13 May 2012

Be brave.

Things have been hectic for me and I got smacked with the flu recently which had me lying in bed and burning up for 2 days...I never realized how long the day actually is until I was lying in bed all day just sleeping or watching something with half a brain. Someone recently shared the following video clip with me:
I absolutely loved it! What a great viral campaign! And man, after watching that, I sure as hell felt Carlsberg was a cool brand of beer to enjoy! After watching that video, I noticed a similar campaign they did in Hong Kong for Carlsberg:
Interesting idea, I really wonder what I'd do if I were put in that situation. I have a feeling I wouldn't wait until I was that close to make my decision if I were to turn around. But then again, who knows. But I like how it ended with bravery being rewarded.

Recently I've been noticing all the brave people around me. I don't mean brave like people who risk their lives, but brave as in people who are willing to take that leap of faith even when they don't need to. As Craig Ferguson said in his audio book American on Purpose, "between safety and adventure I choose adventure". Interesting where that has gotten him.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about how brave I would be, I have to say, it's getting harder and harder for me to take a totally blind leap of faith (maybe they're right, if you want to be really brave, you have to sometimes be really stupid) partly because the older I get the more I have to lose or the more I'm thinking of the long term effects of my decisions rather than short term effects. Perhaps it's because after being human for so many years, I'm seeing long-term-results. Like noticing how my daily light stretches (ok I say daily loosely) have helped make me more flexible.

How things that were told to me many, many years ago, or things I experienced, are having an impact on me in the long term. I still remember burning hours and hours learning about GTD and man, if it wasn't for that, I'd be a dead man now, I'm sure my business would be half of what it is and I'd be overwhelmed and annoyed with myself. I could have settled for a typical way of simple job, clock in clock out and voila, but I went to brave route. Again, brave not as in I could end up dead, but brave as in out of the 2 paths, this was the less inviting and harder one. If I'd been in a steady job for the last 5 - 6 years, I'm pretty sure I'd hate my life. I just know I'm not that type of person, repeat anything too often and I'd get sick of it, that includes being brave. And that brings me to getting older. I suppose when you're older, you've been brave, you've taken risks but eventually those risks as well as their rewards don't attract you anymore. You don't need to feel good because you had the guts to do something. I'm not exactly out of that phase, I still take risks (especially with stand up comedy) but I think it's more calculated than before. With the extra life experience, this has become easier and easier.

So with that in mind, now that I think of it, if I saw a bunch of big guys on the bridge, if I were already walking on the bridge, I'd probably just walk pass them. I mean if they do anything, I suppose I'd just call the police? That's still being....brave right?

And speaking of being brave, I think I'm going to cave in and get back to work. Got a few things to sort out otherwise all the courage in the world isn't going to help me when I hate myself at 2am when I'm still struggling through emails :P

Enjoy the next 10 days!

Oh, I'm going to be going to the PJ Laugh Fest this week in Kuala Lumpur. Excited as hell about it! And to add to that, I'm going to be doing Cantonese there! Woah!!

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4 Comments:

Blogger Chi said...

Great to have you back with your blog, it's encouraging to know how struggling through can worth your while, it's easy to miss that with all the stress.

Unfortunately, the second video isn't available anymore. All the best in Kuala Lumpur.

How did you learn GTD? Thanks

17 May, 2012 11:33  
Blogger Vivek Mahbubani said...

Hey Chi! Thanks for checking in and hello from Kuala Lumpur! :)
Ah darn they removed the 2nd video... anyways GTD has been something I picked up around 5 - 6 years ago. When I first got exposed to it, it sounded great on paper but I've had to spend a lot of time tweaking it to suit my needs and now I live by it :P It's my best and worst friend...because it doesn't allow me to conveniently forget things....heh :)

18 May, 2012 01:39  
Anonymous KLite said...

Laughter's not just a good medicine but a good mediator too in a world surrounded by many differences and sometimes prejudices...Thanks for bringing the laughters to Kuala Lumpur and in Cantonese! All the best for your next show and keep bringing laughter everywhere you go! :)

19 May, 2012 01:49  
Blogger Vivek Mahbubani said...

Hey KLite, yep laughter eases a lot of unnecessary tension really. When you think about it, a lot of things are really just silly...
Anyways, KL was awesome! I'm getting ready for my show tonight and if the audience is as good as last night, I'll be a very, very happy comedian! Now just to make sure my performance is great too! :)

19 May, 2012 17:52  

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