In October 2011, Bo Sanchez launched another initiative aimed at helping those financially motivated to become wealthier, and he called it Wealth Circle. Of course I could not resist being part of it.  Turned out, not everyone could get in because there was an application process that consisted of about a 10-page questionnaire (or something [...]

The really successful people are the ones who follow their passion. Take Vince Golangco, for one. He loved to travel and would go into the craziest places and do the craziest things – true to his adage – living life to the fullest.  But then WhenInManila.com happened, which was a documentary of his personal experiences [...]

  Going to orphanages, or the home for the aged, or seeking out the poor and the downtrodden – to reach out, to help – it is not something one thinks about on a day to day basis. But they – the abandoned, the old and forgotten, the poor, the downtrodden – their existence is [...]

It was a fine afternoon and Nannette and I got to talking.

I just passed the insurance examination given by the Insurance Commission and can now be ushered into the world of insurance agents and hustling and bustling. That made me uncomfortable and I told Nannette so.

Okay, I still had the image of the feisty, persistent, pesky seller of insurance who does not really explain or understand what he sells, does not hear the word “no”, does not stick around through the bad times (when the hapless insured can no longer pay the premiums), is just interested because of the commission he hopes to get from me.

I did not want to be that person.

The Chinese New Year has been flitting in and out of the edge of my culture and consciousness as kaleidoscopic images of round red lanterns, tikoy, dragon dances and loud firecrackers.
I remember tikoy (Chinese New Year’s cake made of glutinous rice) and my dad dipping it in just-beaten egg yolks and egg whites, frying it on the pan until it gets golden brown all throughout. We would gather round the table and get it from the plate while it is still hot, our hands getting sticky and oily and sticky again, while our tongues seek and taste the gooey center where the goodness is until there is no more.

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I read it from The Secret but it was Johannes “Meister” Eckhart who allegedly originally said this.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was thank you…

I do not know who Eckhart is, except that he was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic born during the 12th century who wrote such controversial articles that he was tried as a heretic by the then-pope.

But this is not about Meister Eckhart or the Secret. This article is about certain prayers and thank you.

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The grand prize for the lottery soared to obscene heights and people again began to dream.

Of what it would be like to have money, lots of money, the future changed in a whim, through balls swimming in the air.

What would one do with it?

What one can do with it.

Of how it would change everything. Their lives, their past, their present.

And so they purchase their tickets day after day after day, as if through it they are manifesting their faith in the great unknown.

A chance of 1 in 20,872,566,000 – a chance that they are too willing to take. If statistics are to be believed, being struck by lighting (1 in 280,000) would appear to be easier.

Yet they take it. After all, you will not win if you will not roll the dice (or buy the ticket).

If you win, what would you do?

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