The Seven Great Lacks that Limit Your Greatness

The biggest thing we lack is vision. Even though blind, Helen Keller saw and heard from her heart. John Milton wrote Paradise Lost while he was blind. Beethoven wrote his last great symphonies deaf.

We came into this physical world with nothing but the warm embrace and bosom of our mothers. With our first breath, we declared our entry. And ever since, we have not lacked breath, water or food to the point of despair. These are the essential matters of life.

But when it comes to our souls, we discover that we lack much as we see others who are older, more skilled, more experienced, or more gifted. We start to compare ourselves to others rather than to ourselves. With the media, this gap between others and ourselves becomes like grand canyons, as the world celebrates the accomplishments of the few who dedicate their lives to doing what no other person has ever done before.

Where does this drive, this motivation to be great, the best, to stand out come from?

Wealth Starts Within You

As I watched my immigrant parents, who came to Canada from South Korea in the late 1960s, struggle to make ends meet, I decided that I would use my intellectual wealth to do something worthy for Canadians. This thought propelled me to think beyond my incapabilities and lack of experience and instead seek to learn.

I realized that wealth starts from within me and will one day, perhaps, express itself outside of me. I have developed my intellectual wealth and my spiritual wealth, and the outcome has been external wealth in terms of money and things.

We have survived, but most people want to thrive. While we want our bodies to survive and thrive, our souls have a deeper thirst and hunger for intellectual and spiritual growth. When our soul dies, our drive for life dies, and we merely exist.

When we attend a loved one's funeral, we are reminded of just how precious life is, each day and each second we are alive. But we have a voice inside we wish to express, an idea we want to birth into the world, a talent to be shown, a poem, a thought, a book, a movie, a business, a craft.

But amid so many others who have crafted their desires and talents over time, throughout history, around you, you wonder how you can even have a second of the spotlight. And do I really matter?

This has been my question since I was young: What can I do that matters to me and perhaps to some others? How can I make my mother and father proud? How can I be a good example to my younger siblings?

I felt extremely unworthy. I had very low self-esteem and self-worth and, therefore, no self-confidence. I was one of the shortest in my grade (second shortest), I was a minority, and I was extremely shy. But I was very bright, excelled at math and science, and was pretty good at art and music. Instead of only seeing the negative side of life, I clung to the little things that brought me joy, light, or some ray of hope.

What is your vision?
Are you a Historian, a Carpe diemer, or a Futurist?

You are either living in the past, the present or the future. Where do you spend most of your thinking? A pessimist remembers their hard past and projects it into the present and future. An optimist remembers the good. A realist remembers the present.

Which quadrant do you spend most of your thoughts in?

I am an optimist and a futurist, climbing the peaks of many mountains, but I anchor myself in the harness of the dangers and risks of the past so I can take my next step more safely as I ascend the mountain.

Once I had a vision of something bigger than my fears and my lacks, I had something to strive for. Then, when I got very ill, I envisioned being a doctor, a medical missionary, an entrepreneur, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in three entirely different businesses, and a philanthropist. 

My vision of my future self has kept me driven to make my dreams a reality for decades.

What vision or visions do you have? 

Read on for a big life question (only one-minute more). It helped me in my life and I hope it helps you in yours.