St. John Baptist de La Salle was born from a wealthy family in
Reims, France. He was the oldest among his four brothers and two sisters.
During his time he grew up surrounded by the poor; many were hungry, in despair
and ignorant. If others were given a chance to be in his shoes, most would
probably settle down and look after his family and preserve their wealth and
legacy the best that they can. St. La Salle wasn’t one of those people; he had
a different way of looking into life. This was his higher purpose, to serve the
poor and to provide education for everyone regardless of their social status.
He wanted to have equal rights to education and that the poor could also be
given the opportunity to learn. His purpose was to help others to also find
their purpose by learning new skills that could be nurtured to make lives more
meaningful.
Most of us look at life as if we
just need to earn money, be wealthy then preserve it and then stop from there. This
wasn’t what he needed; he wanted more in life and to find its true meaning by
doing something that could change the world for the better. To quote from his
movie “Who Are My Own?” he said “real
wealth is the ability to think and feel and not being possessed by possessions”.
I was moved by this quote because its reality in general. Most people
understand wealth by material things driven by self-interest and greed. Many
are given the resources that could be put in greater use but is not shared to
others. Some are apathetic that have too much but don’t give back to those who
are in need. St. La Salle was aware of those things.
There’s another quote from him during a conversation with his
Eminence saying that “if we do not change
ourselves, others will do it for us”. The way I understand it, he already
knew that he had to embrace change. He already knew that he needs to take the
risk and be indifferent to prove his point. If he doesn’t do it then others
will but not as soon as he could possibly do. His purpose was to serve and
provide equality giving free education. He already knew that he will lose from
his competitors and those that protests against his good intentions. It was a
heroic act having the courage to lose and fail to what was right. At first he
was struggling to maintain and expand his school but along the way he became an
inspiration to others and failure became success.
He dedicated much of his life to the education of poor children in
France. He did it without thinking of something in return. He just looked
forward and was optimistic about the future of the children. He was very positive
in keeping his dream and the dreams of others alive. His example serves as a
motivation to accept life and find its meaning. It is by taking the bad to make
things better the next time around. If we keep that dream and promise to
ourselves, we have to keep it no matter what happens. So we keep on trying and
learn from those mistakes or failures and stand up again if we fall instead of
wallowing in the dirt. Some of us can’t accept first attempt failures and takes
too much time to recover again. It hurts us that deep that we tend to wallow in
self-pity and let our dreams die. With just a little damage inflicted upon our
system doesn’t mean that we need to give everything up that easy.
As a person, I believe that those failures and damages are the fundamentals
to become stronger. Just like St. La Salle, he never gave up on his goal to
provide free education even though he encountered a lot of problems along the
way. Determination and perseverance was always his key to success even though
it wasn’t the easiest road to follow. It has always been a motivator to realize
that you’ve had to be better having experienced the worst. In order to be
closer to a certain goal, there are always risks that are needed to be taken
for me to be able to get there. It is somehow impossible to have room for
growth if I would be just sticking inside my comfort zone. I’ve always wanted
to get out there and experience life by learning through failures and stand up
again to improve and succeed.
As a leader, it has always been a motivation for me to think about
the alternatives whenever a problem is being encountered. Just like St. La
Salle who always found ways to continue his mission to open up schools during
those difficult times. The greatest thing that I’ve ever learned I believe is
to move on. If I never move on and just cling to the past then I will never
make it to the next step and goal. It’s the discipline that motivates me as a
leader and it takes time to realize that we don’t always need to look past just
to get what we need. There’s always the present and the future that we could be
more concerned about and plan to take action then lead it to what happens next.
As a business leader, it is very important for me to practice
compassion. St. La Salle was very compassionate to the poor especially to the
children that he wanted to provide free education for them. As he said in the
movie “There’s no class distinction among
children. If we can open up their minds and reach past the boundaries marked
with rich and poor, the world would be a brighter place.” It is always important
for me lead by addressing the need of others. I want to put myself among those
that are under my lead and understand them better in order to communicate well
and share a common goal.
We can always make a difference whoever we are and whatever we do if
we could just easily accept change, we could be the agent of change that will
save lives.
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