Success’ Substance
Have you ever wondered what success is as there are so many people who dedicate their lives to it? Is it the perfect work results or the great accuracy? Or is “to be successful”, to have a rich life, or to be honored by many people? Why don’t we take a few minutes to think deeply and let the life reveal the people who made it in an unexpectedly simple way?
Success is when father and son find the courage to enter the kitchen and cook the food that mother likes for the occasion of women’s day. The soup may be a little bit salty; the fist may turn black yet when looking at the meal, mother still smiles. Although father and son couldn’t be successful in the kitchen, they succeed in giving mother “the roses” of love. That is already the most valuable gifts - the happiness deep inside mother’s eyes.
Success is about the story of a boy with a foot illness who can never walk normally again. He has kept the dream of being a football player ever since he was very young. After many tries to exert himself, he became a reserve player in a small football team. He has never taken part in an official game. But that is never a failure. Instead, the real success went to the boy, who overcame the situation with so much energy and will, to follow his childhood dream. How many people can achieve that kind of success?
Every year, after the university entrance examinations, there are so many candidates that get disappointed failing their exams. 27/30 is such a high score yet it doesn’t make sense when their dream university requires 27.5. In fact, that’s still not failure, but rather delayed-success. Life still welcomes them with others opportunities. The most important thing is that they tried their best to affirm themselves. It is not only the original meaning of contests but also the substances of success.
When I was young, I read a moving story about a poor boy with an essay titled “mother - the one who protects your life”. The boy wrote about a mother with silver hair and husky yet warm hands. He concluded: “Grandmother is the mother - the woman who covered me during the journey of life”. The essay digressed from the subject and needed rewriting. But it is still a successful piece of work, because it is filled with the love of an orphaned boy for his grandmother. Is there any success, any sentiment more sacred than that?
Many years ago, newspapers honored a poor student who entered the university with the perfect score. To him, that’s a big success. There’s another success, silent but great, which belongs to his father who drove a cycle for almost 20 years to raise money for his son’s study. Faith and hope had always been on the father’s face, sustaining lots of misery and hard work. And the day the son entered the university is also the day his father graduated from the course-for-a-father.
I know there’s a female student who graduated from university with excellent rank 20 years ago. With her capability, she could have achieved success on the paths of career and fame. But that student accepted to sacrifice opportunities of her life to become a good wife, a virtuous mother of two little princesses. Even now, being a middle-aged woman, she still says: “Taking good care of you and your father, to me, is a big success”. Hearing that, I’m moved to tears. Family is the success, the beautiful work of mother, and we should be thankful to her for that.
People always long for success, but just following it blindly is nonsense. Do you want to be rich or want to be a millionaire like Bill Gates? So, please fold your money carefully and give it out to a beggar, homeless or poor person. With that good behavior, you will show not only that you are not only rich in matter but also spiritually. Therefore, you’re really a success!
You may dream that success will come to you the way it does to Abramowitz - the manager of the All-star team. Success is not so far away, you just need to spend a little time taking care of “the football team” of your family where you’ll receive unlimited love that Abramowitz never receives from his players. Success comes to everyone in such a sweet and simple way.
You were born — that’s a great success of your parents. Your responsibility is to keep its perfect beauty. Don’t ever think life is a sequence of failures; as a professor said: “There’s no failure, it’s just the way we spend our lives”.
And success is when someone enjoys reading this little piece of writing. The score may not be high, but being able to put my thoughts to writing, to me, is a success.
Credit: The original version of this essay belongs to Hà Minh Ngọc, a 15 year-old Vietnamese, and was scored 9.5/10 by her literature teacher.
First Translation © 2006 Nguyễn Văn Thoại (a.k.a. ThoaiOnline).
Edited and republished on May 30th, 2009 from an old, deleted blog.
The girls
They are so strange.
They dissemble the most loving, sincere ones, those who love them with the warmest heart and the true feelings and without the smelling lies. They desire to be conquered by ones with an empty chest, a forked tongue and the lips knowing where to kiss.
When it comes to and end, they blame the one who betrayed yet forget that they once had the chance to choose between the right or wrong. The mind hates the heart because of its foolishness. Unforturately, it’s the heart that needs to be fondled and indulged. And they once again put their hope in the hand of the winner of the conquering game.
Yet the game is forever a game, where the winner is one with a head. But the heart doesn’t lie inside the head.
Tired with the chasing game, they realize how much they hated the men. And as the hatred becomes deep enough, they become women.
Credit:
Original version (Vietnamese) by Lekima.
Engilish translation by ThoaiOnline.
Think on keyboard - write with freedom
Have you ever got stuck on the keyboard, without any inspiration though you really wanted to write something?
Or you had a wonderful idea, but still didn’t know where to start?
Here is a small tip for you.
0. Write, freely! Yeah, it’s called “free writing“.
1. How to do it? Nothing special, just follow “the rules”.
Here they are:
+ Type as fast as you can. If your typing speed is under 40 wpm then I suggest you switch to Dvorak (for English typist).
+ You must not pause at anytime during your typing for more than 3 seconds. Even when you don’t know what to type next, just keep typing “I am thinking, I am thinking, well, it can be understood that…”.
+ If the topic is already chosen, it should be in your mind all the time. Use a hint (for example, a picture) to remind yourself.
+ You shouldn’t read what you have written.
Technically speaking, it’s a good idea to:
+ Turn off your computer screen so that you cannot see what you have just typed.
+ For computers whose screen cannot be turned off (laptop PC, for example), try reducing the contrast or setting the font color to the same as the background color. Any tricks that make the text illegible can be applied.
+ If possible, turn off electronic devices that may distract your writing; e.g. set your mobile phone to “silent” mode, mute the computer sound, etc.
2. Why is it so helpful?
+ You have something to do which is much more useful than doing nothing.
+ Your unconscious mind is forced to work because you don’t pause long enough for the conscious mind to start thinking. Additionally, researches proved that the unconscious mind works more efficiently than the conscious one.
+ You can get precious idea(s) more easily. God knows that a lot of brilliant ideas are forgotten immediately after they appear.
+ You don’t have time for editing (It can be done later). Many people don’t realize that editing is also distracting.
3. However…
+ Though free writing is good for brainstorming, it is not recommended for organizing an already created document.
+ You lecturers hate free writing. Don’t forget to revise your writings over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again before handing them in. These very first drafts are to be read by you (the creator) only.
+ Sometimes, you pieces of (free) writing can contain some “secrets” as they are written without or with a minimal interference of a conscious mind. Be cautious! 
Er, let’s call it a day.
Good luck with your writing!
PS: Just my subjective opinion. Any comments?
[written by ThoaiOnline, edited by Chip]
Are you writing too much?
What do you usually blog about?
If your answer is “collective information” then perhaps it is too much to paraphrase everything then (re)publish without your viewpoint and/or further discussion.
In that case, I would say, the blog entry isn’t worth publishing.
Reason (short version): it’s not original.
Explanation:
+ Referring to “the source” is (more than) enough.
+ Your readers get annoyed because in most cases, they don’t get something new. (The news is too popular already)
+ You create a not-so-good reputation, because your readers may eventually consider you as a content thief.
However:
+ It’s helpful to republish in a second language, which is a great effort to bring the news to non-English (or whatever language) speaking public. (Don’t forget to refer to the source.)
Solutions:
+ A link to the source is enough. (I recommend using del.icio.us and feedburner to embed them into your RSS)
+ If you want to refer to many sources in one (blog) entry, put a link and a short explanation for each. Don’t paraphrase the whole thing because it’s just a waste of time (and doesn’t make sense either).
+ A tumble blog is more appropriate for quoting.
+ Twitter works well too.
The rules
- Entry length doesn’t matter, as long as it makes sense.
- Entries can be set privated, but never be removed.
- Every entry must be in pending status at least 24 hours before being published.
- Peer review, though not required, is recommended.
- Once published, entries cannot be set to privated again.
- This home page willl not be changed again without a good reason.