I think I am a naturally gregarious person. Outwardly rather reserved in nature but I absolutely love to meet people. It’s always amazing when we discover others and how their lives have been, in the exchanges that take place in the process of becoming friends. The similarities that are discovered and the differences that make us the unique individuals that we are.
I like being with people, being around people or interacting with them. Everyone has a story to tell. Personal accounts and experiences. Of laughter and tears, of celebration, of sorrow.
Over the years I guess I have made my share of friends, met hundreds of people, some of whom have endured and gone beyond being mere acquiantances to soulmates and friends who have been there for me, who have stood by me when the going was tough. People who know my deepest darkest secrets and yet accept every single bit of me. Makes life really a less lonely journey to take.
At the end of the day, when I look back, I think it will be nice to remember the lives and people whom I have touched and hopefully made a positive difference to, but most of all, I think I will appreciate the people who have touched mine and made it all so worthwhile. Friendship should be a continuing celebration, for the immense value that we fail to see or take for granted most of the time.
So I want to say thank you.
Thank you to friends who have been there. With their quiet smiles and unspoken support.
Thank you to critics and nay-sayers who’ve told me the many many things that cannot be done, that gave me that extra push to prove them wrong.
To friends who didn’t know how to be nice but were brutally honest instead. Who showed me the stupid things I did, and congratulated me on the right choices I made, without judgement.
To people who are friends for a reason, and to those who will be just here for a season. There’s a purpose in everything, for all the we do not see or understand. Thank you.
Well old buddy, time passes and friends remain. I still have the books you bought for me, with the messages of encouragement on the first page. The e-Myth manager and How To Drive Your Competition Crazy (And Have Fun Doing It). I remember you as a friend and mentor, and these books that I still keep with me here in Dubai serve as a reminder of the crazy times we had back in the old days.
I wouldn’t be here today, doing what I do, chasing ‘big, hairy, audacious goals’ and taking on the Goliaths of the world as a David. The times we had in TAIC taught me to embrace hardships and challenges, and if anything more, that people believed in me, people like you, who cared more than anything about chasing dreams and believing that dreams do come true.
Thank you, Douglas, for being a friend, and a mentor in the years past. Hopefully, our paths will cross again some day, and we can look back at the long road we’ve taken since that day we met up in a very large, mostly empty office in Boon Keng Road and whiteboarded a dream.
Till then, old friend, I wish you all the best in life, love and every dream worth chasing down.
P.S. I’ll be back in early Feb for CNY. Will buzz you then