A Poverty of Ambition

I turn 37 tomorrow and I was back to tinkering my computer again over the weekend...making sure this time that it was plugged into the 220 volt socket and not 110 volt socket. Just remembering what happened last time sends chills. :)

Tinkering allows me time to think.

What about? Well, about life and how I have been living it.

Birthdays are excellent times to reflect on one's life and about it's meaning.

What struct me during my "tinker time" was something Ariel Oreta of all people was talking about on DZMM, he mentioned something that Barack Obama said in 2005 at Knox College as part of his Commencement rights speech.

He said, "Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of
ambition. It asks too little of yourself.”

I can not agree with him more...a meaningful life is more than just about the bottom line.

It got me thinking to the time when SEAOIL Philippines was born more than 12 years ago...we started putting up stations not just because we believed that there existed an opportunity to make a profit, but more than that we saw a need to serve the Filipino consumer - the dream was and still is to be the Jollibee of the oil industry.

Out of that dream came the C.A.R.E.S. promise, that is to make the fuelling experience CONVENIENT and AFFORDABLE with fuel that is not only RELIABLE but also ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY all with a SERVICE ORIENTED focus at the pump.

SEAOIL stands for something, you know it's ambition. And all of us, by knowing it, makes working for the company a lot more meaningful...it is much more than just the bottom line.

Now I am reading this weekly to Jac and she is encouraging me to say something more personal, about my ambitions in life...[long pause]

Would you believe that I am actually at a loss for words now...for someone who has been writing this weekly for the last 4 years, it is not often that I find myself speechless. Tsk, tsk, tsk. [even longer pause]

To understand my life's ambition, I must mention what my priorities in life are and these are God, my spouse, my family, my friends and last but not least is my work - in that particular order.

Given that these are my priorities, how then do I want to live my life? How do I want people to remember me? Certainly not by the size of my bank account or by the size of the company that is SEAOIL. Of course, I hope that they are both big beyond my wildest expectations. :)

But more than that, I hope that they would say that I was a committed follower of Christ and that all the decisions that I made in my life were first and foremost for His glory and not mine. That I was a loving husband, father, brother, son and friend, a passionate leader, learner and mentor.

My life's ambition is to glorify God with my life storing up treasures in heaven for all eternity instead of just storing up treasures here on earth, where moth and rust destroy.

How about you? I hope that you will heed Obama's words and ask: Am I asking too little of myself by just focusing on making a buck...and selling myself short as a result?

Like SEAOIL, like me, I hope that you will desire something larger, something bigger for your life.

And as a result find yourself with an opportunity to glorify your Creator.