Any questions for me!!

Will, this blog is inspired by the movie “Any Questions for Ben”.  He is an Australian bloke who had many great jobs in corporate branding, and many girlfriends and real mates. He also earns a lot and his family and friends love him. He was asked to speak at his high school (you know when they call alumnae to inspire students).  He met his high school friend who is working for the United Nations, traveling the world and helping in underdeveloped countries like North Africa and Yemen and so on; she even learnt a bit of Arabic to be able to converse with the people in those countries.  She inspires the students and they all want to ask her questions about her job and the fantastic things she is doing to help the world prosper.  

When Ben gave his speech, he couldn’t convince the students that corporate branding is the way forward, and of course none of the students asked him any questions! Since then he started to be very skeptical about himself, his work and his life?  His dad told him that he also used to think always that the grass is greener somewhere else!! And his best friend (who is so rich) told him that he should have told the students how much he earns, as money is a great motivator. 

Basically this was the jest of the movie.  It got me thinking! If I went back to my own high school and the students heard my speech? Would they ask me any questions? Will I inspire them enough? What have I don’t to be able to inspire young kids? And to get them thinking about their own future and what they can do to change the lives of the students who will be listening to them when their turn comes to give speeches? Is it the money? Or is it the achievements in terms of helping the world become a better place?

In all my jobs (you know that I haven’t had many jobs! I stayed put in Bahrain with the ministry, and I don’t think I made money nor did I help anyone in that job, and in Dubal, I stayed for a long time, money was good, but did I make a difference in people’s lives? What about my Job at the University of Auckland! Was that a life changing experience? Or my job at Wintec? Well, I am not going to list down all the jobs that I did, this is not meant to be a CV of some sort. But truly the movie got me thinking? Its true that we all look at the grass of the neighbors and think that it must be better than ours, and I am sure the neighbor himself is doing the same, we as human beings always look at what others have done and try to either do the same or better.  It’s a rat race that we do not need to have, but we indulge in nevertheless. Why?

I am reading the book Super Freakonomics, apparently they got so many emails and comments from the readers of the first book, which made them write the even thicker second book.  Now this inspires me, and makes me insist that writing is something that will stay forever and will one day inspires people.  Look at the many scripts that are out there.  Whoever reads for example the poetry of Alkhayam, he or she will be admiring the choice of words used in the script that if each word was left alone it will not draw the picture that artists started to draw on carpets called Khayamiat.  These carpets were drawn when the artists read the poetry, he or she imagined the scene and straight away drew it which in turn inspired art lovers to buy that carpet and display it on his or her wall (I have one of those carpets by the way and it inspires me to love my husband more every day since I bought it). 

Inspiration is different to envy, inspiration is positive, it makes you do good things, but envy is negative, it makes you do evil stuff that may hurt you or other people; Be inspired guys, and think of what turns your heart on, do it, and be responsible enough to show your best traits to others, as that may inspire them too.  We need a wave of inspiration in our world, it is filled with haterdism, malice, envy and negative behaviours, we the older generation must do something to make it a better place for our future generation.