Passion: lead an A+ life

Last Thursday, I went to the building of Taipei County Government which is near Banchiao train station for a speech which Department of Labor invited famous entertainer Tai Zhi-yuan, who is proficient in imitating, as the lecture-giver to talk about his life and how he faces and deals with some setbacks. It was the second activity that held by the Department of Labor in order to give the labor or people who are about to be freshmen in workplaces some pieces of advice and at the same time encourage them to be passionate and optimistic towards their lives and jobs in such a hard time. Frankly, I was there for the celebrity at the beginning when I saw the advertisement, but after the whole speech was over I really gained a lot from Mr. Tai.

The topic of this speech was: “Passion: lead an A+ life.” Mr. Tai always shows his energy and passion on TV programs and I guess that’s why he was invited to talk about this topic. The activity was started with an exquisite PowerPoint containing plenty of celebrities’ mottos and most of them putting emphasis on two kinds of abilities: creative and linguistic ability which are vital and necessary for modern people. Following was Mr. Tai giving the lecture, who began with an imitation as Hao Bo-cun which made everyone laugh for the similarity. He explained modestly that he didn’t lead an A+ life, and he thought he could manage C-type of life better; therefore he prepared a set of vocabulary starting with the letter “c” to share with the audience.

The first word was “complaint.” Mr. Tai considered that having complaints is necessary and important because the opinions make people have the desires to improve or do some changes. But he said: “The complaints must be constructive.” If not, those who complain are just kind of gossiping which does no good for improving. I think it requires braveness for us to have opinions, so I added another word starting with c: “courage” to the list.

The second thing he mentioned was “concern.” We need to pay attention to what happen in the world and around us. When we are concerned about others, they will do the same thing to us and this deed makes our relationship better which could decrease many tragedies that we watch on TV news.

Thirdly, “communication” is necessary after concern. Here he noted that when we want to have a conversation for settling something, remember to put ourselves in others’ shoes. In this way, people start to understand what others actually want and respect others more than before. Once he was driving with his only-son sitting next to him, a question suddenly came out and so he asked, “Son, do you think I’m a strict father?” “I think you are okay,” the boy replied. Mr. Tai was a little bit upset when he heard this answer because he thought the tone was impolite. “But at least it was a start,” he said, because he never asked question like this before which showed that he accepted communication for him to improve.

Then the fourth one was “compromise.” Take Mr. Tai as an example. He used to scold his son when they had different opinions, like the SpongeBob cartoon which the boy loves but Mr. Tai doesn’t. He even recommended some cartoons he watched at his early ages to his son, but according to Tai, “He doesn’t like it at all.” Therefore, Mr. Tai made up his mind watching SpongeBob with his child and he even applied the plot to his job which was unexpectedly beloved by youngsters. From this experience, he realized sometimes the benefit for each other when they all step back to compromise.

“Cooperation” and “conciliation” were the last two words Mr. Tai suggested. People are social animals who must interact with others every day everywhere, and it’s normal to have different point of views. At first we complain about something because we are concerned about that; and then through communication and compromise, finally we still need to work and get along with others peacefully, namely, cooperating with other people conciliated.

All the C-words Mr. Tai talked about have a lot to do with passions because those words only happen when there are at least two people who would not just complain, they must have energy to deal with everything between themselves and others by communicating, compromising, cooperating and conciliating.

This lecture brought me abundant ways for coping with the relationship between people in my life. Besides the C-words, what I love the most is that when audience asked what Mr. Tai does when he encounters frustrations, he answered, “Reading.” He likes reading very much and he recommended everyone to read a lot, especially when we are under big pressure because that gives us power and strength to cheer up and to be energetic again. Also, loving and cherishing ourselves are important when facing difficulties. No matter how others look at us or talk about us, we must trust ourselves and don’t put everything in our mind. Let it pass and just do it!