Success + Significance = A Complete Picture

A picture of Delia (lady in the center), a friend and colleague of mine, together with the members of the youth committee in Peru that she has invested her time, treasures and talents into. An energetic young lady and a graduate in chemical engineering with a good honors degree, she could have found a great job with any MNC in the world. Yet, she made the choice to come to Peru to bring hope to the people in Peru, and she has invested much of her time towards developing a group of youth leaders to lead the "Youth Alive" project, a project that is dedicated towards teaching underprivileged youths coming from the poorer segments of societies strong values and core skills that will equip them for a great future ahead of them. In the picture, she is giving them a treat at a Chinese restaurant.

I believe that personal achievement per se is not wrong in itself. In fact, it is natural for a healthy person, project or philosophy to see fruits and success. If we plant an apple seed into the soil, and nurture it with the right conditions for growth, it is inevitable that we will see a big and strong apple tree one day. If we build our careers or businesses upon the seeds of strong moral foundations and God-sized faith, it is inevitable that we will see God-sized results and success one day.

One of the key events that is shaping the world today is the conflict in the Middle-East. To trace back the roots of this conflict, we would have to go back to the patriach Abraham, who fathered both the nation of Israel as well as the nations that we see in the Middle-East today. In the second and third verses of the twelfth chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible, God made two promises to Abraham. The promise in the second verse focused on the success that Abraham would have in his personal life and achievements: "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you ...". The promise in the next verse focused on the significance that Abraham would have on the people around him: "... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Personal success is one facet of the divine plan for those who follow the principles that are set out in the one book that was inspired by God, but it is not a complete picture of the divine design for our lives. A life that is complete is one that attains personal success so that the individual can become a channel of blessings to the many people around him.

Through the following series of blog entries, I hope to explore the various tensions between success and significance in our lives. Three words shall characterize the three main arenas that we shall visit in this journey: struggle, search, solution. The four years that I have spent in Lima as a social entrepreneur have brought me through these three phases as well as I sought to find a balance between success and significance, to find the missing link that will fit the two jigsaw pieces of success and significance together to form a complete picture.