at all the adult would be inundated by all these knowledge that he is assimilating. And so again you have to admire the amazing capabilities of a child’s mind. The reason for this is that a child’s mind is free of all the baggage that adults have accumulated over the years. They don’t have the preconception and bigotry that clouds most of an adults waking moments. If there is a way for us to learn as adults, maybe it is this: that we realize that each activity should be treated as an opportunity. Even the simple act of driving must be taken as a chance to learn. Because if we keep on hanging on to our preconceptions then we might stop learning altogether.

Tycoon-ism: “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” – Henry Ward Beecher

In almost all religious beliefs, and more emphasized in Christianity, worrying is a form of sin. But in a world where a state of constancy is never a sure thing, and change is, it is not surprising that we all tend to wonder how things will be in the future. We put up hedge funds and buy insurance if only appease our worrisome nature. But how can we stop worrying? If we look closely at our anxiety, we can figure that it only applies when we think of it as bigger than we are. After all, why would we worry about something that we can handle? So worrying becomes a sin only because we tend to think of our problems as bigger than God. Faith steps in as a means to cut this burden of anxiety from us.  When we let go of the future, believing by faith that although we cannot control it but Someone higher than us can, we  get the full benefits of the blessings of today.

Tycoon-ism: “I believe life is to be lived, not worked, enjoyed, not agonized, loved, not hated.” – Leland Bartlett

We are a people blessed with every conceivable wealth that man has come up. Back then, more than a hundred years ago it was different. The frontier as it was known was no means as hospitable as modern day America. People were supposed to go and make a name for themselves in uncharted regions with unknown dangers. It is amidst this challenging situation that our ancestors thrived. This spirit of achievement is now so deeply entrenched in our culture. We are a very competitive people. And we have prospered as a result. Their secret is not that they were strong; anyone could have done what they have done. Nor was it intelligence, for we know some of our past leaders made some wrong turns. Their secret is no secret in truth. It was because ancestors, by the whole, were very passionate about what they believed in. This made it easy for them to make hard decisions.