This morning I read a very sad tale in the newspapers about a maid who was not paid by her Singaporean employer for six years! She was not allowed to go out or call back home so much so that her relatives thought that she had gone missing. Thankfully that B*tch employer was charged in court and the maid was paid $20K in back pay. When asked why she did not report her plight, the maid simply said that she was afraid of her employer and that she believed that not being paid WAS JUST HER FATE.

FATE
I believe this notion of FATE is what keeps many people from changing their lives for the better and turning their fortunes around. By saying FATE, it removes all sense of control, power and responsibility from yourself as it is not your fault but just meant to be. When you believe in fate, it means that you have absolutely no control over the outcomes in your life. It is just meant to be. If you are fated to be rich, then no matter how lazy you are and whatever you do, you will end up rich. If you are fated to be poor, then you are damned, no matter what you do. No matter how how hard you work, it will all be taken away This is why some people remain in abusive relationships, remain poor, remain depressed etc…

DESTINY
I don’t know about you, but I believe in DESTINY,which is entirely different. I believe that God loves all of his creations (this is true in almost any religion) and created every individual with unique gifts, talents and interests to make a huge contribution to the world. I believe within all of us lies a power to be great, its just that many people never make full use of their amazing potential. Some people are destined to be great singers, some people destined to be great communicators, some people destined to be great inventors…all of us are destined to be great in something.

The difference between destiny and fate is that in fate, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. In destiny, you HAVE A CHOICE. You can CHOOSE to make full use of your God given talents or CHOOSE to walk away and give up. LIke Frodo (in Lord of the Rings) was destined to destroy the Ring of Power, but always had a choice to give up at any time or to fulfill his destiny.

The trouble is that many people never find their path (i.e. destiny). They make decisions based on other people’s expectations (e.g. parents or teachers tell them to be lawyers, doctors, engineers when they have absolutely no interest, whereas their passion and gifts lie in drawing or sports). Like I said, all of us are destined to be magnificent in a particular area. And God has given us clues based on our interests, talents and passions.

I believe that I was destined to do what I am doing now, to be put on earth and inspire and change the lives of millions. In other words, by destiny is to be a TEACHER OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT. It is this belief in a spiritual plan that has gotten me through my most painful times and is what is guiding me everyday today. For example, I used to ask myself why I did so badly earlier in my life and went through some hardships. Why did I get expelled in Primary 3? Why did my parents divorce? Why did I screw up my Primary 6 PSLE exams? Why was I bullied in school? Why did my interior design business go bankrupt? Why did my ex-partner play me out? Why did I lose $30,000 in the stock market when I was in the university? Now, looking back, it is clear that all HAPPENED FOR A REASON. It was to teach me the lessons I need to walk my path. If I did not screw up my school life, I would never have read about NLP and accelerated learning that I now used to change my own life and other people’s lives.

If I did not fail in my business and lose money in stocks, I would never have had the hunger and drive to master these wealth building tools and create Wealth Academy and all these best selling books. If I did not go to a neighborhood school and mix around with the ahbengs and gangsters, I would not understand and be able to help some of these tough and wayward kids that come to my program today. Yes, it was destiny. But the, it is NOT FATE. I could have chosen to NOT to read all the NLP books, I could have chosen to blame the world, I could have chosen to become an Ah beng myself and I could have chosen to give up.

I hope by reading this, you will begin to find your path and your destiny of greatness and see all bad things that happen and part of the training to help you tap into your best and to make your mark in this world. In fact, this is precisely what we do in my live PATTERNS OF EXCELLENCE program that I run in Jakarta and Singapore. We teach people how to discover and design their destiny and bring out the very best within themselves.

Quote: “You were meant for greatness. When you play small with your life, you dishonor not only yourself but God who created you”. I read this in a book, forgot which one, but sums up what I was MEANT to say