Five thoughts for today!

Hello, my people!

For today’s newsletter, let me leave with a few thoughts, five as usual!

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If you were told you had 24 hours to live, who would do call first? Who is that person you’d go see before anybody else? We all have that one or two or maybe more people we’d go see or call or text. Now the question is, have you recently told that person you love them? Have you been there for them? Have you enjoyed their company? Have you hugged them or kiss them? There is a high likelihood you’ll be alive in 24 hours. So, what are you waiting for? Go see that person! A little, “I love you”, can go a long way, trust me.

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Sometimes, more often than I care to admit it, I focus on the immediate things, and I forget the important things. It's a conundrum of everyday life, an issue heavily discussed in the business world as well. Usually, something comes up, shakes you up and you lose focus. It's been happening to me, and I am having a hard time recalibrating my brain, my mood, my focus, my own thinking, and I end up drowning because I am in over my goddamn head. It's life, but that's just an easy cop out. The main thing is to recognize it, adapt and move forward. One step at a time, patience, stopping from time to time and think, and do it all over again. Life can be complicated occasionally. And I am still learning about myself. Ain't that a blessing...

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Who cares about the mistakes you made 5 years ago? Who actually remembers them except you? I am sure you, the person who got impacted by the past, remember it all too well. However, and we all know this, the past doesn't matter that much, except in rare cases. Yet we drown in the ocean of the past instead of using the life jackets of the present. Yes, the past determines our present, but it can only impact our future if we refuse to learn from it. And how do we learn from it? By accepting what happened, by accepting all the consequences that came along, and by vowing to never let it happen again. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it's hard to apply, but not impossible. And about your mistakes, I just want to remind you that no one will care about them as much as you, so, don’t go around thinking people define you by those mistakes. It happens, but it’s rarer than you think.

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Once upon a time, the church, even more than kings, controlled society. They controlled what people did, thought, how they behaved, and they used religion to keep people in line and to draw the lines between classes even more accurately and with more brute force. Today, those who own big tech control even more people than all the religions combined ever did. Big tech controls what we see, how we think, they tell us how to behave, what to buy, consume, feel and how to walk, talk and act. This very platform has influenced beyond comprehension how people see work, business, and personal development. As an avid user of LinkedIn, it’s been remarkable and incredible how we all have changed our perspective about work, and the work-personal life balance. Not everything has been bad, but not everything has been good either. I cannot wait to see how LinkedIn will be used by the next generation in 5–10 years. Or maybe, who knows, it might even get replaced by another platform, that’s more efficient, aggressive, and omnipresent. AI will do its job for sure, and the very few will control even more people. Let’s see what the future holds.

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I will leave you with a quote from one of my favorite authors, the great Nikos Kazantzakis. He once said, “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” This quote has resonated with me because of my love for absolute freedom, which is something impossible to obtain, provided one is seeking it. Yet, the idea of hoping for nothing, which brings fearing nothing and therefore being free… Quite a concept, wouldn’t you say?

Now smile and go on with your day!

Freeman Binagana