The 4 A's

I'm not a scholar. I'm not a jock. I'm not a genius. I'm not intellectually challenged. Wait, maybe I am, cause I can't remember too many things and loves to sleep.

Well, whatever. I wanted to deviate from my cynical tone and switch to a more serious, world loving one.

Yes, this is going to be philosophical. Well....only slightly.

To make things easy, I decided to write about the requirements of developing a talent. I worked real hard to find 4 words that start with the same letter, plus I don't really want to waste time and find a word from the 4 initials. Without further ado, I will list what I think is necessary to develop a talent.

It is....drum rolls...OK, waste of time here...The 4 A's. Are you expecting something else?

1. Aptitude
2. Ambition
3. Academy
4. Adversity

I think it is really easy to illustrate the first 3, with a bit of argument for the 4th later.

Aptitude. No, I'm not talking genes like LKY prefers to believe. I mean, isn't Singapore's system trying to show the opposite and say leaders can be made, hence Academy? Frankly, everyone has talent, not just one, a wide range of them, some people having a more acute range, others with a wide range that doesn't even add up to the sum. But everyone needs to be honest. I am honest with myself. I'm not very smart, not very hardworking but I need to use all my wits and labor to survive. That's what I mean by being honest. Play to my strengths, although I still like to play on my weaknesses to see how far I can go with a handicap. Anyway, like I said, you need 4 A's, not one, so read on.

Ambition. This is quite a no-brainer. Where is our great leaders if they do not have ambition? Of course, they need to have aptitude as well, along with the other 2 A's. Why else would you kill all your brain cells for something you will lose at the end of your life anyway? Really, I mean, I really just want to sleep on the beach all day or some meadow all my life. I like the idea of myself being a farm boy. But I guess, I felt compelled to do a lot of things and that drove the first part of my ambition until I met really smart and ambitious people who spurred me on. Really, how far can your car go on only one tank of gas? Oh, wrong analogy.

Academy. This one should be quite easy, but wait, how did Conan become king? Oh, he's fiction. But there are "less educated" leaders as well. They are not taught by school. They are taught by life. To survive, to become better just to survive. Yea, they went through the academy of life alright. Too bad the only things we can learn nowadays are all in school and all from books and only try to marginally apply the theory on work when we come of age.

Adversity. This one is a tough cookie, not just because it means having a challenge, but it is the invisible teacher that makes us grow. Why is it that success is hard to maintain? Is it because the sky is not the limit but the coconut tree is? Bad example. How about evolution? Right, that will do. You and I need to evolve to try to overcome difficulties to be successful.

So, do we really need to know what the missing link between us and apes are? No. I mean, the way you evolve will be different from the way you have evolved. That's the beauty of evolution. It cannot be defined. It cannot be quantified. It can only be felt. Like relativity. No, not the force, Jedi fan.

Now, with all these, does it mean that we can always groom talents? I think this is ambiguous. People come and go. Leaders come and go. You cannot look for them, but wait for them to appear. If you have all 4 A's, you can strive to be a leader, but only time can answer for you.

Also, don't mix political adversities up with adversity. The whole fake drama like the "Cold War" or "Alien Invasion" as Michael "I only have explosions and explosive sex scenes" Bay like you to believe. If there is someone out there to beat you, everyone is. No one wants to hurt you because it could be everyone, including yourself. The debt limit, the fat cats, the Greek Crisis, really, its all fake in the sense that it doesn't matter to you as much as you think it does.

Confused? Yes, we all are going to be jobless. Yes, ALL OF US. So, who's the enemy here? The ones the politicians want you to think is your enemy or yourself for letting the politician lead you by the nose? Yes, they lied and they will continue lying to keep their skin. That is politics. That is not life. If you cannot be honest with yourself, no one can. I will wake up tomorrow as I did today. So will you. Maybe you will do something different, which is natural because it is a different day! So let's forget what the politician likes us to believe in the definition of talent and really put a great show for ourselves. Yes, the one where we go do what is right for us.

And one last note. If anyone wants to debate on "Are Leaders Born or Made?", I have a picture to show you what I think of this debate.

Man, I love it when a cute girl does that with an (almost) smiley face. If only I have a naughty wife like that. OK, off topic.

Oh, even if its LKY, with all my respect of his contributions to Singapore, I do not agree on one ideal way to develop talent. Plus, you claimed that talent is born, not made, which reversed everything you did on forging talent. My 4 A's is only a generic make up of how talents come to age. It can be refined to enhance education and talent development but it cannot be perfected. Unless you want to claim you're God or God's messenger. I prefer you don't.

Also, to LKY personally, Tony Leung will make you look ugly, please veto the movie project before it mars the handsome image you have all on your adventure in 1965. I think that photo of you in the suit in 1965 looks cool and befitting of a political leader. Tony Leung is nothing compared to real kick ass hard work. Sorry for my American-glish. I tried very hard not to add words to the dictionary after inventing "chemicalize" in 4th grade.