If there is one thing that I am always eternally grateful for, it’s people.
Looking back at all my reflections, journals, “thankfulness notes” and everything, I realise I wrote people the most. I’m most grateful for people in my life, those that constantly lift me up to new heights and those giants that put me on their shoulders. People are the most amazing and I am only the luckiest motherfucker in the world to have them cross paths with me.
It got me thinking, what are the impacts of people.
Ripples
When you throw a stone in the pond, it causes a ripple effect in the pond. One after another, each water molecule moves up and down, causing a chain reaction of other water molecules to move. This causes a beautiful effect of many lines of circle in the water. The circle nearest to the stone is the clearest, and it fades out as the circle moves outwards. Once the pond is still again, it is never the same. The water molecules were not at where they were before.
Like the pond, the impact made by people is felt the strongest in the social circle closest to the individual. It continues to live in them and spread outwards. It might not be significant towards the end, but at the end of the day, things change and it is never the same.
And with everything, we can use this for good and bad. Value-adding positive impacts can radiate people around us and make the world a better place, one ripple at a time. Negative bad influence can also shape the destiny of people in the bad circles. So, we have a responsibility of starting good ripple circles.
Thankful For My Ripples
I reflect on this almost every other day. I’m most thankful for people in my life. People who show me the way, guide me, help me, challenge my thoughts, help me to be a better person. How did I ever deserve to meet all these beautiful souls in the world, I still don’t understand. But I am grateful and feeling incredibly blessed.
Perhaps this is what people call mentors? If that is the case, I have an incredible amount of mentors in life, for different aspects and areas. (Life is complicated. It’s not possible to only have one mentor for everything.) I remember being lost and confused, or just frustrated with issues, and people will enter my life with some kind reminders and words to get me back on track.
The Best Ripples
I don’t know if they ever realise how significant those words are. I hope they do.
- When I was young and ignorant, Vale showed me the beauty of art, architecture, and love. It opened my eyes to the subjective side of life. Silly as it sounds, I finally saw real depth that life has. My world has never been the same again.
- Young, dumb and just going with the flow, Sherwyn saw what I had in me and taught me all the essential skills that made me who I am today. They are my foundational blocks of life when it comes to how I behave, function, think and act.
- My naive dumbass worldview crushed and I fell really bad. Elliott was there to support and help me till I am whole again. His constant unwavering faith in me, when I had no faith in myself, really helped me to get back on my feet fast. And stronger than ever.
- A very critical moment in life was when I realised that being young, Asian and female, that might not be a plus point. Jonas asked me to read a book and sent me a bunch of great books. I was stuck to the couple of books before, and now, I am able to tap into his vast resource of books and knowledge.
- It’s easy to get caught up with complacency because everything is just there. So I have to actively get out of my comfort zone and do the things I want to do to grow 10x faster and bigger. Vanessa always inspired me with her action-oriented way of life. If she wants something, she gets it done. No questions asked, no matter how tough. I love her discipline and she inspires me a lot.
- And then there are random groups of people that pops in my life and show me various ways. The group of successful entrepreneurs that we went to Bhutan together, cool nerds from the geopolitics group, fun nerds in emerging tech/finance space.
- Occasionally when I have doubts in myself, the universe really sends random people to my life and remind me to have faith again. Literally, people I just met would tell me things like “never change, the world needs people like you”. And this only happens when I feel so dejected from zero (unseen) progress, failures (more like feedbacks) and losing hope. They have such strong ripples in my life!
- And most importantly, my family and the crazy family. I know I can always count on these people to be there when needed.
Starting Ripples
People have impacted me in so many ways that I can’t imagine. I do my best to create good ripples around me too. I hope I made some nice ripples during my lifetime.
Love,
L