I met with up with a family friend of mine at the beginning of this year. She’s one of those friends you only see once or twice a year, but somehow, she knows you better than most . We’ve had deep conversations about life and had been there for each other during some of our toughest moments.
She and her girlfriend are in the picture – both nice and down to earth people.
We got some Korean friend chicken for dinner at a local spot called bb.q Chicken. We were all super hungry and ended up demolishing almost 20 pieces of fried chicken between the three of us. I was just in Seoul a couple of weeks ago, and while the taste was pretty comparable, the friend chicken in Seoul definitely wins when it comes to price and portion size.
Shifting the Focus: Contribution Over Gain
During dinner and our walk back home, we talked about our siblings, our reflections on what 2024 meant for us, and our career outlook and goals for 2025.
One of my goals this year is to focus on adding value to life. What does that look like? I don’t have a clear-cut answer yet, but I know it involves getting a new job, learning and teaching new things to others, and building meaningful relationships.
The friends I met up with are great at adding value to life. I know this because not only do they have respectable careers in engineering and medicine, but they’ve also been a positive force in my life. They encourage me to pursue what I care about such as this blog.
This blog was, and still is, my way of creating and sharing value – providing personal stories and perspectives on life so that I can inspire myself and others to live more meaningfully and in a healthier way.
Lately, I’ve been trying to think less about “how can I make the most money in the quickest way?” and instead think more about “how can I provide value to others?“. Many successful podcasters that I listen to say that money is just the by-product of providing value – so the focus should always be on that first.
I believe, to a certain degree, that believing in yourself is a key step to take before you can start providing value to others. I still have my doubts from time to time about whether I can truly make an impact, but when I see how even the smallest actions can brighten somebody’s day, I’m encouraged to keep adding values to others.
Let’s focus on learning how to bring values to others and ourselves.
