Be A Fool...

      A few days ago, I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Andy Bird, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company. I heard him speak, and while my boss said he's not the great speaker he thought he would be, I was still inspired. I admit, he was no Steve Ballmer, but I feel compelled to share his words with you. To no one's surprise, he was talking about failure. In his opinion, we should not avoid failure, instead we should LEARN how to fail. "If you master failure, you will know how to expand." As a matter of fact, "if you don't fail at first, you're probably not trying hard enough." So dear readers, ask yourselves, have you failed while you were trying to be great? If you have, then I congratulate you, because then you know you are trying hard to be great. Do not let this failure hold you back, just remember that you are one step closer to greatness.

     Now that I have shared with you some inspiring words, I would like to share with you some inspiring moments. Interestingly enough, most of my inspiring moments are actually... pretty embarrassing. After Mr. Bird finished his speech, I wanted to take a picture with him, but of course, he was nowhere to be found. I pierced my friends' ears with one phrase, "I wanna take a picture with Disney's CEO". I looked all over for him, and when I was about to give up, he passed by us while we were walking down the hall. My friend told me to follow him so that I can take a picture with him, but I couldn't move. Maybe I was too shy, maybe I knew I was gonna make a complete fool out of myself, I just said "never mind, let's just leave". That was one of the times when I was grateful for having crazy friends. She pulled me by the arm and ran after him. We were two seconds too late, because he entered the partners lounge where we are not allowed. I stopped and told my friend that we're not allowed in there so we should go back. So she looked at me and said "he will never see you again, he will never remember that you made a fool out of yourself on this day, so just go in, take the picture and then we'll leave". Again she grabbed  my hand, pushed the door open, and walked towards Mr. Bird to take that picture. Now the moral behind my story is not whether we took the picture or not, but that it's OK to make a fool out of yourself sometimes, especially when no one is there to judge you. Also, no matter how good you're doing on your own, you still need others to push you towards opportunities. SO go out, find someone to be a fool with, and see how great it feels. I'm sure you're going to want to do it again.


P.S, I did take the picture, that's my arm next to Mr. Bird :) special thanx to my friend Anan, and my camera girl, my bestie Salam :)

Welcome Failure...

     How many times have we failed? Probably more times than we have succeeded. Have you ever wondered why all the famous people in life have an unfortunate past? A past full of failure and defeat. Thomas Edison was told by his teacher that he was too stupid to learn anything. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he lacked imagination. Albert Einstein couldn't speak until he was 4 years old. Michael Jordan was cut from the high school basketball team. If those people had given up every time they failed or were rejected, we would have suffered from long dark nights. We wouldn't have our beloved Mickey Mouse (to be honest I don't mind not having Mickey, but if Donald Duck wasn't in my life, I would be devastated). Relativity would not have been theorized (which I know most students wouldn't object to), and finally, basketball would not be as popular as it is today. Believe it or not, those people succeeded because they have failed once. They have tasted the bitterness of defeat and wondered what success would feel like. If you look around you, you would realize those who have never failed, are the ones who will never be great. They are all that they can be. But you are not! You can be far greater than you are right now. Don't give up, get up. Try new things. Try everything. Keep trying. Until one day, a humble blogger like myself would write about you and say "without him/her, life would not be as we know it today".

Vision...

Khaled O

(The Boy in the story)

     A teacher once told her student's mother that her 3 year old son is very artistic. The mother was surprised since she has never noticed that about him. She went home and asked her son to draw something for her. So he drew what looked like a boy, a ball and what seemed to be scattered lines all over the page, each with a unique color. What's so artistic about that? It is just something that a kid drew, she thought. Then she asked him about his drawing. He said "this is a boy playing with his ball". "What about these lines?" she wondered. "They're colored balloons in the sky". Of course the mother was amazed by what her son did. This story may seem cheesy and pointless, but it's really not. Think about how many times you've been laughed at because people didn't understand what you were doing. Or how many times have people underestimated you because they thought you're idea's were strange and unusual. Whenever that happens, remember that just because people don't see what you see, doesn't mean you're delusional. Remember that all the great people had a vision one day, and did not give in when others thought they were crazy.