Patrick is leaving our company to attend USC for MBA. He is 8 years younger than me, and he was my boss for nearly three years. As I reflect on how we worked together, I realized that because of him, I was able to really do things that I felt was good for myself, client, our company, and we ended up with great results.
Our personalities are just about totally opposite to each other's. My personality is very much like that of his wife's. (Guess it was good.) I read about, hear about people who succeeded by of having someone who is opposite to their personality that gave them balance. I think Patrick was such a person for me over the past three years. I truly want to thank you, Patrick!!
I talk about environment, importance of "ba". Well, without people that have good chemistry together, it means nothing. Knowing this from experience will be such an asset to my job in helping companies to create nurturing environment.
It's all about learning from experience. But I love the poetic way Paulo Coelho puts it in The Fifth Mountain:
"He who maketh no choice is dead in the eyes of the Lord, though he go on breathing and walking in the streets.
'Moreover,'the angel continued, 'no one dieth. The arms of eternity open for every soul, and each one will carry on his task. There is a reason for everything under the sun.'
Elijah again raised his arms to the heavens.
'My people fell away from the Lord because of a woman's beauty. Phoenicia may be destroyed because a priest thinks that writing is a threat to the gods. Why does He who made the world prefer to use tragedy to write the book of fate?'
.....
'Thou knowest not whereof thou speakest," the angel replied. "There is no tragedy, only the unavoidable. Everything hath its reason for being: thou needest only distinguish what is temporary from what is lasting.'
'What is temporary?' asked Elijah.
'The unavoidable.'
'And what is lasting?'
'The lessons of the unavoidable.'"