KEYS

No matter who you are, no matter how much money you have, no matter who your parents are or where you came from, in life there is only one guarantee that all of us are all going to experience at some point or the other, we are all going to go through some pain. It’s a harsh reality, but it’s the TRUTH. Simply put, “SHIT HAPPENS!”  Who do you know that has never experienced any type of Pain in their Life? I don’t care who you are or where you came from, it doesn’t even matter what you do, I don’t care what it is, bad things are going to happen at some given point of your life.

But when they happen, there are certain “KEYS” that we can hold on to that will get us through. These “keys” are no secret, all of us have them but only some of us are able to use & abide by them. There are hundreds of people in our history that has been able to use these keys during the rough times of their lives – Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Thomas Edison, and many, many more. And there are hundreds more right now in our current time that are practicing these same principles in their day to day life and profession – Lebron James, Michael Phelps, Manny Pacman, and many, many more.

So what are those keys? What’s are the things that we need to hold on to when we are down and out? What things do we need to keep reminding ourselves day in and day out during those bad times in order for us to get back on track? This is what I wanted to share with you today. Keys that I’ve experienced, Keys that I’ve read & seen other people use, Keys that I know that are commonly accepted principles in being able to come out of unpleasant situations in life. KEYS THAT ALL OF US CAN USE!

When I was new in LA I had to live in a Garage just to make ends meet. No money, no family, no friends that I can rely on, I had to dig down deep and gut it out. I got here when I was 19 years old right after college from the Philippines to help my family survive back home. I had a financial commitment to them of $500 a month. No one would hire me when I first landed, no one wanted to give me a job. They looked at me with odd faces, they couldn’t get pass my heavy Filipino accent, they couldn’t see through the language barrier and all they could do was shut me down – deny me of my God given right to have the same opportunity as the person next to me. They saw my college degree in business management as a JOKE! They saw it as a piece of paper from a Third World Country. They told me straight out, why would they hire me if my degree is from some poverty driven country? Why would they even believe that I had this degree to begin with? They wanted me out of their office as soon as they started talking to me, they didn’t want any part of me! “NO PAIN” I kept telling myself, “NO PAIN!”. I kept reminding myself every day, “NO PAIN” – every morning – “NO PAIN” – at night time – “NO PAIN”. Nothing can deter me except me!!! Because:

First, I kept a Vision. In my mind, the only thing that was important and the only thing that I visually saw was me landing on a Regular 40 hour job and me getting into an Office of my own. It’s almost like my physical eye was looking at this dirty beaten up garage but my spiritual eye was consistently looking at the vision of me wearing a tie, going to a regular good paying job coming out of my own house everyday. Every time I woke up, it felt like there was a difference between what I saw physically and what I felt spiritually. I kept the Vision.

Second, I kept Praying. Everyday, every chance I got to kneel down and pray, I would do it. I never stopped asking God for a better life. Most of all, I never stopped asking God to give me the Strength and the Courage to keep at it and keep pushing and keep pursuing my goal. A lot of times going home to that garage or even waking up to it, it felt extremely depressing. So even though I had a vision of what I wanted and where I wanted to be, depression still kicked in emotionally. These were the times that Prayer really, really helped me. My Faith kept believing that God didn’t put me in this path just to play with me or just to mess with me, that God has chosen this specific road for me because this is where He needed me to be. I genuinely remember saying to myself that this is what God wants me to go through.

Growing up, my grandma and I used to have daily walks to Church. I never really fully understood what Jesus did, all I knew then was that He went through a tremendous amount of suffering and pain but at the end of that pain, He went to heaven. That’s all I really understood back then. And I genuinely believe that my Faith evolved around that understanding. I believed that this is where God needed me to be and that this is what He wanted me to do and that in the end, I would get to taste Heaven.

Third, I kept Trying. I kept Trying to do what I had to do and do it well. I had a quote that said “Try your best and God will do the rest.” I had this quote in my cubicle at work and I lived by it. No matter how small the task was at work, I still did it to the best of my abilities. Even though I knew I was over qualified to be filing paper work, even though I knew I can do more and was capable of more, I still tried my very best doing the mediocre tasks assigned to me as a clerk.

One of the hardest things to do is to be able to do the smallest task wholeheartedly fully knowing that you are capable of doing more. I think a lot of people struggle with that. And I think the source of that struggle is the attachment, people get attached to their Title or Position at work. Like a Vice President may find it difficult to file paper work or make his own coffee if years after years some clerk was doing that task for him. The Pride of being a VP or any title can become toxic and I think what allowed me to do the clerical and mediocre work fully knowing that I was capable of Director or VP Level work is staying grounded – staying real – never forgetting that where I came from, having food on a plate wasn’t a guarantee.

We are at a cusp of cutting edge Economics. We have to remain agile and flexible. Be able to Manage people when needed but also be able to do the dirty work of a clerk or of an analyst if the situation demands for it. Attachments in general if not balanced can be really harmful. Some people get attached to their title, some to their money, some to their possessions. I wish sometimes I can physically bring a person back to the Philippines when I hear them complain that the coffee machine was broken or that they had to wait for their dry clean and now their pissed off as their morning didn’t start right. Sometimes I wish I can smack these people up with a taste of Manila to get them back to reality.

Eventually having the daily regimen of keeping a Vision, consistently Praying and consistently Trying my best in all that I did paid off. After just a year of working at Macy’s folding clothes at night and as a Bank Teller by day, I got placed as a temporary employee at Warner Brothers doing clerical work – and six months from that, I got hired as a permanent employee doing 40 hours of work with full benefits. I eventually got my own office as a Manager of Financial Reporting and later moved on to become a Director of Revenue Reporting.

In Life, SHIT happens – it’s guaranteed. I don’t care who you are or where you’re from, it’s part of life – it’s part of everyone’s life! So now its up to YOU! Its on YOU to gut this out and DIG DEEP! No one else can walk this path for you because this path was SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR YOU. It’s got your name written all over it. NO ONE ELSE can walk this ROAD EXCEPT YOU. So DIG DEEP my friend and GUT IT OUT. Have a VISION, Keep Praying, and KEEP TRYING your BEST. As long as you don’t stop – I don’t care how long it takes – YOU ARE BOUND TO EVENTUALLY WIN.