Yesterday afternoon, after slicing up chunks of greasy pig fat (yeah, I know, gross) for my mom to make chao tom, a Vietnamese shrimp paste dish, I curled up on the couch with my older sister and browsed the latest NY Times headlines. I enjoy reading about social/technology/health/business trends so I came across an article about eBay's CEO's leadership skills and found an interesting passage:
“Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.”
This quote was written by John W. Gardner (some really smart man) and the CEO of eBay actually keeps that quote in his wallet. (That's a really long quote to keep...the longest quote I'd keep is one from a fortune cookie.)I find the quote inspiring, thought-provoking, and quite timely.
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