A Ten-year Old Blog.
Thoughts (ernestpensees)
turns 10 today. When blogging was at its peak in 2007, I decided to create my
own, here on blogspot. This blog started with the aim of sharing my
philosophical and political views. In a span of ten years, I posted 74 entries,
had to be inactive from time to time to focus on work and other urgent matters.
The end of the year is quite near and I’d like to share a bit about how my year
went, life realizations and lessons we could somehow all learn from.
Plans and Investments.
Late
2017, I invested a big sum of money along with six others, we were all very
excited to venture, it was a food park. We had strong plans and we believed we
could turn them into reality. And so we did. From site development, legalities
and construction, we were aimed at becoming successful in the food industry. At
first it went well, since it was new, then bigger problems arose leading to
poor sales. We had solutions and remedies.
We did what we could. Last September, we decided to shut down due to lack of
finances. It was a big loss on our part, especially mine, I was there most of
the time, I was there when it was time to accept our failure.
Losing.
Decisions
have to be made, sometimes very quickly. Years’ worth of savings gone in just a
few months. While running the business, I had to choose between stopping to
shell out money to continue further and the fact that if I did so, our workers
would lose their jobs, their source of income. I had to choose the former option
despite the losses we’ve incurred, until such time when there was almost none
left. It was an illogical move, as people would see it, but having been through
this before, I believe I made the best decision. Contrary to how other people would normally
react, failing was not that hard to accept. Stopping after such failure was
never an option. I am currently recovering my finances, I may be quite far from
reaching that amount but I have to move. It’s just money. It’s something we
could earn through time and effort. Losing a big amount of money also lead me
to look at the bigger things, things which go beyond big spending and big
losses. Losing which leads to life-long gains. Things of greater value like the
people who were always there along the way, learning, striving, trying and
choosing to continue. The experience was like taking a master’s degree again but
more of the practical, hands-on curriculum with no books and nothing academic
at all.
Wisdom.
2018 has been a fruitful year for me. I surpassed bigger
challenges and enjoyed some achievements. Opportunities came on time just after
the food park. I still have my day job and part time teaching. I know for sure
that I will never live this life empty-handed, it’s otherwise, time and fate
just make us let go of the things we have until we are almost empty, then it fills
us with greater things. I recall that conversation with a former student, he was
asking for philosophy books to deepen his knowledge. I told him, philosophy can
be compared to cooks who learned how to cook good food and those who went
through culinary schools. It’s just about good food. Whether you did some schooling
or not, it’s just good food enjoyed by the people whom you’ve cooked for.
Philosophers are made not because of the books, but how well one grasps life’s
lessons and learns from them. Not how old the person is, but how fruitful our
years are. So here’s to 2018 and the year ahead, 2019, it will surely be full of
adventures. Cheers!
