Who would have thought that there's something even better than dreaming big, having a vision, doing something for one's self, and working hard?
Mr. Butch Jimenez did. Head of the Media and Strategic Department of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), he delivered a speech with the title "What's better than??" during the University of the Philippines Diliman Class 2003 Commencement Exercises. There he tackled five "better than" examples for us to ponder. And here they are?
Better Than #1: Focusing on the positive is better than focusing on the negative. According to Mr.
Jimenez, most people focus on the negative aspects of other people than their positive side. That reality is very evident not only in the corporate world but even in our daily lives. Try asking someone if they have seen your professor like "Have you seen Ms.
Santos?", and they would ask back "Who, the pudgy one?", or something like "Yung tagihawat na tinubuan ng mukha?" Why not try to concentrate on someone's good traits rather than the bad ones? If everyone would just be able to do that, then, as Mr. Jimenez said, this world would be a much nicer place to live in.
Better Than #2: Working hard is better than working smart. People always tell you to work hard, not realizing that working smart is better than that.
An example Mr. Jimenez gave was the "empty soap box" case. One of the biggest cosmetic companies in Japan received a complaint that a customer had bought an empty soap box. So to find out which boxes are empty, two engineers devised an x-ray machine. Two people worked hard watching the boxes pass through the machine just to make sure that they were not empty.
On the other hand, a rank-and-file employee had an alternate solution to the same problem. He bought a powerful industrial fan and pointed it at the soap boxes' assembly line. As he switched the electric fan on, the empty boxes which passed by it were blown away.
The rank-and-file employee absolutely worked smart.
Still one couldn't just depend on his ability of finding better solutions to a problem. We still have to work hard. But working hard plus working smart would definitely spell success.
Better Than #3: Imagineering is better than dreaming alone. What is imagineering, you might ask?
Mr.
Jimenez stated that imagineering is a Disney word formed from the combination of the words "imagination" and "engineering". And those who engage in it are called imagineers.
The difference between dreaming and imagineering is that in dreaming, you just dream.
You just imagine things happening. But, does these things happen? No. However in imagineering, you dream, you imagine, and then you make things happen! Imagineers create something out of their imagination, they experiment and explore out of their curiosity. So Mr.
Jimenez's advice is, don't be just a dreamer. Be an imagineer.
Better Than #4: Doing something for your country is better than doing something for yourself. Isn't it that when you want to get something, you have a bigger chance of accomplishing your goal when you're doing this for others, for a love one perhaps? When you do things for the welfare of others, what you would get in return would be very much rewarding.
Not only that, the deed you've done for your fellowmen and for your country would be one of the achievements that would make you feel really good and proud.
Better Than #5: Having a cause is better than having a vision. A cause is way much powerful than a vision. According to Mr. Jimenez, no one is willing to die for a vision, but people will die for a cause.
You possess a vision, but a cause possesses you. A vision lies in your hands, but a cause lies in your heart. A vision may involve a sacrifice, but a cause involves the ultimate sacrifice. Fight for the right cause and you will win.
These five "better than" examples from Mr. Jimenez, when given the time to think about and acted upon, would definitely create a much better world for us rather than what we have now.
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Jack Zimmerman is an associate staff writer. Upon graduation, he started looking for employment for writers and got employed by The Freelance Writing Center, LLC where writers are needed at all times.
