Puno, with a smile, responded meaningfully: "That's destiny. To be president is destiny." The words of William Jennings Bryan came to mind: "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
Leo F. Buscaglia notes, "I believe that you control your destiny, that you can be what you want to be. You can also stop and say, No, I won't do it; I won't behave his way anymore. I'm lonely and I need people around me, maybe I have to change my methods of behaving and then you do it."
To become a president, if we have to believe the thought of Puno, is destined. And if you are the president, everything you do and say is bound to be news.
Damn if you and damn if you don't. You have people to rally for you because of what is in stake for them (like businesses, fame, and power). There are also those who are against you and they are called critics.
Of course, a president is not only honored but he or she is also ridiculed. Funny caricatures of President George W. Bush are widespread. Who hasn't heard of former president Bill Clinton and the oral office? Ex-president Joseph Estrada is often the subject of Erap jokes.
Even the current residence of Malacañang is not spared from mockery. One of the most forwarded text messages was this: A Filipino died and on his way to heaven, Saint Peter asked him: "Where are you from?" When the man answered that he was from the Philippines, Peter replied, "Welcome to heaven. You have suffered much from your president."
If that is what the presidency is all about, better opt to become famous and successful in your own way. But the road to success is not offered on a silver platter. You have to do something to achieve it.
There are people who become a star overnight. But not everyone can have that kind of luck. More often than not, fame is swift and fleeting. The following another star may come into the picture. But success that is based on hard work is not too easy to take away from you.
Thomas Alva Edison knew this fact. "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration," he said. "Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."
Do your own homework. Don't rest on your laurels. Never settle for anything less. But whatever you do, do your very best. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds: "All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heavens and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"
Successful people are people who learned what failure is all about. Don't give up and don't give in. Failures or rejections ran into the hundreds before a person achieve success. Conrad Hilton once said, "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."
Being handicap is not hindrance to become successful in life. Winston Churchill, famous for his eloquence, had a speech impediment as a boy. Theodore Roosevelt spoke with difficulty. Mahatma Gandhi was so fearful of public speaking that in his first attempt to represent a client as her lawyer he became tongue-tied when it was time for him to speak in court.
Clarence Chamberlain, the aviator who flew the Atlantic, could never pass the standard test for depth perception, but they closed an eye and gave him a license anyway, and he became one of the safest of fliers. Glenn Cunningham, who hung up new records for the mile in running, had both legs so badly burned that he was expected never to be able to walk again.
Charles Reade reminds: "Sow a thought, and you reap an act; sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny."
